Flip the table and divide the family property! Take his wife and daughter into the mountains and eat

Faced with these dozen or so real guns gleaming coldly, the crowd that had been pushing forward like mad bulls just moments before suddenly shivered.

The first few dozen people looked at the dark muzzle of the gun, their Adam's apples bobbed with great difficulty, and they abruptly pulled back their feet that were about to step onto the stairs, causing the crowd behind them to retreat several steps.

In front of the courtyard gate, where snow was falling heavily, the air seemed to freeze instantly.

An extremely tense life-or-death standoff raged between the dozen or so people and the hundreds of bloodthirsty men from the neighboring village.

Only the Azure Dragon continued to drip black blood from its mouth, emitting a low growl that sent chills down one's spine.

But this brief respite did not completely dissuade these impoverished hunters, driven to despair by poverty and disease.

"What are you all afraid of!"

The bearded man with the bitten thigh, clutching his bleeding crotch, his face contorted in pain, still frantically fanned himself across the snow, shouting, "Don't be afraid of him, everyone! How many iron pellets can his crappy cannon hold? Can it kill a hundred of us?!"

The bearded man spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and roared like a vengeful demon who had lost a bet: "If we don't get a high price today, we'll just starve and freeze to death if we go back! We might as well raze this shady den to the ground and take the money ourselves!"

These words were like a match struck in the darkness, instantly igniting the greed within the crowd.

"Yes! We're going to die anyway, let's fight him to the death!"

The hundred men, like leeches satiated with blood, raised their axes and pitchforks, shouting wildly, and charged forward against Da Zhuang's gun.

boom! ! !

A dull, deafening gunshot rang out without warning, exploding in mid-air!

The deafening explosion of gunpowder tore through the swirling snow and shattered the bearded man's rebellious words, leaving them stuck in his throat.

Da Zhuang was startled.

He glanced at the foreign cannon in his hand, which he hadn't even pulled the trigger on, with some surprise, and then exchanged a perfectly tacit look with Erga and Liu Sanye beside him.

The three men were filled with shock; they hadn't fired the shot!

They turned around abruptly and looked at the Zhao family compound behind them.

The two heavy, black lacquered wooden doors of the courtyard had been pushed open halfway at some point.

Standing at the door was a woman wearing an old floral cotton-padded jacket, her hair slightly disheveled by the wind.

Lin Xiu stood firmly in a horse stance, struggling to hold a short-handled homemade gun that she had somehow found and which was still emitting wisps of smoke.

It was clearly the first time she had ever touched this thing. The enormous recoil from firing that shot into the air had knocked her slender frame back two steps, tearing her clothes on her shoulder.

The black smoke from the explosion of the inferior gunpowder covered her face, turning her originally fair complexion into patches of black ash, with gunpowder residue even clinging to her eyebrows.

She coughed repeatedly from the fumes, tears welling up in her eyes, but her hands gripped the gun barrel tightly, refusing to loosen their hold.

Lin Xiu gritted her teeth, her face covered in soot and gunpowder, and squeezed through the gap between Da Zhuang and Er Ga Zi.

With her extremely stubborn eyes, which revealed the fierce and ruthless nature of a rural woman, she stared intently at the hundred or so men below the steps.

"Shut your stinking mouths, all of you!"

After finally finishing coughing, Lin Xiu, in a slightly hoarse voice, retorted sharply, "What are you burly men doing, acting like scoundrels! Who was wailing and saying they were going to freeze or starve to death?"

Lin Xiu, holding the gun, moved forward half a step with great difficulty, staring coldly at the bearded man.

"Freeze to death or starve to death? Who wants you to freeze to death or starve to death? Is it our Zhao family? Or our land?!"

Lin Xiu slammed the butt of her gun heavily on the blue brick ground, her voice ringing out in the cold wind: "Back when our land wasn't paying real money for these gray squirrel pelts, these worthless things covering the mountains and fields were so common that even the supply and marketing cooperatives thought they were taking up too much space! How come you didn't starve or freeze to death back then? Why didn't you take a knife and force the director of the supply and marketing cooperative to pay a higher price?!"

These words, though extremely crude, were like a bucket of ice-cold water, viciously splashed on the faces of these unruly people.

The hundred men who had just been yelling about fighting to the death at the bottom of the steps were all stunned when they saw this woman with a face covered in soot, holding a homemade gun and trembling all over, yet she refused to take a single step back.

Those who were swept by Lin Xiu's gaze avoided her eyes with extreme guilt, lowered their heads one by one, and even the weapons in their hands slowly drooped down.

"Who are you?! Why are you yelling at me like that?!"

The bearded man with the bite wound on his thigh clutched his groin, looking at his disheartened companions around him. Feeling humiliated by a rural woman with a face covered in soot, he stubbornly roared in extreme resentment, "Since when has it been a woman from the Zhao family compound to show her face in public?!"

Faced with such a vicious provocation, Lin Xiu not only did not back down, but instead raised the sleeve of her floral cotton-padded jacket, which was covered in gunpowder ash, and casually wiped the black ash off her face.

Holding the heavy homemade gun, she braved the biting white wind and took another half step forward, standing directly at the very edge of the steps.

Lin Xiu looked down at the man with a ferocious-looking beard, her eyes revealing an extremely ruthless and fierce look.

"My name is Lin Xiu!"

Although her voice trembled slightly from the cold wind, everyone present could clearly hear the extremely firm and resolute tone within it: "I am Zhao Shanhe's wife! He's not home today, so I'm the head of this household! My words, Lin Xiu's words, count in Kaoshantun!"

These words were powerful and resounding, like a hammer striking ice, extremely loud.

Dazhuang and Ergazi stood behind her, looking at her thin yet extremely stubborn back, their eyes reddening, and their backs involuntarily straightening.

Third Master Liu took a puff of his pipe and nodded in great appreciation.

"Since I'm in charge, then I'll say it right now!"

Lin Xiu gave the group below the steps no chance to catch their breath. She slammed the butt of her cannon onto the steps, sending snow flying everywhere. The sound was crisp and clear, echoing throughout the courtyard.

"You think you can force the Zhao family to empty their pockets and become suckers just because you outnumber us and have butcher knives and shovels? Let me tell you, the Zhao family's money was earned penny by penny by our leader, risking his life in the old forest. It didn't come from a gust of wind!"

Lin Xiu stared with her reddened eyes, raised her hand and pointed at the hundred men below with an extremely domineering air, showing no sign of backing down.

"Since you think it's heartless of the Zhao family to give you five cents, and that we're cutting off your source of income, then fine!"

Lin Xiu suddenly turned around and grabbed the tin box full of cash that Er Ga Zi was tightly hugging.

A crisp snap.

In front of a hundred people, Lin Xiu deftly and firmly pressed the clasp with the brass lock onto the door.

"Dazhuang! Ergaizi! Close the door and bolt it!"

Lin Xiu turned her head, her voice extremely resolute, leaving no room for negotiation: "The Zhao family compound is sealed off today! Not a single piece of leather will be accepted!"

These words stunned not only the villagers below the steps, but also Dazhuang and Ergazi.

"sister in law……"

Ergaizi was so anxious he stamped his feet, lowering his voice to warn, "If we don't accept a single one, these people will go crazy..."

"Let's see who dares to go crazy!"

Lin Xiu suddenly turned her head, and her reckless and fierce spirit completely intimidated Da Zhuang and Er Gai Zi.

She turned around again, holding the homemade gun, and stood like a door god covered in soot, blocking the entrance.

In her reddened eyes, a fierce and ruthless light suddenly erupted, like that of a mother wolf protecting her cubs.

"This is my home, Lin Xiu's home! My five-year-old daughter is sleeping in the house in the backyard!"

Lin Xiu's voice ripped through the white wind, carrying a chilling madness and ruthlessness: "Those who want to sell it for five yuan and fifty cents, you can take the hides to the county town right now, to the provincial capital, and find the director of the supply and marketing cooperative! If you try to act like thugs and rob me here, if you try to step into my yard and frighten my daughter, I, Lin Xiu, will fight you to the death!"

This desperate and frantic roar not only silenced the more than one hundred Chinese characters below the steps, but also slapped the faces of the dozen or so guards in the Zhao family compound with a resounding slap.

"Damn it! Letting our sister-in-law, a woman, be the one shouldering the load, we men who're taking the money might as well just hang ourselves!"

In the crowd, a young nurse with a scar on his face had his eyes turn completely red.

He roared and took a big step forward, blocking Lin Xiu's side, his woodcutter's axe pointing fiercely downwards.

"Splash!"

"Creak—"

Immediately afterwards, the dozen or so strong men that Zhao Shanhe had recruited with high salaries were all completely blinded by Lin Xiu's relentless and ruthless protectiveness of her child.

No one retreated, and no one even cared whether the hundred villagers outside were carrying deadly weapons.

A dozen or so people simultaneously took a step forward, forming an extremely solid human wall of flesh and blood in front of Lin Xiuhe's gate.

The sounds of a bolt being pulled back to chamber a bullet, the friction of a blade being drawn from its sheath, and the creaking of a ash rod being gripped tightly blended together in the extremely cold air.

The dozen or so grown men were like a pack of wolves that had been completely enraged. The veins on their necks were bulging, and they stared intently at the hundred people below the steps with a murderous aura that seemed ready to destroy everything at any moment.

Dead silence.

An utterly terrifying silence.

Lin Xiu's "a mother's strength is boundless" table-flipping remarks, coupled with the dozen or so bodyguards willing to risk their lives, completely shattered the last bit of hope that these desperate mountain men could escape punishment in numbers.

They dared to act like scoundrels towards the guards because the guards hadn't dared to actually kill anyone earlier.

But they absolutely dare not actually step onto the steps now and confront a group of madmen who are completely blinded by rage and don't even care about their lives.

If someone dies, no one can escape responsibility.

A cold wind howled past the gate of the Zhao family compound.

The bearded man looked at the terrifying wall of people on the steps, then glanced down at his still-bleeding thigh, his facial muscles twitching violently a few times.

Clang.

Someone, in utter dejection, threw away the wood-chopping axe they had been using to bolster their courage.

Immediately afterwards, like dominoes falling, the extremely fervent rebellious sentiment in the crowd, under the oppression of Lin Xiu's extremely firm iron fist and the dozen or so assassins, completely deflated like a punctured balloon.

Old Batou, carrying half a sack of hides on his back, sat down in the snow in utter despair, covered his face, and burst into tears.

Da Zhuang and Er Ga Zi looked at the hundred men who had been like hungry wolves just moments before, but were now squatting in the snow looking like wilted eggplants, and were extremely shocked as they looked at Lin Xiu who was blocking their way.

Who would have thought that the empire Zhao Shanhe conquered, perched on the edge of the most dangerous cliff, would be stubbornly defended by a rural woman with a face covered in soot, using the extremely straightforward tactic of "closing the doors and windows."

Just as these hundred people were plunged into utter despair and silence, unsure whether to retreat or advance.

Suddenly, an extremely piercing roar of a car engine came from the direction of the village entrance.

Two extremely glaring yellow headlights, like two sharp swords, ruthlessly tore through the wind and snow, and sped towards the Zhao family compound like madmen, their sirens blaring on the uneven dirt road.