Chapter 687 Breaking the Stronghold

Qiao Zhiya also didn't expect that the three-pound cannon that took so long and so hard to transport could only make a sound and had no substantial attack effect. At best, it could only scare the opponents in the village. At that moment, he ordered Ruan Qianqian to launch an infantry offensive.

, so that the people in the village would not find out if the time went on. The militia army used squads as combat units, and each squad was also equipped with a ladder that had just been made. Two people were divided into two people, one behind the other, to carry the ladder.

, two companies totaling more than thirty teams were dispatched at the same time, trotting all the way towards the wall of Heishandong.

The stone wall outside Heishandong is actually only about two meters high. There is no formed defense system on top of the wall. There are only two wooden sentry towers, one in the east and one in the west. These two sentry towers have

Six or seven meters high, the top floor can accommodate seven or eight archers. However, the power of the native hunting bow used by the Li people can only cover a distance of thirty or forty meters, and the large-caliber bow used by the Annan Second Battalion can only cover a distance of thirty or forty meters.

Although the short-barreled rifle has a shorter range, it still far exceeds the level of primitive bows and arrows, and it is completely possible to kill such "firepower points" outside its attack range.

The people on the Lidong sentry tower had obviously noticed the offensive launched by Haihan. After a few horn horns sounded, many people appeared on the top of the wall, shooting with bows and arrows. But I don’t know.

The quality of these bows and arrows is too poor, or these people are temporarily acting as archers. The arrows they shoot are not accurate at all. Some even fall to the ground before they can even fly twenty meters. There is no way to shoot them.

The militia army still some distance away poses a threat.

On the other hand, the militia army, Annan's 2nd Battalion fought a real battle with the Dutch in the South China Sea three months ago, and won collective military exploits with the result, and returned to Sanya to rest for more than a month.

When the morale is high, he has no fear at all when facing a novice opponent like Heishandong, and he calmly fires volleys of guns at the wall in squad units. Although the shooting hit rate from dozens of meters away is not high, but

The Li people on the wall all had their upper bodies exposed. Once they were shot, they would be seriously injured even if they did not die, and they would immediately lose their ability to fight.

Suppressing the scattered hunting bow shooters with uniform musket volleys, the effect is unquestionable. Soon the Li shooters on the wall were injured and hiding, and did not dare to show up easily again. And the two sentry towers also

It became the new target of the two small-caliber cannons of the militia army. Only the palm-thick wooden boards could only protect against bows and arrows, but not metal projectiles. Under the salvo of artillery and rifles, the watchtower was quickly hit.

It was riddled with holes. Except for a few smart people who jumped from the watchtower early when they saw the situation was not going well, everyone else who tried to hide in the watchtower became a living target in the flying wood chips.

Soon the infantry rushed under the wall and erected ladders on the top of the wall. Unwilling to fail, the defenders began to throw down stones, wooden piers and other heavy objects from the top of the wall in an attempt to prevent the opponent from breaking through the line of defense.

However, their idea was still a little simpler. Although the militia army had made a lot of simple ladders, after seeing the terrain of Heishandong on the spot, Qiao Zhiya had changed his mind and let the infantry with ladders conduct a feint attack, while the real

The killing moves are concentrated in the direction of the gate.

Several engineers took advantage of the moment when the Li people on the wall were beaten back and quietly lurked outside the village gate, where they would begin to set up gunpowder packs for blasting. In order to ensure a success, the engineers set up two opposite village gates on the left and right.

A five-kilogram pack of explosives was placed outside, and then the fuses were released. When the infantry pretended to attack various parts of the wall, they would light the fuses and detonate them at the same time.

With two loud bangs with almost no interval, the gate of Lidong Village was blown into pieces together with a section of the village wall next to it. Even the frontline command post a mile away could feel the slight tremor coming from under their feet.

.

"This new explosive is quite powerful!" Qiao Zhiya was also slightly surprised. When he left the chemical industry department, the new explosive had just begun trial production, but at that time there were no theoretical problems, mainly because some raw materials required production processes

Only by further improvement can the purification process be completed to increase the power of the gunpowder. Judging from the explosion effect, the power of this gunpowder should have reached the expected level.

The soldiers already knew the battle plan before launching the attack, so they all took cover in time, but the people in Lidong were probably not so lucky. Although it is not yet clear how much damage was caused by the explosion, it is known from the village

The screams that came out could indicate that the number of injured was definitely quite large.

There was no need for the command to issue orders anymore. The soldiers outside the village wall had already rushed towards the huge gap created by the explosion. Although the people in the village still tried to use their flesh and blood to block the gap, the militia army quickly used

The muskets in their hands defeated the Li people's counterattack, and they began to pour into Heishan Cave from the collapsed gate of the village.

"Much smoother than expected." Qiao Zhiya put down the telescope in his hand and said to himself. Even if there are thousands of people in Heishandong who can participate in the battle, they are just a group of people waiting to be slaughtered in front of the Haihan militia army with absolute military superiority.

Lamb, and the wall outside Black Mountain Cave can be regarded as the last line of defense to protect them. After this barrier is broken, the people in the village will indeed have no tricks that can change the situation of the battle.

Of course, for those enemies who insist on fighting to the death, the militia army will also give them enough respect and use bullets and bayonets to fulfill their wishes. For these soldiers of Annan descent, killing these enemies of the Haihan group

The Li people and the Han people were the same as those who killed the Dutch in the Ambrosia Islands earlier. There was no insurmountable psychological barrier.

Just as Qiao Zhiya expected, after the last and only line of defense was breached, the Li people and fugitives in the village became trapped animals. There were still a considerable number of people trying to resist the invaders with blood and primitive weapons.

But this delusion was soon shattered by the roaring lead bullets.

The best armor for the Li people is only made of cowhide. This may help them defend against a certain degree of sharp weapon damage in close combat, but for bullets with huge kinetic energy, wearing this layer of armor is not as good as wearing an extra layer of paper.

There won't be much difference on the body. The large-caliber rifle equipped by the Annan Second Battalion can shoot directly through a Li man wearing cowhide armor within 20 meters, and there is still room for damage to the third person behind him.

Two targets. A single volley from the infantrymen in squads and bayonets is enough to repel a small-scale charge launched by twenty or thirty people. But if they want to cause effective damage to the militia army, Li and

The fugitive coalition often has to pay dozens of casualties to find one or two opportunities.

According to the battle plan formulated in advance, the militia army did not rush to enter every boat-shaped house to search. Instead, they first identified the people outside, gradually compressed the encirclement, and blocked the escape route. About thirty minutes after the battle began, the first

News came back from the front line that the situation was basically under control, and the only thing left was to clean up Heishantong door by door and arrest the fugitives and resistance elements hiding there one by one.

This process took much longer than the time required to conquer Heishandong. In order to avoid unnecessary casualties, the soldiers did not rush into the dark and narrow boat-shaped house to conduct the search. Instead, they first let the Li soldiers outside

Shouting and urging the people in the house to come out and surrender. Only those enemies who try to continue to resist will be hunted and killed with more violent methods. Qiao Zhiya does not intend to kill all the people in Heishandong, and the hard labor camp was damaged in this riot.

Almost a thousand people have been killed, and it is time to replenish the labor force. As long as those who dare to resist are killed, the remaining people can still be used as labor force.

If there is no benefit at all, even after winning the battle, he will definitely still complain about the military expenditure of this operation. Qiao Zhiya is originally from the military, so he naturally knows all these things. Li Dong obviously

There are no gold or silver treasures or anything like that, but if you can capture a group of laborers and go back, you can still pay your respects to your superiors.

In the evening, the militia army discovered a body suspected to be that of Zhao Ye during the search and immediately notified the headquarters. Qiao Zhiya did not dare to be careless and led Li Qingyang to the scene immediately.

This is a boat-shaped house located in the center of Heishandong, and it is also one of the last buildings to be inspected. The body and all the things in the house have been moved out and placed outside. The squad leader responsible for searching this house saw Qiao Zhiya

Upon arrival, he immediately stepped forward and gave a military salute and reported: "Report to the chief, when we checked this house, we found this body in the house. According to the identification of the Li people in the village, he was the planner of this operation. His surname was

Zhao has been staying in Heishan Cave for several months, and has been treated as a distinguished guest by their cave owner."

Li Qingyang leaned down and first identified the face of the corpse, then stretched out his hands to rub it. Finally, he found a slightly yellowed ivory token on his waist and presented it to Qiao Zhiya: "Commander, please look at this.

This is Zhao Ye’s identity certificate. He has already experienced his humble position, and this is indeed the token issued by Jin Yiwei.”

"Do you recognize it clearly?" Qiao Zhiya is not an archaeologist, and he cannot tell whether this thing is genuine or not. He is more concerned about Li Qingyang's confirmation of his face and appearance.

Li Qingyang responded: "This man is about five feet two inches tall, has a white face and short beard, a black mole on his right cheek, and a scar on the back of his left hand. They are basically consistent with the confessions we obtained in Danzhou and Shilu.

It’s Zhao Ye himself.”

"Can the cause of his death be seen?" Qiao Zhiya continued to ask.

"Baizhi's expression is painful and there are signs of vomiting. It is very likely that he died of swallowing arsenic." After Li Qingyang finished speaking, he lowered his voice and added: "Swallowing poison to commit suicide is the code of the Jinyi Guards. Bishi was arrested when he was first arrested.

At that time, he was also carrying arsenic on his body."

Qiao Zhiya nodded silently, thinking that Zhao Ye was a man of character. Even after being forced to this point, he still refused to surrender. He would rather commit suicide by taking poison than be taken as a prisoner. But then he thought about it, what if Zhao Ye was really captured?

After being caught and taken back, Li Qingyang would have to be tortured and interrogated slowly. The pain would definitely be much greater than committing suicide by taking poison. It would not be a relief for him to choose to die now.

"People related to him still need to carefully identify their identities. Since we have caught the culprit this time, we must catch up with all his associates and don't miss anyone again!" Qiao Zhiya told Li Qingyang: "Regarding Zhao Ye's follow-up matters,

I'll leave it to you."

"I humbly accept my order!" Li Qingyang bowed and responded.

Regarding the specific identity of Zhao Ye, in fact, even most of the soldiers participating in this operation did not know, and the identification and subsequent processing of his identity were basically led by the Ministry of Security. Therefore, before departure, Li Qingyang took the initiative to ask Ying to accompany the army.

Qiao Zhiya did not express any objection to the expedition. As for how many people will be arrested and how many people will be killed in the future, that is really a matter of the Ministry of Security, and Qiao Zhiya does not want to take this responsibility on himself.

The last person to be searched was the residence of the owner of the cave in Heishan. This was a compound surrounded by fences. There were six or seven boat-shaped houses in the courtyard, and the owner's family of more than 30 people lived there. After a brief negotiation,

After that, the cave owner finally chose to surrender - of course, he seemed to have no other choice.

The owner of the cave was an old man in his sixties. When he was escorted to Qiao Zhiya, he still couldn't restrain the angry expression on his face and said something in Li dialect. An interpreter beside him immediately explained the meaning to Qiao Zhiya in a low voice. Qiao Zhiya stared at

The owner of the cave shook his head and said: "You shouldn't ask why we came to destroy your village. You should ask yourself why you chose to go against us Haihan. Everyone has a greedy side. Your village,

Your people were all destroyed by your greed. There was no need for so many people to die, but it's a pity..."

After the cave owner listened to the interpreter, Qiao Zhiya waved his hand and said: "Take him away and examine his confession tonight. He will be executed early tomorrow morning. We don't need to take him back to Shilu."

Qiao Zhiya would not trust such a restless Li leader to enter the hard labor camp. There might be another riot if he is not careful. It would be better to settle the matter as soon as possible to avoid possible future troubles. As for the trial,

, I'm sorry, a commander who has been authorized by the Executive Committee during wartime has already represented the law. Even if Qiao Zhiya's handling of the situation is reported back to the Executive Committee, no one can accuse him of doing something wrong.

"Clean up the battlefield as soon as possible. We have to deal with several nearby villages tomorrow." Qiao Zhiya looked up at the darkening sky and ordered Ruan Qianqian next to him: "Also, count the casualties on both sides. After dinner, you can take me with you.

Go visit the wounded warriors."

Although Heishandong is one of the most powerful Lidongs in the Qiongzhong area, it failed even after being faced with the offensive of the Haihan Militia.
Chapter completed!