When Xiao Nanhui was comforting Hao Bai, he never thought about what his life would be like.
In the early years, she had followed Xiao Zhun to suppress mountain bandits and capture robbers, but she had never seen what the female village chief looked like.
Under the pretext of recuperating, she hid in her room for a few more days. With nothing else to do each day, she would occupy her room, which had the highest vantage point, and quietly peek out through the broken window. After a few days of observation, she had a rough idea of what was going on.
When Pan Mei'er went to a banquet at the governor Sun's house, she must have brought many of her trusted aides with her, but who would have thought that they would be completely wiped out? Thanks to this, her usurpation of the throne didn't cause much trouble.
These days, she had memorized almost every resident in the village, and it was no more than a hundred people. She discovered that the Southern Qiang people lived in poverty and numbness, and perhaps they didn't care much about who the so-called village leader was.
After all, no matter who the village chief is, their situation has not changed.
Bijiang's terrain is complex, and rivers frequently shift course due to uneven rainfall. The Bijiang people, dependent on animal husbandry, must constantly migrate to follow their water sources. Conflicts frequently erupt between villages over resource grabs, and years of warfare have drained the vitality of the entire community. Otherwise, the Bai clan would have been unable to exploit this vulnerability. After all, the Southern Qiang are known for their belligerent and xenophobic nature, and there's no way they would have voluntarily accepted the Chizhou people from the east.
It was the dry season in Bijiang, arguably the most difficult time of the year for this land. However, Xiao Nanhui sensed an opportunity.
She was different from the native Southern Qiang people. She had some skills in digging wells and farming, which she had learned from her time in the army. If she wanted to, she could at least save the entire village from disaster.
In Bijiang, many village chiefs are the leaders of their clans. The Nanqiang people are particularly known for their matriarchal nature, with hundreds of people in a village led by the head of the household. Men cannot hold power here and can only serve as thugs at best.
Most of the people in the village are men, and most of them have bad tempers, but it is not difficult to get along with them. She grew up among men and had hung out with Shrike a few times before. She was influenced by the martial arts world. Although she came from a regular military background, she did not have the majesty and rigidity of an official. As she spoke the Lingxi dialect fluently, she gradually gained some dignity.
The first thing Xiao Nanhui did was to recall half of the young men who were patrolling and grabbing land outside and send them to open up wasteland, dig wells, and plant crops. With food, everything else would be easy.
Everyone's doubts were dispelled because they had eaten their fill, and their rebellious thoughts also decreased a lot. The peace in the village finally began to have a real taste.
Ever since the previous incident, Wu Xiaoliu had become remarkably well-behaved, becoming quite adept at assisting her. However, Hao Bai had developed a melancholic streak, reciting poems and couplets with a prisoner's mentality. The sourness of his words frequently gave Xiao Nanhui stomach nausea, indirectly urging her to get out of her wheelchair and leave the house as soon as possible.
The Night Owl from An Daoyuan came to find her on the eighth day after she settled in the village. Shrike explained the latest situation of Tongcheng in a secret code, and only mentioned the general movement of the 300,000 troops of the Subei and Guangyao camps advancing westward. Lu Songping also seemed to be very obedient. Apart from that, there was no other word about the Black Feather Camp.
Xiao Nanhui's doubts grew louder and louder, but he thought that a few words could not explain the situation clearly, so he decided to put it aside for the time being. He only reported the situation of the sentry post he had witnessed in the Sanmu Pass area before, and finally informed that he had successfully entered Bijiang and decided the frequency of future transmission of information.
One day in the mountains is like ten years on earth.
From the scorching summer to the deepening autumn, the days passed quietly.
She had not thought that after getting used to the daily routine, Bijiang would be such a nourishing place. Sometimes, if it were not for the occasional loud yells from the people in the village, she would have thought she was on paid vacation.
After her foot injury had mostly healed, Xiao Nanhui instructed Wu Xiaoliu to make a pair of crutches. Under the pretext of inspecting the territory, she strolled around the village with them every day, relaying details of the terrain and the distribution of surrounding villages to Shrike. However, this wasn't enough; she needed intelligence closer to the center of Bijiang.
Those things would have to wait until her legs and feet were better before they could be implemented. After all, alerting the enemy was not a good thing.
It was another afternoon, and the autumn sunshine was so comfortable on people. The village was busy preparing food for the winter. Thanks to the new village chief's method, the harvest was much better this year, and the cattle and sheep also grew fatter. People finally had more smiles on their faces.
Three half-grown children picked up the harvested barley ears, held them in their hands to show off, chased and played with them, and sang out-of-tune nursery rhymes.
One of them fell behind, with some dirty paintings on his face, and was chasing the two in front with his teeth bared, obviously pretending to be a ghost catching people.
The one in front ran slower and was grabbed, and the two of them rolled to the ground in a ball.
"You're dead!"
"I didn't!" The child underneath struggled hard, "We haven't even fought yet! We still have three hundred rounds to fight!"
"Humph, even if we fight, you can't beat me! Qing Huai Hou has three heads and six arms, his body is as black as charcoal, his face is square like a diamond, his eyebrows are angry, his pupils are red, and his eyes are white like a tiger. He sits like a mountain, walks like... walks like..."
He seemed to have forgotten the words when he was halfway through, and was afraid that the children next to him would laugh at him, so his face turned red.
"How come I didn't know that Qing Huai Hou was born with three heads and six arms?"
A lazy female voice sounded above the heads of the three children. They looked up and saw that it was the legendary new village chief.
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