Meanwhile, Si Cheng and Wu Yong led the Gao and Gu couples towards the county town.

Because the area is under the control of the remaining military forces, there are no immediate safety concerns. The only thing to worry about is the wild animals coming down from the mountains.

What horrified them most was the sight of exposed skeletons at the bottom of the river when they came from the county town; it was a truly chilling sight.

These are the bodies that were thrown into the river after the major earthquake. For some reason, they didn't float downstream but sank to the bottom. Due to the recent drought, the river has dried up, and they've all been exposed.

Yun Zhixin led his soldiers to pile up the bones from the bottom of the river every day. Even several villages in the surrounding area came to help. They planned to collect the bones and cremate them together.

The original plan was to dig a deep pit and bury them, but there were just too many remains, so Yun Zhixin used the gasoline stored in the army to gather all the bodies together and then cremate them.

Si Cheng and his men originally wanted to stop and help, but Yun Zhixin and his group refused. The troops that had migrated south to find water had also arrived and stopped to help when they saw the situation. They figured there was little point in them staying; it was better to finish the job quickly.

In fact, Yun Zhixin also had his own ulterior motives, which was that he did not want to expose Sicheng's abilities to these people too early.

"Brother, there's a village just ahead, but there aren't many people there. Should we go and ask?" Wu Yong was the guide for this route because he was quite familiar with the area. He had traveled back and forth towards the county town several times and knew the area well.

"Let's go ask first, but we'll have to wait until we come back to exchange the salt. If they can't eat that much, it won't be easy for us to travel with all the food we have."

"Then I'll go ask first." Wu Yong naturally agreed, especially since he wanted to help the nearby villages first, as there were many new farmers like himself who had come to the countryside.

A short while later, Wu Yong returned. "Brother, I've already told them the exchange rate. They won't be able to exchange much, so we just need to leave them thirty jin."

The exchange rate was set in their village, and although it was somewhat inflated, they had to consider that this salt was something they had brought back after two months of work.

"Then let's hurry on our way. We might be able to exchange all the salt without even reaching the city." Si Cheng had originally planned to go to the city to investigate, but after encountering soldiers migrating south in the county town, he suddenly felt that going to the city would be pointless. Since there were troops stationed there, the place would definitely not be chaotic. He should just stay in the village and continue farming.

However, we can inquire about the demand for salt. If there is a certain demand, we can make a few more trips.

“Brother, things are better here. I just saw that although the river in their village has dried up, they still have groundwater. Although it’s not as convenient to get water, there’s really no problem for the time being. Moreover, I just saw that they are taking some measures. They have actually widened the wellheads. It seems that as long as the underground river doesn’t dry up, they will be fine here too.” Wu Yong told Si Cheng everything he had seen.

"This is a good thing. If we don't have water here either, then we'll have to migrate south again, just like the troops we encountered before. I just don't know if we'll be able to find a better place than here." Si Cheng thought back to his previous life. Although the south wasn't as arid, many water sources were controlled by the locals. So they had to keep looking for water along the way, and sometimes they took the wrong path, which is why they hadn't reached their destination after so many years.

"I wonder how my former colleagues are doing. They went even further north. If it weren't for my brother serving in the military here, we might have gone with them." Wu Yong is extremely worried about his former colleagues. He wonders if they will be as lucky as him and find a place with mountains and water.

Gao Shitou and Gu Dongzhi exchanged a glance, both feeling incredibly fortunate.

Although Si Cheng possessed memories from an extra lifetime, he truly knew nothing of the situation further north. He could only hope that the impact there was less severe, otherwise, who knew what kind of disaster awaited them.

As everyone silently hurried on their way, they encountered soldiers who were personally leading some locals who were willing to stay in the countryside. Although many villages had disappeared, the land was still there. Even though some people had been relocated from the city, there was still a lot of wasteland available for these people to continue cultivating.

"Are you from any of the nearby villages?" Old Ma heard the people who came out to check the situation reporting that there was still a lot of open land in the area and that they had reached an agreement with the villagers. They were preparing to lead the people this way, since it was important to settle the people down as soon as possible, otherwise their surplus grain would not be able to withstand this cycle of only going out and not coming in.

"We're from Pinghe Village, and we're heading to a nearby village to exchange for some grain." Seeing the group of people behind him carrying large and small bags, Si Cheng guessed what they were going to do.

"You guys are really something! You even have such strong oxen." Old Ma's eyes lit up as he looked at the oxen in the road.

"These oxen are used for plowing the fields, and they are usually very precious. We only let them out this time because we had a lot of things to carry." Wu Yong became a little anxious when he saw that Wu Yong's eyes were fixed on the oxen. He quietly moved a step in front of the oxen to block them. The two couples, Gu Dongzhi and Gao Shitou, who were following beside him, became a little nervous when they saw him do this.

"I said, you're too nervous, young man. I was just praising your oxen, that's all," Old Ma said, unable to help but laugh at the young man's actions.

"Where are you all headed?" Si Cheng asked, noticing Wu Yong's embarrassment at the question.

"It's not that your area has good mountains and water, which is why many people want to settle here." Old Ma genuinely felt that the conditions here were better than where they had lived before. At least there were more mountains and water, so there were more resources, and they certainly wouldn't starve.

"It's good, but with more mountains, there are more wild animals. We still need to take precautions, especially in uninhabited villages." Si Cheng wasn't trying to scare them; he had noticed that the signs of wild animal activity were more obvious after he returned.

In situations like this, animals tend to recover faster than humans, and northern animals, which are often short of water, will instinctively migrate towards water sources. The next challenge they may face is not water scarcity, but rather attacks from wild animals.