The sky was cloudless, and the scorching sun was high, mercilessly scorching the loess land that had just been hit by floods. The air was twisted, heat waves rolled, and there was not a trace of wind.
The official road heading south was crowded with people fleeing the famine, and their movements were slow and their expressions were numb. Li Ping'an was also numb. He glanced at the person who had just fallen in front of him blankly, but his steps never stopped for a moment.
Seven days have passed since they were attacked by the mob. During these seven days, they walked out of Huzhou and entered the border of Qizhou, which is adjacent to the south of Huzhou.
Only then did he realize that Huzhou, where he had lived for thirteen years, was actually quite big. It took them a full ten days to get out.
He also realized that the scope of the disaster was far larger than he imagined. They walked all the way and the scenes they saw in Qizhou were no different from what they saw in Huzhou.
We passed through several counties and cities, and most of them had their city gates closed. Not to mention opening warehouses to store grain for porridge, there was no chance for people to go in to buy grain. The government officials stood on the city wall and loudly drove away the people who had gathered outside the city. refugee.
These days, there are many refugees who suddenly collapse while walking. It is not known whether it is caused by lack of water or hunger, or whether they are comatose or dead.
Those who have relatives can still shout twice to confirm their death, drag them to the roadside and dig a shallow hole and bury them hastily, but some people don't care even if they have relatives. Digging even a shallow hole is too exhausting.
If there are no relatives, no one will really care. When the people behind see the person in front fall, they just roll their eyes and glance, stop for a moment, and then step over or go around.
I don't know how many of these people who escaped the flood fell on the way to escape.
Along the way, Li Ping'an has seen too many tragic scenes. In addition to people who starve to death, there are also people who are poisoned by eating poisonous plants, and some who are sick from eating rats, snakes, and worms. He was beaten to death because of a fight over a grass root...
They have also been targeted by many hungry refugees. It is useless to hide food. Whether a person has food or not can be seen from his complexion. Li Pingan and his group, especially the adult men, eat every day. Stick to them first. Although they look bad, they are much better compared to those hungry rice dumplings who are all skin and bones and whose clothes are dangling like unstuffed glutinous rice.
But this is a frivolous refugee who can be knocked down with just a push. Even an eight-year-old Fugui can hit several of them, so how can he be Li Erlin's opponent? Since the last time they killed a mob, they have also witnessed Li Erlin's cold-blooded last-ditch action. These men seemed to have unleashed their inner demons, using the most violent means to eliminate waves of malicious peeps.
The team finally couldn't stand it any longer and found a shaded place to stop and rest. They moistened their dry lips and throat. Finally, there was a hint of color in Li Ping'an's eyes, and a feeling of being alive again emerged spontaneously. .
Xiao Ruyi leaned over again, and Li Pingan held her in his arms distressedly despite the heat. If it were normal times, he would have pinched the flesh on the little girl's face and teased her a few words, but now Xiao Ruyi was much thinner, and there was no longer much flesh on her face.
The little girl was wilting. After being frightened that night, she and many children in the team had high fever. Fortunately, there was a doctor in the team. The medicinal materials brought by Dr. Zhu and Li Pingan were in Qingfeng County before the flood. All the medicinal materials I bought were used up, and it took a long time to cure these children.
Not all children with fever are fine. Some of the more serious ones still have sequelae, one is stupid, and a few are deaf and mute.
But no matter what, even if the father and mother shed tears, they are still glad that the child can survive.
"Mom, how long are we going to keep walking like this?" Jixiang leaned against Chen Dajuan, a look of disgust appeared on her thin face, and her originally bright eyes had long since lost their light.
Everyone hated this dangerous and tragic escape, and Chen Dajuan was no exception. She didn't have enough to eat, couldn't sleep well, and woke up at the slightest disturbance. Her face was full of exhaustion, and her eyes when looking at the child were full of distress.
She didn't know how to answer Jixiang's question. Before fleeing the famine, the farthest place she had been was Qingfeng County. Now that she had fled the famine, it was the farthest place she had ever reached in her life.
She only knew that her trip was to Yuezhou in the south, but she had no clear idea of how far it was.
"Out of Qizhou, go through another state and you'll reach Yuezhou. Once you enter the border of Yuezhou, you'll be there soon." Li Erlin replied.
Ji Xiangxunsheng glanced at Li Erlin, his body couldn't help but tremble, and he squeezed Chen Dajuan unconsciously.
Ever since Li Erlin killed the mob that night, Jixiang has been like this. He trembled with fear when he saw his father.
When Li Erlin saw this, his eyes dimmed, he poured another bowl of water and drank it in one gulp, wiped his mouth casually, got up and left.
Chen Dajuan wanted to say something to Ji Xiang, but when he saw her frightened look, he couldn't say anything. He could only sigh heavily in his heart and hugged Ji Xiang to comfort her.
After resting enough, we continued on the road, still before and after the sun set. When we encountered a fork in the road that allowed us to leave the official road, we walked decisively into it. They had rice and could cook porridge, but they definitely couldn't find a place to stay by the official road. Unless they were willing to go hungry, they would be overwhelmed by countless refugees when the smell of rice spread.
After settling down, it was still early. Brothers Li Ping'an, Zhang Dashan and Zhang Xiaoshan accompanied Zhu Erlang to the nearby mountains with weapons in hand to collect herbs. There were not many medicinal materials left in Dr. Zhu's hands. Whenever he stopped to rest in the past few days, If there are mountains nearby, I will go for a walk to see if I can find some herbs.
It's just that it's been half a month since the flood occurred. The edible and inedible things on the hills next to the village have long been eaten by the refugees passing by like locusts, so almost nothing is left. For several days, there was no harvest and I came back empty-handed.
It was the same today, but when Li Pingan proposed to go back as disappointedly as usual, Zhu Erlang objected.
"The sun hasn't set yet. Let's go up and take a look. We don't have any medicinal materials to treat fever. If someone gets fever again, there will be nothing we can do."
"I have no problem." Li Ping'an looked at Zhang Dashan. He was self-aware. In contrast, what he was good at was making money. On the mountain, if Zhang Dashan was around, Zhang Dashan would still have to make the decision.
Zhang Dashan was observing and thinking, and without wasting much time, he quickly agreed to continue walking a certain distance.
Going forward, it was actually almost the same, but the hills were connected to the hills. When they climbed over the first mountain and climbed to the top of the second mountain, the situation was much better.
Seeing the greenery in front of them, the four people's eyes gleamed.
