Chapter 314: Hell on Earth

Originally, Duan Zhenghong was prepared to encounter obstacles on the way, and he ordered the troops to attack lightly all the way, and if they encountered the Qing army halfway, they would be resolutely defeated.

He also ordered a large number of sailors to abandon the ship and go ashore, and organized several groups of men and horses to follow behind, mainly responsible for occupying several large towns along the way, and at the same time transporting ammunition to the front, his mortar shells and machine gun bullets were too heavy for the lightly armed assault soldiers to carry.

Unexpectedly, they were surprised to find that there was no obstacle along the way.

Liu Jinzhong, a Qing general who pretended to be clever, believed that the main forces of the Ming army were all in Zhaoqing and Shunde, and in order to strengthen the defense line of the Pearl River, he had ordered as early as the day before yesterday to transfer all the large Qing troops originally stationed in the north of the city to the camp in the west of the city and in the city.

Therefore, Duan Zhenghong and the others found that in addition to a few empty camps along the way, there were only a few small groups of stragglers with dozens of people left who were still on guerrilla alert everywhere, frantically burning, killing, plundering, and harming the defenseless people when they were dying.

However, as soon as these cowards saw the figure of the Ming army, they scattered in a hurry, and no one dared to come forward to harass them, so Duan Zhenghong and the others quickened their pace and swaggered straight to Yuexiu Mountain.

These fragmentary tartars that are not in the climate can be safely handed over to the large number of sailor brothers who follow up to clean up.

Duan Zhenghong's temper is indeed very hot, but his brain is not stupid at all, when he arrived at the northern foot of Yuexiu Mountain, he thought a little and ordered the entire third company to turn to the east to outflank, since the Qing army gave up the periphery, then simply even block the east gate, and catch turtles in an urn.

After sending off the third company, Duan Zhenghong led his two machine gun platoons to continue south along the foot of the mountain, and when they were about to arrive at Panlonggang, the observer of Barrett's sniper group who was looking around from the Wanghai Tower spotted them through the binoculars......

……

Looking at Duan Zhenghong, who was hurrying to eat dry food after the report, and Lin Xiao, who was full of ambition, he was fighting his little Jiujiu again in his heart.

Duan Zhenghong didn't bring many people, but the firepower was strong enough, to deal with the Qing army in this era, it was completely crazy, there were more than 60 soldiers in the two machine gun platoons, not counting other guns, there were six mortars alone, plus a full twelve machine guns.

Having this strong reinforcement all of a sudden, for Lin Xiao now, it is like an upstart who suddenly inherited a million family assets.

Now, in addition to immediately taking the granary, if he doesn't do anything else, he won't be called Lin Xiao.

In his current mood, he can't wait to immediately enter Guangzhou City and capture Shang Kexi alive.

Of course, this is just a thought, since the granary is outside the city, there is really no need to take this risk, after all, the machine gun battalion is his direct unit, the number is small and all are carefully selected veterans, and several of them are still returning from Temasek.

In his eyes, the lives of every soldier here are 10,000 times more precious than Shang Kexi's life, and he is reluctant to exchange their lives for their lives.

"The granary is outside the city...... Outside the city? ”

Suddenly, Lin Xiao frowned slightly.

The main force of the Qing army outside the city, since it has been withdrawn a few days ago, this granary ...... Isn't he also an outcast?

No wonder, that Liu Laosi dared to blatantly sell military rations......

Thinking of this, Lin Xiao hurriedly called Duan Zhenghong and Situ Zheng, asked them to listen to him, and whispered about his battle plan......

……

At the southern foot of Yuexiu Mountain, three miles outside the city wall of the north gate of Guangzhou, at the northernmost end of the granary camp, several tall granaries with brick and wood structures stand quietly in the dark.

In front of them, on an open field with a radius of several hundred meters, hundreds of large open-air spire grain stacks were densely packed, and they were full of grain bags.

Twenty paces away from the granary and the grain stack was a drainage ditch more than a foot wide, and beyond the ditch was the fence of the large battalion, the thick wooden stakes of the fence lined up in a dense column along the winding and undulating hillside, like a column of soldiers.

Several Qing army patrol squads were holding knives and guns in their hands, holding torches, silently shuttling back and forth between the grain stacks and fences, and the atmosphere was solemn.

At the gate of the camp facing the street, after sending away more than 60 carts full of grain, the guards were slowly closing the heavy camp gate with the strength and weakness.

More than 100 soldiers escorting the grain cart all listlessly followed the convoy slowly towards the east of the city, where the most active night black market in Guangzhou was.

The hundreds of stones of grain in the car can be exchanged for thousands of taels of silver, but this is all their boss's, and they will not have their share at all, and their errand runners are not even qualified to get a piece of the pie.

Therefore, these soldiers with resentment in their hearts wish that something would happen on the road, and it is better to have a few strongmen who do not open their eyes to block the road and grab food, so that they can take the opportunity to cut off a few heads and receive some rewards.

This is not a whimsical idea, God knows how many pairs of eyes are staring at these dozens of truckloads of grain in the dark night on the side of the road, and their eyes are about to burst into flames.

Since the Qing army broke through the city and occupied Guangzhou during the autumn harvest last year, the price of grain in Guangzhou, which was already short of grain under the war, has soared.

Shang Kexi cared about the life and death of the people, and as soon as he entered the city, he instigated his subordinates to loot civilian rations everywhere in the name of levying military rations.

There is no shortage of unscrupulous profiteers who have made a fortune in all dynasties, these people either have a very hard background and can not move, or they have taken the initiative to become Shang Kexi's soft objects to decorate the façade, and even some are directly from the north, they are already half-official and half-businessmen, and they specialize in following the ass of the army to go south and north, specializing in the collusion of officials and businessmen.

These people hoarded Juqi and sat on the ground to raise the price, and through this underground black market, they desperately raised the price of food, and those who wanted to survive had to sell their wealth cheaply to exchange for some living rations, and they could live for a day.

Fueled by these profiteers, the current price of grain has been inflated to more than 100 wen a catty, and 8.9 out of 10 middle-class families in Guangzhou who were still living a decent life in Guangzhou have been forced to the brink of bankruptcy, not to mention those poor people who are struggling to engage in handicrafts and coolies and can only make ends meet.

After half a year, the city of Guangzhou, including the surrounding suburbs, seems to have become a hell on earth, and a large number of hungry people are abandoned in mass graves outside the city every day, and even thrown directly into the rolling Pearl River.

Therefore, since the beginning of spring this year, a large number of people have fled from Zhaoqing and Guangzhou, as well as from the surrounding counties, and as many as tens of thousands of people have fled over the mountains and mountains to the southern Jiangxi region.

These poor people, who have been accustomed to starving to death for thousands of years and never leaving their hometowns, have to leave home with hatred and live a life of wandering and begging in order to have a chance to live.

……

In the southeast corner of the camp, there is a tall bungalow with five bays, which is the temporary official office of Liu Laosi, the head of the camp and the leader of the Qing army.

At this moment, it was already midnight, and there was a faint sound in the distance, and behind the front and back of the porch of the official office, there were a few guards on duty.

In the main hall of the official office, the brightly dressed Liu Laosi was sitting alone in the dim candle shadow, looking at the pile of gold, silver, jewelry and silver tickets in front of him in a daze.

In the bedroom next door, two young fans he had occupied for a long time were also sitting in front of a table of sumptuous wine and food, staring wide-eyed.

They wondered in their hearts, they didn't know why the old man was unusually tonight, he didn't even want to enjoy dinner, he was silent like an old monk in a meditation, and he didn't have the drunken dream, no shame and no impatience of the past.

(Question: Duan Zhenghong came to help from Zhaoqing, did he take the land route or the water route?) ）

Thank you: "Baby", "Yang Junyu Yao", "Red and Red in a Trance" reward! Thank you!

(End of chapter)