Many defeated bandits broke through the river mouth fence and fled south, while Zhou Pu's vanguard pursued them along the river dike, making it impossible for the bandits to regroup effectively.

  The Poyang Lake pirates who ambushed the Ji Yun Society's fleet at the mouth of the Yu Creek River were bought off by the Qu family, and it was only after confirming that the two hundred armed guards escorting the ship did not switch with Lin Shou that the Qu family drove the pirates to attack the river mouth. People have blind spots in their thinking, and Qu Wuming and others never thought that Gu Wuhen, who was directing the battle in Dongyang, would hand over his guard team to Lin Shou for deployment. How could they have imagined that even if the Ji Yun Society's fleet went to Dongyang with two hundred elite guards, Lin Shou would still bring back more than 400 elite soldiers secretly?

  No one reported, Qu Wu Ming saw countless people fleeing in the dark night, even if there were occasionally a few torches, they couldn't illuminate a large area. Qu Wu Ming thought that the bandits had attacked the river mouth and succeeded, and the fields were filled with refugees and displaced persons who had been rounded up by Lin Lian to the river mouth and were fleeing in panic.

  Although the Qu family spread the news that the Lin family withdrew from Shanglin with 400,000 taels of silver to the river mouth was an exaggeration, Qu Wuming knew that the Lin family's hidden silver in the river mouth would not be a small amount. He worried that this profit would be divided among the various bandits and there would be no share for the Qu family. With renewed spirit, he urged the rowers to paddle hard and directly attack the river mouth.

  The night reconnaissance capability is limited, and Qu Wu Ming has been hiding his troops along the way in order to keep strict secrecy. Only a few people know that Qu's trusted men have infiltrated the bandits' group.

  After Lin Xie ambushed and killed the bandits on their way back to the river mouth, some of Qu's trusted followers who were hiding among the bandits saw that things were not going well and immediately fled south. A few others followed the riverbank to find someone to inform Qu Wuming. However, Wu Qi led his scouts to secretly monitor Qu's men and horses, and when he saw Qu Wuming leading his troops to leave by boat from the river mouth, he led his troops to intercept and kill those who were trying to inform Qu Wuming.

  When he truly realized that the ones who were defeated were not the river mouth refugees but the bandits who attacked the river mouth and were instead killed in a big defeat, he led his troops to board ships from the Jin River waterway to approach the river mouth, only three miles away from the river embankment wharf.

  Qu Wu Ming was now unable to turn the ship's head back to Qu Yang Town, and could only continue on to the river mouth with a stiff upper lip under the pretext of "river mouth encounter, leading the crowd to support". Moreover, among the gangsters who attacked the river mouth were infiltrated by trusted men from the Qu family, and Qu Wu Ming couldn't let too many living mouths fall into Lin's hands.

  If Lin Xie only caught one or two people who were unfavorable to Qu, the Qu family could completely deny it; if Lin Xie caught eight or ten people, it would be troublesome for the Qu family to deny it.

  Zhou Pu saw Qu Wu Ming commanding three fast sculling boats to continue northward, he didn't pay attention, the river mouth no longer had any military force that could threaten them, Lin was sitting at the river mouth, he didn't need to care about Qu Wu Ming continuing to drill into the trap, he didn't stay on the riverbank, leading his troops to continue south to pursue and kill the escaped bandits.

  Qu Yu Ming went north with a hard face, while sending someone to sneak back to Qu Yang Town from the west bank to spread the news, but he didn't know that Wu Qi had arranged four or five hidden sentries on the west bank specifically to intercept and kill those who were spreading the news.

  Qu Wuming knew that an unexpected and shocking change had occurred at the river mouth, but he still didn't know that Lin Xie had personally led 400 elite soldiers to secretly return to the river mouth. It wasn't until Qu Wuming arrived at the dock on the riverbank, claiming to have come to provide reinforcements, but was instead surrounded by Ao Canghai's men and unable to disembark, and Lin Xie appeared on the riverbank wearing armor, that Qu Wuming realized he had fallen into a trap set by the Qu family.

  Watching Zhao Hu lead the new recruits to divide and board four armed ships from the river fork, Qu Wu Ming held down his frightened mood, looking at Lin Xie's face with a cold and stern expression, forcing a smile: "It is said that Lord Lin is escorting supplies to Dongyang to assist General Gu in battle——if I had known earlier that Lord Lin was sitting in town at the river mouth with a plan, I wouldn't have had to rush all this way to come and rescue him."

  "Who are you..." Lin Xuan narrowed his eyes and looked at Qu Wuyang, asking uncertainly.

  Qu Wu Yang saw Lin Xie's hesitant attitude, and his heart slightly calmed down. He also knew that the Qu family was still a noble clan and the local snake of Jiangning, so it was normal for Lin Xie to have some reservations about the Qu family. Would Lin Xie dare to slaughter all the officials and soldiers behind him at the river mouth? Qu Wu Ming took a step forward, clasped his fists and said: "I am Qu Yang, the patrol inspector of Qu Wu Ming. I encountered an ambush at the river mouth and led the patrol inspectors with knives and bows to come and assist..."

  "You're spouting nonsense, treating me like a three-year-old! Lin Mou grabbed a long spear from behind him and threw it with all his might at Qu Wu's chest. 'The Quyang Patrol Guard has 90 knife-archers in its ranks, take a look at how many people are behind you?'"

  Qu Wu Ming stared at the long spear that had already pierced his chest, completely unexpected that Lin Xie would suddenly make a move. He pointed at Lin Xie: "You... you..." His exquisite armor couldn't withstand Lin Xie's close-range throwing spear from above. At this moment, he still didn't believe Lin Xie dared to kill him, staring wide-eyed at Lin Xie, only managing to utter two words before thudding to the ground and losing his breath.

  Ao Canghai and other Wu soldiers did not use Lin Xie's order, they were like fierce tigers killing people at the dock.

  The Quyang patrol knife bow hand was actually also the Qu family private soldier, two hundred people half got off the boat, half on the boat, at this time did not unfold the formation. Along the way, they saw the group of thieves being killed and defeated, already feeling a chill in their hearts, but still wanting to follow Qu Wuming deep into the tiger's den. At this time, seeing Qu Wuming say two sentences before being shot by Lin Fu with a spear and killed, of course knowing that the identity of the officer could no longer provide them with life guarantee, when Qu Wuming's close followers were killed by Ao Canghai, the others had no fighting spirit and turned to escape.

  The private soldiers of the boat owner either fled south from the riverbank or turned around and escaped into the river, desperately swimming to the opposite bank. The people on the ship were also in a state of panic, seeing Zhao Hu's four armed ships blocking the river mouth, less than 100 paces away, and having no will to resist, they all turned their ships around and fled south. In the chaos, two ships collided, and more than ten people fell into the river...

  **********

  Qu Wu Ming was killed on the riverbank dock, Sun Jingxuan rode his horse to the rooftop and watched it clearly.

  Although it was already the coolest time at dawn, the summer night was still sweltering, but Sun Jing felt a chill run down his spine.

  Although it is possible to shift all the blame to the chaos and darkness that cannot distinguish between friend and foe after the fact, Qu Wu Ming leading the crowd here must have had ill intentions. However, killing Qu Wu Ming on the spot and chasing the Qu Yang patrol officers as if they were bandits still requires a different kind of courage and ruthlessness.

  The Qu family was also a noble clan, and although Qu Wuming's official position was lowly, his military rank was that of Deputy Captain of the Imperial Guard, which was a sixth-grade rank. Even if appearances were suspicious, it was no trivial matter to personally kill Lin Xian at the river mouth without distinguishing between right and wrong.

  Sun Jingxuan sighed: Lin Jie, this son does not know how to stop while he's ahead, does not know the way of advance and retreat. The river mouth counterattack captured a large number of prisoners, it is already a great victory, has made Qu's family unable to clean their buttocks no matter how hard they try, why must Qu Wuming be killed on the spot? Now, pursuing and killing Qu Yang's patrol officers will give Qu's family an excuse to bite back.

  Gu Wudu was not in Jiangning, Lin Xie was not afraid of any official who would take him down with the crime of "murder" and torture him to death?

  Sun Jingxuan hesitated again at this time, unsure if it was good to completely draw a line with Lin Xian.

  The forest is shrouded in a heavy and murderous atmosphere, the green armor has been stained with blood, who would have thought that he, a civil officer, would charge into battle like a military general tonight, leading his troops to victory several times?

  Sun Wen's delicate eyebrows were furrowed as she watched Ao Canghai lead the troops in pursuit of Qu's defeated private soldiers from the riverbank. Lin Xie and a dozen guards boarded two armored ships, chasing after Qu's three escaping ships by water. Meanwhile, nearly 200 guards gathered in front of the Lin family's new residence, led by a middle-aged general, also rushed out of the south gate to pursue the remnants. What was strange was that among those 200 guards, several middle-aged men were being escorted.

  Except for the sixty or more Linjia Township militiamen led by Zhao Qinghe and the twenty armed guards led by Fu Qinghe, there were only two armed ships carrying over sixty newly recruited soldiers stationed at the riverbank pier to defend; More than 200 civilian militiamen were clearing up escaped fish along the street.

  Although the pirate ships that were defeated and scattered in Chau Tin Dao still had a considerable force when they gathered together, they have been thoroughly intimidated tonight. Even if they gather downstream of Chau Tin Dao, even if they know that the defense at the river mouth is extremely empty now, they do not dare to come and attack again.

  Sun Wenyuan also felt that the several middle-aged men surrounded by two hundred armed soldiers who came out of the south gate of the fence wall were suspicious, and at this time a crystal lantern was shining towards the south gate. Sun Wenyuan pointed to them and asked her father: "Who are those people?"

  "It's him!" Sun Jingxuan had just been shocked by Lin Fu's killing of Wu Qu Ming, and hadn't noticed the new Lin mansion. He turned his head to look now, and was startled in his heart, taking a deep breath in reverse, saying: "No wonder Lin Fu dared to kill Wu Qu Ming, tonight is completely a big trap set up for the Qu family by Gu Wuduan, that is the left supervisor of the imperial court who was sent to Jiangning to supervise the summer tax, Ma Ruitai. The other person should be Gu Wuduan! Haha, who would have thought that Gu Wuduan would secretly return from Dongyang to Hexiang for tonight's affair? No wonder Lin Fu could mobilize so many people..."

  Sun Jingxuan took over the summer irrigation work of Dongyang Prefecture and went to pay respects to Zuo Qiantai, the Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief who was in charge of summer irrigation works in Jiangning. Although he had never met Gu Wudun before, he could already guess that the person working alongside Ma Ruitai was Gu Wudun. There was also another person he recognized - Zhao Qinmin, originally a staff member under Wang Xueshan but now working for Gu Wudun.

  All consequences will be borne by Gu Wu Chen and Ma Ruitai, what else is Lin Xuan afraid of killing?

  At this time, there were people and horses moving at Donghua Gate. Although it was far away, the pedestrians on the road held torches high as they left the city gate in the dark night. Sun Jingxuan and his daughter stood on the roof and could still see clearly. It should be that the East City Guard cavalry and infantry had been deployed. Although the combat effectiveness of the two battalions of cavalry and infantry of the East City Guard was very poor, at this time when the bandits were completely defeated by Lin Xie, these cavalry and infantry were still sufficient to capture the remaining bandits.

  "Dad, look, they're going to drive the remnants of the bandits towards Quyang Town..." At this time, Sun Wenyue saw that the timing of the cavalry's mobilization was just right. Perhaps Zhang Yubo or Liu Xilin had been guarding the East Huamen city gate tower, observing the situation at the river mouth, and perhaps someone had been sent to deliver a message from this side of the river.

  A large area of land south of the river mouth is sandwiched between the east city wall of Jiangning and the Jinchuang River, with Miling Lake to the south. The only way to get to the south of the city was through a small gap at the southeast corner of the lake, but the eastern city gate guards and infantry were deployed in time, just blocking the road that the remaining bandits were trying to escape to the south of the city. If the thieves wanted to escape before dawn, they could only flee from Jiubridge or jump into the river to escape to Quyang Town, where the Qu family was located.

  Gu Wudu and Lin Fu are going to "go all out"!

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  PS: The third update is coming, brothers, vote with all your might!