When the boy saw the candy, his eyes lit up. He turned his head and looked eagerly at the old man next to him. When he saw him nod, he happily took it and shared it with the half-grown children next to him.

Seeing that they had no ill intentions, the two old men exchanged glances and added, "If you want to exchange people, go directly to Houliangshan Gouzi Village. That's where their base is. If you're quick, we can pick them up in two hours."

From this sentence, Gu Xinran got the information that the mine was at most one hour away from Gouzi Village.

Gu Xinran then asked, "Where is that Gouzi Village? What kind of place is it?"

The old man hesitated and didn't dare to answer, "The kidnappers don't allow me to reveal any information, otherwise I will be disqualified from exchanging people."

Looking at the honest, pale and thin old man, Gu Xinran negotiated with him, "Tell us a few names of your relatives and we will help you replace them."

A light flashed in the eyes of the two old men, but it went out in the blink of an eye.

"That place is not for people to stay. Once you go in, you can't get out. I can't hurt you."

Gu Xinran took out five pounds of flour from her backpack and handed it to them. "Don't worry, I won't blame you if anything goes wrong. As long as you explain the address and the exchange process clearly, I'll give you this flour as a thank you gift."

The old man thought of his thin son lying in bed, who needed such white flour to nourish his body, so he reluctantly agreed.

It turned out that the long mountain range where Gu Xinran and his companions were hunting was called Daliang Mountain. The section near the village was called Houliang Mountain. After walking for more than half an hour, they would reach Gouzi Village.

There used to be people living there, but it has been abandoned for many years.

It was only recently that the place became lively again, full of hooligans who were up to no good.

After the order to move south came down, no one cared about anything, and they became even more rampant.

All the nearby villagers who could leave had left, and only a few villages that had lost their young and middle-aged people had no choice but to stay here.

After receiving the information, Gu Xinran and Xiao Ba took a few names and quickly said goodbye, hoping to rescue the villagers as soon as possible.

When Gu Xinran and the others returned to Xiahe Village, the other teams had already returned, but the village they had searched was empty.

When Gu Xinran and Xiao Ba told everyone about the situation, the villagers of Qingshan Village were furious.

The people in Xiahe Village are too bad. They don't do to others what they don't want others to do to them. They make the people in Qingshan Village suffer the suffering they can't bear themselves. They steal people's things and are so bad that they have sores on their heads and pus on their feet.

The only consolation is knowing that the person is fine and there is a chance of saving him.

Everyone's extremely tense mood was finally relieved and they began to feel hungry.

It was already past noon and everyone was so busy that they didn't have time for breakfast. They were all starving.

What should the villagers do if they have no food?

At present, the Gu family has the best conditions. Grandpa Gu generously took 50 kilograms of miscellaneous grains and 50 kilograms of mixed flour from the carriage and lent them to everyone for temporary emergency use.

Organize everyone to cook porridge and make pancakes for a big pot of rice. Make more pancakes as dry food for those who go out.

After some planning, everyone decided to go to Gouzi Village to check out the situation first. Only a few people would be enough, more would be useless and would alert the enemy.

Everyone chose Xiao Ba, the Gu brothers and sisters, and the young man from the Qiu family.

The Gu family was worried about Gu Xinran's participation, but her fighting skills had been witnessed by the villagers, and the organization was involved in the investigation of this incident, so it was very appropriate for her to go.

Grandpa Gu thought that his granddaughter was protected by the gods, so he let her work for the villagers.

People are the most important, but the stolen food and property must also be recovered, otherwise we won’t be able to survive in southern Xinjiang.

Just imagine, after the people in Xiaohe Village have been replaced, most of them are old, weak, sick and disabled, and they definitely can't walk fast. If you drive to catch up, there should be hope of catching up.

It was unanimously decided that Master Qiu and Uncle Zhang would lead the team, including all men under the age of 40 and over the age of 15, a total of more than 40 people, equipped with the remaining machetes in the village. Those who did not have machetes brought sickles and hoes. They would ride on seven animal carts and gallop towards the county seat of Hong County.

The remaining elderly, weak, women and children stayed where they were and waited for news.

Everyone did not waste any time. After quickly filling their stomachs, they split into two groups and set off immediately.

Gu Xinran painted his face black and yellow, and put on Brother Gu's old jacket that was too small for him. Everyone else also put on tattered clothes, looking like poor boys in the village.

As they walked, they discussed that it would be best if they could sneak into the escort team so that they could take the initiative.

If that doesn't work, Xiao Ba and Brother Gu will go exchange people from Shanghe Village and sneak into the mine to inquire about the situation. Gu Xinran and Brother Xiao Qiu will pick up people in Gouzi Village and act accordingly.

We hurried along in the cold wind and in less than half an hour we could vaguely see the silhouette of Gouzi Village.

From time to time you can see people with sad faces or some men with evil looks on their faces on the road.

When we got closer, we realized that this was not a village at all. It was just a few large huts and tents built temporarily against some half-collapsed stone walls.

I didn’t expect the business to be so broad, it could involve replacing people, recruiting people, or even selling myself.

The management here is very lax. The people in charge of registration are indifferent to people, and the patrol guards are chatting in groups of three or two.

Only the group of escorts in the middle tent looked serious.

Gu Xinran quietly approached and took a peek. They were all wearing masks. Haha, God is helping me.

The four of them discussed and decided to find a way to lure a few people out, knock them out, change their clothes, and sneak in.

Doctor Ling's medicine made a brilliant appearance.

In a remote corner, Gu Xinran saw several patrolmen gathered together and making dirty jokes. She quietly stood two meters away from them in the upwind direction and sprinkled a handful of itching powder.

After a while, the drug took effect and the exposed skin of several people began to itch. The more they scratched, the more itchy it became. Soon, their skin was covered in blood and they were howling like ghosts.

Many people were attracted to see what was happening, and six escort team members also came out.

Seeing how loud the noise was, the leader of Gouzi Village tied up the man, gagged him, and sent him to the shack.

They are so cruel to their own people. It seems that they are just a group of rabble.

Seeing that it had nothing to do with them, the six people returned to the tent, and the other two went to the forest to relieve themselves.

The opportunity came, Xiao Ba followed and knocked the man unconscious with two hits.

The three of them gathered around and saw two people lying on the ground, one tall and the other thin.

Only Gu Xinran could impersonate this little guy, but he was a little shorter.

She padded her cotton boots with a few more layers of fur, and pulled her hair up higher, making her look about 1.6 meters tall. With a set of clothes and a mask, she was almost done.

Among the three, Xiaoba is the tallest. Xiaoqiu is also tall, but too strong, so there is a big difference.

It seems that only the two of them can play, and Xiao Ba has to cooperate with Gu Xinran again.

To be on the safe side, Gu Xinran drew a lot of small red dots on herself and Xiaoba's faces.

In case someone asks you to take off your mask, you can also find an excuse that your skin rash is contagious.

The two men were stripped of their clothes, drugged, tied up tightly, gagged, and stuffed into a distant cave.

When Gu Xinran and Xiao Ba nervously entered the tent, the other escort team members didn't even look at them and no one paid any attention to them.

Brother Gu and Brother Qiu signed up to work, and soon fifty people gathered.

The escort team blindfolded everyone with black cloth, strung them into two groups, and led them into the mountains.