Before it got dark, Li Luo organized people to bring hot meals to the "Discovery" parked at the Shawan Waterway, and specially killed a pig to reward the Haihan militia who came from afar. After dark, after making sure that the surrounding onlookers had dispersed, the militiamen of the fourth company disembarked as a whole and drove into Lijiazhuang with some war supplies. The sailors, on the other hand, camped on the shore so that they could board the ships as soon as they needed to.

Lijiazhuang is second to none within a radius of dozens of miles, with more than 400 households and more than 1,400 people in the village. Seventy percent of the residents are descendants of the Li family, and their ancestors have lived here for generations, and most of them have made a living from farming. More than 200 years ago, the ancestors of Li Jifeng's house chose to find another way to engage in business, and then slowly developed the chain of "Fu Ruifeng". Since the beginning of "Fu Ruifeng", Li Jifeng's house has become the principal of Lijiazhuang, whether it is the local affairs of Lijiazhuang or the various clan affairs within the Li clan, it is basically decided by the head of Li Jifeng's house.

Recently, the rumors about the coming of the rogue in the near future are no longer a secret, and Li Jiazhuang is also a little panicked. Although Li Jifeng was in Guangzhou, he still wisely transferred all the Li Jiamin League back to Zhuangshang, and sent his second son back to preside over affairs, which made the people's voices of doubt and worry a little less.

The Fourth Company team quietly entered the Zhuangzi under the leadership, perhaps it was Xiao Liang's previous order that played a role, all the residences in the village were closed, and there were people from the Li Family Militia standing guard every few meters on the street, and it seemed that a curfew had been imposed. In order to welcome the arrival of Haihan reinforcements, Li Luo hurriedly vacated a largest courtyard in the village for them to be stationed, and when the fourth company arrived, the servants of the Li family were still in and out of the place to clean up the place, after all, to settle so many people's food and lodging at one time, there are indeed a lot of things to prepare.

Xiao Liang and Chen Yixin walked around the courtyard inside and out, and Li Lu followed behind inch by inch, waiting for the other party to put forward rectification suggestions, as long as it was a place that these Haihan people had seen, they would definitely find faults, which seemed to have become a stereotype.

"The toilet needs to be expanded, and more than 100 people live here, so where are the two pits enough...... In addition, it is necessary to arrange for someone to clean up every day to avoid epidemics. ”

Li Luo replied repeatedly: "Yes, yes, it will be arranged later." ”

"It's not good to sleep on the floor, even if you can't find so many **, you have to use bricks and stones to cushion the ** board, you can't sleep on the ground directly! ”

"Okay, well, let people prepare more ** boards here. ”

"The kitchen is so dirty...... Forget it, starting tomorrow, our food can't be served by the same kitchen, and the cook must be healthy and not sick, understand?"

"I understand, I understand, this time I specially invited a few restaurant cooks from Guangzhou to come back, and Lieutenant Xiao was relieved. Li Lu was called "military master" earlier and was reprimanded by Xiao Liang, and now he has changed his name to military rank.

After the two inspected the courtyard, they picked seven or eight places that needed to be rectified, and Li Luo responded to them one by one. Fortunately, they are all small changes, and there is no need to push a wall to make a hole, and it is not very troublesome to execute.

"The person who provided you with the news, can you let us meet with us?" Returning to the command center that had been converted from a hall, Xiao Liang immediately made a new request.

"Then please wait a moment, and then go and call someone to summon you. Li Lu did not refuse Xiao Liang's request, and agreed in one bite.

After a while, Li Luo brought in an ordinary-looking young man, who had come to Lijiazhuang on his own a few days earlier to find the principal of the village, claiming that there was news of the attack by the rogues and selling it to Lijiazhuang. After receiving two hundred taels of silver, the man told him some of the information he had. However, in order to confirm the truth of these information, this person was also temporarily placed under house arrest in the village.

Of course, the Li family did not have the only way to obtain the news, and it was precisely because the information obtained from other secret channels was consistent with what this person said, that the Li family believed that it was extremely credible, so they asked Haihan for help. (Baidu search update is the fastest and most stable)

As a military member directly involved in the operation, Xiao Liang did not fully trust the Li family's interrogation skills, so he insisted on personally interrogating the source of the trial. Of course, in view of the other party's attitude of actively seeking cooperation for money, there is no need for means such as punishment. Xiao Liang's main purpose was to grasp as many details as possible that the Li family might have overlooked, and to verify whether the credibility of this information was worthy of targeted deployment by the defense force in advance.

According to Xiao Liang's judgment, it was basically certain that the news was true, but as for how the Liukou would attack Lijiazhuang at that time, because the parties had already broken away from the Liukou team, they could not make predictions, and it was difficult to make targeted arrangements in advance, so they could only rely on the defensive forces to play on their own.

After letting Li Lu take the people away, Xiao Liang and Chen Yixin began to discuss the strategic arrangement: "Summarize the things we can determine now, first, Liukou will launch an offensive against Lijiazhuang before the twenty-fourth day of the fourth lunar month, that is, before the twenty-seventh day of this month, today is already the twenty-second day, and we still have five days of preparation time at most." Second, the number of rogue troops participating in this attack will probably not be less than 2,000, and it is difficult to judge the upper limit, because the various tributaries are still in tandem, and it is difficult to say that maybe four or five thousand will come in the end, so we must be prepared for a hard battle. Third, the main forces available to us are the fourth company plus the Li family militia group, as well as the 'Exploration' by the river, a total of about 400 people, and our reinforcements will have to arrive in Panyu on the 20th at the earliest, and we can only rely on ourselves before that. ”

"If it's a head-to-head fight, it shouldn't be a big problem for our existing forces to defeat bandits of a few thousand people. My only fear is that the adversary will divide up and launch a siege from all sides, and we have too few troops to fight with a split force. Chen Yixin said with some concern.

"No, no, no, you only see the disadvantage in troops, but you don't take into account another problem. On the battlefield, the efficiency of command is closely related to the combat effect, if the other side divides forces to attack, how do you think they can achieve unity?" Xiao Liang once again took out the previous sketch of the plan of Lijiazhuang: "The layout of Lijiazhuang is basically a rectangle, let's assume that the other side divides troops to attack two adjacent directions at the same time, and the distance between the two troops of the other side is at least between 1,500 meters and 2,000 meters. At most, their means are to rely on gongs and drums and flags to indicate attack or retreat, but to express more complex command messages and to act in concert, can they do this with these primitive means?"

"I'm afraid it's hard. Chen Yixin vaguely understood what Xiao Liang meant: "Even our troops are difficult to maintain the consistency of combat operations at such a distance without receiving special training. If the opponent attacks from multiple directions at the same time, the poor communication of information on the battlefield can become a major disadvantage for them. ”

"That's right. And this disadvantage is not for us. Xiao Liang gently shook the walkie-talkie in his hand: "Our efficiency in command is enough to make up for the disadvantage in troops." Of course, this alone is not enough, in addition to weapons and equipment, our military theoretical level is also 400 years ahead of our opponents, and we can take this opportunity to show the Li Jiamin group what combat is!"

Most of the fighters on duty in the Military Police Department were directly involved in the previous Annan Campaign, but Xiao Liang and Yu Yao, who were far away in Guangzhou, missed this opportunity to make military achievements because of the limitations of their positions. And this time, the Li family took the initiative to come to the door and beg Haihan to send troops to rescue, which was an excellent opportunity for them to show their faces. However, due to the fact that the Guangzhou Office also needs to station military personnel, one of the two had to stay and watch the family, and in the end, the executive committee will solve this problem, and the lucky Xiao Liang was able to appear in Lijiazhuang to become the combat commander, and he is also determined to play a beautiful record in this battle to prove his ability.

Early the next morning, some young men dressed as ordinary people left Lijiazhuang in batches. These people were all militiamen of the Li Family Militia Group, and according to Xiao Liang's orders, they went out in groups to investigate the military situation after disguise, so as to grasp the direction of the Liukou at the first time. The task given to them by Xiao Liang was very simple, they didn't need to inquire about the details of the Liukou's operation, as long as they knew where a large group of armed men began to assemble within twenty or thirty miles of the vicinity, and then reported back the news. The purpose of this reconnaissance operation was not to attack the invading rogues, but to give the defending troops of the village a reaction time to enter a state of combat readiness in advance.

Xiao Liang and Chen Yixin began to build fortifications separately on several traffic arteries in and out of Lijiazhuang in the southeast, northwest and northwest. The old and weak women were all mobilized to participate in the defensive operation as logisticians.

In the vicinity of the four main passages outside Lijiazhuang, Xiao Liang planned to build simple earthen forts for the deployment of heavy firepower. As an early Haihan arms dealer, the Li family, with the acquiescence of the Haihan people, also left a few small 6-pounder guns in Zhuangzi, and this time there was finally a chance to come in handy. In addition, the Haihan militia did not come empty-handed, and they also brought a batch of powerful weapons.

When the "Exploration" went north this time, all the 10 artillery pieces and ammunition that the General Commission had originally allocated to the coastal fortifications of Dawanshan Island were also loaded. Because of their different uses, the barrel length of these 12-pounder guns is two feet longer than the version used by the army, and the firing range is nearly half that of the army guns of the same caliber, and almost double that of the 6-pounder guns in Lijiazhuang. However, the disadvantage is that these shore defense guns are originally designed to be installed on permanent turrets, and are not equipped with corresponding movable gun mounts, so it will be more troublesome to erect and move.

Xiao Liang planned to concentrate these dozen artillery pieces in the west and north directions where the enemy was most likely to appear, so as to form a dense firepower advantage. The east side of Zhuangzi is only a few miles away from the Pearl River, the water conservancy conditions are relatively good, almost all of them are rice crops, and as far as the eye can see, there are endless mud ponds, and the possibility of the enemy launching a large-scale attack from this side is very small. To the south of Zhuangzi, less than two miles from the Shawan waterway, if the enemy dares to assemble a large contingent on the bank of the river, then wait to eat the shells fired from the "Exploration".

In addition to the forts, outside the passes in and out of Zhuangzi, the laborers would also build a slightly lower adobe breastwall, which would be used as cover for the musket units to take advantage of the range of their weapons to shoot at the invading enemy.

Just in case, the surplus labor also began to build all kinds of barricades on the streets inside the village, carrying all kinds of wooden frame masonry and stone, blocking some small alleys, leaving only one or two main passages that could be used for the rapid transfer of troops in the village. If the battle was unfavorable, the musket troops retreated into Zhuangzi to engage in street fighting, and they were also able to hold out for a longer period of resistance. The day after the reinforcements arrived in Lijiazhuang, the entire Lijiazhuang became a large construction site.

At noon that day, Li Jifeng took his youngest son Li Nai and steward He Qiang to escort a batch of supplies back to Lijiazhuang. In this way, the important people of the Li family, except for Li Jifeng's eldest son Li Fa, who is based in Fujian, basically returned to Lijiazhuang, and also fully expressed their determination to live and die with Lijiazhuang.

"Li Jifeng is still a little bold!" Xiao Liang affirmed Li Jifeng's return to Lijiazhuang before the war. If you are a timid person, you will definitely hide in the safe city of Guangzhou at this juncture, waiting for the matter to pass before making plans. Even if Lijiazhuang is broken by the Liukou, as long as the "Fu Ruifeng" Li family is still there, there will be a chance to make a comeback after all.

"Anyway, he is also a private entrepreneur with a big business, and he can be regarded as a successful person in any era, and he will definitely not be able to reach today's height without a little courage. Chen Yixin also quipped.

The first thing Li Jifeng did when he returned to the village was to announce in public that he would take out 5,000 taels of silver to reward the soldiers of the Li Family Militia who participated in the defensive battle, and this was only a morale-boosting reward before the war, and there was another reward after the war. As soon as this heavy reward came out, sure enough, the people's feelings were also rising, and almost all of these militia soldiers were born in Lijiazhuang, and basically every household could get some oil and water in this reward.

The second thing Li Jifeng did was to pull out some unidentified outsiders who had been found after the closure of the village in the past two days. After the complete blockade of the passage in and out of Lijiazhuang began yesterday, a total of 17 outsiders were seized in the village, several of whom were merchants and traders who came to Lijiazhuang to visit relatives and friends, or who had interacted with the vicinity of Lijiazhuang for a long time, and were quickly ruled out of suspicion. However, there were still seven people whose origins and intentions were very suspicious, and there was no one in the village to testify to them, so they were arrested as spies of the rogue gangsters.

No matter how amateurish those rogues are, if they attack a Zhuangzi as big as Lijiazhuang, they will definitely send people into the village in advance to reconnoitre. No one is sure if any of these guys are wronged, but if they are all released, there will definitely be fish that will slip through the net.

According to Li Jifeng's meaning, there is not much need for trial now, and these suspicious guys should be lynched directly to death, but Chen Yixin dissuaded him: "Why hurt the innocent, give me a stick of incense, and I will pick out all the spies." ”

Although Li Jifeng was still skeptical about whether this thin-skinned and tender-fleshed Haihan officer had this ability, he still gave him this face. Chen Yixin and Xiao Liang muttered a few words, and then called several of their capable personnel together to give orders, and then took the seven suspects away.

After a while, Chen Yixin and the others returned to the scene, checked the information with each other, and quickly determined that four of them were spies sent by the rogue. Seeing this, Li Jifeng said curiously: "How did Lieutenant Chen know that these people are spies?"

"Quite simply, my colleagues and I interrogated these people separately and told them that whoever recruits the party first does not have to die. Chen Yixin pointed to a few people who were recruited: "It's just a group of rabble, but none of these four people have a hard mouth, and they are all recruited." There are only four of them, Boss Li, you can watch and deal with it. ”

Chen Yixin's move is extremely simple, but it points directly to the weakness of human nature. If these people are directly tortured, there may be a situation where they will be beaten into a trick or they will not be able to recruit whether they will be beaten or killed, but in such a separate trial, no one dares to guarantee whether the other accomplices other than themselves will be greedy for life and afraid of death, and whether they can keep the secret. In this case, the most sure way to save your life is not to keep your mouth shut and not to move, but to recruit faster and more thoroughly than your accomplices!

These spies are not professionals with targeted training, and they were just rural farmers before, and they can't stand Chen Yixin's trial method at all in terms of courage and brains, and after weighing the pros and cons, they all choose to confess immediately. And when the results of everyone's trial are compared with each other, it is naturally easy to determine which people are spies.

"Then if these four spies all identify the innocent three, wouldn't they have wronged the good guys?" Li Nai, who listened to Chen Yixin's explanation, couldn't help but ask.

Chen Yixin smiled and said: "The possibility you said does exist, but the key is that they didn't have the time to slowly figure out the truth." For them, there were only two choices at that time, to recruit themselves and live, and to recruit others and to die. In the case of life and death, do you believe in yourself or in others?"

Li Nai suddenly said: "I see, I have been taught!"

Several of the spies were immediately taken down, and a long captivity awaited them, and if they were lucky enough not to be abused to death by the people of Li Jiazhuang during this time, then they might have a chance to leave here alive and be transported to Hainan Island or North Vietnam for hard labor. Other outsiders could only stay here for the time being, and could not leave Lijiazhuang until the war was over