Reeds are everywhere around the four lakes of Weishan, stretching for dozens of miles and five or six miles wide; In spring and summer, the germination and swaying is like a huge green scarf around the necks of several large lakes, which is very pleasing to the eye; At the end of summer, the reed flowers turn white, and as far as the eye can see, the white expanse is like snow.

Drinking wine in the reed flowers, painting and writing are suitable, the shallow water at the root of the reed is fat, boiling a pot of fresh and fatty blue crabs when playing, driving a boat through it to enjoy the scenery, it is the fashionable move of many rich and noble sons and literati in the Ming Dynasty.

In the eyes of the common people, these reeds are naturally not something that can be used to write poems, for the people of seven or eight counties by Weishan Lake, reeds mean income, means full food, and means that the next family can pull a new dress during the New Year.

At the end of October every year, after the farm work is over, the people of the five or six counties near Weishan Lake will take advantage of the winter leisure to harvest the reeds that have turned yellow by the lake; The reed flower can be put into the pillow, and the reed pole can be woven into dozens of things such as mats, curtains, curtains, baskets, baskets, etc., and these things are sold all over the Ming Dynasty within a few months, whether it is a rich family or a common people's home, there will be a demand for these things made of reeds.

The reeds by the Weishan Lake have also become an income for the people in the surrounding states and counties, and even a separate department to manage the harvesting of reeds has been set up in the Gunzhou Mansion to coordinate the harvesting scope of each county, which is already an important industry in the counties near Weishan Lake.

The shallow water under the roots of the reeds can catch all kinds of fish, shrimp and crabs and other aquatic products, which are the incidental income of the people when harvesting the reeds, and all these incomes have accounted for nearly 30% of the annual income of the surrounding people in recent years.

This year's reed harvest season is coming, because Gunzhou was swept by thieves, the people have not dared to harvest, many families have suffered huge losses because of the war, the only hope this year is that the thieves can take the last harvest after the extermination, but Song Nan's decision is to burn the reeds, and the people suddenly exploded.

Song Nan also understood that this decision would make the people of Gunzhou worse, but he had to do so, if he didn't exterminate Liu Liu's thieves and let them entrench in Weishan Lake, the people would not have a peaceful life for a long time.

After the news came out, hundreds of villagers in Yangtun Town rushed to the barracks in tears, knelt down in tears and begged to see the Governor of Song, asking the Governor of Song to raise his noble hand, not to cut off the last livelihood of this year, to say sad and earnest, so that everyone in the army felt compassion.

Song Nan also knew that this matter had to be understood by the people, so he met with a petition group composed of the chief of Yangtun Town and a Xiucai surnamed Yang in Daying.

That Yang Xiucai was a hot-tempered person, with some fearless backbone, and when he entered the account, he asked: "Dare to ask Lord Dudu, you are going to burn the reeds, the people around Weishan Lake really have no way to live, do you force the people to become thieves?" We really expect the officers and soldiers to drive away the thieves, but there is no other way for the officers and soldiers to do so? ”

Song Nan was not angry, ordered someone to look at the tea seat, and said in a gentle voice: "Xiucai Gong, you have also seen the current shape, more than 30,000 thieves and soldiers have escaped into the reeds, if you use conventional tactics, you have to surround the four big lakes within a radius of hundreds of miles before you can do it, but I am afraid that you have to mobilize troops from all over the country, which is obviously unrealistic." And the thieves hide in it and cannot be destroyed, and the people have no chance to harvest, so do they risk being cut down by the thieves to harvest the reeds? Apparently not. ”

Yang Xiucai said: "But my lord, if you order it to be burned, everyone's last hope will be burned, and everyone will have no way to live." This year has been plagued by thieves, the New Year is approaching, there is no surplus food and money, and the people are afraid to flee and beg this year. ”

Song Nan thought for a while and said: "Xiucai Gong rest assured, this matter will be properly resolved by the imperial court, and I will ask the emperor to send someone to bring rice supplies here for relief, and the people must not be displaced." But after the extermination of the thieves, in the current situation, it is impossible for the imperial court to mobilize a large number of relief materials to come, in case it is obtained by the thieves, won't it become an enemy? I also know that this matter is a dilemma, one must be carried out after the extermination of the thieves, so I decided that the long pain is better than the short pain, and I hope that Xiucai Gong will explain it to the people. ”

After Song Nan's analysis, Xiucai and Bao Chang also knew that it was imperative, and returned with a long sigh, Song Nan didn't know if this method would work, so he also decided to burn the reeds on the south bank of Zhaoyang Lake first to see the situation. Notices were immediately posted everywhere, prohibiting anyone from entering or leaving the lake area, and evacuating all fishermen and people from fishing villages along the lake.

In the afternoon, officers and soldiers sent more than 20 teams to set fires, taking advantage of the strong westerly winds, to start lighting fires along the south bank of Zhaoyang Lake, so that the reeds began to catch fire from the northwest corner; At the same time, the army was put on standby in case the thieves were forced to come ashore from the lake.

That night, all the reeds on the south bank of Zhaoyang Lake were ignited, and the strong northwest wind made the fire burn more and more. The fire that stretches for more than ten miles is several feet high, and the fire can be seen dozens of miles away, and thousands of water birds in the reeds are alarmed and flying, and the smoke and dust cover the sky and the sun, so that the sky after dawn becomes gray and there is no sunlight.

The fire burned so quickly that the dried reeds were swept away in one day and night, and the distance of the fire was more than thirty miles, and almost all the shallows of the lake where the reeds were dense were burned bare and black; The fire not only burned dozens of miles of reeds, but also affected the willow embankments on the shore of the lake, and many trees were burned to bare piles.

The next evening, as the fire began to go out, the army marched close to the lake, and was in shambles. Even if the fire was extinguished, the whole area was still hot and it was impossible to get close to it, but after the reeds burned out, the whole area was exposed. The soldiers who ran along the shore found dozens of dry fields among the reeds, and even hundreds of charred corpses, apparently trapped by thieves who did not escape in time.

A few hours later, the soldiers who sailed through the reeds found 200 bodies drowned in the lake, apparently the thieves chose to swim to the center of the lake in the face of the fire, and the two hundred were drowned alive.

At this time, the crowd was excited, and more than 1,000 thieves were annihilated without much effort, and the tidal flats after burning were unobstructed, and there was no place for the thieves to gain a foothold; However, Song Nan felt very strange, there were more than 30,000 thieves, and it was only seven or eight days after entering the lake from Zhaoyang Lake, it stands to reason that most of the thieves were in this reed swing on the south shore of Zhaoyang Lake, why did a sky-high fire only burn out so many people, where did the others go?

Song Nan had nothing to take care of, and immediately ordered all the reeds on the south bank of Weishan Lake downstream to be ignited, unless the thieves had wings, it was impossible to leave the two lake areas within seven or eight days, and the Dushan Lake and Nanyang Lake upstream could basically rule out the possibility of hiding, because the thieves had no ships to pass and could not leave the tidal flat area of the reeds.

Another vicious and fierce fire ignited, and the reeds on the south bank of Weishan Lake were denser and fatter than Zhaoyang Lake, and the fire was even more terrifying; The west wind rolled all the way to the east with the fire rushing to the sky, and more than 2,000 soldiers on hundreds of seized boats were watching the lake area inside the reeds. Enduring the burning fire, the officers and soldiers found the thieves fleeing from the reeds to the center of the lake in a hurry, but the fire was too big to get close to the pursuit.

The fire of Weishan Lake caused a greater sin than Zhaoyang Lake, but the effect was also huge, burning more than 2,000 people and not to mention, there were more than 7,000 thieves who escaped from the reeds and surrendered, according to the prisoners, the brigade did not enter Zhaoyang Lake from Yangtun, but entered Weishan Lake from Huzhai Town to hide.

Lu Wan was ashamed, his soldiers and horses encountered a small group of thieves in Yangtun Town, and thought that all the thieves had entered the lake area from there, but he didn't expect that most of the thieves were still slowly retreating towards Weishan Lake below; At that time, if he led his cavalry south to continue the attack, he might be able to take it right.

Song Nan reprimanded Lu Wan fiercely, Lu Wan's mistake almost missed the big thing, the army was stationed in Yangtun, and he didn't know that the main force of the thieves was in the Weishan Lake downstream, which was likely to cause the main force of the thieves to slip away and he didn't know anything about it. At the same time, Song Nan was also deeply aware that this Liu Liu was indeed not easy to deal with, obviously Liu Liu realized that the officers and soldiers would send troops to quickly cut off the back road to the lake area, so he chose to divide the soldiers into two ways, the thieves at Yangtun Town were used to confuse the officers and soldiers to send them to death, and the thieves below were the main force of soldiers and horses, and they were able to calmly retreat into the lake area after covering.

By now, the basic situation can be determined that there are about 5,000 thieves in Zhaoyang Lake, more than 1,000 were killed by a fire, and more than 4,000 people are missing; In Weishan Lake was the main force of thieves, about 30,000 people, more than 2,000 were killed in the fire, 6,700 were burned out and surrendered, more than 100 drowned corpses, and there were about 20,000 people left.

Although it seems that the battle results are outstanding, but a serious problem is in front of Song Nan, the 20,000 thieves can escape from the fire, obviously not by swimming to escape, the officers and soldiers in the smoke and fire are not very real, but they did see the thieves sitting on the strange floating objects one by one, Song Nan suddenly understood, just like the last time the river crossed, there are many local fishermen and people in the thieves, and they naturally know that another use of reeds is to make simple rafts.

A large number of thieves are probably on their way across the lake, and may even have crossed the lake and are about to go ashore to kill them.

Song Nan almost scolded in a hurry, the destruction of 20,000 thieves on the north shore of Weishan Lake is almost unimaginable, Gunzhou has just been recovered, and the prefectures and counties around Gunzhou and even in western Shandong are being rebuilt.

Song Nan did not dare to delay, and immediately sent six small boats to the other side of the lake overnight, each boat carrying two military pigeons, and sent a message back once he found the traces of the thieves on the north shore.

In the middle of the night, more than a dozen military pigeons flew back to the camp, bringing Song Nan both happy and sad news.