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 trembling.

The bearers stopped carrying the sedan and stood beside it 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, and took the servants around him 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 in miserable condition. Their number was reduced by more than half, and there were not as many as the policemen on the side.

"My subordinate is incompetent and failed to take down the iron field. Please punish me." Han Baihu knelt on one knee in front of Li Huaixin and cried.

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 softly.

The end result of an inevitable bandit suppression was not that his garrison camp was too weak, but that the Hutou Village bandits were really too strong.

Lingqiu has shown such a strong force, and I don't know whether it is 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 who escorted 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 dental 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 must be killed to produce 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, will you?"

"It's impossible. After losing the battle, you can still bring back so many bandits' heads. You must have won the battle."

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 would immediately go 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 defend himself. He will have to give away more than half of the money he has accumulated over the years to gain peace.

For him, this bandit suppression cost him his wife and lost his troops.

"These are all the heads of the Hutou Village bandits!" Xu Youcai saw a car full of heads. His stomach was churning and 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 thugs from Xu's iron farm.

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 in the car. His scalp was numb when he saw them, and he couldn't even hide in time.

, where will I 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 filled with heads.

During the cold winter, the blood stains on people's heads had frozen, and a thin layer of bloody ice floated on top. 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.

"Sir, 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 absolutely nothing wrong with it."

Xu Youcai glanced at Li Huaixin and saw that he was speechless. He slowly walked towards the cart filled with heads with doubts in his heart.

When they got closer, Butler Xu pointed at the top human head and said, "Sir, 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 about it until his master personally confirmed it.
Chapter completed!