Three days later.
A tiger-character flag convoy set off from Xujiazhuang, heading towards Hutou Village under the banner of the tiger-character flag.
A large group of soldiers returning from the grassland guarded both sides of the convoy. Nearly a hundred cavalrymen from the Tiger Flag Cavalry were divided into two teams. One team walked in front of the convoy to clear the way, and the other team followed behind the convoy.
There were no pedestrians on the road, only this convoy walking on the road.
At the foot of Hutoushai Mountain, two teams of gunmen were guarding the entrance to the mountain, one on the left and the other on the right. Behind them stood a large flag with a tiger character.
The convoy came to a stop at the foot of the mountain from far to near.
"Shing Gun, welcome the brothers from the cavalry team home." A captain of the Fire Gun Team shouted.
boom! boom! boom……
The two firecrackers teams raised their cannons to the sky and fired the firecrackers in their hands.
The gunpowder is only filled with gunpowder and no lead. It is an empty gun and there is no danger of hurting anyone.
After firing the cannons, the two fire cannon teams stepped back, straightened their bodies, and stood neatly on both sides, leaving a way up the mountain.
The riders who came with the team dismounted and stood beside the horses.
Ma Yunjiu and the leaders of the cavalry walked to the cart.
"Brother, let's go home." Ma Yunjiu said softly, leaned forward, and picked up an urn from the cart.
"Brothers, we're going home." Nearly a hundred cavalry riders shouted in unison.
The breeze blew by, and the tiger-character flag on the cart was blown by the peak, revealing a big tiger character on it.
Twenty-seven urns were held in the arms of twenty-seven cavalry riders. The urns were covered with a folded tiger-character flag, with the tiger character exposed on the top.
Ma Yunjiu walked at the front with the urn in his hands, and the rest of the cavalry riders followed him, step by step, towards the road up the mountain.
"salute!"
The firecracker team standing at the entrance of the mountain road shouted loudly, raised their right arm across their chest, held the firecracker in their left hand, with the mouth of the gun facing upwards and the tail of the gun resting on the ground.
Almost at the same time, two teams of gunmen, seventy-six gunmen, neatly crossed their right arms in front of their chests and watched as twenty-seven urns were sent up the mountain.
Twenty-seven urns walked in the front, followed by the riders of the cavalry, holding the horses in their hands.
Behind them is Zhang Hong and his soldiers. Everyone is wearing armor and holding soldiers, walking up the mountain with the same steps.
In the open space in front of the cottage gate, the musketry team and the spear team were neatly arrayed, and the tiger crouching cannons of several artillery groups were placed in three rows.
"salute!"
When Ma Yunjiu appeared holding the urn, a soldier standing on the wall shouted loudly.
All the Tiger Flag soldiers who heard the sound raised their right arms and saluted at the same time.
Ma Yunjiu walked forward step by step with the urn in his arms, passed through the village gate, and walked in neat steps towards the former mountain temple, which was now renovated into the Hall of Merit.
Inside the village, there were Tiger-Character Soldiers standing on both sides of the road facing the gate of Gonglietang. Behind them were the directors of Dongshan Chamber of Commerce and several gentry in Lingqiu City who were close to Tiger-Character Banner.
More than a dozen family members of the deceased cavalry riders came, and many of them looked with tears in their eyes as the cavalry riders carried them into the urn at the gate of the village. Inside were their brothers, their children, and their husbands.
"Fire the cannon!" Li Shuheng, standing outside the door of the Hall of Meriters, shouted loudly.
The nine squatting tiger cannons in the open space outside the village fired their empty cannons one after another. Each of the squatting tiger cannons fired three times before stopping.
The coffin has been placed in the Hall of Meriters. Ma Yunjiu placed the urn in front of the coffin according to the name on the coffin, and also placed a wooden sign proving his identity on it.
After he finished all this, he exited the Gonglie Hall. Behind him, Lao Wu, Tan Zaiwang and others placed the urn in front of the coffin.
"Pay homage to the great master." Li Shuheng waited for everyone to exit the Hall of Merit before shouting again.
Liu Heng walked in front, followed by Chen Xunping and Zhao Yutu.
Walking into the Gonglie Hall, someone on the side handed over the newly lit incense.
Liu Heng, Chen Xunping and Zhao Yutu each held three sticks of incense, stood in front of the memorial tablet, bowed four times, and finally inserted the incense in their hands into the incense burner before exiting the Hall of Merit.
Several captains of the Thousand-Man Team, Huang Zhong and others from the Ordnance Bureau came to the Hall of Merit to worship one by one.
After all the people of the Tiger Flag had paid their respects, several directors of the Dongshan Chamber of Commerce and several shareholders who came on their own initiative picked up incense to pay homage to the memorial tablet.
After everyone paid their respects, Li Shuheng came to Liu Heng and whispered: "There are several family members of the dead riders who want to take away the ashes."
Regarding this matter, Liu Heng had already expected it and said: "If any relatives want to take away the ashes, let them take them back and record the name of the dead rider in the Hall of Merit."
Li Shuheng said clearly: "Okay, I will ask Zhao Yutu to arrange this matter, and I will also bring this month's compensation back to them."
"There's no rush to compensate them." Liu Heng raised his hand to stop him.
Li Shuheng looked over in confusion.
The compensation was something they had discussed before. He thought Liu Heng had regretted it, and he also felt that the compensation was too generous.
Liu Heng said: "We won't give the compensation yet. We will deliver it to everyone's home with great fanfare."
"I understand." Li Shuheng suddenly realized, and immediately said, "Then this time, Zhao Yutu will not be allowed to see the families of these riders, and I will be the one to receive them."
Liu Heng agreed: "This is the best."
Li Shuheng left to receive the families of the dead riders.
At this time, Zhao Wu came over and whispered: "The boss, Wang Qifu of the Fan family is here, and he has arrived at Xujiazhuang."
"The Fan family arrived faster than I expected." Liu Heng smiled and said immediately, "Let's go, things are almost done here, let's go meet Wang Qifu."
The horses had been prepared outside the village. As soon as Liu Heng came out, he rode to Xujiazhuang with Zhao Wu and other guards.
When he arrived at Xujiazhuang, Liu Heng handed the horse to the servants in the village and asked, "Where are the people from the Fan family housed?"
The servant said respectfully: "The person has been arranged in the side hall."
Liu Heng took Zhao Wu and several guards directly to the side hall.
As soon as he entered the side hall, he saw Wang Qifu sitting on the seat with his legs crossed, holding a tureen in his hand.
When Wang Qifu saw Liu Heng walking in, he looked bitter and said with dissatisfaction, "Dr. Liu, you have tricked me this time."
Liu Heng said in surprise: "What does Shopkeeper Wang mean by this? I don't quite understand."
"There are only two of us here, so you don't have to hide anything." Wang Qifu said, "Our boss asked me to come over. I hope Mr. Liu can give me an explanation."
"What on earth is going on? Shopkeeper Wang, please tell me clearly. I don't accept any unfounded things." Liu Heng pretended not to know.
Wang Qifu said: "Not long ago, our Fan family caravan went to the grassland and was robbed by your tiger-shaped flag. We had more than three thousand taels of silver in our goods."
Hearing this, Liu Heng's face sank and he said: "What does shopkeeper Wang mean by this? What does the robbery of the Fan family's goods have to do with our tiger-character flag? Besides, shopkeeper Wang said that the Fan family would never fight with Beilu." There is business going on, so how can the Fan family’s caravan go to the grassland?”
Wang Qifu choked.
When Liu Heng proposed to cooperate with her, he did say that the only business between the Fan family and Beilu was at the horse market, and there was no Fan family caravan going to the Beilu territory.
