To everyone's surprise, Yun Jianying ignored him completely and continued shouting to the crowd, "To express their apology, they are willing to provide each of us with a pound of salt to calm everyone down. Everyone, quickly thank them."

These words were like a drop of water falling into a hot oil pan; everyone started to get excited, saying, "Thank you, thank you."

Whatever the reason that the other party could provide so much salt, everyone was very excited, since salt was exactly what they needed most right now.

“We don’t have that much salt. This is asking the impossible,” Ning Zhiyuan said anxiously.

Sicheng said, "You have a batch of stored supplies here, just like our base. And since the great disaster, you haven't taken in any more refugees. Taking out these things should be a piece of cake for you."

The request for salt was also a hint from Sicheng. Despite the large number of refugees returning home, they had plenty of wild vegetables along the way, but salt was a major problem.

Although they will be able to return to their hometowns where there are emergency supplies, life must go on along the way. If they could get some salt for these people, things would go more smoothly. After all, without salt, how would they have the strength to travel?

Moreover, bringing so many people together to benefit is not only to fight for everyone's interests, but also to teach the other party a lesson, since such a large expenditure is enough to make them feel the pain for a while.

Gao Duowei said, "Anyway, we don't have that much stuff. If all else fails, let's have a fight."

"Oh, you guys agreed before, but you went back on your word so quickly. It depends on whether we all agree or not," Yun Jianying said, then shouted to the crowd, "They've gone back on their word, are you giving up?"

"Give us salt!" someone in the crowd shouted, and soon everyone joined in, their voices gradually becoming more and more unified.

Yun Jianying said, "You see, it's not that we disagree. If you can persuade everyone, then we have no objection."

"Despicable," Gao Duowei cursed angrily, knowing that they had dragged the entire team into this, and if he wanted to fight against so many people, he would not come out on top at all.

Yun Jianying said in a roguish tone, "Hurry up and have your people deliver the goods, otherwise we might not be able to keep such a large group of people in check."

Forced to this point, Gao Duowei felt both regret and resentment, finding himself in a dilemma.

The brothers who came out with him all looked at him, waiting for him to make the final decision.

The shouts for salt continued over there, while the villagers of Pinghe Village watched them with ambiguous smiles, making Gao Duowei feel suffocated by the oppressive atmosphere.

He gritted his teeth and said, "We'll give it to them as relief for the refugees."

Seeing that he was still trying to gain an advantage verbally, everyone pretended not to hear him. After all, at this point, it was most worthwhile to have the goods in their own pockets.

Captain Xiao grinned as he watched the bags of salt being carried out from inside the city wall. This little incident had unexpectedly solved their biggest problem.

Don't underestimate the importance of one pound of salt per person. If you're careful with your salt intake, it can easily last you the whole trip, and you might even have some left over.

To prevent any further complications, he quickly instructed his subordinates to distribute the supplies to everyone and told them to prepare to depart as soon as possible.

As for those who had previously considered staying, after this previous struggle, they have completely given up on the idea and now only want to leave as soon as possible. How could they dare to stay in this unreliable place?

"Now that we've given you the supplies, can we go?" Gao Duowei said to Si Cheng and the others, his heart aching as he watched the bags of salt being distributed to everyone.

"Don't do that! It's rare for everyone to gather here, after all, it's fate. And you've given us such a big gift, so we should chat more and talk about the local culture and scenery. That way, we can learn more about you." When Yun Jianying saw that Si Cheng wasn't paying attention to them, he started chatting with them.

As they chatted idly, Captain Xiao received a signal and led his team to the front.

"Alright, they've all gone far away. There's no point in keeping us here. You should all leave too!" Gao Duowei saw the last person disappear from their sight and didn't want to waste any more time with them.

Si Cheng waved his hand, and the people of Pinghe Village then followed the direction of the procession and left.

Si Cheng walked to the end, glanced back at the few people with unwilling expressions, and said, "Just guarding this high wall won't last long. Instead of wasting your energy scheming against others, you should think about how to solve the hidden dangers around here!"

Regardless of whether the other party listened or not, Si Cheng quickly caught up with the group in front.

Gao Duowei stared fiercely at the back of the figure in front of him, "Don't let me run into you again next time. We'll settle all our old scores and new ones then."

Seeing Gao Duowei still spouting threats, Ning Zhiyuan scratched his head and headed into the city. With such a large batch of salt lost, he didn't know how he would explain it to the people in the city once the news leaked out, which would definitely cause another upheaval.

What's the point of making threats if you're not thinking about how to mitigate the consequences?

After traveling for most of the day, we finally found a place to rest, and everyone quickly took the time to rest and replenish their energy.

After Captain Xiao and the others had settled everyone in, they came over. "This time it was really a close call. I didn't expect them to be so shameless. Luckily you came with us, otherwise we would have suffered a great loss on our own."

Captain Xiao was truly terrified. They also had a batch of crossbows, though not as many as those in Pinghe Village. If the other party had insisted on exchanging them as forcefully as before, he really wouldn't have had the courage to refuse them under those circumstances.

"These people live inside the besieged city, and with the resources and power they have, they feel like they're ruling the world. That's why they came to us so brazenly. They just didn't expect to run into a tough nut to crack." Wu Tianxiang helped put the cleaned meat into the pot. With so many people eating, everyone, regardless of age or gender, had to help, otherwise no one could keep up.

"But how did you know they had so much salt?" Captain Xiao had never understood the reason. After all, he had been negotiating with them all day yesterday, and Pinghe Village hadn't even come close. Where did they get the information from?

Si Cheng laughed when he heard him ask this. "I was just bluffing them, but I didn't expect them to actually confess."

It was quite a coincidence. These past few days, I've been hearing everyone complaining that the amount of salt allocated to them by the higher-ups is too little, and they're afraid they won't make it back to their hometowns. So, when negotiating terms, I inexplicably brought up this request.

As a result, the other party readily agreed after just one test, without even the slightest hesitation, which made him realize there was a chance.