At this moment, an old woman from another group came over and kindly reminded them, "Don't go near those mountains over there. There are thieves' dens there. Be careful."
Mrs. Zhou smiled and said, "Okay, thank you."
Zhou Daya was looking for something to eat when she saw two men with unfriendly expressions walking towards them.
Zhou Daya shielded Sanya and the others behind her, watching them warily.
A man teased, "Little girl, don't be so nervous. What food can you find in these mountains? It's all been dug up. Why don't you come sit with us? We have plenty of food, you won't go hungry."
Another man tempted them, saying, "We have not only food, but also water."
Seeing that the visitors were hostile, Er Ya said to Fatty, "Fatty, go and call my grandpa and the others over."
Liu Daya said irritably, "I don't need it, you all get out of here."
One of the men got angry and tried to grab Liu Daya's arm, saying, "Little girl, you've got quite a temper, haven't you? Don't be stubborn!"
Just then, Sanya came rushing over with a stone spear, yelling, "Get lost, or I'll stab you to death!"
The man reflexively pulled his hand back. Another man tried to snatch the stone spear, but suddenly, another stone spear came at him, so he had to give up.
Zhou Dahua brandished her stone spear and said fiercely, "If you dare come any closer, I'll stab you to death!"
The man scoffed, "You little girls and kids, who are you trying to scare!"
Er Ya took a stone spear, circled behind the two men, gripped it tightly, and forcefully stabbed the man in the buttocks.
"Ah—" the man screamed instantly.
Sanya shouted, "Do it!" and then forcefully stabbed the stone spear between the legs of another man.
"Ah—" Another scream rang out.
Zhou Dahua stabbed with the stone spear as hard as she could, ignoring everything else, just stabbing until she was done.
Just then, Ma Daya, who had just noticed them, suddenly ran over, picked up the stone hoe that Er Ya and the others were using, raised it above her head, and used the back of the hoe to hit the two of them hard on the head, knocking them unconscious.
Ma Daya handed the hoe back to them, saying, "I knocked them unconscious, you can't take it from me!" Then she began searching the two men.
When Old Man Chen and his gang came over aggressively, they saw Ma Daya groping the man who had fallen to the ground, and she even took off his shirt.
Grandma Zhou ran over, asking worriedly, "Da Ya, are you alright?"
Zhou Daya: "Grandma, I'm fine. Look, we've both lay down."
Sanya said to the crowd, "These two seem to be bandits."
Zhou said, "If they're bandits, then let's just kill them!"
Ma Daya found three wild vegetable dumplings, half a black steamed bun, and two copper coins.
After taking their shirts and shoes, she ran away.
She was just a little girl, and she was too embarrassed to take off her pants. But Old Man Chen and the others didn't hold back and stripped her completely naked, leaving not even her underwear! To avoid offending the little girl's eyes, they even had a few boys cut some thatch to cover them up.
At that moment, Shirakawa rushed over, covered in sweat, and said, "We've found bandits. There are more than two hundred of them on a small path on another mountain."
Old Man Chen frowned and said, "Are they out patrolling the mountains, or are they going out to rob people?"
Shirakawa: "No, it seems they just came back from a robbery and are heading into the mountains with supplies."
When Old Man Chen heard that there were supplies, his eyes lit up. "Let's go take a look."
When Zhou and his group arrived, they saw the village chief's wife leading a few people, carefully following them.
Zhou walked over and asked, "What's the situation now?"
The village chief's wife said, "They've transported five truckloads of supplies and are on their way, moving very slowly. There are over two hundred people. We observed that about half of them are carrying broadswords and the other half are carrying sticks. I don't think they're the vanguard; they're probably the ones carrying the supplies from behind."
Zhou: "Will anyone else come?"
The village chief's wife said, "I asked around and found out that there's a group of bandits robbing people down the mountain. They shouldn't be back anytime soon. It seems like they're heading back to their hideout. I sent someone to check ahead, but no one came to meet them. Instead, we found a narrow valley that's quite easy to climb up."
Zhou and the village chief's wife exchanged a knowing smile, a smile that those who knew, understood.
Zhou turned to the crowd and said, "Go find the big rock quickly."
These past two days, Bai Chuan has been releasing and storing the large ice block every now and then. Soon, he discovered a new way to play with the space, a tricky way to play.
Because Shirakawa needed to put ice in his eggs, and he had already taken out other unimportant things, his eggs could still hold quite a lot of things.
Everyone started looking for the big rock, and with the help of someone in the know, Shirakawa secretly took the big rock away.
The village chief's wife really wanted to go back and call the people from the team over, but it was too far away, and by the time they arrived, the bandits would have already returned to their den.
She had no choice but to gather the people who had come out to find food together, organize them, and go rob the bandits of their supplies.
Many people from the team came here looking for food today, but most of them were elderly people, women, and children. There were fifty able-bodied adults, plus some teenagers, which was enough.
The elderly and women were timid; they were brave enough to help pick up and push stones, but they didn't dare to confront the bandits head-on. The only ones who could join the actual battle were the able-bodied men and teenagers.
There's also her family, the Chen family, and a whole bunch of others. They're some of the more formidable families in Anping Village, three in Hehua Village, and two in Dashan Village.
She still felt there weren't enough people, so she made a promise: those who fought against the bandits and seized supplies would hand over 30% to the team, and keep the rest for themselves.
Those who helped transport the stones would, upon returning home, ask the old man to take 10% of the supplies handed over to the team and divide them equally among them.
Lured by such huge profits, several more families joined.
Everyone wants to get more supplies, especially warm clothing, otherwise they won't make it through the winter.
The Chen family brought 15 stone spears and 20 stone hoes with them this time. Zhou lent them out to those willing to fight head-on, and the others also had sticks for self-defense. Although their equipment was a bit meager, they were not exactly unarmed.
Their motto was: fight if they could win, run if they couldn't; they couldn't afford to lose any men, and certainly not get injured. They decided to use that valley to trap and defeat their prey!
After leaving three people to keep watch on the bandits, the village chief's wife and her group ran to the valley ahead early.
They like playing with fire, carrying stones, cutting grass, and gathering firewood. Well, let's block their path to survival with fire and let them taste what it's like to be burned!
Anyway, they felt that this group of bandits was probably related to the group of bandits who had set off rockets for them before, and they were very resentful!
The village chief's wife and the others split into three groups. Two groups carried stones, hay, and firewood to both sides of the valley.
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