114 [The winner wins] (for the leader of the alliance, Naveen Moore
There are three scholars in one school, two prime ministers across the river, three champions in five miles, two ministers in one hundred steps, nine chief ministers in ten miles, and nine sons and ten governors.
The above sentences are talking about Jishui County, which ranks first in the country in the number of Jinshi.
The Li family in Gucun is just one surname for each village. If we include the posthumous gifts, there have been eleven ministers in the past few decades.
Of course, the current number of ministers remains at eight. Only when there is no one available in the court and Chongzhen has to resurrect Li Banghua, his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather will be granted the title of minister or posthumously.
In the morning he was a farmhouse man, and in the evening he ascended to the Emperor's Hall.
These words could not be more appropriate to apply to Li Banghua. His family was really in decline. When his grandmother passed away, there was no thin-skinned coffin, so she could only wrap it in straw and bury her secretly.
Seeing his nephew being frightened back by the rolling stone, Li Banghua immediately thought about how to defeat the enemy.
In order to repay the emperor's favor and eliminate thieves for the country, even the old, weak, women and children had to be killed!
Li Banghua did not dare to attack by force. He led his troops to block the road down the mountain and sent soldiers to explore other ways up the mountain.
The enemy and ourselves began to confront each other.
One didn't dare to retreat, the other didn't dare to attack, they just looked at each other like that.
There was a confrontation for a while, and a local hero came back and reported: "Uncle, you can climb up the slope two miles to the right, but there are rebels guarding the slope."
There is no way for a surprise attack, so we can only attack from the front.
"My sons, follow me to kill the thieves!" Li Banghua unsheathed his sword and personally led the charge.
Pang Chunlai immediately ordered: "Throw rolling stones!"
Stones as big as heads kept rolling down the hillside, and more than a dozen village heroes were knocked down one after another.
Unfortunately, the mountain is not steep and the rocks do not roll down very quickly.
Two unlucky ones had their tibias broken, while the others were just crushed on their feet. Those who were knocked down quickly got up.
"Sisters, kill the dog official!"
Xiao Hong organized the women and children, picked up fist-sized clods of earth and stones, and threw them at Xiang Yong who was charging.
This thing is actually more lethal than a rolling stone. If it hits the body, it will only hurt, but if it hits the head, it will definitely break the head and bleed.
Even Li Banghua himself, the dignified former Minister of War, was hit on the head by a village woman, and a big green bump appeared on his forehead.
The mountain pass is narrow and there are too many villagers to pass through.
Seeing that the women and children were having an effective effect by throwing rocks at them, the villagers who were unable to prepare for the battle picked up rocks and soil and threw them down.
Xiang Yong's first charge was actually beaten back by the villagers with stones.
Three thousand people smashed stones together, and countless small stones flew in the air. The scene was as spectacular as a hail of bullets.
"Quickly pick up rocks, not big ones, just small ones!"
Xiao Hong gave the order, and together with Xiao Cui, they took the women and children to pick up stones. All the stones nearby had been picked up, and some people simply took off their shoes and threw them down.
Li Banghua led his troops back down the slope, and the whole group was in a miserable state.
Not only did he have a big bruise on his forehead, but he was also hit in the back of the head while retreating, and there were faint traces of blood in his hair.
Some local heroes were knocked unconscious by pebbles and had to be dragged back by their companions after a lot of effort.
"We win, we win!"
The villagers cheered loudly, but the village heroes looked sad.
Li Banghua was filled with anger and a deep sense of frustration. He had never fought such a battle before.
Under normal circumstances, the villagers would have been defeated immediately, but now it was Xiang Yong who was repelled.
Pang Chunlai couldn't help but laugh and said: "That official below, those who have gained the right will get more help, while those who have lost the right will get less help. You don't understand this truth? Please be demoted as soon as possible. Don't help the tyrants."
Seeing that there were scholars among the rebels, Li Banghua stepped forward and said loudly: "Li Banghua, who are you?"
This name surprised Pang Chunlai. He handed over his hand and said, "It turns out to be Li Meng'an. I was lucky enough to meet him in Tianjin back then. But nowadays, things have changed and people have changed."
Have you seen Tianjin?
Li Banghua thought carefully. If he had seen him in Tianjin, it would have been when he was the governor of Tianjin.
He vigorously reorganized the Tianjin New Army and once made the Tianjin New Army the strongest force in the North Zhili region.
But the person in front of me didn't seem to have much of an impression.
Pang Chunlai said with a smile: "Brother Li, don't think about it anymore. You were the governor of Tianjin back then, and I was just a small staff member. There is no way you will remember me!"
"Excuse me, which minister's staff are you?" Li Banghua asked curiously.
"Hey, I won't say it. If I say it, it will definitely drag down the old master." Pang Chunlai smiled happily.
At this moment, smoke suddenly rose from the south.
Li Banghua was shocked and confused and couldn't figure out what was going on.
Pang Chunlai had a strange smile. Those were the sentries he sent, and the smoke was supposed to rise when the officers and soldiers appeared.
There are six sentries in total.
The two of them were on the mountain side of Lijiaguai, responsible for detecting enemies coming from the east.
The two of them were on the high mountains to the west, responsible for detecting the enemies behind them.
The two of them stayed at the Wuxing Town Inn. Even if the smoke couldn't be released, they could still run into the mountains on foot to report the news.
However, all sentinels failed, and I don't know what went wrong.
Li Banghua looked back at the wolf smoke, his heart full of worry. All his food and grass were on the boat.
For fear of insufficient troops, Li Banghua did not dare to divide his troops into the mountains. Only one soldier was left to guard each boat, and the rest were all Yongxin County boatmen.
Seeing that there was no hope of attacking the mountain and the smoke was rising behind him, Li Banghua suddenly ordered: "The entire army retreats to the river!"
"You're here and you still want to leave?"
Pang Chunlai suddenly drew his sword and shouted: "Even if half of us die today, I still have to keep you, Li Meng'an!"
"withdraw!"
Li Banghua ordered a retreat and personally led a hundred local warriors to the rear.
Pang Chunlai climbed out of the makeshift barrier and shouted: "All young men and women over the age of fifteen come forward and hold these bastards back!"
Nearly six hundred young men went out into the battle with farm tools, all left by Zhao Han. Most were men between 15 and 18 years old, and 45 and 50 years old, with only a hundred people between 18 and 45 years old.
A man covered in wounds suddenly came over the mountain from behind, panting and saying: "Mr. Pang, it rained in the middle of the night last night, and the firewood and cow dung were soaked. The smoke could not be ignited for a while. Huang Zhuang was still there.
Keep lighting the fire, and let me run back to report the news first!"
He looked back and said with a forced smile: "It's burning, it's burning."
"I'll punish you two later," Pang Chunlai said with a smile, "I just made a mistake and caught a big fish this time."
Pang Chunlai led six hundred young men and slowly walked towards Li Banghua. But he did not dare to get too close. These people were untrained and would probably collapse in a rush.
The more this happened, the more panicked Li Banghua became, and they all ran towards the river.
Pang Chunlai was afraid of being killed, so he only dared to lead his men to follow him from a distance. He really had no soldiers to use.
…
But he said that of the two sentries staying at the inn, one was sleeping and the other was on guard duty.
But Li Banghua came down the river too quickly, and there was no smoke warning upstream, so the sentry at the inn found it too late.
After waking up the sleeping man, the two wanted to go into the mountain to deliver the news. Li Banghua had already landed on the upstream river beach. They also quickly sent out Xiangyong to investigate and block the nearest way into the mountain.
The two sentries were in panic. One took a detour into the mountain to notify Pang Chunlai, while the other turned and ran downstream towards Li's house.
Those who took a detour into the mountain did not know that Pang Chunlai was going down the mountain, so they have not found the main force until now.
But when I went to Li's house, I saw Huang Shunfu.
"Mayor Huang (Deputy), take people into the mountain quickly, the officers and soldiers are coming!" the messenger said.
Huang Shunfu asked: "How many have come?"
The messenger replied: "I haven't had time to count, there may be hundreds of numbers, and there are many ships coming."
"Second son, go and inform the villagers quickly, pack up your belongings and prepare to go into the mountains," Huang Shunfu thought for a while and then said, "Let Liu Laosi and the others row a fishing boat to see what's going on."
Several fishing boats soon arrived in Wuxing Town, approaching the large and small boats on the shore, and stared at the boatmen on the boats.
"The rebels are coming, run away!"
The boatmen were panicked and subconsciously wanted to sail away.
"Don't mess up!"
Li Banghua left a country warrior on each ship, all of whom he brought from Jishui.
Those local brave men were enough to intimidate the boatmen, and they actually stabilized quickly.
The fishermen rushed back to Lijiaguai to report that there were no officers or soldiers on the boat. Huang Shunfu immediately took Qingzhuang and ran to seize the boat.
Seeing more than 200 rebels coming, the boatmen finally couldn't hold on any longer. Regardless of Xiang Yong's pressure, they all fled downstream, and did not stop until they escaped the Lijiaguai.
"The officers and soldiers are coming!"
Huang Shunfu was thinking about how to pursue the enemy when Li Banghua suddenly came out from the mountains with his troops. He was so frightened that he quickly stopped the villagers from retreating.
Li Banghua chased Huang Shunfu from a distance, and Pang Chunlai chased Li Banghua from a distance.
Li Banghua ordered a counterattack, and Pang Chunlai immediately retreated. The distance between the two sides was half a mile.
This battle was very funny, one was afraid of the other, and the weakling was afraid of both.
Mainly because everyone's troops were insufficient, Li Banghua could not divide his troops to guard the ship. At this moment, the ship was lost and he was very panicked.
As for Pang Chunlai and Huang Shunfu, although the villagers they led were large in number, they were not well-trained at all. They were still obedient even half a mile away from the enemy, but if they were approached on flat ground, they would be instantly defeated.
Many thanks to Fei Yinggon. Last night, due to an inexplicable night attack, Li Banghua lost forty men, which was one-sixth of the strength of the officers and soldiers.
Moreover, most of them were not killed, but drowned when their boats ran aground in the dark.
Otherwise, if Li Banghua left forty villages to guard the ship, how could he be afraid of villagers attacking the ship?
After struggling for a long time, Li Banghua finally found his boat downstream and saved his food and grass.
"Alas, I still didn't keep it." Pang Chunlai could only sigh.
The villagers could only watch the officers and soldiers leave, but they did not dare to pursue them. A close encounter would inevitably result in defeat.
Li Banghua was also extremely depressed. He was attacking from behind, but the bandits were already prepared. What was even more speechless was, where did Jie Xuelong's main force go?
It was agreed at the beginning that even if the raid failed, we could still attack from both front and back.
Now that his teammates have disappeared without a trace, how can he flank him if he has less than 200 troops? It’s not bad that he is flanked!
In Wuxing Town, Lijiaguai, and Huangba Village on the other side, thieves appeared everywhere, and there were even fishing boats dotted far away on the river.
Li Banghua could only choose to capture one route, and also split troops to guard the ships and supplies. This battle was impossible to fight.
In desperation, Li Banghua chose to escape by boat and did not dare to dock until he retreated to Yongyang Town.
After asking around on shore, we found out that Jie Xuelong had already withdrawn his troops.
Li Banghua could only look up to the sky and sigh, then took a boat to Sanjiangkou, and finally obtained more detailed military information: Xie Xuelong first went to Anfu County via Lushui River, and after defeating tens of thousands of bandits, he returned by boat to rescue Fucheng, which had been captured by bandits.
Ji'an Fucheng fell?
Li Banghua was completely stunned. He could not figure out how Fucheng was captured by the rebels.
More nonsense is yet to come.
Li Banghua took a boat to Fucheng, hoping to meet up with Xie Xuelong. When he passed by Shishan Town, he received news that the governor Xie Xuelong had been wiped out!