Traveling Through Farmhouses: Taking the Baby on a Famine Escape

The uninjured men tied up the bandits with ropes. When the women saw that their men (sons) were injured, they grabbed wooden sticks and ganged up on Qian Laoda and his men. Zhou Dashan did not stop them, but only told Wang Laogen to bandage the injured as soon as possible.

Once the matter was over, the children ran out of the tent, and the two little ones ran over to Zhang Xixi, asking, "Mommy, are you alright?"

"It's alright, don't worry!"

Hearing that their mother was alright, the two children ran to see Zhang Dacheng and the others, asking, "Grandpa, are you all alright?"

"It's alright, it's alright!" Zhang Dacheng and the others replied with smiles.

After the women had finished venting their anger, Zhou Dashan allowed the men to search Qian Laoda and his men. Fortunately, the bandits had some money; they found more than fifty taels of silver, which was distributed to the injured villagers.

"Boss, what do we do? That brat Liu Sandan has really ruined us!" The young man with the pointed mouth and monkey-like face asked Boss Qian in a low voice.

Old Qian grimaced, "Oh my god! That really hurts!"

"These villagers are not only strong, but they also seem to have some training. No wonder we suffered such a crushing defeat. Sigh! We're just not as skilled as them, so we can't blame anyone else. This time, we can only accept our fate!"

"Boss, we haven't seen Liu Sandan. Could he have run away?"

Old Qian turned his head and looked around. He couldn't see him at all. He said angrily, "Damn it, that treacherous little man dared to abandon us and run away!"

"If I ever run into him again, I'll skin him alive."

After settling the villagers in, Zhou Dashan, along with several clan elders and Zhang Dacheng, came to interrogate the bandits. Unexpectedly, as soon as they asked, Boss Qian told them everything, emphasizing that it was Liu Sandan who instigated them to come, and that Liu Sandan had a brother who was an inside man in the village.

Zhou Dashan knew who it was as soon as he heard it, and immediately asked Zhang Wenhong and Zhou Yu'an to bring Liu Ergou and Liu Gou Dan over. Seeing the miserable state of Qian Laoda and the others, Liu Ergou was also very scared. Without hesitation, he told them everything he knew.

Zhang Xixi, watching from the side, found it strange. Weren't people in ancient times supposed to be the most loyal and righteous?

How come these people's brotherhood is even worse than their fake sisterhood?

Sigh! It's true what they say, hearsay is never reliable!

Finally, Zhou Dashan and the clan elders discussed the matter and, considering that Liu Gou Dan was unaware of the situation and fearing that his continued presence might cause further trouble, sent him home. The others, including Liu Er Gou, were sent to the government office to ask the county magistrate to handle the matter.

Liu Gou Dan was very reluctant to part with Liu Er Gou, and tearfully said goodbye, "Second Brother, be careful on your journey. I'll go back and find Big Brother to rescue you!"

The villagers chased them away, saying, "Get out of here! Don't ever come back here again. We'll beat you every time you come!"

Liu Ergou shouted, "Little brother, you must get your big brother to come and save me!"

Liu Gou Dan responded and left.

Zhou Dashan arranged for seven or eight strong men to guard the bandits, and then told everyone to go back and rest, as there were still several hours until dawn!

After the fierce battle, Zhang Xixi felt that her sleep had improved a lot. She should continue practicing staff techniques and get some exercise.

I'll have to buy an iron rod another day. I wonder if the system can recycle that big sword; it's worth a lot of luck points!

The next day, Zhou Dashan and Zhang Wenbo led more than a dozen villagers to escort the bandits to the county town, while Zhang Xixi went to clear land early in the morning.

When Zhang Xixi and Zhou Yujie got to the field, they discovered a big problem: she didn't know how to use an ox to plow the field!

"Yujie, can you steer an ox?"

Zhou Yujie shook his head, "No way!"

Zhang Xixi shook her head with a wry smile. Forget it, let's just focus on the preliminary preparations!

"Yujie, go find your friends and ask them to cut grass or collect leaves to sell to my family. Two baskets will earn you one coin."

“Sister-in-law, I can do this job myself, why should we spend money to have someone from the village do it?”

“We need a lot of weeds and leaves. You can’t handle it all by yourself, so you’ll be in charge of supervising and keeping accounts.”

Zhou Yujie nodded, "Okay!"

Zhang Xixi looked around again and found a good location for composting. It should be far away from where they lived and downwind, otherwise the smell would definitely be unbearable.

Seeing that Zhou Yujie was about to leave, Zhang Xixi quickly said, "Yujie, wait a moment. Once you've collected the leaves and weeds, have them take them to the depression at the bottom of that hillside."

"Okay, sister-in-law!"

Zhang Xixi took a hoe and walked down to the depression. She moved all the stones to the other side and also cleared away the weeds with the hoe.

After Zhang Xixi finished and returned home, she encountered several people who came to borrow cattle, including Zhou Dahai's family and Zhou Dashi's family, all of whom were from the same clan.

“You can borrow the ox, but on one condition: you can use the ox and plow for half a day, and in return, a strong laborer will help my family with a day’s work.”

Several families who wanted to take advantage left immediately upon hearing the terms, leaving only Zhou Dahai and a few others who were genuinely interested in borrowing the oxen and were generally decent people.

Zhou Yurong also asked, "Third Aunt, could my family borrow two cows?"

"Sure, but you can only borrow it for today. My family needs the ox starting tomorrow!"

"Okay, thank you very much, Auntie!" Zhou Yurong and the others thanked her with smiles.

Zhang Xixi waited until they had all led the cattle away before heading to the Zhang family's land. Zhang Wenhong was already plowing the land, but the barren ground was very compacted, making it very strenuous and slow.

Zhang Dacheng, his wife, and their two daughters-in-law were digging up weeds with hoes, planning to gather them up, dry them, burn them to ashes, and spread them on the ground to increase fertilizer.

"Mom, didn't you say you were going to town? Let's go this afternoon!"

Chen looked up at Zhang Xixi and said, "You're not going to work on your land anymore."

"I'll do it tomorrow!"

Chen put down her hoe, glanced at the sun, and said, "Then I'll go back and cook. I'll go early this afternoon."

No sooner had Chen left than a little child ran over and called to Zhang Xixi, "Third Grandma, someone is looking for you at the village entrance!"

"Wazi, did he say what his name was?!"

Wazi shook her head. "They didn't say. I don't know them, and I've never seen them before."

Zhang Xixi greeted Zhang Dacheng and the others, then put down her hoe and went back. When she saw rows of carts loaded with blue bricks at the village entrance, she finally remembered that today was the day she had arranged with the brickyard manager.

Zhang Xixi took a piece of candy from her sleeve and handed it to Wazi. "Wazi, this is your reward. Go play!"

Wazi happily grabbed the candy and ran off, "Thank you, Third Grandma!"

When Manager Qian saw Zhang Xixi, he said with a wry smile, "Young lady, this place is really remote, it's so hard to find!"

Zhang Xixi smiled, and Manager Qian didn't mind. He was just complaining and didn't intend to break the contract. He continued, "Young lady, where do you want to build this house?"

Zhang Xixi pointed to her family's land plot, "That piece of land up there, near the foot of the mountain!"