Chapter 520: Two Women Secretly Investigate Household Registrations [Seeking Monthly Tickets]
How high is Qi Shan's initiative?
The decision was made on the first day, and the work began on the second day.
Before conducting the reconnaissance mission, he borrowed someone from his lord.
Shen Tang has been so busy lately that she was practically running around on her own. When she heard that Qi Shan wanted to borrow people from her again, her first reaction was to feel sorry for her and reluctant to let her go.
"Borrow from whom?"
Please, please don't let it be a model worker like Wu Hui.
"Watching the Tide".
Gu Chi expressed his reluctance.
Knowing his unfriendly nature, he knew it couldn't be anything good.
Why did Gu Wangchao have to come over?
Who can blame them when this fellow's way of the scholar is so effective?
but--
"Qi Yuanliang! Are you addicted to wearing red?" Upon hearing Qi Shan say that he wanted to disguise himself as a woman to visit his target, Gu Chi's face darkened instantly, and he wished he could draw his sword and stab Qi Shan a few times. "You can wear it if you want, but I absolutely refuse to wear it!"
Qi Shan patiently "explained" to Gu Chi.
The proximity of two young scholars is likely to arouse suspicion.
If it were two women fleeing from disaster, it wouldn't be like that.
Qi Shan then brought up the great mountain that was Lord Shen Tang.
To complete the task entrusted to him by his lord as quickly as possible, a small sacrifice is nothing. His mastery of the art of calligraphy and painting, his ability to disguise himself, is unparalleled; no one will recognize him.
Upon hearing this, Gu Chi asked Qi Yuanliang with a dark face, "Why, why must it be two women, and not a couple?"
Qi Shan said, "Two women are more likely to lower others' guard, but if there is a man present, it is easier to be wary."
Gu Chi: "..."
Qi Shan then used a provocation tactic: "If you don't tell anyone, and I don't tell anyone, who will know what you did on this trip? What, is there anything in this world that even Gu Wangchao wouldn't dare to do?"
Gu Chi: "..."
He now understood why Qi Yuanliang had made enemies all over the world and still managed to escape unscathed; his shamelessness alone was enough to deceive 99% of people. He guessed they hadn't expected Qi Yuanliang to act so recklessly and shamelessly.
Longwu County, Chengjia Village.
Despite being called Chengjia Village, there are actually very few people with the surname Cheng.
Most of the villagers were tenant farmers who worked for the Cheng family, a landlord. The village was remote, and it took a lot of time to travel to and from the fields each day. Although spring plowing had not yet begun, every household had already mobilized.
Moreover, these tenant farmers were very xenophobic.
It will attract attention as soon as a strange face approaches.
On this day, two haggard-looking women who had fled from the village came to the village. They supported each other, looking weak and short of breath. They were both emaciated and looked like skeletons covered with human skin. They begged the villagers at the village entrance to lend them a drink of water.
The man sitting in the sun at the village entrance glanced at them coldly, then turned his murky eyes away, concealing his fierce glint. The woman weaving bamboo baskets, however, was kind-hearted. Seeing their state, and knowing they were two unarmed women, she stood up and wiped her hands on the sides of her clothes.
I found two broken earthenware bowls and filled them with water.
One of the women was extremely thirsty and almost grabbed the bowl with her bare hands, gulping down water. She even choked a little while drinking so fast. The woman who brought the water kindly said, "Drink slowly, there's more."
The other woman was much more refined and restrained.
The woman from Chengjia Village asked, "Where are you two from?"
After drinking two bowls of water, the woman finally recovered, burped, and said wearily, "I'm from the next county."
"Next door? That's not close." The woman from Chengjia Village was also wary, and asked, "Why did you come here?"
Speaking of this, the woman has a bellyful of bitter tears.
She recounted her experience with a dazed and numb expression.
It turned out that she and the woman beside her were neighbors from the same village. A month ago, the men from both families went out to work in the fields and unfortunately encountered bandits who came to plunder. The men died unexpectedly, the village was ransacked by the bandits, and the two women did not escape either.
Midway through their journey, the bandits, whom they considered utterly despicable, were pursued by government troops and abandoned them. Although the two women escaped, they had been stuck in the same area for over twenty years. Unfamiliar with the place and its people, they decided to seek refuge with relatives who had married out of town. However, the journey was long, and they were penniless. By the time they reached Chengjia Village, they had gone two days without food or water, and were cold, hungry, and thirsty…
Among the crowd, some were moved and sympathetic, while others looked at the bandits with hatred. A few older men and women, upon hearing that the bandits had violated them and taken them on their journey, looked at them with a hint of contempt, as if they were looking at two filthy things.
The woman's plight was not uncommon in Longwu County.
That's just how the world is.
"Sigh—what are your plans, ladies?"
The fleeing woman, who had been chattering away, burst into tears upon hearing this, her eyes pleadingly asking, "Can your village take us in?"
The woman from Chengjia Village naturally refused.
This village cannot accommodate outsiders.
The fleeing woman, wiping away her tears, cried out, "Could you spare us some food? To be honest, the girl next to me has lost her voice since she was little, and she's not in good health. If she doesn't eat something, she really won't make it... Please, have mercy and spare us some..."
Upon hearing the fleeing woman ask for food, the woman from Chengjia Village looked troubled. She turned to look at her husband at the village entrance, seeking his opinion. However, he scolded her with a dark face, calling her a spendthrift woman, and said, "Go away! Who has food these days?"
That's not how you be a good person!
They toiled themselves to the bone, developing numerous ailments; now, in their old age, they could barely straighten their backs, barely making ends meet after a year of hard work. With spring planting fast approaching, they needed to borrow seeds, oxen, and farm tools from the Cheng family. And all of these required money!
Even the fields were borrowed.
If the heavens don't favor them this year, the harvested grain won't even be enough to offset the money they borrowed from the landlords.
Even a single bite of food can save a life.
Such precious things, why lend them to two dying women? Go drink your fill and get out of here, don't die here and bring bad luck!
The fleeing woman was frightened by the man's fierce gaze. She shrank back, lowered her head cautiously, and looked timidly at the more approachable woman from Chengjia Village: "Then, then let us rest a little longer, okay? We really can't walk anymore..."
With red eyes, she nervously and awkwardly stroked the tattered cloth covering her knee with her withered, bony hands.
Faced with this humble request, the women of Chengjia Village could not refuse any longer, so they allowed them to rest on the stones at the village entrance.
They kindly fetched two bowls of water for them.
The fleeing woman thanked them repeatedly.
As the sun began to set and the last warmth of the day was slowly drained from the air, the fleeing woman repeatedly turned her head, her eyes pleading, but the villagers remained unmoved. They refused to take her in for even a short while, nor would they give her a single grain of rice, not even something spoiled…
As darkness fell completely, the two fleeing women helped each other up and stumbled away.
His thin, hunched back evoked a pang of sadness in the heart.
They were quite far from Chengjia Village when the woman, who had supposedly lost her voice since childhood, spoke up sarcastically, "You're quite capable."
If we didn't know the truth, we would all be deceived.
Jiang Sheng and Xun Zhen were utterly deceived. It wasn't that they were blind; Qi Shan's disguise was not only incredibly accurate, but her expressions and movements were also flawless. Hehehe, these two fleeing women before us are none other than Qi Shan and Gu Chi.
Qi Shan straightened up and patted her back.
He asked, "How many households are there?"
Gu Chi said, "The previous household registration said that Chengjia Village had been robbed by bandits, leaving only nineteen households with a total of thirteen men, including three able-bodied men... But from what I heard, there are at least a hundred households, mostly able-bodied men."
This village is quite large.
Qi Shan took out her notebook and wrote it down.
Choose your next goal.
After a thorough investigation, the two men roughly figured out the actual population situation in each village—commoners could run around, but those rooted in the fields wouldn't wander off. They only needed to follow the distribution of the fields to locate the nearby villages.
No matter how deeply it's hidden, we can always explore it.
Most of the time, he just sat at the village entrance, acting pitiful, and was rarely taken inside to rest for the night. Gu Chi suffered a lot.
His body had already become weak due to his pursuit of the scholar's way, and he was taking medicine three times a day to nourish himself. During this period, he not only traveled around everywhere, but also made a point of going to villages where there was a lot of noise and conflicting opinions.
They can naturally portray a character who is "half-dead" without needing to pretend.
With the evidence in hand, all that's left is to close the net.
To strike unexpectedly and catch them off guard!
So, Qi Shan decided to choose a dark and windy night to make his move quietly and give his target a big surprise!
This fire completely set Longwu County ablaze!
at the same time--
A dilapidated wooden donkey cart drove into the territory of Heyin.
The cart creaked and groaned, its sound shrill and piercing. Fortunately, the road was smooth, which meant the people inside would suffer less. The young man driving the cart had become quite tanned from days of travel. He looked around curiously; the customs and manners of the common people in Heyin County were quite different from those elsewhere.
It's not that Heyin County is particularly wealthy...
The common people here wear simple and worn-out clothes, but you can often see smiles on their faces and their eyes are bright and lively.
Visibly vibrant.
After asking the common people for directions, the young man slowly drove his old wooden donkey cart into the magistrate's office.
Fugu City.
The purpose of this trip is to visit the Prefect of Heyin County.
Xu Jie, Xu Wenzhu!
\(￣︶￣*\))
Today was a bit short—
But it should be longer tomorrow.
(End of this chapter)
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