This shout brought out everyone who had just returned home from Dingshui Village.
Jiang Qinyu also led the two children toward the end of the village, with Old Man Lu and Chen Shi beside her.
"Ah Shao and the others set up several traps at the end of the village, originally to keep wild animals from entering the village, but they actually caught people instead," Old Man Lu said with a click of his tongue.
Chen looked puzzled. "Who would come to our village? And why didn't they go through the village entrance? Could they have come from the mountains?"
“The other side of the mountain is far away, and it leads directly to Xiqiang. It’s impossible for anyone to come from there,” Old Man Lu shook his head.
They have lived in Dingshui Village for generations, and no one has ever come from the mountains.
Jiang Qinyu looked thoughtfully in the direction of Yunshan and said, "It might be those people from this morning."
"Ah?" Chen was startled. "Those officials from this morning?"
Jiang Qinyu nodded, "That's probably it. They didn't find anything during the day, so they probably wanted to send someone to check the village at night to see if there was anything unusual, and also to go into the mountains to see if they could find anything."
This was the most reasonable explanation, and when she said it, both Old Man Lu and Madam Chen suddenly understood.
“Yu’er is right, that might actually be the case,” Old Man Lu agreed.
As they spoke, they had reached the end of the village.
Chen Shao and Liu Yazi had already pulled the man out of the trap and thrown him in front of Village Chief Li.
"Let me go! You bunch of scoundrels, let me go right now!" The man who had been arrested was terrified when he suddenly saw so many people, but he still tried to bluff his way out, saying, "I was just passing by, you're not allowed to use torture!"
Chen Shao sneered, "Oh, so you know how to use private punishment? You're not from the government, are you?"
“I understand,” Liu Yazi said, pointing with his index finger. “You were the one who came to search our village this morning. You didn’t find anything during the day, so you’re planning to spy on us again at night, aren’t you?”
"You're talking nonsense!" The man's eyes darted around. "I don't know what you're talking about. I was just passing by!"
Chen Shao pointed at him and laughed loudly, "That's hilarious! You think you'd pass by from the very end of our village? I had no idea there was any path leading out from the back of our village!"
There's nothing behind the village, but there is a small path leading out on the side. However, although that path is close, it's not safe. The eldest brother of the Jiang family died on that path back then, so the people of Dingshui Village refuse to take that path.
“Alright, Ah Shao,” Village Chief Li said, “If he doesn’t admit it, then so be it.”
Village Chief Li looked the man up and down, then said to the others in the village, "The people in our village are upright and honest, and we are not afraid of anyone looking at us, but we cannot let anyone bully us."
After saying that, he looked at the arrested man and said, "Officer, you may think that you can hide from us by putting on a fake mustache," he ripped off the fake mustache from the man's face, "but you came to search the village this morning, and the whole village remembers you very well!"
This move immediately caused an uproar among the people of Dingshui Village.
"They really are government officials!"
"How could you do this? Are you trying to drive us to our deaths?"
"That's right! Our village has no food. If you dare to come again, the whole village will go and kill ourselves at the gate of the yamen!"
"Get out of our village!"
"Get out!"
Amidst the crowd's outrage, the man's face turned pale and then red, his legs trembled like leaves, and he opened his mouth several times but couldn't find the words.
People feel guilty when they are in the wrong, especially when they are exposed in public. They lose their composure and don't know how to deal with it. This person in front of me is a perfect example of this.
Village Chief Li raised his voice to signal the villagers to quiet down, "They are government officials, we can't do anything to them. Tonight I will decide to send him out of the village. If there is a next time, we will let the villagers decide together!"
"Okay, we'll listen to the village chief."
"It's fine to give it away, but there absolutely cannot be a next time!"
"If they dare to come again, I'll fight them to the death!"
Seeing the villagers' reactions, the man broke out in a cold sweat, and at the same time, he felt an even stronger hatred for the one-eyed man who had brought him here.
Village Chief Li instructed Chen Shao and Liu Yazi to release the man, and then personally escorted him to the village entrance.
“Sir, our Dingshui Village has always been known for its poverty. Every year, we have to scrape together enough grain to pay our taxes. Now, during this drought, the whole village is almost starving, so we can’t pay our taxes to the imperial court. Please tell the magistrate that the people of Dingshui Village are not afraid of death, but we are afraid of dying in vain.”
The village chief's words turned the arrested man pale. He weakly bowed to him and then stumbled into the darkness.
Everyone stood at the village entrance for a full fifteen minutes.
"Uncle Village Chief, our village's defenses really need to be strengthened as soon as possible!" Jiang Qinyu exclaimed.
Village Chief Li was also feeling a bit scared. "My dear niece, you're right. We need to discuss this matter properly tonight."
Any official could easily sneak into the village. If they really moved the supplies up the mountain today, wouldn't they be delivering themselves to the village?
Upon hearing this, Chen Shao said, "Village chief, we should first make sure to secure all the roads leading in and out of the village, so that we won't have to worry about anyone sneaking into the village."
“That’s right, we were too careless this time. We didn’t build a lookout tower or anything at the dam, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to get to the end of the village,” Liu Yazi said.
Village Chief Li smiled kindly at the two men and said, "You can't say that. You two did a good job. If it weren't for the trap you set, we would be in trouble today."
"Hehe, that was all because Sister-in-law Lu reminded me before," Chen Shao said, scratching the back of his head sheepishly. "She said not to make the traps too neat, so Liu Yazi and I dug the traps in a staggered manner."
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