The wildfire never burns out, but the spring breeze blows and rekindles it.
Whether it’s San Nuevi or Gunepoli, the weeds in early winter are still green.
When the last afterglow of the setting sun fades away and night falls, the temperature drops sharply, and people feel that it is winter after all.
At 2 o'clock in the morning the next day, the officers and soldiers of the Civil Defense Force had already put away the tents.
They spent half an hour having breakfast, and set off at 3 o'clock with the first five companies, led by Deputy Commander Wells.
At 4 o'clock, the cavalry company detoured from the lower reaches and outflanked the back road of Morillo Town.
The engineering and artillery companies of the baggage company and several other companies started preparing materials for building the bridge yesterday evening. There are ready-made moso bamboos on the nearby mountains.
When Wells set out, it was still dark. In order to prevent anyone from getting lost or lost, he asked the soldiers to tie up with ropes. Under the leadership of Arthur Young's scouts, they successfully arrived at the ferry.
This is the upper reaches of the river, located between mountain streams, and the river channel is extremely narrow. It was already dawn, and Wells ordered the soldiers to use the bamboo rafts they brought as a bridge to allow the troops to reach the other side smoothly.
Then we went down the river, and at 5:00 in the morning when it was still half-dark, the small town of Morillo was already ahead.
At this time, Sean took most of the movement to the back of a hill. In the other direction was the mouth of the Trifork River, and on the opposite side of the river was the small town of Morillo.
Following Wells' vanguard, Arthur Young's scouts set out. Arthur personally took action, leading three agile guys to quietly kill several patrolling rebels and reach the edge of the town.
Suddenly, a guy jumped out of a haystack with his pants held up, and almost bumped into Arthur.
In the surprised look of the other person, Arthur thrust a dagger into his mouth and threw him down in the haystack. The man soon stopped moving.
This guy was probably on sentry duty, but he was lazy and sleeping in a haystack, and jumped out because he needed to urinate, which almost exposed Arthur and the others.
Hearing a cooing bird call, Wells immediately ordered his troops to attack from the west side of the town with bayonets in hand. It was not until they solved a rebel military camp on the west side of the town that the rebels reacted.
Hearing the sound of gunfire, Sean led most of the troops towards the mouth of the river. The engineers, with the assistance of some infantry, immediately built a bamboo bridge using the bridge piers destroyed by the rebels.
Everyone knows their role and is like a tight machine, busy in an orderly manner.
The chaotic buildings in Moree Town helped the rebels a lot. They relied on the buildings to launch shootings. Wells encountered stubborn resistance, and the street fighting caused a small number of casualties to the Civil Defense Force.
This was a scene that had been anticipated at yesterday's military meeting. Wells immediately made an immediate decision and divided the five companies he brought into two parts. Three companies surrounded the entire town and were responsible for surveillance.
For the remaining two companies, let each sergeant lead 10 soldiers to first clear the outer buildings, cover each other and approach each building, first throw grenades into the house, and then rush in to deal with the opponent.
Wells' troops advanced layer by layer and compressed the rebels into a small church after half an hour.
It was already broad daylight, and Sean led most of the troops across the river, including the artillery.
The cannon fired directly at the wall of the chapel. The stone wall was as fragile as paper. One hit would often cause a piece of the wall to collapse.
Six howitzers were also pushed over. This kind of howitzer has a relatively curved trajectory. In addition to firing explosive shells, it can also fire shotgun shells. The latter is extremely effective against enemies hiding behind buildings.
Amidst the roar of the cannons, the terrified wails of the rebels were heard.
The Civil Defense Force was rich and powerful, and the artillery bombarded the rebels' last stronghold for half an hour before the infantry broke in. The rebel leader named Graham had long been directly hit in half by a solid bullet.
To Sean's surprise, the rebels in Morillo Town had a lot of wealth, and they seized two large boxes of gold and silver coins. Although this small town is remote, it is actually an inconspicuous business road in the south.
The province of Javia often passes through here when crossing the Otter Mountains, so this is a quite wealthy town.
Frank paid attention to the discipline of the soldiers after the war. To his "disappointment", the soldiers had excellent military discipline and did not have his preconceived judgment. He attributed this to the generous treatment of the Genoese soldiers.
However, the reaction of some local residents made Frank feel a little scared, because these residents were actually full of hostility towards them, the liberators, although they concealed it well.
Sean stood outside the church, staring at a bulletin board that had endured the war and meditating:
“We, the Free Army, are loyal warriors of the true God of Liberty and the protectors of the people. All residents of Morillo only need to provide necessary food for our army and do not need to pay taxes or food.
All the lands of the nobles, the rich, and the Church of God will be returned to the common people. From now on, you will be free, and there will be no more slavery and oppression..."
In this battle, the Genoa Civil Defense Force killed 208 rebels, including their leader, with minimal losses on their own side. This was due to careful planning and complete execution, as well as careful preparation before the war.
Never fight an unprepared battle, this is the concept that Sean constantly instills in his subordinates.
Almost 1/3 of these 208 rebels were from this town, and Perosa came to ask for instructions on how to treat the local residents.
This was a rather embarrassing situation. Sean had not thought beforehand that the rebels had shown signs of integrating with the people.
These 300 households who have lost sons or brothers are also a potential danger to the Civil Defense Force who want to establish an advance base here. Sean does not want to cause tragedy by himself.
Therefore, the mayor of this town was brought before Sean.
"Hail, General!"
The mayor bent his waist with a flattering smile on his face, trying to show his submission and humility. It was just Sean's youth that surprised him a little.
"Mr. Hess, right? How many years have you been the mayor?" Sean asked.
"General, it's been about twenty years," Mayor Hess replied.
"So you should know everything about this town?"
"Of course. General, our residents are all poor people. The Free Army, oh, no, the rebels are outsiders. We don't really accept them." Mayor Hess yelled.
"Poor people? In my opinion, the town of Morillo is quite wealthy. Look, we even seized so many gold coins." Sean sat down on the money box.
Mayor Hess said with a sad face: "That is the wealth of the church and the rich people in this town."
"You mean the priests and the rich deserve to die?"
"No, no, at least old Pope was a hard-working and kind-hearted man. He was a fur trader who had accumulated wealth for most of his life. His home was ransacked by Graham, and he himself was hanged under the big tree in front of the church."
Mayor Hess said.
"But I heard that many of your children are serving as soldiers under the bandit leaders." Sean said.
"General!" Mayor Hess suddenly fell to his knees and begged, "General, please spare us for the sake of God. We have no choice but to send young people to join them, they will cause harm to the town.
Residents, many girls have been humiliated and hanged themselves."
When Sean heard this, he breathed a sigh of relief:
"But I saw on the notice of the rebels that they gave you all the land of the church and the nobility? If you get such benefits, aren't you supporters of the rebels?"
"General, those notices were just used by Graham to deal with his superiors. Graham was actually born in our town. I grew up watching him. He has been a bastard and a villain since he was a child. The latter was kicked out
After arriving in town, he simply killed the sheriff and ran to the mountains to become a bandit. How could he be so kind?" Mayor Hess defended eagerly.
"So, we are your liberators, but what I feel among you is indifference and hatred. Mayor Hess, you need to explain it to me. Please note that this concerns the 300 households of you.
In the future, as a field commander, I will have to issue some orders." Sean hinted.
Hess felt the threat and murderous intent, which made him sweat dripping:
"General, except for rich people like Old Pope, our townspeople are almost all tenants of the church and landlords. In the past, when the weather was good, our life was pretty good. When money was tight, we could go hunting in the mountains or
Collect and exchange money. In the past ten years, we have
Life is becoming more and more difficult. We do not own land, but we are burdened with heavier and heavier taxes. What is even more terrible is labor. If there is only one strong laborer in the family, he must spend a lot of time dealing with labor. If there is no strong laborer in the family, then
You have to pay to get exemption."
Mayor Hess continued: "Our land was reduced little by little and became the property of the church, the nobility, and local landowners."
"Who is this nobleman?" Sean interjected.
"The René family, they live in Moor City." Mayor Hess said, "After the war broke out, I heard that they fled to Daguerre City, the provincial capital."
"Keep talking." Sean nodded.
Sean had also heard of the René family. They were a wealthy family in Guineapolis. This family held the title of earl. They actually owned land in this remote provincial border town, but Sean had not expected it.
"The Free Army, no, the rebels came to our town. They killed the old priests, hung all the rich people, and confiscated their wealth. Graham was probably born in this town, so it didn't embarrass us civilians too much.
.But most of the people under him are bandits or hooligans, and these people have harmed us, especially the women in the town..."
Mayor Hess told about all the terrible things that happened in the past, and Sean roughly guessed the causes and consequences.
When the rebels arrived, they destroyed the original wealthy class and power structure, and also destroyed the heavy tax burden on civilians. These poor civilians would rather accept humiliation than bear the yoke of paying taxes.
There are also quite a few civilians who have hopes for the rebels, and they are eager to obtain land. Not to mention the civilians, even the nobles and businessmen in the city also have a terrible obsession with land.
These two reasons are the reasons why local residents are indifferent and hostile to the intruding outsiders in Genoa.
As for attacking the local tyrants to allocate their land, this is the idea of the rebels' top leaders, but at the implementation level, it is obviously contrary to their top leaders. War and chaos provide excellent convenience for careerists to obtain wealth.
From this point of view, the rebels have not firmly controlled the hearts of the people, and their limited policy of pulling Long civilians has not been widely and resolutely implemented, and is even still limited to slogans and propaganda.
The empire is terminally ill but still viable.
And those civilians are like the weeds outside the town. They are extremely tolerant, silently enduring the wind and rain, and growing tenaciously.