The sun at noon in September was mercilessly scorching the earth, and cicadas were chirping on the criss-crossing branches. Lying in the shade of the ruined temple, a young man in his early twenties squinted and looked out the window aimlessly. .
Weather like this has lasted for more than four or five months. During this period, not a single drop of rain fell. The entire earth has dried up and cracked with inch-long cracks. In many places, there is no grain harvest. This year's drought, coupled with last year's drought, It seems that God really doesn’t want the people of Zhao State to survive the cold disaster.
Such natural disasters, coupled with annual military disasters, caused a large number of Zhao people to leave their homes and become homeless. Skinny refugees were everywhere, and the roads were lined with bones.
Wild dogs gnawed on corpses in the fields, their eyes glowed green, and their bodies reeked of decay.
They appear in groups on country roads, preying on lone refugees.
These wild dogs are extremely ferocious and cunning. They often travel in groups. When they encounter large groups of refugees, they just follow them from a distance. Whenever they find anything unusual, they will run away.
Once they discover the backward refugees, they will swarm them and kill them for food.
In this way, the people living in Zhao State could no longer survive, so a large number of victims flocked to the wealthy Song State in the east.
Although the Song Dynasty deployed heavy troops on the border, it still could not stop the influx of large numbers of refugees.
Zhao Lei has watched groups of villagers fleeing in groups these days. Most of them followed the main road and fled to the east with the crowd.
But Zhao Lei had no idea in his heart. After leaving his hometown, he was the only one left in their family.
Zhao Lei's mother died of severe bleeding due to difficulty in giving birth to him. And his father was drafted into the battlefield, and it has been three years since there has been any news.
His grandparents, because they saw no hope in this troubled world, and in order not to become a burden to Zhao Lei, both hung themselves from the eaves in the past two days.
In order to accommodate his relatives, Zhao Lei packed up several acres of his family's land and property and sold them all to the landlord in the village. In exchange for a meager amount of silver, he buried them.
Although these silver coins are far inferior to the real estate and property, only the landlords can exchange them for silver coins at this time.
Disasters only inflict hardship on people. The disasters that have occurred every year have not affected these rich landowners, who are wealthy squires. Their families have enough food, silk, gold and silver to provide them with food and clothing for decades. Degree.
The disasters in the past two years have only affected their crop harvests in the past two years, and the wealth of these landlords and gentry has been accumulated over generations.
In the past two years, not only did they not suffer losses, but they also hoarded a large amount of grain. They united with grain merchants in the city to sell the grain at high prices and made a lot of money.
If it weren't for this, so many people wouldn't have starved to death in the past two years. These people have indeed made "great contributions".
Although during this period, it was not that there were no refugees who wanted to live with these landlords, but all of them were beaten to death by the nursing homes that they spent a lot of money to cultivate, and even their bodies were hung on the old trees at the head of the village.
These squires are all old people from all over the country, and they are the basis of the rule of the entire Zhao State.
In the past, Zhao State's orders could only be issued to the county, and the execution of orders below the county level often relied on these squires.
It is precisely because of this that they can be so unscrupulous and prey on the weak. This has been the case since ancient times.
Zhao Lei's previous ambition was to become the guardian of the landlord's house like Brother Hu next door, with a majestic appearance and no worries about food and drink.
For this reason, he went to Brother Hu and spent all the hard-earned money he had saved over the past four or five years to learn a few martial arts moves from him. Although they were all ordinary martial arts moves, they were incredible in this small village. .
Brother Hu worked hard outside in those days, and it is said that he once served as an outer disciple in a small gang. His kung fu was very good, and he could break pillars as thick as bowls with one kick.
Now he is the head of the nursing home of Landlord Zhao's family, and all the other nursing homes are trained by him.
Brother Hu also saw that Zhao Lei's family had helped him when his family was in trouble when he was a child. Otherwise, he might not be able to learn with Zhao Lei's three melons and two dates.
For this reason, Zhao Lei also worked hard and practiced every morning and evening. As time went by, he became more and more powerful.
Before Zhao Lei's father was captured as a young man, he was a famous hunter from all over the country.
At that time, the weather was good and the old King Zhao had not yet passed away. Under his governance, the entire Zhao Kingdom prospered and the country was peaceful and the people were safe.
Zhao Lei also often eats meat. Because of this, he has gained such good strength and good health.
It was also because Zhao Lei lost his mother when he was young, and his father had a son in old age, so he doted on him very much.
As a result, Zhao Lei had only scratched the surface of his father's skills, and he was pretty good at archery.
Ever since Zhao Lei's father was drafted into the army and was forcibly drafted into the army, their family's life has been getting worse day by day.
Zhao Lei once tried to go hunting in the mountains like his father, but due to lack of experience, the hunting results were often unsatisfactory.
Coupled with successive years of disasters, the beasts in the mountains could no longer survive and fled deeper into the Shiwan Mountains.
As for the villagers outside, there was no harvest in the fields, and they also poured into the mountains. Until now, Zhao Lei went into the mountains to hunt ten times without success. Since then, Zhao Lei's family has also declined, and now he is the only one left.
Zhao Lei also begged Brother Hu once, and Brother Hu also tried to help him.
But in these troubled times, all kinds of martial arts masters who have no food to eat are gone. Countless martial arts masters are flocking to the homes of landlords and squires.
In these troubled times, the landlords and gentry also urgently needed the support of force, but because there were too many people, they finally decided to recruit people through a competition.
At the beginning, Zhao Lei relied on his strength to win a few games, but as the weak ones were eliminated, the competition pressure became more and more intense. Zhao Lei ultimately lost the election due to lack of experience.
However, the friendship between Brother Hu and Zhao Lei did not reach the point of using the back door for him, and it ended in nothing.
With his own ability, Zhao Lei is more likely to survive than the refugees fleeing outside.
But now Zhao Lei is no longer interested in all this. He has been lying in this ruined temple all day without eating a grain of rice or touching a drop of water.
These three years of hard work have polished off Zhao Lei's edges and consumed his blood and ambition.
In the past three years, in order to support his family, he has done anything, black, white, clean, dirty, as long as he gives money, he doesn't care.
But with the suicide of his grandparents, Zhao Lei's last straw was broken. He lost hope of continuing to live, and he no longer had any hope that his father would come back.
In the past two days, Zhao Lei often couldn't help but think that dying in this ruined temple would be a good destination.
Time passed slowly, the scorching sun disappeared above the western horizon, and the hot earth was still releasing its anger.
