Qiliu Town is a relatively large town, with a total of more than 550 households and a population of more than 2,500 people. It is considered to be quite powerful, so until the next morning, the bandits did not break into Qiliu Town. Town. This settlement also bought Qingshui Village a lot of time.
On the second day, someone also proposed whether to rescue Qiliu Town and block the bandits in Qiliu Town. However, this suggestion was immediately rejected by Shang Yi because the militia currently does not have the ability to take the initiative. , Qiliu Town is more than 30 miles away from Qingshui Village. When the regiment soldiers arrived there, they spent most of their energy. They then fought against the bandits and suffered heavy losses first. Moreover, once the regiment soldiers were defeated by the bandits, Then the defense capabilities of these three villages will be basically eliminated. Therefore, although Qiliu Town deserves sympathy, he is unable to help and can only let them obey their fate.
Just today, Qingshui Village received more than 30 refugees one after another, all of whom came from Jinshanping Village. However, the mood of the villagers today is obviously much better than yesterday, and the village is starting to feel a little lively.
In the afternoon, the reconnaissance team sent back a report that the bandits had stopped attacking Qiliu Town and were resting.
In the evening, Shang Yi simply pulled the main regiment outside the village and conducted a night battle training. On the one hand, it allowed the regiment soldiers to relieve their nervousness through training. On the other hand, it also consumed their physical strength and made them stay up late at night. It can help you sleep peacefully and at the same time enhance the night fighting ability of the regiment. It may be used in the battle against bandits.
The regiment soldiers also clearly felt the pressure at this time, and everyone knew clearly that the stronger they were, the greater their confidence in protecting the village. Therefore, this evening training, everyone worked extra hard. At the third watch of the day, After the training, everyone was exhausted. After returning to the village, they all fell down and fell asleep.
At this moment, Shang Yi received news again that Qiliu Town had been breached.
It turned out that the bandits attacked the town all night last night and almost all day during the day. The villagers of Qiliu Town had not slept all night and day, and they really couldn't stand it any longer. Therefore, after the bandits retreated this afternoon, the villagers They all breathed a sigh of relief and went to rest. However, just after the watch came, the bandits came to attack again at night. This time, the townspeople were caught off guard, so they were attacked by the bandits.
After daybreak, Shang Yi immediately summoned Tang Zhen and others, telling them how Qiliu Town was captured, and reminding everyone that the battle was imminent.
The bandits made no further movements that day and stayed in Qiliu Town, while Qingshui Village accepted more than 100 refugees.
The next morning, the reconnaissance team sent back the news that the bandits were dispatched from Qiliu Town again, this time heading straight for Qingshui Village.
Shang Yi immediately summoned Tang Zhen and others and began to arrange all the teams to fight against the bandits. Shang Yi personally led the main group out of the village to hide, and the defense tasks in the village were handed over to Tang Zhen's command. At the same time, in order to strengthen the village In order to improve the defensive strength of the village, Shang Yi also left ten archers from the first team and the fifth team of the main force, and Wang Xin also stayed in the village to assist Tang Zhen in defending the village.
At the same time, according to the situation in the past few days, this group of bandits prefers to make raids at night and is good at using harassment tactics. Therefore, Shang Yi repeatedly told Tang Town to be more vigilant at night and pay attention to the group. The soldiers took turns to rest.
At noon, Zhou Qi came back to report that the bandits were less than twenty miles away from Qingshui Village. Shang Yi immediately ordered all members of the main force to bring weapons, dry food, cotton clothes and other items, and immediately left the village to a place southeast of Qingshui Village.
There was an ambush in the woods.
In the afternoon, Wu Hansheng also rushed to the grove and reported to Shang Yi that the bandits were resting ten miles away from Qingshui Village and seemed to be preparing to launch another attack at night.
Shang Yi also ordered the regiment soldiers to rest on the spot and eat dry food, but they were not allowed to light fires, and making noise was strictly prohibited. As time passed, the sky gradually became darker.
The weak starlight shone a little light in the darkness. On the road between the fields and in the fields, a large group of people were slowly approaching Qingshui Village. There were stars and dozens of torches.
The boss of Qinglang Peak, Old Luotuo, was riding a horse and looking at the location of Qingshui Village in the distance. Although the outline of a large protective wall could only be vaguely seen, it seemed that he did not have much defense. Old Luotuo felt worried in his heart.
I am very happy. It seems that the night attack method is very good. Even if the gap cannot be opened, it can disturb the people guarding the village. After a day or two, they will lose their energy and it will be easier to attack the village again.
Lao Luotuo is also a veteran bandit in Shandong. He has been eating this bowl since the sixth year of Chongzhen (1633). He was originally a man from Jinan Prefecture who made a living by pulling camels for long distances outside the customs and trafficking in private goods.
Although the risk is not small, the income is also considerable. I live a relatively prosperous life, and I have a virtuous wife and lovely son at home.
Because of the Shandong Rebellion from the fourth year to the sixth year of Chongzhen, all eight of his camels were drafted by officials. This was equivalent to cutting off all his sources of livelihood, his family fortune plummeted, and he still owed a lot of debt. He had no choice but to
He had no choice but to work as a handyman in the army, hoping to earn some money to support his family. Unexpectedly, after many levels of salary increases, he had very little left in his hands. As a result, he didn't save much until after the rebellion subsided.
Money. When he returned home from the army, he found that the walls of his home were empty and his wife and son were missing. Or a neighbor told him that while he was away from home, his wife was forced by his creditors to buy a brothel, and his son
Starved to death at home.
As a result, he was so angry that he took a knife and killed the whole family of the creditor who had forced his wife. Then he dragged a dozen people with him, hid in the mountains, and became robbers. After seven or eight years of development, he became a kind-hearted person.
The people completely turned into a ruthless bandit. He robbed homes and houses in Qingzhou Prefecture, wiped out villages and towns, and later occupied Qinglang Peak. He nicknamed himself "Old Camel" and had nearly 3,000 men under his command. Although
He cannot be compared with giant bandits such as Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, but he is still considered a number one figure in Shandong.
Because Qinglang Peak is very close to Yishui County, this area has become a place frequented by Lao Luotuo. Last year, he led a team to attack Qingshui Village. However, Qingshui Village was heavily defended at that time, and Lao Luotuo did not want to go here.
Shi Duo exhausted his men, so he withdrew his troops and left, after destroying three or four small villages around him, he returned to Qinglang Peak. But this year, all the small villages have been basically defeated, and they can only attack large villages such as Qiliu Town and Qingshui Village.
But Lao Luotuo also knows that Qingshui Village recently established a militia group, but now there are more villages that have established militia groups. There are militia groups in Jinshanping Village and Qiliu Town. Didn't they end up being broken by themselves? Qingshui Village can be a big village.
After successively breaking through Jinshanping Village and Qiliu Town, Lao Luotuo's harvest was extremely rich, which exceeded the total amount of robberies last year. If he conquered Qingshui Village and several nearby villages and made a lot of money, then this year
Then you can have a good year.
Although this place is very close to Yishui County, Old Luotuo is not afraid of the government troops in the county at all, because in his eyes, the government troops are not as good as the villagers who protect the village.
The width of the road between the fields is limited, and vehicles carrying looted items must be allowed to travel. Therefore, most bandits can only walk in the fields, but the soil in the fields is loose, and some fields are planted with winter wheat.
Many of the bandits were carrying large and small bags. As a result, they had to walk one step at a time, making it very difficult. Many people cursed: "This is a fucking broken road."
Seeing that there were still two to three hundred steps away and we were almost reaching the edge of the village, we suddenly heard the sound of gongs in the village, which was extremely harsh in the silent night. Then someone shouted: "The bandits are coming.
The bandits are coming." "Protect the village, protect your home."
Old Luotuo was still thinking that it was okay to visit this village, and his vigilance was not bad. Other villages didn't notice him until he was almost close to the river protecting the village. He immediately ordered the lighting of torches, because he was afraid of being discovered by the people guarding the village.
, so the bandits only lit a dozen torches and didn't need to force themselves to see the direction they were going in. Most of them followed the dark path. But now that the villagers have discovered it, there is no need to hide it.
Let's light up the torches so that they can be illuminated more brightly so that we can attack the village.
At this time in Qingshui Village, groups of soldiers rushed to the village wall. Under the command of Tang Zhen and Wang Xin, they were stationed on the village wall. Under the right village wall, there were several groups of soldiers.
They lined up their troops with scriptures, ready to obey orders at any time and go up the wall to fight against the bandits.
After all, the regiment soldiers had only been in the army for more than a month, and those who stayed in the village were all auxiliary regiments, and their quality was still inferior to that of the main regiment. In addition, it was at night, so it was quite chaotic for a while. Tang
Zhen and Wang Xin were also so busy that they were sweating profusely. They walked back and forth on the village wall, trying their best to get the regiment soldiers to stand in their positions as soon as possible.
But a distance of more than 150 steps away from the village wall, suddenly a bright fire suddenly illuminated the group of bandits. In the midst of his busy schedule, Tang Zhen looked under the village wall.
After looking at it, he sneered and said: "Showing your true and false facts, grass bandits are grass bandits."
He was born in the military, so he naturally knew that when fighting at night, the most taboo thing was to light torches in large areas. This not only exposed his own weakness, but also made him an easy target for the enemy. Therefore, villagers were not allowed to light torches when setting up defenses on the wall.
.
After lighting the torches and seeing the road clearly, the bandits moved forward faster. In a short time, they were only a hundred steps away from the village wall. Taking advantage of this short gap, Tang Zhen finally
The regiment soldiers were deployed on the village wall.
At this moment, suddenly a regiment soldier next to Tang Zhen pointed forward and said, "Look, isn't that the original teacher and brother Ma?"
Tang Zhen looked in the direction he pointed, and saw seven or eight horses in a cluster of more than a dozen torches in the distance, two of whom looked vaguely like the Ma brothers.
It turned out that after brothers Ma Baiqi and Ma Bashi lost to Shang Yi, they felt that they had no shame in staying in the village, so they left the village and looked for another place. Originally, the two brothers wanted to join the Wang family in Datun. But who knew
The Wang family had just defeated the villagers. When they heard that they were former teachers from Qingshui Village, they were furious and immediately drove them away.
The two brothers had no choice but to go to Qingzhou Prefecture to try their luck, but when they got near Qinglang Peak, they were intercepted by Lao Luotuo and his men. Seeing that there were many people on the other side, the two brothers were determined to be unable to defeat them, and now their brothers had no way to go.
, so as soon as I thought about it, I simply went up the mountain to join the group.
And after all, these two brothers still have some skills, and they are quite good at Qinglang Peak, so they are quite appreciated by Old Luotuo, so after a few days, they became two small bosses. And the two of them were
They both harbored hatred towards Qingshui Village and Shang Yi. This time Old Luotuo led the team down the mountain, and both of them strongly encouraged them to attack Qingshui Village.