In the original fishing plan, there was no plan to attack across the river.
Song Yang and the others just wanted to defeat the enemies coming up from the water.
Let the Jiangbei bandits not dare to go south easily in the future.
As a result, Qiao Jinglong came uninvited.
This way there will be enough manpower.
So Song Yang asked Ma Cheng to mobilize the watercraft and quietly transport the 500 people who Yu Ming and Qiao Jinglong had crossed the river from the upper reaches.
As long as the thieves on the river are defeated, the thieves on the north bank will inevitably be in commotion. This is the perfect time for a sneak attack.
Sure enough, the situation was as expected.
After the water thieves were defeated, riots broke out among the rogue bandits in Jiangbei.
There has even been an involution.
Yu Ming immediately launched a sneak attack.
A few rounds of arrows shot away ten or twenty thousand thieves.
Yu Ming took the people around again and confirmed that there were no big fish, so he had to retreat with the people.
"It's a pity that we didn't catch the thief king." Yu Ming returned to the shore somewhat disappointed.
Although he brought back five to six hundred captives, he still couldn't arouse interest without the big fish.
At this time, Niu Laosan was guarding the shore with his sailors.
There were also more than a hundred scattered bandits tied up on the bow of the boat.
They were the defeated bandits that Niu Laosan caught on the shore last night.
Just like this, when Yu Ming crossed the river, there were 600 people, but when he came back, there were more than 1,500...
On the other side, yesterday, Ma Cheng led his warships to clear away the water thieves on the river, and beat up the drowned dogs.
At dawn, the warships pursued all the way along the waterway into Longgan Lake.
There was a wave of encounters with the remaining water thieves at Longgan Lake.
The result is undoubtedly that the water thieves are no match for Jiangzhou sailors.
Moreover, those small boats and canal boats capsized as soon as they were hit, so there was no comparison at all.
In the battle of Longgan Lake, more than 600 rogue soldiers were captured, and more than 30 small and medium-sized boats were captured.
However, Ma Cheng and the others did not encounter the main force of the rogue bandits.
After questioning the captured prisoners, we found out that Luo Xin might have run to the northeast.
After a final search of Longgan Lake, nothing new was found, so Ma Cheng led the sailors to retreat.
"Thank God, I survived!"
"You stupid Luo Xin, just wait for me!"
Just as Ma Cheng's fleet left, two figures emerged from a reed marsh near Longgan Lake.
It turned out to be two brothers, the eldest brother and the third brother of the Liao family.
The two of them swam for most of the night and finally returned to the north shore. Before they even got out of the reed swamp, they were blocked by Ma Cheng's fleet.
They didn't dare to show their faces and hid until Ma Cheng and others left before coming out.
However, they have already blamed Luo Xin for yesterday's failure.
"Brother, things are not going well here. Jiangzhou's fleet may be back soon. Let's leave quickly."
"Yeah. Let's go! Let's go right away! Let's go to our second uncle's house in Chuzhou first!"
The two Liao brothers wiped the water stains on their faces and left without daring to stay for a moment with their tired bodies.
…
When it was almost noon, Ma Cheng and Yu Ming came back almost immediately.
Looking at the large number of prisoners tied up on the boat, Song Yang smiled so hard that his face wrinkled.
"These are all excellent labor forces!" Song Yang smiled with emotion.
"Your Majesty, we captured a total of more than 1,500 prisoners this time!"
Ma Cheng got off the boat and compiled the data from Yu Ming.
"Yeah! Good, good! Well done!"
"We won this battle with great success!"
It was indeed a complete victory, except for the 1,500 captured by Jiangbei.
Plus hundreds of people killed.
This immediately reduced the number of rogue bandits by two thousand.
Moreover, according to the prisoners captured by Yu Ming, the bandits were dispersed yesterday and they all fled in different directions.
Maybe only half of them follow the thief king Luo Xin.
There were originally 40,000 to 50,000 bandits.
After this battle, there were only more than 20,000 left.
It also dampened the arrogance of the bandits. In a short time, they would no longer dare to cross the river.
"How do you deal with these prisoners, Your Majesty?" Fang Zhe ran over and asked.
"First treat them as refugees and isolate them."
"After the quarantine, all the laborers are here, and they can be used in the autumn harvest."
"After the autumn harvest, we will all be sent to Daye to dig mines for a few years!"
Song Yang is not a soft-hearted Madonna.
Since you are a thief, whether intentionally or unintentionally, you must be prepared to be reformed and punished.
It just so happens that we are short of people to work right now.
These prisoners must be used.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty, I will definitely make arrangements." Fang Zhe nodded, also very happy.
A labor force of 1,500 people can help him solve many problems.
The prisoners were sent to a refugee isolation point.
Wang Yongning and his six hundred people moved out.
Yesterday's battle was nothing without them.
But Wang Yongning was allowed to follow him to the riverside for a look.
Wang Yongning, who watched the whole battle, became more determined to follow Song Yang.
Jiangzhou is indeed very powerful, both the navy and the Renaissance Army.
Wang Yongning is eager to join Jiangzhou Group.
When we returned to the camp, we immediately formed a team of new recruits and began training.
…
While Jiangzhou was celebrating the victory, the Jiangbei bandits were hiding in the mountains to rest in disgrace.
After a night of running away, Luo Xin was exhausted.
"Brother, where are we going now?" Luo Xin's cronies asked.
Luo Xin took a deep breath and said, "Go back. Go back to Henan Road."
"Jiangbei covers a large area of territory, and no one can defeat us wherever we go."
"If you are not good at water warfare, why bother with Jiangnan naval forces?"
Everyone applauded after hearing this.
Someone mentioned the Liao brothers again.
"Damn it! It's just the fault of the Liao family for insisting on saying that Jiangnan is rich."
"They don't even think about it. We are all landlubbers. We are not seeking death by going to Jiangnan!"
"Yes, yes! A place as big as Jiangbei is not enough for them to survive?"
"It's okay this time, they all died in the river!"
After the close associates of the Liao family were eliminated, the remaining members of the rogue band were all staunch northerners.
In the short term, they won't think about going south.
"Brothers, what do you think?"
Luo Xin looked at the two hundred households in the corner.
To this day, he doesn't know what these two households are called.
Luo Xin also understood that the two of them were just using each other and had no sympathy at all.
But after all, they have all been in the Guards, and now it is better to ask for their opinions than some rogue bandits.
The two households looked at each other, and one of them said: "What Brother Luo just said is right, but we should go back to the north."
"There are so many cities in the north, why bother to go on an expedition just to get a little money from the south of the Yangtze River."
"As long as we establish a few cities in the north, we might be able to establish ourselves in the future."
The two of them said this and then shut up.
Ever since they joined the bandits, they have only given opinions, but never opposed the bandits' decisions.
After listening to what they said, Luo Xin thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "The two brothers are right."
"It's time to find a place to stay."
Luo Xin looked at a strong man next to him and asked:
"Awang. Where did Zhao Juren say he was going when we met him last time?"
The strong man thought for a moment and said, "Brother, he seems to have said he is going to Yingzhou Mansion."
"Yingzhou..." Luo Xin pondered for a long time.
"Let's go. Let's go to Yingzhou first and see if we can find this Zhao Juren."
"The three strategies he proposed that day for troubled times actually made some sense."