On the southern bank of the Huai River, the terrain of the water-breaking and irrigation coastal areas is flat, with hills and valleys rolling and not much ups and downs. There are valleys scattered in between, forming pavement of different sizes. There are dense forests at the top of the mountain, and the flat ground is covered with short trees, thorns and dead grass.

This place is located on the edge of the Jianghuai Haoyou controlled area. Although it has been tragically damaged by natural disasters and man-made disasters, it generally maintains the dense rural settlement structure that has continued to this day in the Han Dynasty. So far, it can be regarded as a densely populated area within the surrounding counties.

Since the leaders of the forces below Lei Xu had neither political ideals nor governance, they allowed most villages and communities to be autonomous. When the troops to whom Haoyou were patrolling somewhere, they randomly extorted some supplies and regarded them as taxes.

Under such circumstances, the hardships of the people can be imagined. Floods, epidemics, bandits, and even a simple climate change will take many lives.

However, thanks to its geographical location close to the Central Plains, whenever a disaster takes away many lives, the houses vacated by the deceased will be occupied by refugees who have fled from all over the country. Then the refugees will die from some kind of disaster, and these villages will be empty again until the next group of refugees arrive.

It's been so repeated year after year. The villages are still the same, but every day is more dilapidated, smaller in scale, and fewer household registrations every day.

If this continues, the once lush and rich villages will eventually be drained from their blood and inevitably decline.

Qi Wu is a refugee. His hometown is hundreds of miles away in Xuzhou. He originally had a wife, son, old mother, elder brother, and young brother. The family is covered by clans, and it is also said that there are hundreds of acres of land and farming. Even though the rent and taxes have become heavier in the past few decades, he can only survive by relying on the skills of farming.

However, since the chaos, the world has been shattered, bandits have been rampant, wantonly killing people and invading violence, and disasters such as water, drought, wind, hail, frost, disease, locust borer, etc. have never stopped for a day. The court has no relief at all, and it can only collect and exploit it even more like a wolf or a tiger... All these things soon forced Qi Wu to a state of destruction of his family.

Qi Wu was wandering and experiencing difficulties and was once carried into the remaining part of the Yellow Turbans in Qingzhou, and once followed the refugee brigade to seek food aimlessly.

His experiences became richer and more knowledgeable, and the clan he relied on had long disintegrated and displaced, and the familiar people around him slowly died.

Twenty years have passed, and Qi has nearly fifty years, one of his eyes is blinded, and two of his right fingers have been broken. The turbulent times have completely destroyed his muscles and bones, causing his body to hunch over, and his rough skin is drooping, forming vertical and horizontal wrinkles on his face and body.

Perhaps because he was old, he found that he was no longer afraid of death or illness, so he settled in a place called Dahuaili, preparing to spend his tormented life quietly.

There were almost no local residents gathered in Dahuai, all the miserable people who had wandered from all directions. In the next two or three years, Qi Wu and a few young people reclaimed the fields and helped the crops, gradually allowing people to make a living.

On this day, Qi Wu took two and a half children to slowly follow the ridge of the field. The land on the left side of the ridge should have been a well-maintained field, but unfortunately it was abandoned and the thorns in the field have not been hoeed yet.

The area on the right side of the ridge was better, but when Qi Wu turned the ground, he found that there were more than a dozen corpses buried in the ground, so he took soil to bury it, and no longer wanted to go there.

The ridge of the field was very wide, and the two children were each dragging a wooden rake in front, Qi Wu murmured with his hands behind his back, "The fields must also be plowed in autumn... Plow the fields first, then rake, and collect the rainwater in the soil. Even if spring drought is not afraid... By the way, if it does not rain in autumn, don't plow, it will be a waste of the rustic... It's a pity that there are no cows, no cows..."

Qi Wu's throat was thick and his tone was low. He was talking nonsense, and he didn't know how much the two children in front could listen. He raised his head and looked at the two children with his turbid left eye. The corners of his mouth twitched, and sighed bitterly. These two children were both fatherless orphans. Looking at them, Qi Wu often thought of his son who died under the sword of a chaotic sword.

On the road in the distance, smoke suddenly rose up, and a group of knights rode their horses and whipped, galloping. Although Qi Wu's vision was blurry, he could tell the difference between their clothes and weapons, which were not something that ordinary people could have. He felt his heart beat violently, and countless experiences in the past have clearly told him that if the tranquility of the village was broken, something bad would definitely happen.

Qi Wu tried his best to straighten his body, exerting so much force that his spine made a slight crackling sound. When the team of knights came in front of him, he said in a solemn tone: "Everyone is here, what's wrong?"

"Is this place a big locust?" someone asked in a deep voice.

"That's right." Qi Wu pointed to a big locust tree in the distance: "This place is called Dahuali, because of this locust tree. There is a slightly lower locust tree ten miles away, and that place is Xiaohuali. There are hundreds of families in both places, and we are always watching and helping each other."

Qi Wu subconsciously said the number of households in the village a little more, and then pulled the nearby Xiaohuaili. In this case, if the group of people in front of him had any malicious intentions, they might have some concerns.

The man who spoke before turned to a young man and said, "Little Langjun, this is..."

"I recognize this place and have been here last year." The young man waved his hand and jumped off his horse: "Old man, is the hometown fellow in this place the surname Zuo? I am from the Lei clan of Lujiang, and I have urgent matters to look for him."

Qi Wu knew about the Lujiang Lei family. This was a great tyrant with Lujiang County as the center, with tens of thousands of disciples attached to the commands, covering the surrounding counties. Strictly speaking, Dahuaili is also within the sphere of influence of the Lujiang Lei family. However, they neither sent officials to manage it, nor did they regularly collect taxes; only occasionally when the troops crossed the border, they would order some food and fodder.

This is already very good. There is no taxation that will force people to death, no labor levy, no burning, killing, and looting; if you do nothing, you can let the people survive on your own, and let these fugitives plant two crops of land in troubled times plant two crops of land with peace of mind, you can get the good policies that Qi Wu sincerely thanks.

Since he was a member of the Lei clan of Lujiang, at least he would not be here to plunder and kill. Qi Wu's straight back suddenly bent down, and his vigilant expression also relaxed. He said politely: "Hehe, this little man, are you looking for a fellow villager named Zuo?"

"That's right. I remember everyone calls him Lao Zuo, and some call him Zuo loudly... his voice is indeed very loud."

"He is dead."

"Dead?"

"Lao Zuo has the problem of coughing and renal renal. It was too cold last winter and he couldn't hold on. He struggled for dozens of days and vomited blood to death." Qi Wu said calmly, without any emotion.

The young man was silent for a moment.

This group of people was Lei Yuan and his followers.

At this time, it had been a whole day since Lei Yuan and others fought in Yongsheng Village. From Yongsheng Village to Jushui and Jishui downstream, there were still mountains blocking them. But Lei Yuan was familiar with the road and knew a path that few people walked, so they led their horses and crossed the canyon along the mountain path that was Douzhe, and soon arrived at the opposite ridge.

After resting for one night, the route was much easier than before. After another half a day of speeding, they arrived at Dahuaili. Who knew that as soon as they arrived, they heard that the familiar fellow villager was dead.

"Then... Is there anyone in charge of this big locust now?"

"No...nothing." Qi Wu was confused.

Lei Yuan looked at the wall behind Qi Wu. The wall was not high and the rammed earth was broken. In just a few feet, there were four or five collapsed gaps, revealing the ruins burned by fire and the repeatedly rebuilt shacks. Behind the gap were some unkempt villagers standing together, and no one dared to approach.

Lei Yuan took a few steps forward, held Qi Wu's arm and said in a deep voice: "Old man, don't know what to call him?"

"Little man Qi Wu, I... I just took everyone to farm, I don't know anything..." Qi Wu was a little embarrassed, but he didn't dare to break away from Lei Yuan's hand.

"Brother Qi, whether you understand or not is a trivial matter." Lei Yuan interrupted Qi Wu's self-defence: "The Cao army is coming, please take everyone to the mountain for a while."

"Ah? What? Cao... Cao's army? Is Cao's army coming? Are you going to fight?"

Qi Wu's white beard trembled, and his hands trembled involuntarily. He clasped his fists and tried to control the trembling, but failed. He stared at Lei Yuan, hoping that there would be a smile on his face, telling himself that it was just a joke. Lei Yuan nodded heavily. He turned back in horror, only the villagers' faces and confused eyes.

"But...but..." Qi Wu looked at Lei Yuan, his lips squirmed, and he couldn't speak for a moment.

But what? But this place is our only place to stay in troubled times? But everyone tried their best to reclaim some fields, thinking that they would have a few full meals next year? But Cao's army may not necessarily burn and kill along the way like before? However, most of the elderly, weak, women and children in Dahuai, and the food reserves for everyone during the winter are far from enough to support a long journey?

But what is there to say about these?

Among the villagers, some young children were frightened by the sudden tension and cried out with a wow.

The two children who followed Qi Wu who were learning to plow the fields and left Murai and ran over. They probably thought that Lei Yuan had said something, which scared everyone, so they stopped Qi Wu, opened their eyes wide and stared at Lei Yuan.

Qi Wu quickly dragged them away and bowed to Lei Yuan to apologize: "The child is ignorant...you..."
Chapter completed!