Not long after Lin and his men withdrew onto the ship, a large number of water bandit ships swarmed in from the north. Three Mongol warships led the way, followed by more than thirty converted river boats and sturgeon boats, and behind them were numerous fishing boats mobilized by the various water bandits.

  Lin Xie stood on the deck, his brow furrowed. Last night's water stronghold had almost no one wearing armor, and most people were bare-chested and barefoot with just a knife in hand, charging into the fray. Now, the three Mongol warships that came with the drumming waves had over 200 strong warriors standing on deck, all wearing armor, holding precision steel spears, halberds, and other sharp instruments. The warriors at the bow held tiger flags, while dozens of people on both sides of the ship held crossbows, their formation more majestic and intimidating than last night's, making it seem like an elite aquatic camp had arrived.

  The nearly seven hundred guards of the Qin family, including those hired from the Wu army, all died in battle at Luo Yang Lake. Not counting the damaged armor and crossbows from the intense fighting, the spoils of war from the various water strongholds were also not insignificant. After re-equipping, the water stronghold's elite warriors had an even more impressive scale, and thinking back to last night's fierce battle, these brave warriors' fearless disregard for life and death was truly unmatched in any elite army within the borders of Jiangdong Prefecture.

  Fortunately, the number of such elite warriors in various water strongholds is also limited. Except for the three Mongol warships, the modified river boats and sturgeon boats with six or seven hundred people on board are much more crudely equipped. The large number of fishing boats that followed, stirred up by the drums, were mostly fishermen from Hongze Lake, wearing straw sandals, bare-chested and exposed, holding only fish spears, bamboo guns and other crude homemade weapons.

  A warship with a black hull slightly protruded in front, about three to four hundred steps away from the Dongyang ship. A person stood at the bow of the ship, and his appearance could not be seen clearly, but he wore a suit of black armor, which made the surrounding water village soldiers look particularly dazzling.

  Cao Zikang stood beside Lin Xianshen and said in a low voice, "This man is Liu An'er, the leader of the 21 water strongholds. He likes to wear black armor and is easy to recognize..." Last night, he and Ge Cunxin disguised themselves as fishermen from Hongze Pu and fished in Luoyang Lake, also learning more about the situation with the water stronghold forces from other Hongze Pu fishermen.

  "Last night, Hongze Pu's water fortress should have used all the troops that were held back, minus casualties, and there should still be three thousand strong men left. Liu An'er brought less than a thousand strong men, did the other troops go to attack Tanzhou under the command of other leaders?" Lin Fu asked.

  "After taking down the city of Xuzhou, the various water strongholds in Hongze Pu can stabilize their rear; occupying Shanglinli, they can connect north and south, unite with the roaming people's forces to rise up together," Cao Zigao sighed slightly, "The garrison in Xuzhou City is not large, if the water stronghold forces suddenly attack, the possibility of holding on is very small! This Liu An has great ambitions and a clever mind, we must avoid his sharp edge."

  "Now I just ask him not to come and attack me." Lin Mou said in a low voice, he would not take the initiative to provoke the powerful Water Fortress forces at this time, but nor would he be intimidated and retreat.

  At this time, the north wind was slightly west, and the wind helped the sailboat to head south. Lin Tie ordered the six Wu Peng ships that had gathered at the Western River to set sail first and enter the Shiliang River south of Shanglin Ferry, gathering refugees along the shore. The Dongyang number half-lowered its sails and guarded the river mouth with five fast sculling boats, facing off against the water fortress ships.

  ************

  At dawn, the villagers of Shanglin were attacked by bandits. Although they were frightened, they still hoped that officials would be sent from the prefecture and county to rescue them. It wasn't until large numbers of lake pirates and fishermen from Hongze Pu swarmed southward that they finally awoke from their dream.

  After Lin Jue led the crowd to escape on the boat, Liu Miao Zhen waited for the situation in Shanglinli to settle down a bit, and immediately sent someone to post notices in Shanglinli. The notice announced that the government and local gentry were colluding with each other, doing evil things, causing tens of thousands of fishermen and boat households in Hongze Pu to have no way out, and jointly elected Liu An Er as the General of Shuntian, from General Shuntian down, there are 27 generals, today they all raised the righteous flag, rose up to replace heaven and kill the rich to help the poor.

  Lin Xie had already lost contact with the north shore at this time, and for the time being, he did not know that Liu Miao Zhen had posted a notice in Shanglinli announcing that the Shui Zhai forces had officially raised the "Shun Tian General" flag.

  The poor households and the broken households were slightly better, and there was nothing good to be looted at home. Moreover, the Shuizhai forces also raised the banner of "killing the rich and helping the poor". In addition, Liu Miao Zhen also posted a notice inviting the poor people in Shanglinli to participate in the event together. However, Shanglinli's market was prosperous, and even the landless and propertyless poor households could make a living by working as laborers on the docks. They were also heavily influenced by the idea of loyalty to the monarch and adherence to the law, and were not interested in rebelling against the government, especially when the situation was unclear. Most people locked their doors and stayed at home. Only a few reckless households jumped out first and ran to Liu Miao Zhen's horse to ask for the vanguard, leading the way to loot the rural gentry and rich households of Shanglinli.

  Apart from binding Lin to the boat, other rural gentry and wealthy households in Shanglinli were immediately flustered. The bandits were too numerous, and closing doors and guarding was not a solution. Thinking that as long as there are green hills, there is no fear of lack of firewood, they wanted to leave Shanglinli with their families and valuables to escape the disaster, only to find that the north bank of Shanglintou had already been blocked off.

  Although the six black awning boats at Xihewan could still take away 700 or 800 people to Jiangning for refuge, Liu Miaoqin led his troops to guard the north bank, and thousands of water strongholds and Hongze Pu fishermen could also quickly land on the north bank. Lin Fu only dared to let the six black awning boats at Xihewan receive the fleeing civilians south of Shanglin Ferry.

  In Shanglinli, there were dozens of wealthy households along the river, in addition to the Lin family. There were also 70 or 80 families who became rich through trade and commerce. These 70 or 80 families formed a large area of grand mansions on the north bank of Shanglin Ferry, which was even more prosperous than those in Shilian County. Occupying Shanglinli not only allowed them to mobilize the refugees along both banks of the Shilian River strategically, but also enabled the Zhujia Fort to gain a huge amount of wealth by plundering these 70 or 80 wealthy households, enough to recruit and buy horses again.

  Lin Jia's family members retreated to the Lin Family Mansion, and only the gold transported from the Lin Family Silver Vault by rickshaw was over 5,000 taels. The silver coins privately minted with the Linji brand were over 900,000 taels. The Lin family had several other mansions in Shanglinli, each with a silver vault, although they did not have as much silver as the main mansion, but the total amount was still considerable. At that time, Lin Jia could not spare manpower to move the hidden silver from other mansions, and only the Hongzepu Water Fortress benefited.

  In addition to receiving the refugees from the south bank of Linjiang River, Lin Xie also wanted to bring as many members of the Gu family to Jiangning as possible. On one hand, he wanted to take care of Gu Yingxue's emotions; on the other hand, Lin Xie wanted to give an account to Gu Wuduan.

  No one had expected the war to spread so quickly and brutally. Lin Xuan had sent someone to notify the Gu family in Hutang to evacuate southward with their entire clan to avoid the war, but they hadn't arrived yet, so Lin Xuan couldn't leave Xilin immediately. Moreover, Lin Tingli in Shiliang County hadn't sent any news over, and if he dared to lead the nearly thousand elite soldiers from Dongyang to attack Xilin, Lin Xuan wouldn't let it fall into the hands of the Water Fortress faction. After all, cutting off the connection between the Water Fortress faction and the migrant forces on both banks of the Shiliang River could limit their influence to the area around Hongze Lake, avoiding the entire Jianghuai region from being drawn into the brutal war.

  ***********

  Liu Miao Zhen sat quietly on horseback, gazing at the surface of the water in the direction of Dongyang.

  Three warships of the Mongol fleet and other pirate ships were anchored on the west bank of the Shihe River Bridge. An old general with a white-and-black beard got off a small boat and came ashore, surrounded by more than ten armored soldiers, to meet Liu Miaozhen at the ferry terminal. He frowned, looking at the Dongyang ship, without saying a word.

  Lin Tie borrowed more than a dozen sailors from the Western River to operate the Dongyang, and this time brought more than 50 elite soldiers from Shanglin who were all wearing armor and holding blades in formation. Apart from this, the remaining combat power of the Dongyang was defeated by Zhao Neng's surprise attack last night, and today more than 50 militia members who were rounded up were temporarily restrained by Zhao Hu. The others, including the Qin family members and the Lin clan people, were all hiding in the cabin and couldn't be seen on the deck.

  Lin Jiyuan, Zhao Qingshan and Chen Shouyan led 300 militiamen aboard five fast sculling boats, each with over 120 rowers.

  On the upper deck of the stern cabin of the Dongyang, the lighthouse had been removed and a wooden frame was fixed in place. The frame was tied with a bundle of thick ropes, and a long wooden pole passed through the middle of the ropes, slanting towards the southern sky like a scorpion's tail. At the end of the tail, a leather pouch hung down. On both sides of the wooden frame where it connected to the ropes, pulleys were installed.

  The old general had experienced many things in this life, and although the wooden frame on the stern deck of the Dongyang ship was strange in shape compared to the catapults he had seen before, there were many stone balls piled up next to it, which made him certain that this was a small catapult.

  The old general had been watching from afar and felt something was off, so he came to the dock to take a closer look. He didn't expect Lin Mouzi to actually install a stone-throwing catapult on the Dongyang ship.

  "Uncle," Liu Miao Zhen asked, "Lin Xie has not retreated for a whole day, are we going to tolerate him for another day?"

  Lao Jiang was Yang Quan, the uncle of Liu An'er and Liu Miao Zhen. Among the leaders of Hong Ze Pu's water stronghold, although he wasn't the most powerful, he had the highest prestige. Frowning, he said: "You've clashed with him before, what do you think of his martial skills?"

  "Defenses are very strict," said Liu Miao Zhen, "the 40 or 50 armored warriors on his ship must be careful, the local militia is ordinary..."

  "Generally, he's also stronger than the people of Shuizhai," said Yang Quan. "You say his infantry defense is very strict, and at dawn on Luoyang Lake, we didn't dare to intercept him strongly on the water surface either. Shen Rongzhi was a great talent but had poor skills in governance, wanting to rectify the military of Dongyang Prefecture, but after two years, he still couldn't settle the local powerful clans. Lin Xie's son might be even more troublesome than Shen Rong - Wu Dangjia has taken his men to attack Mizhou, and there's no confirmed news coming from there, so we can't fight a hard battle here."

  "Lin Tingli is gathering nearly a thousand Dongyang cavalry and infantry in Shiliang County; if we hold on for too long, what will happen when Lin Tingli leads his troops to reinforce Shanglin?" Liu Miaozhen asked.

  "Dongyang infantry is a well-trained army by Shen Rong, and Lin Tingli would not normally intervene in their affairs; now that Shen Rong's life or death is unknown, it's hard for Lin Tingli to take control of this army. Besides, do you really think Lin Tingli has the guts to rescue Shanglin?" Yang Quan asked with a smile, "Even if he does have the guts, how many soldiers do you think he can spare to rescue Shanglin?"

  ***********

  Many people of the Gu tribe thought that Lin Xie's message was just a rumor, and only a small number of Gu people received the news and took a boat to the west bank of Shiliang River to wait for Lin Xie to pick them up, and boarded the Wu Peng ferry in time. Lin Xie could only do this much, and he could also explain it to Gu Wudeng. He couldn't hold a knife to other Gu family members' necks and force them to board the ship to Jiangning to avoid disaster. The enemy was strong and he couldn't spare so many hands.

  The situation here is also extremely tense, the water village's military strength is more than twice theirs, and most of them are elite troops. Moreover, they have a large number of Hongze Pu fishermen to assist in the battle, Lin Xuan can't even install his privately stored scorpion crossbow on the stern deck.

  Scorpion crossbow is also a type of stone-throwing crossbow.

  Most of the stone-throwing catapults in the world are human-powered or animal-powered, that is, a large number of soldiers or war horses suddenly pull the rope tied to one end of the force arm in one direction, lifting the force arm and throwing the stone bullet at the other end of the force arm in a parabolic trajectory towards the enemy. The material selection of the force arm, namely the catapult back, is extremely important, otherwise it will not be able to throw out the stone bullets, and the catapult back will break first under the huge force.

  There is also a heavy object launching type of catapult, which replaces manpower with heavy objects. First, soldiers use a winch to lift the heavy object tied to one end of the catapult, and then load the stone bullet on the other end of the catapult. Suddenly releasing the heavy object can launch the stone bullet.

  The heavy object catapult is already quite advanced and practical in the world, saving manpower and space for throwing stone balls, and the accuracy of throwing has also been greatly improved. However, this kind of catapult is not suitable for installation on warships. The deck of a warship cannot withstand the free fall of thousands or even tens of thousands of kilograms of heavy objects many times, nor is there enough space to launch human-powered torsion catapults.

  In addition, there is another type of torsion catapult, which is to insert the long rod crossbow into the elastic rubber band in the middle, use a winch to reverse the direction of the rubber band to the extreme point, and use the torsion force to tighten the crossbow. When the crossbow is suddenly released, it can shoot out the stone bullet in the leather pocket at one end of the crossbow.

  This torsion catapult is also called a scorpion catapult due to its shape resembling a scorpion.

  The scorpion crossbow, although simple in structure, is difficult to find suitable materials for the bowstring, apart from the material of the crossbow's back. In this world, it is already rare to see one. However, the scorpion crossbow has many advantages, especially small-sized scorpion crossbows can be directly installed on the top deck of a warship for use.

  Later generations were accustomed to using large cannons for naval battles, and the opportunity for boarding combat was relatively rare. Lin Ge's understanding of naval warfare was naturally influenced by later naval tactics, and he tried every means to install a few heavy long-range weapons on the Dongyang as "cannons". Currently, he can only choose from scorpion crossbows and bed crossbows among other devices.

  In naval battles, the direct destructive power of the bed crossbow on the hull cannot be compared with that of the scorpion crossbow, and its structure is more complex. Most importantly, in this dynasty, private armed ships are strictly forbidden from carrying heavy equipment, with the three-bow bed crossbow being the first to be banned, but surprisingly, the scorpion crossbow was not included in the list, perhaps because it did not occur to anyone that someone would install a scorpion crossbow on a warship.

  Lin Yi privately made two scorpion crossbows, and the high-quality materials used would have been enough to make dozens of good bows.

  The situation was tense for half a day, and at noon, after the Gu family withdrew to their ship, Lin Tie led the Dongyang number and five fast sculling boats to slowly withdraw south from the Shanglin River estuary. The tightly drawn bowstring finally relaxed, and there was no intense naval battle. After all, both sides had suffered losses in the previous battles at Shanglin Ferry, and neither side stood to gain anything substantial.

  ****************

  P.S: Looking for red envelopes.