The more than 200 horse bandits led by Zhao Neng had less than half of them gathered in front of the Lin family's mansion, while the others were scattered around to rob and plunder.

  Zhao Neng promised to bring them to the Upper Forest to burn and kill, but the local militia in the Upper Forest had already been defeated. The Lin family's mansion was difficult to attack, but the people inside also did not pose a threat to them. At this time, they did not dare to loot freely, waiting for reinforcements to arrive before looting again? Zhao Neng could no longer restrain them from attacking the Lin family's mansion together. Apart from the Lin family, there were many wealthy families living in the Upper Forest, why should they still listen to Zhao Neng's orders and attack the Lin family's mansion, which was like biting a hard bone that would break their teeth?

  The scout reported that the Dongyang troops were only three miles away by water, and Zhao Neng hoped to ambush them when Lin Xiang and the reinforcements landed. He ordered someone to blow the assembly whistle, but after a while, no one came to gather, so he handed over more than 100 horses in front of the Lin family's mansion to Hong Chui girl Liu Miaojing to take care of first and go to the ferry to ambush. He took seven or eight guards to collect other horse thieves elsewhere. These disobedient and scattered cavalrymen were strong in combat, after all, most of them were originally bandits from the mountains, and Zhao Neng also knew the principle of "half-crossing and striking". When half of the reinforcements landed and the formation was unstable, a sudden attack would be the most effective.

  Zhao could see that everyone was making their way to the ferry crossing, and some people were not listening, so he ruthlessly used his whip to lash them. The three-mile journey by water was swift, taking only a short while, and the time left for him was limited. He heard that the gate of a wealthy family at the east end of the village had been smashed open, and thirty or forty people had gone there to "assist" in looting, so Zhao quickly galloped his horse over to join them.

  Zhao thought he could kill Lin Xie's son at the ferry, his hands were shaking with excitement, and when riding a horse, he was a little distracted. He heard two strange whistling sounds, "hiss, hiss", and subconsciously turned his head to look, two sharp arrows shot towards him. Before he could react again, one arrow pierced his left cheek, and the other arrow penetrated his neck. He no longer had any thoughts about killing Lin Xie, and saw a team of armored soldiers rushing towards his bodyguards in the alley. He died before falling off the horse.

  Lin was tied up in the lower Linli ferry terminal when he encountered refugees and learned that Zhao Neng led a group of horse thieves to launch a surprise attack on Upper Linli. He, Zhou Pu, Wu Qi, Lin Jiyuan, Chen Shou immediately led ten armored soldiers and two hundred militiamen ashore at the Lower Linli Ferry Terminal, leaving Lin Mengde and Zhao Qingshan with over a hundred militiamen on board, slowing down the boat's speed to continue advancing towards Upper Linli, attracting the attention of Zhao Neng and other horse thieves.

  Fortunately, Cao Zikang and Ge Cunxin were also at the Xiaolin Ferry in the lower reaches of the river, and they caught up with Lin Fu's men from the fork in the road just in time. As a result, Lin Fu had more than 30 elite armored warriors available for use. Lin Fu ordered Cao Zikang to stay on the Dongyang ship to provide support, while Ge Cunxin followed them to launch a surprise attack on Linli by land. The spoils of war that Cao Zikang and others had obtained by fishing in troubled waters were temporarily tied to the stern of the Dongyang ship and taken along.

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  The Hongze Pu pirates naturally hoped and planned to lure the Qin family's fleet into the depths of Hongze Pu before launching a surprise attack. The waters of Hongze Pu were vast and shallow, making it an ideal place for small ships to gain an advantage. As long as they could lure the tower ship carrying Qin Cheng into the shallow waters, the pirates would have control over life and death. Could the elite soldiers of the Qin family jump into the water and fight the pirates? Even if the Qin family's fleet tried to escape, there were hundreds of miles of open lake water in front of and behind them, giving the Hongze Pu pirates ample time and space to deal with the Qin family before any government reinforcements could arrive.

  Lin Xuan certainly knew that entering the depths of Hongze Pu would give him an absolute advantage, and he wouldn't have a chance to muddy the waters. Using fake beacons to trigger a water battle at Luoyang Lake ahead of time was the key to Lin Xuan's plan to muddy the waters. First, the water stronghold's forces were not densely deployed at Luoyang Lake, and second, the Qin family's fleet could easily navigate through Luoyang Lake without worrying about running aground. This would allow the water stronghold's forces and the Qin family's fleet to be roughly evenly matched. Only when both sides are evenly matched will a weak third party have the opportunity to muddy the waters.

  Only when the main force of Shuizhai was attracted by the Lou ship ridden by Qin Chengbo, did Cao Ziang and Ge Cunxin lead four fishing boats from Hongzepu to mix into the prepared ships of Shuizhai's forces and follow them to collect the spoils of war on the burning Qin family ships. The surrounding area of Hongze Lake was always in a tense state, and even if the forces of Shuizhai were united, it would be difficult to have a strict organization. Adding to this, the sky was as dark as ink, and the lights on the Shuizhai boats could not be sufficient. After loading the spoils onto the boat, even if the Shuizhai people sent someone to supervise the boat, Cao Ziang and his men would find it easy to get rid of one or two Shuizhai supervisors and then sail the boat into the river under the cover of darkness. The spoils obtained by those four fishing boats were naturally the spoils of Lin Xuan and others.

  Cao Zi'ang and his men arrived in time to join forces, securing a sturgeon boat tightly to the stern of the Dongyang, with no one else suspecting that this sturgeon boat was hiding some of the spoils from the Hongze Pu Water Fortress.

  Lin Xie said he would escort Qin Chengbo for a while, why did Shen Rong know that the Hongze Pu water village had signs of union and still want to take risks to follow? This is Shen Rong being too smart and too confident. Shen Rong also judged that the Hongze Pu water village would try every means to lure the Qin family's fleet into the depths of Hongze Pu before taking action. The north entrance of Luo Yang Lake is the boundary of Dongyang Prefecture, and further north is the territory of Huai'an Prefecture. Escorting Qin Chengbo to the north entrance of Luo Yang Lake was already very polite for Shen Rong. Luo Yang Lake is the southern border of Hongze Pu, and the northern entrance of Luo Yang Lake is only considered to be within two or three miles of the waterway into Hongze Pu, about 200-300 miles away from the center of Hongze Pu. In Shen Rong's view, Luo Yang Lake was still quite safe, and even if there were dangers, he could quickly pass through the old river of Shiliang River to Shiliang County by fast boat.

  Shen Rong was too clever, and most of Hongze Pu was in Huai'an Prefecture and Bozhou Prefecture. The water bandits' forces were mainly distributed in the western part of Huai'an Prefecture and Bozhou Prefecture. Qin Chengbo was killed by Hongze Pu, and had little to do with Dongyang Prefecture. On the contrary, it gave him the opportunity to make great achievements in suppressing the rebellion. What he did not expect was that Lin Xuan would be so bold as to provoke a water battle prematurely, which broke out in Luoyang Lake.

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  The militia in Xianglinli Village were ambushed and defeated, but the actual casualties of the militia were not particularly high, with more people fleeing. As no one gathered these militiamen, Xianglintou was again occupied by the bandits, and the fleeing militiamen naturally escaped to their homes under cover of night. Several dozen militiamen fled to the north bank, and Lin Xian collected nearly thirty along the way.

  Lin Xie learned more detailed intelligence from the fleeing militiamen, and the combat strength of over 200 horse bandits was indeed not weak. The key was that they had horses, coming and going like the wind, which was very troublesome.

  Although the various jiazi water villages had a fierce battle on Luoyang Lake for one night, with heavy casualties, they may still come to Shanglin after some repairs.

  Of course, the Hongze Pu Water Village forces may be more eager to occupy Xuyi City on the west side of Hongze Lake. Xuyi City is strategically located, and the terrain of mountains and lakes to its west can be said to be connected to that of Hongze Lake, with some people referring to it as the "West Bank" of Hongze Lake. Occupying Xuyi City would give the Water Village forces a relatively stable and solid rear base. However, occupying Shanglinli also has great benefits for the Water Village forces, mainly in being able to contact and mobilize the tens of thousands of refugees stranded north of Chao Tian Dang and along the Shiliang River, making this incident even more sensational.

  Lin Tie was not sure what choice the Hong Ze Pu Water Fortress would make, so he had to prepare for the worst. The upper Linli had two or three hundred bandits stationed there, and if the water fortress ships came south again, Lin Tie only had three or four hundred men available, this battle might require divine assistance to win.

  Lin Tie knew that the time left to him was not much, he had to make a concerted effort to drive out the horse thieves from Shanglinli before the water village ships sailed south, and bring out Yingxiu with Zhao Hu, Sun Jing Tang and others. The scope of Shanglinli is very large, between Shanglinli and Xialinli there are large tracts of plum forest, the houses to the south of the plum forest are also densely packed, providing a favorable terrain for Lin Tie and his men to infiltrate into Shanglinli.

  Taking advantage of the Mei Lin in the north of Shanglinli, Zhao Neng and Liu Miao Zhen's military strength was limited. When the defeated soldiers scattered in the countryside, they were unable to send out more distant scouts. Lin Jie and others led thirty armored warriors and two hundred village braves to successfully infiltrate Shanglinli.

  Lin Xuan deliberately went ashore with the Dongyang troops and divided them into two routes, intending to use the Dongyang troops to lure Zhao Neng and the horse thieves to the ferry crossing, where Lin Xuan would ambush them from behind. This way, they could utilize the terrain of the ferry crossing, which was surrounded by water on both sides and had many buildings, to restrict the mobility of the horse thieves as much as possible and take advantage of their numerical superiority. Zhao Neng was indeed unlucky, and Lin Xuan and his men were passing through a narrow alley when he led his guards to round up the horse thieves who were robbing a rich household in the eastern part of the village, passing right in front of Lin Xuan's nose. Lin Xuan knew that it was no longer possible to hide their tracks at this point, so he decided to shoot and kill Zhao Neng and his guards. Two arrows that shot and killed Zhao Neng were shot by Zhou Pu, and one arrow was shot by Ge Cunxin. However, eight of Zhao Neng's guards managed to escape on horseback, taking advantage of the narrow and winding alleys, with four of them getting away.

  Lin Bing didn't hesitate and directly rushed towards the ferry terminal.

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  Liu Miao Zhen heard that there was a loud whistle in the village alley, and she immediately thought of Lin Xie's division coming ashore to kill. She had received intelligence from Luo Yang Hu and knew that Lin Xie only had 400 men under his command, so she wasn't afraid of how many soldiers Lin Xie could send ashore. She immediately ordered her cavalry to gallop westward to the open area, avoiding the disadvantageous terrain near the ferry terminal.

  As she saw arrows shooting from the alley entrance, Liu Miao Zhen dismounted and used her shield to deflect the arrows, protecting herself and her warhorse. Calculating the distance and the remaining force of the arrow hitting the shield, she noticed that Lin Xie's side had several strong bows. She immediately mounted her horse again and led 160 cavalrymen to continue circling eastward.

  The bows on horseback were all short-range, with much less power than the strong bows used by Lin Xie's men. Since they were in a narrow alleyway unfavorable for cavalry charges, Liu Miao Zhen decided that leading her troops to circle around and attack from behind was the best strategy. After all, there were still many fierce and brave horse bandits scattered throughout the streets, tying up a considerable number of Lin Xie's soldiers.

  Several contacts, Liu Miao Zhen led the cavalry to be a touch-and-go, after probing several times, and then slightly seriously impacted, just avoiding Lin Xie's led armor soldiers, seeking opportunities from other places to bite the tail of the militia, fortunately, the militia relied on familiar terrain, without suffering much loss.

  Lin Tie was really a headache, he didn't have much time to waste in Lin Du, at the very least, he had to withdraw everyone to the ship first and see if there were any reinforcements sent from Shi Liang County before making further plans.

  Lin tied them up and caught a horse thief. After interrogation, it was discovered that the black-faced young woman was actually Hong Liujun's Red Jacket Girl Liu Miaojing. Cao Zikang also knew last night that he had mixed in with the boats of the Shuizhai water village and that the various water villages of the Hongze Pu water village had joined forces, with a total of 29 masters. In the early years, Liu An'er, who was captured and exiled for his involvement in the uprising in Hongze Pu, was the head of the household, and Liu Miaojing was Liu An'er's younger sister, ranked seventeenth.

  The Dongyang boat is approaching the crossing, and the main mast of the Dongyang boat is over 10 zhang high. If someone climbs up the main mast, they can see several miles away, so for now, there's no need to worry about the enemy attacking. Lin Xie leads people to first go to the Lin family's large mansion to see how to quickly move everyone onto the ship.

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  P.S: Looking for red envelopes.