Zhao Xingguo clearly had a hard time expressing himself, and was struggling to find what to say, but everyone automatically imagined for him a 3 million-word story of selflessness, braving the wind and rain at night to dig traps and fight against the enemy!

So even though he didn't say anything, Zhao Xingguo's status in everyone's mind became increasingly prominent.

Such a selfless and altruistic village chief is so adorable!

Therefore, every possible compliment that everyone could think of was directed at Zhao Xingguo. The way everyone looked at him changed. If normally everyone simply respected Zhao Xingguo, now everyone's gazes were filled with not only respect but also awe, intimacy, and a burning intensity never before seen.

Qin Suyun raised her eyebrows and noticed the changes in the expressions of everyone in the village.

She had already agreed with Zhao Xingguo and his son that she would help provide the materials and asked them to keep it secret and not tell anyone else so as not to cause unrest among the villagers.

After all, although the power of □□ is small, just the two words □□ are enough to make people afraid. She is a new resident who has just moved into the village not long ago, and it is not appropriate for her to be the first to stand out.

So Qin Suyun was not worried that Zhao Xingguo would tell all this to other villagers.

Although Zhao Xingguo's abilities were not outstanding, she knew very well that he cared about the village and wanted to make it better and stronger. She took out these things for the sake of the entire village. Even though Zhao Xingguo was a little apprehensive, he would definitely keep his promise and keep all of this in his heart.

"Cough cough cough..." Zhao Xingguo, under the pressure from everyone, coughed twice, trying to change the subject.

Someone in the crowd nearby took the initiative to change the subject. Their eyes sparkled as they asked, "Village Chief, where did He and □□ come from?! Why didn't you tell us before? They were hiding in the mountains to the west? Wouldn't it have been wasted if those people hadn't spotted them?"

Having watched so many battles against the Japanese devils on TV, this man immediately thought of the landmines buried underground.

"Hey, are you stupid?! You actually dare to ask the village chief such a stupid question? I think you're getting worse!" A middle-aged man nearby, who had a cigarette in his hand at some point, took two puffs and said quite proudly, "This thing is so powerful, the village chief must have gotten it from Chief Meng before. Otherwise, where do you think it came from? It can't have fallen directly from the sky, right?"

"That's right! This must be what Commander Meng gave to the village chief before he left!"

"No, I think the village chief should have asked Chief Meng for it before he left!"

Everyone in the crowd was chattering about these things. Just a moment ago, the atmosphere was tense as they were still on guard against the bandits outside who were coming to attack their village and rob them of their belongings. But now, it was as if they had all forgotten about the bandits and were now discussing where those powerful weapons had come from.

Several people argued over this until their faces turned red.

Zhao Xingguo looked at the development trend of the people in front of him and was dumbfounded for a moment. He opened his mouth wide and had no idea what to do next.

But as time went by, everyone finally concluded that Meng Changlong was worried about the safety of Wanxi Village when he left, so he took the initiative to leave two of those guys in the village.

"Village chief! Do you think I'm right? Did Commander Meng give you those things because he was afraid our village would be in danger?" A tall and thin young man waved a hoe in his hand excitedly, looking at Zhao Xingguo with bright eyes.

Zhao Xingguo waved his hands repeatedly, shaking his head like a rattle, and said, "No, no... That thing has nothing to do with Commander Meng. Don't talk nonsense. If you ruin Commander Meng's reputation, we can take revenge."

The army has its own rules. Although he is just a farmer in the countryside, he lives in a country with the strictest weapons control. Ordinary people cannot even touch the oldest and least powerful guns, let alone any guns. How could Meng Changlong, as the commander of a small military base, knowingly violate the rules?

"We can't just throw dirty water on Commander Meng. If the people above Commander Meng hear it, Commander Meng will be in trouble, right?" Zhao Xingguo warned everyone with a serious face, asking them not to talk nonsense outside.

This incident clearly has nothing to do with Commander Meng, and we cannot just put the blame on him casually.

But the more Zhao Xingguo denied all this, the more other villagers thought it was true. They even found reasons why the village chief denied that this matter was related to Chief Meng.

Someone in the crowd asked curiously, "If it wasn't Commander Meng, then where did it come from? Village chief, can you tell us where you got it? If possible, I'd like to get some too. I also want to protect the entire village like the village chief."

"this……"

Faced with other people's questions, Zhao Xingguo felt a little embarrassed. He was really not good at lying, so he could only look at the other party with some entanglement in his eyes.

Zhao Xingguo's face was full of confusion, and his embarrassed expression immediately caught the eyes of other villagers. The person who originally asked this question was immediately despised by the villagers next to him. Can't you see that you are causing trouble for the village chief?

The young man's father slapped him on the head and said angrily, "You've grown up, are you a fool? You still want to go to the village chief for such an obvious problem? It's simply a waste of my time raising you to this age. How come you are so useless?"

The young man looked at his father in confusion: "...??"

Why am I useless?

Seeing his son's stubbornness, the young man's father was furious. He slapped his thigh and said, "Don't you know who Commander Meng is? He's the leader of a military base, and he secretly gave these dangerous goods to our village chief. If anyone finds out and reports him, he will definitely be punished! Who knows, our village chief might be punished too! Do you want to see two such good people like Commander Meng and the village chief punished for what happened to those robbers?"

Young man: “???”

The young man's father was so angry that he blew his beard and glared. "Commander Meng took the risk and gave that thing to our village chief for our safety... The village chief also used the thing Commander Meng gave him to protect our people... They both did it for our own good. Do you want to watch Commander Meng and the village chief get caught and punished for this? What if Commander Meng is punished and can no longer serve as the commander of the nearby military base, and the village chief can no longer be the village chief of our village? So, don't mention this again! Let's pretend we know nothing! That way, we won't put Commander Meng and our village chief in danger!"

After listening to it, everyone nodded in unison, indicating that it was right, that was right, that was the truth!

The village chief and Officer Meng protected their safety, so they had to protect each other's safety as well! So this is a secret, and no one should tell anyone about it!

After their eyes met, everyone nodded meaningfully.

Zhao Xingguo, who had listened to the whole thing, explained awkwardly, "No...that thing really has nothing to do with Commander Meng. It really wasn't given to me by Commander Meng."

The villagers all pounded their heads in agreement, "That's right! That thing was indeed given to our village chief by Commander Meng! Village chief, don't worry, we won't tell anyone about this! We won't let you and Commander Meng fall into danger over such a small matter!"

Zhao Xingguo: “…”

Your expressions don't show that you believe it as much as you say!

Qin Suyun watched from the sidelines with amusement, but had no intention of stepping forward to stop them. Instead, she smiled at everyone as they thought about it. Although she didn't know why everyone thought this way, this was the best explanation so far.

…

"Okay, enough talking, we have to hurry and act!" Zhao Zhengde stood aside, clapped his hands, and turned everyone's attention to him. He said seriously, "Kill him while he's sick! Now that those guys have been blown up and are fleeing everywhere, we have to take advantage of this opportunity and arrest them all! If nothing else, at least we have to let them know that our Wanxi Village is not a place where they can come and go as they please!"

"We have to let them know that our Wanxi Village is not the backyard of these guys!" Zhao Zhengde's voice contained three parts of murderous intent and seven parts of anger.

When a group of people from the other side attacked their village last night, Zhao Zhengde was already furious.

These robbers came to their village to steal supplies.

Ultimately, they were just looking to pick on the weak. They chose to rob a poor mountain village like theirs, rather than the government troops. Wasn't it because they saw that their village had no guns or artillery and couldn't defeat them? Otherwise, how could these guys dare to come to their village and blatantly steal their food?

He even said in front of everyone in their village without any hesitation that he would slaughter all the people in their village and use them as two-legged sheep to serve as food for others!

This kind of words that did not treat them as human beings at all and instead treated the entire village as their private property directly hit Zhao Zhengde in the lungs. If it were not for them, the village's previous combat effectiveness was really weak. He really wanted to fight the other side to the death!

Now that the opportunity has come, how could Zhao Zhengde give it up?!

"Right! Then let's go over there and catch them off guard! It would be best to arrest all of them and let these guys suffer a little too!"

"That's right! If these guys dare to attack our village, they must be prepared to pay the price with their lives! Let them know that our Wanxi Village is not to be trifled with!"

There were many people in the crowd who had the same idea as Zhao Zhengde, and each of them was as angry as Zhao Zhengde was before.

The reason these guys picked on them is because they think they are few in number and weak in combat effectiveness, right?

But now…

It is still uncertain who is weak and who is strong!

Encouraged by Zhao Zhengde, everyone picked up their weapons in unison. Even some timid women picked up their sickles. With angry and excited expressions on their faces, they followed the men in the village and headed directly towards the place where the sound came from!

…

At the same time, on the other side, a small group of people in plain clothes, but with a different spirit from ordinary people, were walking on the road at the entrance of Wanxi Village.

It is about one or two hundred meters away from Wanxi Village.

The tall man leading the group frowned. He looked up at the five-meter-high protective wall across from them and said seriously, "What's going on? I remember before we left, there wasn't any protective wall at the entrance of Wanxi Village, not even any guardrails. How come such a high protective wall has been built in the blink of an eye? Could something have happened in Wanxi Village?"

They encountered a lot of things on their way back.

"What you say is highly likely. Otherwise, why would they go to such great lengths to build such a protective wall for such a small village?" Beside the tall man, another man also frowned. "Let's go over and check out the situation. If the village entrance ahead is blocked, we can make a detour and enter through the nearby mountain."

"Everybody, let's hurry up and speed up! Let's see what's going on ahead!" The tall man frowned and shouted loudly. The group of people following behind him immediately quickened their pace to keep up with the tall man.

………

Li Yuan never expected that he would be captured so quickly.

It was a coincidence that, originally because of the □□, at least 70% of the people Li Yuan brought were hit, either directly hit or their clothes were ignited by the flying sparks. In short, at least 60% of the large group of people brought by Li Yuan ran away directly after seeing this situation. The remaining 40% were either seriously injured and unable to escape, or were unlucky people who did not have time to react. In the end, only about 20% really followed Li Yuan and wanted to stay.

However, these people had just been gathered together. Many of them joined Li Yuan's team just to make a living. Before Li Yuan had time to turn them all into loyal followers, such a thing happened, so it was natural for them to escape.

Especially when Li Yuan was selecting people, he tried his best to pick men who could feed themselves and feed the whole family.

Such people would have no worries if they were sentenced to escape.

Only more than 60 defeated soldiers were left, and they were severely beaten by Zhao Xingguo and the villagers who rushed over. The big black guys bit those guys so hard that they cried for their parents and had almost no ability to resist. These more than 60 people were tied up like dumplings with the ropes brought by everyone.

"You guys are nothing but despicable villains! If you have the guts, just fight us directly! How can you be considered a hero if you use these inferior means to deal with us?!" Li Yuan's hands were tied behind his back with hemp ropes, and there were obvious marks on his face from being pressed to the ground and rubbed. He bared his teeth and spat viciously.

"It was you who first brought people to rob our village of its supplies, which is why we're in this situation. How dare you call us heroes?" Zhao Zhengde's face was filled with rage, and he kicked Li Yuan directly. "We've done our best by not killing you now!"