"Damn, these water rats are really hard to catch", Yu Lao said depressedly to Liao Loach, and shouted angrily while slamming the boat gang with his hand, but his palms were numb due to the excessive force, and his face was also spasmodic and distorted under the pain. It's no wonder that he was angry, not only did he not eliminate a single water bandit in the past few days, but his sailor brothers killed and injured several people. Three days ago, under the order of Huang Dagen, they went straight down the river from Hengyuan Town to Yongqu Township to clear out the water bandits, but the water bandits were extremely vigilant, and the small boats they were in were light and fast, and they hid one after another before the arrival of the naval warships, and played hide and seek in the reeds. Huang Dagen saw that he couldn't eliminate the water bandits in a hurry, so he left the second and third companies of Yu Laodu's and Liao Loach's water barracks, and he led the teaching company and the first company of Le Quan'an's water barracks, and rushed straight to the rootless mountain bandits' lair. Before going to battle, Brother Xuan told him to fight quickly. Now three days have passed, the rootless mountain bandits' nest has been captured, Le Quan'an's performance is very eye-catching, and now he is teaching the company to clear out the rest of the bandits in the rootless mountain, I heard that the field camp that went to Dayi to suppress the bandits has also won a great victory, and the two hundred people on their side are helpless to take dozens of water bandits, which really makes Yu Laodui and Liao Loach annoyed.

"It's not that we're incompetent, it's that the enemy is too cunning." To say that the main force of the Thunderbolt Army is the Xinjin City Navy soldiers who defected, and the new annexed army of Chongqing Mansion and the elite of the Thunderbolt Army who revolted were selected, and their combat power can definitely crush the water bandits, and Yu Laodui and Liao Loach have been in the army for many years and are proficient in water warfare. In fact, the navy has not achieved an inch of success now, mainly because the terrain is too complicated. The water bandits hide in the bay on the west bank of the Wenjing River under the confluence of three major rivers in Yongqu Township, where due to the slowing of the water flow and the siltation of the river sand, the river channel has been repeatedly washed away by floods, forming a reed dang of hundreds of acres, called Huangjiadang by the locals. This Huangjiadang is not only interconnected with the Wenjing River through more than a dozen waterways, but also has a dense waterway inside. To say that Yu Laodui and Liao Loach also often led people to fight the water bandits in Xinjin County and other places, but they were all driven away, and often as soon as the warship came out, the water bandits dispersed in a hurry. In addition to the fact that the bandits played hide-and-seek, the main reason for the unsatisfactory battle was that the Thunderbolt warships were too big to sail into the reeds, and the number of small boats was insufficient. Yu Laodui and Liao Loach took people to venture deep into Huangjiadang several times, either they were almost trapped by the labyrinthine waterway, strayed into the sandbar and ran aground, or were ambushed by water bandits. Fortunately, the soldiers of the navy were experienced and strong, and they used firearms to bombard indiscriminately, so they were able to escape. When the attack failed, Yu Laodui and Liao Loach had no choice but to hold their temperament and block the inlet and outlet channels of the reeds, preparing to consume the water bandits.

The order sent by Huang Dagen was also a siege. It is said that although the water bandits' lair is easy to defend and difficult to attack, it cannot withstand the intensive artillery bombardment, and they surrendered one after another after the gate of the fortress was broken. This bandit's den is actually a village, and there are only about 30 young people among the captives, and the remaining 100 people are women, children and old people. Through interrogation of the captive Huang Dagen, it was learned that there were more than 50 water bandits trapped in the reeds, and these water bandits mainly fished and waited for opportunities to rob. Every day, they have to send the fish back to the Rootless Mountains and bring back food. Huang Dagen's siege order actually cut off his grain routes, leaving him with no food and unable to fish in the Wenjing River, and it was early spring, and the reeds were dry in the shallow water, and it was time-consuming and laborious to catch fish at all. As long as these bandits are trapped for ten days or eight days, they will definitely be so hungry that they can't even hold the oars. Therefore, he did not wave his army to help, but continued to march into the depths of the Rootless Mountain.

Huang Dagen also learned from the mouth of the bandits that there was actually a lot of grain hidden in this rootless mountain. Of course, Huang Dagen did not believe the words of the captives for no reason, but because after taking down the bandits' den, the Perak army not only seized a large amount of dried fish and grain, but also found more than 100 sheep and three cattle in the corral, and even more than a dozen pigs with round lengths. Cattle and sheep can grow well with only forage, but pigs are domestic animals that cannot be fattened without food, and the captured bandits, regardless of men, women, and children, all have ruddy faces, which are very different from the yellow-skinned people in other places, which also proves that this rootless mountain is rich in grain. It was also learned from the captives that in addition to cultivating the land themselves, the bandits also exchanged the property obtained from fishing and looting with the rootless mountain people for food, so they were able to hoard a large amount of food while being fed. The news that there is food in Rootless Mountain made Huang Dagen overjoyed, and he decided to go deep into Rootless Mountain to find out. If there is really a lot of food in the mountains, it will solve the hidden danger of food shortage in the next few months.

After going deep into the rootless mountainous area, Huang Dagen knew that this hill was also a treasure of feng shui. The terrain here is low and the climate is no different from the plain, the slope is covered with a thick layer of loess, although it is not as fertile as the purple soil of the plain, but it can also grow wheat in winter and sorghum in summer, and the grain yield per mu is more than double that of Wanjiaping and Liuliba, which can only be planted for one season. What's more, the slopes are densely forested and grassy, and the swamps are filled with ravines, and although the swamps have been converted into winter paddy fields for rice cultivation by the mountain people, the silt is knee-deep, which limits the Mongol cavalry's raids.

Naturally, the government wanted to collect taxes here, but due to the corruption of officials and the impact of fleeing refugees, the governance order here gradually collapsed. After Pan ruled Chongqing Mansion, he naturally coveted the food here, but due to the excessive looting, the rootless mountain people simply killed officials and rebelled and no longer paid food. Pan sent soldiers to Tuntian in Wugen Mountain, but because of the strict administration of the Tuntian officials and repeated sneak attacks by the Mongol cavalry, and the supply of grain and grass was unsustainable, he had to abandon Tuntian.

The grain collection team sent by the government to Wugen Mountain was repeatedly ambushed by the mountain people, and suffered heavy casualties. Pan's command also sent a large army to kill, but before entering the mountains, the people hid their food and hid. As for the officers and soldiers going to burn down the houses? Burn it, burn it! Anyway, the climate of this rootless mountain is not cold, and you can build a shack to spend the winter. Pan Tongzhi also sent troops to grab grain during the grain harvest season, but the grain fields here are scattered distribution, if the troops are divided to grab the grain, they will be ambushed by the mountain people, and they can't grab much at all without dividing the troops to grab the grain. What's even worse is that Pan Tongzhi led his troops out to grab grain, but the Mongols frequently attacked and harassed Chongqing Fucheng, and thieves from various townships also took advantage of the fire to rob, and even ran to the villages a few miles away from Fucheng to grab grain. A fire in the backyard forced Pan to lead his troops back to the city. Before leaving, in order to vent his anger, he ordered people to set fire to the mountain, but although this rootless mountain was deep and densely grassed, the fire could not form a prairie fire. Because the people here originally set fire to the wasteland before farming, the slash-and-burn farming year after year has long formed a natural fire isolation zone.