More than a dozen riders came down from Dongshan. The one walking in front was a big green horse with a satin-like mane and strong limbs. The horse's hoofs stepped on the gravel, making a clicking sound.
Chen Daqing, whose horse was half a horse behind Liu Heng, said: "Master, why didn't you ask Captain Jia to send a team of people to protect you just now? Although the government has experienced previous defeats, it is still stable for the time being and will no longer look for us. Hutou Village is in trouble, but the gentry in Lingqiu City are different, especially the Xu family. So many people died during the suppression of bandits, so they will inevitably do some desperate things."
Liu Heng said with a smile: "It's only ten miles from Dongshan to Hutou Village. It won't take us at least half an hour to get to Hutou Village. Besides, there are a lot of things going on in the iron yard. Two more iron furnaces have been added. Jia Liu has many guards. Not rich either.”
Chen Daqing said, "Master, why don't you go back this time, and my subordinates will select some skilled people from the intelligence team to act as bodyguards for the master."
Nowadays, the intelligence team is no longer the thirty-odd people it used to be. After several expansions, even Liu Heng does not know the specific number of people in the intelligence team, but Liu Heng knows that it will never be less than a brigade, or even more. .
Of course, most of the members of the intelligence team are members of the intelligence team and have little force, but the intelligence team has a team of intelligence team members who specialize in training in force and are used to carry out assassinations and other things.
Chen Daqing planned to choose the bodyguards for Liu Heng from among these people.
Liu Heng sat on the horse and thought for a while.
Nowadays, Hutou Village has offended quite a few people. Even the magistrate of Lingqiu and the garrison of Lingqiu who took his money may not have the intention to deal with him, but they just don’t have the ability for the time being, let alone Xu, the largest gentry in Lingqiu. family and some other Lingqiu gentry families.
A Dongshan iron farm, Hutou Village and he offended many gentry families in Lingqiu.
"When you return to Hutou Village, you will start to handle this matter." Liu Heng agreed to Chen Daqing's request for more guards. After all, it was to protect his own safety.
The more guards around you, the more safety you will have.
"Yes, I will take care of it when I get back." Chen Daqing nodded and listed this matter as the top priority.
Dongshan is not far from Hutou Village, and Liu Heng did not let the horse run too fast.
Although these people he brought can ride horses, they can only be said to be able to ride horses and cannot be regarded as real cavalry. Not to mention compared with Beilu, even if they are not taken in by the frontier army at night, they cannot compare. The riders of Hutou Village At most, they are considered infantry on horseback.
………………
"Coming, coming, people are coming." Xujiazhuang Ding noticed a horse team appearing on the official road.
Neither of the two Xujiazhuang men had seen Liu Heng, but the people walking on the official road from Dongshan to Hutou Village at this time were probably Liu Heng's group who came back from the Dongshan Iron Station.
"Go and have a look." Ma Yunjiu said, got up and walked up the hill.
The miners nearby were naturally brought along, because among the people present, he was the only one who had seen Liu Heng.
"It's Dongzhu Liu, yes, the one riding in the front is Dongzhu Liu." The miner recognized Liu Heng who was riding a horse on the official road at a glance.
Because the horse was not very fast, he could see very clearly.
"Chief Ma, it's up to you now. As soon as someone dies, we will take Leader Ma to Zhuangzi to get the silver immediately." The village man next to him said to Ma Yunjiu.
"No, isn't he supposed to be dead? How could he still be alive? Ma Yunjiu rubbed his eyes vigorously, as if he saw something incredible."
Zhuang Ding on the side asked puzzledly: "Chief Ma knows the people from Hutou Village?"
Ma Yunjiu ignored the village man and said to his men: "Get on the horse, let's go over and stop everyone on the official road. No one is allowed to do anything without an order."
After saying that, he was the first to turn over and sit on the horse.
Therefore, some of the horse bandits got on their horses one after another and rushed towards the official road behind Ma Yunjiu.
Two villagers from the Xu family were hiding behind the mountain bag. They came to confirm with their own eyes that Liu Heng was killed by the horse bandits.
Ma Yunjiu was once a personal soldier of the frontier general, and his equestrian skills were as good as Ye Buhui's.
After a distance of about a mile, they accelerated and appeared on the official road, blocking the cavalry team coming from the direction of the official road.
The horse bandits who came with Ma Yunjiu were all experienced. Although they did not take action, they surrounded them from both sides and trapped the horse team on the official road in the middle.
"The one in front is Brother Liu Heng." Ma Yunjiu looked at the young man on the big green horse in front of him and asked.
Without him asking, Liu Heng recognized Ma Yunjiu at a glance.
What he didn't expect was that not only were they not dead, but Ma Yunjiu was also not dead.
It can be seen that the content of the official list about the extermination of bandits was all nonsense. According to the content of the list, they were all beheaded, but now they are all alive and kicking.
If Shi Yunhu hadn't died, it could be said that none of the important leaders in the bandit camp had been captured by the officers and soldiers.
"It turns out to be a horse head." Liu Heng hugged his fists towards Ma Yunjiu.
Chen Daqing did not relax his guard because the person who appeared was Ma Yunjiu. He raised his hand to signal the others in the team to be on guard and confront the people brought by Ma Yunjiu.
Many of the old people following Liu Heng who had been in the bandit camp had met Ma Yunjiu, but they would not relax their vigilance just because Ma Yunjiu was the former leader of the Chinese army camp.
Many of the people Liu Heng brought were gunmen, but at this time the horse bandits had already surrounded them, and they had no time to load the gunpowder and lead. They only had time to draw the saber.
"I didn't expect that Brother Liu is still alive. I'm so happy to see Brother Liu here." Ma Yunjiu said with a smile on his face, but he was extremely surprised in his heart.
The miner himself said that there were nearly a thousand bandits on Hutoushai Mountain, and the leader was Liu Heng in front of him. If he guessed correctly, those thousands of bandits should be people from the rear camp and archer camp, and a large number of them. Refugees.
He couldn't help but sigh in his heart. When he, Shi Yunhu and others were besieged by the army, Liu Heng and others were obviously fine. They even escaped with others, established a firm foothold in Hutou Village, opened an iron yard, and lived a good life. It was much more comfortable than he and Shi Yunhu were in Daliang Mountain.
"Matou, my brother's Hutou Village is in front of me. Do you want to go sit on the mountain? Master Zhao and Li Li Shuheng of the Archer Camp are all here." Liu Heng invited Ma Yunjiu to go up the mountain.
Ma Yunjiu showed a hint of joy and said: "It turns out that you are all fine. It's really great. When the government released the results, Shi Dashi and I thought something had happened to you."
"Shi Yunhu is not dead?" Liu Heng was stunned.
He felt that Tianchengwei's officers and soldiers were too useless. The thousands of troops did not even capture an important leader of the bandit camp. Even Shi Yunhu who fell into the encirclement escaped.
Chen Daqing suddenly said at this time: "Captain Ma, since everyone is our own people, why don't you ask your people to retreat first?"
"This is..." Ma Yunjiu frowned.
"His name is Chen Daqing, and he used to be from the rear camp." Liu Heng introduced him, and then said, "Since we are all acquaintances, let's go back to the village together, and I will arrange for people to entertain you with wine and food."
Liu Heng noticed that the people brought by Ma Yunjiu were all members of the cavalry team of the Chinese Army Camp. Most of these people were from Ye Bushou, and they were all good at horse fighting.
The thought of wooing these people to go to Hutou Village came up in my mind.
If these people train the horse team for Hutou Village, I believe it won't be long before Hutou Village will have a real horse team.
