Except for the corpses of "Guo Shan Kong", which Li Zhi had to transport out entirely, Li Zhi cut off the heads of all the dead and seriously injured bandits, and gave the heads to the civilians to put on the carts. It was the first time to deal with corpses, and many
The soldiers vomited when they beheaded him.
More than 20 horses were seized and Li Zhi distributed them to three reconnaissance squads to speed up the scouts' response.
After disposing of the corpses and trophies, Li Zhi tied up all the bandits who were still alive and used them as guides, and led his troops to kill Chaoyun Peak.
The bandits set up a stronghold gate at the most dangerous point of Chaoyun Peak and prepared to defend it. However, this time the mountain-goers came out to attack Li Zhi, leaving only more than thirty old and weak bandits in the stronghold.
Li Zhi lifted Guo Shankong's head under the village gate, and the remaining old and weak men knelt down and hurriedly opened the village gate.
Li Zhi secretly thought that these old and weak people were clever. If these old and weak people did not open the door, Li Zhi was going to build a manhole in front of the cottage door and shoot these old and weak people with a rifle from a high place.
When the village gate was opened, Li Zhi asked the soldiers to go in, tie up the old and weak bandits, and begin to count the population and materials in the village.
After some torture and interrogation, Li Zhi figured out the situation in the village:
There were thirty-two old and weak bandits in the village. These people had engaged in robbery and killed good people. Li Zhi tied them all up and prepared to escort them back to Tianjin to be dealt with by the governor. There were also nine blacksmiths in the village.
Weapons were specially made for mountain bandits. These people had never killed anyone or done anything bad, but it was still a sin to act as an aid to a tiger. Li Zhi asked the soldiers to beat these people thirty times and throw them in the wild.
There were more than 80 robbed women in the village who were used as playthings and slaves by the bandits. They were all rescued by Li Zhi. Women in the Ming Dynasty were very particular about chastity. These women did not realize it when they sank into the den of thieves.
As soon as they saw Li Zhi coming up with his officers and soldiers, they all felt that they would never see anyone again. Three of them bitten their tongues and committed suicide in shame and anger.
Li Zhi did not make things difficult for these women and only allowed them to follow the troops back to the city the next day.
There are more than 8,200 taels of silver and 130 taels of gold in the treasury of the village. There are three horses, five donkeys and three mules in the stables. There are 21 pieces of silks and satins of various colors and 42 pieces of cotton in the warehouse.
, one hundred and thirteen jars of strong wine, and one hundred and sixty-six swords. Li Zhi was not polite about these trophies and kept them all for himself.
Of course, soldiers should be rewarded when they get spoils of war. For soldiers who participated in the battle, Li Zhi was rewarded with five to ten taels of silver depending on their performance on the battlefield. The civilians who transported supplies were also rewarded with three taels of silver each.
Fighting was easy and pleasant, and he could get so much silver reward. The soldiers and civilians were all happy.
Finally, Li Zhi found five gunsmiths in the village who were good at casting bronze cannons. Li Zhi sat in the house of the leader of the village and asked people to escort the gunsmiths up.
As soon as they saw Li Zhi, these gunsmiths kowtowed and begged loudly for mercy: "Sir, spare my life! Your Majesty, please be wise! Although we fell into the grass in the village, we never did any bad things! The cannons we made never failed because we had no gunpowder."
Never used it before! Sir, please be clear!"
Li Zhi glanced at the five gunsmiths and said slowly: "Where did you learn the art of casting cannons?"
The five gunsmiths looked at each other, and finally the leader came out and replied: "We were originally blacksmiths hired by Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, and we learned the method of casting Hongyi cannons from him. Who knew that Kong Youde rebelled and destroyed Denglai Prefecture?
, we were all brought into his army by Kong Youde as rebels. It wasn’t until Kong Youde was defeated and fled to Liaodong the year before last that the five of us had an opportunity to escape."
"On the way to escape, we heard that Sun Yuanhua was executed by the emperor for treason. We were Sun Yuanhua's gunsmiths, and we were led by Kong Youde to serve as rebels. We did not dare to return to Dengzhou. We fled all the way north with no way to go.
So I decided to cast Yunfeng cannons for these bandits. However, there was a shortage of all materials on the mountain, so we only made two squatting tiger cannons."
"There is no gunpowder on the mountain, and the two squatting tiger cannons have never been used!"
Li Zhi looked at the five gunsmiths, thought for a moment, and asked the leader: "What's your name?"
"My name is Cao Yu!"
"Can you cast a red barbarian cannon?"
"Yes, we can make Hongyi cannons. We can also make gun gauges, gun rulers and moment gauges. These things can make the cannons shoot more accurately."
Hearing the words of these blacksmiths, Li Zhi felt happy and secretly found a treasure. Li Zhi did not know how to cast iron cannons from scratch. But with these five cannons, Li Zhi could use some of the later technologies he knew to improve this era.
Artillery. If your army has a large number of light artillery combined with Mini rifles, the firepower of the army will be greatly improved.
However, these gunsmiths are rebels, thieves, and losers. If they are not punished, they will look down on Li Zhi and not work carefully. Li Zhi thought for a while and said: "You five are thieves many times. I
You will be punished as slaves without citizenship. Later I will find someone to sign a deed of sale with you. From now on, you will be my slaves and you will cast cannons for me. You will have three meals a day and no monthly payment. After you have cast the new cannons I need,
You will be restored to your status as craftsmen and paid monthly."
The five gunsmiths looked at each other, their faces full of joy. They were already very happy that the official did not kill them, and the official actually gave them a clear path, which made them happy. They were not afraid of becoming slaves.
When they fell into Yunfeng and became thieves, they were also treated as slaves by these bandits. Not only did they have no money, they were always worried about the encirclement and suppression by officers and soldiers, and their lives were precarious. Now that they followed Li Zhi, not only their safety was guaranteed, but they also had the hope of restoring their craftsmanship.
If you have household status, isn’t this a great thing?
The five people hurriedly knelt on the ground and said loudly: "We originally wanted to be slaves and make cannons for you!"
Li Zhi smiled and nodded.
The next day, when Li Zhi's troops returned to the county town with more than 30 old and weak bandits and more than a dozen carloads of bandit heads, the whole county was in a state of shock.
The news that the adults from hundreds of households had eliminated Guoshankong spread quickly throughout the county. The streets were deserted for a while, and everyone flocked to the city gate to watch the bandit selectors who had returned from killing the thieves. Li Zhi's troops had just entered the city and had just taken a few steps when they were attacked by several people.
Thousands of people crowded around.
Guo Shankong robbed people and killed good people in the past few years, and he owed a lot of blood debt. Now that he was wiped out, how could the people not cheer and encourage him?
Li Zhi knew the people's psychology, so he hung Guo Shankong's body on a carriage for the people to see. Guo Shankong's burly body turned into a corpse, and it was very eye-catching hanging on the carriage. The people
People spit on Guo Shankong’s body one after another to express their anger towards Guo Shankong!
"Look! The murderous guy is dead!"
"So many heads! They are all the heads of those evil bandits!"
"There are so many alive and tied up! Now everyone is honest!"
"Master Baihu is so awesome, he actually managed to accomplish this feat with such a small number of people!"
"Lord Baihu is so brave. I never imagined that our Ming Dynasty still has such brave military attachés!"
However, the more than 80 women who followed the soldiers into the city made the people feel conflicted: they were happy that the women in the county had escaped from the clutches of the bandits, but they were also ashamed that these women had been humiliated and lost by the bandits.
If they lose their chastity, their existence will be an unspeakable scandal in the county.
