On the way to escape famine, my parents divorced

Chapter 18 If you tell me the truth, I won't kill you and I'll spare your life
Li Shiyue was right. The gold and silver were really hidden in his crotch!
Li Wangming looked at Li Shiyue with disgust as he took out two small gold cakes, no more than two fingers wide, from the refugee's crotch cloth.

"Shiyue, put it in here first, and then wash it and put it away later."

Li Shiyue naturally felt that it was dirty since they were taken from that place after all, so she readily put on the gloves used to wash pig intestines and put the two small pieces of gold cakes into the basket brought by Li Wangming.

The two small gold cakes were taken out from the crotch of the refugee with red eyes holding a kitchen knife. As for the refugee with a long knife, he only found a small silver ingot in the waistband of that person's pants, which looked like official silver.

"Sister, sister, this gold was earned by the three of us together. When we get back, let mother find a scale to weigh it and we'll divide it among the three of us. Sister Qiutian has done the most, so you'll take half, and sister Xiatian and I will take the remaining half."

Li Shiyue's family actually had a weighing instrument called a scale. That was because Li's mother learned a few prescriptions from a pharmacist in her early years. She could diagnose people with headaches and fevers, and she could also get medicine for the country folk who needed it. Gradually, she bought such a measuring instrument.

After listening to what Li Shiyue said, Li Qiutian and Li Xiatian nodded happily in agreement.

Later, Li Shiyue took out a few pieces of silver from the other two refugees. Some were found in their pockets, and some were taken out from the soles of their shoes.

"I said this man's feet are not big, but his shoes are two inches too big. I thought he must have hidden money inside."

Li Xiatian looked like he had learned something. Li Shiyue threw the silver pieces into the basket and said to Li Wangming, "These pieces are what Second Uncle and Brother deserve. You two can share them equally after they are cleaned."

"I don't want mine, just give them to my sister-in-law."

Shitou imitated him and said, "Give them all to mother, mother, take them."

Li Shiyue nodded in agreement. Just when she was about to say something, she heard a shout. The village chief was calling people.

So, Shitou listened to Li Shiyue's words, and he dragged the unconscious refugee, Li Shiyue's family, Zheng Meiniang's mother and daughter, and Li's father Qin Tao's family of three to the village chief's land.

When they arrived at the place, the villagers took the initiative to make way for Li Shiyue and his friends.

Li Shiyue didn't think about why others gave way to her. Since they made way for her, she just walked in.

Li's mother could see clearly from the side that Li Shiyue was still holding the kitchen knife and didn't even wipe the blood off her face. No one would think that she could just stand there quietly.

Not to mention, standing next to Li Shiyue was Shitou, a tall and strong man who was dragging the "corpse" of a shirtless refugee.

Mother Li felt that if these were not her own children, she would be a little scared.

Anyway, Li Shiyue's family is now standing in the front row.

When they got closer, they saw Li Youfu and three elders were standing. In front of them were two refugees who were also shirtless but gagged, with their arms tied with hemp ropes and their heads knocked unconscious.

Alive, refugees.

If he was dead, he wouldn't be gagged and his hands wouldn't be tied.

Li Shiyue raised his hand to signal Shitou. Shitou was very obedient. He just grabbed the unconscious refugee and left him there.

Then, Li Shiyue stood aside. She could see that Li Shiyang looked like he wanted to say something.

When Li Shiyang stood up, the crying, shouting, and cursing in the crowd slowly stopped.

"Everyone, we were ambushed by refugees tonight. They probably hid and saw us when we were climbing the mountain during the day, so they took advantage of the cover of night and suddenly rushed out to kill us when we were resting!

We were not well prepared. We hid well in the past half month and avoided two groups of people. We thought we would be safe tonight, but who knew it would be like this?"

At this point, it was obvious that Li Shiyang sounded very sad. He paused before continuing, "I just made a round of inspection, and twenty-one people died in our village. Goudan's family of six died, Ermozi died trying to save Xiaomozi, and Yangda and Yangsaozi both died, leaving only one lamb."

Li Shiyue was listening nearby, and quickly compared the families in her original memory one by one. She discovered that more than half of the twenty-one people were from outside the village, and only a small number had the surname Li.

This is also related to the distribution of the camp, because the Li family is a large family in Lijia Village, or it can be said that there are only a dozen families with outsiders in Lijia Village.

These people from other families settled in Lijia Village for various reasons several generations ago.

Even though they have reproduced for three or four generations, they can't catch up with the majority of families with the surname Li in the village.

The families with the surname Li who have the same ancestor are naturally more closely related;
There is strength in numbers;

In addition, the village chief Li Youfu was relatively fair, so even when they were camping on the road to escape famine, and asked those outsiders to stay on the periphery, these people all agreed.

After all, on this journey of fleeing famine, it is already a kindness for someone to take you with them, and people from other families do not dare to ask for too much, for fear that if they ask for too much, the people of Li Village will simply abandon them.

Therefore, the first people this group of refugees harmed were the families of other families who were camped outside the city.

".I counted, we killed seven, and there are still three alive, so I guess a few must have escaped.

My fellow villagers, we have no time to cry or be sad!
The most urgent thing is that we have to find out how many people there are in this group of people?

If there are a lot of people, we have to pack up and run quickly;

If there are few people, we have to find them and not let them become a hidden danger on our way forward!

We haven't left Henan Road yet!"

As soon as Li Shiyang finished speaking, the crying, shouting and cursing started again. Li Shiyang did not speak again, but turned around and talked to Li Youfu.

After waiting for a while, Li Shiyang had the two refugees with gagged mouths pushed forward and slapped them in the face to wake them up. He then instructed the villagers to take off the rags that were stuffing their mouths.

"Honest man, spare my life! Honest man, spare my life!

We used to be decent villagers, but the land was so dry that we couldn't get water to drink and crops couldn't grow. We had no choice but to flee the famine.

We don't want to kill people or steal food, we just want to find a way to survive!
It was Dazhu who forced us to do it!
If we don't do anything, he will kill us. We have no choice. Woohoo, please spare my life, don't kill me. Woohoo"

When Li Shiyue heard the word "Dazhu", her ears pricked up. She and Li Wangming looked at each other without saying anything.

This man burst into tears, and the other one followed suit. Their words were the same, saying that they were forced to kill people and steal food by a refugee leader named Dazhuzi.

"Tell me, how many refugees are there among you?
How many people came tonight?

Is there someone hiding somewhere else?

What does the one called Big Pillar look like?
Did I come with you tonight?
If you tell the truth, I will not kill you, but will spare your life and give you water."

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(End of this chapter)