This time, when they went to Yaojia Village, they were not allowed to take the oxen with them, nor were the nearby villages notified. Instead, the dozens of people selected from Pinghe Village set off directly with their own dry rations and the medicinal herbs they wanted to exchange.
After seeing them off, everyone started their new day's tasks. Si Cheng also led a group to the back mountain to check on the animal traps. Since the traps were laid, there had been some harvests, which would all go to the village and be distributed later.
Unrest also began to break out in the city, and several surrounding villages were attacked by refugees. Fortunately, each village was well prepared, so the losses were not too great. However, the crops that were not protected within the walls were all looted by these refugees, and some were destroyed even before they were ripe.
"This is outrageous! Isn't this cutting off their own path to survival?" Chief Kuang slammed his fist on the table as he thought about the successive waves of news he had received.
"Several villages nearby are refusing to accept us now, and some are even reinforcing their walls." Ma Tao thought about the farmland he saw today and could understand the villagers' actions. After all, the crops they had worked so hard to grow were being destroyed by these people before they were even ready for harvest. It was really going too far to waste food like this in this environment.
"We were originally discussing with them about collecting some grain from various villages to temporarily solve their predicament, but now that they've made such a mess of things, who will help them?"
"This time, all of their thousands of people participated. In their words, it's a case of 'the law doesn't punish the masses,' without considering how much people dislike their actions."
As the old saying goes, "Every pitiful person has something hateful about them." Not every vulnerable group deserves sympathy.
Everyone chimed in with their own opinions, and none of them had a good impression of the migrants who had come. Despite their efforts to persuade them, there had been no progress whatsoever. Now, the migrants were even eyeing the surrounding villages, saying things like, "Everyone is struggling so much, why are these people able to live so comfortably?" Some even proposed communism, suggesting that the harvest be centrally distributed among the villages.
Just when everyone was having a headache, representatives from several surrounding villages arrived.
“We don’t want to tolerate these people continuing to bully us on our turf. We don’t feel safe letting them stay here.” Representatives from several nearby villages shared the results of their discussions.
“That’s right. The area is only so big. We accepted you when you said you wanted to come and integrate into our villages, but we just can’t accept this group of refugees.” The representative of Village B also expressed strong dissatisfaction.
"Consider the crops that were destroyed before as bad luck for our village. Consider them as donations to them. As for the supplies we discussed with you before, our village can no longer provide them. With their destruction, everyone's food supply will be greatly reduced. After all, we also need to survive."
“If you don’t take action, then we villages will unite and drive them out.”
Seeing the tough stance of the villages, Chief Kuang and his team were also at a loss. After all, they had gone too far in this incident, and they couldn't find any reason to defend themselves.
These people, in a moment of impulsiveness, disrupted their previous plans. Chief Kuang and his team couldn't think of a solution, so they could only send someone to find the person in charge of this group of refugees.
"You brought this situation upon yourselves. How do you plan to handle it now?"
“Everyone is desperate and has to find a way out. If they kick us out, it’s like sending us to our deaths.” The representatives who came this time saw the soldiers and their sidearms and originally wanted to retaliate, but their attitude softened.
"Anyway, we can't accommodate you here. If we let you stay any longer, then our villages will be doomed."
“We didn’t want these things to happen, but we were so hungry that we had no other choice. We’ve searched all the mountains around here, and we’ve collected everything that could be eaten,” the refugee representative said, expressing his grievances.
“You shouldn’t have harvested all those crops that hadn’t even grown yet. That would have caused a huge loss. Besides, even if you harvested a little bit of crops, it wouldn’t have solved the problem. Now you should leave here on your own.” The local villagers still couldn’t understand their actions.
The representatives from the local villages took a very firm stance, with no possibility of backing down.
“You should leave our city in the next couple of days, or several villages will join forces and drive you out.”
Seeing their tough stance, some of the refugee representatives resorted to blatant bullying.
"Since we're going to die here anyway, why don't you just wipe us all out? There's no way out for us anyway."
Everyone present was stunned to hear such shameless and irresponsible words, and even his companions looked at him with some disapproval.
"Since you don't want to live anymore, then our villages don't mind sending you on your way." Looking at these scoundrels in front of them, the villages exchanged glances and decided to send them away. This was something the villages had discussed beforehand. Even if they had to tie them up, they would tie them up and throw them out. Then they would set up checkpoints at several key points.
"Can't you help us?"
"It's impossible. We can barely take care of ourselves," several village representatives said firmly.
"Since that's the case, then there's nothing more to talk about." Seeing this, the representatives simply stood up and prepared to leave.
"Wait a minute," Chief Kuang called out to them, "I hope what happened before won't happen again, otherwise we will intervene. We can't let your arrival disrupt the peace here."
“We paid so many taxes before, and now even you don’t care about us anymore. What right do you have to make such demands on us? We just want to live.” The middle-aged man wiped away tears from the corner of his eyes. “If we could coexist peacefully, if we could have hope of survival, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”
After saying this, he left with his men, and everyone else fell silent, even the representatives from several villages said nothing.
After a long silence, Chief Kuang broke the tranquility by speaking, "Give us some more time, and we will find a way to settle them."
“We’re not unreasonable either. We hope they won’t mess with our villages again in the future, or we’ll definitely drive them out.” Although they made some tough threats, the villages couldn’t actually do anything so ruthless.
Especially when I think of those children who were stealing crops from the fields, all of them were skin and bones from hunger, I couldn't bear to say anything more.
After seeing off the representatives from several villages, Chief Kuang and his men rushed to the area where the troops were digging for supplies; this was their last hope.
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