Chapter 94 The Real Thief

More than a thousand pirates chased together in the night.

Li Xuan was afraid that the pirates would lose their spirits, so he deliberately left some silk behind.

The pirates behind screamed with excitement.

"Whoever catches up with the merchant's carriage first will be rewarded with a beautiful woman."

Wu Lingguang promised the pirates a huge reward, which further stimulated them.

On the lonely island, what is most lacking is women.

A quarter of an hour later, the fast-running pirates were already one hundred and fifty steps away from the carriage.

Li Xuan estimated that Chen Hu would need some time, so he ordered his men to continue throwing the silk to the ground to reduce the weight.

After a while, less than half of the silk was left on the cart, and the horses sped up.

"Brothers, don't go picking them up. We not only want silk, but also carriages and horses. Work harder, those merchants can't hold on any longer."

Although Wu Lingguang was extremely tired, he thought victory was in sight when he saw the silk all over the ground.

After another quarter of an hour, everyone was running out of breath.

Including the Qianniu Guards, they were all exhausted.

Li Xuan felt that the time was about right, so he asked the Qianniu Guards who were driving the horses to stop.

They picked up their swords from the cars and prepared for battle.

Li Xuan and Zhang Xing each held a Mo Dao.

"Form a formation!"

Just as the nearby pirates' eyes lit up, Li Xuan ordered the Qianniu Guards to form the most basic offensive formation.

“…They have knives.”

The pirates were shocked when they saw Li Xuan showing off his weapons.

Why is this knife so scary!

"Isn't it normal for the guards to carry swords? There are only a hundred of them, what are you afraid of? Go ahead."

Wu Lingguang was not afraid at all. He urged his men to wipe out the caravan in one fell swoop and return with the spoils.

"kill!"

When the pirates thought that they were in numbers, they were no longer afraid and rushed forward in a disorderly manner, brandishing their swords.

The pirate in the front was fighting with Li Xuan.

"Pfft!"

Li Xuan's eyes moved, and he raised his sword and slashed, and the pirate who was fighting with him was beheaded in an instant.

Blood spurted out and a huge head rolled down.

"Pfft!"

Zhang Xing has a tall stature and can wield the Mo Dao perfectly.

With a wave of the strange sword, the two pirates were killed instantly.

It was the first time that the pirates had seen such a bloody thing, and the pirates near Li Xuan froze in place.

While they were still in a daze, Li Xuan rushed into the group of pirates, hacking left and right. Some of the pirates had their heads separated, some were cut in half, and some lost their limbs.

Li Xuan is like a ghost in the dark night, ravaging lives.

In a flash, more than twenty people were killed.

Although Zhang Xing was not as brave as Li Xuan, he killed more than a dozen pirates with his powerful sword.

Luo Xing, Xue Cuo and other bodyguards with high martial arts skills pressed forward.

The one hundred thousand bull guards were all elite soldiers, and they rushed forward and killed more than a thousand pirates, forcing them to retreat step by step.

"Who is this person and why is he so powerful?"

Wu Lingguang was confused.

The pirates usually plundered unarmed civilians, so they were all terrified when faced with such a brutal battle.

"Boom!"

At this moment, a deafening roar was heard in the darkness.

It took Wu Lingguang a long time to realize that it was the sound of horse hooves.

How many horses does this require!

"We've been ambushed. It could be soldiers coming. Retreat quickly, brothers!"

If it was before, Wu Lingguang would not be afraid of the soldiers, but now he is afraid of being killed by Li Xuan and his gang. And the soldiers are cavalry.

The pirates were so frightened that they turned around and ran away.

"Don't chase! Soldiers without horses, hide and crouch behind the chariots, and don't be accidentally injured by your own cavalry."

Li Xuan ordered the Qianniu Guards to separate from the pirates.

Otherwise, it is easy to cause accidental injuries when the cavalry charges.

Li Xuan believed that these pirates were exhausted and would definitely not be able to run back to the beach.

He took his personal guards and released the horses pulling the carriage.

There are more than thirty horses in total, including Li Xuan's Fire Dragon Horse.

The Ferghana horse was in Chang'an, but Li Xuan did not take it with him.

He put down his sword, took up his spear and mounted his horse, led his personal guards and more than 20 Qianniu guards, and rushed directly to the seaside.

"Pfft!"

"Pfft!"

Although there were only more than thirty pirates, they were already in a panic and crying for help.

The pirates who blocked the way were killed by the impact.

So in the end, all the pirates kept their distance when they saw the war horses rushing towards them.

"Not good, their target is our ship."

Wu Lingguang was furious.

But there was no way. After a while, some pirates could no longer run away.

The "rumbling" sound was getting closer and closer to the pirates.

A pirate looked back and saw the armor gleaming in the moonlight...

seaside.

The pirates were still expecting their king to return with a full load, but they heard the sound of horse hooves first.

Looking closely, there were more than thirty horses running towards them.

"It was the king who got the horses from those merchants!"

"No, Your Majesty cannot ride a horse."

"That is?"

By the time they reacted, Li Xuan and his personal guards had already arrived at the shore.

And he dismounted.

"who?"

"Brothers, capture them and wait for the King to come back and deal with them!"

There were more than a hundred pirates left to guard the ship, so they were naturally not afraid of Li Xuan's thirty-odd men.

A group of pirates came rushing over with swords in hand.

"Pfft!"

A pirate approached, and Li Xuan stabbed him to death with a gun.

The body was hung on the tip of a gun, held high.

"Oh!"

Li Xuan threw the body violently onto a boat.

"Are you a human?"

The pirates were horrified.

But at this time, they had already been attacked and there was no chance to escape to the ship.

Zhang Xing held a Mo Dao and killed several pirates with every step he took.

He boarded a ship first. Li Xuan was not in a hurry to board the ship. He rushed straight ahead and stabbed all the pirates who blocked his way to death.

"Escape!"

The pirates were terrified and desperately tried to find a ship to climb aboard, urging the crew to sail.

But after the ship docks, it is not easy to leave the sea.

What's more, more than half of them were killed in a short time, and there was no one to help steer the boat.

"Those who surrender will be spared, those who refuse to surrender will be killed without mercy!"

Li Xuan picked up another pirate and held him up on the gun, then shouted loudly.

The pirates, having lost their courage, no longer put up any futile resistance and knelt on the ship together with the crew.

……

"General Li has ordered that all pirates who stand up be killed. Let General Li see the strength of our Qianniu Guards!"

When the Qianniu Guards were about to catch up with the pirates, Chen Hu shouted.

"kill!"

They rode on good horses, all wore armor and held spears. Even the Qianniu Guards were average in combat power.

But with the overwhelming equipment, the pirates can be easily defeated.

Eight hundred cavalrymen charged on the plain at more than a thousand pirates who were armed with swords and could not form a battle formation. The outcome was predictable.

"Pfft!" "Pfft!"

In one charge, hundreds of pirates were killed.

The surviving pirates dropped their weapons and knelt down to beg for mercy.

Wu Lingguang is no exception.

He wanted to run towards the village, but it was too late. Anyone who dared to stand there would be killed by the cavalry without hesitation.

"This is impossible!"

Wu Lingguang, kneeling on the ground, kept repeating this sentence.

The maritime empire he created in eight years was so vulnerable.

Then why didn't any soldiers go to wipe him out in these eight years?

Why does every robbery go so smoothly?

Why did the officers and soldiers run away in fear when they saw him?

He doesn't understand!

Wu Lingguang was not as sophisticated as the civil and military officials in the court imagined, but was actually a vulgar person.

He was able to develop into the Pirate King because he had everything going for him.

Within just two hours of landing, all the pirates were wiped out.

Li Xuan sent cavalry to inform the people of Haiyou Township to stop running away, as all the pirates who had come ashore had been wiped out.

The people of Haiyou Township cried for joy, and the government finally agreed to send troops to suppress the bandits.

Li Xuan originally thought that he needed to cross the sea to capture Wu Lingguang, but the Qianniu Guards told Li Xuan that they had already captured this notorious pirate leader.

He went over immediately to see whether Wu Lingguang, who had been roaming the seas for eight years, was really supernatural.

"Are you Wu Lingguang?"

Under the light of the bonfire, Wu Lingguang, with a big beard, had his hands tied and was kneeling in front of Li Xuan.

"Kill the dog official if you want. I've enjoyed myself for eight years, which is enough."

Wu Lingguang scolded Li Xuan in a rather tough manner.

"How many people are there on your island?"

Li Xuan looked at the thief carefully. He looked to be in his forties. The more he looked, the rougher he looked. He couldn't see anything special about him.

"Humph!"

Wu Lingguang turned his head away and snorted coldly.

Li Xuan asked Qianniu Guards to bring up a few pirates.

When they saw Li Xuan, they told him the location of their lair and how many people were on the island without much hesitation.

There were only about 800 pirates left on the island.

In addition, there were 200 captured slaves on the island and hundreds of decent women they had abducted.

It turned out that the number of thousands of pirates was just an exaggeration by local officials. In reality, there were only 2,500 pirates at most.

Surrounded by many pirates, Li Xuan and his personal guards interrogated them for an hour.

The information he got made him change color again and again.

First, Wu Lingguang is a show-off, reckless, impulsive, lustful and cruel.

Second, the pirates had been gathering for eight years and had rarely fought with the county soldiers. Once, Wu Lingguang led a hundred pirates and encountered four or five hundred county soldiers. Instead, the county soldiers watched the hundred pirates board the ship and escape.

This is actually the Pirate King that gave Li Longji a headache.

"Something's wrong! Something's wrong..."

Li Xuan felt that if he were the county magistrate, he would have at least ten ways to capture Wu Lingguang.

Chang'an is far away from the sea, so it is normal for the emperor and civil and military officials to respect the sea.

But the local county magistrates would not go to such lengths.

"Local officials are condoning pirates!"

As Sun Liu said, it is impossible for the government to collude with pirates.

Li Xuan also specifically asked his personal guards to interrogate several small leaders, but found out that nothing like this happened.

Many local officials knew about his luring of pirates, and Wu Lingguang also fell into the trap, which meant that there was no connection between the local officials and the pirates.

"Why do they condone pirates?"

Li Xuan rubbed his eyebrows.

He pondered over the historical records he had read in both lives.

After a moment, Li Xuan had an idea, and four words flashed in his mind: "Land annexation!"

The powerful and wealthy used every possible means to annex land.

The rich have fields stretching for miles, while the poor have no place to stand.

Five strings of cash, the government takes it.

The land belongs to the powerful!
The so-called pirates are those they raise to threaten the civilians living on the coast and force them to leave their homes.

When most of the people have left, destroy the pirates.

The vacant land will be annexed by the powerful.

The people who farm the land are still the people who once lived by the sea.

It’s just that their identities have changed, from being good families owning land to being tenants, or serfs!

Some were even more miserable, joining pirates and dying without a burial place.

"They are the real thieves!"

Li Xuan clenched his fists. This was the only explanation.

"General, why don't you drive the pirates' ship across the sea and capture the pirates' lair directly?"

At this time, Chen Hu came to Li Xuan and gave him some suggestions.

"Yes, leave 300 soldiers to guard the prisoners. The rest of the soldiers will follow me on board, and take Wu Lingguang with you."

I thought I would be crossing the sea by boat with the main force.

Now that we have figured out the pirates' details, there is no need to requisition ships.

Li Xuan thought it was ridiculous to mobilize so many troops just to deal with a small thief.

Let the real thief reap the benefits.

Perhaps county magistrates like Huang Wangheng and generations of local officials were exploited by their greed.

When something went wrong, the county magistrate took the blame. The powerful were still powerful, and they continued to exploit the people and try every means to annex more.

When you reach a certain level, you will become a king, a prince, a general, or a minister.
The peasant uprising will begin!

Historically, it was this area that first rose up in rebellion at the end of the Tang Dynasty!

(End of this chapter)