The old village chief wasn't there, but there were many people of higher seniority and even older than her present, so it was definitely not her place to give orders.
Shui Qing is aware of this.
"We're no good at this; we don't understand it at all!"
"I've only grown older, not more knowledgeable. I'm useless. You should tell me."
"Forget about seniority and age, let whoever is capable take the lead! Otherwise, we can't just sit here all night doing nothing like headless flies."
Aunt Zhang, Shuiqing's number one fan, shouted from the crowd: "Shuiqing, I believe you! I'll do whatever you say!"
Wang Guifen, who was a step behind and became number two, continued to shout, "I'll listen to you too!"
First the women, then the men shouted for Shuiqing to take charge.
Fan Jin leaned down and asked in his ear, "Shuiqing, do you want to take charge?"
Shui Qing has the ability to take charge, and taking charge is very tiring, but that's just his opinion. Whether he wants to or not is up to Shui Qing to decide.
The clarity of the water is neither good nor bad.
After all this commotion, it's probably already one or two in the morning. If they help the old village chief back, it'll be late, the dew is heavy, and the wind is cold. They might not let the bandits manage to get him out of there, but instead exhaust him to death themselves!
She first nodded to Fan Jin, then raised her voice and replied, "Alright, then I will respectfully comply."
Aunt Zhang and Wang Guifen beamed with joy, and the crowd immediately quieted down, waiting for Shui Qing to give the order.
Shui Qing didn't mince words and went straight to the point: "First of all, quite a few bandits have escaped outside. In order to prevent them from going back to find reinforcements, we still need to have more people guarding the front and back gates."
Fan Qian and Fan Dazhu were found to have left their posts tonight and will be held accountable. The personnel originally scheduled for the second half of the night shift will be replaced.
"Yes, we can't have fewer people guarding the gate! Our whole village was almost killed by Fan Qian and Fan Dazhu tonight!"
"Where are those two? We can't let them off so easily!"
Shui Qing steered the conversation back on track: "Fan Qian and Fan Damu, we'll talk about that later. Fan Xiaoliu and Wu Gousheng, you two take stock of the injured and settle them all in the study. Also, Zhang Xiaogou, go to my place and ask Uncle Ding and Aunt Ding to bring some hemostatic powder to help with bandaging."
"Yes, yes, the injured are the priority! We need to bandage them first."
"By the way, what about these bandits? Quite a few of them have bled; will they die in our village?"
"So what if he's dead! At worst, we can just bury him somewhere or hand him over to the constables at dawn. We can't waste medicine on them to bandage him up!"
"I didn't want to save them, I just felt it was wrong for them to die in our village..."
Shuiqing also felt it was bad to die in her own village, but she wasn't a professional doctor and couldn't and didn't want to assess their injuries. She said to everyone, "We'll wait until Uncle Ding and Aunt Ding arrive and take a look."
As long as they don't die, that's fine. As for those who do die, so be it; I'm sure the government will understand.
It's impossible that if they were holding knives and about to kill someone, the villagers would just stretch their necks out to let them kill them.
However, the interrogation later will require some careful consideration.
In years of floods and famine, these bandits have survived to this day, and they are all fat, strong, and have bloodshot eyes; it's obvious they are not good people.
His hands were even stained with a lot of blood.
Although she hadn't experienced it herself, she wasn't an innocent little girl who didn't know the ways of the world; she knew a little about how dangerous the world was.
"Brother Li, Second Brother, Third Brother, Third Brother Xu, and Eldest Brother Wu, divide these people into groups of more than ten, keep them far apart, and interrogate them separately."
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