He went to the kitchen, took a cleaver and put it under Zhou Laoda's pillow, then took a thick wooden stick and placed it by the bed, and then gave Xingxing a small wooden stick.

“Xingxing, take this stick. If any refugees break into our house, you and your father can beat them away.”

"Okay, Mom, don't worry, Dad and I will take good care of the house," Xingxing replied obediently.

So Zhao Guihua, along with her five sons, each carrying a wooden bucket or basin, hurried to the village chief's house.

"What did you say? Refugees are gathering to burn our thorn bushes?" The village chief was taken aback by Zhao Guihua's words and was somewhat skeptical.

"Would I lie to you about something like this? Village chief, wake everyone up quickly, or it will be too late." Zhao Guihua stamped her foot. She couldn't tell the village chief about Xingxing's precognitive abilities, so she could only say that she was uneasy and had just gone to the village entrance and discovered something unusual.

“Village chief, what you said is true. We all saw it. There really are a lot of refugees outside the village entrance.” Zhou Dafu and Zhou Sanfu both said with certainty that they had seen it.

The village chief could tell they weren't lying. This concerned the safety of the entire village, so he couldn't be careless and it was always better to be cautious. He quickly went inside and brought out a gong, which he struck with a "dong dong dong".

"Everyone, get up quickly! Refugees are here to steal our food! Everyone, quickly grab your buckets and basins and fill them with water to gather at the village entrance..." the village chief shouted, banging a gong.

Zhao Guihua originally wanted to say that this would alert the enemy, but time was of the essence and there was no other way, so she ignored the village chief, grabbed Zhao Xiu, and took the children from both families, filled the water containers and ran towards the village entrance.

Hearing the village chief's shout, the others jumped out of bed in shock. Their minds were still foggy, and without thinking much, they grabbed whatever buckets or basins they could find to hold water and rushed to the village entrance.

Only Zhou Laosan and Zhou Laosi had the leisure to think about other things. The Zhou family members were not in a hurry to go to the village entrance. Although they got up, they gathered at home to gossip.

Zhou Laosan said, "When refugees come, shouldn't they be carrying knives or hoes to drive them away? What are they doing bringing buckets and basins?"

Old Zhou agreed wholeheartedly, “That’s right, we won’t take the bucket, I’ll carry the hoe, and everyone in our family will take the iron tools.”