The hastily assembled group consisted mostly of refugees who were already terrified of hunger. They had come for food, and upon hearing about lunch, they all turned to look at the clerk and Constable Sun.
The advisor was furious, his beard bristling and eyes wide with anger. "Eat, eat, eat! All you know is how to eat! You haven't done anything, and those people haven't even replied. How dare you mention food?"
Sun, the head constable, knew that not giving them food would not work. These people were willing to obey their orders to deal with the villagers of Shanshui Village for food, but if they were not given food, they might turn against them!
He stepped forward, cupped his hands in a gesture of respect, and reminded him, "Master, shall we have lunch first?"
When the clerk saw Constable Sun winking at him, he reluctantly waved his hand and said, "Eat up, eat up, and share the rations you brought with you."
Then, still worried, he added, "Be frugal, eat less! You still know when you can go in."
Officer Sun breathed a sigh of relief and advised, "It's alright, just wait a little longer. Once our men get into the village and open the gate, we can work together from the inside and outside and quickly subdue these troublemakers."
The advisor replied irritably, "What are those people doing? It's been so long and they haven't made a sound! They should at least say something, whether they're dead or alive, but they're acting like they're dead."
Although we brought quite a lot of dry rations, there are over three hundred people, and everyone can eat a lot. Officer Sun, you have to understand that this is a village, their home. What's the most abundant thing in there? Grain!
If we stay here for too long, who will suffer? Of course, it's us! It's freezing cold, and we have to eat dry rations every day. These refugees and bandits can endure it, but can you, sir? Can the yamen runners and servants endure it?
Besides, how many days can our food last? Therefore, we must act quickly! We also need to let the master know that we're not just eating and doing nothing.
Head Constable Sun lowered his head, a smile on his face, and kept agreeing, praising, "The advisor's thinking is far-sighted and thorough. I admire you."
The advisor stroked his mustache, about to show off, but then turned to look at his companion, who was bleeding from a head and groaning in pain. He quickly suppressed his smile and asked in a low voice, "How many have been lost?"
Officer Sun immediately understood what he meant.
These people will be eliminated eventually; they can't be left in the world as leverage. They're just of great use now, but they're unexpectedly useless. They were injured so badly right from the start that they can't even stand up.
Treatment is impossible; they must be excluded.
He replied in a low voice, "Forty or fifty people have head injuries, and they are struggling to lie there; they are no longer usable."
There were also twenty or thirty injuries on his arms, chest, legs, and feet. They weren't too serious, but he couldn't hold a knife or walk.
Seventy or eighty people were gone just like that, leaving only a little over two hundred. The clerk gritted his teeth, a vicious glint in his eyes: "Just wait, when our men open the gates, none of these troublemakers will escape!"
The two waited and waited, and quite some time had passed since they finished lunch, but there was still no sign of anything.
No one in the village dared to slack off.
Counting stones, packaging lime powder, checking for any leaks, and adding manpower to areas with weak protection... Wang Guifen and a group of elderly women responsible for meals were extremely grateful that they had harvested hundreds or even thousands of kilograms of potatoes the day before!
Each household brought a basket, weighing about 100 jin. Fan Jin brought 400 to 500 jin in the morning by oxcart. Now there are probably more than 3,000 jin of potatoes in the open space in front of the school!
With a full three thousand catties of food, and potatoes provided in abundance, the village's three hundred-plus people could eat for two or three days without any problem.
She didn't believe that outsiders could bring so much food. Even if they brought enough for three days, they wouldn't be afraid. Each household had several hundred kilograms of potatoes alone, plus all kinds of other food they had stockpiled. They could eat until autumn without any problem!
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