One hundred and sixteen old people need to return home
The sergeant guarding the city opened the city gate, collected the road guides of each cart one by one, and lifted the curtains as usual to see if there were any portraits of dangerous characters posted beside the city gate, or salt and iron that were strictly prohibited from being smuggled. The former
It's just a matter of convenience. After all, the key criminals who are willing to let the iron roosters in the government spend a thousand dollars to arrest them, how can these green-skinned scoundrels be able to please? It is important to look for salt and iron to see if there is a strict search order.
The most important thing is that if you find one, you can get a reward of five silver coins, which is almost the same as the monthly salary of a soldier.
As for the more expensive leather goods, gold, jade and jewelry, they either brought their own road guards or hired bodyguards with martial arts skills from the bodyguard bureau. They were not easy to mess with, so they let them go.
The only way to get money is from the carts that pull people out of the city. If there are people with no serious status waiting around and don't have a few coins to pay, it will be a joke to go out of the city.
The cart that Wei Changpan was riding in approached the city gate. As a rule, a sergeant had to enter the cart and verify that he was directly behind him before he could be released. However, the pockmarked sergeant who was loosely wearing the city gate captain's cotton armor approached the cart. The driver
The groom then came up with a smile and stuffed a small cloth bag into the palm of the man's hand. The latter threw the cloth bag in his hand. His face was very satisfied at first, but after a moment, his color suddenly changed. He threw the cloth bag back to the groom and shouted
"Get out of the car, keep grinding, be careful, swords and guns don't have eyesight, they will make a transparent hole." After saying that, he shook off the long gun in his hand, and pulled out a few gun flowers from the white wax pole, which was quite capable of bluffing.
Everyone in the big car got out.
The groom's face was extremely ugly, and he was about to go up and whisper a few words to the pock-marked sergeant who didn't know what to do today and didn't even want any money. The sergeant also lowered his voice and replied, and the agreement was settled without a cup of tea.
The groom took a few steps forward and followed the dozen or so people who jumped out of the cart and were shivering from the cold. He said, "It's not a big deal. The soldier's immediate boss is on duty today. He is a man who doesn't know how to do anything. He still has to do superficial work."
Yes, it took just a few sticks of incense to get us through, so don’t panic."
Wei Changpan looked up, and as expected, there was a tall figure in full robes on the city gate looking down. Sergeant Mazi roared and groped randomly on several people, and used his long gun to lift the curtain of the car and took a look inside.
Then he shouted to the colleague who was on guard at the front, saying that he didn't find anything prohibited, and let him go.
When he got on the cart, he heard Xu Xian next to him muttering, scolding the official on the city gate tower for being brainless.
Wei Changpan couldn't help but want to move down from his seat that had finally warmed up in the cold weather.
When they entered the city gate, the horseman threw the small cloth bag towards the pockmarked sergeant again, but he did not throw it back.
The walls of Wuhang City are more than three feet wide and can be used for horse racing. They have not been affected by the smoke of war for a long time, so the walls are neat and smooth, much better than those of border cities in the north. In addition, the city allocates money from time to time for repairs, and the city becomes more and more peaceful.
A scene that can only be found in prosperous times.
Not long after Wei Changpan's cart was on the road out of the city, Xu Xian beside him became lively again and asked him some trivial matters, big and small. Wei Changpan responded politely at first, but Xu Xian kept asking more questions.
It made him tired to deal with it, and the other guests were also very annoyed.
Just as Xu Xian was gesticulating in the carriage and talking about how wealthy his distant cousin was, suddenly some pungent smell drifted into the carriage, and
It became more and more intense. Xu Xian covered his nose and cursed:
"Who is barbecuing in the wild and doesn't pay attention? If he doesn't have a nose or something, he can't smell such a big stench?"
"Don't yell." An elderly man who was working as a carpenter in Wuhang City in the same car said solemnly, "Now that the bark and grass roots outside the city have been dug up and stripped, where can we still get meat to roast? You can use your toes." I want to understand."
"What could that be?"
"Burn the people." The old carpenter added, "There are too many dead people and there is no place to bury them. Burning them with fire and filling them with a few pieces of clay will save time and effort, and there will be no epidemic in the coming year."
As soon as these words came out, everyone in the carriage, including Wei Changpan, couldn't stop vomiting, and their stomachs were filled with turmoil.
"Old man...how do you know this so well?" Xu Xian finally stopped his nausea and asked in confusion.
"Back then, when there was a severe drought in Jiangbei, we came to Jiangzhou to escape famine. The officials at that time were not as merciful as they are now. There were no porridge shacks or anything like that, and the gates of all the prefectures and counties with city walls were closed. When we saw us As these fleeing men approached, arrows were fired from the towers of the city gates."
The old carpenter sighed endlessly, "Three years of drought, people who died of starvation, there is no place to bury them. We sold our children and daughters for just a few liters of rice. That is to say, we escaped early and were lucky enough to enter Wuhang City. In the following years As long as you are willing to work hard, you will never go hungry. Jiangzhou is great. I have never seen a major famine in all the years I have been here."
"Then why did the old man return to his hometown under such circumstances? People in Huizhou, Jiangbei, are having a hard time at the moment. Is it because they still have relatives at home?"
"We don't have any relatives or relatives. There was a severe drought and everyone died. We were the only ones who survived from a prosperous clan. There is no one left." The old carpenter said calmly, "It's just that I'm too old to do anything. I started carpentry and thought about going back to the mountains and valleys in Huizhou to live my whole life. But now that we have suffered a natural disaster, the house and property are all at a low price. With the money I have saved in Wuhang City over the years, I can probably buy some property."
The smell of burning became more and more intense. The owl bird circled in the sky and made a creepy scream. The man with his face covered with white cloth looked at the passing cart blankly, then turned around and threw a light and hungry corpse into the car. In the fire, oil was poured into the firewood, and soon the fire was more than ten feet high.
Wei Changpan opened a gap in the carriage curtain to take a look. Dozens of people covered in white cloth were also dressed as hungry people, but they were much stronger than those carried. It seemed that they were the laborers selected by Wuhang City Government to burn the corpses of hungry people who had not been restrained. , two official servants dressed as government officials stood at a distance with swords in their hands, like supervisors.
Those who carried the corpses built a huge fire and threw each corpse into it, then sprinkled some oil on it, and then repeated the previous actions while standing quietly with two cups of tea, with piles of piles stacked neatly next to them like a hill. Before any body was lifted, it was touched with hands all over to see if there was anything valuable before it was put into the fire.
The circling owl came to rest on some dead branches nearby, and its cry became more and more shrill. Wei Changpan couldn't bear to look at it anymore. The last thing he saw was a skinny child shooting down the owl with a slingshot. The owl kept making noisy sounds, and his internal organs had not been stripped of hair. Instead of pulling it out, he roasted it over the corpse fire.
"It would be bad luck if that bird was shot down by a hunter, let alone eaten."
"Eating dead people?"
"Enemies, eating this bird is the same as eating human flesh directly.
, there’s only such a thin line between them, but it’s better than eating nothing at all.”
Wei Changpan was silent.
The cart pulling more than ten people could not move very fast. When it was sinking to the west, it had only traveled forty or fifty miles. The boundary of Wuhang County had not yet been reached, so it had to find an inn to stay. After all, the world at the moment was so desolate.
I really don’t have the courage to camp in the mountains.
He didn't have much money, so he wanted to sleep in a big car with all his clothes on, but he was dragged to the inn by Mr. Xu. When he inquired about the price, he said, "Good guy, I don't need food and water for one night."
Eight cents of silver, but the coachman was a regular customer, so he cut the price to five cents of silver with just a few words. Even so, Wei Changpan still found it too expensive, and several of the older men who were doing hard work also found it too expensive. The shopkeeper had no choice but to agree.
Each guest room can accommodate an extra bed without charge for bedding, so these ten or so people were accommodated.
The inn was not big, and the decoration was old. The guest rooms were quite spacious, but the floor paved with wooden boards creaked when stepped on. Seeing Xu Xian's disgusted eyes, the owner smiled and explained: "This board is good, you can do anything if you step on it."
No, thieves don't dare to come here. It makes a lot of noise when you step on it, so don't worry about saluting."
Xu Xian reluctantly accepted the shopkeeper's explanation, which sounded reasonable. However, the bedding in the shop, which had been used by countless people, was black and shiny. Wei Changpan couldn't lie down when he saw it, so he had to sleep on it without taking off his clothes. Xu Xian saw it.
He was furious and wanted to argue with the shopkeeper, but Wei Changpan stopped him and said that he could just stay the night. There was only one inn nearby and he could make do without this bedding and covered with two thick clothes.
After the two of them put their luggage and went to the inn lobby, the innkeeper brought them dinner, which was exactly the same as what Wei Changpan had eaten a few days ago in the hotel. The boiled malan leaf soup had few stars on it, and the red wild rice was cooked.
It's so dark that it makes people lose their appetite.
The few people who worked hard in the car seemed to be used to such poor food. They finished the red potato rice in big gulps, washed in the malan leaf soup, licked up the dregs that could not be removed with their tongues, and then returned to the room. Mr. Xu looked at
After being stunned for a moment, I looked at the bowl of rice in front of me again, thinking that it couldn't be the same bowl, otherwise how could it taste so sweet...
He looked left and right and saw that although some of the other passengers in the car around him were frowning, they were also picking up bowls and chopsticks. Wei Changpan, who was sitting next to him, was no exception. He also asked him: "Brother Xu, move your chopsticks. Why don't you move your chopsticks?"
It’s cold.”
"Is this for people to eat?" Xu Xian shook his head and shouted sideways to the shopkeeper who was taking inventory: "Shopkeeper, do you have any meat or vegetables? Bring them up. The money will be calculated separately."
"This year, where do you get the meat and vegetables from the country store?" The shopkeeper didn't even raise his head, "When you go out, there are many things you can do. If you really can't eat for a while now, just wait for a few hungry meals.
.”
Xu Xian swallowed his saliva and wanted to refute, but his stomach became dissatisfied. He had to hold his nose and swallow the red rice. Then he looked at Wei Changpan and saw that his face was still as normal after eating the food. He thought that he could not lose to someone who was older than him.
The younger fellow countrymen thought of the red rice as a fragrant stew and ate it with their eyes closed.