The road out of Yuan'an County is wider. The official road can accommodate four or five carriages in parallel, and the left and right sides of the road are still flat.
However, they are all covered by thick snow. If there were not big wooden stakes inserted a few meters apart along the official road to mark them, walking on such a white snowy road would lead to deviations.
After Qi Kang'an left the city, he rode his horse next to Yin Zai. After walking for a while, he said without taking his eyes off the snow: "Dad, there are people who left earlier than us."
He pointed to the ground in front of him. There were many horse hoof prints on the snow, as well as ruts. The snow was so heavy that the mud was wet and the dirt track under the snow was visible, indicating that there were many of them and that the road had been continuously rolled over.
Old man Qi had noticed it a long time ago, but he didn't take it seriously. There were refugees from epidemic areas outside the city, and some people in the city also ran out. This was not a strange thing.
Qi Kang'an had a different view. He whispered: "Dad, do you think it is the imperial concubine who left Yuan'an County for the Acropolis?"
Hey, don't tell me, this is really a possibility.
The father and son looked at each other, both wanting to laugh.
Why?
If it is true that the imperial concubine went to the Acropolis in advance, it would be a good thing for them.
The imperial concubine was in Yuan'an County, and Yuan'an County distributed cotton-padded clothes to the refugees.
When we get to the Acropolis, what can we do to them? At least we won’t stop them from leaving, right?
What they fear most now is that they won't be allowed to leave.
In such a cold weather, climbing over the mountain would be a fatal undertaking. Until it got to that point, they didn't want to embark on this road.
I prayed that the old man would hold his granddaughter, Fuwa, in his arms tightly again. Fortunately, Fuwa was here.
Look at them coming all the way. If they hadn't been lucky, how could they have made it this far?
Qi Kang'an also glanced at his daughter, who was snoring in his arms with her eyes closed, "Dad, we are really lucky. It's cold, and we come across cotton-padded clothes, cotton shoes and quilts. Don't worry about what they are thinking in their hearts."
What, we are getting some benefits anyway."
"No, I don't care about the things above. As long as we can sneak out of Yingzhou smoothly, when we get to Pingcheng, if we can really get on the boat and go east, we will go east. If it doesn't work, we will go south by ourselves.
I heard from Yuanwai Ye that the climate in the south is good, it is easy to grow anything, there are many fertile fields, and the yield is high. He said that if we don't go to the capital, the south will be fine."
Qi Kang'an rolled his eyes, "Dad, if we can think of something realistic and go east and south, even if everything goes smoothly, we still don't know what the situation will be like when we get to Pingcheng."
Refugees, remember the key word, they are refugees.
They have been worried about whether the Acropolis will be given to them. Did they forget that the Renping City will be given to them?
Old Man Qi glared at Daer fiercely, "You are the only one who talks too much."
How could he not want to?
But we can’t always think about bad things, we also have to think about good things, so that we can move forward with energy.
Stopping for a break at noon, Lao Qi's family crowded into two carriages and ate big pancakes.
They don't like to make flatbreads there. What they like to do is steamed buns and steamed buns. The conditions are better, and the steamed buns are stuffed with some meat, which is very fragrant.
It was Mrs. Tian who saw some refugees bringing big cakes on the road. She made them so hard that she carried a piece of cake in her arms to keep things from getting in the way. One piece could last a whole day.
So she also made a lot of big cakes this time. She didn't have much skill in making this thing. She rolled it into a round cake shape and shoved it on the wall of the stove. It was easy and didn't have much flavor.
Unlike steamed buns, the aroma of wheat spreads thousands of miles away.
As for whether it tastes good or not, who would care about whether it tastes good or not? If it can withstand hunger and keep them going, it is a good thing.
Lao Qi's family is already living a prosperous life among the refugees. They have a carriage to protect them from the wind and snow, and they have white flour pancakes to eat. They can also boil hot water in the carriage. If the pancakes are too hard, they can soak them in hot water and eat them.
Looking back, everyone in Qijia Village was shivering and grabbing the snow on the ground to make hard steamed buns.
If they have steamed buns in their team, they are all very good. Take a look at the other refugees.
Many of them had nothing to eat, so they just used their hands to dig up the snow in the snow, then dug out the soil, pulled out the withered grass, pulled out the grass roots, and stuffed whatever they found into their mouths.
"Alas." Mrs. Tian put down the car curtain.
I can't look at it, it makes me feel uncomfortable.
Old man Qi looked at Si Lang trying hard to chew the pancake with his mouth tilted. His own teeth felt pain, "Can you bite it? Come here, I will break it into a bowl for you to eat."
"Dad, you eat, I've fixed this." Qi Kangfu had already broken off the big cake and soaked it in hot water, and exchanged the bowl in his hand with the cake in Siliang's hand.
He whispered to his son: "Let's soak for a while before eating."
Siliang said softly, holding the bamboo bowl and sat down to wait.
Song Shuming and his wife were looking after him at the sixth day, so he didn't have to worry about praying for health. He didn't need to soak in hot water, and just chewed a hard pancake, making noises to prove that he had good teeth.
Qi Baoer is not special today either, her father made pancakes for her.
It's just that some meat sauce that can't be smelled or seen is added to add flavor. Even Qi Baoer himself didn't know that it was already special.
The meat sauce is made from the pork Qi Kang'an bought in Guangyuan Town. This is a craft passed down by Qi Bao'er's late grandmother.
In fact, it just adds salt and star anise.
It's just that star anise is a medicinal material here, and no one would put it in vegetables. The medicine contains star anise, and the medicine is mixed with other medicinal materials. Ordinary people generally cannot taste the simple taste of star anise.
Therefore, the old lady's craftsmanship was unique in the entire town of Peifeng.
Qi Bao'er didn't eat it, it was really too thin and the salt was not even tasted.
The road to escape can be tiring, but now not only is her mysophobia gone, but her picky eating problem has also been cured.
After the meal, everyone rested and started walking again.
That's really the word: He said that in the wind and snow, this difficulty is nothing. Wipe away your tears and don't ask, why?
Anyway, just keep moving forward.
There are mountains to the left and right, and even if they are covered with snow, there are still things you can find under the snow.
People who fled were not very particular. To put it bluntly, they lived worse than dogs. They stuffed bark, tree roots, grass roots, and even dirt into their mouths when they were extremely hungry.
The city gates they exited together were heading in the same direction, so they couldn't get rid of the refugees at all. But fortunately, no refugees were willing to get close to them. Even when they were resting, they stayed far away from them.
We have all gone through many things to reach this point. What should we do if a team like this, who were laughing and chatting with each other and holding wooden sticks on the way to escape, were going to find fault?
They walked forward with such difficulty for another two days, and at noon on the third day, they arrived outside the Acropolis.
The Acropolis is the main city. The palace of King Xuan is located in the Acropolis. The whole city is so big. Anyway, if you stand outside the city gate and look left and right, you can't see the walls at both ends.
The city wall is vast, and the open space outside the city wall also gives people the feeling of being endless.
The terrain of the Acropolis is low, and part of the official road into the Acropolis goes downwards. When he could see the Acropolis, Qi Kang'an stopped the team.
They can't go any further. They need to first figure out the specific situation of the Acropolis and whether it is friendly to the refugees they are just passing by.
The capital city of Yingzhou, where King Xuan is located, is no different from the capital city to them.