pappabearbooks Chapter 37 Lianyun Village Issues a Widespread Call for Heroes
Chapter 37 Lianyun Village Issues a Widespread Call for Heroes
Just do it!
Hong Tong immediately began distributing invitations to heroes everywhere, and gathered the money he had plundered to recruit soldiers and horses for himself.
What are the four great masters of Tieling?
We hired them all!
What kind of strange and unorthodox Taoist priests live in the Dilong Temple?
Let's hire them too!
There were also some idle scoundrels who sent two messages to these people, inviting them to come and bolster their numbers!
Although Hong Tong never expected these scoundrels to fight to the death, most of them had never even killed anyone and were just a bunch of spineless cowards.
But it doesn't matter, in war, numbers are a very important advantage!
Even if these people do nothing but stand behind him, the other bandits will feel more confident seeing so many brothers behind them.
In the process of constantly recruiting people, Hong Tong naturally spent money like water. He used to think that he had accumulated a lot of wealth over the years by robbing people everywhere and collecting security fees.
But in reality, when he actually started spending money to prepare for the war, he found that this amount of money was nothing at all!
He had originally hoped to find an opportunity to buy a few more foreign guns, but he discovered that this was simply a pipe dream!
It was impossible for him to acquire foreign guns in a short period of time, no matter how much money he spent, because the merchants around him who were capable of smuggling foreign guns did not have any in stock.
If we wait for them to smuggle the guns over, it will take at least four months, and that's the fastest we can do. After all, they would have to cross the forests and snowfields to get to the territory controlled by the Russians before they would have a chance to smuggle flintlock guns with them.
Since we couldn't buy foreign guns, we could only buy more ordinary homemade guns.
If quality is not a concern, matchlock guns are actually quite easy to manufacture; almost any small workshop could produce a matchlock gun that is nearly identical.
However, neither the power nor the reliability of a gun like this can be guaranteed.
Although Hong Tong knew that buying a bunch of scrap metal from these places was not very reliable, he had no choice but to spend the money in order to arm the newly recruited men.
What he found even more infuriating was that the news of his widespread recruitment of soldiers and horses for war was naturally known to everyone in the surrounding villages and towns, yet these people still dared to try and raise prices with him!
The homemade guns that could originally be bought for just three to five taels of silver have now been inflated to fifteen taels each by those unscrupulous merchants!
Upon learning the price, he even felt a sudden urge to draw his knife and kill someone.
Unfortunately, he eventually calmed down and gritted his teeth and bought the guns.
After he defeats the Luo family army, he'll have plenty of money and guns. He can then give those bastards who cheated him a good beating and make those unscrupulous merchants regret it!
But all of this is contingent on him being able to defeat Luo's army.
If he falls into the hands of Luo's army, then no matter how much money he has, it will be useless. That's why he's willing to pay such a high price to buy it.
As for simply not fighting and honestly negotiating with Luo's army, and being subservient to them?
Putting aside the question of whether he can tolerate it, the fact that he has already sent out the invitation means that he has no way back!
It's like he's already declared war, but then he doesn't send out a single soldier. Suddenly he turns around and wants to sign a surrender ceremony. Wouldn't that make him lose all face?
As a bandit outside the Great Wall, he knew he could have all sorts of bad reputations, such as being brutal or bloodthirsty. These reputations didn't affect the bandits; in fact, they could even be a positive factor to some extent.
But if he accidentally earns a reputation as a coward, that would be terrible!
In places like the area outside the Great Wall, all sorts of scoundrels can survive and even have the chance to live a comfortable life, but cowards are the only ones who can't survive!
When bandits from other places learned that Lianyun Village was issuing a call to arms to fight the Luo family army, their reactions were quite different.
Some of the more powerful bandits, who were unwilling to get involved in this mess, simply rejected Lianyun Village's invitation to join the fight and pretended they hadn't received it!
For them, if Luo's army wanted to invade their territory, they would have to conquer Lianyun Village first.
Therefore, in the short term, Luo's army does not pose much of a threat to them, and it does not even have much of an impact on them.
As for the saying about the principle of "if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold"?
Haha, don't be ridiculous. When did these bandits become so closely connected?
When they sent troops from Lianyun Village to fight the Luo family army, they didn't sneak up and launch a surprise attack on their rear to take advantage of the chaos. That was already more than enough. To expect them to join the call from Lianyun Village and send troops together is just wishful thinking.
Those bandits with sufficient strength could naturally ignore Lianyun Village's invitation, but most bandits, after receiving the invitation from Lianyun Village, dared not refuse it at all.
It's hard to say whether Lianyun Village can defeat Luo Family Army, but dealing with this bunch of scoundrels would be a piece of cake.
Moreover, some bandits also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to get in touch with Lianyun Village and try to improve their relationship with them, so that it would be easier for them to use their connections in the future.
Because of this, the surrounding bandits responded enthusiastically to Lianyun Village's call and sent their men to come. Some of the smaller bandit groups even brought their entire families along, wishing they could bring their mothers with them!
How could Luo Ke not know that the people of Lianyun Village had caused such a commotion?
Although Rock had not specifically established an intelligence system, he controlled so many villagers, and these villagers were quite supportive of him.
In this situation, if villagers heard the news from outside, they would naturally report it to Luo Jiajun immediately.
Never underestimate the villagers' ability to gather inside information. To put it bluntly, these guys are all intelligence masters, making them arguably the most capable early intelligence organization.
When Rock learned of this news, his first reaction was not fear, but rather a sense of surprise and joy.
"Oh dear, I never expected that before I even went to find these scoundrels, they would deliver themselves right to my doorstep!"
After listening to his subordinate's report, Rock couldn't help but burst into laughter.
To be honest, he was worried about how to suppress the bandits, and he was racking his brains to figure out the most efficient way to do so.
These bandits all hid deep in the mountains and forests, and they all wanted to dig a bunch of rat holes for themselves. Every family was particularly fond of having three burrows.
That's why, even though Rock's current team is strong enough to sweep away any bandit group in the area, he really can't guarantee that he can eliminate these bandits if he launches an attack.
If they refuse to fight him head-on and instead choose to wander into the deep mountains and forests, he can't possibly have his guards spending all day in the mountains fighting the enemy, can he?
Back then, Napoleon's elite French army was defeated by Spanish guerrillas, and he had no intention of fighting a guerrilla war against a group of old bandits who knew the terrain well in the deep mountains and forests.
To my utter surprise, these bandits not only chose to abandon their greatest advantage and come out to cause me trouble, but they were even afraid that it would be too much trouble for me to come to them one by one, so they simply gathered together!
Rock was moved for a moment, and couldn't help but sigh that there is still true kindness in the world, and these bandits really know how to think of others!
However, as moved as I am, we still need to carefully plan how to deal with the enemy's attack.
Faced with their massive offensive, Rock felt that his side was also in quite trouble.
The reason is simple: it's difficult to choose the location and time of the battle!
If we choose to remain inactive, these guys will definitely burn, kill, and loot the surrounding villages when they invade our territory.
For bandits, if they are within their own territory, they might be more disciplined, because after robbing one meal, they have to think about the next one, and they have to be careful to make a steady profit.
However, when these bandits from the alliance ventured into other people's territory, they no longer needed to consider so many things.
Anyway, they'll probably only come once, and they'll have to leave quickly after they're done fighting. Since that's the case, and they don't need to worry about a long-term, sustainable approach, why not just wipe out all these villages in one go?
In that case, Rock knew without a doubt that the bandits would massacre the village and vent their lust, doing whatever they wanted to the worst animals!
However, if he were to take the initiative to attack, Rock would face several risks. Firstly, he was unfamiliar with the area and the people there, and a slight misstep could lead him into the enemy's trap. Secondly, he was unsure when the bandits would meet.
What if he attacks too quickly and the enemy doesn't even have time to form an alliance before Lianyun Village is wiped out by his army? Wouldn't that be embarrassing?
When the other bandits see that he's not going to come and die, they'll all scatter like birds and beasts, and he'll have to keep playing whack-a-mole.
After much thought, Rock decided to organize a group of villagers to go to the border to gather information and, incidentally, contact other villages in the surrounding area, thereby forming an intelligence network.
Anyway, the Cossack cavalry patrolled these villages all day long. If they found out any relevant news, they could just tell the Cossack cavalry, and then the Cossacks would pass the news on to them.
Once he learned that the other side planned to send troops, he immediately led his troops to follow suit and blocked the other side at the border!