Chapter Seventy-Five: Harassing Qiongshan

The choice of this target for breaking the fortress must be very cautious. First, it must have a bad reputation among the common people, and second, it must be very powerful in the local area. Only in this way can it serve as a warning to others without making the common people too afraid and creating a sentiment of common hatred.

The target was not difficult to choose. Since initially stabilizing Lingao, the intelligence department had begun to collect intelligence on the neighboring prefectures and counties of Danzhou and Chengmai for future use in taking over the government and fighting wars. The Transmigration Group had a fairly comprehensive grasp of the situation in these prefectures and counties.

In the end, You Laohu and Yu Zhiqian circled a few local tyrants, all of whom were typical local tyrants who colluded with the government and oppressed the local people. And they were mainly clan landlords. By destroying one family, they could make a strong clan in one place completely lose control of the local area. This was more important than simply eliminating a group of local tyrants.

For the next week, Yu Zhiqian led his troops on an armed parade in Chengmai County, breaking through two fortresses and forcing many villages to contribute grain and labor. He obtained a large amount of money, grain, and population. Most of the captured prisoners were sent to Lingao by the militia to be scattered and resettled. He only escorted more than a hundred able-bodied men and dozens of captured local tyrants and their henchmen to the foot of Chengmai County town. The able-bodied men continued to help dig trenches and build earthworks under the city.

Originally, You Laohu was just preparing to make a show of force, but now with plenty of grain and people, and seeing that there were no elite soldiers or good generals in Chengmai County, they fought a small battle under the city. Although the casualties were not many, the scene of the village braves and militia collapsing at the first touch of the Minie rifles greatly boosted the morale of both the Elders and the native soldiers.

With the help of the 12-pounder mountain howitzer, Minie rifles, and explosives, the operation of breaking a fortress, which was a certain degree of difficulty even for ordinary bandits and even the Ming army, was a piece of cake for Yu Zhiqian and others. The total casualties of Yu Zhiqian’s troops were only nine wounded in the infantry, one killed in the militia, and eleven wounded. If it weren’t for the time-consuming and laborious work of cleaning up and counting the supplies, they could have broken a few more fortresses.

After each time Yu Zhiqian broke a fortress, he would always let a few people escape and let them go to the prefectural city to report for help—You Laohu had already set up hidden sentries outside the city gates of Chengmai. Anyone who tried to enter the city to report for help would be hanged on the trees outside the city gate. After a few times, no one went to the county town anymore.

The captured local tyrants and their henchmen were hanged in batches on the large trees on both sides of the official road between Chengmai and Qiongshan. For a time, the entire county of Chengmai was shaken. The gentry and merchants in the county were very afraid and fled from the east and west gates at night. Yu Zhiqian instructed the hidden sentries outside the city gates not to capture them and let them escape.

You Laohu and Yu Zhiqian discussed that since they had grain and people on hand, they might as well set up a camp under the city of Chengmai as a forward base. So they sent people back to Maniao to ask for instructions. He Ming saw that they were making a big show of it and sent another infantry company and a few teams of student soldiers from the training team to reinforce them.

You Laohu drove the civilian laborers to properly build earthworks around Chengmai. He also sent people to repair the wharf and dredge the port by the sea. Mei Wan also simply sent a construction team over to guide the project and use the labor force to build roads.

The commotion under the city of Chengmai was huge. On the official road between Qiongshan, Haikou Thousand-Household Post, and Chengmai, the special reconnaissance team led by Ye Mengyan was also actively active. He led a team of thirty men to sneak all the way to Qiongshan County. Along the way, he set up several reconnaissance posts, extending the warning line all the way to the city of Haikou Thousand-Household Post. Then he led his men along the Nandu River to the Jiazi Coal Mine.

Tang Menglong had long received a warning that the Ming army might soon launch a suppression campaign against Lingao.

Theoretically speaking, the Jiazi Coal Mine was the property of the Hai family, and the government should not touch it. Moreover, the Jiazi Coal Mine was located in an inland area with inconvenient transportation, and it was difficult for the government army to take military action. But the potential danger of the coal mine being attacked always existed. The instructions from the Government Affairs Council to Tang Menglong were: stop all coal exports, stop the operation of the Hai family’s wharf, and only keep local personnel on duty, with Lin Baiguang in charge of the specific work. As for the mine, they would temporarily scale back production, step up the military training of the miners, and the fortification work of the coal mine.

When Ye Mengyan arrived at the Jiazi Coal Mine, the entire production of the coal mine had completely stopped. Only the coal washing plant and the coal briquette plant were still processing the stored coal. The miners had all been armed and were practicing bayonet drills on the open ground. Tang Menglong had newly built several blockhouses at the wharf and the mine area, each of which could accommodate five or six soldiers. A lot of explosives and bamboo tubes for blasting were also stored in the blockhouses.

“He Ming has already obtained the authorization of the Executive Committee: if necessary, you can lead your people to withdraw from here. You can also withdraw now,” Ye Mengyan said. “You only have one platoon here, with more than thirty Minie rifles. If the enemy’s main army comes to attack, you definitely won’t be able to hold out.”

“What would the government army come to attack this coal mine for?” Tang Menglong said nonchalantly. “You’ve walked the mountain roads along the way. Do you think the government army would do something so pointless, not attacking Lingao, but taking such a road to fight a battle when they have nothing better to do? Besides, this coal mine is, after all, the property of the Hai family.”

“This is just in case,” Ye Mengyan said. “Anyway, I’ve passed on the message. If you want to withdraw, you should withdraw quickly. The main force of the government army has not yet arrived in Hainan, so it’s easy to receive your large group of people to retreat now.”

Tang Menglong considered for a moment: “I’d better not withdraw. There are hundreds of people here, both men and women. It’s very inconvenient to withdraw. If we are intercepted by the government army on the way, we will suffer great losses. Besides, there are many equipment and materials here, and the infrastructure has also cost a lot. If we withdraw, the villagers and local bandits in the mountains will take the opportunity to plunder and steal. It will be a huge investment to rebuild after defeating the enemy.”

Tang Menglong decided not to withdraw, and Ye Mengyan did not insist. He left the explosives and some grenades he had brought with him for Tang Menglong, and also left a squad of special reconnaissance team members at the Jiazi Coal Mine to assist in the defense.

Ye Mengyan led the remaining men back to the Haikou area from the mountains. His second task was to harass the local government and garrison in Qiongshan. The special reconnaissance team was small but well-equipped, but they had no heavy weapons, so it was impossible to directly besiege the city like You Laohu. Ye Mengyan knew that it was of little value to just snipe a few passing post soldiers, so he simply led his team to the Daying Mountain outside Qiongshan County town.

“If we set up a cannon on this commanding height, wouldn’t Qiongshan County have to surrender immediately?” Ye Mengyan put down his binoculars and muttered to himself. He was wearing a civilian version of the US jungle camouflage BDU from the Vietnam War era. He had a VZ68 submachine gun slung over his shoulder. He was not wearing a steel helmet. Behind him were twelve young men carefully selected from his own detachment, all dressed like him, except that they were using the less convenient SKS semi-automatic rifles. These special reconnaissance team members sat silently in the forest, eating dry rations and drinking water.

The entire Qiongshan County town was at his feet. It was a pattern of being backed by a mountain and facing the water. A large river flowed past the south and east gates. Outside the west gate was an artificially dug city moat. Only outside the north gate was there nothing—the north gate of Qiongshan County, like most county towns in Hainan, was set up but not open. Although there was a city tower and a city gate, the inside of the city gate had long been blocked with bricks.

It could be seen that the defenses of this city were very poor. Even by the standards of the Ming Dynasty in the 17th century, it could not be said to be very good, only qualified. Ye Mengyan saw that the three city gates were not closed and were unguarded. And along the way, they had been sneaking around. Apart from the Haikou Thousand-Household Post city, which had sentries and small patrol units more than ten li outside the city, there were no reconnaissance and security measures along the way—could this be called a “state of impending war”? It was simply like a child’s play. Thinking of this, he couldn’t help but feel extreme contempt for the Ming officials.

“Detachment leader! We’ve come all the way to Qiongshan in secret. What’s next?” a team member asked him.

“The higher-ups want us to carry out harassment. I don’t think this place can withstand harassment. If we rush down, we can probably take Qiongshan County town,” Ye Mengyan smiled. “This is quite a difficult task.”

“I see that the streets outside the city are very prosperous. Why don’t we just set a fire and burn the Qiongshan city suburbs,” a team member said. “Once this fire is set, I’m afraid that old fellow Wang Zunde will have to force the government army to cross the sea.”

Ye Mengyan chuckled: “Your idea is very bad. What will we do after we burn it all?” He thought, this is actually a good way, it will definitely shake Wang Zunde. But in this way, the Planning Institute, the Government Affairs Council, and the Senate will not forgive him—although their motives are different.

“If we burn the suburbs, we’ll have to provide relief to the disaster victims after we’ve fought,” Ye Mengyan said. “Everyone, think of another way!”

At noon that day, Ye Mengyan led the special reconnaissance team down from Daying Mountain. He decided to choose the Dongmen Market Street outside the east gate of Qiongshan County as the place for the demonstration. There were many pedestrians and shops here, which could cause the biggest sensation.

He then left a covering group with automatic rifles on the high ground outside the market. Once a large group of enemies rushed out of the city, they would use the automatic rifles for blocking fire. He himself led seven or eight men to the entrance of the Dongmen city suburb street. Although this was outside the city, there was also a wooden fence guarding it. Now the wooden fence was open, and only two militia members were on guard.

The appearance of Ye Mengyan and others, dressed in colorful clothes and covered with trinkets, the first reaction of the militia was not fear or nervousness, but curiosity. One of them with a long spear even took a few steps forward to get a better look. When he saw their short hair, the militiaman seemed to suddenly understand. He immediately dropped his spear in a panic and ran towards the city gate, shouting at the top of his lungs as he ran:

“The bandits are here! The bandits are here!”

Ye Mengyan waved his submachine gun, and the team members rushed in. Two team members quickly controlled the wooden fence gate. He himself led his men straight towards the county town gate along the main street.

Today was not a market day, and there were not many pedestrians on the street. Seeing a group of strangely shaped people suddenly rush in, everyone was stunned for a moment.

The few militia members at the county town gate seemed to have reacted. Seeing that there were few of them, they shouted and rushed out of the city gate with their swords and spears to fight. A team member behind Ye Mengyan immediately threw out two grenades.

The grenades exploded in the city gate, and immediately smoke filled the air, and there were cries of pain and groans. The street immediately fell into chaos, and pedestrians quickly hid in the shops and small alleys on both sides. Ye Mengyan knew that he had few men and could not stay for long, so he quickly posted two notices of the Fubo Army on the fence of the city gate. After he posted the notices, he did not leave in a hurry. He shouted to the people on the street outside the east gate, saying that they were from the Fubo Army and had only come to warn the government, not to kill the people, and told everyone not to be afraid. The shops on both sides of the street, everyone held their breath and listened to them speak, but no one dared to say a word. Ye Mengyan then led his team to turn around and withdraw. At this time, the SKS-D rifles fired one after another. There were originally a few militia members on the city tower with bows and arrows who wanted to shoot arrows. As soon as they drew their bows, they were all shot and killed by the covering group’s rifles.

After Ye Mengyan’s squad withdrew from the street outside the east gate, they walked a few li and then ordered everyone to quickly set up an ambush at a turn in the post road. Sure enough, in a few minutes, more than a hundred militia and village braves, led by a man on a horse with a long spear, came in pursuit. They soon approached to within fifty meters.

Ye Mengyan patted the marksman in the squad: “Shoot the one on the horse!”

As soon as the gun fired, the leader on the horse fell off. The village braves around him were immediately in chaos. The squad’s soldiers threw a volley of grenades, and the dense crowd was immediately blown down. Those who were not killed or wounded immediately turned around and ran towards the county town. The team members Ye Mengyan had arranged in ambush on the rear road immediately threw out another volley of grenades, killing and wounding many people. The enemy was routed, and they fled for their lives in all directions, regardless of whether there was a road or not.

Ye Mengyan had fought a beautiful ambush. He knew that the enemy would not dare to come out and pursue them again, so he immediately ordered someone to find the leader’s horse. The team members wanted him to ride it, but he shook his head:

“I don’t know how to ride a horse…”

He was thinking that if he brought the horse, he would not be able to continue the harassment operation, but he was reluctant to abandon this horse—it was a Mongolian horse, which was rare in this area, and it was much more majestic than the pony-sized horses.

It was enough to have made such a big scene under the city of Qiongshan County. He might as well go back to Chengmai to rest for a few days before coming back. Thinking of this, he ordered:

“Take the horse, we’ll go back to Chengmai first!”

The team members quickly cleaned up the battlefield. Ye Mengyan instructed them to cut off the head of the leader who had led the pursuit and hang it on a tree by the road. Someone found a beautiful short sword on the leader’s body and immediately gave it to Ye Mengyan.

“Captain, this thing is very beautiful. You should keep it,” the team member said.

Ye Mengyan looked at this short sword. The dark green leather scabbard was inlaid with a fine filigree pattern of gold and silver. The style was simple and elegant, and it was obviously not an ordinary thing.

“All spoils of war must be turned over to the public. This short sword must be handed in,” Ye Mengwen was not interested in the so-called “divine weapons” of cold weapons, but just thought it was very beautiful. He casually threw the short sword into his backpack and instructed everyone to pack up and retreat immediately.

In order to prevent the government army from the Haikou Thousand-Household Post from intercepting them halfway, they left the main road and took a detour. In just a few hours, they had retreated to You Laohu’s large camp under the city of Chengmai County.

You Laohu’s large camp had now been repaired into a considerable fortress. He had seven or eight hundred men and women under his command. These people, under the supervision of the militia, were led by the construction engineering team to build the fortress and level the highway every day.

You Laohu hosted a banquet for Ye Mengyan in his headquarters.

His so-called headquarters was a temporary shed. The interior was very comfortable, not only with all kinds of chairs, but even the bed was a large mahogany bed. These items were obviously looted from the large households in the four villages.

Hearing about Ye Mengyan’s great disturbance in the eastern suburbs of Qiongshan, You Laohu was very excited—he was originally a person who feared that the world was not in chaos. Such a dramatic and lively scene made him very yearn for it.

“Little Ye, you’ve really shown off this time,” You Laohu slapped his thigh. “It’s much more boring here. We’re just building roads and fortresses with our butts up against a broken county town all day long.” Saying this, he instructed the company’s quartermaster to prepare meals for Ye Mengyan’s squad, and also to prepare some food to entertain Ye Mengyan.

The table was soon filled with a sumptuous meal, with a large plate of pork ribs in the middle. The ribs were bright red and yellow, smelled fragrant, and were crispy on the outside and fragrant on the inside, with a delicious and mellow taste.

“This was made by the cook Old Yu captured. His skills are very good,” You Laohu gnawed on a rib with lightning speed, and then grabbed another one and started gnawing.

Yu Zhiqian smiled and said: “Logically speaking, what we are doing is against the rules…”

“Discipline,” You Laohu originally wanted to say “what discipline,” but then he thought that saying so would likely get him into trouble, so he changed his words, “Anyway, he’s a cook when he’s sent to Lingao, and he’s also a cook when he’s here. I’m just using him first.” He then pointed to the pork ribs, “These pork ribs are marinated with honey, crispy on the outside, a bit like Cantonese char siu, but not quite, anyway, the aftertaste is endless! When I go back, I have to have my life secretary learn from that cook.”

Besides the pork ribs, there were also several plates of fresh vegetables and other dishes. There was just no wine.

“The food is very good. Where did you get the supplies?” Ye Mengyan was surprised—the logistics department would never send fresh vegetables and raw meat as provisions.

“Old Yu got it from attacking the big households. Chickens, ducks, fish, meat, oil, salt, soy sauce, and vinegar are all sufficient!” You Laohu shook his head. “Actually, there is also a lot of wine, but we can’t drink it.” He smacked his lips with some regret. “The vegetables and grain are all levied from the various fortresses. Since we broke a few fortresses and killed a group of people, the fortresses in Chengmai have long been scared out of their wits. Even if we ask the old rich to offer their wives, they would be willing.”

“This meat hasn’t been quarantined…”

“If you don’t eat it, forget it,” You Laohu started eating his fourth rib. Ye Mengyan, seeing that the ribs were about to be finished by him, quickly joined the gluttonous ranks.

The three of them were eating and drinking when an orderly came to report that the representative of the Planning Institute had arrived.

“Now our good days are over,” You Laohu shook his head. “Please let him in.”

Yu Zhiqian’s attack on the big households in Chengmai naturally attracted the attention of the Planning Institute. In order to quickly bring the seized materials and manpower into orbit, Wu De sent a special search team led by a representative of the Planning Institute.

“The final result of using the spoils of war on the spot is a muddled account,” he said very seriously when giving orders to the representative of the Planning Institute. “Now You Laohu’s detachment is attacking the local tyrants under the city of Chengmai and has obtained a lot of property, grain, and population. You go there to register the spoils of war. Some grain and non-staple food can be allocated to the detachment on the spot, but the procedures must be complete.”