It rains heavily during the Qingming Festival, and pedestrians on the road are heartbroken.

White butterflies fly up from the dark money, and the human voice crys like birds.

It was a little while before Qingming Festival, but the cold food was approaching. The Cold Food Festival was the first major sacrifice for us Han people. During the festival, we prohibited fireworks and only ate cold food. There was also a custom of worshiping the deceased of our ancestors. Therefore, whenever we were cold food, countless people would gather to burn paper money to express our thoughts on our ancestors and their deceased relatives.

Yesterday, the Xinhui County Government of Guangdong Province issued a notice asking the people to go out of the city to pay homage today. Once today, the city gate will no longer be opened to prevent the old thief from retreating and returning.

The so-called old thief refers to the Li Ding Guo tribe in the Southern Ming Dynasty. The Li tribe attacked Guangdong in the 10th year of Shunzhi, and almost captured Guangzhou and occupied the entire territory of Guangdong. Fortunately, Tianming was in the Qing Dynasty. The Li tribe returned in the two attacks without success and had retreated back to Guangxi months ago.

However, although Li Dingguo's army had retreated to Guangxi, there were still some troops left in Guangdong. The Xinhui County was the gateway to Guangzhou. It was convenient for water and land transportation and was a must-be defended place. Once Xinhui was lost, Guangzhou would be in danger. Therefore, when Li Dingguo attacked Guangdong in the second attack, he focused on Xinhui and besieged the county for eight months. Although the main force of Li's army retreated, the Qing army in Xinhui still did not dare to be careless, and the city gate would not open lightly for a moment.

However, the cold food was approaching, and the magistrate Huang Zhizhengming was trapped in the county town in August. The city was killed and injured countless residents. Therefore, he specially asked the generals to open the city for one day so that the people could go out of the city to worship their relatives. The generals of the army agreed to this request after repeated consideration. After obtaining the approval of the generals, Huang Zhizheng immediately sent someone to post a notice and organized some people to maintain order. In order to prevent mistakes, the Qing army of the city sent a team of soldiers to guard the city and made corresponding arrangements in the city.

After the city gate was opened, thousands of people came out to pay homage to the city. From a distance, everyone looked mournful, and their faces looked very sad. When they looked at the Qing army guarding the city, they all dared not speak out, and they hurriedly passed through the city gate. When they looked at the Qing army guarding the city, they were all silent and ignored the hatred in the eyes of the people. They rarely did not speak badly to the people, nor did they whip them wantonly, and they even dared to speak louder. It was really strange to see that butchers who usually made fish and meat became good-hearted Bodhisattvas?

After the people left the city, some people began to sprinkle paper money along the way. The paper money falling in the wind accompanied the crowd whispering, making the scene of worshiping from the city more solemn and even more desolate.

Most of the people are mainly males, and there are few women. Occasionally, they are all elderly women or girls who have not yet reached the age of hairpin.

The county government office was maintaining the team. Qing soldiers with swords and guns could be seen from time to time on both sides of the road. Like the Qing soldiers at the city gate, most of these Qing soldiers were unwilling to look at these people head-on, and some even turned their faces to look at other directions. Only when the paper money that drifted with the wind fell on them or feet, these Qing soldiers would twitch their cheeks without attention and move slightly.

The residents who died in Xinhui City were buried together, saying that they were buried, but in fact they were randomly dug holes. Most of them were buried with incomplete corpses, and some of them were not even corpses. They only buried some of the clothes of the dead before their death. Many large tombs that were piled up high could tell at a glance that more than one person was buried, and how many people were buried below. Compared to the piles of tombs that relatives knew, the ownerless lonely tombs were more, accounting for almost half of the mass graves.

I feel timid when I am close to the hometown, but I feel timid when I am close to the grave.

When the worship team finally arrived at the mass grave, the uncontrollable grief in the crowd could no longer hold back. I don’t know who started crying first. After a while, the mass grave was already full of tears. The crying sounded heart-wrenching, making people feel like cutting a knife.

As the saying goes, men don’t cry easily, but what they see in front of them is that thousands of men cry together, which is really heartbreaking.

The Qing army, who heard the crying sounds in the distance, dared not come over to see them. Most of the servants who maintained order were killed. At this time, they were all sad, either standing there silently and mourning, or kneeling on the ground and crying a few times. Only the servants brought by several county magistrates Huang Zhizheng from his hometown did not have the grief of the death of his relatives, and stood aside and whispered something.

"Old man has surrounded the county town for several months, and the people in Xinhui City are almost dead, alas." A man named Huang Si sighed in sighing as he looked at the scene in front of him.

Another officer nodded and echoed, "No, I heard from the county lord that there were more than 70,000 people who ate meat alone. In addition, the soldiers under the command of King Pingnan and King Jingnan kidnapped thousands of women. There are only one or two thousand people left in the city. The people in Xinhui City are dead!"

After hearing this, Qi Er, a servant standing on the edge, couldn't help but say, "The soldiers of the two princes are really tiger and wolf soldiers. They don't look like soldiers from the court, this is a sinister..."

"Worry, you can't say this nonsense." Huang Si was a mature man. After hearing Qi Er's words, he immediately glared at him. Then he looked around and said, "If you want to talk about sins, the old man is even more sinful. If he doesn't come to Xinhui, can the people in this city be so miserable?"

"Yes, yes, it's the old thief who committed the evil."

Qi Er knew that he was saying the wrong thing, so he nodded and agreed. When he was about to scold the old thief, he heard someone from the grave screaming: "Master Wu fainted from crying!"

Qi Er said in surprise: "Which Master Wu?"

Someone said next to him: "The one who teaches in the east of the city."

"Oh," Qi Er suddenly realized, showing a look of sympathy, "I'm afraid he's too sad to think of his wife."

Huang Sichao looked in the direction he called just now, shook his head and said, "Li is really a good woman. The soldiers were going to capture Master Wu that day, but she said that her husband had no son yet. If he asked soldiers to capture him, he would be dismissed. So he begged the soldiers to capture her and eat her, so he saved Master Wu's life. Now, I think about it, this woman is so magnanimous!"

Everyone nodded after hearing this, and then Qi Er thought of something and said a little strangely: "Didn't Li call me for food? Is that buried in the grave?"

Huang Si twitched his cheeks and whispered: "Li's head, those soldiers left behind, the old thief retreated, and Master Wu buried it here."

While speaking, he saw a familiar figure not far away, so he pointed his finger and said to everyone: "Here, that's Lin Xiucai. His wife, Mo, is also a good woman. The soldier went to catch her aunt and cooked her to eat it, but she said that the aunt was old and the meat was not delicious, but she was young. The flesh on her body was tender, which made the soldier chewy. After hearing this, the soldier let her aunt go and ate Mo, and she didn't even leave a head... The grave was buried with Mo's clothes before her lifetime, so it was considered to be the memory of Lin Xiucai for herself." (Author's note: Aunt, mother-in-law's meaning)

"The worst one is the daughter of Liang Xiucai's family. She is an eleven-year-old. She knows how to replace her father at a young age. It's really admirable."

"I heard that the soldier thought that this daughter was small and had little meat, so he didn't want to kill her, but this daughter said to the soldier, "Do you think I'm small and not enough meat to eat enough?" Then he snatched the knife and wiped his neck. Seeing this, the soldiers put Liang Xiucai and cooked his daughter's body."

"Huang, the wife of Wu Shirang, a student from the county school, also asked her to die in her dying. I heard that those soldiers killed Huang in tears when they killed Huang, and she drank Huang in tears. Alas, it was such a tragic thing in the world."

“…”

When one sensational tragic incident was told, no matter how hard the hearted people were, they couldn't bear it. The expressions of the servants had changed a long time ago, and they were full of sighs in their hearts. They were also glad that such tragic incidents had not fallen on themselves.

No matter how sad the person is, he can't stand it after crying for a long time. The crying sounds on the grave have gradually diminished. The fireworks burning paper money are everywhere in his sight. The mourning sticks standing on the grave are particularly eye-catching, one after another, and they can't count them.

Huang Si stood for a while, looked up at the sky, and told everyone, "I guess I will be able to go back to the city in half an hour. Everyone should use more snacks and go and see which one needs help later. If you can, just help me."

"Oh, I know." The servants responded in unison.

Seeing that there was nothing to say, Huang Si turned around and accidentally saw a young man standing in front of two new graves in the northeast corner. Because his back was facing Huang Si, he couldn't see the person's appearance clearly. What made Huang Si feel strange was that there was no sacrifice in front of the grave in front of the young man, and there was no paper money. The young man did not kneel on the ground like others, but stood straight there, not to cry, he could not even hear even the sound of choking.

"Who is that person? Why did he come so empty-handed? Do you know anyone?" Huang Si looked back and asked the servants around him.

Everyone followed his eyes and shook their heads, but they didn't know any of them. Just then, a native-born and raised officer from the county came over and asked him. The officer glanced at the young man and recognized him and told everyone, "That's Zhou Xiucai. His parents, wife and children were both called soldiers to eat, and he was the only one left in the whole family. It was very pitiful." After a pause, he said, "The two graves are empty graves, and there is nothing in them."

When everyone heard what he said, they immediately felt very sympathetic to Zhou Xiucai. After saying a few pitiful words, they parted with their own things.

Zhou Shixiang, who had been standing in front of the grave, did not hear the comments of the workers in the distance. Even if he heard them, he would not react to those words that pitiful to him. He should have cried so much that he should have shed tears. At present, except for revenge, Zhou Shixiang had no other thoughts in his heart.

Both parents, wife and children become food in others' stomachs. Such a sensational tragedy shocked Zhou Shixiang, who was a human being in the second life, and even made him suffer, who had completely inherited the emotional memory of the body's master. This pain is an unforgettable pain, an unforgettable pain, and a pain that he will wake up for the rest of his life!

.............
Chapter completed!