"This is an official road, the main road that connects Qingshui County and the county town. We encountered more than a dozen waves of living corpses along the way!"
"This road is logically one of the main roads in Qingshui County. How could these refugees be allowed to turn into living corpses?
Doesn’t the Yamen even care about it?”
"Over the years, the imperial government's decrees have become increasingly difficult to implement, the government soldiers are left and right, and the county regiment training has become a cornucopia of empty pay for the gentlemen.
There has been a rebellion in Beiwan Province, and the situation has been unstable in the past two years. Excessive taxes and miscellaneous taxes are even worse than what we collect. Bandits are like crickets. It is said that there were floods this year, and many refugees came to us.
As the weather turns colder, there are more refugees dying of hunger and cold on the roadside, and the county government officials are not doing anything, so there will naturally be more living corpses.
It doesn't matter if living corpses appear in small numbers. If there are too many, there will probably be another big outbreak like in previous years!
I don’t know how many people will die by then!”
When we were approaching Qingcheng Town, we passed by Xiaowang Village.
Liu Qiang laughed along with him and said to the officer who was driving them away.
"If we wait two hours, maybe the whole market will be gone. What else will we be selling?"
"Isolate everyone for two hours, and then enter the city after two hours!"
It is almost impossible for living zombies to conquer such a city from the outside.
There is also a row of small wooden houses outside the city gate, but those are for wealthy families with some status and money. Liujia Village has no money, so naturally there is no treatment to enter the house. They can only stand in the cold wind with their hands out one by one.
Caught in the cold.
Moreover, Qingshui County is a large county, and Qingcheng Town, as an old county seat, is not small in terms of city size or population compared to some other county towns."
Ren Pingsheng had some impressions of this white-faced man. He had met him at a tea stall before and listened to his speech. He was very coherent and insightful.
"Brother is a businessman?"
Ren Pingsheng stared intently at the flames jumping in the furnace. He opened the lid of the boiling kettle, and the boiling water that made a "hissing" sound flowed out and sprinkled on the stove, making a "hissing" sound.
In the quarantine area, in addition to the people from Liujia Village, there were many others, and all of them looked bitter and whispered.
His attention was not on the stove, but on drinking tea and listening to the conversation of these people.
There were officers holding whips, driving these people to line up, and at the front of the line, there were more than a dozen officers holding iron pots cooking vegetable leaf porridge with clear soup and little water.
The clothes of the other group of people were mixed, but they were much better than the people in the village. There were also a few people with swords in the team, like some merchants.
Liu Shu and Ren Pingsheng introduced the city in front of them.
Such a city wall can give people a strong sense of security just by looking at it.
"Government orders are difficult to pass, there are not enough soldiers in the government, regiment training is empty, taxes are levied excessively, rebellions are everywhere, the poison of the living corpse is spreading more and more, and the government offices are still running inefficiently. No matter how you look at it, the world is not peaceful, and this dynasty is also in a troubled period."
Xiaowang Village is not far from the official road, so we set up a tea shed on the roadside outside the village and opened this tea shop.
After the officer finished speaking, he returned to the doorway on the east side of the city gate with his sword in hand to hide from the cold wind.
At a rough glance, there should be hundreds of people.
"The outbreak of living corpse poison is obviously only for an hour at most, but the county government ordered the quarantine for two hours. What the hell is this?
Isn’t this one size fits all?”
Everyone in the team was as anxious as ants on a hot pot.
After bidding farewell to Xiaowangzhuang and walking for less than half an hour, the outline of Qingcheng Town was already visible in the distance.
Liu Qiang raised his head and looked at the sun in the sky. The sky was bright and clear. The sun was shining on his body, but he could not feel any heat.
Different from the adobe city wall of Liujiacun, Qingcheng Town is not only large, but its base is made of stone strips quarried in the mountains, and its outer wall is made of serious fired green bricks.
Looking at these refugees, a white-faced man wearing a crew-neck shirt sighed with emotion.
"Master, didn't you get into the city in one hour in the past? Why does it take two hours today? If we isolate ourselves for two hours, it will be dark when we leave the city..."
It is said that the inside is still adobe, but it is also mixed with glutinous rice, lime, etc., and is compacted layer by layer. This brick-and-skin city wall is 12 meters high, and it looks quite impressive from a distance.
When he walked outside the city, Ren Pingsheng found some refugees gathered outside the east gate of the city.
"Forget it, it's useless to talk too much. It's better not to say anything. Be careful of misfortune coming from your mouth."
For example, Wang Qiqi in the motorcade, her natal family is from Xiaowang Village.
A group of people were dressed in black attire, each of them looked like they were strong and powerful, and each of them held a sword in his hand. Both his posture and aura were completely different from those of the talented villagers in the village.
Although it is now Qingcheng Town, the city walls are still preserved.
The officers roughly drove Liu Qiang and the others to the open space on the east gate of the city.
There was a sigh in the team.
Ren Pingsheng couldn't help but think: "The more turbulent the current situation becomes, the less obvious the rules will be, and the more ordinary people will have to endure the oppression of those powerful men. If I want to gain a foothold in this world, I must withstand this darkness."
The test of the jungle will do."
"Oh, I really can't live this day!"
"Have you seen us in the past? Damn it, it wasn't those refugees who kept us from having tea at the county office and were driven here to Qingcheng Town!
Don’t think I’m making things difficult for you. This is the grand master’s order. Either you stay here for two hours or turn around and go back.”
Because it is close to the main road, when a group of people from Liujiacun came here, there were two distinct groups of people in the tea shop.
Listening to their conversation and knowledge, they are much better than Village Chief Liu.
Occasionally, when a refugee fell down, the officers would go forward to check their breathing, and some would be carried to the side to rest and feed porridge, while some would simply cut off their heads with a knife and carry them to a pile of firewood in the distance.
"Qingcheng Town was originally the old county seat of Qingshui County. Later, due to floods during the rainy season, Qingcheng Town was prone to flooding due to its low terrain, so the county seat was moved to the current Qingshui County seat.
"What should we do if we go back at night and encounter a living corpse on the road and we can't even see it? How about we go back?"
Ren Pingsheng did not participate in the emotional discussion of these people. He walked to the edge of the quarantine area and looked at the refugees in the distance who were walking numbly like living corpses.
"There used to be people living outside the city. Since the outbreak of zombies seven years ago, no one has lived outside the city. Our family used to live outside the east city gate. At that time, there was a moat outside."
He gritted his teeth and said, "Hold on, if you don't sell this leather, where will you collect the money when the taxman comes to collect taxes later in the month?
If we don’t raise enough money, how many people will we have to do hard labor?”
"The business is not big, I just wander around various towns in Qingshui County, I don't dare to go outside, there are soldiers, bandits, and living corpses.
The motorcade passed by here and naturally stopped here.
"Brother Qiangzi, what should we do?"
"Damn it! These grandsons!"
Lao Liu couldn't help but curse in a low voice.
After receiving the gruel over there, the refugees were immediately driven away by officers with whips and driven away from the east city gate, allowing them to continue on their way to seek their own livelihood.
This Xiaowang Village is much larger than Liujia Village, with a population of more than 500. Because it is close to Liujia Village, the relationship between the two villages is also good, and many families are related by marriage.
Outside the east city gate, a policeman blocked the way of Ren Pingsheng and his party.
I am Lu Junyi, a native of Qingcheng."
The white-faced man seemed quite talkative, and he raised his hand towards Ren Pingsheng and said.
"Ren Pingsheng, from Liujia Village."
Ren Pingsheng bowed his hand.
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