Xue Fei Hu came with a mighty roar, and left with a grey face and dusty brow. The riverbank was not greatly disturbed, everything was as usual, just like Xue Fei Hu and his wife had gone out for a spring outing and would return to pay their respects again. After Xue Fei Hu led the crowd away, Mei Ling County sent someone over, and Lin Xie only then learned that the Xia family guards had set an ambush on the southwest slope of She Shan and killed twelve assassins, with only three escaping, and the Mei Ling County knife and bow team worked together to capture them overnight. Lin Xie let out a soft sigh, but didn't say anything more.

  The bearded Han man didn't wake up until the next day at dawn, and Lin Xie was dragged to the island prison when daylight broke.

  The body of the bearded Han man was indeed strong, with three sharp arrows stuck in his back. Wu Yanqing helped him dig out the flesh and there were more than a dozen new wounds on his body. Although he used painkillers, the painkillers of this era were far from comparable to the anesthetics of later generations. During treatment, he eventually fainted due to excessive blood loss and severe pain. When Lin Xuan arrived at the Bamboo Hut Prison Island, he was able to speak while leaning against the headboard with difficulty. Another young man's injuries were more severe and he had not yet awakened, but his pulse was stable, and saving his life was not a problem.

  Lin Tie came forward to ask questions, and except for Zhou Pu, everyone else withdrew from the bamboo shed.

  "Awu has owed Lord Lin three lives..." The bearded man said with difficulty.

  Lin Tie didn't know if he had heard about his own identity beforehand or after waking up and hearing Wu Yanqing mention it. He thought that Wu Yanqing should have already told him that one person died last night, but he didn't expect them to be so determined to assassinate Xi Fei Hu. Without saying more unnecessary words, Lin Tie said: "Let's not talk about these things. Last night, your injuries were too severe and it wasn't convenient for you to move around, so we temporarily arranged for you to stay in this bamboo shed. For convenience sake, I'm afraid we'll have to inconvenience you a bit and temporarily move you into the prison cell. You can rest assured and recover from your wounds, as the Xi family doesn't dare to kill their way into the main prison... Another brother, I will first bury him in the cemetery by the river mouth."

  "Master Lin doesn't ask us why we're going all out to assassinate Xia Fei Hu?" the bearded man asked.

  "Some things are inevitable, otherwise I won't be able to get through this," Lin Xuan sighed softly, thinking of the various experiences in his past life. Since it's hard to bear the pain of living a humble life, why not do things with some heroic spirit? "Take me for example, there are people in my heart, if anyone harms them, I will also go all out to take their lives, what's the point of dying? You want to kill Jia Fei Hu, who has a bad reputation in Dongming, what can make me puzzled?"

  "Ten years ago, my family, the Ao family, was also a large clan in Jiaocheng. The She family, due to their son's crime of killing a member of the imperial family, feared being implicated and wanted to start a rebellion in Jin'an, inviting powerful families and wealthy merchants to join them. At that time, the imperial court still had authority in eastern Fujian, and various families did not dare to follow suit. The She family then exterminated my clan to establish their dominance. At that time, She Feihu was only 17 years old, but under his blade, my Ao family in Jiaocheng was annihilated, with 311 people killed, leaving no one behind. Only I and the Ao family's merchant team escaped to Yuzhang.

  To avenge our family's death, for ten years, we first joined the Shaowu army, then transferred to the Nanping Prefecture army, but were both defeated by the She family. It wasn't until Commander Li took control of the Jiangxi province as the Vice Censor-in-Chief that the war situation gradually stabilized, and we joined Chen Zhihu's vanguard battalion.

  After ten years of bloody battles, our 50-odd broken families had only 11 people left. Commander Li wanted to make peace with the She family for the sake of the imperial court, but our blood feud remained unavenged, and new hatred was added. I don't care about the imperial court's grand plans! During the campaign to clear bandits in the north, Chen Zhihu led his army, and I, along with 10 clansmen, invited 42 others from the vanguard battalion who had grievances against the She family to desert together.

  Alas, alas, I am incompetent, unable to kill the enemy, causing these people to die in vain..." The bearded man's eyes welled up with tears as he recounted the reasons for the assassination.

  Lin Xian had long guessed that the bearded man was related to the Dongming Army. Deserters are an inevitable phenomenon in any army, especially when the Dongming Army was sent to the northern line, making it easier for soldiers to think of escaping. In the past six months, nearly 50,000 elite troops from Jiangdong Prefecture were transferred to the northern line, and there were nearly 200 cases of desertion. This is already a very disciplined army. Of these 200 or so deserters, about 100 were captured by the military and executed. The rest were reported to the Jiangdong Provincial Government and the local authorities where they were registered for cooperation in capturing them. Ao Canghai was the deputy commander of Chen Zhihu's vanguard camp, a seventh-rank military officer, and one of the highest-ranking deserters in Jiangdong Province. He was described as having a short beard and a thin face, but he had actually grown a full beard to disguise himself, and his face was covered with scars and burns. This man, who had experienced many hardships, was only 36 years old.

  Including the assassins who were killed by Xia's bodyguards near Sheshan yesterday, only two of the 42 escaped convicts who attempted to assassinate Xia Fei Hu are still alive. The young man's right hand tendon was injured, his left leg was severely hit, and his shinbone was broken in three places, but he can barely survive. Assassination is not an easy task, how could Xia Fei Hu be easily assassinated in Jiangning, where everyone is his enemy?

  "You two should stay in prison and recover from your injuries first - although I won't be caught dead with the Xia family, nor do I fear Xia Fei Hu's bite in Jiangning. However, the assassination of Xia Fei Hu is a matter that involves too many people. I sympathize with your situation, but I am powerless to help you. Once you've recovered from your injuries, you can leave." Lin Mou said, he could take in the assassins and let Xia Fei Hu, who couldn't catch any evidence, tolerate it. After all, there were already many people in Jiangning who didn't like the Xia family. But if he took in the assassins and then participated in the assassination of Xia Fei Hu, that would be unwise. If they got caught, Xia Fei Hu wouldn't be an easy person to deal with.

  "I dare not ask for more, but after we can sit up, I will kowtow to thank Lord Lin again." Ao Canghai endured the pain and tried to sit up, but his body was weak and he could only delay the matter of thanking him.

  "This is unnecessary," Lin Xie said, "The Xue family is greedy and wants to swallow the world. You should be patient and watch how the Xue family will bring about its own downfall..."

  Lin Xie and Zhou Pu walked out of the bamboo house, instructing people to carefully transfer Ao Canghai and another seriously injured young man who had not yet woken up to the detention room.

  The Jiang Island Prison can hold up to 2,000 prisoners, but currently only has over 400 prisoners. The A and B wards are used to detain normal prisoners, while the C ward is used to detain thirty-two people who were arrested as principal offenders for breaking into the river mouth area of the city, waiting for their families to pay ransom to Gu Wu Chen to release them. Since all the prisoners sent by various prefectures and counties have been subjected to corporal punishment, Lin Fu has converted the D ward into an infirmary, where seriously injured prisoners are concentrated for medical treatment. Lin Fu then arranged for Ao Canghai and his wife to be treated there.

  ********

  In the morning, Yang Shi brought 120 newly recruited soldiers to the prison island by boat.

  More than 100,000 refugees were stranded on the north shore. Lin Xie selected 120 new recruits from among them and had their families registered as military households. Although these new recruits looked pale, they were all strong and healthy, and many of them were skilled in martial arts. Having eaten a few meals over the past few days, their spirits were also lifted. Lin Xie required that villagers be selected to join the army, so that they could fight together more effectively during wartime. Standing on the dock, he watched as the new recruits disembarked from the ship and felt satisfied that their physical quality was no worse than that of the 40 Imperial Guards he had selected yesterday.

  Lin Xie summoned Yang Shi and said: "The newly recruited Wu soldiers, I want Zhao Hu to lead them to the deserted beach in the eastern part of the island for training. After three or five months, we will reorganize the troops based on their performance. Before that, unless there is an emergency, do not call them up. In the meantime, you are in charge of guarding and monitoring..."

  "Yes sir." Yang Xi said with a bow and a fist salute.

  The prison island, apart from the large prison, still has about 2,000 mu of wasteland and 3,000 to 4,000 mu of beach land. Only a small piece of land from the south wall to the dock is cultivated land. The number of people available for reclamation on the prison island is limited. During Lin's tenure as governor of the prison island, he focused on using prisoners to reclaim the wasteland and beaches in the southwest part of the island and along the river mouth, while most of the eastern part remained a dense thicket of shrubs and grassland.

  Lin Tie was to lead the newly recruited 120 martial arts graduates to open up a new camp on the eastern beach of Huangsha and retrain them. The Ji Yun Society would also send people to build a small dock on the eastern beach of Huangsha, which could berth the four newly purchased armed ships, and select 50 sailors from the migrant workers to jointly train a elite team that can fight both on land and water.

  Apart from the guards who were withdrawn, the original prison guards were all handed over to Yang Yi to be in charge of the daily surveillance work on the island.

  Yang Shi has been selecting soldiers on the north shore of Chao Tian Tang for the past few days. He only returned yesterday and found out that he had missed a lot of exciting things. In his heart, he admired Lin Xie even more, and no longer had the resistant thoughts towards Lin Xie when he first arrived at the island prison. At least on the surface, training new soldiers was a hard and thankless job with little real power. Lin Xie arranged it this way, and Yang Shi didn't have any objections.

  Lin Xie didn't tell Yang Yi about taking in Ao Canghai. After arriving at the prison island, he established rules that unless there was a disturbance in the cellblock, guards were not allowed to enter the cells under normal circumstances. All matters within the cells were handled by the attendants, with two squad leaders, Sun Geng, in charge of overseeing them. To say it this way, after the prison cleaning, there were still 40 vacancies among the attendants that hadn't been filled, but surprisingly, the prisoners managing other prisoners didn't feel like they lacked manpower; what was lacking were literate officials with management abilities. Lin Xie had too many trivial matters to deal with, and Sun Geng's responsibilities were extremely heavy, yet no one came to share his burden.

  Yang Jie went to the north shore, Zhao Hu led the Wu soldiers to guard on the island, and handed over the work to Yang Jie before noon.

  When the prison was cleared, two teams of Wu soldiers who had committed crimes were handed over to Gu Wudun and taken back to the city. However, all the armor and weapons were left on the island, and when new Wu soldiers arrived on the island, these armors and weapons were distributed to them.

  The three-masted thousand-ton ship will still need to practice in Longjiang Lake before it can be driven by the big and small pangolins to the river mouth, but the four armed ships are light boats, easy to control, after paying the full boat fare on this side, let the people sent by the big and small pangolins drive them back to the river mouth at noon.

  At noon, Lin Xie and Zhou Pu returned to the river mouth for a meal, only then did they see the actual appearance of the vehicle ship. The vehicle ship was about five zhang long and one zhang wide, with a hull like an arrowhead, drawing only two feet of water, and being light enough to be pulled directly onto shallow shoals for anchorage. The front end was wrapped in iron and equipped with a ramming pole, the two sides of the ship had eight foot pedals, eight sailors pedaled to propel the boat, one person at the back manipulated the rudder to control the direction, if they felt that the speed of the boat was still not fast enough, four long oars could be installed on both sides.

  Four brothers who were skilled in swimming and rowing were transferred from Da Xiao's command to serve as the heads of the watermen on four armed ships. Forty people were also selected from the recruited laborers to serve as oarsmen for the ships. In the afternoon, except for the ten elite warriors under Da Xiao's command who remained at the river mouth to stand guard, Lin Xie loaded the remaining thirty warriors onto the ships and took them to Yu Dao, where they picked up 120 newly recruited soldiers and transported them all to a deserted beach on the east end of Yu Dao.

  A pile of bamboo and wood had been stockpiled here, which could be used to build a camp wall. Later, a large number of grass mats, lacquer cloth, ropes, iron pots, rice, and bedding were also transported to the deserted beach by boat. Lin Xie wanted to teach these newcomers how to survive on the deserted beach with Zhao Hu and Zhou Pu before talking about training.

  Lin tied up the Wu Wei and Xin Bian Wu soldiers in a newly opened camp on the beach to concentrate on training, one is to avoid the disturbance of worldly affairs, he doesn't need to take care of two things at once, if there are things, Zhao Hu and Zhou Pu can draw out one person to help him at any time, besides, with the ability to quickly turn around on the water surface, even if the river mouth encounters an emergency, it will be a blink of an eye to rush over and rescue.

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  PS: The second update is online, seeking red tickets. Just click twice in the middle of the book page.