Chapter 270 271. The nth day of missing my baby...
The bandits on the grassland are good at guerrilla warfare and hiding.
Like ground squirrels on the grassland, they gnaw on grass roots, destroy vegetation, and steal vegetables and grains planted by herders near water sources. However, they are difficult to catch because they are good at digging holes, which makes them detested by herders.
But these gophers also have natural enemies.
The eagle circling above the grassland has sharp eyes that can lock onto a mouse on the ground even from the high sky. Its plump wings break through the wind, and its sharp and ferocious claws nail into the flesh of the mole, causing blood to flow.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi are going to train the soldiers of Qingyuan Prefecture into eagles on the grassland.
If human eyes cannot see far enough, use the hunting dog's sense of smell; if human power cannot defeat the eagle's attack, use the horse's running power; if the bandits are not vicious, greedy and fearless of death, use bows and arrows, traps and caltrops to surround and block them.
When necessary, Zhou Yi would also use saltpeter bombs, which are large-dose mountain-blasting cannons.
The fireworks industry in the Dayou Dynasty was very developed, with all kinds of firecrackers and fireworks emerging in an endless stream. Mountain cannons were also used to blast mountains when mining and clearing roads, but they were not used in military industry.
In addition to emergency training of officers, soldiers and militia, Lei Li also focused on recruiting a group of hunters.
These hunters have no cattle or sheep to graze, so they make a living by hunting on the grasslands. They are very experienced in patrolling and raising hunting dogs and using them to find people and things.
Because hunting requires close familiarity with the terrain of the grassland and the avoidance of areas where bandits are rampant, one must be very familiar with some of the bandits' temporary encampments, which is very helpful for clearing operations.
At the same time, Lei Li also had people disguised as merchants, who wanted to bring in a large quantity of goods but were worried about being robbed, and bribed some well-informed people in the city.
For example, ask the brothel workers, tea stall owners, beggar leaders on the street, etc. about the movements of the bandits, and ask them to pay attention to the actions of the bandits, and report immediately if anyone suspected of being a bandit appears or if they get any news.
Each piece of information will be rewarded with a different amount depending on its usefulness, ranging from dozens of coins to dozens of taels. This is already a good source of income for the relatively poor Qingyuan Prefecture.
This is especially true for beggars.
Therefore, the beggars in the streets and alleys were very careful to inquire about the bandits' movements, provided Lei Li with a lot of useful information, and received a lot of rewards.
Based on these information networks, Lei Li discussed with Zhou Yi, Prefect Duanmu, General Wu, Meng Yao and other officials and formulated a series of targeted strategies to suppress bandits.
The vigorous anti-bandit operation began like this.
"Killing the chicken to scare the monkey."
Lei Li looked at the vast grassland with a calm gaze. At the edge where the grassland met the sky, a red sun was slowly setting, indicating the end of the day.
Lei Li's tone was cold and sharp.
"Let's start with the Youzuo tribe, the largest in Qingyuan. We will arrest the grassland bandits and eliminate the remaining forces of the former lord's foreign tribes to strengthen the prestige of Dayu."
The biggest bandit problem in Qingyuan is the remnant forces of the previous grassland lord who resisted Dayou's rule.
Because the pronunciation of Dayouchao is the same as the Chinese character "right", they named themselves "left" to deliberately contradict it. Combined with their signature guerrilla-style warfare, they were called "Youzuobu" by the common people.
The people of the Youzuo tribe took pleasure in slaughtering Dayou merchants and officials, not even sparing women and children. Their methods were extremely cruel. The previous Qingyuan prefects were killed by them.
Therefore, Lei Li treated You Zuobu mercilessly.
After finding out the location of You Zuo's troops, they first sent people to infiltrate them, burned their tents to create chaos, and then bombed them with chili powder bombs in the direction of the wind.
"Archer team one, get ready!"
Seeing that most of the people from Youzuobu had their eyes stung by the chili powder, Zhou Yi made a prompt decision and immediately ordered the archers to prepare and aim at the people from Youzuobu.
"Shoot!"
"Archer Team Two, get ready!"
"Shoot!"
After several rounds of arrow bombardment, the people from Youzuo fled in panic.
Some of the bandits were furious and hid behind tents or other things for cover, fighting back with bows and arrows; others rode on horses, holding scimitars and swords, shouting and rushing to kill Lei Li's people.
"Chili bomb ready!"
Zhou Yi raised the small red flag again and said calmly, "Archers Teams One and Two, provide cover! Fire!"
Hundreds of bows and arrows were shot at the bandits, and sandwiched between the long arrows were fiery bombs, which exploded with the smell of gunpowder and clouds of red mist.
"Cough cough cough!"
"A-choo!"
"What is this?!"
"Get out of the way! My horse is frightened!"
"Cover your mouth and nose!"
Not only were humans harmed by the chili powder, but horses also began to sneeze after inhaling the irritating chili powder, and they raised their front hooves high in fright and stopped moving forward.
"Woof woof!"
“Woof woof woof!”
The bandits fled in disarray.
The hunting dogs brought by the officers and soldiers were barking, their black faces and fangs, their green eyes glowing, their ferocious howls, and the sound of bows and arrows breaking through the wind.
When they turned around, they saw soldiers holding big swords, leading hunting dogs, and riding tall horses. The bandits, whose eyes were red and painful due to the chili powder, were almost terrified and fled in panic.
"kill!"
"Leave no one behind!"
"These bastards killed so many of us! Kill them! Cut off their heads and hang them on the city walls for the eagles to eat!"
“Woof woof woof!”
“Whoa—”
"Chase after them!"
"Run, run!"
"We can't run! The king hasn't come out yet. Where is he? We can't abandon him!"
"Damn it! You're almost dead, why are you still caring about the king?!"
"Woof woof!"
“Woof woof woof!”
"Chase! The Marquis said it! Kill one bandit and you'll get a reward of ten taels of silver! Kill ten and you'll get a reward of one hundred taels of silver!"
Noisy.
The sounds of people, horses, and dogs barking were all mixed together, from the bandits' side and from the soldiers' side.
Some people were so angry that they chased after the enemy bravely, some people lay on the ground pretending to be dead but were hit by stray arrows instead, and some people were afraid and wanted to retreat, but when they heard there was a reward, they plucked up their courage and started hacking around, howling.
Lei Li had a grim expression on his face, and was always surrounded by several Kyoto guards. Zhou Yi also followed him closely, his eyes never leaving him.
Meng Yao had never seen such a bloody and chaotic scene, and was stunned for a moment. It was only a Kyoto guard who quickly pulled him up and saved him from being hit by the stray arrows.
General Wu had already reached the Youzuo tribe. Duanmu, the weak scholar, had a bright look in his eyes and was full of energy, as he tried his best to cheer up the soldiers.
A night passed.
The tents of the Youzuo tribe were burned to pieces, and the bandits of Youzuo fled, were caught, or died.
"The leader of the Youzuo tribe calls himself King Zuoyuan, and his men all call him the Great King."
There was an extremely excited look on the face of Magistrate Duanmu, and he felt even more energetic after not sleeping all night.
"King Zuoyuan is cunning and ruthless. He is considered a hero. Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to establish a bandit tribe of thousands of people and occupy Qingyuan City for so many years."
"We've surrounded and suppressed the Youzuo tribe several times before, but each time King Zuoyuan escaped. We even suffered heavy losses one time. We thought King Zuoyuan had escaped again, but we didn't expect him to be trampled to death by his own people."
At the beginning, Lei Li had people set fire and pepper bombs, causing great unrest in Youzuo's army.
The bandits who were rushing to put out the fire were caught off guard and were irritated. They screamed in panic and ran around for help, but instead they bumped into each other, and then there was a rain of arrows, which made them even more confused.
Then a stampede occurred.
Although King Zuoyuan was a very sinister and vicious person, he was not tall and was more similar to the people of Dayou. He was shorter than ordinary nomadic tribesmen.
The gangsters accidentally knocked him down and didn't recognize his voice in the chaos, so he was trampled to death.
It's a bit dramatic.
Lei Li didn't take this drama seriously. After killing You Zuobu, he went on to wipe out other bandit dens in one fell swoop.
In just two months, the atmosphere in Qingyuan City was completely changed.
At this time, Lei Li was anxious to set up an escort agency.
——If he doesn’t hurry up, his granddaughter won’t recognize him as her grandfather. He really wants to go back to Beijing to see his granddaughter as soon as possible.
After connecting the branch small escort agencies in Qingyuan Prefecture City, Lei Liran chose a Feng Shui treasure land in the main city of Qingyuan Prefecture City and built a magnificent Qingyuan Escort Agency.
All officials, big and small, including the prefect Duanmu and the judge Meng Yao, were mobilized and an emergency bidding meeting was held in Qingyuan Prefecture City, allowing merchants in the city to bid.
The goods of merchants who successfully bid will be transported by Qingyuan Escort Agency after review, and the important thing is that the Marquis of Changning will also be in charge of delivering the goods.
One hundred Kyoto guards with high martial arts skills, more than ten experienced hunting dogs with sharp claws and fangs, and hundreds of well-trained escorts from the escort agency.
These bodyguards were newly recruited by Zhou Yi.
All the unqualified escorts who were working in the escort agency were dismissed, and those with good performance were selected from the militiamen who were suppressing bandits and hired into the escort agency.
It is worth mentioning that Magistrate Duanmu was not a pedantic literati, so when recruiting militia, he only looked at physical fitness and not gender, so these militias included both men, boys and girls.
In particular, there was a young girl named Asan. Her father was a hunter on the grassland and her mother was a famous horse trainer, so her riding and archery skills were surprisingly good and her posture was very agile.
So when Lei Li and Zhou Yi were choosing the chief escort for Qingyuan Escort Agency, they chose this girl Asan at first sight.
With the approval of the imperial court, the chief escorts of each escort agency have been promoted to the rank of seventh grade. Because the escort agencies are more like merchants than officials, they do not have to go through the imperial examination, and the official positions they hold are regardless of gender.
Miss Asan was promoted to a seventh-rank official and accepted it with pleasure without any hesitation.
What’s even more coincidental is that when Lei Li and Zhou Yi went to Sister Huaer’s house for dinner, they discovered that Miss Asan knew Sister Huaer and was her best friend on the grassland.
When Sister Huaer's husband went to graze, he often took her to the grassland to ride horses, and there she met Asan who was hunting. The two hit it off and felt like they had known each other for a long time, and soon became good sisters.
Asang knew that Sister Huaer had a cousin who was a high-ranking official, but when she found out that the cousin was the Marquis of Changning, she was very surprised. At the dinner table, this heroic girl suddenly became restrained.
But after a few bowls of wine, the atmosphere became less restrained.
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