When Liang En and the others arrived at the River Temple in their boat, the River Temple had been turned into an armed fortress - a series of catering and hotel sheds outside the temple had all been demolished, and the wood was used for reinforcement.
River Temple Defense.
At the same time, a large amount of wet turf was shoveled from the nearby ground and placed on the wall and roof to prevent arson, covering the previously beautiful green glazed tiles.
Through the shooting port on the courtyard wall, you can see that there are many people stationed here - there are mountain ghosts wearing leather armor, and there are also militiamen wearing short armor that does not fit well and carrying various weapons.
After verifying their identities, Liang En and the others successfully entered the Heshen Temple. As soon as they settled in, someone notified Liang En and Mr. Tian to go to a side room for a meeting.
The content of the meeting was naturally related to preparations for war. Under the coordination of Liang En, the river god Huang Yongnian and the five ten-man mountain ghost teams stationed in the temple recognized Tian Zongqi, the only one with actual combat experience, as their commander.
Tian Zongqi was worthy of being an officer who had fought bloody battles on the northern front. After understanding the situation, he quickly arranged the more than 600 people in the Heshen Temple in an orderly manner.
According to his arrangement, 200 of the 300 river soldiers originally deployed here and 150 hospital guards temporarily drawn from caravans, banks and other places in Caohu Town were responsible for guarding the wall.
The remaining 100 river soldiers and 50 mountain ghosts serve as a reserve team, ready to reinforce the city wall at any time.
More than 100 original clergy and migrant workers in the temple were also organized. Those with extraordinary powers were assigned to corresponding positions, while others were divided into teams to prepare for fire extinguishing.
Liang En and his more than 70 reinforcements this time were responsible for operating the muskets that Liang En had brought before and the two bowl-mouth blunderbuss that he had added earlier to provide fire support to the defenders and set up temporary first aid points.
The fortifications near the River Temple have naturally been further strengthened. In addition to the further strengthening of the defense facilities of the building itself, a large number of bamboo sticks and traps have also been placed around it, leaving only a passage leading to the gate.
Of course, this winding passage is definitely not a simple passage, but a trap. Under Liang En's suggestion, everyone concentrated almost all the gunpowder weapons on hand on both sides of this passage.
After the meeting, everyone started to take action, but no one thought that the enemy could come so quickly.
On the night of the third day after Liang En and the others arrived at the Heshen Temple, an unusually shrill whistle came from not far away. After hearing the sound, Liang En immediately jumped up from the bed.
This was a warning sound issued by the surrounding mountain ghost scouts. In addition to the team stationed at the River Temple, the remaining more than 600 mountain ghosts were distributed in small teams throughout the land to monitor the enemy.
Obviously, these beings with excellent eyesight and good at hiding in the forest are very qualified for this task, and issued a warning as soon as they discovered the intruder.
At the same time, several groups of fires suddenly lit up at night, and there were faint shouts of killing and huge collisions. Even the sentry on the wall saw an entire section of the river lit up by the fire.
"Hurry, heat up the hot water." After walking out of the door, Liang En immediately began to greet the migrant workers assigned to him and prepare to receive the wounded in the room assigned to him in advance.
And when he was hurriedly making all the preparations, he heard a splashing sound coming from the direction of the canal not far away. At the same time, the mountain ghosts standing on the platform also drew their bow strings and shot the arrows in their hands.
In an instant, several screams reached Liang En's ears. It seemed that the enemy's vanguard had been killed.
"There are about 3,000 people on the other side." Just when it was quiet outside, Huang Yongnian suddenly appeared next to Liang En and said, "The next step will definitely be a hard battle."
The one who came to attack the Heshen Temple was Ryuji Kameda from Yingzhou, known as the Pirate King of the East China Sea. When they rushed into the mouth of the Yangtze River due to the large number of people, the team immediately went upstream, preparing to go deep into Taihu Lake from the Yangtze River.
Unlike other pirates who were kidnapped, Kameda Ryuji, a direct descendant of the Kameda family, now has only one mission, which is to destroy this rich land as much as possible while attracting the attention of the defenders.
This is also the core purpose of this large-scale pirate invasion. Whether it is the previous years-long arrangement or the large-scale invasion, it is only a necessary cover to cover the Pu family's real actions.
Of course, except for Kameda Ryuji and a few close friends, most of the people in the pirate gang did not realize that they had become abandoned, but happily planned what they could grab.
Because they are pirates, such a team naturally does not look very neat. Except for the core 300 Yingzhou ronin, the remaining 3,000 people appear to be in a mess.
Among them were warriors from Tianfang, mercenaries from Tianzhu, warriors from Nanyang, and even some strong tribal warriors who looked like upright wolves and wore nothing but aprons.
Obviously, it would be extremely difficult to unified command for such a team, so after discovering that the scouts had failed in reconnaissance, Kameda Ryuji simply decided to attack with the entire army, intending to win a quick victory.
After all, the location of the River Temple happened to be stuck at the narrowest point of the river, and there was a ship lock next to it. If this point was not removed, it would be impossible for them to rush down the river into Taihu Lake.
As for dispersing operations, he was not considering it, because his goal was to attract the attention of the local defenders as much as possible, and a group of infantry who could not move quickly in this unfamiliar place obviously could not do this.
But his order was not without opponents. One of the staff who followed Kameda Ryuji fled because of the failed coup. The centurion of the Praetorian Guard of the Eastern Roman Empire saw the clues about the River Temple.
As an officer who has actually participated in large-scale wars, the centurion soon discovered that the so-called tax card in front of him was not at all the small place with a fence in the middle of the road to collect tolls as he had imagined, but was simply a fortress.
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"I think this so-called Eastern Temple is no less than a real military fortress, and the deployment of the garrison inside is also quite systematic. You must not be careful."
Kameda Ryuji did not take it seriously: "You were indeed the emperor's imperial guard, but you were too timid. So what if this was a fortress? The elite Yangtze River Navy of the Song Dynasty was defeated by us. These people
It’s just a native chicken and a dog’s ears.”
With that said, Kameda Ryuji ignored the advice and directly commanded the front and middle troops to rush towards the River God Temple.
"Well done. The scariest thing about so many pirates is that they break into small groups and scatter in various directions. Now they actually get together and want to attack. This will definitely make it impossible for him to come back."
Seeing the dark army rushing toward the Heshen Temple, Tian Zongqi, as the commander, felt a little calmer. Although he was an elite among the elite and had participated in the war, he was only a junior officer before and had never been as independent as he is now.
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Fortunately, the enemy now launched an attack according to the stupidest method in the previous plan, so he quickly adjusted his mentality and ordered other archers except the mountain ghost archers to shoot arrows at the target after hearing his order.
The pirates quickly approached the River Temple. When they had just approached two hundred steps, some pirates carrying bows and arrows began to shoot, not for hits, but for momentum.
While shooting arrows, they did not go out to provide long-range support like normal archers. Instead, they charged forward along with the soldiers carrying ladders or bamboo poles, making it clear that they planned to rush up in a wave.
But this bluff attack was useless. A wooden shed had been built on the inside of the wall of the renovated River Temple. The two-layer bowl-thick wood was simply not something that these ordinary bows and arrows could penetrate.
As for those bows and arrows with magic spells, they can pose a threat to this defensive offensive, but there are no such high-end products among the bows and arrows thrown randomly.
Therefore, this round of projectiles by the pirates not only failed to intimidate, but actually calmed down most of the defenders who had never smelled the smell of gunpowder smoke, and their morale was also greatly improved.
Especially after seeing that many unlucky people had their feet injured by the traps and bamboo sticks laid in advance, gentle laughter even spread among the defenders.
As the first batch of ladders reached the top of the wall, Mr. Tian Qi blew the whistle in his mouth. The next moment, the originally quiet castle immediately erupted into firepower like a volcano.