Chapter 2204
The third day of July is cloudy and everything is not suitable.
After nightfall, a large number of men in black suddenly gathered at a canal dock outside Yangzhou city that had been closed for several days. At the same time, several sailboats came from the north and quietly docked at this pier.
A carriage drove into the dock, and a plump man got out of the carriage. He was none other than Lu Kangtai, the representative figure of Shanshan-Shaanxi salt merchants. Now that the scheduled time for the operation has arrived, although some key information has not yet been verified, Lu Kangtai is worried about the long nights and dreams and is no longer willing to delay it any longer.
Although he failed to get the Senior Counselor to express his public support for him, Lu Kangtai finally managed to get the Senior Counselor to suspend the city defense army's patrols along the canal tonight to facilitate the cross-river attack on Daijiazhuang. Of course, this kind of special care cannot be obtained through friendship alone. For this reason, Lu Kangtai gave Gao Yongshou a considerable benefit.
When Xie Liang and Xun Fen saw Lu Kangtai arriving, they hurriedly stepped forward to greet him. Lu Kangtai asked about the gathering and learned that all the people involved in the operation were present. He immediately ordered someone to take out the boxes of money he had brought.
Lu Kangtai knew very well that when his men needed to work hard like this, any beautiful words from mobilization before the war would not be as useful as rewards of real money and silver. After all, these people are willing to sacrifice their lives for themselves. In the final analysis, it is all for money.
Lu Kangtai stood on a high place and announced loudly: "Everyone who participates in the operation tonight will receive fifty taels of silver! When this happens, each person will receive another hundred taels of silver as a reward! If you are injured or injured during the operation, In the event of death, there will be generous compensation to ensure that the families of all brothers will have a worry-free life in the future!”
"Tonight's target, everyone should have seen the list. There are seventeen people listed above, and five hundred taels are dead. As long as you can catch the alive ones, you will be rewarded with one thousand taels of silver! If you can capture the sea in the village, Han people, the reward will be doubled! In addition, I, Lu Kangtai, will not take any of the property confiscated in Daijiazhuang, and the entire price will be distributed equally to all the brothers present!"
The price offered by Lu Kangtai was astonishingly high. After hearing this, the men in black became excited. The original uneasiness was immediately turned into excitement and courage by the high reward, as if they were waiting for them in the darkness across the river. What they found was not a heavily guarded manor full of unknown dangers, but an undefended gold mine waiting for them to carve up.
Lu Kangtai didn't know that all the major figures with the seven surnames were hiding in Daijiazhuang, otherwise his target list would have been several times more than the current list. However, if he really grasps the movements of the seven surnames, he may reconsider the risk of attacking Daijiazhuang and not bet all the chips in his hand so decisively.
In Lu Kangtai's view, as long as the Dai family is solved, it will be a heavy blow to the seven surnames, causing them to lose their leadership and no longer be able to pin their hopes on the assistance provided by the Haihan people. When the time comes, Yangzhou will be in turmoil. Without Dai Yingda as the backbone of the seven major surnames, there will definitely be chaos. I will seize the time to solve them one by one, and then go back to negotiate terms and reconciliation with the Haihan people. The overall situation of Yangzhou can be determined.
There is actually no big problem with Lu Kangtai's thinking, but the intelligence information he has is seriously lacking. There is still a relatively large cognitive bias in the comparison of the strengths of the two sides and Haihan's attitude. Naturally, it is difficult to make judgments based on this. Totally reasonable. He thought that the situation in Yangzhou would develop in the direction he pushed, but he did not realize that he was not the main force driving the change in the situation. All Yangzhou salt merchants, including him, were just following the wind in this great era. It's just a trivial move.
Lu Kangtai called Xie Liang and Xun Fen to his side again, and told them: "Tonight, don't kill indiscriminately, but you can't let anyone in the village go. After you succeed, you will clear out Daijiazhuang according to the plan, no matter what Live or die, ship everything away before dawn. Remember to clean up the traces and leave no evidence behind! After the operation is over, all the rewards I promised you will be honored immediately."
The two of them clasped their fists in response, their eyes sparkling with desire. The reward Lu Kangtai promised to the two of them was very generous, enough for them to sell their lives to Lu Kangtai without hesitation. After finishing this job, even if they immediately retire from the world, the reward will be enough to make them live comfortably for the rest of their lives.
Under the command of Xie Liang and Xun Fen, these men in black boarded the ship that had just docked at the dock in batches, and then quickly moved to the other side.
This section of the canal is actually not wide, just over ten feet long. If it weren't for the fact that most of these people were equipped with muskets, swimming across the river would be the most secretive way to cross the river. However, the time required to cross the river by boat is also very short. Lu Kangtai only hopes that the other side does not monitor this section of the river all night, so that his people can quietly enter the territory of Daijiazhuang on the south bank.
The ships transporting his men and horses will also be temporarily docked on the other side, waiting to be completed before sending away all the living and dead they transported from Daijiazhuang. Lu Kangtai stayed on the north bank of the canal. Of course he couldn't see the movement of Daijiazhuang, but he could see the lights on the ships parked on the other side. As long as those ships were okay, it meant that the operations ahead were still going smoothly.
After Xie Liang and Xun Fen led their troops to land, they divided into two teams and headed towards Daijiazhuang. In addition to the more than 100 people from the Musketeers who participated in this operation, Lu Kangtai also gathered the elites of several other Shanxi salt merchants. Although these people can only use cold weapons, in this kind of night attack, Cold weapons are precisely the best equipment for the vanguard.
However, last year's battle with the Haihan people had already caused the Shanshan and Shaanxi salt merchants to lose many good players. This time, the other few people handed over to Lu Kangtai's command were almost all the remaining assets. If there are losses again this time, I am afraid that in the short term It will be difficult to recover.
Xie Liang led this improvised group of troops as the vanguard, while Xun Fen commanded the musketeers to take the rear. The surrounding area of Daijiazhuang is surrounded by farmland, and they dare not light up torches or lanterns with open fires. They can only use the moonlight that comes and goes in the sky to illuminate the fields and march one step at a time.
According to the drill beforehand, everyone had to keep silent during the march, but if someone slipped and fell in the field, they would inevitably curse a few words in a low voice.
The further Xie Liang walked, the more he felt a chill on his back. Usually in this kind of countryside, farmers would raise dogs. These guard dogs would definitely bark when they heard any noise outside, and they were prepared accordingly. However, two to three hundred people walked in the field for almost a mile, but they didn't hear even a single bark of a dog. This situation was really unreasonable.
But now the arrow is on the string and he has to take action. Even if he realizes that the current situation is a bit unusual, there is no turning back at this time.
After walking about another mile, we could already see the white walls of the outer buildings of Daijiazhuang in front of us. However, looking from the outside, there was no light or any sound in the village, and it looked completely lifeless.
Xie Liang did not rush into action, but waited for Xun Fen to catch up and join him. The next step is to take action against Daijiazhuang. They must act together. Although an action plan has been formulated in advance, they must confirm the details before taking action. Then they will have to fight independently. "Brother Xun, something doesn't seem right here. I suspect that the other party has noticed and has set up an ambush! What do you think?" After Xie Liang and Xun Fen met, they decisively shared their opinions with each other.
Xun Fen was silent for a moment before responding: "Even so, you and I can't let it go. Otherwise, how will we explain to the boss when we go back?"
Xie Liang and Xun Fen have worked together for a long time. When they heard what the other party said, they knew that Xun Fen had actually noticed something was wrong, but the problem Xun Fen raised was the real problem that he couldn't get around.
They had already taken advantage of Lu Kangtai and promised that they would try their best to capture Daijiazhuang, so they would definitely not be able to go home without doing anything. If Lu Kangtai asked the reason, could they say it was because they felt something was wrong?
Xun Fen said: "Now that the matter has come to this, we can only act according to the original plan. Even if the opponent is prepared, we still have to try to see if we can break into the village. If we can, we still have a chance of victory."
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In fact, they don't care too much about Daijiazhuang's defense methods. What really scares them is the group of Haihan people currently stationed in Daijiazhuang.
According to the information currently known, the Haihan people stationed in Daijiazhuang were the armed escorts of Jindun. Last year, when they were ordered to rob the salt transport team from the south, they actually fought against Jindun. Although Lu Kangtai's musketeers took advantage at that time, it was also because they set up an ambush in the wild and caught the opponent off guard, and they had an absolute advantage in strength. If they really want to fight in a battle formation, their chances of winning will be much smaller.
The most important thing is that they know that the men of Jindun are also equipped with muskets, which means that the team hiding in Daijiazhuang is likely to be all musketeers who are no less powerful than them. If the other party was prepared for their arrival, they would have to resist the ambush. They generally knew what it would be like to be ambushed by a team of musketeers.
In the plan they made beforehand, they wanted to sneak into Daijiazhuang quietly while the other party was unprepared, and control the situation before the other party resisted. But now it seems that the actual situation is somewhat different from their plan, and the other party seems to be on guard in advance. Now they can only hope to break through the defense of Daijiazhuang and start a melee in the village. Then their side may be able to rely on their strength advantage to suppress the opponents using muskets in close combat, so that there is a possibility of victory.
After making simple changes to the action plan, Xie Liang commanded his team and quietly approached Daijiazhuang from the east. He did not choose the main road entering Daijiazhuang from the north, because he knew that two watchtowers had been built at the intersection in that direction, and there would definitely be guards guarding them at night. The east side is full of fields, and the several field paths leading to Daijiazhuang are not guarded. It may be possible to find a way to sneak into the village.
Xie Liang did quickly find a road leading to the village, but after a closer look, he found that there was something obviously weird about this road, which made him afraid to rush in rashly.
The road is only five feet wide, but the gates on both sides of the road are all blocked with stones, logs, bricks, etc., and all the side roads that you see are covered with horses that are as tall as a person. Death makes those who enter this road can only move forward in a daze, and in the dark night, they cannot see what is at the end of this road.
Xie Liang was standing at this intersection. There was no trace of people in the visible area in front of him, but he could faintly feel that there was a fatal danger lurking in front of him that he couldn't see. This weird defense method is definitely not a project that can be completed in a short time. It is obvious that Daijiazhuang has already taken precautions against intruders from the outside.
Jie Liang knew something was wrong, but he couldn't order a retreat. He could only bite the bullet and order his men to climb over the wall and enter the house to see if they could find another way to open a road from the house next to this road.
There were many people under him who had various roles. At that moment, several people obeyed the order and came out, took out the rope hooks and threw them on the wall, hooked the eaves of the wall, and then climbed the ropes to the room. They quickly climbed over the wall and disappeared into the night.
However, after these people climbed over the wall, they didn't give the agreed signal for a long time, and they couldn't hear any noise on the other side of the wall, as if they were swallowed up by the night silently.
Jie Liang knew something was wrong, so he sent someone to notify Xun Fen, who was waiting for news, so that he could prepare to cover his retreat. Daijiazhuang was obviously on guard. If he rushed in like this, he would be joking with his own life. Although the reward given by Lu Kangtai is extremely tempting, if you can get the money, you must have the life to spend it. Of course, the priority is to save your life.
At this time, at the other end of the road, Yuan Tao, Dai Yingda, and Dai Yingfan were standing in the night, looking at the crowd outside the village that was about to move. In front of them were fifty musketeers who had formed a fighting formation. If people from outside wanted to rush in along this road, they would be greeted by a dense hail of bullets.
"It seems they have discovered something and don't dare to go further inside." Dai Yingda was slightly disappointed when he saw this scene. If he ordered to fire at this time, the opponent would definitely be frightened and would immediately turn around and run away. He should not be hurt much. personal. But he felt unwilling to just watch the other party retreat unscathed. After all, Daijiazhuang had made so many preparations for this and invested a lot of manpower, material and financial resources. He would not take this opportunity to cause some harm to the other party. A substantial blow, it always feels like a loss-making business.
Dai Yingfan said: "It seems that our fortifications are still too obvious. Anyone who is not a fool would dare to break in like this!"
Yuan Tao said: "My mission on this trip is first to ensure the safety of Daijiazhuang, and secondly to wait for opportunities to kill the enemy. If I can make the opponent retreat before the difficulties, then there will be no casualties in Daijiazhuang. Isn't this right now? The best result? ”
(End of chapter)