After Elder Qi reported the case, the three of them walked out of the courtyard together and called Lidong over, publicly announcing that the captain of the village guard team would be handed over to Lidong from now on.
Hearing this appointment, Lidong was overjoyed.
After all, being the captain not only brought a little money but also earned the respect of the villagers, making it a win-win situation in terms of fame and fortune.
After Lidong accepted everyone's congratulations, the township chief Zhao Chunqiang said with a smile, "Chen Lidong, you must do a good job and not embarrass brother Xiaobei."
The words were both subtle and direct, implying that Lidong owed his position to Chen Xiaobei.
Lidong, of course, understood. He looked at Chen Xiaobei gratefully and then patted his chest, "Brother Xiaobei, no, headman Xiaobei, please rest assured, I will not fail my mission, I will not fail my mission."
The news of Chen Xiaobei becoming the headman quickly spread through the village.
As night fell, his doorstep became the liveliest place in Hetou Village.
Many villagers brought something from their homes to express their goodwill, some with a few eggs, some with vegetables, and some with grain. But Chen Xiaobei refused everything that everyone brought, accepting nothing.
As the saying goes, one's hands become soft when taking gifts and one's mouth is short when eating. If he accepted gifts now, it would be difficult to carry out his work later.
After the crowd dispersed, Chen Xiaowen timidly approached Chen Xiaobei.
Chen Xiaowen, with a flushed face, handed over a bundle of wild vegetables. Perhaps feeling a little embarrassed, he lowered his head and said softly, "Brother Xiaobei, congratulations. My family, my family really couldn't afford anything else..."
Chen Xiaobei smiled and patted his shoulder, "It's alright. As long as you work hard in the back village team, nothing else matters."
After sending off Chen Xiaowen, Chen Xiaobei comforted Cui Hongyu and Chen Qiao'er a few more times, then walked out of the courtyard towards the big locust tree.
Having become the headman and resigned as the captain of the village guard, he would have fewer opportunities to be on night duty. Tonight, he had to go and see the team members he had once fought alongside.
Lidong, who had just become the captain of the village guard, was very excited. He was sitting under the big locust tree bragging to everyone, with more than a dozen people gathered around him, listening intently.
Seeing Chen Xiaobei arrive, everyone immediately stood up and greeted him.
However, Chen Xiaobei noticed that many of the people gathered were not members of the village guard.
Lidong pointed to these people and said with a smile to Chen Xiaobei, "Brother Xiaobei, they also want to join the village guard team. Look..."
As soon as Lidong spoke, these people immediately chimed in, "Yes, yes, Headman Xiaobei, please take us in. We don't need any pay."
Chen Xiaobei suddenly smiled. The expansion of the village guard team was up to the captain, and it had nothing to do with him as the headman. But it was clear that these people wanted to join the village guard team because of him.
He was suddenly reminded of a conversation with Liu Rumei about helping Liu Rumei guard Qingniu Mountain.
"Brother Li Lidong, with so many hands, we don't need so many people just to guard the village. I think it would be better to send some people to set up a checkpoint at the foot of Qingniu Mountain."
Hearing this, Lidong and the villagers were stunned. They couldn't understand the purpose of setting up a checkpoint at the foot of Qingniu Mountain.
"Headman Xiaobei, the mountain is so vast, how can we possibly keep an eye on everything?"
Chen Xiaobei smiled slightly, "We just need to guard the road leading into the mountain from our village entrance."
"This is what Township Chief Zhao and Constable He specifically instructed just now." Chen Xiaobei knew that it would be difficult to explain in a few words, so it was better to simply say it was an arrangement from above.
As expected, hearing him say this, no one raised any further objections.
Lidong was very efficient. The next morning, a clearing was leveled outside the village at the foot of Qingniu Mountain, and some people began to build thatched huts.
Sanqiu also specially wrote a wooden sign with the three characters "Qingniu Mountain," which looked somewhat elegant.
After greeting everyone, Chen Xiaobei entered the mountain.
Chen Xiaobei was already very familiar with the section from the foot of the mountain to the Mountain God Temple.
Every so often, Chen Xiaobei would stop to observe the surrounding scenery and try to remember it.
This way, if he noticed any major changes in the surrounding scenery later, he would know that someone had been there and he needed to be careful.
Sun Jian and the others were already waiting at the Mountain God Temple. Seeing Chen Xiaobei arrive, they all greeted him enthusiastically, as if by chance.
Sun Jian even stepped forward and warmly handed him a large piece of roast lamb leg, "Come, brother Xiaobei, have some first. We'll set off later."
Chen Xiaobei took the lamb leg, and then Sun Gui handed him a pot of wine.
When things are too good to be true, there must be a trick. Facing the excessive enthusiasm, Chen Xiaobei chose to refuse. He did not take the wine pot, "I don't drink, I'll just have some lamb."
While eating the lamb, the group set off up the mountain with practiced ease.
Chen Xiaobei found that these people had excellent memories, especially Sun Gui, who was leading the way. At several forks in the road, he could accurately take the correct route without any hesitation. This made Chen Xiaobei suspect that they had traveled this path more than once.
They returned to the fork in the road where Chen Xiaobei had deliberately chosen the wrong path last time.
After pretending to think for a while, Chen Xiaobei finally chose the correct route.
Moving forward, Chen Xiaobei continued to employ a strategy of mixed correct and incorrect choices. Some were directly correct on the first attempt, while others required one or two detours. By midday, they had only passed three or four forks.
Continuing onward, the mountain path became much flatter, and there were even small terraced fields on both sides of the road.
Of course, only weeds grew in these terraced fields.
In some of the terraced fields, before they even got close, the weeds began to sway constantly.
Sun Jian suddenly flicked his wrist, and a short knife shot out. Immediately, a wild rabbit leaped three feet high, rolled on the ground struggling, and soon lost its life.
It made sense that this place, being sparsely populated and overgrown with weeds, would be a haven for wild rabbits.
Just then, Sun Gui suddenly pointed into the distance and shouted, "Look, it seems to be a wolf."
Following the direction of his finger, they saw it. About three or four miles away, a gray wolf was crouched on a protruding rock.
Perhaps sensing that they had discovered it, the wolf suddenly raised its neck and let out a long howl into the air.
When we describe a sound as unpleasant, we often say it's like a wolf's howl. Honestly, the wolf's howl was truly unpleasant.
Hearing the howl, Chen Xiaobei's legs trembled. Sun Jian and the others were all skilled in martial arts, but he himself was powerless.
What if the wolf charged at them and they all ran away?
There wasn't even a tree around.
Obviously, Sun Jian and the others were also somewhat wary of the wolf's appearance. They immediately ran to a small pile of rocks on higher ground.
From here, they could see farther.
What surprised them was that the wolf only howled once, then slowly turned and ran into the distance.
They waited for a while longer, but the surroundings remained quiet, with no sound.