Chapter 159: Chapter 155: Return to the Vige _1


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    Two hourster, Wen Fu and several vigers returned empty-handed, not only failing to find the horses and mules but also unable to locate the pigs and cows the Jiang Family vigers had taken to the forest.


    The old man Jiang sighed, but quickly stopped dwelling on it.


    As long as the people survived, that was all that mattered. The rest were just material things that could be bought with money in the future.


    It was not until evening that everyone in the cave was rescued.


    Jiang Vige’s inhabitants gradually returned to the vige.


    Uncle Jiang knew that his younger brother’s family also would return to the vige, he sighs with regret, teary-eyed, saying goodbye to his younger brother.


    But upon entering the vige, they found the entire vige had been burned down and there wasn’t a single intact house.


    The vigers sat by the ruins sobbing heavily. Some started criticizing Jiang Sang’s family.


    “If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have suffered this disaster.”


    “Exactly! Our vige was fine before they came—now it’s all gone!”


    Jiang Jiu couldn’t stand it any longer, he angrily said, “Enough! Have you gone to see the neighboring vige? Or maybe visit a vige further away. Did any of them escape casualties like we did? If it wasn’t for my brother who came to alert us at night, you would have died in your house! You should be grateful instead of mourning.”


    “Hmph! Bunch of ingrates!” Uncle Jiang huffed coldly, “My nephew shouldn’t have saved any of you!”


    Jiang Dahu sighed, “Enough, enough, stop crying. We still have our lives, and our belongings are intact. We should quickly figure out how to build houses. It’s getting colder each day. What’s the point of ming others here?”


    “Build houses? What if the banditse again?”


    “Yeah, if the banditse, wouldn’t we have been busy for nothing?”


    Jiang Dahu red at them: “So you think crying here will stop the bandits?”


    Uncle Jiang rolled his eyes: “Build or not build, it’s up to you. The weather is getting colder. If you want to live like mole-rats and dig holes when the timees, that might also save you trouble when bandits return.”


    All the vigers:


    Now, let’s talk about n Leader Chen and Elder Jiang’s group.


    Wang Dashan came back with news.


    “The bandits have all gone towards the county town!”


    Wang Dashan took a drink of the water handed by Jiang Cheng, and said, “I saw it with my own eyes. There are a lot of people, about a thousand, holding the Beast Fangs g, and they had mules, big carts. It was a vast crowd.”


    Elder Jiang frowned: “They’re heading to the county town? Are they nning to attack it?”


    n Leader Chen also looked serious, “No wonder they raided all the viges first. They wanted to stock up on food and fodder beforeying siege to the city.”


    “This is bad. My eldest son, my second son, they haven’t returned yet. I don’t know whether they’ve been captured.” The more Elder Jiang thought about it, the more afraid he became.


    n Leader Chen: “Let’s not specte. We should hurry back to the vige. If Sang and the otherse back and don’t see anyone, they will definitely return to the vige. We can’t stay here for long.”


    “Alright, let’s go back to the vige first.”


    Everyone picked up their belongings, quilts and remaining food, and hurried after Elder Jiang’s family towards Chen Vige.


    It’s a twenty-mile journey from Jiang Vige to Chen Vige. But that’s along the official road, if walking through small trails, it would certainly be more.


    It waspletely dark now and they could only move forward with two torches to illuminate the path. One at the front and one at the back.


    The entire procession was silent. Even Wen Tian who was being carried by a viger whom Lin family had bribed with a bracelet, didn’t utter a word.


    Whenever they encountered a vige on the way, they would bypass it from a distance, even extinguishing their torches, marching head down, withrge and small steps.


    Finally, they reached Chen Vige in the middle of the night.


    From a distance, the vige was pitch-ck, and there wasn’t even a dog barking.


    n Leader Chen found Elder Jiang to discuss, “We can’t go into the vige at this time. We need to send someone to explore first.”


    Elder Jiang nodded, “Alright! How about we first go to the South Slope? It’s far from the vige and there’s a bamboo forest. If there are no bandits, we can stay at my ce.”


    “Alright, let’s do that,” n Leader Chen immediately nodded in agreement.


    On a chilly autumn night, sleeping in the open air would not do. Many people didn’t even have bedding. If they were to freeze all night, they would surely fall ill. It would be much better to have a ce that could shelter them from the wind and rain.


    So, Wang Dashan and a fellow viger dashed into the darkness to check whether there were any bandits on the South Slope.


    Less than an hourter, they returned, reluctantly informing old man Jiang, “There are no bandits on the South Slope, but your house has been burnt down.”


    Old man Jiang froze, his heart aching as though it was bleeding. “Everything’s burnt?”


    Wang Dashan nodded, “The house of Jiang San-shu is intact, with only the kitchen burnt down. The main building hasn’t suffered much damage.”


    Upon hearing this, Chunniang heaved a sigh of relief.


    Old man Jiang paused for a moment, then said, “Let’s head to South Slope quickly.” It was now the middle of the night; in another couple of hours dawn would break.


    “Alright, let’s get going.” The n Leader Chen led the group, his mind troubled.


    If even the Jiang family’s home on the South Slope had been burnt down, what about his own? It was indeed an undeserved disaster.


    The group of people quickly arrived at the Jiang family’s home on the South Slope.


    Under the moonlight, the once neat and tidy tile-roofed house was now severely damaged.


    Only Jiang Sanng’s house was alright. Although the kitchen had been burnt, just a corner of the three tile-roofed rooms was destroyed. There shouldn’t be any big problem as long as they patched it up and reced a few tiles.


    Chunniang rushed in first and saw the house inplete disarray. There were smouldering heaps of ashes, burn marks, and ragged discarded clothing on the floor. The y beds were also littered with debris, as though many people had slept on them.


    Scattered everywhere were leftover bones and food residues, even on the beds.


    But what distressed Chunniang the most was that all the household furniture and belongings had disappeared.


    However, the floor tile under which silver was buried at a corner of the room was untouched. This brought Chunniang a mix of joy and concern, but now was not the right time to dig it up and check.


    The group found a broom in the courtyard and swept the y beds clean. Theyid out the bedding they had brought with them. The aged mothers, sisters-inw, and the two nieces were allowed to sleep first, while Chunniang herself, her daughter, and two sons squeezed next to them.


    They would discuss everything the next day as they had been on the road for most of the night and were exhausted.


    The other room was also full of women and children. Lady Wen, her daughter, nanny, and several other women squeezed onto Yingbao’s bed.


    The men, on the other hand, made do by sleeping on the floor of the living room until dawn.


    By the time Yingbao woke up, the sun was already high in the sky. In her courtyard, there were two big iron pots with rice porridge boiling in each.


    Old Grandpa and n Leader Chen were sitting under the eaves, listening to Wang Dashan’s report on the situation in the vige.


    “There are no bandits in the vige, but many homes have also been burnt down.”


    “Did anyone return to the vige?” n Leader Chen asked.


    Wang Dashan: “A few households have returned and are tidying up their homes.”


    n Leader Chen stroked his beard and asked again, “Has my family’s house been burnt too?”


    “Not really, but several of Great Uncle’s houses have been burnt.”


    Madame Dashan stuck her head out of the window and asked, “Dashan, what about our house?”


    Wang Dashan: “It’s also been burnt down.”


    Madame Dashan’s brows furrowed, but she wasn’t too distressed, because they had built a house at South Slope. Although it was only a frame so far, all their purchased bricks, tiles, and wood were neatly stacked at South Slope.


    Since their vige houses were burnt, they decided not to return there. They would instead stay here in their half-constructed houses. Once their husbands came home, they would put a roof on, and the houses would be ready to live in.


    Li Dayong and Li Eryong also shared the same thought because they too had built houses on the South Slope, though they hadn’t been able to put up the roofs yet.


    When the rumors of bandits first showed up, their blind old father insisted on not bing a burden to his children and grandchildren. He had them take him to South Slope, and since then he had been living alone in their unroofed house, surviving on the dry food and water his son had left him.


    Early in the morning, Li Dao and Li He went to their unroofed house to check on their grandfather and found, surprisingly, that the blind old man hadn’t been killed by the bandits. His food supply hadn’t even diminished.


    Not only had it not diminished, but there was also an extra small bag of rice.


    ording to the blind old man, a person had given him a bag of food and told him to stay alive.