Chapter 124 Discovery
No matter how much Shen Jin wanted to hide in the quilt, it was time to get up, so he couldn't stay in bed any longer.
Li came in and saw Shen Jin still asleep. She was surprised: "You stayed in bed today?"
He ordered her to get up quickly, help Tian Ya put on her clothes, and then went to the kitchen to busy herself.
When it was time for breakfast, the family saw that Shen Jin's eyes were swollen like walnuts and so red that it was obvious that he had been crying.
Li stared at the three brothers: "A fight? When? Why didn't I hear anything?"
Shen Tie didn't understand, Shen Yin looked at Shen Jin quietly without saying anything.
Shen Jin looked up at his parents and said, "I had a nightmare, Mom. I dreamed that many refugees rushed into the village, all the food was stolen, and many people died."
His parents must not know that his eldest brother and his family had left, at least not now, because Shen Jin was not sure whether his father would report it to the head of the village given his current hatred for his eldest brother. If so, Shen Jin did not dare to think about it.
Although Shen Jin didn't know what the specific consequences would be if his elder brother and the others were caught, he knew that it would definitely not be a good thing.
So he calmly covered up what his elder brother had said about the refugees by making it into a dream, and also wanted to remind his parents that the village was not that safe.
Shen Jin was only nine years old after all, and didn't understand much, but he knew that his elder brother and sister-in-law were more capable and intelligent than his parents, and he could do no wrong by following them. Now that his elder brother and sister-in-law were gone, and Zhou Cunzheng and the others were all gone, that meant that it was definitely better to leave than to stay in the village.
At such a young age, it was not easy to calculate all these things, but Shen San couldn't listen, he only heard bad luck.
You are crying like this, who died?
He was so angry just thinking about it: "He ran to the long room again. Stop listening to nonsense and the messy dreams. You think I'm not unlucky enough right now."
Mrs. Li also felt that it was unlucky for her son to have such a dream at this time. She was already worried, and now she was even more worried. She subconsciously said, "It's okay. Dreams are the opposite of reality. Haven't all the refugees in our county been resettled? You should run away less in the future. Don't think I don't know who you are with. Your father and I have suffered less losses over there. How can you still run over there? You can't tell the difference between inside and outside, right?"
Shen Jin was a little disappointed, but he didn't want to argue anymore. He didn't expect to be able to convince his parents. If he was not careful, he might get beaten, which would be in vain. Besides, Shen Jin was also depressed and didn't want to argue.
After having breakfast, he saw an opportunity and slipped out again. He didn't do anything but stare at a few houses from a distance, fearing that someone would push open their gates.
Fortunately, several families had planned to leave early and had anticipated this day. They had stayed indoors since the beginning of the year, so it was normal for the villagers not to see them for a day. When asked, they knew they were busy weaving in the house, and the children followed them to the mountains before dawn. Everyone was used to it, and no one suspected anything for a while.
Shen Jin thought he had done a good job, but he didn't know that just when he returned home for dinner, someone from the village went to the Shen family's main house.
…
When Zhou Laizi returned home, the whole family stared at him nervously.
"Well, what do Ali and his wife say?"
Zhou Laizi looked dazed, and his wife was frightened by the look on his face. The man was planning to operate on his foot yesterday, but he couldn't help it today and was probably upset again.
She said anxiously, "Why don't you speak? What are you saying?"
How to say it.
The person is no longer there.
Zhou Laizi opened his mouth, went to close the gate, then returned to the main room and lowered his voice to tell about the situation of the Shen family.
The entire Zhou family was stunned.
However, Zhou Jia Sanlang was stunned for a moment and suddenly said, "Dad, A Lie said yesterday that he would tell us what to do today. Hasn't he already told us?"
Chen Lie and Sang Luo chased the Zhou family into the Zhou family yard yesterday. Zhou Laizi was staring at his own hatchet when Chen Lie grabbed him.
Sang Luo told him the possibility of death if his hands and feet were chopped off and he couldn't get good treatment. Then she asked him, if he was not afraid of death and disability, what else was he afraid of?
Finally, Chen Lie said that he would help think of a solution and asked them to go to the courtyard on the mountainside to find him at dinner time the next day.
Zhou Laizi didn't want to chop himself off, not to mention that if he chopped off his own body, his son would also be killed. Would his entire family become disabled?
He kept thinking about what Chen Lie and his wife had said. The knife could not cut any further. He waited like frying in oil over a fire until the time Chen Lie said came and asked for the answer, but all he saw was an empty house.
Zhou Sanlang pulled his father and said, "Dad, this is the answer. Why pay taxes or perform labor service? Let's just carry the food and pack up our things and run away at night. We are not afraid of death, so why should we be afraid of the wild beasts in the mountains?"
Zhou Erlang also said, "That's right, Dad. Let's run. If we hand over the grain, we will die. If we go to the battlefield, we will die nine out of ten times. It's death anyway. We might as well go into the mountains and fight. Maybe we can fight our way out!"
Zhou Laizi looked at the dilapidated house. No matter how dilapidated it was, it was still a home. Thinking of leaving, his lips trembled: "Our yard and those lands..."
Zhou Dalang said, "How can the imperial court let us farm peacefully? We are either in the military or doing corvée labor. How can we take care of the land?"
When these words came out, Zhou Laizi's hands trembled. Yes, the imperial court didn't care whether they could farm the land or not.
He looked at his wife and the children in the family. None of them were afraid when they said they were fleeing to the mountains. Instead, there was a light in their eyes, the light of seeing a way to survive and hope.
The wife and the child were not afraid, so what was Zhou Laizi afraid of? He also had a heroic spirit in his heart: "Okay, pack up quietly, and we will leave at night."
…
The villagers realized something was wrong the next day.
In fact, it should be possible to notice it on the first day, because even if the children of several families are in the mountains in the morning, they will always return home in the afternoon or evening. However, there are many children in the village, and when the children are having fun, no one will pay special attention to whether they see any children from any family, and sometimes they will just pass by and not take it to heart.
Moreover, every family was worried about taxation and conscription, and no one had the time to care whether other people's children were noisy or quiet.
So it wasn’t until the next day that someone started to complain: “Is the village a little quieter?”
This was just an unintentional remark, and the listener didn't take it seriously, saying, "It's annoying. They want to collect taxes and conscript soldiers. This is going to kill us."
The real outbreak occurred after the Wang family entered the village.
Wang Po and her daughter-in-law had been visiting Shili Village frequently recently, but no one took it seriously and were not in the mood to do so. They didn't even bother to exchange pleasantries, until Wang Po's sharp curses came from the Lu family's courtyard, which finally drew the villagers' attention to the Lu family.
The Lu family ran away.
The whole family ran away.
This news exploded in Shili Village in an instant!
When Mrs. Wang saw the dozen or so sacks of chopped grass, she was so angry that her head felt dizzy. Thinking of Mrs. Lu's behavior in the past two months, she knew that her family had been made a fool of, and she didn't know how many strange things Mrs. Lu had seen of them.
Rush to Zhou Cunzheng’s house immediately!
Expose it to the public. She wants to expose it immediately! Right now! Expose it to the public!
Tip the village chief or the village head, and ask the village chief or the village head to take the villagers to chase after him immediately.
The Lu family, her Wang family is never done with the Lu family!
However, before she could report to the village head, she and a group of villagers followed her to Zhou Cunzheng's house, and the villagers of Shili Village discovered that Zhou's house was also empty.
Except for the large furniture that could not be moved, all the food and small items were taken away.
Everyone in the village was shocked!
Zhou Cunzheng's family actually ran away quietly. How did they do it? Where is the grain they harvested this year? The Zhou family also bought grain. How did they disappear quietly?
Then everyone remembered that since the twelfth month of last year, the Zhou, Lu, Chen and Shi families had all gone to the county to work.
What a hell of a job!
The villagers finally reacted and split into several groups to check out the Chen family, the Shi family, and the eldest branch of the Shen family, which had always had close ties with the four families.
All gone!
This is a big deal!
When Zhou Lizheng arrived, everyone was confused.
They checked each house one by one, and found that no one was left in Zhou Laizi's house.
Everyone in the village was puzzled. The five families had not been seen the day before yesterday, but Zhou Laizi's family had been seen yesterday evening. Yet they were all gone overnight.
That's right. The Zhou family didn't have much food, and they would probably starve to death after paying the taxes. With that little food and belongings, Zhou Laizi could carry them all with his two adult sons, and his wife, eldest daughter, and two younger children could just carry some bags and run away.
The villagers were talking about it, saying all kinds of things, but some people's eyes flickered, and they began to hesitate between paying taxes and serving in the military and escaping to the mountains to become refugees.
Zhou Lizheng was so angry that his mind was dizzy and he didn't pay attention to these things. He just shouted for people to chase after them.
The neighbors in Daganchao protected each other, and several families escaped. However, the people in the village were not completely without responsibility. In order to distance themselves from the matter, or perhaps some people had other ideas, many people chased them into the mountains.
But Shili Village is surrounded by mountains on several sides, and it is impossible to know which direction Zhou Cunzheng, Shen Lie and others are heading.
Some people say that if we check the footprints, since so many people have passed by, there must be some traces left.
Several groups of people went off in different directions to look for traces.
…
Far away in the deep mountains, Chen Lie and his group have safely arrived at the first grain storage point. Although there were some surprises on the way, there was no danger and they got through it safely. They were not scared, but the group of boys who had been practicing slingshots and bows and arrows for nearly two months were very excited.
Shopkeeper Xu and the Dong brothers found a temporary grain storage point and returned as early as the afternoon of the first day. At this time, there were six families including the Xu family, and Shi Dalang and other members of the Lu family who stayed here to watch over the grain at the first grain storage point.
Old Man Lu and his companions had not expected that the escape would come so early, nor had they anticipated that at this time in the spring, when people should be busy with farm work, the court would be levying taxes and conscripting soldiers.
"It's good to be out now. You don't have to worry anymore." I can't go back to my old home anymore.
Chen Lie and his companions calculated the time when Chen Dashan and his group would return, and planned to wait at the first grain storage point for a day or two until they could meet up with a large group of people before leaving together.
After all, the inner area is much more dangerous than the outer area. It is difficult to guarantee the safety of so many people relying on him, Lu Er and Lu San. There must also be a few strong men guarding the grain storage point, so that Shi Dalang cannot escape.
Hearing that they would have to stay here for another day or two, Mrs. Lu was a little worried: "Do you think the villagers will bring people to chase us? With so many of us passing by, there will be some traces left, right?"
Hearing what Mrs. Lu said, Shen Lie, Shi Dalang and Lu Erlang all laughed.
Chen Lie smiled and said, "Don't worry, Grandma Lu, if they follow the traces, they really won't be able to find us."
…
In Shili Village, several groups of villagers searched along the mountains outside the village and thought they had found clues. When they went back to report to Zhou Lizheng, they were dumbfounded.
There were indeed traces, but there were too many of them. There were traces of a large number of people walking in all directions, and they were not close, all going deep into the forest. Where could we chase them? There was no way to chase them!
The villagers thought of the so-called hunting training that Chen Lie and several families had been going through in the past two months, and they all gritted their teeth!
Shen Jin, who was hiding by the wall not far away and secretly listening to the news, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
The eldest brother took them to run in various directions every day, and they ran very far. It would be strange if they could find them by following the traces!
…
In the cave where the grain was stored, Chen Lie also laughed: "The mountains around Shili Village are full of 'traces', and when we go deeper..."
He looked at Lu Erlang and said with a smile, "You guys take a different path every time, right?"
Lu Erlang nodded: "Yes, Dashan and his men are the same when they go further in. They try to move a little further away or take a detour each time, and they won't just follow one path."
There were no roads in the mountains. The roads were created by many people walking on them. The so-called traces referred to by the villagers are nothing more than this.
Chen Lie, Chen Dashan and other three were the remnants of the vanguard army abandoned by the main force deep in enemy territory. They risked their lives playing a game of hiding in the mountains with the enemy's search troops for several months, then crossed the border back and fought with bandits in the Dagan Dynasty for several months. Counter-reconnaissance and erasing some traces were the most basic operations.
If they had failed this item, they would not have survived to this day.
…
In Shili Village, Zhou Lizheng listened to the report from the villagers, then went for a walk into the mountains. He was so angry that he returned home and smashed all the teacups handed to him by his wife. The Wang family was so angry that they vomited blood.
The remaining villagers in Shili Village looked at the six deserted houses and faced the situation that the recruiting officers would come to their doorsteps in a few days.
Should they follow the example of the six families or stay and continue to hand in their food and send their sons to the station? This is a question that needs to be considered urgently.
Everyone is afraid of death, and going to the battlefield is even more terrifying, but in the mountains... they don't have the means of Shen Lie and his companions, nor are they as poor as Zhou Laizi, where the whole family has to go peel tree bark to eat together tomorrow after paying taxes today. For some families, even brothers can go to the battlefield, and they may not die alone.
Each family closed their doors and pondered their own thoughts. Their hesitation, entanglement and mental fluctuations had just begun.
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