What are you going to do?

Just as Zhu Haotian approached, Zhu Yanyan instantly turned around in fear, went behind Zhu Borong, and forcefully pushed him out.

Zhu Borong, his legs trembling, looked up guiltily at the tall and imposing Zhu Haotian and greeted him with a smile.

"Let's talk this out, actually..."

Before he could finish speaking, Zhu Haotian punched Zhu Borong in the face without hesitation, then easily picked him up and threw him toward their camp.

With Zhu Borong as a precedent, the others instantly lost their desire to continue eating, stopped what they were doing, and stared blankly at Old Lady Zhu.

Grandma Zhu quickly seized the opportunity to express her thoughts: "As everyone knows, the Yuan Kingdom is suffering from continuous droughts, coupled with the border crisis and the empty treasury. Many post stations are already experiencing shortages of water and food."

"Therefore, if we want to reach the border alive, we must rely on our own strength to survive."

Zhu Sheng scoffed at Old Lady Zhu's words, wiping the rice off his face and shakily standing up.

"That sounds nice, but we are prisoners. All we have to our name is a few broken pots and a set of clothes. The edible fruit in the forest has been picked clean by the refugees, and we have no ability to hunt. How can we support ourselves?"

Zhu Sheng's statement was immediately endorsed by the others, who all nodded in agreement.

Despite this, Grandma Zhu's expression remained unchanged, with a faint smile on her face and gentle eyes looking at everyone.

"What if we teach you to identify herbs? As you know, there are constant battles on the border, and the most scarce resources right now, besides food, are herbs. We often see many medicinal herbs on our journeys."

“These herbs can be exchanged for different amounts of silver and food. Isn’t that better than us killing each other?”

As soon as he finished speaking, the tribesmen, who had been dejected, suddenly had the will to live and excitedly looked up at each other.

“Husband, what Old Lady Zhu said makes sense. If they are willing to teach us how to pick herbs, we can use them to exchange for food.”

Wang Qiu really didn't want to live a life of hunger anymore, and after hearing Old Lady Zhu's suggestion, she excitedly grabbed Zhu Sheng's hand.

Zhu Sheng, however, hesitated, his head bowed, seemingly considering something, and did not respond to Wang Qiu's words for a long time.

Since no one voiced their opinion, others dared not easily agree.

Grandma Zhu, however, stepped forward with a calm smile, looked at the messy campsite, and gestured for them to enter.

"Everyone has eaten and drunk their fill, right? Now everyone should go back and rest! We still need to clean up this place."

The crowd, who had been stunned, wiped the rice from their mouths and left with their heads down after hearing what Grandma Zhu said.

After everyone left, the camp was a mess, with eggshells scattered all over the ground, and even raw potatoes and sweet potatoes had been dug up and bitten.

Tao picked up the sweet potato that had been bitten a few times with heartache, and, holding back tears, choked out.

"Just eat it, why take a few bites?"

Knowing that her second sister-in-law was upset, Sun quickly squatted down, picked up the basket, and helped her tidy up, gently patting her back to comfort her.

"It's okay, you can still eat it after washing it."

"I'm sorry, I've wronged you. It was my oversight."

Seeing her daughter-in-law so aggrieved, Old Lady Zhu felt bad too. Holding back her tears, she sat weakly on the stone bench.

Tao knew that her mother-in-law had done her best. She quickly wiped away the tears in her eyes, shook her head and said, "Mother, don't take everything on yourself."

Seeing that everyone's eyes were filled with tears, Liu swallowed her words and sat down next to Old Madam Zhu, gently patting her back.

"Mother, do we really want to teach them how to pick herbs?"

She asked this because they themselves knew best whether the herb was easy to pick.

We were so focused on getting there that we didn't really look at the plants along the way. We only got this ginseng today because of Xixi.

With so many people joining now, it's likely the scheme will be exposed eventually.

Old Mrs. Zhu naturally understood what her daughter-in-law meant, but if she didn't settle things with these people in time, she was afraid that such days would happen frequently in the future.

"Let's take it one step at a time! When people are starving, they'll eat anything. Have you ever heard of people exchanging children to eat? We still have a long way to go to the border. We're all in this group, and there's no way to avoid this."

“In the past, when we arrived at the post station, we would have a bowl of thin porridge to drink. But now the post station is not the same as before. There are no people, let alone food.”

"Now we can say that our own lives are in our own hands."

These words made Zhu Xixi feel very uncomfortable. The Yuan emperor was greedy, lustful, and incompetent. Under his rule, the Yuan economy deteriorated year by year.

Now, with constant warfare, the imperial treasury is already empty. In order to defend the territory, the emperor has placed the heavy responsibility of replenishing the treasury on the shoulders of the officials.

Layer upon layer, the ones who ultimately suffer are the lowest-ranking yamen runners. With no way to make a living, the yamen runners naturally have no desire to guard the post station.

With no one to manage the post station, there was naturally no food or water. As a result, these exiled prisoners also lived a life of hunger and thirst.

Thinking about their current predicament, Xixi only regretted that she was too young and could not help everyone in any way. The more she thought about it, the more aggrieved she felt, and she accidentally burst into tears.

The old lady Zhu, who was originally weak, suddenly regained her strength after hearing her granddaughter's cries and quickly turned to look at her.

"Xixi is awake. Grandma will feed you rice porridge, okay?"

After handing her daughter over to her mother-in-law, Liu got up with a heavy heart and went to Sun's side to help her clean up the leftovers.

Out of the corner of her eye, Madam Sun caught sight of Madam Liu and noticed that her face looked extremely pale. She reached out and touched Madam Liu's forehead, asking her anxiously.

"Sister-in-law, are you alright? Why do you look so pale?"

Liu sighed and shook her head. "I'm fine, I'm just wondering why the guards treat us like this? Even if we're prisoners, they shouldn't be denying us food!"

"If we fail to reach the border, won't they also be punished? Why do we do it knowingly?"

These questions also puzzled Sun, who squatted down next to Liu with her knees drawn up to her chest, looked around, and whispered.

"Sister-in-law, did these escorts receive some inside information, which is why they wanted to send us away ahead of schedule..."

Liu stared blankly at Sun's hand slashing her neck, then recalled her daughter's reminder. Startled, she dropped the white porcelain bowl in her hand and it shattered in two.

Thinking she had frightened her sister-in-law, Mrs. Sun quickly apologized, "I'm sorry, sister-in-law, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Jiayan, it's not your fault. I was wondering if the sudden increase in the number of guards in Jiangyang City today is related to this matter?"

After pondering for a moment, Madam Liu sighed with a heavy expression.