She picked up the young prime minister while fleeing famine

The women felt little joy at seeing so many men from Yaoli Village kill the bandits; they were mostly numb and afraid.

They thought the people of Yaoli Village were the same as those bandits, just fighting amongst themselves, with the ultimate goal of robbing their village.

Numbness was accompanied by fear that these people would kill them. It wasn't that they were afraid of death itself, but rather that if they died, their poor children would also be unable to survive.

A group of women huddled together, clutching their children, terrified.

Banxia had been firing arrows from the outside to ensure that her own people were not accidentally injured, and she had just finished collecting the usable bamboo arrows.

Turning his head, he saw the women and children huddled together, and after thinking for a moment, he walked over.

"Don't be afraid, we're not bandits. Do you think any bandits would bring a girl like me along when they rob someone?" Banxia squatted down in front of them and said sweetly.

"Really?" A woman looked up timidly and asked in a low voice.

"Of course it's true. We're fleeing famine from the north and heading to Vietnam. We won't stay here for long."

"The reason we came here is because these bandits robbed us on the road and killed several of us. We were so angry that we came back to take revenge."

"Of course, cough cough, I also wanted to get some food," Banxia explained frankly.

Anyway, these women will see them searching the mountain stronghold, so why not just say it openly?

Sure enough, while Banxia was talking to the women, Yao Lizheng had already ordered people to search everywhere, mainly for edible food.

Soon, the villagers found a warehouse in the courtyard where the head of the household lived, filled with sacks of grain.

However, likely due to the natural disaster, and since they were mostly robbing refugees, they didn't have much food, only about five or six bags of brown rice in total.

There was also a bag of dried meat and two bags of dried potatoes and vegetables, which totaled less than ten bags.

Seeing that such a large mountain stronghold only had this little bit of food, Yao Lizheng sternly ordered everyone to continue searching.

Sure enough, after searching through the houses, they found some more grain that the bandits had hoarded. They pieced it together and filled two more sacks, eventually making a total of eleven sacks of grain.

In addition, two half-grown piglets weighing 60-70 jin (approximately 30-35 kg), a cow, and a total of 70-80 chickens, ducks, and geese were found in the livestock pens that were uniformly fenced off behind the mountain village.

These must have been the livestock originally raised by the villagers in this mountain stronghold. After these people took over the stronghold, they were put into a centralized pen for raising.

The South was indeed much richer than the North. They had only just stepped into the mountainous area when they were happy to find plenty of prey and food.

I randomly discovered a mountain stronghold, and there were so many livestock inside.

The people of Yaoli Village were overjoyed; with so much meat, they could eat it for a long time.

They thought differently from Banxia. Traveling with livestock was too troublesome; they just wanted to kill them and eat meat, especially those two pigs, which made everyone's mouths water.

Even though it's only half-grown and not yet ready for market, it's still meat. And that cow, it can help pull the cart if we take it away.

If they find a place to settle down in the future, they can even help clear wasteland and plow the land. How wonderful that would be.

When Yao Lizheng heard Yao Daniu loudly proclaim how many livestock were behind them, he finally smiled. His decision was indeed correct; it was worth leading everyone back to fight their way back.

"First, gather these corpses together and burn them. Then we'll go to the back and tie up the livestock!" Yao Lizheng waved his hand, directing everyone to get to work.

It's impossible to bury so many bandit corpses properly, but leaving them lying around won't do either; the best course of action is to burn them.

Upon hearing this, everyone immediately sprang into action. They chose the center of the mountain stronghold as the location, spread a layer of firewood on the ground, threw the corpse on top, and set it on fire.

As for the idea that burning corpses in the mountain village is wrong? Anyway, it's not their own place, and it's already good enough that the people of Yaoli Village are helping to clean up.

Seeing the villagers moving around, Yao Lizheng finally remembered the women and children. He saw Banxia talking to one of the women and walked over.

Yao Lizheng's stern face was also quite intimidating. As soon as he walked over, the women all shrank back, and even the woman who was talking to Banxia lowered her head while holding her child.

"Uncle Village Head, are you done with your work?" Banxia greeted Village Head Yao with a smile.

It was as if Yao Lizheng was just busy with ordinary things, rather than doing something as terrible as murder and burning corpses.

"Finished your work, little girl? Did you find out anything?" Yao Lizheng smiled as soon as the little girl asked, his expression changing as quickly as turning the pages of a book.

Yao Lizheng may not be very smart, but he definitely knows how to judge and use people.

He saw that Banxia had been squatting in front of the group of women for a long time, so he figured she must have gotten some information out of them.

“Uncle Village Head, they said this mountain village is called Qinghe Village, and it belongs to Qingyang County. We can reach the county town in three to five days if we keep going.”

"Oh, they also said that the bandits have been here for two or three months, and all the original villagers have been killed, leaving only these women and children."

"These children were only kept around to make the women obey. The bandits are so evil! Uncle Village Head, they are so pitiful. Let's help them." Banxia, ​​playing the role of a nine-year-old girl, showed an expression of resentment and pity.

Seeing her like this, the woman who had been talking to her before raised her head slightly. She didn't expect that this little girl who would kill without batting an eye would actually plead for them.

These people killed the bandits, which can be considered as saving them. As long as they are not harmed or enslaved, they actually have no objection to the people of Yaoli Village taking things from the mountain stronghold.

In fact, through their interactions with Banxia, ​​they felt a sense of gratitude, but they were still terrified by the bandits and now instinctively cowered at the sight of a strong man.

Unexpectedly, the little girl pleaded for them, and the women all perked up their ears to hear what Yao, the village head, had to say.

Yao Lizheng was also pondering this matter. It was impossible for him to take these women and children on the road. Since this was their mountain stronghold, they would probably prefer to stay.

After all, this place is already halfway south, with mountains and water, so even if you eat tree bark, you won't starve.

However, they had to keep some of what they had looted.

"Banxia, ​​we just found eleven bags of grain. I think we should leave two bags for them," Yao Lizheng said after careful consideration.

The bandits had hoarded all sorts of grain, and it would be difficult to distribute them if they took them back. It would be better to leave them for these women and children.

"Uncle Village Head, you're such a good person. Auntie, you won't starve if you have food." Banxia immediately smiled and complimented Village Head Yao, then turned to the woman in the lead and said.

The woman was the eldest daughter-in-law of the village chief. Since the village was destroyed, she had lived a humiliating life for her son, and the other women in the village all obeyed her.