Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 41 Self-examination

If the bandits thought it was a normal training when they first came down the mountain, but when everyone arrived at Motian Ridge, the clever bandits knew that the leader must not be taking everyone out for training.

The terrain of Motianling is steep, easy to defend and difficult to attack. It was originally the bandit den of Boss Zhou. After Li Jing wiped out Boss Zhou and Sanmazi's forces, he wanted to move the cottage here, but he finally chose Hongshanling due to other considerations.But he didn't expect that shortly after Boss Zhou's death, his second brother Shi Gensheng and fourth brother Xu Fugui occupied the place.

Shi Lao Er and Xu Lao Si are different from Ma Wu.Ma Wu turned to Boss Zhou just to make a living, and had no intention of working for Boss Zhou.And Boss Zhou pulled Ma Wu into the team at the beginning to gain the support of the local people, so it would be more convenient to do things that way.

Ma Wu is a local, and based on the principle that rabbits don't eat grass beside their nests, they generally don't do anything to the surrounding villagers.But Boss Zhou and his gang don't care about that. Because they repeatedly harassed the villagers, they had caused great dissatisfaction among the local bandits such as Ma Wu. Jing took great care of the villagers near Xiaomazhuang, so he subdued Ma Wu and others immediately.

Shi Lao Er and Xu Lao Si are different, they are old brothers who escaped from Shanxi with Zhou Boss, and they are Zhou Boss' absolute diehards.

After Li Jing went to Jinniuling, he trained the bandits all day long, and the bandits had no time to go down the mountain, so Boss Zhou and the others didn't know about Li Jing's subjugation of Ma Wu until San Mazi's men went to drink with his old brothers. The news leaked out, but then San Mazi and Boss Zhou were destroyed by Li Jing in the siege of Jinniuling.

When Shi Lao Er and Xu Lao Si learned that Boss Zhou and San Mazi had been wiped out, Li Jing's power had grown rapidly.

Shi Laoer wanted to avenge Boss Zhou, but he dared not act rashly because of his powerlessness, but Shi Laoer did not give up his desire to avenge Boss Zhou.

Shi Lao Er quickly contacted Zhou Boss's remaining brother Xu Lao Si, and the two recruited Zhou Boss' remaining subordinates, and then the two merged into one place, moved from the original cottage to Motianling, and began to mobilize. Ready to avenge Boss Zhou.But he didn't think that Li Jing was going to attack them.

Shi Lao Er and Xu Lao Si occupied Motian Ridge, the news could not be concealed from Li Jing, but Li Jing had just moved to Hongshan Ridge at that time, there were many things to deal with, and he couldn't spare a moment, but there was such a big hidden danger around him. It's not a good thing, so when Hongshanling stabilized a bit, Li Jing was ready to attack Motianling.

Although Shi Lao Er didn't think that Li Jing would attack him so soon, he didn't relax his guard for a moment, and sent out bandit secret sentries to patrol the mountain from all sides at the foot of the mountain.

When Li Jing led his people to Motianling, he began to assign tasks.

First of all, Li Jing, Gao Qi, and Chen Dahu each led 140 brothers and divided their troops into three groups to attack from east, west and south. Chen Erhu led [-] brothers to ambush in the north.

When everything was ready, Li Jing immediately ordered to attack the mountain. Unexpectedly, as soon as Li Jing and others arrived at the foot of the mountain, they were discovered by the bandits patrolling the mountain. Except for Li Jing who killed the secret sentry in time, the other two groups had not yet launched an attack on Motianling. After being discovered by the secret whistle, as the horn of the secret whistle sounded, the plan of sneak attack fell through.

Since the sneak attack failed, Li Jing decided to attack by force.

After two months of training, the combat capability of Li Jing's subordinates was much higher than that of the bandits in Motianling. However, Shi Laoer's subordinates still withstood Li Jing's attack relying on the favorable location.

After all, fighting in the dark, the power of bows and arrows is greatly reduced, and if you are not careful, you will hurt your own people. In addition, Li Jing is far less familiar with the terrain of Motianling than Shi Laoer's men, so Li Jing dare not let his brothers attack with all their strength.

Li Jing now has these men and horses in his hands, and it can be said that if one is lost, one will be lost.Li Jing, who has received a modern education, attaches great importance to the lives of his brothers.

Seeing that the strong attack was unfavorable, Li Jing asked people to suspend the attack.

Li Jing's attack slowed down this way, but Chen Dahu and Liu Erlen's way did not relax. The two yelled and directed their men to attack up the mountain. They were counterattacked by Shi Lao's second-in-command. Because they were far outnumbered, although Chen Dahu and Liu Erlang were brave, it was difficult for them to push forward.

When Li Jing ordered a strong attack, Gao Qi's attack was also not smooth.Although a dozen of Shi Lao Er's subordinates were chopped down, several of Gao Qi's subordinates were also injured. Seeing that the situation was unfavorable, Gao Qi quickly led his men and retreated to the foot of the mountain.

Gao Qi pondered for a while, looked at the direction of the wind, and ordered someone to light a torch.

When fighting at night, neither side of the war dared to light a torch lightly. Once there is light, it will become a target for the other side. Naturally, the archers will not be polite to you. It's not good either.

Gao Qi retreated and raised the fire with only one purpose, to set fire to the mountain.

When it comes to commanding cold weapons, Li Jing is indeed inferior to a veteran like Gao Qi.

When using cold weapons to fight, if the two things of water and fire can be used properly, they are the real killers.

Gao Qi was born as an officer and soldier, so he doesn't care about the lives of a few bandits. According to his thinking, a fire should be set at the beginning of the sneak attack. As long as there is a wild fire, it is winter and the sky is dry, let alone a hundred or so bandits. Even mice will be burnt out of the hole.

Gao Qi set fire here, and in a short while, flames were everywhere. Li Jing saw the flames from a distance, and his heart trembled, and he hurriedly ordered his brothers to retreat. This mountain fire does not matter who started it.

And Li Jing's side is the downwind, and if he retreats later, he will be swallowed by the fire.

While Li Jing led the crowd to retreat, he hurriedly ordered people to inform Gao Qi and Chen Dahu that they must cut down the weeds and dead trees at the foot of the mountain and open a isolation zone to prevent the fire from spreading.

When the fire came together, this battle was naturally unnecessary. Shi Lao Er hurriedly led the bandits back to the mountain, before the fire spread, he packed up his belongings and fled the mountain.In a hurry, he broke into the ambush circle reserved by Li Jing.

Chen Erhu and the others who were ambushing here got impatient for a long time. Seeing Shi Laoer and the others rushing in, they immediately greeted them with hooks and ropes, and all the bandits headed by Shi Laoer were captured immediately.

After capturing Shi Laoer, Li Jing ordered people to put out the fire, but it was easy to start the fire but difficult to put it out. In desperation, Li Jing had to order people to guard the foot of the mountain to prevent the fire from spreading.

The fire didn't go out until dawn. After the fire, there were ruins on Motian Ridge.

The fire in Motianling burned all night, of course the villagers at the foot of the mountain would not fail to see it. When the sky was bright, some villagers came to Motianling to watch, not wanting to bump into Li Jing and others waiting at the foot of the mountain.

Li Jing found a few local bandits and asked them to bring these villagers.

"Fellows, hello, Li Jing, I heard that the villagers are often harassed by bandits, so I took my brothers to wipe out the bandits in Motianling last night. Now the bandit leaders Shi Lao Er and Xu Lao Si have been killed by us." Captured, if the folks have any grievances, just tell me, I will make the decision for the folks, we have complaints and revenge." Li Jing said loudly.

Li Jing learned from the Red Army's method of beating local tyrants and dividing the land. Farmers who have benefited and avenged themselves will naturally support those who help them.

It's a pity that things backfired. Although Shi Laoer and Xu Laosi were tied up, no villagers came forward to complain.

Li Jing is very curious, why is it difficult to use this hand when it is my turn?Could it be that there are some villagers here who have something to do with the bandits on the mountain, are these people afraid that the bandits will make trouble for them afterwards?
Li Jing pondered for a while, ordered these villagers to be separated, and then questioned them one by one. After questioning, it turned out that Shi Lao Er and Xu Lao Si had just occupied Motian Ridge not long ago, and had not done anything evil here. Boss Zhou, who was robbing his house here, had already been wiped out by Li Jing.

Now that you know the reason, it's easy to do. Send people to ask around the original bandit dens of Shi Laoer and Xu Laosi, and then you can find out whether these bandits have done evil things.

The original stronghold of Shi Laoer and Xu Laosi was not too far from Motianling, less than [-] miles away. Li Jing sent several local men to look for the villagers.

Hearing that the second son Shi and the fourth son Xu were captured, the villagers who had suffered from the bandits were overjoyed. In less than an hour, dozens of villagers followed Li Jing's men to Motianling.

Of course, Li Jing asked these villagers to come here just to make a show. He himself is also a bandit now. To put it bluntly, the Battle of Motianling was a fight between bandits, which has a bad reputation.

But it is different if the reputation of doing justice for the sky, punishing evil and promoting good is spread.

It can be said that everything Li Jing does is to win the hearts of the people.

In front of the villagers, Li Jing ordered to cut off the heads of several heinous bandit leaders, including Shi Lao Er and Xu Lao Si, and then distributed the property looted by the bandits to these villagers, avenging revenge and gaining benefits The villagers are very grateful to Li Jing.

After dismissing the villagers, Li Jing led his men to press the captives back to Hongshanling. The next step is to summarize the gains and losses of this operation.

On the surface, this operation was a complete victory, but Li Jing was very dissatisfied with this operation, not with his brothers, but with himself.

In this operation, from Gao Qi to Chen Dahu to Chen Erhu, and even to every brother who participated in the operation, everyone's performance was remarkable. Li Jing, the conductor, did not perform well.

After rewarding Gao Qi and others, Li Jing said: "Brothers, I made the following mistakes in this battle. First of all, I didn't understand the terrain of Motianling, which caused my brothers to be quite passive when attacking, and many brothers were injured. . . ”

"Big Master, I led people to scout the terrain of Motianling. How can you blame Big Master for not knowing the terrain of Motianling? I should bear this responsibility." Zhou Huhu said urgently.

(End of this chapter)