Ang Lee mobilized the troops under his command to eliminate the bandits in the mountains. Naturally, he would not let the soldiers make the trip in vain. All the soldiers who participated in the operation would receive three times the salary. This was also Ang Lee's routine. Every time there was a mission, he would give the soldiers double the salary. At the same time, there would be additional rewards for meritorious service. Only in this way could these people truly be motivated to work hard.
Guichang Mountain stretched for hundreds of miles. There were dozens of mountain peaks where bandits appeared. Therefore, the soldiers responsible for clearing out the bandits were definitely not limited to Ang Lee's group. There were also many soldiers and horses from Guichang City. These soldiers and horses all brought seeds and food. They were prepared to use the food to eliminate these bandits. Of course, they also brought weapons. If these bandits did not know what was good for them, then they could only kill them. For the safety of Wangcheng, not a single bandit group could be left behind.
Because they were not familiar with the terrain, Ang Lee's group had a few people who were familiar with the local environment to lead the way. This way, they would not get lost. Although they had a map, the map was not necessarily accurate. The local guide was more familiar with the terrain.
Riding on the horse, Ang Lee looked at the guide with a very good attitude in front of him. He suddenly had a very strange feeling. He always felt that he was particularly like the leader of the Japanese in the future who led a group of people to sweep the mountains. This strange feeling made Ang Lee feel a little uncomfortable. However, as long as he thought that he was here to help the people, he felt a little better.
There were dozens of bandits hiding in the mountains. Although most of them were poor people who had nowhere to go, there were also some old bandits who had been around for decades. These people were not so easy to persuade. Their mentality was also different from ordinary people. They were comfortable and hated work. Even if they could support themselves by farming, they were not willing to farm. They would rather rob and live a life of blood than work hard to farm. In these guys' eyes, robbing was too easy. They could quickly obtain a lot of wealth. On the other hand, farming was too hard and tiring. Even if they farmed for a lifetime, there was no possibility of them being rich.
On the third day of departure, Ang Lee entered a bandit lair and sent a few guides to communicate with the bandits to quickly surrender and become ordinary people again. This was advice and at the same time a warning. If these guys dared to not listen, what awaited them would be annihilation.
Hearing that there was food and seeds, most of these bandits felt that they should surrender. They did not want to be bandits. They also wanted to live a peaceful life. However, there were also a few leaders who were not willing to surrender. They felt that being bandits was more free. In addition, although their group was entrenched in the mountains and had to starve every day, those who were the leaders did not have to starve. They could eat their fill every day. Naturally, they would not care about those bandits who were not full.
As a result, before Ang Lee's side started fighting, the bandits were already divided. Those who supported surrendering and those who opposed surrendering started fighting. They even began to fight among themselves with weapons. For a time, there were shouts of killing, which surprised Ang Lee.
After a period of internal fighting, there were many casualties among the bandits. Because there were more supporters of surrendering, in the end, the surrendering side gained the upper hand. After they controlled the situation, they sent people to understand the details. After learning about the terraced field transformation plan in detail, these bandits were very happy and asked themselves to do their part. There was a large terraced field in their destroyed homes. If these terraced fields could really withstand drought and flood, they would never be bandits again.
Seeing that these people were sallow and emaciated, Ang Lee gave them half a month's worth of food, as well as some vegetables and grain seeds. He told them to quickly return to their original homes and immediately transform the terraced fields in their homes. These terraced fields would meet the standards of drought and flood resistance. Then, they would begin to restore production as soon as possible.
These people listened to Ang Lee's words and were very grateful. From now on, they could finally live a stable and peaceful life. They no longer had to be on the edge all day. These were simple farmers. They really did not want to rob others because they did not have food to eat.
After dealing with a group of bandits, Ang Lee felt a sense of accomplishment and felt very happy. However, there were more bandits near Mount Gui Chang waiting for Ang Lee to deal with. Therefore, Ang Lee could not be idle for the time being. He reckoned that he would be busy again. A few days ago, a few more batches of food were shipped over. With these food as backup, it would not be difficult to annihilate all the bandits. Most of the bandits would probably return to being ordinary people.
There were many areas in Mount Gui Chang with high mountains and dense forests. It was hard to say if there were any people inside. Therefore, they needed to search bit by bit. As Ang Lee's team were all outsiders and were not familiar with the terrain, the task of searching the forest was naturally handed over to the local guide. This way, the efficiency would be higher.
Ang Lee's team was reorganizing in a ravine. As they did not have a target, they could only stay there temporarily. It would not be too late to attack when they found a target.
"Assistant Minister Li, there seems to be ore here. It should be iron ore."
During the break, Chen Long took a piece of ore and handed it to Ang Lee.
Ang Lee took the stone and looked at it carefully. He nodded and said, "Yes, it's really iron ore. It's really unexpected! There's iron ore here. Where did you find it? "
Chen Long said, "It's in the ravine where we are. It seems that this is an iron ore mine!"
"Quick, take me to have a look."
Ang Lee was very interested in minerals. When he heard that there was iron ore in the ravine where they were stationed, he was naturally very happy. Iron ore was what the Tang Dynasty lacked the most. The more iron ore there was, the better. In the future, paving roads and building bridges would be inseparable from large quantities of pig iron. The amount of iron ore determined the development speed of the Tang Empire. Without enough iron, the construction of roads and bridges would be greatly restrained. However, with enough iron, the construction of roads and bridges would not be a big problem.
"Assistant Minister Li, I found it here. There are many more here."
Chen Long pointed to a large pile of broken stones on the ground and said.
"Yes, yes, it's all iron ore. It seems that this valley is an iron ore mountain. However, we still need to investigate how many iron ores there are here. Let the soldiers spread out to look for this kind of stone. Spread out and search slowly."
Ang Lee looked at the iron ore and said excitedly.
"Yes, Assistant Minister Li."
Chen Long took the order and immediately let the soldiers spread out to look for iron ores. They only needed to determine the approximate range. As for the depth of the iron ore, generally, it would not be too shallow. As long as the range was large enough, the reserves would definitely be considerable.
A total of more than 300 soldiers and horses were divided into two groups to look for iron ores. After a period of searching, they finally figured out the range of the iron ore. This iron ore area was at least 20 miles in radius. It was a very large mining area. At least, in this era, an iron ore mine of this scale was very amazing.
"Good, really very good! I really didn't expect that there would be such a large iron ore mine here. Originally, we came out to eliminate the bandits, but we unexpectedly found an iron ore mine. This is really a pleasant surprise! "
Ang Lee said excitedly.
"It is very pleasant, but I'm afraid that we can't mine it for the time being. Now, what we lack most is food. The spare manpower has been transferred to build terraced fields. We can only start mining the iron ore after the food shortage here is over."
Chen Long said.
This was obvious. After all, food was the real priority. Without food, there was nothing to talk about. Dongnu Province was now full of bandits because of the shortage of food. The roads could not be built in a short time. It was also difficult to transfer food from Central Sichuan. Solving the food shortage locally was the most effective way. Therefore, in order to solve the food shortage problem as soon as possible, they had to use as much manpower as possible to produce food. For the time being, they could not waste manpower on mining the iron ore.
According to Ang Lee's estimation, the food shortage problem would be completely solved in a year at most. Then, the iron ore here could be mined.
The efficiency of the local guides was still very high. Soon, they found a few more groups of bandits with less than a hundred people. These people also returned to their hometowns under Li An's persuasion. They were prepared to use their hard work to change the situation of the local food shortage.
"Assistant Minister Li, we've discovered another stronghold up ahead. However, this stronghold is different from the previous ones. These bandits are all ferocious bandits. There are no commoners and they refuse to surrender. They even killed one of our guides."
"Oh, there is such a thing. Did these guys eat bear's heart and leopard's gall? How dare they do this? Aren't they afraid that our army will kill them? "
Ang Lee was very puzzled. The courage of these bandits had already made him somewhat puzzled. After all, the previous bandits had taken the initiative to surrender. Even if these bandits were fierce, they shouldn't be so bold. They actually dared to kill a guide. This was simply a provocation. How could a mere bandit be so bold? Did they have some backing behind them?
Chen Long said, "Assistant Minister Li, I personally went to see. This bandit's lair is built on a very steep mountain top. There is only one way in and out halfway up the mountain. The only way in and out is set up with a checkpoint. As long as there are more than a dozen people guarding the checkpoint, we can't enter at all. It is really difficult to fight! It can be said that it is impregnable. "
Clearly, Chen Long had a very high opinion of this bandit's lair. He felt that this bandit's lair was too dangerous. If they wanted to take down such a bandit's lair, they would need to put in a lot of effort.
"Impregnable?"
Ang Lee smiled slightly. He didn't really agree with this. It was just a bandit's lair. How could it be said to be impregnable?
Of course, Chen Long felt that it was impregnable because with their current military strength and weapons, it was really difficult to do anything to this group of bandits. Attacking such a bandit's lair was very stressful. Moreover, Chen Long and the others didn't know that Ang Lee had a secret weapon on him.
"Assistant Minister Li, if we bring the artillery from the capital, we will definitely be able to take down this bandit's lair in one fell swoop. It will be easy to take it down."
Chen Long suddenly said with a smile on his face.
Obviously, with the help of artillery, it would be very easy to attack such a strong stronghold. They only needed one cannon to destroy the checkpoint without any pressure. However, without the help of artillery, it would be much more difficult to attack the stronghold. It would even require the sacrifice of many soldiers' lives. If the bandits were very fierce, then no matter how many sacrifices were made, they might not be able to take down such a strong bandit's lair.
"Don't worry! It's not difficult to take down such a bandit's lair. These bandits must have eaten a bear's heart and leopard's guts. They dare to provoke us. They are not far from being wiped out. "
Ang Lee said very domineeringly.
Chen Long frowned and said, "Assistant Minister Li, but we don't have artillery! I have sent many soldiers to investigate. The surroundings are very dangerous. It's impossible to find a way to go around. It's definitely impossible to go around to the back of the stronghold. Do you really want to fight? "
Obviously, this guy didn't want to fight. The terrain of this stronghold was too bad. He was afraid that there would be a lot of casualties. Chen Long naturally didn't want to do something like this that would lead to a lot of casualties.
Ang Lee said with a smile, "Don't worry! This is just a group of mobs. Let the soldiers wear their armor and raise their shields. Even if the bandits take advantage of the terrain, they can only throw stones down. Our big shields can completely block these rolling stones and ensure that our soldiers won't be killed. You can rest assured. "
When Chen Long heard this, he felt that this was indeed the case. Although the bandits had the geographical advantage, their weapons were nothing more than crude weapons. On the other hand, the Great Tang soldiers were very well-equipped, especially their shields, which could completely block the attacks of the rolling logs.
These giant shields were made up of many big shields. Each shield was half the height of a person and one person wide. Six of them together made a very big shield. Of course, as long as there was a need, there was nothing wrong with combining eight or ten of them together. It was completely feasible. The bigger the combined shield, the better the defensive effect. These big shields looked very thick, but they were not very heavy. They were all made of composite materials, including wood and metal. Their comprehensive defensive ability was very amazing.
If these shields were combined into an airtight giant shield, hundreds of soldiers would be protected inside, so they would not have to worry about being shot by crossbows. Even if the enemy threw stones from a high place, these giant shields would be able to block them and would never be smashed by the stones. Of course, there were more equipment to deal with the stones, but Ang Lee's troops were light troops, so it was impossible for them to bring too many defensive weapons. It was easier to carry large shields that could be combined together, but it was too troublesome to carry many more defensive weapons. Ang Lee did not let the troops carry such weapons, such as carriages and other defensive weapons, which were much better than the giant shields.
This time, Ang Lee asked Chen Long to command the troops to attack the bandits because the bandits were too arrogant and dared to kill the guides he sent. On the other hand, Ang Lee had a powerful sniper rifle in his hands, so he was completely capable of killing the bandits. He was not afraid of the bandits at all. These bandits thought that they would be safe by hiding at the checkpoint. This idea was too naive. As long as they dared to show their faces, Ang Lee had the ability to kill them.
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