At this time, when everyone was fast asleep, and with no wind or snow tonight, all was quiet all around. So the sudden sound of gongs and drums was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, instantly startling the villagers of Lishan Village.
After finishing her meal, Cheng Ruyi took a short nap, but then couldn't fall asleep again. After checking everything over again, she sat in her room with her eyes closed, preparing for the big battle that night.
So when the first gong and drum sounded, she immediately opened her eyes, then quickly climbed out the window and onto the roof. A dozen breaths later, she was already at the end of Lishan Village.
"What's going on?" Ruyi easily jumped, leaping directly into the second-floor watchtower.
The girl was still banging the gong when she was startled by Cheng Ruyi suddenly appearing behind her. After she saw who it was, she excitedly said, "Madam Cheng! Look, there are people outside, they must be bandits!"
As Ruyi carefully observed the black figures in the snow ahead, she asked, "Oh? How can you be sure they're bandits? Maybe they're just refugees from the neighborhood?"
She had some impression of this girl; she was a brave and resilient young woman.
Da Niu remained calm and answered confidently, "It's so late at night, cold and sleepy, we should be sleeping at home. Why would a large group of people suddenly appear at the end of the village, acting so suspiciously? Even if they aren't bandits, they must be bad people!"
"Hmm, what you said makes a lot of sense, you're so smart!" Ruyi patted the girl's head and sincerely praised her.
She noticed that the girl not only spoke logically, but her eyes were also shining, as if she wasn't afraid of the bandits who had suddenly appeared. She was indeed very brave.
Although it didn't snow tonight, the clouds were still very thick, and not a single star could be seen, let alone the moon.
Even so, the sight of a group of dark figures on the pristine white ground was still quite conspicuous.
The group wasn't large, appearing to be less than twenty people. However, the woods further behind them seemed unusual. With Ruyi's current eyesight, she could only barely make out the shadowy figures in the woods, but couldn't determine how many more people were hiding there.
However, upon closer inspection, she discovered that most of the bandits who were acting as the vanguard were dressed no differently from ordinary refugees, with tattered clothes and thin, sickly figures. If it weren't for the weapons they were carrying and the fierce glint in their eyes, she wouldn't have been able to identify them.
At this moment, almost everyone in Lishan Village was awakened by the sound of gongs and drums, and the twenty or so patrol team members on duty tonight had all gathered in the open space behind the gate. Although everyone was very scared and their bodies were trembling slightly, fortunately, no one backed down.
After hearing the gongs and drums, the bandits hesitated for a moment, but instead of retreating, they accelerated and rushed forward, now only about ten meters away from the back door.
In the blink of an eye, the fastest bandits were about to reach the front of the back door and were just about to take out their wooden sticks to smash the door when they were suddenly kicked away.
To put it nicely, this group was the vanguard of the mountain bandits; to put it bluntly, they were sent to scout ahead and die. They were all the lowest-ranking mountain bandits, who were often hungry and cold, and were all sick and ailing. Under such circumstances, being kicked by someone who practiced martial arts was like taking half their lives. So those who were kicked could only struggle on the snow and could not even stand up.
The villagers were overjoyed to see the guards hired by the Cheng family appear, but they quickly calmed down. Then, the more they looked, the stranger it seemed. These so-called bandits... seemed ridiculously weak? How could they fall down with a single punch? It felt like they could easily defeat them themselves.
It seems that the people hiding in the woods behind realized that the situation was not as expected, so they rushed over to provide support. The bandits kept pouring out of the dark woods, and at a rough glance, there were about forty or fifty of them.
Two fists can't fight four hands, after all, the enemy outnumbered them by dozens of times, and gradually the three guards were also surrounded.
Seeing this, Cheng Ruyi mustered all her strength and shouted, "Patrol members, follow me and charge out to catch the bandits!"
Then he jumped down from the watchtower, picked up the peach wood sword, and with a swift stroke, knocked out one of the bandits with each hand.
Her agility was already far superior to that of ordinary people, and after learning the lightness skill, she was like a tiger with wings. Apart from masters like Guo Xiaoyu, everyone else seemed to be moving in slow motion in her eyes, posing no threat whatsoever.
Several tall and strong patrol members were already eager to try, and upon hearing Cheng Ruyi's order, they immediately grabbed their weapons and rushed out. The rest hesitated for a moment, but remembering that their homes were behind them, they also gritted their teeth and followed to fight the bandits.
Several bandits managed to sneak into the village amidst the chaos, but they were all dumbfounded when they saw that every household had built high snow walls. What were they supposed to do? Should they climb in or smash down the snow walls and rush in?
However, before they could even make up their minds, the other two patrol teams rushed out of their homes, shouting as they ran, "Everyone, come out and catch the bandits! These bandits are weak, if we all work together we can definitely catch them! If we catch them, we'll have winter coats to wear!"
The bandits who fled in disarray: "..."
This isn't what they imagined! Are all villagers this fierce these days? Who exactly is the bandit?
Lishan Village is small, and everyone in the village knows each other very well. Everyone can recognize a person just by their voice. In addition, everyone has been observing for a long time, and many people have also found that this group of bandits does not seem to be very powerful, and is even a bit stupid. Several people have been standing outside the snow wall for most of the day without doing anything.
As soon as they heard the shouts, many people rushed out, and dozens of them, armed with hoes, axes, kitchen knives and all sorts of "weapons," swarmed forward and easily subdued the lone bandits.
Of course, not all bandits were so weak. A dozen or so of them had weapons and clothing that were clearly different from the other bandits. Moreover, they were ruthless and vicious, and their bodies were shrouded in black aura. Cheng Ruyi knew at a glance that these people were the real bandits.
Fortunately, these so-called real bandits only knew some martial arts, and with the cooperation of Ruyi and the three guards, they were powerless to resist and were quickly beaten to the ground.
Seeing that even their leaders had been subdued, the already disunited bandits quickly collapsed and fell into chaos. Many even tried to escape, but they were all surrounded and attacked by the increasingly fierce patrolmen and the villagers who arrived later. In no time, they were all wiped out.
This group of so-called mountain bandits numbered less than seventy people in total, most of whom were sickly and weak, and their weapons were mostly wooden sticks or small knives with badly curled edges. If they hadn't been so numerous, they probably wouldn't have been able to even enter the village.
Cheng Ruyi looked around and found that although many villagers were injured, they were all just ordinary superficial injuries and not serious problems. At least everyone looked very energetic and excited.
"Village Chief, I'll leave the rest to you. I'll go back to the villa first." If all bandits were this bad, then she really didn't need to worry about the villa's safety, but better safe than sorry.
The village chief of Lishan Village had always trusted this Mrs. Cheng implicitly, and now that she had saved the lives of the entire village, he was even more grateful. "Mrs. Cheng, don't worry, leave this to me. You should go home now..."
Before the village chief could finish speaking, he was interrupted by the urgent sound of gongs and drums coming from afar.
"This...it seems to be the sound of gongs and drums from Huanghua Village next door..." The village chief said, then suddenly slapped his thigh hard. "Oh dear, this is bad! The villagers of Huanghua Village are the laziest; their snow wall is less than three feet high! This is terrible!"
Ruyi knew about Huanghua Village next door. Their village chief was extremely patriarchal and stubborn, refusing to change his mind. He had always scoffed at her previous reminders, and most of the villagers were influenced by him, disliking Cheng Ruyi very much. So even though the government and the Zhou family issued notices asking everyone to help themselves, they just dealt with them casually.
“Um… Madam Cheng… look…” The village chief of Lishan Village looked at Cheng Ruyi cautiously, but was too embarrassed to say it out loud. After all, he had heard that the people of Huanghua Village often cursed the Cheng family in secret.
Hearing the chaotic cries from next door, Cheng Ruyi sighed deeply and turned to the people of Lishan Village, instructing them: "The night shift patrol team members should remain on guard. Villagers, let's all work together to tie up these bandits as soon as possible and keep a close watch on them. The morning and afternoon shifts will come with me to support Huanghua Village!"
"yes!"
Huanghua Village is actually very close to their Lishan Village. The two villages have a history of visiting each other and even have many relatives, so they are very willing to help. Especially those who failed to catch the bandits just now, no one is afraid, but rather eager to try.
Ruyi then instructed one of the guards to return to the villa to stand guard, and then she led the remaining two guards and two patrol teams to Huanghua Village.
Unlike Lishan Village, Huanghua Village's snow walls have been largely trampled down, and the remaining snow walls are shaky and offer little to no defense.
The village was in complete chaos, with screams echoing everywhere.
Without Cheng Ruyi giving any orders, the two patrol teams automatically dispersed to rescue people in various places, while Ruyi also led her guards to find the leader of this group of bandits, intending to capture the leader first!
Just as they found a few bandit leaders, Zhou Yin arrived with the Zhou family's guards. The two groups successfully joined forces, leaving the bandits with nowhere to escape. After a quarter of an hour, Huanghua Village finally began to calm down.
However, before everyone could catch their breath, a series of urgent drumbeats came from further away.
After seeing the devastation in Huanghua Village, Zhou Yin left behind a doctor and several attendants to care for the wounded. He then took his guards and Cheng Ruyi with him to continue to the next village to rescue people.
The third wave of bandits was clearly the largest, a dark mass of at least a hundred people. They were like a pack of hungry wolves and a swarm of locusts, frantically attacking everything in their path.
The villages that followed were all very close to the county town, and their living conditions were the best among the nearby villages. Perhaps because of this, they were more afraid of death and more obedient, so they built the snow walls high enough to help them withstand the first wave of attacks and hold out until the rescue arrived.
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