Chapter 54 The Officials Are Here
Qin Yao was given a bag of yellow and fine millet, weighing fifty kilograms, which was half a tael of silver.
Liu Ji and his sons' eyes lit up. Qin Yao handed the rice to him, and Liu Ji immediately took it, not forgetting to praise her: "My wife, there is no one kind-hearted person in this family, how can you do it?"
Qin Yao didn't even bother to roll her eyes at him. She motioned for the four younger ones to follow her and left.
Liu Bo and Liu Fei each carried a bag of rice weighing 50 kilograms, which was 100 kilograms in total. After husking, most of the rice was left, which made others envious.
The two brothers caught up, but they couldn't walk fast with the food on their shoulders, so they could only shout, "Sister-in-law, wait a minute!"
The two families are going the same way, so it would be nice to have some companionship walking together.
Qin Yao stopped, and Liu Ji also stopped. He heard that his elder brother and his younger brother Liu Fei also drove away the bandits with weapons today. He couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and looked at the two of them in surprise, saying jokingly:
"I didn't expect that you, elder brother, could be so heroic. I used to think that my second brother was more arrogant, but I didn't expect him to be so cowardly today."
Liu Bo knew his temper and didn't bother with him.
Liu Fei was not going to tolerate him, and sneered: "If it weren't for my third sister-in-law, you, Liu Lao San, would have been scared to the point of peeing your pants! How dare you say that about my second brother? Do you have any shame?"
"Isn't your second brother my second brother? We are one family, but look at this kid, he is talking about two families' matters." Liu Ji smiled at Qin Yao, with a magnanimous look as if he was not going to argue with a little kid.
As he said this, he moved closer to Liu Fei and touched the grain bag on his shoulder. He found that it was rice, and became even more proud.
Patting his shoulder, he said, "Xiao Mi, orange-yellow, out of the shell."
Liu Fei couldn't stand his teasing and looked at his elder brother angrily, "Brother, why don't you take care of this person!"
"Alright!" Liu Bo was also annoyed, "Shut up!"
Liu Ji then took two quick steps away from Liu Fei.
Qin Yao asked: "Have you recovered all the food that was stolen from your home?"
Liu Bo nodded, "We found them all, except for one of the four hens. We don't know if it was taken away by horse thieves or someone picked it up and killed it for food."
"Mother said the three remaining hens were frightened and worried that they wouldn't lay eggs."
"Oh, by the way, Dad and Mom asked me to tell you that you should come home for dinner tomorrow morning because Mom is going to kill a chicken for us."
It is said that in order to fight poison with poison, if the remaining two hens are scared a little bit, maybe they will lay eggs.
Qin Yao agreed.
When they arrived at the door of the old house, Qin Yao and her family did not go in, but went straight home.
The red lantern should have been hung under the eaves to show joy, but now it was held in Qin Yao's hand and illuminated.
Looking from afar, there was a little red light floating in the darkness, which looked a bit eerie.
The four children walked hand in hand between their parents. The family of six walked through the wet snow in front of the door and finally returned home.
Liu Ji moved the rice to the storage room next to the stove, then instinctively started working in the kitchen, lighting a fire and boiling a large pot of hot water.
The whole family gathered around the stove, drank hot water, warmed themselves up, and then went back to their rooms to rest.
After a tiring day, everyone was exhausted and fell into a deep sleep as soon as they lay down.
In the early morning, before daybreak, a large group of soldiers in official uniforms, riding on tall horses and carrying torches, entered the valley, forming a long dragon of torches on the winding path.
Qin Yao was initially awakened by the sound of horse hooves, and then heard some noise coming from the ancestral hall. He guessed that the soldiers had arrived, and continued to pray.
When she woke up, the officials had already left, leaving only two small runners at the ancestral hall to talk to the villagers about what had happened.
Liu Ji woke up the four children, put on warm cotton clothes, washed quickly, and urged Qin Yao to go out.
He was anxious to join in the fun and to go to the old house to drink chicken soup.
The four of them, father and son, were running wildly on the road that had melted snow into ice. Qin Yao watched them fall down one after another, but she felt nothing in her heart and even wanted to laugh.
Erlang blamed Sanlang, and Sanlang weakly said it was his eldest brother. Dalang glared at his biological father angrily, saying that he was the culprit.
Si Niang yelled, "I don't want to play with you anymore!"
She got up, patted her butt, and stood there looking aggrieved, waiting for Qin Yao to come over. She followed her mother.
The horses and corpses left behind by the bandits have been taken back by the officials.
When they arrived at the ancestral hall, Qin Yao and others realized that before the bandits came to Liujia Village, they had already looted a nearby village called Wangjiaao earlier.
The population of the village over there was about the same as that of Liujia Village, but because there was no one to take the lead like Qin Yao, they were unable to resist at all. Their food, livestock, money, women and children were all robbed.
When the bandits left, they set fire to the ancestral hall in Wangjiaao.
Such evil deeds are really horrifying to hear about.
What's even more frightening is yet to come. The horse bandits that came to Liujia Village yesterday were just a small team.
This group of horse bandits has hundreds of people and is a robbery gang with certain organizational capabilities.
After the main team finished robbing Wangjiaao, they returned to the mountain village to celebrate, leaving behind the small team that came to Liujia Village yesterday to continue searching the surrounding villages.
Upon hearing this information, Liu Ji broke out in a cold sweat.
Everyone was thankful that only a small team came yesterday, otherwise the tragedy in Wangjiaao would have happened in Liujia Village.
However, the two officers who stayed behind also said that the county magistrate and the county magistrate received a report last night, and before the New Year had even passed, they immediately sent people to issue notices to the nearby villages and towns of Kaiyang County to remind the people to pay attention.
At the same time, we have asked the prefect for instructions, asking the military camp stationed near the government office to immediately reorganize the troops and go to suppress the bandits.
It sounds like it makes people feel more at ease, at least the government is still in charge.
There is no point in ignoring it. This is no longer a group of fugitives committing crimes individually, but a gang of bandits, which is completely different in nature.
When the Sheng Kingdom had just established a new dynasty, it was the time when the imperial power was most concentrated. If the court knew that the various prefectures could not even deal with a group of horse bandits and the emperor was angry, it would be a big trouble.
After finishing their duties in the ancestral hall, the two runners took only two white flour buns sent by the village chief's wife and resolutely refused Liu Dafu's offer of lunch.
Before leaving, the two men glanced at Qin Yao, and seemed to think that she was not superhuman. They nodded at her, jumped on their horses swiftly, shouted "Gee!", and rode away.
"It's alright, go away. The snow is about to melt and we are still busy with spring ploughing."
The village chief walked to the entrance of the ancestral hall, waved his hand, and signaled everyone to go home.
Speaking of spring ploughing, Qin Yao was shocked.
Thinking of the two acres of wheat fields with unknown conditions, even the fragrant chicken soup that Zhang had been cooking for the whole morning seemed bland.
Seeing that she didn't move, Liu Ji, who had already finished his bowl, shamelessly came over and asked if she wanted him to help her drink it. He didn't mind.
Qin Yao shouted coldly: "Get lost!"
Liu Ji: "Okay~"
Over the next month, officers and soldiers came two or three times. Each time they came, they just asked questions like how many bandits there were, what they looked like, and whether they could find their whereabouts.
The village chief always answered seriously. Also, because the officials would come to show up from time to time, the villagers gradually calmed down and concentrated on a new round of farming.
(End of this chapter)