As soon as he finished speaking, he saw two middle-aged men walking across from him.
Judging from their clothes, they don't look like refugees, they should be locals.
Yongchang took two steps forward and saw the two men staring at them warily. He quickly stopped and asked politely:
"Brothers, we escaped from the north. We passed by here and wanted to buy something in the town. But the shops nearby were closed, so I wanted to ask you where I can buy grain and salt?"
After listening to his words, the two of them did not relax their vigilance and took two steps back.
Then he sighed helplessly: "Where can we still sell grain now? A few days ago, the refugees robbed the only grain shop in the town, and the shopkeeper also took his family away."
Seeing that most of them were old people and children, I added one more thing:
"If you want to buy salt, go to the east street. There are still a few shops open there, but there are no food sellers."
Li Yunze stepped forward and asked politely: "Two uncles, you want to go to the Lingnan Mountains in the northwest and don't know which way to take?"
"You want to go to Lingnan Mountain? It's still far away from here. If we walk, it will take at least more than half a month."
After the shorter middle-aged man finished speaking, he pointed to a road in front of him: "Follow this road to the west. You will pass through several towns in the middle. You can ask for the specific route when the time comes."
"Thank you, uncle." Li Yunze cupped his hands and thanked him.
The two middle-aged men nodded and left in a hurry. After taking a few steps, they turned back hesitantly and whispered:
"If you go west, be careful. I heard that the bandits who robbed the grain stores in the town a few days ago also fled to the west.
Those people are extremely vicious, most of them are strong men, and there are a few unscrupulous women following them. If you encounter them, be sure to stay away from those people, otherwise you will die miserably. "
These words are by no means alarmist. Those people's faces were all red from eating, and their clothes didn't look like they came from wealthy families.
When the weather is good, farmers pay taxes and have enough leftover food to eat half full.
In such a drought year, how do ordinary people have so much to eat? And they are also victims of the disaster who came out to flee.
Just think about it and you'll know what those people did that were worse than animals.
The two of them saw that there were not many adult men in this group, so they kindly reminded them.
Yongchang and Wencai said gratefully: "Thank you two eldest brothers for reminding me. I wonder how long they have been gone? How many people are there?"
"There were twenty or thirty men and four or five young women." After the two of them finished speaking, they turned and left.
Ye Yutong touched his chin and pondered. Could it be that the refugees whose faces were glowing after eating had eaten human flesh?
Thinking of this, she almost spit out what she had just eaten.
Ye Mingxuan, who had never spoken, said: "Let's go to Dongbian Street first."
Li Yunze nodded: "Let's go, buy something and go straight away."
Then he looked at the people in Anyang County, "What about you? Are you going with us, or do you have other plans?"
Those people had already regretted not going to the capital, but after hearing what the two middle-aged men said just now, they were even more hesitant now.
But if we change the route to the capital now, it will take a long time to walk. After some final discussion, we decided to go west.
Now that we've come this far, let's go to the northwest to try our best. None of them have been to the capital, and they don't know what it's like.
After all, the third uncle is familiar with the northwest, which is better than the capital city where his eyes are blank.
They went to East Street first. There were only a few shops on this street, including a fabric seller, a grocery store, and an official salt shop.
Several government officials were patrolling nearby, probably fearing that the refugees would come and rob again.
Seeing their group, two government officials armed with swords came over and asked, "What do you do?"
Yongchang hurriedly stepped forward and said with a smile: "Sir, we are passing by and want to buy some salt here."
The leading government servant looked at them for a while and then said: "One person from each family will go in, and the rest will wait here."
Yongchang responded with a smile: "Okay, okay, thank you, sir."
Ye Yutong sat on the cart and secretly looked at the government officials.
I feel that they are not as decent as Huang Laosi from Jinzhou City. Two government officials looked at the things on their carts from time to time, with greed in their eyes.
Not only did she notice the government servant's gaze, Li Yunze and Ye Mingxuan were also secretly observing the surroundings. They looked at each other and felt that they couldn't stay in this place for long.
But I just said that I would go inside to buy something. If I turned around and left now, these people might become suspicious.
Li Yunze winked at Yongchang and said, "Uncle Yongchang, let's go in. The rest of us will wait here to save you trouble."
Ye Yutong took out a few copper coins from his purse and gave them to Li Yunze. He pretended to be distressed and said, "We only have these coins at home, so you should save some money."
Li Yunze took it and held it in his arms like a treasure, promising: "I know, just buy some salt and nothing else."
One of the yamen servants sneered and said mockingly: "You only have a few copper coins and you still want to buy salt? Do you know what the price of salt is now?"
Li Yunze pretended to be surprised and asked: "Sir, has the price of salt also increased?"
The yamen servant said disdainfully: "Don't talk about salt. The price of food won't go up these days. If you only have these few copper coins, it's better not to go in and waste your time."
Yongchang and Wencai exchanged a look and sighed helplessly: "Sir, let's not go in then. All the money we have has been used up a long time ago, and there are only a few copper coins left. I originally wanted to buy some salt, but at this price, We can’t afford it either.”
The government officials waved their hands impatiently, "Come on, hurry up, stop wandering around the town, go where you need to go."
"Yes, yes, sir." Yongchang and Wencai laughed with the government officials and asked everyone to leave quickly.
The people from Anyang County followed them, and they were a little confused when they saw that they were about to leave without even buying anything.
Just as he was about to ask, he noticed that Yongchang and Wencai's expressions were not right, and knew that something must be going on.
They didn't say anything, just pushed up their cart and followed.
Perhaps because they were walking in a hurry, one family's basket fell off the cart, revealing a small half bag of grain inside.
Although the man from that family quickly picked up the food and hid it in his basket, he was still seen by a yamen servant.
The officer shouted, "Wait a minute, what are you hiding? Pull the cart over, I want to check it."
Li Yunze quickly observed the terrain. Not far ahead was the road that the middle-aged man had pointed out to them just now.
He whispered: "Uncle Yongchang, you take the others and leave first. I will chase you later."
"No, how can I leave you here alone? There are not many of them anyway.
If they really want to steal our food, we will fight with them. Yongchang said fiercely.
Damn it, this natural disaster has left the people with no way to survive, and these government officials are still trying to steal their food rations. If you don't fight with them, are you still waiting to die?
