Su Gui, along with Su Yuan, Ruyi, and Jixiang, guarded the outside.
Su Kunliang glanced at the five children surrounding the couple, and finally his gaze fell on Su Yunzhi.
“Yunzhi, tell your mother the reasons why your father did this.”
Seeing his mother's eyes redden with anger, Su Yunzhi said softly, "Mother, we brothers alone cannot protect this grain."
"Aren't Su Gui and Su Yuan still here?"
Zhu Jinhui was so angry at the thought of having to give away ten catties of grain every day that her heart, liver, and lungs ached.
Looking at his once gentle and generous wife, who now disregards all dignity and affection for ten pounds of grain.
Su Kunliang did not blame his wife, but only hated this chaotic world that devoured people.
Su Yunzhi patiently explained to her mother, "We are not familiar with the people of Linjia Village. We followed them all the way because I am related to Anan by marriage. We hired villagers so that they could take care of us on the road."
"But this is too much, especially for in-laws. Shouldn't they help out?" Zhu Jinhui grumbled, her tone softening.
Seeing his wife persuaded by their son, Su Kunliang said, "Think about the Huang family's situation. Leave room for maneuver in times of trouble. The more difficult the times, the more we should lend a helping hand."
Su Yunru couldn't bear to watch the father and son talk so much, so she stepped in to persuade them, "Mother, have we ever suffered a great loss while following the Lin family all this way?"
"No, not at all," Zhu Jinhui answered readily. Not only that, but upon learning that her husband was also the teacher of several children in the village, he held her in high esteem.
Thinking about this, Zhu Jinhui felt that since her husband and children all thought it was the right thing to do, she didn't object anymore.
After resting for another fifteen minutes after the meal, the village chief urged everyone to pack up and continue their journey.
Each household in Linjia Village exchanged a lot of grain, and their livestock were covered with packages of all sizes.
The Huang Guichang family, following behind, were extremely envious. They thought back to when he was a sergeant in the city, countless people wanted to curry favor with him.
Things are different now than they used to be.
Huang Guichang reminisced about the past for a while, then had to quicken his pace to catch up with the group ahead, afraid of being left behind.
They were the last group to remain here; no one else was following them.
As you walk uphill along the mountain path, the forests on both sides are ravaged by refugees. Many trees have had their bark stripped off, their once lush leaves have become dull and lifeless, the grass has withered and the leaves have fallen, gradually dying and losing their vitality.
As you venture deeper into the forest, you'll occasionally encounter one or two refugees who have come out of the woods in search of food.
Seeing such a large group, they were so frightened that they disappeared in a flash, like startled birds.
The village chief warned the villagers to be on high alert to prevent robbery by bandits and refugees hiding in the mountains.
As evening approached, with Yun Qi's help, the village chief finally found a flat area with a water source, where everyone could spend the night.
The water source is a small pool formed by water flowing down from the top of the mountain. It is not large, but the water is crystal clear.
The village chief first asked everyone to fetch water for cooking, and only then did he allow each family to bring their livestock to drink.
After the livestock finished drinking, it was the turn of the village's young men, shirtless, to wash them.
Lin Yinan surveyed the area around the pool. She parted the dense grass and found a deep line of footprints.
"Miss Lin, what are you looking at?"
Yun Er's voice came from a nearby tree.
Lin Yinan didn't turn her head, continuing to stare at the footprints on the ground. "There are footprints here. I think they came all the way from the forest."
"It wasn't stepped on by villagers?"
"No." Lin Yinan said with certainty.
A gust of wind swept by, and Yun Er leaped down, landing beside her and crouching down to examine her closely.
Yun Er stood up. "I'll go get someone."
A moment later, Yun Er arrived with Yun Mo and the men on duty in the village.
After repeated examination, they determined that the footprints were left when they came here to fetch water.
Unsure of the enemy's numbers, Yun Mo quickly arranged for his men to lie in ambush at the edge of the forest, preparing to wait for them to come to him.
The teenagers who wanted to stay and watch while playing in the pool were all dragged back by their parents, who pulled them by the ears.
Lin Yinan climbed up the largest tree and lay half-reclined on a branch, closing her eyes to rest.
Yun Mo, perched in a nearby tree, kept glancing in her direction, worried that she might actually fall asleep and fall off the tree.
As the last rays of light shone on the horizon, Lin Yinan, with her keen senses, suddenly opened her eyes. She gestured to Yun Mo, indicating that there was movement in the forest.
Before long, five men carrying wooden buckets on their shoulders emerged from the forest.
Yun Er and his men quickly surrounded the five men. The five men were so frightened by the waving swords that they turned pale and knelt down to beg for mercy.
"Hero, spare my life! Hero, spare my life!"
What are you doing here?
"There's a pool of water ahead; we're just here to fetch water."
Who are you?
“We are from a nearby village. We heard that the Hu people were going to attack, so we fled to the mountains to take refuge.”
How many of you are there?
Upon hearing this, the five men realized that the band of thieves intended to capture them all, and they immediately kowtowed and begged for mercy.
"Hero, spare our lives! We are just ordinary people. This year there has been a drought, and we have not harvested a single crop."
Yun Er patiently asked, "I'm asking how many people escaped up the mountain?"
The men looked at each other, then gritted their teeth and said, "It's just the five families, a total of over sixty people."
"really?"
“Everything we said is true.”
The man wasn't lying; his five families were the poorest in the village, with a bunch of elderly, women, and children at home, no food, no money, and going out meant certain death.
After discussing it, the five families decided to take their families up the mountain to seek refuge.
We can still find some wild vegetables to eat on the mountain, so we won't starve to death.
They believed that the Southern Route General's 100,000-strong army would surely drive the Hu people away, and once the Hu people were driven away, they could return to their villages to farm.
After Yun Er and his men finished their inspection, Yun Mo told them to fetch water and leave quickly.
The five men were so frightened that they didn't dare to fetch water. They grabbed empty buckets and ran away, fearing that if they were any later, they would lose their lives.
Yun Qi quietly followed them.
They returned shortly afterward to confirm that the five men were indeed telling the truth.
When resting at night, Yun Mo dared not be careless and instructed the guards on duty to be on high alert, just in case.
The mountain forest wasn't large, and Lin Yinan and his group walked for another day before finally descending the mountain as night fell.
From afar, everyone could see a village at the foot of the mountain.
The village chief sent people and the Yun family guards to investigate and learned that the village was deserted.
Yunmo suggested resting in the village for the night and setting off again the next morning, and the village chief and clan chief had no objections.
Having been here for so long, this was the first time Lin Yinan had seen this world village.
The village is small, and all the houses are low and cramped thatched huts; the large brick and tile houses in novels do not exist here.
Looking around, the most impressive thing was a house built of stone, with a thatched roof.
Many houses collapsed; it's unclear whether they collapsed on the spot or were pushed down by passing refugees.
Lin Yinan couldn't imagine how people could live in such a low and cramped thatched hut.
Standing in front of a thatched hut, she was less than 1.7 meters tall and couldn't even straighten her back inside.
Lin Yinan was still staring blankly at the thatched hut when Yun Mo, thinking she had discovered something, leaned closer and whispered, "We've been targeted by refugees. Tonight might not be peaceful."
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