butcher's little man

On this day, there was a conflict between the villagers and the refugees outside.

The reason is the well under the old tree in the village. Because of the large number of water users, the water level of the well has become shallower and shallower.There are only four wells in Liushupo, and the other three wells were drilled at the expense of the villagers themselves. Only this one was shared by everyone.

The weather is getting more and more dry, and the water in the river has dried up.Li Wenxuan once looked along the source, and the lake where he and Tian Xiaoman caught crabs only had shallow water, and dried fish and shrimp corpses could be seen everywhere.

Once the water in the river dries up, the villagers will rely on the water in the well for a living. Some people who live close to each other can go to the neighbor's house to fetch a few barrels, while others will rely on the old well.

Everyone was afraid that the water would be used up, so they did it day and night, and the water tanks at home were full, and they had to put them in buckets.When a refugee went to fetch water again, he was stopped by a young man.

"Have you hit five times?" The man stopped him from lowering the barrel, "Is it enough anyway? Is it necessary to hit so many in a day?"

"What are you doing? This is not your well." The man waved his hand away and put the bucket down the well again.

The man held down the well rope, "You drained all the water, what are others going to drink? This is not my well, but this is our village's well!"

"Oh, I've only heard of firewood for thousands of miles, but never water for thousands of miles. It's not easy for everyone now. What's wrong with drinking some water? Young people, don't be so stingy." The man looked like he hated iron for being weak, He also looked like an elder.

The man snorted, and everyone else had a sense of proportion. They only fetched water for a day, and I didn't see a person who fetched more than a dozen barrels of water a day. "I just can't fight anymore, what's the matter?"

"I'm going to beat you. You village elders haven't spoken yet. Do you have a share?" The man pushed the young man hard, then hoisted a bucket of water up and was about to pour it into his own bucket. , but saw that the young man held his hand hard, and even the bucket and water fell down again.

"What the hell, do you want to fight?" The man rushed over and got into a fight with the young man.

When Li Wenxuan and Father Li heard the news, those refugees had already blocked the road at the entrance of the village, and they were confronting the villagers of Liushupo.Jin Zhu ran to Li's house in a panic and told them what happened.

Li Wenxuan and Uncle Li are also considered capable people in their village. Apart from other aspects, at least their force value is very strong.They didn't retreat either. If they retreated this time, they would be able to come to grab food tomorrow.

Li Wenxuan asked Tian Xiaoman and the others to close the courtyard door and the room door, otherwise if there was a fight, it would be bad for someone to break into their courtyard.

Tian Xiaoman was very scared. He didn't expect such a thing to happen again, but he had no choice but to close the courtyard door and the room door together as Li Wenxuan said, and then waited with Li Amu.

Xiaotuanzi is about to turn one year old, he can't walk yet, but he has already spoken quite well.He sat on the bed with Brother Le and played. When he was tired and wanted to sleep, he patted the little bed and called, "Em, go to sleep!"

Tian Xiaoman was in a state of confusion at this moment, and waved his hand at him, "Duanzi, go to bed first."

"Mum, go to sleep!" Xiaotuanzi refused, and was coaxed to sleep every day, how could he sleep by himself today? "Em come!"

"Don't come!" Tian Xiaoman didn't have the heart to put the child to sleep, Li Wenxuan and Father don't know what's going on now!Those people look tall and powerful, maybe Li Wenxuan will suffer something!

Xiaotuanzi was rejected, pouted and wanted to howl a few times, then was hugged by a pair of big hands, he opened his eyes and said, "Mommy!"

"Hey, mother is hugging and sleeping." Li Amu understood Tian Xiaoman's worry. He was still young, so he would naturally be more irritable. Back then, when his father went to the mountain, he was worried.

Xiaotuanzi looked at his mother with sad little eyes, still wanted Tian Xiaoman to coax him to sleep, and began to cry.

Tian Xiaoman was so annoyed, he hugged him and patted his little butt, then hugged him, "Okay, can I sleep again? I'll beat you up again!" Although there were cruel words on his mouth, but he The hand that patted Xiaotuanzi was very light.

Li Amu sat aside and smiled, Xiao Man has always been a hard-spoken child.Seeing that his younger brother was asleep, Brother Le also felt sleepy, so he climbed out of bed and got into his mother's arms, and fell asleep in his arms.

When Li Wenxuan and Father Li came down, the two sides were already at war, and the atmosphere was very tense.

"Hand over that beater, and today's incident will be avoided, otherwise..." There was a leader on the side of the refugees, named Wei Wu, who seemed to be a very powerful person.

"He did it first, and we just pushed it a few times, I didn't hit him at all!" The young man shouted dissatisfied during the day, and was stopped behind by his elders.

"Hmph, how could he have been injured so badly if he hadn't been beaten? I've heard that it was him who came to fetch water and you refused, that's why the conflict broke out!"

"This is water from our village, why give it to you!" The young man cried out with red eyes.As soon as these words came out, everyone around felt that it was going to be bad.

Sure enough, Wei Wu snorted coldly when he heard this sentence, he didn't come here for the second son, but this group of people occupied such a good piece of land, but they refused to give it away at all, there was no excuse before , now...

"So, everyone thinks this way?" Wei Wu looked at the people around him, "In the past, every village had its own rules, but now it's no different than before. If you don't let us drink water, it's absolutely impossible. Our way of life, we don't have to be polite to you anymore."

The village head quickly said, "Young people are ignorant, so don't argue with him. Of course, we agree with you to drink water."

"Okay then, hand over the man who beat us now. If you can't beat someone, let's just forget about it. Otherwise, just pay us five hundred catties of food."

The villagers gasped, five hundred catties of grain?This is not a trivial matter in the Taiping years, is it?What's more, it's a famine year, isn't it killing them?

The village chief's face also darkened. Now he knew that this person didn't come to seek justice at all, but clearly came to take the opportunity to blackmail.But what happens if you don't give it to him?He brought so many people, probably with the intention of grabbing them if he can't get them?He has tried his best to maintain the surface of peace, but he didn't expect what should come.

Just as the village chief was about to promise him, he saw Jin Zhu bringing Li Wenxuan and his son. At that moment, he seemed to have regained his backbone, and called out in a very friendly tone, "Wenxuan, you are here."

After finishing speaking, he turned his head and introduced to Wei Wu, "This is Li Wenxuan, the butcher in our village. That is his father, a hunter. You don't know yet, Wenxuan's brother is very promising, and now he is a university student in the capital. As for the officer, he may be back soon."

The village chief's words implied a threat, and this person could hear it. It meant that their village had a backer, so don't get their ideas.

He estimated the current situation, the one named Li Wenxuan was Lian Jiazi at first glance, his father was carrying a bow and arrow, both of them seemed not to be trifled with.Moreover, his family has a backer... Thinking of this, Wei Wu raised a smile, "Haha, it was all a misunderstanding just now, and the third son of our village did not do it properly. Now that everyone's misunderstanding has been solved, then we will leave."

After he left, the village chief breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, Li Wenxuan and the others came in time, otherwise they would have suffered a lot.

Although the village chief thought it was all right, Li Wenxuan still felt a little inappropriate. After all, if a person already had ambitions, how could he let go easily?We must find a way out of this matter.

When the two father and son returned home, Tian Xiaoman heard the movement outside the door and immediately asked who it was, startled Xiaotuanzi in his arms, and he quickly patted him comfortingly.

"Don't worry, Xiaoman, it's me!" Li Wenxuan jumped in from outside the courtyard, and then knocked on the door of the room.

Only then did Tian Xiaoman feel relieved, and ran out with Xiaotuanzi in his arms, "Are you all okay? Didn't you start a fight?"

"No, no, don't worry, nothing can happen to me!" Li Wenxuan comforted him with a smile, and was still in the mood to tease Xiaotuanzi who woke up and looked around just now.

Father Li stood helplessly waiting outside the door, knowing that no one would come to watch the door for him, so he also relied on his own efforts and jumped in.

The imperial court had already discussed the drought and the locust plague. Because Li Yiran was a local, he made a request to let him return to his hometown for disaster relief this time.

Because everyone was staring at this incident, the minister, who felt that he had nothing to gain, agreed to his request. He was not afraid of being watched, and when necessary, the locals were stronger than the outsiders.

After knowing that his request was granted, Li Yiran felt a little relieved, hoping that nothing would happen at home while he was rushing back.

On Wei Wu's side, Sun Laosan heard that they came back, and stood on the side of the road waiting for him unconvinced, "Wu boy, why did you come back like this? What about that person, did you teach him a lesson? Old man Ge, Since you dare to hit me!"

Wei Wu glanced at him coldly, "Don't cause trouble for me in the future. Also, you just get as many buckets of water as others fetch. Why do you need so much water?"

"Hey, didn't Xiangyun say that he didn't take a good bath for a long time? So I—"

Sun Laosan was brought up before finishing his sentence, "People in this village are not easy to mess with, so be careful in the future!" After finishing speaking, he was thrown aside.

"Bah, what!" Seeing that they were all gone, Sun Laosan got up from the ground and cursed softly.

"Brother, are we really going to do nothing?"

"Wait until I find out!"

……

If Tian Xiaoman knew that he drew so much water just to take a bath, he would definitely spurn him loudly. In this situation, even if he had his own well, it would not be able to withstand such use. At most, he would bring some water to wipe Xiaotuanzi.

There was a severe drought this year, so the weather was extremely hot. Xiaotuanzi was sweating profusely every time he played for a while. Tian Xiaoman felt sorry for him. Every time he fetched some water and wiped him with a damp cloth, it saved him from limp. , a pair of withered grass look.

Liu Xilin also stayed at their house these days, because his mother came to him again a few days ago, saying that there was no food in the village, and she wanted to take him to take care of him.

After thinking about it, Grandma Liu decided to agree to him.Because his family was running out of food, Liu Xilin had lost weight from starvation these days.Anyway, after the drought, they can be picked up again. No matter what, they can't let the grandson starve and lose weight with him!

However, based on worry about Liu Xilin's mother, Liu's grandmother took the only two eggs at home and begged Li Wenxuan to find out for him.

Of course Li Wenxuan can't ask for his eggs, Liu Xilin is his little apprentice, what else can a master ask for if he does something for his apprentice?So, the next day he went to the county.

After making inquiries, it turned out that Liu Xilin's mother took him back and planned to sell him for money!

His mother used to run a small business, but when the drought came, the business couldn't continue. After all, it didn't rain, who would buy rain gear?

The business couldn't go on, and life became a problem. They lived on their original savings for a period of time, and the two big families relied on them for relief. At this time, the man his mother was looking for heard a news.

Natural disasters are usually followed by man-made disasters. In order to avoid the tragedy of changing children and eating, families with many children will usually sell their children and hug the whole family, so that both sides have a way out.

I heard that after the severe drought here, human traffickers from other places also came over. After all, people in places with disasters are cheaper, and maybe you can find some free ones!

The man heard that a boy could sell for five taels of silver, so he urged his mother to bring Liu Xilin back. Five taels of silver could buy hundreds of catties of grain. Now that there is a shortage of grain, the price of goods has already skyrocketed.

After much thought, his mother agreed, maybe his son would find a good master in the future, so that he would not have to suffer from hunger in the countryside!

Grandma Liu was furious when she heard the news, and she wanted to settle accounts with his mother, but if she couldn't do it, she bumped her head against his door and let the government punish him!

Tian Xiaoman and the others stopped him, and when Liu Xilin's mother came to pick them up, they beat them hard and drove them away.Grandma Liu was afraid that they would come to rob him, so she put down her old face and begged Tian Xiaoman and the others to take Liu Xilin in for a while. Of course, he would pay for the food.

Li Wenxuan agreed to him without hesitation, and invited Grandma Liu to live in with him.Grandma Liu refused. After all, Liu Xilin would have nothing to do if he left them in their house. It would be inappropriate if he went by himself.What's more, it would be terrible if other people came to the Li family. Who can help the people from the village?