How did the village chief know which mountain the bandit was on? He could only say: "On the nearby mountain, they would go down the mountain to grab things every time there was a harvest, and during the New Year. They came down the mountain again a few days ago and said that each of our families should give out five bags of wheat. If there is less, they will Just kill."
"We don't have a lot of fields. Five bags of wheat will cost us half a year. If the court wants to pay taxes again, we won't have a single grain of wheat left."
Bai Shan asked: "How many times have they gone down the mountain? I mean, how many times have they met in your village?"
"Three times!" the village head said, "After the Chongyang Festival last year, not long after we paid our taxes, they ran down at night and robbed the eight families living at the entrance of the village and at the foot of the mountain. Another time was during the New Year's Eve. Time, that time, people came down in the early morning, drove out the people in the village, and searched a lot of things."
"This is the last time, but they only came down five people to inform us to prepare the wheat," the village head said embarrassedly: "People in the village don't know the nobles, I don't know if the county magistrates have come to see you With a knife, I thought it was bandits coming down, so..."
Bai Shan comforted him and said, "This county knows it. You can't blame you for this. Do you know the number of people who went down the mountain the last two times?"
The village head thought for a while and said: "I didn't know for the first time. It was night and only those eight families were robbed. But I heard from them that three or four people from one family entered, all with knives. It was terrible. Later that time, hey, I was too flustered, so I didn’t count them, but there were at least a hundred people, right?”
Lieutenant Dong's face was livid, and he said first: "Impossible, if there are bandits with more than a hundred people in the county, I won't be unaware."
The village chief was not sure at first, so he changed his words after hearing what he said, "That's seventy or eighty people?"
Bai Shan frowned, and asked, "The village chief, has he heard of any other villages that have been robbed?"
The village chief patted his thigh and said, "It's just not there."
He said: "The bandits targeted our village for some reason. I asked people in other villages, and they all said they didn't find any bandits."
"Does the Lieutenant know about this?"
"I know," he said, "I reported it to the village chief during the Chongyang Festival last year, and I reported it again when I was robbed during the Chinese New Year."
He turned his head and said to County Captain Dong in embarrassment: "When I was young, I went to the city to look for the adults. At that time, I happened to see the adults patrolling the streets with the yamen servants. I wanted to go up and seek justice..."
Seeing that he stopped talking, Bai Shan raised his eyebrows and asked, "Then why didn't you come forward?"
The village head hesitated for a while, and it was better to grit his teeth and say: "It was the chief who found me and brought me back, saying that he had already reported it, and the county magistrate Gao Sheng left, and the adults in the yamen were busy. Quite, even if we want to do something, we have to do it one by one. If we urge them like this, we may not be able to urge people to say nothing, and offend the adults in the county government. In the end, it will definitely be more difficult to deal with."
Dong Xianwei jumped up and said: "Fart, what county government dares to take lightly on such a big matter as bandits? My lord, the boss there is slandering us."
Bai Shan pressed his hand at him, telling him to calm down a bit.
The village chief was taken aback, and realized belatedly, "Your Excellency, I don't know... Didn't the village chief report it?"
Bai Shan didn't make a direct conclusion, but asked with a smile, "Did you report to the chief about the fact that the bandits came down from the mountain this time and asked you to prepare wheat?"
The village head nodded blankly, "Reported, this is a big deal, how can we not report it?"
"A family with five bags of wheat, half a year's harvest is gone. If they come down again after the autumn harvest, we won't even have any rice. How can we survive?"
It was precisely because the bandits had a huge appetite this time that the villagers were so excited and ran out with hoes and kitchen knives.
Bai Shan expressed his understanding, and said to the village chief: "This county will decide for you. We will live in the village for two days. Don't worry, it's okay if they don't come. If they come, the county will let them Back and forth."
Regardless of whether these words were true or not, the village chief and the others felt relieved.
Bai Shandao: "I see that the wheat in your fields is already ripe, it's better to ask someone to harvest the wheat, and keep it in the field, and it will be wasted when it is ripe and the ears fall."
The village head responded immediately.
The enthusiasm for harvesting wheat in the village was not high before, because of the rumors from bandits, no matter how they looked at the wheat in the field, they didn’t look like their own, so they were passive and slowed down. While watching them, they felt heartbroken, and at the same time, they just didn’t want to brave the sun. to harvest.
Now with Bai Shan's promise, the villagers are full of love and pity when they look at the wheat in their fields, no matter the sun is shining at this time, they go home to say hello, and go directly to harvest with a sickle.
The village chief also had a lot of land in his house. He asked his sons to cut the wheat and asked his daughters-in-law to make room.
Man Bao asked Xibing to help, and then she assigned Wen Tiandong a place and said, "Go to the stall for free consultation."
It was under a tree not far from the village head's house. There were shadows at the moment, where many children were playing, and the open space was also large, which was really good.
Wen Tiandong went back to the village chief, asked him for a table and a few chairs and placed them there, then took the village chief's hand and introduced them to the medical office.
The village chief didn't want to hear it, he still wanted to go to the county magistrate to ask about the bandit suppression.
There are so many bandits, it is impossible to rely on them alone, so is the army outside the mountain? Do you want to be called into the village
Otherwise, wouldn't it be too late for the soldiers to enter the village if the bandits suddenly descended from the mountain
At the same time, he also had to count the food stored in the village. The soldiers and servants came to suppress the bandits, so they had to provide the food, right
I don't know how much they eat
Although heartbroken, the village head also knew that if the bandits were suppressed, they would only be paid once today. If they were not suppressed, their village would not have a good life every year.
But Wen Tiandong pulled him so close that the village chief couldn't get away.
Man Bao saw that Wen Tiandong held the village chief, turned around and walked back quickly, found Bai Shan and said, "There are bandits on the mountain, should we transfer troops from the county?"
Bai Shandao: "I'm discussing with County Captain Dong."
He said: "Siege is ten, attack is five. If there are at least one hundred mountain bandits as the village chief said, then we need at least five hundred soldiers."
Dong Xianwei: "...My lord, the servants of our county government, including the guards you brought, are only forty in total."
Bai Shan nodded, "The two inspectors have two hundred people, including us, there are only two hundred and fifty people."
Dong Xianwei said: "Do you want to ask for help from Qingzhou City?"
Bai Shandao: "Check it out first, but this matter really needs to be reported to Qingzhou City, come and study ink."
Daji went to the luggage store to find a pen, ink, paper and inkstone.
Bai Shandao: "In addition to this, we have to send someone back to the county government office to check whether the bandits have not been reported."
If it hadn't been reported, I'm afraid this matter would have something to do with the chief of the mile.