One of them was a free gift when I bought the information during a previous transaction.
The other one is a group of over a hundred people who claimed to be one of the leaders of Ma'ao Village and members of the Dragon-Tiger Alliance.
They said they were invited to visit Ma'ao Village and gave them an invitation letter, which is this map.
The group didn't come to invite them on purpose; rather, they were out there lobbying and inviting any large group they encountered.
No one would believe that such painstaking efforts in lobbying everywhere were without a purpose.
But they have no choice now; they must go to Ma'ao Village.
It's already the ninth day since we set off, and 36 people in the team have fallen ill due to the cold.
Moreover, the water supply has run out, and we need to replenish it as soon as possible.
“Village chief, another group of people wants to trade stone spears with us. Their bargaining chips are charcoal and water,” a man reported as he stepped forward.
Many teams had previously tried to trade stone spears with them, but Captain Wu refused them all without hesitation.
But this time, there is water, and their team is currently short of water, so Captain Wu is unsure what to do.
Village Chief Bai said, "Let's refuse. Everyone, just bear with it. We'll reach Ma'ao Village tomorrow, and then we can exchange other things there."
A procession of elegant carriages appeared on the walkway, followed by a large group of refugees wearing tattered cotton-padded coats.
These people had their hands tied and were being led by a leader, while others were using whips to urge them to walk faster.
Inside the carriage, however, there was a burst of laughter and chatter, with occasional bursts of a woman's giggles.
These extravagant people are human traffickers, openly abducting and trafficking desperate refugees.
Those refugees who couldn't endure it were willing to sell themselves for a bite to eat or a tattered cotton-padded coat.
I don't care if I have to work like a beast of burden from now on, I just hope to survive.
On the road, every time they saw these human traffickers, the village chief would tell everyone to avoid them.
Because these human traffickers looked at the young girls in the group with very unfriendly eyes.
The patrolmen, watching the group of lackeys warily, shouted, "Stop! If you come any closer, don't blame us for being impolite!"
A portly man laughed and said, "What's there to be nervous about? Our boss wants to make a deal with you."
Gold, silver, treasures, food, water, and warm clothing—take whatever you like! Now go and fetch your leader!
One of the patrolmen yelled, "Fuck you! Trade my ass!"
The archers fired a volley of bamboo arrows at them.
The man said angrily, "You people are so ungrateful! You'll starve and freeze to death sooner or later!"
Then he shouted loudly, "Are there any young ladies who want to follow our boss and enjoy a life of luxury and endless riches?"
Right now, we have plenty of food and clothing, and we certainly don't lack gold and silver treasures.
Anyone who wants to come is welcome anytime!
After saying that, he gave the patrol team a defiant look and left with his men.
Everyone was so angry they were practically breathing fire. If the village chief hadn't been holding them back, they would have already gone out to fight, either killing them or crippling them!
Several undisguised gazes were fixed on the Chen family. Zhou wished she could take out her stun gun, turn it to the highest setting, and give each of them a stun gun.
Daya said with disgust, "They want to make a deal, so let's make a deal with them."
I think they must be lacking food, especially fresh food.
After saying that, Daya took a basket from the cart, covered it with a straw mat, and put six strange pork knuckles inside.
This stuff was originally meant to be saved for when everyone else hadn't eaten yet, but now, let those human traffickers have a taste first.
Chen Nong lifted the lid and exclaimed excitedly, "Wow! A huge pork knuckle! It's a really big pork knuckle!"
Six large pork knuckles filled a large basket; each knuckle was as big as a chicken.
Old Man Chen laughed, "They must really like eating meat. Let's go, let's trade with them."
The portly man laughed as he saw them approaching, "You guys are too tactless to come over like this. At least bring your girl with you so we can see her."
Old Man Chen suppressed his anger and asked, "Want to eat meat?"
After saying that, he opened the basket on his back and said, "I just robbed a basket of meat last night. If you want some, call your boss out to talk."
The man's eyes lit up as he looked at the large pork knuckle in the basket on his back. "No need to call us boss," he said. "I can make the decisions. Tell me, what do you want?"
Old Man Chen: "Five bolts of cloth, five buckets of water, and twenty catties of grain. The grain should not be rice bran or the like, but at least it should be dark flour."
The man frowned and said, "You're asking for too much."
Old Man Chen: "Alright, we'll keep it for ourselves." He then turned to leave.
"Wait a minute, we can't give you that much water, only two buckets, and we can't give you that much food either, only five jin," the man said.
Old Man Chen laughed and said, "It's alright, the food and water will be the amount you asked for, but you'll have to give me ten bolts of cloth."
The man hesitated for a moment but still agreed. They hadn't had such fresh meat in a long time; they had been eating dry rations every day and their mouths were so bland.
After the transaction was completed, Old Man Chen happily returned home with the supplies.
The Chen family still had some water, so Old Man Zhou handed over a bucket of water to the team.
Looking at the fabric, Zhou said happily, "So much fabric, enough to make several cotton-padded coats."
The village chief's wife exclaimed in astonishment, "These human traffickers are really rich, with so much cloth."
Seeing this, Village Chief Bai couldn't help but ask Bai Chuan to bring out two catties of fresh wolf meat. He then bargained with the traffickers and managed to trade for two bolts of cloth.
When Zhou saw that the village chief's family was also trading food, she didn't know what to say.
The meat her family brought out was poisonous; the more you ate, the hungrier you became. But the wolf meat was real food.
However, it's good that we can trade for cloth; in this cold weather, we'll freeze to death without warm clothes.
On the afternoon of the tenth day, the team finally arrived near Ma'ao Village.
The closer you get to Ma'ao Village, the fewer the starving corpses lying by the roadside become, and the more withered, emaciated people with sunken eyes become.
Ma'ao Village is said to be a village, but now it is undergoing a major construction project, and it is vaguely developing into a town.
"Could these people be planning, constructing, and developing a tourist area like we did before?" a villager from Anping Village asked.
“How could that be? Things are so chaotic right now, tourism can’t possibly develop. I feel like they’re trying to cause trouble,” another resident of Anping Village said.
The three village chiefs told the group to stop for a while and send people to scout out the situation.
Having fled famine for so long, they rarely had contact with other refugee groups, and knew nothing about the outside world or whether the imperial court had issued any new decrees.
We need to find out what's going on in Ma'ao Village.
For Lao Qi, who had been involved in the underworld, gathering information was an incredibly simple business.
The seventh brother called on the fifth, the eldest, and the second brother, and they wandered around the neighborhood.
After wandering around for a while, the four of them discovered that the water was deeper than they had thought.
Right now, they are just on the periphery, not contacting anyone, just looking around.
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