Li Lanzhen grabbed the woman and pulled her up.

With two quick snaps, he dislocated both of her arms.

This elicited a series of wailing screams from her.

Li Lanzhen did not retract the axe. During the struggle, the sharp blade of the axe cut her neck, and a trickle of blood began to flow.

She was still yelling loudly with her mouth open.

Li Lanzhen shouted, "Shut up! If you shout again, I'll slash your neck even deeper."

Don't even think about running away, I'll kick your legs off!

Li Lanzhen turned to the water buffalo mother and said, "Elder sister, you watch the house, and the water buffalo watches the people in the house. If anyone dares to enter the yard, you take a stick and beat them as hard as you can. If they die, it's my fault."

After saying that, he looked at Han Mingjiang and said, "Second brother, drive all this cargo to the village chief's house and retrieve our timber raft."

In this way, Han Mingjiang used a wooden stick to drive the village chief's group of children and grandchildren, and also drove the villagers out of the yard.

Li Lanzhen was holding the woman's severed arm with one hand and an axe in the other, pointing it at the woman's chest.

There was no way to reach her neck, as she was only up to the woman's shoulder.

Push hard

A woman said, "Come on, take us to your house. I want to see if my raft is still there."

A large group of people left the water buffalo's yard and headed towards the village chief's house.

The village chief's grandsons left the yard and ran straight home.

Everyone knew he was rushing to deliver a message to the village chief.

Li Lanzhen didn't care about him; let him go and deliver the message if he wanted.

Such a large raft, how could you possibly dig a pit to hide it?

Upon arriving at the village chief's courtyard, Li Lanzhen immediately noticed that it was different from other places.

Every house in the village was dilapidated, but his house was not only newly built, but also occupied a large area.

The entire courtyard was built on the hillside of a small mountain.

They must have dug a cave deeper into the mountain.

Then a courtyard house was built in front of it.

The terrain is very high. I guess they learned their lesson from the last flood that destroyed their original yard, so they built the yard so high this time.

Li Lanzhen knew without asking that the village chief's family had already exploited a lot of the villagers' resources and labor to build this house and courtyard.

Li Lanzhen also discovered that there was a large pond behind the mountain.

Without looking closely, I don't know where the water for the pond comes from.

They arrived at the village chief's courtyard gate. The village chief, holding a shovel, glared fiercely at Li Lanzhen.

"Let go of my wife!"

At his shout, the woman Li Lanzhen was holding began to wail.

"Honey, look what you've done to me! A stranger from out of town has bullied me like this!"

She broke both my arms, I can't move them!

She chopped my neck with an axe too, and it's bleeding!

Li Lanzhen simply tugged at her arm.

The wailing and howling of ghosts and wolves started again.

When Sun, the son of the old village chief whom Han Mingjiang was holding down, saw the village chief, it was as if he had seen his pillar of support.

They rushed over and surrounded him, staring intently at Li Lanzhen and Han Mingjiang.

Li Lanzhen tugged at the woman's swaying arm again and said.

"Village chief, I just want to get back to my raft, I want to go home."

"Where is your raft? Why did you come to my house to take it?"

"I haven't seen her! Get out of here! Let my wife go!"

Seeing his bluffing demeanor, Li Lanzhen was once again certain that this old man had taken her raft home or destroyed it.

"See if you, Li Lanzhen, will let them go!" the old village chief shouted to his children and grandchildren behind him.

"Go up and snatch your mother and grandmother back."

The village chief's sons and grandsons, carrying weapons, rushed forward.

Han Mingjiang blocked their way from the front, and Li Lanzhen pulled the woman's arms back forcefully.

The sound, like a pig being slaughtered, stopped them from rushing forward.

“I advise you all not to say or do anything rash, or I won’t hesitate to break her arm.”

One sentence stunned the whole family.

Li Lanzhen twisted the woman's arms with both hands, carrying a battle axe, and pushed her step by step into the courtyard.

Han Mingjiang, holding a stick, stood protectively beside Li Lanzhen.

The villagers and the village chief's children and grandchildren had all witnessed the power of his stick and knew how strong he was, so none of them dared to rush towards him.

The village chief, also holding a shovel, walked alongside them with his children and grandchildren.

This courtyard is very large, with five main rooms and four rooms each in the east and west wing rooms.

Li Lanzhen looked around but couldn't find a raft.

She then thought of the pond next to their house.

She shoved the woman in her arms hard, and she started yelling again. Li Lanzhen ignored her and continued walking towards the back.

At this moment, the village chief and his family, anxious, stepped in front of them to speak.

"You've looked and searched."

I haven't accused you of trespassing, what more do you want?

Li Lanzhen grinned and said, "Trespassing?! You're the ones who trespassed!"

Not only did you trespass on private property, but you also robbed people and pushed the sister-in-law of the water buffalo, a pregnant woman who was more than nine months along, to the ground, almost killing both her and her unborn child!

"Fine, you want to sue, huh? Let's go to the government office together and let the officials see who really broke into our home!"

Her words frightened the village chief and his family so much that they all lowered their heads and remained silent.

Li Lanzhen grabbed the woman's hands and led her to the pond behind.

Upon closer inspection, the pond appeared quite large, suggesting it was a natural bay. Some river water had flowed into it, but because of the elevated terrain, it hadn't overflowed.

A patch of reeds grew in the middle of the lake bay.

She spotted it immediately: her family's raft and two boats, one large and one small, nestled among the reeds.

Li Lanzhen sneered inwardly, "Fine, so you were hiding it from me?"

I didn't find my raft at your house, so let it disappear.

She walked slowly along the river bend, just as she was about to turn to the other side of the reeds.

The village chief and his family breathed a sigh of relief as they stopped in their tracks.

Li Lanzhen grabbed the woman's arm again and said.

“You still won’t tell me where you put my woodpile?”

Was it burned, destroyed, or hidden away?

The village chief noticed that Lanzhen hadn't discovered the wooden raft they had hidden in the reeds.

They said, "We really haven't seen any of your rafts or boats."

The river is high today; maybe your raft wasn't properly secured and got swept away. Who knows?

Li Lanzhen didn't argue with him anymore. As she turned to walk back, she silently said "stop".

The two boats and the raft were in her space.

As she approached the backyard, Li Lanzhen noticed three handcarts, many baskets and tools, and some wood.

She thought to herself that after today's commotion, the water buffalo family would probably have a hard time making a living in this village.

She wanted to take the whole family with her and leave.

Fortunately, the whole family is skilled in swimming. If they really manage to open up the waterway from Peach Blossom Spring to Youzhou City, they will need a few more people who are good swimmers.

They came all the way from Hanjiacun, and they were all landlubbers.

If we leave here, the water buffalo's sister-in-law has just given birth and will need a wheelbarrow to carry her.

So she decided to go all the way and put another cart into her space.