When Song Nan led his army to Jining, he was already worried, because after passing Jining, he entered the cobweb-like dense lake and river terrain, which was exactly what Song Nan did not want to see, this kind of terrain was conducive to the flow of thieves, while the cavalry power of the imperial army was lost.

Especially when he heard that north of Pei County, where Liu Liu's thieves were entrenched, was a large lake wetland composed of four lakes, Nanyang, Zhaoyang, Dushan, and Weishan, Song Nan's heart was half cold. The news of the army's southward movement will not escape Liu Liu's thief soldiers who are attacking Feiyundu, and in this case, if Liu Liu has the slightest sense, he will immediately find a way to deal with it.

Song Nan made three estimates of the movements of the thieves led by Liu Liu, and there were many choices for Liu Liu, one was to lead the main force of the thieves to the west and fight to the death with the army led by Song Nan, the strength of the two sides was almost the same, or a bloody way to break through to the west; But Song Nan believed that Liu Liu would not do this, because although the troops were equal, the combat power was very different, and if Liu Liu dared to face the enemy head-on, he would have little chance of winning.

Another way is to seize the road to the east, and attack the remnants of Shenwuwei and Yingzhouwei, who retreated to Tengxian after retreating from Gunzhou, the total number of these officers and soldiers is about six or seven thousand, and it should not be a problem to defeat them; The only thing to worry about is that if these six or seven thousand officers and soldiers lose the front line of Tengxian County and drag it out for three or five days, the more than 30,000 soldiers and horses led by Song Nan will be able to chase behind the butts of the thieves, and then they will have to fight head-on.

The above two countermeasures were expected by Song Nan, and Song Nan was hoping that Liu Liu would choose one of them, so that sooner or later he would force Liu Liu to fight head-on.

But when he learned that the Weishan Lake area composed of Nansi Lake was in the north of Pei County, Song Nan shouted that he had made a mistake and gave Liu Liu a third way to go, that is, to retreat into Weishan Lake to hide, which should be the safest way.

The four lakes of Weishan stretch and connect, spanning nearly 200 miles from north to south, and the width of the east and west is also nearly 50 miles, not only the water surface is open and vast, but also the surrounding wetland and grassland area is huge, the aquatic weeds and reeds are densely intertwined, there are several large islands in the center of the lake, here it is said that it is more than 30,000 soldiers and horses led by Liu Liu, that is, 100,000 million male soldiers are hidden in the reeds of the water network lake within a radius of 100 miles, and it is also difficult to find its trace.

Song Nan remembered that during the Anti-Japanese War in later generations, this Weishan Lake area was a base for resisting Japanese people, surrounded by hundreds of thousands of Japanese enemies, but in the lake area, it was still the territory of the railway guerrillas.

If Liu Liu chooses to retreat into the four lakes of Weishan, he will say that the more than 40,000 soldiers and horses he personally led are helpless in addition to the soldiers and horses in Teng County, even if he mobilizes all the hundreds of thousands of Beijing battalions, he may not be able to besiege the water surface and wetlands within a radius of thousands of square miles.

Song Nan deeply regretted his mistake and failed to judge the shape early, so that he committed such a big negligence. The only expectation now is that Liu Liuhui's mind is muddy, and he won't think of retreating to Weishan Lake to deal with him.

In order to make up for the loss, Song Nan immediately ordered Lu Wan to lead all 4,000 cavalry to rush to the north of Peixian, intending to block the way of the thieves before they retreated to Weishan Lake. But two days later, Lu Wan's cavalry felt a small town called Yangtun in the northwest of Pei County, and only saw the thieves retreating to Zhaoyang Lake in the thick reeds.

Lu Wan launched a pursuit, and the four thousand cavalry chased after the two thousand thieves, and only slaughtered a few hundred thieves, and all the rest retreated into the endless reeds. As the closer to Zhaoyang Lake, the softer the ground became, and the horse's hooves stepped on the muddy water and gushed out, unable to advance an inch, Lu Wan also had to announce the cessation of the pursuit, stationed the soldiers and horses in Yangtun Town, and at the same time sent people to inform the army that came later of this depressing news.

Song Nan was in a terrible mood after receiving the report, he was afraid of anything, Liu Liu was really not a fuel-efficient lamp, so that the lake and reeds in a radius of hundreds of miles were swinging, where to find the shadow of the thief.

It is useless to be anxious, a few days later the army arrived at Yangtun and set up camp, after urgent discussion, Song Nan ordered to mobilize the three guards of Xuzhou on the south bank of the Yellow River to cross the north to coordinate the encirclement and suppression, and at the same time ordered the seven thousand soldiers and horses stationed in Tengxian County to quickly go north along the north to hold the north bank of Zhaoyang Lake, to prevent the thieves from killing back the horse gun and entering the area of Gunzhou Mansion again.

At the same time, hundreds of soldiers and horses were divided into teams along the lake to search for traces of the thieves' hiding, and by the way, all the fishing boats in dozens of small fishing villages on the south bank of Zhaoyang Lake were confiscated for military use, so that the thieves did not have the opportunity to obtain boats and supplies from the people.

On the morning of the next day, Song Nan led more than 100 horsemen and guards from Yangtun Town to the lake to check the terrain, standing on the low embankment, the reeds were spread out in front of him endlessly, the water birds were soaring in the air, the black water on the ground was surging, the water surface in the distance was white, and the other side of the lake could not be seen, and the heart was amazed; Standing in such a place, you can feel the helplessness in the hearts of the Japanese enemy, and there seems to be a familiar "The sun in the west is about to set, and the Weishan Lake is quiet, playing my beloved earthen pipa, singing that moving ballad." The tune comes.

"Metropolitan Governor, although the thieves are hidden, after all, they are more than 30,000 soldiers and horses, and it is impossible to have no trace, the hundreds of squads we sent out will definitely be able to find their traces, and the Metropolitan Governor does not need to worry." Lu Wan saw Song Nan's frowns, and comforted him in a low voice.

"Yes, sir. More than 30,000 people have fallen into this lake, and it is not easy to eat, drink, and consume, how long can they last? Always have to take the lead. Hou Dabiao also said.

Song Nan said: "The thieves plundered all the way, the grain and grass must be enough, after the two state capitals of Dongchang Mansion and Gunzhou Mansion were breached, all the grain in the official warehouse and military warehouse was swept away by them, I am afraid that there are millions of stones, so much grain, it is not a problem for them to hide it for a year or two." ”

The generals were speechless, and Zhang Yong sighed and said, "How should the military report of the imperial court be written?" ”

Song Nan turned around and said: "Gonggong Zhang, the thieves escaped into the four lakes of Weishan, this is my mistake, Gonggong Zhang is playing according to the truth, there is no need to be embarrassed." ”

Zhang Yong thought for a while and said: "In this way, I believe that the governor of the capital will have a countermeasure, and my report said that we can drive the thieves into the Weishan Lake to trap, although it is not easy to exterminate for a while, but it is better than the thieves and soldiers in the state capital and county between the people, hurting the people's livelihood." ”

Wan Zhi clapped his hands and said: "It's a good way, Gonggong Zhang, just write it like this, so as not to be caught by some dogs and have the opportunity to speak ill of our Metropolitan Governor behind his back." ”

Zhang Yong looked at Song Nan, waiting for Song Nan to express his position, Song Nan waved his hand and said, "Grandpa Zhang, I got my heart, but it doesn't have to be like this; If the emperor asks me to lead the army to suppress the thieves, he will give me the greatest trust. The Pontus is not afraid of villains, and the escape of thieves into the lake area is indeed something I did not expect, but there is no need to hide it. But you're right, I'll have a way to deal with it, and although you may get bitten by a dog when you close the door, it's better than not being able to catch up with you outside. ”

Zhang Yong smiled and said: "Okay, then our family will play according to the facts, most of the governors are bright and fair, and they don't want to do anything good, but I have to make these words clear in the performance." ”

Song Nan nodded and said, "That's your father-in-law's business." ”

The two actually knew each other, and Song Nan also knew that Zhang Yong would not say anything that should not be said on the recital, and he was just putting on a show and saying some high-sounding words to the people around him. Song Nan doesn't have to guess at all, along the way, Zhang Yong, who is a Chinese officer, is responsible for playing the army to the emperor, I'm afraid he doesn't even have a bad word about himself, because Zhang Yong has completely fallen to himself, Zhang Yong's mind Song Nan knows very well that the purpose of following himself is nothing more than wanting to take charge of the inner court one day in the future, and the situation between himself and Liu Jin is like fire and water, Zhang Yong is pressing the treasure on himself.

A few days later, a team of officers and soldiers sent out to search along the lake received news that in the small fishing village of Chenjia Village, 30 miles to the west, a fisherman found quite a few people on the reeds on the high ground by the lake while fishing.

According to the fishermen, the weather was so cold that it was impossible for the fishermen to go out into the lake with their families to fish or stay overnight.

The officers and soldiers who searched Weishan Lake in the east also sent news that they had discovered the traces of a large number of thieves scattered from Zhaoyang Lake to Weishan Lake, and several fishing villages along the lake were also harassed, and dozens of fishing boats were also robbed.

Based on the above news, it can be basically concluded that the thieves are scattered and hidden in the four lakes of Weishan, after all, a large group of thieves gathered together, whether in terms of concealment or survival, it is not easy to hide traces; The thieves also used the reeds several miles wide by the lake to transfer, and some even lived in the reeds.

Song Nan asked the local fishermen and learned that the reeds were not all water, and there was also a lot of dry land in them. There are also many water thieves on Weishan Lake, and their footing place is also in the open space among these reeds.

In view of the inability to encircle the entire lake area, Song Nan was very worried that the thieves would suddenly emerge from the shore of a certain lake to attack the surrounding states and counties, and he could not let the thieves have enough time to choose the direction of the attack, so he must immediately know all the movements of the thieves, and the Xuzhou guards and horses would arrive at Yangtun Town with more than 300 ships, and before that, they had to find the place where the thieves had landed to facilitate the attack.

Song Nan made a difficult decision.