Chapter 111
"What are you going to do?"
Seeing this group of people appear, the man immediately became alert.
Zhou Ping stood nearby, not wearing any shackles at this time. Obviously, one of them knew how to unlock the door and take off the shackles directly.
"Your name is Wu Zhang, right? We asked you to join us before, but you refused?" Zhou Ping asked back.
"I won't be in cahoots with you!"
On the one hand, he didn't want to do this, after all, this behavior was inconsistent with his ideas. On the other hand, he felt that doing so would be discovered sooner or later, and the consequences would be very serious. He didn't want to implicate his wife and daughter because of such a thing.
So he rejected Zhou Ping.
I didn't expect them to come to my door again.
Zhou Ping sneered when he heard his words, "Really? Then hand over what you stole from us."
"Nonsense, when did I steal your things?" Wu Zhang was a little angry.
Zhou Ping snorted coldly and pointed at the crab in his arms, "Well, that's it!"
Obviously, they were attracted by the crabs caught by Wu Zhang.
They also thought about catching fish, but because the weather was cold, they didn't see any fish and didn't want to go into the water to catch any.
Unexpectedly, they were excited to see Wu Zhang catch a lot of crabs after going into the water. They had never seen these crabs before.
But now, it’s a problem to have enough to eat, so how can I possibly be disgusted? After all, I haven’t eaten meat for a long time.
"Bullshit!" Wu Zhang was immediately furious. These were the crabs he had worked so hard to catch. He had almost frozen his legs to death just to feed his wife and daughter with nutrition.
Now that Zhou Ping and the others were lying with their eyes open, how could he not be angry?
"I ask one more thing, hand over what you stole, or we will not be polite."
As Zhou Ping spoke, the others quickly separated and surrounded Wu Zhang.
Of course, Wu Zhang couldn't hand over the crab. Seeing their actions, he turned around and ran away.
"Want to run!"
Zhou Ping and others were well prepared. When they saw the man trying to run, the people who were lying in ambush nearby immediately rushed out and knocked Wu Zhang to the ground.
“Help!”
Wu Zhang reacted quickly. Knowing that he was no match for these people, he started shouting loudly to attract other people's attention.
“Damn it!”
"Shut up!"
Zhou Ping and others changed their expressions and quickly picked up the sticks on the ground and hit Wu Zhang with them, trying to make him shut up.
But Wu Zhang reacted quickly, covering his clothes in front of him, turning over to avoid the attack, and continued shouting.
Zhou Ping and his companions did not expect the man to be so agile that he managed to dodge their attack. When they wanted to continue attacking, they heard a rustling sound coming from the woods, obviously someone was coming.
"Stop, what are you doing!"
Soon, everyone saw several yamen runners running out of the woods. When they saw Zhou Ping and others, they drew their weapons and pointed them at them.
"Put down the stick, or don't blame us for being rude!"
The yamen runner shouted at Zhou Ping and others, and the man took the opportunity to slip away from Zhou Ping and others and came to the yamen runner.
"Help, they're going to kill people!"
The bailiff's face suddenly changed when he heard this. He also recognized Zhou Ping and remembered that Zhou Ping was put in shackles for murder. Why was he gone now?
So he shouted angrily, "Put down the stick, squat on the ground, and don't move!"
Zhou Ping and others looked at each other. There was a cruel look in the eyes of others, but Zhou Ping shook his head slightly. As long as they didn't do anything wrong, Xu Tian would not kill them.
Soon, they put down their weapons and squatted on the ground, while the bailiff had already sent people to find Xu Tian.
When Xu Tian arrived, he found a group of people tied up and squatting on the ground, with yamen runners standing beside them staring at them covetously.
"What's going on?"
The bailiff looked at Wu Zhang and asked him to explain. Wu Zhang naturally told the whole story like pouring beans, and then asked Xu Tian to make the decision.
When Xu Tian heard that Wu Zhang stayed in the freezing water for more than an hour just to provide nutrition for his wife and daughter, he was immediately moved.
After hearing about the behavior of Zhou Ping and others, he became furious and rushed to them angrily.
"I've already forgiven you once, but not only do you not repent, you..."
Anger, regret, disappointment, all kinds of emotions surged into Xu Tian's heart.
"You guys are doing very well!"
Xu Tian gritted his teeth and a ball of anger surged in his heart. He originally wanted to give Zhou Ping a chance to mend his ways, but who knew that not only did he not change, but he became even worse.
The thought of severely punishing Zhou Ping suddenly emerged in his mind.
"Captain Xu, spare my life!"
Seeing this, Zhou Ping and his companions knelt down, crying and begging for mercy, "We just lost our minds for a moment. Please give us another chance. We will never do it again."
"Exactly. Give us another chance sooner rather than later. We have no other options. We simply can't get enough to eat. Winter is coming, and there's nothing much to eat in the wild. That's why we resorted to this last resort. We were really forced to do so..."
Everyone was talking one after another, expressing their sorrow. The anger in Xu Tian's heart was suddenly like being poured with a basin of cold water.
He was silent. Zhou Ping was right. It was impossible for them to be fully satisfied with the little food they had.
But the problem is, he wants to feed everyone, but the key is that there is only so much food. If he lets them eat as much as they want, they will not be able to make it to the next county. I am afraid that these people will run out of food halfway through the journey.
By then, most of these people would probably starve to death. Therefore, having food is much better than starving to death.
Thinking about it this way, Zhou Ping and others were indeed helpless... but... Xu Tian was still a little angry.
"Tied them up and kept them under strict guard!"
In the end, Xu Tian did not order the killing. After all, although he was the captain of the yamen runners, he did not have the right to execute criminals at will.
Unless the prisoner insists on escaping, he can only be killed.
"Captain Xu, please make the decision for us..."
At this time, some prisoners appeared not far away, obviously running over after hearing the noise.
After seeing Zhou Ping and others being arrested, those people complained to Xu Tian as if they had found someone to confide in.
These people were unwilling to associate with Zhou Ping. Although they were exiled, in fact, most of them were slaves and were just implicated.
After hearing that Zhou Ping and others had done so many bad things behind their backs, Xu Tianqi trembled all over.
But going back to the point, Zhou Ping and his friends changed their clothes and went to get food just because they wanted to eat more. It was not illegal. The only thing wrong was that they used coercion and inducement to get others to join them.
Moreover, after other people have eaten for the second time, they will be charged a certain amount of interest, so they have to give up half of the meal.
"Why!"
Zhou Ping sighed, asked the yamen runners to guard Zhou Ping and others, and finally went to find Lord Chen to seek a solution.
Mr. Chen was silent for a moment, then turned and stared at Xu Tian, saying seriously, "So, do you want me to be a good guy or a bad guy?"
Xu Tian was stunned and didn't understand what Lord Chen meant.
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