The people of Xujia Village only discovered that Hu Laoda was missing after dark.
Commander Zhang roared angrily, "You guys can't even get enough to eat, and you're still thinking about that thing between your legs! When I find it, you'll be court-martialed!"
Soon a soldier came to report that there was a fight and bloodstains in a ditch outside the village, but no one was seen.
Zhang Jun glanced at the surrounding mountains and said with a sullen face, "I don't believe that a thief could come from such a godforsaken place!"
The new army took over Yuzhou Prefecture half a month ago and has now captured three prefectures south of Ba County, but there have been casualties.
Now that the authorities are setting up medical stations along the route, he took on the task of setting up a medical tent in Xujia Village to receive a batch of wounded patients.
Unexpectedly, the area had long been deserted, with no residents left and no laborers to be found. They could only intercept refugees on the road.
Hu Laoda and his gang stopped them on the road.
Several migrants who originally lived in the village were also planning to stay and work as caregivers, but now that they've run away, how could Zhang Juntou not be furious?
He said there were bandits on the mountain, but he didn't really believe it.
Before setting up camp here, we naturally investigated the local household registration system.
This is just an ordinary little village. The villagers are usually honest and law-abiding. Apart from chickens pecking at vegetables and dogs trampling on seedlings causing arguments among the women, nothing else has ever happened.
Even the mountains here are just ordinary grassy hills, without caves, villages, or food. Apart from some villagers who hide, they are not enough to hide a large group of bandits.
Old Hu was mostly beaten up because of jealousy and rivalry.
His fierce gaze swept over the dozen or so refugees in the village, finally settling on one of them: "I heard there was trouble again last night, who was it?"
The man's face paled: "It was Boss Hu joking around with someone! It was... it was with that woman who's disappeared."
Zhang Juntou finally flew into a rage: "It was Boss Hu who led the people away!"
"Listen up, all of you! Anyone who participated in the harassment last night will be punished with ten strokes of the military rod. Five strokes will be given first, and the remaining five will be recorded."
The men who had been laughing arrogantly yesterday were suddenly dumbfounded and cried out in protest: "This was what Boss Hu did, we didn't lift a finger!"
"That's right! Boss Hu ran away with his men, you guys go find him, we'll stay put!"
Deep down, Zhang Juntou didn't care about Hu Laoda's departure or stay; even if he was the leader of the refugees, he was still just a refugee.
He only has thirty people around him now, and if he wants to finish the work within the stipulated time, he must find a reason to keep these refugees under control.
Soon, the people who had been watching and laughing last night were restrained and beaten five times with sticks.
It didn't sound like much, but military batons were no ordinary punishment. These five blows caused several people to scream in agony, their trousers soaked with blood. The thought that there were still five more blows to be received filled everyone with fear.
The second day, all tasks were doubled, leaving the refugees exhausted and complaining bitterly.
Zhang Juntou also secretly sent people to investigate Hu Laoda's whereabouts.
Because of the torrential rain that night, the ditch outside the village was completely washed away by the flash flood, leaving no trace of it.
The shack left by Chunfeng was also turned upside down. Apart from a tattered mat and a chipped clay pot, there were naturally no clues.
The situation on the mountain has also been investigated.
They found Zhao Li's charcoal shed, which had also been burned down. All they could see were the collapsed shacks, with only a few dark wooden beams and pillars remaining, washed by rain.
The other road leading up the mountain was destroyed by a landslide and is now covered in grass, indicating that no one has been using it, which means there is no one on the mountain.
The forest burned by the wildfire looked like a scab, stretching as far as the eye could see, and didn't look like a place where bandits could hide.
It seems that it was indeed Boss Hu who led his men to escape.
The soldiers who went up the mountain to investigate were completely unaware that two pairs of eyes were watching their every move.
After observing for a few days and knowing that the soldiers were no longer checking, Xiaoman and Xu Errui returned to the cliff.
The matter was thus hastily concluded and quickly forgotten by Zhang Juntou.
Because the higher-ups have begun urging the construction of the medical tent, the wounded and medical officers will arrive soon.
At this moment, the mountain was bustling yet relaxed!
With just the addition of Chunfeng, it felt like springtime had returned, with everyone in the Xiaoman family smiling and walking with a spring in their step.
Chunfeng wasn't one to sit idle; after a night's rest, she immediately took over Xiaoman's job of chasing away the sparrows.
Moreover, without needing any help, he carried Xu Dazhu out of the cold, damp house and brought him to the edge of the terraced fields to keep him company.
At the edge of the woods, the makeshift bird hut that Grandpa Xiaoman had set up was now covered with soft, dry grass and branches. Xu Dazhu lay inside, watching his young wife run around on the ridges of the fields.
When Chunfeng returned, he handed her cool mountain spring water and then fanned his wife.
Beside them, Nini remained silent, but clung to her parents, her eyes following her mother intently.
In her spare time from chasing away the sparrows, Chunfeng didn't sit idly. While talking to Xu Dazhu, she used a knife to scrape off the green skin of the kudzu vines that Xiaoman had cut.
This is also farm work; if you want to have linen clothes in winter, you have to prepare them in summer.
Leave the white fibers inside the kudzu vine, boil them in hot water, dry them, and store them for use in spinning cloth.
Since it was inconvenient for Xu Dazhu to work while lying down, he helped Chunfeng press down the rattan. The two were so intimate that it seemed as if they had never been apart.
However, Chunfeng's skillful movements and the missing little finger made Xu Dazhu feel heartbroken.
Chunfeng had never done such dirty or tiring work before when she was with the Xu family.
Chunfeng explained her missing finger this way: "I chopped it off myself with a kitchen knife. She said there was one egg missing from the house and blamed me for stealing it, so she had someone beat me."
"I didn't want to admit I was wronged, so I cut off my own hand!" She spoke calmly, as if she were talking about someone else's business.
The person Chunfeng was referring to as the one who was wrongly accused was her mother-in-law after her remarriage.
This blow made her lose all hope in her husband's family, and also in her own family who had forced her into marriage.
After fleeing the famine, she never thought about her family home again.
"Chunfeng... I'm so sorry, I've made you suffer!" Xu Dazhu was deeply remorseful at this moment, realizing that he shouldn't have forced his wife to go back to her parents' home.
The original intention was to help her find a new family and live a good life, but instead, they sent her to suffer.
Chunfeng is finally back. She doesn't want to talk about the past anymore: "Brother Dazhu, I'm no longer the Fengmei who didn't know anything. I'm strong and I can work. If you can teach me anything, I'll learn it."
“Sister Feng! I…” Xu Dazhu’s throat tightened, and he could no longer say anything. He could only turn his head away from Chunfeng’s gaze.
The two families tacitly agreed not to disturb the couple's reunion by the terraced fields, but instead went about their own business.
With the wheat harvest just around the corner, in just one or two days, Grandpa Xiaoman has started sharpening his sickle again.
In reality, there was no need for such elaborate preparations for that small plot of land.
But in the old farmer's heart, no matter what, the ritual of opening the sickle must be full of significance. He must choose a good day and good weather so that the harvest will be just as bountiful next year.
Jiang Zhi was still thinking about the mushrooms in the forest, including black fungus, wood ear fungus, oak mushrooms, and termite mushrooms, and she needed to harvest them quickly before the wheat harvest.
Amidst all this busyness, she sensed that Xiaoman and Xu Errui were hiding something from her, always speaking furtively and only returning home after a whole day.
Xiaoman and Xu Errui assured Chunfeng that no one had noticed her leaving the village, saying that they had been keeping an eye on her for the past two days!
Jiang Zhi still trusted what the two men said. In order not to leave any traces, people nowadays are used to walking through various ditches, so that as long as it rains, there will be water flowing and no one will find their footprints.
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