Crossing the famine, I am a poor fish, and my descendants have to work hard

After getting up early and having breakfast, the village chief struck the gong just as we finished packing up. We harnessed the carts and continued on our way.

They took the official road, received the news early, and set off early.

I didn't encounter many other refugees yesterday, but I think I'll see some starting today, as people in the county have already started to flee.

Zhao Yuanzhen was not too sleepy yet, so she decided to teach Xiao Zijin to read first. She tested him on two sentences of the Three Character Classic from yesterday.

Zhang Zijin has a very good memory. He memorized everything and also recognized the characters. Let's continue learning today.

In the morning, some people who were fleeing caught up with us, and more people began to appear on the official road. Everyone was on their way cautiously, without communicating with each other.

At noon, the village chief found a forest and beat the gong to rest. They got off the carriage and prepared to cook.

Just as she took the pot down, Zhao Yuanzhen suddenly heard loud screams.

She jumped onto the carriage and looked ahead, only to see that the group of people and horses that had just passed them were running back desperately.

"Put everything away quickly, take care of the children, Xiaohui and Zhijuan get in the carriage, the eldest and second sons guard the carriage, and Xinshu also get in. Quickly, go back."

At this time, the village chief also noticed something was wrong and quickly rang the gong to ask everyone to retreat.

They had not gone far when the troops behind them caught up with them, and soon they were surrounded.

The other side was riding horses, much faster than them. Each of them was holding a big knife, some of which were dripping with blood, which looked very scary.

The villagers were so frightened that they dared not speak. This was a real murder.

"Hello, fellow villagers! We are from Daqingshan Village. Due to years of drought, we are having a hard time. We would like to borrow some silver from you. Not much, just 20 taels per family. I think you fellow villagers will not refuse to lend me the money."

A man dressed elegantly in a long gown and a scholar's hat spoke. If it weren't for the big knife he was holding, he would really look like a scholar.

Mr. Emptiness?

Although he asked for it politely, the bloody knife reminded everyone of his intention.

The village chief was also extremely frightened, his legs were shaking, but as the head of the village, he had the responsibility to suppress his fear and walked forward, bowing and speaking:

"My Lords, it's not that we don't want to lend you money, it's just that there have been years of drought and the fields have not harvested any crops. We really don't have any money!"

"Village chief, be careful!"

While Zhao Yuanzhen was giving the reminder, he flew forward and pulled the village chief to the left.

At this time, a knife was shot at the place where the village chief had just stood. The village chief's face turned pale and his eyes were red.

"You old man, we asked you to borrow money with kind words, but you were dishonest and wanted to starve us to death."

The bandit who looked like a scholar looked at the knife that dodged and sighed, what a pity.

"Second in command, why waste time talking to them? Just kill them all."

"That's right. It will save trouble if we kill them," the other bandits shouted. It was obvious that they didn't take them seriously.

Zhao Yuanzhen supported the village chief and looked at the group of people with a frown. There were more than 50 people on the other side, and each of them was riding a horse and had a knife.

Although they had the upper hand in numbers, they were completely overwhelmed by the bandits in terms of momentum, and now they were probably too scared to stand up, let alone stand up to resist.

We need an opportunity to boost the morale of the villagers. We have to fight.

She looked at the fenced-off carriage that was very close to the gentlemanly second in command, and using her toes she jumped onto the carriage, using the force to leap onto the second in command's horse.

He drew his sword, cut off his knife-holding arm, and held him hostage.

This incident happened so quickly that the bandits obviously didn't expect there would be such a person in a small village, and they didn't react at all.

Zhao Yuanzhen held the sword across his neck with one hand, and held the reins with the other hand, fearing that the horse would get scared and something would happen. She said to the villagers:

"Just now, you saw the knife strike from the village chief. They killed people without hesitation and didn't even think of leaving us alive, not to mention whether we had money or not.

Even if there is, can we survive by giving it? Are we fleeing from our homes just to die outside the county town?

Think about your wives, daughters, and sisters. Can these people really let them go? Since we have to die even if we pay the money, then we will fight them.

If we can kill one of them, we won’t lose. If we kill two, we’ll make a profit.”

"Yes, the second brother's family is right. We will fight them. Even if we can't defeat them, we will drag someone down with us."

Zhang Sandao saw that his daughter-in-law was holding someone hostage on the horse. If they retreated now, his daughter-in-law would definitely die. It would be better to give it a try.

"Yes, my mother is right. Without money, how can we live? Without life, what is the point of leaving our homeland?"

Zhang Xinbai was extremely nervous. His mother was too brave. She didn't even give him a chance to react. If he got hurt, how would he explain to his father?

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at the villagers and knew that they were somewhat shaken, but it was not enough. If he did not push them, they would still have a fluke mentality in their hearts.

"Tell your men to stand back!"

"Everyone stand back."

The second in command was about to faint from the pain, and blood was still flowing from his arm. If the bleeding was not stopped, he would bleed to death.

After so many years of being a bandit in the mountains, this was the first time he felt so embarrassed. He really didn't expect that there would be such a brave woman in a small village.

The bandits all retreated reluctantly, but not far, just a few steps.

Zhao Yuanzhen also knew that threats would not work on the bandits. Even if this second-in-command died, there would be more second-in-commands, and others would have the opportunity to take over.

She didn't expect to scare off the bandits with this, she just wanted to expand the encirclement a little bit to make it easier for the villagers to move around.

"Hitch up the oxcarts and horse carriages to prevent them from scaring and hitting anyone."

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at the carriage. If a fight broke out, the cattle and horses would be frightened, and the damage would be greater in such a small circle.

The bandits saw that she was still taking care of the carriage, and then looked at the second in command in her hand. Some of them looked at each other with a dark look, thinking that it was time to change the second in command of this mountain stronghold.

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at the bandits who were about to lose their patience, cut the second in command's neck with a sword, and kicked his body off his horse.

He swung the sword at the person next to him, and the man failed to dodge in time and was stabbed and fell off his horse.

The bandits were instantly furious when they saw that she killed the second in command and one of their brothers without saying a word.

"Revenge for the Second In Command, revenge for my brothers!"

"Kill!"

"kill!"

In an instant, shouts of killing rang out, most people ran towards her, and some went towards the villagers.

Seeing the bandits coming towards them with knives, the villagers lost any hope they had and either fled in all directions or found axes and farm tools to start resisting.

Zhao Yuanzhen looked at the bandits surrounding him, hugged the horse's neck, leaned sideways, exerted force on his legs, and swept towards the surrounding horse's legs.

She was very strong and took advantage of the inertia of her high position to kick the horses in the front row to the ground one after another.

The bandits didn't expect that she was not only brave but also very strong. Before they could jump off the horse, they were dragged down by the horse.

Looking at the one who had fallen, the other bandits could not get close to him because of a circle of horses lying on the ground.

She pulled the reins hard, clamped her feet on the horse's belly, moved half of her body out of the horse's back, and leaned over to finish off the enemy.

Those who had just fallen off their horses and had not yet gotten up were stabbed by her sword. Some of them reacted quickly and rolled to the side, avoiding the stabbing swords.

Zhao Yuanzhen also knew that this trick couldn't kill them all, but at least a few were killed. There were still about 30 people left, and the other dozen or so went to the villagers.

In the blink of an eye, several more brothers died, and the bandits' anger reached its peak. This damn woman.

When fighting on horseback, an inch longer is an inch stronger, and my sword is still too short.

"Tongzi, quickly exchange for a 3-meter-long solid iron rod."

"Okay, host, 10 points."

Zhao Yuanzhen hooked one foot around Madden, turned over and pretended to scratch in the dirt, then grabbed an iron rod.

The bandits were a little surprised at her good horsemanship, and were also a little unsure whether there was a stick there.

Zhao Yuanzhen didn't give them time to think, he just rushed over with a stick, hitting them specifically on the head.

Her strength was enhanced by the powerful pills, so it was really great. When the stick hit her, her brain was split open instantly like a watermelon being cut.

The bandits were shocked by her fighting style and wanted to resist but their weapons were too short to hit them, so they were stuck in a stalemate. Zhao Yuanzhen didn't care about that.

The situation was in her favor at this time. She decisively and quickly killed the bandits, and the iron rod in her hand left an afterimage as she swung towards the bandits.

After a while, only 13 bandits were left dead or wounded. A few frightened imperial horses wanted to evacuate, but Zhao Yuanzhen picked up the knives on the ground with an iron rod and threw them at them.

The one with greater strength knocked the man off the horse and nailed him to the tree behind.

Seeing how fierce she was, the bandits just wanted to escape. Their momentum began to decline, and after a few rounds, they were all killed or knocked to the ground by Zhao Yuanzhen.

While the villagers were resisting and no one was paying attention to her, she stabbed all the living ones, not sure if the iron rod incident had been discovered.

Only by killing them all can I feel at ease.

Anyway, they are all bandits who have committed many evil deeds and deserve to be put to death.

After cleaning up here, she walked towards the villagers.

"Your people are already dead. If you want to survive, surrender now."

Zhao Yuanzhen shouted, not because he was afraid of losing the battle, but because he didn't want the villagers to get hurt again. After all, the villagers were different from the bandits who fought, killed and robbed every day. There was a huge difference in their fighting power and momentum.

Although several bandits were dealt with, many more were injured.

The bandits listened to his shouting, turned around and saw that they were really dead, and were stunned. So many brothers were dead?

While the bandits were hesitating, Zhao Yuanzhen and the villagers defeated them all.

Several died, 4 are still alive, but 1 is seriously injured.

They tied up the four of them with ropes, and told the village chief to find someone to clean up the battlefield and then leave quickly. It was too bloody and smelled strong.

The village chief was stunned and didn't understand what Zhao Yuanzhen meant. Is there anything else that needs to be cleaned?

"The sword, the horse, the silver and other belongings on the body. If we don't clean them up now, the refugees passing by will pick them up."

"Oh. You're right. I'll ask someone to clean it up right away." The village chief suddenly understood.

The men started looking for horses and collecting knives. The women started searching for corpses. At first, no one dared to do so, but when they saw Wu Erping found more than 10 taels of silver on a bandit, they began to rush to search.

Qian Xiaohui and Li Zhijuan even rushed to search the second in command's body. As expected, they did not disappoint them, and found more than 20 taels of silver and a jade pendant.

They happily ran over and handed it to Zhao Yuanzhen, but Zhao Yuanzhen refused to take it and let them share it as pocket money.

Everyone quickly cleaned up the battlefield and recovered 46 horses, five of which ran away and seven had broken legs.

After the cleanup, everyone decisively followed the village chief and continued to move forward. Among the four people, the seriously injured one did not survive and died.

They were searched and thrown out. The other three were trapped and thrown into her family's food cart and taken away with them.