Chapter 1377
Taking Charge of Myself
Chapter 1377 Taking Charge of Myself
Seeing that they were scared and started to tremble, Si Pei put on the air of a noble young master and grumbled, "It's good that you have some scruples. With scruples, you won't dare to act too impulsively."
But the Five Elders spat at him: "Pah! You're talking without understanding the situation. Your Si family is powerful, and you pity these girls, so why don't you step forward and take them in, and take care of them for life!"
"If your Si family can do that, my Li family will keep these girls!"
What?
"You unreasonable old man!" Si Feng, fearing that Si Pei would agree in a moment of passion, preemptively cursed, "Even your Li family can't take care of these girls for their entire lives, so why should my Si family take care of them? There's no such logic!"
The elder of the Li clan laughed: "Ha, since you understand the principle, then may I ask, what is the reason for you outsiders to stop my Li clan from taking our clan girls out to find a way to survive?!"
"You're all meddling in other people's business!" Li Guixiang, the son of the Five Elders, was also impulsive and shouted, "If you're really worried about the girls, you should send martial arts masters or have the Prince of Ye send troops to escort us to find a way to survive! You're not giving us any benefits, but only preventing us from finding a way to survive. You're killing us!"
"Li Gui!" Li Zhen called his name but didn't say anything more.
Li Gui felt increasingly justified and continued to shout, "When the enemy attacks, the government troops are powerless to protect the people, yet we're not allowed to escape? There's never been such a logic in history!"
"Today, I, Li Gui, will make my words clear: anyone who cannot guarantee the survival of my Li clan if they remain in the city, but instead obstructs my Li clan from leaving the city to seek a way out, is killing my Li family and wants to exterminate my Li family in the Northeast!"
Whoosh—Bang!
An arrow carrying fireworks landed directly on the ground in front of Li Gui, exploding into a shower of sparks—that was fireworks.
"Ah!" Li Gui screamed in fright, fell to the ground, and kept retreating behind the Li family members. He even tried to pull his wife, wanting her to shield him.
Tsk tsk, that's really inhuman.
"Qin woman, you have once again used a sharp weapon to injure people without cause! Do you have any respect for the law?!" The second elder of the Li clan looked up and saw Qin Xiaomi leading a female cavalry unit, followed by a caravan, heading this way.
It's obvious without even guessing that she was the one who set off that dangerous firework.
"Not only are there criminals in the Tong Family Escort Agency, but also many family members of the escorts. They didn't commit any crimes, yet you used a sharp weapon to bomb the entire agency. You have no regard for the law, you kill innocent people indiscriminately. With you in the capital city, where is the law?!" The old thief took the opportunity to curse angrily, spitting out a torrent of saliva.
Qin Xiaomi: "Old man, take it easy, or you'll break your old teeth from all that yelling!"
He added, "Speaking up for the ringleader Tong, are you perhaps one of their accomplices? Then don't leave the city; go back with Wei Jun for interrogation!"
“You’re falsely accusing innocent people! We’ve done nothing wrong, we’ve lived our whole lives with a clean conscience!” the elder of the Li clan cried out urgently.
"Heh," Qin Xiaomi laughed, "I say, Elder Li Er, you're jumping out to deny it, you're really guilty. It seems we'll have to take all the old men of your Li family to the military camp for interrogation!"
What?
The elders of the Li family, who were about to leave the city, were speechless and couldn't find the words to refute.
Qin Xiaomi said with great disdain: "Look at your useless abilities. You dare to lead half of your clan out of the city by relying solely on the male members of the Li family as martial arts instructors. If you want to commit suicide, don't take your clan with you."
She then pointed at the other members of the Li family and said, "And you, have your brains been eaten by worms? Don't you have any brains? Even the Wei army doesn't dare to easily leave the city, what are your martial prowess? The clan elders spout a few nonsense words, and you dare to believe them and lead your families to their deaths?!"
Ugh, they're so brainless! She can't stand it anymore and wants to hit them.
This?
The members of the Li family looked at each other, unsure how to refute. In the end, they only said a few words: "We can't all die in the city. We have to leave one bloodline."
“They were clan elders, and they said that there were bodyguards outside the city to meet and escort us, so we risked taking our families out of the city with the clan elders.”
"Not our whole family is leaving; my younger brother's family and my parents are staying in the city!" "Only half of our family is leaving..."
Many members of the Li clan who left the city followed this pattern. Some were reluctant to separate and left together as a family, while others chose to stay in the city as a family.
Besides the Li family, other families with surnames like Tan, Chang, and Weng who wanted to leave the city did so for the same reason.
To prevent their bloodline from dying out, a group of clansmen had to leave the city to find a way to survive.
Even the Xue clan had more than twenty households who selected one or two male members to form a small team to follow the Li and Weng clans out of the city to find a way to make a living.
Xue Dongjia glanced at the clansmen stuck in the Li and Weng family caravans and was speechless... Fortunately, they were all men and there were no girls, so he couldn't be bothered to stop them from going to their deaths.
"Madam Guan, Madam Yan, Madam Fei, Madam Zheng, Madam Xue, and Madam Zeng have arrived!"
The convoy following Qin Xiaomi's cavalry was led by Madam Guan and her entourage.
It was Mrs. Li who, upon hearing of the trouble in the clan, hurriedly went to call Mrs. Xue, and together they went to Wu Garden to fetch reinforcements.
"Husband!" Mrs. Li called out.
Li Zhen turned around and saw his wife. He was overjoyed and said, "Thank you for your help, my wife."
Mrs. Li said, "Don't argue with them yet. Go and discuss it with Madam Guan and the others first, and then negotiate with the Second Elder... We have to do everything we can to avoid the women from getting into trouble after leaving the city, so that people won't blame the Li clan for being stupid and useless."
"Hey." Li Zhen hurriedly went to see Madam Guan, Madam Fei, Madam Zheng and others to discuss countermeasures with them.
As for Qin Xiaomi, sitting on her horse with a crossbow in hand, she said to Elder Li and the others, "Don't move. Wait until Madam Guan and the other noble ladies have reached a conclusion before we talk. Otherwise, I'll stab you a few holes."
"Outrageous! Unruly! You're ruining the atmosphere of the city... Mmm!" The Fifth Elder wanted to curse, but Li Qiao, the Second Elder's son, covered his mouth.
Li Qiao looked further into the distance and reminded them, "Commander Jiang is leading a group of soldiers at the rear of the column."
The day before yesterday evening, the man surnamed Jiang shot and injured many people at the entrance of Wuyuan Garden. They were all people who disrespected the Qin family's daughter, so Uncle Wu, please don't bring us a beating with arrows!
The five elders were also afraid, so they remained silent.
After about fifteen minutes, Madam Guan and the ladies-in-waiting had reached an agreement. Together with Li Zhen, they stepped forward and said to the parents of the Li family girl who was about to leave the city, "Leaving the city is too dangerous for women, and the consequences are too severe... If you are willing, you can leave the women behind. The ladies-in-waiting appointed by the court will lead female soldiers to cooperate with your clansmen who remain in the city to protect them."
"If the capital city can be defended, you can bring them home after you return."
"If the capital city falls..." Old Madam Guan looked at the women of the Li family and asked, "Are you willing to perish with the city?"
Even ants try to survive, but for women in conquered lands, death is preferable to life, especially in ancient times.
So Madam Guan specifically asked the girls.
The girls of the Li clan ranged in age from sixteen or seventeen to just a few years old. Many were still naive and confused when faced with such a major event that would affect their entire lives.
Some, however, remained clear-headed and, seizing the opportunity, took control of their own lives...
“I, Li Runiang, am willing to stay in the city and perish with it!” Li Runiang was a grown woman, seventeen years old, and she knew that she would be in extreme danger if she left the city.