"Captain, the horse bandits have retreated on their own initiative. Do we want to pursue them?"
Outside the forest, a rider of the tiger-character flag horse team looked at Lao Wu beside him.
Lao Wu looked at the horse bandits retreating from the forest and said, "There is no need to chase them. Our mission is to return to Lingqiu safely. Since these horse bandits retreated on their own initiative, there is no need for us to provoke them."
"Yes." The rider nodded.
Lao Wu was riding on horseback, looking through the sparse forest, until he saw the horse bandits walking away and disappearing from sight, then he said, "Notify the convoy and continue on the road. As the sentry riders of the convoy, we must be more vigilant." , don’t let the horse bandits take advantage of the opportunity and sneak attack our convoy.”
Except for one of the dozen or so riders who returned to the convoy to deliver a message, the rest of the riders dispersed to guard against any other moves by the horse bandits.
Pan Yi, who was lying behind the cart, noticed the movement in the direction of the forest and said, "Captain, the horse bandits seem to have retreated on their own."
Zhang Sancha, who was also behind the cart, naturally saw it.
After the horse bandits exited the woods, they did not come in the direction of their motorcade, but left in the opposite direction.
Pan Yi said with regret, "I thought the horse bandits on the grassland were so powerful, but I didn't expect them to be so naive. They ran away with their tails between their legs as soon as they met."
Zhang Sancha glanced at Pan Yi, who was full of complaints, and said, "Don't give me any trouble. Our mission is to return to Lingqiu smoothly, not to wipe out the horse bandits on the grassland."
While speaking, he turned back and glanced at Wang Qifu, who was in custody.
I somewhat doubted whether these horse bandits were secretly recruited by Wang Qifu in order to prevent them from the Tiger Character Banner from bringing back to Lingqiu the news of their cooperation with Qingcheng.
The thought passed away in a flash.
Looking at Wang Qifu's panicked look, his whole body was trembling, as if he had no idea that he would encounter horse bandits on the way back.
Zhang Sancha felt that this matter had nothing to do with the Fan family. Maybe it was really the horse bandits who were eyeing their motorcade.
Tap tap tap
Accompanied by the sound of horse hooves, a fast horse came to the front of the car formation and shouted, "The horse bandits have retreated, and the caravan can continue on its way."
After shouting three times in a row, the rider left.
Zhang Sancha said to Pan Yi, "Let me know and continue on your way."
After the incident with the horse bandits, the people in the Fan family's motorcade were obviously much more honest. Even Wang Qifu no longer looked for Zhang Sancha and allowed Zhang Sancha to command the entire motorcade.
In the evening, the convoy stopped and camped beside a mountain.
As before, the Fan family workers ate the food brought by their own team, and were clearly separated from the people with the Tiger Flag in two different places, each guarding their own campfire.
Zhang Sancha was holding his own big teapot with pancakes soaked in broth in one hand. He was holding an iron spoon in the other hand and was eating spoonful after spoonful.
Not only him, but other Tiger Flag soldiers were the same, holding a teapot in one hand and a spoon in the other to eat.
As a sentinel rider, Lao Wu returned to the camp later, just in time to catch up with Zhang Sancha who was having dinner after returning from inspecting the camp.
"It's been several days, and I don't know if the people we sent back have seen the boss." Zhang Sancha looked worried.
The encounter with horse bandits during the day made him worry about the safety of the riders who returned to Lingqiu early.
Lao Wu squatted down with the teapot and said, "Don't worry, Tan Zaiwang and the others are not bad at riding. Even if they encounter horse bandits, they can return to Lingqiu safely."
"I hope nothing goes wrong." Zhang Sancha said to himself.
Lao Wu scooped up a piece of pancake with a spoon and ate it into his mouth. While chewing, he said, "The wound on Wang Qifu's face was caused by you."
Zhang Sancha lowered the teapot in his hand and said bitterly, "This bitch actually said that our head was beheaded and hung on the city wall. If the head hadn't told him repeatedly before coming here, he wouldn't let it go." Let’s fight with the Fan family, or I’ll have to kill him.”
After listening, Lao Wu nodded without saying a word.
He knew that Zhang Sancha was not lying.
Considering the status of Mr. Liu in the eyes of Zhang Sancha and others, Wang Qifu's daring to slander Mr. Liu is no different than seeking death.
"Master, Tan Zaiwang, who we sent to the grassland, is back."
When it was time to hold the lamp, Zhao Wu hurried from outside to Liu Heng's official room to report.
"Something happened on the grassland." Liu Heng's heart sank.
He knew that Tan Zaiwang was one of the riders sent to the grassland this time. Lao Wu and Zhang Sancha, who were leading the team, had not returned yet. Tan Zaiwang was the only one who had returned. His first reaction was that something had happened to the man sent to the grassland.
Zhao Wu hurriedly said, "Captain Zhang and the others are fine. Tan Zaiwang was sent back by Lao Wu in advance to report the news."
Liu Heng breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that nothing happened to the team on the grassland. He said, "It's good that nothing happened. Bring the people here just to hear what happened to the team sent to the grassland."
"Yes." Zhao Wu retreated.
Not long after, Zhao Wu brought Tan Zaiwang to the official room.
"My subordinates pay their respects to the master." As soon as he came in, Tan Zaiwang stood upright with his legs crossed and saluted with his right arm across his chest.
At this time, Tan Zaiwang's eye sockets were sunken, his cheeks were sunken, and he was obviously much darker and thinner.
"No need to be polite, sit down. It looks like you haven't had dinner yet." Liu Heng stood up from his seat, walked over, and personally helped Tan Zaiwang sit down.
"Thank you for your understanding, Master. I'm not too hungry yet." Tan Zaiwang said hurriedly.
"Lies." Liu Heng said, then looked at Zhao Wu and said, "Isn't there meat porridge tonight? Bring a bowl over and put more minced meat."
Zhao Wu retreated.
"Master, you really don't need to go to such trouble. I can just take a few bites after my subordinates go back." Tan Zaiwang's eyes were slightly red.
Helping him sit down and having someone get him something to eat were just small things, but they made his heart warm, his eyes hot, and he was so moved that he almost cried.
Liu Heng usually has to work until very late before resting. He gets hungry easily in the middle of the night and eats something to fill his stomach at night, so he always keeps cooked meat porridge in the kitchen, which he can eat as soon as he takes it out.
Soon, Zhao Wu came back with warm meat porridge in a teapot and handed it to Tan Zaiwang with both hands.
Tan Zaiwang took the teapot filled with meat porridge. His Adam's apple squirmed and he resisted eating.
Seeing this, Liu Heng smiled and said, "It doesn't matter, just eat. It's just prepared for you. If you have anything to say, we'll talk about it after you finish eating."
"Yes." Tan Zaiwang agreed.
He had only eaten two pieces of dry biscuits since morning, and he had been hungry for a long time. Now that he had the permission of the master, he couldn't help but eat big.
The meat porridge in the teapot is warm and not hot at all.
Tan Zaiwang bit the edge of the teapot with his lips, and used a spoon to push the meat porridge inside into his mouth to eat.
Most of the tea jar's meat porridge quickly went down his stomach.
"Is it enough? If not, I will ask someone to get you some more." Liu Heng said gently to Tan Zaiwang.
"That's enough, that's enough, Hiccup"
Tan Zaiwang couldn't help but burp as he ate too quickly just now.
