I never heard that Qingzhou also suffered from severe drought and locust plague!
Everyone sat paralyzed under the boundary stone, unable to raise their spirits for a while.
Guan Shan was also a little confused. This was indeed Qingzhou. Walking a little further, it was Baoting Town under the jurisdiction of Qingping County, Huayang Prefecture. He had only been there last year and stayed at the big inn in Baoting Town.
Pass.
The harvest in Yunzhou Prefecture was not good last year, but Huayang Prefecture was not affected. When he came last year, the trees here were green and the scenery was picturesque. It was definitely not what he saw.
I thought that after leaving Yunzhou and entering Qingzhou, they would be able to eat and drink, but they were not the first, and they could only eat and drink what others were eating when they came here. But as long as there is a good person, it is a bite to eat, which can sustain them to continue.
Go forward.
But the current situation is that there is no need to dig. It is still dry here. Without looking at the shadows of wild vegetables or even the roots of wild vegetables, the trees are all bare.
This is really disappointing.
I ran away from home and walked hundreds of miles. It’s been almost a month and I’m still not done yet.
"What should we do now?"
"Keep going forward? I'm hungry and have no energy left."
"What the hell is going on!"
"..."
Behind the boundary stone lay a motionless old woman. Her eyes were still rolling, proving that she was still alive. When she saw so many refugees coming in this group, and they all looked so surprised and desperate, she felt like she had seen something.
Her two days ago.
After finally arriving in Qingzhou, my wife is gone, my son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter are gone.
There was no way to survive. She would die soon and rot in the soil beneath her.
"If you can still walk, keep going forward." She said weakly.
Xu Dajun, who was close, heard what she was saying first. He knelt down and got a little closer. He heard the almost imperceptible voice in her mouth, intermittently, "Huayang Mansion... also, disaster...
..You still have to walk to have a way to survive..."
He wanted to listen more and ask more questions, but the old woman had already closed her eyes and was dead.
Xu Dajun then stepped back and said: "She said that Huayang Mansion has also suffered a disaster, and we have to keep moving forward."
Huayang Mansion is right next to Yiyang Mansion. How is Yiyang Mansion? Old man Xu is not sure whether he can still join his younger sister.
Everyone's mentality was a bit broken. They were so hungry that they couldn't hold on anymore. They couldn't hold the steamed buns that they had licked many times in their arms anymore, so they might as well take them out and eat them.
Old Xu's family can still get half a cornbread.
Eat, eat, sleep, and wait until daybreak to talk about it.
When the sky gradually dawned and everyone was still lying down, Xu Chunshan came close to Xu Yinyin and said in a voice so low that only Xu Yinyin could hear: "Give me some glucose."
He added some strength so he could see what was ahead.
No one will notice him now.
There was a tacit understanding between father and daughter. Xu Yinyin knew what he wanted to do without any explanation. With a thought, she grabbed the bottle of glucose in her hand.
Xu Chunshan quickly took it, used the boundary stone to block it, unscrewed the cap and took a quick sip, then stuffed it back to Xu Yinyin.
When Xu Yinyin picked it up, she was quickly sent back to the space.
After drinking the water, Xu Chunshan took a deep breath, lowered his consciousness, and cast his eyes forward in the dawn.
There is a village ahead. I looked around and saw no one living there. It was like a village of the dead, lifeless.
There is a town about ten miles away. Looking at the shops on the streets, it is a big town. It should have been very prosperous.
The reason why I say originally is because the town is showing signs of depression at the moment, and the lanterns hanging at the entrances of many shops are either broken or have fallen to the ground.
This town has been abandoned and is just an empty town.
Keep going...
No, he was about to lose his strength. Xu Chunshan quickly withdrew his gaze and sighed quietly.
Seeing his wife and daughter-in-law looking at him, he shook his head and said that the situation was not good.
After a while, old man Xu sat up, and several old men gathered together again.
After thinking about it all night, I still have to move forward, otherwise it won't be a problem.
Then let's go.
A group of people suppressed their uncertainty and continued to move forward.
When we arrived at Baoting Town, it was already broad daylight, and not a single pedestrian was seen in the town. Every household had its doors closed, and it was not known if anyone was there.
Seeing that the once prosperous town had become like this, Guan Shan felt a little unable to recover.
What he originally thought was that when he arrived in Baoting Town, the shopkeeper of Dayou Warehouse was familiar with his father, and if he came to visit him with a shy face, he could still get a meal and drink.
But the door of Dayou Warehouse is broken, the tables and benches inside are a mess, and there is no one there. How can it still be as lively and crowded as it used to be?
Going further, the same thing happened to the largest inn in Baoting Town in the past. The three-story pavilion was no longer occupied.
The entire Baoting Town is said to be in depression, but it can be seen that it only happened in a short period of time, no more than two months.
We passed many deserted villages along the way, and finally arrived at the town of Qingzhou. It was hard for everyone to believe that there was no one in such a big town, and there was no food or drink to be found.
But the fact is that there is none. All the wells seen in the town are dry, and the kitchens of restaurants and inns are all empty. There is nothing.
The various shops selling food seemed to have been looted, and were empty only of decorations.
After confirming that the town was really empty, a group of people could only continue to move forward with difficulty.
We passed two small towns in succession, and the conditions were similar. The people we met were all refugees in the same ragged clothes as them.
Moreover, the weather seemed to be getting colder, the sun above our heads was gone, the sky was gray, and the clothes they were wearing were not strong enough. Those who had cotton-padded clothes with them quickly put them on.
As soon as I put on the cotton-padded clothes, half of the household items on the trolley were empty, making it easier to push.
In the evening, I happened to come across a ruined temple, so I rested in it. If I slept in the open air in this weather, I would freeze to death if I didn't starve to death or die of thirst.
After walking hard for three days, we arrived outside Huayang Fucheng.
From a distance, we could see some refugees nesting under the city tower, but in broad daylight, the city gate was not opened and was tightly closed.
Old man Xu looked around and asked a refugee of about the same age what the situation was like here.
The old man put his hands on his elbows and huddled up in the cold without raising his head. "Don't think about it, this city won't let refugees in."
"Then why are you guys still sitting here? Why don't you go forward?" Old Man Xu was curious.
The old man then raised his head and glanced at Old Man Xu, and then at the large group of people behind him, and said: "I'm too hungry to walk. What if I'm waiting for someone from the city to come out to give porridge? Today is the day.
Double Ninth Festival."
Wait?
But today is the Double Ninth Festival? Old man Xu was in a trance for a moment.
It has been a full month since they left Dawang Village.
Old man Xu raised his head and looked at the tower, but saw nothing.
I thought they all needed to take a break, so I just had to wait.
Therefore, a group of people also found a place to stay.
After waiting until mid-afternoon, the city gate really opened.
When they found that the city gate was open, the refugees who were nesting in front stood up one after another.
Old Man Xu and the others were behind, stretching their necks to look at the city gate.
I saw a group of soldiers rushing out first, standing in two lines, holding white spears in their hands, so that the refugees did not dare to approach.
Then, someone pushed two cars out slowly from the city gate.
There was a big bucket tied to one car, and there were big dustpans on the other car, and the dustpans were filled with big white steamed buns.
food!
The refugees' eyes lit up and they subconsciously moved up.
"Is there really a porridge provider?!"
Old Man Zhou's loud voice made him want to jump up. The crowd couldn't care less and quickly pushed forward.