Chapter 376 You are guilty again, and he is a bandit.
Wang Mazi's elderly mother, whose hair had turned completely white, wept uncontrollably at that moment.
Hearing these words was almost entirely useless. Ping'er simply stayed quietly for a while before going to bring hot soup to the people nearby.
Finally, after crying her heart out, Wang Mazi's old mother picked up a stick that had fallen to the ground: "This old woman will fight those thieves to the death!"
Widow Wang was also crying bitterly. In the past, because she had a good-for-nothing brother named Wang Mazi, no one in the village dared to mess with her family. Now that the only man in the family was gone, she had no brother to rely on. How could she not cry? For a moment, she didn't even care about her old mother.
Seeing this, the surrounding villagers quickly pulled Wang Mazi's mother aside, and the crowd gathered around to comfort her.
Li Rong glanced at Wang Mazi's corpse, frowning repeatedly, and subconsciously looked at Ping'er.
When Ping'er saw her father looking over, she smiled sweetly and even gestured with the soup in her hand before turning around to get back to work.
Li Rong's expression was still not good.
Why are you staring at the child like that?
Chi Heng, covered in frost and snow, strode back with several soldiers.
Li Rong remained noncommittal, then turned and asked, "You guys are fast on foot, how did it go?"
"We've found out. Now guess who instructed you, this old acquaintance, to actually team up with former members of the Li family army and become a bandit again?"
Chi Heng crossed her arms, and as she spoke of this, a complex mix of emotions welled up in her eyes.
Li Rong glanced at him, then looked down at the twenty or thirty corpses piled on the ground like a small mountain, and said in a dry voice, "Is it Zhao Xiuyuan?"
Chi Heng was taken aback, then wiped the frost that had formed on her nose from her breathing and scoffed, "Talking to you is so boring."
He finally let out a long sigh and said, "When I saw that the bearded man recognized the Crimson Flame War Bow, I knew something was wrong. I went to investigate, and sure enough, this bandit leader was Changshan. It was the two of us who wiped out his stronghold back then. We recruited them into our army, and that's how the first squad of the Li Family Army came to be. I never thought that after so many years, we would run into each other again."
Chi Heng couldn't help but sigh and gave a bitter laugh: "It's quite a coincidence that you're both on the run and he's a bandit. But I don't know if this bandit suppression will be successful."
After a long pause, he added, "I wonder if there will be any merit after it's accomplished?"
When he was a teenager, Li Rong was punished for his mischievousness. He stole wine from the general, his father, and, after drinking with several other officers, recklessly led an army to burn the enemy's supplies, thus alerting them. Although they later won a great victory, they lost many soldiers, which led to the old general's punishment. Chi Heng still remembers how painful the old general's whip was. Later, he followed Li Rong in suppressing bandits, and they captured a powerful force without firing a shot. The old general rewarded them for their merits, and Li Rong was officially promoted to centurion.
But now...
The former general of the Li family army, Jingwei, has become an outlaw, and his former commander, Li Rong, and his entire family are besieged. It's quite a story.
"Harmful"
Chi Heng let out a long sigh.
Water freezes instantly in the icy snow. Chi Heng's sigh turned into a wisp of white mist and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Having been outside for so long, Li Rong's eyelashes were covered in frost, and he lowered his eyes, revealing no emotion. Chi Heng waited for a long time without him speaking, and grew worried: "Hey, Rong, try to think positively. This was inevitable. The Li family army was divided up by other families and incorporated into various camps. Those troublemakers in Changshan are like Jingwei, always loyal to you. They used to be your direct subordinates, so it's not surprising that they would listen to others and defect. After all, they..."
"Won't."
Chi Heng was taken aback and looked over.
Li Rong's gaze fell on the vast expanse of white snow, his voice hoarse: "Chang Shan will not betray us. He said he never wanted to be a bandit in this life."
"Can"
Chi Heng didn't say what was on the tip of her tongue, but sighed and said, "What should we do now? You should know what this old man is capable of. If he is really determined to trap us, it will be difficult for even you and me to get away now. The reinforcements are just some greenhorns who have just been trained. They won't even be able to fill your teeth against your Jingwei."
Li Rong: "Look at them, don't they look like Jingwei who have been besieging us these past two days?"
Chi Heng was startled and subconsciously paused, "Yeah, this doesn't seem like it either."
After a moment's pause, his gaze fell on the pile of corpses, and he said again, "We can't really keep fighting, can we?"
After a long silence, Li Rong sighed and said, "Aheng, give these people a proper burial."
Chi Heng was taken aback, then quickly caught up with him: "A grand funeral is fine, but what's next? You should give me a plan."
"Let's wait and see. There are still some things I don't understand."
As Li Rong spoke, seeing that Chi Heng still looked worried, he placed his large hand on Chi Heng's shoulder and said, "Don't worry. If he continues to do evil, I will personally go and clean up his family."
For several days, the village was in a state of depression.
The bandits outside had been besieging the village for several days with no sign of leaving. With the Lunar New Year approaching, the villagers, who had lived in fear for some time, had finally calmed down and were preparing for the holiday.
The snow had stopped for a few days, but it started snowing again as the year drew to a close. The village head adjusted his leather hat, circled around Jiang Nuan's house several times, and finally stamped his foot, deciding not to knock on the imposing black lacquered door. He turned and walked home dejectedly.
"Uncle Li, you've arrived. Why don't you come in and sit down?"
When Jiang Nuanzhi returned from her rounds, she saw the person and asked in surprise.
"Jiang girl, I...you went out?"
Jiang Nuanzhi patted the medicine box on her body: "Hmm, the Zhang family boy has run out of medicine. I'll go check on him. How is Zhuzi recovering?"
The village head nodded hurriedly: "He's alright now, Jiang girl. Uncle has to thank you for saving Zhuzi's life."
Jiang Nuanzhi remained noncommittal. She glanced at the visitor and finally smiled, "Uncle, please just say what you need to say. There's no need to be so polite."
The village head glanced at Jiang Nuanzhi, and finally stammered, "Jiang girl, I'm sorry, I know it's a bit much, but could you lend me some rice? I have some money."
After the village head finished speaking, his face was almost buried in the snow.
In these difficult times, the price of food had already increased several times before the snow disaster. Now, food is even more of a lifesaver, and you can't buy it even if you have money.
His family had stored enough grain before, but as the village head, he couldn't let the villagers starve to death in front of him. He gave some grain to others. Unexpectedly, his wife had also given grain to her family, and now his family was starving.
As he spoke, he guiltily took out two taels of silver and immediately handed it over: "Uncle knows this isn't much, but could you spare some grain? The New Year is just around the corner, and we can't go without food. Any kind of grain will do."
(End of this chapter)
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