"Ahem! Tianliang, what's wrong with you? Everyone in the surrounding area knows our village is civilized. We're all civilized people. How could we possibly do something like beating someone to death?" Zhao Jinsheng coughed twice and said to the shaved-headed young man with a smile, "Don't worry. What Tianliang just said happened decades ago. Back then, everything was in chaos... As you said, we live in a society ruled by law now, and we're all civilized people. How could we possibly do such a thing?"
"But since you stole things and did bad things, you should be punished. You should have been aware of this before you came to steal things... So I won't be polite with you. I will follow the old customs of our village and tie you to the big tree at the entrance of the village. I will let you down after two days..." Zhao Jinsheng said lightly, "Now that the weather is warm and there is no blizzard, it will only take two days. I believe you will be able to hold on..."
"Just tie them to a tree? Isn't this too easy for them?" Zhao Tianliang frowned somewhat dissatisfiedly. Just tie them to a tree, how could these people learn a lesson?
"What's wrong with tying them to a tree? I think this method is pretty good. When we tie them up later, we can just tie up each person's two thumbs and two big toes, and then hang them upside down from the tree... I think this is a good idea." Zhao Jinsheng glanced at Zhao Tianliang, then looked at the young men with crew cuts lying on the ground, and said with a smile, "This idea was invented by our ancestors before, so why is it not good?"
"Tie up the two thumbs and the two big toes?!" Zhao Tianliang's eyes widened. He thought that what Brother Jinsheng just said about tying people up to a tree meant hanging them directly on the tree. He didn't expect that there was such a thing?!
Zhao Tianliang looked at the crew-haired young man with a playful and amused expression. He stepped forward, nodded, and agreed, "That's right! Brother Jinsheng is truly amazing! We're all civilized people. I'll hang all six of them on the big camphor tree at the entrance of the village! No beatings or scolding, and I'll let them go in two days. Tsk tsk tsk! We really are such good people!"
If the blood circulation in places like fingers and toes is cut off within 8 to 12 hours, the fingers and toes will basically be disabled. Not to mention how painful it would be to hang a living person weighing more than 100 pounds on four fingers?
Just the fact that his thumb and toe would be amputated in two days was enough to make the shaved-head shudder. He hadn't expected this innocent-looking man to have such a cruel heart! He could even think of such cruel ways to torture people! He even claimed he was a civilized person, and that the whole village was civilized!
The young men with crew cuts were so angry that they cursed in their hearts, but they didn't dare to say a word, for fear that the other party would get angry and think of other ways to torture them. Then they would be really helpless!
"Can you, can you let us go? I, we can tell you some news we know in the county. You, you must not have been to the county after the earthquake... We will tell you the news to offset our mistakes, and you will definitely not suffer any loss. Is this not enough?... Just let us go... We really didn't come to your place to steal things on purpose. We were forced to do so..." The fourth brother cried with tears and snot. He didn't want to lose his four fingers at all.
Even though the fourth child didn't know any medical knowledge, he knew that it must be uncomfortable to be hung on a tree by four fingers.
"Hehe, news? Who wants your news? The only news you can give us is that someone in someone's family in the county was frozen to death, or someone's house was collapsed by the earthquake... What do these things have to do with us?" Zhao Tianliang snorted disdainfully. After the earthquake, he followed several brothers to the county. How could he not know what the situation in the county was like?
Besides, what happened in the county? What did it have to do with their village? They were dozens of kilometers away. Even if someone in the county was buried in the snow, they couldn't fly over to save them...
"No, no, that's not what we want to talk about, really... We have other news, news about you..." The third brother next to him spoke with difficulty. His tongue was still numb and painful, but even if it hurt and painful, he had to speak.
"Yes, yes, yes!" The other kidnapped thieves nodded in agreement.
It’s just that the group of people’s movements were too stiff and weird, and their bodies were even shaking slightly, making them look like a few weird zombies.
Zhao Tianliang's mouth twitched, and he turned to look at Zhao Jinsheng and the village chief, asking them what to do next. The others also turned their eyes to the village chief, as the final decision on this matter rested with him.
"Let's talk about it first. What do we know? Then all of us in the village will discuss it and see if we can make up for your mistakes." Zhao Xingguo said, touching the new stubble he had grown recently.
"This..." The young man with a crew cut hesitated. What if after they told the news, these people changed their minds and denied it?
Qin Suyun saw the hesitation on the face of the crew-haired young man. She frowned and said, "If you say something now, you might be able to avoid being hanged on the tree. If you don't say it, then the six of you will definitely be doomed."
"Speak, speak, speak! I'll tell you!" The second guy next to him, who had been silent the whole time, spoke with a thick tongue, and the sweat on his forehead was almost coming out because of his anxiety.
"Then tell me, what exactly happened? What exactly happened in the county?" Instead of hanging this group of people on the tree, Qin Suyun was more concerned about what exactly happened in the county?
He Zhennan left Wanxi Village just the day before the Lantern Festival. With the heavy snow blocking the roads, it was possible that he had already reached the county town.
"A lot has happened in the county lately, but the biggest one... is... a group of people who came out of nowhere, desperate for food and not their lives. There are a lot of them, at least hundreds, and every one of them is desperate. When they see someone with supplies at home, they rush in like a swarm of wasps, stealing everything... Even the neighborhood we used to live in has been completely swept away by them." The young man with a crew cut hesitated and said, "Ever since the snowstorm, relief supplies haven't been able to get down from above, so supplies are extremely scarce throughout the county, especially food and heating supplies. After stealing our things, these guys drove us all out of the neighborhood. If you refused, they would just beat you half to death and leave you outside in the snow, completely disregarding any laws or regulations..."
"The leader of that group of people stipulated that if we still want to live in our own homes, we must hand over at least two kilograms of food or ten kilograms of coal every day... There are six of us brothers, and we don't have any other skills... So we were directly driven out by the other side and driven out of the county." The young man with a crew cut sighed and looked into the distance, as if he saw himself being driven out of the county a few days ago.
In fact, the six brothers could afford to pay for these grains and charcoal if they gritted their teeth.
But the other group of people stipulated that they could not steal things on their territory. The things on their territory had already been in their pockets. How could they allow the six of them to touch things in their pockets?
But the people living in the other area were equally difficult to deal with. They were all soldiers with guns and did not welcome idle guys like them at all. So, they had no choice but to be forced to leave... But the young man with the crew cut did not say these words.
"Aren't there police and government officials in the town? What about them? Don't they care about these people? Do they just let them smash, loot and rob? Aren't they afraid that they will be blamed after the snowstorm?" Zhao Tianliang frowned, remembering what he heard from people when he last went to the county town.
The crew-haired young man shook his head under everyone's gaze. "We're not entirely clear on the specifics of this matter, but the police don't have many bullets, and they need to protect a large number of family members. However, this group of people don't have any family members, so they don't need to bear any of that burden. Plus, they have food on hand, so many people in the county are willing to follow them..."
"When we arrived, we heard that they had already occupied all the places except the central business district of the county town and the area to the south... Since the county town cannot produce food, they will probably expand to other villages soon... Maybe they will come to this village too." Compared with ordinary people, the young man with a crew cut was more willing to trust his own fists rather than the relief supplies from above, so he thought this group of people should be the same as him.
Who knows if other problems will arise later? Last time it was an earthquake, then hail, this time it was a blizzard, and maybe next time it will be a typhoon...
As for whether there will be typhoons in inland areas?
The young man with a crew cut thought that since hail and rain could fall in the middle of winter, it was not surprising that typhoons occurred in inland areas.
After hearing what the young man with a crew cut said, everyone around fell into deep thought, and even Qin Suyun frowned.
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