Chapter 31: Three Artillery Victories
After the three shots, the mountain bandits who were beaten staged a fast and furious race on the mountain road, because Cao Ergou had already led people to chase and kill. Just as Cao Ergou was leading people to pursue the mountain bandits, Huang Dagen on the wall was directing the gunners to nervously clean the chambers and refill them with gunpowder and shotguns. Thanks to the pre-loaded ammunition packs, it was easy to refill, but it took some time to clean the hot chamber, and the inexperienced gunners were burned all over the place. After reloading, Huang Dagen estimated the firing range, ordered the gunner to raise the muzzle of the gun, and fired the crosshair at the mountain road one mile ahead. At this moment, the mountain bandits who ran fast had almost rushed to a mile away, and the Liuliba pursuers had just rushed out of the gate not far away.
The dense shotgun of the third cannon smashed the bandits who rushed to the front into a sieve, and the bandits who followed behind were so frightened that the bandits who followed them braked sharply, and were immediately knocked to the ground by the bandits who rushed from behind, and suddenly there was chaos on the mountain road. Xiong Ben rushed to the place where the bandits stopped with his own soldiers, and when he saw the corpse of the bandit on the ground, he paused, and then ran away again. The rest of the mountain bandits did the same, and also fled with Xiong Ben towards the mountain. A small number of timid mountain bandits and folk men were so frightened that their feet were weak and stood in place, and after hearing the Liuliba pursuers shouting the slogan "Thunderbolt from the sky, punish the traitor and eliminate the evil, surrender as soon as possible, and repent and reform", they simply stopped running away, threw down their weapons one after another, and squatted on the ground. After Cao Ergou left a few people to escort the surrendered bandits and people to Liuliba, he continued to lead people to pursue more than ten miles in the direction of Wanjiaping, and captured a lot of bandits and people who ran exhausted and sat paralyzed on the side of the road. It's just that some of the bandits fled very quickly, followed Xiong Ben to seize the road and ran wildly, and it only took one-third of the time to escape back to Wanjiaping.
In this battle, Liulizhai won a complete victory, killing more than 50 enemies and capturing more than 300 prisoners, including minor and serious injuries. There were only more than 40 Zhongshan bandits captured, and the people accounted for the vast majority. More than 90 prisoners who were seriously injured or who might be disabled after recovering from their injuries were driven back to Wanjiaping, and the remaining nearly 200 prisoners were sentenced to hard labor according to the size of their crimes and assigned to various mines and construction sites. Although the people were not mountain bandits, at the time when Liuliba was short of labor, it was impossible to put this batch of free labor back to Wanjiaping to the enemy, so according to Ouyang Xuan's instructions, Yang Xiucai sentenced each man to two years of hard labor for the crime of "aiding and abusing". As for the large number of weapons and baggage captured, they had a limited effect on the improvement of Liuliba's combat effectiveness, except for the selection of good quality for equipping the guards, the rest were given to the militia and hunters.
Compared with the capture of personnel and materials, Ouyang Xuan attached more importance to the political significance of this battle. The defeat of the Wanjiapingshan bandits this time made Xiong Ben's lust in the mountains disappear for many years, and let the villages in the mountains that suffered greatly see the hope of getting rid of the oppression of the bandits, and they changed their previous wait-and-see attitude and sent people to make friends with Liuliba. In fact, before this war, the villages in Jiguan Mountain were not optimistic about Liuli Village, thinking that the bandits of Wanjiaping were well-equipped and fierce, and there were brigades of officers and soldiers who did not take advantage of the crusade. On the other hand, although Liuliba is easy to defend and difficult to attack, after all, there are few people and weak combat power, and there are no sophisticated weapons, so it is obviously impossible to block the attack of the Wanjiaping bandits. Even within Liulizhai, some people proposed to make peace with Xiong Ben out of fear, suggesting that "forgive the financial resources of Liuliba and change the peace of the cottage". Fortunately, Lu Dezhi, Shi Zhongshu, Dong Hu and other people in the village strongly supported Ouyang Xuan's decision and appeased the villagers in Liuliba. Since they had seen the power of the earth-shattering thunder and artillery in the test, Lu Dezhi, Shi Zhongshu, Dong Hu and the others had great confidence in what Ouyang Xuan said and did, even to the point of blind obedience. In their hearts, as long as Brother Xuan said that he could defeat the bandits of Wanjiaping, he would definitely be able to defeat them.
What shook the villages in the Cockscomb Mountain was not only because the glazed village could defeat the strong with the weak, but the powerful grenades and artillery were born, especially the artillery played a decisive role in the defeat of the Xiongben bandits, so that the battle was called "the great victory of the three artillery of Liuliba" by later generations. After this battle, it was rumored in this mountain that Ouyang Xuan, the inspector of Liuli Village, was originally an overseas alien, he was proficient in all kinds of spells, and he could also invite the thunderbolt in the sky to punish the evil and eliminate the evil, and this time he came to this mountain to punish the evil. The villagers in the mountains also called the officers and troops of Liuliba the "Thunderbolt Army". Ouyang Xuan and the others did not refute the rumors, but they also felt that the name of this "Thunderbolt Army" was mighty, so they simply called themselves so internally, but they were still called the Chongqing Mansion Liulizhai Collection and Capture Team on the official documents reported to Chongqing Mansion.
This battle made Liulizhai raise his eyebrows, and pride inevitably arose among everyone. But Ouyang Xuan clearly realized that it was only the beginning of the anti-Mongolian cause, and in his opinion, the mountain bandits in Wanjiaping were just experimental specimens of gunpowder weapons. There is still a long way to go to fight against the Mongols, who are the most powerful force in the world at the time. It was now the end of May 1257, and in his memory, in the autumn of this year, the Mongol army was about to invade Sichuan again, and then the western prefectures and counties of Sichuan, including Chongqing, would be ravaged by the Mongol army, and the external environment of the Perak army would become even worse. And to lead the survival and development of the fledgling force of the Thunderbolt Army, he has a very short time and a lot of things to do. Therefore, at the celebration party, although he did not want to sweep everyone's interest, he still put forward his next idea for everyone to discuss. He understands that from a political point of view, it takes a lot of effort to get the support of the people. I can only check from the strategic direction, and I need to rely on the wisdom of everyone in the specific operation. The ancients did not lack wisdom, but only historical vision and modern consciousness. Although the Southern Song Dynasty was militarily weak, it was ahead of the world in science and technology and culture.
The strategic direction proposed by Ouyang Xuan is mainly from three aspects: political, military, and economic. In the political aspect, in the name of Chongqing Prefecture's inspection along the mountain, various villages were convened to discuss the joint anti-bandit matter and establish a consultation mechanism. Militarily, it continued to strengthen military training and develop light artillery to prepare for the Thunderbolt Army's complete defeat of the Wanjiapingshan bandits. Economically, it is to expand the development of industry and mining, increase material reserves, and integrate the economy of various villages in the mountains through commerce and trade.
After Ouyang Xuan finished speaking his thoughts, the people who had spoken enthusiastically during the celebration just now stopped talking, and the venue was silent. Yu Zhu, Huang Dagen, Cao Ergou and others went into battle to kill the enemy very bravely, but if they want to say that they don't know anything about the development strategy, they have no opinions to mention, but the elders of Liuliba, including Lu Dezhi, are silent but worried, and they obviously have scruples when they don't make suggestions, after all, Ouyang Xuan has just led everyone to a big victory, and he is afraid of losing his face. Under Ouyang Xuan's repeated pleas, Lu Dezhi hesitated for a moment before he said hesitantly: "Brother Xuan, oh no, Lord Inspector, did you still count what you said before that you would not levy grain?" After listening to this, Ouyang Xuan realized that what the elders of Liuliba were worried about was that he had proposed a lot of development measures, such as casting cannons, training soldiers, and increasing mining, which must have cost a huge amount of money, and he was very worried about increasing the burden on the villagers. At that moment, he smiled heartily and said to everyone: "Fathers and elders, you can rest assured, of course what Brother Xuan said counts. If the above-mentioned measures require food, they will also be bought and sold publicly, and I hope that everyone will support them."
As soon as Ouyang Xuan's words came out, the hearts of the elders of the cottage relaxed again. The dull atmosphere that shrouded the venue was swept away, and everyone began to discuss the specific implementation measures again.