Beside him, the disheveled man lowered his eyes: "Those wounded soldiers won't stay long. We'll go up the mountain once they return. Have you found them yet?"

The bearded man nodded: "We found two more, both of them are quite skilled, not the weak type. They'll be waiting in the woods this afternoon, just waiting for us to come over."

Once he decided to take this gamble, he picked two henchmen from among the refugees, and they weren't exactly clean either.

Originally, the men had been arranged to be on the road long ago, ready to take action as soon as they left the village, but with wounded soldiers following along, the plan had to be postponed.

The wounded soldiers stopped after walking a short distance out of the village, as the road was too rugged for them to continue.

Xiaoman bid farewell to Brother Xiang and Brother Wu, saying, "I promised to bring you live rabbits again in a few days!"

"Okay, you should go now, we still need to move around a bit more here!" Xiang Dejin urged.

Jiang Zhi and the other woman didn't delay any longer and immediately set off.

Time passed slowly, and the bearded villager grew increasingly anxious as no one returned.

The road up the mountain is difficult to travel. Are these wounded soldiers going to take people home?

Meanwhile, in the woods outside the village, the two helpers they had found were also anxious, watching helplessly as Jiang Zhi and the other person left with their belongings, but the bearded man did not give any signal to make a move.

These two were never honest in their daily lives. After the chaos of war, they wandered around and did many immoral things while mingling with the refugees.

The bearded man said that the people on the mountain had plenty to eat and drink, and that he had even considered sneaking up the mountain to occupy a house there.

But the people in the mountains know how to gather medicinal herbs, and the regular delivery of herbs to the medical shed cannot be faked. If something goes wrong, the medical shed will definitely investigate, so they had to give up the idea.

They plan to seize the grain and leave without anyone noticing, allowing them to enjoy a few more days of plenty.

As soon as Jiang Zhi left the village, she saw the suspicious-looking refugees not far away, which made her uneasy.

Sending those wounded soldiers out of the village wouldn't have much of an effect, unless they were sent up the mountain.

Once these people realize there's a scam involved, they'll definitely take action immediately. It's best to leave now.

First, you climb a steep slope, then a gentle mountain road winds around you.

Jiang Zhi and her companion jogged along, trying their best to leave the people behind them behind.

After walking along this path, it turned uphill again. But Xiaoman suddenly left the path and turned into a relatively gentle hillside. She even deliberately stepped on a stone, leaving a fresh mark.

"Aunt Jiang, let's not take this road, let's go another way!"

Now, landslides block the road, so we have to detour through the hillsides and forests from time to time.

However, given the habits that people have developed over the past six months, they will not leave footprints casually, let alone leave obvious clues such as stepping on overturned stones on the roadside.

Jiang Zhi's heart skipped a beat, and she quickly followed: "Xiaoman, which way do we go?"

Seeing that no one was behind her, Xiaoman whispered, "Auntie, there are potholes on this slope. Follow my footsteps and don't step on the wrong one."

"Okay, just keep going forward and don't look back!" Jiang Zhi had completely relaxed; she knew what Xiao Man wanted to do.

During this period, Xiaoman stopped doing farm work and her daily tasks consisted of patrolling the mountains and setting up traps.

Since the mountains are vast, it's impossible to dig pits all over the mountains, so Xiaoman set up ambushes along the way up the mountain.

Therefore, only Xiaoman knows where the traps are in the mountains and forests, which is why everyone dares to let Xiaoman go down the mountain.

The two walked up the hillside, a longer journey, but safer.

The grass on this slope is all Bidens pilosa. These wild grasses are all Bidens pilosa. Now there are both flowers and needles. Small white flowers bloom on the branches, but there are more clusters of black needles.

ghost needle grass

Bidens pilosa is a commonly used herb in China, and the whole plant can be used medicinally.

According to the Compendium of Materia Medica, Bidens pilosa has the effects of clearing heat and detoxifying, dispersing blood stasis and reducing swelling, and is mainly used to treat sore throat, traumatic injuries and other ailments.

It sounds cute, but it causes too much trouble, like it is now.

Jiang Zhi and Xiao Man walked cautiously, using their wooden sticks to push aside the stems and leaves of the beggar-ticks while carefully watching out for the "rabbit hole" below.

Xiaoman sets the trap here, taking advantage of these prickly wild grasses.

The holes are strategically located, precisely where people need to avoid the beggar-ticks bushes to land, otherwise they would be covered in beggar-ticks.

That stuff is so annoying; once it gets on your clothes, you have to pick it off one by one as quickly as possible.

Over time, they can even seep through clothing and get into the flesh, causing itching and pain, making you instinctively avoid them when walking.

ghost needle

Just a quarter of an hour after the two men walked away, the two thugs in the woods finally received news of the bearded man and the disheveled man.

Seeing a wisp of smoke rising from the village, knowing that the wounded soldiers had returned, one of the thugs became excited: "Quick, go after those brats!"

The two men didn't even wait for Jiang Zhi's beard before chasing after her in the direction she had gone.

In the mountains, sometimes the road is right in front of you, separated only by a ditch, but going around it can take a mile.

It was already dark when Jiang Zhi and Xiao Man's figures appeared and disappeared in the woods. Just as they were about to disappear at the mouth of the valley, the two thugs stepped onto the path next to the slope they had just crossed.

The road was blocked by a pile of fallen bushes, and you had to climb over to get through.

On the slope beside them, the overturned stones revealed the traces of the people ahead.

"Quick, over here! Old Dog Zheng, there are footprints here. They went around the slope."

"Hehe, little brat, you want to hide and run into us shady characters? That's like meeting your ancestor!" said the thug called Old Dog Zheng excitedly.

The two immediately entered the slope where the wild grass was knee-deep.

At this moment, there was still a lush patch of beggar-ticks in front of them.

Old Zheng immediately complained and cursed, "This damn thing can kill people! Last time it went into my flesh, and it took several days to heal!" He pushed aside the grass and walked slowly.

The other person scoffed, "What's there to be afraid of? Just take bigger steps and jump over in one go... Ouch!"

Before he could finish speaking, his foot slipped and he fell down the slope, the pain in his ankle causing him to scream.

At this moment, his body rolled down the hillside, startling him so much that he cried out "Ah ah!" and grabbed onto some thorny weeds to steady himself.

Old Zheng quickly caught up, pulling the man along while complaining, "What's wrong with you? Did you eat too much? You even tripped while walking!"

The man's face contorted in pain: "My foot... I think I twisted it when I stepped down a rabbit hole!"

"Sigh! You're such a pain in the ass, always causing trouble when you're supposed to be doing something!" Old Dog Zheng said with some dissatisfaction.

This colleague is the most cunning; every time it's time to work, he either poops or has a stomachache, and now he's twisted his ankle.

The thug who twisted his ankle was furious: "You're speaking like a human being! I didn't twist it on purpose. If you're not happy, twist it yourself, and I won't blame you."

The two had a falling out, but for two partners who had been friends for many years, bickering was just a normal part of life.

The two still had important things to do, and after grumbling to each other, they still had to catch up with Xiaoman and Jiangzhi, but their ankles were so badly twisted that they could only walk slowly with a limp.

Because of this delay, the bearded man and the disheveled man caught up with them.

On the same beggar-ticks slope, the disheveled man almost stepped into a rabbit hole: "Be careful, you can't step into these holes."

The bearded man looked at the exposed rabbit holes and cursed, "These were dug by someone on purpose."

He knew in his heart that this slope was definitely not as simple as it seemed on the surface, and that others had also made preparations.

Their eager hearts immediately turned cold.

They recalled the night they were hung from the treetops.

Although it wasn't themselves who got caught, the two of them were the most seriously injured. Just thinking about it now makes my head ache.

"Damn it, I have to get my revenge today!"

The two exchanged a glance and continued their pursuit; things had come to this point, and there was no room for retreat.