Chapter 316

The number of people from Shanshui Village this time was higher than usual.

In the past, there were only over thirty men, but this time there were more than ten additional people, nearly fifty in total!

Moreover, the people of Shanshui Village had never suffered from hunger, and salt was never in short supply. Plus, they occasionally supplemented their diet with pork, keeping everyone strong and healthy.

Fan Jin brought Feng Da, Feng Er, Hong Mancang, and a full stockpile, needless to say. They had a large jar of pig fat, eating coarse and fine grains. Whenever the host slaughtered pigs or sheep, they would get a share, even if it wasn’t much, but they occasionally had a meal of meat and eggs. Since coming to Shanshui Village, everyone had put on weight from the farm work, making them even stronger.

Their views were also different from the villagers’. The villagers mainly thought of retreating from the enemy, but these four felt that protecting the host was most important—Ding Heli also needed protection.

So when Fan Jin, Ding Heli prepared to charge with lime bags, the four were most anxious and quickly blocked in front of them.

When the opponents charged into the alley, and the two teams faced each other head-on, both sides were shocked!

Fan Jin’s side hadn’t expected that the opponents were only over thirty people, while they were almost fifty. Would they dare to come up with ideas?

Moreover, only about ten of them had knives, each of different shapes clearly cobbled together. The remaining twenty or so didn’t even have knives; they held wooden sticks.

The opponents hadn’t expected these fat sheep carrying a lot of goods to wait for them!

Their appearance didn’t seem like a rest; they were definitely waiting for them to come in!

“Oh no! Are we going to run into trouble with thieves?” shouted the short, skinny leader.

His leaner brother behind him spat out thick phlegm, boosting morale, “Let’s go! We have knives, let’s see what they’ve got!”

“Yes, once we chop these people down, their goods on the carts and their silver will be ours! Brothers, charge!”

With a thunderous shout, over thirty people charged forward.

The men of Shanshui Village pulled long knives from the cart’s cargo or under the carts. The opponents obviously hesitated for a moment, wanting to stop and retreat, but the charge was too fierce to turn back in an instant.

Ding Heli seized the opportunity, shouting loudly, “Quick, scatter!”

The men obediently threw lime towards the opponents, aiming mainly at their eyes.

Those in the front were wielding knives, caught off guard as their eyes were blinded by lime. With their vision blurred and unable to see clearly, they swung their knives wildly in desperation. In a life-threatening moment, the men of Shanshui Village had no room for mercy and swung their knives back.

Ding Heli, who didn’t dare to wield knives in the front, agilely moved to the rear where men wielded sticks, scattering lime towards the opponents.

Joking aside, getting hit with a stick might hurt for a few days, but being stabbed with a knife could be fatal!

Fan Jin was surrounded by Feng Da, Feng Er, and the others, protected in the middle. He could only seize the opportunity to throw lime and help them.

The men of Shanshui Village rushed forward, flanking from behind, causing a chaotic scene.

When the dust settled, over thirty opponents were all held down with knives at their necks, pinned to the ground.

Xu Laoda, Xu Laosan, Li Wu, and Fan Xiaoliu untied the hemp ropes from the carts and securely bound each person. Anyone who resisted and struggled was kicked fiercely to let off steam!

After Ding Heli checked the injuries on their side, they said to Li Wen, “We have a few men injured here, luckily not serious, just flesh wounds, but there’s a lot of blood. I have some hemostatic powder at home, but we still have a distance to go. What should we do with these people?”

Other men were also troubled; what to do with over thirty people?

Killing them was out of the question. First, they had never killed anyone, and second, if someone reported them to the authorities, they wouldn’t be able to explain that these people had started the trouble.

Sending them to the magistrate’s office was an option, but with their goods and the round trip, it would take time. Especially since some of their men were injured, they needed to hurry back for treatment!

Fan Jin pondered for a moment and spoke gently, “Send a few fast runners to the city: one group to notify the officials at the yamen to come and arrest these people, and another group to buy some hemostatic powder and bandages from the pharmacy. How does that sound?”

Li Wen nodded hurriedly, “Agreed!”

Several men stepped forward immediately. One volunteered, “I’m a fast runner, let me go!”

Fan stepped forward and clarified, “Who will pay for the medicine? Let’s make it clear: I have no money, we just happened to be passing by, and these people didn’t come after us. It’s not our concern, and the injured shouldn’t have to pay us.”

“We were scared to death too, blame these bandits!” added Fan Erzhu.

Ding Heli were inspecting the dozen or so men with knives. Upon hearing Fan’s words, they suppressed what they were about to say and looked towards the men of Shanshui Village, who were visibly upset after facing off with the enemy.

Li Wen stared at Fan’s family, his eyes almost shooting fire. He gritted his teeth and asked, “So you mean the injured have to pay for their own medicine?!”

Fan Sanzhu quickly explained, “Hey, we didn’t say they have to pay themselves. If you pay, we won’t stop you.”

“Fine, fine! Just now, you three hid at the back during the fight, didn’t even show your heads, and now you’re the first to come forward to pay for the medicine. Well done!” Li Wen trembled with anger.

He had never expected that while they were risking their lives in the front, these three who stayed behind would be so clear about who pays for the medicine.

Xu Laoda angrily pointed at the three and asked, “Aren’t you afraid that next time you might get attacked and no one will help you?”

Fan and his two brothers looked away and remained silent.

“Forget it, Brother Xu, don’t argue with them. We’ll pay for the medicine ourselves. If someone gets stabbed to death in front of my eyes next time, I won’t lift a finger to help. I’d be a coward if I did!” One of the injured men, clutching his arm, spoke out of anger.

Another injured man chimed in, “Same here! From now on, wherever they are, if Fan Qian and his family are in trouble and I help out, I’d be a coward too!”

You treat others well, and others treat you well. If others are unjust, don’t blame me for being unrighteous!

“I’m the same. I’ll pay for the medicine myself. No need to share the cost with them,” declared another man firmly.

“You guys were injured for everyone’s sake. We’ll chip in for this money together,” Li Wen said firmly.

Other uninjured men echoed loudly, “We’re willing to contribute to the medicine costs.”

Fan Jin stepped forward and directly took out a silver ingot, handing it to Fan Xiaoliu who was going to the city, instructing him, “Buy plenty of gauze and hemostatic medicine. Get the good quality hemostatic medicine. My family will cover the cost. Hurry and go. The sooner you leave, the sooner you’ll return.”

The eyes of the injured men glistened with tears.

Originally, they had only thought about using wood ash to stop bleeding, but Uncle Ding suggested buying medicine. Before they could object, Fan and his father and sons stood up. They couldn’t let them look down on them, stubbornly insisting on paying for themselves!

Medicine had always been expensive. They had planned to use the money from selling rabbits in the later batches to cover it, but Fan Jin said his family would cover it.

“Second brother has a lot of money. It’s best if he pays alone,” Fan Qian muttered, feeling bitter that if he had more money, he could also show his generosity in such situations.

“We don’t need to spend any money!” Ding Heli stood tall and addressed everyone.