Ninety-two chapters, the old altar has no more flying clouds and cranes
On the eighth day of May, exactly one month after the earthquake, the turbid Yangtze River gradually became clear. This river, which originates from the closest place to the sky, has been nourishing people since ancient times, even if it will overflow and change its course.
Some people say that God is not completely blind after all. Last month's mountains shook and the earth shook, followed by half a month of torrential rain. The Yangtze River has finally accommodated all the disasters in the world - it has only become turbid, not overflowing.
People have no time to think about what will happen after the river overflows. They are hungry, everyone is hungry.
People who are crazy about hunger have endless magical powers. I don’t know which annoying person came up with it first. If there was no rice or noodles to satisfy my hunger, I would go down to the river to fish for fish to eat. Of course the cooked ones were the best, but the raw ones seemed to satisfy the hunger better. People who originally lived on land flocked to the Taotao River to catch fish.
The officials in Wuchang City have mobilized troops and horses, but they still can't control it. There are still people who somehow avoid those swords and spears and pounce on the river ferociously, one after another.
It's hard to be an official. On the one hand, you have to rebuild your home, on the other hand, you have to write and regulate food. You also have to be on guard against rebellion. Now you have to prevent these damned people from going into the water to seek death. No matter how many people there are, it is not enough.
Those who went into the water drowned one after another, one after another, but the water flow around the city was slow. Finally, oily flowers were floating everywhere, and the stench filled the sky.
This section alarmed the province. The Yamen sent a special document saying that all the dead must be fished out and cremated on the spot. Several thousand households were sent to surround the river with soldiers and horses, and special personnel were dispatched. Organize efforts to salvage floating corpses from the river.
The several thousand families who were in charge of the deacons were all shrewd. They saw that all the sergeants under them were useless, so they jointly asked Zhang Bang to recruit local people with good water quality. They signed documents of life and death on the spot and specially salvaged the floating corpses from the river: drag them up. If there is a corpse, you will be given a full meal. If you die accidentally, you will reward your relatives with two stones of rice.
The sergeants on duty were much happier: they no longer had to risk their lives in the river. Every day they just randomly pulled some rafters from the broken tiles and bricks, set up a fire by the river, cooked rice porridge, and waited for those people. The lucky devil came up from the river, pinched his nose, and burned the freshly dead and long-dead ones he fished out on the spot.
The smoke was billowing and the stench was astounding. You could probably see the dead people who were half-burned, but they were still fluttering about in the fire...
In the commotion, a half-year-old child was finally frightened. He sniffed, turned his head, and licked the food into his mouth.
After only working for the second day, the porridge under his mouth was much thicker than other people's. Qianhu, who was in charge, knew that he was an orphan who had wandered here, so he looked at him differently. He not only threw the broken jar, but also specially let him He uses soldier's bowls and chopsticks and eats as much as he wants - enough!
He himself knew it well: it was not that he was better at water than others and he caught more dead bodies than others, but that he was alone. Even if he drowned, he didn't need to receive the extra two shi of white rice!
The newcomers had no time to worry about burning the corpses, so the stench that came up was a torment. One of them couldn't stand it anymore and threw his head away and started retching.
The companion was about to make fun of him, but he accidentally took a deep breath, and with a "wow" sound, he was about to spit out his heart, liver, intestines, and lungs!
The half-grown boy burped, touched his belly, and finally threw away the bowl and chopsticks reluctantly, smiling with satisfaction: "I don't need to add more bowls today, I've had enough!"
Seeing that the two errand boys were still vomiting, he muttered contemptuously: "They are so damn worthless!"
The half-grown boy had eaten his fill and felt really comfortable, so he lay down on the ground and closed his eyes.
"Fuck, how many drowned? It's been two fucking days, why are there still more?" The half-grown boy knew it was Uncle Qianhu who was the leader, so he opened his eyes and looked at him.
"Er Shunzi, how many have you caught today?" The thousand households were not big in stature, but they had round bellies. They turned to look at the center of the river and shouted again: "Er Shunzi... Zhao Deshun is deaf. ? What do you want me to ask you?"
The two cats who were crawling up and vomiting rushed forward and wiped their mouths while replying: "Back to Mr. Qianhu, we caught nineteen of them today!" The other one also said: "There were forty in total yesterday!"
The young man followed Qianhu's gaze and saw another pile of dead people floating down the river!
Qianhu turned his bearded face and said to himself: "Mom, how many people have drowned?" But he saw the half-grown man lying on the ground smiling at him, and also smiled and said: "Little bastard , are you full? You’re going to starve to death!”
The half-grown man jumped up and ran to Qianhu, saying: "Master Qianhu, these dead people should have floated down from the upper reaches. If people drowned here, they should have flowed downstream along the river... …”
"Damn it!" Qianhu roared, and the young man's heart froze when he heard this roar, and his smile froze instantly.
——"You are so clever." Qianhu raised his hand to slap him, but saw that the half-grown boy in front of him was only a head shorter than him, but he was all bones and bones, so he stopped his hand and raised his foot again. , and kicked him in the butt.
This foot is not heavy at all, but the half-grown boy is really too thin, how can he withstand it? He fell forward with a thump, unable to stand on his feet, and fell flat on his back.
His nose was still sore. This half-grown child was only eleven years old. He wandered from his hometown of Siming to Hangzhou, then to Jinling, and all the way up the river. He had no idea how much hardship he suffered and how much bullying he suffered.
This Qianhu is the best person to me. At least he smiles when he sees him!
"Hehe! At least he treats me as a human being..." He immediately regained his composure: "I shouldn't be angry with him, I should repay him!"
Qianhu scolded and walked in front, while the two servants followed behind and kept flattering him. After just a few words, Qianhu already laughed.
The two people saw Mr. Qianhu smiling and rushed to say: "It's the people upstream who are lazy. They didn't bury or burn those who died in the earthquake, so they threw them into the river, which made you worry!"
"That's right, that's right! Most of the people caught were smashed to death, and I don't know who the idiot upstream is responsible for? I will sue him when I go back, and I will extort some money from him even if I don't say anything!"
The thousand households stepped up and shouted to the people who had eaten: "Get up! When you are full, go into the water. If you are late, be careful, I will whip you to eat!"
The half-grown boy gritted his teeth and rushed to the river ahead of the others, while those behind him also entered the water one after another. These people were very good at water, and soon everyone had dragged one of them to the shore.
Master Qianhu has already directed his men to make the fire bigger.
According to the regulations, whoever fishes it out should help burn it. The sergeant on the shore had already built a waist-high wooden tower with dry and wet wood, but the half-grown boy was too full after eating, and he was already half exhausted from exerting too much force in the river. He really didn't have the strength to drag himself up. The dead man who had landed ashore was carried to the wooden platform. The two sergeants in the same group were the same ones who had just vomited. They only watched his jokes and did not come to help. The young man spent a long time to get rid of him. The body was dragged to the firewood.
The two sergeants just lit the wooden tower on fire, but did not come to help. The young man was not strong enough. After tinkering for a long time, he could not throw it up. The fire became more and more intense and burned him. A gust of wind blew up and he He accidentally took a breath of thick smoke, and the smell of oil nearby made him choke. He fell on his back and fell on the body.
When the Qianhu saw it, they hurriedly grabbed it, slapped each of the two sergeants, and shouted: "How dare you let me be lazy!"
The sergeant Zhao Deshun was frightened and rushed over to carry the dead body. It's just that the dead body was too heavy, and the half-grown man was lying on it panting, so he fell to the ground without even lifting it.
The young man laughed secretly when he saw it, and cursed in his heart: "Zhao eats shit, Zhao eats shit, you deserve your shit!"
The other one also grabbed it, lifted up the half-sized man, one with Zhao Deshun lifted the upper body, the other with the legs, and threw the dead body onto the fire tower.
There was a rumble. Because the two of them used too much force and the fire tower had already burned most of it and could not withstand their throws, the dead body collapsed the fire tower and rolled to the side.
"Trash, all fucking trash!" Master Qianhu yelled: "Er Shunzi, did you two grow up eating shit?" The more he scolded, the angrier he became. Zhao Deshun was really angry when they saw Master Qianhu. , hanging his head at a loss, but the half-grown boy was more clever than the two of them. He flipped up from the ground and went around to the other side of the fire to grab the dead body. When the other two saw this, they also rushed to move it.
"The fire is almost finished, what are you going to do with your ancestors? Can you finish the burning? If you can't finish the burning, why move a ball? Do you want to eat meat? Go back and eat your old mother's mouth. Where can you find two good pieces of meat? , big and fat!”
The more Mr. Qianhu scolded him, the worse he sounded. Zhao Deshun and Zhao Deshun quickly turned around and went to grab firewood.
The Qianhu master came over, kicked the dead body hard, and cursed: "Mom, this bitch is weird. If you don't want to turn into ashes, why did you die in the river again?"
After hearing this, the half-grown boy looked at the dead body, only to see that the body was seven feet long. Although the clothes on his body were broken, they were of good quality. The half-grown boy glanced at the tattered coarse cloth strips that could just cover his body. , took a breath and muttered: "You are dead, so leave this good material for a poor man like me to wear, it is better than being burned! You are dead, it doesn't matter whether you wear it or not in the underworld." Bar?"
While muttering, he stretched out his hand, gritted his teeth and groaned, turning over. He stretched out his hand to peel off the corpse's clothes, but he couldn't help but let out an "eh" sound: Although the face was actually covered with mud, it couldn't be covered. The heroic spirit that lived in this life comes from: square mouth, red and phoenix eyes, extremely handsome.
The young boy hesitated for a moment, but still reached out to untie his clothes, but his waist was hard. When he touched it carefully, his heart beat faster: it turned out that there was something hard under his right rib inserted directly into his trouser leg. It was not impregnation. The treasure is more like a sword! He secretly thought: "You were just lying on your back, carrying him, no wonder you didn't notice it!" The young man couldn't help but look at it again, and when he touched it, he was covered in tendons. He vaguely felt that he had seen this person before, but I really can’t remember it.
An inexplicable force stopped the young man's hands from taking off his clothes. He felt sour and sat down on the ground.
"I should be like this when I grow up, right?" Somehow, this sentence suddenly came to his mind, and he felt a faint itching between his cheeks. When he reached out and touched it, he felt a cold feeling.
"Damn it!" He muttered imitating Qianhu's tone and turned his head away. He felt that all the tears he needed to shed had been shed during the whole journey of escaping, and he would never cry again: "What a fool, shed tears. Yes, aren’t you just crying?”
He was in a trance. The two men who found Ershun had already re-erected the fire tower and lit it. Without Master Qianhu's instructions, the two of them had already carefully carried the dead body.
I don't know where the idea came from, and the half-grown boy suddenly pounced on the corpse, his whole body pressed against the raw surface.
When Zhao Deshun and Zhao Deshun saw him holding back his eyes, which were red, as if he was possessed by an evil spirit, they were so upset that they deliberately raised their voices and shouted: "What are you doing?" "Crazy? Get out of here!"
Master Qianhu also heard the movement here and rushed over.
Zhao Deshun quickly complained: "Master Qianhu, is this... this kid crazy?" Qianhu shouted: "What's going on?"
After Zhao Deshun made up a few random sentences, they no longer dared to talk nonsense.
The half-grown boy gasped, and after being stunned for a moment, he suddenly said: "Master Qianhu...can I...not burn him? I want to bury him!" The Qianhu hadn't yet After reacting, Zhao Deshun said hurriedly: "Is it you who has the final say to bullshit your mother? Or Master Qianhu?" "I see you bitch is kicking your nose in the face, don't take advantage of Master Qianhu's grace." You acted recklessly and made me anxious. Let's see how I deal with you!" Before the thousand households could say anything, Zhao Ershunzi's two greetings surpassed each other. The Qianhu nostrils made a sound and asked: "Buried? But why?"
The half-grown boy's eyes turned red, but he fell silent and just stayed where he was.
But Qianhu didn't get angry. He waved his hand and said softly: "Burn it!"
Zhao Ershunzi and his companions bowed in response and went to carry the dead body again. The young man hesitated for a moment, then rushed over and pressed on the corpse. Zhao Ershunzi and his companions pounced on him, and the bodies in their hands fell to the ground.
The two sergeants secretly screamed, thinking that Master Qianhu was going to be angry again, but seeing that Master Qianhu was extremely patient with this young man, they asked again for the first time: "What is this?"
The young man choked and didn't answer. Master Qianhu got a little angry and bent down to pull the young man away, but he pulled him away. Master Qianhu couldn't hold on, and his nails hurt. He put two fingers of his right hand into his mouth and sucked on them.
The young man knew that he had angered Mr. Qianhu, and choked up: "He... he is like me... he misses my father!" After saying this, his face turned red, but he began to whistle. ——In fact, it doesn’t look like it at all.
The Qianhu was stunned, took a deep breath and pulled the half-sized boy again, with more force on his hands, he lifted the half-sized boy in the air and fell to the side.
The half-grown boy was already crying. His butt hurt when he threw him. He felt more and more aggrieved. With strong energy, he rushed over and hugged the corpse tightly.
Master Qianhu was finally angry. He loosened his armor and lost his sword. He was already tightly holding on to the riding whip.
The sergeants on the side and the men collecting the corpses all held their breaths and looked at Master Qianhu.
With a "snap", Master Qianhu's whip fell heavily on the half-grown boy - "You are the only one who has a father, aren't you?"
"Crack" the second whip - Mr. Qianhu gasped and said again: "You are the only one who has a mother, aren't you?"
"Crack" the third whip - "Are you the only one with a wife and children?"
"Crack" the fourth whip - "You are the only one who suffered the disaster, aren't you?"
"The master's youngest son was crushed to death by a beam..."
"The master's little wife was buried by the gable..."
"My wife was buried alive!"
Crack the whip and shout. The young man couldn't bear the pain, so he let go of the body and couldn't help but hide behind him, but Master Qianhu became even more angry - "I told you not to go into the water!" - "I told you not to obey!"
——“Those who died in the earthquake don’t count!” ——“Whose ones are those who drowned in vain?”
——“Can the official control you?” ——“Can the county magistrate control you?”
——"You all starve, sir, I will suffer!" ——"If the superiors don't care, sir, I will beat you to death!"
After shouting and whipping, all the soldiers and the common people finally stopped watching and knelt down to beg for mercy, but Master Qianhu's whip didn't stop.
——"Don't burn it! Bury it?" ——"If it rots and spoils after being buried, who's to blame if a plague breaks out!"
——"If there is a plague, everyone will die!" ——"Who will save us when the time comes?"
The half-grown boy was on the verge of death after being whipped. In his daze, he seemed to be woken up again by the whiplash. He also knew why the dead were burned.
Master Qianhu was tired from the convulsions and was breathing heavily. At the end, he still didn't want to finish, but he picked up the young man, threw away his whip, slapped him in the face, panted and cursed: "Teach you, young man." Making trouble!"
The half-grown boy was thrown on top of the corpse again. He only felt his right elbow pressing against the ribs of the corpse, which was more painful than being whipped with a whip.
After listening to Mr. Qianhu's scoldings, the common people and soldiers knew what happened to him and why they burned the body, so they no longer resented his vicious actions.
After Master Qianhu took a breath, the fire tower burned out again. Everyone immediately understood, and while they were breathing, they built another tower, lit the torches, and rushed to carry the dead body.
Zhao Ershunzi and Zhao Ershunzi came to pat Qianhu Master's horse in a hurry. One rolled up his sleeves and fanned himself, while the other had already brought cold water.
"It's a fake corpse!"
The crowd roared, Qian Huye and Zhao Deshun turned around to look, and saw the people who were carrying the body dispersed in all directions. Even the sergeant with the sword was crawling and running in all directions. No one knew how many people were surrounding them. When they went to carry the dead body, the soul-lost man had already stepped over on the newly lit fire tower, crying and screaming.
Master Qianhu had seen the world. He had already pulled out the saber from Zhao Deshun's waist after he had thrown away the water bowl, and grabbed it in two steps at a time.
"What the hell, it's really a fake corpse!" The people around him had already run away, and the corpse was really standing upright, holding the half-grown child in its arms.
Master Qianhu's legs became weak, his heart jumped into his throat, and he could no longer swing the knife in his hand. He and the zombie were ten feet away, facing each other, neither of them moving.
The zombie suddenly made a "pop" sound and spurted out a mouthful of black blood. Its legs softened and it collapsed on the ground again.
Master Qianhu was so frightened that he jumped back a foot. He suddenly remembered that he had also learned boxing and kicking. His master was a lay disciple of the Qingcheng Sect. He had taught him the authentic Qingcheng swordsmanship. Over the years, he had been able to rise through the ranks. Qianhu, half of it relies on drilling camps, and the other half relies on his own fists and feet.
Master Qianhu abandoned the knife in his palm and quickly took out his sword. He kneaded the sword and watched the zombie carefully.
He saw the half-grown man standing behind him, with his legs crossed and his hands clasped in front of his chest, as if he was meditating.
Master Qianhu regained his courage and quietly walked a foot forward with his sword skills in hand. He saw some kind of zombie resurrected here. It was clearly an expert with special skills who was using strange methods to perform his martial arts.
"Come back to me! This man is not dead yet!" He deliberately showed off his methods, and his voice was naturally loud. After he shouted, the soldiers and the people stopped and walked back doubtfully.
Master Qianhu put his sword back into its sheath and cursed everyone around him: "Grandma! Blinded your dog eyes? This man is not dead yet? Where is the fake corpse?" He straightened his chest and ordered the soldiers: "Look at me more carefully from now on! Don't burn a living person, that's a crime!" Everyone felt relieved and began to praise him one after another.
The man meditated for a long time, then suddenly coughed again, spitting out several large mouthfuls of black blood, and then shook his head uncontrollably. Everyone was surprised, but they didn't dare to get close. They saw him getting up, touching his back, and hugging the half-grown boy. He was still muttering: "Xiao Yefei, if it weren't for you today, I wouldn't be able to do it." You're going to be burned alive!" As he said this, he ignored others and walked directly to the shore.
