360 In a good mood today (1/2)

When Ren Xiaosu returned to the battlefield, he saw the corpses of his enemies left behind in the uneven valley. Soon after Wang Congyang fled, the fearsome bandits from the north were routed.

Most of these bandits had already fled into the wilderness and gone missing. Meanwhile, Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were frantically thanking the shadow clone, ”Master Xu, I didn't expect you to show up and help us out personally. Thank you so much!”

Ren Xiaosu's eyes kept twitching when he heard those thanks. He did not even gain a single gratitude token from it.

At this moment, Ren Xiaosu wanted to lay all his cards on the table. That was not Xu Xianchu's shadow clone but his! But Ren Xiaosu eventually managed to hold back from doing so because he still had not thought of how to give Xu Xianchu an explanation yet.

Ren Xiaosu said to the shadow clone, ”Old Xu, go back and report to Commander Zhang that we've defeated a large bandit gang here in the valley.”

There used to be three large bandit gangs that were active in the valley, and now, one of them had been eliminated.

The bandits who had escaped might go on to join the other bandit gangs, but this battle here was a complete victory.

When Jin Lan heard that, he thought that Ren Xiaosu was getting Xu Xianchu to go back to report about their contributions.

However, Ren Xiaosu coughed and said, ”I got Old Xu to return to Stronghold 178 to put in some good words for all of us. The commander might be happy when he hears what Old Xu has to say and immediately recruit y'all to join Stronghold 178, so you should know what to do now, shouldn't you?”

While Ren Xiaosu waited for everyone to thank him, he watched Jin Lan, Zhang Yiheng, and the others started bowing to the shadow at a 90-degree angle and saying, ”Thank you, Master Xu!”

Ren Xiaosu was speechless. 'Are they fucking rebelling?!'

Yang Xiaojin walked over from the wilderness looking extremely exhausted. Tonight, she had made some significant contributions to the battle. If it weren't for her, Jin Lan and the others would be dead.

Yang Xiaojin looked at Ren Xiaosu and asked, ”How many of our people were lost or injured?”

The excitement on Jin Lan's face immediately faded as he sighed and said, ”More than a 100 of our brothers have died. The houses we just built have been destroyed, while our fellow villagers have also died and been injured.”

”Let's treat our brothers' wounds first.” Ren Xiaosu took out ten bottles of black medicine and handed them to Jin Lan. ”Take the bullets out of their wounds first. This is a secret remedy passed down through my family. You can apply it directly to the wound. One bottle is enough for five to six uses. Just make sure it isn't drunk.”

It might be gratifying to win the battle, but what about the aftermath? The dead could not be resurrected.

Zhang Yiheng stood in the devastated wasteland looking a little confused. The refugees in the distance were crying.

More than half of the settlement's mud houses had been toppled by the steam locomotive, while none of the brick houses remained standing. Even the ditches had given way and were now a total mess.

It would be great if even half of the crops they planted could end up germinating.

Zhang Yiheng slowly walked through the crowd. Some of his injured brothers were crying out in pain, while the ones who were OK stayed around to comfort them.

When he walked past a refugee, a child cried out at him, ”It's all your fault! Those bandits came here because of all y'all!”

But before Zhang Yiheng could speak, the mother slapped her child. ”Don't you run your mouth!”

The child's mother looked at Zhang Yiheng and said, ”I know that y'all are good people, so I won't blame you!”

Zhang Yiheng was stunned and did not say anything.

Ren Xiaosu called out to him, ”You regretting it?”

Zhang Yiheng was stunned again, then suddenly said, ”Actually, I don't feel that sad. After so many years, everyone knows what this world is really like. It's all too common to see people dying. Even when my father passed away, I didn't cry.”

”Then what're you thinking about?” Ren Xiaosu asked.