It rained heavily for five days, and everyone stayed in the cave for five days.
Luckily, everyone had brought some things with them from home before going out. Some brought a pot, some took half a bag of potatoes, and some took flour, but the flour wasn't well preserved and was ruined by the rain.
The family that brought the most things was naturally the Tian An family. They were the first to notice something was wrong, and they had spent a long time preparing. They also had a lot of oilcloths at home, so they kept the things they brought very well protected.
Pots, bowls, rice, noodles, salt, oil, bacon, potatoes, and even a few bags of tender corn picked the night before.
The reason why they were able to get so much, in addition to the large number of people, the two cows were the biggest contributors.
Their family had a total of one ox, two donkeys, and two dairy cows. The ox and donkey were at the grain store in the county town when the earthquake occurred, and they were pulled out of the house in time and survived. Later, Chen Feng and his team used them to transport grain out of the city.
The family's two dairy cows, which were being led by Liu Da up the mountain to graze, also escaped the disaster. When it started to rain, Tian An reminded everyone to get up, and Liu Da tied everything to the cows' backs and then led them directly up the mountain.
Although there were a lot of things, there were even more people, including a lot of farmhands. At first, the villagers were jealous of the things that the Tian An family brought, but later, when they saw that each of them didn't get much, they didn't say anything.
Five days later, the rain stopped and everyone finally walked out of the cave. However, looking at the village below, which was flooded and not even a trace of it remained, everyone's eyes were red and they were choking with sobs and couldn't even speak.
"The village where we have lived our whole lives is gone, gone!"
Although everyone was heartbroken, the water at the foot of the mountain had not receded yet, and they couldn't even go to the village to take a look.
In the following time, apart from going out to collect firewood and find food every day, everyone would stand quietly on the mountain and look at the village, waiting for the water at the foot of the mountain to recede little by little.
No one had ever been to the mountain they were on before, so they only dared to dig some wild vegetables nearby. Only Zhao Yiming would go wandering around the woods every day, sometimes bringing back some pheasants, sometimes rabbits, and when he was unlucky, he would get nothing.
Everyone thought Zhao Yiming went hunting every day for Tian An and his sister. Only Tian An knew that he was hiding from her, and she often avoided him.
When Zhao Yiming went out, Tian An was still asleep. Even if he was awake, he would pretend not to be awake. When Zhao Yiming came back, Tian An would hide away in advance. Even if he couldn't hide away sometimes, the two would just look at each other quietly and finally look away from each other.
Zhao Yiming would come home every day no matter how late it was, and Tian An would wait for Zhao Yiming to come back before falling asleep. Fortunately, everyone was busy grieving and looking for food, and no one noticed the abnormality between the two.
Ten days later, the water at the foot of the mountain finally receded. After waiting for two more days, the village chief and the head of the village finally led everyone down the mountain.
Although we waited for two more days, the land in the village had been soaked in water for such a long time, and the mountain torrents mixed with a lot of silt and sand. The land under our feet was still very soft, just like a flooded rice field, and our feet would sink into it if we were not careful.
After an earthquake, people can still see the ruins of their homes, but after a flash flood, nothing is left except a mess.
The broken houses disappeared, the crops that were about to be harvested in the fields had no roots or sprouts left, it was impossible to tell which field belonged to which family, and even the road out of the village was gone.
When everyone saw the village like this, they felt only sadness in their hearts, but their eyes, which had been red and swollen for a long time, could no longer shed tears.
The village chief and the head of the village suppressed their grief and came to Zhao Yiming to discuss countermeasures. He was the only scholar in the village, and the village chief and others valued him very much.
After a few people discussed it, they unanimously decided to send a few to the county government office to report the village's situation and see what the county magistrate would do. The rest of the people returned to the cave to wait for news. After all, the village was now empty and uninhabitable, so it was better to return to the cave, at least to avoid being exposed to the rain.
Zhao Yiming was one of the candidates to go to the county town. Before leaving, he came to Tian An and told her to be careful and wait for him to come back. This was also the most conversation they had had in recent days.
After instructing Tian An, he threatened and bribed Deng Xue, Liu Hui and others, asking them to take good care of Tian An and the others. Finally, he followed the village head and his group, and found a way out of the village according to his memory before the flood.
The road to the county town would take them only an hour to walk there and back, and after the mountain floods the road would be difficult to walk on, so it would take at most two hours.
But several of them went out early in the morning and they still hadn't returned by noon.
The village chief's wife was anxious and came to Tian An for advice. Tian An felt that Zhao Yiming was smart and had good skills, so nothing should go wrong with him around.
He comforted the village chief's wife, saying that the few people must have been delayed by something and would be back if they waited a little longer.
But, one hour passed, two hours passed... finally, the sun set.
"An An, it's been a whole day, why haven't you come back yet? Nothing happened, right?" The village chief's wife and the headman's wife came over together.
Seeing that it was almost dark, Tian An couldn't help but feel worried, "How about finding a few people to go out and take a look?"
As soon as Tian An said this, the two of them nodded rapidly. Finally, Liu Hui, Dashu's brother Dashan, and another uncle from the village went down the mountain under the gaze of everyone.
After the three of them walked for a quarter of an hour, they came back with Zhao Yiming and the others. However, everyone looked unhappy and solemn, making everyone dare not breathe.
After a while, everyone finally knew the reason:
"The county magistrate is dead!"
"How is it possible? I heard that the county magistrate was only in his thirties! He had just been transferred to Jinning County, how could he die?" Everyone said in disbelief.
"Alas! We've been hiding in the mountains for over half a month, and the weather outside has already changed. The earthquake came so suddenly that there was no time to repair the dikes. A heavy rain directly washed away the dikes, and every village along the way was wiped out.
It is said that misfortunes never come alone. It is said that there was a group of bandits who came from nowhere. They originally wanted to rob the village, but when they saw that the village was gone, they boldly sneaked into the county town and robbed the county government office.
After the earthquake, the county was in chaos, making it easy for them to take over. The county magistrate was killed on the spot. After the bandits robbed the county government office, the county fell. They later robbed many local gentry in the county.
Not only were their property stolen, but even the daughters of landlords were abducted. Those who hadn't been harmed packed up their belongings and fled at night. There weren't many people left in the entire county. We only managed to find out about this after much difficulty."
The more they listened, the more frightened they became, and their faces turned pale with fear. "The county, the county magistrate, the county magistrate is gone, what should we do?" a woman asked tremblingly.
No one spoke. It was obvious that no one knew what to do and the future was uncertain.
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