Chapter 18 To be honest, I won't kill you; I'll spare your lives...
Li Shiyue was right; the gold and silver were indeed hidden in his crotch!
Li Wangming looked at Li Shiyue with disgust as he pulled out two small gold ingots, no more than two fingers wide, from the loincloth of the refugee.
"Let's put it in here for now in October, and then wash it and put it away later."
Li Shiyue naturally felt it was dirty, since it came from that place, so she readily put on the gloves used for washing pig intestines and put the two small gold cakes into the basket that Li Wangming brought over.
The two small gold ingots were pulled from the crotch of the vagrant who was red-eyed and holding a kitchen knife. As for the vagrant with the long knife, they only found a small silver ingot in the waistband of the man, which looked like official silver.
“Sister, sister, we three earned this gold together. We’ll have Mother find a scale to weigh it later, and we’ll split it among the three of us. Sister Qiutian did a lot of work, so you’ll get half, and Sister Xiatian and I will take the other half together.”
Li Shiyue's family did indeed have a steelyard, because Li's mother had learned a few prescriptions from a traditional Chinese medicine practitioner in her early years and could treat minor ailments like headaches and fevers. When people in the countryside needed to get medicine, they gradually acquired this measuring instrument.
After hearing what Li Shiyue said, Li Qiutian and Li Xiatian happily nodded in agreement.
Later, Li Shiyue found several pieces of silver on two other refugees, some found in their loincloths and others in the soles of their shoes.
“I said this man’s feet weren’t big, but his shoes were two sizes too big, because he had hidden silver inside.”
Li Xiatian looked like he had learned something. After Li Shiyue threw the silver ingots into the basket, he said to Li Wangming, "These are what Second Uncle and Brother deserve. You two can split them equally after they've been cleaned."
"I don't want mine, just give them all to my sister-in-law."
Stone imitated her in a very serious manner: "Give it all to Mother, Mother, take it."
Li Shiyue nodded without hesitation. Just as she was about to say something, she heard a shout. The village chief was gathering people.
So, following Li Shiyue's words, Shi Tou dragged the unconscious refugee, Li Shiyue's whole family, Zheng Meiniang and her two daughters, and Li's father and Qin Tao's family of three, all headed towards the village chief's land.
When they arrived, the villagers made way for Li Shiyue and his group.
Li Shiyue didn't think about why others made way for her; she just walked in since they had made way for her.
Li's mother, standing to the side, could see it clearly. With Li Shiyue still holding the kitchen knife tightly and not wiping the blood off her face, no one would think she could stand outside quietly.
Not to mention, next to Li Shiyue stood Shi Tou, a tall and burly man who was dragging a shirtless refugee "corpse".
Li's mother felt that if these weren't her own children, she would be quite afraid of them.
Anyway, Li Shiyue and her family are now standing in the front row.
Upon approaching, they saw Li Youfu and the three clan elders standing there. In front of them lay two refugees, also shirtless but gagged, their arms bound with hemp rope, and their heads knocked unconscious.
Living, displaced people.
If it were dead, there wouldn't be a gag and handcuffs.
Li Shiyue raised her hand to signal Shi Tou, who was very obedient. With a tug, he abandoned the unconscious refugee.
Then, Li Shiyue went to stand aside. She could tell that Li Shiyang seemed to have something to say.
When Li Shiyang stepped forward, the crying, shouting, and cursing from the surrounding crowd gradually subsided.
"Gentlemen, we were ambushed by refugees tonight. It is estimated that they hid and saw us when we were crossing the mountain during the day, and then took advantage of the darkness to suddenly rush out and kill us while we were resting!"
"It's because we weren't careful enough. We've been hiding well for the past two weeks, avoiding two groups of people. We thought tonight would be peaceful too, but who knew it would turn out like this?"
At this point, Li Shiyang's tone was clearly filled with sorrow. He paused for a moment before continuing, "I just took a look around, and twenty-one people have died in our village."
Dog Egg's entire family of six died. Er Mozi died trying to save Xiao Mozi, and Yang Da and Yang Saozi also died, leaving only one lamb...
Listening from the side, Li Shiyue quickly compared the families with those in the original owner's memories. She discovered that more than half of the twenty-one people were from outside the village, and only a small portion were surnamed Li.
This is also related to the distribution of the camp, because the Li family is the largest family in Lijia Village, or rather, there are only a dozen or so families with different surnames in Lijia Village.
These people from other families settled in Lijia Village several generations ago for various reasons.
Even though they have multiplied for three or four generations, they still can't keep up with the fact that there are still more people with the surname Li in the village.
These families, all descended from the same ancestor and surnamed Li, naturally have closer ties.
Many hands make light work;
In addition, Li Youfu, the village chief, was fairly fair, so even when they set up camp on the road to escape famine, they all agreed to let those outsiders stay on the periphery.
After all, on this journey of fleeing famine, it's already a great kindness for others to take you along. Outsiders don't dare to ask for too much, for fear that if they ask for too much, the people of Lijia Village will simply abandon them.
Therefore, the first people these refugees harmed were the families of other surnames who had set up camp on the outskirts.
"...I counted, we killed seven people on our side, and there are still three survivors. I'm sure a few more have escaped."
Fellow villagers, we have no time to cry or be sad!
Our immediate priority is to find out exactly how many people are in this group.
If there are many people, we need to pack up and run quickly;
If there are few people, we must find them and not let them become a hidden danger on our journey!
We haven't even left Henan Province yet!
As soon as Li Shiyang finished speaking, the crying, shouting, and cursing started again. Li Shiyang didn't say anything more, but instead turned around and whispered to Li Youfu.
After waiting a while, Li Shiyang had his men bring forward the two gagged refugees and slap them awake. He then instructed the villagers to remove the rags from their mouths.
"Hero, spare my life! Hero, spare my life!"
We were just ordinary villagers before, but the drought was so severe that we couldn't get enough water and the crops wouldn't grow. We had no other choice but to flee the famine.
We didn't intend to kill or rob food; we just wanted to find a way to survive!
It was all because of Dazhu that we were forced to do it!
He threatened to kill us if we didn't fight back, we had no choice, sob sob, please spare us, don't kill us... sob sob..."
When Li Shiyue heard the name "Dazhu," her ears perked up. She and Li Wangming exchanged a glance but remained silent.
One of them burst into tears, and the other followed suit, both saying the same thing: they had been forced to kill and rob grain by a leader of the refugees named Dazhuzi.
"Tell me, how many of you refugees are still here?"
How many people came tonight?
Are there other people hiding elsewhere?
What does that guy called Big Pillar look like?
Did I come with you all tonight?
"If I tell you the truth, I won't kill you. I'll spare your lives and even give you food and water."
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