Li Ling recalled a little and nodded: "I have read the relevant statement from the official's official newspaper. Three years ago, the Taihu water bandits were rampant, causing disasters in various parts of the south of the Yangtze River. They almost cut off the major transportation of the canal transport, causing great trouble. This is why the court strictly ordered the thieves to be put under slaughter..."

The Great Yue Dynasty has been going on for a hundred years, and there are still some problems in the world. In the north, the Guirong has not become a climate, and at most it is just a foul invasion. The Luotian Sect, which has been developing for many years, is just a small fuss. When it has not caused too much storm, a big mess has occurred in Jiangnan, which has always been calm.

Many years ago, several local water bandits who fought each other suddenly became entangled, and then they became powerful and began to raid the major waterways in the south of the Yangtze River and looted passing ships. Whether it was merchant ships and passenger ships, they were their targets, and eventually became local disasters.

In fact, they were still restrained at the beginning, not only to hurt people's lives, but also to attack the official ships. However, as time went by, these people's courage and appetite increased at the same time, and their methods became ruthless. Not only did they rob the ship and kill people, they even had the idea of ​​an official grain ship.

Three years ago, the bandits suddenly robbed and killed a group of ships that were transporting money and grain to the north, killing all the more than a hundred people on the ship, and taking away supplies worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. Because they were doing this ticket on the Caohe River, countless ships dared not go north from the Caohe River again, and almost cut off the water transportation of the Caohe River by their own strength.

As a result, the court was finally furious, and the emperor issued an order to dismiss more than ten relevant officials in a row, and strictly ordered the new governor of Jiangnan Liu Runsheng to defeat the thief and quell the rebellion within the deadline.

In fact, in recent years, the Jiangnan government has also attacked these lawless bandits many times. However, they are too cunning, and they are well-informed. They have escaped many times and fled into Taihu Lake with complex waterways, which has caused the government troops to return in vain several times.

However, this time, the court was really serious. The hundreds of water bandits finally had nowhere to hide. Even though they were familiar with the complex waterways of Taihu Lake and had many hidden places, they were completely annihilated after tens of thousands of imperial troops to encircle and suppress them at all costs.

This battle to combat bandits was officially said by Dayue. In the official statement of Dahu, it was called Taihu Incident by the people. Because in the past few years, the people, especially those who were born on water, suffered great disasters and may not be fully recovered until today.

After thinking about the matter, Li Ling's heart skipped a beat: Could it be that there were people from the Cao Gang among the water bandits...

Yang Qingxiao could see his thoughts at once and immediately snorted: "The truth of the matter is not what you know..."

"Hmm? What does this mean?" Li Ling asked with a frown.

"I also know some of the most rumored statements about this matter in the government are nothing more than how the soldiers and horses from all over the south of the Yangtze River fought hard under the command of Liu Runsheng. Finally, they relied on slow implementation to force the bandits into a dead corner, gathered and wiped out..."

"Is there any problem with this?" Li Ling faintly noticed something hidden in it, and then stepped forward and asked.

"The problem is that their statement is completely wrong. From the root, someone lied! In this battle between Pingshui Bandits, the official army did not work much. The one who really decided to win or lose was our brothers from Cao Gang, and my father won the victory with hundreds of elite brothers of Cao Gang..."

"What happened?" Li Ling was surprised and breathed a little relieved. If he really did what he thought before, things would be really troublesome.

"Don't you believe it?" Yang Qingxiao saw the doubts in his eyes and said annoyedly, "I'll ask you, how big is Taihu Lake?"

"According to official records of Dayue, Taihu Lake is more than 520 miles..."

"Then do you still remember how many soldiers and horses the government used to combat thieves?"

"More than 30,000 troops..." Li Ling reported a vague number. He really couldn't remember it. He only had a vague impression that there were not too many soldiers and horses in Jiangnan, and he had to leave some people to guard the land, so there were only so many people who could be used.

"It's a 35,000-sea and land army. In fact, it's more of the land infantry, and the navy is less than ten thousand."

Li Ling nodded in agreement. Now that the world is unified, the so-called external troubles also come from the north. The domestic naval forces of Dayue are naturally not too strong, and the Jiangnan naval forces are naturally insufficient. It is rare to be able to make up 10,000.

Yang Qingxiao continued to stare at him and said, "Then do you think this little water army can really control the entire Taihu waters as advertised by the imperial court, and force the bandits familiar with every fork in the water lane into the Jedi?"

"This..." Li Ling actually didn't understand military affairs, but he had a concept of region and military arrangement. The situation was naturally more complicated when it came to a lake with a changeable terrain. So after careful calculation, it was really difficult to achieve the destruction and destruction just by relying on this little military horse. "I'm afraid it's difficult to do it..."

"It's not very difficult, it's impossible at all! Not to mention ten thousand naval troops, even if they really used all 35,000 troops to spread the search for Taihu Lake, it would be difficult to catch all these thieves in one go. Do you think they would be so stupid that they stopped in the place and waited for the government troops to come to the door? These water bandits are the most cunning and know how to judge the situation. Once the situation is not good, they will have already broken into pieces and escaped from Taihu Lake. You know, there were many people above and around Taihu Lake at that time. As long as they get into it, they will be difficult for the government troops to distinguish them."

After listening to her story and thinking carefully, Li Ling had to admit that her statement was quite reasonable. After all, these water bandits did not set up a water camp in the middle of Taihu Lake to resist the officers and soldiers, but instead used this as a support to escape, so it was impossible for thousands of troops to surround the enemy and annihilate the enemy.

And the vast waters and countless people along the lake are naturally the protection for them to escape. Can this be easily wiped out by a 10,000 army?

After a while, he asked in confusion: "What's going on in the palace newspaper that said that the thief was successful?"

"Don't you understand? It is impossible to suppress those bandits by relying solely on the official army. Only those who are most familiar with all the waterways in Taihu Lake and all the habits of bandits can truly defeat them!"

"You mean..." Li Ling finally woke up this time, "Actually, were those water bandits wiped out by the brothers of the Cao Gang?"

A trace of tears flashed in Yang Qingxiao's eyes: "It was my father and brother who brought 423 elite Cao Gang into Taihu Lake. They cooperated with them on the surface to fight against the government, but in fact they cooperated with the government army inside and outside, and then they were all caught in one place!"

Li Ling agreed with this statement after careful consideration. Because there was no need for Yang Qingxiao to deceive himself in this matter, and based on the previous reasonable inference, it is true that except for the Cao Bang, who is also a commoner and who is extremely familiar with the environment in the Taihu area, it is possible to lead the official army to completely annihilate them in this area.

He felt that he had already understood everything and his expression became solemn: "But in the end all the credit was swallowed up by the government... Almost no one knew that the real hero in this victory was actually your brothers from the Cao Gang, and the court did not make any statement at all, so you were holding a grudge, even after several years, they were still thinking about seeking justice?"

Faced with Li Ling's guess, Yang Qingxiao smiled tragically: "If this is the case, how could we take the huge risk to assassinate a dignified governor of the court?"

"Then..." Li Ling's heart suddenly jumped, and he vaguely guessed a more terrifying and darker possibility.

Tears flowed out from Yang Qingxiao's eyes. She had never been so fragile at any moment, because she was telling the most unforgettable pain in the years and the most unforgettable pain she could not face again: "Did you guess it too? Liu Runsheng looked hypocritical, but in fact he was as greedy as a fox and as cruel as a wolf. He was an absolute beast! He had clearly agreed that this would give me countless benefits to the Cao Gang after this matter, and he could even help my father and a few uncles to ask for a life officer in the court, so his father and others would venture into Taihu Lake to fight the cruel guys to the end.

"But, when we had achieved the final victory, he suddenly turned against us. Originally, when our Cao Gang and the bandits officially fought, the official army should have surrounded them in time and completely annihilated them. But in the end, they just surrounded and watched us fight bloody battles to the end... Because of the bloody battle with several thieves, his father was seriously injured, and even his brother was stabbed into his lower abdomen by a knife, and almost lost his life.

"But even so, our Cao Gang brothers achieved the final victory with their strong fighting spirit and strength. But who would have thought... who would have thought..." Speaking of this, the huge grief made her choke completely, and tears flowed down like a flood.

"If you don't want to say it, stop talking. I'm willing to believe you..." Li Ling hurriedly dissuaded him, but Yang Qingxiao sniffed and stared at him and said, "No, I want to tell you the truth... Just when our Cao Gang brothers were fully in control of the situation, the official army suddenly rushed up. They were not here to compete for credit from us, but... they targeted us and the bandits and launched a raid!

"Our brothers from the Cao Gang are already exhausted, and there are thousands of officials. They are still surrounded by siege and kill. No matter how brave our brothers are, they will not be able to stop their ruthless massacre. In the end, all 423 brothers died in Taihu Lake. They did not die in bloody battles with the enemy, but were murdered by someone!
Chapter completed!