Chapter 333 Advance by land and water
The coastal area from the south of Guangzhou City to the Pearl River Estuary is densely covered with water systems, and water transportation is far more convenient than land transportation. Starting from Xinhui, this group of water bandits sailed upstream from the Xijiang River to the north, passing through the Donghai Channel, Ronggui Waterway, and Tanzhou Waterway. It took several days and nights to sail more than a hundred miles before entering the Shawan Waterway in Panyu County. Two days ago in Beiyao Town, Zeng Aniu, the leader of the Xinhui water bandits, had met with Liao Dabi and agreed on an attack plan. Last night, this team of more than 20 large and small ships arrived less than ten miles away from Lijiazhuang Pier and stationed themselves in a fork of the Shawan Waterway that night.
The bandit leader Zeng Aniu also knew a little bit about Lijiazhuang in Panyu, and he probably knew a little more than Liao Dabi. In the past six months, a refined private salt has appeared on the market that is only two-thirds of the official salt. It is said that this very popular private salt is sold from Lijiazhuang. There was no salt farm in Lijiazhuang, so Zeng Aniu didn't know the secret of how the illegal salt came out, but he knew one thing very well - the two words "salt merchant" can basically be equated with silver. Since Lijiazhuang is doing private salt business, the wealth in this village will naturally be very considerable.
Compared with Liao Dabi's strength, Zeng Aniu's team of three hundred people was far from enough. Therefore, the main force of the attack was still several groups of bandits headed by Liao Dabi, and Zeng Aniu's mission was Approach Lijiazhuang from one side of Shawan Waterway and wait for the opportunity, and coordinate the main forces attacking Lijiazhuang from the other two directions. In addition, after the village was destroyed, Zeng Aniu's fleet also had to take on part of the transportation tasks in order to transport various seized materials away from the incident site as soon as possible.
Zeng Aniu thought more. Maybe he would be lucky enough to intercept Lijiazhuang's salt ship on the Shawan Waterway. After figuring out the source of Lijiazhuang's private salt, he would directly take people to rob the salt farm next time. Compared with attacking a stronghold like Lijiazhuang, it is much easier to rob the salt field. Moreover, the private salt in Lijiazhuang has a shady origin, and most of them will not dare to report it to the official after they have robbed it.
Perhaps God heard Zeng Aniu's wish. When approaching Lijiazhuang Pier, the group saw a strange-looking large ship moving slowly on the river from a distance.
"God help me! Show the flag! Come over, come over quickly!" Zeng Aniu was so surprised that he did not think about whether this ship was a salt transport ship from Lijiazhuang. Such a large ship would not appear for no reason. In the Shawan River, they must be pulling goods for Lijiazhuang. In this case, let’s grab it first!
Five or six miles away, Liao Dabi didn't know that his allies had already started taking action on the water. He was hesitating whether to give the order to launch an attack.
The "heroes" who were preparing to attack Lijiazhuang stopped two miles away from Zhuangzi, but Lijiazhuang was completely silent, not even a single person could be seen. From the time we set out this morning to now, we haven't seen a living person along the way. This strange situation has not been noticed by a few smart people. Basically, everyone has discovered that something is wrong. But if they were asked to turn back and give up this operation, no one would be willing to do so.
There is a circle of earthen walls outside Lijiazhuang ranging from seven feet to ten feet high, so the situation in the village is basically invisible from the outside. At several road intersections entering and exiting Zhuangzi, a chest-high earthen wall was built to block most of the view. Judging from the color of the earth, this breastwork was obviously built not long ago. About twenty steps in front of the parapet, there is a circle of arc-shaped wooden stakes nailed to the ground. There seems to be something like wire and hemp rope connected between the wooden stakes. It seems to be some kind of defensive method to slow down the attack speed. Obviously, Lijiazhuang had received the news at least a few days in advance, and rushed to build some defenses ahead. As for whether the village had deployed defensive forces, Liao Dabi did not intend to speculate on this meaningless question.
The people in Lijiazhuang did not intend to surrender, which made Liao Dabi feel a little bit more angry in addition to disappointment - you stupid villagers, think that building an extra earth wall can stop this attack? The only function of these defensive methods is to make the people in this Zhuangzi suffer even more brutal revenge after being breached!
Liao Dabi looked to the northeast and saw that the allies had already raised a yellow flag. This was the communication method they had discussed in advance. Yellow meant readiness, while red meant launching an attack. The arrow is on the string and it has to be fired.
"Hand the flag, attack!" Liao Dabi pointed his riding whip at Lijiazhuang: "If you conquer this village, each person will be rewarded with five taels of silver! Whoever captures the old thief Li Jifeng will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver!"
The drummer next to him immediately waved his mallet and beat the war drum, and the flag bearer also put down the yellow flag and replaced it with a conspicuous red flag. The three hundred bandits who were the vanguard began to march slowly towards Lijiazhuang, clutching various weapons.
As the leader of this attack on Lijiazhuang, Liao Dabi sent out the largest number of troops and the most "powerful" equipment. In addition to the cold weapons such as swords and guns that were distributed to each of his subordinates, there were also various types of weapons in the team. They cultivated earthen fire blunderbuss, and even a small amount of bird blunderbuss and three-eyed blunderbuss flowed out from the army. It can be said that for this operation, Liao Dabi basically moved out all his belongings.
The purpose of doing this is not only to successfully capture Lijiazhuang, but more importantly, to show his strength to his peers so that he can suppress some unconvinced people during the post-war spoils division. Although it was agreed that Liao Dabi would monopolize half of the profits before taking action, it was hard to say how much restraint this verbal agreement would have. Liao Dabi would never place his hopes on this group of people who have the same money-mindedness as him. For Kai's allies, it is better to show their strength to better ensure their own interests.
When the rogue bandits in the northeast saw that Liao Dabi had begun to launch an offensive, they also beat drums and launched their troops, launching the first wave of attacks on Lijiazhuang from north to south. At this time, Xiao Liang was sticking half of his head out from behind the parapet, observing the enemy's movements with a telescope, and at the same time measuring the enemy's marching speed.
"We will enter our rifle range in about ten minutes. Over." Xiao Liang communicated with Chen Yixin, who was commanding the battle on the other side, about the battlefield situation through a walkie-talkie.
"Understood. The enemy on my side is traveling at basically the same speed as your side. Over."
"Don't be in a hurry to fire. Move closer before firing. Be careful to hide your strength properly and don't scare people away directly. Over."
"Understood. Over."
Xiao Liang put down the walkie-talkie, then called several platoon leaders of the Li Jia Militia to him and warned: "Don't fire a single shot until you get the order. Our combat goal is not to repel them, but to defeat them." They beat them hard, beat them fearfully, and eliminate these bandits as much as possible. Do you understand?”
"Yes, sir!" Several platoon leaders responded, standing at attention and raising their chests. Although they have not received Haihan-style military training for too long, these militia officers have begun to imitate the style of the Haihan militia. The majestic temperament of Haihan soldiers is one of the most enviable characteristics of these peasants who have just put down their hoes and picked up guns. Although they cannot reach the same level as Haihan soldiers in terms of clothing, armaments, and treatment, at least the superiors and subordinates in the army Etiquette can still be imitated.
For these militiamen of the Lijia Militia Group, they have not really experienced fighting on a frontal battlefield. Even with the arrival of reinforcements from Haihan, they are still somewhat nervous. Xiao Liang's calmness gave them more confidence. The enemy heading towards Lijiazhuang seemed to have become a target and no longer looked so scary.
"Lieutenant Chen, you should be able to handle this, right?" After sticking his head out to see the situation on the other side, Li Jifeng, who had just arrived on the front line to supervise the battle, asked Chen Yixin with some anxiety.
Chen Yixin smiled and said: "Boss Li, you don't have to worry at all. These bandits are not as effective as the monkey soldiers we fought in Annan. Just wait and see the show! By the way, you guys go to the back to watch the battle. Don't block it." location.”
"In this case, I will retire first! I hope Lieutenant Chen can kill more enemies. I will thank you deeply after the war!" Li Jifeng bowed to Chen Yixin before retreating.
"First and second platoons of the fourth company, enter the combat position. Third and fourth platoons, get ready for battle!" Chen Yixin issued the combat order after seeing off Li Jifeng. The vanguard of the bandits could already see figures moving behind the adobe parapet at the intersection of Lijiazhuang. However, due to the angle of sight, they were unable to observe more detailed conditions and could only continue to move forward in silence.
However, the first battle did not take place on Lijiazhuang's defense line, but on the river of Shawan Waterway. After Zeng A Niu's fleet discovered the large ship three miles away, they began to speed up the ship, trying to capture the ship of unknown origin after approaching it - this ship would not be included in the capture of Lijiazhuang, Zeng A Niu There is no need to share the proceeds from this ship with other forces.
"This big ship alone must be worth at least a thousand taels of silver... Well, the sail is a bit strange..." Zeng Aniu looked at the target in the distance excitedly, already thinking about it in advance. Made his own spoils of war.
The crew of this strange ship had obviously discovered Zeng Aniu's fleet. A sharp copper whistle sounded on the ship, and then they saw that the ship quickly adjusted the direction of its sails, and something could be seen on the deck. The crew was running back and forth.
"Want to run? Let's see if you can run!" Zeng Aniu despised the other party's slowness. If a big ship wants to turn around on this river that is less than a mile wide, it cannot be done in a few seconds. Wait. When the ship turned around, his own fleet had already surrounded it. Although the sea-going ship is much larger than the small boats under his control, as long as it is surrounded by small boats and has all kinds of hooks and nails attached, it is impossible to escape easily.
"Boss, something doesn't seem right!" The deputy standing behind Zeng Aniu suddenly said: "This ship doesn't seem to be planning to turn around..."
Zeng Aniu looked again attentively, and sure enough, the ship speeded up after adjusting its sails, but made no intention of changing direction, and rushed towards his fleet in a daze. The largest of the boats owned by Zeng Aniu was less than 100 tons, and most of them were small civilian ships or even fishing boats. How could these small boats, which were usually used in inland water systems, compete with the large marine vessels of more than 400 tons? The front of the ship?
The first pirate boat that couldn't dodge and was hit by the "Discovery" was directly cut in half by the blade-like steel ram on the bow, and then quickly sank into the river. Due to the huge difference in size between the two sides, the "Discovery" didn't even shake its hull. It rushed over like a sharp knife cutting through butter, and then cut off half of the other ship's stern.
"Stop it! Stop it quickly!" Zeng Aniu was so anxious that he jumped to his feet. Before he could do anything, two of his own ships were destroyed. What a bully!
When the "Discovery" rushed past, a thief threw a hook with a rope and tried to hang on the side of the big ship. However, after seeing three or four ropes hung up, he didn't have time to cheer. A crew member leaned out half his body from the side of the big ship, wielding a sword more than two feet long and cutting off the rope attached to the hook.
As for those guys who tried to slow down the big ship with bamboo pole hooks and nail poles, they simply couldn't hold back the momentum of the big ship. Either a group of people were dragged into the water, or they had to let go and watch the big ship. Take your own guy with you and leave. Seeing that the situation was not good, the boats behind them could only quickly turn away and avoid the collision of this big evil star as much as possible.
So Zeng Aniu and his party of more than 300 people and more than 20 boats could only watch helplessly as this strange-looking ship killed everyone. After sinking and damaging five boats, it headed westward without looking back. Rushed over. In just one round, Zeng Aniu's fleet lost nearly a quarter of its combat effectiveness. How could this prevent him from becoming furious.
"What the hell is this ship!" Zeng Aniu looked at the back of the "Exploration" and gritted his teeth: "Turn around, don't go to Lijiazhuang, grab this ship first!"
< br>
However, in the chaos just now, a large number of people fell into the water, and there were also damaged and capsized boats lying on the river. Some people were hurriedly fishing people out of the water onto the boats, and some were using poles to prop up the boats that had lost their ability to sail. , the situation on the river was extremely chaotic for a while, and no one listened to Zeng Aniu's orders.
After a long time of burning incense, the battlefield was finally cleared. The surviving ships received Zeng Aniu's steering orders one after another, so the crew adjusted the sails and began to move the rudders. But at this moment, the nightmare once again befell the water bandits.
"It's coming, it's coming! Look, boss, that strange ship is coming again!"
Zeng Aniu turned his head when he heard the call and saw that the Discovery, which had already sailed out of sight, changed direction and came back from the west.
"What's the origin of this ship! What grudge do I have against you?" Zeng Aniu was going crazy. At this moment, he could basically conclude that this ship was no ordinary cargo ship.
Not to mention the strange appearance of this ship, and why it is equipped with a strong ramming facility on the bow part. If this ship is not looking for trouble, then it should not turn around after being rammed all the way. return. The water system nearby is very developed. If you take the Jiaomen Waterway or Tanzhou Waterway to the west, you can go back to the Pearl River Estuary. Even if there are a hundred small boats, it will be difficult to catch up with it in the wide water. Then such a big ship did not choose to return to the familiar waters, but wanted to rush back and forth in this narrow waterway. Wasn't this a peace of mind that was going against itself?
Seeing that his fleet was still adjusting its direction inconsistently, Zeng Aniu suddenly felt a little desperate. How many times can these dozens of small boats under his command withstand this monster plowing back and forth like a field?
But at this time, before Zeng Aniu could continue to issue combat orders, the fleet had already begun to fall into chaos. Some boats tried to speed up and turn around to meet the big ship. Seeing that it was already too late, some boats prepared to continue heading east, trying to find a fork in the river in front to avoid the big evil star rushing behind them. So on the river Once again, he fell into chaos.
At this time, there were faint shouts of killing coming from the battlefield in the north. Zeng Aniu could only pray that Liao Dabi could successfully capture Lijiazhuang, so that after the war, he could get some spoils to make up for the losses. Otherwise, this business trip He really lost everything.
However, Liao Dabi's expression at this time was not much better than Zeng Aniu's. Just after the leading troops rushed a hundred steps away, people finally appeared from behind the parapet, as well as a dozen muskets sticking out of the wall. At first, Liao Dabi didn't pay much attention to such a little defensive power. It's not like he had never played with muskets. They were powerful. Ordinary people would lose the ability to move after being hit by one shot. But after one shot, it was very troublesome to reload. , at most two shots can be fired at this distance, and your vanguard can rush over and engage in close combat. At that time, the muskets will be like fire sticks, and may not be as useful as kitchen knives. Even if he could defeat ten or eight people at this point, he would never be able to stop the attack of hundreds of people.
However, the opponent's behavior after firing quickly gave Liao Dabi a heavy mouth. The frequency of gunshots was obviously several times faster than he expected. The vanguard of the troops rushing towards the parapet was rapidly decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Every few breaths, gunshots could be heard from behind the parapet, and then the people at the front were seen falling. In just over a hundred steps, nearly half of this group of people fell down!
Liao Dabi was not a fool. He quickly judged one thing - the defenders might have far more muskets than the dozen or so he saw. With such a firing speed, there is only one possibility, and that is that the musketeers hiding behind the breastworks came forward to shoot in batches. And this kind of shooting frequency was enough to cause heavy casualties to the leading troops charging into the formation.
Xiao Liang stood behind the parapet, holding a copper whistle in his mouth. In such an environment with the roar of muskets, verbal commands are often easily obscured by the sound of gunfire, and the sharp whistle can just make up for this shortcoming. The trained musketeers entered the shooting position one after another in a rotating shooting formation. According to the length of the commander's whistle, it was easy to master the rhythm of shooting.
(End of chapter)