32 The crisis is coming

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In mid-February, when spring was approaching and the weather began to get warmer, the scouts who were sent out by Li Zixiao to investigate the news brought back a very bad news.

With Li Zixiao sending Liu Zhong to take charge of the scout team, there are now a total of thirty scouts under him, all of whom have been sent to the mountain to inquire about various news in the direction of Yongcheng County.

And by the way, some salt, herbs and other materials, on February 18, Han Tong was sent back to the cottage by Liu Chong, and as soon as he entered the village, he quickly ran to Li Zixiao, who was supervising the training of the recruits.

Li Zixiao saw that Han Tong's expression was wrong, so he immediately turned around and left the school grounds, took Han Tong to his room, and waved Lin Yuluo, who was helping him clean the house, out.

Then Li Zixiao turned around and asked Han Tong with a solemn expression, "Why are you in such a hurry?" Did you bring back bad news? ”

Han Tong frowned and nodded, and after saluting Li Zixiao, he immediately replied: "Big boss, something is indeed wrong!"

The subordinate came back this time to convey the news that Zhang Ergouzi's brother was going to bring it back, and he heard a message from a merchant who traded iron materials for us last time.

The businessman said that the Cai family has not been idle for a while, they sent people to lobby several large villages around the county, and secretly contacted a few small poles, and gathered more than 1,000 villagers, who are gathering in Yongcheng County, wanting to come to fight our village.

Not only that, but this time they also invited a thousand households from the Suiyang Guard, with more than 700 officers and soldiers, I am afraid that within three or two days, the officers and soldiers of the Suiyang Guard Station will rush to Yongcheng County, and it is estimated that they will send troops to fight us.

When Captain Liu heard what the two gouzi brothers said, he didn't dare to slack off, and he personally sent someone to Yongcheng County to take a turn, and found that there were indeed many people gathering there, and the momentum was not small.

believed that this matter should not be fake, so he immediately sent his subordinates back to the cottage to report to the big boss, so that the big boss could prepare early. ”

After listening to Han Tong's words, Li Zixiao's heart suddenly chuckled, and he said in his heart: Sure enough, what he expected was almost the same, the Cai family was waiting for the winter to pass, and they planned to collude with the officers and soldiers to encircle and suppress him.

It's just that he didn't expect the Cai family to be so generous, and actually colluded with the Liu family, as well as other surrounding landlords, to make up more than 1,000 villagers, plus more than 700 officers and soldiers of the Suiyang Guard, this number is about to break 2,000!

"The surname Cai really looks up to Lao Tzu!" Li Zixiao couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Okay, I know, Han Tong, go back and tell Liu Chong, let me stare at the Cai family in Yongcheng County to figure out this Xiangyong's every move, and then ask him to send two people to quickly go north to the area of Guide and find the contact point that Qi Wei gave us.

Ask them to verify whether there are really officers and soldiers of Suiyang Wei going south, and if so, the road they take, about when they can reach Yongcheng County.

Send a letter to Zhang Ergouzi again, and ask him to find a way to figure out the situation of all the big families who dealt with us with the Cai family this time, and see how many people and materials they have produced.

When we get through this this time, Lao Tzu will have to settle the general account with them. Li Zixiao thought for a moment, and then quickly gave Han Tong new instructions.

"Yes, the big boss, his subordinates understand." Han Tong replied and rode away from the cottage again.

After Han Tong left, Li Zixiao did not dare to slack off, and immediately ordered Qian Guangyuan, Zhou Dazhu, Wei Hong and other henchmen who stayed in the cottage to discuss in the cottage lobby.

After listening to Li Zixiao's brief explanation of the situation, everyone's faces immediately sank.

Qian Guangyuan seemed calmer, and the others all looked very angry.

Zhou Dazhu had a hot temper, and even patted his thighs and scolded: "His grandmother's, we didn't go to the old bastard surnamed Cai to take revenge, but this old bastard came to us first!"

What are you afraid of, let them come well, come and kill one Lao Tzu, come and kill a pair of two Lao Tzu, his grandmother's, the tiger is not powerful, they still think we are sick cats! ”

Wei Hong was obviously calmer than Zhou Dazhu, and said: "Brother Dazhu is right, there is nothing to fear from the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and there are hundreds of officers and soldiers who have died in our hands."

However, this time, the Cai family did not hesitate to make such a big battle, colluded with the Liu family and other landowners, and invited more than 700 officers and soldiers from Suiyangwei, and the total strength is estimated to be more than 2,000, which is not small.

We are not afraid of the enemy, but we must not respond to the enemy recklessly, first find out the enemy situation, and at the same time step up preparations in the cottage, let us accompany the Cai family and the officers and soldiers of Suiyang to fight this time. ”

"Yes, what the captain of the guard said is right, Zhan, I'm afraid of him!" Other big and small leaders who were called over to participate in the deliberations also echoed Wei Hong's words.

At this time, Gao Debiao, a senior who was sitting in the lower position, stood up tentatively and said: "Big boss, my subordinates have something to say!" ”

"You say." Li Zixiao nodded and encouraged Gao Debiao.

This Gao Debiao was recruited by Li Zixiao when he recruited the first batch of homeless people, and he can be regarded as an old man under him, but he doesn't talk much on weekdays, and he doesn't show much mountain dew.

But when attacking Lin Jiabao and intercepting Zhao Jie's officers and soldiers, he still performed quite well, so he was promoted by Li Zixiao to be a chief, and his subordinates were in charge of more than a dozen people.

At this time, according to about 350 soldiers under his command, 100 recruits, plus more than 150 baggage soldiers, Li Zixiao also set up several levels of low-level officer positions, which was convenient for Li Zixiao to effectively command so many men under his command.

The distribution of officer positions he set up was that he was in charge of five to ten people, and even chiefs, who were generally in charge of ten to twenty people, and above that was the captain, who was in charge of more than 100 people.

At this time, there were only six captains in the entire cottage, and the distribution was Zhou Dazhu, Wei Hong, Liu Chong, Dong Zhuang and Quartz, and Li Zhengming and Li Langzhong, a total of six people.

Among them, Zhou Dazhu is the captain of the first team of soldiers, Wei Hong is the captain of the second team of soldiers, Liu Chong is the captain of the third team of soldiers and the captain of the leading scout team, and Dong Zhuang is the captain of the baggage team;

Quartz is the captain of Li Zixiao's personal guard, and Li Zhengming is the captain of the medical team, as for the captain of the recruit team, he can't find a suitable candidate for the time being, so he can only let Li Zixiao take on the role himself.

Quartz's personal guards are a little smaller, only a dozen people, and Li Zhengming's medical team is only a dozen people, they are more special among the six captains.

These six captains directly obey Li Zixiao's direct leadership, and under each team, there are chiefs, and below them are captains and soldiers.

In this way, it effectively ensured that Li Zixiao had effective mobilization orders for his subordinates, which was also the result of Li Zixiao's rectification of troops and horses in the past month.

"According to the subordinates, the White Snake Village under us is still dangerous, and we are not too few people here, as long as we stick to the cottage, don't look at the number of them, we may not be able to attack it.

The subordinates thought that we could still fight with them in this battle, as long as they couldn't get in, their 2,000 men and horses would eat the horses every day, but it would cost a lot of money and food.

It is estimated that it will not be long before they will take the initiative to withdraw their troops, and then this area of Yongcheng County will not be left sideways by us! ”

Gao Debiao felt Li Zixiao's encouraging gaze, and suddenly had the courage to say loudly to Li Zixiao.

Li Zixiao nodded and asked him to sit down, habitually touched his nose, and began to think about this suggestion, everyone was used to him thinking like this.

But then Qian Guangyuan took the initiative to stand up and said to Li Zixiao: "Big boss, I don't think it's feasible to stick to the cottage. ”

Li Zixiao still attaches great importance to the opinion of Qian Guangyuan, a literati, so he said: "If Mr. Wenrun has any ideas, just say it, everyone will brainstorm!" ”

After getting Li Zixiao's consent, Qian Guangyuan bowed slightly and continued: "Don't forget, this time, the Cai family colluded with the officers and soldiers of Suiyang Wei to come.

As far as I know, these guards of the Ming Dynasty are equipped with artillery, and this time this group of officers and soldiers will definitely bring some cannons, with the strength of the walls and gates of our cottage, it is difficult to withstand their artillery bombardment.

And we don't dare to be soldiers or recruits, the recent drills are all in the field, and they are not good at defending, once they open the walled gate, then it will inevitably cause chaos.

However, according to our subordinates, we are not without the strength to fight, and our cottage has our own advantages.

Besides, the officers and soldiers invited by the Cai family this time are just the officers and soldiers of the Suiyang Guard, and compared with the two officers and soldiers we defeated before, it is estimated that they will not be stronger there.

Now the elite army of the imperial court is now said to be gathering troops in the land of Sichuan and Shaanxi, encircling and suppressing Li Zicheng and several other righteous troops, which is the biggest trouble that the imperial court wants to exterminate, and there is no time to distract to deal with us.

At this time, the guards of the imperial court were already unbearable for a battle, and this time there were guards and family members from several large families such as the Cai family who participated, as well as the poles mixed in among them.

With our current strength, it may not be their opponent, as long as our spear formation is facing its front and attacking decisively, we will definitely be able to defeat them.

If we win this battle, maybe we will run rampant in Yongcheng County, and even have a chance to take Yongcheng County, which will have a significant impact on the situation of the entire Guide Province! ”

Although Qian Guangyuan is a literati, he has some military common sense, and his ability to analyze the situation is naturally more than one cut stronger than Li Zixiao's other subordinates who don't know a few big characters, which is why Li Zixiao attaches great importance to Qian Guangyuan.

After listening to Qian Guangyuan's words, Li Zixiao also thought about it carefully, nodded and said, "What Mr. Wenrun said is reasonable!" With the strength of our cottage at this time, it is not necessarily impossible to win this battle.

First of all, we must have confidence in ourselves and have the belief that we will win, this battle is a battle related to the life and death of our cottage.

If it is successful, then we will have no rivals here in the future; If we are defeated, we will only have to run away with our tails between our legs, and we will even accompany you brothers to die on the battlefield, or be caught by officers and soldiers and have their heads cut off.

I don't want to live the days of wandering around like before, where a manly man can either defeat an invading enemy and rise to prominence, or die a vigorous battle on the battlefield and never survive like an ant.

Now that everyone has told me, this battle must be fought, and we can only win it, and you can only win it, and you all get rid of all the mess in your heads.

If I hear rumors of cowardice and fear of war, and if someone wants to mess with our army's mind, I will catch them and kill them immediately, and when I go back, I will gather your men to mobilize before the war and distribute wartime materials. ”

After everyone heard Li Zixiao's stern tone, their hearts suddenly froze, and everyone knew that Li Zixiao was determined to fight to the death with the officers and soldiers who came to encircle and suppress them.

They have been following Li Zixiao for so long, and they have roughly figured out Li Zixiao's temper, and before doing things, Li Zixiao is used to listening to his subordinates express their opinions.

But once he has made up his mind, no one should be allowed to raise any objection to his decision.

Unless you can follow his decision and make a better suggestion, maybe it will be adopted by him, you just do what you are told.

So since Li Zixiao has made up his mind, then they can only follow along, these people live a very nourishing life in the cottage, and they don't want to lose this kind of life and live back to the previous days when pigs and dogs were not as good as before.

Everyone hurriedly stood up and straightened their chests, looked at Li Zixiao and shouted: "My subordinates are willing to listen to the orders of the big boss, destroy all the enemies who come to attack, kill, kill, kill!" ”

And these people have been following Li Zixiao for a while, and they have gradually become accustomed to winning more with less, isn't the enemy just more people coming this time? What are you afraid of, there are many people and they are just a group of rabble.

Li Zixiao asked Quartz to fetch a pair of topographic maps around the cottage newly drawn by Liu Chong and his scout team in the past few days.

But basically, you can see at a glance what terrain is everywhere, and even Li Zixiao uses some colors to demarcate various terrains to make it even clearer.

It was clear where the woods were, where the mounds were, and where the hillsides were, and the crowd gathered around the map, looked down at it, and began to discuss how to fight the battle.

There was a heated discussion about when the enemy would arrive, how long they would attack their cottage, how they should take advantage of the terrain, and how they would give full play to the advantages of their subordinates in field warfare.

Li Zixiao looked at the hot subordinates who were practicing on the school field outside, and he was both a little proud and a little nervous.

He didn't know how far he could take these people in the future, he didn't know if he could survive this hurdle, and how many difficulties were waiting for him to overcome on the road ahead.

But he knew that he and his men had no other choice, they had been driven to the edge of a cliff, and if they took any step back, they would be immediately crushed.

If they don't resist, he and his more than 600 people won't survive, so for the sake of their own lives, for the sake of this era when human lives are as cheap as mustard, they can only redeem themselves by themselves, and never count on the charity of others.

Only by firmly uniting and cohesive the people under him can everyone have the ability to survive in this troubled world, no matter how difficult this battle is, he must do his best to deal with it.

The Cai family can be defeated, and the officers and soldiers of the Suiyang Guard Station who rushed to encircle and suppress them can also be defeated, but they must not be defeated, because once they are defeated, they will never have a chance to start all over again.