Everyone was almost crying with joy. The disaster victims they met along the way were either as thin as skeletons or as swollen as pumpkins, or nine out of ten houses were empty, with the corpses inside dried up almost to the point of paper. Now they were extremely unhappy to see the smoke from cooking fires.

The only thought is to survive!

"We're here, we're here!" The Gao Yumin brothers' voices were trembling as they wiped their tears with tattered clothes.

The other members of the Gao family also followed suit. They had to sleep in the open air and face many difficulties and dangers along the way. It is difficult to describe them in a few words. Now they have finally arrived here and found a way to survive with their families. They can finally let go of their worries. They even feel their legs are weak and it is difficult for them to even stand up.

At this time, the snow on the road was already very deep. Everyone walked with one foot deep and one foot shallow, and no one mentioned resting, as if they had endless energy in their bodies.

The further they walked, the closer Baituo Town got. They could also see rows of armored soldiers guarding the entrance to the town. The sharp knives shone coldly, making the victims afraid to act rashly or crowd forward. Instead, they lined up obediently and followed the team forward.

Lin Rui felt that there was something interesting here at first sight, and it was quite orderly, which showed that the management was very strict.

It's good to be strict. If it's lax, all kinds of robberies and murders will happen one after another. Military takeover means that order is still there, the disaster victims entering the town can be controlled, and the safety of their Lin family is guaranteed.

The soldier in charge of the alert was stunned when he saw Lin Rui and others coming. He had been guarding here for many days, and all the disaster victims and rich families he saw were in a miserable state. It was extremely cold in Huangmo Pass in winter, and everyone was hiding in fear.

Lin Rui and others were wearing furs and cotton coats. They looked like country folk, but they were dressed warmer than the soldiers. It was really enviable.

The key point is that it wasn't just one person, but all of them. Although the two blue oxen used to pull the cart were a little thin, they actually survived to Huangmo Pass just like humans. This is really rare.

When encountering such people in troubled times, even the soldiers looked at him with respect, and after a simple search, they let them go: "Line up in front according to the adults' orders."

Do I need to follow instructions while queuing?

After waiting in line and walking to a section of the road where we could see adults, we found that it was true.

There was one team for scholars, one team for blacksmiths, one team for carpenters, and even one team for butchers and hunters.

Lin Rui found that he was not good at any of them. If he had to cite one, it would be doing business. The key point was that doing business was not among the options here!

Among the crowd, only the Gao family, the Fang family and Sister Lin's family can be considered as skilled workers. Gao Yumin and his brother are butchers, the father and son of the Fang family are both carpenters, and Zhao Qing is a hunter.

These skilled workers can receive very good treatment, with ten kilograms of relief food distributed every month. The only requirement is to enter the Xing family's military camp.

The relief food was not the fine grains that Lin Rui provided on the road. The food that the ancient people ate was something similar to泔水, which was stewed together with husks, wheat bran, and rotten vegetable leaves. It was no different from what people ate on the road when fleeing famine.

Perhaps the only difference is that the refugees on the road to escape famine could not eat such food. Lin Rui provided enough fine grains to fill everyone's stomachs in the second half of the journey, which was simply an explosion. No wonder the Lin family was not comparable to ordinary refugees in terms of spirit and size, so it was not surprising that they attracted the attention of the soldiers.

The relief food was a mixture of various cereal husks, wheat bran, taro and broken rice. Even with this ten-pound portion of food, if the food was cooked thinly, a whole family could barely survive.

The Gao family had already run out of food, so this was exactly what they wanted. When it was their turn, they said they would go to the military camp and ask for a way to survive.

Zhao Qing refused, saying he would rather be a commoner and be with his family. Although his last name is not Lin, his wife's is. Now he and his daughter are able to enjoy the good life with his wife's family because of his wife's influence.

My brother-in-law is a capable man. He has become the clan leader at such a young age. He might even have a higher destiny in the future. There is no future for me to suffer in the military camp as opposed to staying with him.

The Fang family also proposed to say goodbye to Lin Rui and others. Fang's father and son were carpenters and were willing to go to the military camp to work. They had been eating and drinking well with the Lin family all the way, and had enough grains to eat. This was a sweetness that Fang Bing and his son had never tasted in their lives.

But dreams will end, and the food that has been eaten cannot be recovered. Every time the team leader's mother cooks, they stare at the food bag and watch it shrink.

After all, this is not a long-term solution. We have to find another way out. Besides, their surname is not Lin, and there is no guarantee that the Lin family will be xenophobic after they arrive at the place. Instead of leaving their fate in the hands of others, it is better to make their own choice.

At least they wouldn't starve to death in the military camp. There were only three of them in the family, and ten kilograms of food was enough for them to survive.

The Lin family, headed by Lin Rui, was best at farming and hard labor, and were eventually assigned to the Huangmoguan area.

Huangmo Pass is located on the border and often goes to war with foreign races, but there are too many wastelands waiting to be reclaimed there. There is no way. The Xing family army stationed at Huangmo Pass cannot starve to death. Without military rations delivered, they began to be self-sufficient, and accepted all the refugees who fled from the famine. They squeezed out another 30% of the already limited military rations to resettle these refugees.

The victims went to the Huangmoguan area to open up wasteland and cultivate land. After the harvest, they paid half of the grain as taxes and kept the remaining half for themselves.

Originally, General Xing had planned to exempt taxes for three years, but was quickly stopped by the military advisor. They had already taken 30% of the military rations, and if the people were not asked to return them on time, the soldiers in the barracks would not have enough to eat and it would cause chaos.

This made the old general give up the idea embarrassedly. Huangmo Pass, this damn place, has been garrisoned by the Xing family army since ancient times. It is not surprising that so many people came here. He wanted them to stay and make Huangmo Pass lively!

In fact, he also knew that if there was no way to survive in the Central Plains, the people would not risk being slaughtered by foreign races to join the Xing family army. It can only be said that Xingjia Village is now the only reliable existence in the entire Linchao. How sad!

The 50-50 tax split was a godsend for the people. According to the taxes in Linjing, the people had to pay 70% to 80% of their grain income each year, and the remaining amount was not enough to feed a family of more than ten people. Being starving to the point of being emaciated was a true reflection of every citizen in that environment.

Now that they have arrived at Huangmo Pass, General Xing gave them food and seeds and let them go back to their old job of farming. This is like a living Bodhisattva to them.

To put it bluntly, they know the land better than they know their own wives.

The Lin family, who had no special skills, naturally went to Huangmoguan to farm. Huangmoguan was not far from Baituo Town, and was even closer than Baixing Town and Baituo Town. Otherwise, the Xing family army would not have set up a checkpoint here.