The few people who were excited just now fell silent.

The lake is gone, which means the drought here.

Su Yin and his group found a shady place where the sun didn't shine.

After putting down all the luggage, Butcher Yang and his son Zhou Youcai drove the cattle, horses and mules to the dried-up lake to graze.

The women prepared the resting area, while the others built a fire and cooked.

Everyone had a clear division of labor and started to get busy.

When the Zhang family saw Su Yin and the others stop to rest, they were so happy that they felt energetic.

"Finally I can take a breath." The third son's wife pounded her legs again.

The Zhang family also drove the livestock to the grassland, while the others were busy with their own things.

Nan Jingzhi and his group arrived soon after.

After Su Yin finished her breakfast, she prepared to keep watch while the others rested, with one person taking a turn at guard every hour.

It was nice to rest here, but in order to avoid any trouble, Su Yin did not plan to stay long. He rested for two and a half hours and set off in the afternoon.

Everyone took the time to sleep.

At the same time, in the soldiers' camp of Hui'an Prefecture, mahjong was placed on the table, and wine bottles and melon shells and fruit peels were scattered on the ground. Some people had already passed out drunk on the table, and the others were also bleary-eyed. In the backyard, it was even more decadent, with men and women mixed together, falling to the ground and snoring.

The night watchman on the tower woke up, looked at his companion beside him, nudged him with his elbow, and asked, "Have Li Jiu and the others returned?"

I was too sleepy last night and fell asleep, so I don’t know whether they returned to the city.

The companion muttered in dissatisfaction, "At this time, they should have returned to the city a long time ago."

After saying that, he turned over and continued to sleep.

Are you back?

How come I don’t have any impression of it at all? Did I sleep so deeply last night?

The soldier guarding the city went down the city wall and went to the camp. He was already accustomed to the chaos in the camp.

He looked around but didn't see Li Jiu and his gang.

Could it be that the group of people got some benefits and went directly to Xiangcui Tower?

When I think of this, I feel unbalanced.

It seemed like the group of people yesterday were all fat sheep, it was a pity that it wasn't his turn, otherwise he would have had a share.

I hope that the newcomers today will be as fat as yesterday.

He walked towards the toilet at the back, passed by the stable, and looked at the stable with only a few horses tied up. His mind suddenly cleared up and he realized something was wrong.

Li Jiu and the others did not come back, and did not come back all night.

He didn't dare to delay and didn't even have time to urinate. He hurried to the main house in the backyard and knocked on the door, risking the general's anger.

Sure enough, the general's angry voice came from inside.

"Damn it! Who disturbed my sweet sleep so early in the morning?"

"My lord, something terrible has happened."

Before the door was opened, the person outside the door hurriedly reported, "Li Jiu and his group did not return home all night."

If someone does not come home overnight, there are two possibilities.

The first possibility is that Li Jiu and his group escaped, taking away the belongings they had taken from the fat sheep.

The second possibility is that they were killed by the group of fat sheep.

He would rather believe the first one.

The probability of the second possibility was too small. It was not that he looked down on those fat sheep, but those people were all digging for food in the fields. If the horses rushed over, they would be defeated in a few moves. Killing them would be as easy as cutting vegetables and melons.

The door was opened and a bearded man walked out, naked from the waist up, with a fierce look in his eyes. "What did you just say?"

The soldier guarding the city was a little timid, "That Li Jiu and his men didn't come back last night."

"impossible."

Li Jiu is his confidant and there is no way he can escape.

"My Lord, there are no horses of theirs in the stable."

The general's face was gloomy. "Take a few people to look for it, and come back to report before the sun sets."

"yes."

The soldier left immediately, called a few brothers, and rode out of Hui'an Prefecture on horseback, heading towards Anping County.

The group hurried along the way, occasionally seeing a few scattered refugees, but they did not stop.

If it were in the past, there would definitely be a fight for it.

They rode for about half an hour but found no trace of Li Jiu and his group, and there were no signs of fighting on the road.

It shouldn’t be possible. Would that group of fat sheep go that far?

"Do you want to move forward?"

"Keep going! If you haven't found it before noon, then turn back."

A group of three people rushed past an intersection, but soon they turned back because they did not see any horseshoe prints ahead.

When the three men retreated to the intersection, one of them dismounted, walked to the path, and squatted down to check.

“There are horse hoof prints here.”

This path leads to an abandoned village. They naturally don't know that this is a confusing method left by Nan Jingzhi to prevent the pursuers from tracking them down. It is safer for them to delay for a while.

"Go on, go in."

The three of them walked quickly towards the abandoned village at the end of the mountain road.

An hour later, the three men returned from the village and walked towards the original official road in a rage. It was already past noon.

After walking for about an hour, they finally discovered something was wrong.

It wasn't the presence of anything left on the ground, but the smell of blood in the air that caught their attention.

The three men dismounted and began to search.

Sure enough, they found bloodstains in the grass.

"There's blood here."

“Here, too.”

"Brother Shan, there are traces of dragging here. It seems that they were dragged into the woods."

They followed the trail into the woods.

Soon they saw twenty corpses behind a huge rock. Who else could these people be but Li Jiu?

The three looked at the twenty corpses in shock, and couldn't help but be glad that they didn't go out hunting yesterday.

"Brother Shan, Li Jiu and the others are all dead."

This is incredible.

"Let's go back and report."

As soon as he got on the horse, he thought of something, "Wait, my stomach hurts a little. Please wait a moment."

He dismounted in a hurry and quickly returned to the spot where the twenty bodies were dumped. He found Li Jiu's body and began to search it, even inside his shoes and socks, but still couldn't find a single cent.

Grass!

That group of people took advantage of him and didn't leave him a penny.

He knew that Li Jiu had a habit of stuffing money in his shoes and socks. He thought they wouldn't find it, but he didn't expect that the group would find even this.

You can tell at a glance that he is not a novice.

That group is not easy to deal with. If we go back so early, given the general's character, he will definitely hunt down those fat sheep.

And these people of ours will have to go out and confront them.

Looking at the way Li Jiu and his men died, he didn't think that group of people were so easy to deal with. He might even end up in their hands.

Therefore, he was not in a hurry. He just went back slowly and delayed the time. He just hoped that the group of people would go faster and not be caught up by them. In that way, he could explain to the general.

In the dried-up lake basin, Su Yin and his companions had packed their luggage and were ready to set off.

In the bushes on one side of the valley, several skinny men with bloodshot eyes were staring at them, especially the younger children in the team.