Foreman Jiang's recruitment of manpower went very smoothly, so there were so many refugees outside the city of Runing Prefecture. With so many people, things were easy to do. The walls and military barracks of the Runing Camp were quickly built before the Chinese New Year.
With the completion of the construction of the barracks, the young adults and orphans recruited by Wu Shigong from Beizhili, as well as their families, were relocated in batches from the Qianhusuo Fortress.
So in the days that followed, Wu Shigong rushed to the training ground every day, training the new recruits without daring to relax at all. And Yang Goudan's blacksmith workshop also worked day and night to build guns and weapons for the new recruits.
Reinforced by the army led by Xue Yongli, and with the cooperation of Qian Qi and some bandits under Lei Ying, Wu Shigong launched a campaign to exterminate Li Yaozi and his group of bandits.
In this annihilation war, everyone from top to bottom was optimistic. Wu Shigong's army was composed of experienced military attachés and veterans, and they had sharp weapons such as blunderbuss and artillery, plus the previous
In the process of suppressing bandits, Wu Shigong's army achieved a brilliant record of almost zero deaths, so even Wu Shigong himself believed that as soon as his army arrived, it would be easy to wipe out Li Yaozi's group of bandits, right?
But what they didn't expect was that Li Yaozi, who had experienced a confrontation with Wu Shigong's army, would not go head-to-head with Wu Shigong's army at all. They used their familiarity with the terrain, plus Li Yaozi had been operating here for a long time and had many informants among the mountain people.
, so after several times Wu Shigong's army got the news about the main force of Li Yaozi's bandits, whenever they pounced, they always missed. On the contrary, several ambushes by Li Yaozi's bandits caused Wu Shigong to lose more than a dozen soldiers.
For this kind of guerrilla warfare, regular troops like Wu Shigong were very suffocated. Moreover, it was the twelfth lunar month of winter, and they were living in tents and eating cold food in the mountains, so the morale of Wu Shigong's army quickly dropped.
After receiving unfavorable news about the bandit suppression, Wu Shigong had no choice but to bring the recruits who had been trained for more than a month and some of his personal escorts to support the bandit suppression campaign in the northern mountainous area.
Similar to the situation here at Wu Shigong, Li Yaozi's morale is high. In a small mountain village in the mountains, in a secret settlement of Li Yaozi, the bandit leaders surrounded Li Yaozi and feasted and drank.
A scar-faced leader raised a bowl full of spirits to Li Yaozi and said: "Daqi, what if this madman Wu bites us and won't let go? Isn't he being led by the nose now?"
?In another month or two, the cold wind on this mountain will blow them into ice lumps. It will not be like the fun we enjoy drinking and eating!"
Scarface's words caused a burst of laughter from the other bandits, and they all said: "That's right, let them eat our farts."; "Daqi, after driving away Crazy Wu, kill this beast like Thunder Dog."
Chop them all up. When the time comes, we will be kings and hegemons in this mountainous area."...
Li Yaozi smiled and made a downward gesture with his hands to quiet the leaders, and said: "This time I will bite a piece of meat from Wu Gou. After Wu Gou's people are driven away, I will
We have already contacted a salt merchant from Yangzhou to supply us with salt. The brothers have worked hard this time, and when the time comes, I will let all the brothers make some money."
Li Yaozi's words aroused roars of applause from the leaders. After the voices became quieter, a more experienced leader reminded Li Yaozi: "Daqi, there is news from outside the mountain. This time Crazy Wu is coming in person with his troops.
Deal with us."
Li Yaozi smashed the sea bowl in his hand on the ground and cursed: "Grandma! This Wu dog dares to come here, that's good. I will skin him alive after I catch him."
Then Li Yaozi saw that the leaders were a little uneasy, and said: "Don't worry, there are so many brothers outside looking for information, the Wu dog can't even bite a bird feather from us."
After listening to Li Yaozi's words, the leaders regained their composure and started eating and drinking lavishly.
Due to the unfavorable outcome in the battle against bandits and the increase in the number of frostbitten soldiers on the mountain, Xue Yongli withdrew his troops to Qian Qi's mountain stronghold to rest and wait for Wu Shigong's reinforcements to arrive.
After the rendezvous, Wu Shigong did not rashly lead the army to suppress the bandits again. He gathered all the military attachés to analyze the problems encountered in suppressing the bandits in the previous period.
After Wu Shigong asked, the military attachés complained one after another and talked about many difficulties. Wu Shigong listened carefully and summarized the following three situations.
The first is that the Li Yaozi bandits have many informants, and those informants are mixed among the mountain people, making it difficult to distinguish them. Some are even relatives of those mountain people, so it is difficult to keep the military's actions secret;
The second is that it is difficult to capture the main force of Li Yaozi's bandits. On several occasions, the army did encounter the main force of Li Yaozi's bandits, but when the bandits saw the bandit-suppressing army, they did not fight at all, and they all turned around and ran away. And they were running away.
In the process, the bandits often split into several groups, making it difficult for the army to catch up.
Because we were staring at one road, maybe this road was not the main force of the bandits, but just an abandoned son thrown by them. But if we divided our forces to pursue them, we were afraid that there would be an ambush set by the main force of bandits in front. So we were in a dilemma.
Finally, the conditions in this mountain are too poor. They live in tents and eat cold food, so soldiers are very easy to get sick. But as long as a fire is set up to cook, the bandits will see the smoke of cooking from a distance, and they will immediately flee away.
In the end, the military attachés suggested that they should temporarily let go of Li Yaozi and his group of bandits. Anyway, they were also in the mountains and did not pose much of a threat to Wu Shigong. Even if they wanted to suppress the bandits, they should temporarily withdraw the troops to the mountains to rest until the spring.
When it gets warmer, we'll come back to suppress the bandits.
As soon as Wu Shigong heard the suggestions of the military attaches, he became angry. The existence of Li Yaozi and this group of bandits not only damaged Wu Shigong's reputation in this area, but also the northern mountainous area of Runing Prefecture was where Wu Shigong's salt products were sold.
The region is his most important source of income.
If he loses control of this area, what confidence will Wu Shigong have to negotiate with those Yangzhou salt merchants in the future? Moreover, Li Yaozi and this group of bandits are lying on the road between Runing Mansion and Qianhusuo Fortress.
, If this thorn is not pulled out, Wu Shigong will simply have trouble sleeping and eating.
So Wu Shigong immediately ordered that no matter how long it took, no matter how much the price was, or how many casualties there were, the bandits like Li Yaozi must be wiped out.
The bandits divided their forces and chased the bandits all the way. It was better to cut off one of the bandit's fingers than to let the bandits escape. In this way, the main force of the bandits would be eliminated if a small amount added up to a large number.
As for the harsh conditions, weren't the conditions when the bandits escaped difficult? The soldiers didn't sleep, so the bandits didn't sleep either. The soldiers ate cold food, so the bandits didn't even eat the cold food. Let's see if you do this, who can finish it all?
.If soldiers are afraid of hardship, then Wu Shigong will not raise soldiers here.
There are also those bandits' spies. If they can't be distinguished among the mountain people, then don't separate them. If they can't be caught, all the people in the mountain village will be killed. No evidence is needed, as long as there is suspicion.
This is a campaign to suppress bandits, not a case that Bao Gong is trying in Kaifeng Mansion.
Wu Shigong's roar made all the military attachés under him silent. After the meeting, Wu Shigong immediately organized an army and once again marched into the mountainous area where Li Yaozi was active.
From the winter of the third year of Chongzhen to the spring of the fourth year of Chongzhen's bandit suppression, Wu Shigong's army destroyed a total of nineteen villages and massacred more than 2,000 mountain people. Among the people, Wu Shigong earned the nickname "Wu Butcher".
It can be said that Wu Shigong's reputation can completely stop children from crying at night in the mountainous area in the northern part of Runing Prefecture.
Through such crazy massacres, Wu Shigong effectively prevented Li Yaozi's informants from reporting the news. Coupled with the use of the strict Baojia system and the temptation of monetary rewards, Wu Shigong's army gradually gained the upper hand from the information level.
Wu Shigong's army organized several large troops to pursue and attack a certain group of bandits who were separated, and wiped out the bandits several times. In addition, Wu Shigong shouted to the bandits - surrender to save your life, and only kill the leader.
slogan. After division and disintegration, Li Yaozi's bandits descended from the mountain and surrendered to Wu Shigong. In the end, Wu Shigong captured more than a thousand bandits.
After the rope was tightened, even if Li Yaozi wanted to escape again, he had nowhere to escape. As Li Yaozi's footholds became fewer and fewer, Li Yaozi's life became increasingly difficult. In the end, Li Yaozi was captured.
Wu Shigong's army was surrounded on several hills.
At this time, Wu Shigong had already returned to Runing Mansion because the situation of suppressing bandits had improved.
