Chapter 19 Failed Ambush
Luo Shengdong gasped for air, feeling as if his lungs were about to burn, but he didn't dare to stop and rest, because a group of strange pirates wearing colorful short coats were chasing after them not far behind. Like the grim reaper.
After living for thirty-three years, Luo Shengdong felt that today was probably the most unlucky day in his life, and it might very well be the last day. It was obviously a good opportunity to make meritorious deeds and receive awards, so why did things become like this? This is different from the script as promised! Luo Shengdong angrily recalled what he had experienced throughout the day, while desperately moving his heavy legs to continue running for his life.
As the only officer in Yazhou Shuizhai who was promoted from a military family background, Luo Shengdong has always been very active in pursuing military merit. Of course, he had to thank him for having a good father. If his father hadn't accumulated meritorious service in arresting pirates during the Wanli period and was promoted to a hundred generals, then he would probably still be digging dirt in the military camp for a living. You must know that this General Manager is not a Baihu officer in the guard system. Although he is only an eighth-rank officer, he is a real frontier army officer. The people under his command are also regular frontier army soldiers. Their combat effectiveness is not that of those in the military camp who face the loess all year round. The peasant soldiers with their backs turned to the sky are comparable. Now that his father is getting old, he has finally passed on the position of General Manager 100 to Luo Shengdong. He has no intention of stopping there and passing this position on to his next generation when he gets old. Luo Shengdong feels that if he works hard while he is still strong, there is still hope for him to become a general manager in the future.
This time Luo Shengdong led a team sailing along the coastline from Yacheng Water Village to Yulin. Firstly, he inspected the training situation of outposts in various coastal areas. Secondly, soldiers at some outposts had been stationed for three months and needed to be replaced. , and the third is to replenish material reserves to various garrison posts. As for the small group of pirates from the South China Sea who took advantage of the monsoon to land in the Yulin area in the past, Luo Shengdong was not worried, and even had a slight expectation of meeting pirates - what else could lead to a faster promotion than killing the enemy and making meritorious deeds? way?
Most of the South China Sea pirates who appeared in Yazhou waters in the past were natives from Luzon, Java, Johor, and Temasek. These pirate ships had few people and poor equipment. In addition, those silly native pirates had no tactics at all. , they may not be able to defeat hordes of armed merchant ships at sea. They can usually only attack some coastal fishing villages with the monsoon. If they are lucky, they can grab some food and snatch a few women. In Luo Shengdong's view, the combat effectiveness of these South China Sea pirates is even much worse than that of the guardsmen. At least the guardsmen are equipped with standard weapons for each head, but these pirates cannot even carry a sword or gun, and even Some people come out to rob with wooden spears, and their strength is simply incomparable with the pirate forces along the coasts of Guangdong and Fujian. Although Luo Shengdong's team only had one Haicang ship and only had more than fifty people on the patrol, he was full of confidence in the possible battle.
When the ship arrived at Fenghuang Town, which was still twenty or thirty miles away from Yulin, it happened to meet a small flag that had withdrawn from the Yulin post. Different from Luo Shengdong's single-minded pursuit of war, the ten people in this small flag actually had no intention of returning to Yacheng to report the news. They just wanted to stay in Fenghuang Town for a few days and wait for the large group of pirates in the harbor to evacuate. After leaving, he went back to the outpost. Unexpectedly, he was caught by Luo Shengdong who was patrolling here.
The idea of a few soldiers is very simple. If they are outnumbered, they must run away. Is it possible to fight against hundreds of pirates for the sake of those fishermen? Abandoning the position and escaping would have been a serious loss, but after hearing their reports, Luo Shengdong decided to give these deserters a chance to atone for their crimes.
There was nothing they could do about it. According to what they said, the number of pirates who attacked this time was hundreds of people, and they had "a huge ship with a side several feet high and more than ten ships of various strange shapes." In Luo Shengdong's opinion, this statement is simply extremely flawed. Where did those native pirates in the South China Sea get their ships several feet high? There is no large ship of this size in the two water villages in the south and north of Hainan. If pirates really have such a ship, why would they come to rob this shabby fishing village in Yulin? Not long ago, we gathered a team to attack Yazhou City. Without thinking carefully about these remarks, Luo Shengdong knew that they must be just excuses made up by these soldiers to survive.
But one thing Luo Shengdong was certain about was that the opponent at least had a clear advantage in terms of numbers, otherwise these soldiers wouldn't have been so frightened that they ran away before the battle. Although Luo Shengdong firmly believes that his side has stronger combat effectiveness, there is always a certain degree of risk in attacking more with less. It would be a waste of time to go back to Yacheng to call for reinforcements now, and it might even delay the opportunity for fighting. Luo Shengdong weighed the importance. In the end, it was decided that it would be more appropriate to bring all the living forces. Even if these men and horses cannot defeat the large pirate army, they will definitely be able to ambush some pirate teams who go out to plunder supplies. If they go back and chop off ten or eight heads, they will be the number one in Yazhou Water Village in the Seventh Year of the Apocalypse. Great job.
Although Luo Shengdong is eager to make contributions, he still acts cautiously. Considering that the pirates may have a large number of small boats and are alone, and there is a risk of being besieged if they go directly from the sea, Luo Shengdong did not take the risk to let the ship bypass the Luhuitou Peninsula and sail directly into the bay. Instead, he docked at They arrived at the east bank of the Linchun River in Sanya City, where they landed, marched through the jungle to the Yazhou post, which was only five or six miles away. There is a fishing village near the outpost. Pirates who want to go ashore to plunder supplies will definitely go to this village, and then they can wait for an opportunity to set up an ambush.
Considering that the group of people who fled back to Phoenix Town had no idea about the current situation in the harbor, Luo Shengdong had to send a few people to search for the fleeing fishermen in the nearby mountains. This was not the first time that pirates had landed on land and robbed. Once it happened, the fishermen would have to hide in the mountains for ten days and a half before they dared to go back. In addition, if we can find fishermen who have taken refuge from the disaster, we can also verify from the side whether the situation mentioned by the deserters is somewhat true.
What makes Luo Shengdong a little uneasy is that the fishermen found in the mountains not only agreed with what the deserters said, but also reported that the ship the pirates were traveling on was extremely huge, with a side several feet high. What was even more exaggerated was that there were no boats on this huge ship. The sails are equipped with masts and can actually break through the waves from the sea. In addition, this group of pirates did not kill or imprison the fishermen they captured. Instead, they released the captives in a friendly manner and gave them some grain and refined salt. So early this morning, several young men also came to the rescue. He boldly ran to the bay to make a deal with the pirates. There are various signs that this group of people is different from the South China Sea pirates who came here before, and their behavior is obviously beyond the scope of Luo Shengdong's understanding.
"To lure good people into the sea and become pirates with profit!" Luo Shengdong, who could not explain these doubts and could only choose a sense of justice as a cover, finally came to a conclusion and concluded that these new pirates "must be ruthless" "Cunning people", if you can't cut off a few heads during this trip, it will be a shame for the emperor, for the Ministry of War, and for the position of Chief Hundred handed down from your father. Of course, the Yu family, father and son, and others have been ruthlessly classified as "colluding with pirates" by Luo Shengdong, and these people must be beheaded afterwards to serve as a warning to others.
Luo Shengdong asked the boat and a few sailors to stay on the east bank of the Linchun River. The others all took their guys and set off, first lurking near the fishing village. The only thing that Luo Shengdong regretted a little was that he didn't bring more bows and archers with him when he set off, and only had two full-time archers. There are quite a few firearms, including 4 Folan guns, 3 bowl-mouthed blunderbuss, and 6 Lumi blunderbuss. There are also spray cans, fire bricks, smoke cans, rockets, etc. However, most of these equipment are limited due to their size and weight. It is inconvenient to carry, and the only ones that can really be brought ashore for use are six Lumi guns.
Although the Lumi gun is a good thing, the several Lumi guns equipped on the ship are old things from the Wanli period. It has been almost thirty years since the Ministry of War issued the equipment to the frontier army, and several gun tubes have been used. It was already extremely rusty, and even if it could still fire, maybe a few extra bucks of gunpowder would explode the chamber. Rather than being used to kill enemies, such weapons are more suitable to be used to decorate the appearance and add courage. In fact, there was nothing that could be done about it. The Yacheng defenders and the more than a thousand border troops in Shuizhai basically relied on the military households who settled near Yacheng, and their lives were extremely difficult. As for the salary and silver issued by the imperial court, it is not even enough to maintain daily training and patrols, let alone updating ordnance.
Of course, as a grassroots officer, Luo Shengdong actually knows why military spending is seriously insufficient. It is common in the army to eat empty pay and drink soldiers' blood. When the officers divided the money, Luo Shengdong also took his share. Luo Shengdong hesitated for a long time, but still asked people to bring all the Rumi guns - even if they couldn't be used in actual combat, they could still be used to scare people when escorting prisoners. After hiding in the woods and feeding mosquitoes for several hours, everyone including Luo Shengdong gradually lost their patience. Just when Luo Shengdong was considering whether to return home or go directly to the harbor, Zhang Scarzi, the subordinate who was sent to the beach to investigate the situation, brought back good news that a pirate sailboat was heading towards the fishing village.
"Well done!" Luo Shengdong shouted loudly: "Brothers will listen to my orders later and rush out together to chop off the heads of these thieves. After returning to the city, I will ask the general to take credit for my brothers!" Everyone They all responded with a bang, and their morale was high for a while. It seemed that they had already defeated the pirates who were about to appear.
But after a stick of incense, the situation changed unexpectedly. First, the two archers followed Luo Shengdong's order and launched an attack on the pirate who climbed up the tree. Seeing one arrow miss the mark and the other hitting the target, Luo Shengdong became more confident. He pulled out his sword and shouted loudly: " Brothers, rush out! This is the time to kill the enemy!”
The soldiers under his command obediently rushed out of the ambush woods and rushed towards the enemy with shouts. However, they soon heard a sharp whistle from the opposite side, and then there seemed to be a crackling explosion when some kind of firecracker was fired. There was a sound, and then I saw the few people on my front who were knocked to the ground in an instant. Luo Shengdong even saw with his own eyes that Zhang Scarzi, who had always been the fastest runner, was hit on the head while running. Before he could even scream, a big hole was blown out of the back of his head, and blood mixed with brain matter flew out. And his body fell straight into the mud of the rice field, and he saw that he was dying. The most terrible thing is that the firecrackers used by these pirates don't seem to need to be reloaded at all, and they can fire one round after another. How can this be done?
"These pirates have such sharp guns!" Before Luo Shengdong could regret it, the offensive he launched was repelled by the opponent's powerful firepower in an instant, and the fleeing soldiers were blown away like a whirlwind. Passing by Luo Shengdong, when he came to his senses, there was no other option but to follow the defeated troops and flee for their lives.
This group of people managed to escape from Li Xu before slowly stopping due to lack of physical strength. Only then did Luo Shengdong have the opportunity to gather the team. He counted the number of people and found that eleven people were missing. It was unknown whether they were all dead. In the wave of offensive just now, there were still people who lost their way while escaping. Moreover, the deserters lost most of their ordnance along the way, including the only two bows and six Lumi guns used to decorate the facade.
Before the furious Luo Shengdong could make a summary of the battle, the short-haired pirates had already chased him into the woods. They chased their butts with strange firecrackers and fired at them again. The frightened frontier soldiers hurriedly pulled away. Keep running away.
After repeating this two or three times, in addition to a few unlucky ones who were knocked down by life-seeking fire bullets, other soldiers were also on the verge of physical collapse. Only then did Luo Shengdong begin to truly resent the impact of the corrupt military pay on the soldiers' training - if they could do drills every five days... No, even if they could drill once every ten days, they wouldn't be running away like they are now. After only two or three miles, he almost lost the energy to escape!
The pursuing pirates were shouting in a strange northern accent, occasionally mixed with a few Hainanese dialects. Luo Shengdong's ancestors were from Zhili Prefecture, and it was only in his grandfather's generation that he was driven to this remote place to serve as a leading soldier, so he could roughly understand what the pirates were saying, "Abandon your weapons and kneel down without killing." As for the dialect, The content is also very similar. Now that they had a chance to survive, some of the exhausted soldiers seriously stopped running and knelt down to surrender as the pirates said.
As a result, the number of people escaping became smaller and smaller, but Luo Shengdong did not dare to stop. He was an officer, not a soldier. If he was captured, even if he managed to survive, his career in this life would definitely be over.
"As long as I can escape on the ship!" Luo Shengdong no longer dares to think about meritorious service. Being able to escape unscathed is his biggest wish at the moment. As long as he can escape back to Yazhou, he will naturally have a chance to make a comeback. There should be less than two miles away from the place where the ship dropped anchor. If you just hold on a little longer, you can escape!
At this moment, Luo Shengdong's foot didn't know if he kicked a tree root or something else. He lost his balance and flew into the air, then fell heavily to the ground. This fall was really hard, and Luo Shengdong almost lost his breath, but at this time everyone was busy running for their lives, and no one stopped to help him.
Before Luo Shengdong could prop up his body with his hands, he felt a heavy foot on his back, firmly pressing his body to the ground and unable to move. Then someone twisted his arms behind his back and used a thin And some kind of tough branches quickly tied the two wrists together. Luo Shengdong was so angry and anxious that his vision went dark and he fainted under the rage.
(End of chapter)