Chapter 861 Occupying Liuheng Island
Even after confirming the identity of the intruder, Li Luotou and Motegi Shinobi still did not give up the idea of resisting immediately. They hoped that this menacing fleet was just a weak force, and they had to at least give it a try first. After all, the Haisha Gang is one of the most powerful armed forces in the East China Sea. It has experienced a lot of armed conflicts, large and small, and there are so many desperadoes licking blood from the gang's knife edge. It's hard to imagine that they can still fight. The two immediately ordered all the ships parked in the harbor to rush out of the harbor and offered a large reward as an incentive.
Seeing that he could not persuade these two people to commit suicide, Gomez had no choice but to do the next best thing and quickly organized his men to assemble. At the same time, he sent people to the small port on the east side of the island to let the boats there prepare to escape. Gomez has a musketry team of 300 people, as well as more than 30 gunners and seven or eight artillery pieces. He is considered the elite of the Haisha Gang's land combat power. However, he did not want to command these people to make the final resistance on the island, but he wanted to take advantage of the chaos and find an opportunity to withdraw from Liuheng Island with these people.
Gomez knew that even if he threw all his elite men into the battlefield, at most it would be able to temporarily delay the Haihan people's offensive, but it would never be possible to reverse the decline of the Haisha Gang. Staying on the island and fighting stubbornly has no chance of winning. It is wise to preserve as much strength as possible for the future.
But the situation was obviously deteriorating faster than he could react. The ships parked in the harbor could not rush out at all. The powerful firepower of the Haihan fleet was not an offensive that the pirates could resist at the risk of their lives. In a very short exchange of fire, the desperate leaders of the Sea Sand Gang saw their sailboats begin to capsize after being continuously hit by artillery fire at the harbor entrance. The expected scenario of relying on the advantage of the number of ships to surround the enemy ship and then jumping into gangs to seize the ship has never occurred.
Li Luotou and Motegi Shinobu were stunned on the dock as they watched their sailboat rush out decisively, and then turned into a pile of broken wooden boards floating on the sea under the gunfire. The only good thing is that they did not personally board the ship and go to sea to command the battle, otherwise they would probably have become minced meat eaten by the fish in the sea. At this time, they remembered all the warnings Gomez made yesterday. However, it was already too late. Seeing that the Haihan people's offensive was no longer possible, they clearly planned to block the Haisha Gang. Plans to carry out a massacre on the island.
The people Gomez sent to the eastern port to give orders had not returned yet, but the people who came from there to ask for help arrived first. When Gomez heard that the eastern port had also been attacked, he knew something was wrong and quickly sent someone to notify the other two leaders to abandon the port and evacuate to the inland area of the island.
It only took the coalition fleet about an hour and a half to basically control the situation in the harbors of Haisha Gang. The pirates either fled back to the harbor or surrendered on the spot, making it difficult to form organized resistance. Gao Qiaonan led a company of troops to land at the dock that Xu Ke and Zhao Cheng had scouted a few days ago, and then under the guidance of Zhao Cheng, they quickly found the entrance to the cave casino.
At this time, the Haisha Gang members on the dock had already fled, and there were no armed personnel on duty at the entrance. The soldiers entered the cave smoothly and found that it was also in a mess. There are many people in the cave who are unaware of the situation outside, fighting for the broken silver on the gambling table.
Takahashi Minami was not interested in these scattered pieces of silver. What he wanted to know was the location of the secret bank vault used by the Haisha Gang to store the proceeds from the casino. That was one of the main tasks of this operation.
"Zhao Cheng!" Gao Qiaonan ordered loudly: "Find the bank before dark!"
Zhao Cheng's luck was indeed good. Moments after receiving this order, his men caught a small leader of the Haisha Gang on the dock, and this guy happened to be someone he recognized - he had been with Xu Kelai a few days ago. When they were scouting Hengdao, it was the leader nicknamed "Seventh Brother" who led them into this cave casino.
"So it's you!" When the seventh brother was escorted in front of Zhao Cheng, he recognized this face immediately. However, at this time, Zhao Cheng was no longer dressed as the ship's boss at that time, but was wearing a gray combat uniform, and the expression on his face was no longer as flattering as before.
"Zou Qi, we meet again!" This time Zhao Cheng will not address him as "Brother Qi" anymore, but directly calls him by his real name: "Whatever I ask next, you'd better tell the truth, don't play tricks, don't Follow me in circles, if you try to be clever or pretend to be a tough guy, you will suffer a lot, do you understand? ”
"My surname is Zhao, am I, Zou Qi, a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death? Hey, if you want to force a confession, why don't you try it? Do you think I have never been in jail or been punished?" But Zou Qi was extremely stubborn and refused to give in at all.
Zhao Cheng frowned slightly when he heard this. He only had one pirate leader caught at the moment. A lot of important information had to fall on him, so he had to pry his mouth open as soon as possible.
"You can be tough, but don't regret it later." Zhao Cheng turned his head and ordered: "Inform the people from the Secret Service to come over and let them deal with this guy."
The special service office that Zhao Cheng mentioned is not an agency under the military, but is under the Field Service Division of the Haihan Security Department. Many in this department are veterans who have served in the Six Doors for many years and have switched to Haihan for various reasons. Of course, there are also torture experts who are familiar with torture methods. During Haihan's Northern Expedition to Zhejiang, the Ministry of Security also sent some personnel to accompany the army in order to come in handy at this special time.
After a while, someone came to Zhao Cheng with two middle-aged men. The two men were thin and had some vague similarities between their eyebrows. One of them introduced himself: "I'm Xiaguan Yuan. This is my brother Guan Ping, who is affiliated with the Special Service Division of the Ministry of Security. I came here to report here."
Zhao Cheng nodded and said: "I need you to pry open this guy's mouth as soon as possible. He knows some very important information. I can only give you a stick of incense and hope you will do your best. I only want information, but his life It doesn’t matter.”
That Guan Yuan cupped his hands and said, "It's not too late, I'll take action now."
Guan Yuan and Guan Ping walked to Zou Qi's side and looked him up and down, their eyes making Zou Qi's body hair crawl. He wanted to curse a few more words to embolden him, but when he met Guan Yuan's eyes, those gray eyes like those of a dead person made Zou Qi shudder, and he couldn't curse the words that came to his lips.
"He is five feet three inches long and has strong muscles and bones. It may be difficult to injure the flesh." Na Guan Ping looked at him and suddenly started to take action, poking and pinching Zou Qi's thighs, arms and other places, muttering to himself. .
Guan Yuan responded: "The military master said that life doesn't matter, so let's choose the quickest way to do it. Please help the military masters, find a strong chair to tie him up, tie his hands and feet separately, and try to tie him as strong as possible." ." Zou Qi felt a little frightened in his heart. He didn't know what these two people who were like living ghosts were going to do to him, but this tone didn't really sound like a good sign. Several soldiers had rushed over to hold down his hands and feet, and tied him to a chair. His waist and forehead were tightly tied to the back of the chair with ropes. Except for his fingers and toes, almost no other joints on his body were left. Unable to move.
The two brothers Guan Yuan and Guan Ping each held a leather doctor's bag in their hands - this thing was passed down from two foreigners, Morgan and Johnson. Later, not only did many barefoot doctors trained by Sanya Medical School each have one, but also other Some industries that need to carry a variety of tools have also begun to use this large-capacity, thick and durable leather bag.
The two put the leather bag on the table next to it, opened it, and then began to take out various small tools and some special utensils with unknown names one by one. Among them are knives, hammers, axes, saws, chisels, drills, hooks, drills, pliers, ropes and other tools. Each tool often has several different models, sizes and even different materials. There are also some that are unknown. There were a large number of glass vials of potions spread out on the table. It was hard to believe that they could hold so many things in the two leather bags they carried.
Guan Yuan took out a steel needle, which was about a foot long, waved it in front of Zou Qi and said: "Next, I will drive this steel needle through your finger, and slowly pass it along the joint meridians to the elbow. , if you can bear it, I will nail another one. If you still don’t say anything after the ten fingers are pierced, I will replace it with him.”
Guan Ping held a small hand drill that was only four inches long in his hand and said expressionlessly: "I will use this thing to drill through the joints of your hands and feet in turn, and then scatter the raised eggs into your joints." In just two or three days, the maggots will take shape and burrow into your bones to devour your marrow. You may not be able to imagine the feeling.”
Zou Qi turned pale after hearing this description. He thought that the Haihan people's methods of torture and extorting confessions were nothing more than traditional methods such as fists, kicks, and whips. He never expected that the Haihan people would use such evil and cruel methods. Although he was not very afraid of death, he did not want to suffer such severe torture before death.
Zhao Cheng only waited for a cup of tea before Guan Yuan came out of the house, cupped his hands towards him and said, "Fortunately, the man is willing to talk."
"So fast?" Zhao Cheng was also slightly surprised: "How many types of punishment did you give him?"
Guan Yuan raised the corner of his mouth: "I didn't impose any punishment. I just showed him the torture tools and threatened him again, and the guy gave up."
"So powerful?" Zhao Cheng couldn't believe it. The pirate leader who had been shouting just now gave up even before he was executed. However, he didn't care to ask about the details now. He cupped his hands and said, "Thank you both for your help. When this matter is settled, I will find time to treat you two to dinner."
"It's easy to talk." Guan Yuan also said goodbye with clasped fists: "We brothers still need to rush to other places to deal with things, so I'll see you later."
Half an hour later, the army led by Takahashi Minami arrived at the location mentioned by Zou Qi, where they bumped into the Haisha Gang members who were carrying their belongings, and an encounter immediately began.
The Haisha Gang's bank is located in a mountain col. Haihan's troops climbed over the mountain ridge and faced the side of the Haisha Gang's troops from a high position. The terrain disadvantage alone was enough to put the Haisha Gang in bad luck.
Haihan's side was mainly composed of special operations battalion troops with rich combat experience. They did not rush to engage in a melee with the pirates. Instead, they immediately formed a formation and used muskets to shoot at the pirates who were in a mess. There are also many musketeers on the pirate side, but it is impossible to organize neat gun formations in the chaos, and if the scattered bullets want to hit a specific target at a distance of 100 meters, it can only rely on pure luck. As soon as the two sides exchanged fire, the pirates' team huddled in the mountain collapsed in rows like ears of rice blown down by the strong wind.
After four rounds of shooting, the pirates couldn't bear the casualties and began to retreat, abandoning the silver box in the col that had not yet been removed. Takahashi Nan knew that these remnant bandits had no way to leave Liuheng Island, so he was not in a hurry to pursue them. He just asked his men to take control of the area immediately, and sealed the captured silver and the secret bank in the mountain col, waiting for the relevant departments to send people over. inventory.
The Haisha Gang who hurriedly retreated to the inland of the island did not get a chance to breathe. They quickly ran into the Sanlin Gang who came from the northwest of the island to cover them up. After the Sanlin Gang received the secret message sent back from Shipu Port by Lin Xing a few days ago, they made preparations for today's operation and devoted almost all combat personnel to the task of going south to intercept the Haisha Gang. When the leaders of the Haisha Gang saw that they were from the Sanlin Gang, it was not difficult to guess that they were colluding with the Haihan people. Otherwise, they would not have been able to kill the Haisha Gang so quickly.
There is not much difference in the armed level of the two groups. Although the Haisha Gang has more people, it lost a lot of elites in the previous sea battles. Now, the number of people fleeing to the northwest is not as many as the Sanlin Gang participating in the war. . One side is trying to get more military exploits in exchange for the opportunity to embrace Haihan's thigh, while the other side is fighting to the death to survive. They both want to eliminate the opponent quickly, and there will be no room left in the fight.
At about 6 p.m., all three harbors of the Haisha Gang located in the south of Liuheng Island were cleared, and more than a thousand Haisha Gang members and more than 700 other outsiders were captured. As for the casualties of the Haisha Gang during the battle, it is difficult to estimate for the time being. , after all, many boats capsized and sank in the sea during the battle. It was not possible to find out whether the people on the boats fed the fish or escaped ashore.
However, according to the prisoners' confessions, there are at least two to three thousand members of the Haisha Gang on the island, including about a thousand combatants. Fortunately, all the Haisha Gang's bases near the sea have been occupied by the coalition forces. These people can only flee to the mountainous areas and northwest direction of the island. The chance of leaving Liuheng Island is slim.
Before dark, a messenger from the Sanlin Gang sent news that they had fought several battles with the Haisha Gang in the middle of Liuheng Island. Both sides suffered heavy casualties. They implored the coalition forces to send troops to help as soon as possible after dawn tomorrow.
(End of chapter)