Chapter 332 Fat and Trap

When the Lijiazhuang construction site was in full swing, in a tea shop in Beiyao Town, forty miles west of here, there was a group of people anxious. The leader, a man with a square face and a broad nose, and a fierce look in his eyes, slammed the tea bowl.

Put it on the table: "Li Maozai, I've been waiting here all day and night, why is there still no news?"

The young junior known as Li Maozai quickly responded: "Boss Liao, I think something happened to the village that delayed their return."

"It's a small matter to delay their schedule, but it's a big deal to delay my schedule!" Boss Liao stared at Li Maozai and said: "You encouraged everyone to come to this Lijiazhuang. The two thousand or so brothers under me are all from Qingyuan and Conghua.

What I brought here is a few hundred taels of silver for eating, drinking, and eating for one day. If anything happens, you will have to make up for the money!"

"Boss Liao, don't worry. Most of the strong men in the Li family's group training were taken to Guangzhou by the old guy Li Jifeng. There are only four to five hundred people in the village. How can we outdo the brothers who are like wolves and tigers? Besides, there are only four to five hundred people in the village.

With the help of fellow brothers from Shaozhou Prefecture, Zhaoqing Prefecture and Huizhou Prefecture, it will definitely be easy to capture this small Lijiazhuang!" Li Maozai quickly defended: "Even if the few people sent to Lijiazhuang to find out the truth cannot come back, then

With Boss Liao’s strength, this Lijiazhuang can also attack without fail!"

After hearing this compliment, Boss Liao seemed to feel a little better. He snorted and said, "It's best to do what you said. If anything goes wrong, I'll be the first to cut down the sacrificial flag!"

This Boss Liao is Liao Dabi, one of the bandit leaders who gathered to cause trouble in Conghua County, Guangzhou Prefecture in the third year of Tianqi. He was originally just a charcoal burner. Because of a conflict with the foreman, he killed people in anger, and then simply became entangled with a group of desperadoes.

Falling grass becomes a bandit. Although the government has sent troops to suppress it several times in the past few years, Liao Dabi and his subordinates have been fighting guerrillas in Conghua, Zengcheng, Longmen, Qingyuan and other counties. With the constant disasters in Guangdong Province every year,

The government's efforts to suppress bandits are getting weaker and weaker, but bandits like Liao Dabi are fighting more and more.

Since the fourth year of the Apocalypse, Liao Dabi has led his gangs to plunder all over Guangdong, specializing in villages far away from towns. Over the past few years, he has become a well-known figure in the green forests of Guangdong. But before

Liao Dabi had always only been active in the area north of Guangzhou City. This was the first time he went south to do business, and the place where he started was not too far from Guangzhou City. Therefore, Liao Dabi did not directly gather people to attack like before, but

He asked his subordinates to carefully sneak into nearby areas in batches, and also sent people to Lijiazhuang to find out the news.

The reason why Liao Dabi bypassed Guangzhou City and went all the way to the south to take action was that he had to mention this Li Maozai. This Li Maozai was originally from Lijiazhuang, and could be regarded as a side branch of the Li family, but because of his

He has been lazy since he was a child, and he also likes to steal things. His reputation in Lijiazhuang is not good. A few months ago, Li Maozai wanted to get into the ancestral temple's bank to make some extra money, but he was caught on the spot. After discussion with several elders, he was

Li was expelled from his hometown, beaten and thrown outside the village, and ordered to leave the place and not come back again.

After the resentful Li Maozi wandered outside for a while, he accidentally got into Liao Dabi's bandit team. After personally participating in several operations of looting the village, Li Maozai thought he had revenge.

The opportunity has come.

Li Maozai found Liao Dabi and suggested that he lead a crowd to attack Lijiazhuang in Panyu. The reason was also very simple, because the savings earned by the Li family from many years of business operations were stored in the bank of Lijiazhuang. According to Li Maozai, it was probably not possible.

Less than five hundred thousand taels of silver.

Liao Dabi might not believe it if it were anyone else, but if the target was Lijiazhuang, it would be somewhat credible. "Fu Ruifeng" has many branches in Guangdong Province, and everyone knows that its business is huge.

In addition to the recent large-scale sales of Haihan goods that are very in demand on the market, it is reasonable to make a lot of money. Liao Dabi's men looted a branch of "Furuifeng" in Qingyuan last year.

The harvested cash amounted to two thousand taels. If the clan bank of "Fu Ruifeng" was located, it would not be unusual to have hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Li Maozai's background also adds a lot of credibility to his statement. He has lived in Lijiazhuang for more than 20 years and knows the situation inside and outside Lijiazhuang. Liao Dabi repeatedly questioned him about the details.

After that, it was confirmed that what he said was basically true, so he became interested in the fat piece of Lijiazhuang.

Although Panyu County, where Lijiazhuang is located, was not Liao Dabi's main area of ​​activity, Liao Dabi found it unbearable to think about the temptation of hundreds of thousands of taels of silver lying there waiting for him to pick it up. He has had several attacks so far.

Over the past year, he has more than 2,000 people under his command. In terms of strength, he is considered a powerful force. However, as the number of people increases, the cost also increases. To maintain combat effectiveness, money must be spent to support them. Thousands of mouths need to be fed and clothed.

Arming is not a small expense, and although it is easy to rob a village, the harvest is directly proportional to the risk. The harvest from looting a village is often very limited, and most of the time you can only grab some food and grass, and this is consumed the fastest

We grabbed several thousand kilograms of food and finished it within a few days.

Liao Dabi has been looking for higher-level targets for a long time, but due to his limited strength, he still dare not attack the county seat for the time being. He can only focus on some relatively wealthy manors and castles, and Li Maozi

The proposal just gave him a suitable target to start with.

According to Li Maozai, Lijiazhuang's team training has now been taken to Guangzhou City by the boss of "Fu Ruifeng". The existing local defense measures are extremely weak. However, considering the various uncertainties of fighting in remote places, it is rough on the outside and detailed on the inside.

Liao Dabi decided to send an invitation letter to his comrades and send troops to attack Lijiazhuang together. Liao Dabi and several other forces agreed that after success, Liao Dabi and his group would share half of all the money, and other forces would divide the remaining

The other half below.

In order to ensure that nothing goes wrong, Liao Dabi also sent several spies a few days in advance. They disguised themselves and sneaked into Lijiazhuang to find out the news. However, the agreed return time came yesterday, and none of the spies showed up in Beijiao Town. This time

The abnormal situation made Liao Dabi slightly uneasy. But things have come to this point. It is impossible to come so far away and then drag the team back to his hometown without doing anything, right? Although I was in Shunde County a few days ago,

A village was captured, but the little food and property seized was too little to cover the cost of this operation. How could Liao Dabi be willing to retreat without taking down Lijiazhuang?

Liao Dabi thought about it for a long time, and finally made a decision. He still followed the previously agreed plan and launched an attack on Lijiazhuang two days later. Even if the opponent was already alert, Liao Dabi believed that he could still win the village with his superior strength.

The total strength of the several forces that have been agreed upon now exceeds 4,000, which is enough to attack the county town. Is there anything wrong with attacking such a small village with a population of only a few hundred people?

On April 23, the first year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, and May 26, 1628, Lijiazhuang, Panyu County, Guangzhou Prefecture. The investigators who were sent out in the past few days have returned to the village one after another. What can be determined at present is that in recent days,

There are a large number of unidentified people gathering dozens of miles north and south of Lijiazhuang. According to the judgment of the combat headquarters, the bandit forces launched an attack on Lijiazhuang in the past day or two. As the local commander-in-chief, Xiao Liang

The commander has also issued an order to enter the first level of combat readiness.

Early in the morning, the servants of the Li family brought a hot breakfast, including rice porridge and fried cakes. After breakfast, the combatants began to move into defensive positions one after another. The tallest building in Lijiazhuang was the three-story Li Jifeng house.

A special lookout post is arranged on the high roof. From this vantage point, using telescopes, one can have an unobstructed view of the situation within a radius of seven or eight miles around Lijiazhuang.

The militiamen who entered the combat position began to inspect their weapons for the last time under the orders of the squad leader. The artillerymen also took off the oilcloth that had been covering the artillery positions, revealing the dark and large weapons. The local people followed the command's instructions.

According to the request, a baggage team and a rescue team were organized respectively, carts for transporting combat supplies and stretchers for transporting the wounded were prepared, and they were assembled in the village and were on standby.

The "Exploration" docked at the Shawan Waterway had quietly left before dawn. It was not to avoid this battle, but to patrol the Shawan Waterway and the Pearl River around Lijiazhuang to prevent the opponent from launching a major attack from an unexpected position.

A large-scale cross-river offensive - although the possibility of the bandits being able to organize such an offensive is slim, the headquarters believes that it is still necessary to nip it in the bud.

At about ten o'clock in the morning, the lookout post discovered that about seven or eight miles away in the northeast, a team of about a thousand people appeared, heading towards Lijiazhuang. About ten minutes later, another team appeared at the same distance to the west.

The team with a larger number of people also marched in the direction of Lijiazhuang.

"The opponent has appeared!" When Xiao Liang said this, there was no fear on his face. Instead, he was full of excitement: "Send a telegram to the Garrison Office and our reinforcements to inform them that the enemy has appeared and we are entering.

Fighting status."

"It will take at least one day for the reinforcements to arrive here." Chen Yixin responded: "When we contacted last night, they were still thirty or forty nautical miles away from Dawanshan Island. It seemed that they would not be able to catch up with this battle.

.”

"It's not necessarily a bad thing if less people share the credit." Xiao Liang picked up the military cap on the table and put it on his head: "It's our turn to perform, let's fight a good fight!"

"That's necessary!" Chen Yixin also adjusted his military uniform and strode out of the headquarters.

According to the division of labor agreed between the two, the fourth company of the Haihan Militia led by Chen Yixin in the north of Lijiazhuang is the main defensive force, while Xiao Liang is leading a platoon of militiamen affiliated with the Guangzhou Garrison Office to coordinate the defense with the Lijiazhuang Militia, most likely their opponents.

The west side of the main attack direction. As for the east and south sides, because the terrain is not suitable for the attacking team to deploy, only a small number of armed personnel are deployed as observation posts to prevent sporadic sneak attacks by the opponent.

Compared to the relaxed and confident Haihan officers, the Li family and his son were as restless as ants on a hot pot. Although they all knew that the strength of the Haihan army was far superior to the bandits and rogues, it was still a bit difficult when the situation came to pass.

Suppressed panic.

Even the mature Li Jifeng couldn't help but ask again: "Lao San, the fighting power of Haihan's gang is really as strong as you said, right?"

Li Nai smiled bitterly and said: "Dad, you have asked me this eight times today!"

"Oh? Really? As a father, I just want to confirm..." Li Jifeng also felt that he was a little out of control, so he made a haha ​​and took the words away.

"Dad, with the Haihan Militia here, it is impossible for those bandits and bandits to get any advantage!" Li Nai obviously has much more confidence in the Haihan Militia than his father.

Although Li Nai did not go to Annan to witness the performance of the Haihan militia on the regular battlefield, the amphibious landing live-fire military exercise held on the anniversary left a very deep impression on him. The lethality of the Haihan weapons and the Haihan people

Li Nai did not believe that the ragtag group of bandits could withstand the firepower of the Haihan militia on a frontal battlefield - even if the strength of the two sides was ten times different, it would not be able to change the situation.

"That's great!" Li Jifeng paced back and forth in the room for a few times before hearing He Qiang report outside the door: "Sir, all the Haihan officers have set off!"

Li Jifeng quickly walked to the door and asked: "The thief showed up?"

"They probably showed up. Lieutenant Xiao and Lieutenant Chen have left the headquarters just now and went to the north and west separately." He Qiang bowed and responded.

"Then the thief must have appeared!" Li Jifeng also stepped out of the door: "Third brother, quickly follow me to the front of the formation to watch the battle!"

"Dad, be careful!" Li Nai quickly chased after seeing this.

Compared to the defenders who were waiting for work, the attackers who had traveled a long distance were obviously not so relaxed. Li Maozi touched his empty belly and could only use the spear in his hand as a crutch to move forward in order to save some energy.

In order not to reveal traces in advance and alert the target, Liao Dabi and his group camped in a wilderness about fifteen miles away from Lijiazhuang last night. The ground was used as a bed for the whole night. Many people woke up with backaches in the morning.

. And the breakfast was also very shabby. The wild vegetable porridge was so clear that you could almost see the silhouette of a person in it. Each person had a small plate which was not even enough for the bottom. Li Maozi took it and poured it into his mouth and it was gone.

In fact, this is not because Liao Dabi is stingy, but because he is short of food and grass, so he has no choice but to do it. They set out from Qingyuan half a month ago and made an arc to the west to avoid Guangzhou City. They traveled more than 400 miles and carried several thousand kilograms.

The food and grass had been exhausted long ago. If they had not robbed several villages along the way and obtained some food and grass, this team would have had to beg for food before they could capture Lijiazhuang.

Of course, the other bandit teams from Huizhou Prefecture, Shaozhou Prefecture and Zhaoqing Prefecture are not much better than them. Teams of hundreds or even thousands of people have to march across states and prefectures to fight. For these reckless people,

It was too complex a task for these guys. Arranging food and lodging, allocating food and grass, determining the marching route, and liaising with each other during the march... When these bandits set out on the journey, they realized that conquering the world was far from just defending.

It was as simple as going to the top of the mountain to rob passing merchants. Just a few hundred miles of marching route had already worn away at least one-third of the combat effectiveness of these bandits.

However, the bandits will naturally remember all the suffering they suffered on the way to their target. After conquering this village, they must grab enough money. Therefore, although there are constant complaints in the team,

No one stopped and continued to move towards the destination with red eyes while cursing.

But Li Maozi felt vaguely uneasy in his heart. The place where he camped last night was actually within Lijiazhuang's sphere of influence. If nothing else happens, he should be able to see people from Lijiazhuang in the nearby fields after setting off today.

They were working, but along the way they found a deserted field, and all the farmers who used to work in the fields were missing. It was still five or six miles away from Lijiazhuang, but the people sent to the village to inquire about the news a few days ago were

Still no one showed up, and Li Maozi couldn't help but wonder if these people were discovered by the Li family and arrested. If they were really arrested, wouldn't the Li family have been prepared for it?

Thinking of this, Li Maozai decided to remind Liao Dabi to be careful, lest he fall into Liao Dabi's trap. After listening to Li Maozai's report, Liao Dabi, who was riding a gelding, sneered and said:
To be continued...