When Shang Yi and a group of more than sixty people drove fourteen carts back to the village, it was already the afternoon of the next day. Fortunately, nothing happened along the way and everything went smoothly.
Seeing that the village was still safe, everyone was relieved. After returning to the village, all the young people went home separately, and the group of people who came with them were temporarily arranged to wait in the open space at the entrance of the village.
Shang Yi asked Ye Yaoyu to take his things home first, while he and Lao Cheng followed Zhou Shaohuan to his home. In fact, Zhou Shaohuan was not from the village. He was a distant relative of the village chief, because the village chief's daughter and He
Zhou Shaohuan has been engaged to have a baby wedding since he was a child, and the two of them are planning to have a wedding after the new year. Therefore, Zhou Shaohuan is now coming to the village to temporarily stay at the village chief's house.
The village chief is called Tang Zhen. He is in his forties this year. Although he is not tall, he is very strong and has a rosy face. Tang Zhen’s wife, Mrs. Zhou, is a distant aunt of Zhou Shaohuan. She was very beautiful when she was young, and she was from nearby.
There is a famous beauty in the village. Her daughter Tang Juan is seventeen years old this year, and her appearance has inherited her mother's inheritance. Although she is not a stunning beauty, she is also very beautiful. Before Ye Xingshi's ancestors and grandsons moved to this village, she was a member of the village.
The most beautiful girl.
In fact, this small mountain village was not a formal village at first. It was just a small village formed spontaneously by some people who could no longer survive outside the mountains and hid in the mountains to avoid taxes and rent.
Naturally, the village chief of Tang Town is not officially appointed, because he is one of the earliest people to settle here. Among the group of people traveling with him are Lao Cheng and Tong Daniu’s father, Tong Fang. Tang, who is also the only blacksmith in the village.
Zhen was the leader of this group of people, he was also a good hunter, and he was also relatively righteous. Therefore, he was elected as the village chief by the villagers who later lived here, and he also had great prestige in the hearts of the villagers.
After listening to Shang Yi, Lao Cheng, and Zhou Shaohuan's story about their trip to the mountain, Tang Zhen couldn't help but be shocked. He didn't expect that even after escaping into this barren mountain, bandits would still come to his door, and they were also very interested in Shang Yi for daring to go alone.
The courage to challenge the robbers was also greatly appreciated. He did not dare to neglect, and quickly asked Zhou Shaohuan to call several people in the village who usually liked to stand out to discuss countermeasures together.
Not long after, everyone arrived. A total of eight people came, including Bao Tong Fang and Lu Shi, a carpenter from the village. The other six were Jiang Yiqu, Bao Tonggang, Wang Xin, You Hongliang, and Zhou
Odd, Wu Hansheng. They were all the first to settle here with Tang Town. They were all about the same age, over forty and under fifty. Together with Shang Yi, Lao Cheng, and Zhou Shaohuan, there were a total of twelve people. This
Shi Ye's house in Tang Town was packed to the brim. Zhou and Tang Juan had no choice but to retreat to the back room.
After hearing the ins and outs of the matter, the eight people who followed also changed their expressions. Nearly a thousand bandits are coming to the village, and anyone who hears this will be scared. Jiang Yiqu said: "There are too many bandits. I think we
Better run!"
You Hongliang said: "Run, where can you run? You have lived here for almost six years, and the house in your hometown has been demolished by the government long ago. What do you eat and live in? And how do you pay the government taxes?"
Jiang Yiqu was unconvinced and said: "There are more than a thousand robbers? There are less than 200 people in our village. If we stay in this village, isn't it a dead end?"
Zhou Qidao: "Can you survive if you run out of this village? It's also a dead end."
Tang Zhen said: "Okay, please stop saying a few words, otherwise you will start fighting before the robbers come."
At this time, Shang Yi said: "Since running away means death, staying here means death, so why don't we stay here, defend our homeland, and fight against the bandits."
Lao Cheng also nodded and said: "Yes, that's what I mean. Where did all your courage go? Is it possible that in these five or six years of stable life, you have turned into a woman, so timid that you are worse than a mouse?" "
Jiang Yiqu slapped the table and said, "Damn it, who said I'm afraid? I'll just fight. At worst, twenty years from now, I'll still be this big." He turned to Tang Zhen and said, "Boss Tang, what are you talking about?" Do it, I’ll listen to you.”
Tang Zhen smiled slightly and said, "Does everyone agree to fight the robber?"
Others also said: "Yes, let's fight, fight with the robber. Boss Tang, what did you say?"
Tang Zhen nodded and said, "Okay, but this time I am not the one to command you." He pointed at Shang Yi and said, "Shang Yi will be our leader."
Among the eight people who came later, except Lu Fang who heard his son talk about Shang Yi's performance in the town when he went back and was not too surprised, the other seven people were a little surprised. Although Shang Yi has been very relaxed since he came to this village. He has snatched the title of the best hunter from him, but he is indeed too young. Can he lead the villagers to defeat this bandit team?
Wu Hansheng, who had been silent all this time, said: "Boss, Shang Yi..."
Tang Zhen waved his hand and said: "It goes without saying. I believe Shang Yi can do it. If you believe me and follow his arrangements, you will be able to save the village."
Because while waiting for the eight men to arrive, Shang Yi and Tang Zhen had discussed how to defend the mountain village, so Tang Zhen supported Shang Yi in commanding the defense of the village.
At this time, Shang Yi also stood up and said: "Don't worry, everyone, as long as everyone listens to my arrangements, we will definitely be able to defeat the bandits and defend our own homeland."
Several other people had always been convinced by Tang Zhen. Seeing his determination, although they did not object, they were still dubious. However, after listening to Lao Cheng's story about how he went to the market to rescue Lin Chengye and his gang from bandits, they gained some confidence in Shang Yi. .
After everyone made the decision, Shang Yi immediately began to make arrangements. First, he called all the residents of the village to gather together that night. Even Ye Xingshi came with Ye Yaoyao. Tang Zhen explained the situation to them, and then In the next few days, a large group of bandits may come to rob their village. Tang Town calls on all villagers to take action to defend their homes and fight against the bandits. However, it also states that those who are willing to leave can also leave.
The villagers who fled here to settle down are all people who have no land outside the mountains and have difficulty surviving. Although life here is hard, there is no need to pay taxes or do corvee labor, and the life is relatively comfortable. It can be said that once you get out, It is difficult for the villagers to find other ways to survive. Moreover, they are quite convinced of Tang Zhen, so no one is willing to leave the village. They all expressed their intention to stay and defend their homeland. They also supported Tang Zhen’s decision and recommended Shang Yi as the leader. command.
Shang Yi was very happy to see that the villagers were inspired and willing to fight to defend their homeland. He immediately began to count the population. There were fifty-two households in the village, including Shang Yi, who had a total of 194 people. There were 107 men and 87 women. There were 71 adult men over 20 and under 50 years old. In addition to the rescued townspeople, there were 30 men, all of whom were in their prime. , there are nine people in the escort agency, a total of one hundred and ten people, these people will become the main force to resist the bandits.
Shang Yi divided the people in the village into four teams. He and Tang Zhen led one team, Jiang Yiqu and You Hongliang led one team, Bao Tonggang and Wang Xin, Zhou Qi and Wu Hansheng also led one team respectively. Edited by outsiders They formed two teams, led by Lin Chengye and Zhang Zhan respectively.
In addition, twenty-two young men aged over fourteen and under twenty, and sixteen women in their prime with hunting experience were organized into the reserve team. Zhou Shaohuan, Tong Daniu, Xu Jin, and Cheng Gang, Duan Peng and Ye Yaoyao followed Shang Yi.
The rest of the elderly and women were uniformly dispatched by Ye Xingshi, who was responsible for cooking, watering, and logistical work of treating the wounded. Because Ye Xingshi was the only doctor in the village and an old man, no one had any objections to this arrangement.
In terms of weapons, Shang Yi didn't need to worry, because most of the villagers were hunters, and they had weapons such as hunting forks, machetes, and bows and arrows at home. Especially the bows and arrows, although they were made by the villagers, their range could only reach five or six. Ten meters away, but there are a lot of them, basically enough for everyone to have one in each hand. Shang Yi also distributed the weapons obtained from the bandits to the villagers and outsiders, ensuring that everyone has weapons in their hands. At the same time, Tong Yi Fang and Lu Shi did nothing else but specialized in making feather arrows.
Shang Yi then dispersed the clothes, cloth, and utensils obtained from the bandits to the villagers. However, the food was first gathered and provided for unified cooking. After the bandits were defeated, the excess was redistributed. Horses, donkeys and other livestock Temporarily raised in the village.
After the silver was counted and counted, there were a total of 3,370 taels. Each family was given 10 taels of silver as settlement expenses. Five young men who had fought bandits with Shang Yi each received 20 taels. The others all received 20 taels of silver. It was kept by Shang Yi. Since it was almost all Shang Yi's effort to retrieve these things, no one had any objections to the distribution. Twelve taels of silver was not too small, almost enough for their living expenses for the previous year.
Then, Shang Yi announced that villagers who died in battle to defend their homeland would receive twenty taels of silver from their families after the battle, and those who were injured would receive five and ten taels of silver respectively according to the severity of their injuries. The same applies to outsiders. They received After this promise, the villagers have less worries and their morale has improved a lot.
Those who still had doubts about Shang Yi, such as Jiang Yiqu and You Hongliang, had to admit that Shang Yi's move was not only smart, but also righteous. They had a little more confidence in him.
It took more than an hour to distribute things from east to west, and finally arranged the accommodation for outsiders. There were not many vacancies in the village. Shang Yi also gave priority to Lin Chengye's escort team to stay first. The others had to live in the villagers' homes.
After finally arranging all these things, Shang Yi announced the disbandment and would gather again tomorrow for training and task assignments. Then he returned home with Ye Xingshi and his grandson.
After returning home, Shang Yi discovered that he had been busy for a long time and had forgotten to eat dinner. Now he was hungry. However, Ye Yaoqi had already prepared the rice and put it in the pot to warm.
He brought it out to him. Seeing her busy going in and out, Shang Yi suddenly felt that in this era, it would be good to have such a wife.