He added: "The island where the pirates are stationed has no caves and is far away from the main island, so it can barely be inhabited. However, the island is mainly composed of reefs and has a complex topography. It is difficult to grow much food, and it has to be transported by land. In the past, troops were stationed there for so many years.
It was withdrawn again and again, and the people in Bailie were tired of it."
He Lingchuan nodded.
To put it simply, the management costs of the Yangshan Islands are far greater than the benefits, so its owner, the Lu family, is too lazy to take care of it.
The Lu family’s purchase of this archipelago is truly a textbook example, fully demonstrating the truth that trying to take advantage of a small situation often results in big losses.
He Lingchuan said smoothly: "Where is the biggest source of evil?"
Lu Xun was stunned. Why did Commander He ask this? It seemed like he could go.
But he had a good temper and still replied: "In the southwest of Longji Island, there is a huge sinkhole called Baiyuan. The evil spirits that come out from there every night are so strong that they can be seen with the naked eye. My ancestors went up to this island.
I passed by and didn't stay too long. Two of the attendants who were accompanying me died."
He Lingchuan wrote it down carefully.
Lu Xun took out his water bag and drank some water, then brought the topic back: "So, isn't Longchuan's interior a mess now?"
Some of the water bandits have been recruited, but some are unwilling to surrender and want to cause trouble. Do they have to fight among themselves first?
He Lingchuan smiled: "Who says it's not the case?"
The two major bandit leaders of Qianjinzhai and Qiuhua Gang went back to discuss with the gang members again and again, and finally accepted the conditions He Lingchuan offered them. After all, Yuheng City still gathered troops and maintained strong suppression of the Longchuan Trade Road, with high-frequency patrols and even
Even Jin Yangguo, who was constantly provoking troubles in the east, ignored him.
The business scope of gangsters is constantly shrinking, and their income is also declining day by day. It is no longer a capitalless business.
Moreover, with the conditions offered by He Lingchuan, they calculated that they would not lose any money. So the two gangs of gangsters transformed themselves into glorious road tax inspectors and commercial road security guards.
He even did a good job.
He Lingchuan placed two clerks from Yuheng City at each level to verify road taxes and prevent gangsters from indiscriminately increasing prices.
When these good-hearted gangsters saw that they could really pocket the money to buy the road, they immediately became motivated and patrolled the road more actively than the Yuheng City Army. When other gangsters came to attack Qiufeng, they immediately started to drive them away without saying a word.
This incident, of course, caused an uproar within Takigawa.
In addition to the Xiqiao puppet army, the two largest gangs suddenly surrendered. This sudden change in the direction of the trend will inevitably cause the other gangs to feel excited and waver.
Fushan Lie was so angry that he led the Xilian puppet army to attack the Qiuhua Gang at night.
He lurked in Longchuan but did not annex all the gangs because he was afraid of oppressing them too much and causing other gangs to surrender directly to Yuheng City.
If there is only one Xiqiao puppet army left in Longchuan, how can Yuheng City be polite to it?
Now that Qianjinzhai and the Guihua Gang are about to surrender, Fushan Lie has another plan that fails, which is to scare the monkeys and show the capitulationists what will happen to the Guihua Gang!
Yuhengcheng's move to recruit people was very vicious. If he didn't do something quickly, he wouldn't have to do it again.
The battle was extremely fierce, and the Qiuhua Gang was beaten back steadily. Fortunately, Qianjinzhai came to the rescue in time.
At dawn, the Xiqiao puppet troops retreated, but Xu Zeshou, the leader of the Ball Flower Gang, was seriously injured and died half a day later.
Fushan Lie's sniper killing of Xu Zeshou was to scare the monkeys and threaten all gangs:
If you dare to surrender to the authorities, I will kill you!
He Lingchuan knew that this guy was also capable, otherwise the Xilian puppet army would not have grown bigger and bigger in a few months, and could compete with Qianjinzhai. Now even the Ball Flower Gang is not its opponent, and other small gangs have become silent after seeing this.
.
Using the Takigawa water bandits as pawns, He Lingchuan and Fushan Lie competed in the air and played a game calmly.
After Xu Zeshou's death, Qianjinzhai, under the instruction of He Lingchuan, promoted Secretary Ding, the second-ranking figure of the Guihua Gang, to take over that day, barely preventing the collapse of the Guihua Gang, and the two gangs joined forces.
At the same time, there are also a large number of new faces mixed into the two gangs. They are all strong men in their twenties and thirties, who are powerful and have a temperament that is different from ordinary gangsters.
The Xiqiao puppet army quickly recognized that these were Yuheng City soldiers disguised as soldiers! There were even some familiar faces among them, having quarreled with them on the trade road.
The Yuheng City Army's infiltration into Longchuan began like this.
Later, the Xiqiao puppet army fought several more battles with Qianjinzhai, but they failed to gain any advantage.
A few months ago, even Qianjinzhai, if it dared to lead officers and soldiers into the lair, it would cause dissatisfaction from other gangs, or even join forces to fight; but now, where are the "other" gangs?
After the severe crackdowns and patrols by the Yuheng City Army, the number of small and medium-sized gangs dropped sharply from more than fifty to their early twenties. They were originally struggling to survive; now the Xiqian puppet army has killed the Qiuhua Gang again, forcing them to take sides.
Well, now, another seven or eight gangs broke up in an uproar. The members either joined Qianjinzhai or defected to the Xiqian puppet army. However, the choice of most of the gangsters was beyond the expectations of both parties. They actually left Longqi with their families.
Sichuan, go ashore and start a new life!
I don’t want to choose sides, I’m leaving and I won’t play with you. Is that okay?
People are attached to their homeland, but people can also escape from famine.
Anyway, the Takigawa bandits have been quarreling among themselves for so long, and they haven’t stopped until recently.
This is a good thing for the Longchuan Trade Road, because the gangsters in Zhanbian Qianjin Village also accepted Yuheng City's recruitment. The obvious manifestation is that there are more toll checkpoints on the trade road and fewer robbers.
Until this trip to He Lingchuan to welcome Lu Xun back from the north, there were only eleven gangs left in Longchuan, and only six of them had surrendered to Yuheng City.
And the demise and annexation of gangs are still going on at the same time.
The smaller the number, the greater the pressure will naturally be on the remaining gangs. This is true even for the Xili puppet army.
Of course, the pedestrians running on the Longchuan Trade Road did not know how much intrigue and bloody battles were behind it. They only knew that the trade road environment was getting better day by day.
After passing another checkpoint, He Lingchuan said to Lu Xun: "From now on, we enter the Qianjin Village section."
That is the road section that is tolled and managed by Qianjinzhai.
At the same time, he also ordered the guards behind him: "Be on guard at all times and don't let down!"
Everyone responded in unison, adjusting their weapons and equipment.
Lu Xun was puzzled: "Isn't this Qianjin Village already occupied? Why do you have to step up your guard on this stretch of road?"
"In the past month, the Xiqiao puppet troops have been looting the territory of Qianjinzhai." The two have been at odds anyway, fighting from Longchuan to the trade route. "On the one hand, they are creating obstacles, and on the other hand, Qianjinzhai is responsible.
This section of the road is safe. If you fail to do your job, your salary will be deducted. Fushan Lie also wants to use this to drive a wedge between Qianjinzhai and the government."
"Fushan Lie?" Lu Xun was surprised when he heard the name, "Is it Bejia's Lie?"
"Mr. Lu, do you recognize him?" The Bailie people are quite well informed. There is a big country of Mou between Bejia and Bailie, but Lu Xun also knows about Bejia's rising demon general.
Most people in this world live in isolation, and the villagers in the mountains may never leave the mountains where they were born.
"I've heard that he is a rising star in the past thirty years." Bega has a history of nearly four hundred years, and monsters generally live longer than mortals. With Fushan Retsu's age, he can indeed be regarded as a junior among the monster generals in his country, "
There are so many talented people in Bega.”
He Lingchuan noticed that while he was saying complimentary words, his brows were frowning tightly.
…
We encountered a river on the way. Due to the recent heavy rains, the water in the river was fast and turbid, and the water level was also very high.
There is a wooden bridge over the river, which is about ten feet long. The bridge deck can accommodate three horses and is used by pedestrians and caravans.
Qianjinzhai originally set up checkpoint fees here.
Road taxes are actually also called bridge tolls or tolls. Officials usually collect fees at such bridges or passes, and no one is allowed to pass without paying. Otherwise, if they block the road and collect money on the roads extending in all directions, others will avoid it when they see it.
.
However, this river had a bad temper, and both sides of the river were flooded when it broke out. Qianjinzhai had to move the checkpoint elsewhere.
The caravan in front has finished walking, and the escort can still see their backs heading towards the woods.
When crossing the bridge, the formation remained unchanged. He Lingchuan and Lu Xun were in the center of the team, clustered in front and behind.
The journey was going well in the first place, but when we reached He Lingchuan and Lu Xun and were halfway across the river, something unexpected happened!
In the dense forest on the other side of the river, arrows were shooting at the escort like rain.
Because the arrow was thrown high, the guard still had time to shout "enemy attack!"
He Lingchuan's order was just one word:
rush!
Cross the bridge first, everything will be easy to talk about and fight.
The guards immediately galvanized their horses to speed up, raising their shields while their bodies emitted a faint red light.
Unfortunately, the width of the bridge is limited, and horses cannot fly across it.
The rain of arrows did not cause any serious casualties, and the energy of the men and horses could remove a lot of damage. But the opponent's main target was not them in the first place:
But after hearing a few earth-shattering booms, several special arrows exploded, blowing the wooden bridge into pieces!
More than thirty riders and horses on the bridge suddenly fell into the water.
There was a whistle in the woods, and then dozens of people rushed out. The caravan in front also changed its face, turned around, raised its sword and drew its axe, and greeted the escort.
The convoy led by He Lingchuan has ninety riders, more than twenty on the other side, thirty in the water, and the rest have not yet climbed onto the bridge.
Before crossing the river, we attacked the middle reaches of the river. The attackers were well aware of the terrain's advantages.
"Commander!" Willow, who was in charge of the rear, had not yet climbed onto the bridge. She rushed to the shore in two steps, lowered her hand with a crossbow arrow, and shot it towards He Lingchuan with a whoosh.
The specially made arrowhead has a section of hook behind it. It was originally used for flying over eaves and walls, but now it became a safety rope thrown to those who fell into the water.
The moment he fell into the water, He Lingchuan had already grabbed Lu Xun's arm to prevent him from being swept away by the water.
But there was no force under his feet, and he couldn't throw Lu Xun ashore.
The willow arrow's landing point was precise. He Lingchuan grabbed it, wrapped the rope twice around Lu Xun's waist, strangled the arrow and shouted: "Pull up!"
As soon as the wicker presses the crossbow to cock the crossbow, the spider rope shot out will be automatically recovered.
This set of machinery is also the result of several generations of careful debugging by Panlongcheng. It can withstand even two or three large living people being dragged back.
During the process of her "recovering" Lu Xun, two or three arrows were shot at Lu Xun from the other side. Those who could be protected by He Lingchuan must be important people who got ashore first, and they could not be let go.