Chapter 2896 Have you reported it?
How could the village chief know which mountain the bandits were on? He could only say, "They're on the nearby mountain. They come down every time there's a harvest, or during festivals, to rob. A few days ago, they came down again, demanding each family give five bags of wheat. If we don't give them enough, they'll kill us."
"We don't have much land to begin with. Five bags of wheat would be enough for our family to work for half a year. If we have to pay taxes to the government, we won't have a single grain of wheat left."
Bai Shan asked, "How many times have they come down the mountain? I mean, how many times have your village encountered them?"
"Three times!" the village chief said. "Last year, shortly after the Double Ninth Festival, we had just paid our taxes when they came down at night and robbed the eight families living at the entrance of the village and at the foot of the mountain. Another time was during the New Year's holiday. That time, they came down in the early morning, drove everyone out, and looted a lot of things."
"This is the last time, but they only sent five people to tell us to prepare wheat," the village chief said embarrassedly, "The villagers didn't recognize the important people. They didn't know it was the county magistrate. When they saw you carrying knives, they thought you were bandits, so..."
Bai Shan comforted him and said, "This county knows about this. You are not to blame. Do you know how many people came down the mountain the last two times?"
The village chief thought for a moment and said, "I don't know about the first time. It was at night, and only those eight families were robbed. But I heard from them that three or four people came into each house, all armed with knives. It was very scary. And the next time, well, we were so panicked that we didn't really count, but there must have been at least a hundred people, right?"
County Lieutenant Dong's face turned pale. He was the first to say, "Impossible! If there really were more than a hundred bandits in the county, I would know nothing about it."
The village chief was not sure to begin with, but after hearing what he said, he changed his mind and said, "So that means there are 70 or 80 people?"
Bai Shan frowned and asked, "Village Chief, have you heard of any other villages being robbed?"
The village chief slapped his thigh and said, "No, there isn't one."
He said, "I don't know why these bandits targeted our village. I asked people from other villages, and they all said they didn't see any bandits."
"Does the village chief know about this?"
"I know," he said, "I reported it to the village head last year during the Double Ninth Festival. Then, when they were robbed during the New Year, I reported it again."
He turned around and said to County Magistrate Dong with embarrassment, "After the New Year, I went into the city to look for you. I happened to see you patrolling the streets with yamen runners, and I wanted to go up and seek justice for you..."
Seeing that he stopped talking, Bai Shan raised an eyebrow and asked, "Then why didn't you come forward?"
The village chief hesitated for a long time, then finally gritted his teeth and said, "It was the head of the village who found me and pulled me back. He said he had reported that the county magistrate had been promoted and resigned. The officials in the yamen are very busy, so even if they need to do something, they have to do it one by one. If we rush them like this, not only might we not be able to get them to come, but we'll also offend the officials in the county yamen, which will definitely make things more difficult in the end."
County Magistrate Dong jumped up and said, "Bullshit! What county office would dare to take such a serious matter as the bandits lightly? Sir, the headmaster is slandering us."
Bai Shan pressed his hand on him and asked him to calm down.
The village chief was startled, then realized belatedly, "My Lord, you don't know... Didn't the head of the village report it?"
Bai Shan didn't make a direct conclusion, but asked with a smile, "Did you report to the village head that the bandits came down the mountain and asked you to prepare wheat this time?"
The village chief nodded blankly, "We reported it. This is a big deal, how could we not report it?"
"Five bags of wheat a family has, and half a year's harvest is gone. If they come again during the autumn harvest, we won't even have rice. How will we survive then?"
It was precisely because the bandits had such a big appetite this time that the villagers were so excited that they ran out with hoes and kitchen knives.
Bai Shan said he understood and said to the village chief, "This county will take care of this matter for you. We will stay in the village for the next two days. Don't worry, if they don't come, it's fine. But if they do, this county will make sure they never come back."
Regardless of whether this was true or false, the village chief and his men felt much more at ease.
Bai Shan said, "I see the wheat in your fields is ripe. You should send people to harvest it. If you keep leaving it in the fields, it will be wasted when it ripens and falls off."
The village chief immediately agreed.
Previously, the villagers were not very enthusiastic about harvesting wheat because of the rumors spread by the bandits. They felt that the wheat in the fields did not look like their own, so they were passive and lazy. They felt sad looking at the wheat, but they just didn't want to go out to harvest in the scorching sun.
Now with Bai Shan's promise, the villagers were filled with love and pity when they looked at the wheat in their fields. Regardless of the fact that the sun was scorching hot, they went home and took up their sickles to harvest.
The village chief had a lot of land at home, so he asked his sons to harvest wheat and his daughters-in-law to free up the rooms.
Manbao asked Xibing to help, and then she assigned a place to Wen Tiandong and said, "You go set up a stall and provide free medical treatment."
It was under a tree not far from the village chief's house. There was shade at the moment, and many children were playing there. The open space was also large, which was indeed nice.
Wen Tiandong went back to find the village chief, asked him for a table and a few chairs to put there, and then took the village chief's hand to introduce their medical department.
The village chief didn't want to listen. He wanted to find the county magistrate to inquire about the bandit suppression.
There are so many bandits in the mountains, we can't rely on them alone, so is the army outside the mountains? Should we call them into the village?
Otherwise, if the bandits suddenly come down the mountain, wouldn’t it be too late for the soldiers to enter the village?
At the same time, he also has to calculate the village's food reserves. When the soldiers and yamen runners come to suppress the bandits, they have to provide the food, right?
I wonder if they eat a lot?
Although he was heartbroken, the village chief also knew that if the bandits were suppressed, today's expenditure would only be a one-time expense. If they were not, their village would not have a good life every year.
But Wen Tiandong pulled him very tightly, and the village chief could not get away.
Seeing Wen Tiandong holding the village chief, Manbao turned around and hurried back to find Bai Shan and said, "There are bandits in the mountains. Should we transfer troops from the county town?"
Bai Shan said, "I'm discussing this with County Magistrate Dong."
He said, "If we surround them, we will have ten of them, and if we attack them, we will have five of them. If there are really at least a hundred bandits as the village chief said, then we will need at least five hundred soldiers."
County Magistrate Dong: "...Sir, our county yamen runners, including the guards you brought with you, only have forty people in total."
Bai Shan nodded. "The two inspectors have two hundred people there, and if you count us, there are only two hundred and fifty people."
County Lieutenant Dong asked, "Should we ask for help from Qingzhou City?"
Bai Shan said, "Let's investigate first, but we do need to report this to Qingzhou City. Come on, grind the ink."
Daji went to his luggage to find some writing brush, ink, paper and inkstone.
Bai Shan said, "Besides that, we have to send someone back to the county government office to check whether the bandit incident was really not reported."
If it hadn't been reported, I'm afraid the village head would have been responsible for this matter.
See you at 10pm
(End of this chapter)
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