The sky is just beginning to light up, and across the distant Cangshan Mountains, a cold wind howls, and snow falls thousands of miles away.
Heavy snow and fog arose on the plain, swallowing up the figures in the distance and the huge siege machinery in the morning light.
The city wall has been damaged beyond recognition, and the corpses accumulated under the city wall are piled high like a mountain. One group after another, the refugees take turns attacking the city gate.
Xia Zhaoxue stood on a high slope. The wind and snow obscured his sight. In the vast smoke, the crowd was as small as gravel, crazy and turbulent.
Xia Zhaoxue wore an old man's bamboo hat, and the clothes he wore were taken off the corpses of several refugees.
He stood there for almost half an hour. Many people passed by on the short slope road next to him, and wooden convoys filled with steamed buns and sesame cakes were pushed forward one by one.
This food is far from enough to satisfy the hunger of hundreds of thousands of refugees.
"Hey!" Someone pushed him.
Xia Zhaoxue turned around.
He was a tall, middle-aged man, with three or four companions of similar height.
"Are you alone?" the middle-aged man said.
Xia Zhaoxue looked them over and nodded.
"Are you coming with us?" the middle-aged man said, "You have seen those corpses in front of you. This place will definitely become more and more chaotic. You may not be able to survive tomorrow by yourself."
"Where are you going?"
"Aren't we together?" said the companion on the side, "Do you want to die here? People are dying everywhere. There may be several corpses buried in the snow under our feet."
"No," Xia Zhaoxue said, "Thanks for the invitation."
"You really don't want to consider it?" The middle-aged man was a little unwilling.
Along the way, he attracted all the men who looked healthy and tall. The young man in front of him was tall and straight. Judging from his pace and posture, he might have been a soldier. Now his conversation and behavior made him feel that this man
He is not an idle person.
"No, thank you." Xia Zhaoxue still said that, as if he didn't want to continue to pester him, he turned and walked forward.
"Brother Du, this man doesn't know how to live or die." A man muttered to the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man known as Du Ge shook his head and said, "What a pity."
As he spoke, he kicked his feet on the snow beneath him and said, "Hey, do you think the snow under our feet can really bury several corpses?"
"It's very windy and snowy this year, maybe there will be some."
"Hey, it's so miserable," Du Ge sighed and walked towards the other side, "Let's go grab the food!"
Xia Zhaoxue went east, and Du Ge led people to the southwest. The two figures gradually opened up in the sky and the earth, and thousands of people headed towards the Yongding Gate in the north shuttled between them.
At the same time, under the heavy snow, a few feet underground, Xia Zhaoyi held a small oil ball lamp on his fingertips and walked from the deep and long ancient corridor.
The corridors extend in all directions and are intricate. You can't hear the noise of wind and snow on the ground, only the depression of silence and boundless darkness.
There were many footprints on the ground in the corridor. At several intersections she passed, some footprints scattered towards other roads.
At some intersections, you can occasionally see skeletal corpses leaning on corners.
Although the clothes on several of the corpses were rotten, they were vaguely official uniforms from the previous Zhang Dynasty.
It was quiet everywhere, there was no sound, the road ahead was unknown, the road back was long, and the branch roads extended in other directions, spreading into the dark distance.
The entire secret passage was woven into a huge and scattered network, connecting Kyoto and the outer city. Xia Zhaoyi walked slowly in it, with a lamp in his hand to illuminate where he went.
…
…
The village entrance was crowded with people, another batch of food was transported away, and several subordinates came back to report the food storage data.
The person in charge of managing this aspect was Liang Jinhong, who had been working as a clerk at Huiping Pawn Shop where Yan Qinglin had been working. He wrote down everything one by one and went into the house to tell Yan Qinglin.
Yan Qinglin was sitting behind the desk, reading a letter. He didn't have much reaction when he heard the words, and said calmly: "I know."
Liang Jinhong turned around and left, and met a person walking towards him. He entered the room and said, "Madam, the people sent to Tiancheng Camp are finally back."
Yan Qinglin immediately raised his head and asked hurriedly: "What did you say?"
"It's said that they can't make the decision. This matter needs an order from the Duke of Zheng, but Zhao has been taken to Hejing by the emperor, so..."
"This is an excuse," Yan Qinglin said with raised eyebrows, "They don't want to help."
"Where is Mr. Linde?" the subordinate said, "Let Mr. Linde handle this matter. He will definitely be able to convince them. After all, Mr. Linde has some friendship with Tianchengying."
Yan Qinglin's face darkened and he said, "He won't do it. He is a traitor."
Even if Linde is willing to go, he might have another excuse when he gets to Tiancheng Camp, which is a hidden danger after all.
Thinking about the amount of grain storage that Liang Jinhong mentioned just now, Yan Qinglin raised his head and said, "Go ahead and kill Lin De. You don't need to spare Lin De's life."
The subordinates paused: "Kill?"
"Yes, kill them," Yan Qinglin said, "and those refugees should also be properly divided."
We just started feeding the refugees their first meal last night, and today I realized that it was almost not enough.
Huiping Pawnshop spent a lot of money and hoarded so much food and supplies. In the end, it couldn't even supply food for two days.
What's the use of feeding too many mouths that are free to eat.
"Okay," the subordinate nodded and said, "What about Pan Binhua?"
"This waste." Yan Qinglin said.
If Pan Binhua hadn't gone to Xia Zhaoxue and said nonsense, Xia Zhaoxue wouldn't have run away at all.
Incompetent bungler.
"Kill them together." Yan Qinglin said.
"Yes." His subordinates responded.
After he left, Yan Qinglin lowered his eyes and looked back at the letter in his hand.
His fingers smoothed out the wrinkles on the letter, and Yan Qinglin's face, which had rapidly lost weight during this period, showed anxiety.
"You have to come quickly," she said softly to the letter, "Xia Zhaoxue is unreliable, Tianchengying is unreliable, you only have me."
Linde sat on the floor under the window, looking up at the window edge on the wall. It was almost noon, the wind and snow were heavy, and the light was dazzling.
Pan Binhua squatted next to him, his eyes falling on the ground in front of him, a little dull.
Xia Zhaoxue was "detained" here before. The room was not big, but it was very empty.
The more Pan Binhua thought about it, the more annoyed he became, and he raised his hand to hold his head.
"Hey," Lin De pushed him, "What exactly did you say to the Crown Prince? Why did the Crown Prince want to run away?"
"It's about the refugees."
"anything else?"
As for those words that were halfway through, Pan Binhua didn't dare to say any more, and the room became quiet. Until he turned around and left, Xia Zhaoxue didn't speak again.
But when he followed Lin De out of the yard one after another, who would have thought that Xia Zhaoxue would suddenly fight all the way.
"I don't know what the prince is thinking," Pan Binhua said. "I have been able to control him in the past. He has been fine and peaceful in the past two years. Why is he thinking of escaping this time?"
