Chapter 331 Lijiazhuang’s Preparations for War
Before it got dark, Li Po organized people to deliver hot meals to the "Exploration" parked in the Shawan Waterway, and even killed a pig to reward the Haihan militiamen who came from afar. After dark, and after confirming that all the onlookers had dispersed, the militiamen of the Fourth Company disembarked as a team and drove into Lijiazhuang with some combat supplies. The sailors camped on the shore so that they could board the ship immediately if needed.
Lijiazhuang is considered to be the largest village within a radius of dozens of miles. There are more than 400 households in the village, with a total of more than 1,400 people. Seventy percent of the residents are descendants of the Li family. Their ancestors have lived here for generations, and most of them make a living by farming. More than two hundred years ago, Li Jifeng's ancestors chose to find a new way to engage in business, and then gradually developed the "Fu Ruifeng" chain of large trading houses. Since the rise of "Fu Ruifeng", Li Jifeng's family has become the principal of Lijiazhuang. Whether it is local affairs in Lijiazhuang or various clan affairs within the Li clan, the head of Li Jifeng's family basically has the say. Have the final say.
The recent rumors that rogue bandits will attack in the near future are no longer a secret, and Lijiazhuang is also a bit panicked. Although Li Jifeng was in Guangzhou, he wisely transferred all the Li family's militia back to the village and sent his second son back to take charge of affairs. This reduced the doubts and worries among the people.
Under the leadership of the Fourth Company, the team entered Zhuangzi quietly. Perhaps the order given by Xiao Liang earlier had an effect. All the residences in the village were closed, and there were people from the Li family militia every few meters on the street. Standing guard, it looks like a curfew has been imposed. In order to welcome the arrival of Haihan reinforcements, Li Po hurriedly cleared the largest courtyard in the village for them to stay. When the Fourth Company arrived, the servants of the Li family were still going in and out to clean up the place. After all, once To accommodate so many people, there are indeed a lot of things that need to be prepared.
Xiao Liang and Chen Yixin walked around the courtyard, and Li Po followed closely, waiting for the other party to put forward suggestions for correction - as long as these Haihan people looked at the place, they would definitely find faults. It seemed that It has become a stereotype.
"The toilets need to be expanded. There are over a hundred people living here, so just two latrines are not enough... Also, people must be arranged to clean them every day to avoid an epidemic."
Li Po responded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, I will arrange it."
"You can't sleep on the floor. Even if you can't find so many beds, you have to use bricks and stones to pad the bed boards. You can't sleep directly on the ground! As for the bedding, we have brought our own bedding, so you don't need to prepare any extra."
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"Okay, okay, I'll ask someone to prepare more bed boards."
"The kitchen is so dirty...forget it, starting from tomorrow, our food cannot be provided by the same kitchen. In addition, the cook must be healthy and free from illness, do you understand?"
"I understand, I've specially invited a few restaurant chefs from Guangzhou this time. Don't worry, Lieutenant Xiao." Li Po had been scolded by Xiao Liang when he called him "Master Jun" earlier, but now he has changed his name to military rank.
After the two inspected the courtyard, they selected seven or eight areas that needed improvement, and Li Po agreed to them one by one. Fortunately, they are all small changes, and there is no need for big actions such as pushing down walls and drilling holes, and it is not too troublesome to implement.
"Can we meet the person who provided you with the information?" Returning to the command center that had been converted from the main room, Xiao Liang immediately made a new request.
"Then please wait a moment, I'll call someone to summon you." Li Po did not refuse Xiao Liang's request and agreed immediately.
After a while, Li Po brought over an ordinary-looking young man. This man came to Lijiazhuang on his own a few days ago and found the person in charge of the village, claiming that he had information about the rogue attack and selling it to Lijiazhuang. After this man got two hundred taels of silver, he told some information he had. However, in order to confirm that the news was true, this person was temporarily placed under house arrest in the village.
Of course, this was not the only channel for the Li family to obtain information. It was precisely because the information obtained from other secret channels was consistent with what this person said. The Li family believed that the credibility was extremely high, so they asked Haihan for help.
As a military personnel directly involved in the operation, Xiao Liang did not fully trust the Li family's interrogation skills, so he insisted on interrogating the information provider himself. Of course, given that the other party actively seeks cooperation for money, there is no need for methods such as execution. Xiao Liang's main purpose is to try to master as many details as possible that the Li family may have overlooked, and to verify whether the credibility of this information is worthy of targeted deployment by the defense forces in advance.
This time the news lasted until midnight. According to Xiao Liang's judgment, it was basically certain that the news was true. However, as to how the rogue bandits would attack Lijiazhuang, since the person involved had already left the bandit team, it was impossible to predict and it was difficult to make an advance decision. Targeted arrangements can only be made by the defense forces themselves.
After letting Li Po take the people away, Xiao Liang and Chen Yixin began to discuss strategic arrangements: "To summarize what we can confirm now, first, the bandits will launch before the 24th of the fourth lunar month, which is the 27th of this month. Today is the 22nd for the offensive against Lijiazhuang. We still have at most five days to prepare. Second, the number of rogue soldiers participating in this attack will probably not be less than 2,000. As for the upper limit, it is difficult to judge. Because the various tributary bandit forces are still connecting together, it is hard to say whether there will be four or five thousand in the end. We must be prepared for a hard fight. Third, the main forces we can use are the Fourth Company plus the Li's Militia Group, as well as those by the river. There are about 400 people in total on the Discovery, and our reinforcements will not arrive in Panyu until the 289th at the earliest. Until then, we can only rely on ourselves."
"If it's a head-on fight, it shouldn't be a big problem for our existing troops to defeat thousands of bandits. The only thing I'm worried about is that the opponent will divide his troops to launch a siege from all sides, and our troops are too small, so we are obviously not suitable for splitting our troops." Chen Yixin said with some worry.
"No, no, no, you only saw the disadvantage in terms of military strength, but you did not consider another issue. On the battlefield, the efficiency of command is closely related to the effectiveness of combat. If the opponent divides their forces to attack, how do you think they can achieve unified steps? "Xiao Liang once again took out the sketch of Lijiazhuang's plan he had drawn before: "The layout of Lijiazhuang is basically a rectangle. Let's assume that the opponent divides his troops to attack two adjacent directions at the same time. The distance between the opponent's two troops is at least Between 1,500 meters and 2,000 meters, how do you think the bandits and bandits can achieve instant information communication at this distance? The best they can do is to use gongs and drums plus flags to indicate attack or retreat. But to express more complex command information and coordinate actions, can these primitive means be achieved? ”
"I'm afraid it's difficult." Chen Yixin vaguely understood what Xiao Liang meant: "Even our troops cannot maintain the consistency of combat operations at such a distance without receiving special training. If the opponent simultaneously starts from If they launch an attack from multiple directions, poor communication on the battlefield will become a major disadvantage for them.”
"That's right. This disadvantage does not exist for us." Xiao Liang gently shook the walkie-talkie in his hand: "Our efficiency in command is enough to make up for the disadvantage in troop strength. Of course, just This alone is not enough. In addition to weapons and equipment, our military theory level is also four hundred years ahead of our opponents. We can take this opportunity to demonstrate to the Li Jia Militia what combat is!"
Most of the combat personnel on duty in the Military and Police Department directly participated in the previous Battle of Annan, but Xiao Liang and Yu Yao, who were far away in Guangzhou, missed this opportunity to make military exploits due to their duties. This time, the Li family came to ask Haihan to send troops for rescue, which was an excellent opportunity for them to perform. However, since the Guangdong Office also needed to station military personnel, one of the two had to stay to look after the family. In the end, the Executive Committee decided to solve this problem. Fortunately, Xiao Liang was able to appear in Lijiazhuang and become the combat commander. He is also determined to have a good record in this battle to prove his ability.
Early the next morning, some young men dressed as ordinary people left Lijiazhuang in batches. These people were all militiamen of the Li Family Militia. According to Xiao Liang's order, they disguised themselves and went out in groups to inquire about military information, so as to grasp the route of the rogue bandits as soon as possible. The task Xiao Liang gave them was very simple. They did not need to inquire about the details of the bandits' actions. They only needed to know where large groups of armed men had begun to gather within twenty or thirty miles nearby, and then report the news. The purpose of this reconnaissance operation is not to attack the invading bandits, but to allow Zhuangshang's defense forces to have reaction time to enter combat readiness in advance. Xiao Liang and Chen Yixin separately began to build fortifications on the main transportation routes in and out of Lijiazhuang in the southeast, northwest and northwest. To this end, Li Po launched an emergency mobilization of the people in the village, and everyone who had labor at home had to work. The old and weak women were also mobilized to participate in this defensive operation as logistics personnel.
Xiao Liang planned to build simple earthen forts near the four main passages to the outside of Lijiazhuang to deploy heavy firepower equipment. As an early Haihan weapons dealer, the Li family, with the tacit approval of the Haihan people, also left several small 6-pound cannons in Zhuangzi. This time they finally had the opportunity to put them to use. In addition, the Haihan militia did not come empty-handed. They also brought a batch of powerful weapons.
When the "Exploration" headed north this time, all the ten artillery pieces and ammunition originally distributed by the General Committee to the shore defenses of Dawanshan Island were also loaded. Because of their different uses, the barrel length of these 12-pound artillery pieces is two feet longer than the version used by the army, and their range is nearly half that of the army cannon of the same caliber, which is almost double that of the 6-pound cannons in Lijiazhuang. But the disadvantage is that these coastal defense guns were originally designed to be installed on permanent forts and were not equipped with corresponding movable gun mounts, so it would be more troublesome to set up and move them.
Xiao Liang planned to deploy these dozen artillery pieces in the west and north directions where the enemy was most likely to appear, so as to form a dense firepower advantage. The east side of Zhuangzi is only a few miles away from the Pearl River and has better water conservancy conditions. Almost all rice crops are grown. As far as the eye can see, there are endless mud ponds. The possibility of the enemy launching a large-scale attack from here is slim. The south of Zhuangzi is less than two miles away from the Shawan Waterway. If the enemy dares to gather a large team on the river bank, they will be waiting to eat the cannonballs fired from the "Exploration".
In addition to the forts, migrant workers will also build a slightly shorter adobe parapet outside several entrances to and from Zhuangzi. The musketeers deployed outside the adobe wall will use this parapet as a cover to use their weapons. Range advantage to shoot at invading enemies.
Just in case, the extra labor began to build various barricades on the streets inside Zhuangzi, carry various wooden frames and bricks, and blocked some small alleys, leaving only one or two that were needed to quickly mobilize troops in the village. The main channel available. If the war goes unfavorably, the musketeers can retreat to Zhuangzi and engage in street fighting, and they can still resist for a long time. The day after the reinforcements arrived at Lijiazhuang, the entire Lijiazhuang turned into a large construction site.
At noon that day, Li Jifeng, his youngest son Li Nai, and steward He Qiang escorted a batch of supplies back to Lijiazhuang. As a result, most of the important people in the Li family, except for Li Jifeng's eldest son Li Fa, who is based in Fujian, have basically returned to the Li family village, which fully demonstrated their determination to coexist with the Li family village.
"Li Jifeng still has some courage!" Xiao Liang praised Li Jifeng's performance in returning to Lijiazhuang before the war started. If you are a timid person, you will definitely hide in the safe city of Guangzhou at this juncture and wait for the incident to pass before making any plans. Even if Lijiazhuang is captured by rogue bandits, as long as the "Fu Ruifeng" Li family is still there, there will still be a chance to make a comeback. If they are taken over by someone in Lijiazhuang, there will be no room for turning things around.
"After all, he is a private entrepreneur with a big business. He can be considered a successful person in any era. Without courage, he would definitely not be able to reach the heights he is today." Chen Yixin also joked.
The first thing Li Jifeng did when he returned to the village was to publicly announce that he would give 5,000 taels of silver as a heavy reward to the soldiers of the Li Jia Militia who participated in the defensive battle. Moreover, this was only a reward to boost morale before the war. There would be another reward after the war. Reward. As soon as this huge reward came out, the people's emotions became high as expected - almost all of these militia soldiers came from Lijiazhuang, and basically every household could get some benefit from this reward.
The second thing Li Jifeng did was to pull out some unidentified outsiders who had been tracked down after the village was closed for the past two days. After the comprehensive blockade of Lijiazhuang's entrance and exit yesterday, a total of 17 outsiders were found in the village. Several of them came to Lijiazhuang to visit relatives and friends, or were traders who had been operating near Lijiazhuang for a long time. They were quickly ruled out as suspects. However, there are still seven people whose origins and intentions are very suspicious, and there is no one in the village who can testify for them, so they are arrested as spies who are rogue bandits.
No matter how amateur the bandits are, if they attack a village as big as Lijiazhuang, they will definitely send people to the village in advance to conduct reconnaissance. No one is sure whether any of these guys are unjustly arrested, but if they are all released, there will definitely be some who will slip through the net.
According to Li Jifeng's opinion, there is no need to go to trial or not. They should use lynching to beat these suspected guys to death. However, Chen Yixin dissuaded him: "Why hurt innocent people? Give me a shot." While burning incense, I picked out all the spies.”
Although Li Jifeng was still doubtful about whether this thin-skinned and tender Haihan officer had such ability, he still gave him the favor. Chen Yixin and Xiao Liang murmured a few words, then called together a few of their capable personnel to give instructions, and then took the seven suspects away respectively.
Within a moment, Chen Yixin and others returned to the scene, checked each other's information, and quickly determined that four of them were spies sent by the rogue bandits. When Li Jifeng saw this, he wondered: "How did Lieutenant Chen know that these people were spies?"
"It's very simple. My colleagues and I interrogated these people separately and told them that whoever recruits his comrades first will not have to die." Chen Yixin pointed to the few people who were recruited and said: "They are just a bunch of rabble, and the result is this None of the four people are arrogant, they are all the spies. Boss Li, you can handle it.”
Chen Yixin's move is extremely simple, but it directly points to the weakness of human nature. If these people are directly tortured, there may be situations where they will be beaten to death or they will die or die. But with such a separate trial, no one can guarantee whether the other accomplices except themselves will be greedy for life and fear death, and whether they can hold on. secret. In this situation, the surest way to save your life is not to keep silent and not to attack, but to attack faster and more thoroughly than your accomplices!
These spies were not professionals with targeted training. They were just rural farmers in the past. In terms of courage and brains, they could not stand up to Chen Yixin's interrogation method. After weighing the pros and cons, they all chose to confess immediately. And when everyone's trial results are compared with each other, it will naturally be easy to determine which people are spies.
"Then if all four spies identify the three innocent people, wouldn't they be unjustly accusing good people?" Li Nai, who was listening to Chen Yixin's explanation, couldn't help but ask.
Chen Yixin smiled and said: "The possibility you mentioned does exist, but the key is that they did not have time to slowly understand the truth. For them, there were only two choices at that time, recruit yourself and live; recruit others and die. . In a life-or-death situation, do you trust yourself or others?”
Li Nai suddenly said: "I see, I have learned from you!"
Several spies were immediately taken into custody, and what awaited them would be a long period of imprisonment. If they were lucky enough and were not tortured to death by the people in Lijiazhuang during this period, then they might have a chance to leave here alive and be transported to Hainan Island or North Vietnam to do hard labor. Other outsiders can only stay here temporarily due to confidentiality needs, and can only leave Lijiazhuang after the war is over.
(End of chapter)