America 1881: They Call Me Legend

"Report sir, there are no living people and no food. There is nothing left in this village."

A young soldier with short hair and wearing military uniform ran up to Lai Hua, gave him a military salute, and reported.

Lai Hua frowned: "How much food is left in the team?"

"It's been a few days, and there is only some cassava left in everyone's hands. Tonight, Second Lieutenant Luo may take everyone to the beach to catch crabs."

The soldier shrugged and said helplessly.

"There's some wild corn on the edge of the forest that you can break off and taste." A younger, middle-aged Chinese officer walked over from the burned house.

He has a thin face and a bushy beard, but his eyes are piercing.

This officer is the Second Lieutenant Luo mentioned by the soldier. His original name is Luo Xiangrong. He is a Hakka in Guangxi. Legend has it that he is also a descendant of the Taiping Army. Now he is the leader of Lai Hua's subordinates.

"The biggest problem is ammunition. We are running out of ammunition, and each soldier has less than seven rounds."

Luo Xiangrong put his hands on his hips, looked at the sea and said to Lai Hua worriedly.

"In addition, I don't recommend that the troops be stationed here. This is the seaside, and there is a lack of fresh water. If the Spanish army in Santiago rushes out, then we may be driven into the sea to feed the fish."

"Then what good advice do you have?" Lai Hua's face temporarily showed no expression.

"I think we should leave here immediately and move closer to Captain Hood or Captain Pereiro, so that even if we are attacked by the Spaniards, we will not be in a desperate situation."

Luo Xiangrong gave his own suggestion.

Objectively speaking, this suggestion is sensible and is in line with the current situation of the Chinese uprising army.

Their army now has seven or eight hundred Chinese soldiers, and the remaining hundreds of people are led by another Chinese general, Captain Hood, to fight guerrillas in the northern mountains.

If the two sides are not close together, they will not be the opponents of Francis's thousands of Spanish soldiers in Santiago.

What's more, they don't have enough ammunition now.

But if they leave here and move north, it means that the troops will temporarily leave the Santiago area and give up the largest port in southern Cuba.

Then he and Lai Gubei will be even more out of touch, and his son will also be in danger.

It's not that Lai Hua's son can't die, it's just that he still has a glimmer of hope for the batch of guns his son purchased.

"Is there no news from San Diego?"

After thinking for a long time, Lai Hua looked at Luo Xiangrong and asked.

Luo Xiangrong was silent for a few seconds, then shook his head.

"Wait another day, if there is no news tomorrow, we will transfer." Lai Hua said.

There was a hint of worry on the old man's weather-beaten face, but it was fleeting, and was deeply buried under the ravines and horizontal lines of the old man's skin.

Just when Lai Hua's own son was worried.

Chen Jianqiu, Camilla and the team delivering the ammunition are already on their way.

After the stronghold of the pharmacy was taken away, the originally planned transport convoy naturally also disappeared.

Fortunately, Santos has been doing business in Cuba for many years.

He did have some contact information for the team.

After discussing with Chen Jianqiu, they finally chose a convoy dedicated to transporting sugar cane on weekdays.

The captain of the convoy is an honest-looking local named Diaz.

Chen Jianqiu asked his subordinates to buy some flour from Mexico at the port, plus the original potatoes, and put them on the wooden boxes containing the ammunition.

As for the route, Chen Jianqiu planned to walk north for a certain distance after leaving San Diego, then turn south, make a circle, and then run to Saji, a small fishing village northwest of San Diego.

Early in the morning of the next day, the loaded convoy set off from the port unhurriedly and headed out of the city.

The members of Longchamp Group all dressed up as buddies.

None of them were armed, so as not to arouse the suspicion of the Spanish soldiers.

Only Chen Jianqiu and Camilla wore a revolver on their waists. When asked, they said that the situation in Cuba is more complicated now, and they are for self-defense.

Sure enough, when the convoy drove to the exit of the city, they found a long queue in front of them.

Spanish soldiers set up checkpoints on the road out of the city with horses, barbed wire, and sandbags to check all carriages and pedestrians leaving the city.

"You, you, take your luggage and come out!"

A Spanish soldier points a gun at a man carrying a heavy burden.

This man looked like a mixed race. As for what kind of mixed race he was, Chen Jianqiu couldn't tell for a while.

The man looked at the soldier blankly, a little at a loss.

"Where are you going?" The soldier held up the gun in his hand, pointing the end of the gun at the man's waist.

"Go to Songo, my husband." The man replied honestly, "I want to go home. The tobacco leaves in the fields at home will be taken care of. I'm worried."

"If I remember correctly, the Governor should have announced long ago that none of you are allowed to stay in the countryside, because in that case, we will not be able to protect you." The soldier looked at the man maliciously, the gun in his hand No intention of letting go at all.

"Sir, sir, we, no, we don't need it." The man's waist was pressed against his waist, and he stammered, afraid of offending the Western soldier in front of him.

"No, you need it." The soldier shook his head, "Anyone of you returning to the countryside now is an act of supporting the enemy."

"I won't join the rebel army, please, sir, if the tobacco harvest in the field is not good today, our family will have to drink northwest wind!" The man's expression was about to cry.

Seeing that the man in front of him was useless no matter what he said, he completely lost his patience.

He raised his gun suddenly and smashed the butt of the gun on the man's head.

The man's eyes darkened, he took a few steps back, and sat down on the ground, the burden on his back fell to the side.

Blood dripped from his forehead.

"Let me see what you brought to the enemy!" The murderous Spanish soldier drew out his dagger and cut open the bundle.

Several other soldiers also came up and began to "check" the man's baggage.

But there was almost nothing inside except some clothes and dry food.

"Damn it, poor man, go back quickly." The soldier threw the torn bag back on the ground in front of the man with a look of disgust, and the contents inside were scattered all over the floor.

In front of Chen Jianqiu, the team captain Dias clenched his fists, changed his usual honest and honest image, and cursed in a low voice in Spanish.

"What did he say?" Chen Jianqiu turned his head and asked Camilla beside him.

"He said these Spanish soldiers were a bunch of animals," Camilla replied.

Chen Jianqiu looked ahead and nodded thoughtfully.

Diaz's description is indeed not an exaggeration.

The inspecting soldiers rushed and beat up, but those who did not pay the "toll" were searched for a reason.

After a while, it was their turn.

"Stop, check!"

It was the same Spanish soldier just now.

Santos jumped out of the carriage, took out a stack of parchment documents from under the seat, and handed it to the soldier.

"Where are you going?" the soldier asked after taking the document.

"Go to Guantanamo, sir, we'll ship some flour and potatoes to sell there." Santos approached with a smile on his face.

"Don't you know that flour and other things are controlled supplies? If you are intercepted by the rebels on the road, isn't it an aid to the enemy?" The soldier frowned, "Also, are these things really the only things in your car? "

Already other soldiers started to come forward, ready to turn over those potatoes.

"We have gone through the formalities for these things, so I hope you can read my documents carefully, sir." Santos still said with a smile on his face.

He puts emphasis on the word "seriously."

The Spanish soldier narrowed his eyes.

He turned over another page of brown paper and found a stack of pesos on top of the brown paper.

The soldier closed the file and put the folder under his arm.

When he raised his head again, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

He waved his hand at the others, signaling to let them go:

"Okay, let's go."

The convoy drove slowly past the checkpoint.

Chen Jianqiu and Camilla sat behind one of the carriages without speaking.

When the last carriage in the convoy passed the checkpoint, the voice of the Spanish soldier suddenly came from behind the convoy.

The crowd looked back.

The Spanish soldier was squinting at them with his hands behind his back.

"Everyone, the road to Guantanamo is not very easy, so please slow down and don't worry," he said.

"Bah! A bunch of trash who only bully civilians." Dias shook the reins in his hand and cursed again.

Camilla translated the team captain's words to Chen Jianqiu, and at the same time acted as an interpreter between him and the captain.

"Do you hate these Spanish people so much?" Chen Jianqiu asked while sitting on the flour sack, half sideways.

"These damned Spaniards were beaten by the rebels and only dared to stay in the city. What the new cold-blooded governor did was even less personal."

Dias said angrily while driving.

"If I didn't know the people in the rebel army, I would have taken my brothers to defect."

Lai Gubei was in a carriage in front of him. Hearing this, he just wanted to say something.

But he suddenly remembered what Chen Jianqiu said, and immediately closed his mouth.

Chen Jianqiu did not continue on this issue.

He wasn't sure if the captain of the convoy really wanted to revolutionize, or if he was just out of righteous indignation and had a good time talking about it.

They chatted about innocuous subjects, such as sugar cane and tobacco in Cuba, and the Sierra Maestra before them.

From Diaz's mouth, Chen Jianqiu learned that the area around Santiago and the Sierra Maestra is really a very special place.

In 1868, the patriotic leader Carlos Despedes published the famous "Declaration of Yara" in the history of the Cuban Republic in the small town of Yara in the mountains, and led the first Cuban War of Independence which lasted 10 years.

In other words, this place can be regarded as an "old revolutionary base".

Strictly speaking, Cuba only has a dry season and a rainy season.

And March is at the end of the dry season, and the weather is a bit muggy.

The forest along the way is becoming more and more dense, and Caribbean pine and tropical pine can be seen everywhere, lush and lush; while birds and insects are also very active, singing constantly.

The convoy walked north along the dirt road for about an hour.

Suddenly, a whistle came from the end of the line.

That's a signal of something special.

Chen Jianqiu stopped the carriage in front, and stood up on the carriage himself, looking towards the rear.

A team of 20 people, riding horses, is galloping towards their convoy.

They all wore Spanish military uniforms.

"The Spaniards are here." Chen Jianqiu jumped off the carriage and said lightly.

Lai Gubei and Santo suddenly became tense.

The buttocks of the two involuntarily moved towards the direction of the ammunition box.

The team of Spanish soldiers soon came to the front of the convoy.

The leader among them was the Spanish soldier who was checking the guard post just now.

There are a lot more soldiers around him now, most of them are unfamiliar faces. It seems that this person is still a captain or something.

At this moment, he got off his horse and walked towards Chen Jianqiu and the others with malicious intentions.

The soldiers behind the captain also took off the guns on their backs, surrounded the convoy, and confronted the members of Longxiang's team dressed as buddies.

Santos jumped out of the carriage and greeted him:

"Sir, what's the matter? Did something happen?" He asked with a smile on his face.

Unexpectedly, the Spanish team leader ignored him, but held a horsewhip in his hand, and looked at the piled up goods with his eyes.

Chen Jianqiu came over, and Camilla was shoulder to shoulder with him.

"What happened?" Camila asked coldly in Spanish.

Seeing the beautiful woman questioning him, the Spanish team leader said in a dark voice:

"I have been working for so many years, and nothing can escape my eyes. If it is just flour and potatoes, the ruts of these wagons cannot be so deep."

He pointed to the wheel marks on the ground.

"Besides, the expressions of some of you tell me that there must be more than just flour and potatoes on this cart."

The team leader had noticed something was wrong while checking the sentry post.

However, his first thought was not to go back and report, but that the convoy must be transporting valuable things.

If that's the case, it's not a good idea to shoot out of town.

As long as they let them out of the suburbs, when the time comes, I will chase them with my confidant soldiers.

All the valuable things on the carriage belong to him.

He's done this before, and it's been tried and tested.

As for those victims, those who were lucky were robbed of their goods and then released back, and they were not working every day; those who were almost unlucky were directly beaten to death in the wilderness of Cuba, and their bodies could not be found. .

"Your insight is indeed admirable." Chen Jianqiu spoke.

He casually patted Santos on the shoulder, motioning him to follow him.

The three retreated to a car ten meters away.

Chen Jianqiu pushed aside some potatoes in the car, revealing the wooden box underneath.

This move made Lai Gubei startled!
If you do, things will be exposed.

He just wanted to stop it, but found that Chen Jianqiu had already walked to the side of those wooden boxes.

Boss Chen found a crowbar from the back of the carriage, and quickly opened the lid of one of the boxes.

Other Spanish soldiers also surrounded them.

"Are you sure you want to watch it?" Chen Jianqiu asked the Spanish captain again with a smile.

"Stop talking nonsense, open it for us to see." The Spanish captain said a little impatiently.

Chen Jianqiu nodded.

However, at the moment when the lid of the box was completely opened, an unexpected thing happened.

Chen Jianqiu suddenly took out two small melon-like things from the box.

Then, the two "little melons" were thrown out by Chen Jianqiu.

One flew towards the Spanish soldiers outside the convoy, and the other rolled directly to the team leader's feet.

"Lie down!" Chen Jianqiu yelled, and immediately dodged into the carriage's cover.

Accompanied by two loud bangs.

Suddenly, the scene was lit up with flames and dust filled the sky, covering everyone's sight.

The squad leader was directly blown away, and those Spanish soldiers who were caught off guard were also knocked to the ground by the blast caused by the explosion.

But when they struggled to get up from the ground.

A figure suddenly emerged from the dust and mist.

What followed was six consecutive fatal shots from the revolver in his hand:
"Crack, crack, crack, crack, crack, crack!" (End of this chapter)