The plan for the large-scale construction of the port was deliberately revealed by Ang Lee, and in this way, it soon attracted nearby merchants and craftsmen to come and get a piece of the pie, and as time went on, merchants and craftsmen from further afield also rushed to hear the news and prepared to enjoy the feast together.

Some businessmen came with capital to start their own businesses, while others trafficked in large quantities of building materials urgently needed by the port to support the construction of the port.

As long as they come to help, no matter what profession they are, Ang Lee is very welcome and will do his best to help them and protect their lives.

The remnants of the pirates have not yet been completely cleaned up, but through the current series of actions, the remnants of the pirates who have escaped into the mountains are about to collapse, and the day is not far off when they will be completely wiped out.

The occupation of villages and the constant search of the mountains have exhausted the remaining pirates, who have no effective access to food and supplies of various daily necessities, and their lives are quite miserable, and they are almost unable to hold on.

And the measures they can take are nothing more than hunting in the mountains and forests, picking some fruits to satisfy their hunger, nutrition is seriously unable to keep up, physical strength is getting worse and worse, and when they encounter Tang soldiers and horses, they don't have much ability to fight back, so they can only keep running away, like a lost dog.

The pressure on eating and drinking is the greatest, and at the same time, they have been facing the threat of the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses, and they are a little unstable in sleeping, and the lack of daily necessities leads to their large size, so they can only choose to wipe their buttocks with leaves, or even scrape with branches, which can be described as miserable.

But even if life was so difficult, they did not dare to go down the mountain to surrender, because they had long heard that all the captured pirates had been beheaded, and that they had been publicly executed in the bustling port of West Tianzhu, which made them very frightened and did not dare to go down the mountain to surrender.

They tried to send a few people down the mountain to get something to eat, but with the villages and main transportation hubs controlled by the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses, they simply did not have the ability to obtain supplies, and the lucky ones could return the same way, while the unlucky pirates were caught by the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses.

In the past ten days, the Tang soldiers and horses under Li An's command have captured dozens of pirates alive, and dozens of pirates have also been killed, making the remaining remnants of pirates even fewer.

After some education, Ang Lee decided not to kill the captured pirates and let them work as coolies and join the construction of the port.

At the same time, if they are willing to help lead the way, so that the Tang soldiers and horses can find their nests in the mountains, they will also give them rewards, such as giving them a meal of wine and meat, so that they can do better jobs.

People are selfish, and pirates are even more so, if they are not selfish, how can they do the work of pirates.

And now, if they choose to betray their companions, they can get better treatment, so how can they bear to refuse.

After several days of persuasion, a number of pirates agreed to lead the way for the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses to help the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses and annihilate all the remaining pirates.

At the same time, after the bounty announcement was posted, many village people also came to provide clues, as long as valuable clues can be provided, regardless of whether the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses catch pirates, the villagers who provide clues can get a reward, although the reward will not be very high, but for the poor people, it is also a very good income.

After synthesizing and analyzing various aspects of intelligence, Ang Lee marked the location of five or six pirate dens on the map and the connections between them.

Because the situation is more complicated in the deep mountains, even captured pirates cannot clearly describe the situation in the deep mountains, so there is still a certain degree of uncertainty in the deep mountains, and it is somewhat risky.

However, there are a large number of soldiers and horses in the Tang Dynasty, and they only need to march together with multiple soldiers and horses, and go through the places where the pirates may be hiding one by one, so that the pirates who are hiding can always be caught.

In order to complete the battle, Li An mobilized an army of 5,000 troops, preparing to launch a fierce attack on the pirates deep in the mountains.

In order to gather enough troops, all the men and horses in all villages were halved, and the soldiers and horses at each intersection did not move for the time being, so there was no pressure to gather 5,000 mobile corps.

In order to express his confidence in victory, this time he went into the mountains to encircle and suppress the remnants of the pirates, and Li An planned to take action personally, and he would personally lead all the troops and horses to attack the remnants of the pirates.

Before the battle was launched, Li An held a large-scale pledge meeting in the open area of the port, and not all the 5,000 soldiers and horses who participated in the battle were present, only a few hundred soldiers were present, and in addition, there were also officials and merchants from the port who participated in the pledge meeting, and it was estimated that there were more than 2,000 people, which was quite large.

The reason why all the soldiers and horses were not allowed to come to participate in the swearing-in meeting was because this time the soldiers were to attack in ten ways, and the starting places of each army and horses were different, and these soldiers and horses had already assembled at their respective starting places, so letting them all come to participate in the swearing-in meeting would delay the big event.

The oath meeting has a huge role in boosting morale, and Li An, as the chief general of the Tang Army, naturally wants to say a few more words to boost morale, so that the soldiers can fight bravely to kill the enemy and wipe out all the remnants of the pirates in one fell swoop.

The merchants in the audience were the most excited, they looked at Li An and the others on the stage, they were most looking forward to the complete elimination of pirates, because the pirates liked to rob the rich merchants the most, and ordinary people did not have much money to be looted.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my Datang 5,000 army has been assembled in place, and will soon launch a final attack on the remaining pirates, this battle is the last stop of my Datang soldiers and horses against pirates, and it will definitely be able to settle the situation in a battle, this battle, the soldiers and horses under the command of this officer will launch an attack in ten ways, and this officer will personally lead all the soldiers and horses, and will never return to the division if the pirates are not killed."

Li An assured with a righteous attitude.

"The Tang army is mighty, the Tang army is mighty."

"Datang will win, Datang will win."

The onlookers began to shout slogans indiscriminately, expressing their excitement.

Li Ang didn't have much to say, and after a brief puff of breath, he ordered the army to march out, officially launching the last stop against the remnants of the pirates.

The soldiers and horses of each way are 500 soldiers, and the team of men and horses led by Li An himself, plus 100 guards, the total number of soldiers and horses is 600 people, which is stronger than the rest of the soldiers and horses.

In addition, in order to prevent encountering terrain that is not conducive to the attack, each army and horse has an artillery team, twenty men and four horses, waiting for two guns.

When the terrain is good, you can let the horse drag, when the terrain is bad, you can disassemble the cannon and tie it to the horse's back, if you can't even pass the horse, you can carry it with manpower.

When he first set off, Ang Lee was still able to ride in the ironclad car, and although there were some bumps on the road, there was still a way to go, which was very good.

Upon arriving at the foot of the mountain, Ang Lee found that the normal paved road was gone, and even the road surface could not be seen at all, and no one would have known that it was a road unless the captured pirates had led the way.

The pavement is uphill for a while, downhill for a while, and serpentine, without the slightest pattern to follow.

This made the Tang soldiers and horses who followed behind full of abuse, and scolded the captured pirates for whether they deliberately manipulated them, how could there be such a difficult road.

However, the captured pirates are really very wronged, the road is so difficult to walk, if the road is easy to walk, their nest has long been discovered by the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses.

It is because the road is too difficult to travel, when the Tang soldiers and horses go into the mountains to search, they always avoid the roads that are too difficult to walk, so that they cannot find the hidden place where the pirates are hiding for half a month.

Traveling on a rough and difficult road is simply a living sin, ordinary soldiers and horses are better, and the artillery units are miserable, and they have long disassembled the artillery on horseback.

However, with such a bad road, the pressure on the horses to walk is very high, and the horses have artillery equipment on their backs, which makes it even more difficult to advance on rough roads.

However, in order to save manpower, as long as you can barely pass the horse, you will not give up the horse, and when you encounter a difficult section when you go uphill, there are often more than a dozen people pushing the horse together.

After Li An got off the car, he also had a horse, and after riding for a long time, he had to get off the horse and walk, because the horse was impassable at all, and his head would always touch the branches, which was too uncomfortable.

The deeper you go into the mountains, the more rugged and difficult the road is, and finally, even the horses are impassable, the vertical slope of sixty degrees, no horse can climb over, only people can climb over, and manpower in the flip over, but also with the help of the rope to walk safer, if there is no rope help, you may fall from the top if you are not careful, to a broken bones.

"Li Shilang, the road ahead is getting harder and harder, so don't go! Just lead the army to attack and suppress. ”

Seeing that there was a steep mountain ahead to climb, a lieutenant spoke.

Li An has not climbed a mountain for a long time, and it will be more difficult to climb the mountain, but since he said it when he set off, he can't give up halfway, and he will be laughed at by the soldiers.

"When the official swore an oath, he had already stated that he would personally lead the soldiers and horses to exterminate the remaining pirates, so no matter how rugged and difficult the road ahead was, the officer would not back down, and the high mountains that the soldiers could climb could also be crossed."

Li An said loudly.

"Li Shilang, the road is really difficult, the horses are no longer able to advance, do the artillery still have to keep up?"

An artillery team member asked, wiping sweat.

Li An glanced at the artilleryman and asked, "Can you climb the mountain with the artillery?" ”

"Yes, yes, but there is a big risk, if you are not careful, you may run away with people and roll down the mountain."

The artillery team replied earnestly.

Li An thought for a moment and said: "It's hard to say what kind of enemy situation you will encounter next, it is very likely that you will need artillery support, so even if there are difficulties, you have to find a way to overcome them, by the way, the ten of you are responsible for one cannon, the pressure is a little great, and this official will transfer twenty guards to help you, in this way, it can also reduce your pressure." ”

"Thank you Li Shilang, my subordinates will do their best."

The artillery team is feeling ashamed.

Li An glanced at Gao Shan, thought about it carefully, and said: "Don't use manpower to carry it, it's too dangerous, hang it with a rope, hang all parts of the artillery and shells with a rope, so it's much safer." ”

"Yes, my subordinates understand."

The artillery team is rushing to find the rope.

Because they did not expect the road to be so difficult, the artillery officers did not prepare too many ropes, only prepared a small amount of ropes, which were used to fix the artillery on the back of horses or people, and if you want to drag the artillery from the bottom of the mountain to the top of the mountain, you need a longer rope, you need to find it.

Fortunately, the infantry officers in charge of opening the way prepared a lot of ropes, which the artillery team quickly borrowed and asked a few people to climb to the top of the hill, tie one end of the rope to the thick trunk of a tree, and then throw the other end down, and the people below caught the rope and tied the artillery.

Then, the people above are pulling the rope hard, and the people below are holding on to the cannon to prevent the cannon parts from being caught by something.

In this way, with the efforts of forty people, the two guns were successfully transported to the top of the mountain, but the road on the top of the mountain is not easy to walk, almost walking on the roof, how difficult it is can be imagined, if you are not careful, you may fall to the bottom of the mountain, and you will be crushed.

The rugged ridge road was less than a mile away, and in front of it was a bottomless ravine, and at the top of the ditch was a small wooden bridge that could only accommodate one person, and no one could pass through it if it was burned.

However, pirates also need to take this small wooden bridge when they go out of the mountain, so naturally they will not burn it, which allows the Tang Dynasty soldiers and horses to pass smoothly.

In order to prevent too many people from crushing the small bridge, Li An asked the soldiers to disperse across the bridge, and the bridge deck could only accommodate five people at most, which should be enough.

"No wonder I couldn't find a place for pirates to hide, look at what kind of road they are taking, where are people staying."

One of the lieutenants grumbled.

"Along the way, neither wild beasts nor fruit trees have been found, are these pirates trapped in the mountains eating the bark of trees?"

The other wondered.

"Who says there's no game, I just saw a rabbit?"

"Oh, there's a hare, you're sure you read that right."

"Of course it's right, it's a gray hare, I can see it clearly."

"How many other birds do I see flying in the sky?"

Several lieutenants chatted.

"There is a situation, the arrow tower is found ahead."

A soldier ran back to report.

Everyone was excited when they heard that the arrow tower had been discovered, which meant that they were close to where the remnants of the pirates were hiding, and they would soon be able to complete the mission.

However, after seeing the terrain, the soldiers all gasped.

The location of the arrow tower is in a very high place, and the road to the arrow tower is a relatively open area, if you walk directly over, you will become an arrow target, and you can also throw stones from the arrow tower to attack, which will cause more damage to the attacking side.