After finishing her business, Zhu Xixi clapped her hands in satisfaction at the gate, happily ran her thumb across the tip of her nose, and happily shook her little head while waving her little hands as she swam out of the space.

Outside the space, Old Lady Zhu and Madam Liu had entered the depths of the alley and unexpectedly discovered a horse-drawn carriage loaded with several bags of rice.

The coachman, Old Lady Zhu, recognized him at a glance; he was a Turk from outside Shiqu.

Worried that the two would be exposed to the Turks, Old Lady Zhu quickly pulled her daughter-in-law to hide behind a pile of tattered bamboo baskets.

However, they were too slow, and the Turks discovered their hiding.

The Turk on the carriage hardened his expression, pulled out a large knife from under the carriage, and slowly walked towards the two men.

Old Lady Zhu spotted the approaching Turks through the gaps in the bamboo basket. Holding her breath, she took out a dagger from behind her back, gripped it tightly, and waited anxiously for the Turks to come forward.

Just as the Turks were about to swing their broadswords at the bamboo basket, a voice urging them on suddenly sounded from behind.

"Quickly! People are rushing into the shops and looting rice. You need to grab all this grain and get out of here right now."

Upon seeing this, the Turk immediately turned around, jogged back to the carriage, pulled on the reins, turned the carriage around, and drove it away from the alley.

Old Mrs. Zhu only stopped breathing heavily after hearing the sound of the carriage wheels leaving.

Even Liu Shi trembled and collapsed to the ground, her voice trembling with fear.

"No, we can't let the Turks take this grain." Coming to her senses, Old Lady Zhu quickly helped herself up from the wall and ran towards the carriage.

Before Liu could recover from the shock, she could only force her trembling legs to support herself and follow her mother-in-law after she saw her leave.

The alley was very narrow, and the carriage moved very slowly. Old Mrs. Zhu caught up with it in no time.

Just then, I saw a Turk driving a horse-drawn carriage, swaying and rocking as it drove out of the alley.

Seeing this, Old Lady Zhu hurriedly ran towards the carriage. Just after the carriage left the alley, a commotion broke out at the rice shop next door.

She hurriedly pointed at the carriage and shouted, "Everyone come quick! They're trying to sneak away with the rice! Stop them!"

The crowd, already in a frenzy, turned around and surrounded the carriage upon hearing Old Lady Zhu's voice. Before the Turks could react, the people had already dragged them out of the carriage.

Grandma Zhu also squeezed into the area around the carriage with the crowd, picked up a bag from the ground, and frantically stuffed rice into it.

After filling several bags, she finally left the crowded area, satisfied.

When Liu arrived, she saw Old Lady Zhu carrying several bulging bags of rice, smiling and showing them off to her.

"Let's go home and cook dinner."

"Sigh, we have rice now, but if we take it back to those ungrateful wolves, they'll definitely try to steal our food."

[It's truly a situation where we're caught between a rock and a hard place; we not only have to deal with the Turks, but also with government officials and our own people.]

What's even worse is that we also have to watch out for that scheming Zhu Yanyan; she's endless, we can never get rid of her.

Not only do we have to guard against these villains, but we also face an impending famine; the road ahead is becoming increasingly difficult.

Her daughter's sighing and nagging instantly made Liu's hesitant expression turn into a firm one.

Everyone must have weapons to protect themselves, but they must not arouse the suspicion of the guards.

Thinking of this, she pulled Old Lady Zhu along as they walked, saying, "Mother, let's go buy some sickles to carry. If those clansmen come to rob us of our grain when we get back, we'll fight them to the death."

"We also need to prepare some dry food, because we don't know when we'll be able to go into the city again. We need to prepare some dry food to eat on the road."

"Yes, the reason we couldn't beat them before was because we didn't have weapons, plus they outnumbered us, so we had to buy some handy weapons to carry around."

"With grain prices soaring these days, and who knows what the price will be in the next county, we really need to stock up."

Old Mrs. Zhu felt that her daughter-in-law was absolutely right. The number of refugees had increased considerably, and on the road, in addition to guarding against attacks from their own clansmen, they also had to be constantly on guard against those starving refugees.

The two acted immediately, first going into a farm tool shop and buying four sickles, three axes, and three shovels.

After purchasing the farm tools, Grandma Zhu also went to the butcher shop and bought some meat, specifically asking the butcher to chop it up.

Liu bought sesame seed cakes, steamed buns, pumpkin, potatoes, sweet potatoes, corn, winter melon, eggs, smoked bacon, and smoked fish to fill her stomach and store them.

After they had finished shopping, each of them grabbed a sickle and hurried off toward Shiqu.

As dusk fell, the sky was draped in a pale orange hue.

With Liu's help, Old Lady Zhu dragged her tired body slowly into the campsite in the woods.

Zhu Wen had already returned to the camp and was reporting the situation he had seen in Jiangyang City to Chen Xiang.

Upon learning that Jiangyang City was about to fall, Chen Xiang's expression instantly turned serious.

At this moment, Sun and Tao, who were waiting for their mother-in-law and sister-in-law at the camp, saw the two figures.

They all excitedly ran towards the two of them and hugged them tightly.

"Mom, you scared me to death! Zhu Wen said that Jiangyang City is full of refugees, and that they got lost from you. We were terrified."

The moment Sun saw her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, her tense body finally relaxed, and she burst into tears of grievance.

With tears welling up in her eyes, Tao quickly took the bamboo basket off Liu's back, rubbed her sister-in-law's shoulder, and asked, choking back sobs.

“Next time I go, you’ll be carrying Xixi on your back and going out again, so I won’t be able to do anything.”

"Fool, what are you talking about? Don't you have other missions?"

Liu smiled and wiped away Tao's tears, gently patting her back and softly comforting her.

Old Mrs. Zhu handed the bamboo basket to Mrs. Sun with a troubled expression, then looked up and searched for Chen Xiang, "Where is Lord Chen?"

"I'm here. I heard Jiangyang City is in chaos. Are you still able to procure supplies?"

Before Sun could answer, Chen Xiang led Zhu Wen toward the two of them, looking at the two bamboo baskets on the ground with curiosity.

Worried that the supplies in the bamboo basket would be seized by the officials, Old Lady Zhu hurriedly stepped forward and handed over the money bag.

"Nonsense, nothing's wrong with Jiangyang City. Look, I've sold the herbs to make money."

Chen Xiang took the heavy money bag with a puzzled look, frowned, and looked back at Zhu Wen with a suspicious expression.

Worried that Zhu Wen would be punished and implicate her, Old Lady Zhu hurriedly explained, "There was indeed a moment of chaos, but the refugees were quickly suppressed. We took advantage of the moment when the officials were driving away the refugees to enter the city."

"I don't know how long it will take to reach the next county, so I prepared some dry food, and I also prepared some for you."

To prove that Jiangyang City was not in chaos, she hurriedly took out a bag of rice, a bag of eggs, smoked sausages, and smoked fish from the bamboo basket.

Chen Xiang stared in astonishment at the rice and cured meat in front of him, and said incredulously, "I never expected this! Grandma Zhu, you really do have some skills."

"Since it's your kind offer, we'll accept it. You've had a long day, so please get some rest."

Zhu Zheng and Wang Qiu overheard their conversation. They exchanged a glance and quickly gathered their clansmen to head towards Old Lady Zhu's camp.