"Village chief, why don't you eat human flesh?"
Nowadays in Yishu Pass, it seems that cannibalism has become a trend, and those who don’t eat human flesh are considered outliers.
The village chief shook his head. "Even animals know not to eat their own kind. How can we humans be any worse than animals? After eating human flesh, our eyes turn red and we can't even recognize the sun. We have to wrap ourselves up tightly when we go out, for fear of being burned by the sun. How is this different from ghosts? In this world, I'll either starve to death or I won't eat a single bite of human flesh."
After saying this, the old village chief smiled bitterly and said, "I am obsessed with appearances. We are inferior people who are hunted. We can only be used as food for people and sheep. We are not even qualified to eat human flesh."
"How do you explain this?" Lin Rui asked again.
Yishu Pass is not a big place, so it’s okay if you don’t get in. But once you get in, you’ll find that there are so many twists and turns.
Just say that when I entered the city before, I saw how strange it was to see the main city of Yishuguan so prosperous. Even in Huangmoguan, which was doing relatively well, people in tattered clothes could be seen everywhere on the busy roads and in the town. Yishuguan was actually ahead of Huangmoguan in getting out of poverty and becoming rich.
I don’t know what happened to the Young General and Sanliang and the others now. I hope they can escape and not be trapped here like him.
Hunters can be seen everywhere, and meat markets selling human flesh are everywhere. The vegetable people and the sheep that the old village chief mentioned were things he had only seen in the history of the Southern and Northern Dynasties. In just a few lines, they portrayed the miserable lives of the poor people at that time.
What are vegetable people? They are equivalent to raised pigs, cattle and sheep, or in other words, the food they eat is not as good as that of livestock. Historical records have recorded that the price of vegetable people is far lower than that of livestock and poultry.
Not envying sheep means choosing women or girls who are young in age and skin. Their meat is firm, fragrant when cooked, chewy and delicious when eaten. A bite of it tastes better than beef or mutton. Only then can one say "not envying sheep".
The Vegetable People and the Unenvious Sheep may seem like mere relics of ancient times, but from another perspective, the ancient feudal dynasties had limited ability to resist natural disasters and avoid risks. Whether it was a severe drought or a flood, countless people would be displaced. In addition, corrupt officials were in power, and only one in ten of the food distributed for disaster relief would survive when it reached the disaster-stricken areas. Some local officials were still cautious and would mix sand and rice flour together to increase the weight.
However, some officials are so bold and presumptuous that they simply use sand and stones to deal with things perfunctorily. How can the lives of the people be compared with their extravagant desires for wealth and glory?
He was in a position to lead a country to ruin because such corruption was rampant and had completely destroyed the foundation of a country.
The hard-earned taxes and money of the common people have fattened up a large number of parasites.
There is no idle land in the world, but farmers still starve to death. This is the best portrayal of feudal society.
But now Lin Rui was curious about the old village chief's claim that no one was qualified to eat human flesh. Why? Was there a hierarchy of different levels of human flesh eaters?
The old village chief explained his confusion: "In Yishu Pass, people are not divided into three, six, nine, or ten classes. Instead, they are divided into first, second, and third classes."
"The first-class people are the high-ranking officials and nobles headed by the Marquis of Xinyang. They enjoy the best resources of Yishu Pass, including food, clothing, housing, and daily necessities. Even a single drinking vessel is enough to support dozens of impoverished villages like ours."
This Lin Ruixin, the village that Hanbao brought him back to is so poor. Some newborn babies are so thin that they are dying, and the most important thing is that they are still bald in their mothers' arms, in such a cold weather!
The mother is thin, the child is thin, and the father is also thin. Lin Rui feels that it will be difficult for this family of three to survive this winter.
But in such a harsh environment, why do we still have to do such strenuous work and have children?
Why!
"The second group consists of the soldiers under the Marquis of Xinyang. They committed all manner of evil within Yishu Pass, burning, killing, and looting. After they devoured our stored grain and seeds, a huge food shortage emerged. They killed people, ate their flesh, and opened a meat market simply to satisfy their gluttony."
"The third class of people, also known as the lower class, are the poor people like us who have lived in Yishuguan for generations. Our food has been robbed, our homes have been destroyed, our relatives have been killed, and we are also being captured to serve as food for those evil spirits."
"The soldiers of Xinyang Hou were guarding Xinyang Hou's Yishu Pass, not the Yishu Pass of us common people. Now, nine out of ten houses in Yishu Pass are empty. The people have been eaten by these evil spirits."
"Now our village is still struggling to hold on. Perhaps we are the only spark left in Yishu Pass. The people in the entire Yishu Pass have been devoured by them."
Lin Rui was so shocked by what the old village chief said that he couldn't recover for a long time. What a horror story! The common people of Yishu Pass were eaten up by these soldiers!
The Marquis of Xinyang was short-sighted and allowed his soldiers to wield their knives against the unarmed civilians.
The skeletons in the depressions in the shelter were the evidence of their crimes. They had eaten so many people alive. The saying that there was a god above our heads was like a joke in the hands of those executioners.
No wonder Yan Qingqing, whom I met earlier in the palace of Marquis Xinyang, said that she wanted to destroy Yishu Pass. The decent people who survived here all had other people's flesh in their stomachs.
Lin Rui stayed in the cave temporarily. He was dressed neatly and warmly, so he didn't need to get close to the fire to shiver. The children in the cave looked at him and Hanbao with curiosity and envy.
Han Bao was now awkwardly wearing the clothes Lin Rui had given him that day. He was now considered one of the only two respectable people in the cave. However, the next day, Lin Rui discovered that the clothes he had given Han Bao were a little too short. Curiously, he asked him, "Han Bao, what's wrong with your clothes?"
Hearing this, Han Bao scratched his head and smiled: "Big brother, my aunt had just given birth to my little sister and she had no clothes to wear, so I asked her to cut a piece of my clothes."
Only a piece? Lin Rui raised his eyebrows. He cut it halfway and left!
No wonder he said that the clothes on the two children playing in front of the open space in the cave looked so familiar. It turned out that they were also his own.
Fortunately, the aunt who asked the little fool for clothes was not so tasteless. She altered Lin Rui's clothes for the fool so that he could wear them neatly. He no longer had the awkward feeling of a child wearing adult clothes as he did yesterday.
"Silly, do you like your new clothes?"
Han Bao couldn't let go of the new clothes and touched them carefully, fearing that the dirt on his hands would make them dirty. He nodded and said, "I like it. I like it very much."
"It's time to eat, it's time to eat!" The village chief's daughter-in-law outside the cave shouted while hitting the iron pot with a wooden spoon.
There are only ten families in this cave who huddle together for warmth. Now Hanbao's parents are dead, and there are only nine families and one child left, less than twenty people. They continue to live in the same way as the big pot meal that Lin's family had on their escape, saving the trouble of firewood and each family having to light a fire.
The little fool dragged Lin Rui outside to get a bowl of food. The village chief's wife was not angry that someone came to snatch their few available food items. Instead, she smiled at Lin Rui in a friendly manner.
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