Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 1030 The Change of the River Gate
A thousand or so people under him took off their hurdles, rolled up their military flags, and scattered in several villages by the canal.As soon as the soldiers entered the village, they controlled the whole village, allowing people to enter and not leaving.Every night, Mr. Qian leads the team to go out to rob in batches.Kong Youde didn't allow them to go out sporadically, fearing that they would be captured alive by Xiangyong's counterattack.It was just that spies were sent out every day to spy on them, and they blackened their faces and went out at night when they saw where there was a big family.

He doesn't stay much in each place, and he will definitely move places in about two or three days.Because his subordinates are all cavalry, the choice of route is very free. Sometimes he will suddenly leave the whole army for dozens of miles away from the canal, and then turn back in another direction.It is impossible to figure out his movement pattern and camping location.

Part of the looted property was handed over to the "grain platform", and part was distributed to officers and soldiers according to their ranks.After a few days in Dongguang, everyone had full bags, the soldiers had enough to eat, they had some money in their hands, and their courage grew. Some people ignored Kong Youde's order and went out in groups to rob and rape.

We can't stay here any longer, Kong Youde thought, the soldiers will slack off if they stay for a long time, and they can't keep it secret—it is impossible for there to be such a large-scale "horse bandit" in Hebei, and they can't hide it if they stay any longer. Know, not really know nothing.

If you really want to let the officers and soldiers make trouble, sooner or later the local officials will not be able to hide it.At that time, if there is a real disturbance, not to mention myself, even Sun Yuanhua may not be able to deal with it.

Now it is almost time to return to the main road and continue to Shanhaiguan.

The night before, Kong Youde ordered the Chinese army to invite all the officers over a thousand under his command to the place of residence, and announced the specific itinerary for the next step.

Unexpectedly, at the meeting, his order to reinforce the Shanhaiguan Road with the whole army was opposed by many subordinates: during the ten days of robbery, the officers made a fortune, and this is a good pair for the long-term slumber in Dengzhou. It is a great stimulus for middle and lower-level officers who have no extra money except embezzlement of military pay.

They were fed up with the anger of the Shandong soldiers and the Southern soldiers in Dengzhou. They complained a lot, and now they are going to Liaodong as soon as they get some benefits. Liaodong "sent to death".

Kong Youde was very isolated at the meeting. Except for a few of his cronies, most of the officers expressed their reluctance to go to Liaodong. Li Jiuzheng, who had just arrived not long ago, not only did not help persuade, but instead frequently engaged in private activities among soldiers and junior officers , Inciting soldiers to "return to Dengzhou".

This made Kong Youde unexpected - he originally expected Li Jiuzheng to help suppress the troops, but he didn't expect to secretly give himself eye drops!
Because the generals rebounded greatly, Kong Youde didn't dare to order to set off immediately, so he had to stay in the local area - a small village by the canal for another day, and planned to continue to persuade everyone at night.

This day Kong Youde just got up and finished washing, and was thinking of having a good talk with Li Jiuzheng and others.Suddenly someone came to report: there is a suspicious cavalry movement more than ten miles away from here.

Because he was doing such a shameful job, he sent 24 pond cavalry to detect horses day and night, which could detect abnormal movements about 20 miles away.According to recent news, there are unidentified scouts following his men and horses.The scouts under him tried to capture the opponent several times, but the opponent tried his best to avoid conflicts, and was always able to avoid the opponent's movements before his cavalry. The appearance of these scouts was also one of the factors that made him eager to leave this place.

"how many people?"

"But there are more than 20 people, all wearing plain clothes. They have swords." Tang Ma hesitated, "But they all ride good horses!"

"Is it someone from the Jianghu?"

"No, the team is strict and the ranks are neat."

"You go down to rest first." Kong Youde worried secretly in his heart, after letting Tang Ma retreat, he ordered people to invite people from various camps to inform Jiang Zuo to come to his place for a meeting at night, and was going to try to persuade everyone again.

At this time, Chen Sigen led his team to a place less than twenty miles away from Kongbu. After hearing the news that Tangma of Kongbu had found his trace, he ordered the whole team to turn back and quickly leave Tangma's place. detection range.

In a small woods, he sent out a guard post, and then sent out scout cavalry to confirm the specific location and situation of several candidate targets

More than 20 young team members wore the padded jackets and bare sheepskin jackets that small traders and farmers often wear here. Although the outdoor temperature has dropped to zero, they are still full of energy.

"How about it, didn't you freeze the eggs?" Chen Sigen joked, the team members all grinned, and white mist sprayed out from their mouths and noses.

"Okay, let's rest here for a while, and we'll go out to work in the evening!" Chen Sigen said, picked up a branch, and drew a simple schematic diagram on the ground, "Our attack target tonight is an area near the South Canal. It is at the gate. It is about 25 miles away from Dongguang County.”

He marked it with branches and stones, and quickly explained the location of the terrain one by one.The location had been handpicked by him among the dozen or so alternate locations reported by the scouts.The location of the attack must first be a place where ships on the canal berth for the night, usually a relatively prosperous riverside market or village.In order to ensure that there are enough witnesses.Secondly, the location must be not far from the village where Kong Youde's subordinates stayed overnight.

Although Kong Youde paid great attention to hiding his whereabouts along the way, Chen Sigen knew from the scouting report of the cavalry that the local people already knew that a group of officers and soldiers were looting in the local area, but the people didn't know where they came from. The township braves have been pulled up, and the vigilance of all villages and villages has also been strengthened.

However, this gate has no defensive measures. Although the gate is not a cash gate where tax collectors are stationed, it is also a small dispatch agency under the Water Transport Yamen.

The South Canal is located in the north. In order to maintain the water volume of the canal and cross the watershed, many sluices to regulate the water volume of the canal were built along the way.

These sluices are guarded and maintained by sluice officials, and they are opened regularly every day to release water and ships, so they are also official institutions-ordinary bandits and rebels would not dare to attack here, after all, this is an official site.

Abolishing this place will not only involve Dongguang County, but the entire Water Transport Yamen.The seriousness of its nature is far worse than the massacre of several villages. At that time, Kong Youde, who was nearby, had no other way but to rebel.

Originally, Chen Sigen considered whether to blow up the sluice—he brought some C4 explosives, and blowing up the sluice would obviously be more helpful to exacerbate the chaos of the whole incident, but Zhu Mingxia and Lu Wenyuan believed that this was beyond Kong Youde's ability.Furthermore, it is difficult to explain clearly in terms of motivation.Therefore, the attack is limited to economically valuable targets near the sluice.

The most valuable target is to guard the residences of several local gatekeepers: the canal relies on water to draw water, and the opening and closing of the gates is related to the time and convenience of shipping for boat households.Since the officials who manage the sluices have power, they naturally want to seek rent, so they are all very rich.Chen Sigen was ready to take them under the knife.

"Everyone knows the target. The first is the residences of the gatekeepers, and the second is the tank boats on the pier." He pointed the direction on the temporary sand table, "All of you must remember that we are soldiers, although we Shameful wet work, not bandits and robbers. During the operation, it is not allowed to kill innocent people indiscriminately, rape prostitutes, or set fires at will, and everything seized must be returned to the public!"

"Understood!" The team members replied simply and neatly.

At night, Kong Youde and the generals were meeting to discuss the next step: Most of the generals still insisted on going back to Dengzhou.Kong Youde was still unable to convince everyone, and gradually the meeting became driven out of control, and several generals even expressed the meaning of "must do it", and it was very likely that Kong Youde would fight on the spot if he didn't follow.Li Jiuzheng kept appearing as a mediator in the middle, but in fact it was forcing him to make a decision.

Just as everyone was talking with anxious lips, the atmosphere gradually became tense.Suddenly, a soldier came to report: there was black smoke and flames on the bank of the canal seven or eight miles away, and there were faint killing sounds.The soldiers and horses in the battalion were all agitated.

"What?" Kong Youde was taken aback, got up and went to the window to look - sure enough, there was a fire in the distance, and the sky turned red.He suddenly turned his head and glanced at the generals: all the generals under him are there, so they should not be his subordinates.

However, there were only more than a thousand bosses present, so it was hard to say whether the boss or even the little boss had taken people out to mess around.

The generals also felt baffled, and looked at each other in blank dismay.

Kong Youde immediately ordered to send scouts to have a look.In less than a meal, Tan Ma flew back and brought a terrible news: more than 100 cavalry were burning, killing and looting at the sluice.

"Where are the people from?" Kong Youde was very anxious, the sluice gate was official land, and a disturbance would be a major event.He turned his head and gave Li Jiuzheng a hard look, guessing in his heart that most of the time Li Jiuzheng instructed his subordinates to do this-this is forcing him to do it together with them!
"Ruitu!" Seeing his unkind eyes, Li Jiucheng knew what he was thinking, and was afraid of causing misunderstandings—this team was brought out by Kong Youde after all, and he would not be able to please him if he really broke down.Immediately came out and stated: "Everyone just wants to go back to Dengzhou, not to go to Liaodong to die in vain, there is absolutely no other meaning! And I didn't do anything to offend you! We didn't do this! If my old Li dares to say Half a lie, immediately hit the sky!"

"Sir General, I don't know where the horses are from." Tan Ma said, he could only vaguely see that they were all riding on top-quality Mongolian war horses. They were covered with robes and sheepskin jackets. No. hurdle.

The most important thing is that the weapons of this group of cavalry are very neat, unlike ordinary bandits, the weapons are messy, so they must be officers and soldiers of some battalion.

(End of this chapter)