In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

A quarter of an hour later, Chen Da and his men, who had searched the village, returned with some ragged women and reported to Chen Cheng: "Brother Cheng, the village has been searched. There was only a small amount of grain, gold and silver, and these women."

Another woman?

Chen Cheng looked at the women with fearful and timid eyes, and his brows furrowed.

In a place like Xia Kingdom with extremely poor public security, ordinary women rarely go out alone, let alone appear outside the city.

In this situation, it would be particularly unusual for there to be women in these thieves' dens.

Moreover, it is obvious that these ragged women are unlikely to be the families of the thieves.

"How did you get here?"

Chen Cheng asked.

The women, barely clothed, exchanged glances. One of them, around twenty years old, mustered her courage and replied, "We were sold here."

"Sold?"

Chen Da and the others looked at each other in bewilderment.

Chen Cheng's suspicions were confirmed, and he pressed further, "Who sold it to you?"

"The Black Tiger Gang in the city."

The woman answered tremblingly, while unable to help but ask, "Sir, who are you people?"

Seeing the anxious expressions on the women's faces, Chen Cheng reassured them, "Don't worry, we're not thieves, we're here to rescue you."

"really?"

"Great! We can finally escape the thieves' den."

"Thank you, sir!"

"..."

Many women wept with joy; it's hard for ordinary people to imagine what they had gone through in Qiangfeng Village.

Qiangfeng Village is a den of thieves, a place devoid of any law. A group of young women, living in a lawless place surrounded by lawless middle-aged men, must have had an incredibly difficult time.

Therefore, upon learning that Chen Cheng and the others were not thieves, but had come to rescue them, many women burst into tears of joy.

Chen Cheng looked at the women who were shedding tears and sighed softly in his heart.

"Send two people out to take them back to the county town, and the rest of you continue to help me wipe out the forest bandits."

Soon, the group split into two. Chen Da and Chen Jiang took the women, along with a small amount of grain and gold and silver, back to the county town, while the rest followed Chen Cheng to continue searching for the bandit's den and to wipe out the Lin bandits.

…………

…………

In the afternoon, Chen Cheng, who had wiped out three bandit dens, led his team back to the county government office. There, he found the office filled with young women, who stood timidly and hesitantly in a corner, their faces full of unease.

"Cheng-ge'er, come here."

Zhang He led Chen Cheng to a side hall, served tea to Chen Cheng and Han Meng, and then the three of them reported on their respective bandit suppression efforts.

Chen Cheng, who went south to suppress bandits, wiped out three bandit dens in total. Han Meng, who went west, destroyed two dens in total, and Zhang He also destroyed two dens in total, bringing the total number of bandit dens destroyed to seven.

"Not bad."

Zhang He laughed. At this rate, it probably wouldn't be long before all the bandits in Taiping County were wiped out.

"Officer Zhang."

Chen Cheng suddenly asked, "What about those women?"

Today, Chen Cheng wiped out three bandit dens and rescued as many as 30 women. In addition, Zhang He and Han Meng's two groups also rescued many women. At this time, the number of women rescued from the county government office is nearly one hundred.

Without exception, all of these women were sold by the Black Tiger Gang in the city to bandits outside the city!

"Those women..."

Zhang He looked troubled. He felt great sympathy for those women, but he also had no good ideas on how to deal with them.

This is not the China of my previous life, where even prostitutes could go back to their hometowns and ask for a dowry of 20 yuan.

The people of Xia Kingdom value women's chastity highly. Those women who were sold to the den of thieves by the Black Tiger Gang had already been defiled. Sending them back home would undoubtedly be harming them.

In fact, Zhang He had asked those women, and the vast majority of them did not want to go home, because even if their families did not mind, the gazes of others would make them feel uncomfortable.

"Join the damn Black Tiger Gang!"

Han slammed his fist on the table and roared, "You're always doing inhuman things!"

"what happened?"

At this moment, Xu Zhiwen walked in, glanced at Han Meng, whose face was full of anger, and asked.

"The county magistrate."

The three of them bowed to Xu Zhiwen.

Immediately, Zhang He reported, "Your Excellency, today we wiped out seven bandit dens, obtained 500 taels of silver and 10 shi of grain, and also rescued many women who had been imprisoned by the bandits..."

As Zhang He continued his narration, Xu Zhiwen's expression gradually darkened. He knew about the Black Tiger Gang, which mainly operated brothels in the city.

Prostitution is not illegal in Xia Kingdom, so Xu Zhiwen had no intention of taking action against the Black Tiger Gang. However, the fact that prostitution is not illegal does not mean that human trafficking is not illegal.

Selling respectable women from within the city to be used by bandits outside the city for their pleasure has clearly crossed Xu Zhiwen's bottom line.

"You continue to clear out the forest bandits. First, wipe them out completely, and then..."

A ruthless glint appeared on Xu Zhiwen's face: "Eliminate the Black Tiger Gang!"

After saying that, Xu Zhiwen added, "As for those women, let's temporarily place them in the Jiaofangsi (a government-run entertainment district).

Many people believe that the Jiaofangsi was a brothel run by the government, but this is not the case. In addition to providing prostitutes, the Jiaofangsi also had responsibilities such as washing clothes, performing, and playing music.

The women had nowhere to go for the time being, so they were temporarily settled in the Jiaofangsi (a government-run entertainment institution) to do jobs such as washing clothes and playing music, which was quite suitable.

Over the next few days, Chen Cheng, Zhang He, and Han Meng continued to clear out the bandits outside the city.

Meanwhile, Wang Heihu, the leader of the Black Tiger Gang, was enjoying the services of a young woman.

Since Xu Zhiwen took power, the Black Tiger Gang's income has inevitably been affected to some extent, because Xu Zhiwen is a man who cannot tolerate any wrongdoing. After taking power, he vigorously rectified the security situation in the city.

The Black Tiger Gang's main source of income was collecting protection fees from ordinary people and merchants. Xu Zhiwen would naturally not allow the Black Tiger Gang to exploit the common people in this way, and Wang Heihu did not dare to confront Xu Zhiwen head-on, so he had to temporarily give up collecting protection fees and restrain himself.

Fortunately, Wang Heihu quickly found a new way to make money.

As everyone knows, there are many bandits outside the city, and women are extremely scarce for them. So, Wang Heihu made contact with the bandits outside the city and made huge profits by selling respectable women from the city to them.

As for why she's from a respectable family...

Although Lin Fei was a thief, he had his own aspirations. He looked down on ordinary prostitutes, and only women from respectable families would fetch him a high price.

To this day, Wang Heihu has sold no fewer than several hundred respectable women to the bandits, making a fortune and even taking on several more concubines.

The beautiful young woman serving him at this moment was one of his newly acquired concubines. She was eighteen years old, with fair and delicate skin that seemed to be able to be squeezed for water. Every time he was served by this concubine, Wang Heihu felt as if he had returned to his youth.