The sun shone in from the window lattice, and the old man lying on the bed moved and let out a cry. Several people sitting or standing beside the bed all stood up with a cheer.
The woman who was 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 moment.
"This is where……"
"In the inn." The woman said quickly, "The Luo family let us go."
"Oh," the old man closed his eyes and seemed to be relieved, "This is... other people's territory... They insist on asking for horses... Just give them to them... If there is a quarrel, we outsiders will definitely suffer...
"
"Dad, don't worry. Mr. Luo didn't ask for horses, so he sent us to the inn again."
"Oh," the old man breathed a sigh of relief, and suddenly opened his eyes again, showing an anxious look, "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, so he just sent us back."
"Oh." As he spoke, the old man seemed relieved and fell asleep again.
A middle-aged man in his forties next to him said: "The old man still seems to be in poor health. Do you want to set off immediately?"
"How can he get on the road with such a weak body? He has to die on the road." said the middle-aged woman in the room - she looked decent, but her face was haggard. Like the young woman, she also wore shorts and jacket, and she was a salesman.
Solve women.
"I'm afraid I'll have long nights and dreams if I don't leave." The only young man inside said, "What if the Luo family has bad intentions? What if Mr. Luo has evil thoughts about his senior sister?"
"The Luo family is the local bully here, so why don't they want to do something? The crooked idea of moving your senior sister has just come into being - if you capture him in his house, you won't be at his mercy, and there is no need to release us to cause harm again.
"The middle-aged man said.
"Who knows what bad habits he has. None of these rich people are good." There was a scar on the young man's face. He must have received a lot of fists, feet and sticks from the country warriors. He said angrily, "Look at his subordinates."
You know as a bastard that this master is not a good person."
The middle-aged woman looked out the window nervously: "Good guys and bad guys, don't do our business. Let the old man recuperate for a few days and set off as soon as he can hit the road. It's just that we don't have any money, and we have horses with us, so we have to hire a boat
You can only go on a bigger boat. You have to do some performing arts these days."
This time we contracted the epidemic in Sanliang City, and everyone in the group fell ill in turn. We couldn't do business, so we stayed at the hotel and asked the doctor to prescribe medicine. We spent all the little savings we had saved in the weekdays - if not for this, we wouldn't have lost money in the first place.
Go into the loan shark trap.
"This Sanliang City is a good business. There are many people visiting it, and the price is quite high. But now that something like this has happened, I feel uneasy doing business." The middle-aged man sighed.
The young man opened his mouth and said: "I don't think senior sister can go out to sell things anymore! There is no guarantee that something will happen again."
Everyone in the room was silent. What the young man said was reasonable, but the living sign of the group of people selling solutions was this young woman - her real name was Xiao Xia'er, and her stage name was Sai Qingxia. She was a salesperson passed down from her family.
In kung fu, not only equestrian skills are superb, but also archery, flicking, sword dancing, and even walking on a rope while holding a bowl. Although other people also have their own real kung fu, there are women, especially a pretty good-looking girl, who compete in horse racing and sell their solutions.
, after a game, the money earned from playing will be 50% to 60% more.
If Sai Qingxia doesn't show up now, I don't know how long it will take to collect the travel expenses. Besides, 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 still have to go to the show! Now we know more or less what is going on in this town - the Luo family is a tiger. Since the tiger didn't eat us and let us out of its mouth, other hungry people
The wolves and hyenas 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 poster child of this team. If I don't sell solutions, the money will come slowly, and we will be even more unable to escape."
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 arena just to beg for food. It was rare that this place had good business. If the main pillars did not show up, they and a few of them would be alone.
How can a little kid stand up to the scene?
The next day, a group of people continued to race horses and sell food on the threshing floor. Although there have been several natural disasters in Guangdong since the Wanli Year, and riots and banditry occurred one after another, it is generally much better than the northern Central Plains, and the people's lives are still good.
Well, there are very few entertainment activities in rural areas. There are big girls racing horses and selling their solutions. Not only the local townspeople, but also the idle people from nearby villages come to take a look at the excitement when they have free time. The business on the first day was very good. And also
No one comes to harass you.
Seeing such a number on the market, everyone put in their best efforts to perform. In order to make more money, Qingxia decided to show off her archery skills, which are usually not performed. This is a skill passed down from generation to generation in her family. Qingxia
Although she is a woman and cannot shoot a very strong bow, she can shoot an ordinary walking bow with perfect accuracy, especially her ability to shoot money immediately, which is a unique skill inherited from her family.
As soon as this skill was revealed, it immediately caused a great sensation. More and more people from all over the country came to watch. Several local brave instructors in the town also secretly praised it: they said this was real Kung Fu, not a showmanship.
They spent a lot of money, but the old man's illness became more and more serious. He called in several doctors in the town and took a lot of miscellaneous medicines, but there was still no improvement. Everyone gradually became anxious - they
I have been here for almost three months. I have been selling horse racing and selling solutions for almost a month. Now I am just relying on a few unique skills to temporarily live in the place. If this continues, it will be difficult to make a living.
When he was feeling helpless, a terrible news spread in the town: the thief was coming.
Chen Haiyang, who was stationed in Humen for rest and recuperation, had received reports that the officers and soldiers had set up a key defense in Wuyong. They not only overhauled the fort but also assembled heavy troops. Therefore, his instructions to the detachment leader were not to enter the provincial river range for the time being - that is to say, do not pass through Wuyong.
. He planned to have another one-shot battle after the enemy's forces were almost assembled, completely destroying Guangzhou's determination to resist.
Before that, he ordered the patrol detachment to attack in all directions to further weaken the morale of the people, officials, and gentry in Guangzhou.
The patrol detachments are sorted by English alphabet. Each detachment operates independently. Although the detachment leaders are authorized to carry out independent operations, including military offensives, Chen Haiyang still strictly prohibits any detachment from carrying out extermination of villages and mass killings without permission. It is his responsibility to pay equal attention to kindness and power.
Guidelines. In order to ensure that the detachment does not suffer defeat and affect its image, each detachment is required to use peaceful means to achieve its goals as much as possible, rather than pure military operations.
Wen Desi volunteered to lead a detachment deep into the Pearl River coast. Although Chen Haiyang expressed concern about his safety, Mr. Wen bravely said: This danger is nothing.
"If you are afraid of death, don't make a revolution. In our career, we can't just sit in the office and read documents and give instructions. We must fight against the old forces with real swords and guns!" Mr. Wen said to Chen Haiyang with great enthusiasm on the temporary dock in Humen.
The others said. After that, he strode towards his boat.
The D detachment he led pulled up the sail and slowly sailed upstream driven by the sail and oars.
Detachment D consists of ten sampans and five long dragons. It has more than 200 sailors and a dozen civilian personnel. It brings an artillery and some engineering equipment. The long dragon is relatively large and can store supplies and carry artillery. Of course
It can also allow people to sleep comfortably. Wen Desi's "flagship" is located on a long dragon. The small cabin has been carefully decorated and decorated, and the safety index and comfort level are quite high.
The task force formed a total of 6 detachments, and they went to towns and villages in Dongguan, Xin'an, Shunde, Xiangshan, Nanhai, and Panyu counties. They posted notices everywhere and extorted "reasonable burdens." The whole government of Guangzhou was shocked for a while.
Xu Tingfa's passive avoidance of war left each detachment in an almost uninhabited area in the Pearl River Inland. Under the guidance of old pirate personnel who were familiar with the waterways, each detachment went deep into various rivers. The old pirate personnel knew the surrounding terrain well and knew where the villages and towns were.
Where there is wealth, where the defenses are tight, where the villagers are brave and fierce, and where they dare to fight, it is a "hard ground"; where there is a single force, it is a "soft ground".
The goal of detachment d is Shunde. The detachment sailed along the river, issued notices to all villages and towns, and established a "reasonable burden" system everywhere. This kind of action required almost no effort. Due to the prestige of the Australians, most villages and towns did not dare to resist the detachment and could only
Accept notice and "reasonable burden".
For those villages and towns that did not resist, the detachment not only did not harass or extort, but also paid all the collected materials and manpower in cash. The reasonable amount of the burden was also very reasonable and did not exceed the affordability of the village. Some were quite light.
The first time the D detachment encountered resistance occurred in Sanfan. After the request was rejected, Wen Desi ordered an attack on Sanfan Village. A 12-pound howitzer set up on the long dragon quickly opened on the bamboo fence built by the villagers.
There was a gap more than ten meters wide. The village warriors behind the bamboo fence gathered together and fired bows and arrows like raindrops at the gap, trying to prevent the soldiers from breaking through. During this period, several earthen cannons fired one after another, but because they were still far away, they failed to hit.
Anyone, the soldiers used mini rifles and 12 pounds of mountain melons to bombard the breach from a distance, and soon defeated the village warriors who had gathered behind the bamboo fence to fight, leaving corpses on the ground.
The soldiers quickly built a channel over the ditch and entered the village using a light bridge carried by the ship for engineers.
Sanfan Village was already in chaos. Women, old and young were scrambling to escape. The floor was littered with discarded shoes, baggage and various objects. However, the trenches and bamboo fences that originally protected the village blocked their escape. The D detachment was in several places.
A security cordon was set up at the entrance and exit, blocking all men, women, old and children in the village.
Subsequently, a village meeting was held at the threshing floor of the village. The villagers were driven to the threshing floor to wait for their fate. The crowds were crowded. The navy soldiers and sailors around were carrying rifles with bayonets or holding machetes.
, the sword flashed.
In the middle of the threshing floor, a new thing that the villagers had never seen was erected, a wide wooden frame with rope loops hanging on it.
The captured prisoners knelt down and down one by one. Many of them were prominent figures in the village. Those who were able to organize group training were all people with some wealth. Most of them had a reputation, and at least they were wealthy and wealthy.
According to Wen Desi's consistent thinking, resistance must be dealt with severely. However, entering the Pearl River this time is not to establish a long-term base. If the treatment is too strict, it will easily arouse the will of the local people to resist. The resistance to local forces is to adopt "
It is implemented in three aspects: "appropriate punishment, dividing the masses, and cracking down on powerful people."
In retaliation for resisting the Australians, all the captured regiment leaders, Liantou and teachers of the township braves, except those who had been killed and whose whereabouts were unknown, were hanged in front of the whole village and confiscated at the same time.
All their property. As for ordinary people: ordinary people and brave men - civil propagandists announced that everyone was used and forced by the rich and powerful, so after the weapons were confiscated this time, no questions were asked. If there are any attacks on Australian and Song personnel in the future, they will refuse.
Those who accept reasonable burdens will be subject to "more severe retaliation."
Even now, the retaliation is severe. Death penalty can be avoided, but living penalty must still be suffered. After some bargaining, all the villagers of Sanshan Village finally paid the equivalent of one thousand taels of gold, silver, cloth, rice and other property.
Of course, the reasonable burden assessed on them is also calculated as three times.
After staying in Sanfan for one night, Detachment D continued to advance along the river. They successively occupied Mazhou, Sanshan and Pingzhou. The villagers in these places knew the fate of Sanfan, and no one dared to resist Detachment D. The reasonable burden system was easily eliminated.
It was established. The ship was quickly filled with harvested tributes. Then, the D detachment arrived at the bay. The terrain of Sand Bay was favorable to the defenders. It was surrounded by water and densely trees. The local villagers also built embankments along the coast and buried many bamboos.
sign.
Detachment D anchored for the night in front of Sand Bay. Early the next morning, Wen Desi discovered that a large number of rural warriors had gathered densely along the coast of Sand Bay. They were like a forest of swords and guns, and various strange flags were flying on the river bank.
As soon as the detachment's boat moved, the village warriors of Shawan fired a volley of cannons. More than a dozen native cannons fired together with an astonishing sound. Smoke enveloped the entire river bank, but most of the cannons fired were iron nails, iron pieces, and porcelain fragments.
and pebbles. They could not fly more than ten meters before falling into the river one after another, with no killing effect at all.
The artillery and Mini rifles on the long dragon fired at the same time, instantly clearing the defensive positions on the river bank. Then, with the support of artillery fire, the sampans carried the marines and rowed towards the river bank. The country warriors on the bank shouted loudly and fired randomly.
They fired guns and cannons, but they were quickly dispersed by the accurate shooting of Minnie rifles. When the village warriors discovered that the thieves could shoot them from a long distance, and they could not hit the enemy even with cannons, this
The terrible reality immediately shook morale. Then a cannon suddenly exploded, killing more than a dozen people. The accidental explosion of the artillery caused the total collapse of the Shawan Xiangyong. Although Liang Kefa, the local regiment commander who led the Xiangyong, brought his own
The servants tried to resist, but he and his servants were quickly stabbed by the sailors' bayonets. Later, more than a dozen regiment commanders, deputy regiment commanders, Lian Tou, and township brave teachers from various villages and towns were killed and captured.
People. These key personnel stood at the front to boost morale, and most of them did not run away during the defeat.
Detachment D spent an hour and a half in the morning to defeat more than a thousand rural warriors jointly sent by six nearby villages and towns. After killing and capturing one-third of them, Shawan and nearby villages and towns subsequently sent people to express their feelings.
They surrendered and not only ransomed the captives at the price of one tael of silver per prisoner, but also paid thousands of taels of "compensation". Wen Desi ordered the execution of a group of captured regiment commanders in accordance with the old practice of Sanfan.
, the wealthy local gentry in Liantou confiscated their frivolous wealth. They did not blame ordinary people, and the troops strictly observed discipline during the battle. They did not loot, set fire, or commit suicide. The discipline was strict. This combination of leniency and severity, and differentiated treatment made the common people
The interest in resisting Fubo's army was greatly reduced. The wealthy gentry were frightened to death and did not dare to entertain 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 ran rampant on the main channel of the Pearl River, as if in an uninhabited land. He successively burned many river moorings along the coast, and the Inspection Department
After successively capturing the two islands of Dajiao and Dafen, which were trying to resist Fubo's army, Shi Zhiqi led his troops to capture a fort under construction in a county south of Xiangshan, and dispersed hundreds of village warriors guarding the fort.
Then the fort was demolished, and then troops came to Xiangshan City. Although Shi Zhiqi only had less than 200 men and more than a dozen boats, the Xiangshan County magistrate who was shocked by his invincibility had no choice but to scare the county away.
Despite the strenuous opposition of the gentry, they finally gave up the plan of armed resistance. They sent several gentry to his camp to discuss terms, and finally Xiangshan County paid a city redemption fee of 5,000 taels in exchange for Shi Zhiqi's withdrawal from the city. This time
Experience has given the senators a new understanding - local officials are often willing to find ways to compromise.
The operations of each detachment along the Pearl River went smoothly, and even a small number of battle casualties were very minor. The detachment leaders adhered to the instructions: never fight far away from the river - as long as they are close to the river, they can get effective support from the artillery mounted on the dragon.
; Instead of spending the night in a local village, they would rather camp or stay directly on the boat - the latter is based on the lessons learned by the work team in Danzhou.
Shi Zhiqi returned to Humen once - unloading the trophies, prisoners and very few wounded he had obtained during this cruise. After reloading supplies and replacing some personnel, he led the detachment to Dongguan County.