Shi Yi listened quietly to what the aunt said and then understood what was going on.
Whether I have seen horse bandits on TV in my previous life, I have also encountered them in Qingfeng Country, Haca Horse Country, and other small countries I passed through in this life.
Some horse bandits were very ferocious and would kill anyone they saw. They showed no mercy to the villages they passed through, burning, killing, looting and committing all kinds of crimes.
Shi Yi also disliked such horse bandits. After hearing what the aunt said, he decided to stay here to help the villagers eliminate the horse bandits.
In order to make the father-in-law and aunt feel more at ease, Shi Yi said again:
"Auntie, don't worry, father-in-law, I'm not a bandit, I'm just passing by."
Later, the aunt invited Shi Yi into the house to have dinner together.
We say we are eating, but actually, where is the dry rice? It is all porridge, and there is very little rice, and there are some wild vegetables in it.
"Brother, I'm sorry, last year's harvest was not good, and with various taxes and part levied by horse bandits, there was not much food left. Don't dislike it, just deal with it a little bit."
As she spoke, she served Shi Yi porridge in an earthen bowl.
"Eat quickly. If the horse bandits come later, it will be difficult to eat."
Shi Yi looked at the two old men, then at the earthen bowl that was handed over to him, and at the gruel in it, with mixed feelings in his heart.
It is said to be gruel, but in fact, there are probably only a few dozen rice grains in the pot.
It turned out that life was really so miserable. This reminded Shi Yi of his previous life, when his grandfather had to pass the food barrier.
The days at that time were also miserable.
I heard from my grandma that many people who passed through the food barrier were unable to survive and starved to death.
At that time, there was very little rice, so it was a great honor to be able to drink gruel.
Grandma once took Shi Yi's father and uncles together, even gnawing tree bark and eating grass roots in order to survive.
Even the wild vegetables and insects in the mountains have been eaten, and as a last resort, they eat the bark of trees and the roots of grass.
Later, when Shi Yi was ten years old, his grandma told her about this incident. At that time, Shi Yi didn't believe it and thought it was a bit exaggerated.
However, only after I went to school and came into contact with some history did I believe that those things were true.
However, after traveling to this world and encountering this kind of thing again, he felt unspeakably sad.
No matter which world or country we live in, the people living at the bottom have the most miserable lives.
It was better in his previous life, at least as far back as Shi Yi can remember, he never had to worry about food and clothing, enough food to eat, and warm clothing to keep him warm.
And when I traveled to this world, not to mention what happened before, I encountered this village now, this old man and his wife.
They eat gruel, their clothes are even thinner, and their houses are even more dilapidated.
Life was also very bad.
At this time, Shi Yi shook his head gently and said to the aunt:
"Mom, I've eaten. If you're not hungry, you can eat."
There wasn't much gruel to begin with, but the aunt filled him half of it, and the two old men shared the other half. How could Shi Yi bear it?
That's why he nodded quickly and said that he had eaten. He was a cultivator and skipping one meal would not affect him at all.
But the two elderly people are different. If they skip a meal, many problems may arise for them.
"Brother, please don't run out of porridge. We, the old couple, can't eat much, so please eat quickly!"
The aunt insisted on passing the gruel to Shi Yi to drink.
Seeing the aunt's simple and kind expression, she smiled at him.
If Shi Yi didn't take it and drink it, his aunt would probably refuse, so he had to take a little bit and drink it.
This dinner was the first time Shi Yi had eaten so sadly after traveling through time.
Sure enough, not long after, the sound of gongs and the sound of galloping horses were heard in the village.
The village, which was originally peaceful, now became panicked.
The aunt and husband were also panicked. The husband went to the door of the yard and stood there, looking outside through the crack in the door.
The aunt hurriedly pulled Shi Yi into the room. After walking around for a while, the aunt pointed under the bed and said to Shi Yi:
"Brother, I have to excuse you. Hide under the bed. No matter what sound you hear, don't come out. Otherwise... you will be killed by horse bandits."
These words confused Shi Yi again. How could the horse bandits kill him?
In his opinion, horse bandits generally come just to rob food and money.
"Are they going to kill people again?"
"Brother, you are passing by here and don't know the situation here. The horse bandits here do not allow young adults to appear. Unless you are obedient, they will kill you."
Shi Yi listened to what his aunt said and thought about it in his mind. He probably guessed that the horse bandits were afraid of the young adults uniting to fight, so they acted like this.
No wonder he didn't seem to see many young adults when he entered the village. Even if there were, they were very honest and obedient young adults.
The sound of horse hooves outside the village was getting closer and closer. Shi Yi could hear it very clearly. He even knew how many people were coming.
"Brother, are you scared? Oh! Hide quickly and get up tomorrow and leave here quickly."
As she spoke, she pushed Shi Yi.
"Auntie, don't worry. I'll follow you out. Don't worry, nothing will happen to me."
Shi Yi would definitely not be frightened by a group of horse bandits and hide under the bed. He actually wanted to meet those horse bandits.
Want to see what tricks they can do? Shi Yi doesn't mind killing them if necessary.
In any case, Shi Yi is still nominally a general of the Yujin Kingdom. How can he let the horse bandits run rampant in the Yujin Kingdom?
Besides, the Queen of Yujin Kingdom, Huo Qing'er, is still his woman!
As Huo Qing'er's man, he had to take more care when encountering this kind of thing. It would be fine if he didn't encounter it.
Seeing that Shi Yi couldn't persuade her, the aunt sighed and told Shi Yi to obey later, stop messing around, and just hide behind them.
Not long after, the horse bandits came to the entrance of the village and ordered everyone to gather.
Not everyone obeys the order, but those who arrive late, and those who delay coming and hide, will be caught by the horse bandits and inevitably beaten or even killed.
The father-in-law and the aunt seemed to have already had experience. As soon as the horse bandits started, they would go ahead obediently and nothing would happen to them.
Shi Yi followed him all the time, and naturally he was fine. His appearance also attracted the attention of the horse bandits, but they did not immediately come forward to catch Shi Yi.
The horse bandits all lit torches in their hands and rode horses up and down in front.
They also rode horses forward and surrounded the villagers. If anyone tried to escape, they would chase and kill them on horseback.
They all had weapons in their hands, and some of the horse bandits kept making screams, which frightened the villagers so much that they didn't dare to breathe.
The children in the village were so frightened that their faces turned pale and they hid behind adults or in their arms.
Of course, some were frightened and cried.
One of the horse bandits got impatient and started scolding the crying child. The more he scolded, the more he cried. The horse bandits became so angry that he wanted to kill the child with a knife.
Fortunately, the child's parents quickly covered the child's mouth to prevent him from crying, while begging for mercy from the bandit.
The angry horse bandit didn't care about that at all and was in a bad mood. He raised his knife and stabbed the child who continued to cry.
The adult was so frightened that he quickly turned around, stood in front of the child, and used his back to block the horse bandit's sword.
"If you are looking for death, I will help you."
The horse bandit scolded angrily, and instead of sheathing the knife, he used more force.
Seeing that the horse bandit's sword was about to stab the adult, at this moment, the horse bandit suddenly found that his sword could not move.
He subconsciously looked over and saw a young man coming over at some point and grabbing his big knife with his bare hands.