After receiving the task, Li Xi left with more than 1,000 volunteers, first of all, his task was to clean up all kinds of bandits entrenched in Maoming County.

Li Shi asked Qin Liu to lead the way to Peng Village's place to suppress bandits, before Chen Zijian had asked people to search for information in the county, where there were bandits had almost been found out, only a small number of bandits were like Zhang San, after being forced to be bandits, they did not capture the people, most of the bandits are harmful, go down the mountain to do all kinds of things that hurt the heavens and reason, they are the local tyrants, and even cooperate with local Haoqiang, and let Haoqiang do what it is inconvenient to do, let the bandits do it for him, for example, a certain Haoqiang takes a fancy to the good land in the people's house and wants to buy it at a low price, The people were naturally unwilling, so the matter came, Haoqiang secretly found the bandits, let the bandits destroy the family, and then Haoqiang took over the uninhabited fertile land, and this is how a perfect Haoqiang colluded with the bandits to do evil.

Intelligence officer: "Brigade commander, the leader of the bandits is called Fat Tiger, who is good at using a big knife, and he doesn't know how many good people he has killed!" For the evil side, all the people in the vicinity must make offerings to him every year, otherwise they will lead people down the mountain to slaughter the village. ”

"There are more than 20 good players among the bandits, and all of them are one in a hundred. Last time, the county patrol led 500 people to suppress, and they were all collapsed by the more than 20 bandits, and the inspection was killed by a knife on the spot, and after that, no one in the government dared to care about the affairs of the mountain! Let it plague the place. ”

Li Xian didn't have any indignation when he heard it, this kind of thing is not a big deal at this time, the government has long lost control of the locality, what else can he do besides collecting taxes from the people! As for the matter of crossing the mountain, Li Xian disdained it, and sure enough, he was a bandit who could only harm the people, and he had no prospects, and he was not qualified to compare with an adult like the chief.

Think about it, the chief has pulled up such a big family business in such a short time, in addition to the chief's strength, first of all, he did not kill a single person indiscriminately, and when the people arrived in Zhangjia Village, they were happy, as for the people who were accidentally injured because of the arrest of the rebels, Li Xian didn't think there was anything wrong, and the people were arrested obediently, and they had nothing to resist. Li Shi, this is the logic of bandits.

Under the leadership of Qin Liu, more than 1,000 troops went all the way east, gradually walking out of the plain and into a mountainous area. The mountain was uninhabited, undulating, full of trees and boulders. Li Xi led his troops back and forth on the narrow mountain road, secretly saying that this was really a suitable place for hiding thieves.

Li Shi has also been a bandit, he doesn't know what military strategy, but he also knows that if the bandit is in some small places, the volunteers will have unnecessary losses.

Qin Liu said diligently: "Brigade Commander, this is the time to enter the Salt Mountain!" After walking ten miles, you will reach the thief's den and insert Tianfeng! ”

Qin Liu, as an intelligence officer, didn't need him to attack the bandits, he also had credit for finding the thieves' den, and after finding a thief's den, after the volunteers confirmed that there was no mistake, Qin Liu had a reward of 100 taels of silver. Chen Zijian is accustomed to rewarding with silver, whoever has merit will have silver, and there is no need to worry about his subordinates not doing their best.

In order to prevent being ambushed by the bandits, Li Xi asked all the volunteers to start guarding. He sent three more squads of 18 volunteers to reconnoiter in front and on both sides, and the large army followed these scouts behind.

After walking a few more miles, Li Zhi suddenly heard the shouts from the scouts in front of him, Li Shi felt a pang in his heart, and shouted loudly: "Everyone occupies a high place and is ready to meet the enemy!" ”

If so many people entered the mountain and the bandits had not yet discovered the approaching volunteers, there would be no vigilance at all, then this group of bandits should have been bulldozed a long time ago.

In the middle of the ring, a squad of volunteers turned back. The scouts were beaming, and two of them grabbed a bandit who was tied up, and walked up to Li Xi and threw the bandit on the ground.

The bandit had a wound on his arm and was moaning loudly on the ground.

"Brigade commander, I met three bandit scouts, caught one alive, and ran away with two!"

Li Xi looked at the injured bandit, drew his knife and slashed at one of the bandit's legs, and the bandit immediately let out a miserable scream.

"How many bandits are there in the cottage?"

Seeing that Li Shi was so ruthless, the injured thief didn't dare to lie, and said in a panic: "Official! There are more than 340 bandits, and more than 100 women and miscellaneous servants! ”

Seeing that Li Xian's bandits mistakenly thought that they were people from the government, there was nothing strange, during this period of time, they were full of food and drink, coupled with a lot of training every day, the volunteers as a whole did not dare to say that they were tall and big, but their spirit was incomparable to that of the bandits, and in front of the volunteers, the bandits' mental state looked like beggars. The supply of the bandits is not like the Volunteers, the supply of the Volunteers, it is like an empty city, eating, drinking and dressing is not a problem, and the logistics of the bandits are not compared with the Volunteers.

Li Xi asked again, "What kind of weapons do you use?" ”

The thief replied, "Most of them have broadswords, more than sixty spears, and more than twenty horses!" More than thirty people have armor! And also... And two useless Tiger Squat Cannons! ”

Li Xian was stunned: "And the cannon?" Where did it come from? ”

The thief hurriedly replied, "Official! It was cast by the gunsmith of the cottage, but there was no gunpowder in the cottage, and the tiger squatting cannon couldn't be fired! ”

"And the gunsmith in the cottage?"

Only then did Li Zhi put his mind at ease, and asked people to tie the thief to a tree and ignore him, and continue to advance with his troops.

Tiger squat cannon or something, Li Xi didn't care, if he wanted, he could find Chen Zijian before leaving, this was found from Maoming County before, there are a total of thirteen, but the quality of the tiger squat cannon, I have seen the high-level volunteers who opened the cannon, they all shook their heads and gave up, five artillery guns were test-fired, four guns were blown up, and the tail was blown up by gunpowder, and the scene was a mess. The reason for the poor quality of the artillery has also been found, Li Xian is qualified to know the inside story, the cost of the artillery is 1,000 taels of silver, and after the layers of deductions by the civil officials, in the end, the craftsman can only have less than 100 taels of silver in his hand, and he wants to build a 1,000 silver cannon with less than 100 taels of silver, and its quality can be imagined.

After walking four miles forward, and when there were still three or four miles away from Jiyun Peak, Li Xi heard "Bang!" The scout platoon commander who heard the path in front of him suddenly fired another shot. This shot was obviously the reconnaissance squad calling the police, and Li Shi hurriedly let the troops occupy the favorable terrain with a wide field of vision, and distributed them on the hillside to prepare for battle.

In the middle of the ring, Li Xi saw the scout squad running back in front of him, and shouted loudly as he ran: "Brigade commander! The bandits are here! ”

Li Xian was stunned, he didn't expect these thieves to be so arrogant and come out of the cottage so far. Quickly asked, "How many people?" How far? ”

"About three hundred! It's only two miles away! ”

Li Xi stabilized his mind, and secretly said that he wanted to follow the chief in the future, and he had no face without any ability, this was an opportunity to perform, although Li Xi had killed the landlord's family with the volunteers before, but the family was different from the bandits, Li Xi shouted loudly: "Call the other brothers back, all the platoon leaders come out, form a three-array and fire, and the rest of the brothers are waiting behind!" ”

Mini guns are only available to the volunteers at the platoon commander level, and the volunteers brought by Li Shi have a total of fifty Mini guns, first use the Mini guns to suppress the momentum of the bandits' charge, and wait for the courage of the thieves to lie down, and then press the remaining volunteers to sweep the field, this is the chief taught to himself, not to mention that he has long-range firearms on his side, even if there are no firearms, press the volunteers directly, Li Shi dares to guarantee that his side will not lose, and in the end the casualties may be larger.

According to Li Shi's order, fifty platoon commanders held Minnie guns and waited for the arrival of the enemy.

Li Xi walked to the top of the mountain and observed the terrain: his troops were at the top of the hill, and the top of the mountain was about 400 meters away from the foot of the mountain. If the bandits want to rush over, they can only rush up from the mountain road at the foot of the mountain, and the bandits can't run fast in this kind of terrain. Moreover, this hillside is steep, and there are several cliffs where there is no road, so the bandits can only take the mountain road to rush up, and the Minutey guns of the Volunteers can easily block the bandits on the mountain road.

Li Xian secretly said that the terrain was good, which was conducive to the deployment of his troops' firepower. Of course, if you use a three-stage shot on flat ground, the firepower is more fierce, but if you go into the mountains to suppress bandits, the chances of encountering bandits on flat ground are not very high.

Even if the war starts on the mountain road, Li Xi is confident that these bandits will not return! There are only about 300 bandits, but there are more than 1,000 volunteers, and desperately the volunteers will be afraid of bandits!

However, Li Xi was a little curious about the thieves who dared to rush to kill him, what kind of leopard gall did they eat, and they dared to charge with more than 300 people?

Li Xian shouted loudly: "Everyone check again whether the ignition powder is loaded and whether the bullets are loaded!" ”

The platoon commander checked the gunpowder and bullets before re-pointing his gun at the bandits.

Everyone waited with bated breath, and after waiting for half an hour, they saw the bandits who had rushed over.

Under the leadership of more than 20 horseback backbones, about 300 bandits walked to the foot of the mountain. Those bandits are all very strong, and they obviously eat well! At first, a big thief rode a high-headed horse wearing brand-new cotton armor under his crotch, holding a five-ring machete in his hand, and he was violent, thinking that he was the first fat tiger of the bandits.

The bandits saw the volunteers on the hill, rode to a halt at the foot of the mountain, and jumped off their horses one by one, unaware that they were within range of Minnie's rifles.

Seeing that the bandits were stupid, Li Shi shouted loudly: "All platoon commanders listen, after I shout to open fire, according to the three-stage shooting taught by the chief, the platoon commander takes turns to command the salvo!" Do you understand? ”

"Got it!"

"Got it!"

Well, stopping two hundred meters away, it's not the stupidity of the fat tiger, who would have thought that the volunteers who attacked them would have such firearms! Insight limits the imagination of crossing the mountains and the sky, and they mistakenly think that it is the waste wood of the government that comes, for the officers and soldiers, the fat tiger has long been afraid, not to mention that only a thousand people come, even if more than 2,000 people come, in such a narrow place as the mountain road, they can't open their camps, what is the effect of more people coming. After the courage of the officers and men on the hill is defeated, the officers and men will be driven away like a flock of ducks.

The bandits jumped off their horses and shouted at the foot of the mountain. Those in armor straighten their armor, and those who don't have armor simply take off their shirts and hold their weapons bare. The leader of the bandits stood at the front, shouting loudly with a large sword, as if to boost morale.

Compared with the shouting of the bandits, the volunteers are very quiet, they don't need to be encouraged, in the face of the bandits who came over, in the eyes of the volunteers, this is not a bandit, this is a military merit of promotion and wealth. Afraid of something, there will be no volunteers who come, isn't it just killing, before they became volunteers, they were bullied and didn't dare to resist, not because they were cowardly, but because they thought of the consequences after killing, they would cause the whole family to be wanted by the government, and now with Chen Zijian's support for them, not only will it be okay to kill the enemy, but they can be promoted and make a fortune, who is afraid of whom!

After shouting for a long time, the bandits finally rushed towards the volunteers, and the appearance of a swarm of bees was quite imposing. Less than one hundred and fifty meters away from the volunteers, Li Xi was waiting for this moment, and shouted loudly: "Fire!" ”

Hearing Li Shi's order, the first platoon commander pulled the trigger, "Bang bang!" "A series of gunshots rang out, and after the shooting, I didn't care about looking at the shooting, got out of the way, and let the second platoon leader shoot.

The platoon commander of the first platoon went to the back to reload, waited for the brother in front to finish shooting, and stepped forward himself.