The rebel army's foremost master craftsman forged a million iron pylons!

Blood slowly trickled down the man's cheek. He was stunned and speechless for a long time before finally managing to squeeze out a sentence through gritted teeth.

"Fine, you just wait! I'm going home and reporting this to Master Zhou! You're going to die!"

The man in the brocade robe and his men left, cursing and swearing.

Wolf Head Fortress has returned to its former tranquility.

Those who need to forge iron should forge iron.

Those who should do carpentry work should do carpentry work.

Zhao Erbao and Zhao Yong discussed building another house in the yard.

Only Qiao San Niang's gaze towards Li Tian showed a newfound brilliance.

In the past, she was always driven away by the people of Wolf Head Fortress, who would beat and scold her.

There's only this man left now.

It gave her real protection.

"Sergeant Li, what do you think will happen to that lackey when he gets back? Judging from what he said, that Master Zhou seems to be someone of considerable influence!"

Li Tian was hammering away at the iron, while Wu Laoliu was doing carpentry work on the side. Wu Laoliu looked up and asked.

"Let him be, we'll deal with whatever comes our way!"

Li Tian seemed to take the matter to heart at all, casually putting a newly forged longsword embryo into the cold water tank.

In an instant, thick smoke billowed into the courtyard.

……

Zhoujiazhuang

Zhoujiazhuang is different from Yujiacun; it is a large village covering thousands of hectares and home to over a thousand people.

There is only one master in Zhoujiazhuang, and that is Master Zhou!

Master Zhou was in the salt and iron business and had connections with both the rebel army and the imperial court.

He also maintains a militia of about a hundred men under his command.

Therefore, in this chaotic and turbulent era, Mr. Zhou was not affected in the slightest; on the contrary, his business grew bigger and bigger.

At this moment, Master Zhou, dressed in a long blue silk robe, was sitting in his own flower hall, enjoying tea.

The tea was top-quality Da Hong Pao, sent from afar.

The pot is a high-quality porcelain product from the official kiln.

Tea leaves that are rarely seen in ordinary households.

But for Master Zhou, this tea was merely used to rinse his mouth.

Just as Master Zhou finished rinsing his mouth, a young servant in blue robes came running up, shouting, "Master Zhou, something terrible has happened! Steward Lai has gone to Wolf Head Fortress to demand Qiao San Niang!"

"Not only did Wolf Head Fort not hand over the people, they also beat up Steward Lai! The blood was gushing out!"

Boom!

Mr. Zhou slammed the blue-and-white porcelain cup in his hand hard on the table.

In his eyes, the guards of Wolf Head Fortress were nothing more than a bunch of lowly commoners who risked their lives for food!

They're just a bunch of beasts in disguise.

He even helped raise funds for the rebel army's pay.

How dare they contradict their own dignity?

"Call Lai Sheng over!" Master Zhou said in a deep voice.

Soon after, Lai Sheng arrived, his head wrapped in a white cloth. Although he had only been grazed by a short arrow, it was still an injury.

The more severe the bandaging, the better, so that Master Zhou knows that he is doing his best.

"Lai Sheng, what exactly happened at Wolf Head Castle? Tell me the whole story!" Master Zhou asked.

"Master Zhou, the guards at Wolf Head Fortress are arrogant and rude; they don't respect you at all!"

Lai Sheng, holding back his emotions, began to cry and complain.

"I've already mentioned your name, yet they still dare not hand over Qiao Sanniang."

"I just said I wanted to search the fort, and they started shooting arrows at me."

"Master Zhou, they're not shooting arrows at me, they're openly slapping you in the face."

"Especially that Corporal Li Tian."

Lai Sheng emphasized Li Tian. This area wasn't very big to begin with, so he easily found out Li Tian's name from Yu Family Village.

Lai Sheng harbored deep hatred for Li Tian.

Since following Master Zhou, Lai Sheng has had everything he could ever want, and he has never suffered such grievances before.

But today he got shot!

It's all his fault for shooting others!

"Master Zhou, we must kill Li Tian."

Lai Sheng continued to embellish the story.

"If we don't kill Li Tian, ​​everyone in the surrounding villages will know that Li Tian doesn't respect Master Zhou, which will greatly damage Master Zhou's reputation."

"Kill Li Tian, ​​then arrest the guards of Wolf Family Fort and beat them up, so they'll know who's in charge here."

"As for that Qiao Sanniang, she must be captured as a warning to others."

Lai Sheng became more and more excited as he spoke, as if he could already see Li Tian being arrested and executed by Master Zhou.

But when he looked up, he found that Master Zhou's face was getting more and more ugly, and he looked like he was about to explode at any moment.

Lai Sheng's heart skipped a beat.

He knew his master too well; that expression clearly meant he had said something wrong.

"Master, am I wrong?" Lai Sheng asked tremblingly.

"You bastard!"

Master Zhou slammed the blue-and-white porcelain cup on the table onto the ground, sending shards of porcelain flying everywhere.

"What kind of idea did you come up with, you bastard!"

"I have just made contact with Colonel Chen Qingchang of the Left Army of the rebel army."

"You're telling me to kill the rebels right now?"

"Do you know how much money I spent on this relationship?"

"Attack Wolf Head Fortress! How could you even think of that? That's the rebel army's bridgehead in the north. Attacking the bridgehead is tantamount to going against the entire rebel army."

Lai Sheng, scolded so harshly he didn't dare raise his head, and hurriedly replied, "Yes, yes, Master Zhou is right!"

Then he said with a venomous look on his face.

"So, what does Master Zhou intend to do? Does he really want these scoundrels from Wolf Head Fort to embarrass him?"

"Let me think this over carefully."

Master Zhou calmed down again, closed his eyes and thought for a while, then suddenly said.

"Lai Sheng, take two hundred taels of silver to Wolf Head Fortress now to apologize."

"Just say that what happened earlier was a misunderstanding. This little bit of silver is a small tribute to the officers of Wolf Head Fort. Also, mention Qiao Sanniang and tell them to send her back to me."

"What if they don't return the person?" Lai Sheng still felt that this would damage Master Zhou's reputation, but he didn't say much and asked cautiously.

"Not returning it?"

A sinister smile appeared on Master Zhou's face.

"If they don't return it, just tell them that Qiao San Niang's indenture is in my hands. If they really want to clear Qiao San Niang's name and free her."

"Then bring two hundred taels of silver to my Zhou residence to redeem your indenture."

"Ran them out with silver?"

Lai Sheng was taken aback. In his memory, Master Zhou had never been so easy to talk to.

But after glancing at the sinister smile on Master Zhou's face, Lai Sheng seemed to understand something.

Lai Sheng nodded. "Yes, sir, I'll take care of it right away!"

……

Wolf Head Castle,

Li Tian had just forged two weapons and was resting on a stool when he suddenly heard someone shouting outside again.

"I am Lai Sheng, the head steward of the Zhou family, and I am here to apologize to you, officers of Wolf Head Fortress."

Again?

Li Tian paused for a moment, then said to Wu Laoliu, who was standing to the side, "Laoliu, go and take a look."

When Li Tian and Wu Laoliu climbed onto the wall, they discovered that the group of people they had just chased away had returned.

Lai Sheng met with Li Wuzhang.

This time, Lai Sheng didn't dare to be presumptuous and stood under the bridge, bowing respectfully to Li Tian.

Li Tian shouted, "Didn't you leave? What are you doing here again? I told you, Qiao Sanniang isn't here. If you're looking for someone, go look somewhere else."

Lai Sheng shouted, "Sergeant Li, you've misunderstood. We're not here to demand people back, but specifically to apologize. Please lower the drawbridge so we can go inside and talk face-to-face!"