my wonderful zoo

Chapter 44
The village wall was built more than three feet high and then stopped. The laborers who built the wall were arranged to start digging trenches outside the wall. It was originally planned to dig a trench four feet deep, allowing people to bend down and run in the ditch. Unexpectedly, they had just dug a trench. Less than three feet away, water began to flow underneath, so we had no choice but to build up soil on the outside of the trench to increase the defensive height.

With the help of iron tools such as shovels and pickaxes, the trench excavation progress was pretty good. The entire village's labor force was mobilized, and basically one circle could be dug in a day.

After five rounds of digging, Chen Xun stopped.

Then they made large-scale horses from wood, but these horses were not placed on land. There was a shortage of horses in the south, and the Xiang army in Guangzhou only had one capital horse army, so there was nothing to fear.Chen Xun had his horse tied with stones and thrown into the river near Chenjiazhuang.

Any river where a large Juma is thrown can only pass small sampans, not large ships, otherwise it will be stranded immediately, or even a hole in the bottom of the boat will be broken by the Juma.

By February [-]th, support from Chaozhou, Quanzhou, and Fuzhou, which were closest to Guangzhou, arrived one after another. These branches transferred most of their guard forces back. In order to support Chenjiazhuang, they also temporarily reduced the scale of trade.

Basically, each branch sent back about 50 people and brought two armed merchant ships, bringing the number of troops in Chenjiazhuang to 400.

In the following days, support from Wenzhou and Penghu also arrived in Chenjiazhuang.

There were not many people from Wenzhou, only 50 people, but Penghu was very powerful. Ke Lei not only brought back ten medium-sized warships and ten small warships, but also brought back 300 people on land.

"They are all veterans. They are definitely not as disciplined as the guards, but their courage is definitely not bad." This is how Ke Lei introduced the marines he brought back.

"You brought so many people back, can Penghu be stable?" Chen Xun asked worriedly. Penghu is one of Chenjiazhuang's retreats, and there is no room for failure.

"The unstable factors are all here." Ke Lei said with a thief-like smile.

Chen Xun understood that the most vicious and heinous pirates must have been executed. The remaining pirates who were not guilty enough to die and dared to fight were brought here by Ke Lei. Those who stayed in Penghu were all "honest people" , counting the residents of Chenjiazhuang during this period and the long-term workers purchased from the mainland, the proportion of original pirate natives on the island has decreased, and it has stabilized.

"Okay, I will arrange for people to conduct disciplinary training for them. You did a good job this time." Chen Xun praised.

On February [-]th, Guangzhou finally started to move.

Sure enough, as Chen Xun expected, the combat power information that Le Zhi gave before his death was all exaggerated.

In this battle against Chenjiazhuang, Guangdong's imperial army did not dispatch.

The Forbidden Army was under the direct control of the Song Dynasty and rotated regularly. The generals were not locals in Guangzhou, so the governor did not dare to blatantly command these people to seek personal gain for Guangzhou officials. At most, they would turn a blind eye to the Guangzhou government's mobilization of Xiang troops.

This relieved half of Chenjiazhuang's pressure.

However, with the imperial army guarding Guangzhou City, the Xiang army could mobilize in full force. According to the movements in several surrounding counties, 200 people from each county were also dispatched to join Panyu (Fuguo County, Guangzhou).

Each county is connected to Panyu by water, and the troops gathered quickly. With half a month of planning, the mobilization of several counties and Guangzhou was basically carried out at the same time. By the [-]th, all troops gathered in Panyu.

On this day, Chen Xun summoned all the housekeepers, navy and army officers in Chenjiazhuang for a meeting.

"The enemy who invaded this time has a total of 600 infantry and 2000 sailors, including 1000 Xiang troops, [-] county troops, [-] and [-] heavy troops, and [-] large and small warships of the Inspection Department."

These figures are approximate figures obtained by spies, and if there are any differences, they may be wrong by [-]% or [-]%. "Based on the size of the ships, the enemy will definitely choose to take the water route first, and then let the infantry ashore when approaching Chenjiazhuang, and attack from both land and water."

Because the spies did not detect a large number of mules and horses, Chen Xun concluded that the enemy would travel by water and land, and supplies would also come by water and land.

"As of now, our Chenjiazhuang has 800 soldiers on land and [-] warships on water. The enemy's strength is more than three times that of ours."

"If you have any suggestions for this battle, please speak up." Chen Xun wanted to brainstorm ideas. If someone comes up with a good idea, he will make a profit.

But everyone was silent, probably because they were frightened by Chen Xun's behavior a few days ago, especially the second uncle Chen Lu, who kept his head down and didn't look at anyone.

A few days ago, there was some action in Guangzhou, so Chen Xun called everyone to a meeting to discuss countermeasures.

At the meeting, his father Chen Yi immediately lost his temper: "The weather is favorable, the place is favorable, and the people are harmonious. Regardless of the weather, harmony is not on our side. Our Chenjiazhuang is like thieves and bandits on the government side. The location is not even better, and there is no danger for Chenjiazhuang to defend." , there is flat land to the north and east, and the coast to the west and south. Officers and soldiers can attack from any direction. This battle is impossible to fight!"

Chen Xun was so angry at that time.

Unexpectedly, the war was just around the corner, and his father, Chen Yi, did not even have the same thoughts as everyone else.

After Chen Yi finished speaking, several elders in the clan agreed. The meeting to discuss combat strategies almost turned into a meeting to denounce Chen Xun, and Chen Xun could only announce its disbandment.

After the meeting, all the elders and his father Chen Yi were placed under house arrest in the east courtyard.

In the end, Chen Lu was left with the responsibility to help Chen Xun organize the villagers to do logistics work, otherwise Chen Xun would have to recruit people from the eight hundred soldiers to ensure logistics.

"Everyone dare to say it, I promise not to be guilty of speech crimes" was a bad start before, but now I can only choose to appease.

"We have muskets, crossbows, trebuchets, and grenades. We can just fight directly with the officers and soldiers. They will definitely not be able to defeat us." Lu Hui said.

"It's true that we can't beat them. I just don't know how many people we will have left in the end if we are so reckless." Ke Lei retorted.

The people who had returned from support from other state branches were now under Lu Hui's control. Even three hundred pirate marines were given to Lu Hui. The number of his subordinates increased dramatically, which made Lu Hui's self-confidence explode.

"We are discussing countermeasures. If we are going to fight head-on, do we still need to discuss it?" Chen Xun suppressed Lu Hui's arrogance.

None of the people here in Chenjiazhuang have ever commanded a battle involving thousands of people.Moreover, with the background of Chenjiazhuang, there was no way to ask anyone for advice, so they could only sit together and work together.

"I think we should choose a main attack direction first, on the water or on the road, so that we can concentrate our forces to win the battle first." The speaker was a guard squadron leader named Sun Zheng. He was an orphan raised by Chen Xun since he was a child. He was very smart. Smart, at least in terms of memory, Chen Xun thought he was far behind him.

The minimum establishment of the Guards is a squad. A squad has a total of ten people, with two junior officers: captain and deputy captain. The five squads are combined into one squadron, with one squadron captain and two deputy squadron captains (one civil and one military). The two squadrons are Yidu.

The Chen family's capital establishment was larger than that of the Song Dynasty, because at the capital level, Chen Xun added medical, military discipline, communications, guidance and other military personnel. The final strength of the capital was 110-120 people, with a full strength of 120 people.

(End of this chapter)