Chapter 649 Who Sent You?
"Brother Lan is right! A handful of rice in your mouth is not a big deal. A handful of rice and a bucket of water are enough for us to last for two days."
"Muramasa, listen to Brother Lan. The snow is getting heavier. If we don't get going, we might not even have enough time to chop firewood on the mountain!"
With Yang Lan as the leader, the villagers are eager to take action.
Muramasa stared into Yang Lan's eyes and said in a deep voice: "Brother Lan, do you know that those who cut down trees privately from government-owned mountains will be punished for illegal logging. Those who steal trees from government-owned mountains will be punished with 100 strokes of the cane, and those who steal heavy goods will be treated as thieves."
If one fails to chop wood for less than an hour, he will be whipped forty times and his firewood will be confiscated.
If it exceeds one load, the sentence will be based on the value of the stolen goods.
Everyone knows that there is firewood on the mountain, but why does no one dare to chop it?
Because once caught, you will be severely punished.
Even without firewood, we may be able to survive the winter by just holding on.
Once caught, they would be flogged and injured, and they would not be able to survive. As for the fine, even if they died, their families would have to pay it.
Yang Lan straightened his back and said firmly: "Everyone has his own responsibility! Everyone here is my uncle, I can't just watch you freeze to death or starve to death. As long as Muramasa doesn't stop me, it's fine!"
After saying that, Yang Lan turned around and strode out.
Yang Laosi looked at Muramasa anxiously, then at Yang Lan, gritted his teeth, and followed Yang Lan out.
After Yang Laosi, several other young and strong men followed him out.
Muramasa kept looking out the door and didn't come back to his senses for a long time.
In the corner of the ancestral hall, an old man with no teeth lost said incoherently: "Er Dezi, don't be afraid. If the government really finds out, just push me out. I'm already old enough to have lived enough. Lan Ge'er is a good boy, don't delay him."
Muramasa turned back and grabbed a handful of fine sand to cover the fire to prevent it from burning too big and too fast: "Uncle, Lan Ge'er is smart, but he is too wild. This time, he wants to take us to be his knives again."
"Last time, it was thanks to our ancestors' blessing. Many of the villages that started the rebellion together did not have a single person come back. Uncle, I am really scared. I am afraid that there will not be a single person left in our village. How can we face our ancestors?"
The old man smacked his lips and said, "This time it's different. At least he showed his sincerity first. He is a kind and righteous person."
The ancestral hall was quiet. The cold wind whistled past, making the broken roof rattle.
The villagers sat around the fire, each thinking about something.
Everyone grew up watching Yang Lan. When he sticks out his butt, everyone can guess what he wants to do.
At first, they were shocked by his resurrection from the dead, and then they were dazzled by the bags of food.
Now, everyone knows that food is the money that buys lives.
Should I eat it?
"Village chief, we are back! Oh my, there is endless firewood on that mountain! Just scratch it and you will get a big handful! Lan Ge asked us to send some back first, you can use it first, and I will go to help Lan Ge later."
Yang Laosi threw down a bunch of firewood and was about to go out, but Muramasa stopped him and said, "Drink a bowl of porridge first. Don't die on the way."
The ceramic bowl was hot, and the porridge inside was clear and bright, and you could count the rice grains.
Yang Laosi swallowed his saliva. Lan Ge'er was really successful. He could even get such good rice!
Yang Laosi drank the porridge in one gulp, and a warm current flowed from his throat to his stomach and then to his limbs.
He stuck out his tongue, licked the ceramic bowl clean, then strode out.
The few young and strong men who went to chop wood together received the same treatment.
Muramasa was reluctant to put rice in the ground, so he only put a handful of rice in a large jar of snow water. Those who went out to chop wood were given some rice grains each, while the others only drank some rice soup.
Even so, everyone drank with gusto, especially when they saw the huge pile of firewood in the corner. The desire for life burned like a fire in the ancestral hall.
Muramasa took a look at the expressions of the villagers and sighed inwardly, realizing that there was no way to stop them.
When Yang Lan came back, Muramasa gave him a bowl of rice porridge, half of which was rice grains.
The villagers all saw it, but no one objected.
Yang Lan had been chopping wood for so long that her whole body was already frozen, but she did not refuse and sat by the fire and finished her porridge.
Muramasa waited until Yang Lan finished drinking before asking, "Brother Lan, who do you belong to?"
Yang Lan paused as she returned the bowl to him. Was her expression so obvious?
Seeing his expression, Muramasa laughed: "Although we have never been to the Kyoto prison, we know what the county prison is like. People who come out of the prison must have their skins scraped three times. How can they have money to buy this and that, and return home safely from Kyoto?"
Yang Lan's expression was unpredictable. In front of the adults, she patted her chest and vowed to complete the task.
As a result, the plan was discovered as soon as it started.
What to do now?
Muramasa sighed deeply: "Brother Lan, all the young and old men in our village have participated in the uprising. To be honest, the leaders talked better than they sang, but we were the ones who really fought hard."
The village chief lowered his eyes and spoke in a hoarse voice, as if he was hurt: "Brother Lan, we are not stopping you from making progress, but everyone here is your family, who held you in their arms and fed you when you were a child. You can't step on the corpses of everyone else to build your future. Doing so is a sin."
Yang Lan was anxious, her eyes red: "Muramasa, how could I be such a person?! This time is really different, you believe me!"
Muramasa lowered his head and said nothing.
Yang Lan was so anxious that she wanted to stamp her feet, but she couldn't say the name of that adult.
"Brother Lan, I'll do it with you. I trust you!" Yang Laosi stood behind Yang Lan without hesitation.
"Brother Lan, I believe you too. I'll go with you!" Several more people stood up one after another.
The others struggled, wanting to follow Lan Ge'er but not daring to disobey Muramasa.
Many people advised: "Muramasa, we are all being used as knives anyway, so it doesn't matter who we serve. We have already been used once, so we have experience."
"Er Dezi, if a tree is moved, it will die; if a person is moved, he will live. He has given us several bags of food, which is very kind of him. If we don't help him, how can we ask for more? The snow is expected to continue to fall for a few more days. These bags of food will not last through the winter."
Someone else advised Yang Lan: "Brother Lan, you are so stubborn! You just want us to work hard, why don't you tell us how to work hard! Even if you can't say the name, you can at least tell the direction!"
"That's right, Brother Lan. Once the fight starts, no one will know which direction to go. Don't let us end up fighting our own people."
Yang Lan carefully scanned everyone's face, and after making sure that the villagers had no objection to risking their lives, she stammered.
"Actually, it's pretty much the same thing we did last time. There will definitely be a big snowstorm this year, and the government won't help us, so we have to find a way to survive on our own."
"As for who I work for, I can't say anything else, except that it's the north."
The names were wrong... The first two chapters have been revised, Wang Yue was changed to Yang Lan, and Wang Laosi was changed to Yang Laosi.
No wonder no one guessed it, haha, I remembered it wrong.
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