The news of the "thieves" camping on the seashore soon spread to various nearby villages, and it was obvious that the more than 200 men and horses who were heavily armed and dragging cannons were not here for tourism. Before it got dark, the surrounding villages within more than ten miles invariably sent messengers with wine, dried meat, chickens and ducks to visit.

"I wanted to call them, so I sent them to the door myself. Call them in! Xi Yaya was originally tasked with the task of the Executive Committee asking him to appease the villages along the road and ask them to be subordinate.

The headquarters tent has been equipped with a radio station, and a laptop has been turned on, on which is Xi Asia's beloved wargame game, but it has now been transformed into a combat simulation command system. Outside the tent, two soldiers were riding on a tandem pedal generator, stomping desperately.

Siya sat on a folding canvas chair in front of the tent at the headquarters, with two flagpole spears behind him, fluttering his favorite red and yellow pennants - this was his personal command flag, and the flag of the crossing army was still debated. Watching this group of old men in their best clothes bend over and walk in from the gate of the camp, this sense of power is quite enjoyable.

Xi Yaya explained to these elders through three interpreters that in addition to Lingao, there are also military speakers and Qiongzhou speakers, they are just passing through here, and they will be pulled out early tomorrow morning, and as for the things they send, the crossing army will not accept them, but they did not expect this statement to make these old men cry bitterly, and they all knelt on the ground and begged bitterly, eager to come and hug his thighs.

"What's going on?" Xi Yaya was confused.

Xiong Buyou, who served as the translator, couldn't figure out that Weishenme's declaration of no crime in the autumn would get such a result, and asked for a long time, only to know that these elders thought that they were not satisfied with the things they had sent, and they wanted to ask for more, and they were crying that the village was so poor that people were dying of starvation.

"Okay, then take all the wine." Xi Yaya couldn't cry or laugh, and felt the pity of the people, "Don't want dried meat and chickens and ducks, ask them to send some fresh vegetables and eggs and duck eggs." ”

Hearing Xi Yaya's order, these people all got up like the emperor's amnesty, and then the villages jointly offered 50 taels of silver to the "head of the table". Xi Yaya once again resolutely refused. So he got some praise such as "the general is honest and self-clean", "the chief is really honest and honest", Xiong Buyou didn't bother to translate it after translating a few sentences.

Xi Yaya's face was upright, and in accordance with the spirit of the executive committee, he announced: Before the 30th day of the first month of the second year of Chongzhen, all villages should send people to report to Bairencheng to discuss the major matter of "preventing bandits and preventing theft".

"Everyone knows what happened to Gou Jiazhuang, who colluded with pirates." Xi Yaya's eyes showed a fierce light, "I came to Lingao, and I deeply felt that the people's livelihood here was withering, and bandits were rampant. Whoever does not cooperate with our actions will not be able to get along with the people of Lingao, and the people of Lingao, that is, they will not be able to get along with the court, and they will be rebels and rebels! Everyone will be killed. He slashed his hand down, "The village that didn't come today will be told by you." ”

The people kneeling below are almost confused, this group of "thieves" themselves are not pirates, what kind of "for the court", confused and confused, the deeds of the bloody Gou Jiazhuang have been recreated by countless people, and it has become a horror legend, who dares to say a "no" word, but only promised, and secretly glad that the village is very familiar with the initiative to come.

Xi Ya asked them to send a liaison officer from each village to accompany the army, and asked for a few guides who were familiar with the local mountain roads. That's what made them quit.

"All the villages have sent people?" Xi Ya asked Xiong Buyou, who marked the villages that had come to report to the camp on a map.

"All of them came within a radius of ten miles, and three within a radius of fifteen miles."

Xi Yaya is full of confidence, "When we finish Baitu, there will be more villages." ”

"What are you telling them to do in Bairen City?" Xiong Buyou was a little curious.

"Levy Ding and collect grain," Xi Yaya looked at the topographic map on the table, "We have no opponents in this Lingao County, and the next step is to use the human and material resources here." General Ma wanted to capture the county seat and become the county commander himself, but Chairman Wen wanted to encircle the cities from the countryside, coerce the villages by force, and establish our own administrative network. The county seat doesn't matter at all. ”

"I don't think there's anything wrong with the county, isn't it just a county yamen? It's not a matter of time and place. ”

"That's right, the common people are the fundamental."

"Report, Navy Commander Chen is here!"

From tomorrow the troops will be marching into the mountains, and the navy's support fleet will not be able to replenish the army only after arriving in Baitu. After Xi Yaya and the fleet commander Chen Haiyang coordinated, the two sides decided to advance separately tomorrow, and the army would advance to the outskirts of Baitu Village at 3 p.m., and then persuade the people in the village to surrender, if the persuasion failed, Xi Yaya would release three red rockets, and the "Fubo" would begin to shell Baitu Harbor, and if the persuasion was successful, a green rocket would be released -- since the firecracker makers were recruited, although they could not make signal flares, the rockets of the model were still possible.

They also agreed on the communication signals and handling plans for various situations, and it was not until about 6 o'clock in the evening that Chen Haiyang returned to the Fubo by rowboat -- he declined Xi Yaya's invitation to leave him for dinner, and returned to the ship with the vegetables and eggs distributed to the navy. Xi Ya is quite sure that there is more delicious food on the Fubo. He was haunted by this, especially when he saw the guards bring him a large bowl of hot rice dough.

Dinner is Caodi No. 3 and Caodi No. 4, the former is rice noodles and the latter is rice noodles. Cook thoroughly in a large pot and rack up a whole packet of compound seasonings: salt, chopped shallots, pepper - it's a pity that there are no chili peppers, otherwise it would be better if this thing was oily and spicy - and many glazed clay pots with fish sauce. The jars have a rattan coat to prevent them from being bumped and damaged when they are moved. A variety of vegetables and poultry eggs sent by the people in the vicinity also enriched the contents of the soup.

The boiled thing tastes quite good, but there is no oil and water. Xi Yaya once again saw the good appetite of the peasants in this time and space: a soldier ate almost 3 catties of rice noodles in one go.

The officers' soup was filled with sliced luncheon meat. The fine tradition of hard work and simplicity shows its power here, and when it comes to 125g of canned luncheon meat being eaten by two people, the person in charge of cutting must be very careful not to cut more or less. Even the grease on the inside of the can is washed with hot soup to eliminate it.

"I didn't expect luncheon meat to be delicious!" Dongmen Fuyu took a sip of rice noodle soup, and after adding luncheon meat, the soup seemed to become richer, and the luncheon meat also added a mixture of spices to the soup, which was much better than the soup noodles with seasonings. It seems that Grass No. 3 and No. 4 are not a big problem, the disadvantage is that there is no fat, if it is not for luncheon meat, the taste is still too bland simply with seasoning packets.

He wrote down his feelings about the rations in his notebook, and then walked out of the tent to relax, but his heart was a little hot, but he kicked something and rolled away with a clatter, and when he fixed his eyes on it was an empty can of luncheon meat.

"What a waste, who did this!" The tinplate is something that the industrial sector has not yet been able to make -- when the canteen cooks every day, not to mention canned food boxes, even the vacuum aluminum foil bags and plastic bags are carefully washed and put away and handed back to the warehouse of the Planning Commission. He searched around for a while, and found all the canned boxes. Hurriedly ran to the headquarters to report to Xi Yaya, so all the officers received an order that night: the canned food boxes that were eaten must be washed and recycled.

The artillery teaching company commander Ying Yue was marching in the mountains. Sweat has soaked through the uniform. Is this still winter? He stopped, took a sip of the light salt water from the kettle, and looked at the winding mountain path.

The dense forest obscures the marching columns, and the mountain is not steep, but it is rugged and difficult to walk. But Ying Yu can imagine his subordinates: a platoon of the Army Artillery Training Team, three 12-pounder mountain howitzers. The cannons were dismantled and carried on horseback. According to the standard 12-pounder howitzer formation, each gun was carried by three horses, the first carrying the gun body, the second carrying the gun carriage and wheels, and the third carrying two ammunition boxes. One ammunition box contains 8 shells: 2 grenades, 6 solid shells. There are only 16 rounds in 2 ammo boxes. Under normal conditions, the base of a cannon is 48 shells. But it was not enough for all the horses and donkeys in the hands of the traverser to go into battle. Even if only three artillery pieces were dispatched, most of the horses in the farm had already been used, and Wu Nanhai had to make sure that all the horses would return safely, so he did not hesitate to send Yang Guigui into the expedition to take care of the horses, but he could march by boat and avoid marching on foot.

Several artillerymen passed by Ying Yu's side. Like the infantrymen, they all carried full gear and rifles, and the only one who did not carry a rifle was a 15-year-old child, who was an artillery student at the military and political school, and was as thin as a monkey.

"When will there be an all-mule mounted artillery?" Ying Yue sighed.

There were also more than a dozen porters behind the artillery platoon, all carrying the equipment and supplies of the artillerymen on their backs. These are the "liaisons" sent by the villages yesterday, and Xi Yaya is prepared to send these people back to the villages to contact and arrange in case of the need to use additional manpower and material resources. Ying Yue said that they have nothing to do anyway, so they should help me carry some equipment to reduce the burden on the horses, and there are too many fragments of artillery.

Bei Wei took a reconnaissance team and a few guides to go out a few kilometers to search for the blocking style, clear possible ambushes and observation posts, according to the guides, Baitu Village rarely interacts with the surrounding villages, they all go out to trade directly, eat well, and even the wood for shipbuilding is transported from the sea. They don't lack anything, and their lives are quite nourishing. It is rare to come out of the mountains to catch the market, and foreign silver is often used to buy things, and some people have seen a large foreign ship go to Baitu.

Because of the infestation of local bandits, Baitu Village set up a wooden village on the key point of the road leading to the village and sent people to defend it. As for the heroes of the seas, they do not come to intrude—they often repair and buy ships in Baitu.