After saying that, without caring that Madam Ma's eyes were almost popping out of their sockets, she turned around and waved to Shufan and Pan'er at the kitchen door, "Come inside with me, Grandma will get you some good food!"
The original owner of this body would always refuse, but Jiang Qinyu wasn't that stupid. She simply nodded to the two children, "Go ahead, and remember to thank Grandma."
The two children's eyes lit up, and after nodding vigorously, they followed Chen to the main house.
Madam Ma gritted her teeth in hatred and immediately slapped Lu Yancai's arm, "Where the hell has that brat Tianbao gone? Doesn't he know that only those at home can have enough to eat?"
The implication was that they wanted Lu Tianbao to come back and freeload.
Lu Yancai had long since lost interest in staying at home. He jumped up, muttering, "I'm going to find him now..." and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Ma also limped back to their room, giving Jiang Qinyu a fierce glare as she closed the door.
Jiang Qinyu ignored her because she heard the familiar sound of a gong.
"I guess the village chief has something important to say. Let's go see." Old Lu called to Jiang Qinyu, then went out with his hands behind his back.
Jiang Qinyu raised an eyebrow, wondering what the village chief would choose.
Under the big locust tree at the village entrance, everyone from Dingshui Village had come.
“Listen to me, everyone,” the village chief raised his hands and pressed them down, “you all heard what Lu Yanzheng’s family said just now. Fleeing the famine is definitely not our best option right now, so I’ve decided to stay!”
Jiang Qinyu was surprised; she hadn't expected the village chief to express his opinion so directly.
To her even greater surprise, many people echoed the village chief's words as soon as he finished speaking.
“My family has also decided to stay! After all, our ancestral tablets are still in the village ancestral hall. How can we just leave to escape famine?”
“We’ll stay too! Lu Yanzheng’s family is right. The bandits from Qinggang Mountain robbed us, so we’ll rob them back! With food, we can hold out until God opens his eyes!”
"My family listens to the village chief; if he stays, we stay..."
Immediately, people under the big locust tree began to speak up, with most wanting to stay.
Seeing this, Granny Wang immediately panicked and shouted, "Don't listen to Lu Yanzheng's nonsense! We'll starve to death if we don't flee the famine! You don't really want to rob the bandits on Qinggang Mountain, do you? They're murderers!"
The word "murder" pierced everyone's ears. The timid ones opened their eyes wide in fear, while many others began to waver, wondering whether they should stay or not.
Seeing that some people were wavering, Granny Wang quickly pressed her advantage, saying, "If we leave now, we can still catch up with the people from Xiahe Village. They weren't robbed by the bandits from Qinggang Mountain, so they definitely have food. If we trade with them, we'll at least have a way to survive..."
"Ha!" Jiang Qinyu couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.
Granny Wang glared at her, saying sarcastically, "What are you laughing at? You don't really think you can steal the grain from Qinggang Mountain, do you?"
Jiang Qinyu didn't even look at her, but instead looked at the others and asked, "Human hearts are treacherous, especially in chaotic times. Aren't you afraid that the people of Xiahe Village will gang up on you and rob you?"
She was only downplaying it. In the original owner's memories, in her previous life, it was the people of Xiahe Village who pushed the people of Dinghe Village in front of the bandits blocking the road to take their blows, which led to the heavy casualties in Dinghe Village.
The belongings left behind by the dead were divided among the people of Xiahe Village, while the remaining people of Dinghe Village were driven away from the group.
The group exchanged glances, and some quick-thinking individuals considered certain possibilities and immediately resolved to stay.
"Hey, you guys..." Granny Wang stamped her feet anxiously, "Don't listen to her nonsense! We've been fellow villagers for decades, the people of Xiahe Village wouldn't treat us like that!"
Someone immediately retorted to Granny Wang, "Your daughter married into Xiahe Village, of course you'd say that. We have no relatives in Xiahe Village. People fleeing famine can be treacherous; who can guarantee they'll be the same as they were in the village after they leave?"
Jiang Qinyu looked up and was somewhat surprised to see that the speaker was Aunt Qin, who lived next door to the Lu family.
Aunt Qin is a contradictory person. Sometimes she is close to the Lu family, and sometimes she gets along with Granny Wang. Unexpectedly, she is willing to stand up and expose Granny Wang's selfish motives. It seems that she has really thought through the pros and cons of this matter.
Old Lady Wang was embarrassed by these words, but she stubbornly tried to salvage the situation, saying, "I'm only doing this for your own good, don't be ungrateful!"
"What's all the noise about?" The village chief couldn't stand troublemakers. He glared at Granny Wang. "Those of you who want to stay can stay, and those who want to leave, I won't stop you. But this concerns the life and death of our whole family, so you'd better think it over!"
After saying this, the village chief glanced at Jiang Qinyu and said, "Since we've decided to stay, we can't just sit here and wait to die. I'm thinking about what Lu Yanzheng's family said about going to Qinggang Mountain to rob grain. It's not impossible, but how exactly do we rob it?"
The village chief frowned deeply, still feeling uneasy, having been forced to make this decision.
Their family managed to survive for a while because they had dug a cellar and stored some food. But other families in the village didn't have any. Several households had been robbed clean, and they were struggling to survive by borrowing food from all over the place these past few days. If they didn't go and get what was stolen back, they would definitely starve to death.
However, Dinghe Village only has half the number of able-bodied men as Qinggang Mountain, so even if they tried to forcibly take them, it probably wouldn't work.
The village chief thought for a moment, then looked directly at Jiang Qinyu.
She must be quite extraordinary to have been able to take her niece away from the slave trader all by herself; she must also be able to think of ways to steal food, right?
Jiang Qinyu knew that if she didn't come up with a feasible solution at this point, these people would still choose to flee the famine.
So she cleared her throat, strode onto the grass platform, and addressed the crowd: "As you all know, we don't have as many men as the bandits of Qinggang Mountain, so we can't just rob them by force; we have to outsmart them..."
That night, all the able-bodied men in Dingshui Village set out, led by the village chief Li Cunliang, and sneaked towards Qinggang Mountain under the cover of darkness.
As the initiator of the incident, Jiang Qinyu naturally followed along, but tonight she was dressed as a man and stayed by Village Chief Li's side.
"Lu Yanzheng's family, are you really going to go and scout ahead?" Village Chief Li asked Jiang Qinyu again, expressing his disapproval.
Jiang Qinyu nodded, "I'm small and thin, so it'll be easier for me to hide in their village. I can go find where they keep their grain first."
"Old Lu, do you also agree to her going?" Village Chief Li asked Old Man Lu on the other side when he couldn't persuade her.
Old Lu was still a little taken aback by Jiang Qinyu's change, but thinking about what she had done today, he could only bite the bullet and say, "Listen to her. Besides, women are meticulous. If we can find it in advance, it will save us a lot of trouble."
Dingshui Village's fighting strength is clearly insufficient. If they want to successfully seize the grain, they can only catch Qinggang Mountain off guard. But this surprise attack is not something that can be done by foolishly confronting them head-on. It requires a plan and tactics.
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