As the four policemen approached, they saw that the village entrance was indeed crowded with people, men, women, and children. There were elderly men and women with white hair and canes, children with runny noses, and young men and women carrying sickles and shovels.

The police officers exchanged glances and muttered to themselves. Before they came, Chief Chen had instructed them not to use force against the villagers since the details of the matter were still unclear. With that in mind, they smiled and asked, "Fellow villagers, why are you all standing at the village entrance?"

At this moment, an old man stepped forward. It was Li Jinshan, Li Jin's uncle. "Officer, just now, Team Leader Sun from the work group was joking with us. Who knew that things would accidentally escalate into a brawl? You know, in our rural area, fighting and joking around is quite common. Who knew that Team Leader Sun would get angry and say that he would arrest us all and send us to the labor camp for a good education? That's why we're waiting at the village entrance!"

"Sir, even if you're just fooling around, you can't beat someone up like that!" A policeman in his forties stepped forward and said gently, "Sir, let the person who did the beating come out and come with us to the police station to make a statement!"

"We've all fought, take us all away!" someone shouted from the crowd, followed by a chorus of voices, "Take me away too, I fought too!"

The police looked at the agitated crowd and had a headache. They couldn't possibly take all these hundreds of people away!

"Folks, don't get agitated! We're just asking the person who assaulted us to come along!"

Don't get too excited. You're all carrying weapons. Don't get so worked up that you hit us too.

The villagers of Lijiapo stood at the village entrance, blocking the police from entering. Li Kang stayed at home, keeping Li Jin from leaving, so Li Jin had no idea what was happening at the village entrance.

After a stalemate lasting for half a day, the police had no choice but to return to the police station and report the situation to Chief Chen.

Sun Zhiqing, who was waiting in the director's office, became agitated upon hearing this and slammed his fist on the table. "Send out all the police officers and arrest all those troublemakers! They're all part of the beating!"

Director Chen hesitated for a moment, then said, "Director Sun, the people are very agitated right now. If we force things, it could lead to a mass incident. Look, you only suffered minor injuries. Shouldn't we postpone this for a while...?"

Seeing Chen Yigan's nonchalant attitude, Sun Zhiqing stood up and sneered, "How could someone as incompetent as you become the director? Just you wait!"

After saying that, he got up and left. Chen Yi didn't stop him, probably because he was going to mobilize the militia.

Sure enough, more than an hour later, Sun Zhiqing led more than a dozen militiamen to the entrance of Lijiapo Village in a menacing manner. The people of Lijiapo who had been standing were all tired. Some were sitting on the ground, while others were leaning back to back.

"Arrest them all!" Sun Zhiqing waved his hand.

The militiamen looked at each other in bewilderment. There were only a dozen or so of us. How could we possibly arrest hundreds of people?

As soon as the Li family members saw Sun Zhiqing arrive, they immediately perked up and went into battle mode. "Team Leader Sun, how can you be so irritable? You were the one who joked first, why are you getting so worked up?"

Sun Zhiqing, fed up with the group of old men, stood behind the burly militiamen and shouted, "Who the hell is joking with you? Does anyone joke around and scratch someone's face until it bleeds?"

"Team Leader Sun, you scratched yourself in those bloody marks, didn't you? We didn't do anything underhanded!"

"Bullshit! Arrest them! Arrest them all!"

As soon as Sun Zhiqing finished speaking, two burly men, each about 1.8 meters tall, walked towards the Lijiapo brigade. The men of Lijiapo grabbed their shovels and spades, protecting the elderly and children behind them. A fight was about to break out.

"Stop—stop it, all of you!"

A sound came from afar, and everyone looked toward the source of the sound. They saw a jeep speeding toward them in the distance, and Li Xiangdong was leaning out of the window, shouting and waving his hands.

The car stopped quickly, and Li Xiangdong jumped out.

My God, didn't I already tell them to stay home and behave themselves? If the police ask, they should just say they didn't hit anyone. These days there are no security cameras, and no outsiders witnessed the beating. If I bring Liu Donglai over, this matter can probably be settled like this. But if they start fighting with the militia in public, that's going to be a real problem!

Li Xiangdong, panting heavily, quickly stopped Guo Daming, who was leading the way, "Brother Daming, why are you so impulsive! Didn't I tell you all to stay home?"

Guo Daming's hands were bulging with veins as he looked at Li Xiangdong and said, "We've all discussed it. This time, everyone was involved in the beating, so we can't let the team leader take the blame."

"Put down the shovel right now! If you fight with the militia, they really can arrest you!"

Li Xiangdong calmed Guo Daming down and then took the weapons from the others.

At this moment, Liu Donglai also arrived. He had been investigating the true extent of the disaster in other communes, but as soon as he returned to Brother Yan's house, he was stopped by Li Xiangdong, who asked him to hurry up and go to Lijiapo.

On the way, Li Xiangdong told Liu Dong the whole story. Liu Dong was furious, "Is this something the president should say?"

"Uncle Liu, everyone was really angry when they started fighting. We quickly pulled them apart. Sun Zhiqing looks like he's seriously injured, but he's actually fine."

"You can't just hit people! They're from the work group! You've really gone too far this time." Although he was furious about Sun Zhiqing's actions, Liu Donglai still severely criticized Li Xiangdong. Would hitting someone solve anything?

Li Xiangdong bowed his head and admitted his mistake, "Nobody expected this. Everyone panicked when they heard that Sun Zhiqing was going to take the food from them."

Liu Donglai looked very unhappy. He didn't want a mass violent conflict to occur in the county so soon after he took office.

Fortunately, the jeep was fast, and the two men arrived before the fight broke out.

Liu Donglai said to the militiamen who rushed up, "Put down your weapons and let's talk this out!"

Sun Zhiqing didn't recognize the person in front of him and frowned, "Who are you? Who gives you the right to speak here!"

"I am Liu Donglai, Secretary of the Huichuan County Party Committee and Director of the Revolutionary Committee!"

He figured his appointment would be finalized in the next couple of days, and he had a pretty good grasp of the real situation in Huichuan County. It was time to reveal his true identity.

"Huh?" Sun Zhiqing's mind raced. He hadn't heard that the new leader was coming at this time! Could it be that Li Xiangdong had sent someone to bluff him? But looking at the jeep the other party had driven, that wasn't something an ordinary person could get their hands on.

For a moment, Sun Zhiqing was filled with doubt, his eyes darting back and forth.

Just then, Hu Shusong arrived, panting heavily, and went straight to Liu Donglai. "Secretary Liu, why didn't you let us know you were coming? We could have picked you up!"