Chapter 217 Pan Er

Traveling day and night, Lin Qian and her relief team soon arrived in Shu.

Because there were too many soldiers coming to provide disaster relief, the entire army was moving slowly. To save time, Lin Shuo, Lin Qian, and Wei Xiaoran discussed and decided to abandon the main force and take a small group of people to escort supplies and military doctors to Shu first.

The journey was not peaceful. The news of the earthquake in Shu had spread everywhere, and people knew that the imperial court would definitely come to deliver supplies on the official road at this time.

Therefore, Lin Qian and his companions encountered five bandits and robbers who came to rob them along the way.

Lin Qian and Wei Xiaoran didn't care about these things, they were all solved by Lin Shuo. If Lin Shuo didn't take action, it would be fine, but when he did, he would use ruthless means.

He had no good feelings towards these bandits.

These supplies were sent to the disaster area. If the supplies were robbed, the people in Shu would not be able to wait for the court to send more supplies. These bandits must know this.

But they were only concerned about their own selfish desires and didn't care about the lives of so many people in Shu. Lin Shuo was really angry.

This time when Lin Shuo was recruiting soldiers, he specifically selected a thousand soldiers equipped with ten-crossbows. Now, in order to escort the supplies to Shu as quickly as possible, six hundred of the thousand soldiers followed.

Lin Shuo was always paying attention to the road conditions along the way. Once they encountered bandits, the large army did not even stop. They simply sent out twenty or so people to shoot two waves of arrows and then came back to continue on their way.

All that was left were dead bodies and crossbow arrows scattered all over the ground.

Arriving in Shu, Lin Qian got off the carriage and saw a flat open space with hundreds of people sitting on it, back to back. Some of them had no clothes on and were only wrapped in a thin blanket, curled up to keep warm.

There are men and women, old people and children.

In the distance were their houses, now reduced to rubble and ruins, with only countless broken stones, rubble and wooden beams left.

On top of these ruins, there were many people running back and forth, or digging in the places where their houses had collapsed, and there were cries and shouts everywhere.

"Son! Where are you?..."

"Mother! Did you hear that? I heard you say something!"

"Niuniu, are you down there? Promise your mother!"

Countless cries and shouts came together, all trying to call out to their families.

This is an earthquake.

Lin Qian and the other military doctors were all women, and they couldn't bear to watch this scene, and their eyes were red.

But then their eyes became determined, and after calming down, they began to move forward, all the way to the outside of the simple tent where the cries of pain came from. This was where they were most needed.

Without any instructions or commands, the team of military doctors who were supposed to stay behind began to work hard, classifying the wounded into those with minor or serious injuries. Then, they began to treat and bandage the patients one by one according to the priority.

Lin Shuo left behind a team of soldiers and asked them to leave behind some of the supplies and medicines. Then he took the remaining supplies and military doctors and continued to move towards the center of the earthquake zone.

The earthquake in Shu was so widespread that it was definitely not the only place that needed rescue.

Continuing forward, at each place he arrived, Lin Shuo would leave behind a team of soldiers, military doctors, and supplies before continuing on his way. Lin Qian also sprinkled cold spring water on the herbs and food.

After walking for another three days, Lin Qian and the others finally arrived at the area where the earthquake was most severe. Lin Qian chose to stay and rescue people, while Wei Xiaoran and Lin Shuo had to walk through the entire disaster area. The three of them separated here.

The day after Wei Xiaoran and Lin Shuo left, the main force finally arrived. As soon as they arrived, they immediately started looking for and recruiting people.

"Madam! This man's thigh is broken and the bleeding needs to be stopped." Two soldiers rushed into the tent, carrying a dying middle-aged man on a stretcher.

Lin Qian was busy amputating a woman whose arm was necrotic. When she heard this, she looked over there and said, "I see. I'll be done soon."

After saying that, Lin Qian quickened the pace of her hands.

After bandaging the woman under her command, Lin Qian hurriedly ran to the middle-aged man who had just been carried in and looked at his injuries.

His thigh was broken into two pieces, probably caused by the broken beam. There were sawdust in the wound.

"Uncle, how did you do this?" Lin Qian asked, holding a silver needle in her hand, quickly stopping the bleeding.

The middle-aged man lost so much blood that even his lips turned pale, but because of the pain, he was still conscious.

His eyes were blurred for a moment, and suddenly he began to wave his hands. Lin Qian's hands trembled, and the silver needle in her hand almost pierced the wrong acupuncture point, which scared her so much that she broke out in a cold sweat.

"Pan'er! I want to go find my Pan'er. My Pan'er is still trapped under the house." The middle-aged man said loudly with an excited look on his face, and was about to get up from his side.

Lin Qian quickly held him down and made him lie down again. This time, she simply pressed his acupoints and said, "Don't get excited yet. You want to find Pan'er, right? I'll send someone to help you find her right away. I'll take care of your legs first, and then you can go find her yourself later."

The middle-aged man nodded hurriedly and said, "Okay, okay, hurry up."

Lin Qian nodded, then asked, "Who is Pan'er? Is she your daughter?"

The name Pan'er has the same meaning as Zhaodi. Seeing the middle-aged man so anxious, Lin Qian couldn't understand. Would a father who gave his daughter such a name really be so worried about her?

The middle-aged man shook his head after hearing this. He swallowed and said in a dry and hoarse voice, "No, Pan'er is my wife."

Lin Qian looked at his chapped lips and suddenly asked, "When was your wife buried under the house?"

Lin Qian once asked, after the first earthquake, there were five or six aftershocks here, and she didn't know when Pan'er was buried under the house. If the time was close, maybe she could be rescued.

The middle-aged man's face turned even paler. His lips trembled, and even his voice was shaking as he said, "More than twenty days ago."

Lin Qian's hands trembled. Twenty days or so? Wasn't that the time when the first earthquake occurred? From the time the emperor received the news to the time Lin Qian and the others rushed over, it was only twenty-eight days.

The middle-aged man’s wife, Pan’er, may no longer be with us.

"Have you been looking for Pan'er's whereabouts here these days?" Lin Qian continued to ask without stopping.

The middle-aged man's leg was broken, which was his most serious injury, but there were also several long wounds on his body that needed to be sutured. There was no anesthetic, so he could only sew them like this.

That's why Lin Qian asked this and that, hoping to divert some of his attention.

The man's throat suddenly rolled twice, and then he choked and cried: "I, I just rushed back ten days ago. It's my fault. I didn't take good care of you, Pan'er! Pan'er!"