Shuozhou City, locomotive station.
There was a huge crowd, and countless Shuozhou people carrying large and small bags crowded outside the station and slapped the wooden fence.
"Stationmaster Wang, just let us pass, please!"
"Yes, Wang Liulang, none of us are sick and we are in good health. I hugged you when you were a child. Since your aunt is my sister-in-law, let us go."
"Wang Liulang! I am the manager of Shuozhou Liuguang Bank. Now I have to go to Luoyang with important account books. If the reconciliation is delayed and Shuozhou taxes are delayed, can you bear this responsibility?"
Inside the fence, Wang Liu, the stationmaster of Shuozhou Station, was sweating profusely and explained loudly: "Dear fellow villagers, the order to blockade Shuozhou Station was given by General Yan Hu, and the prefect also agreed.
Vehicles passing through Shuozhou will not stop here, and there is nothing I can do about it. Everyone, please come back. "
His explanation was not recognized by the people, but instead aroused the anger of the crowd.
"General Yan is unconscious. The prefect ordered his soldiers to block the main traffic route, but he hid in his mansion and stayed behind closed doors. Even your superiors are not paying attention, so why do you need to hang on here?"
"How many people have died of illness in Shuozhou now? You still let us stay here, you obviously want us to die!"
"Stationmaster Wang, please!"
A young peasant woman holding a baby in her arms and holding a child on her hand squeezed through the crowd and cried: "My parents, brothers, sisters, husband, father-in-law, and mother-in-law were all infected by the plague and died of the disease.
My eldest sister was married a long time ago. When she learned about the death of her parents and brother and sister, she was extremely sad. She refused to listen to the dissuasion in the letter and insisted on coming to the village to mourn. She also died.
My two children and I are the only ones left at home, and there is no one else.
Stationmaster Wang, please let us go by car. "
The peasant woman burst into tears. She took off the swaddling clothes from her arms, placed the baby on the ground, and kowtowed heavily to Wang Liu.
Her forehead landed on the stone bricks of the train station, making a thumping sound. After a while, her forehead was filled with a lake of flesh and blood.
Wang Liu's mouth was dry and his fingertips were numb. The people around her also showed unbearable expressions and tried to help the peasant woman up to stop her from knocking down.
However.
"Ahem——"
Perhaps she was too anxious to kowtow, or perhaps she had not eaten or drank for too long. The peasant woman coughed violently when she stood up.
"The First Clan"
The crowd around them all changed their expressions, like ripples in a lake, pushing back and giving way, forming an empty circle in the crowd.
"She's sick!
"
Someone shouted sharply and panickedly, and the crowd looked at the peasant woman with eyes that were no longer filled with sympathy and pity, but full of hostility and suspicion.
"I'm not, I'm not. It's the wind chill."
The peasant woman picked up the swaddling clothes and tried to explain to the people around her, but she coughed even more violently.
"Hit her and drive her away!"
"If you dare to come out even though you are sick, do you want us to die? Don't you know how scary this disease is?"
"Back off, back off, back off!"
The villagers who had shared the same hatred just now suddenly changed their expressions and cursed at the peasant woman.
The young man waved a stick from a distance to intimidate.
Women took eggs from baskets and threw them at her,
Even the white-haired octogenarian tremblingly raised his crutch and waved it at her, opened his mouth with only a few teeth left, and cursed in a dialect that not many people could understand.
The peasant woman, who was like a mouse crossing the street, could only shrink her body to protect her two children.
The infant child was crying loudly, while the older children seemed dull and confused.
"..."
Wang Liu looked at the scene in front of him and felt unbearable. He turned to his subordinates and said, "There is a small door behind the station. You can go out through the small door and take her away from here first."
"Webmaster, this..."
The subordinates looked at each other in confusion, and no one stood up to answer. Everyone avoided Wang Liu's gaze, as if his gaze were the fangs of a poisonous snake.
The people of Shuozhou have a deep understanding of the horror of the plague in the past few days.
Once the disease develops, patients will suffer severe pain, chest pain, coughing, difficulty breathing,
Death will inevitably occur within two or three days. The skin will bleed and the body will be purple and black at the time of death. There is no medicine or stone to cure it.
According to the Academy's publications, "infectious diseases" will spread in different ways.
The spread rate and intensity of this infectious disease far exceed all previous plagues. It is even more unsolvable than malaria before the advent of effective drugs.
As station employees, they can usually fight against the gangsters who come to look for trouble. They can even hunt down bandits who steal railway tracks and road bullies who set up private checkpoints.
But they are just ordinary people with only this ability. How can they fight against invisible and intangible infectious diseases?
They also have families. If they throw themselves in to save a peasant woman, who will save their own family?
Seeing the subordinates looking at each other and hesitating,
Wang Liuyi gritted his teeth and turned to dissuade the people outside the fence: "Don't embarrass her, please let her go. I will edit another letter and send it to Daizhou. I believe someone will be responsible..."
Before he finished speaking, a loud whistle sounded from afar.
At the end of the horizon, a spiritual motorcycle was speeding towards.
"The car is coming!"
"Quick, everyone, work together to push down the fence, everyone, get in the car!"
"If the train doesn't stop, we'll stand on the tracks to see if he dares to stop!"
No one paid attention to what Wang Liu was talking about anymore. The people swarmed forward, pushing the wooden fence like crazy and hitting the barrier with their bodies.
The wooden railings made a squeaking sound, and the wooden piles were pushed out of the soil bit by bit under the force of brute force.
Boom!
With a loud noise, the wooden fence collapsed, and the crowd carrying large and small bags clamored up the steps and rushed into the station.
The few dozen soldiers who stayed behind at the station were unable to stop the overwhelming crowd.
"Let them pass."
Wang Liu looked gloomy. He stepped over the collapsed wooden fence, lifted the peasant woman who was covered in egg liquid and egg shells from the ground, and handed her a handkerchief.
Woohoo!
The whistle sounded again from the distance. The driver on the Lingqi locomotive seemed to see the people crowded on the railway track and kept blowing the whistle.
However, the people who believed that this was their only chance to escape Shuozhou stood on the railway track hand in hand, cheering and encouraging each other.
"The car will stop, it will."
"This is the Kingdom of Yu, and we follow the laws of Yu! Even if there are princes and nobles sitting in the car, they would not dare to actually order the car to run over."
"Don't panic, everyone! We must stand firm! We will be saved when the car leaves Shuozhou!"
