Lin Gao Qiming

Chapter 717 Cruise Detachment
Sunlight shone in from the window sills, and the old man lying on the bed moved and let out a groan.The few people who were sitting or standing by the bed all stood up with a huff.

The woman lying on the edge of the bed suddenly raised her head and supported the old man on the bed.The old man's eyes were in a trance, as if he didn't know where he was for a while.

"This is where……"

"In the inn." The woman hurriedly said, "The Luo family let us go."

"Oh," the old man closed his eyes, as if he breathed a sigh of relief, "this is...their territory...they insist on horses...just give them...if we make a fuss, we outsiders will definitely suffer... "

"Father, don't worry. Master Luo didn't ask for a horse, so someone sent us to the inn again."

"Oh," the old man breathed a sigh of relief, and suddenly opened his eyes again, showing an anxious expression, "He didn't ask you to go..."

"No—" the woman's eyes were blurred with tears as she spoke, "Master Luo didn't say anything, and sent us back."

"Oh." The old man seemed relieved as he spoke, and fell asleep again.

A middle-aged man in his 40s next to him said: "The old man still doesn't look well, do you want to leave immediately?"

"How can he go on the road with such a bony body? He must die on the road." The middle-aged woman in the room said - she looked quite upright, but her face was haggard.Like the young woman, she also wore short trousers and jackets, and she was a prostitute.

"I'm afraid that if I don't leave, I will have long nights and dreams." The only young man inside said, "What if the members of the Luo family don't have good intentions? Then what if Master Luo has a wrong idea about Senior Sister."

"The Luo family is the local bully here, so why not do something? The crooked idea of ​​wanting to move your senior sister can be moved just now-if you catch him in his house, you won't be at his mercy, you don't need to let us out to make trouble. " said the middle-aged man.

"Who knows what's wrong with him. This group of rich people doesn't have any good things." The young man had a scar on his face, and he probably suffered a lot of punches and sticks from Xiangyong just now, and he said indignantly, "Look at his subordinates. The dog legs know that this master is not a good person."

The middle-aged woman looked out of the window nervously: "Good people and bad people, don't do our business. Let the old man recuperate for a few days, and leave when he can go on the road. It's just that we don't have any money with us. We have to hire a boat with our horses. Only larger boats can leave. These days I have to go to perform."

This time when I caught the epidemic in Sanliang City, the whole group fell ill in turn, so I couldn’t perform as a performer, so I stayed in the store and asked the doctor to prescribe medicine to spend all the little savings I had accumulated on weekdays——if it wasn’t like this, I wouldn’t have fallen into money in the first place. Go into the trap of usury.

"This Sanliang City is a good market. There are many people to see it, and it pays a lot of money for one transaction. But now such a thing happens. I don't feel at ease when doing business." The middle-aged man sighed.

The young man opened his mouth and said, "I don't think senior sister can go out and sell solutions anymore! It's hard to guarantee that things will happen again."

Everyone in the room was silent.The young man's words are reasonable, but the living sign of the group of them running horses and selling solutions is this young woman - whose real name is Xiaoxia'er, and her stage name is Sai Qingxia.She is a kung fu master handed down from her family. Not only is she superb in equestrian skills, she is also proficient in archery, playing, playing swords, and even carrying bowls and walking ropes.Although other people also have their own real kung fu, but there are women, especially a good-looking big girl who races horses and sells games, and after a round, the money from fighting is [-] to [-] percent more.

If Sai Qingxia doesn't appear now, I don't know how long it will take to get the travel expenses together.What's more, it's hard to say that the old man's condition has improved. It doesn't cost money to stay in a hotel and take medicine.

Qingxia raised her head and said, "I'm still going to be a performer! Now we know something about this town—the Luo family is a tiger. Since the tiger didn't eat us, it let us out of the tiger's mouth. The wolf dog may not come to provoke us."

"Senior Sister!" The young man said anxiously, "..."

"Little Suozi, you don't need to persuade me." Qingxia made up her mind, "I am the signboard in this team, and I won't sell solutions. Money comes slowly, and we will be even more inseparable."

Jiang Suo muttered a few times, and wanted to express his objection, but everyone else in the room raised their eyebrows. They came out to perform in the rivers and lakes in order to beg for food. How can a child support the scene?

The next day, a group of people continued to race horses and sell solutions on the threshing floor.Although there have been several natural disasters in Guangdong since the Wanli Year, large and small riots and bandits have occurred one after another, but overall it is much better than the northern Central Plains. Not only the local townspeople, but also the villagers from neighboring villages come to watch the excitement when they have free time.The business on the first day was very good.And no one came to harass.

Seeing such numbers in the market, everyone put in all their energy to perform.In order to make more money, Qingxia decided to show off her archery business, which she usually does not perform.This is a skill that has been passed down from generation to generation in her family. Although Qingxia is a woman, she can't open a strong bow, but she can shoot a normal step bow with a hundred shots, especially her ability to shoot money immediately, which is her family's ancestral tradition. unique skills.

As soon as this skill was revealed, it immediately caused a great commotion.More and more people from the four villages came to observe.Several Xiangyong coaches in the town watched it and secretly praised it: they said this is real kung fu, not just a show.

A lot of money was spent, but the old man's illness became more and more serious.Several doctors in the town have been invited, and a lot of miscellaneous medicines have been taken, but there is still no improvement.Everyone gradually became anxious - they have been here for almost three months.It's been almost a month since the sale of the horse racing sale, and now it's just relying on a few unique skills to temporarily live in the venue.It's hard to make ends meet in this way.

While he was at a loss and helpless, a terrible news spread in the town: the Kun thief is coming.

Chen Haiyang, who is stationed in Humen for rest, has received a report: the officers and soldiers have set up key defenses in Wuyong, not only overhauled the fort, but also gathered heavy troops, so he gave the detachment leader instructions not to enter the provincial river area for the time being—that is, not to pass through Wuyong .He planned to have another one-pot battle after the enemy's troops were almost assembled, completely destroying Guangzhou's determination to resist.

Prior to this, he ordered the cruise detachment to attack in all directions to further weaken the morale of the gentry in Guangzhou.

Cruise detachments are sorted alphabetically.Each detachment operates independently, although the detachment leader is authorized to conduct independent operations including military offensives.However, Chen Haiyang still strictly prohibited any detachment from destroying villages and massacring without permission.Paying equal attention to kindness and dignity is his guiding principle.In order to ensure that the image of the detachment will not be affected by defeat, each detachment is required to use peaceful means to achieve its goals, rather than purely military operations.

Wen Desi volunteered to lead a detachment to go deep into the coast of the Pearl River-although Chen Haiyang expressed concern for his safety, Wen always said bravely: this danger is nothing.

"Afraid of death, don't make revolution. In our business, we can't just sit in the office and read documents and give instructions. We need to fight the old forces with real swords and guns!" President Wen said to Chen Haiyang on the temporary wharf in Humen. The others said.After finishing speaking, he strode towards his own boat in big strides.

The D detachment led by him pulled up the sails and sailed slowly upstream under the impetus of the sails and oars.

Detachment D consisted of ten sampans and five long dragons. More than 200 sailors and sailors, and a dozen civilian personnel.With a cannon and some engineering equipment.The dragon is relatively large and can store supplies and carry artillery.Of course, it can also provide people with comfortable sleep.Wen Desi's "flagship" is set on a long dragon. The small cabin has been carefully furnished and decorated, and the safety index and comfort are quite high.

The task force formed a total of 6 detachments. They went to towns and villages in Dongguan, Xin'an, Shunde, Xiangshan, Nanhai, and Panyu counties, and posted notices everywhere to extort "reasonable burdens."For a time, the whole government of Guangzhou was shaken.

Xu Tingfa's passive avoidance of battle made the detachments almost uninhabited in the Pearl River inland.Under the guidance of the old pirates who are familiar with waterways, each detachment went deep into various rivers separately.The old pirates knew the surrounding terrain very well, and knew where the villages and towns were rich, where the fortifications were tight, where the villages were brave and fierce and dared to fight, it was the "hard ground", and where the villages and towns were lonely and lonely, it was the "soft ground".

The goal of Team D is Shunde.The detachment sailed along the river, issued proclamations to the villages and towns, and established a "reasonable burden" system everywhere. This kind of action took almost no effort. Under the prestige of the Australians, most villages and towns did not dare to resist the detachment, and could only accept the proclamation and "reasonable burden" .

For those villages and towns that did not resist, the detachment not only did not harass and extort, but also paid in cash for all materials collected and manpower. The reasonable amount of burden was also very reasonable, and it did not exceed the tolerance of the village.Some are quite light.

Detachment D encountered resistance for the first time at Sanfan.After the request was rejected, Wen Desi ordered an attack on Sanfan Village.A 12-pound howitzer erected on the long dragon quickly opened a gap more than ten meters wide in the bamboo fence built by the villagers. The soldiers broke through, during which several earth cannons fired one after another, but because the distance was still far away, no one was hit. The soldiers bombarded the breakthrough with Minie rifles and 12-pound mountain grenades from a distance, and soon gathered in the The village warriors who were about to fight behind the bamboo fence were defeated and left a pile of corpses.Then the soldiers quickly built a passage on the ditch with the light bridge for engineers carried on the ship and entered the village.

Sanfan Village was already in chaos. Women, old and young were scrambling to escape. Discarded shoes, bundles and various objects were scattered all over the ground, but the ditches and bamboo fences that originally protected the village prevented them from escaping. Detachment D set up blockades at several entrances and exits, blocking all men, women, children, and children in the village.

Subsequently, a whole village meeting was held in the threshing ground of the village, and the villagers were driven to the threshing ground to wait for their punishment.The black crowd was crowded.The sailors and sailors all around were holding bayonet-mounted rifles or machetes, and the swords were shining.

In the middle of the threshing ground, a new gadget that the villagers had never seen was erected. It was a wide wooden frame with rope rings hanging on it.

The captured captives knelt down one by one.Among them are many leading figures in the village, and those who can organize group training are all people with some wealth.Most of them have a reputation, at least they are rich and landed.

According to Wen Desi's consistent thinking, resistance should be dealt with severely, but this time entering the Pearl River is not to establish a long-term base area. If the treatment is too strict, it will easily arouse the local people's will to resist.The resistance to local forces is carried out in three ways: "appropriate punishment, dividing the masses, and attacking the powerful".

In retaliation for resisting the Australians, the head of the regiment, the trainer and the teacher of the village who led the village bravely fought, except for those who had been killed and whose whereabouts were unknown, all those who were captured were hanged in front of the whole village, and confiscated at the same time. all of its property.As for ordinary people: the common people and brave men—the civil propagandists announced that everyone was coerced by the rich and powerful, so after the weapons were seized this time, they would not ask any questions. In the future, there will be attacks on Australian and Song personnel, and they will refuse to accept reasonable burdens. "Stronger retaliation" is about to be carried out.

Even the current revenge is severe, the death penalty can be avoided, but the living penalty still has to be endured.After some bargaining, all the villagers in Sanfan Village finally paid gold and silver, cloth, rice and other property equivalent to 1000 taels of silver.Of course, the reasonable burden approved for them is also calculated as three times.

After staying in Sanfan for one night, Detachment D continued to advance along the river.They occupied Mazhou, Sanshan and Pingzhou successively. The villagers in these places knew what happened to Sanfan, and none of them dared to resist the D detachment.A reasonable burden system is easily established.The boats were quickly filled with harvested tribute.Then, Team D arrived at the bay. The terrain of Shawan was favorable for the defenders, surrounded by water and densely wooded. Local villagers also built embankments along the coast and buried many bamboo sticks.

Detachment D anchored in front of Shawan for the night. Early the next morning, Wen Desi found that a large number of village warriors had gathered densely along the coast of Shawan.

As soon as the ships of the detachment moved, the brave villagers of Shawan fired a volley of cannons, and more than a dozen local cannons fired together with an astonishing momentum.Smoke enveloped the entire river bank, but most of the guns fired were nails, iron pieces, pieces of porcelain and small stones.After flying less than ten meters, they fell into the river one after another, with no killing effect at all.

The artillery and Minie rifles on the long dragon opened fire at the same time, clearing the defensive position on the river bank in an instant. Then, with the support of the artillery fire, the sampan carried the sailors and rowed to the river bank. The guns were fired, but they were soon dispersed by well-pointed shots from the Minie rifles.When the village warriors realized that the thieves could shoot them from a long distance, and they couldn't hit the enemy even with cannons, this terrible reality immediately shook their morale.Then a soil cannon suddenly exploded, causing more than a dozen casualties.The accident of the artillery explosion caused the total collapse of Shawan Xiangyong.Although Liang Kefa, the head of the local regiment who led the Xiangyong, tried to resist with his servants, but he and his servants were quickly stabbed by the bayonets of the sea soldiers.Subsequently, more than a dozen regiment chiefs, deputy regiment chiefs, Liantou, and Xiangyong teachers from various villages and towns were also killed and captured.These key personnel stood at the front in order to boost morale, and most of them did not run away when they were defeated.

Detachment D spent an hour and a half in the morning to defeat more than 1000 Xiangyong jointly sent by six nearby villages and towns. After killing and capturing one-third of them, Shawan and nearby villages and towns sent people to express their submission. , not only redeemed the captives at a price of one tael per prisoner, but also paid "compensation" of several thousand taels of silver.Wen Desi ordered the execution of a group of captured local gentlemen who acted as regiment chiefs and trainers according to the old practice of Sanfan, and their floating wealth was confiscated.Don't blame the ordinary people for the past, and the troops strictly observe discipline during the battle, no looting, no arson, no adultery, strict discipline.Such a combination of leniency and strictness and differentiated treatment greatly reduced the interest of the common people in resisting the Fubo army.The big gentry were even more scared out of their wits and dared not take up the idea of ​​armed resistance.

While Wen Desi led the detachment to rampage in the waterways in Shunde, the E detachment led by Shi Zhiqi was rampant on the main waterway of the Pearl River, as if entering no one's land.He successively burned down many government agencies along the coast, such as river berths and inspection offices. After successively capturing the two islands of Daojiao and Dafen, which were trying to resist the Fubo army, Shi Zhiqi led his troops to capture a county south of Xiangshan. The fort under construction dispersed hundreds of townsmen guarding the fort, then demolished the fort, and then approached the city of Xiangshan.Although Shi Zhiqi had less than 200 people and a dozen boats, the magistrate of Xiangshan County, who was shocked by his invincibility all the way, had no choice but to give up armed resistance because of the strong opposition of the frightened gentry in the county. Intend.He sent several gentry to his camp to discuss terms, and finally exchanged Xiangshan County's redemption fee of 5000 taels of silver for Shi Zhiqi to retreat from the city.This experience gave the veterans a new understanding-local officials are often willing to find ways to compromise.

The actions of the various detachments along the Pearl River were smooth, and even a small number of combat casualties were minor.The detachment leaders adhered to the instructions: never fight far from the river - as long as you get close to the river, you can get effective support from the artillery installed on the long dragon; do not spend the night in the local village, rather camp or stay directly on the boat - the latter is to absorb the task force Lessons learned in Danzhou.

Shi Zhiqi returned to Humen once - unloading the spoils, prisoners and few wounded he had taken on this cruise.After reloading the materials and replacing some personnel, he led the detachment to Dongguan County.This time, his target was Sanliang City.

(End of this chapter)