My Apprenticeship to Uncle Jiu: I Was a Warlord in the Republic of China

Chapter 357: Digging Graves and Scattering Bones

But how could Jiang Li set such a precedent?

At this moment, if he chooses to give in, countless people will follow suit, and he will probably be in endless trouble in the future.

Therefore, he not only decisively rejected the proposal to negotiate with them, but also quickly ordered people to set up cannons and be ready to attack at any time in order to intimidate the defenders in the city, hoping that they would recognize the current situation, abandon darkness and surrender to the light and give up resistance.

However, the actual effect is not satisfactory.

After three full days, only two counties surrendered voluntarily, while the remaining 42 counties decided to fight to the end.

Faced with such a situation, Jiang Li had no other choice. He knew very well that the only way out now was to choose to attack by force.

However, once the cannons fired, innocent civilians in the city would inevitably suffer heavy casualties, and he really did not want to implicate these innocent people.

Therefore, Jiang Li simply rushed to the front line and personally commanded the siege.

And the primary target is Long Yun’s old nest, which is also the capital of Yunnan Province.

Kunming.

Kunming is the largest city in Yunnan, with a large population and strong military force. Long Yun’s family also lives there.

Logically speaking, since Long Yun had already been defeated and surrendered, his family should have followed suit, but the facts were quite the opposite.

It turned out that after Long Yun was defeated, his clan members, in order to protect their own property, actually joined forces with the gentry in the city to launch a rebellion, occupied Kunming City, and even directly imprisoned Long Yun's family members.

It was precisely because of this that they closed the city gates and confronted Jiang Li.

Actually, they didn't want to defeat or repel the Anmin Army with these remnants, but just wanted to use them to negotiate terms with Jiang Li.

After all, once a fight breaks out, both civilians and soldiers will suffer heavy casualties. They just want to use this to make Jiang Li hesitate.

In fact, they also knew that a big warlord like Jiang Li would not care about the lives of civilians and soldiers.

But they still hold on to hope, thinking that if they succeed they can not only save their lives but also their property. Even though the chances are slim, they still want to give it a try.

...

Back to Jiang Li, after he carefully studied the map, he knew very well that acting recklessly would not work.

So he immediately ordered someone to send a telegram to contact the intelligence personnel in the city.

They were given the order to cooperate internally and externally.

That very night, Jiang Li dispatched several thousand people to launch a feint attack in the east, west and south directions under the cover of darkness, creating the illusion of being surrounded on three sides and leaving one side open.

When the enemy sent troops to reinforce, three flares were raised at the north gate. Then, the intelligence personnel in the city immediately launched a surprise attack on the north gate.

The main attack force, which had been preparing for a long time outside the city, immediately launched a fierce attack on the north gate as soon as they saw the signal flare rising into the sky.

Being surrounded from both sides, the Anmin Army successfully captured the North Gate in just over ten minutes.

By this time, the battle was basically settled.

These defenders were not an elite force to begin with. After losing their leading general and then the city gate, they immediately lost their resolve to fight.

A large number of soldiers chose to surrender voluntarily, some chose to hide in civilians' homes, and the last part was the diehards led by the gentry and landlords.

They knew they could not escape, so they simply entered the alleys of the city, prepared to engage in street fighting with the Anmin Army, and vowed to hold out to the end.

Jiang Li soon learned the news. He knew very well that it was extremely unwise to engage in street fighting with the enemy at night in an unfamiliar environment.

Therefore, he directly gave the order, asking the soldiers not to enter the city for the time being, but to first clear out all the soldiers defending on the city walls. As for the street fighting, a decision would be made during the day.

But he also knew that if you get rid of these diehards as soon as possible, they might do something outrageous.

So they decisively selected some people from the surrendered soldiers, let them take the lead, and launched a dragnet search.

Fortunately, Jiang Li was decisive enough and knew that these guys might do something desperate, and he actually guessed it right.

As the troops were conducting a dragnet search, many houses in the city suddenly caught fire.

It turned out that these guys were so desperate that they wanted to burn the city down and perish together with the Anmin Army.

Fortunately, the Anmin Army discovered their intention in time, eliminated these stubborn elements, and quickly controlled the fire. Although some houses were burned down and some civilians were killed and injured, it was generally within controllable range.

As the Anmin Army took control of the entire Kunming, the battle came to an end.

Afterwards, he blocked the relevant news and handed over this successful plan to his officers.

In just ten days, all the cities in Yunnan that were still resisting had fallen.

In order to make these stubborn resisters pay a price, he did not kill them too many times, which would affect his future rule.

So he dug up the ancestral graves of all those who had participated in the rebellion, dug out the bones and exposed them to the sun for three days, and then ground the bones into ashes.

As for the burial objects, they were confiscated after being exposed to the sun and used to rescue the people injured by their rebellion, which saved him a lot of expenses.

At this time, Guizhou and Yunnan had completely fallen into Jiang Li's hands.

As for the subsequent matter of fighting the local tyrants and dividing the land, such a large number of troops will no longer be needed.

As soon as Jiang Li issued an order, the people who had received a large amount of money and grain responded actively and joined the work of measuring the fields and counting the grain and property with great enthusiasm.

As for the Anmin Army, he only left 50,000 troops in each province, plus 50,000 surrendered soldiers. With the cooperation of the local guerrillas, they took on the task of suppressing bandits and eliminating the landlords' armed forces in the two provinces.

As for Jiang Li himself, he transferred another 50,000 men from Chongqing, plus 200,000 wolf soldiers, 100,000 surrendered soldiers, and Yang Shen's 40,000 men, and led a total of 390,000 men, and hurried back to support the front battlefield.

After Jiang Li successfully took over Guizhou and Yunnan, the warlords in the four surrounding provinces soon learned the news, which frightened them terribly.

They never expected that Jiang Li would be able to take the initiative to divide his troops when being surrounded by six armies.

The most important thing is that he actually took over these two provinces easily, in just over a month.

However, now that they have already gone to war, it is a fight to the death.

So they immediately continued to recruit soldiers, increased the intensity of the attack, and prepared to go all out and fight Jiang Li to the death.

But suddenly, news came that the reason why Jiang Li was able to take over Yunnan so easily was entirely due to the betrayal of this guy Yang Shen.