1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 686 Attack on the Black Mountain Cave

According to the situation explained by the prisoner, in addition to Heishandong, there are two or three Xiaolidongs in the nearby area who are under Zhao Ye's orders. The total population is as much as 4000 people, and the young and strong account for about half of this number.However, the products of these caves are not rich. Just like the Fushan cave that Haihan first landed in Sanya, it is still at the level of slash-and-burn farming, and the grain output is only adequate.At present, there are still thousands of escaped prisoners in the Shilu mining area, and there is a lot of food needed to feed these people.Zhao Ye originally planned to capture Shilu to obtain supplies here, but after this calculation failed, the survival of the fugitives became an unavoidable problem.

After listening carefully, Qiao Zhiya said carefully, "That is to say, if this group of people follow Zhao Ye back to the Heishan Cave, there will probably be a food shortage in the local area due to the sudden addition of thousands of mouths?"

"According to the information obtained by the Ministry of Security, there is no record of large-scale grain shipments to the Qiongzhong Mountains for sale in the past three to four months. Unless they store enough grain, the sudden increase of nearly [-]% of outsiders is enough to feed them in a short period of time. Destroy them." Lin Nan replied.

After Haihan realized the control of the main towns on Hainan Island, he brought the large-scale trading of salt, iron and grain into the scope of monitoring, so that he could regulate the supply and marketing of these consumer goods related to people's livelihood when necessary.There is no corresponding record from the Ministry of Security, which means that the planners probably didn't think too much about the consequences of the failure of the riot in advance—of course, they may have already considered this point, but with Li Dong's conditions, it is impossible to buy a large amount of food. The required funds, or because he was worried that this kind of move would attract Haihan's attention, so he did not implement it in the end.

Qiao Zhiya was silent for a moment, then shook his head and said, "The Executive Committee probably won't have the patience to wait for two or three months before doing anything. Waiting for them to collapse on their own may not be enough. You continue to talk."

Lin Nan continued: "About the location of Heishan Cave, according to the prisoner's confession and the military's map, the location is about eighty or ninety miles east of Shilu, and the march will take two to three days."

This distance is actually not too far for marching and fighting, but considering that this distance is full of mountains and dense forests, large-scale military operations will indeed have certain difficulties in terms of supplies and command.

Qiao Zhiya frowned and said, "Are there any villages or other places where we can stay?"

"No!" Lin Nan replied: "The nearest Li Miao village that we have contact with is also a hundred miles southeast of Heishandong, which is closer to Sanya."

"Then we can only force it." Qiao Zhiya was slightly disappointed.A combat target that requires a two-day journey, if there are villages and other places in the middle, it can be used as a ready-made transit supply station, which greatly reduces the pressure on logistical supplies.

However, Lin Nan is not a member of the military, and he is not very expert in marching and fighting, so all he can do is provide information, and the specific combat plan still needs to be formulated and implemented by Qiao Zhiya and the military.

Although the environmental conditions are somewhat unfavorable, there are no conditions for soldiers to perform tasks. Qiao Zhiya quickly adjusted his mood and asked Li Qingyang: "Have you sorted out the appearance and characteristics of Zhao Ye?"

Li Qingyang bowed and replied: "I have already grasped this person's height and appearance. To ensure nothing goes wrong, I am willing to go into the mountains with the army to search for this person!"

Qiao Zhiya gave Li Qingyang a meaningful look, a little suspicious of his real purpose.The Ministry of Security's order did not arrange for them to go into the mountains with the army. Li Qingyang took the initiative to invite Ying Ying, which inevitably made people suspect that he was trying to take credit for it.However, Li Qingyang himself seemed very calm, and continued: "The humble official is worried that Zhao Ye will have some backhands, or that there are still other parties on the island, so we must interrogate him as soon as possible after we capture him."

Li Qingyang's words made some sense, and only those who came from Jinyiwei could better grasp the rules of conduct of their colleagues.The reason why the executive committee responded so quickly this time is to hope that this matter can be completely resolved, and no more mistakes should be allowed.Bringing Li Qingyang by his side will not get in the way.Qiao Zhiya nodded immediately, agreeing to Li Qingyang's request.

In the next few days, all kinds of materials, mules, horses, and people from all walks of life arrived in Changhua one after another, and then arrived at the Shilu mining area by train.The size of the troops assembled here is close to 2000, and there are also hundreds of militiamen in charge of logistics. Considering the special environment of this operation, the military did not recruit ordinary civilians as in the past, but directly transferred a group of reserve soldiers The militiamen came to take charge of the supplies.

On September 9th, Qiao Zhiya led the Annan Second Battalion, which had acclimatized in Shilu for a week, and set off eastward into the mountainous area. Together with him, Li Miao Company as an auxiliary and the mule and horse brigade followed.This time, a total of more than 25 mules and horses were organized to be responsible for the transportation of luggage. Among them, Danzhou and the Yinggehai Salt Field in the south organized a total of 300 five horses. They were sent to Changhua by cargo ship and then sent to Shilu mining area by train. The movement was really not small. , Even the mule and horse markets in Sanya and Qiongzhou Fucheng experienced price fluctuations because of this.Fortunately, the target to be dealt with is located in the Qiongzhong mountain area where news is blocked, otherwise the news would have leaked out before the militia took action.

For Qiao Zhiya, only one week is too short to get used to this army.Fortunately, apart from the fact that the content of daily training and combat methods of this army are somewhat different from those of the local militia, the other organization, command system, etc. are in the same line, and it is relatively smooth to take over the command.Moreover, Ruan Xiangqian, the acting battalion commander of Annan origin, did not slacken any slack because of the replacement of his immediate boss, and still carried out every instruction issued by Qiao Zhiya excellently.

Qiao Zhiya was also very pleased to find that the adaptability of this militia group to the mountainous environment was obviously stronger than that of their counterparts trained in Hainan Island.The militia troops stationed in Shilu before would also organize training in the mountains at least once a month, but the marching speed alone was more than a step slower than the Annan militia.Qiao Zhiya was even thinking that if the Annan militia was the first group of troops to pursue the mountain that day, then the ambush in Heishandong might not be able to keep them.

Leading the way were three Heishandongli people who were arrested in the riot. After they got the promise of saving their lives, they chose to reveal the truth and assist Haihan in capturing Zhao Ye.Of course, even if they can save their lives, it is unlikely that they will regain their freedom one day, and they will probably only be able to spend the rest of their lives in hard labor camps.In addition, it is difficult for their homeland to be preserved in this operation of going into the mountains to suppress bandits, but no one will take the initiative to tell them this.

The three prisoners were escorted separately. The purpose of this was to prevent them from conspiring to cause trouble on the way, and at the same time to verify whether the directions they directed were consistent, so as to better ensure the safety of the troops.However, the thugs who escaped from the Shilu mining area probably also took this route, leaving obvious traces everywhere along the way.Qiao Zhiya can deduce from this that the situation at that time must have been chaotic, and Zhao Ye, the organizer of the organization, could not effectively command these thugs to hide their whereabouts, so that their direction of travel was almost completely exposed by the Haihan militia. under the field of vision.

Fortunately, apart from the slightly rough terrain, there were no particularly difficult natural dangers on this road. Two days later, the vanguard troops responsible for reconnaissance and road exploration had arrived at the sphere of influence of Heishandong.

Heishan Cave is located on a mountain plain in the Qiongzhong Mountains. The natural environment here is far superior to that of Fushan Cave in Tiandu and Shilu Cave in Shilu. Heishan Cave has more cultivated land here. Up to thousands of acres.The north side of the plain is where the later Songtao Reservoir of Hainan Island is located, and the water resources are very rich.Although these Li people's farming methods are still very primitive, with such superior natural conditions, the food they can grow must be better than those of Li Dong who are really located on the mountain.

"No wonder these guys dare to make such a big mess. It seems that they are not very short of food!" Qiao Zhiya stood on a high place, observing the criss-crossed plains below the mountain with a telescope: "If we really plan to wait for them to run out of food, it will When will I have to wait. Don't you think?"

The person Qiao Zhiya asked was Li Qingyang who was standing next to him, and his face was slightly embarrassed at this time. He and Lin Nan inferred that there was a lack of food after interrogating the prisoner, but it was obviously slightly different from the actual situation.But this didn't bother Li Qingyang, he took half a step forward, bowed and said: "Fortunately, the chief is wise, his judgment is accurate, and he was not misled by the wrong information provided by the humble job, luckily, luckily!"

Qiao Zhiya smiled and didn't continue. Since Li Qingyang accepted this responsibility, he has achieved his purpose of making a point.Speaking of which, Li Qingyang was neither a local cadre nor a member of the military, and Qiao Zhiya did not have direct jurisdiction, so he picked too many faults, and there was no need to offend the Ministry of Security later.

Qiao Zhiya ordered the troops to rest in place for two hours, and then marched towards the plain area.Taking advantage of this time, Qiao Zhiya asked the militiamen to cut down a lot of bamboo and wood in the forest, and began to make the ladders needed to attack the wall.When they were about five or six miles away from Heishandong stockade, this team was finally discovered by the opponent, but Qiao Zhiya did not intend to hide his whereabouts, and continued to march until he was about a mile away from Heishandong stockade. , When he could already see the gate of the village, he gave the order to stop.

"Tell your cave owner and the people in the village, hand over the mastermind and all the prisoners who fled here, and the people in Heishandong can save their lives. But I will only give you one hour to make a decision..." Qiao Zhiya raised his hand He looked at the time: "From now on, when the time is up, we will directly attack the stockade, and all those who resist will be regarded as a gang of thugs. Alright, let's go!"

Qiao Zhiya decided to give courtesy first and then soldiers, and let a prisoner go back to convey Haihan's final warning.Of course, he didn't forget to take advantage of this time to deploy some people to several roads around the village to prevent Zhao Ye from escaping again.

Heishandong's reaction was faster than he expected. About 10 minutes later, a long bamboo pole protruded from the gate of the village, and there seemed to be something on it.Qiao Zhiya checked with a telescope and found that it was a human head.Although he couldn't see his face clearly, Qiao Zhiya could probably imagine whose head it was.Obviously the captive's persuasion was ineffective, no matter whether it was Heishan Dongdong master or Zhao Ye who cut off his head, it seemed that the people in the village did not intend to surrender to Haihan.

"Get ready to fight!" Qiao Zhiya gave an order to Ruan Xiangqian: "All resisters, be resolutely attacked!"

"Yes!" Ruan Qianqian replied loudly.He understood exactly what Qiao Zhiya meant by "resolute strike". In plain language, it was to beat to death.

In the weapon configuration of the Annan militia, each battalion has six to eight small-caliber artillery, which can fire 3-pound shells or short-range shotgun.However, due to transportation problems, the troops entering the mountain this time only carried two small cannons, but the performance of these two cannons is better than the models they used in the past. They are not the oldest cast iron cannons, but A bronze cannon that fires more frequently.

Since the opponent did not have any powerful long-range weapons, the militia army advanced unhurriedly until about 200 meters outside the gate of the stockade, before stopping and starting to set up artillery positions, and at the same time build a front-of-fire headquarters.And the Li people in the village probably already knew the power of the opponent's firearms, so they didn't open the door foolishly to rush out, but chose to keep their voices silent, planning to rely on the stone wall to resist the militia army's offensive .

Qiao Zhiya asked the soldiers who could speak Li language to shout out with iron horns, but the response they got was only a few arrows shot from inside the wall of the village.Seeing that the opponent's attitude was very clear, and his own position had been set up, Qiao Zhiya ordered the attack on Heishandong.

Two cannon shots kicked off the battle, and the shots were very accurate. Both shots directly hit the village gate, but the defense of the village gate was not bad. Except for the shells splashing a pile of sawdust, there was no damage. Obvious results have been achieved.

"Sigh, the caliber is too small and the power is not enough!" Qiao Zhiya shook his head helplessly: "If there is a 12-pounder gun, only one gun can blast through this wooden gate at this distance!"

Of course, this is just talk. The twelve-pound gun is at least six or seven times heavier than the three-pound gun. Including the shells and the gunpowder required for firing, the increased baggage weight is almost ten times, and it is difficult to transport. The three-pound gun can be carried by a pack horse, but the twelve-pound gun must be transported by a wheeled device. There is no way to transport it from Shilu to the battlefield in a short time.Therefore, the artillery that can be used here is only a relatively light three-pounder.

(End of this chapter)