Mrs. Tian hugged Qi Bao'er tightly. She had a thousand words in her heart, but she couldn't say a word. Her heart, which had been hanging all the way, only calmed down at this moment.
"Milk, she's here." Qi Bao'er patted her back, hit her face, which was already purple and blue from the cold, and gave her a peck on each side.
Ouch, Mrs. Tian's heart suddenly felt as if she had eaten honey.
Old man Qi sat on the chair and watched with amusement. The joy he had just seen when he saw everyone arriving safely was now gone, leaving only sourness and more sourness.
His darling hasn't kissed him for a long, long time.
"Bao, luckily you left early. When the Acropolis left the city, King Xuan happened to be returning to the city from nowhere. The officer guarding the city gate drove us all aside and knelt down to wait for King Xuan to pass.
There was a group of people not far from us who were preparing to leave the city, and they were kneeling there and waiting. There were several children among them. After King Xuan's team passed by, a dozen soldiers rushed out and took those children away."
Although each person was given ten taels of silver, is this a matter of money?
The most important thing is that the group couldn't leave the city in the end. They needed a pass to get out of the city, but the group didn't have one.
Mrs. Tian was really grateful to Shopkeeper Zhao and they couldn't be more grateful. If Shopkeeper Zhao hadn't taught them to stuff the children into sacks to transport grain when they passed through the city gate, they would have had more children in their group.
As far as the Lao Qi family is concerned, there are seven under the age of ten. If you add the Song family and Qi Yuan's family, the number will be eleven.
They also believed in Da'er more. At first they only heard that they wanted a girl baby, and they were just planning to hide Wuyou in a sack. But Qi Kang'an said that just in case, they also hid the boy baby.
Those arrested at the city gate were all boys.
Ye Sanni was also sitting there with lingering fear, still recovering from her thoughts. After Mrs. Tian finished speaking, she was still dazed and said:
"Mom, you didn't tell me that. I was so scared that I lost my mind. When I saw those soldiers coming to check on me on the road, my heart was beating fast."
After leaving the city gate, they waited until the Acropolis was no longer in sight before they dared to release the baby from the sack. They could not keep the baby in the sack for two days, as the children would have to freeze in the sack.
Unexpectedly, soldiers came up to check when we were halfway there. Fortunately, the waiter knew where the soldiers would appear and warned him in advance.
Later, halfway through the journey, they didn't dare to let the children out again. They kept them stuffed in sacks and didn't allow them to move around, for fear that another group of soldiers would suddenly appear.
Along the way, I didn't remember being tired at all, nor did I remember feeling sorry for those who had lost most of their belongings in order to leave the Acropolis, and just went away nervous and afraid.
Old man Qi asked: "Are the babies okay?"
The person who replied was Qi Kangfu: "It's okay, but they're half-stiffened. They bumped along the road but didn't dare to move. Several of them couldn't straighten their legs when they got out of the sack."
There was only one carriage in the inn, and shopkeeper Zhao drove away with Qi Bao'er and the others. The other children of Lao Qi's family also had no choice but to hide in sacks.
The carriages and carriages of Lao Qi's family were also abandoned. They pretended to be a grain transport team and left the city. Which grain transport team was driving a carriage?
For someone like Shopkeeper Zhao, there must be Shopkeeper Zhao on the carriage.
Daliang and Erlang followed after seeing that they were adults. Third Dang was bigger and could only bend down when hiding in the sack. He was one of the children who could not straighten his legs. He was currently in the hot water bucket in the next room.
Soak.
Shopkeeper Zhao seemed to have precognitive skills and had already asked the inn to prepare enough hot water. Now that everyone was settling in, hot water was already waiting in each room.
Old man Qi: "It's good if you can come here safely. Don't crowd in here. Let's go back to the house to warm up. If you have anything to do, we'll talk about it tonight. We have to stay here for one night anyway."
It's true that the family finally reunited and just hurriedly squeezed in. Now they felt at ease, and they could talk about anything later.
Mrs. Tian reluctantly let go of Qi Bao'er and called the women to go to the opposite room. They were all women. It was okay to squeeze in a bunch of people to wash. They had been here all the way and had long forgotten to be ashamed.
For men, it's even easier. To wash, just wrap a cloth around the tub and rub it with hot water.
There is no need to change clothes. Most people only wear one set of cotton-padded clothes. If they get wet, they take them off to dry and continue wearing them.
Qi Kang'an was nowhere to be seen until everyone in Lao Qi's family was sitting in Qi Bao'er's room and starting to eat, then he appeared dressed in snow-white.
Ye Sanni quickly got up and took a broom to sweep away the snow on his clothes, and asked in a low voice: "Why don't you sweep it up from downstairs? It's warm in the inn, and you've melted a lot along the way. Look, your clothes are all wet."
A lot."
It is not easy to dry such thick cotton clothes.
Qi Kang'an grinned and didn't explain much. He hadn't seen his daughter in the past two days.
"Dad, sit here." Da Lang got up and gave up his seat, standing at the table to eat by himself.
Qi Kang'an was not polite and strode over to sit down. He took the rice that Mrs. Tian gave him and took a bite. Then he used chopsticks to pick up the meat and chew it together.
After swallowing, he said: "Dad, it turns out that shopkeeper Zhao and the others are going to help King Xuan transport food. I thought why he wanted to leave separately."
He didn't quite understand at first. It was just a matter of front and back, but Shopkeeper Zhao wanted to separate from them?
Everyone wondered if Shopkeeper Zhao had some agenda.
Only after the waiter talked to him just now did he realize that the shopkeeper Zhao was transporting his own things from the inn, while what they were transporting was King Xuan's grain and other military supplies.
The reason why Shopkeeper Zhao and others entered and exited the city gate so easily, and that both the government officials and soldiers recognized them, was because of their "love" for the soldiers and their "loyalty" to King Xuan.
Since the beginning of the war, Yuande Inn has been volunteering to help the government transport food to various passes. Occasionally, I will donate some money.
It has been two months, and they will transport food every five or six days, but not all the gatekeepers recognize them.
Old man Qi asked: "Did you go to hand over with them just now?"
"Well, not counting the handover, the food, cotton-padded clothes and quilts were all placed in the backyard of the inn, Huzi,,,oh, we were the waiter who ran close to the Acropolis. He took me to stamp the customs clearance documents.
.
When we leave tomorrow morning, the county will arrange for a team of people to follow us. Huzi asked me to show my face and act as the deputy team leader, so as to avoid those people on the road making things difficult for us."
Huzi was the leader of this transportation, and half of the transportation personnel were from the inn, and the other half were refugees like them.
Old man Qi's face changed slightly, "Will there be people here to follow us?"
"Yes, we have sent a team of people to follow. When we reach Pingyang Pass, the people following us will stop and turn around. Pingyang Pass will arrange for people to follow the road behind.
With this handover, there will be people following us all the way until we deliver the food to the pass."
No way, they wouldn't be able to get out of the Acropolis if they didn't do this.
You can only hold on and take risks.
"Then if we disappear when we arrive, will Shopkeeper Zhao and the others...?" I can't help them, only to suffer disaster myself.
Qi Kang'an took a sip of the soup and said, "I asked shopkeeper Zhao about this, and he said it's okay. The eldest son has arrangements. He will put on a show and let us all die."