Li Huaixin and his army had just arrived at Hutou Village when they saw many people coming in their direction from a distance, but they could not see clearly because they were too far away.
Wang Tong, who was walking at the front of the team, worried: "Sir, could it be that the bandits from Hutou Village didn't want to let us go at all. They first tricked us into going down the mountain, and then surrounded us on the road."
Li Huaixin frowned and said, "Send a detective horse over to see who is in front of us."
"Yes." Wang Tong took the order and arranged for the servants on horseback to explore the way ahead.
"How can these bandits not keep their word?" Guo Binchang, who was sitting in the sedan chair, was furious and his body was shaking.
Several bearers stopped carrying the sedan and stood beside the sedan with nervous expressions.
It didn't take long, and the few cavalry sent out turned back.
"Reporting to your lord, it's Han Baihu and Shi Baotou."
"Go over and have a look." Li Huaixin said, leading his servants on horseback to leave the army first.
When he came closer, he saw that Han Baihu and his soldiers who he sent to Dongshan were all miserable. Their number was reduced by more than half, and there were not as many as the police officers on the side.
"My subordinate is incompetent and failed to win the iron field. Please punish me." Han Baihu knelt on one knee in front of Li Huaixin and spoke with tears in his voice.
Li Huaixin was not surprised by this, because he himself was forced by the bandits in Hutou Village to sign a document.
"How many people were lost?" Li Huaixin's voice was low.
Han Baihu lowered his head and said: "Almost one general banner, about fifty people."
"Okay, get up and go back to the city with the army first." Li Huaixin sighed lightly.
A must-win campaign against bandits ended up not because his garrison camp was too weak, but because the bandits in Hutou Village were really too strong.
Lingqiu showed such a strong force, and he didn't know whether it was good or bad for Lingqiu's defense.
Before the sun went down, Li Huaixin returned to Lingqiu County.
Most of the battalion soldiers were brought back to the garrison camp by Chen Yusheng. Only some of the servants followed Li Huaixin into the city, along with the large cart of human heads and a general flag soldier escorting the human heads.
As soon as Guo Binchang entered the county town, he separated from Li Huaixin and returned to the county government under the escort of the police officers brought by Shi Baotou.
The news that the Lingqiu garrison camp sent troops to suppress bandits has been making a lot of noise for several days. Many people saw it when the troops were sent out. When they came back this time, they attracted a lot of excited people.
Li Huaixin entered the city through the East City Gate. Not far from the East City Gate was a tooth shop in Lingqiu.
Several dental shop clerks stood in front of the shop, pointing at the carload of heads escorted by the soldiers.
"My mother, how many bandits have to be killed to get such a large car of heads."
"After killing so many bandits, why do these Qiu Ba look like defeated bears? They might as well be full of energy when they left the city."
"You won't suffer defeat, right?"
"Impossible. After losing the battle and bringing back so many bandits' heads, we must have won."
There was a lot of discussion in front of the Yahang Gate, but the sound was not loud and could only be heard by a few people in front of the Yahang Gate.
The Xu family has always arranged for people to guard the city gate. When the army and bandits came back, someone immediately went to the Xu family to deliver a message.
As soon as Li Huaixin led his troops to the gate of the garrison, Xu Youcai came over in a carriage.
"Congratulations to Mr. Li for returning victoriously." Xu Youcai got off the carriage and came to Li Huaixin with a smile.
"It turns out to be Mr. Xu." Li Huaixin responded calmly.
At this time, his hatred for Xu Youcai was no less than that of the bandits in Hutou Village. If Xu Youcai hadn't been jumping up and down, he would not have led his troops to Hutou Village to suppress the bandits, nor would he have been defeated by the bandits and forced to sign a document and stay. handle.
Although this document may not kill him, if it falls into the hands of someone with intentions, he will definitely not be able to complete his defense. He will have to give away more than half of the money he has accumulated over the years to possibly gain peace.
For him, this time the bandit suppression cost him his wife and lost his troops.
"These are all the heads of the Hutou Village bandits!" Xu Youcai's stomach churned when he saw the car's heads. He felt a little uncomfortable, but he was in a happy mood.
After wiping out Hutou Village, the Xu family was relieved. More importantly, with the coke ironmaking technology, the Xu family could overwhelm several other ironworks in Dongshan. From now on, his family would have the final say in Dongshan.
"Yes, these heads were all brought back from Hutou Village." Li Huaixin had a sneer on his lips. He really wanted to know what Xu Youcai's expression would be if he knew that these heads were the heads of Xu's iron farm thugs.
Xu Youcai said to the housekeeper beside him: "Go over and see if there are any bandits in the car who robbed our Xu family's caravan."
"This... Master, since Mr. Li said that these heads were brought back from Hutou Village, it must be right." Butler Xu looked at the densely packed heads on the car. His scalp was numb, and he couldn't even hide in time. , I will take the initiative to go there.
"There's so much nonsense, get over here quickly." Xu Youcai glared at Butler Xu, and then added in a low voice, "Don't let them get away with it by killing good people and taking credit for their merits."
The voice was very low, so that only Butler Xu could hear it.
Butler Xu had no choice but to suppress his nausea and step by step closer to the cart full of heads.
After several cold winters, the blood stains on people's heads had frozen, and a thin layer of bloody ice floated on them. Along the way from Hutou Village, the smell of blood had almost dissipated.
Butler Xu carefully turned over the top human head, and immediately froze, rubbed his eyes with his hands, took another look, and found that he had seen it correctly, and hurriedly ran towards Xu Youcai.
"Master, what's wrong, there's a head in the car that seems to be that of Mr. Xu." Butler Xu looked panicked.
"Nonsense, Xu Laosi went to Hutou Village with Mr. Li to suppress bandits, how could he become a bandit?" Xu Youcai scolded.
Over the years, the Xu family has raised more than a hundred thugs in the iron field. This time, he asked Mr. Xu to take them to Hutou Village to assist the army in suppressing the bandits. .
In his mind, with so many thugs in the iron field, nothing could happen to Xu Laosi. Even if the army attacked them, they might not be able to take advantage.
Seeing that his master didn't believe it, Butler Xu said anxiously: "Sir, it's really Mr. Xu, there's nothing wrong with him."
Xu Youcai glanced at Li Huaixin and saw that he was speechless. He slowly walked towards the cart full of heads with doubts in his heart.
When they got closer, Butler Xu pointed at the top human head and said, "Master, look, is it Mr. Xu?"
Xu Youcai looked over.
When he saw the appearance of Xu Laosi on the head, he was stunned for a moment and his face looked a little ugly.
"I'm opening a few heads." Xu Youcai said to Butler Xu.
Butler Xu grabbed the hair on the head with his hands, opened several heads one by one, and faced Xu Youcai.
Li Huaixin, who was standing outside the gate of the garrison, did not stop him from beginning to end and allowed the two people to play around.
When Butler Xu opened the fifth head, Xu Youcai suddenly said: "Stop!"
Xu Youcai walked over, took a closer look, and said to Butler Xu, "Is this person from our iron farm?"
"He's from our iron farm." Butler Xu nodded.
He had already discovered it when he opened the second head, but he didn't say anything until his master personally confirmed it.
Xu Youcai walked up to Li Huaixin with a sullen face and said coldly: "Master Li, why are members of my Xu family here? Do you need to give me an explanation?"
