Chapter 2205
Of course Yuan Tao is not a timid person, but he will never let his brothers risk their lives for these profit-seeking Yangzhou salt merchants. If you leave your bunker and take the initiative to attack in such a dark night, you will completely give up the environmental advantage you have built with great difficulty, and you may instead be taken advantage of by your opponent to plot against you.
It's not that the Dai brothers don't understand this truth, but of course they hope that the Haihan armed personnel who spent a lot of money to hire will not only serve as guards in Daijiazhuang, but also deal a heavy blow to their opponents. If they want to attack the opponent's territory, that's fine. They also know that the little money they spend can't use the Haihan people, but now that the opponent has come to the door, if they just sit back and watch such a great opportunity slip away, what will happen to them? To be honest, I was a little unwilling.
Dai Yingda said: "Shop Manager Yuan, if you just let them go, it will be a big hidden danger after all. Maybe they will come again tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. As the saying goes, you can only be a thief for a thousand days. How can you prevent a thief for a thousand days? You have to let them eat it." Only through pain can we remember the lesson! Today, the opponent still doesn’t know our details. The opportunity is rare, so we must take action when it’s time to take action!”
Yuan Tao responded: "If they come to attack during the day, then it's okay for me to summon my brothers to fight with them outside the village. But at this time, we have to attack and fight with them. It's pitch black ten feet away. How can we guarantee that we can defeat them?" Achieve an effective attack? Besides, if we want to take the initiative, the intersection leading out of the village will become a clear target. Then the opponent only needs to hide in the darkness and fire at the intersection, and we will become the target of being slaughtered! ”
Compared with these civilians, Yuan Tao, who had military and combat experience, obviously had a more accurate judgment on the situation. In the current environment, whoever takes action first will fall into a passive position. Yuan Tao sees this very clearly. If it were not for the identity of these salt merchants as financial backers, he would not even want to explain this superficial military common sense.
Of course, it is very possible that these salt merchants did not take the issues he mentioned into consideration, but simply wanted the men of the Golden Shield to take action for them to kill a few more enemies. Recalling Dai Yingfan's experience of serving in the Ming army, Yuan Tao was able to conclude that they were deliberately pretending to be confused and wanted to force him to take action.
But Yuan Tao will not be influenced by them. He knows his mission very well, and he also knows that the group of people who came to attack Daijiazhuang tonight are by no means mediocre. A rash attack will not only put his troops in danger, but also put his troops in danger. This may lead to the collapse of Daijiazhuang's defense system. Therefore, he insisted on staying firm and never created any opportunities for his opponents to take advantage of.
While talking, Yuan Tao's men had already come to report that all the spies sent by the other party to climb over the wall and enter the house had been captured. However, in order to ensure that these people would not send out warning signals, they did not leave any room for action. They all had their necks wiped directly and died before they could even make a sound.
Yuan Tao's idea of building a defense system in Daijiazhuang is to reduce the number of entrances to the village as much as possible and ensure that every passage is under the strict control of the defender. Therefore, he also expected that the other party would find another way after realizing the danger of the entrance to the village, and dispatched several experts in advance to wait in the houses on the left and right of the intersection, waiting for the other party to send people to climb over the wall and come in to investigate.
These people climbed over the wall and went in. After landing, they were grabbed from behind and their throats were cut before they could even see the furnishings in the yard clearly.
Xie Liang waited outside for a long time but received no reply. Knowing that something was wrong, he contacted Xun Fen again and asked the musketeers under his command to cover his retreat. However, Xun Fen rejected his request and insisted on letting Xie Liang command his troops to rush into the village entrance.
"Brother Jie, we're all here. We can't go back without firing a shot!" After Xun Fen rushed over to meet him, he continued to urge him to take action: "If we don't make some noise, we can't give the boss anything when we go back. Tell me! Send some brothers inside first. If we can’t get in, it won’t be too late for us to retreat!”
Xie Liang knew that what Xun Fen said was indeed true. Lu Kangtai offered such a high reward, which must depend on the results. Some people must die before he can defeat his opponent.
So Jie Liang immediately mobilized fifty people and asked them to go to Zhuangzi from this intersection. The remaining people still gathered at the intersection and waited. In order to avoid exposing their whereabouts, they could not light any lighting objects. They could only walk in the dark along the base of the wall to the depths of Zhuangzi to see if they could find other entrances or forks along the way.
These people walked a little further into Zhuangzi and found that both sides of the road were still tightly closed, with no other route to choose from.
After they marched to a certain location, there was a sudden flash of fire in the darkness ahead, noisy gunfire sounded at the same time, and then several people fell to the ground. When they realized that there were several muskets firing at them from the front, about half of them had already fallen into the dense rain of bullets.
In such a narrow passage, there was almost no room to dodge or hide on either side. Coupled with the continuous shooting from the front, only a handful of people who chose to lie down in the first place were lucky enough to escape the hail of bullets. As for those who tried to turn around and escape or rush forward to kill, none of them were spared and fell into a pool of blood.
The gunshots came suddenly and stopped very quickly. Those waiting at the intersection had just realized that a firefight was taking place ahead. Before they had time to figure out whether to reinforce their companions in the passage, the battle had come to an end.
The other end of the passage was still dark and no movement could be seen, but most of the fifty people who had just entered the passage were dead or injured. Those waiting outside the village could clearly hear the screams and moans of the injured companions, and The smell of blood wafted in the air, but no one dared to rush into the death tunnel to rescue their companions.
"The dog thieves in Daijiazhuang are really well prepared!" Xie Liang said bitterly, but he was secretly glad that his judgment was accurate, so he did not personally lead the team to fight the first battle, otherwise he might have fallen inside by this time. , even his own life was involved.
"It's the Haihan people!" Xun Fen had already heard some clues from the gunshots fired just now.
The gunfire just now was dense but not messy. There was a short interval between each round of gunfire. As far as he knew, this was obviously a level that a well-trained musketeer team could achieve. These musketeers under his command may not be able to perform in actual combat. With such neat firing, it was obvious that those Haihan people ambushing at the other end of this passage.
Send musketeers into the passage to confront the opponent head-on? Xun Fen would not choose this approach. He did not know the situation at the other end of the passage. It is very likely that the opponent had built a bunker in advance. If he rushed into the passage and aimed at unseen places, he would not be able to kill the enemy. The effect will instead expose one's side and become a living target for the opponent's musketeers.
The battle plan they formulated in advance was to sneak into Dai's Village in a stealth state, control several key locations in the village, and then attack together. Although they had made plans for the Haihan people to participate in the resistance, the current situation was obviously far beyond their expectations.
The reconnaissance information on Daijiazhuang was seriously insufficient beforehand, which caused them to encounter great difficulties in the first step of trying to enter Daijiazhuang. The Haihan people in Zhuangzi took action without any warning, which made them even more difficult. When I came up, I kicked the iron plate.
Just now Xun Fen insisted on testing the reality of this passage, but this time the ambush inside was really drawn out, and he didn't know what to do.
"Brother Xun, the matter has been exposed. We should evacuate this place as soon as possible. We don't want to be intercepted here!" Xie Liang became anxious when he saw that Xun Fen had judged that there was an ambush from the Haihan people inside but could not come up with a countermeasure. . Xun Fen said: "Is it too hasty to give up now? Maybe we should explore whether there are other nearby ways to enter the village?"
Xie Liang said anxiously: "Brother Xun is confused! Since they set up an ambush here in advance, they are sure that we will enter the village from here. How can they leave you any other way? Even if there is, it must be the same as here. It was a trap set long ago!”
If it hadn't been for many years of friendship, Xie Liang would have lost patience with Xun Fen long ago. Unfortunately, the protagonist of this operation was the musketeers commanded by Xun Fen, and he could not abandon Xun Fen and declare a retreat on his own.
Xie Liang believed that Daijiazhuang had set up an ambush to invite you into the urn, and there must be something behind it. If he didn't retreat quickly, he might not be able to leave. However, Xun Fen was still thinking about how to complete this mission. Even though he knew that his opponent was on guard, he was still unwilling to give up.
"Brother Xie, if we can capture Daijiazhuang, you and I will be able to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. Do you really not want to try again?"
"Brother Xun, if you keep the green hills, don't worry about running out of firewood. In my opinion, if you don't evacuate quickly, you and I may lose the rest of our lives!"
Xie Liang urged repeatedly, and finally Xun Fen changed his mind. However, many people were still dissatisfied with leaving his injured companions in the passage. This group of people lingered outside Zhuangzi for a long time before slowly retreating along the original road to the river bank where they landed.
Yuan Tao and others who were supervising the battle in Zhuangzi soon received the report. Although the Dai brothers fully hoped that Yuan Tao would order to pursue the retreating enemies, Yuan Tao's orders were still very conservative, and they only asked people to step up surveillance. The opponent's movements ensure that they evacuate the south bank of the canal without killing another carbine.
"Shop Manager Yuan, why don't we let my men from Dai's Village go out to pursue them, so that I can teach those thieves a lesson!" Dai Yingfan couldn't hold himself back anymore and took the initiative to ask Yuan Tao to fight.
Yuan Tao said: "Keep your measure in mind. Don't chase the bad guys, don't let them bite you back!"
When Dai Yingfan saw Yuan Tao relent, he immediately gathered his troops and went. He has already seen that although this group of Haihan people work with money, they will not really work for Daijiazhuang. In order to completely settle the grudges with the Shanshan salt merchants, they have to rely on themselves in the end.
An hour ago, when the opponent was still crossing the river, Daijiazhuang had noticed it and prepared for the battle in advance. The young men in Zhuangzi had also gathered early. It was only then that the order to attack was finally given. However, the passage had not been cleared at this time, and there were still many intruders in it, so the attacking team took another route, going out from the Daijiazhuang gate in the north, and then detoured to pursue the retreating enemies.
Yuan Tao ordered people to light lights and clear out the enemies in this passage first. The few people who were lucky enough not to be shot earlier had already taken advantage of the short period of time after the ceasefire to sneak out. At this time, those still in the passage were either dead or injured. They had basically lost their ability to resist, and they were all quickly controlled. .
"Boss Dai, what are you going to do with these people?" Seeing that the situation had been decided, Yuan Tao took the initiative to seek Dai Yingda's opinion.
Dai Yingda said: "If we report it to the official, the opponent will probably spend money to calm the situation. After all, we will not be able to sue them, and it will be of no benefit to us. I plan to call all the family heads after dawn to review the results of tonight's battle. Then all the survivors will be executed. What does Shopkeeper Yuan think?”
Yuan Tao nodded and said: "In this way, all seven major surnames will participate, and no one will dare to sway anymore!"
When Dai Yingda saw that Yuan Tao had seen through his purpose, he simply said it bluntly: "Even if these people are handed over to the government, they will be silenced very quickly. We can't keep them. It's better to use them to scare the monkeys and make our Huizhou salt From then on, Shang Neng united as one to overcome the difficulties. ”
Dai Yingda said it beautifully, but in fact he just wanted to use these people as sacrifices. On the one hand, as Yuan Tao said, it can unite the seven major surnames and no longer waver between war and peace; on the other hand, it can also further consolidate Dai Yingda's position among the Huizhou salt merchants.
As for these dozens of lives, he knew that the other party would definitely not take the initiative to report them to the government, so no matter how he dealt with them, there would be no trouble from the Yamen.
Of course, before taking action, you still have to ask for confessions that should be asked, and try to squeeze as much useful information from these people as possible. This work was completed by Jin Dun. They had to complete the interrogation of the more than ten captured survivors before dawn.
However, most of these prisoners have not received special anti-interrogation training, and they are already injured and have a very fragile psychological condition, so interrogation will not be too difficult.
The troops led by Dai Yingfan had a brief battle with the retreating opponents by the canal. Dai Yingfan, who wanted to intercept the opponent, suffered a small loss and lost seven men in the battle. In the end, he failed. Stop your opponents and watch them board the boat and cross the river.
Of course, Dai Yingfan was not without success. During the pursuit, he killed five opponents and captured five others alive. This was considered a small achievement, but it was probably far from his expected goal.
Compared with the result of Jindun's ambush in the village, which resulted in more than 20 deaths and more than 10 injuries, this kind of result is really shabby. When Dai Yingfan came back, he could only claim that he wounded many enemies with his sword and bow, but he failed to intercept them in the end. Let these wounded escape on the ship, otherwise the results of the battle should be more impressive.
(End of chapter)