With the rise of my family, I can summon the Daoist Soldiers' Nest.

"It was yesterday's fire that exposed us." Chen Cheng walked over with a somber face and heavy steps.

"According to the captured bandits, they were already searching for us. When they saw flames shooting into the sky from the direction of Poison Snake Hollow, illuminating half the sky, they immediately became suspicious, suspecting that a battle had taken place there."

"But they were still far away at the time. When they cautiously approached to investigate, they found that we had already finished the battle and retreated to the shore."

Seeing no opportunity, they changed their minds. Instead of attacking rashly, they laid an ambush, waiting for us to walk right into their trap.

"The fire yesterday..." Lin Ye murmured to himself involuntarily, his fingertips gently stroking the Shadow Piercer in his hand.

He recalled how he had seen the bandits cowering in the reeds and proposed a fire attack. He watched as the fire spread rapidly with the help of the wind, turning large areas of reeds into scorched earth and forcing the bandits out. He was quite pleased with himself, thinking his plan was brilliant.

Unexpectedly, the fire acted as a conspicuous signal light, inadvertently revealing the location of their fleet and ultimately attracting the pirates from Blackwater Village.

"That doesn't make sense either," Chen Cheng frowned. "These bandits from Blackwater Village should be hiding when they're being surrounded. Why are they doing the opposite and actively searching for us?"

By this time, the battlefield had been initially cleared, and Liu Yun, Chen Hai, and others gathered around.

"According to the prisoners, it was the chief Luo Heizi who personally gave the order," Chen Hai continued, speaking a little faster, clearly also quite puzzled by the matter.

"They originally intended to remain inactive and continue to hide. But ever since several mysterious masked men in black appeared, Luo Heizi has become a completely different person, obeying their orders without question and immediately demanding a search."

"According to the descriptions of those river bandits, those men in black are most likely the martial artists we fought before," Chen Hai added.

Liu Hua, standing to the side, said, "They are Northern Xiongnu. The first-rate martial artist I fought had pure martial arts skills, which are the hallmark of the Northern Xiongnu Shamanism. His Daoist soldiers, the Frost Wolf Guards, are also the iconic first-rate Daoist soldiers of the Northern Xiongnu."

"I just examined those few third-rate martial artists who died. Judging from their appearance, weapon style, and personal belongings, they were undoubtedly Northern Xiongnu."

"The Northern Xiongnu? Why would they waste the Blackwater Fortress bandits' strength to ambush us? When the war starts in winter, we can use these bandits, who are familiar with the water, to attack the grain transport ships. That would be a much greater way to contain and disrupt them."

"And there's one more thing, Brother Lin," Chen Cheng said, turning his gaze to Lin Ye with a hint of doubt in his eyes.

"Although those warriors fought with us, their main target seemed to be you, that top-tier shamanic warrior. They were willing to take a hit from Elder Liu to capture you together with the Frost Wolf Guards." Chen Cheng paused, puzzled.

After Chen Cheng's remark, everyone turned their attention to Lin Ye. In the heat of the battle, everyone's attention was focused on the fighting itself; now, looking back, it did indeed seem as Chen Cheng had said.

"Could it be that he wants revenge?" Lin Ye quickly calmed down, met everyone's gaze, and gave a seemingly reasonable guess in a steady voice.

"When I was in Gongchang Prefecture before, I plotted to kill a top-notch shamanic martial artist. This person who came this time might have a past relationship with that person and is here to seek revenge."

In fact, everyone had heard about this, and the people of Xiang County still talk about it with great interest, praising the new lord Lin Ye for being resourceful and having no miscalculations.

However, the doubt in Chen Cheng's eyes did not completely disappear after listening. He recalled the trajectory of the shaman warrior's final strike.

The trajectory of that slash could have easily taken Lin Ye's head, but for some reason, the blade deflected slightly at the last moment, slashing towards Lin Ye's arm instead. This didn't seem like the intention to kill at all.

"What are our casualties?" Lin Ye keenly sensed that there were still doubts in everyone's hearts.

He turned to Liu Yun, who was in charge of logistics and medical care, and asked.

Lin Ye understood that the shaman warrior was probably after him, and he didn't really intend to kill him. He probably thought that he had killed the previous top-tier shaman warrior and learned about the second-tier lair from him, so he wanted to capture him to obtain information.

Behind this incident, perhaps... lies a perfect opportunity to turn the tables and materialize the gargoyle's lair. Lin Ye's mind raced, but his face remained impassive.

"The casualties are heavy." Liu Yun, who was in charge of statistics, said in a low voice.

"Of the soldiers and warriors we brought, about four hundred were killed or wounded. Among them, five third-rate warriors also perished. This was mainly caused by that group of Northern Xiongnu warriors."

"As for the martial artists recruited from the county town, there are only about twenty left; the boatmen are also less than a hundred, all of them injured and exhausted."

Lin Ye listened silently, calculating in his mind: After two consecutive fierce battles, out of the 1,200 people who went to war, there are now less than 600 people left who can be gathered here, nearly half of them have been lost.

If we also include the losses from the recent Battle of Bawangtan, the total number of third-rate martial artists who died has risen to eleven.

For small local families like the Lin and Chen families, this is an unbearable financial burden.

Of the approximately fifty third-rate martial artists from the Lin and Chen families who went on this expedition, one-fifth have already been lost.

Not to mention those second-rate martial artists who also died in battle, they were also indispensable pillars of the army.

Of course, in terms of the severity of the losses, the losses suffered by the martial artists in the county town were undoubtedly far more shocking. Of the more than one hundred martial artists, only about twenty remained, a mere one-fifth of their original number.

The reasons for this are twofold. First, they were eager for revenge and charged ahead to face the formidable enemy.

Secondly, the martial artists from the Lin and Chen families can trust each other, fight in formation, and cover each other.

However, the martial artists in the county town lacked sufficient trust and training together, often fighting independently and failing to form an effective united force, which led to such a disparity in casualties.

Chen Cheng keenly sensed that everyone present was deeply depressed and the atmosphere was heavy.

He cleared his throat and glanced at the crowd.

"However, this time we almost completely annihilated more than 2,000 men from Heishui Village! Combined with the previous two battles, we have completely wiped out the three major bandit groups in Qinghe County!"

"It can be considered as avenging the blood feud of the people of Qinghe County, successfully completing the task assigned by the imperial court, and thwarting the Northern Xiongnu's plot!"

"Gentlemen, now we can all return to our camps and regroup in our own territories as soon as possible."

Upon hearing this, although the grief over the sacrifice was still difficult to dispel, the atmosphere eased somewhat.

After all, we won the battle, even though it came at a considerable cost.

In war, there's no way that people won't die.

After everything was packed up, the fleet set off again, heading towards the county town.

This time, the fleet was much larger than the one that came before, with about forty ships of various sizes.

However, due to the severe loss of boatmen and the shortage of manpower, many ships had to take prisoners on board and force them to work as laborers, which made the journey more sluggish and difficult, and naturally slowed down the speed.

The fleet continued its journey along the river, stopping and starting intermittently, until nightfall when it finally approached the county town's waterway dock.