Listening to Gou'er's explanation of the situation there, Xiao Yu's frown never relaxed.
His fingers kept stroking his chin, his eyes narrowed in thought.
By the way, he asked about some other things, including the traffic in the tidal ditch area, residents, people coming and going, the jurisdiction, river water transportation, etc.
The dog is just a child, how could he know this.
He just told everything he could about what he heard and saw while begging, and Mr. Dongfang beside him interrupted from time to time to supplement him.
At this time, the woman had been squatting next to the fire, stirring the vegetable porridge in the earthen pot with a wooden stick.
But the expression on her face was not very good. She glanced at the dog from time to time, and there seemed to be a reproach and dissatisfaction in her eyes.
Xiao Yu remained calm, sitting on the stone pier and listening carefully, trying not to miss any clue.
"They have been imprisoned there for a long time. Whenever I have a chance, I go to bring food to She Quli and the others. They are suffering more than us and there are many people, but the people who imprison them never let them eat enough. Sometimes They don't give them food at all. I've encountered people who don't give them food several times. I can't get much food even if I beg, so I can give them even less. I want Xiao Shunzi to help me, but He refused, saying that he didn't have enough to eat, so why did he share the food with others? In addition, Xiao Shunzi was also afraid of those who imprisoned them. One time I was almost caught, and they all saw me Well, thanks to my small body and fast running, I escaped from the dog hole. By the way, they also raised their knives to chop me."
"Chop you with a knife?"
There was a little more anger in Xiao Yu's eyebrows.
"Well, you want to chop me!" Gou'er gestured, "It's... it's that kind of long sword, the kind that the police officers have."
"Same as the government's?"
"That's right, one time Xiao Shunzi and I went to beg for food. We were chased by several officials at Songhe Tower, and they even drew their swords. The knives they used were exactly the same as the ones the officials used to chase us away."
Xiao Yu narrowed his eyes, would an official do such a thing?
He remained silent, but he heard Dongfang Laopo curse.
"He is a slut in his clothes. He bullies even a child like this. If someone encounters him, it will definitely blow their brains."
Xiao Yu patted Mr. Dongfang's knee and told him not to be angry. Then he asked some other questions and stood up to leave.
Before leaving, Xiao Yu touched his body and didn't bring any money, so he took off a mutton-fat white jade ring pendant that had been hanging around his waist and put it in Gou'er's hand.
"Dog, thank you. This pendant is given to you."
The dog held the pendant in both hands, with a confused look on his face, and quickly raised his head to look at the woman.
The woman blinked, noncommittal, not knowing whether to accept it or not.
Dongfang Lao said: "Hey, just keep what the prince has given you!"
The dog then carefully took the beautiful jade pendant into his arms and smiled sweetly at Xiao Yu, showing his white teeth.
Xiao Yu finally touched the dog's dirty little face.
"Dog, if nothing happens, don't go to the tidal ditch for the time being."
The boy blinked and looked puzzled: "Why? There are a lot of people over there, and there are a lot of inns and restaurants, so it's easier to beg for food. Xiao Shunzi and I have agreed that we have to go there tomorrow?"
Xiao Yu didn't know what to say. He raised his head and accidentally met the woman's eyes.
The woman hurriedly smiled at him in a flattering manner, and immediately took the dog back to her.
"Dog, listen to the noble man and don't go there from tomorrow on. We still have some corn and can deal with it for a while. Don't... don't cause trouble to the noble man."
The dog seemed to have thought of something. He raised his head and asked, "The noble man said you would build us a new house before. Are you serious?"
"really."
Xiao Yu nodded.
But he soon had trouble again and scratched his head.
"But...if I don't go, She Quli and his mother will go hungry..."
Xiao Yu frowned directly, not knowing what to say.
The dog broke away from the woman and stepped forward to grab Xiao Yu's sleeve: "Noble man, the dog doesn't understand, are all barbarians bad people? Why should they be locked up and not fed? The dog sees them and us. He is just the same, he can cry and laugh, and She Quli's mother also loves him very much."
"Well...Hu people...Hu people are just like us Han people. There are good people and bad people. How should I put it? This kind of thing cannot be explained clearly in one or two sentences."
"Noble sir, She Quli and those imprisoned do not look like bad people. They are really pitiful. The place where they are imprisoned is like a kennel, which is not as good as ours. There they can only bend down or stay in it. Climb. She Quli told me that he missed his Agan, wanted to return to Chilechuan, and also wanted me to be a guest at their home on the grassland. Can you help him? "
Xiao Yu was stunned, looking at Xiaowa's earnest eyes, but couldn't say a word anymore.
At this time, the woman once again dragged the dog back to her.
She smiled flatteringly at Xiao Yu, but turned around and started scolding the boy again.
"Dog, you are too presumptuous. How could you say that to a nobleman? Kowtow to the nobleman and admit your mistake."
As the woman spoke, she pressed the dog's thin shoulders to make him kneel down.
Upon seeing this, Xiao Yu hurriedly stopped him.
"Hey, hey, they are all children, no need, no need!"
But in the process of persuasion, Xiao Yu's hand and the woman's hand accidentally touched each other.
The woman's hand quickly retracted as if she was electrocuted. Her black and white eyes were like a frightened deer, shy and evasive. She bit her lip and lowered her head.
In this ancient time, Xiao Yu, as a time traveler, had never cared about the lack of intimacy between men and women. When he saw the shy and nervous look on the woman's face, he just acted as if nothing had happened.
He touched Gou'er's head again: "Dog, listen to your mother and don't go to that place again. This is all for your own good. Don't let your mother worry anymore. As for your friend and him The tribesmen..."
Xiao Yu gritted his teeth.
"I will try my best to find a way to rescue them."
Xiao Yu raised his head to look at them again.
I just felt that the "mother and son" looked at me a little strangely.
The woman said nothing,
But the dog barked: "Do you really mean what you said?"
Xiao Yu sighed in his heart. To be honest, he really regretted saying it, but since he said it, he should fulfill his promise.
He nodded: "Seriously!"
A big smile immediately appeared on the dog's face.
Xiao Yu will also laugh heartily.
Xiao Yu raised his head and looked at the woman again, cupped his hands and said, "Sister-in-law, I have been harassing you so far. Xiao Yu has confessed, so let's say goodbye."
The woman calmed down and smiled at Xiao Yu. She looked much calmer at this moment.
"What are you saying, noble man? It's difficult to travel at night. I hope you will go well."
Xiao Yu nodded and walked back with Mr. Dongfang.
When the two were about to walk past the broken wall,
Suddenly a woman's voice sounded from behind again.
"Alas, noble man, stay here!"
Xiao Yu was stunned for a moment, then turned back to look at the woman in confusion, "Sister-in-law, is there anything else you can do?"
The woman's chest rose and fell violently, as if she had mustered a lot of courage.
"Noble sir, Brother Dongfang, it's getting late. Let's have dinner before leaving!"
The woman said this, but as soon as she lowered her head, she seemed to regret it again.
There is nothing here, except for a few dirty broken bowls, there is really nothing to serve the nobles with porridge.
Besides, corn stewed with wild grass, how can a noble person with such a noble status eat this?
Just when the woman was regretting the impulse that came from the bottom of her heart, she saw that the handsome young man didn't have a trace of disgust on his face. He smiled and waved.
"Sister-in-law, there's no need to worry this time. There's only so much food. Mr. Dongfang and I have quite a lot to eat. If we eat, I'm afraid you won't have enough."
"Then later..." The woman bit her lip, and his voice became very low, as if only she could hear it, "Wait until next time... Wait until the next time I meet the noble, I must keep the noble. I want to make delicious food for you, lots and lots of delicious food. I know that our life will be better then..."
At the end of the sentence, she lowered her head in shame. Her whole face was burning, as if she had been burned by fire, but her heart was uneasy, like a deer bumping around.
The handsome young man blinked, and the smile on his face became a little wider.
"Sister-in-law, I remember it, I will definitely come next time."
Watching the figures of the two men walking further and further away, gradually disappearing into the darkness of the night, a knowing smile appeared on the woman's face.
But the smile soon turned into surprise.
"He...why does he keep calling me sister-in-law?"
She touched her muddy face and seemed to understand something.
She smiled sweetly, showing the neat rows of white teeth in her mouth.
The dog looked at her curiously, then at the two figures in the distance gradually disappearing into the darkness.
…
The road underfoot is not easy.
When we came, there was still a glimmer of light in the sky, but when we returned, darkness had engulfed everything around us.
There are shadows of dilapidated remaining buildings in front of him. If it weren't for the bursts of noise floating in his ears and the firefly-like bonfire in the distance, Xiao Yu would really feel like he was in a mass grave.
Dongfang Lao has excellent eyesight, even at night.
He explored the path ahead and reminded Xiao Yu of the situation under his feet from time to time.
Xiao Yu always agreed absentmindedly, but he was thinking about other things.
Are the barbarians Gou'er mentioned really related to the barbarians who assassinated Xiao Yuwan?
Xiao Yu vaguely felt that there seemed to be some connection, but what kind of connection was there? With so little information he had collected now, it was impossible to restore the truth of the matter.
It would be great if Liu Shishu was here. He is so capable. I haven't seen him since the last time we were separated. I don't know where he is now or what he is doing. Has he found those men in black and peeled them off? Has he also found the people who ordered them to carry out assassinations?
At this moment, there was a "pop" sound under Xiao Yu's feet. He seemed to have crushed some discarded pottery.
His heart was startled, and his thoughts returned to the present.
Dongfang Lao turned around and said, "Little prince, be careful under your feet. There are some sharp edges. Don't cut your boots or hurt your feet."
Xiao Yu did not respond to Mr. Dongfang, but asked: "General Dongfang, after meeting the mother and son, do you think there is any relationship between the imprisoned barbarians and the assassins I want to find?"
"The general doesn't know... I don't know..." Dongfang Lao said and suddenly couldn't hold back his laughter, which made Xiao Yu a little confused.
"why are you laughing?"
"That mother and son...hehe..."
"Is there anything wrong?"
Mr. Dongfang couldn't help laughing: "There's nothing wrong. They really look like a mother and son, but Yun Niang only looks about seventeen or eighteen years old."
Xiao Yu's face suddenly felt hot. He was really embarrassed. He had always thought that the two people were mother and son, but he never expected that they were siblings.
It's just that everything the woman showed was too much like a mother to her child.
But Xiao Yu still didn't believe it. He just thought Dongfang Lao was teasing him.
"Mr. Dongfang, they...are they really not mother and son?"
"Young prince, why did I lie to you?"
Dongfang Lao's tone was sincere, and it didn't sound like he was lying.
Xiao Yu sighed, and it made sense to think about it. In this troubled world, life is like grass. A pair of siblings who lost their parents depended on each other and followed Dongfang Lao all the way from Qingzhou to Jiankang.
It's really not easy to come to them.
"Where are their parents?" Xiao Yu asked.
Dongfang Lao shook his head: "The general has never seen their parents."
"Then how did they follow you all the way from Northern Dynasty?"
Dongfang Lao stood motionless, as if he was recalling his memory.
"How did you follow..."
After a moment, he spoke, his voice was faint and full of vicissitudes of life, and the distant images seemed to come back to him at this moment.
Xiao Yu didn't leave either. He leaned against a smooth remaining wall in the dark and listened quietly to Dongfang Lao's memories.
"Some people kept falling down along the way, and people kept joining in. We were like a swarm of locusts, disrupting large areas of land in Hebei and Henan. We should not be called expats, we should be called refugees...
"The general has pulled up a team returning to the south. If you are the leader of this team, you will be a handsome refugee. But the size of our people is different from those led by Xi Jian and Su Jun in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, which often numbered tens of thousands or tens of thousands. Naturally, they pale in comparison to the refugees. Sometimes the general felt that he was a liar, tricking a group of landless refugees into defecting to the South and joining the Southern Dynasty.
"At that time, we had just passed Suishui and were about to reach Ma Tou County. The rainy season had arrived and the ground was muddy and difficult to walk on. At that time, our group of refugees had been without food for many days. All the way here, we were chewing the bark of the trees. I was so clean that I couldn't walk or stop.
"The last general discussed the way forward with a few brothers who had a strong voice among the refugees. After talking more and analyzing clearly, some people began to back down and wanted to disperse on the spot, leaving each other to make a living and leave it to fate. But some people were once seduced by the late general's promise of high profits, and they returned south regardless of life or death.
"The two sides quarreled all afternoon in the rainy night. When it was getting dark, news came back that there were people from another branch nearby and they were preparing to attack a dock thirty miles east of the county seat of Ma Tou County. fort.
"It is said that the owner of Nawubao, whose surname is Liu, is philanthropic and has great prestige in the neighborhood. He couldn't bear the suffering of the people, so he gathered the village warriors and built a fort to protect himself. A few days ago, he and another group of tens of thousands of people who came here to look for food earlier. A fire broke out among the refugees. Although Wubao was saved, both sides suffered heavy losses.
"A few people gathered together and thought that there was an opportunity to break into Wubao to grab some food and return. It would not hurt people's lives to grab things. In that case, no one thought it was dishonorable.
"That night, the general gathered a thousand men, trying to sneak in through the darkness, grab some food, and leave.
"Who would have imagined that before we even climbed over the hill that day, we saw blood-red clouds on the horizon, and there were shouts of killing coming from far and near.
"Looking back, it's not a group of people who are plotting against Nawu Fort. I was very hungry at that time, so I wanted to take this opportunity to save some energy and easily get a share of the pie.
"But when we got close to the bottom of the Wubao city wall, we felt that the momentum was wrong. The people in Wubao ran away as fast as they could. When they saw the refugees like us, they were not afraid or dodge. They just ran past me.
"I couldn't make up my mind for a while, but no matter what, it was better to die than to starve to death, so I gritted my teeth and rushed into the Wubao against the flow of people. Only after entering the Wubao did I know what was going on. Shura Dojo..."
Dongfang Lao paused here.
"My young prince, do you know what the last general saw?"
