1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 680
In the past two years, there have actually been many escapes initiated by prisoners detained here due to various reasons, and there are many precedents of them being able to escape Haihan's pursuit after the fact—of course, most of the time the pursuit was It's just symbolic.But these people who managed to escape often disappeared without a trace since then, and no one knew whether they escaped or died quietly in the mountains.

However, in the subsequent prison escape records, it is extremely rare for dozens of people to escape at one time.Generally speaking, people with a little brain will not organize so many people to escape together, because this will greatly reduce the chance of success.

First of all, when there are too many people, it is difficult to avoid leaking the news, and there are quite a lot of prisoners who betray their companions in order to gain personal points, and there is a rule in the hard labor camp that those who expose other people's illegal behavior will be rewarded for this. Deducted personal points.For a felony like escape, you can get at least one month of points if you expose one person. If you expose a group of people at a time, you might be released directly.Therefore, even if someone plans to escape from the hard labor camp, they will usually be controlled within a limited range of people, so as not to cause trouble to the upper body.

Secondly, if there are too many people, it is easier to attract the attention of the guards when fleeing, resulting in the failure of the operation.And if it is one or two people, it is easier to use the guard's gap to escape.

In addition, even if many escaped from prison, they can escape from the monitoring area, the supplies that the fugitives can obtain in the no-man's land outside Shilu are extremely limited, and it is impossible to achieve a complete and even distribution, which is very likely to Infighting among fugitives.When there are too many people, it will become more troublesome to hide the whereabouts of the team and avoid being chased by the guards.

A year ago, when the preliminary construction of the Shilu mining area was just started, there was a group escape incident due to the negligence of the guards.At that time, more than 80 prisoners fled into the dense forest near the construction site while the guards were unaware. Qiao Zhiya happened to be at the construction site at that time, and he led a platoon of militiamen to chase after him.As a result, many people were killed and injured one after another during the pursuit. In the end, only a dozen people managed to escape, but these dozen people have never appeared in Haihan's jurisdiction since then.

With the lessons learned from the past, Qiao Zhiya is not too surprised that such a thing happened again in the mining area.Due to limited conditions, the mining area has not built any isolation facilities on the periphery so far. As long as the prisoners feel at ease and want to escape, they do have this opportunity.Qiao Zhiya's "follow the procedure" means to let the people below go to find out the situation first. It is impossible for so many people to escape from prison without any signs, and they will always find some useful information.Taking advantage of this time, the militia stationed here will immediately gather their teams and send troops to pursue several possible directions.

If this group of people is lucky and escapes quickly enough, it will count as their fate, but if they are chased, then I am sorry. The pursuit of fugitives in the hard labor camp has always been life or death. He will be publicly executed in a hard labor camp to serve as an example to others.

Qiao Zhiya can be regarded as a prestigious official now, and there are so many guests around, so naturally he won't take time off to handle this matter in person.There was nothing wrong with his response, but the subsequent developments were beyond his expectations.

After the militia stationed in Shilu received the order, they immediately organized their manpower and prepared to go into the mountain to hunt down—whether they could be chased or not, this was what they should do, otherwise how could they calm down those prisoners who were eager to move.The police also quickly gathered the two hard labor teams where the missing persons appeared, and began to interrogate the confessions.

The people who remained in these two teams were almost too timid to run away, so naturally they would no longer have any cover for their fleeing companions, and quickly explained everything.It turned out that the more than 30 people who escaped were all Li people, and most of them were arrested and sent to hard labor camps for various misbehaviors in the Haihan jurisdiction.But there was not a single Li person left behind, and all of them had been threatened with death by this group of Li people, so no one dared to report before they acted—there were at least two or three hundred Li people in this hard labor camp, and no one Know if they have any accomplices left here.

But when these people began to connect in series, the remaining prisoners did not know at all.The only useful clue is that someone has heard that this group of Li prisoners are planning to escape to the mountainous area to the east, because there is Lidong dozens of miles away—maybe there will be someone to meet them outside the mining area, because this group of people He didn't even take the water with him when he ran away.

However, this information was ignored intentionally or unintentionally by the militia platoon leader who was eager to lead the pursuit as the first batch of troops to set off. After all, it was rare that Director Qiao and Chief Gu from Sanya were both there. This was a great opportunity to make meritorious service.The platoon leader gathered his men and horses, received weapons and ammunition, and immediately set off into the mountain.

An hour later, intermittent gunshots sounded in the forest east of the No. [-] pit, but at this time the entire team of pursuit troops had not set off from the station.This is not surprising, chasing fugitives has always been regarded as live ammunition training for the militia, the commander can decide whether to fire or not - most of the time the commander will choose to let the soldiers have a live target to shoot Opportunity.

But soon something went wrong. A signal bomb rose above the forest where the gunshots sounded—this is one of the configurations of the field troops. It has a bamboo shell and is fired by hand. The time spent in the air is very short, but it can basically meet the tactical requirements. up.It stands to reason that on the way of chasing fugitives, the armed forces are basically chasing them all the way, and it is difficult for fugitives who lack weapons to fight back. Therefore, in addition to arranging road signs along the way, it is generally impossible to use signal flares, because this kind of delay The only function of the signal flare with black smoke is to warn for help.

If the first one was sent by mistake, the second one after 2 minutes will obviously not be sent by mistake again.This shows that the leading troops most likely encountered some trouble in the mountains and forests, making it difficult for them to parry.

The militia did not dare to be negligent, and immediately informed Qiao Zhiya of the news.Qiao Zhiya woke up when he heard the drink. He drew up the rules for using the flares. Only in emergency situations, the soldiers would fire two flares in a row—this is no longer a warning, but a call for help!

"I have something to go out to deal with. You are responsible for taking good care of the visiting group... Also, find an excuse to cancel all the visiting trips in the afternoon, and send the visiting group back to Changhua as soon as possible!" Qiao Zhiya said calmly, still eloquent Gu Kai pulled to the side and whispered something to him.

Of course Gu Kai could tell that Qiao Zhiya was not joking, so he quickly asked, "Is the matter serious? Do you want to call the garrison in Changhua?"

"No need for the time being. By the way, after sending the tour group away, you stay here and sit in town until I come back." After finishing speaking, Qiao Zhiya patted Gu Kai on the shoulder, then turned and left.

"This guy has been talking for a long time as if he didn't say anything..." After Qiao Zhiya's figure disappeared, Gu Kai realized that he still didn't know anything, and couldn't help cursing a few words.But even if Qiao Zhiya didn't say anything, Gu Kai realized that the matter was serious.There were 800 militiamen and police stationed in the mining area, and Qiao Zhiya actually asked him to stop the tour and get the people away. It was obvious that something was out of control outside.

Although Gu Kai's guess is not very accurate, it is indeed very close to the truth.According to the standard combat effectiveness, a platoon of militiamen should be able to deal with at least two to three times as many opponents when they are fully armed. As for fugitives who are in a hurry, they can at least double this basis.However, one of the platoons that set out earlier encountered a difficult problem in the mountains and forests. This probably wouldn't be something thirty or so fugitives could do.After listening to the report, Qiao Zhiya realized that the situation must be brought under control immediately, so she chose to act personally.

Qiao Zhiya has a very good habit of bringing his personal weapons and equipment with him wherever he goes. Even if he came to Shilu for inspection, he did not forget to ask the orderlies to load all the weapons in large and small boxes on the train and transport them over.

However, in order for Qiao Zhiya to change his equipment and choose a weapon, the militia troops that had already prepared had to be delayed for another 10 minutes.At [-]:[-] in the afternoon, one and a half hours after the vanguard set off, Qiao Zhiya finally set off from the mining area with a company of reinforcements and plunged into the forest.

Although the platoon leader who set off with the vanguard was eager to make contributions, he did not forget the usual training results, and made direction marks along the way in accordance with the standard code.However, there is often a distance of tens of meters between each mark, so the reinforcement troops led by Qiao Zhiya must be slower than the former in terms of speed.

During the march, sporadic gunshots could still be heard from the mountains and forests to the east.Although Qiao Zhiya was anxious, there was no other way to think about it. The vanguard was not equipped with communication equipment such as radio stations, and the natural environment here was dense forests that had not been mined. Even if Qiao Zhiya had the best binoculars Can't see what's going on miles away.

After marching all the way for half an hour, the scouts who were walking in front finally saw the vanguard.What is surprising is that the people in the vanguard are not chasing the fugitives at this time, but are fighting and retreating.

"It's Li people! We're in ambush!" After seeing the comrades in the reinforcements, a soldier with an arrow stuck in his shoulder hurriedly told everyone the truth.

In desperation, Qiao Zhiya didn't bother to ask carefully, and immediately ordered the troops to deploy a defensive formation, accepting the soldiers who retreated in front to enter the formation for rest.

Soon, rustling sounds could be heard from all directions in the nearby forest, but Qiao Zhiya would not wait for the opponent to appear automatically, and after guessing that the opponent had already entered the range, he gave the order to fire—no need to aim at a specific target. The target is to rely on the density of firepower to shoot.This move immediately had an immediate effect, and people in the distant bushes uttered miserable cries.

The other party obviously also realized that they could no longer hide their whereabouts, and they popped up one after another, launching long-range attacks on Hai Han with bows and short spears.However, their weapons also faced the same problem as the Haihan militia in this kind of forest. Most of them were blocked by trees, and very few of them could really play a role.

At this time, Qiao Zhiya also noticed the number of enemies besieged from three sides. It was indeed quite a number. A rough estimate was that there were at least two to three hundred people, and there might be follow-up troops in the distance. Chase all the way back.However, the reinforcement troops he led were not at a disadvantage in terms of strength, and their weapons were even more superior. Therefore, Qiao Zhiya did not panic, and ordered the troops to organize a defensive front in platoons, and use muskets to stop the opponent at a distance of 300 meters—— At this distance, the bows and arrows and short spears of the Shangli people could hardly cause trouble for the militia.

At this time, Qiao Zhiya finally had time to check the loss of personnel in the vanguard.Of the 43 people at the start, only 17 people have retreated here to meet up, and even the platoon leader leading the team is missing.According to a wounded soldier's report, the platoon leader had been hit by at least two arrows when he showed up for the last time. Although he didn't continue to talk, it was obvious that this meant more than luck.Qiao Zhiya found a squad leader among the surviving personnel, and finally learned about the situation they encountered.

After the vanguard entered the dense forest, they quickly found the traces of the fugitives in the forest, and then chased them all the way to a cliff about three or four miles ahead, where they were armed by the Li people who were ambushing there. launched an attack.Caught off guard, several people fell to the ground on the spot.The platoon leader who led the team found that they were outnumbered, so he decisively ordered the release of signal flares for help, and then retreated while fighting.But the opponent was obviously well prepared for this ambush. The weapons of this militia did not help them gain much advantage in the encounter, and people were injured and fell down along the way.If Qiao Zhiya hadn't brought reinforcements to respond, it's hard to say how many of the remaining 17 people would have escaped back to Shilu alive.

"It turned out to be a premeditated action..." Qiao Zhiya was still a little shocked by this fact.

Although there are still many Li and Miao villages in the Qiongzhong mountain area who are not interested in Haihan, or even hostile, they rarely take the initiative to take aggressive actions, let alone collude with the Li people in the hard labor camp. , Hit the ambush of the Haihan militia.Moreover, as far as Qiao Zhiya knew, there was no Li cave within twenty or thirty miles around Shilu. It was obvious that these Li people came from farther away and set up an ambush here to kill Haihan people.

But Qiao Zhiya couldn't think of the purpose of Li people doing this for a while, because there seems to be no record of armed conflict with Li people in recent months.

(End of this chapter)