The river mouth night battle, Ji Yun She Wu Wei and Min Yong captured more than 300 prisoners. Except for a dozen or so bandits who were sent to the prison island, the rest were handed over to Li Zhuo's men. Lin Bian was not very polite to these prisoners either, taking away everything that could be stripped from their bodies, leaving them with only one pair of pants to wear.

  The equipment of the Taihu bandits was very poor, but it was on the river embankment that the private soldiers of the Qu family were defeated with excellent equipment. In the night battle, more than 20 people from the Qu family's private army were killed and nearly 60 people were injured on both sides of the Jin River below the river embankment. The excellent armor on these people was naturally taken off by Lin Xie without any courtesy, including the scale armor worn by Qu Wuyang, before the bodies and wounded were handed over.

  Good armor is hard to find, Qu Wu Ming was killed by Lin Xie on the riverbank, and the scale armor he wore had a hole pierced in the chest area by Lin Xie's close-range spear throw. Lin Xie didn't care that Qu Wu Ming was also a figure before his death, and directly stripped this armor from the corpse to be repaired.

  The repair of scales is relatively easy, and it can be done by replacing the deformed and damaged steel plates.

  The night battle at the river mouth revealed that the double-layered armor's helmet was severely inadequate in protecting against spear thrusts and gunshots, while the armored soldiers wielding broadswords were even less effective in close combat against long spears and guns than sword-and-shield combinations. First priority became equipping the broadsword-wielding infantry with superior armor.

  Lin tied this time only handed over some broken arms, broken armor and poor-quality iron knives, iron spears and other symbolic things. The good stuff was all intercepted, and more than 600 pieces of armor and various weapons were obtained.

  The only pity is that the final surrender of the Qu family's private soldiers and remnants in Sanliuyuan was taken over by the Dongchengwei Ma Infantry and handed over to the Jiangning Guardian Military Command. Lin would not dare to ask Liu Xiliu for the armor stripped from those captives, as he had already extorted a large sum from the head of the Dongchengwei Ma Infantry last time.

  Gu Wudu and Yang Pu also ignored the captured armor, after all, in the Battle of River Mouth, Lin Xie's side had also suffered significant losses.

  Lin tied him up for one night and used up three knives. One knife was cut off in the middle due to excessive force, it was that empty space, his right shoulder was heavily chopped by a bandit with high martial arts skills, fortunately, the scale armor had extremely strong defensive power, if it were ordinary leather armor, maybe the whole arm would be chopped off, making the guards on both sides at that time, Ao Canghai, Zhou Pu and others all scared cold sweat; There are also two knives with serrations like a saw.

  With the spoils of war from the Battle of the River Mouth as a foundation, Lin Xie was able to openly mix in the fine armor and weapons he had secretly obtained from the Qin family's fleet at Luo Yang Lake last time. Among the 200 Ji Yun Wu Wei soldiers, more than 40 wore composite armor or better, while those wielding knives and shields, as well as those holding bamboo spears, all wore composite or combined armor. Even the archers and crossbowmen wore leather armor.

  In addition, Lin Tie secretly sent a large number of soldiers and iron armor to Changshan Island, making the 300 elite troops on Changshan Island thoroughly surpass the level of pirates.

  *********

  On June 16th, Lin Mou left the river mouth. The three ships "Dongyang", "Ji Yun One" and "Ji Yun Two" gathered in front of the dock, ready to set off.

  Lin tied the Dongyang number as the command ship, and three ships were formed into a team. The light boat went down to Pingjiang. For the river mouth, it was also a grand event. Many people gathered on both sides of the dock to watch, among whom there were naturally informants from various families.

  After the Qujiang bandit case, some far-sighted people could also see the rise of the river mouth, and even more so, Lin Xian rescued the Qin family's descendants from Luoyang Lake and returned safely, predicting that the river mouth would ultimately win out in the competition with Quyang Town.

  In fact, behind the river mouth is the rising Chǔ Party, and behind Quyang Town is Chen Xiyán who is vying for the position. Those who can see this point and have already placed their bets on the Chǔ Party naturally think that the river mouth will ultimately win.

  Dongyang Township Party Secretary had previously built a new house in Hexi Village under pressure from his relatives, as well as the fields along both sides of the convenient horse and carriage path outside the south gate of the fence wall, and the land along the river dike on the west bank of the Jin River that was easy to build private gardens, all became hot commodities.

  Even the lord of the manor, Ding, bought a house on Back Street from Party Secretary Dong's hands at a high price, planning to turn the main building and its two wings into a three-story brick building. He said he was going to open a branch store in River Mouth, but in reality, he was openly sending his eyes and ears to River Mouth.

  Outside the southwest willow forest of the river mouth fence, there is a private bamboo garden. The private bamboo garden is not large, about two acres, except for several elegant houses, the garden is full of green bamboo. The garden is close to the village on the west side, and it is only more than one mile away from the westernmost fence of the river mouth. There is a small path behind the garden that can lead to the top of the riverbank, which is a summer resort for a retired Jiangning Household Department official who lives in Jiangning City.

  The garden had changed hands a fortnight before the Battle of the River Mouth, and Lin Yu and his men had not suspected a thing.

  The new owner bought the 40-50 mu of land by the river, transplanted many green bamboos over, and built pavilions and towers in the garden, planning to expand it into a private garden worthy of its name, which caught Lin Xie's attention; however, even through the Surveillance Commissioner's office, they were unable to investigate the new owner's background.

  Jiangning was the imperial capital, and large families such as Yongchang Houfu and Muguogongfu had been in Jiangning for over 200 years. The power that Lin could mobilize was also very limited, and Wu Qi's undercover agents were only a dozen or so people, and even monitoring the river mouth seemed to be weak in strength, how could they possibly know the roots of Jiangning City that had accumulated for 200 years?

  Since you've come, then make yourself at home. If the river mouth is to replace Quyang Town's position, it must show an open-minded attitude of embracing all rivers. Now that the Fan family has arrived, Xie Feihu will also send undercover agents into the river mouth, and Lin Xiao won't be afraid even if a few families with unclear identities come in.

  Zhao Shuhan and Ge Sixu came to see off Lin Fu today, but after Lin Fu boarded the Dongyang ship, he didn't have the patience to stay at the dock to watch the final preparations for the other two ships to set sail.

  "Are they the new owners of that garden?" Zhao Shuhan stood on the dock, turning his head to look at several people standing outside the fence on the riverbank, gazing over here, and asked Ge Siyu.

  "There's nothing going on around here, let's just go over and ask," said Ge Siyu.

  There was a small gate in the western fence of Min Yong's training camp, and Ge Cuoyu and Zhao Shuhan led their personal followers through it, walking along the riverbank towards Sizhuzi Garden.

  In the bamboo garden behind the house, workers were building a pavilion. The pavilion was relatively high, and in front of it stood an old man with white hair and beard, accompanied by several attendants. Zhao Shuhan and Ge Sixian walked over to take a look and were startled. The old man's hair was flecked with gray, and he was none other than Xian Mingxin, the Duke of Mu State. The woman beside him, charming and alluring, was Chen Qingqing, the famous dancer from Jiangning and the duke's new favorite concubine.

  "It turned out that the Duke of Guo had bought this house," Zhao Shuhan said with a smile, bowing to Zeng Mingxin over the chest-high dwarf bamboo fence, "fooling us into guessing for so many days."

  "Can't compare to Lin Xie's mysterious riddle," Zeng Mingxin laughed, "Who can guess what surprising move he'll make next? Are Zhao Zhuren and Ge Jiancheng here to see off Lin Xie?"

  Ge Cu didn't expect that the Marquis of Mu would know about his humble role and even give him a bow; he was actually the Deputy Supervisor of Longjiang Shipyard.

  Zhao Shuhan smiled slightly, they and Lin Xie got close, after all, didn't know the attitude of the Marquis of Guo towards Lin Xie, some topics couldn't be mentioned lightly.

  "What flag is that ship flying?" Chen Qingqing asked with a smile. "It looks very majestic from afar."

  "On the main mast, the flag 'Jiangdong Ancha Shi Si Bing Bei Chou Liang Shi, Zheng Shi Lang Lin' is hung, and another flag 'Jiangdong Ancha Shi Si Dongyang Bing Bei Dao Ji Yun Wei Yong' is also hung." said Zhao Shuhan.

  "It's no wonder that the armed guards of Ji Yun She dared to openly defy orders, I say who does it look like they are someone's private soldiers, even if they are elite troops with a hundred battles under their belt, they still have such a spirit. Chen Qing had been a concubine of He Yuejing, the former Jiangning garrison commander, and knew something about military affairs, so she said: "Last autumn and winter, some unknown small characters came to Jiangnan, but now they are causing a big stir in Jiangning, what is that thing covered with tarpaulin on the bow deck and stern deck of those three ships?"

  "This, I'm not very clear about it either," said Zhao Shuhan.

  In fact, Zhao Shuhan and Ge Sixian knew that on each of the three ships, the foredeck had two bed crossbows covered with tarpaulins, while the afterdeck was fixed with a scorpion crossbow.

  Lin Xiang incorporated some of the Lin family's local braves into the Ji Yun Wu Wei, but this did not change the nature of the private and guest soldiers. The Wu Wei could still act with merchant ships, but it was extremely troublesome for the private and guest soldiers to leave or enter the border.

  To save money, Lin Xie this time will put the Ji Yun Wu Wei under the name of Dongyang's militia training, and press the name of Dongyang Bingbei Dao Ji Yun Wei Yong to protect the grain collection.

  As the imperial court officially allowed the four prefectures to compile and train local militia, with the same treatment as the garrison army, Lin Xie not only obtained the right of free passage for the Ji Yun Wu Wei in the Jiangdong Prefecture, but also broke through the previous restrictions on private soldiers' equipment. They could equip themselves with strong bows, heavy armor, and even large-scale bed crossbows.

  The only drawback is that Gu Wu Chen, Lin Ting Li and others have since had a legitimate reason to mobilize the Ji Yun Wu Wei.

  Of course, when Gu Wu Chen and Lin Ting Li wanted to take away Lin Xuan's private soldiers, it was almost a breakdown in relations between the two sides. The so-called nominal right of deployment could not compare with Lin Xuan's actual control power.

  The Surveillance Commissioner's Office was able to supervise military preparations, but had no right to directly dispatch troops. Lin Xie could only use gold and silver to open a path, bribing officials from the Jiangning Weiwei Temple and the Armory Hall to obtain six bed crossbows, which were fixed on the bow of the ship, capable of rotating and shooting out crossbow arrows.

  The small scorpion catapult differs from the contemporary few stone-throwing catapults in that it uses the torsion force of the bowstring as its power source, successfully solving the problem of installing a stone-throwing catapult on medium-sized warships. However, its main structure is not much different from several small stone-throwing catapults of the time. Lin Xie also hastily assembled three scorpion catapults fixed on the stern deck.

  Zhao Shuhan and Ge Sixu were very clear about this, because they had invited Lin Xuan to study the materials and structure of scorpion bows and crossbows together.

  Meng Guo Gong Zeng Mingxin smiled slightly, if he could casually get something out of Zhao Shuhan and Ge Sixu's mouths, would Lin Xian trust them so much? However, Zeng Mingxin knew that from last autumn to this winter, Lin Xian, who was still a minor role in Jiangning, had finally set sail at this moment. Who knows how far he can go in the end?

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  PS: The third volume "Jiangning Wind and Moon" has been completed, brothers please vote for the monthly ticket.