Late Tang

On the nameless island in the Liaohai Sea, a continuous stretch of tents had been set up again in the small woods on the island.

Although it was wet and cold in the woods, it was definitely better than cruising in the sea at this time, being discovered by the patrol boat in Duli Town, and then surrounded by the United Fleet.The United Fleet in Duli Town was formed by hundreds of merchant groups, and those sea merchants hated pirates the most.Therefore, once a pirate is discovered within the sphere of influence of Duli Town, it will only attract the endless pursuit of the United Fleet, and eventually become a disgusting and ugly scorched head on a picket in the port of Duli Town.

The usually quiet nameless island has now become a noisy construction site. A large number of slaves are unloading the goods on the ship to the simple small pier, and pirates are transporting these goods into the dense forest.Whitebeard and the others have temporarily built more than a dozen huge wooden warehouses on the small island, barely able to store the goods transported from Cat Island.

However, Whitebeard looked at the simple warehouse and the large sailing boats parked in Xiaodao Bay, but he was a little absent-minded.He found Li Jing and made his suggestion.

"Brother Ji Yu, Cat Island has been captured, and Duli Town will find it at any time. We should sail away immediately before the United Fleet discovers it. If we don't leave now, I'm afraid the opportunity will be fleeting!"

Li Jing was surprised: "Master Bai thinks it's appropriate to go now?"

"Exactly, what do you think, Brother Ji Yu?"

Li Jing pondered and said: "I don't think so. Today we were lucky enough to transfer all the supplies here and successfully evacuate from Cat Island. However, this does not mean that it is safe for us to evacuate here now. If my estimation is correct , By now, Duli Town should already know about the breach of Cat Island. In less than an hour, Duli Town's joint fleet will search around. Our fleet is now going to sea, and we will bump into their arms In my opinion, it is better to be quiet now than to move. Cat Island was captured, and Duli Town did not find any news beforehand. After they got the news, they must immediately send the fleet to the east, west, and south to pursue it. We are hiding here now. Instead, it was dark under the lights, and the United Fleet must have never imagined that we would not leave after we broke through and ransacked Cat Island."

White Beard understands what Li Jing is worried about, and also knows that there is some truth in what he said.In conclusion, Li Jing was more worried about being exposed than they were.Once they are discovered, they can also run away desperately.And once Li Jing was exposed, he would have nowhere to escape, unless he abandoned his official position and the territory he worked so hard to manage, and wandered on the sea with them.Li Jing should be more nervous and anxious to leave than anyone else at this time, but he can wait calmly at this time, which is extremely commendable.But he has been a pirate for many years and has always been bold. He always feels that Li Jing is a little too cautious.Moreover, pirates always take the initiative to attack, and they are never willing to sit in a sad city.

"Why don't I take some people back to the lair first, and transport a batch of supplies away first, and then avoid too many people on the small island, and the boats are too difficult to hide and easy to be discovered."

Li Jing kept silent and shook his head slightly.

"Why not?"

"If Master Bai trusts me, he should hide on the island for a few days first." Li Jing sighed, "I understand that Master Bai doesn't want to be passive, but in the current situation, there must be tight patrols at sea. Being targeted. It’s better to hide for a few days first. According to my estimation, after three days, at most three days, after Duli Town can’t find anything, we should relax a bit. At that time, we will choose a dark and stormy month It’s never too late to leave at night. You should have heard a saying that the most dangerous place is sometimes the safest place.”

White Beard looked at Li Jing in surprise, and was silent for a moment, but his eyes seemed to ask Li Jing how much protection there was in this matter.

"Believe me, although I can't guarantee it, this is the best way to deal with it right now. Three days, just wait for three days. If I'm discovered by then, I will personally cover the head and withdraw."

After receiving repeated assurances from Li Jing, White Beard finally made up his mind to stay temporarily.

Taking advantage of the moonlight before dark, more than 50 large and small ships were sailed into the bay, lowered their sails, anchored, and cut down a lot of branches to spread on the ships to disguise themselves.The more than 1000 slaves and craftsmen were also detained in a centralized manner to prevent anyone from escaping and reporting.The pirates set up temporary tents on the island and distributed dried meat and dry food. In order to hide, they are never allowed to cook on the island to prevent being discovered.

After dark, Li Jing ate some jerky hastily. Although his body had a low fever, he still struggled to go to the tent of the wounded soldiers to visit his brothers in the scouting capital. The wounded soldiers of the Xiao family were also in the same tent. Of the more than a dozen seriously injured, five died of being unable to be rescued. Although the remaining few have been rescued, several of them have become disabled.After comforting everyone and promising that they and their families would be protected when they returned to Shamen Town, the wounded were relieved a lot.

After leaving the wounded soldiers' camp, Li Jing and Liu Shouqian checked the temporary defenses on the island.There are only a few pirates left on the ship, and most of them are now on the island. More than 3000 people are hidden in a dense forest. If you don't go to the island to check, you don't have to worry about being exposed.But just in case, the island still set up heavy defenses.Many traps, pickets, and fences were erected outside the camp.

More than [-] people from Shamen Town had a small camp alone, not far from the small pier. They did not take on the task of defense, they only needed to guard the slaves who already belonged to Shamen Town.However, Li Jing still cautiously divided the remaining people into three groups, taking turns to be on duty, just in case.

The sergeant on duty squatted behind the tree in a leather robe, holding a weapon in his arms, and carefully supervised everything.

Wang Zhong was in charge of the first round of duty at night, when he saw Li Jing coming, he asked, "General, shall we send a boat home to report the news, and ask them to bring our fleet here."

Wang Zhong's meaning is very clear, whether hiding on this island right now, whether he can really avoid the search of the Duli Town fleet is another matter.For the sake of caution, the fleet from Shamen Town was transferred, so that some soldiers and horses could be brought in, just in case the enemy could find out and reinforce them in time.Second, bring the fleet to transport the spoils on the island in time.After all, it is not safe to put it on the island. Not only is it not safe, but the conditions are not good. Things such as grain are piled up in that simple warehouse and are easy to break.

Liu Shouqian said: "My lord, the combined fleet of Duli Town has more than 100 warships, large and small, and [-] troops. This does not include the town defense team and the soldiers and horses in several forts outside the town. Get ready first."

Several other officers also nodded in agreement, and dispatched a group of soldiers to come up, so that they would have a chance to resist and escape if they couldn't fight.

Li Jing pondered and said: "This matter can be arranged. I think it's better to let Liu Du take ten brothers who were slightly injured and Zhao Jiang and other brothers who were seriously injured. You are familiar with the way here. Be careful with the boat, the 120-mile sea route takes two hours at the fastest, or three hours at the slowest, and you can return to the town overnight. When you arrive in the town, don’t rush to come right away. You can bring the fleet back after dark tomorrow, people and horses Not too many, you choose three hundred brothers who are familiar with water, and bring more arrows, kerosene, etc., just in case. Remember, be careful and secretive when you come, if people from Daxie Village find out, you Just play the banner of King Zhao's caravan, and they will not dare to stop them."

It was agreed by everyone that Liu Shouqian returned to the camp immediately, selected ten Detective Du brothers who suffered only a little flesh wounds, and took Zhao Jiang and other seriously injured brothers with them, rowed two small boats and disappeared into the night.

After sending Liu Shouqian away, Li Jing simply called all the officers above the team leader level who were not on duty to his cabin.Facing yesterday's battle, Li Jing personally presided over the post-war summary meeting.This kind of summary meeting was held once after the Pirates raid last time. Usually, each team also has a training summary, and there is another day for the team to summarize and other summary meetings.This was not new to everyone, the doors and windows of the wooden house were closed, and only a dim lantern was lit.

Everyone was more active in publishing their summaries. Li Jing had already stipulated that all summaries, regardless of their positions, could speak freely.The Shamen Town Army usually has a very strict hierarchy, and the superiors and subordinates are strictly prohibited from crossing the border. Only in the summary meeting, there is no distinction between superiors and subordinates.This kind of opportunity is usually rare, especially for those officers at the head of the team and the team leader, they finally have a chance to speak in front of Li Jing, and no one wants to miss it.

Li Wei first talked about the special equipment in the reconnaissance capital, the crossbow cable, and the special fuyuan crossbow. They are all good guys. This time they successfully crossed the ditch with these two things. And the city wall, although there is no guard on the city because of the heavy rain, the effect is still not small.In addition, their triangular thorns, tactical gloves, and tactical sign language all performed well in this application.

Li Wei suggested: "I think we are successful in reconnaissance. We should be able to form a special force team for raids, infiltration and other combat missions. Recruit more rangers and hustlers with superb martial arts. We can give them equipment Customize some weapons and equipment suitable for special operations such as raids and infiltrations. In addition to ordinary reconnaissance, spying, and intelligence gathering tasks, reconnaissance can also undertake special tasks like this time to seize the city gate."

Wang Zhong said with a smile: "You already have 200 scouts. You mentioned this because you want to expand the number. You kid is changing the way to promote yourself."

Everyone laughed, and Li Wei also laughed, "As long as it can play a big role in Guan Jian, I think I can give it a try. This time it's not me bragging, if it weren't for our brothers from the Scouting Capital to take down the city gate , do you think we can take down the castle so smoothly?"

Everyone smiled and nodded, knowing in their hearts that if they hadn't taken down the city gate first, relying on the solidity of the castle and the many crossbow beds above it, the damage would definitely be at least ten times the current amount if they attacked by force.Li Jing also nodded: "I see it this way. After returning, Zijun can recruit a group of such hustlers from the battalions first, or from other places. For the time being, make a team organization first, and you train first. Let's see how this special operations team is going to do it. I will give you three months first, and if you perform outstandingly at that time, I will promote the special operations team to the special operations capital. battalion number."

Seeing Li Jing directly promised Li Wei a promotion, the other officers were also very excited.Someone suggested that although the soldiers in the reconnaissance capital were equipped with a crossbow machine, the crossbow arrows were obviously insufficient.Thirty crossbow arrows, for these elites rushing to the forefront, often can only last half of the battle before they are exhausted.

"Should be equipped with double quiver, each with at least sixty arrows!"

Li Jing nodded, and wrote down this item truthfully in the minutes of the summary meeting.

Others suggested that in the next siege, we should bring craftsmen with the army, or prepare more straw bags for filling the Haogou with soil in advance, and prepare some long bridges specially for crossing the Haogou, and climbing walls. ladders, battering rams, rockets, and even ballistas and catapults to suppress the city.

Everyone also put forward a lot of suggestions. At the summary meeting after the pirate attack last time, Li Jing proposed to let the soldiers learn battlefield first aid and equip the soldiers with battlefield first aid kits, which worked very well in this battle.Wounded soldiers are not allowed to learn self-first aid, bandage themselves in time, debride wounds to stop bleeding, and even fix fractures.The first-aid kits they carried with them also played a great role. Many injuries may not be able to receive post-war treatment, but because of the first-aid kits on their bodies and their first-aid skills, many soldiers survived, and many soldiers were injured in time. Get bandaged, and there are no re-aggravating consequences.

On the other hand, the pirates, because there is no battlefield first aid means and battlefield first aid kits, the ratio of casualties is much higher than that of the soldiers in Shamen Town, and even some pirates who should not have died on the battlefield died in the end due to untimely treatment.Some people were only slightly injured, but failed to stop the bleeding or debride the wound in time on the battlefield, and died of excessive bleeding, or the wound became infected and had a fever.

Everyone praised the first aid kit very much, but it was generally reported that many soldiers secretly drank the medical alcohol in the first aid kit.This result made Li Jing a little bit dumbfounded. He also estimated that there might be such a result in advance, and he deliberately made people publicize that medical alcohol is poisonous and cannot be drunk.But in the end, some alcoholic who is not afraid of death drank it, and found it delicious.Now it is popular in military camps to drink the medical alcohol in the first aid kit, and some people who don't drink it sell it to others, and it can be sold at a high price. A small bottle of alcohol can be exchanged for fifty cents, or two catties of mutton.

"In the future, the first aid kit will be checked regularly, every other week. In addition, it should be checked once before the war. If the first aid kit is not fully equipped, especially the medical alcohol that is sold or drunk privately, it will be punished. Each person will be punished according to the circumstances. Confinement in the small black house, and the punishment of deducting food and pay." For these soldiers who would put their lives at risk for drinking, Li Jing had no choice but to come up with severe punishments to stop them.

After discussing and summarizing some situations, suddenly there was a rush of footsteps outside the wooden house. Wang Zhong, who was on duty, pushed open the door. Under the dim light, he said in a solemn and deep voice: "There is a situation at sea. Brothers from Zhendonghai patrolling outside the island reported that there is a fleet of ships coming in the northeast by night, and it is less than five miles away from us!"

Li Jing's expression was startled, and he asked urgently, "How many ships are here, and what flags are they flying? Is it the United Fleet of Duli Town?"

"I don't know about these. It's too dark, and the scout boats don't dare to get too close. I only saw that the fleet consisted of about [-] ships, of all sizes, and there were warships, not like merchant ships."

(To be continued)