Chapter 88: Looting
The next day, when everyone got up, they found that Miss Fuqi was gone! She only left a message on the cart with charcoal: In order to avoid adding to everyone's sadness at the separation, Fuqi has to go first. Everyone take care of yourselves. I wish you a safe arrival in Nanzhou City. See you later.
After reading the words to everyone, the head of the village sighed and said, "Well, everyone, pack up and hurry on your way. We have to get to Lincheng before dark today."
Then he took everyone to the official road. After everyone had actually walked on the official road for a while, they were shocked.
They chose to take the long route because they guessed that all the people fleeing famine would take the shortcut, so they avoided the people from Liuhe Village and the people fleeing famine perfectly.
This was because no refugee would choose to walk for seven more days. Seven more days would mean seven more days of food consumption, which also led to the fact that they did not encounter any other refugees along the way.
Now that I have walked out of the right path, I didn't expect that the outside world has become so terrible. There are corpses lying everywhere on the road, some of which are even half-rotten. The whole official road is filled with the stench.
"vomit!!"
Everyone tried their best to hold their breath, but the stench still reached their heads, and they vomited one after another, until they couldn't even vomit out stomach acid.
Seeing this, Xu Zhiyi quickly searched for cloth on the cart, took it out, and cut it into the size of a modern mask with a knife. Then he taught everyone to quickly sew thin straps on both sides that could be hung on the ears.
Although I can still smell something even with a mask on, at least I can hold it back, and there’s no such feeling as it goes straight to the top of my head!
Along the way, everyone saw the corpses on the ground and felt heavy and helpless.
Before nightfall, everyone finally arrived at the gate of Lincheng, only to see a long queue at the gate, all of whom were ordinary people fleeing famine.
"Household Registration Guide"
Upon hearing this, Xu Zhiyi quickly took out his household registration and handed it over.
The officer guarding the city gate looked at the names on the household register, then raised his head and asked, "Four people on the household register, which four?"
After hearing this, Xu Zhiyi pointed to Su Shi, Shen Wuyou and Shen Changan behind him.
"Well, you refugees can only go in for one hour. After one hour, you must come out. Also, each person entering the city will be charged 15 coins. Are all four of you going to enter the city?"
When Su heard that they could only stay in the city for one hour, it would cost 15 coins per person. She quickly pulled Xu Zhiyi and whispered, "Zhiyi, you and Wuyou can go in. You can only stay in the city for one hour, so you have to pay an extra 30 coins. Forget it! Changan and I will wait outside."
Shen Changan had the same idea, looked at Xu Zhiyi, and shook his head, indicating that he didn’t want to go into the city.
Seeing the two people like this, Xu Zhiyi had no choice but to hand over thirty coins to the official, then turned back and told Su: "Mother, find a place to rest and wait for Wuyou and me. We bought some good things and will be out soon."
Su waved her hand: "Go! I and so many people in the village are here, don't worry"
The village head came over with a representative from each family and said, "Zhiyi, let's go sell the tiger skins, tiger patellas, and sheepskins together, and then each family will get the money and go buy the items they need separately!"
Xu Zhiyi: "Uncle Lin, you can make the arrangements."
After entering the city, the few people found a shop that specialized in buying game. They sold tiger skin for 15 taels of silver and sheep skin for 300 coins.
Afterwards he went to a pharmacy to sell tiger patella, which had high medicinal value, and sold it for twenty taels of silver.
The total amount sold was thirty-five taels and three hundred wen, with a total of seven households, and each household getting about five taels and forty-two wen.
After dividing the money, the village head instructed: "After you finish shopping, go out of the city and find people outside to wait together."
After everyone nodded, they hurried to go to the grain shop to check it out.
Doctor Li immediately turned around and walked into the pharmacy behind him. He had run out of medicine and needed to get some more.
Xu Zhiyi brought Shen Wuyou to the clothing store and bought two quilts. It was already September, and in another month, I was afraid that the nights would become colder and colder, so I had to prepare quilts.
I also bought four pairs of shoes.
Then he thought about it and decided to buy cotton-padded clothes as well. He bought new and old cotton-padded clothes. He wore the new ones inside and the old ones outside to avoid trouble. He stored them in the space first because he couldn't guarantee that they could arrive at Nanzhou City before the cold air came.
The village head and his men all had quilts and cotton-padded clothes on their carts, except for her and Su, because in the Xu family, the original owner and Su only had quilt covers.
When winter came, the mother and daughter could only fill their quilts with straw or willow catkins to keep warm. When going out, they sewed willow catkins into their clothes.
As for Shen Wuyou and Shen Changan, they saw that the cotton was too dense! It was heavy to carry, but it was no longer warm, so they gave up after considering it!
After buying clothes and quilts, the two went to the grain store and bought 50 kilograms of grain, carrying them on their backs to pretend. Although the grain in the space was enough to last until the whole of Nanzhou City had some left over, everyone was stockpiling food, and it would be unreasonable to treat you as an exception.
Today I spent a total of five taels of silver on cotton-padded clothes, quilts and shoes. They were all made of coarse cloth. Plus the weather is not cold now, otherwise they would have been more expensive, mainly because cotton is expensive.
As for food, I bought 50 jin of black flour, which has now risen to 20 wen per jin, and I spent one tael of silver.
There was nothing left to buy, so he took Shen Wuyou out of the city to gather.
Just as they were returning to the team, the village head brought back several people who had gone into the city. Everyone was carrying about 30 kilograms of food. Doctor Li was carrying food in one hand and a bunch of medicine bags in the other.
The head of the village said: "Let's find a place to stay outside the city tonight! Tomorrow we will ask if we can go through the other gate. If possible, we can save a few days of travel."
Then he looked around and pointed to an empty space and said, "Let's go over there! The refugees are crowded here, it's too narrow!"
At this time, the people fleeing famine in Liuhe Village were all skinny and their faces were frighteningly pale. Along the way, due to everyone's looting, not even a tree root was left in the surrounding woods.
Some people were so thirsty and hungry that they were extremely exhausted. With a strong desire to survive, they saw people falling to the ground and never getting up again.
But in just a moment, everyone tried their best to grab the food with knives, and some even lay on it to eat it.
When Xu Xiaoju and Xu Yunyue saw the horrifying scene, their already starving bodies finally fainted from fright.
Old man Xu could hardly stand even with the help of a stick! He stared at the people who had a full meal after the looting, and saw them touching their stomachs with satisfaction. It seemed that their bodies, which were so weak just now, had recovered a lot.
"First wife, third wife, why don't we learn from them? At least we can survive."
After hearing what Old Man Xu said, Li was so scared that she shook her head frantically. No, no, no, that's too scary! She absolutely couldn't bring herself to do that.
Song looked at Xu Jinbao who had not yet woken up. These days, the couple took turns carrying him, but the head of the family had asked her to give up Jinbao more than once! Because everyone's body had reached its limit and they could no longer carry a child.
Then he looked at the people and saw that they were slowly recovering their strength. He couldn't help but think, if he cut a piece of meat for Jinbao to eat, would he wake up?
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