Republic of China: Guandong Ginseng King

Chapter 422 Taking advantage of the situation
Meng Lanxin ran straight to the main gate of the enclosure and climbed up the wall along the trail.

Holding on to the battlement on the wall and looking down, he couldn't help but gasp.

At this time, a large number of soldiers and horses gathered a hundred feet away from the fence. At a glance, there were at least six or seven hundred of them.

These people were holding guns and torches, and judging by their attire, they must have beards.

The bearded men were cheering and riding horses, and the scene was noisy and chaotic. It didn't look like a good thing, and Meng Lan couldn't help but feel a little nervous.

"Who is outside? This is the residence of Lord Qu, the Yalu River Inspector.

If you have something to discuss, send two people up." Meng Lanxin did not dare to be careless and asked hurriedly.

The bearded men outside the fence were arguing and discussing how to get into the fence.

Suddenly, they heard someone talking on the wall. It was a young woman. The group of bearded men below were immediately furious.

"It's a girl, a pretty young girl.

Boss, I’m telling you, you can’t go wrong just by listening to me, right?
The man named Qu took his troops out to fight, and all the patrol and security teams around Shuangdianzi and Maoershan were withdrawn.

Now they are outside, and they don’t know whether they are alive or dead. They might be killed by Japanese cannons.”

“I tell you, there’s definitely not much defensive power left in this enclosure.

If there is a man peeing standing up, you can’t let a woman come out and shout at him.”

Several bearded leaders were discussing proudly.

"Yes, I think what Lao Zhao said is right. That Qu guy has been too rampant in recent years, and he has made it hard for us brothers to breathe.

He took the wood tax, he mined the gold mines, and from time to time he sent the security team into the mountains to suppress bandits. How many hard days did we have to go through?

Don't say anything this time, just rush in and grab the things.

I heard from people that their family makes a lot of money every year from the gold mine alone.

That guy named Qu has several wives. When we get in, let’s enjoy them to our heart’s content.”

Hu Zi was far away and it was very noisy around, so Meng Lanxin couldn't hear clearly what they were saying.

But looking at those people whispering to each other and looking sneaky, I felt that they were not saying anything good.

Meng Lanxin was about to ask again when she saw a few people coming out from the opposite side, smiling maliciously at the wall.

"Hey, big sister, your husband is not at home, right? Are you lonely? Open the door quickly, your brother loves you."

The others laughed when they heard this and said, "Sister, sister, open the door quickly. The brothers are the most caring."

"Sister, please be kind and lend me a little..."

Meng Lanxin was annoyed by the dirty words of the bearded men below, so she took the gun from the guard next to her, pulled the bolt and fired three shots in succession, just in time to interrupt the other party's words.

"Where did this wild mountain cat come from? Doesn't it see where we are? How dare it run here and act wild?" Meng Lan said angrily.

"Get away from me if you know what's best for you, or I'll show you how powerful I am."

Meng Lanxin’s shooting skills were good, but Hu Zi was far away and out of range, so the three shots did not hit him.

The group of bearded men below burst into laughter again, "Oh, this woman is quite hot, I like such hotness, it's quite flavorful."

Meng Lanxin was about to explode, but was stopped by the person next to her.

Meng Lanxin turned her head and saw that it was none other than Liu Dongshan. "Dad, why are you here?"

"It's such a mess outside, how can I not come?
You are just too impatient. Why don’t you go to the East Courtyard to find me first?

What kind of people are those down there? A bunch of stinky bastards who treat a woman like a piece of fat meat. Why should we listen to their dirty words?"

Liu Dongshan looked at his goddaughter beside him and sighed. This child was quite skilled, but she had a bad temper and was a little impulsive.

"You go aside first, I'll talk to them.

Something is not right today. Maybe there is a traitor in the patrol team.

You will act according to circumstances. If we cannot reach an agreement, send a signal for help immediately."

Liu Dongshan is knowledgeable and experienced, comparable to Meng Lanxin in terms of experience.

Seeing these bearded men laughing and making noises without restraint and no other noise around, Liu Dongshan knew that something must have happened to the patrol team.

Qu Shaoyang transferred most of the patrol teams, but left more than a hundred people in Maoer Mountain to be responsible for daily security patrols.

Although many people from Goryeo on the other side of the strait have been running here in recent days and the patrol team has been unable to keep up, with so many bearded men gathering in Maoer Mountain, the patrol team should not be silent at all.

There is only one possibility, something happened on the patrol team's side, and they were most likely knocked down by this group of bearded men.

And the most likely scenario is that there is a traitor in the patrol team.

When Liu Dongshan said this, Meng Lanxin suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

She suddenly remembered something. The gold mine stopped working some time ago, and the guards from the gold mine came to report that several people had escaped from the gold mine.

They were all the bearded men who had been captured before. Because their crimes were serious, they had never been released.

Given the situation this year, the mountain field cannot be used for work, so there is nowhere to accommodate these people, and they can only stay in the gold field to look after the machines.

Unexpectedly, a few people took the opportunity to sneak away.

When the Jinchang guards reported over, the news that Qu Shaoyang was injured came over.

Everyone in the family was upset and just randomly arranged for someone to search for a few days, but when they didn't find anything, that was it.

At that time, I thought that those people had been imprisoned for several years, and even if they escaped, they would not be able to achieve anything.

In addition, Qu Shaoyang had to withdraw some manpower, and many of the guards in Jinchang were also transferred away, so no one cared about this matter anymore.

Now it seems that those few people who escaped might have contacted gangs from other places and planned to come and smash the kiln while the guards of Maoer Mountain were unattended.

When Qu Shaoyang left, he took Xingye and dozens of guards from his family with him.

The explosives workshop needed manpower, so most of the long-term workers were transferred over to help.

Now there are only about forty gunners guarding the compound, and including the servants, there are at most a hundred people.

But the fence is too big, and it needs a lot of people to defend it. There are six or seven hundred bearded men on the outside, but no one knows what is going on in secret.

If things go wrong today, it might cause trouble.

The key point is that no one expected that there would be a gang of people so bold as to smash the Qu family's kiln.

Thinking of this, Meng Lanxin quickly stepped aside and went down to gather people to make preparations.

Liu Dongshan came to the front and shouted outside the wall, "I wonder who the big boss is outside?
My name is Liu Dongshan, and people nicknamed me Water Crow, which are both colloquial names in the underworld. We don't interfere with each other, so why should we use guns and knives?

How about this, I will immediately send you 5,000 taels of silver and 200 dan of fine rice and flour to buy a cricket road, and we will be familiar with it from now on."

Liu Dongshan mainly didn't want to cause trouble. After all, Qu Shaoyang was not at home and Doctor Chen was a scholar.

Although the fence is quite solid and the defense is not weak, there are only a few people after all. If a fight really breaks out, it would be bad if anyone gets hurt.

It would be better to spend money to avoid disaster, and get through this hurdle first. At worst, you can wait for Qu Shaoyang to come back and lead troops to suppress the bandits. Five thousand taels of silver, plus refined rice and flour, would be a matter of life and death in other families, but it is not worth mentioning in the Qu family.

However, the beards below did not appreciate it at all.

A man in a fur cloak, an otter-skin hat and staring eyes urged his horse forward two steps, propped up the front of the otter-skin hat with the whip in his hand, and snorted.

"Stop talking nonsense here, who knows who you are, old bastard?

You want to get rid of us with just 5,000 taels of silver? What are you dreaming about?
Hurry up and open the big fan of the circle for me, let me in smoothly, and I can save your family’s lives.

Otherwise, you will not have any good results if you get in, and Galaha will pick them out for you."

"Boss, why bother talking to them? Just smash the kiln and break open the circle. All the good stuff inside will be ours."

The bearded guys nearby were obviously getting impatient and were shouting.

Behind the crowd, the bearded men were also shouting, "Smash the kiln, smash the kiln..."

Seeing this, Liu Dongshan on the wall could only shake his head.

Good words cannot persuade a damned ghost, so there is nothing we can do. Let’s get started.

Then he saw a man among the beards waving a triangular wind flag. He was the leader of one of the eight gangs.

As soon as the wind flag pointed, the bearded men began to attack from the southwest and northwest.

Generally speaking, the front door has the strongest firepower, while the northwest corner is remote and has the weakest firepower, so when Hu Zi smashes the kiln, they usually start from the northwest corner.

Liu Dongshan had been around for many years, so of course he knew all this. So when he was building the fence, he paid special attention to strengthening the defense of the northwest corner.

There were seven or eight gunners with good marksmanship on the turret, and there were also some mines buried outside the wall.

The bearded men who led the way were all strong and powerful, pushing a cart with bags of bean cakes that had been watered piled on it.

In this cold winter, the bags are frozen hard and can be used as shelters.

The bearded man behind the cart had a big rope with a flying claw and a buckle wrapped around his body.

This thing is a great tool for climbing up houses. Just throw it over the wall with all your strength, hang it on anything, and then you can climb up the wall along the rope.

The front was responsible for attacking the enclosure, while the artillery chief and others in the back, with a group of upright men (old bearded men with good marksmanship), fired volley guns in the back to suppress the firepower of the artillery position.

As soon as the bearded man below fired a shot, Meng Lanxin immediately lit the flare in her hand.

This thing is quite similar to fireworks, but after being improved by Anders and others, it can fly very high and explode extremely bright fireworks in mid-air, which can be seen from a long distance.

On the wall, the gunners and the men lit the bricks soaked in kerosene and threw them out using the force.

The flames jumped up and illuminated the open spaces.

Immediately afterwards, gunshots rang out continuously, and bullets pierced the night sky with sharp squeals.

"Oh no! They have sent out a signal for help. We must hurry up and attack them. We cannot let them wait for help."

When the bearded man outside saw this, he immediately realized something was wrong and shouted loudly.

The chief immediately waved the wind flag in his hand, and the bearded man who was leading the charge didn't care about anything else and rushed towards the wall under the cover of the cart.

Unexpectedly, when the cart was pushed to a distance of about 20 feet from the wall, there was a sudden loud bang.

I don’t know what exploded, and several bearded guys were blown into the sky in an instant.

"Fuck, what the hell is this? Why is it so powerful? Why didn't that idiot Lao Wai tell me that the Qu family also has this thing?"

When Hu Zitou saw this situation, he knew that things were bad.

Without finding out the details beforehand, they just thought that Qu Shaoyang was not at home as he had gone to lead his troops to fight against the Japanese invaders. Only the elderly, the weak, women and children were left in the Qu family's village. That's when they came up with the idea of ​​taking the opportunity to smash the kiln.

Even if there is an ambush outside a general fence, it is at most some traps, ground guns, etc., with limited lethality.

I'm used to seeing beards, so I know how to deal with them.

But the thing before them was too powerful, the bearded men had never seen it before, and for a moment, no one dared to rush forward.

"Boss, what should we do? This thing is too weird. We can't get close to it."

When the leading bearded men saw this situation, they were dumbfounded and hurriedly gathered together to discuss.

"What can I do? I have to go ahead even if I have to grit my teeth.

We agreed before we came here that whoever goes back on his word and backs off will be a grandson."

The bull-eyed man wearing an otter-skin hat said this through gritted teeth.

"Aren't there a few lame horses in the team? Let those horses lead the way. I don't believe they can bury this thing."

It has come to this, who would still care about those horses? If the kiln is destroyed successfully, any number of horses can be exchanged for them.

So someone brought a few lame horses from the back to the front, tied a string of firecrackers to the horses' tails and lit them.

The horse was frightened and ran around, which happened to detonate a landmine buried outside the wall.

There are indeed not many mines buried outside the wall.

This thing is too destructive, and Liu Dongshan and his colleagues were worried that someone would accidentally touch it, so they only buried a small number of mines, pulled the wires at night, and dismantled them during the day.

If there are too many, and the family members can't remember their locations and miss two, that would be a big problem.

After Hu Zi sacrificed several horses, almost all the mines outside the west wall were triggered.

"Dad, what should we do?" Meng Lanxin and Liu Dongshan also came to the west along the wall.

Seeing the bearded man below pushing the cart quickly towards the wall, Meng Lanxin asked anxiously.

"What can we do? Let's fight. Grit our teeth and hold on. Maybe reinforcements will come soon." Liu Dongshan pulled the bolt of the gun and fired downwards.

Yes, it has come to this, what else can I say? I will fight to the death.

So Meng Lanxin didn't waste any more words and led the guards and farmhands in the house to shoot with guns.

"Erzhuzi, where's the heavy machine gun? What are you waiting for now?"

Seeing the bearded men below, relying on their numbers to move towards the wall in a black mass, Meng Lan became anxious and shouted loudly.

There are Maxim heavy machine guns placed above the main gate and the east and west side gates of the enclosure.

But this thing consumes too many bullets, and the gunners dare not use it easily without the order from the master.

Now that Meng Lanxin had spoken, why should the machine gunner be polite?
"Da da da." The Maxim machine gun fired a burst of bullets, and the beards below fell down immediately.

"Oh my god, what the hell is this?" The bearded guys below were all stunned. Who has ever seen a gun with such a fast firing rate?
I didn't expect that the Qu family's enclosure not only had that explosive thing, but also this kind of powerful weapon? This kiln is not easy to smash today.

"Damn it, I don't believe it today.

Pass the order down, attack from three sides, regardless of priority, even if we have to use more people to fill the kiln today, we must break it open."

The bearded leader was getting anxious. They had gone through so much trouble to get here and they must not return empty-handed.

(End of this chapter)