Gao Jun's speech was indeed very timely, because after suffering the blow, the upper village suffered a large loss, and although the other villages did not suffer any losses, they were also frightened, and many people felt very frightened at this time. As a result, there were some complaints against the traversers, believing that it was the disaster that befell the traversers, and even a small number of villagers, including those whose families had been killed, even blamed all this on the land reform, and felt that the landlord's land should not be divided. Of course, this is also due to the fact that the landlords of Menbu Village exploited the peasants lightly before, and the land contradiction was not acute.

However, Gao Jun skillfully transferred all the hatred to the landlords' alliance, in fact, most of the villagers were still very satisfied after receiving the land; after all, the villagers who were killed were a minority, and the villagers who got the land were naturally unwilling to give up their land again, and the landlords' alliance that opposed the land reform naturally had hatred, and this battle was won after all, so the villagers still had confidence in the traverser, and the traverser's handling of the villagers who were killed had nothing to blame, which also moved many villagers greatly, and the dissatisfaction quickly calmed down。

After calming down the emotions of the villagers, Gao Jun also breathed a sigh of relief, and at this time, Wang Sheng and Liu Qinglin also returned to the village with the captives. In fact, Wang Sheng was indeed not idle last night, he interrogated more than a dozen prisoners in a row, and only then did he basically sort out the whole incident.

The things that Yuan Wanlin and Wan Yuan brothers reported to the traverser were basically correct. Last night's attack on Menbu Village was indeed related to a landlords' alliance led by Wan Yufu. A total of 16 landlords from 13 different villages in the surrounding area participated in the alliance, of which only 3 were from the area under the jurisdiction of Jiaozhou County, 2 were from Jimo County, and the remaining 11 were from villages belonging to Gaomi County.

It turns out that after the traverser implemented the land reform in Menbu Village, it immediately caused great nervousness among the surrounding landlords, which is of course very understandable, because land is the most important means of production in this era, and it is also the main wealth base of the vast majority of landlords, once the land is taken away, it means that the landlords have lost their main source of income, which is of course difficult for the landlords to accept; and Wan Yufu was originally the main squire of Gaomi County, he is not only the landlord, but also manages the land tax payment of the entire Gaomi County, so the land reform of the crossing group naturally completely cut off all the financial routes of Wan Yufu。

And Wan Yufu is naturally unwilling to be tied up like this, after all, he has great connections on both the official and private sides, and he can't fight against overseas Chinese alone, so he pulls the landlords and squires of the entire Gaomi County, and tries his best to squeeze this, so after the traverser issued the [Outline of the Land Reform System], he immediately came forward to take the lead and organize the landlord alliance.

Of course, most of the landlords are not all on the spur of the moment, only to join the alliance of Wan Yufu organization, although the vast majority of people have no contact with the traverser, but the overseas Chinese have established brilliant achievements before, great martial arts, there are still some heard, so against the overseas Chinese, how much chance of victory, no one is sure, after all, the land is handed over, at least the life of the family can be saved, the big deal is to be an ordinary peasant, so that he can still survive, and the confrontation with the overseas Chinese, once the defeat is to destroy the house, The result of the burning of jade.

However, Wan Yufu still has a layer of official clothing after all, and his brother-in-law Sun Zhongkui served in the Beiyang New Army in Jinan Mansion, serving as a battalion commander, with more than 500 people under his command, and relying on this relationship, Wan Yufu also got his youngest son Wan Shen into the Beiyang New Army, and now Sun Zhongkui's subordinates serve as a captain. Therefore, Wan Yufu also swore to the landlords that he could get Yuan Shikai's support and mobilize the Beiyang New Army to fight against the overseas Chinese.

Of course, retired officials like Liu Zongze can see that Wan Yufu is pulling a tiger skin and showing a big banner, but ordinary landlords can't see it, so their confidence in Wan Yufu is not much higher. Moreover, in the [Outline of the Land Reform System], there is also the content of cracking down on bullying landlords, and the vast majority of landlords have some things to oppress ordinary peasants with their own power and wealth, and it is not uncommon for them to even kill people, and when the traversers promote land reform around Menbu Village, they also suppressed several landlord bullies and local tyrants and inferior gentry, which has indeed become a lot of panic, and many landlords are estimating whether they are enough to meet the standards of landlord bullies and local tyrants and inferior gentry.

Wan Yufu also grasped this article, and tried his best to publicize and lobby other landlords, even if he handed over the land, he might not be able to save the lives of his wealthy. Therefore, it is better to fight hard and fight with overseas Chinese, and maybe you can survive the death. In addition, Wan Yufu also said that he could not only invite the Beiyang New Army, but also come forward to contact bandits and bandits to attach overseas Chinese, as long as he paid for it.

Many landlords thought that Wan Yufu's statement was reasonable, and Wan Yufu had dealings with some bandits, bandits, and robbers, and it was no secret in Gaomi County, so they joined this alliance and organized the township brave militia group in their own village, and contributed money and efforts. Although many landlords did not join the alliance organized by Wan Yufu because of their scruples, they also donated a lot of money to the alliance, and Wan Yufu did not force it, and those who came did not refuse, and first accepted all the money, so that a total of nearly 80,000 taels of silver were made up before and after.

At the same time, Wan Yufu was also active, first spending more than 30,000 taels of silver, contacting 6 bandit forces, and dispatching a total of more than 1,700 people to deal with overseas Chinese. Originally, Wan Yufu planned to let these bandits take turns to harass Menbu Village, firstly, to try the reaction of overseas Chinese, and secondly, to exert some pressure on overseas Chinese.

However, the flight of Wan Lin, Wan Yuan and others disrupted Wan Yufu's plan, because this might attract the attention of overseas Chinese, and even led overseas Chinese to take the initiative to send troops to attack the landlord alliance, so Wan Yufu changed his plan and decided to launch a full-scale attack on Menbu Village. In addition to the bandit forces, there were more than 1,200 township soldiers organized in each village, and more than 300 people composed of local lords and thugs, and Sun Zhongkui also personally led more than 300 Beiyang New Army to help in the battle, including 3 artillery pieces, for which more than 30,000 taels of silver were spent, so that the total strength of the attack on Menbu Village reached more than 3,500 people.

Previously, Wan Yufu also had some understanding of the situation in Menbu Village, knowing that the People's Army stationed there were only 5 or 600 people, and the land reform headquarters was located in Shangcun, so Wan Yufu divided the bandits into two groups, attacking the left and right villages respectively, attracting and containing the strength of the People's Army, and Wan Yufu also promised that once the village was broken, it could be plundered by the bandits, and all the things seized were obtained by the bandits; The family was the main force and attacked the village. In order to motivate everyone to fight bravely, Wan Yufu may also give a heavy reward, killing an overseas Chinese and rewarding 30 taels of silver, killing an overseas Chinese's subordinates, rewarding 15 taels of silver, and killing a villager in Menbu Village also rewarding 3 taels of silver.

It should be said that the landlord alliance occupies an absolute advantage in troops, and there is also considerable merit in tactical arrangement. However, because the traverser learned the information about the existence of the landlord alliance from Wan Lin and Wan Yuan brothers, they prepared for war in advance, and the arrival of the fire support company also greatly increased the strength of the people's army.

After listening to the results of Wang Sheng's interrogation, Liu Qinglin and Gao Jun were also very surprised, they didn't expect that the background of the establishment of this landlord alliance was really complicated, Gao Jun said: "Wan Yufu is a person who really has some ability, at least he can organize more than a dozen landlords and pull up an army of more than 3,000 people to attack us, which is not something that ordinary landlords can do." ”

Liu Qinglin also nodded, and said: "And judging from the battle plan formulated by the Landlord Alliance this time, it is definitely not something that ordinary people can do, at least a certain amount of military knowledge is required, if this is Wan Yufu's true ability, then this person is indeed worthy of our attention." However, judging from what we know, there seems to be nothing special about this Wan Yufu. ”

Gao Jun nodded and said, "We Bi Jing know too little about Wan Yufu's situation, and maybe there are things we don't know, so it seems that we need to strengthen the collection of more information in this area." ”

Wang Shengdao: "I think I don't need to pay too much attention to Wan Yufu, no matter how strong his ability is, but he is just an ordinary landlord, and the resources he can control are limited, it is nothing more than white and black, relying on spending money to get up and down, but this is nothing special, so it is unlikely to pose much threat to us." I think that the Beiyang New Army is also involved in this offensive, and it should arouse our attention. If it is not handled well, I am afraid it will lead to a conflict between us and Yuan Shikai. ”

Gao Jun said: "This time the Beiyang New Army participated in the war, it should be the personal behavior of some officers in the Beiyang New Army, and the conflict between us and Yuan Shikai was probably too serious." ”

Wang Sheng shook his head and said: "I don't think so, what is the position of Yuan Shikai in the history of the old time and space, we don't estimate it, but he is definitely the most capable person at this time, the Beiyang New Army is the capital of Yuan Shikai's start, so when Yuan Shikai first established the Beiyang New Army, he had very strict requirements for military discipline and absolutely required a ban." And a battalion-level officer can pull out hundreds of soldiers and three artillery pieces of the Beiyang New Army to help the militia armed forces formed by more than a dozen landlords, do you believe that this is just a personal act?"

Liu Qinglin said: "Do you think there is a conspiracy here?"

Wang Sheng nodded and said, "I think this matter is inseparable from Yuan Shikai, either Yuan Shikai deliberately arranged it, or Yuan Shikai deliberately pretended not to know." ”