Chapter 29 Bandits Bandits
"Be quiet, why are you still making noise at this hour? Instead of wasting time on this, you might as well pick up a hoe, dig a hole, and bury yourself there, it would be safest." The village chief's face turned cold and he shouted angrily.
Seeing that he was getting angry, the villagers who were originally talking at once fell silent.
One of them mustered up the courage to ask, "Village Chief, what should we do? We can't just sit there and wait for death."
The village chief frowned and looked at Su Fengzhang: "Erlang, do you have any ideas?"
Su Fengzhang glanced at the people present and quickly said, "It's not advisable to flee to the mountains. There are so many of us, and if we disperse, we'll be easily defeated one by one. If we hide together in the cave, they can set fire to the door and kill us."
"The most urgent thing is to spread the news to the county. Although there are no soldiers stationed in the county, there are quite a few yamen runners and constables. They are all armed and more than enough to deal with the bandits. Even if they can't defeat them, the arrival of the imperial court can scare them."
These days, unless one is determined to rebel, most people don’t have the courage to go against the government.
It has only been a month since the Qingzhou flood occurred. The people's mindset will not change so quickly that they will not directly turn from good citizens into rebels.
"Why don't we just flee to the county town and hide inside? They won't dare to come into the county town to burn, kill and loot." Someone came up with a bad idea.
"Of course not. I'm afraid there are spies of the bandits outside the village. If our people move, they will take action in advance."
"Not only that, if they've set their sights on the village, there must be people guarding the road from Yuexi Village to Hushan County. They'll definitely not let us report it easily."
The village chief quickly asked, "What should we do? If someone is guarding us, we won't be able to report it to the authorities."
"So we need to find someone who is familiar with the local mountain roads and go around the back mountain to the county town. Those bandits are not locals, so they will block the main roads and will definitely not block all the small roads."
"But if that's the case, the person who goes to report to the police is in great danger. If they run into a thief, they're in great danger."
The village chief looked up at the villagers, and for a moment he was a little undecided about who to let go.
At this time, the hunter Qi Kang stepped forward and said, "Village chief, I'll go. I'm a hunter and I'm very familiar with the mountains. There are a few small paths that even the locals don't know about. I'm sure we can avoid those people from entering the city."
"But I don't know whether I will be safe or not. If anything happens, please take good care of my wife and son."
Qi Kang is indeed a suitable candidate. Firstly, he is familiar with the mountains. Secondly, he has some martial arts skills and is agile. If he encounters thieves, he can still deal with them.
The village chief agreed immediately: "Qi Kang, don't worry. If you succeed, you will be a great hero of Yuexi Village. If anything happens, as long as I have a bite to eat, I will never let your wife and children starve."
"Listen carefully, everyone. Qi Kang is taking a risk today for the entire village. From now on, if anyone says anything bad about the Qi family, don't blame me for being ruthless and kicking them out of Yuexi Village."
Being kicked out of the village is definitely the most severe punishment these days. Everyone nodded and admired Qi Kang for standing up.
Qi Kang didn't say much, just bowed, put on his bow and arrow and walked away from the back mountain. He moved very quickly and disappeared in a few seconds. It was obvious that he was very familiar with this area of mountains.
Su Mingzhang asked again: "Dad, what should we do now? Wait?"
Qi Kang went, but who knew when he would be able to reach the county town, and whether he could actually ask for soldiers. What if Qi Kang escaped halfway, or the soldiers didn't care about their lives at all?
The village chief subconsciously looked at Su Fengzhang. Unconsciously, he had become very convinced of this younger generation.
Su Fengzhang said, "There are two solutions. One is for everyone to hide in their homes and see whether the soldiers or the bandits arrive faster. If the bandits come, they will definitely not be numerous. It will take a long time to search every household."
"This won't do. Our house is just a thatched hut. If those thieves can just push it in, wouldn't that be like committing suicide?" someone shouted.
"Yeah, not every household has a blue brick house. You can still hold up the door once it's closed, but we can't."
Su Fengzhang smiled and asked, "Perhaps those bandits don't care about thatched cottages at all, and only target the wealthy families."
The villagers were talking about it for a while. The village chief took a puff of his pipe and said, "Who can bet on this? Every household has food. The thieves will not leave empty-handed. No one can escape."
The villagers thought about it and realized that it made sense. Those villagers who had originally thought that their yards were high enough and they might be able to hide there stopped talking. They no longer held on to the hope that their families were too poor and that the bandits would look down on them.
"Erlang, what's another way?" the village chief asked.
Su Fengzhang said, "There's another way. Everyone can hide in the ancestral hall. The courtyard is large enough, the walls are high enough, and the bricks and tiles are solid. Everyone can grab hoes and axes and work together to defend the ancestral hall. Even if we can't repel the bandits, we can at least delay them."
The ancestral hall in Yuexi Village has a history of more than 100 years. It has been repaired over the years and is very solid. I heard that it was like a fortress during the war in the early years. It is indeed a good place to hide.
"Can we do this?" They were all honest farmers, and they had never thought that one day they would have to fight others with hoes.
"We have to do it whether we can or not. If we let them rush in and steal our money and food, it would be fine. But I'm afraid that in order to escape the pursuit of the government, they will kill us all to prevent the news from leaking out." Su Fengzhang said.
After these words were spoken, everyone's expression changed, especially the man in charge, whose face became more resolute.
Uncle Su shouted, "I'll fight them. Even if I only have a hoe, I can beat a few of them to death."
"Yeah, what are you afraid of? Even if I die, I will drag a few people down with me." Su Caozhang also shouted.
Seeing the crowd's indignation, Su Fengzhang said, "Since that's the case, everyone should go home as soon as possible to pack up and move to the ancestral hall."
"Leave behind all the big things in the house, and some grain as well. If those bandits still have a conscience, they can take the grain we left behind and leave. It will be like spending money to ward off disaster."
Another person shouted, "What if they take the grain and want to kill people? If we leave the grain, won't it give them enough food to eat and give them strength?"
"Looking at the beggars' appearance, I'm afraid they're not starving." Su Fengzhang explained, "Also, we left them rice husks, which they need to pound if they want to eat. Pounding rice takes time, otherwise even beggars won't be able to finish it."
"This is a good idea. It leaves them room to maneuver. Maybe we can even delay time." The village chief said immediately.
The matter was settled. Su Fengzhang didn't say much and directly got rid of several elders who wanted to pull him aside to talk.
But when he returned home and told her what had happened, Su Zhaoshi was so shocked that she almost fainted: "How could it be? How could it be so?"
The flood had just passed, and the damage to their Yuexi Village was not serious. The Su Zhao family never expected that the situation downstream would be like this.
Madam Wei and Zao'er were also somewhat bewildered. "We just came down from the mountain not long ago, how could this happen again?"
Aunt Bai, on the other hand, remained calm and said repeatedly, "Why are you still standing there? Go pack your things quickly and do as Erlang said. Leave the grain behind for now, and hide the rest if necessary, or take the rest to the ancestral hall."
After hearing this, Su Zhao came to her senses. It was useless to lament and complain now, so it would be better to pack up her things quickly.
Su Fengzhang walked into the study and felt a headache when he saw the room full of books. The main reason was that these books were heavy and numerous, and it was not easy to take them away at once. There were also some books among them that he had borrowed and copied from Mr. Wen over the past two years.
"Second brother, let me help you pack. If we move quickly, we can definitely take everything away." Su Lanzhang and Su Huihui came in and said.
"Forget it, I can't care about that." Su Fengzhang took out a sack and stuffed the books into it, not caring whether they would be damaged or not. It was a good thing that they could be saved.
It's actually okay to leave them in the house. After all, most of the bandits would not be interested in books. But their house is conspicuous, and those people will deliberately visit it. If they can't find the previous things, they will burn them, and all the books will be destroyed.
Looking at his simple and rough actions, Su Huihui felt distressed, but Su Lanzhang was more open-minded: "Brother, I'll help you."
The ancestral hall in Yuexi Village has a long history. It used to be a place like a fortress. However, the Zhou Dynasty prohibited the construction of fortresses by the people, so Yuexi Village converted this place into an ancestral hall and even lowered the courtyard wall.
Because of the good weather in recent years, there are fewer and fewer bandits and robbers. The people of Yuexi Village have almost forgotten the original function of this place and only regard it as an ancestral hall where they come to worship their ancestors during festivals.
More than a hundred people from a village crowded into the ancestral hall, carrying a lot of things, but the place was not full.
The village chief worshipped in front of the tablet, then lowered his head and went to the table where the seats were placed.
With a click, a brick was lifted up. The villagers were surprised and delighted to see that there was a cellar under the tablet in the ancestral hall. No one in the village knew about it before.
The village chief coughed and said, "This is a secret passed down by the old village chief. It's the place our ancestors left behind. Women and children go down there to hide. If we can't stop the thieves, maybe this place won't be discovered."
"Village chief, why don't we all hide inside?" someone suggested.
Before the village chief could say anything, someone yelled, "Get lost! If we all hide in there, the ancestral hall will be given to the thieves. Even though this cellar is deep, they'll find it sooner or later, and then we'll all be wiped out."
The village chief coughed and reminded them, "Old people, women, and children, go down there and don't take too much with you. If we can't stop the thieves, we'll just have to hope they steal the money and not waste time looking for them."
As soon as this was said, another old man shouted, "I'm already seventy years old, what am I going to do down there? I'll just be guarding the door. Even if I die, I'll take two people with me. Just let my little grandson hide."
There were also women who felt they were physically strong and were unwilling to go down, so they stayed up there to fight the thieves with everyone else.
Su Lanzhang also grabbed Su Fengzhang's hand and shouted, "Second brother, I won't go down. I want to fight the enemy with you."
Su Fengzhang squatted down and touched his hair, saying, "Sanlang, there are only two men in our family. My second brother is up there to fend off the enemy, so I entrust my mother and sister to you. You have to protect them well, understand?"
Su Lanzhang's eyes were red, but she nodded obediently: "Don't worry, second brother, I will take good care of them."
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