Despite Secretary Xie's repeated persuasion, Du Fu finally embarked on his journey north after recording the disaster situation in Fangzhou in Kan.
After leaving Fangzhou, he went north through Danzhou and Yanzhou. Along the way, Du Fu finally understood Mr. Xie's parting words.
Compared with Fangzhou, the northern part of Guanzhong Road can only be described as miserable.
No matter when and where, Du Fu stood at the end of the road and looked towards the end of the road. He could always see countless new graves all over the mountains and fields in the countryside.
Even if some people are still alive, a family of several people will first feed on bark grass roots. After eating the bark grass roots, they will boil the soil and water to drink. Occasionally, they will have a bite to eat, and they will be given to the young members of the family first. The reason is just that
Just so that the young and strong can have the strength to bury those old and young in the family properly before they starve to death.
Looking at it all the way, it’s true:
Thousands of graves are buried along the ten miles road,
The whole family cried twice or three times.
The shape of the bones in the dog's mouth is about to decay,
The crow pecked the skull before its blood was dry.
…
Traveling to the junction of Guanzhong Road and Hedong Road, Du Fu encountered a group of thugs on the way. After discovering the former's official status, the latter wanted to kill him and seize his property.
Du Fu ran wildly and hid in a mud pond, and finally escaped the mob's pursuit.
After that, Du Fu packed up his official uniform and hid it, smeared his face with mud, and pretended to be a refugee fleeing the famine, and then he entered Hedong Road without any danger.
On this day, Du Fu was traveling in a hurry. Unexpectedly, he got lost along the way and lost his direction. He could only look around for a place to stay.
Seeing the sun setting in the west, Du Fu found a village market at the foot of the mountain, so he took a trail and planned to go down the mountain to stay.
Halfway up the mountain, he pushed aside the bushes and suddenly found a young man of twelve or thirteen years old, covering the earth with a catalpa tree.
Hearing the movement behind him, the young man turned around alertly. When he saw the person coming, he raised the wooden catalpa at Du Fu without hesitation.
The latter was so frightened that he shouted: "He is just a traveler passing by!"
The young man looked at Du Fu carefully and saw that he did not look like a local, so he put down the utensils in his hands.
Du Fu breathed a sigh of relief. Seeing that the young man was as skinny as a stick, with only a pair of big and lively eyes, he asked, "The sun will set soon. It's dangerous outside. You should go home quickly."
When the young man heard this, he was stunned on the spot. After a long while, he said quietly: "Where is the home?"
Du Fu looked behind Xiao Lang and saw that there were several mounds of earth covered with new soil, which must have been new graves. He sighed and said, "The deceased has passed away. My condolences, little friend."
The young man looked back at the mound and whispered: "Where does sorrow come from? Buried in it are Aye, Aniang and my little sister. Compared with when they were alive, they will never be hungry again."
Hearing this, Du Fu had mixed feelings, so he could only change the topic, and raised his hands to the young man and asked: "Someone is coming from Guanzhong and is going to Daning. Do you know the direction?"
The young man said: "If you want to go to Daning, you are going in the wrong direction. Also, my name is Zhang Yanling, please don't call me little friend again."
Seeing Du Fu nodding in agreement, Zhang Yanling said: "Now I am the only one left in the family. I plan to go east to find Yinglong. I am traveling with you and I will give you a ride."
Seeing that Zhang Yanling was still young but spoke maturely, Du Fu felt it was a little funny at first, and then suddenly found that the word Yinglong was familiar, so he asked: "What does "Xun Yinglong" mean?"
Zhang Yanling: "You don't know Yinglong? The world was shattered, Yinglong entered the world, opened up the three realms, and preached for nine days. Even a three-year-old child can memorize these words."
Du Fu: "When I was in Guanzhong, I heard about Yinglong's theory, but I didn't understand it deeply."
Speaking of Yinglong, Zhang Yanling seemed to have opened up a chatterbox: "Whenever a natural disaster strikes, Yinglong will warn ordinary people in advance... However, the world is vulgar and often laughs off the warning words."
Du Fu: "Did Yinglong also predict the great disaster that affected Guanzhong, Hedong, Henan, and Hebei?"
Zhang Yanling: "Of course. A few years ago, someone saw Yinglong's Book in the county town and took it back and read it to the villagers, but no one believed it at the time. The result really came later.
A disaster will make everyone regret it."
Du Fu: "Then you just said, where should we look for Yinglong?"
Zhang Yanling: "Yinglong believers form their own groups. Among the Yinglong groups in various places, there is a leader named Jiaotou. He organizes those who believe in Yinglong, preaches doctrines and distributes food.
Wandering between the county town and the villages. The nearest Yinglong group here should be Pushuidang, thirty miles away. Half a year ago, they passed by the village where I lived, and most of the villagers left with them.
I also wanted to leave at that time, but my parents were sick and my younger sister was disabled, making it difficult for me to walk, so I have been putting it off until now."
Du Fu: "Then what does the Yinglong Tuan's teachings expect believers to do?"
Zhang Yanling: "I heard them say that the place where Yinglong came to the world is called the Promised Land. The goal of the Yinglong Group is to bring all believers there so that they can live a life where they no longer suffer from hunger.
"
When Du Fu heard this, he just shook his head and said: "The Tang Dynasty has authentic Taoism and Buddhism. As for those sects in the mountains and wilds, they are not worthy of trust. Don't be deceived."
Zhang Yanling asked Du Fu coldly: "Before the great disaster came from heaven, Yinglong had already warned, and it was obvious to all. However, among those Taoists and Buddhas you mentioned, which one jumped out and told the world that the disaster was about to happen?"
to?"
Du Fu was speechless for a moment.
Zhang Yanling shouted: "Taoism and Buddhism always say that transformation is the result, and Buddhism is boundless. In the end, these clay statues and stone statues do not care about the life and death of the people and never say a word. They are either not talented enough to save the people, or they have bad tempers and do not care about the believers."
Life or death. What use do we need from such a god and Buddha?!"
Du Fu wanted to refute, and thought about it carefully for a while, but he didn't know where to start.
Seeing that Du Fu remained silent, Zhang Yanling said, "Why don't you follow me and go look for Yinglong."
Du Fu said helplessly: "A certain person has something important going on and I really can't spare any time."
Seeing this, Zhang Yanling didn't force anyone to make things difficult for him: "Well, I'll send you outside Daning City, and you and I will go our separate ways."
Du Fu cupped his hand and thanked him.
The two of them walked along the mountain road towards the village market.
Du Fu saw that many new graves along the way had been dug up and the corpses inside were missing, so he asked Zhang Yanling, "What's going on?"
Zhang Yanling: "The hungry people had no food, so they first ate birds and animals, then bark, grass and roots. Finally, they had no choice but to dig up graves at night and wrap their bellies with dead bodies."
Du Fu's hair stood on end when he heard this, and he quickly realized why Zhang Yanling reacted so violently when he and Zhang Yanling met for the first time.
Zhang Yanling: "Not only that, when someone dies in the family, the living people don't even dare to cry for fear of being known by their neighbors. Otherwise, hungry people will come to the house to rob the body before it is buried."
Du Fu closed his eyes and said softly: "A random person is not as good as a peace dog..."
Zhang Yanling: "Right now we are just trying to seize the corpses. If we continue to starve, we will not be far away from using the living people as food."
Du Fu let out a long sigh, feeling extremely sad in his heart. He turned around and looked at the way he came, only to realize that the mountains and rivers were bright and devastated, the buildings were about to collapse, and the wind and rain were swaying.