Thinking that Uncle Sanman had been researching that crossbow except for meals, Sicheng still had high hopes for him even though he hadn't figured it out yet, and would help assemble it whenever he had time.
"You little rascal, watch out when you get back and tell your father to give you a good beating. Didn't Uncle Sanman make that waterwheel before? You'll see, it won't be long before a lot of people come knocking to order it. Once you learn your father's craft, you'll have a livelihood." Yun Jianying was already thinking about how to bring some benefits to the village.
"Come on, do you think I'm stupid? There's no pig iron left in the village. Even if he wanted to make more, he couldn't." The wolf was a bit heavy, so Yun Lecang gritted his teeth and shifted it to his other shoulder.
Yun Jianying was speechless; without raw materials, everything was meaningless.
Si Cheng was thinking of asking around or Captain Liu and others where there was pig iron nearby. Even if they stopped making waterwheels, it would be more convenient for his village to do anything in the future.
As for going to Yaojia Village to exchange pig iron, that's simply impossible. Not to mention whether Yaojia Village even has that much pig iron, the current situation is not suitable for long-distance travel.
Upon returning to the village and hearing about the tragic state of Baijia Village, the villagers spontaneously reinforced and raised the walls, and became more attentive to patrolling the back mountain.
During this period, Xin San Village also started coming to their area to carry limestone back. Although the section near the deep mountains had been dug with deep trenches, the other side was exposed. If wild animals really ran in, their fate would be even more serious than that of Baijia Village. After all, the village now consists of wooden houses, which can't withstand anything at all. What awaits them is annihilation.
Captain Liu and his team reported the matter, and it's believed that the limestone from Pinghe Village will soon be in high demand again.
Just as they were setting up their villages to defend against these wild beasts, a group of ragged refugees arrived in the city.
Just as Commander Kuang and his team finished tallying up the number of soldiers assigned to each village, they heard a report that a group of refugees had come from the city and were looking for relief at their post.
"Looks like things are going to get interesting in the coming days." Chief Kuang tossed his pen onto the table and pressed his brow.
"Although I was mentally prepared, I didn't expect it to happen so quickly."
"What do we do now? Our food reserves are running low." Political Commissar Wang was also very troubled. During this period, the soldiers dared not eat the stored food and instead relied on mushrooms and wild vegetables from the mountains to survive. They couldn't possibly send what everyone had saved to those refugees, as this was their last life-saving food.
"Send some of the dried mushrooms we collected earlier to them. Then send a few people to take them to an empty house nearby. As for the rest of the time, let them find their own way to survive in the mountains. We really can't keep up with their needs." Chief Kuang was really having a headache. He looked at the large stack of discharge applications in his hand, picked up the pen on the table, and continued to approve them one by one.
"Have the people below work overtime and distribute everyone over the next two days. From now on, everyone will have to find their own way to survive." Chief Kuang sighed. Perhaps dispersing them to various villages could provide some protection for these villages.
"These people really dare to make demands, as if this is the peaceful era of the past. Even in the past, there was no reason to support such a large group of people for nothing." Old Ma stormed in angrily.
"You shouldn't have gone there to get yourself into trouble. You could have guessed these people would make demands. Didn't you just talk back?" If he had just given in to anger like that, it wouldn't have been the Old Ma he knew.
"How could I not? I told them we were refugees too, and I even hoped they would give me some charity." Old Ma picked up the water on the table and took a sip, ignoring the angry glare from the cup's owner.
“Those people didn’t believe me. They thought I was trying to trick them. Just then, Xiao Li from the company was passing by with his family. I got their household registration certificates and threw them in front of them. They were still doubtful.”
After finishing his angry remarks, Old Ma sat down on the stool and sighed, "But these people are in a much worse state than we were when we came here. Many of them are skin and bones. It is said that less than one-fifth of them made it here. There are a few relatively plump people in the group. I had my men inquire about them. The whole group is penniless, but those few people haven't lost weight. There must be something wrong with them."
Chief Kuang took it seriously upon hearing this, saying, "We need to investigate this thoroughly; it can't possibly be what we think."
Seeing that there was nothing to gain here and that there were people maintaining order, the group they were discussing casually chose another side road and left when no one was looking.
The investigation was completed quickly, and the people involved returned. "According to the refugees, they didn't know that group at all; they joined along the way. They didn't interact with these people and traveled on their own. They didn't steal the refugees' food, but people in the group kept going missing, and they suspected these people were responsible, but they haven't found any evidence yet."
"Let's have someone follow them for now. A fox will always show its tail eventually." Political Commissar Wang knew something was definitely up inside.
But it was too late. When they returned and reported that they hadn't seen those people again, they were even more certain that these people were not good people. Seeing that they couldn't gain any advantage here, they quickly made their escape.
"Should we help resettle these refugees? We can't just leave them to fend for themselves." Old Ma felt sorry for them, seeing that they were all skin and bones from hunger and had nothing.
"Let's leave it to fate. Aren't we digging for supplies here with the local garrison? If we can find them, it will temporarily solve this predicament. But if we don't find anything this time, then we really can only leave it to fate." Chief Kuang thought about how the group of people sent out to dig for supplies had not yet sent back any news. This was already the third suspicious location they had dug. If they couldn't find anything this time, they would have to give up.
"Why don't we ask the villages for help and get through this difficult time?" Political Commissar Wang thought that since each village had lent seeds before, it might not be so easy to get them to lend grain this time.
"Go ask them, but don't ask how much they can borrow. Let them donate as much as they can afford. Find some people with a silver tongue to talk to them." At this point, nobody is stupid. Lending out something might just be a waste of money. It's better to donate as much as they can based on their personal willingness.
While we were trying our best to solve the problem for everyone, those refugees actually wanted to cause trouble. Old Ma gave them a good scolding and fired a warning shot before they calmed down.
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