"Over a hundred mouths of the Shu family, young and old, are waiting for the Young Master to go and rescue them. The Young Master thinks about how loyal Old Man Shu was to the Xiao family, and begs: 'Please save the Shu family's old and young!'"

  Shu Qingqiu and his two sons knelt on the deck, wailing and knocking their heads repeatedly, begging bitterly.

  Xue Fei Xiong wore a green scale armor, his hair was casually tied behind his shoulder, and the crimson helmet was held by an attendant behind him. He had a tall and majestic build, with piercing eyes like lightning, and his unshaven whiskers for the entire month were densely grown under his chin, making him look exceptionally heroic.

  "Is this Lin Tie really that formidable? I think it's just that you're too incompetent, can't even handle a small matter like the Zhen Shi Lang and Da Liou Si Yu!" Xie Fei Xiong ignored Su Qing Qiu who was begging on the deck, turned his face to look at Qin Zi Tan, and asked in a cold tone.

  When they withdrew from Anji County, they had a brief engagement with Lin Ruzi in Mei Creek Lake, but the two thousand-stone ships took advantage of the wind to speed away quickly and shake off the entanglement. At that time, they did not know that Qin Zitan, Du Rong, and others had taken action on their own initiative and were ambushed by Lin Ruzi. In addition, they wanted to withdraw to Taihu Lake to attack the Ninghai Town water troops, so they didn't turn back to pursue them. However, in Zhuxi Creek, they encountered Qin Zitan, who was badly injured, and the remnants of the Shu Family Stockade soldiers.

  "If this child is not eliminated, he will surely become a great calamity for the Zhao family in the future!" Qin Zitan said with his hand pressing on the arrow wound on his shoulder.

  Qin Zitan was confident in his own abilities and thought he had planned for every eventuality, but he had never suffered a setback like this before. He did not expect Lin to be so bold as to set an ambush at Lake Mei instead of fleeing from Anji County. In the battle at Lake Mei, Du Rong died, and Qin Zitan and Shu Qingqiu escaped northward along the river. Another ambush boat appeared on their escape route. Fortunately, there were no elite soldiers on the second ambush boat, and they managed to shake off their pursuers after losing over thirty men, but Qin Zitan was shot in the shoulder and injured.

  After the battle at Meixi Lake, Lin Tie did not retreat to Taihu as expected, but instead continued to counterattack towards Anji County, which also surprised Qin Zitan. It wasn't until he encountered Xue Fei's troops that he guessed Lin Tie had returned to Anji County to avenge the ambush set by Shu Jia for him at Shu Family Stockade.

  Qin Zitan endured the pain and pulled out the arrowhead, simply bandaging it before coming to see Da Gongzi on the boat. At this time, in order to get rid of Lin Xie, she could only rely on the power in Da Gongzi's hands.

  "Hmph, you make it sound easy, are you expecting me to wipe your butts for you too?" Xue Fei Xiong coldly snorted.

  Xue Fei led the vanguard to raid Anji County, mainly to lure out the Ninghai Town naval ships. At this time, he retreated to Taihu Lake to join forces with the second batch of East Sea bandits' elite troops who were also raiding Taihu Lake and then seek an opportunity to battle the Ninghai Town naval ships on the lake; if they returned to Anji County to pursue Lin Xue at this time, even if they succeeded in killing Lin Xue, the two batches of East Sea bandit elites would miss the opportunity to join forces, which would pose a huge risk of being defeated separately by the Ninghai Town naval ships.

  Xue Fei's military strategy was not formed overnight. How could he possibly abandon his predetermined goal and put the entire army in danger just to kill one person?

  Qin Zitan's face turned pale, thinking that Lin Xie must have seen through the crux of the matter and dared to act so boldly.

  Xue Fei Xiong Nian Qin Zi Tan also served the Xue family, scolded him for a while, and his tone slightly eased up, saying: "I'll give you two ships, and assign two teams to you, whether or not you can rescue the Shu family's old and young depends on yourselves..."

  Qin Zitan and Shu Qingqiu father and son moved to the boat of Hai E'zi, watching as Xue Feixiong led his troops downstream towards Taihu Lake.

  Even the smallest sea-going ships are much larger than those that ply inland rivers. The Sea Swallow's hull is narrow and long, nearly 8 zhang in length from stem to stern, with high prow and sternposts, a mast of 6 zhang height, and sails that take advantage of the wind to move swiftly like a sea swallow darting through the waves; when the wind is unfavorable, there are four large oars operated by 16 men, still moving quickly, with a cargo capacity of about 300-400 dan.

  Unlike ordinary sea boats, the two ships given to Qin Zidan by Xue Fei Xiong were modified and reinforced warships, which were the most commonly used by the Donghai pirates. The cabin top was equipped with a battle shed to prevent arrows and stones, and people could also stand on the battle shed to make up for the lack of height; there were iron rams at the bow, and hooks and guns; the sides of the ship and the four sides of the battle shed were all equipped with thick wooden boards to avoid swords and guns, and familiar cowhide was used to prevent fire and oil.

  If they were to meet suddenly at dawn, and the three ships they were riding on were all of this type of sea bream warship, Qin Zitan still had confidence in fighting Lin Lian.

  At this time, Qin Zitan had four ships in his hands, supplemented by two teams of elite soldiers with more than 180 people, plus the Shu family's soldiers and miscellaneous ship workers, totaling nearly 300 people. The strength was stronger than before the ambush, but Lin Xuan's two ships had already merged into one place, with a force that exceeded theirs. Most importantly, they watched with their own eyes as Du Rong, along with more than 80 elite soldiers, village soldiers and miscellaneous ship workers on board, were almost effortlessly annihilated by Lin Xuan at dawn, causing the morale to be severely shaken.

  Except for Shu's father and son, as well as the soldiers from Shujiazhuang, no one else is willing to return to Anji County to fight to the death with Lin.

  Qin Zitan couldn't help but think that if he could give himself twice the manpower and ships, perhaps he would have a better grasp.

  Qin Zitan looked at Shu Qingqiu without saying a word.

  Shu Qingqiu gazed in the direction of Shu Family Village, where a large fire was burning brightly in the distance. The flames were clearly visible even in broad daylight. Shu Family Village had been set ablaze, and judging by the time, Lin Xie must have launched his attack. Shu Qingqiu's face was weathered and tears streamed down as he spoke with a pained expression: "This old man cannot put Mr. Qin in harm's way for personal reasons. If this child dares to slaughter the old and young of the Shu family, I only hope that Mr. Qin will remember to avenge the Shu family in the future."

  Qin Zitan let out a sigh of relief and said, "Even if Lin Xie is reckless, he won't dare to kill the old and young of the Shu family. He will likely take them on board and send them to Jiangning for trial. We'll go to Xishan Island and meet up with Cheng Yiqun and others. Only if Da Gongzi can defeat the Ninghai Town water army warship, we'll have a chance to intercept Lin Xie in Taihu..."

  *************

  As originally planned, Shu Qingqiu's younger brother, Shu Jiazhai's second master, Shu Qingdong, led the remaining hundred or so village soldiers to escort the old and young of the Shu family to Taihu after the Donghai bandits withdrew from Anji County.

  Apart from the Shu family, there were nearly 300 soldiers and their dependents in the village. In addition, a large number of boxes and bundles had to be loaded onto the ship. Preparations began before dark yesterday and continued until noon today without completing the final evacuation preparations.

  Shu Qingdong was worried that government troops would arrive in Anji County by land, so he sent someone to urge them repeatedly and also issued a final ultimatum to each household, saying that if they waited more than an hour, they would set fire to the village and depart on schedule.

  Lin tied up more than ten miles away from Shu's family stockade and received accurate intelligence from within the stockade, like a fierce tiger pouncing on its prey. With lightning speed, he defeated several dozen bandits near the water gate of Shu's family stockade, took control of six large warships docked at the water gate or waiting to be launched, and decisively ordered Ao Canghai and Ning Zencheng to lead more than 200 brave soldiers and militiamen in a fierce attack on Shu's family stockade.

  At that time, Shu Qingdong was leading the soldiers to set fire to the camp. Just as the big fire had just started, they learned that the water ditch had been raided and led the crowd out of the camp to rescue them. They were killed by Ao Canghai before they could react, and retreated back to the camp in disarray. The big fire in the camp had already burned out of control, and after closing the camp and defending for half an hour, people continued to fall down due to smoke inhalation. Finally, they opened the gate of the camp in a sorry state and surrendered.

  After the Shu Family Stockade was taken, Lin Xie captured more than 400 soldiers from the Shu Family Stockade, as well as members of their families. He also seized six large ships that the Shu family had planned to use to escape out to sea and towed them behind the "Ji Yun Er", sailing towards Anji County under escort.

  The city of Anji has been reduced to ashes. When Lin Xing entered the city, the gatehouse was still dropping smoldering ash with sparks. A street inside the East Gate had more than half its houses burned down, with hundreds of corpses lying on the streets, mostly Anji county's archers and police officers who were killed by the Donghai bandits in the streets, as well as many civilians.

  There was also a male corpse wearing a green official robe, with half of his head cut off, white brain matter and bright red blood mixed with ash flowing all over the ground, trampled by countless people to the point of being unrecognizable. According to rank, only the county magistrate of Anji County had the qualification to wear a green official robe.

  Watching Anji County die with a knife in his hand, facing the direction of the East City Gate that was broken by the Donghai bandits, Lin Fu ordered people to find a coffin and collect his body.

  After the Donghai bandits withdrew, no one in the county came forward to maintain order. Thieves and rascals took advantage of the chaos to loot and rape women, plundering homes everywhere. Lin Xian sent people to capture over a dozen looters and behead them in public as a warning, only then was order restored in the city.

  Anji County is small, with only two gates, east and west. The city wall is less than five miles around, and the area is equivalent to that of the Jinjiang River mouth. The main street connects the east and west city gates, and the houses along the street were destroyed the most severely, with almost no shops or residences escaping looting and arson. The county government office, prison, and granary were all burned down by fire, except for the front hall of the signing house, where the fire was put out early and the beams and pillars were not damaged, and Lin Zhan temporarily took refuge in the signing house.

  Although the possibility of Donghai bandits killing Hui Ma Gun is not great, Lin Xie still ordered Ao Canghai and Ning Zechen to set up obstacles such as Ju Ma to seal off the east and west city gates, strictly controlling the entry and exit of personnel in the city, also preventing Donghai bandits from sneaking in with Xiajia's spies or sending out intelligence.

  After the county seat was pacified, Li Jiyuan, the chief of the county government, and other surviving officials, gentry, and police officers gradually came out from their hiding places. Lin Xie handed over the county's security and remaining affairs to Li Jiyuan and other surviving officials to clean up, and he only asked Li Jiyuan for a large mansion that had not been burned down to detain the captives of Shu Family Village.

  As the sky was about to enter the night, Liu Xingming, the commander of the Huizhou Prefecture's garrison, led more than a thousand cavalry and infantry from the land into Anji County. Lin Fu handed over the defense of the county seat to the Huizhou Prefecture's cavalry and infantry, and also handed over the captives of the Shu family, who had conclusive evidence of their banditry, to the local authorities for disposal.

  Shu's family planned to take to the sea, loading six large ships with a vast amount of gold, silver, jewels and fine weapons.

  Lin Jie only arbitrarily claimed that in the name of the Inspector's Office, he squeezed out 3,000 taels from the grain and silver collected on this trip to donate to Anji for the reconstruction of the county city. He also handed over two large Wu Peng ships and some severely damaged armor to Huzhou Prefecture as evidence of Shu Jiatong's crime. The other gold, silver, pearls, and silver worth over 20,000 taels, more than 200 sets of armor, and other materials, as well as four large Wu Peng ships, were all taken by Lin Jie for personal gain.

  At midnight, Wu Qi and his scouts returned from Zhuxi Creek, bringing back the latest information about the Taihu Lake area.

  In the afternoon, another group of Donghai pirates came to the western waters of Taihu Lake. The number of people was unknown, but the ships they were on, including the sea-going ships, were more than 50% more than those that attacked Anji County. After the two groups of Donghai pirates merged, they encountered and fought with the Ninghai Town three-yuan watercraft that had come to surround the Donghai pirates at dusk in the waters of Taihu Lake outside of Zhuxi Estuary. The Ninghai Town watercraft did not have a strong will to fight, and from the moment they made contact, they retreated while fighting. As soon as it got dark, they completely lost contact and took advantage of the wind to withdraw towards the west of Taihu Lake and Yixing County.

  "We can't wait until the Donghai bandits have completely defeated the Ninghai Town Water Camp and then leave the border to return to Chongzhou via Taihu," Lin Fu looked at the rough map on the table, pointing to the northeast corner of Anji County, near the city of Huzhou Prefecture, and said, "We will go around Bili Lake to Zhejiang, and from Zhejiang we will sail out to sea and return to Xisha Island."

  (Note: Zhejiang refers to Qiantang River, also known as ancient name of Zhejiang)

  ****************

  PS: Recommend a post-apocalyptic novel "Biochemical Dynasty", book number: 46290.

  In addition, the book review section has nearly 500 excellent posts every week, but brothers' comments are scarce, and only 30 or 40 excellent posts can be used up each week. I have decided that from now on, I will post a top-up excellent post in the book review section every week to use up the excess excellent posts.