When Lu Xiaomei arrived at the house, she saw that Li Qianqian had already gone there, so she didn't go to the cave entrance but stayed inside the house instead.

When the able-bodied men reached the cave entrance, Village Chief Xu also rushed over and waved to everyone reassuringly, saying, "No need to rush, no need to rush, let's see how they cross the swamp first."

Then he shouted loudly from the group, "Gao Sheng, Niu San, tell the old man that the woman and child are hidden in a place no outsiders can find." He then called out the names of the young men who came over:

"Li Lei, Xu Fanyuan, Hu San, Gao Lei, Gao Yu, Hu Banxia, ​​the six of you stay at the foot of the mountain. If they come over, don't hold back. Each of you grab an axe and chop them down one by one. Do you understand?" Village Chief Xu said in a strong voice.

"Listen carefully," the six men shouted in unison, and one of them grabbed an axe and ran down the mountain.

Once they reached the foot of the mountain, they each found a thick tree and hid behind it. Then they heard someone shout from the opposite side, "It's here! There are signs of fire."

The scholar stepped forward and examined the marks, which were clearly from burning the swamp. He pulled on the reins and returned to the team. He went to the centurion and whispered in his ear, "We can lay down firewood and then step on it to cross the swamp without sinking in."

The centurion, still recovering from his injuries, turned listlessly to the soldiers who had led him over and said, "Go and find some firewood."

A group of people rushed off to find firewood, but there was only a meadow down the mountain, and the meadow was full of wormwood.

Seeing that the group of people had only found wormwood and were wandering around aimlessly, Hei Zi shouted, "Go back to the village we came from and bring back some firewood!"