I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

Tiger spat twice on his hand, picked up the large knife from the ground, and stood up from the bushes. In an instant, the people behind him raised their torches.

The village headman was startled when he saw tiny sparks of fire appearing at the edge of the ranks.

This time... it seems like they've come with ill intentions!

The brighter and more numerous the torches, the more people they seemed to have compared to their own side.

The village head turned around and looked around at the villagers behind him. He saw that their faces were solemn, and some of them were clenching their teeth.

"There are too many of them," the village head said to the village chief. "I'll go and talk to them."

"What are we talking about?" the village chief asked. "They want water, they want food, they want livestock, they want a cart. Can we give them everything?"

"Then we have no choice but to fight."

The village head led the men to the edge of the line.

Taking advantage of the chaos, Zhao Ningning found her father and the others, and called for them to go to their carriage.

Worried about Ning's mother, Ning's father didn't know whether to pick up the bucket or drop it, so he hurriedly ran to the side.

The village headman walked to the side. The other party hadn't made a move yet, only watching them warily. The village headman, his hands empty, bowed slightly to the leader and said:

"Gentlemen, what brings you here so late at night?"

Hearing this naive question, the leopard sneered and said, "Instructions? Hmph, we are short of water and food. Hand over your food and water, and we will spare your lives."

The village head pressed further, "What do you want?"

"All your food," Tiger said coldly. "You've found a water source here, haven't you? Hand over the water as well."

The village head's face darkened; these people had no intention of having a proper talk at all.

Is there no other way... to fight back?

Seeing that there was no response from the other side, the leopard said impatiently, "Stop talking nonsense and hand over all your food!"

After a moment's hesitation, seeing that the other party still wasn't readily begging for mercy, the leopard's face darkened: "You've really given me face!"

He slung the broadsword over his shoulder, tilted his head, and shouted, "Brothers, let's fight!"

When the opposing side attacked, the men of Wangli Village were naturally not to be outdone. They picked up the machetes they had looted in the previous two raids, and the two groups fought while shouting at each other.

The village head was pulled to the back by one of the men. The man hurriedly told him to stand, then picked up his wood-chopping knife and charged forward again.

By the light of the torch, the village headman saw that the edge of the wood-chopping knife in the man's hand was gleaming... Yes, this was something the man had found over the past two days while waiting to fetch water, and he had polished it by sitting and waiting for the water.

Looking further ahead, the men rushing forward all wore expressions of fearlessness, as if they were ready to die.

Now that people are fleeing famine, water and food are as vital as life itself. He is being narrow-minded. The current situation is not suitable for retreating, nor can it be retreated!

The village head saw Zhou Lanxiang standing on the front of the vehicle, holding a large knife in her hand, staring intently at the stalemate on the battlefield.

I saw a woman holding a hoe standing guard in front of her cart.

In the distance, Zhou Lanxiang's family members ran this way, followed by villagers carrying farm tools.

Even the stingy and cowardly old man Xi and old woman Qian were in the line.

Everyone in Wangli Village, young and old, men and women, stood up; what did he have to fear?

The village head stood still.

As soon as Zhao Ningning and Zhao Qi returned, Ningning's parents, without saying a word, grabbed their broadswords and joined the battle.

Upon arriving at the Shang family residence, Liu Dacheng, seeing the situation was dire, instructed his wife to guard the mistress and young master while he himself charged forward with a large knife.

Some of the bolder women, who usually slaughtered chickens and ducks, would bravely follow behind their husbands and charge forward.

The opposing side had more people and initially had the upper hand. However, as these few people joined in, the battle became slightly stagnant. After the villagers from Wangli Village joined in, the two sides fought to a standstill.

The village chief, carrying a large knife, went around to the back, preparing to seize the opportunity to "capture the king first."

However, the two sides were evenly matched, and the leader was constantly surrounded, unable to find a suitable opportunity to strike.

During the fight, several men from Wangli Village were slashed by the enemy's knives, and blood gushed out immediately. The men clutched their arms in pain and fell to the ground.

The village head was extremely anxious. He looked around a few times and saw that there was an iron shovel tied to Zhao Ningning's cart. He also saw Zhao Ningning standing on the roof of the cart and hurriedly asked, "Wu Ya, can I borrow your iron shovel for a moment?"

Zhao Ningning was watching the battlefield when she heard this. She turned her gaze back to the village head and looked at the gray hair at his temples. She couldn't bear it and said, "Grandpa Village Head, you have to stay in the rear to stabilize the morale of the troops. You can't go to the front."

The village headman plays a role in directing the villagers. As long as he is alive, he can still rally the villagers. If something happens to him, only the village chief can command the villagers.

I wonder where the village chief has gone.

Hearing that Wu Ya's words didn't seem to indicate she wanted Tie Zhai, the village head became anxious: "What stability? Give me Tie Zhai to use, kill as many as you can!"

Zhao Ningning carefully climbed down from the top of the carriage and asked the village head to come closer.

"Grandpa Village Head, I just looked from the roof of the vehicle. The other side is standing at the bottom of the slope. There are so many rocks behind us, we can..."

The village head, who had been anxious, turned to joy after hearing Zhao Ningning's method. As soon as Zhao Ningning finished speaking, he ran back to the group in a few quick steps.

Before long, the village head's wife got everyone together, young and old, to move the stones by the stream.

The group stood in a row and took turns carrying the stone to the front.

At the very front, the carriages of several families with horses were borrowed and lined up in a row. The village head called back a few men who had been good at throwing fireballs from behind last time, and had them stand on top of the carriages.

Once they were ready, the village head shouted towards the stalemate on the battlefield, "Wang Li Village! Retreat!"

Upon receiving the order, the people of Wangli Village took a few steps back, and in the next instant, stones rained down on the thieves opposite them.

The thief cried out in pain, stopped what he was doing, and kept groaning and groaning as he covered his head and face.

The man standing in front, hands on his hips, laughed at the other man with an air of arrogance.

Enraged, the group of thieves blocked their way with their arms.

"Damn it! Damn it! I'm going to kill you all!" Leopard clutched his bleeding head, his eyes fixed on the group of villagers.

Suddenly, he saw another man standing at the back of the group. Leopard gripped his broadsword tightly—that must be their village chief! Die!

He quietly went around to the back.

The village head was worried. Although throwing stones was effective, there were too few men willing to do it! They could only slightly slow down the group.

Perhaps sensing the village head's thoughts, Xi Ershun's wife dropped the rake in her hand, stepped forward, and said tremblingly, "Village...Village Head!"

"I...I see there's still room on the roof, I'll go throw stones!" She swallowed hard, her mouth watering from nervousness, and explained, "When I was little, I was pretty good at skipping stones."

Hearing that a woman was willing to throw stones, the village head's eyes lit up, and he made way for her, saying, "Quick! Please come in!"

Thinking that other young wives might throw stones, but were afraid of gossip and dared not step forward, the village head shouted: "Who else dares? In front of you are your fathers, your husbands, your sons..."

Those of you with good stone-throwing skills, come on up! As long as we stick together, our village can save our food and our water!

At the thought of water and food, the women all stood up. Someone said, "What's there to be afraid of! Even Wu Ya's mother dared to take a knife and kill the thieves!"

"That's right! What's wrong with us throwing stones? Anyone who dares to gossip, our village head will be the first to twist their head off! Isn't that right, Village Head!"

The village head nodded, "Anyone who dares to gossip is going against our village!"

With his words, several women immediately joined hands and climbed onto the roof of the vehicle. With their help, the stones thrown into the battlefield were as dense as a summer thunderstorm.

They all hurled their weapons at each other.

Er Shun's wife went up and threw two at the target but missed. In a panic, she threw a few more at the target, but still missed.

She was so anxious that sweat broke out on her forehead. The young woman next to her saw this and pulled her hand to put a stone of suitable size inside.

"Xiaozhi, don't worry. Think about how you lost it before, and do it the same way now."

Luo Xiaozhi gripped the stone tightly, recalling the times she played with the village children when she was a child... She aimed, swung her arm in a wide arc, and threw it out!

The stone, in an arc shape, hurtled onto the battlefield.

The stone struck the thief opposite her husband squarely in the eye socket. The thief cried out in pain and covered his eye with one hand. Xi Ershun seized the opportunity to slash down with his broadsword.

Blood splattered with the blade, and the man's head rolled to the ground. The thief swayed and fell backward.

The two sides were so close together that Luo Xiaozhi could almost smell the blood.

How terrifying! She shuddered, but quickly, she bent down, grabbed the stones on the ground with both hands, swung her arms, and threw them forward one after another.

—We'll hit as many as we can!

The village head stood in front of the car, intently watching what lay ahead.

With the help of those behind them, the men of Wangli Village were greatly encouraged and worked tirelessly, determined to fight for a way to survive for their families here!

In a corner unnoticed by everyone, a dark figure quietly slipped into the convoy in Wangli Village.

Hearing the screams of his brothers, the leopard's eyes were filled with hatred.

—Why should these ordinary people fight against them?!

Seeing the other party approaching respectfully, the leopard had been thinking that it could get a batch of food and water for free without any fighting.

Unexpectedly, those lowly people started attacking without saying a word!

The spot where the stone hit him still hurt a little. Leopard swallowed hard. He lay down under the car and saw the face of the old man standing next to the car. This was the one who had led the way to talk to them.

—That's definitely their village chief!

The leopard grinned maliciously, then slowly crawled forward, knife in hand, waiting for its chance to strike.

Front of the car.

There's someone under the car!

Zhao Ningning has very sensitive senses; the magnetic field around someone is different from when no one is around.

Sensing something was wrong, Zhao Ningning, who was originally standing at the front of the car, went back into the carriage, closed the door, and flashed back into her spatial dimension. Using the perspective of the hidden camera, Zhao Ningning looked and saw that there was indeed someone there!

A man carrying a knife was lurking suspiciously under the car.

The village head was in front of her carriage, so this man was... heading towards the village head?!

Zhao Ningning didn't dare to delay. After thinking for a moment, she went out of the carriage and climbed up to the roof through the door.

On the roof of the car, Zhao Qi saw his sister get on and asked with concern, "Why did you get on?"

Zhao Ningning whispered, "There's someone under the car, heading straight for the village head."

Zhao Qi's eyes widened.

"Let's keep an eye on him. When he rushes out, we'll push the firewood down." Zhao Ningning had already come up with a solution and spoke very calmly.

Zhao Qi nodded, "Okay, I'll listen to you."

Zhao Ningning stared ahead, while Zhao Qi quietly cut the ropes on the pile of firewood attached to the back of his cart, leaving only one or two ropes loosely secured so that they could be cut at any time to spill the firewood.

When they set off, their family had a cart full of firewood. During their rest period, they would go to the nearby area to collect firewood with other villagers. As they collected firewood, and since they rarely cooked, the back of the cart was still full of firewood.

Underneath the car, the leopard waited, while the village chief talked to the people on the rooftops of the various vehicles, his body turned to the side.

He wanted to strike a fatal blow; he was waiting for the village chief to turn his back on him!

Finally, the old man heard the screams of the lowly people ahead. He hurriedly took two steps forward. The leopard crawled forward from the ground with a sinister look, raising its knife—

"Splash—"

Just as the leopard was about to get up, it was suddenly given a noodle-like meal over a pile of firewood.

The amount of firewood thrown down wasn't enough to weigh the thief down, so Zhao Ningning leaped and landed steadily on the pile of firewood, hopping around on it over the embers.

Seeing this, Zhao Qi jumped down as well. The firewood was a bit prickly on his feet, but thinking that the thieves below would prick even harder, Zhao Qi stomped his feet on it.

As Zhao Ningning stomped on the ground, she shouted, "Village head! There's a thief here!"

They made a lot of noise, which immediately attracted the attention of the people around them. The two men at the end of the line heard this, quickly parried the two thieves, and then ran over.

The thief wanted to give chase, but other men rushed in from all directions to stop him.

The two men pulled Zhao Ningning and Zhao Qi, who were standing on the pile of firewood, aside. "Danger!"

With the weight on his head lifted, the leopard tried to crawl out from under the firewood. He wanted to kill these ungrateful bastards!

However, the men from Wangli Village didn't give him a chance to retaliate. They reached out and poked at the firewood, then grabbed the man by the collar and dragged him out.

The leopard, bleeding profusely from being pricked by sharp branches under the firewood, was dragged out. Before it could even react, it felt a chill on its neck.

He felt dizzy and disoriented, and then realized that he seemed to be dead.

"leopard--"

A desperate, hoarse scream pierced the night sky.

As soon as the commotion started, Tiger, who was standing at the very end of the line, noticed it. He had originally thought it was his subordinates who went, but he never expected that the person who went was his own younger brother!

By the time he realized who it was, it was too late! His own brother had been murdered!

Gripping his broadsword tightly, Tiger shouted, "Kill! Kill them all!"

After saying that, he gritted his teeth and stared at the convoy with eyes wide with rage.

The torchlight flickered, and he couldn't see where his brother's head had rolled off to.

All I could see were the two children who had brought down the firewood being patted on the head and praised!

—It was them! They killed my brother! I will take revenge!

Tiger stepped forward with his knife, panting heavily. He had only taken two steps when a gust of wind came from the side. Tiger instinctively dodged, and a large knife grazed his hair.

"Someone's there!"