I survived the famine by scavenging and supported my family.

"Uh..." Zhao Ningning paused, "It's like this."

"How did Miss Zhao come up with such an attack method as throwing stones?" Wen Zichuan chuckled softly, so softly that Zhao Ningning barely heard him.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Ningning said, "I'm small and weak, and I didn't know martial arts before. I always got the short end of the stick when I was in front of the enemy, so I came up with this idea of ​​throwing stones."

You know what, this method actually works quite well. Just now, when she notified the people directly opposite that they were coming over, the first thing she thought of was throwing stones.

You can climb up to the top of this cave. When the village headman told the villagers to throw stones, everyone who could move came out, carrying their own baskets.

They picked them up while climbing the mountain. Even before they reached the top, they could smell the smoke from the fire burning down below. Once they reached the top, without the village head saying anything, they all put all their effort into throwing them down.

They actually dared to burn down their cave!

We're determined to smash that thief to death! Smash him back!

Huang Biao and his group were smashed to pieces by the stones.

Taking advantage of their location, the group smashed almost everyone below from the mountaintop.

The village headman took attendance, leaving a dozen or so men with good aim at the mountaintop, while Wang Xiufeng led the rest of the men down the mountain with broadswords.

Zhao Ningning wanted to go down with him, and Zhao Qi tried to stop her but couldn't, so he could only follow his sister down the mountain.

They had just used stones to demoralize the enemy, and now they were coming down the mountain with great momentum. Those who joined the large tent later were starting to have second thoughts.

"Kill!!!" Wang Xiufeng shouted loudly and was the first to rush in.

Behind him, the people of Wangli Village rushed forward.

Zhao Ningning excitedly took out her big knife and followed behind, picking up any leftovers.

Seeing his sister like this, Zhao Qi carefully protected her.

Wen Zichuan watched with envy from the mountaintop, but unfortunately, Wen Zike wouldn't allow him to go down the mountain and risk his life.

Fortunately, he still had arrows!

Zhao Ningning had been training hard these past few days, and she was finally able to wield a large sword weighing seven or eight pounds. Because of her small stature, she was out of her opponent's line of sight, and taking advantage of her height, she could often stab them in the stomach without them noticing.

She only has the advantage of one strike; once the opponent feels the pain, they will immediately notice her.

But Zhao Ningning was slippery; she would slash once and then run away, thus both distracting and harming them.

After several slashes, someone finally couldn't stand her anymore and secretly tried to ambush her from behind with a knife.

However, Zhao Ningning was followed by Zhao Qi, who was taller and stronger, and could handle several of her attacks.

A tall, burly thief, while fighting, said to the person next to him, "Go and lure that kid away."

The people around him nodded and continued fighting as they moved closer. Zhao Qi raised his knife to counter, and before he knew it, he was getting further and further away from Zhao Ningning.

Standing on the mountaintop, Wen Zichuan watched anxiously. He fired an arrow, piercing through the bandit who had lured Zhao Qi away. Zhao Qi was startled and, not caring who had shot the arrow, instinctively looked towards his sister.

Behind Zhao Ningning, someone was holding a knife, trying to ambush her!

It was too late. Zhao Qi shouted, "Ningning! Get out of the way!"

The next second, another arrow shot out, piercing the thief hard. Zhao Ningning's heart pounded wildly.

Zhao Qi quickly came over and grabbed her, "Let's go!"

Without saying a word, Zhao Qi pulled her out of the group.

After leaving her outside, Zhao Qi said, "You're too short; you can't risk coming into the ranks like this."

Zhao Ningning said helplessly, "I want to help everyone..."

"That won't do either. You're quick-witted and can give advice to your family and the team, which is already a huge help to the team!" Zhao Qi said seriously, "Your survival is the most important thing."

Seeing her brother so serious for the first time, Zhao Ningning lowered her head and said, "Brother, I was wrong."

"We all need to put our own safety first and not do anything that will worry our families." Seeing that his younger sister knew she had made a mistake, Zhao Qi's tone softened. "We can do what we can, and wait until you grow taller... until you are confident in protecting yourself before doing anything dangerous."

Zhao Ningning can't participate in the battle down the mountain; she still has the job of throwing stones up the mountain!

Zhao Qi only dared to follow Zhao Ningning down there because he was worried about her. Now that Zhao Ningning was going back to the top of the cave, he followed her back as well.

Once she reached the top, Zhao Ningning saw that Wen Zichuan was holding a large bow, aiming it down. He loosened his grip on the arrow, and the bowstring propelled the arrow, which shot out with a whoosh.

Zhao Ningning quickly went over and looked down. She saw a person with an arrow in his chest, who had fallen to the ground.

Zhao Ningning's eyes lit up. "Young Master Wen, you can shoot arrows?!"

"Yes." Wen Zichuan said as he nocked an arrow, "Those two of you just now, that was me too."

"Can you teach me?!" Zhao Ningning rubbed her hands together. "I... I can trade something else for it."

After all, she couldn't let someone be her teacher for nothing, especially since this teacher had just saved her life.

Wen Zichuan fired another arrow, then turned and nodded to Zhao Ningning, "Alright! Come find me after today's events are over!"

I was going to learn martial arts from the Wen family every day anyway, so I might as well just go find him tomorrow!

Zhao Ningning stopped talking and stood to the side, intently throwing stones down.

On the other side, Ning's father and mother ran for a while, and seeing that the pursuers behind them had dispersed, they did not go straight back to the cave.

Ning's father argued confidently, "Since they're going to raid the cave, we can raid their big tent too."

This convinced Ning's mother, and after the group of thieves left, the two of them quietly took a detour back.

Everyone who came to keep watch knew the way to the other side of the big tent by heart, and even in the dark, Ning's father successfully made it to the outside of the tent.

That group only left four people to guard this place!

Ning's father and mother exchanged a glance, and Ning's mother understood. She took out a rock the size of a car from her spatial storage and pressed it down on the heads of the four people.

With a loud "boom".

Instantly, the boulder fell to the ground, crushing the four people beneath it, causing them to bleed from their internal organs.

Ning's mother put the stone back, and Ning's father took the opportunity to step forward and finish off the culprit.

With such a commotion outside, the people inside immediately noticed it.

After dealing with the person, Ning's parents continued to hide outside, waiting for their prey to come to them.

A voice came from inside the large tent: "You two go out and see what's going on outside. What's all this noise?"

Two more people came out of the tent, and following the same method as before, Ning's father and mother took care of the person.

What's that noise outside?

The person inside called out, but when no one answered, their voice immediately became panicked. They called out again, but still received no response from outside. Then, with a clatter, something fell over inside.

Seeing that no one else was coming out of the tent, Ning's father and mother went in from the front and were confronted by a large, fat man who was wearing official robes and a black gauze hat on his head.

Upon seeing someone barge in, he panicked and hid behind the bed, shouting, "Who are you people?!"

Ning's father thought for a moment: "The person who came to take your dog's life."

The fat man said, "Don't come any closer! I... I'm the prefect! As long as you don't hurt me, I'll arrange a minor official position for you after we get down the mountain!"

"What kind of time is this? Who wants to be an official now!" Ning's father muttered, and without Ning's mother even having to lift a finger, he killed the man with a single stroke.

The man opposite, clutching the knife in his abdomen, looked at Ning's father in disbelief, "You, you..."

Before he could finish speaking, he breathed his last, unwilling to accept his fate.

Ning's father pulled out the knife, stabbed him twice more, and said, "You've been fleeing famine for so long and you're still wearing your official robes. You really have a strong desire for officialdom."

"That old man's counterfeit silver must also be related to him." Ning's mother shook her head. After Ning's father dealt with the man, the two of them began to search the tent.

Besides a simple wooden bed, the man brought quite a few wooden boxes, some carved and some inscribed.

They were lined up in a row and stacked at the head and foot of the bed.

There was a lock on top. Ning's father found the key under his pillow, but he didn't have time to try to open it. He told Ning's mother to put the box away, as they needed to get back to the cave.

The two children were getting anxious and sent him text messages when they didn't see him return home.

Fortunately, we now have cell phones for communication. Ning's dad replied, "It's nothing, I'll be back now," and then followed Ning's mom back home.

When they rushed back, the fighting there was almost over.

Ning's father ran into Huang Biao, and the two started fighting without saying a word. He held them off for a while, and then the men from Wang Li Village who had caught up joined the fight.

The fighting continued until dawn, when only a dozen or so people managed to escape from the large tent.

They ran down the mountain. Wang Xiufeng had someone keep an eye on them and led the rest of the men to the other side of the large tent.

Before going, Ning's father told Ning's mother about how he and Ning's mother had cleared out the people on the other side of the tent.

The battle below ended, and the people who had been busy on the mountaintop all night came down.

Although there wasn't much food at the other end of the big tent, there was plenty of tarpaulin!

There were also useful items, clothes, and even silver!

The village headman directed people to transport them back and place them in the cave for unified distribution.

Exhausted from a night's sleep, the villagers mustered their strength and waited for the village head to distribute the goods to their families.

It's been raining a lot lately, so the village head took the initiative to give priority to those households that didn't have tarpaulins.

Furthermore, Zhao Lao Er and Zhou Lan Xiang directly dealt with the leader of the large tent and even helped transport back several boxes.

The village head secretly gave them some money and gave one of the small boxes to Zhou Lanxiang to carry.

Ning's mother was too embarrassed to say that she and Ning's father had actually been keeping one secret.

When the remaining large box was opened with the key that Ning's mother had brought back, it was filled with glittering gold.

The glittering gold made even the dimly lit cave brighter.

Three large chests of gold and two chests of silver.

Everyone present paused for a moment.

Taking a deep breath, the village head said, "Xiufeng, distribute the grain to the people in the team according to the previous method."

The villagers kept peering ahead, trying to calculate how much silver... and gold they would receive!

That's gold! They might work their whole lives on the farm and never even find a single gold ingot!

Even when Granny Qian was at her most arrogant after selling all her grain, she could only afford a small pair of gold flower earrings.

Wang Xiufeng had been fighting alongside everyone down there, so he knew who was really putting in the effort and who was just slacking off.

Looking around, he immediately had a plan in mind.

First, take one of the three boxes of gold and give half of it as a reward to the person who contributed the most to killing the enemy and was injured.

He then counted out a box of gold from the remaining half and handed it to Wen Zike, who was standing next to him, saying, "Brother Zike, this is from your Wen family."

Then he took out another box from the box. After taking out the first box, he took the second box, packed it up, and handed it to Zhao Ningning, who was standing in front, saying, "Zhao girl, this is from your family."

With this box gone, the gold is ten percent less.

There are less than two chests of gold left!

Some people were unconvinced, "Zhao Lao Er was just lucky; he happened to stumble upon the operation at the big tent. What, he got so much gold just for tipping them off!"

"Exactly, we didn't see them come out to beat anyone up. There are so many people over there in the big tent, it's all thanks to us..."

For a time, the villagers in the cave had many complaints about Zhao Lao Er taking so much gold.

"Nonsense!" the village headman shouted, stopping the group. "Do you know they were almost killed while they were keeping watch?"

When Zhao Lao Er recounted his and Zhou Lanxiang's raid on the large tent, he also mentioned how he was almost killed by arrows fired from the tent while keeping watch.

If he hadn't been alert and quick-witted, anyone else might have been killed on the spot, and there wouldn't have been any subsequent tip-off.

Although it's unclear how he managed to sneak back to the cave to inform Zhao Ningning and then return to raid the large tent without anyone noticing... but he not only did it, he actually succeeded!

If it weren't for him, the people in the big tent might have really caught the cave off guard tonight!

Even if they manage to handle things in the cave, the people in the big tent will realize something is wrong and quickly run away with the gold, leaving their team with no chance to share the silver!

Li Zheng was furious, and several villagers who thought the Wen family would receive more gold didn't dare to say anything and obediently lined up.

After the gold was divided, the four members of the Zhao family returned to their cart, lit a fire, pulled up the curtain, and began counting the gold.

Zhao Ningning reached into a box of gold, then lifted her hand, the heavy gold slipping through her fingers.

Ning's father couldn't wait any longer, so he took the box and counted the items one by one.

Ning's mother chuckled and scolded him, "Look how anxious he is!"

After counting, Ning's father was so astonished he couldn't close his mouth. "Seventy-six! Seventy-six taels of gold!"

"Keep your voice down!" Ning's mother shushed her, took the gold, and divided it into two portions for Zhao Ningning and Zhao Qi. "This ancient gold is for you two."

"Mom?!" Zhao Qi was so shocked that he forgot to change his address. He refused, saying, "Give it to Ningning. I don't have room for it anyway."

"Oh dear—" Zhao Ningning drawled, "If they give it to us, we'll accept it!"

"Yes, there are others too." Ning's mother mysteriously led the person into the carriage, lit the candles, and then took out two more small boxes from her spatial storage.

The box was about one foot wide and one and a half feet long.

The lock had been opened before, and when it was lifted, there were jewelry pieces inside!

Another box was opened, and inside were also some jewelry!

Ning's mother took each piece of jewelry to the small table and admired them by candlelight, only to find that they didn't quite match.

It must have been stolen from somewhere by the people over at the big tent.

After looking around, Ning's mother handed one of the boxes to Zhao Ningning, saying, "You and your brother can divide it up, and your dad and I will keep the rest."

Zhao Ningning didn't stand on ceremony and pulled Zhao Qi back to the space—the space had better lighting, making it easier to see!