The beacons lit up in the direction of Qingyanggang were not so much a warning signal as a call to launch a general attack on the Hongze Pu water village ships lurking in Luoyang Lake and the waters in front of it. At first, there were only a few fishing fires on the surface of Luoyang Lake, but in the blink of an eye, more than 200 water village ships lurking in the darkness lit up their torches one after another, like countless stars suddenly shining brightly, illuminating the surrounding waters as bright as day.

  Lin tied up the stern cabin deck, Hongze Pu's water village really didn't expect to make a move in Luo Yang Lake. Most of the water village ships were in the waters north of Luo Yang Lake, but since the alarm had been sounded, they had no choice but to take action ahead of time. The northern water village ships all came south like arrows.

  The Qin family fleet and the farewell fleet were also in a state of panic, although there were nearly two thousand people on their side, including more than 1,200 troops (including 300 Dongyang Prefecture cavalrymen, 300 Shanglinli militia, 200 Wu Fengbiao guards, and 400 Qin family bodyguards). The alarm came too suddenly, the enemy's trail appeared too suddenly, and the sudden appearance of the enemy ships was like a swarm of ants. At that moment, it was impossible to distinguish how many lake bandits had gathered on Luo Yang Lake, and it was a night attack, so how could they not be panicked?

  The tower ship on which Qin Chengbo was riding also made a decisive turn and retreated.

  Going forward, the sail can borrow wind power. When retreating on the original road, if you can't borrow wind power, you can only lower the sail and use poles or oars to row. The building boat carries people and goods the most, in order to pass through Hongze Pu, it is specially chosen not to break waves but shallow draft flat-bottomed boats, which cannot be assisted by wind power, and the retreat speed is extremely slow. Lin Xuan looked at the pursuit speed of the water village ships and estimated that when the building boat retreated to the center of Luo Yang Lake, it would be entangled by the water village ships. He saw several ships in the Qin family fleet coming over to protect the building boat in the middle.

  Shen Rong and Lin Tingli, along with others, were still on the small boat that was being used for transfer and had not yet returned to the eight fast sculling boats that were escorting them. Two pirate ships disguised as fishing boats, which seemed to have recognized Shen Rong and Lin Tingli's identities, did not wait for their main force to arrive and instead attacked the small boat that Shen Rong was on with a weak force. The small boat that Shen Rong was on only had two guards and could not withstand the attack from the two pirate ships. Lin Zonghai ordered the fast sculling boats to go and rescue them, while the small boat also fled in the direction of the Lou ship.

  The eight fast sculling boats of the county escort temporarily hired nearly a hundred people at Shanglin Ferry to serve as rowers. Lin Xuan suspected that there might be people from Hongze Pu's water stronghold among them, and he stood on the stern deck, giving a low order: "Set sail and enter the lake!"

  He didn't want to go and rescue Qin Chengbo, but the river channel behind had been blocked by the large number of ships that had secretly passed through the Hongze Pu water camp in the past few days. The Hongze Pu water camp would even use fireboats to block the river channel and prevent Qin Chengbo from escaping. The Dongyang ship was the largest, leading the charge would attract firepower, the best choice is for the Dongyang ship to set sail into Dongyang Lake, leaving the lake entrance open, allowing the Qin family's ships and the county camp's fast skiff boats to retreat first and attack the blocking water camp ships.

  "Uncle Meng, trouble you to go and call over those leaders of the village braves for me..." Lin Xuan said as he took off his official robes. This time, more than half of the people who came were taken away by Cao Zi'ang and Ge Cunxin, and with Wu Qi and his scouts returning to the ship, there were less than twenty people available. At least ten people had to be left to drive the Dongyang number, and temporarily place the village braves on board. There were one hundred and eighty village braves in total, if Lin Xuan could make good use of them, he was confident that he could break through the encirclement alone. Wu Qi had been keeping an eye on the water bandit ships entering Shiliang River, although there were forty or fifty ships, most of them were small and thin-hulled river boats, as long as they didn't let a large number of lake bandits board, even if the other side used fireboats to block the river, Lin Xuan was confident that he could rush past.

  After a while, Lin Meng brought four leaders of the rural camp to the stern deck to see Lin Fu.

  At this time, Lin Tie took off his official robe and changed into a fine scale armor with Zhou Pu. He stared at the four heads of the village braves and said: "The situation is critical, I don't need to say more. Shouyan, Qing Shan, Jiyuan, I have always regarded you as my brothers. At this time, we should work together to overcome the difficulties. There is no distrust between us...". The four heads of the village braves were all from Lin's village, and Lin Tie knew three of them. Zhao Qing Shan and Zhao Hu were distant cousins, while Lin Jiyuan was a collateral descendant of the Lin family, making him a cousin of Lin Tie. Chen Shouyan was also a fellow villager. Among them, Zhao Qing Shan was the oldest, already thirty years old. The three of them, like Zhao Hu before, were the backbone of the village militia that could be relied upon. The last person's name was Li Guang, whom Lin Tie also knew. He was an outsider promoted by Lin Zonghai to control the village militia. At this time, his position in the village militia was higher than that of Zhao Qing Shan, Lin Jiyuan, and Chen Shouyan. The three teams of village braves on the boat were all under his command.

  "Little Li Guang, appreciated by Da Gong of Zong Hai, temporarily took the post of deputy commander of the county camp, and met with Lord Lin..."

  "Ah," Lin said, staring at Li Guang, "On my ship, all of you must obey the commands of me and Meng De. Even if Lin Zonghai is on this ship, he must also be subject to our control. If anyone finds this difficult, I will immediately have the ship docked and send them ashore..."

  "Lin Xiucan has the highest official position and the greatest prestige, so we naturally all listen to Lin Xiucan." Lin Jiyuan, Zhao Qingshan, and Chen Shouyan all resent Lin Zonghai for having a greedy idea of controlling the village militia, letting an outsider ride over their heads. At this time, Lin Fu and Lin Mengde stood up to temporarily take over the command, of course, they supported it. Moreover, before the family head fell ill, Lin Mengde's position in the clan was not lower than that of Lin Zonghai. At this time, Lin Fu was even more famous for his reputation, although he was a bit too harsh in handling affairs and treating people, but the younger generation of Upper Lin Village thought it was quite refreshing.

  Li Guang stared at Lin, his eyes wide with fear, as he saw the scholar transform into a warrior clad in fine scales, holding a dagger and exuding an aura of murder. Behind him, Zhou Pu was also dressed in fine scales, wielding a large knife and carrying a bow and quiver on his back, looking even more intimidating. Li Guang recalled the scene from last winter when Lin had held a knife to the second young master's throat, forcing him to kneel. He had witnessed it with his own eyes. Now, Lin was taking command of the village militia, and what could he say? Although he was the deputy commander of the village camp, sent by Lin Zonghai to lead the three teams of militiamen, Lin Mengde, Lin Fu, and Lin Jiyuan were all members of the Lin clan, and Zhao Qingshan and Chen Shouyan would definitely listen to them. Most of the nearly two hundred militiamen on the lower deck would also follow the orders of their fellow villagers. Li Guang's face turned pale and red as he stuttered: "I will obey your orders, Lord Lin."

  "Alright, you stay by my side then. Qing Shan, Ji Yuan, Shou Yan, all of you go lead your respective teams to prepare for battle," Lin Xuan said, keeping Li Guang by his side. He handed a set of armor and a rescue cloak to Lin Mengde, "Uncle Mengde, this armor isn't heavy, put it on with some effort, and follow us closely, beware of arrows and rocks..."

  Almost no one can carry dozens of kilograms of armor and cross tens of miles of water surface, so Lin Xie specially made a simple life jacket. Although Da Xia Yu and others were used to using pig and cow bladders in the water for buoyancy and breathing, there were many inconveniences. In West Qin, there is a kind of soft wood that is very light but has great buoyancy, which local fishermen often use as floats for fishing nets. Da Xia Yu and others also used this soft wood when catching fish and making nets in the Nanru River. Lin Xie sewed this soft wood into a horse armor vest to make a simple life jacket. With a life jacket that can provide enough buoyancy in the water, long-distance armed crossing became possible.

  Lin Fu made preparations to abandon ship and escape ashore if things didn't go as planned, fearing that he might be too busy to take care of Lin Meng at the time. So, Lin Fu had him put on a life jacket now, while others thought he was just wearing a wooden armor.

  The Dongyang boat set sail for Luoyang Lake and stopped after more than 100 steps, lowering its sails. The water in this area is deep, and Lin Xie had carefully measured it to ensure it was a safe zone, so there was no need to worry about shallow waters. Once they reached this point, all the sails were lowered. The boat was equipped with long bamboo poles, and since Luoyang Lake's waters are shallow, they could use these poles to propel the boat forward. On both sides of the Dongyang boat, there were four large oars, each requiring four people to operate. As long as there were enough hands on deck, the Dongyang boat wouldn't be particularly slow even when sailing against the wind. Now that there were more than enough people on hand, Lin Xie had also assigned thirty more men to assist with steering and fire prevention, leaving Zhao Qing Shan, Lin Ji Yuan, and Chen Shou Yan each in charge of fifty militiamen to defend different sections, while keeping Zhou Pu, Wu Qi, and over ten others by his side as a reserve force.

  The two walls of the Qin family's boat originally hung many wind lanterns, which shone brightly in the dark night like stars and moons. It was as if they were afraid that the lake thieves wouldn't know which boat to rob. The most effective tactic for the Hongze Pu Water Fortress ships to deal with the Qin family fleet was to throw fire torches and set them on fire. The Qin family fleet had hardly anticipated this situation, and there were not enough sand, wet blankets, and water buckets prepared on board to put out the fires, so several boats were quickly ignited.

  For the power of Hongze Pu, it's not afraid to burn the bottom of the boat and let a large amount of gold, silver, and jewels sink to the bottom of the lake. The water is shallow and slow here, even if the boat sinks, just send someone else to dive in and retrieve the gold, silver, and jewels.

  Dongyang's lanterns were extinguished and hidden, and he had not yet joined the battle. The building boat that Qin Chengbo was on was entangled with the water village boats that Antuo had brought, and although it was defending against the lake thieves' jump ship while retreating southward, its speed was extremely slow. It wasn't until almost all of the northern water village boats had entered Luoma Lake that the building boat finally reached the southern entrance of Luoyang Lake.

  At this time, Lin Xie clearly saw Qin Chengbo wearing armor and sitting in the second layer of the cabin, with a waist knife placed between his knees, directing the Qin family's guards to resist. Shen Rong, Lin Tingli, and Liang Zuoren were forced back onto the Lou Chuan ship and could not return to the Kuai Yang boat to lead the counterattack. The eight Kuai Yang boats were all caught up by the Shui Zhai ships, and the two Kuai Yang boats loaded with officials had no resistance at all. They either jumped into the water or begged for mercy after being caught up, but more of them were killed by the Shui Zhai lake bandits who boarded their ships. The surrounding waters had already started to turn red. The other six Kuai Yang boats were fully loaded with elite warriors and were retreating while fighting. Lin Xie saw it clearly that although the Dongyang Prefecture's cavalry and infantry were considered elite after landing, they were greatly discounted in combat on unfamiliar ships. Some people even fell into the lake because they couldn't stand steadily on the ship. For armored soldiers, underwater action was very inconvenient, and if they couldn't take off their armor in the water, they would likely drown. Even if they floated to the surface, they would be killed by the nearby Shui Zhai troops.

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  P.S: Looking for red envelopes (with money).