Yang Huairen said that if you are incompetent, you are incompetent, why are you looking for so many reasons?

But now the rule of the imperial court is like this, who doesn't want to make more achievements to show the court, isn't it just to get promoted and make a fortune, and how many of them are sincerely working for the welfare of the people? Whoever does not harm the people is considered a good official.

Yang Huairen didn't have time to rectify the rule of officials, Lord Liu was actually not a big mistake, for the water bandits, he also sent troops to suppress them, but they couldn't be wiped out, there was still a difference between doing this and not doing it.

The old woman's husband and son were robbed and killed by the bandits, leaving them with a group of women, and the government perfunctory them, they had no way at all.

If it weren't for Yang Huairen passing through Suzhou, I'm afraid these orphans and widows wouldn't even have a place to cry out for grievances, so they could only endure the pain of losing their relatives in vain.

Yang Huairen didn't want to pay attention to that Lord Liu, and made a promise to the old woman, "Old mother, don't worry, since I, Yang Huairen, know about this matter, I will definitely not ignore it." ”

He pointed to the hundreds of sailboats on the river behind him, "You see, these are our forbidden army of the Great Song Dynasty, and the officials sent me to inspect Jiangnan to bring troops to exterminate all kinds of water bandits, bandits and pirates."

I promise to immediately send someone to exterminate that gang of bandits, and I will definitely give you and your relatives who died in vain a justice! ”

After Yang Huairen finished speaking, the old woman immediately dragged her two daughters-in-law to kneel down and kowtow to Yang Huairen, shouting "Thank you, Lord Wang".

The onlookers also cheered when they saw that the prince really wanted to make the decision for the old woman, and several more people wanted to stand up and denounce the atrocities committed by the bandits against their families.

Yang Huairen ordered not to stop them, let them all come forward, and sent his own guards to record their loss of family members or property due to the bandits.

Looking back, Yang Huairen didn't give Lord Liu and other local officials a good look, "Today I personally led the men and horses to suppress the bandits, and you also sent the arresters in the yamen and the local people to assist."

I hope that you will do your best to cooperate with this king at that time, whether it is a guide or the necessary boat equipment, if you have the slightest intention of pushing, this king will treat you and these bandits as if you have something to do with flies and dogs, and don't blame this king for turning his face when the time comes! ”

Yang Huairen took out the holy decree and trembled, and immediately stuffed it back, so frightened that an official trembled and knelt down, Lord Liu replied tremblingly, "The lower officials must cooperate, and they will never dare to fool the prince." ”

Yang Huairen returned to the boat and explained to his family, and then summoned the two generals to raise the tent and tell everyone about the water bandits at the mouth of the Badger River to see how to exterminate these water bandits in one fell swoop.

Long Wuwei and Hu Benwei only have infantry and horse armies, but there are no water armies, but Yang Shihu said, "There are still some people who are familiar with water in the two guards, and if they are found and reorganized, there should be more than a thousand people." ”

Yang Huairen thought about it, although a thousand people is not much, but compared to the water bandits, it still has an absolute numerical advantage, and he learned from Liu Da's mouth that there are no more than 100 water bandits on Badger Island.

Most of them were not water bandits in the first place, some were fishermen on both sides of the Badger River, because of the floods in the previous two years, which washed away their homes, so they had no choice but to become water bandits, and some were idle ruffians in the city, who also joined the gang because they helped the water bandits sell their stolen goods.

Later, various small groups of river tyrants who plundered small merchant ships on the canal joined in, and the water bandits in Badger Island developed to their current scale.

But in fact, Badger Island is not very big, and the large river beach and reeds cannot be inhabited, so the government roughly estimated the number of water bandits, and it will definitely not exceed 100 people.

And they didn't have many boats and weapons to loot on the canal, only a dozen grasshopper speedboats in total, and some self-made bows and arrows.

In the past, they generally did not touch the official ships and large cargo ships, and the grasshopper ships were too small, only four or five people could sit in total, and the hull was not very strong.

The big ship didn't look at them, and their grasshopper boat dared to come close to the big ship, and the big ship could knock them over with a casual turn of its head.

Moreover, the guards of the official ships and the big merchant ships are very strong, and they are not afraid of these vulgar little thieves.

Ordinary small merchant ships are different, although the hull is many times larger than the grasshopper ship, but unfortunately this kind of cargo ship runs slowly, and the grasshopper ship is easy to catch up, and it is easy to jump ship and climb the ship to rob.

The robbers of the water bandits are generally to ask for goods and not people, and there are few guards on small merchant ships, and as long as the water bandits go up to solve the guards, others will not be afraid.

They would first drive all the boatmen into the river, and then they would sail the boat not far from Badger Island, unload the goods in their own boats, and abandon them.

Therefore, the local people who inspect the canal in Suzhou can often stop some empty boats on the canal, and there are no more people and goods, so they can only pull them back to the dock for the ship owner to claim.

Some of the boatmen who are good at water and have a big life can swim ashore from the big boats that come and go on the canal, and they can still pick up a life, while the poor and unlucky people can only be unjust ghosts in the water.

At the same time, this also confirms what Lord Liu said, although the Badger River is wide, the river is relatively shallow, only as high as one person.

Such natural conditions also protect the water bandits on Badger Island, such a deep river, people and horses to wade across the river is obviously not possible, and the big boat can not drive in, and it is difficult to drive a small boat to suppress the bandits, and it is difficult to deal an effective blow to them.

Yang Huairen wanted to come to the Badger Island to take a look at the rough map near Badger Island, and found that this place really couldn't spread the army, there were many small rivers, and the water network was dense, not to mention the war, and the march was difficult.

If you want to go to Badger Island, there is indeed only a small boat called fishermen's fishing, this kind of boat can carry a dozen people at most, and the hull is not very strong, and if a good water bandit dives under the river, it is easy to use a chisel to secretly dig a hole under the boat.

Badger Island is surrounded by silt at the mouth of the river, and there are many reeds growing on it, and you can't see anything on Badger Island from the outside, even if you can barely get to the shore, you have to step on a foot of mud to climb to the continent first.

When the time comes, it is said that the bandits will be able to stand up and be considered physically strong, not to mention that if the water bandits find out that the officers and soldiers are coming to suppress them, they will definitely be prepared to hide in the reeds they are familiar with and hurt people with hidden arrows.

Yang Huairen was worried about what kind of anti-bandit strategy to formulate, Xiao Qi suddenly said casually, "Badger Island is full of reeds, let's just set a fire and burn it, won't it be over?" Even if they can't burn these bandits, they have to escape, right? I don't believe they can hide in the water for the rest of their lives, and they will not be able to go ashore to catch their breath? ”