America 1881: Legend of the West

Chapter 562 Leaving the City
"Sir, there are no living people and no food. There is nothing left in this village."

A young soldier with short hair and a military uniform ran up to Lai Hua, gave him a military salute, and reported.

Lai Hua frowned: "How much food does the team have?"

"In a few days, everyone only has some cassava left. Tonight, Second Lieutenant Luo may take everyone to catch crabs on the beach."

The soldier shrugged and said helplessly.

"There are some wild corns at the edge of the forest that you can break off and try." A younger, middle-aged Chinese officer walked over from the burned house.

He has a thin face and thick beard, but his eyes are bright and lively.

This officer is the Second Lieutenant Luo the soldier calls him. His original name is Luo Xiangrong. He is a Hakka from Guangxi. According to legend, he is also a descendant of the Taiping Army. He is now the leader of Lai Hua's men.

"The biggest problem is ammunition. We don't have many bullets anymore. Evenly divided, each soldier has less than seven rounds."

Luo Xiangrong put his hands on his hips, looked at the sea and said worriedly to Lai Hua.

"In addition, I do not recommend that troops be stationed here. This is the seaside and there is a lack of fresh water. If the Spanish army in Santiago City rushes out, then we are afraid that we will be driven into the sea to feed the fish."

"Then what good suggestions do you have?" Lai Hua's face showed no expression for the time being.

"I think we should leave here immediately and move closer to Hood or Captain Pereiro, so that even if we are attacked by the Spanish, we will not be in desperate situation."

Luo Xiangrong gave his own suggestions.

Objectively speaking, this suggestion is rational and in line with the current situation of the Chinese insurgent army.

Their unit now has seven to eight hundred Chinese soldiers, and the remaining few hundred people are led by another Chinese general, Captain Hood, to fight guerrillas in the mountains to the north.

If the two sides do not get closer, they will not be able to match Francis's thousands of Spanish soldiers in Santiago.

What's more, they are low on ammunition now.

But if they leave here and move north, it means that the troops have to temporarily leave the Santiago area and abandon the largest port in southern Cuba.

Then he and Lai Gubei would be even more in trouble, and his son would be in danger.

It's not that his son Lai Hua can't die, but he still has a glimmer of hope for the guns purchased by his son.

"Is there no news from Santiago yet?"

After thinking for a long time, Lai Hua looked at Luo Xiangrong and asked.

Luo Xiangrong was silent for a few seconds and shook his head.

"Wait one more day. If there is no news tomorrow, we will move." Lai Hua said.

There was a hint of worry on the old man's weather-beaten face, but it was fleeting and was buried deep under the ravaged skin.

Just when Lai Hua was worried about his son.

Chen Jianqiu, Camilla and the team transporting arms are already on the road.

After the stronghold of the drug store was taken away, the originally planned transport fleet was naturally nowhere to be found.

Fortunately, Santos has been doing business in Cuba for many years.

He does have some contact information for the team.

After discussing with Chen Jianqiu, they finally chose a fleet that specializes in transporting sugar cane on weekdays.

The captain of the convoy is a local man named Diaz who looks honest and honest.

Chen Jianqiu asked his subordinates to buy some flour shipped from Mexico at the port, plus the original potatoes, to cover the wooden boxes containing the arms.

As for the route, Chen Jianqiu planned to leave Santiago City and walk a certain distance north, then turn south, make a circle and then head towards Sage, a small fishing village northwest of Santiago City.

Early the next morning, the loaded convoy set off from the port in a hurry and headed out of the city.

The members of the Long Xiang group were all dressed up as gangsters.

None of them carried weapons to avoid arousing the suspicion of the Spanish soldiers.

Only Chen Jianqiu and Camila wore a revolver around their waists. When asked, they said it was for self-defense as the situation in Cuba is complicated now.

Sure enough, when the convoy arrived at the exit of the city, it found a long queue in front of it.

Spanish soldiers set up checkpoints on the road out of the city using horse barriers, barbed wire and sandbags to screen all carriages and pedestrians leaving the city.

"You, you, take your luggage and come out!"

A Spanish soldier pointed a gun at a man carrying a large bundle.

This man looked like a mixed race at first glance. As for what kind of mixed race he was, Chen Jianqiu couldn't tell for a while.

The man looked at the soldier blankly, somewhat at a loss.

"Where to go?" The soldier held up the gun in his hand, with the tip of the gun pointed at the man's waist.

"Go to Songo, my husband." The man replied honestly. "I want to go back home. I have to take care of the tobacco leaves in the fields at home. I can't worry about it."

"If I remember correctly, the Governor should have announced a long time ago that none of you are allowed to stay in the countryside, because in that case, we can't protect you." The soldier looked at the man with evil intentions, the gun in his hand No intention of letting go at all.

"Sir, sir, we, no, don't need it." The man's waist was pressed with a gun, and he stammered for fear of offending the Spanish soldier in front of him.

"No, you need it." The soldier shook his head, "If any of you return to the countryside now, it is an act of subsidizing the enemy."

"I will not join the rebel army. Please, sir, if the tobacco harvest in the field is not good today, our family will all drink from the northwest wind!" The man looked like he was about to cry.

When the soldier saw that the man in front of him was useless no matter what he said, he completely lost his patience.

He suddenly raised his gun and hit the man on the head with the butt of the gun.

The man's vision went dark, he took a few steps back, sat down on the ground, and dropped the baggage on his back.

Blood streamed from his forehead.

"Let me see what you brought to the enemy!" The Spanish soldier who committed the crime pulled out his dagger and cut open the baggage with one slash.

Several other soldiers also came forward and began to "check" the man's baggage.

But there was almost nothing inside except some clothes and dry food.

"Damn it, you poor man, go back now." The soldier threw the torn bundle back to the ground in front of the man with a look of disgust, and the contents inside were scattered all over the floor.

In front of Chen Jianqiu, the team captain Diaz clenched his fists, changed his usual honest and honest image, and cursed in a low voice in Spanish.

"What did he say?" Chen Jianqiu turned his head and asked Camilla beside him.

"He says these Spanish soldiers are a bunch of beasts," Camilla replied.

Chen Jianqiu looked ahead and nodded thoughtfully.

Diaz's description is indeed not an exaggeration at all.

The inspecting soldiers even robbed and beat anyone who had not paid the "tolls" and found a reason to search them.

After a while, it was their turn.

"Stop and check!"

It’s the same Spanish soldier from before.

Santos jumped off the carriage, took out a stack of parchment documents from under the seat and handed it to the soldier.

"Where are you going?" the soldier asked, taking the documents.

"Go to Guantanamo, sir, we'll transport some flour and potatoes to sell there." Santos came over with a smile on his face.

"Don't you know that flour and other things are controlled materials? If they are intercepted by the rebels on the road, wouldn't it be aiding the enemy?" The soldier frowned. "Also, are these really the only things you have in your car?"

Other soldiers were already coming forward, ready to turn over the potatoes.

"We have gone through the formalities for all these things, so I hope you can carefully look through my documents, sir." Santos said with a smile on his face.

He put emphasis on the word "earnestly".

The Spanish soldier narrowed his eyes.

He turned another page of brown paper and found a stack of pesos tucked into the top.

The soldier closed the file and put it under his arm.

When he raised his head again, a smile appeared at the corner of his mouth.

He waved at the others, signaling them to go: "Okay, you can go now."

The convoy slowly passed the checkpoint.

Chen Jianqiu and Camilla sat in the back of one of the carriages without speaking.

When the last carriage in the convoy passed the checkpoint, the voice of the Spanish soldier suddenly came from behind the convoy again.

Everyone looked back.

The Spanish soldier was standing with his hands behind his back, squinting at them.

"Everyone, the road to Guantanamo is not easy to travel. Please go slowly and don't be in a hurry," he said.

"Bah! A bunch of trash who only know how to bully civilians." Diaz shook the reins in his hand and cursed again.

Camilla translated the team captain's words to Chen Jianqiu and acted as an interpreter between him and the captain.

"Do you hate these Spanish people so much?" Chen Jianqiu asked, sitting half sideways on the flour bag.

"These damn Spaniards were beaten by the rebels and dared only stay in the city. The new cold-blooded governor did things that were even more unhuman."

Diaz said angrily while driving.

"If I didn't know those rebels, I would have taken my brothers to join them long ago."

Lai Gubei was in a carriage in front. When he heard this, he was about to say something.

But he suddenly remembered what Chen Jianqiu said and immediately shut his mouth.

Chen Jianqiu did not continue to discuss this issue.

He was not sure whether the captain of the convoy was truly committed to revolution or was just filled with righteous indignation and was just venting his anger.

They chatted about innocuous topics, such as Cuban sugar cane and tobacco and the Sierra Maestra mountains before them.

From Diaz, Chen Jianqiu learned that Santiago and the area around Sierra Maestra is indeed a very special place.

In 1868, patriotic leader Carlos Despedes issued the famous "Yala Declaration" in the mountainous town of Yala, and led the First Cuban War of Independence which lasted for 10 years.

In other words, this place can be considered an "old revolutionary base."

Strictly speaking, Cuba only has a dry season and a rainy season.

March is the end of the dry season and the weather is getting a bit hot and humid.

The forests along the way became more and more dense, with Caribbean pines, tropical pines and other trees everywhere, lush and green; the birds and insects were also extremely active, with constant chirping.

The convoy walked north along the dirt road for about an hour.

Suddenly, a whistle came from the end of the team.

That's a sign of something special.

Chen Jianqiu stopped the carriage in front, stood up on it, and looked back.

A team of twenty people, riding horses, were galloping towards their convoy.

They were all dressed in the uniforms of the Spanish soldiers.

"The Spaniards are coming." Chen Jianqiu jumped off the carriage and said lightly.

Lai Gubei and Santos suddenly became nervous.

The two men's buttocks involuntarily moved towards the ammunition box.

The Spanish soldiers soon approached the convoy.

Leading among them was the Spanish soldier who had just been checking the sentry post.

He now has a lot more soldiers around him, most of whom are unfamiliar faces, and it seems that this man is a captain or something like that.

At this time, he jumped off his horse and walked towards Chen Jianqiu and the others with ill intentions.

The soldiers behind the captain also took off the guns on their backs, surrounded the convoy, and confronted the members of the Longxiong team who were dressed as servants.

Santos jumped down from the carriage and went to meet him:

"Sir, what's wrong? Did anything happen?" he asked with a smile on his face.

Unexpectedly, the Spanish captain ignored him and looked at the piled-up goods with a whip in his hand.

Chen Jianqiu walked over, and Camilla stood shoulder to shoulder with him.

"What happened?" Camilla asked coldly in Spanish.

Seeing the beauty asking him questions, the Spanish captain spoke gloomily:

"I've been doing this for so many years, nothing can escape my eyes. If it were just flour and potatoes, the ruts of these wagons would never be so deep."

He pointed to the wheel tracks on the ground.

"Also, the looks on some of you tell me that there must be more than just flour and potatoes on this truck."

The squad leader had already noticed something was wrong when he was checking the sentry post.

However, the first thing he thought of was not to go back and report, but that this convoy must be transporting something valuable.

If that's the case, it wouldn't be a good idea to attack at the exit of the city.

As long as they are let out of the suburbs, he will then chase them with his trusted soldiers.

All the valuable things in the carriage will belong to you.

He has done this before, and it has always worked.

As for the victims, those who were lucky had their goods robbed and then released, and no one could help them; those who were less lucky were beaten to death in the wilderness of Cuba, and even their bodies were not found.

"Your insight is truly admirable." Chen Jianqiu spoke.

He casually tapped Santos on the shoulder, motioning for him to follow him.

The three retreated to a car ten meters away.

Chen Jianqiu moved some potatoes off the cart, revealing the wooden box underneath.

This action scared Lai Gubei!
If you do that, the truth will be revealed.

He was about to stop him, but found that Chen Jianqiu had already walked to the side of the wooden boxes.

Boss Chen found a crowbar from the back of the carriage and quickly pried open the lid of one of the boxes.

Other Spanish soldiers also gathered around.

"Are you sure you want to see it?" Chen Jianqiu asked the Spanish captain again with a smile.

"Stop talking nonsense and open it for us to see." The Spanish captain said a little impatiently.

Chen Jianqiu nodded.

However, at the moment when the lid of the box was completely opened, something unexpected happened.

Chen Jianqiu suddenly took out two things that looked like small melons from the box.

Then, the two "little melons" were thrown out by Chen Jianqiu.

One flew towards the Spanish soldiers outside the convoy, and the other rolled directly to the feet of the squad leader.

"Get down!" Chen Jianqiu shouted, and then immediately flashed into the cover of the carriage.

Accompanied by two loud noises.

Suddenly, flames broke out at the scene and dust filled the sky, blocking everyone's vision.

The squad leader was blown away, and those Spanish soldiers who were caught off guard were also knocked to the ground by the blast.

But when they struggled to get up from the ground.

A figure suddenly emerged from the dust and fog.

Then came six consecutive fatal shots from the revolver in his hand:
“Snap, snap, snap, snap, snap, snap!”

(End of this chapter)