About five miles away from Niujia Village, a group of people in ragged clothes walked hard on the snow. Every time they took a step, they left faint footprints on the snow, accompanied by old dirt.
There were men and women among them, old and young, and every one of them was so skinny that their shoulder blades were so sharp that they pierced their clothes.
Several of the men were carrying a several-year-old child on their backs and looked sad.
The few remaining people were trembling as they walked, as if they were about to fall down in the next second.
No one in the team spoke, only the sound of their breathing and the crunch of their feet on the snow could be heard.
"Brother Nian, did you say they have arrived now? Will someone come to pick us up?" A young daughter-in-law, about fifteen or sixteen years old, broke the silence in the team, her tone full of worry.
The man called Brother Nian was only seventeen or eighteen years old. He was also carrying a child on his back. The child was covered with shabby cotton clothes. It was obviously the coldest month of winter, and his breathing was indeed hot, which was obviously abnormal. .
"I don't know." Brother Nian shook his head without any hope.
They walked for several months, from Yizhou to Yangzhou, and experienced countless twists and turns along the way. Their relatives died and scattered, and in the end only a few people were left.
I thought life would get better when I got here, but once I entered the city, I found that it was not as good as I imagined.
Although there are no wars or shortages of food or water, this is not them.
Countless officers and soldiers guarded the gate of Yangzhou City. Both sides of the road were simple shacks built by people fleeing the famine, and they were full of dark refugees.
At the front of the shack, at the city gate, there were several clerks sitting with pens and paper recording the identity information of each refugee entering the city.
If you have some skills or literacy, the documents will be written one by one on the paper and marked.
After recording your identity information, an official will lead you to the big tent at the back for a physical check-up. All Health will give you a sign and wait for arrangements at the door.
As for those who have infectious diseases, they will all be taken away by officials, and it is unknown where they will go.
There are several colors of brands, the most common ones are wood-colored brands, then there are black brands, red brands, and white brands.
But what are the uses of these different colored brands, but the officials remained silent.
Brother Nian and his party were from the same village, so they lined up together to make records and do inspections. They even took out a little money they had hidden in their bodies and bribed officials in the hope of being allocated a place.
The officers and soldiers collected the money, gave them red tags, and asked them to wait at the city gate.
Waiting and waiting, after all the food on their bodies was finished and they were gnawing on the tree bark hungry, someone finally came to arrange for them.
Perhaps that little money worked, and they were assigned to work as farmers in a remote village in Xindu City.
After everyone heard this, they were so happy that they cried.
Scholars, farmers, workers, and merchants.
Their previous identities were retained.
After thanking the official, they packed their luggage and set off overnight.
After walking for several days, I finally arrived in Xindu, and saw hope right in front of me.
It's a pity that great joy brings sorrow. It started to snow and drizzle at night. The road to Niujia Village had neither front nor back, not even a place to rest.
The adults were fine and their bodies could still bear it, but the children were not. They all got hot no matter how many clothes they wrapped themselves in.
When they saw that this was not going to work, they let the faster ones go first to see if Niujiacun could provide some help, but they didn't hold out much hope.
They walked all night and didn't reach anywhere, which is enough to show how remote this place is. In such a big mountain, who can afford livestock and bicycle frames.
Just as they were moving forward at a turtle speed, a black shadow appeared in front of them. As the black shadow got closer and closer, they noticed that it was actually a cart, and the person pulling the cart was a shiny mule. The speed Not slow.
Niu Dadu drove the cart skillfully. During this period, Niu Shanbao also handed over a corn flour steamed bun. He took it without politeness, tore it open and ate half of it, while the mule ate half, finishing the steamed bun in two or three mouthfuls.
This behavior made Niu Shanbao twitch in his eyes: "You are so kind to the animals. My father specially asked me to leave these buns for you to eat."
The cow belly stopped talking again. His mule feels sorry for himself if others don't feel sorry for him.
Niu Shanbao didn't care either. Anyway, Niu Dadu didn't like to talk for a day or two. He was used to it.
"Big belly, hurry up, look at those people in front of you, are they them?" Several dark figures appeared in front of them, and they were almost invisible in the wind and snow.
"You must be the new villagers. We are from Niujia Village and are here to pick you up." Niu Shanbao said with a smile and jumped out of the car.
"Hey, this is the child they are talking about. I'm sorry, please put it in the car quickly. It's windy outside." Niu Shanbao didn't wait for them to answer, and directly picked up a child and handed it to Niu Dadu.
Niu Dadu took it and carefully put it into the car.
No one wants to come to this barren mountain, so these people are them, and they can't be wrong.
"Thank you, thank you." Brother Nian saw his brother being placed in the carriage, without a trace of wind or snow coming in. He suddenly came to life, with a hint of life in his eyes.
His father, mother, and sister were all separated on the road. If something happened to my brother, he would have no intention of living.
"There's still room in the car. You can put your luggage in there too. If you're worried, find someone to go back with us." Niushan Bao looked at the half-space of the car, and then at the people who were about to fall. Still made his own decision.
"Thank you." Although the luggage on me is not worth much, it is heavy and contains pots, pans and everything. These were all bought with money. They were now penniless and anything was good.
Several people murmured a few words, and finally let a gray-haired old lady sit in the car.
The old lady was not polite and sat directly in, looking closely at their luggage.
"Then let's go first. You should hurry up. I won't be able to stop watching the snow for a while. It will take more than half an hour to walk ahead." Niu Shanbao stopped talking and used his elbows. I attacked the beef tripe.
Niu Dadu understood, pulled the reins, turned around and walked away.
As the mule cart got further and further away, several people looked at each other and followed it without stopping.
"Brother Nian, it seems like it's not bad here." The one who spoke was still the teenage daughter-in-law just now, but now her tone was a little more joyful.
There was also a mule cart here, which was different from what they imagined.
"Yes." Brother Nian nodded, looking forward to his future life.
The people here seem pretty good, they've left their homes and just want to survive, that's all.
Hope there won't be any more trouble.
