Chapter 92: The Strange Pirate

While everything is still reviving in the north, spring is already in full swing in the south.

Located in Le'an County, Linhai County, at the foot of Kuancang Mountain.

The sight of everyone wearing armor and tens of thousands of cavalry appearing together shocked the people of Wu in the south.

When did such a spectacular scene appear in the water towns of Jiangnan?

Moreover, whether it is leather armor or bright armor, the Qianniu Guards are all bright and beautiful.

Compared with these, the soldiers in the local counties were just like guerrillas.

At first the villagers were afraid of so many cavalrymen.

But the soldiers were stationed outside the town and did not harm anyone, so the villagers felt much more at ease and would stop to watch when they stopped.

"Elder, please stay..."

On the second day after arriving in Le'an, Li Xuan led his personal guards to the fields. When he saw an old farmer carrying a hoe, he stopped him and asked him questions.

It took a month from Luoyang to finally arrive in Linhai County.

The soldiers were exhausted after a long journey, so Li Xuan decided to rest here for a few days.

"May I ask what your orders are, General?"

The old farmer saw that Li Xuan was wearing shiny armor and looked very heroic, so he bowed to him hastily.

"Have you ever heard of pirates, elder?"

Li Xuan asked the old farmer.

"I heard that people from the seaside have fled to our place."

The elder replied to Li Xuan.

Le'an County is quite far from the seaside. Although he is over 60 years old, he has never been to the seaside in his life.

I just heard from people who moved there that there are pirates there who kill people and rob goods, and are very brutal.

"The elders may know the people who have fled from the seashore."

Li Xuan asked again.

Pirates can only commit crimes along the coast and cannot leave the coast more than thirty miles away.

Li Xuan's location is two hundred miles away from the seaside, so it is impossible for pirates to deploy their spies here.

Moreover, the pirate Wu Lingguang was active along the long coastline of Yuyao and Linhai, and would not necessarily be at the seaside 200 miles away.

"I know a family in our town. They moved here three years ago."

The old farmer replied to Li Xuan.

"Please put down your work and take me over!"

Li Xuan took out a string of coins and handed it to the old man.

"General, you can't do that."

The old farmer didn't dare to accept it.

"It's my duty." Li Xuan forced the coins into the old farmer's hand.

The old farmer was excited and quickly took him to Yuanqiao Village in Mingxi Township.

Mingxi Township is built beside a tributary of Le'an Creek. It has stone bridges, old trees, white walls and green tiles, but the distance between houses is very scattered and there are no flowers or trees to embellish it, making it look very simple.

Perhaps this is not a prosperous area, and it is different from the Jiangnan that Li Xuan imagined.

They came to a house with a courtyard surrounded by firewood. There was a willow tree in the courtyard. In the courtyard, a hen and a group of chicks were looking for food on the ground.

Two children, no more than ten years old, were making clay figures in the corner and enjoying themselves.

A dark-skinned man was sitting on a stone bench in the yard, weaving a cage with bamboo strips.

"Dong dong!"

"Who?"

After knocking on the wooden door, the man weaving the cage responded without even turning his head.

"Sun Liu, the general from afar wants to ask you something."

The old farmer responded.

"Oh……"

The dark-skinned man called Sun Liu turned around and saw Li Xuan and others outside the wooden gate.

He knew that this was the large cavalry army stationed outside the town, an important figure to whom even the county magistrate had to bow and nod in greeting.

As a commoner, Sun Liu did not dare to delay. He immediately put down the half-woven cage and opened the wooden door.

"I bow to the general!"

When Sun Liu bowed to Li Xuan, Li Xuan straightened him up and said with a smile: "I have something to ask you, so there is no need for formalities."

"General, please take a seat."

"General, thank you for visiting my humble home. Unfortunately, I only have tea in my house."

After inviting Li Xuan into the house, Sun Liu's wife poured a bowl of tea for Li Xuan.

"I'm determined!"

Li Xuan took a sip of tea and asked Sun Liu, "I heard that you moved to Mingxi Township to avoid pirates?"

"Yes! I used to live in Haiyou Township, Ninghai County."

Sun Liu answered Li Xuan, his eyes full of memories.

Although Haiyou Township is not closest to the sea, his family has dozens of acres of land there.

Because of the rampant pirates, they were forced to abandon their fertile land and move far away.

At the foot of Kuancang Mountain, a family could only share a dozen acres of land, and make some cages to sell in the city. They could not eat enough but would not starve to death.

"Have pirates ever invaded there?"

Li Xuan asked Sun Liu again.

He planned to first inquire about the situation among the people and then look at the county government's archival records.

The pirates were able to do evil for eight years, and the government has an unshirkable responsibility.

"In the 27th and 29th years of the Kaiyuan reign, pirates raided Haiyou Town. It is said that the pirates went there again last year, killing many people and kidnapping women."

Sun Liu said indignantly, his tone containing hatred for pirates.

"There should be no civilians in Haiyou Town now!"

Li Xuan thought about the map that he had already memorized in his mind.

Since the pirates are so powerful, the government must relocate the people inland and divide the land.

Wu Lingguang was mainly active in Linhai and Yuyao counties, which meant he was hiding on an island near these two counties.

The most likely place is on an island in Wengshan (now Zhoushan Islands).

"There are still many villagers who stay in Haiyou Township. Not many have escaped like me."

Sun Liu replied.

"Why is this? The pirates have invaded Haiyou Town time and time again. It must be because their informants discovered that Haiyou Town is densely populated. If the people of Haiyou Town don't move away, the pirates will come again sooner or later!"

Li Xuan was very puzzled by this.

But in response to Li Xuan's question, Sun Liu hesitated and could not answer, as if he was intentionally avoiding Li Xuan's words.

"You can speak frankly. I am the general of Qianniuwei. I came from Chang'an to wipe out the pirates. I hold the sword of the emperor in my hand. Anyone who stands in my way of destroying the pirates can be killed first and then reported to me!"

Li Xuan knew that Sun Liu had something to hide, so he comforted him.

"General, every household in Haiyou Township must pay five strings of cash before they are allowed to move away, and then they will be allocated ten acres of land. Otherwise, if you leave Haiyou Township, you will have to become refugees. My family sold everything we had to scrape together five strings of cash to be able to come to Le'an County and get ten acres of land."

Sun Liu was afraid and could only tell the whole story.

"Is there such a thing?"

Li Xuan was furious: "In Jiangnan, a tax-paying region in the eyes of the imperial court, the government actually doesn't care about the lives of the people. No wonder there are thousands of pirates, and no wonder it hasn't been pacified for eight years!"

But Li Xuan remained restrained.

The envoy to the East Circuit of Jiangnan had just been involved in a major bribery case in the Ministry of Personnel.

This is how local officials received bribes from envoys. It is said that officials force people to rebel! Even during the Zhenguan period, there were many peasant uprisings, not to mention the Kaiyuan and Tianbao periods.

However, these peasant uprisings were small in scale and were quickly put down.

If there is no wise person to lead, those people who have been driven crazy may not even be able to get past the powerful.

Li Xuan believed that among the pirates, there must be a group of unforgivable criminals with no moral bottom line, but most of those who took up swords were ordinary people.

They had nowhere to go and were swept away by the torrent.

"Alas! I have heard that the government has the ability to wipe out pirates, but they just don't send troops to attack the pirates' lair. I suspect that the officials of Taizhou are in cahoots with the pirates!"

Sun Liu seemed to have opened up a chatterbox and told Li Xuan everything that was in his mind.

Perhaps with a glimmer of hope, he let the court know about this matter.

"Taizhou" was the name before the state was changed to a county. This policy has only been implemented for two years and the local people were unable to change their name for a while.

"Why? Isn't it a great achievement to wipe out the pirates?"

Li Xuan felt that Sun Liu was just making random assumptions.

It is ridiculous that the government is in cahoots with the pirates.

Li Xuan did not agree with Sun Liu's words. If that were the case, Pei Dunfu would never have been able to pacify the pirates in history.

"I'm not making this up. When the pirates raided our villages, twice in a row, the county soldiers arrived long after the pirates left. We had clearly sent a message in advance, and according to the time, at least the county soldiers should be able to arrive."

"There were several times when the pirates plundered several villages in a row, but no county soldiers came!"

"Also, everyone knows that pirates are rampant. The county soldiers stay in the county town all day and never patrol the seashore. Our village chief has repeatedly requested that the county soldiers be stationed in coastal areas, but they just refused. It has always been our village chief who organized the villagers to patrol the seashore day and night."

"It's been eight years! General, tell me, did they do this on purpose?"

Sun Liu became more and more excited as he spoke. He slammed the table to vent his anger.

Li Xuan's brows gradually furrowed.

He suddenly found that Sun Liu's words made sense.

No matter how arrogant the pirates are, they are still bandits. After eight years of causing trouble, the local authorities will always be able to find some clues.

But every time they submitted a report, they said that the pirate invasion was unstoppable.

Another thing is the speed at which the county soldiers suppressed the bandits.

Normally, at times like this, the county soldiers should patrol the coast, but it was the civilians who were doing the patrolling.

There was also an outrageous incident where pirates raided several villages!

Wu Lingguang is very powerful now, but when he first started to gain power, he only brought a dozen of his relatives with him.

In the process of growth, it has never been curbed.

These things and concepts impacted Li Xuan's mind, making it difficult for him to understand.

In short, Li Xuan felt that there was something wrong with the government.

He needed to know more.

And you can't believe what local officials say.

"Grandpa, I'm hungry..."

The two little sons, their faces covered in mud, ran into the house and shouted softly, interrupting Li Xuan's thoughts.

Li Xuan smiled. Before Sun Liu could say anything, Li Xuan asked Zhang Xing to take out a bag of beef jerky for the children to eat.

It weighs a full two kilograms.

"smell good!"

We have been poor since we moved here, and have never seen anything like this. The two children were drooling at the sight of the beef jerky.

Sun Liu was extremely grateful. His wife took the two children out and washed her hands and face.

Half an hour later, Li Xuan left Sun Liu's home.

Li Xuan also learned more information.

As a result, the fishermen were unable to go out to sea and lost their livelihood.

Moreover, Li Xuan also learned important news that the pirates would plunder in more than one wave each time. They were numerous, with hundreds of large and small ships, and they plundered several places in a row.

They mainly looted food, and took away the cattle, sheep, pigs, donkeys, chickens, ducks, geese, and even dogs in the houses, leaving not a single grain of rice behind.

Any woman who was somewhat pretty would be abducted.

Some pirates have bad tempers and kill people and burn houses at will.

Before leaving, Li Xuan left Sun six taels of silver to thank them for their hospitality.

This made Sun Liu and his wife burst into tears of gratitude.

They also hoped that Li Xuan could eliminate the maritime disaster as soon as possible to comfort the souls of the dead villagers.

"What do you think about this pirate extermination?"

After returning to the military camp, Li Xuan called Li Qiuming, Chen Hu, two Lieutenant Generals of the Left Thousand Bull Guard, and a group of lieutenants to hold a military meeting.

This was the first time Li Xuan asked for their opinions on how to pacify the pirates.

"General, we have a strong army and can gather information. Once we know where there are pirates invading, we can rush there immediately. Even if we only catch a few pirates in the end, we can know where their lair is. Then we won't have to worry about the pirates anymore."

Li Qiuming spoke to Li Xuan first.

Over a month later, his wounds from being beaten with a military stick had healed.

He is now afraid when he sees Li Xuan and dares not talk back or provoke her anymore.

"That's one way, right? General Chen, what do you think?"

Li Xuan was not impressed by Li Qiuming's plan and asked Chen Hu again.

Mainly through questioning Sun Liu, some of his views changed.

"It is said that the county and prefecture soldiers in Linhai County have more than a thousand soldiers in total. Although they are not as many as the pirates, they are equipped with bows and arrows and powerful crossbows, and can fight the pirates on land. But now the pirates have not been eliminated yet, we should summon the deputy of Linhai to ask about the specific situation of the battle with the pirates. Knowing ourselves and the enemy, we will win every battle!"

Chen Hu did not jump to conclusions and asked Li Xuan to learn more about the pirates' combat effectiveness.

"can!"

Li Xuan nodded and said, "We are docked near Kuacang Mountain. The governor of Linhai County should be arriving soon."

He followed the order of the sage and led troops to suppress the pirates. Whenever he arrived in a county, the local governor would come to see him, whether for courtesy or for other reasons.

Sure enough, after noon, Linhai Prefect Huang Wangheng came from Linhai City with Linhai Chief Clerk and Linhai Deputy Governor.

They originally wanted to receive Li Xuan in Linhai City, but they didn't expect that Li Xuan didn't even enter Le'an City, so they could only come by car.

"Meet General Lee!"

Huang Wangheng brought his subordinates to pay a visit to Li Xuan.

They all knew that although Li Xuan was young, he was not an easy person to deal with.

Li Xuan's father was Li Shizhi, who was at the peak of his career and had made great achievements, and was deeply loved by the emperor.

Moreover, the news that the Jiangnan East Province envoy was recalled and dismissed also reached their ears. The censor sent by the court is still inspecting Danyang County and may come here soon.

"No need to be polite, the tent is simple, please take a seat!"

Li Xuan asked them to sit on the stools in the tent.

After learning some information from Sun Liu, Li Xuan was very dissatisfied with the officials of Linhai County.

Among these people, there must be those who exploit the people, and Huang Wangheng might be among them.

"General, you have come from afar, why don't you come into Linhai City and let us treat you well." Huang Wangheng sat down awkwardly, then bowed to Li Xuan with a smile.

"The sage is worried about the enemy, so how can a minister not do his best?" Li Xuan said with a hint of meaning.

Why did secretly accuse these people allow Wu Lingguang to be so arrogant for eight years?
"General Li is brave. Wu Lingguang will not be able to continue to be so rampant this time!" Huang Wangheng smiled embarrassedly.

He had been in charge of Linhai County for three years, and Li Xuan's words were obviously aimed at him. But Li Xuan's status and power made it impossible for him to refute.

"In the past eight years, how many times have the county soldiers fought against the pirates? What were the casualties?"

After a moment of silence on both sides, Li Xuan asked Huang Wangheng again to break the atmosphere.

"Alas! The pirates are very agile and their retreat is very clean. They just loot a little and then leave on the ship. It is difficult for the county soldiers to stop them."

Huang Wangheng sighed, looking helpless.

(End of this chapter)