While Xiaoman's house is still intact, we reluctantly clean up the dust first, and everyone rests here.
The most satisfying thing is that there is a mountain spring under the stone wall. Xiaomanye usually covers it with stone slabs, but now it is clear and bright without dust when opened.
Several people immediately started cooking. It felt so good to escape from death!
Xiao Mannai took out the grain bag from the soil, mixed the few white flour left at home into a pot of batter, added salt and seasoning, and generously added a few drops of sesame oil.
After the fire, everyone was tired and hungry, so this meal of batter was delicious.
After dinner, a few people spread their bedding on the floor, rested in a helter-skelter manner, and fell asleep in just a short while.
It was almost dawn outside, the sky was filled with smoke, and the whole sky was covered with fireworks, making it look gray.
Everyone just took a short nap and woke up again. The wildfire was avoided, but there were still two problems that needed to be solved urgently before everyone.
The first is to understand the situation in the village. Whether it was the refugees or the rebels who burned the village.
If there are rioters, Xiao Manye's suggestion is to prohibit lighting fires for cooking during the day, and stop walking around in conspicuous places to attract the soldiers and bandits.
If they were refugees, it would not be a big problem. They would have left after burning down the house.
Did the other families who moved to the mountains survive the wildfire? Is there any food left?
Although there is some suspicion that he was picked up, if he was really injured and died in the fire, he was a member of the same ancestry and had the same surname as Xu, so he would still need help collecting the bones.
There is also the need to extinguish the remaining fires around them to prevent them from resurrecting.
There are many things and we need to do them one by one.
Jiang Zhi decided to take Er Rui to check the situation of several other households first, and rescue those who were injured.
Xiaoman and Xiaomanye put out the fire near their home, so they could take care of the family and the children, and get away quickly if anything happened.
It’s just that the mountain road that was actively blocked before collapsed and we can no longer walk down the mountain. We can no longer take the original path.
If you go around a mountain that has been ravaged by wildfires, you will waste too much time and it is not safe.
Unexpectedly, Xiao Manye had a back-up plan when he blocked the road.
While it was still early, he took Jiang Zhi and his son to a steep slope and took out a knotted rope.
Little Man said: "Er Ruiniang, as long as you tie this rope to the tree, you can bypass the landslide from the steep slope."
Jiang Zhi looked at the rope and twitched the corner of his mouth. This was going to be over a cliff.
Xu Errui held the rope in a dilemma: "Uncle, I can leave, my mother..."
He and Xiaotian had followed their father to burn charcoal in the mountains since they were young. It was very easy for men to climb up and down. My mother was usually a good hand at work, but she was a woman after all and had never walked on the edge of this cliff.
"It's nothing, it's just going down a slope!" Jiang Zhi took the rope, tied one end to the burned tree, then tied the other end around his waist, grabbed the rope and slid down the steep slope.
In the real world, she has followed her grandfather to the mountains to collect herbs since she was a child, and she has long been used to this situation.
If there are wild grass growing on the slope, you can climb the rock without even needing a rope.
It's just that now that she's a newbie, she still has to consider other people's feelings, and she doesn't want to scare people.
Everyone knows that Mrs. Jiang is a manipulator, and she will do anything she is not allowed to do.
Jiang Zhi's behavior did not arouse the suspicion of Xiao Manye and Xu Errui, and they could only watch her go downhill.
The slope is steep, almost vertical, and I dare not walk without a rope.
Now that I have a knot in the rope and my feet can touch the ground, it's not as difficult as I thought as long as I don't panic.
The two of them went downhill smoothly, and the hanging rope was hidden in the cracks in the rocks next to them.
Xu Errui led the way and hurried to the charcoal sheds where several other families lived.
The charcoal kilns of these two families were located lower than their own homes and were relatively close to the village. The fire was discovered early and they should be able to escape.
Walking in the burned mountain forest, although occasionally you can see green smoke rising from the ground, the overall situation is better than Jiang Zhi imagined.
When she thought about it, she had just experienced a wildfire, so there should be flames everywhere and burning trees.
But the deep grass here has been cut away by villagers building shacks, and many miscellaneous trees have also been cut down.
At this time, all the green trees in the forest have been removed, with hard wood that is not easy to burn. The flames can only stick to the ground. They come and go quickly, and even the ashes are not thick.
After turning a mountain bend, two charcoal kilns appeared in front of Jiang Zhi.
Xu Errui, who was walking in front, whispered: "Oh, Zhao Li's shed was burned down."
Needless to say, Jiang Zhi also saw the thatched cottage still emitting black smoke.
Not only this house, but a straw shed not far away was also burned, with no trace of firefighting at all.
Xu Errui stopped, not daring to go there. He raised his finger and pointed in front of the hut: "Mom, look there...is there a person there?"
Jiang Zhi pulled him: "Er Rui, take a closer look. Are you from the village?"
In the ashes in front of the hut, there was a person lying down. His face could not be seen clearly, and he could only identify him as a farmer through his barely recognizable clothes.
The two approached tentatively, and Xu Errui used the wooden stick he picked up to move his legs.
Oops, they are all stiff, and they will die at least in the first half of the night.
The dead were not as scary as the living. Jiang Zhi and Xu Errui mustered up the courage to turn the corpse over, revealing a face with stab wounds that, although burnt, was still recognizable.
Xu Errui started to vomit: "This is Zhao Li's father!"
"Quick, find someone else!"
Jiang Zhi resisted the urge to run and raised his eyes to look at the collapsed straw shed.
In fact, there is nothing to find in the thatched shed. The shed with wooden walls will be a handful of ashes when burned.
But here are two families, there are still seven or eight people, and there is only one body. Where are the others?
Xu Errui and Jiang Zhi searched around both huts and finally found clues.
Under the burned wooden pillars of the thatched hut, which was still smoking, a pair of skinny and small feet that looked like a woman's were exposed.
Jiang Zhi and Xu Errui lifted up the wooden pillar, and a woman who was almost naked and neatly cut into two pieces with a knife appeared.
"It's Zhao Li's wife!"
"Wow!" Jiang Zhi also vomited, not because of nausea, but because of gastrointestinal cramps caused by intense fear.
At this time, it didn't matter whether those who burned the village were refugees or rebels. Jiang Zhi only knew that the two of them were in great danger here.
If the other party doesn't leave and just waits here, the two of them will fall into a trap.
"Quick, let's leave!"
She kicked Xu Errui who was squatting on the ground and vomiting, turned around and ran up the mountain.
Xu Errui was also frightened and ran after him stumblingly.
The two of them didn't care about anything and ran directly to the place where they had just descended the mountain, preparing to find the rope and climb back up the mountain.
But before going up the mountain, Jiang Zhi was more cautious. She first found the previous way up the mountain, and then followed the road to the landslide-blocked road section.
Because of the wildfire, the place was covered with a layer of mountain ash. She didn't even have to look carefully to see some messy and fresh footprints appearing on the loose soil.
Jiang Zhi took a breath. Someone wanted to go up the mountain, but was blocked by the landslide.
Thinking of the burning hayloft and the woman cut into two pieces, she felt a chill down her spine.
If Mr. Man hadn't pried off rocks to block the mountain road a few days ago, he and his family would definitely not be safe last night.
Unable to go up the mountain, these people burned the village and set fire to the mountain.
