"Halt!"
In the wilderness, a group of ragged bandits armed with weapons sprung from the bushes on both sides of the road, with a burly lead bandit wielding a short sabre, shouting loudly at the fleeing column of refugees they had stopped.
"This road was opened by me; this forest was planted by me. If you want to pass through, leave behind your savings for your life!"
This group of refugees numbered around thirty people, half old and half young, with a few youths among them, but most were skinny and weak. Faced with these bandits, all of them showed a look of fear.
"Great master, please have mercy, have mercy..."
An elder with clasped hands pleaded, "We are just refugees, if life had not been so unbearable, we wouldn't have set out. Please let us live."
"Stop the nonsense, if I give you a way to live, who will give me a way to live!"
The bandit pressed forward with his notched short sabre, frightening the crowd into stepping back unconsciously.
