Lin Tie and Zhou Pu sat on the upper deck of the boat, with a knife placed horizontally in front of their knees, quietly listening to the movements on the dark surface of the river. Two guards stood beside them, while three other guards helped the boatman row towards the southern shore. The river was pitch black, and they couldn't see the situation on the southern shore, but they proceeded by following the sound.

  The chaos and panic in the dark of night was terrifying, especially since the hundreds of people gathered at the riverbank were all untrained refugees, with families in tow, including the elderly, women, and children. Lin's group had not encountered any attacks on the river, but as they approached the southern shore, the scene on land was already chaotic. The terrified refugees fled in all directions to avoid the attack, stumbling and falling in the fields, where it was difficult to see what was happening. In the darkness, people were screaming and fighting each other, unable to distinguish friend from foe, while others were trying to light fires for illumination, only to become targets of the attackers. The camp was plunged into an even more terrifying darkness, with the sounds of wailing, crying, and even babies' cries filling the air, making it impossible to discern what was real and what was not on the shore.

  Lin and his men crouched at the bow of the boat, barely able to make out the shadows on the riverbank. Their teeth were clenched in frustration, but they knew that going ashore would be pointless.

  "There's tall grass on the west beach..." Zhou Pu said.

  "Head west..." Lin Xie ordered.

  At this point, the most important thing is brightness. As long as the firelight illuminates the distance, they can calm down the panic and organize a counterattack. It can be confirmed that the number of camp raiders will not be too many. The main reason is that the panic caused by the camp raiders in the dark night is like an epidemic, spreading rapidly. These refugees have been wandering for thousands of miles to Jiangning, their mental state has been tense and exhausted to the extreme, and they can only relax a little tonight, but suddenly encounter a camp raid.

  They could only barely make out the dark shadows of the reefs on the riverbank, and the hull would occasionally scrape against the rocks at the bottom of the river, producing a dull rubbing sound. As they proceeded, the boat suddenly jolted to a stop, having struck a protruding reef, and the sound of splintering wood could be heard as the bow had already been smashed by the reef.

  Seeing the fluffy black shadow in front, Lin Xie and Zhou Pu smashed the pottery jars filled with lamp oil over. The bow of the boat began to take on water, Lin Xie jumped into the water, stepped onto the rocky beach at the bottom of the river, ignoring the icy river water that soaked his waist, and crawled up to the beach with Zhou Pu, one foot deep and one foot shallow, feeling for the fire flint to ignite the oil-soaked grass.

  The grass on the beach was all withered after winter, and in recent days it had been dry and fire-prone. The guards and boatmen were holding torches made of pine resin, and as they retreated eastward, they set fire to the grass thickets on the beach. In an instant, the riverbank below was ablaze, and the flames quickly spread to the shrubs on the riverbank. By the time Lin's troops retreated to the river mouth, the river mouth was already brightly lit, and the night sky was a deep red from the fire.

  A large fire broke out on the riverbank, and the looters on the shore lit up their tents and piles of supplies to start retreating. When Lin tied them up and climbed up the river embankment, the chaotic camp was filled with panicked and helpless refugees who were running around or kneeling on the ground, and not a single looter could be seen.

  "Damn it!" Lin Mou drew out his knife and fiercely chopped down a crooked-necked poplar tree on the river embankment, venting his anger.

  The fire started, and there was a bright light. The attackers retreated, and some people began to spontaneously stand up to stop the chaos, organize people to put out the fire and rescue people. Lin Xie and Zhou Pu guarded the river dike, not daring to move lightly. They were worried that there were still attackers hiding among the refugees, so they stood guard on the river dike with their weapons at the ready, at least intimidating the attackers from making another reckless move. Moreover, at this time, they had no way of verifying the identities of the crowd. The refugees had only gathered together for five or six days, and in these few days, they had come from Jiangbei to Mailing County, and then from Mailing County to Jinchuan River Mouth, and there was simply not enough time for them to become completely familiar with each other.

  The tarpaulins covering the grain warehouses, hay stacks, and wood piles were set on fire by the raiders before they retreated. The refugees did not rush to rescue the injured but instead tried to put out the large fire in the grain warehouse. Seeing the fire, Lin Xie knew that half of the supplies they had prepared would be lost. What pained him more was the sight of the wounded scattered all over the ground, with some people lying motionless as if they were already dead.

  "Quickly go to the island and bring back the doctor, and bring all the medicine...” Lin Fu ordered the guards to return to the island to fetch the prison doctor. He didn't see Lin Jingzhong, Qian Xiaowu, Cao Zikang and others' figures, perhaps they had withdrawn in time after the chaos occurred. Lin Fu didn't have time to wait for Lin Jingzhong and the others to return, he saw someone over there organizing firefighting efforts, and that person's face looked familiar, like someone he had seen before nightfall. He called him over and said: "The grain can burn, but human life is at stake, first organize rescue efforts, boil water, prepare clean cloth, don't rush to move the injured, try to keep large wounds facing up, cover the wound with clean cloth... except for those who have been named to gather, everyone else stay where you are and don't move around."

  Lin Gu did not change out of his wet clothes, and handed the waist knife to Chen Hua's face. He squatted down to examine the injuries of the refugees who had been attacked. Almost all of them were stabbed or pierced by sharp objects, with small but deep wounds. The refugee who was first stabbed almost lost all hope of survival. Those who were still bleeding profusely from their wounds also found it difficult to survive under these conditions. Lin Gu could only do his best and leave the rest to fate, quickly bandaging the wounds and stopping the bleeding for these injured people.

  "I'm sorry, I was really useless. At that time, I panicked and didn't know what to do. Master Cao shouldn't have saved me, it would be better if I had died here...” Lin Jingzhong walked over with a heavy heart, his face and body covered in bruises and scratches from the fall. The desolate campsite and the wolves' lair filled him with despair, and he stumbled over, feeling unworthy of Lin Xuan's trust.

  Lin Jie saw Lin Jingzhong, Qian Xiaowu and Cao Zikang return safely, put down his heart, pressed Lin Jingzhong's shoulder with his hand, and comforted him: "It has nothing to do with you. I didn't expect anyone would be so ruthless either. If there is any fault, I also have my own fault. This debt is owed by whom, I will definitely investigate it clearly and go back to claim it." Lin Jingzhong had no experience in dealing with such situations, how could he be blamed?

  Lin tied up Qian Xiao Wu and asked him to organize people to cooperate with the prison doctor to continue rescuing the injured, asking Cao Zi Ang: "Have you found any clues?"

  "The camp was suddenly attacked, and we were immediately thrown into chaos. We couldn't distinguish between friend and foe at first, so we could only retreat from the camp to avoid getting caught up in the turmoil. The situation was critical, and we only had time to bring Lin Guanshi and Qian Xiaowu out," Cao Zikang explained the situation of the attack to Lin Xie in detail. "Wuya judged that there must be someone hiding in the dark directing the attack. We dispersed and searched around the southwest corner of the willow forest, capturing three people who were tied up. Afraid that there might still be people secretly monitoring us, we hid them in a ditch on the southeast side. Da Yu and Xiao Yu took their brothers to hide in that ditch as well. When the attackers retreated to the willow forest, there were nearly forty or more people. Wuya brought one of his brothers to secretly follow them, but didn't dare to forcibly detain them... unable to stop the chaos from spreading, I apologize to you, Lin Ye."

  Lin tied his head slightly, Cao Zikang and others avoided carrying weapons to reveal their traces, with Ge Shi brothers and more than 30 people, they hid a few daggers on their bodies, how could they stop the camp raiders from creating chaos? These camp raiders were quite experienced, advancing and retreating with a plan, Cao Zikang should have led his men to withdraw Lin Jingzhong, Qian Xiaowu and others from the camp to avoid being affected.

  To say that Cao Zixiang did something wrong, it was that when they retreated, they should have set fire to the hut and grain depot first, which would have effectively prevented the attackers from creating greater chaos and panic. However, it's not that Cao Zixiang didn't want to burn down several thousand kilograms of food and their hard-won shelter for the night. Perhaps Cao Zixiang and his men had not anticipated that the attackers would be so experienced and well-coordinated before they retreated.

  "Dad, Dad, Mom is dying..." A half-body covered in bloodstains rushed over, crying out to Cao Zi'ang in a panic.

  Cao Zi'ang's face turned pale with fright, and before he could even blame himself, he grabbed the young man and ran westward.

  Lin Tie only then realized that when Cao Zi'ang and the others retreated, they had only taken Lin Jingzhong, Qian Xiaowu and others with them, and hadn't even bothered to take their wives and children. He cursed, "This is terrible!" and followed Zhou Pu in chasing after Cao Zi'ang and his son. At a place where a hut had been burned to ashes, leaving only residual flames, they saw Cao Zi'ang's wife lying weakly on the ground, wearing coarse hemp clothing, with a large pool of blood flowing from her body.

  When Lin Xie saw the fire, Cao's wife's eyes were still struggling, and she had not yet appeared to be in hemorrhagic shock. She quickly pulled aside the two women next to her and said to Zhou Pu: "Call the prison doctor, there is still hope for rescue!"

  Chasing away the onlookers, Cao Zijian squatted down and personally helped his wife dress her wound.

  Cao Zikang's son Cao Wendlon was telling the story with a crying tone beside him. When the bandits raided, he and his mother hid in the fields without moving. However, when the bandits retreated, he was young and impulsive, relying on the short knife in his hand to launch a sneak attack on the bandits who were left behind. He was discovered as soon as he made his move and ended up being chased instead. His mother took the blows for him, getting stabbed several times, but fortunately, the bandits were eager to leave and didn't linger, so they left quickly.

  Refugees' lives are cheap, and the injured include both men and women. The prison doctor didn't know Cao's wife's identity, so he naturally treated the male patients first. Lin Tie called him over, and he used the best medicine to treat Cao's wife's wounds, also cutting two slices of ginseng to put in her mouth to save her life.

  Lin Xie knew that Old Cao's hanging was a ridiculous rumor, but he was born in the wilderness and observed Cao's wife for a while. Seeing that her emotions had stabilized, he let out a sigh of relief. As long as she didn't go into hemorrhagic shock, it would be fine. Otherwise, under current sanitary conditions, even transfusing honey-salt water would be extremely dangerous, not to mention using a goose-quill tube to transfuse blood by gravity, which was practically gambling with one's life.

  When the sky was shrouded in a faint, hazy morning light, the camp finally regained some order. Over a hundred were injured, and thirty-six refugees died on the spot or from excessive blood loss after being stabbed. Three of the raiders were captured by Cao Zi'ang's men, but Lin Xie didn't have time to deal with them at the moment. He let Ge Shi brothers lead their subordinates to hide the captives on the boat, warning them not to alert anyone. On this side, a big fire in the middle of the night would inevitably alarm the counties of Yunling and Jiangning. When dawn broke and the city gates opened, the Jiangning Prefecture's military command and Yunling County would certainly send people to investigate. Lin Xie would never hand over his enemies to be dealt with by the Jiangning Prefecture or Yunling County.

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  P.S: Seeking red envelopes, busy during the day, will make up for it at night and code another chapter until dawn.