Chapter 23: Snatching Food
Wan Jinzhe was being chased by a group of people, and outside them were officers and soldiers who were eyeing him covetously. All of them looked like hungry wolves, staring at the wolf leg in Wan Jinzhe's hand.
Wan Jinzhe was eating the meat greedily while running, and when he wasn't paying attention, he was knocked to the ground by the people from other branches of the Wan family who were chasing him.
In an instant, the people behind him rushed forward like hungry tigers, and Wan Jinzhe was almost unable to breathe.
Fortunately, officers and soldiers arrived in time and drove these people away roughly.
The officers and soldiers snatched the gnawed wolf leg from Wan Jinzhe's hands, and then beat him severely. The whip fell on him like a storm, making Wan Jinzhe roll on the ground in pain with his head in his hands.
In a short while, his clothes were stained red with blood.
"You lowly creature, I told you to stop, are you deaf? You lowly creatures dare to snatch food from a master, I will beat you to death today!"
Zhou Qiang spoke furiously, then raised the whip in his hand angrily and lashed Wan Jinzhe hard.
Other officers and soldiers were also dealing with the prisoners who were snatching food. For a while, wailing and screaming could be heard one after another on the official road.
Zhou Qiang was tired of beating, so he put away the whip in his hand and waved to the other officers and soldiers.
A dozen people gathered together, and each of them took some wolf meat and started eating.
Last night, after running for more than ten miles, they found a dilapidated shed and rested there for the night.
After being awakened by hunger in the morning, they planned to come back to see if all the people were dead, but they saw them roasting wolf meat.
After finishing the meat in his hand, Zhou Qiang still felt unfulfilled, so he wanted to get another wolf to satisfy his craving.
It was still more than forty miles from here to the next supply town, and they had very little dry food left.
According to the laws of the Great Qi Dynasty, the imperial court would be responsible for the food of the exiles on the road, but the food standards varied.
Usually, officers and soldiers would distribute food according to the standard of one steamed bun per person twice a day. However, some officers and soldiers would embezzle the food, and even if the prisoners had complaints, they had nowhere to appeal.
Mrs. Wan's family didn't even see a piece of steamed bread crumbs for a whole month, it was obvious that they were embezzled by Boss Zhu.
Zhou Qiang and Wu Lei searched for the wolf's corpse together, but they didn't see any trace of the wolf.
The two men understood instantly that someone must have collected all the wolf meat.
Zhou Qiang stared at the group of people behind Wan Xingmo with a gloomy face, and said grimly: "No wonder the old country woman just now said that these wolves were prepared for us, I think they are probably keeping them for themselves.
He said that on purpose when he saw us coming, in order to lure us over to deal with the group of people who were stealing the meat.
It seems that the rest of the wolf meat went into the stomachs of the old woman and her family. I really underestimated these country people.
If we hadn’t come to check today, we would have been fooled by them.”
Zhou Qiang suddenly remembered that the old woman's daughter-in-law seemed to have shouted something just now, but was interrupted by the old woman before she finished speaking.
This old woman is definitely not simple! At this time, Zhou Qiang was filled with anger at being teased, and he came to the old lady Wan's family.
He looked around, his eyes fell on Mrs. Wan, pointed his finger, and said sternly: "You, come out!"
Mrs. Wan was named by the officers and soldiers in public, and she was so scared that she shrank her neck like a frightened quail.
She looked at Old Lady Wan in panic, her eyes full of anxiety, hoping that Old Lady Wan could save her.
Old Mrs. Wan also wanted to stop them, but she didn't dare to act rashly at this moment.
Wan Xingmo stood silently in front of Old Lady Wan, and Old Lady Wan suddenly felt much more at ease.
Mrs. Wan walked out of the crowd slowly and stood at the front.
"Are you from the branch of the Wan family in Yangliu Village?" Zhou Qiang exuded an intimidating aura and stared directly at Mrs. Wan with a sharp gaze.
Mrs. Wan had never experienced such a scene before. She was so frightened that she almost wet her pants. She clenched the corners of her clothes tightly with both hands and rubbed them continuously. Her head was lowered almost to the ground, and her voice was as thin as a mosquito.
"Sir, that's right."
Zhou Qiang drew the sword from his waist and placed the blade across Mrs. Wan's neck.
Mrs. Wan felt a chill on her neck and when she looked up, she saw a shiny knife.
Mrs. Wan was so frightened that her legs became like cooked noodles and she fell to her knees with a plop. The knife left a long and narrow cut on her face and blood began to ooze out like beads from a broken string.
At this time, Mrs. Wan was so frightened that she had completely forgotten the pain and just kept kowtowing.
"Sir, I didn't do anything wrong. Please let me go. I am willing to serve you like a slave."
Old Mrs. Wan glanced at Mrs. Wan with a mocking look on her face, and muttered to herself: If she knew how to serve people, the sun would rise from the west.
However, no matter how bad Mrs. Wan was, Old Lady Wan couldn't bear to let the children watch her being killed by soldiers, so she tried to speak up to dissuade them.
However, someone was one step faster than her.
Wan Xingmo's icy eyes swept coldly across Zhou Qiang's face, and finally fixed his gaze on the knife in Zhou Qiang's hand.
"The laws of our Great Qi clearly stipulate that officers and soldiers are not allowed to abuse private punishment on prisoners, let alone kill prisoners. Otherwise, what will be the consequences? You should know better than us, right?"
When Old Lady Wan heard this, she felt relieved at once. It turned out that the law not only constrained the people, but also the officials. She secretly sighed in her heart: It is better to be literate and know more. It seems that this young master is the savior of our family!
Mrs. Wan had been kowtowing continuously, but when she heard Wan Xingmo's words, she felt relieved and collapsed to the ground.
She thought she was dead just now, but luckily she didn't have to die.
Zhou Qiang glanced at Wan Xingmo with a sidelong glance, and a faint sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.
"I can't kill anyone, but you can't guarantee that something won't happen to you. If someone dies on the road, it has nothing to do with us."
Wan Xingmo looked around at the number of people around him. After the wolf attack last night, the crowd had lost more than a dozen people, and there were a large number of injured. In addition, they were severely beaten by officers and soldiers today. It was estimated that another twenty or thirty people might die on the road.
"Open your eyes and see how many of these people can make it to the border town alive? If the number of people who reach the border town is less than 50% of the original number, you will still be held accountable, and your crime of abusing prisoners on the way will also be reported, and you will still not be able to escape the fate of being imprisoned."
Zhou Qiang didn't even need to look to know that the facts were just as Wan Xingmo said. He slowly retracted his long sword, looked at Wan Xingmo deeply, his lips moved slightly, and he silently uttered a few words: You're dead!
Wan Xingmo understood his lip language. He ignored the threat and folded his arms, responding coldly: "It's not certain who will die!"
After all this commotion, it was already completely light. We had to hurry and travel, otherwise we would not reach the next town before dark.
Zhou Qiang took out all his anger on Old Lady Wan's family. He could see that Wan Xingmo cared a lot about these country people, so he was going to torture them severely.
"Hurry up, if you walk too slowly, I'll whip you to death!" Zhou Qiang whipped Wan Laosan hard, and Wan Laosan's arm was immediately torn into pieces.
When Mrs. Wan San saw this, tears instantly welled up in her eyes, but she didn't dare to say a word and could only silently protect Wan Lao San.
Zhou Qiang felt a little relieved and swung the whip in his hand towards the Wan family's child again.
This time, the alert Wan family immediately discovered his intention.
Just when Zhou Qiang's whip was about to fall on the youngest Wan Hu, Wan Ersao was quick to catch Wan Hu in her arms.
Zhou Qiang was furious. These prisoners were simply lawless! He picked up the whip and lashed at Wan Ersao fiercely.
"Liang——ah——" Little Fubao was in Wan Laoer's arms. She happened to see Zhou Qiang was about to hit Wan Er's wife. Little Fubao was so scared that her baby voice broke. She raised her little hands and cried to Wan Er's wife at the top of her lungs.
Wan Xingmo was quick-eyed and quick-handed. He grabbed the whip that was about to fall and helped Wan Ersao escape the disaster.
"If you can't take care of your whip, I don't mind keeping it for you for a while!" Wan Xingmo's voice was cold and his eyes were deep. He snatched the whip from Zhou Qiang's hand and threw it hard on the ground. The whip passed through the air, making a whistling sound.
Zhou Qiang knew clearly that even if all of them attacked together, they would definitely not be a match for Wan Xingmo.
Although he was upset, he still snatched the whip from Wan Xingmo's hand and turned away with full of resentment.
Before leaving, he glared at Wan Xingmo and Old Lady Wan's family fiercely, and secretly swore in his heart that he would kill these people on the road.
After this little episode, they hurriedly continued on their journey. This time, the officers and soldiers were too lazy to even give the Wan family a steamed bun.
Everyone was exhausted and staggering. Suddenly, someone fainted on the ground. He was then awakened by the soldiers' ruthless whippings, and then continued on his difficult journey.
In this way, they walked more than forty miles in one breath, until the bright moon climbed up the sky again, they arrived outside a town and found a dilapidated temple to rest.
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