By the time Liang and his boat arrived at the River Temple, the River Temple had been turned into an armed fortress - the original sheds for a series of restaurants and restaurants outside the temple had been demolished, and the wood was used to strengthen the defense of the River Temple.

At the same time, a large amount of wet turf was also shoveled from the nearby ground and placed on the wall and roof to prevent fire, covering the beautiful green glazed tiles from before.

Through the firing ports on the courtyard wall, you can see that there are many people stationed here—mountain ghosts in leather armor, and militiamen wearing ill-fitting short armor and holding various weapons.

After verifying their identities, Liang En and the others successfully entered the River Temple. As a result, as soon as they settled down, someone informed Liang En and Tian Zongqi to go to a side room for a meeting.

The content of the meeting was naturally related to the preparation for war, and under the coordination of Liang En, the river god Huang Yongnian and the five ten-person mountain ghost teams stationed in the temple all recognized Tian Zongqi, the only one with actual combat experience here, as the commander.

And Tian Zongqi is worthy of being an officer who has fought bloody battles on the northern front, and after figuring out the situation, he quickly arranged more than 600 people in the River Temple in an orderly manner.

According to his arrangement, 200 of the 300 river soldiers originally deployed here and 150 courtyard guards temporarily drawn from the caravan in Caohu Town, Qianzhuang and other places were responsible for defending the wall.

The remaining 100 river soldiers and 50 mountain ghosts were in reserve, ready to reinforce the city walls.

More than 100 of the original clergy and migrant workers in the temple were also organized, among whom those with supernatural powers were assigned to various positions, while others were divided into multiple teams to prepare for firefighting.

Liang En's more than 70 reinforcements this time were responsible for operating the muskets brought by Liang En and the two bowls that had been replenished before to provide fire support for the defenders of the city, and set up temporary first aid points.

Naturally, the fortifications near the river temple were further strengthened, and in addition to the further strengthening of the defenses of the building itself, a large number of bamboo sticks and traps were placed around the perimeter, leaving only a passage to the gate.

Of course, this zigzag passage is definitely not a simple passage, but also a trap - at Liang En's suggestion, everyone concentrated almost all the gunpowder weapons on hand on both sides of this passage.

When the meeting was over, everyone went their separate ways, but no one expected the enemy to come so quickly.

On the night of the third day of their arrival at the River Temple, an unusually terrible whistle came from not far away, and after hearing this sound, Liang En immediately jumped up from the bed.

This was the warning sound from the surrounding mountain ghost scouts, and in addition to the team stationed in the River Temple, the remaining more than 600 mountain ghosts were distributed throughout the land in the form of squads to monitor the enemy.

Apparently, these discerning and stealthy presence in the woods are up to the task, warning intruders as soon as they are spotted.

At the same time, several fires suddenly lit up during the night, and faintly there were shouts of killing and loud collisions, and even the sentry on the wall saw an entire section of the river lit up by the firelight.

"Quick, hot water." As soon as he walked out the door, Liang En began to greet the migrant workers who had been assigned to him, and in the rooms assigned to him in advance, he was ready to receive the wounded.

And when he was hurriedly making all the preparations, he heard a rattling sound from the direction of the canal not far away, and at the same time, the mountain ghosts standing on the platform also pulled their bowstrings and shot arrows in their hands.

In an instant, several screams came to Liang En's ears, and it seemed that it should be the enemy's vanguard that was killed.

"There are about 3,000 people on the other side." Just when it was quiet outside, Huang Yongnian suddenly appeared beside Liang En and said, "The next will definitely be a hard battle." ”

Coming to attack the river temple was the Yingzhou native Kameda Ryuji, known as the One Piece of the East China Sea, and when they rushed into the mouth of the Yangtze River with the help of the crowds, this team immediately went up against the current, preparing to go deep into Taihu Lake from the Yangtze River.

Unlike other pirates who were coerced, Ryuji Kameda, a descendant of the Pu 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 year-long arrangement or the large-scale invasion, it is only a necessary cover for the real actions of the Pu family.

Of course, with the exception of Ryuji Kameda and a few henchmen, most of the pirate gang didn't realize that they had become outcasts, but happily calculated what they could grab.

Because it is a pirate, such a team naturally does not look very neat, and the remaining more than 3,000 people except for the core of 300 Yingzhou ronins look chaotic.

Among them are the samurai of the Heavenly Side, the mercenaries of the Heavenly Bamboo, the warriors of the South Seas, and even some sturdy tribal warriors who look like wolves standing upright and have nothing but aprons on their bodies.

Obviously, it would be difficult for such a team to unify its command, so Kameda Ryuji simply decided to attack the whole army after discovering that the scout reconnaissance had failed, intending to fight quickly.

After all, the location of the river temple happened to be stuck at the narrowest point of the river, and at the same time there was a lock next to it, and if they didn't pull this point, they would not have been able to rush down the river into Taihu Lake.

Dispersal was not on his mind, as his goal was to attract as much attention as possible to the local defenders, which was clearly not possible with a group of infantry who could not move quickly in such an unfamiliar place.

But his order was not without opponents, and one of Ryuji's staff members who followed Kameda had fled to the Eastern Roman Empire because of a failed coup d'état, and the centurion of the Praetorian Guard saw the clue to the River Temple.

As an officer who has really 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 where he had the impression of a fence in the middle of the road to block the road for tolls, but simply a fortress.

"I think this so-called Oriental Temple is no less than those real military fortresses, and the movement of the defenders inside is also quite orderly, so adults should not be careless."

Kameda Ryuji didn't care: "You used to be the forbidden army of Emperor Lao'er, but you were too timid, even if this is a fortress?" The elite Yangtze River sailors of the Song people were swept away by us, and these people were just local chickens and dogs. ”

Saying that, Kameda Ryuji didn't listen to the advice, and directly commanded the front army and the middle army to rush towards the river temple.

"It's good to come, the most terrifying thing about so many pirates is that they are scattered and harassed in small teams, and now they are actually gathered together to attack, which will definitely make him have no return."

Looking at the army rushing towards the River Temple, Tian Zongqi, as the commander, settled down a little, although he was the elite of the elite and had participated in the war, but he was only a junior officer before, and he had never been so alone as he was now.

Fortunately, the enemy had now attacked according to the stupidest method in the previous plan, so he quickly adjusted his mentality and ordered all the archers except the mountain ghost archers to shoot arrows at their targets after hearing his order.

The pirates approached the temple as fast as they could, and when they had just approached two hundred paces, some of the pirates with bows and arrows began to shoot at them, not for a hit, but for a momentum.

Instead of providing long-range support after a certain distance like normal archers, they charged forward with soldiers carrying ladders or bamboo poles, clearly intending to rush up in waves.

But this bravado attack was useless, and wooden sheds had been built on the inside of the walls of the remodeled river temple, and the two-tiered bowl of wood was not at all penetrated by these ordinary bows and arrows.

As for the bows and arrows with magic, they can pose a threat to this defensive offensive, but there are no such high-end goods in the indiscriminately thrown bows and arrows.

Therefore, this round of pirate projectiles not only did not play a role in intimidation, but calmed down most of the defenders who had not smelled the smell of gunpowder, and their morale was also greatly improved.

Especially after seeing many unlucky people injured their feet by the traps and bamboo sticks laid in advance, there was even a soft laugh among the defenders.

As the first batch of ladders reached the top of the wall, Tian Zongqi blew the whistle in his mouth hard, and in the next moment, the originally quiet castle immediately burst into fire like a volcano.