Chapter 419 Where did they come from?
(Thanks to nanawang3 for casting a monthly vote.)
Li Shiyue met Brother Zhao, who was travel-worn and looked worried, in the council hall.
Brother Zhao not only looks unwell, but he also has a huge bump on his forehead!
Brother Zhao, who was taking big gulps of water from his teacup, put down the teacup and looked at Li Shiyue sitting at the head of the table. Suddenly, he bent his knees and knelt down in front of Li Shiyue with a "plop"!
Li Shiyue managed to hold back from rolling her eyes. She had been in this world for many years, but even now, she still couldn't stand the way the people here would kneel down at the slightest provocation.
Li Shiyue quickly gave Qin Fen, who was sitting to the side, a meaningful look. Qin Fen was quick-witted and, upon receiving Li Shiyue's signal, got up to help Brother Zhao, who was kneeling on the ground, to his feet.
But as soon as Qin Fen reached out his hand, Brother Zhao burst into tears.
"Ah! General Li, only you can save us!"
Please save us!
I'm kowtowing to you!
Please, please save us!
Just as Brother Zhao was kneeling and wailing, crying and kowtowing, Yangzai followed Li Shiliang and Zhao Min into the council hall.
"Brother!"
As soon as Zhao Min saw Brother Zhao's appearance on the ground, she ran over in a few steps, "Brother! What happened to you?"
What kind of bandits?
What happened at home?
How are my mother and father?
You...you shouldn't just keep crying!
"Say something!"
Looking at Zhao Min and Brother Zhao's appearance, and recalling what Yangzai had just said, Li Shiyue said to Yangzai, who was standing at the door, "Yangzai, could you please make another trip to the threshing ground and bring Brother Mazi and Sister-in-law Yan together..."
At this point, Li Shiyue paused, hesitated for a moment, and then continued speaking to the lamb: "If the Zhao family really gets robbed by bandits, this could be..."
Lamb, keep an eye on things and call over every family in the village that is related to Zhao You's family by marriage.
If something serious really happens, we'll have to call them in the future. Let's call them all this time too.
After Yangzai had summoned about a dozen families who were unsure of their kinship ties with the Zhao family to the council hall, Zhao Da Xiong's emotions had stabilized with Zhao Min's help.
So everyone sat together and listened to Brother Zhao explain what had happened when the bandits robbed the Zhao family.
It turns out that three days ago, most of the people in Zhaoyoujia Village were fetching water from the river to irrigate their fields. The weather was getting hotter and hotter, and if the grain lacked water, the autumn harvest would inevitably be reduced.
Therefore, most of the able-bodied men in Zhao You's family were busy working in the fields, while only the elderly and young children who had little ability to work were not in the fields.
Around noon, when it was very hot, three ragged men came to the village entrance to ask for water.
Among the kind-hearted old men and women sitting under the trees at the village entrance, some would lead them over, thinking that they could at least give them a drink of water.
Who knew that this act of kindness would lead to such a disastrous outcome!
While the old woman had her back turned, the man asking for water picked up a carrying pole from the yard and smashed it against her head, cracking it open.
When someone at the village entrance noticed something was wrong, it had been almost half an hour since the person who was supposed to fetch water had come out.
Those three men had already wreaked havoc on several families. They beat and killed the elderly and children left behind in the homes, ransacked the houses, and plundered all the grain and money.
When the old man at the village entrance went to the fields to call the able-bodied men to check, they found that three elderly people and two children had already died in Zhao You's family!
This is something no one expected!
In broad daylight, under a clear blue sky, some thieves actually set their sights on Zhao You's house!
Immediately, the Zhao family patriarch organized the able-bodied men to search the village house by house for the three thieves.
But it's unclear whether the three bandits really left or had already hidden in the mountains;
The men from Zhao You's family searched for more than an hour, not even sparing the village's cellars, searching every place, but still couldn't find the three people.
With no other option, Chief Zhao instructed the families with elderly or weak members to gather in groups of three to five, while leaving most of the able-bodied men in the village to guard the area. Only then did he lead the remaining able-bodied men to Qingsong Town to file a complaint with the local government.
But Qingsong Town is just a small town. Although there are some constables in the government office, catching thieves and bandits is not something that can be done just because you say so.
Having no other choice, Chief Zhao and his men went to Sanshan County that very night, hoping to go to the county government office to tell the magistrate and ask the county constable to bring men to arrest them. That would be even better.
But none of them expected that there were more than three bandits hiding in the mountains!
They were actually dozens of people hiding on the Black Mountain!
Where did they come from?
How did they end up at Zhao You's house?
Why kill the Zhao family?
Why did they steal the grain and gold and silver?
Before the people left behind at Zhao Youjia could figure out these questions under the cover of night, some of the able-bodied men were drawn away by a fire set by the bandits who came down from the mountain.
The remaining able-bodied men then engaged in a face-to-face battle with the dozens of bandits.
When the first member of the Zhao family fell to the ground, bleeding profusely, and died, the other members of the Zhao family became even more terrified.
In an instant, the Zhao family members who had gathered together panicked.
Terrified, some members of the Zhao family ran away with their children in their arms.
Some of them hid inside the house on their own;
Some even picked up carrying poles and fought back against the bandits.
In such a chaotic situation, with no organization and no means of resistance, the Zhao family, who only knew how to run away and hide, were no match for the bandits.
Not to mention, the bandits had been eyeing Zhao You's family for a long time!
One was intentional, the other was unintentional;
One was fierce, the other was afraid;
How could the Zhao family possibly escape the clutches of the bandits?
Therefore, it wasn't until late afternoon of the following day that Chief Zhao and his entourage, along with the county constable of Sanshan County who led a team of constables, returned to Zhao You's house.
Not to mention the old men and women who used to sit and chat under the trees at the village entrance, you can't even see a single big yellow dog that used to roam back and forth on this road at the village entrance!
When Brother Zhao, who had gone with Chief Zhao to Sanshan County to ask the constables, saw the scene at the village entrance, he knew that something must have happened, and it was something serious!
Thinking of his parents, wife, and children, Brother Zhao ran home like a madman.
When he reached the gate of the courtyard, Zhao Da Xiong froze upon seeing the broken half of the door bolt lying on the ground. He hesitated at the gate, too afraid to enter the courtyard.
Brother Zhao, whose legs had become stiff, had no choice but to stiffly step into the yard. Upon seeing the clothes scattered on the ground that had been trampled, he lost his balance and fell to the ground, hitting the broken half of the door latch in the yard.
"...Later, I found my mother and the others in the cellar."
"What about the other families? Were there any casualties?"
"There are families like mine that hid in the cellar to escape;"
But... dozens of people still died in the village.
Later, we carried out all the bodies one by one, counted the number of people, and discovered that the bandits had even taken the women and little girls!
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