Chapter Twenty-Five: The Two Counties of Lianke (Part I)

In the Daozhou night school, under the vegetable oil lantern, several rows of soldiers of the Holy Army who shook their heads and followed Huang Yukun to bite the literate language, but there was no Luo Outline and the Holy First Army and others. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

It turned out that Feng Shaoguang learned that there were many congregations in heaven and earth in southern Hunan, and there were often sporadic uprisings and congregations that occupied the mountains as kings, and if these sporadic anti-Qing forces could be integrated, it would be very beneficial to Feng Shaoguang's great cause of opposing the Qing Dynasty.

And Luo Xuan, when he was the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, often traveled to and from the border area of Guangxi and Hunan, and traveled extensively, and many Heaven and Earth Congregations in several counties near Guilin and Daozhou heard of his reputation.

With this convenience, Feng Shaoguang sent Luo Xuan to lead the first army of the Holy Army to conquer Jianghua and Yongming counties in the south of Daozhou.

After some planning, Luo Xuan led his troops on the seventh day of the fifth month. In order to directly divide the troops into two ways. He sent Lu Shunde, the commander of the Holy First Army, to lead 2,000 people along the official road next to the Yongming River to the county seat of Yongming. He personally led the remaining 4,000 soldiers of the Holy First Army to go up the official road on the edge of Xiaoshui and attack Jianghua.

As early as two or three days ago, he had borrowed He Lu, the leader of the Daozhou Heaven and Earth Society, from the Holy Third Army, and asked him to lead the old brothers of the Heaven and Earth Society to go to the border of Yongming County, Jianghua to contact the congregation, and as soon as the Taiping Holy Army arrived, they responded and attacked the county seat together.

The official road from Daozhou to Jianghua extends deep in the Yao Mountain, and the local congregation calls it the "Great Road". The "big road" of Daozhou has been built as early as the Qin Dynasty, about one meter wide, the road surface is paved with blue bricks, river pebbles, bluestone slabs, etc., and a pavilion in five miles, and a paving in ten miles. It is hard to imagine that in this Yao Mountain, there is such a developed road traffic.

Thanks to the smooth "Great Road", the Holy One Army marched quickly. On the second day of the dispatch, the former division of the Shengyi Army had entered the territory of Jianghua.

Jiepailing is a small Yao Mountain, located at the junction of Daozhou and Jianghua. Luo Xuan inquired that the largest Heaven and Earth Society force in the vicinity, led by the two leaders of Zhou Fagui and Zhu Hong, was operating in the vicinity of Jiepai Ridge. This time the troops were not so much to capture the two county towns of Jianghua and Yongming, but actually to subdue the rebel rebels of the Tiandihui along the way, and this week Fagui and Zhu Hong are the team with the largest number and the most influence.

A middle-aged man dressed as a short, stout local Yao people, wrapped in a gray scarf on his head, was brought to Luo Xuan by the card knife hand. But it turned out to be He Lu, who was waiting on the side and came to answer.

Luo Xuan asked the troops to be temporarily stationed on the official road of Jiepai Ling, and asked: "Brother He has worked the road, are Zhou Fagui, Zhu Hong and others from this Jiepai Ridge willing to submit to my Taiping Holy Army?" ”

He Lu looked embarrassed and said, "General Huiluo, the junior brother is incompetent and failed to persuade the other party." The big boss Zhou Fagui was ruthless and domineering, unwilling to rely on others, I went to persuade him, and he was almost detained. However, the second leader, Zhu Hong, and the following small leaders seemed to be intent on moving, but they were all afraid of Zhou Fagui and did not dare to call the shots. ”

"How many people are there on the other side? Where to stay? ”

"There are 14,500 people in total, all of whom are brothers of the Heaven and Earth Society, strong and good at fighting. It is stationed not far in front of it, and it is called the dangerous cottage of Maple Village. ”

"Order, Luo Qiongshu Luo Shishuai led a hundred famous swordsmen, accompanied by General Ben to the maple village, and met Zhu and the two this week! Brother He, I'm sorry for you to lead the way. ”

"Huh? General, I can't help it! As soon as He Lu heard that Luo Xuan only brought a hundred brand swordsmen, he was immediately anxious and hurriedly stopped him. He is a native of Daozhou and has a low status, so Zhou Fagui will not embarrass himself. But Luo Xuan is the deputy general of the Jin Guan, a high-ranking official of the Holy Kingdom, in case the Fagui has delusions, how can he explain to the Holy King and He Junshuai?

"Why not? When I Luo was crisscrossing the world, he Zhou Fagui didn't know where he was? It is enough for a hundred people to go with me. Luo Xuan was as arrogant as a cloud, and waved his hand to simply let He Lu lead the way.

Maple village is three cliffs, the stone wall is cut up, more than 30 zhang high, only one side has a gentle slope can lead to the wall, the slope is undulating, there is a small mountain stream flowing down the mountain, the cottage is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Daozhou and Jianghua government jointly tried to exterminate the cottage several times, but they were blocked by the dangerous terrain and returned in vain.

Luo Outline and others walked through the steep slope of Shangzhai, passed through several sentry posts all the way, arrived at a large iron gate built according to the danger, stopped and asked, and learned that this gate is a fortification built by the people of the cottage, divided into two gates inside and outside, this is the outer gate, and a two-thousand-pound cannon is installed on the gate.

There were more than a dozen guards on the outer gate, and the congregation seemed to recognize He Lu, and He Lu stepped forward and muttered a few words, and the gate opened.

The leader of the inner gate guards, but when he saw the majestic style of the hundreds of famous swordsmen, he was afraid in his heart, and he couldn't open the gate, turning Luo Xuan and everyone away. He Lu also ignored the negotiations, and only sent someone to the cottage to report the letter.

Fortunately, the inner gate was not far from the inside of the cottage, and in less than half an hour, hundreds of village soldiers dressed in tatters and armed with knives, forks, shuttles and other weapons, led by a sturdy man in his thirties and a short and thin middle-aged man, went out of the inner gate to meet Luo Xuan, intentionally or unintentionally surrounding the Taiping Holy Army.

All the swordsmen touched the handle of the knife with their hands, and their whole bodies were on guard.

"Hahahaha, General Luo, Zhou is late to greet him, I hope you don't blame it!" The sturdy man clenched his hands into fists and smiled heartily.

"Where! Luo specially came to visit Zhou Da's family, and he did not bring any small gifts, but only prepared a big gift for Zhou Da's family. Seeing that this person was the big boss Zhou Fagui, Luo Outline went straight to the point and pointed out the meaning.

"Oh, I don't know what General Luo is talking about?" Although Zhou Fagui had a loyal face, a flash of light in the corner of his eyes showed that this person was actually extremely shrewd.

"Lead the cottage brothers to join my Taiping Holy Army, Luo is willing to recommend Brother Zhou to the Holy King for the position of military commander. Brother Zhou and all the brothers have no worries about food and clothing since then, and follow the Holy King to jointly raise a major event against the Qing Dynasty, isn't it happy? Luo Xuan stared at Zhou Fagui and said.

When Zhou Fagui heard this, he was furious and shouted: "Joke! Do you want my Maple Village to be solid, and Zhou Mou is a good master, and hand over his brothers to work for you? I didn't want to be embarrassed by you, I didn't want you to send it to the village by yourself, and I couldn't say that I would leave you in my Maple Village today. After speaking, he turned his head and waved his hand back, and said, "Brothers, arrest these ghost cubs in exchange for ransom!" ”

Seeing this, the short and thin middle-aged man next to him changed his face, and hurriedly stepped forward to stop him: "Big boss, if you have something to say, don't use force!" ”

"Vermilion, don't think I don't know. As the second master of my Maple Village, but I want to hand over the cottage to outsiders, I don't care about you for many years, retreat quickly, otherwise even you will take it! Zhou Fagui shouted loudly, and pointed at the soldiers behind him: "Brothers, give it to me, whether you live or die."

Seeing that hundreds of soldiers began to step forward, Luo Xuan changed color and shouted: "The surname is Zhou, you don't cherish the opportunity Luo Mou gave you, no wonder I took my life!" As soon as the words fell, with a flick of his palm, a spherical object struck Zhou Fagui like lightning.

Everyone only felt a flower in front of them, and before they could see the situation clearly, they heard a snap, which seemed to be the sound of a hard object impacting, and then they saw a black light from the crowd and back into Luo Gang's hand. Everyone then discovered that Zhou Fagui shook his body and slowly fell to the ground, with a goose egg-sized blood hole on the back of his head, gurgling and spurting blood.

"Kill them and avenge the big boss!" Several of Zhou Fagui's cronies in the crowd shouted, holding long knives and waving them. Bang ~ Bang ~ Bang ~ , a few cronies who had just jumped out fell to the ground one after another, all of them were hit by a few iron bullets in the head, and they fell to the ground and died. But it is a few brand swordsmen around Luo Outline, all of whom are old brothers of the original Guangdong Tiandi Society, and like Luo Outline, their martial arts are extraordinary, using a rope tied to an iron bullet the size of a goose egg as a hidden weapon, throwing people's heads, killing people at close range, and hitting every shot.

The soldiers hesitated for a moment, and the short and thin middle-aged man in the crowd stood up and shouted: "Everyone, stop, listen to Zhu Mou's words!" ”

But it was Zhu Hong, the second leader of the cottage, who stood up and stopped between the village soldiers and the card knife hand!