The coastal area south of Guangzhou City to the mouth of the Pearl River, the water system is dense, and the water traffic is far more convenient than the land route, and this group of water bandits who set out from Xinhui sailed from the Xijiang River to the north, passed through the East China Sea Road, the Ronggui Waterway, and the Tanzhou Waterway, and spent several days and nights sailing more than 100 miles before entering the Shawan Waterway in Panyu County. Two days ago, in Beiyao Town, Zeng Aniu, the leader of the Xinhui bandits, had already met with Liao Dabi and agreed on an attack plan. Last night, the team, consisting of more than 20 large and small boats, arrived less than 10 miles away from the Lijiazhuang wharf and was stationed in a fork in the Shawan waterway that night.

For Lijiazhuang in Panyu, the bandit leader Zeng Aniu also heard a little, and he probably knew a little more about the situation than Liao Dabi. In the past six months, there has been a kind of refined private salt on the market with a price of only two-thirds of the official salt, and it is said that this very popular private salt was sold from Lijiazhuang. There is no salt field in Lijiazhuang, how did this private salt come out, Zeng Aniu didn't know the mystery, but he knew one thing very well, the word salt merchant could basically be equated with silver. Since Lijiazhuang is engaged in private salt trading, the wealth in this village will naturally be very considerable.

Compared with Liao Dabi's strength, Zeng Aniu's team of more than 300 people is far from enough, so the main force of the attack is still a few bandits led by Liao Dabi, and Zeng Aniu's task is to wait for an opportunity to attack Lijiazhuang from the side of the Shawan Waterway, and plan to attack the main force of Lijiazhuang in the other two directions. In addition, after the village was broken, Zeng Aniu's fleet also had to take on part of the transportation tasks, so as to transport all kinds of seized materials away from the place of the incident.

Zeng Aniu thought more, maybe he was lucky enough to intercept Lijiazhuang's salt ship on the Shawan waterway, and after figuring out the source of Lijiazhuang's private salt, he would directly take people to grab the salt field next time. Compared with attacking a fortress like Lijiazhuang, it is much easier to rob the salt farm, and Lijiazhuang's private salt is not coming from the right way, and most of the other party does not dare to report to the official after robbing it.

Perhaps God heard Zeng Aniu's wish, and when they approached the Lijiazhuang wharf, the group really saw a strange-looking big boat moving slowly on the river from a distance.

"God help me! Raise the flag! Lean over, lean over!" Zeng Aniu was surprised, and he didn't think about whether this ship was Lijiazhuang's salt carrier, such a big sea ship would not appear in the Shawan River for no reason, it must be pulling goods for Lijiazhuang. In that case, let's grab it first!

Five or six miles away, Liao Dabi didn't know that his ally had already started to act first on the water, and he was hesitating to give the order to attack.

The "heroes" who were preparing to attack Lijiazhuang stopped two miles away from Zhuangzi, but Lijiazhuang was silent, and not even a single figure could be seen. Since this morning's departure, I haven't seen a single living person on the way, and this strange situation is not noticed by a few smart people, and basically everyone has noticed that something is wrong. But if they were to turn back and abandon this operation, none of them would be willing to do so.

There is a circle of earthen walls ranging from seven feet to one zhang on the periphery of Lijiazhuang, so the situation in the Zhuangzi is basically invisible from the outside. At the entrance of several roads in and out of Zhuangzi, a chest-high earthen wall was also built to block most of the view. About twenty paces in front of the breastwork, there was also a circle of curved wooden stakes nailed to the ground, and there seemed to be something like wire and hemp rope attached to the stakes, which seemed to be some kind of defense to slow down the attack. Obviously, Li Jiazhuang had received the news at least a few days in advance, and had rushed to build some fortifications in front. As for whether Zhuang Nei had set up a defensive force, Liao Dabi did not intend to speculate on this pointless question.

The people of Lijiazhuang did not intend to be captured, which made Liao Dabi a little more angry in addition to being disappointed, you stupid villagers, thinking that building an extra earthen wall would be able to block this attack? The only effect of these defensive means is to make the people in this Zhuangzi suffer more tragic revenge after being breached!

Liao Dabi looked to the northeast and saw that the allies had already played a yellow flag, which was a means of communication they had discussed in advance, yellow meant that it was ready, and red meant that it was going to attack. The arrow is ready to fly, and it has to be sent.

"Flag, attack!" Liao Dabi pointed at Li Jiazhuang with a horse whip: "Break through this village, each person will be rewarded with five taels of silver!

The drummer next to him immediately waved the mallet and beat the war drum, and the standard-bearer lowered the yellow flag and replaced it with a conspicuous red flag. The three hundred bandits, who were the vanguard, grabbed all kinds of weapons and began to walk slowly towards Lijiazhuang.

As the leader of this attack on Lijiazhuang, Liao Dabi has the most troops, and the equipment he has taken out is also the most "powerful", in addition to the cold weapons such as knives and guns that will be issued to each of his subordinates, there are also various earthen firecrackers in the team, and even a small number of bird guns and three-eyed guns that flow out of the army. It can be said that for this operation, Liao Dabi basically moved out all his belongings.

The purpose of this is not only to be able to take Lijiazhuang smoothly, but more importantly, to show his strength to his peers, so that he can suppress some people who are not convinced in the post-war spoils. Although it has been said before the start that Liao Dabi will monopolize half of the profits, it is difficult to say how much of a binding effect this kind of verbal agreement can play at that time, and Liao Dabi will definitely not pin his hopes on this group of allies who are as money-eyed as himself, or show his strength to better ensure his own interests.

Seeing that Liao Dabi's side had begun to launch an offensive, the rogue forces in the northeast also beat their drums and launched the first wave of attacks on Lijiazhuang from north to south. At this time, Xiao Liang was poking out half of his head behind the breastwork, observing the enemy's movements with a telescope, and at the same time measuring the enemy's marching speed.

"It's about ten minutes before it's within range of our rifles. Complete. Xiao Liangtong guò walkie-talkie communicated with Chen Yixin, who was commanding the operation on the other side, about the battlefield situation.

"Understood. The enemy on my side is moving at about the same speed as yours. Complete. ”

"Don't be in a hurry to fire, get closer and then fight, pay attention to reasonably hide your strength, and don't directly scare people away. Complete. ”

"Understood. Complete. ”

Xiao Liang put down the walkie-talkie, and then called several platoon commanders of the Li Family Militia to his front and admonished: "Don't fire a single shot until you get the order, our goal is not to repel them, but to beat them painfully and fearfully, and eliminate these rogue bandits as much as possible, understand?"

"Yes, sir!" several platoon commanders replied with their chests straight. Although the time for receiving Haihan-style military training is not too long, these officers of the militia have faintly begun to imitate the style of the Haihan militia. The mighty temperament of the Haihan soldiers is one of the most enviable characteristics of these croppers who have just put down the hoe handle and picked up the barrel of the gun, although the clothing, armament, and treatment cannot reach the same level as the Haihan soldiers, but at least the etiquette of the upper and lower levels in the army can still be imitated.

For these militiamen of the Li Family Militia Group, they have not really had the experience of fighting on the frontal battlefield, and even if reinforcements from Haihan arrived, they were still a little nervous. Xiao Liang's composure gave them more confidence, and the enemy who was heading towards Lijiazhuang seemed to have become a target for falling in response, and it didn't look so terrifying.

"Lieutenant Chen, this should be able to handle it, right?" After poking his head out to look at the situation on the other side, Li Jifeng, who had just arrived on the front line to supervise the battle, still asked Chen Yixin with some apprehension.

Chen Yixin smiled and said: "Boss Li, you don't have to worry at all, these bandits are not as effective as the monkey soldiers we fought in Annan, wait to watch the show! ”

"Since this is the case, the old man will retire first! I hope that Lieutenant Chen can kill more enemies, and the old man will be grateful after the battle!" Li Jifeng made a gesture to Chen Yixin before retreating.

"Four companies, one platoon, two platoons, into combat positions. Three platoons, four platoons, get ready for battle!" After Chen Yixin sent Li Jifeng away, he issued a combat order.

The vanguard of the bandits had been able to see the movement of figures behind the adobe breastwork wall at the intersection of Lijiazhuang Road, but due to the angle of their sight, they could not observe the more detailed situation, and could only continue to move forward with their heads down.

However, the first battle did not take place in the defense line of Lijiazhuang, but on the river surface of the Shawan waterway. After Zeng Aniu's fleet discovered the big sea ship three miles away, they began to speed up the ship, trying to get close to it and capture this ship of unknown origin, which would not be counted in the capture of Lijiazhuang, and Zeng Aniu did not have to share the income of this ship with other forces.

"This big ship alone must be worth at least a thousand taels of silver...... Well, it's just that the sails are a bit strange......" Zeng Aniu looked at the distant target very excitedly, and had already regarded it as his trophy in advance.

And the crew of this strange ship had obviously discovered Zeng Aniu's fleet, and a sharp copper whistle sounded on the ship, and then I saw that the ship quickly adjusted the direction of the sails, and the crew could be seen running back and forth on the deck.

"Want to run, see if you can run!" Zeng Aniu was very disdainful of the other party's sluggishness, the big ship wanted to turn around on this river less than a mile wide, but it was not something that could be completed in three or two clicks, and when the ship turned around, his fleet had already surrounded it. Although the size of that sea ship was much larger than the small boats under his command, as long as it was surrounded by small boats and all kinds of hooks and nails were put on, then don't think about breaking free anymore.

"Boss, it doesn't seem right!" The deputy standing behind Zeng Aniu suddenly said loudly: "This ship doesn't seem to be planning to turn around......"

Zeng Aniu looked at it intently, and sure enough, the ship accelerated its speed after adjusting the sails, but it didn't mean to change its direction at all, and rushed towards his fleet in a daze. The largest of these boats under Zeng Aniu is less than 100 materials, most of them are small civilian boats or even fishing boats, how can these small boats used in the inland river system on weekdays be just head-on with more than 400 large sea boats?

The first thief boat, which could not dodge being hit by the Discovery, was cut in half by the blade-like steel corners of the bow and quickly sank into the river. Because the difference in size between the two sides was so great, the "Discovery" did not even shake the hull of the ship, and rushed straight over like a sharp knife cutting into butter, and then cut off half of the stern of the other ship.

"Stop it! Stop it!" Zeng Aniu was so anxious that he jumped to his feet, he didn't do anything, and his own ship was scrapped two, which was too bullying!

When the "Discovery" rushed by, some thieves threw out a hook with a rope and tried to hook the side of the big ship, but after seeing that three or four ropes were hung, before they could cheer, a crew member on the side of the big ship leaned out half of their bodies and brandished a war knife more than two feet long to cut the rope on the hook.

As for those guys who tried to slow down the speed of the big ship with bamboo pole hooks and nail rods, they couldn't pull the momentum of the big boat at all, or a string of people were dragged into the water, or they could only let go and watch the big boat leave with their guys. Seeing that the situation was not good, the boat behind could only quickly turn away and avoid the collision of this great evil star as much as possible.

So Zeng Aniu's group of more than 300 people and more than 20 boats could only watch as this strange-looking big boat was killed, and after sinking and injuring five boats, it rushed west without looking back. And in just such a round, Zeng Aniu's fleet lost nearly a quarter of its combat effectiveness, how could he not be like a thunderbolt.

"What the hell is this ship!" Zeng Aniu looked at the back of the "Exploration", and his teeth were clucking: "Turn around, don't go to Lijiazhuang, grab this ship first!"

However, in the chaos just now, a large number of people fell into the water, and there were boats that were injured and capsized across the river, some people were hurriedly fishing for people who had fallen into the water to get on board, and some people were using poles to prop up ships that had lost their ability to navigate.

After a long time of incense, the battlefield was finally cleared, and the surviving ships received Zeng Aniu's steering orders one after another, so the crew adjusted the sails again and began to move the rudder and turn. But at this time, the nightmare befell the bandits again.

"Look, boss, the strange ship is here again!"

Zeng Aniu turned his head when he heard the call, and saw that the "Discovery", which had already driven out of sight, turned around and came back from the west to kill the same way.

"What the hell is the origin of this ship! What kind of grudge do I have with you!" Zeng Aniu was almost crazy, he could basically conclude at this moment that this ship was not an ordinary cargo ship.

Not to mention the oddities of the ship's shape, or why it had a sturdy ramming facility in the bow, if the ship wasn't at ease looking for trouble, it shouldn't have turned around and rushed back after crashing all the way out. The water system in this vicinity is very developed, and if you go west to the Jiaomen Waterway or the Tanzhou Waterway, you can go back to the mouth of the Pearl River, and even if there are a hundred small boats, it will be difficult to catch up with it in the wide waters. And then such a big ship did not choose to return to the familiar waters, but to rush back and forth on this narrow waterway, isn't this a peace of mind to go against itself?

Seeing that his fleet was still adjusting its direction in different steps, Zeng Aniu suddenly felt a little desperate, how many times could these dozen or so small boats under his command withstand this monster plowing back and forth like plowing a field?

At this time, before Zeng Aniu continued to give combat orders, the fleet had already begun to be chaotic. Some of the boats tried to speed up and turn to meet the big ships, and some of them, seeing that it was too late, prepared to continue eastward in an attempt to find a fork in the river in front of them and avoid the great evil star rushing behind, so the river was once again in chaos.

At this time, there was a faint shout of killing on the battlefield in the north, Zeng Aniu could only pray that Liao Dabi could take Lijiazhuang smoothly, so that after the war, he could still get a little spoils to make up for the loss, otherwise he would really lose all his money in this transaction.

However, at this time, Liao Da's expression was not much better than Zeng Aniu's, just now after the vanguard rushed into a hundred paces away, people finally appeared behind the breastwork, and more than a dozen muskets sticking out of the wall. At the beginning, Liao Dabi didn't take such a little defensive force to heart, he didn't play with the musket, it was powerful, ordinary people would lose their ability to act with one shot, but it was very troublesome to load after a shot, at most two guns could be placed at this distance, and his vanguard could rush over for close combat, and then this musket would be a burning stick, maybe it would not be as good as a kitchen knife. Even if ten or eight people could be knocked down at this point, it would never be possible to stop the onslaught of hundreds of people.

However, after the other party opened fire, the table xiàn quickly gave Liao Da Nose a heavy mouth, and the frequency of the gunfire was obviously several times faster than he expected. The vanguard of the breastwork was rapidly decreasing at a speed visible to the naked eye, and every few breaths one breath could hear the sound of gunfire behind the breastwork, and then the people who rushed to the front could be seen falling. In just a distance of more than 100 steps, nearly half of these people fell!

Liao Dabi was not a fool either, and he quickly judged that the defenders had far more than a dozen muskets he had seen. There is only one possibility of such a rate of fire, and that is that the musketeers hiding behind the breastwork are coming forward to shoot in batches. And such a frequency of firing was enough to inflict heavy casualties on the vanguard of the charging formation.

Xiao Liang stood behind the chest wall with a copper whistle in his mouth. In this environment of musket roar, verbal command is often easily overshadowed by the sound of gunfire, and the sharp whistle can make up for this shortcoming. Trained musketeers move into firing positions in a rotational firing formation, and depending on the length of the commander's whistle, it is easy to grasp the rhythm of the shot