Luoma Lake is one of the seven major freshwater lakes in the country, one of the four major lakes in Jiangsu Province, the canal in the west, Maling Mountain in the east, the water surface area is more than 300 square kilometers, in the rainy season, the deepest part of the lake reaches more than 20 meters, the lake water is clear and clean, rich in fish and shrimp, the sand is soft by the lake, the reeds are boundless and bankless, swaying, it is really a good place with beautiful mountains and rivers. There are also more than 30 large and small islands dotted in the lake, and the nest of Liu Haozi and others is located on the largest Guanchang Island in the lake.

Guanchang Island is actually not big - at least half smaller than the Liangshan Island in the Song River, and there are not many inhabitants on the island, only less than a thousand people, and a considerable number of them are old and weak women and children, and the real ones who can go to the battlefield are only more than 500 people, and most of them are coastal fishermen who were forced to fall into the grass by the government oppression, fortunately, these fishermen are not ordinary rabble - Liu Haozi's deputy Hong Dashan turned out to be a hundred households in the army of Lu Xiangsheng in the former Ming Dynasty, and fought with Li Zicheng and Dolgon's army, when the Qing army entered the customs, His troops were scattered by the Qing army in Shandong and settled near Luoma Lake. Later, after Liu Haozi occupied Luoma Lake, he killed the Manchu who robbed the girl in the fishing village - the girl later became his wife, and was forced to take the villagers to vote for Liu Haozi, fortunately, Liu Haozi was not stupid, not only let him be the second master, but also let him use the model of the Ming Dynasty army to organize and train the water bandits, so the water bandits on Guanchang Island can persist in the repeated battles with the Qing army, and repeatedly defeat the Qing army that came to suppress, Liu Haozi can shock the Quartet in the Luoma Lake, and he has made great contributions.

After learning about the situation of Luoma Lake, and Liu Haozi also told Wu Yuanming in person - when he had a prepared stronghold in Hongze Lake, which is connected to Luoma Lake by water, Wu Yuanming finally breathed a sigh of relief, and felt that the battle with the Qing army was not completely without a chance to win, and there was still a way to escape. Wu Yuanming put his mind at ease and concentrated on drinking and bragging with Liu Haozi and Hong Dashan, but how can Wu Yuanming, a small traffic policeman, drink more than the water bandits who specialize in robbing homes and houses? Seventeen or eight bowls of wine were poured down, and Wu Yuanming was so drunk that he didn't know what to do......

"Ouch, my mom, I have a headache." When the bird was about to sing his voice hoarse on the branch, Wu Yuanming finally woke up from the bed, and to Wu Yuanming's surprise, the first thing that appeared in front of Wu Yuanming was Zheng Xue's beautiful and cold face. Zheng Xue helped Wu Yuanming sit up, handed a bowl of hot soup with medicinal ginger flavor to Wu Yuanming, and said coldly: "This is sobering soup, if you can't drink wine, you can drink less?" Spit all over the place, it's going to smoke people to death! ”

"Spit all over the place?" Wu Yuanming shook his head that was about to explode and looked at the room, and found that there was no vomit in the simple room, but there were many traces of cleaning. When Wu Yuanming looked at Zheng Xue again, he found that her big eyes were bloodshot, as if she hadn't slept all night. When Zheng Xue saw Wu Yuanming looking at her eyes, she couldn't help but blush, and said viciously: "What are you looking at?" Do you drink decanting soup? Don't drink I'll take it! ”

"I drink, I drink." Wu Yuanming didn't want to endure this crazy hangover headache, so he hurried to pick up Zheng Xue's sobering soup, but he didn't know if Wu Yuanming was intentional or weak after drinking, so he couldn't even hold the bowl with the soup unsteadily. Zheng Xue had no choice but to sit on the edge of the bed and feed the bowl to Wu Yuanming's mouth in person, feeding Wu Yuanming the soup little by little, but what Zheng Xue didn't notice was that a certain part of Wu Yuanming's body, who was sniffing the body fragrance on her body, had gradually lifted the sheet......

"Don't get so close to me." Zheng Xue finally noticed that something was wrong with Wu Yuanming, and pushed away Wu Yuanming, who was about to lean on her, with a red face. At this time, Zheng Xin jumped in, and the first thing he did when he entered the door was to cover his nose and shout, "It smells so bad!" What a heavy smell of wine! The second thing was to shoot a machine gun at Wu Yuanming and roar, "Stinky thief, why are you so close to my sister again?" What do you want to do to her? Don't you know that my sister already has a mother-in-law? ”

"Nonsense! Am I close to your sister? Is it your sister who came near me without my permission? Wu Yuanming brazenly retorted, and when he found that the Zheng family sisters were all glaring angrily, Wu Yuanming quickly changed the topic and asked Zheng Xin: "Xinxin, you keep saying that your sister already has a mother-in-law, so your future brother-in-law, will you like it?" ”

As soon as Wu Yuanming's words fell, the angry Zheng family sisters immediately became cold, Zheng Xue learned from her sister with a gloomy face - pinched Wu Yuanming's arm under the sheet, and at the same time gave Wu Yuanming a few looks, signaling Wu Yuanming not to mention this topic. Wu Yuanming also regretted poking the scars on the hearts of the two sisters, and just when he was about to change the topic again, Zheng Xin suddenly said: "I don't like it!" That bad old man, that's worthy of my sister? It was because of that bad old man who was dying of illness that my sister was unhappy, she didn't laugh or cry, and I hated that old man and my brother to death. Zheng Xue didn't say a word, stood up and walked out of the room, Zheng Xin wanted to chase after her, but Wu Yuanming stopped her, "Xinxin, wait, I have something to say to you." ”

"Say what?" Zheng Xin stopped and turned around and asked. For the first time since leaving Hejian, Zheng Xin had the opportunity to stay alone with Wu Yuanming, and Wu Yuanming also had a lot to say to Zheng Xin, so he ordered: "You close the door and sit on the edge of the bed, I have something to say to you." Zheng Xin was stunned, and then remembered that Wu Yuanming forcibly kissed her that day, and immediately blushed, grabbed his clothes and whispered: "What do you want to do?" If you dare to do anything to me that night, I'll kill you!" ”

"Don't worry, I drank too much my day, and I've woken up today." Wu Yuanming added in his heart, otherwise I would be interested in you, a yellow-haired girl who has not dried up, then is it weird? Zheng Xinhu looked at Wu Yuanming suspiciously, and only closed the door after finding that there was no danger, sat on the chair next to Wu Yuanming's bed, clenched the short sword with both hands and said, "Say, what's the matter?" ”

"It's nothing, I just want to talk about your sister and me." Wu Yuanming said straight to the point: "Xin Xin, let's make a deal, you return my gold medal to me, I will help your sister get rid of that political marriage, and let Geng Jimao and your sister get out of the marriage, but it will not affect the alliance between the two of you - you have also seen my gold medal, you should know that I have this ability." ”

In Wu Yuanming's expectation, when he said such a thing, Zheng Xin would consider it in detail even if he didn't agree, but Zheng Xin's reaction made Wu Yuanming stunned - "Phew! Zheng Xin spat fiercely and shouted disdainfully: "It's up to you? Just rely on you, a big traitor, Wu Sangui's son Wu Yingxiong's follower? Can you make Geng Jingzhong's family obediently listen to you? Do you think you're Wu Yingxiong? ”

"I'm Wu Yingxiong's henchman?" Wu Yuanming was dumbfounded, he never dreamed that Zheng Xin thought so about his identity. Zheng Xin, who pretended to be smart, said with a heartfelt voice: "Don't tell me, you plan to pretend to be Wu Yingxiong, right?" If I hadn't inquired about Wu Yingxiong's situation, maybe I would have been fooled by you, but I have already asked clearly, that Wu Yingxiong has been poisoned and died in Beijing! If I'm not mistaken, you should be a follower or subordinate of Wu Yingxiong's family or something, Wu Yingxiong is dead, so you took Wu Yingxiong's gold medal back to Yunnan to report the news, right? ”

"Yes, yes, I am Wu Yingxiong's general, and I took his gold medal back to Yunnan to report the news." Wu Yuanming nodded like pounding garlic, and said in his heart It's not bad that you understand it like this, it saves me a lot of trouble. Zheng Xin said triumphantly: "Hmph, you also want to hide from this girl's eyes?" This girl warns you again, don't beat my sister's idea, let alone try to trick my sister into eloping with you, otherwise, I will immediately poke out the fact that you are Wu Yingxiong's follower, so that you will die without a place to be buried! ”

"Yes, then you should give me my gold medal back, right?" Wu Yuanming asked with a wry smile. Zheng Xin jumped three feet high, shook his head resolutely, and said: "No, if I pay you back, you stinky thief with no conscience is very likely...... I'm sure I'll leave me behind and go to find your sister Hui'er! If you want to return your gold medal, I'll talk about it when my master comes here. ”

"Xinxin, listen to me ......." When Wu Yuanming just wanted to call again, the voices of Liu Haozi and Hong Dashan came from outside the room, "Brother Wu, is it convenient for us to come in?" Wu Yuanming hurriedly replied: "Brother Liu, Second Brother Hong, please hurry, it's very convenient." The door was opened, Liu Haozi and Hong Dashan came in successively, and when they saw Zheng Xin in the room, the two of them invariably showed a bad smile, Zheng Xin saw the meaning of their laughter, and rushed out to find her sister with a red face.

"Brother Wu, I brought you the map you asked for yesterday." Hong Dashan handed a large roll of framed rice paper to Wu Yuanming. Wu Yuan Mingqi said: "The map I want?" What map? When do I want the map? Liu Haozi next to him snorted angrily: "Of course it's the map of the area around Luoma Lake, you nagged me at least twenty times last night, asking me to give you the map of this area." ”

Wu Yuanming thought about it carefully, and found that he was asking them for a map - preparing to meet the encirclement and suppression of the Qing army, and hurriedly unfolded the map, and found that this was a very detailed map, not only the islands in Luoma Lake, the shore of the lake and the nearby roads were completely depicted, but even the height of the mountain peaks, the woods, and the reeds were clearly marked, which was obviously not something that these water bandits could do. Next to Hong Dashan also explained: "Brother Wu, I asked someone to draw this map, that person is a reader who passed by Luoma Lake, proficient in the geography books of "Island Sutra", "Cartographic Six-Body" and "Calculation and Drawing Formula", so the drawing is very exquisite, and he also made a big sand table for us, I know that these things are necessary for the army, so I saved them all." ”

"Who is that man? It's definitely not an ordinary person to spend this map so brilliantly! Wu Yuanming couldn't wait to ask. Hong Dashan shrugged his shoulders and replied, "His name is Li Ji (Note: 1). ”

"Li Ji?" Wu Yuanming was a little confused, in Wu Yuanming's memory, there was no such geographer as Li Ji in the early Qing Dynasty. But Hong Dashan's answer made Wu Yuanming jump up from the bed, "Li Ji's name is not famous, but his father's name is famous, and his father is our Xu Xiake of the Ming Dynasty." Because he was an illegitimate child, he was married to the Li family by the Xu family before he was born, so his surname Li is not surnamed Xu, and his single name is a message. ”

"Xu Xiake's son?! There he is? In Llama Lake? Wu Yuanming shouted - if there is such a talent in Wu Sangui's army, I don't know how much advantage he will have in the future arrangement and march of the army. Hong Dashan spread his hands and replied: "It's a pity that he lives in Jiangyin County in the south, not in Luoma Lake. Wu Yuanming was deflated for a while, then he became happy again, and said with a smile: "Fortunately, Jiangyin is not far from Yangzhou, and I still have a chance to find him." ”

After putting aside the matter of recruiting Xu Xiake's son, Wu Yuanming began to study the terrain near Luoma Lake, and from time to time asked Liu Haozi and Hong Dashan for advice on the map that he did not understand, and tried to recall the way Yao Qisheng taught him how to use troops, and judge the possible route and countermeasures of the Qing army. After a closer look, combined with the situation introduced by Liu Haozi and Hong Dashan, Wu Yuanming found that the Qing army's previous attack on Luoma Lake was mainly based on three roads, one was that Wu Yuanming and others went to Pizhou, where Luoma Lake passed, and took the Yi River into the lake; the second is to enter the city from the Suqian County waterway in the south; The third road is from Xuzhou, take the Yellow River and turn into the canal into Luoma Lake, but this road is too far, Chen Jinnan and others have enough time to retreat, if the enemy is Zhou Peigong, it is impossible not to see this, so this road was first eliminated by Wu Yuanming, and the focus was fixed on the two roads of Yihe Road and Suqian.

"Brother Liu, Second Brother Hong, do you have a way to get the fishermen along the lake to gather their boats and hide them on the island in the center of the lake, and then go back to fish when the Tartar army is killed and retreated?" Wu Yuanming decided not to give the Qing army a chance to get the ship on the spot first, so he asked Liu Haozi and Hong Dashan tentatively. Liu Haozi and Hong Dashan glanced at each other, shook their heads and replied: "Impossible, tens of thousands of fishermen along the lake rely on fishing for a living, if they stop fishing, won't it cut off their way of life?" ”

"Really? Yes, it should be. Wu Yuanming also found that he had asked a very stupid question, and he was a little frustrated. However, Wu Yuanming thought about it, it was common to control ships and horses and other means of transportation in wartime, but he didn't know what means were used to control it. Then Wu Yuanming slapped his head and said in his heart, how did I forget him? Wu Yuanming hurriedly said to Liu Haozi: "Brother Liu, please send someone to call my cousin Li Xiongfei, he is a general in the army and has experience in this area. ”

Liu Haozi had fought with the Qing army for more than ten years before, and knew how precious it was to have an experienced general on the battlefield, so he did not hesitate to go out and order, and after a while, Li Xiongfei was called into this room, Wu Yuanming first handed the map to Li Xiongfei, and described his thoughts to him, Li Xiongfei also agreed with Wu Yuanming's analysis of the Qing army's march route, and proposed to Wu Yuanming: "In the army's surface warfare, it is indeed necessary to control civilian ships, one is to prevent the enemy, The second is to prevent the enemy from disguising himself as fishermen to spy on the situation of our army. In view of this situation, there are generally three ways to solve it, the first is to forcibly destroy the ship, forcibly gather the ship, and burn it! But I don't agree with this, because Brother Liu has been operating here for many years, and the fishermen along the lake have a good relationship with Brother Liu, and they can also play the role of eyeliner in wartime, so that we can easily grasp the dynamics of the enemy. ”

"yes, it doesn't work." Wu Yuanming, Liu Haozi, and Hong Dashan nodded at the same time. Li Xiongfei also introduced: "The second way is the world...... As long as the financial resources are sufficient, the army can give the people a certain amount of compensation, and the fishing boats can be hired for a period of time or even bought directly. But Brother Liu also said just now that there are nearly 1,000 large and small fishing boats along the coast of Luoma Lake, and it is difficult for us to do this with our current financial resources. And there are two disadvantages to this, one is that the fishermen and fishing boats are concentrated on the island, and so many people eat and drink Lazar is a big problem. Second, by blockading fishing boats, we have cut off the road to understand the enemy's movements, and it is difficult to know ourselves and our opponents. ”

"And what about the third option?" Wu Yuanming has great hopes for the third method - because whether it is in a novel or a TV series, it is always the third method that is the most effective. And things are just as Wu Yuanming thought, Li Xiongfei really said: "The third method is more complicated, but it should be more effective for the current situation, one is that Brother Liu's people let out the wind, and said that the Tartar army is coming to attack Guanchang Island, and they must forcibly recruit fishing boats for military use, and they will not give a penny of compensation, and then tell the fishermen more about the Tartar army's burning and looting of ** women among the people, and I am not afraid that these fishermen will not be panicked, and take the initiative to defect to Brother Liu to rely on." The second is to tell the fishermen that after the Tartar army comes, let them flee to the island in the middle of the lake for refuge, and wait for the Tartar army to retreat before returning; And let them organize themselves, with gongs and drums as a signal, as soon as they find the Tartar army approaching, send a signal, immediately set sail, and flee into the lake of Llama to take refuge, but the Tartar army has the opportunity to seize the ship, and we can provide them with some necessary supplies. In this way, even if some fishing boats are robbed by the Tartars, the number will not be too many. ”

"Of course, this third trick can't be used in a protracted war, because we can't provide the supplies that such a person needs to live." Li Xiongfei continued: "But the current situation is different, the Tartar army is in a hurry than us - because the time is slightly delayed, it is possible for the people of the Heaven and Earth Society to escape. They could not recruit enough fishing boats locally, so they had to mobilize ships from other places to attack the island, but the foreign ships did not understand the currents, wind directions, and underwater reefs of Llama Lake, so they created an opportunity for us to take advantage of them. ”

"Okay, just use the third move!" Liu Haozi slapped his thigh and agreed: "When the Tatar army came to fight us in the past, the fishermen in this area suffered a lot, and we let out such a wind, we are not afraid that they will not be obedient, fortunately, there are many fish in the lake, and the grain is easy to solve!" ”

After the water bandits in Luoma Lake let out the news, although there was no Qing army outcropping, the fishermen and people near Luoma Lake began to panic, and many fishermen with fishing boats began to move their daily necessities to more than 30 islands in the lake, ready to flee into the lake for refuge at any time, and those fishermen who had young daughters and old and weak women and children at home simply sent their families directly to the island to live temporarily. In one day, almost all the fishing villages were organized, and special personnel were arranged to hold gongs and drums to stand guard on high places, and once they found a large group of Qing troops approaching, they sounded gongs to warn the ships docked at the pier to escape. However, there are also a small number of fishermen and fishing villages who will be skeptical of this news and have a wait-and-see attitude, but with the virtues of the Qing army, as long as they show up, they believe that they will soon be able to force these fishermen into Luoma Lake, so Wu Yuanming and others are not too worried about this.

At the same time, preparations for war on Guanchang Island were also in full swing, and more than 500 combat-capable bandits were strictly organized by Hong Dashan and Li Xiongfei to train their contingents and prepare and repair their ships. Wu Yuanming's orders for gunpowder, tung oil, sulfur, weapons, and other necessities for the war were shipped from all over the country in an endless stream, and then transported to Guaba Island for storage and later use. He also spread his eyes around Luoma Lake to listen to the route and movement of the Qing army's march. Although all this is caused by the Heaven and Earth Society's preparation to flee to Luoma Lake to reorganize, most of the Luoma Lake bandits and big and small leaders have no complaints, because the force of Luoma Lake is a thorn in the eye of the Qing court, rather than sit back and watch the Heaven and Earth Society ignore the heroes, it is better to join forces with the Heaven and Earth Society to teach the Qing army who came to attack and teach them a hard lesson, and beat them up to keep the peace of Luoma Lake. Wu Yuanming also spoke of righteousness very rarely, and did not leave the Luoma Lake bandits alone when danger came, but chose to stay side by side with the Luoma Lake bandits to fight the enemy. By the way, Wu Yuanming, who didn't have any good intentions, actually wanted to bury a nail north of the Yangtze River, so that when he rebelled with his father in the future, there would be a team that could contain the Qing court in the north - you must know that the Luoma Lake waterway is connected to the canal, the economic lifeline of the Qing court, if Wu Sangui's family and the Qing army are fighting, the Luoma Lake bandits suddenly cut off the canal, then Kang Xiaomazi will have fun.

Two days passed quickly, during which the people of the Heaven and Earth Society who were killed by the Qing army and the iron-clad anti-Qing Jianghu people fled into Luoma Lake, so that the showy Liu Hezi was very much a landlord's friendship, but Chen Jinnan and others never appeared, so anxious that the Zheng sisters couldn't sleep day and night, if it wasn't for Wu Yuanming to stop them, the sisters really wanted to go north to find Chen Jinnan. Fortunately, the people of the Tiandi Society, who fled into Luoma Lake first, told the Zheng sisters that Chen Jinnan had indeed killed the Qing army, and that they had to protect the brigade and left behind, which made the Zheng sisters feel a little relieved.

At noon on the fourth day of the eighth lunar month, when Wu Yuanming was taking a group of old people who could not go to the battlefield and veterans who were disabled due to injuries repairing the arquebus muskets that Liu Haozi and others had snatched before, the good news came, Cai Dezhong of the Heaven and Earth Society protected Gu Yanwu and others to the Yaowan Wharf, and had already boarded the boat to rush to the side of Guanchang Island.

……

Note 1: Li Ji, the word Jieli, is the third son of Xu Xiake, and his mother Zhou is Xu Xiake's concubine, who is not allowed to be expelled with pregnancy and remarried to Li, so the name is "send". Among Xu Xiake's four sons, Li Jicai is the most educated, and he is also the most inherited from his father and ancestors, and his appearance and temperament are very similar to Xiake. He was once a boy and was promoted to the first place by the prefect. Soon after, he regretted the idea of fame and did not return to the hospital for the examination. Living in seclusion in the countryside, not a powerful person, not a gift, a solitary apprentice to serve his mother, and never married, and finally died in poverty and illness. It has made great contributions to the preservation and circulation of "Xu Xiake's Travels".