Hearing that the person coming was a bandit from Hutou Village, the city gate officer hurriedly backed away, widening the distance between him and Zhao Yutu. At the same time, he drew his sword and looked at Zhao Yutu and the others behind him warily.
Some passers-by who had come to watch the excitement fled away after hearing the words "bandit in Hutou Village".
Some passers-by looked puzzled. The bandits from Hutou Village were wiped out earlier. The whole city was aware of the uproar, and government notices were posted. How could there be bandits from Hutou Village and come to the county seat? .
Compared with the confusion of passers-by, the city gate officer was the general commander of the garrison and knew very well the whole story of going to Hutou Village to suppress the bandits. The ones who were killed were not the bandits of Hutou Village at all, but the thugs from the Xujia iron yard.
The government notices and the heads of those who falsely claimed to be bandits from Hutou Village were all things to deceive the people and should not be taken seriously.
Zhao Yutu did not panic because his identity was exposed by Wang Wu. He smiled and said: "The military master misunderstood. This low-class person comes from Dongshan Iron Field, how can he be a bandit from Hutou Village? Besides, the bandits from Hutou Village have been wiped out not long ago. If the people below are really the remnants of the Hutou Village bandits, how can they escort the wanted criminals to the county?"
These words were reasonable and well-founded, and others nodded in agreement.
The passers-by who were watching the excitement all felt that what the man on horseback said was reasonable. How could a bandit come to the door on his own initiative? He also escorted important criminals wanted by the government to the county seat.
"Sir, don't listen to his deception. They are really bandits from Hutou Village. They just cleaned up the Xu family's village outside the city last night. If you don't believe it, you will know after you send someone to take a look outside the city." Wang Wu shouted, I was afraid that the gate officials guarding the city gate would not believe me.
The bandit standing next to Wang Wu swung a fire gun and smashed the end of the fire gun at Wang Wu's door.
Wang Wu wanted to dodge, but was held down by two bandits. He watched helplessly as the butt at the end of the gun hit him in the mouth.
The gangster showed no mercy and hit Wang Wu several times with the butt of his gun. His teeth fell to the ground, his mouth was full of blood, and he could not speak clearly.
It wasn't over yet. The bandits on the side tore off a piece of cloth from Wang Wu's body and stuffed it directly into Wang Wu's mouth.
Wang Wu wanted to struggle, but his hands were tied, and bandits held him down, preventing him from breaking free.
The other villagers who were escorted together looked at Wang Wu sympathetically, but no one thought about helping him, leaving him to be picked off by the bandits from Hutou Village.
These Zhuang Ding who were escorted to the county seat were accompanied by two or three bandits from Hutou Village. Even if they wanted to help each other, they did not dare to do so for fear of being punished by the bandits from Hutou Village.
The city gate officer did not relax because of Zhao Yutu's words. He still held the knife in his hand tightly and looked nervous.
He has his own judgment.
He didn't think much about it at first, but after being reminded, he noticed that the team in front of him carried many blunderbuss.
As the general banner guarding the camp, he naturally knows that the Hutou Village bandits are good at using bird cannons. In the entire Lingqiu, I am afraid that the Hutou Village bandits are the ones who use the most bird cannons.
Discovering this, he was 90% sure that the bandits in front of him were from Hutou Village.
But he didn't dare to take action. There was only one soldier with a small flag beside him, and he was the only one wearing armor. It was a worn-out cotton armor. Facing more than thirty bandits from Hutou Village, he didn't think he had any chance of winning. .
Especially the bandits with blunderbuss in their hands made him even more wary.
Back on Hutouzhai Mountain, he saw with his own eyes the power of firing hundreds of gunshots. After only two rounds, more than a hundred Xujia iron farm thugs were killed on Hutouzhai Mountain.
Compared with the cannons used by the government army, the cannons used by the Hutou Village bandits were too fierce. He did not want to follow in the footsteps of those people.
Seeing that the city gate official still refused to give way, Zhao Yutu's face darkened and he said, "I'm escorting the important criminals to see the officials. Could it be that the military master wants to wait for the magistrate to come in person before letting us enter the city?"
The city gate official hesitated.
A soldier standing next to him whispered: "Sir, let them enter the city. The two great masters said that the bandits in Hutou Village have been wiped out. We blocked the people at the gate of the city. If someone with ulterior motives spreads the news, I'm afraid the guards will guard you." It doesn’t look good, and besides, there are only a few dozen people entering the city, so they can’t afford to make any trouble.”
Hearing this, the city gate official was startled and broke into cold sweat.
Only then did he remember that no matter whether these people in front of him were bandits from Hutou Village, at least the two adults in Lingqiu County claimed that the bandits of Hutou Village had been wiped out. At this time, because of his relationship, it led to the fact that the bandits of Hutou Village had not been wiped out. Rumor has it that if the blame comes down from above, he, a small flag officer, will not be able to withstand the anger of these two adults.
Thinking of this, he suddenly laughed and said: "Haha, the bandits in Hutou Village have been wiped out long ago. I saw with my own eyes that they brought back a cart full of heads. A major criminal dares to bewitch me. He really deserves to be killed."
With a wave of his hand, he led the soldiers guarding the city gate to move out of the way.
"You have wasted a lot of time here, hurry up and enter the city!"
"Thank you, Master." Zhao Yutu cupped his hands on the horse, then tugged on the reins and said, "Drive!"
The horse walked towards the city with small steps.
The captain who was escorting Wang Hu and others, when passing by the city gate officer, took out a piece of silver and threw it over, saying, "Master, take this for tea."
After receiving the money, the city gate official was overjoyed.
It's a tael of silver for free, it would be better if you have it every time.
He had also figured out the matter of the Hutou Village bandits entering the city. As long as they did not come to attack the county, the Hutou Village bandits could enter and exit the city gates at will. Even the two adults claimed that the Hutou Village bandits had been wiped out. He, a small general, There is no need to offend this group of strong men on Hutou Village Mountain.
There was no excitement to see. Passers-by near the city gate followed one after another into the city, and pedestrians who were preparing to leave the city also left the city.
Although a team of dozens of people walking on the streets of the city is conspicuous, it does not attract much attention.
Many of the caravans that often come to the county are teams of dozens of people, and there are even more caravans that go in and out of the city.
But if there were more than a dozen people in the team who were strung together with ropes like prisoners and pulled by horses through the streets, they would attract more attention.
The team walked on the street, attracting more and more pedestrians. Many people stopped to watch at the entrances of the shops on both sides of the street and on both sides of the street.
Zhao Yutu was riding a tall horse, followed by dozens of big men with weapons. He knew at a glance that the master was not easy to mess with, so no one dared to get close, and they all watched from a distance.
There were bored idlers on the street, so they simply followed the team and arrived outside the county government office.
"Go and beat the yamen drum." Zhao Yutu said on horseback.
A bandit walked to the yamen door, picked up the drumstick, and beat the yamen drum placed outside the door.
Dong dong dong...
As the drums sounded, there was a noise inside the yamen.
A servant from the Yamen ran out and said dissatisfiedly: "Who is playing the drum?"
As soon as he showed his head, the yamen servant saw dozens of adults holding weapons standing outside the yamen. He shrank his neck in fear, returned to the yamen again, and closed the door.
After a short time, the door of the government office was reopened, and a dozen government officials holding water and fire sticks walked out.
One of the leading officials shouted: "Whoever dares to cause trouble in front of the county government office, I will arrest you and put you in jail now."
