When Li Tian returned to Houqi Town, it was already evening, and he should have been able to return to the town in the afternoon, but something went wrong on the way.

Li Tian's return journey was to first climb two mountains and then pass through three villages.

These three villages are very large, and the population is much larger than that of Li Tian's small mountain village. The three villages were not far apart, and the one closest to Houqi was the largest.

When passing through the largest village, I happened to encounter a delivery convoy formed by the villagers spontaneously.

The convoy was a horse-drawn cart pulling goods, and it was not only horses but also donkeys and mules that pulled the carts.

Horses are more powerful and can withstand heavier loads, but they lack stamina. Donkeys and horses are the opposite, having a lot of stamina but not being able to carry too heavy loads.

The mule is a hybrid breed of horse and donkey, which has the advantages of both horses and donkeys, and is a good hand at pulling carts. But mules cannot be fertile, and if you want to breed mules, you need horses and donkeys to give birth together.

The convoy also delivered a variety of goods, among which the heaviest and most tiring goods were generally carried by mule carts.

These goods are to be pulled to Houqi Town to be sold. The villagers who formed the convoy were very kind-hearted, and after knowing that Li Tian was from a small mountain village and was also going to Houqi Town, they invited Li Tian to get on the donkey cart and rushed all the way to Houqi Town.

The situation is halfway through.

It must be mentioned here that the small mountain village where Li Tian's family lives is in the northwest direction of Houqi Town, and after crossing two mountains, it is due north of Houqi Town, and after passing through three villages, it comes to the northeast of Houqi Town.

There will be a small road from the northeast direction, which merges into the official road avenue to the east of Houqi Town, and finally Li Tian can enter the town through the east gate of Houqi Town.

As for why Li Tian didn't choose to start from the west gate of Houqi Town and go directly to the small mountain village in the northwest?

It's simple, there is no road!

To the west of Houqi Town is an iron mine, and between this and the small mountain village where Li Tian's family lives, there is a steep mountain, and if you are not careful to walk from this side, you will be in danger and fall down the cliff.

So Li Tian wanted to go home, so he could only take a detour.

Just as Li Tian was following the convoy from the small road to the Guanlu Avenue, many people ran back in front of him, including many villagers who lived in the same village as the convoy.

As soon as the people in the convoy inquired, it turned out that a group of horse bandits had appeared on the official road in front of them, and this group of horse bandits appeared very suddenly, and directly surrounded the caravan coming from other towns.

It is said that at first the bandits promised the caravan that they would take people away as long as the caravan handed over its money and goods.

But the caravan brought a lot of guards, so naturally they would not give up those goods in vain.

Instead of putting down the money and goods, the caravan was in a position to confront the bandits.

This angered many horse bandits, and they immediately fought with the guards.

At first, the guards were still on par with the horse bandits, but there were many strong fighters on the side of the horse bandits, and after fighting for a while, the masters of these horse bandits found the opportunity and killed a few guards, and then these horse bandits went to support other horse bandits, and the guards of the caravan could no longer resist, and they were killed one by one when it was difficult to use two fists as four hands.

And some of the brave pedestrians who did not flee at the beginning scattered and fled at this time, and no longer dared to watch.

Li Tian's convoy encountered these pedestrians who fled later.

Hearing this, the people of the convoy no longer dared to move forward, and the rear team turned to the front team and walked backwards for several miles, stopping for two hours before daring to send people to the official road to inquire about the news.

After hearing that the government yamen had sent troops to the scene, the convoy dared to move forward.

This is a scene that Li Tian has never seen before, and the white cloths on the side of the road are all caravan guards who have been hacked to death. What was the tragic condition of the corpses of the specific guards, Li Tian didn't know.

But there were dark red and black marks on the left and right on the ground, all of which were left by the blood splattered during the fight.

From this point of view alone, the time of the fight was very tragic.

On the other side of the road are some shivering businessmen, who are being questioned by the government. There were also some caravans to transport goods on the road, which were too heavy to be transported at first glance.

And all the valuable, portable goods have been looted.

Li Tian was very curious as to why the guards died cleanly, while these powerless businessmen survived.

Li Tianyi inquired and then understood the reason.

This is also the customary rule of the horse bandits, for those obedient merchants, keep their lives.

For those businessmen who don't know the current affairs and want to resist to the end, then kill them. The bandits will not be relentless.

Moreover, if merchants want to engage in commerce, they will always have to purchase and transport, and the horse bandits keep these people's lives so that they can rob them again in the future. This is especially valuable for merchants, after all, not every merchant will be robbed, even if they are robbed four times out of ten, it is still profitable, and the merchants will continue to form caravanserans.

The next time these caravans will definitely hire more guards, and there will be basically no horse bandits who will dare to touch them this time.

Li Tian estimated that these businessmen in front of him were the kind of people who chose to beg for mercy in the end in order to save their lives, but it was a pity for the lives of those guards, if these businessmen recognized the facts from the beginning and chose to beg for mercy, those people would not have died tragically.

Thinking of this, Li Tian couldn't help but touch his chest, feeling that the dagger that his father gave him was still there, Li Tian's heart relaxed a little, if someone wanted to harm him, he would use this dagger to fight with others.

After such a delay, by the time Li Tian entered Houqi Town, it was already almost dark in the evening.

Li Tian went home this time and spent all the monthly money he earned last month and the reward money given to him by Sister Fang Li. After returning to the dormitory in the evening, I didn't go out again, packed up my things, washed my body with the hot water that my aunt had boiled when she was cooking the kang, and went to bed early.

During the period, it was a little strange that the aunt seemed to have something to say to him, but the aunt saw that Li Tianfeng rushed back very hard, so she didn't say anything in the end.

Li Tian was also too tired and wanted to rest early, although he could see that his aunt had something to say, but he didn't think too much, and went to bed early, and even the guys in the restaurant went back to the dormitory to rest collectively, but they didn't wake up Li Tian.

Li Tian didn't sleep well that night, he had several dreams, sometimes he felt that he was awake, but in the end he found that he was still in a dream. Finally, when it was almost dawn, Li Tian completely woke up.

After waking up, Li Tian sat up, but found that Hou Ping's bed on the side was well rolled, and the other guy slept well and occupied most of Hou Ping's position.

Li Tian knew that Hou Ping didn't come back to live last night.

Li Tian felt very strange in his heart, there was a time before Hou Ping didn't come back to live, that was because the weather was not cold at that time, and the firewood room could still live in. But now in this weather, the firewood room can't live at all, and Hou Ping didn't come back at night, so where can he go?

Could it be that you are going home from a break? But I haven't heard Hou Ping say that he wants to rest these days.

Although Li Tian was very puzzled in his heart, but seeing that the guys in the restaurant next to him were sleeping soundly, Li Tian didn't want to disturb them, Li Tian dressed lightly and folded the quilt, and then got up and got off the kang, and he was going to go to convenience.

Out of the inner room, Li Tian saw the outhouse, and his aunt was burning the fire to warm the kang.

This is also the work of the aunt, every day the guys in the restaurant burn the kang before they get off work, and before the guys go to work in the morning, the aunt also burns the hot water for washing.

"Oh my God, wake up so early, don't sleep any longer?" The aunt saw Li Tian come out and said hello to Li Tian.

"Auntie morning, I went to bed early after I came back yesterday, and now I'm not sleepy, Auntie, I'll help you add fuel to the fire later, and now I don't have anything to do." Li Tian replied, thinking that it was still early, and after going out to the thatched house for convenience, he would come back to help his aunt make a fire.

"Little God, it's okay, I'm just doing this little job, my hot water is also boiled, you clean up and wash your face in a while, go to the restaurant early, you went home for two days and something happened in the restaurant." The aunt didn't ask Li Tian to help, but asked Li Tian to go to the restaurant early.

Hearing his aunt say this, Li Tian chuckled in his heart.

Hurriedly asked, "Auntie, what's wrong?" ”

The aunt didn't answer directly, and asked Li Tian to go directly to the restaurant to find out.

This time, Li Tian was even more puzzled, Hou Ping didn't come back last night, and this morning his aunt also said that there was an accident in the restaurant......

Li Tian had some bad feelings in his heart.

Li Tian hurriedly washed up and cleaned up, and then rushed to the restaurant.

The back door of the restaurant is still the same as before, nothing has changed, and the backyard, firewood room, and kitchen are still the same.

Since the guys hadn't come yet, Li Tian couldn't find anyone in the back hall and decided to look at the front hall. Li Tian thought about asking the night watchman about the situation.

It was okay all the way, and it looked normal, but when Li Tian entered the front hall, he finally found something wrong.

It's cold, the front hall is very cold, and the temperature is the same as the outside. It stands to reason that the front hall of the restaurant should not be so cold. Li Tian looked around, and there seemed to be no damage on the first floor of the front hall of the restaurant.

Li Tian felt the cold air and found that the cold air came from the stairs, to be precise, from the private room upstairs......

Li Tian walked up the stairs, and when he came to the staircase, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

Originally, this was a private room on the second floor, and the tables and chairs in the room had been emptied. Now the roof of this room has a big hole, and the ground is covered with bricks and tiles that are ready to be repaired, and it is clear that the roof of this room has this big hole at least yesterday, what the hell is going on......

The cold wind poured into the restaurant, blowing Li Tian's sleeves uncontrollably, and blowing Li Tian's heart extremely cold. This room, this private room, is what Sister Fang Li is responsible for......

At this time, another person came up from downstairs, who was the shopkeeper.

"Shopkeeper, you ......" Li Tian was taken aback when he saw the shopkeeper, the shopkeeper was usually high-spirited and could deal with what happened easily. But now the shopkeeper looks very vicissitudes, and it is the feeling that the heart is old.

"Shopkeeper, what's going on?" Li Tian still couldn't help but ask.

The shopkeeper sighed and said to Li Tian, "Let's go downstairs and talk." ”

Li Tian endured his curiosity, and followed the shopkeeper all the way to the account desk, only to see the shopkeeper rummaging inside for a while, and then picked up the account book that recorded the monthly money of the guys and walked towards Li Tian.

"Sit down first!" The shopkeeper pointed to the chair next to him, then placed the ledger on the table.

After they both sat down, the shopkeeper sighed again.

Li Tian was even more anxious at this time, he joined the tavern until now, it has been more than a month, Li Tian has not seen the shopkeeper's sigh in this month, but today, the shopkeeper keeps sighing, and what he saw today makes Li Tian feel scared, and his heart is even more panicked.

"It's my fault, I shouldn't have used this method of using women to attract guests, if it weren't for this, the restaurant wouldn't have made this difficulty, and Shi Fangli wouldn't have ...... Hey......" The shopkeeper said with great self-reproach, and as he spoke, he couldn't help but hide his face and sigh.

Li Tian couldn't help it at this time, stood up and shouted: "What's wrong with Sister Fangli?" You speak! ”

As soon as Li Tian shouted like this, the shopkeeper couldn't hold back any longer, and said with great sadness: "Shi Fangli...... He's dead. ”

The shopkeeper's words were like a thunderbolt in the air, and Li Tian fell to the ground on the chair, Li Tian's mind was blank at this time, but he kept saying in his mouth: "Impossible...... It can't be ......"