With the bandits gathering here, the previously isolated refugee settlement suddenly became much livelier.
Although one of the bandits stole some dried corn on the cob from a refugee’s house during this period, the refugee did not say anything when they discovered the theft. Instead, it was Ren Xiaosu who gave the guy a good beating and even confiscated his bullets.
That refugee had even asked Ren Xiaosu to be merciful, and this made the bandit who got beaten up extremely ashamed.
After that, such things never happened again.
On the other hand, some refugees were still bullying their fellow refugees. They would go to their houses and act like punks while mooching off on their food. In the end, when Jin Lan and the others could no longer bear to watch, they beat up those punks and dragged them off to the other bandits to reform them.
These punks might be capable of bullying the refugees, but going against the bandits was something none of them even dared to think of.
The brick houses were rapidly taking shape. The bandits were all full of strength and could work extremely fast as well.
Ren Xiaosu looked at Xu Jinyuan, who was supervising the construction of a house. Off to the side, a female refugee was looking at him lovingly. Ren Xiaosu turned around and asked Yang Xiaojin, “He’s one of those that you said was problematic, right?”
“Mhm.” Yang Xiaojin nodded. “But it seems like he no longer has any ulterior motives.”
Yang Xiaojin had been wondering if this group of people would cause them any trouble and had been spying on them. At the time, she was wondering why Ren Xiaosu was not worried. In the end, she realized her worries had been unnecessary. She could see that Xu Jinyuan was now looking forward to trading for bullets every day.
This time, they managed to build 12 houses in one go. In this desolate wasteland, brick houses were once again rising up from the ground. When Ren Xiaosu saw all of this, he felt a swirl of emotions. The sturdy brick houses were a symbol of the continuation of human civilization.
The houses were about 28 square meters each. One single structure required around 1,900 bricks to build, and more than ten people could live in it.
Although there were still too few houses compared to the number of people they had, the second batch of bricks were already being fired. When they took them out in another two days, they could continue building the houses.
Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng were bragging to the refugees yesterday, saying they were going to build houses for everyone to live in.
At that time, Ren Xiaosu asked him while laughing: “By the time y’all’ve collected enough bullets, do you still want to continue building houses?”
Embarrassed, Jin Lan said, “We can’t just watch our fellow villagers continue living in those mud huts, can we? And there’s so many children as well. It gets very damp in the shelters, and that isn’t good for their health.”
Zhang Yiheng added, “We can even build a school, a factory…”
Ren Xiaosu chuckled. “Why the hell would we build a factory? We don’t even have the tech to run one!”
“What if we gain the tech in the future?” Zhang Yiheng mumbled.
Then Ren Xiaosu walked over to those brick houses that were just built. He told Jin Lan, “Count how many bullets everyone has.”
It had been more than twenty days since the bandits started working, so a lot of them should have accumulated enough bullets by now. After counting for a long time, Jin Lan scratched his head and said, “Because some new brothers have just joined us, we shared our bullets evenly between them. So everyone still has two to three more bullets to go. We should have enough by tomorrow after one more day of making bricks.”
It was the arrival of the new bandits that had delayed everyone’s progress. Otherwise, they would have accumulated enough bullets through their additional work in carrying bricks, mixing clay, and sowing seeds.
Fortunately for them, no new bandits had joined recently, with their total number here controlled at around 400 people. Of course, there were also some bandits who’d escaped, but there were only a few of them.
Ren Xiaosu had mentioned to Yang Xiaojin that some of the bandit gangs to the north must have already started heading south. It couldn’t have been more than ten days since new bandits came by to their settlement.
Therefore, they were very likely going to fight the gangs from the north to see who would be the victor.
It was at this moment that Yang Xiaojin recalled that they were actually here to exterminate the bandits.
But now was not the time to think about that. Ren Xiaosu smiled and said, “You haven’t included the bullets that are gonna be given out for building the houses today. I said before that everyone who helps build houses will get 15 bullets each. We keep our promises.”
When he said that, Jin Lan and the others grew excited. After working so hard for more than twenty days, their efforts were finally paying off!
If Ren Xiaosu had returned to them their guns at the start, they would definitely not be this excited, because those guns were theirs to begin with, and they were even given by other forces for free.
But it was different now. Saving a 100 bullets and trading them for a gun was like an honor they earned. The reason they were so excited was not because of the gun, but because it meant they had earned the right to bear arms in this settlement.
This right felt worth a lot of money. In the past, they had never been so happy or proud even after robbing the passing merchants. That was because they had earned this right today through their sweat.
Ren Xiaosu had Jin Lan’s people bring over all the firearms. “What do y’all plan to do when you receive your guns?”
Jin Lan said excitedly, “We’ll go robbing, of course! There’s hundreds of us now, and we’re so united. We can absolutely dominate the entire south!”
Jin Lan was not bragging either. After all, some of the bandit gangs to the north were still very fearsome.
Ren Xiaosu was silent for a moment. He pointed to the refugees who were watching them from the sidelines and said, “Robbery? Are y’all gonna rob people like them?”
When the crowd of refugees heard this, they were stunned. Jin Lan hurriedly explained, “We aren’t gonna rob y’all. Why would we rob you?”
“But there’s still a lot of people just like them.” Ren Xiaosu said, “They also have children and wives.”
Xu Jinyuan wondered, “Then why would we carry guns?”
“To protect them,” Ren Xiaosu said with a smile. He pointed at the female refugee who had been hooking up with Xu Jinyuan every day and said, “To protect Xiaocui, to protect the villagers, and to protect your families.”
Xu Jinyuan stopped talking. Bashful, Xiaocui was making eyes at him.
Ren Xiaosu picked up a gun and handed it to Xu Jinyuan with both hands. “After you take this gun, we’ll become comrades, brothers, and family.”
Xu Jinyuan took the gun hesitantly. Next up were the visibly excited Jin Lan and Zhang Yiheng.
Holding the cold and unfeeling guns in their arms, it felt like they were hugging a treasure. Jin Lan said to the villagers, “Don’t worry. With me around, no bandits will be able to snatch y’all away!”
Yang Xiaojin watched all of this quietly from the side. Looking at the youth who was like the main character on a stage, she thought about how she had once mentioned it would be very difficult to make this gang of bandits find faith, and how it would be good enough to just unite them. But to her surprise, after a little more than twenty days had passed, a herd mentality had silently formed. On top of that, a belief to “protect” had also silently been born.
There were no grand speeches of loyalty, and all Ren Xiaosu transmitted to the bandits was the belief to protect. Protect their own assets, protect their families, and protect their friends. Everything should be done from the perspective of guarding their own interests.
There was no need to uphold world peace. That had nothing to do with them.
But of course, be it the strength, will, or faith of this group, they were just tiny seeds that had been planted in them.
If they were to be separated from a strong individual such as Ren Xiaosu and let go of the rope that was holding them together, they would probably break down quickly and go back to leading their own lives. Or if they encountered a strong opponent now, it would also be enough to deal them a quick defeat.
But Yang Xiaojin felt that it was very impressive that Ren Xiaosu could plant these seeds.
