However, before Li Haolin was about to set off, another group of people from the capital hurriedly came and brought back news from the East Palace and a personal letter from the prince.
Sure enough, the prince did not delve into the matter after all. Apart from reprimanding the prince, there was no other substantive punishment, which made Li Hao a little disappointed.
As for the handwritten letter, the entire letter was just an apology to Li Hao, and stated that the princess would be strictly controlled in the future and she would not be allowed to act recklessly again.
But Li Hao really has no confidence in the prince's promise. If he could really control the people around him, he wouldn't be abolished in the play.
It's just that this matter in the capital is beyond Li Hao's reach now, so he can only put it down for the time being. As long as the crown princess doesn't cause any more trouble, he can let her be free for a while, and everything will be settled when he arrives in the capital in the future. Make plans.
Of course, if the Crown Princess makes another move, she certainly can't let it go. On Qu Lengjun's side, Li Hao also told her the same thing. In short, he told her not to wrong herself, and to repay any bullying she received. He takes care of everything.
Although these words are not in line with Qu Lengjun's usual temperament, she is the kind of person who doesn't care if she suffers some injustice for the sake of the overall situation.
But in her heart, Li Hao's words were enough, because this kind of friendship was something she had never felt before, even with the prince.
For this reason, she was extremely kind to Li Hao in those two days, which made Li Hao not want to leave this gentle hometown.
But business was more important, and Li Hao finally set foot on the journey to Yuzhou at the scheduled time, accompanied by five hundred people carefully selected by Li Hao, more than double the two hundred people Li Hao originally set.
There was no way. At that time, Li Hao did not expect to find an opportunity to lead the army so quickly. The plan did not change quickly, so he had to adjust quickly.
For this reason, Li Hao also specially spent money to ask Qu Lengjun to buy a group of slaves and bring them back to the manor to make up for the lack of strong labor.
Li Hao's first stop when he came to Yuzhou was Qiao County, where Yuzhou is governed. He went to see Liang Wuji first and wanted to learn from him about the latest situation in Runan County.
Liang Wuji also welcomed Li Hao's arrival. Although he was not a member of the Liang family, he was still his descendant, so he was naturally happy to see him attend.
However, Liang Wuji never understood why Li Hao had to go to Runan to take up a post, so he deliberately stayed with Li Hao for dinner at night and asked out his doubts.
"Ru'nan is such a complicated place. It has a total of thirty-seven counties under its jurisdiction. Among them, the relationships between aristocratic families are complicated. In addition, many feudal lords have their fiefdoms here, and the world situation is even more complicated.
Now, several big bandits have emerged in the areas bordering Jingzhou and Yangzhou. Why do you have to wade through this muddy water? "
Li Hao heard this and replied: "It's better to be more complicated. If not, how can you show your ability? Don't worry, cousin, since I dare to come, I have naturally thought of a countermeasure."
Before arriving, I asked Xiaoyue Hou and Cui Hou to help me say hello. I thought Xinyang Hou, Ancheng Hou and others would not cause trouble to me for their sake.
As for the local aristocratic families, my duty is to eliminate banditry and stabilize the place. I have no conflict with them. After all, my Yuan family has some reputation.
When the time comes, some benefits will be shared out, not to ask them to obey, but it will not be difficult to get them to cooperate.
And the most important thing is not that you are watching from above. Even if they eat the heart of a bear and the courage of a leopard, they still can't defeat you. "
After hearing this, Liang Wuji still agreed with Li Hao's thoughts. Originally, he was worried that Li Hao was young and energetic and only wanted to keep others down, which would cause trouble.
Now I see that Li Hao knows how to use the resources at hand to take advantage of the situation, so I feel relieved, but he said: "It's useless for you to say nice things to me here. Since you have made your own choice, then you have to You go out on your own, I can't keep an eye on you.
On this point, your father and I have the same idea, so after taking office, remember to think twice before making any move. "
But even though he said that, Liang Wuji actually accompanied Li Hao on a trip to Pingyu in the end. It was called a tour of counties and counties, but no one could see the purpose of escorting Li Hao. .
Therefore, Li Hao's appointment in Pingyu went very smoothly. After handing over to the Ruyang County Governor Wang Hui, he went to the Duwei Yamen Office to take over the troops. He did not encounter any difficulties, which can be regarded as a start for this matter. Good start.
After that, Li Hao began to do two things simultaneously, namely inspecting Runan and using the troops he brought to rectify the county soldiers in Runan.
After all, in this era, if you want to do things locally, you will inevitably need to rely on the power of local powerful families.
The main purpose of Li Hao's appointment this time was to participate in the subsequent two battles in Shuzhong and Longxi. Before that, he must spread his reputation as a good martial artist.
Otherwise, not to mention Emperor Wen, even Liang Wuji and Yuan Pei would not be able to trust themselves to participate in a war of this scale.
In order to achieve this goal, Li Hao needs to completely eliminate the banditry in Runan County in the shortest possible time, and since Li Hao is still unable to determine the specific time of the two battles, he must hurry up.
Therefore, the purpose of Li Hao's inspection this time was to talk to the aristocratic families in Runan County. It would be best to ask them to help. For this, Li Hao was willing to spend some money, such as white paper and glass.
Under Li Hao's bloodletting, he quickly won over some aristocratic families in Runan County, especially in the eleven counties with serious banditry problems, such as Anyang, Yang'an, Xinxi, Yiyang, etc. The aristocratic families here basically agreed. Li Hao, and is willing to help Li Hao find out about the bandits.
Speaking of which, these people are the local gangsters in Runan, and it is much easier to get information than Li Hao.
As for the majority of the remaining people, although they did not express their support clearly, they all promised not to oppose the matter. As for those princes and fiefdoms, Li Hao also went to say hello and promised that they would not hold him back.
Of course, Li Hao believed that there must be some people with ulterior motives hiding in the dark. After all, the possibility of such a large-scale banditry without the involvement of several aristocratic families would be too small.
But Li Hao didn't care. After all, just looking at the number of thieves, there wouldn't be many thieves in this family, and his side had a huge advantage in terms of money, food, and soldiers.
Unless these thieves can all be united, it may indeed be difficult for Li Hao to take action, but don't forget that Li Hao also has Liang Wuji.
If they really dared to gather together, Li Hao would dare to ask Liang Wuji to mobilize troops from other counties to kill them all.
After connecting with the local nobles, Li Hao returned to Pingyu and devoted himself wholeheartedly to training the county soldiers. He only waited until the county soldiers were reorganized before sending troops to eliminate them.
At this time, Li Hao roughly set it after the autumn harvest in September, and the preliminary material reserves had already begun to be prepared.
Naturally, Li Hao's big move couldn't be hidden from Wang Hui. After Wang Hui learned the news, he felt uneasy about Li Hao's plan to suppress the bandits so soon.
But because of Liang Wuji's face, he couldn't stop it directly, so he wrote to Qiao County to notify him, hoping that Liang Wuji would come over.
But if Liang Wuji wanted to come, he would have come a long time ago. After all, he said before that he would not keep an eye on it, but he actually sent someone here, so he got the news when Li Hao started to prepare.
At first, Liang Wuji was really impulsive and ran to stop him, but in the end he thought about Li Hao's behavior over the years and finally chose to believe Li Hao.
However, as an elder, he had prepared some means, such as ordering the soldiers from Pei County and Yingchuan County to gather together. If Li Hao's suppression of the bandits failed, they could help in time to save the situation.
It's just that Wang Hui didn't know about it before. After getting Liang Wuji's reply, since he was sure that he had a backup plan, he didn't stop it anymore.
In this way, after the autumn harvest, according to Li Hao's plan, he would wipe out all the bandits in the area south of Runan from east to west.
For this reason, except for the county soldiers from several counties to the west of Runan County who stayed in the local area to prevent bandits from sneak attacks, and the county soldiers from Pingyu and Xincai counties as mobile forces, the rest of the county soldiers were gathered by Li Hao. Shen County began a formal campaign.
The subsequent cleanup was actually very smooth. It was only when they reached Anyang that they encountered some resistance. Li Hao didn't care about it at first. After all, it was normal for bandits to be weak and strong.
Moreover, the terrain is not as flat as before. Under the mountains, it is indeed difficult to attack the bandit's lair. Anyway, it is generally going smoothly, so I don't worry about it.
But later, while fighting, Li Hao unexpectedly learned from his own tribe that the thieves defending the other party seemed to be divided into groups, as if there were several groups of people together, and he immediately became alert.
Because according to the situation, this time I wanted to eliminate the banditry, and it had spread among the aristocratic families in Runan County beforehand. It should be impossible to hide this gang of bandits.
If they really wanted to unite, they should have united long ago to stop them at all levels. Why did they make it so easy to sweep them in front?
Of course, it is also possible that no one in this group of aristocratic families in Runan really has any contact with thieves, but in Li Hao's opinion, this possibility is really small.
So Li Hao was a little worried now. Someone was calling him on purpose and wanted to trick him here.
It's just that Li Hao asked himself that since he came to Runan, he had always used money to clear the way and he had never offended anyone. Who would want to do this?
After thinking hard to no avail, Li Hao could only act cautiously, put aside his original aggressive attack, and began to fight steadily.
After breaking through the camp in front of them, they did not advance forward. Instead, they stopped, repaired the camp on the spot, and began to rest.
Anyway, now that I have an obvious advantage, there is no need to be so radical. It is better to find out what the situation is ahead first.
Li Hao's change was indeed something that these thieves did not expect. The previous thieves were indeed bait thrown by them deliberately, in order to arouse Li Hao's arrogance.
After all, in their view, Li Hao was young and proud, and it coincided with consecutive battles and victories. The subsequent operations would definitely become more and more aggressive, which would allow them to seize the loopholes and set traps for Li Hao.
This time, this was where they wanted to close the net. The camp in front was also a bait to attract Li Hao. They wanted to lead Li Hao deep into the mountain. There was a road behind them that was their planned ambush circle. The result was just like this. The finishing touch.
Of course, they still didn't understand the reason for Li Hao's sudden stop, but they didn't think it was their true intention that was exposed.
After all, judging from the forward and backward movements, Li Hao didn't seem to understand their plan, so he wanted to contact the person who was secretly communicating with them to understand Li Hao's purpose.
It was just a coincidence that when Li Hao had doubts, he immediately sent his men out to explore whether there was anything wrong nearby.
As a result, the men sent by the thieves bumped into Li Hao's troops, and were captured alive and brought to Li Hao.
Li Hao originally didn't care about this. After all, it was normal for the two sides to send some people around to investigate the situation, and he did the same.
Moreover, such people are generally minions and do not know some confidential things.
So he handed him over to the tribe for interrogation to see if he could find out some information about the other party's camp. As a result, he got an unexpected reward. He learned that this person came out to find someone for questioning, and the person he was looking for was still there. Being in Li Hao's army, this gave Li Hao a feeling that it was obtained without any effort.
Of course, this cannot be said to be completely unexpected. Li Hao helped introduce some weird interrogation techniques, which also played a big role in it.
After all, many of these were discovered by Li Hao in the Song Dynasty. They were originally developed by the subordinate officials of Dali Temple in the Song Dynasty through experiments. Later, Li Hao introduced them into the army and they were also effective.
So this time Li Hao took them to the Han Dynasty, and the result brought him a surprise.
Facing the bandits who were brought back, Li Hao asked: "You just said that your leader asked you to come here to look for someone. Do you know the specific identity of the person you are looking for?"
The bandit was still in shock, and after a while he replied: "I don't know, I just asked the leader to come over and tie a few red cloth strips in a conspicuous place on the mountain opposite your camp.
Then he said that that night, someone would naturally come out of the camp to look for me, so I could ask him about the specific situation then. "
After hearing this, Li Hao thought for a while, then looked at the person who came, and ordered him to be taken away to continue to reflect on what he had just experienced.
After the people left, Li Hao asked Bu Bu who had just brought the people back: "When you brought the people back earlier, did anyone pay special attention to you?"
Buqu naturally understood the meaning of Li Hao's words and replied: "Reporting to the young master, we did not know the details of this person when we came back, so we did not avoid others. We saw many people along the way.
However, since this person has never seen the traitor, presumably the traitor does not know him. Even if he sees it, he may not notice that something is wrong. "
Li Hao also understood this truth, but it was a coincidence that he had just arrested someone, and then someone immediately came to contact the traitor.
But if you don't use it now, if the person hasn't returned in two days, the thief will be alert. Then he will contact you in another way, and it will be more difficult to find him.
