"So, did General Li really leave a list? Why have I never heard anyone talk about it?" Qingzhu frowned as he looked at Gongsun Zhi's leaving back and thought about his red eyes just now.
, looked at Li Danqing with some confusion.
At this time, Li Danqing shrugged his shoulders and said: "The old man has such a carefree temperament. If he really had such leisure, he would have eaten meat and drank alcohol long ago. How could he still have the thought to draw up a list?"
"So, you lied to General Gongsun?" Xia Xianyin on the side looked unhappy when he heard this.
With her upright temperament, she obviously could not accept Li Danqing's method of deceiving her.
Li Shizi seemed to have seen through her thoughts, and said at that time: "Gongsun Zhi is a pretty good person, capable, and has a practical heart, but he lacks a little courage. Don't give him a hard blow."
He can't do anything with the medicine."
"I have too few people available now, so I really have to use some means..."
Qingzhu had no objection to this. Xia Xianyin frowned slightly, thought for a while, and nodded.
…
In the blink of an eye, another ten days passed.
The number of refugees outside Wuyang City is increasing, exceeding one million.
But even though the number of refugees outside Wuyang City has increased several times compared to ten days ago, the amount of rice grains provided by the imperial court for disaster relief after opening the granary every day has not increased. The amount of rice grains provided before was not much, and was only enough.
More than 200,000 refugees barely had enough to eat. But now the 600,000 refugees still have the same rice grains as before. All day long, the refugees receive barely a few grains of rice in the porridge they receive, but only a little bit of it.
Just mushy rice soup.
Under such circumstances, large numbers of refugees began to starve to death.
In such a chaotic moment, the bodies of the refugees were ignored, so the plague began to spread, and the situation among the refugees became worse and worse.
Chai Hongyun is one of these millions of refugees.
He was originally the deacon of a martial arts hall in Wangshan County. He had some cultivation, but he was not very powerful. He relied on the deacon's support in the small martial arts hall and lived a fairly comfortable life.
His wife is gentle and virtuous, and his children are smart and sensible.
I thought my life could go on peacefully like this, but I didn't expect that the Liao people suddenly arrived. First, Longwuguan was broken, and all 400,000 White Wolf troops died in battle. When the news reached Wangshan County, everyone was shocked.
I panicked.
The county governor panicked and stopped the 40,000 to 50,000 defenders, but under the offensive of the Liao army, they retreated steadily. After only resisting for half a day, they died in the battle and fled.
Chai Hongyun packed up his belongings with his wife and children, and started his journey of exile among the refugees. However, the Liao people did not intend to let them go. A large number of Liao troops followed them all the way on horseback, and the ranks of the refugees were overwhelmed.
In Baluo, Chai Hongyun's son was also separated from his family in a chaotic battle. Chai Hongyun asked his wife to take their daughter away first, and turned back to look for him. Among the panicked crowd, Chai Hongyun just saw his son and was about to step forward.
The human cavalry suddenly rushed out, just a few feet away from his son. Chai Hongyun watched helplessly as his son died under the Liao cavalry.
That moment.
Chai Hongyun's eyes were completely red.
He could hardly restrain his urge to rush forward, hack the Liao man to death, and avenge his son.
He was a warrior and had some cultivation. On the way to escape, people were worried about whether someone might do something to make money or kill someone if they were not safe. Therefore, Chai Hongyun was cautious and carried his own knife with him.
His hand had already grasped the handle of his knife at that time, and he was about to step forward.
But at this juncture, he suddenly stopped.
At that time.
The surrounding Liao people's cavalry kept fighting out, and countless refugees were wailing under the Liao people's cavalry. However, the Liao people didn't care about the people's begging for mercy. They slaughtered wantonly, as if they were enjoying this hell on earth.
Chai Hongyun, who still felt the pain of losing his son, began to be afraid.
But it's not because of the Liao people's spears and halberds...
He realized that the Liao people would continue to hunt down the refugees, and they were still thousands of miles away from Wuyang City. If he stepped forward now, he might have a slight chance to avenge his son, but the result was predictable.
of.
He will die under the sword of the Liao people.
If this happens……
What fate will his wife and daughter suffer?
He didn't dare to think about it, and he didn't want to think about it.
He forced himself to calm down at this moment.
Suppressing the anger and sadness in my heart.
He also put down his dignity as a father.
He returned to his wife and daughter in dejection. When asked by his wife and daughter, he just said that he could not find his son, but he did not dare to tell his wife and daughter that his son died in front of him.
In this way, they hid in Tibet all the way, facing precarious situations, and finally arrived at Wuyang City.
I thought that after arriving at the feet of the Emperor, life would finally settle down.
But he didn't expect to go to Wuyang City, but he couldn't enter the city. He had to be settled outside the city and lived by giving out porridge every day.
Everyone was asking when the imperial court would send troops, when it would regain lost territory, and when it would avenge them, the displaced refugees.
But Chai Hongyun did not wait for this answer. What was waiting was more and more refugees outside Wuyang City.
The quantity of rice for disaster relief was scarce at the beginning, but it was barely enough to satisfy the hunger. Later, it became less and less. If you want to get the rice, you have to fight for it.
Chai Hongyun, who has some level of cultivation, can still handle it. After all, he is ordinary.
After all, the farmers are no match for him.
Of course he also knew that if he robbed other people's food, others would starve, but his wife and daughter at home were crying for food, so how could he care about others.
But later, my wife fell ill.
Unable to enter the city and unable to see a doctor, he had to rely on his wife to support him.
He thought that if he gave his wife more food, her health would be better and she would be fine.
So, he gave most of his meal to his wife.
But as he ate less, he lost strength, the number of refugees increased, and the competition became more intense.
It was as if he was trapped in a vicious cycle. As his wife's health became worse and worse, he gave more to her, while he ate less and less and could grab less and less rice.
Three nights ago, his wife passed away. She said she was tired and wanted to sleep for a while, but then she never woke up again.
Just when she was dying, she held his hand and kept saying that she wanted to take good care of her daughter and find their son.
Chai Hongyun burst into tears, but just nodded repeatedly.
It took him a lot of effort to free himself from the death of his wife and children.
He had no time to grieve, no time to feel sad, he just settled his daughter and then thought of ways to get food.
These days, in order to help his wife recover from her illness, he and his daughter have allocated a lot of food rations to his wife. Now that his daughter is so hungry that she is emaciated and sallow, Chai Hongyun is worried that if this continues, his daughter will not be able to survive.
He couldn't accept losing his daughter again, so for the past three days, he came to the porridge soup place early in the morning and dragged his tired body to grab portions of pitifully thin porridge for his daughter.
He picked out all the rice grains in the gruel and gave it to his daughter to eat. He just drank some rice soup and found some leaves to eat...
Today, Chai Hongyun also arrived at the city gate very early.
Waiting for the city gate to open, officials are serving porridge.
Today, he was lucky and got two bowls of rice porridge.
He walked quickly and cautiously along the way, trying to avoid the crowds of refugees as much as possible. After all, under the current situation, many of the millions of refugees were hungry. In ordinary times, no one would even care about two bowls of gruel.
Something that is very likely to cost people their lives at this moment.
But the goal is too obvious, or in other words, there are just too many homeless people on the road.
Chai Hongyun was eventually targeted.
A dozen refugees gathered around him, staring at him like wolves.
Of course Chai Hongyun thought about saying something, such as telling them his own experience and telling them about the fact that he still had a daughter waiting to be fed, in order to gain sympathy.
Such an idea only existed in his mind for a moment before he rejected it.
There is no other reason.
Just because he saw clearly the eyes of those victims at that time.
That scarlet gaze, that numb face.
There is no trace of being human.
Hunger has driven everyone here, every plant and tree, into madness.
Chai Hongyun struggled with them for a while, but was finally defeated with his fists and four legs. In addition, more and more refugees came around after hearing the news. Chai Hongyun was afraid that he would have nothing to gain today, so he had no choice but to kill him.
One of the bowls of rice porridge was thrown out.
The rice soup was scattered all over the ground, and the group of refugees, like evil wolves, spread out on the ground with dirt and licked up the rice soup on the ground.
Chai Hongyun took this opportunity and dragged his injured body back outside the hay shed where his daughter was settled.
Although one bowl of rice porridge was lost, another bowl was saved. This can be regarded as the most sumptuous meal in the past seven or eight days.
"Nanny! Look what daddy has brought back for you!" Before approaching the hayloft, Chai Hongyun said loudly to his daughter in the hayloft.
In the past, at this time, my daughter would have to jump out to greet me...
But today, he called three times in a row, but there was no movement in the hay shed.
Chai Hongyun panicked and felt something was not good. He hurriedly walked towards the hayloft and saw his daughter lying in the hayloft.
He didn't have time to think about it and hurried forward, calling his daughter's name loudly.
After a while, the daughter weakly opened her eyes, looked at Chai Hongyun, and said weakly: "Dad...I'm cold..."
Chai Hongyun came to his senses and reached out to touch his daughter's forehead. Her forehead was hot. He looked at the back of his daughter's hand again and saw that it was covered with red dots...
this……
This is exactly the same symptom as his wife's previous symptoms...
…
Chai Hongyun endured the cold water and fed his daughter the meal.
But my daughter's appetite was very poor. She only drank half of the bowl of rice porridge and fell asleep again.
Chai Hongyun settled his daughter and came outside the hut alone. At this moment, his mind was in a mess.
He thought of the tragic death of his son under the iron cavalry of the Liao people, and recalled the words of his wife who held his hand before she died.
Like so many fathers and husbands, he once made the same promise to his wife and children - I will protect you. As long as I am here, you have nothing to fear.
But now, those promises still ring in his ears, but the people he once swore to protect to the death are leaving one after another.
He gave up so much and compromised so much, just to protect himself.
Later reliance.
But it seems that God is not willing to give him even this little mercy.
He knew that his daughter would not live long, she would not be able to enter Wuyang City, she would not be able to see a doctor, and if she kept dragging her away, she would end up with the same fate as his wife.
He reached out and picked up the bowl of rice porridge left by his daughter. His hungry stomach told him that he should drink it so that he would have the strength to grab the rice porridge tomorrow, but his mouth tasted like wax and sweet rice porridge.
It even made him sick to his stomach when it reached his mouth...
yes……
Everyone has left him, what's the point of living anymore?
He put the rice porridge he had brought to his mouth down again.
"Brother... do you still want your porridge?" At this moment, a timid voice suddenly came from the side.
This pulled Chai Hongyun out of his thoughts. He raised his head and looked in the direction of the sound. Unexpectedly, several figures were already standing in front of him.
Either male or female, old or young.
But without exception, they all have dull faces and thin bodies.
This is the edge of the refugee resettlement area. Most of the people living here are old people, women and children, or people with families like Chai Hongyun.
Compared to Chai Hongyun, who was more or less skilled in martial arts, these people were not so lucky. After the number of refugees increased, they often could not get a mouthful of rice porridge for several days, and could only eat bark and roots.
At this moment, they looked at the rice porridge in Chai Hongyun's hand with eyes full of salivation. However, due to Chai Hongyun's strong body, they did not dare to take the risk and could only look at him pitifully.
Chai Hongyun, who was in low spirits, was already determined to die. He smiled bitterly and handed over the rice porridge in his hand.
The group of people who took over the bowl seemed to have changed their appearance at that time. A group of people lay on the ground like wild dogs grabbing the rice porridge in the bowl. During the whole process, they inevitably fought and cursed each other.
Chai Hongyun looked at the situation in front of him and found it ridiculous and funny.
There's no way these people look remotely human.
He thought like this, but felt that he didn't seem to have the position to say this to them. After all, he had fought with people over some rice porridge at the porridge soup place...
But why on earth would it become like this!?
He was originally a teacher in a martial arts school, with a good income, a beautiful wife, smart children, and everything ordinary but beautiful...
But why did it suddenly become like this...
He asked himself in his heart, how he wished this was just a real nightmare, and when he woke up, everything would be the same as before.
But the reality did not give him any room for reverie, and at this moment, bursts of soft music suddenly came to his ears.
He turned his head in confusion and looked in the direction from which the sound came.
That's Wuyang City.
In the towering city gate, there was still singing and dancing, and people were still drunk and dreaming. Even late at night, he could occasionally hear singing in the restaurants in the city.
Separated by a wall, it seems like two worlds!
But……
Why is this!
Why can't I have enough to eat here, my wife and children died tragically one by one, and the dignitaries in Wuyang City can still sing and dance!
Where are their cavalry?
Where is their army?
Where is their sacred mountain warrior?
What have they done for us? Why should we stay here to die?
All doubts came to Chai Hongyun's mind at this moment.
He couldn't think of an answer.
And not being able to think of an answer means that it's unfair.
As a result, this resentment turned into anger.
He suddenly stood up and walked to the group of refugees who were grabbing food from bowls with their heads down.
He reached out and grabbed a refugee's sleeve, lifted it up heavily, and then kicked away the porcelain bowl filled with rice porridge.
"If this continues! We will all die!"
"Look at how many people have died of hunger and disease these days!"
"But who has ever taken care of us or questioned us?"
"They can feast, sing and dance peacefully behind this high wall, why should we beat them to death over a bowl of gruel here!"
"Today what we can eat is rice soup, tomorrow it will be rice bran, and later on, maybe just a bowl of water will kill me!"
The refugees froze on the spot, staring blankly at Chai Hongyun who suddenly rose up, with confused expressions.
"We have to enter the city! There is plenty of rice and meat in the city! Only then can we survive!"
"You are going to starve to death here like hungry dogs, fighting for a bowl of porridge and rice without a few grains of rice, so stay here, want to eat meat, want to live well, come with me, we
Let’s break down the city gate together!”
"Enter the city! Be a human being!" Chai Hongyun roared loudly.
Maybe it's because I feel the same way, or maybe it's the anger bred in despair that has been pent-up for a long time.
Or maybe it's just because you want to fill your stomach.
After a brief period of confusion, someone in the crowd suddenly stood up, raised his hand, and shouted loudly: "Enter the city!"
So more people stood up and shouted: "Enter the city! Enter the city!"
The refugees, who had exceeded one million, were finally angry. They finally gathered together and decided to let the big shots in Wuyang City see if they, the ants, could survive enough to break open the gate of Wuyang City!