In the middle of the month, Li Xiao received the order. Let him return to the post of governor of Shandong, and at the same time, Hong Chengchou also received an order to let him return to Beijing to report on his work.

This military operation, which was planned by the emperor in a hurry, finally ended with both sides returning to square one. Except for heavy casualties on both sides, no one was able to get an inch of land.

Yuan Chonghuan, the chief soldier of Liaodong, finally got the code word on his head. Zhu Youzhen issued an order, and Yuan Chonghuan officially became the commander-in-chief of Liaodong.

The defeat in the war forced Zhu Youzhen to accept the fact that the two sides stayed in the status quo.

After receiving the order, Li Xiao left Jinzhou and took a boat back to Shandong.

He is not worried about Jinzhou's defense, and Jinzhou's urban defense projects have not stopped in the past few years. There are also more than a dozen dock forts outside the city, forming a defense group with Jinzhou as the core. This kind of position is far from being comparable to the kind of place in Li Guanzhen. According to Yuan Chonghuan's words, if the Tartars don't die, there are 350,000 people, and they can't even touch a single brick in Jinzhou.

When I landed in Dongying, it also began to snow in Shandong. The sky was not as cold as Liaodong, and large snowflakes turned into water when they fell on the ground. When the water soaks the soil, it becomes mud, and the weather is simply wet and cold, and it is unspeakably uncomfortable. Walking on this muddy road, Li Xiao misses the cold of Liaodong very much.

At least when it snows in Liaodong, it's cold and evil. The north wind blew like a knife on the face, and the ground was frozen as hard as stones, and there would never be snow that would turn into water when it landed.

Once again, the wheels sank into the pit, and the dirt roads in Shandong were really fucking nothing. A small pit of three meters, and a large pit of five meters. Pit after pit, pit after pit, anyway, you didn't negotiate the pit.

The soldiers shouted the number and pushed the cart out, and Li Xiao could only ride on his war horse. Riding on a horse on a cold day can freeze a person to death. Everyone wore yellow-green military coats, each of which weighed eight pounds of cotton alone, and it seemed that two lumps of lead had fallen on the shoulders of the body.

The advantage of a heavy military coat is that it is wind-resistant, and this thing is designed to cope with the cold wind of Liaodong. After the cotton hat ears were put down, the cold of the Shandong Peninsula was trivial.

There were people in front of me who were filling the pit with stones and something, working in the cold, and their hats were pinned to their belts. There was white gas on his head, muddy water all over his body, and some of the sturdy ones even took off their military coats to facilitate their work. Even so, the team could only advance ten miles a day. Fortunately, Shandong is a densely populated place, and the team is not going to sleep on the streets. Sleeping in the wild in this kind of weather would be a nightmare for everyone.

"If this continues, we may be able to go to Jinan for the New Year." The bad road made Li Xiao very helpless.

"No way, we carry so much baggage. I can't get up if I want to! Sun Chuanting, who was sent by Sun Chengzong to greet Li Xiao, said helplessly.

This time, Li Xiao brought with him a new type of firearm that was fully equipped with two companies, as well as a large number of fixed ammunition.

There are many people in Shandong, and there are many bandits. The land has been annexed year after year, and people who are unwilling to be exploited by the landlord naturally think of grabbing it. Where you have counted on the heroes of Liangshan one hundred and eight, how high is the ideological consciousness of the people?

The bandits in Shandong are very different from the bandits in Guanzhong, because they are close to the sea, so they have a certain source of weapons. Arms smuggling was very common in those days, and the sea was full of smuggling boats, large and small. As a result of the killing of Chen Hailong, the biggest smuggler, a large number of small smugglers have sprung up in various places, and with Li Xiu's boats, even if they are exhausted, they can't be caught.

Among the smuggled goods, arquebuses from the Wa Kingdom have always been in high demand. The practicality is much stronger than the expensive sword.

The bandits in Linhai, Shandong, with two dollars in their hands, were worried about getting a few arquebuses to fill the façade. Since the time when Chen Hailong ruled Shandong, arms smuggling has never stopped. In addition, those generals of the Ming Dynasty often sell some gunpowder or other tooth sacrifices privately. The proliferation of arquebuses has become an inevitable trend. So much so that the bandits were embarrassed to go out without a few arquebuses.

When it comes to weapons modernization, they are already far ahead of their peers who are making a fuss in Zhongnan Mountain.

Then there is the boldness, after all, it is the place where the water has been Boliang Mountain. After the bandits in Shandong realized some of the hot weapons, their courage was not ordinary. If there were not enough people to escort them, the grain and straw of the officers and soldiers were often robbed. Those local military households have been rotten for many years, and even the combat strength of the bandits cannot keep up.

Taking advantage of the chaotic period when Li Xiao took office, military camps in several places were looted. In addition to knives and guns, gunpowder was the favorite thing of the bandits.

When Li Xiao led people to die in Black Mountain, Dahu Mountain and Dolgon, Ao Canghai was not idle. Sweep around with people, at least now there are no bandits within a hundred and ten miles of Jinan City. So far, Ao Canghai's military strength has been able to ensure social order in these 100 miles.

There is no way, the bandits in Shandong are not only fierce, but also very cunning. That really calls an enemy advance and I retreat, the enemy retreats and I advance, the enemy is tired and disturbed, and the enemy is trapped and I fight. As long as Ao Canghai takes people out, the bandits will definitely hide far away in the mountains.

After Ao Canghai swept around without a harvest, he retreated, and these guys came back to kill. Not only that, but there are often some things like stumbling horses on the road. As for the trivial villagers stealing the army's things at night, it is even more commonplace. When you are bold, you even dare to sneak up on the sentries.

When Ao Canghai was so angry that he died, these guys disappeared into the mountains again. After all, the bandits are all natives and are extremely familiar with the terrain, and Ao Canghai is the standard foreign population.

The soldiers were exhausted from the continuous campaign. These guys came out of the mountains and shot black guns, so that Ao Canghai didn't have the slightest temper.

Li Xiao could only take the latest two companies of equipment from Yuan Chonghuan's hands. Priority equipment was given to Ao Canghai, and after the Battle of Dahushan in Montenegro, Liaodong should be stopped for a while.

"Then we have to do it as soon as possible, Shandong's top priority now is to suppress bandits. If you don't eradicate the bandits, it's a joke to live and work in peace. Li Xiao looked at the black team and shook his head helplessly.

In Li Xiao's eyes, Shandong is simply a waste waiting to be revived. Tattered official roads, numb villagers, greedy landlords. There are also those bandits who do all kinds of evil and specialize in robbery.

No wonder Zhu Youzhen repeatedly said that he should take Shandong very well. It's a fucking mess, a mess that can't be worse.

The two of them were talking, and suddenly several cavalry horsemen rushed on the official road. When he was a hundred and ten meters away from Li Xiao, he was stopped by the soldiers. After a while, Roast Chicken took a fire-lacquered letterhead to Li Xiao.

Li Xiao glanced at the letterhead in his hand, and his face changed.