Chapter 156: Delivering Food
October 20th.
Several caravans of Jiangling Pei clan set out to various places as usual.
One of the teams was heading towards southern Xinjiang, pulling fifty carts of tightly packed supplies.
The remaining caravans then arrived one by one via detours to avoid being noticed.
Gu Huan and Dong Hua, who arrived in Jiangling the day before, dressed in men's clothes, sat in the caravan's carriage, and quietly headed for Juzhou.
Juzhou borders the Dali Kingdom, which is more than a thousand miles away.
The caravan was led by Pei Jinglei, the second in command of the Pei family and Pei Yi's second uncle.
He is the main person in charge of Pei family's external business, in charge of Pei family's escort agencies and post stations for the transportation of goods.
In order to avoid arousing suspicion and attention, they deliberately took a detour, first taking the water route and then changing to land route.
There were fifty carts of goods and a lot of baggage. In order to save time, they traveled almost day and night. The people in the team had no time to rest or wash. After ten days, all the men had unshaven beards.
The weather is getting colder.
Pei Jinglei is very experienced. He said that this year is a cold winter, and the further you go to southern Xinjiang, the more desolate it becomes and the poorer the people become.
It was still ten days' journey to Juzhou. Along the way, Gu Huan saw many people in ragged clothes fleeing with their families.
There were also many people who were starving to the point of being skin and bones, especially women who were dragging several children with them, all of whom were crying with hunger.
Gu Huan had never seen such a tragic scene. When she saw people begging in front of her, she couldn't bear it and shared her food rations with them.
However, once she opened her mouth, the refugees seemed to have smelled something and surrounded her frantically, with some even trying to grab Gu Huan's hand.
Gu Huan was so frightened that her face turned pale, and the guards drove the people away with swords.
Pei Jinglei told her that these were refugees caused by the war in southern Xinjiang.
The reason why she couldn't give more food was not because she couldn't afford it, but because she was worried that the fifty carts of food would be stolen.
They quickly walked around the refugees.
Donghua squeezed next to Gu Huan and her face turned pale when she thought about how Gu Huan was almost dragged off the carriage just now.
"I didn't expect there would be so many refugees. They are just like a swarm of locusts passing through the border."
Gu Huan felt a little more at ease: "I didn't expect it. Just small favors and giving them food can't save them. The war must stop, so they can return home and live a stable life."
Donghua nodded: "My family was also poor before. When we encountered a natural disaster, we couldn't find anything to eat. We were hungry for three days and three nights. At that time, I would wolf down any tree bark I saw."
Gu Huan touched her head distressedly: "I told you not to follow."
Donghua's eyes widened: "How can I feel at ease if I don't follow you? There are big and strong men here, isn't it good for me to accompany you?"
Gu Huan hugged her: "Okay, of course. I would be suffocated without you."
Originally, she didn't want to bring anyone with her, but Old Madam Dan couldn't hide the truth by herself, as all the key people in the Duke's Mansion knew about it.
Although everyone was worried, Zhou Zhilan wanted to go with Gu Huan alone.
But the Duke's Mansion would be too conspicuous without Zhou Zhilan, and Chi Yan and the others would be watched even more.
The matter of military rations is too important to allow any mistakes. To be on the safe side, it was finally decided that Donghua would be the only one to follow Gu Huan out.
The Duke's Mansion announced that Gu Huan was ill. Anyway, there were a lot of things going on in the Duke's Mansion recently, and Mu An couldn't go out. The door was closed, so outsiders had no reason to suspect anything.
As we got closer to Juzhou, more and more people were displaced by the war.
Occasionally, when she saw a dying child lying on the ground, Gu Huan still couldn't be as indifferent as Pei Jinglei, so she quietly asked Donghua to bring some food over.
After seeing this so many times, Gu Huan began to hate those who started the war.
Thinking of all this, Gu Huan felt even more heavy-hearted as she realized that Brother Ji was also an accomplice and even a driving force behind the incident.
Yaoyao said that Brother Ji did all this because of her.
But how could she have the ability to completely change a person?
Could it be that she turned the once sunny and outstanding boy into an executioner?
Do you want to betray your country and help the tyrant to commit atrocities just because of your own grudges?
Gu Huan doubted his motives.
Aren’t all the people harmed in war? Why should the struggle for power and land interests cause the people to be displaced?
They were already suffering a lot, and now even their homes were about to be destroyed.
The people don’t care who owns whose country or who is the emperor.
They just want to live.
Just like herself, in her past and present lives, she has been just trying hard to live.
Gu Huan sighed.
In just one month, she saw more suffering in the world than in her two lifetimes combined.
Brother Ji, I hope you can turn back.
In the past, she felt that she was miserable and that she died miserably.
But compared to those people who had no food or clothes and faced death every day, her suffering was nothing.
Along the way, she heard praises for the Mu family army from the refugees she helped.
If they hadn't fought desperately, they might have lost their lives.
They also said that when they met the Mu family army, they would give them all their food and even take off their winter clothes to give to the people.
They protected the territory and the people with their lives, and also provided food and winter clothes to the people.
When Gu Huan thought of this, her eyes became hot and she couldn't help but shed tears.
At this moment, she understood more and more about Mu Junyan's actions to protect the country.
Countless soldiers of the Mu family died in the battle, and Mu Junyan was the only direct descendant of the Mu family left. However, he still disregarded his own life and death, resolutely left his mother and went to southern Xinjiang.
To stop war with war and to stop killing with killing, this is not what Mu Junyan wants.
However, when the enemy invaded, his country was in turmoil, and the people were mourning, he could only draw his sword and attack the enemy.
Although Chi Yan and the others were not with her, Chi Yan gave her a whistle order from the Mu family army, and a carrier pigeon would deliver a message to her.
In order to prevent Mu Junyan from being distracted, everyone in the Duke's Mansion who knew about this matter strictly prohibited anyone from telling Mu Junyan.
Therefore, the carrier pigeon arranged for Gu Huan flew from Bian Jing.
Gu Huan received the news that although Pei Yi reported the matter to the court in time, it turned out to be just as they had imagined. The forces led by the Jiang and Yuan families said that he was imagining things because of insufficient evidence and wanted to stop him. Fortunately, the righteous court officials insisted and the emperor sent troops to protect the grain.
However, because it was too late, the government's military rations were indeed robbed.
At this time, Gu Huan had been on the journey for twenty days. She was very glad that she had persisted, otherwise, the Mu family army would definitely have encountered the danger of insufficient winter food.
When they were approaching Juzhou, they received news that Mu Junyan was stationed in Luodian border town on the border of Juzhou.
The Luodian Border Town Military Camp is the headquarters camp of the Mu family army.
Chi Yan received information that although the Mu family army was fighting hard, other small countries were beaten badly. Most of the small countries in the coalition had withdrawn from the battlefield, leaving only the main force of Dali County.
The border town of Luodian is only a hundred miles away from Shicheng County, where the main force of Dali County is stationed.
Moreover, it is a truce these days.
Mu Junyan also retreated to the military camp in the border town of Luodian.
The Mu family army has always been on high alert. Except for camp prostitutes, no one is allowed to bring female relatives, and no women are allowed to enter the military camp.
Those who disobey the order will be flogged thirty times.
Gu Huan knew all this.
She certainly had no intention of breaking the rules of the military camp. She just wanted to deliver the rations safely, and then see if she could make an appointment to meet Mu Junyan in Juzhou.
For some reason, she wanted to see him.
I can’t explain my feeling, I just want to see him and say sorry to him.
Because of Brother Ji, he was in more danger and faced more obstacles for the Mu family army.
The closer they got to Juzhou, the more nervous Gu Huan became.
"Girl, the border of Juzhou is just ahead, cough cough cough."
Outside the car, Pei Jinglei pointed to the city wall not far away.
Gu Huan quickly opened the car window and saw the gray city wall. She was very excited.
"Then shall we go straight into the city?"
"Let's go into the city first. The food we carry is not military rations, so it's safer to hand it over to the Duke's military camp. There are four more caravans coming up, so it would be safer for us to meet the Duke and listen to his arrangements. What do you think?"
Gu Huan nodded: "I think so too. We don't understand the situation, and it will be troublesome if something goes wrong in Juzhou."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
