The small leader of the mountain bandits who led the team couldn't stop the defeated soldiers, but he didn't retreat, and still took a few cronies to fight the militia to the death. It's not that he doesn't want to run for his life, but because Xiong Ben, the leader of the mountain bandits, boasts of "strict management of the army" and is extremely strict with his subordinates. In addition to the mountain bandits in their own personal army, it is common to beat and scold and punish them, and if they go back after losing the battle, this little leader of the mountain bandits will definitely lose his life. Only this time his stubborn resistance lasted only a short time, and a few spears pierced him to the heart. Seeing this, the rest of the bandits threw down their weapons and knelt down to beg for mercy, Cao Ergou asked someone to tie them up and go back to the cottage, and he led people to continue to chase the fleeing bandits, which made the fugitives run more and more quickly, and the distance between the two sides gradually narrowed.

The mountain bandits who were running wildly secretly rejoiced that they were about to escape, and the two people who ran in front were shot by flying feather arrows, and then the sound of killing in the bushes next to the mountain road was everywhere, and Huang Dagen took the ambush of Liuliba to kill and cut off the way. Except for a few of the mountain bandits who rushed through the interception, the rest of the people saw that there were blockades in front and pursuers after them, and they couldn't beat them, and they wanted to escape because of the steep cliffs on both sides, so they threw down their weapons and knelt on the ground and surrendered.

Over the years, in order to prevent and reduce nuisance to the bandits in Wanjiapingshan, the villagers of Liuliba have been seized a lot of things, and they have been forced to buy daily necessities such as salt at extremely high prices. What is even more odious is that the mountain bandits not only rob things but also rob people, women are robbed for adultery, men in the prime of life are robbed as slaves, and old and useless people are killed. Therefore, in the disposal of the prisoners, there was a fierce debate among the people in Liuli Village.

Just as the indignant villagers were spitting and throwing stones at the mountain bandits tied up outside the house, Ouyang Xuan inside the house was discussing with everyone about the disposal of the captives. Of the 51 mountain bandits who came this time, except for four who escaped, nine including the bandit leader were killed, 11 were slightly injured, and 6 were seriously injured, and the remaining 31 people were unscathed because of their timely surrender. There were no deaths on the militia's side, only seven people were wounded by arrows, one of them seriously wounded. There was a dispute between the participants due to differences of opinion on the disposition of the prisoners. The opinion of one side is to kill all the captives, the reason is that these mountain bandits usually do a lot of evil, and it is also a disaster to keep them, so it is better to kill them, and most of the people who support this opinion are cottage elders, and Cao Ergou also has this opinion; The opinion of the other side is that the bandits of Wanjiaping should be ransomed with their property, and the rest of the property will be used to compensate for the injured, and the rest will be used by the cottage, and the supporters are most of the fire chiefs and Lu Dezhi. There is also an opinion that the strong ones should be killed and the injured and disabled ones should be released, which was proposed by Yang Xiucai. To say that Yang Xiucai's idea looks black and cruel, it is actually the norm in wartime, and it is to weaken the strength of the mountain bandits. Everyone expressed their opinions, and the scene was not fierce but also quarrelsome. When the dispute was over, they all looked at Ouyang Xuan and let him decide.

Ouyang Xuan knew that no matter how he disposed of the captives, some people would be dissatisfied. However, if the prisoner treatment is not off to a good start, it will be difficult to deal with it in the future. Therefore, he suppressed the opinions of all parties in a commanding tone and put forward his own opinions. His disposal is to kill the mountain bandits who are found to have blood debts, so that the blood debts can be repaid; The mountain bandits who were seriously injured or slightly injured and disabled and unable to work were released, and the tragic situation of the injured bandits intimidated the bandits of Wanjiaping; The remaining 30 or so bandits were sent to the (prison) education and reform camp after being branded on their faces and sent to iron mines, coal mines, and lime mines, where labor was urgently needed....... As for the escape of the mountain bandits, Ouyang was not worried. This glazed dam is surrounded by mountains on all sides, and the only exit is also guarded 24 hours a day. As for escaping over the mountains? Think about the new road situation opened by Dong Hu and a few others! Even if you know the way, it is extremely difficult to escape without equipment and supplies. In terms of day-to-day management, his method is not only to strengthen the guards, but also to build iron anklets for these labor prisoners, and lock them up during their time outside of work.

In order to mobilize the enthusiasm of the prisoners in the labor camp, and in order to prevent resistance and passive sabotage, he also ordered Yang Xiucai to determine the number of years of labor reform according to the laws of the Great Song Dynasty, and after serving the labor reform period, he could resume his civilian status. Those who perform well during the RTL period will be rewarded with an increase in food rations or even a reduction in the RTL period. Regarding Ouyang Xuan's arrangement, everyone had no big opinions, only a few people who were deeply affected by the mountain bandits felt that Ouyang Xuan was too merciful and did not do everything to eliminate evil, but under Lu Dezhi's incessant preaching, he stopped talking after arguing a few times.

The bandits won a complete victory, but there were no seized property, except for the weapons brought by the bandits, only some messy belongings. The most important gain of this battle was not the free labor in the labor camp, but the confidence and cohesion of the people in Liuliba. Now the villagers are all happy and raise their eyebrows, Yixue has been oppressed by the mountain bandits for many years, which also makes Ouyang Xuan's prestige grow day by day. But while everyone was happy, they also understood that after this defeat, the mountain bandits would not give up, and the next revenge would inevitably be even more crazy.

The victory of this battle and the threat of mountain bandits made the morale of the entire Liuliba people even higher, and also promoted the operation of various affairs. Not only the middle-aged laborers participated in the construction activities, but also women and children, who also joined in to provide logistical services such as cooking and washing. At present, in addition to focusing on the construction of blacksmith shops and steel-making furnaces, woodworking workshops, pottery workshops and charcoal kilns are also being built at the same time, and the scale of production of pottery kilns, iron ore, nitrate and sulfur mines is also being expanded, and coal mines, coke kilns and lime kilns are also being intensified. Now Liuliba has become a large construction site, and a lot of coordination work has kept the heads of various professional teams and the elders such as Lu Dezhi busy.

It's hard to get started! After the various construction projects were rolled out, the workload was extremely huge, and many technical and management problems were exposed, which gave Ouyang Xuan the idea of setting up a professional engineering team. After discussing with the professional captain and the elders of the cottage, another 50 people were transferred from the cottage to form an engineering team. Because the engineering team not only has to build houses and houses, but also to engage in the construction of new industrial and mining facilities, it not only needs excellent management and coordination skills, but also needs a high reputation. Ouyang Xuan proposed that Lu Dezhi be the captain, but Lu Dezhi knew that the engineering team was extremely important, so he insisted on resigning on the grounds of old age and infirmity. Some cottage elders proposed that Lu Dezhi's eldest son, Lu Wen'an, was in the prime of life and knowledgeable, and had a high reputation in the cottage, and that the engineering team in charge of him would definitely be able to live up to expectations, and this proposal was unanimously supported by everyone.

Regarding the situation of the grain collection team in recent times, especially the battle to repel the mountain bandits, Ouyang Xuan asked Yang Xiucai to write a letter, preparing to let Huang Dagen and Dong Hu sneak back to Chongqing Mansion from the newly opened hidden path to report, and pick some yellow artemisia grass again. Ouyang Xuan understood that although he had made a good start now, he had not gained a firm foothold in the mountains. Although the Southern Song Dynasty regime was corrupt and would eventually collapse, it is still regarded as righteous by everyone. Although he and the dozens of people he brought with him developed independently in the deep mountains where the government was not powerful, they were still nominally soldiers of the Southern Song Dynasty. Now when Liuliba is still very weak, it still needs to rely on the prestige of the Song regime for nearly 300 years to contend with various forces in the mountains, especially the mountain bandits. The people of Liuli Village will not have an opinion on this, because although it is nominally under the jurisdiction of the government, as long as it is not taxed, it will not have a bad feeling towards the government. Keeping in touch and having a place in the Southern Song Dynasty bureaucracy was of great help to the development of Ouyang Xuan and Liuliba and the future cause of resisting Mongolia.

Although the current road to the outside world is only an extremely difficult and dangerous path, Ouyang Xuan seems that he still has to report the situation of entering the mountain for more than ten days to Chongqing Mansion as soon as possible, and prepare for the next step of caravan construction. Another reason for the urgent need to go out of the mountain is Yu Zhu's condition, his condition has improved greatly after taking the yellow artemisia brought back by Dong Hu, but the amount collected by Dong Hu and others is too small, and the malaria parasites in the body have not been removed, and the malaria he suffers from has not completely improved. Due to his weak body, Yu Zhu could only lie in bed to recuperate.