Volume 1 Chushan Bandits Chapter 87: Use Urgency
Xu Wufu listened to Xu Wuqi's suggestion to prepare to reinforce the Huaiyuan military camp now. He pondered for a while and was still a little hesitant.
He looked up at Xu Bosong and Xu Zhongyu and asked for their opinions:
"Uncle Three, Uncle Five, what do you think?"
"To reinforce the Huaiyuan military camp, don't we have to fight the bandits in the field? How can this be possible? Besides, the military camp has so few people, how can we possibly defend it? I heard that everyone is withdrawing their people from Huaiyuan!" Xu Zhongyu asked worriedly, "We can't really provoke those bandits when we know that the military camp cannot be defended!"
Xu Bosong also shook his head, thinking that he should not provoke the bandits.
"If we can't bring back that idiot Xu Huai, the Xu family can no longer escape responsibility. We have to actively deal with it. It's no longer a matter of whether we provoke him or not! And Pan Chenghu has already surrendered to the Hutou Village. He will never forget the hatred of having Xiema Mountain taken away."
At this time, Su Laochang did not consider himself an outsider and said,
"As for the military camp, it may not be impossible to defend it. You see, Deng Gui was born in a military examination, and he is very brave and knowledgeable. He defeated Pan Chenghu's bandits as easily as cutting melons and chopping vegetables. More importantly, we should not forget that there is a man like Wang Bing who is good at both military and political affairs in the military camp. As long as Deng Gui is smart enough, he cannot contact the prefecture and county at this time, so it is in accordance with the rules to ask Wang Bing to take charge of the defense, and the bandit army may not be able to get a good result in Huaiyuan."
Liu Qiong'er narrowed her beautiful eyes slightly. Xu Wuqi came from a military background and had a strong personality. It was normal for him to weigh the pros and cons and advocate a positive response. Why was Su Laochang not being conservative again at this moment?
But anyway, they are in agreement on this point.
Seeing that his father-in-law and Xu Wuqi both supported active response, Xu Wujiang felt much less pressure on his shoulders, and said in a deep voice:
"If the military camp is not defended, the enemy army will be difficult to control. Even if Yuhuangling can be defended, the loss of one or two thousand people will certainly cause great damage to the vitality of the army. If you dare not provoke the strong bandits and disturb the enemy army's flanks and rear, Xiema Mountain can take care of it alone, but the big camp needs to allocate us enough good horses and weapons!"
"You are dreaming. There is no shortage of good horses and weapons. How can we give them all to Xiema Mountain? Then you can do whatever you want and no one can restrain you." Xu Wuqi did not look at Xu Wujiang well and suggested to Xu Wufu, "We can form a cavalry of about 60 people at Xiema Mountain, but this is the limit. We cannot give more good horses and weapons. Dazhai also needs to form a cavalry, with a limit of 120 people..."
Xu Wujiang did not argue with Xu Wuqi. Xiema Mountain and Jinshagou Village could now form a mobile force of at most 60 people. After all, the mountain village also needed people to guard it.
However, Xu Wufu also felt that what Xu Wuqi said made sense. If the limited weapons, armor and good horses were used to support Xu Wujiang in forming a mobile force in Xiema Mountain, and he was allowed to roam freely in Tongbai Mountain and call the wind and rain, it would be very difficult to control him in the future.
Even when building mobile troops, Dazhai must maintain absolute advantage.
"I think we should do as Lao Wu said. Both sides will form three teams of 60-man cavalry infantry, one at Xiema Mountain and two at Dazhai. Half of them will be good horses and half will be livestock horses. Now Dazhai can only get 100 good horses, but the leather armor can be as complete as possible..." After all, Xu Wufu was the boss of the Xu family. In the end, he would weigh the pros and cons and make the final decision to end this heated debate.
The bandits from Laoyatan broke into the street market in the afternoon, which prompted the stubborn families of Zhou Jianxiong and others to finally agree to evacuate Huaiyuan together. After discussion, Xu Wuliang, Xu Wukun and Liu Qionger moved Zhou Jianxiong, Wu Liangsheng and others as well as their families to Jinshagou Village overnight.
As a result, the number of men and women, children and their families in Jinshagou Village exceeded one hundred.
There are mostly steep slopes and dangerous gullies near Jinshagou Village, and the slopes that can be cultivated are extremely limited. However, there are many wild tung trees in the mountains, from which tung oil seeds, wild tea and herbs can be collected.
There was no need to think about prey. A mountain range of five or six miles could only provide a limited amount of prey such as wolves, deer, roe deer, etc. If Xu Wukun, Xu Wuliang and his men took action, they could hunt them all in three to five days.
In addition to the forest resources in the mountains that can be mined, the most important resource at present is the gold sand in the streams.
If you really want to do something, you will waste money like water.
After the attack on Xiema Mountain, Jinshagou Village was given 2,000 strings of cash, but it was all squandered in just ten days. They hastily built a small path between Jinshagou Village and the new village of Shitaoling that was passable by mules and horses, reinforced the stockade walls of the village, built thirty or forty new houses, reclaimed thirty or forty acres of vegetable fields blacksmith's house, and built wood cellars and brick cellars.
Considering that a storm is about to break out and the bandits are rampant, the people who originally settled in the low hills on both sides of the Huai River will move to the more dangerous mountains to avoid the banditry. There will be no shortage of manpower at that time, so the most important task in the early stage is to stockpile food and other supplies.
While Dazhai was frantically hoarding food and fodder, people in Jinshagou were also carrying thousands of bags of food on their shoulders and backs at all costs - this was the foundation for whether Jinshagou Village could grow rapidly in the face of the subsequent banditry.
Zhou Jianxiong, Wu Liangsheng and Yin Peng brought their families into Jinshagou Village. Although the place was still simple, they were all very happy to hear that if they settled here, each family would be given two to three bags of food according to the number of people in the family.
In terms of staffing arrangements, thirty young and strong men were selected.
Yin Peng stayed in the military camp with Xu Huai, and Zhou Jianxiong, Han Qi and other 20 people formed a cavalry and infantry team with Xu Wukun. Most of them had learned boxing, kicking and club fighting from Xu Wuliang, and some of them, like Han Qi, were forced to become bandits by Pan Chenghu in Shangliu Village, and they all had a martial arts background.
It would take time for these people to master cavalry warfare, but after practicing infantry encirclement and killing tactics, they can march on horseback and fight on foot.
The remaining ten young and strong men, headed by Wu Liangsheng, followed Xu Wuliang and Zhai Mazi to be trained as defensive infantry of Jinshagou Village. At the same time, they also ran the blacksmith shop to forge weapons, arrows, etc. As for armor, they could not afford it now as it was too time-consuming to make.
There were about seventy or eighty families left. In addition to felling wood, burning charcoal, making blue bricks, clearing the land, building houses and ponds, there were also forty people who occupied the limited valley land where people could settle down and collected gold sand using the chute method.
After deducting the daily food and labor costs of forty people, the net gold obtained every day may be worth only four or five strings of money. But this thing has a long-term benefit, ensuring that even if Jinshagou Village has another two or three hundred people, it can still maintain its livelihood.
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Although Tongbai Mountain belongs to Biyang County of Tangzhou, it is 300 miles long and wide, which is too vast. From Huaiyuan to Yushan Posthouse, and then from Yushan Posthouse to Biyang City, the total distance is nearly 140 miles, which is almost as long as the span of two or three counties in the plains.
In addition to the main ranges of the North and South Ridges, Tongbai Mountain has many hilly areas suitable for living. Since the establishment of the dynasty, the population has flourished. This also determines that strategic places like Yushan Posthouse, where official institutions have been established, can easily form relatively prosperous towns.
Yushanyi cannot be compared with Huaiyuan.
Apart from the postmaster who led eleven or twelve veteran soldiers to garrison here to welcome and see off guests, there was no official like a garrison officer stationed at Yushan Post; and matters such as public security and anti-bandit defense were still under the control of the Huaiyuan Inspection Office.
However, as one of the most important nodes on the Tongbai Mountain Road, this place is home to two to three hundred households. Dozens of shops of varying sizes, including grain stores, wood shops, oil mills, blacksmith shops, porcelain shops, book and paper shops, tailor shops, and horse resting stations, are spread out along the street, making it quite prosperous.
And every ten days, people from nearby villages would come to the market, and it would be crowded and extremely lively.
Yushan Posthouse was too important, and Zheng Hui was worried about it. After confirming the next battle plan of the three-camp coalition forces, he rushed to Yushan Posthouse with Dong Qifeng early in the morning.
A team of horsemen slowly approached Yushan Posthouse in the morning light.
Seeing the pond at the east end of the long street of Yushan Post filled with corpses dumped overnight, and the long street that had been set on fire with almost no intact houses to be seen, and wisps of smoke rising from the broken walls, some people in the cavalry could not bear it:
"The Prime Minister may not be willing to see this situation!"
"From now on, even if there are no outsiders around, you are not allowed to mention this word again!" Zheng Hui said with a sullen face, warning the guy who was talking nonsense, "And I will report everything that happened here truthfully, so don't speculate on your own!"
Dong Qifeng also turned around and glared at the man, telling him to shut up.
They moved forward slowly.
The only well-preserved thing in the area is the post station courtyard, located at the west end of the long street.
Gao Xiangzhong's troops were driving the people who had not had time to escape, and were transporting cartloads of looted supplies into the compound.
Although Gao Xiangzhong captured Yushan Posthouse and allowed his troops to commit rape and looting in Yushan, the courtyard was in good order and the tokens of Zheng Hui and his party were strictly checked at several checkpoints.
Looking at the current situation, Zheng Hui also knew that Gao Xiangzhong allowed his troops to plunder mainly to release the anger that had been pent up in his troops for many years, but he did not allow them to become disorganized. He secretly felt that the stubborn bandits who had survived in the depths of Tongbai Mountain over the years still had certain military qualities.
This situation was better than he had expected. At least he could rest assured that Gao Xiangzhong would guard Yushan and block the troops that might be sent from Tangzhou and Biyang to attack.
When Zheng Hui and Dong Qifeng were about to meet Gao Xiangzhong under the guise of Chen Zixiao, two riders came quickly from the east. When the two riders entered the Yushan Posthouse and saw their people, Zheng Hui frowned slightly and stood in the alley waiting for them to come.
One of these two riders was the spy arranged by Zheng Hui to lurk in Huaiyuan.
Six elite horse thieves were surrounded and killed in Laoyatan, which boosted the morale of the soldiers in the military camp and made Deng Gui decide to defend the Huaiyuan military camp and then strengthen the control of the two wings of the military camp and the streets. This spy found an opportunity to sneak away from Huaiyuan after nightfall, but did not see Zheng Hui when he arrived at Mopanling, so he rushed to Yushan Posthouse.
"Is it that reckless general from the Xu family?" Zheng Hui did not expect that the morale of the Huaiyuan soldiers and the people did not collapse as he expected, and that Guo Junpan of Laoyatan led his troops to raid the streets of Huaiyuan, but suffered a small loss at the hands of a reckless general whom they looked down upon .
Dong Qifeng had met this reckless general named Xu Huai when he followed the Tang family caravan. He had some problems with his brain. Zheng Hui had also heard from Pan Chenghu about his bravery and recklessness in front of Lutai Village.
To be honest, the bandits in Laoyatan were careless and underestimated the enemy, so it was not so shocking that three of them were killed and three were captured by this reckless guy.
The question is, why did this reckless Xu appear in Huaiyuan at that time instead of in Lutai Village or Xiema Mountain?
Did Chu Shan Yaksha Fox really see through him to make such a move at the critical moment?
