Chapter 682 Internal and external collusion
The situation in the mining area is obviously much more serious than that in the West Prison District. Because the terrain is too open, the limited police force was unable to control the smoke-filled situation at the beginning of the riot. They retreated to the West Prison District early to defend it with high walls. , gave up on the mine side. When Lu Li was leading people here, he could see from a distance that the work sheds outside the mine were in a mess. Almost all the buildings made of bamboo and wood were set on fire, and many places had been burned into ruins. , some mining machinery was also destroyed by thugs.
However, perhaps because the previous fighting situation outside the West Prison District had been reported, there were no groups of thugs in the vigilante group's field of vision. Lu Li did not dare to be careless and asked the troops to slow down their marching speed, maintaining the battle formation and advancing forward bit by bit.
Soon someone discovered the remains of two police officers who were killed. Their heads had been smashed with blunt objects and stones beyond recognition, and they could only be identified from the black uniforms on their bodies. Although there are no exact statistics yet, the number of police officers killed in this riot is obviously not a small number. Almost all the people responsible for daily order in the mining area were ordinary police officers. When the riots broke out, many people suffered fatal blows before they even realized what was happening.
Lu Li didn't have any big reaction after checking the remains. He just ordered without expression: "Anyone who sees a thug holding a weapon can be killed directly without warning!"
As a proud Haihan soldier, Lu Li was deeply saddened by the occurrence of such a situation in the area he was responsible for. At the same time, it also aroused his anger for revenge-all heretics who challenge Haihan's authority must pay for it. Heavy price!
At this time, through the interrogation of the prisoners who were shot and injured at the gate of the West Prison District, further news has been obtained: it is still a group of Li prisoners who are taking the lead in stirring up trouble in the mining area, and almost all of these people have been arrested in recent months. The "new people" coming in. This also coincides with the previous judgment of the military. Someone indeed planned this series of actions that were coordinated internally and externally. What remains is that the identity of the culprit has yet to be ascertained.
Lu Li believed that the people who planned all of this would not stop at planning a riot and prison escape in the Shilu Mining Area, but would definitely take further actions, because even if all the thousands of prisoners escaped, there would be no third party within dozens of miles. Two places could provide the supplies needed by so many people. These people have only three choices next. One is to continue to attack the Shilu military camp and prison area to obtain the required supplies, but this seems to be beyond their current capabilities; the other is to flee to Changhua County on the coast, but Troops from the Haihan militia are also stationed there, and the seaport is also controlled by Haihan. The result of escaping through the mountains is likely to be death; the last option is to flee into the mountains to seek Li Dong's support, but No Lidong can support so many people. If the Li prisoners who led the riot lead this uncontrollable torrent to their own Lidong, it would be tantamount to seeking their own death.
In order to calm down the situation, the Haihan Militia must now seize the person who took the lead in the rebellion as soon as possible and find out the whole story. While Lu Li was directing the team's march, he was also quickly thinking about how to capture a few people who knew the inside story to get more detailed information.
At this juncture, several prisoners emerged from their hiding places with their hands raised, shouting at the militia soldiers not to shoot. Lu Li took a look and realized that the leader was someone he knew. He quickly ordered not to shoot and asked the leader to come forward and talk.
"Captain Lu, I've waited for you! Please don't shoot, we are all good people who keep their own rules!" The man hurriedly came to the front and knelt down in front of Lu Li. Got off.
"Li Maozi, get up and talk. What's going on?" Lu Li raised his hand to signal him to get down to business.
This man was Li Maozai, a descendant of the Li family who led a wolf into his house in 1628, causing Lijiazhuang to be besieged by rogue bandits, and was later captured. After the Shilu project was launched in 1629, he was escorted to Changhua to participate in the road construction project. Because of his good performance, he was promoted to be the prison leader. He was in charge of several groups of prisoners. Among the prisoners in the hard labor camp, It can be considered a privileged class. After the railway was opened to traffic and the Shilu Iron Mine was officially mined, Li Maozai was assigned to the mining area as a production dispatcher. He had some contact with the management of the Shilu Mining Area, and he also knew Lu Li, so when he saw Lu Li After Li led his troops, he came out to recognize each other.
"Coming back to Company Commander Lu, when I went to work this morning, I noticed something was wrong. I saw that there were many unfamiliar faces in several teams. But I am not under my jurisdiction, so I can't say anything directly..." Li Maozi Start reporting immediately.
Li Maozi noticed several unusual situations when he went to work in the morning. First, some unfamiliar faces appeared on the mining site, and second, the atmosphere in some teams was obviously wrong. According to Li Maozai, it was similar to the situation when rogue bandits lurked in certain counties in Guangdong and planned to launch internal and external cooperation.
When it was time for lunch, someone came to greet Li Maozai and asked him to "play it by ear" later and be smarter. Although Li Maozi didn't know the reason, he had already guessed that someone was planning to cause trouble in the mining area. But before he could decide whether to report it immediately, another team reported the news that someone was missing. Li Maozi thought that these people were just trying to escape from prison, but he was relieved. He had been in the hard labor camp for three years, so he naturally knew what the rules were. It was not difficult to escape, but the difficulty was after escaping. How to keep yourself alive. More than thirty people escaped in one breath. Li Maozi thought that these people probably had not thought about how to survive in the surrounding mountains, and he was not optimistic that they could really escape capture.
Soon the police and members of the militia came to interrogate some of the prisoners and inquired about the status and whereabouts of the escaped prisoners. Li Maozi also knew that the vigilante group would go into the mountain to arrest them next. In about a few hours, the vigilante group would bring back the heads of some of them and hang them on the gate of the prison area as a warning.
However, the situation this time seemed to be a little different from the past. Shortly after the team chasing the fugitives left, several places in the No. 1 mine were activated at the same time. The thugs quickly killed several police officers guarding the construction site with the mining tools in their hands, and then started a series of chaos.
Seeing some teams participating in the riot, Li Maozi finally understood why someone reminded him to "act according to the situation" at noon. It seemed that this was the time he was referring to. Apparently many prisoners thought this was an excellent opportunity to escape. When they saw the police retreating, they involuntarily joined the riot.
But Li Maozi had truly experienced the power of the Haihan militia on the battlefield. He also knew that there were militiamen stationed in the Shilu mining area. He was not eager to join in. Instead, he restrained his men and told them not to participate in the riot. Li Maozi saw clearly that if this gang of rabble could outperform the armed and well-trained Haihan militia, he would break the iron ore all over the mountains and plains into small pieces and swallow them piece by piece.
Of course, he also considered the problem of his own escape, because in the face of such a large-scale riot, the Haihan people would probably execute many people afterwards, and if he wanted to clear his name, the most useful way would be to provide the Haihan people with some valuable information. information, just like what he did after being captured by the Haihan Militia. So Li Maozi also took advantage of the chaos and brought a few clever men around to inquire about the information. Because he was in charge of hundreds of people and was considered a somewhat respectable person among the prisoners, he finally found out something.
"Are the Imperial Guards of the Ming Dynasty involved in this matter?" Lu Li was slightly shocked when he heard the news from Li Maozai. Of course, he knew very well what kind of organization the Ming Dynasty Jinyiwei was, but since last year's Operation Prairie Fire, the entire Jinyiwei organization on Qiongzhou Island had been completely cleansed. Unexpectedly, there would still be Jinyiwei causing chaos on the island to this day.
"It's absolutely true! Captain Lu, there is absolutely no problem with the villain's source of information. At least three prison chiefs who participated in the riot told me the same thing. They also said that as long as they captured Shilu's mining area and captured several Haihan leaders alive, To be rewarded by the imperial court... I am a villain who knows the importance of things, how can I join them..." After talking about it, Li Maozi seized the opportunity to clear his name.
"Let's get to the point! Is there any other news!" Lu Li had to interrupt him: "Do you know where the person in charge of the other party is now?"
Li Maozi quickly responded: "Yes, it's the villain who made a mistake... The villain heard that the person in charge did not enter the mining area, but was in the nearby mountains and forests to meet him. After he succeeded here, he took the thousands of prisoners hostage. , occupy this Shilu mining area first, dig out the road, and confront Haihan!”
"I see..." Lu Li seemed to have thought of why the person behind the scenes would go to such great lengths to instigate such a riot in the inhospitable Shilu Iron Mine. The person behind the scenes was probably not targeting anything special here. Resources, and more importantly, they should focus on these thousands of prisoners who have conflicts of interest with Haihan!
Li Maozai continued: "These people went to attack the west prison area before. After suffering a loss, they retreated to the west. The villain guessed that they might be planning to kidnap the prisoners in the No. 2 mine and make other plans!"
"Pit No. 2?" There was a hint of sarcasm on Lu Li's lips, but he did not explain further.
Usually, thousands of people work in the No. 2 Mine, but today in order to welcome the arrival of the business tour group, the No. 2 Mine temporarily canceled the scheduled production tasks in the morning, because both Qiao Zhiya and Gu Kai hope to ensure that guests can visit during the afternoon visit. We saw the lively labor scene there, instead of a large group of tired coolies staggering around. This group of troublemaking thugs obviously did not know about this temporary change. Their attempt to gather another group of people from the No. 2 mine seemed to be in vain.
To put it bluntly, even if Pit No. 2 allowed them to capture some prisoners, it would still be of no use. Those who planned this incident probably did not anticipate Haihan's response to the incident, and at the same time overestimated the prisoners' willingness to participate in the riot. According to Li Maozi, only three to four out of ten prisoners actually participated in the riot, but more than half of them chose to wait and see like him.
Most of the people who participated in the riots were serious prisoners who could not be released, and these people were only a minority among the prisoners. Those prisoners whose sentences were originally only one or two years or less, or whose original crimes were very minor, were naturally unwilling to take the risk. Taking risks to regain freedom by participating in riots. There are also people like Li Maozai who know how to be powerful. From the beginning, they were not optimistic about the organizers of the riot and were unwilling to step into this mud pit.
Take Li Maozi himself as an example. He has currently served more than three years in prison. With the points reduced, the remaining sentence is less than a year. Running away at this time is asking for trouble. What else could he do as a man with no land or property, who had been in jail and been expelled from his clan? Follow these thugs and become bandits? He had already tried it three years ago, and the feeling was even worse than being a prison guard in a hard labor camp now. Besides, with his current connections and reputation in the hard labor camp, he can apply to stay as a prison guard after serving his sentence. Maybe he can apply for naturalization in a year or two, and then settle under the rule of the Haihan people. , can also be regarded as a way out.
Besides, even if you run away, where can you go? The Ming Dynasty has long been no longer in charge of the outside world. In recent months, officials from the Ming Dynasty have been organized to come to Shilu to visit the hard labor camp. Even if Li Maozi has no chance to go out, he can learn from the arrival of these officials and the recent arrival of the Ming Dynasty. There are some clues about the identity of the prisoners who have increased in the hard labor camp in half a year - this Qiongzhou Island may have changed its surname to Haihan, and Ming Dynasty seems to have acquiesced to this.
Instead of following the riot, he might as well take this opportunity to report and expose the prisoners who participated in the riot, so that he might be able to earn some more points to reduce his sentence. Isn't this much safer than taking the risk of escaping from prison?
The people who organized this incident were obviously unable to understand the psychology of people like Li Maozai. As a result, not as many people participated in the incident as planned. Of the more than 2,000 prisoner miners in the No. 1 mine, only 600 to 700 were involved. Most of the others were like Li Maozi, who first found a place to hide from the limelight, and then came out one after another when the Haihan militia arrived. Surrendered.
Of course, Lu Li did not dare to be careless, so he ordered his men to search all the prisoners who surrendered voluntarily, and asked Li Maozi to pick a few reliable men to identify people nearby and pick out those thugs who tried to fish in troubled waters.
Lu Li did not forget to send someone back to the military camp to inform Gu Kai, who was still worried, about the information he knew. Gu Kai was naturally overjoyed after receiving the news. He quickly informed many guests that the riots outside had subsided. He then used the radio to contact Qiao Zhiya who was on the way to withdraw his troops and told him all the news he knew.
(End of chapter)