Jiang Zhi quickly put on her clothes and shoes, haphazardly tied her hair back, opened the door, and impatiently said, pressing her pounding heart, "Just burn it then!"
I've been up the mountain for half a month, and there have been fires almost every few days. These past few days, they've become more frequent.
Thinking about the burned-down houses in the village, everyone was initially angry and heartbroken, but gradually they became numb and stopped looking down the mountain at night.
Why did Xu Errui wake me up again today?
Xu Errui was also very puzzled. Usually, his mother was a more alert sleeper than him. She said that she would wake up at the slightest breeze or a leaf falling on the top of the grass.
But there were two times when he was sleeping so soundly that I couldn't wake him up no matter how long I called him.
However, Xu Errui had no time to ask at this moment; the doubt flashed through his mind and then disappeared.
Xu Errui pointed towards the cliffs where Xu Family Village could be seen and said, "There's a fire over there, Mother! It's a huge fire!"
His voice trembled, filled with unprecedented fear.
Jiang Zhi stopped asking her silly son, who always talked in circles when he was anxious, and walked towards the edge of the cliff.
It was late February, a dark and moonless night where you couldn't see your hand in front of your face, but a faint red light appeared from the direction of the cliff.
Before Xu Errui could say anything more, Jiang Zhi hurried over and looked down, where she was immediately stunned.
Fire! A huge fire!
The entire Xujia Village was shrouded in thick smoke. Although the flames could not be seen, the sky, which was reddened by the smoke, could be seen.
At this moment, the mountain wind howled fiercely, and Jiang Zhi seemed to be able to smell the smoke.
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Xu Errui led the equally panicked Qiaoyun over: "Mother, it's all over now!"
Jiang Zhi didn't speak. She didn't know if the world in the book was truly destroyed, or if she could reread it and everything would be restored.
If this were reality, Xu Family Village would truly be finished this time!
There were originally dozens of households in the village. Even though the people have left, at least the houses are still there, so they will have a place to stay when they come back.
But now it's all burned to the ground...
Before Jiang Zhi could even sigh, Xiao Man came up with a torch made of dry grass.
Before they even arrived, he shouted at the top of his lungs, "Aunt Jiang, Brother Errui, my grandpa said the weather is dry and the wind is strong, so be careful of wildfires."
They also saw the village on fire from below.
Wildfire!
Jiang Zhi felt a sudden tightness in her chest. Oh no, how could she not have thought of this?
It's windy now, and there's a drought; everywhere is withered grass that hasn't turned green again.
If the fire in the village spreads, and the wind whips it up, it will engulf the entire mountain, and we'll all be roasted meat...
Xu Errui and Xiaoman panicked. Were they going to have to run away again?
Jiang Zhi looked down the mountain. Xu Family Village was at the foot of the mountain. If a fire were to spread, it would only take ten minutes to reach the top.
Cut the firebreak?
In the face of strong winds and wildfires, isolation distances of tens or hundreds of meters are completely useless. The three of us were just cutting down trees with knives... It would be better to burn to death than to work ourselves to death.
Watering to wet the ground?
That would be useless, firstly because there isn't enough water.
Although there is a mountain spring nearby, the winter drought means the water volume is small, just enough for the family's daily needs, and they don't even dare to wash their clothes casually.
Moreover, the scorching flames can dry out the moisture instantly, so the only option is to run away as fast as you can, and you have to do that before the wildfire arrives.
"We have no choice but to run!" Jiang Zhi said.
She was heartbroken that her newly built home was gone, the newly cultivated terraced fields were gone, and she would have to wander in the wilderness again.
"Run? How do we get there?"
Xu Errui and Xiaoman looked at each other, wondering where they could run in the pitch black night. If they missed a step, they would fall off the cliff.
Moreover, there are patients, pregnant women, the elderly, and children who cannot leave quickly even in broad daylight.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Jiang Zhi knew she had said nothing of substance.
She turned her head to look again at the red light spreading down the mountain, desperately trying to think of a way to save her life.
Drilling into caves and searching for deep pits are the most dangerous places that most people would think of first, because low-lying areas are most prone to accumulating smoke and carbon dioxide. Even if you don't burn to death, you will suffocate from lack of oxygen inside.
Suddenly, she twitched her nose: "Errui, Xiaoman, can you smell something?"
The two sniffed hard: "No smell!"
Jiang Zhi was overjoyed and quickly asked Qiaoyun, "Qiaoyun, what smell can you detect?"
Qiaoyun was pregnant, and her nose seemed to have a special function, allowing her to smell several times more odors than others; she was incredibly sensitive.
Qiaoyun sniffed carefully and shook her head, saying, "Only Errui's poop at night smells bad, there's no other smell!"
shit……
Jiang Zhi's face twitched, and she immediately glared angrily at the timid Xu Errui.
Because there are few people and a lot of land on the mountain, no toilets have been built yet. He made Xu Errui go to the woods fifty meters away every day to relieve himself, which was definitely because he was being lazy.
When Xu Errui realized that his mother had caught him slacking off, he immediately hid behind Qiaoyun: "Mother, just this once, just today..."
He drinks thin porridge every day, and after a few bowls, it's all water. He has to get up several times a night to urinate.
If you don't poop at night, you won't even realize that you're getting an itch down there.
Jiang Zhi didn't have time to worry about defecating or urinating at the moment, which made her feel a little relieved.
Qiaoyun said she didn't smell any smoke, which means the wind direction was favorable to her side.
But this is only temporary, as the fire situation in the wild can change at any time due to terrain and wind direction.
A fire is like a battlefield, changing in an instant. Now that the fire has started, there's no time to run away; the only thing to do is try to save your life.
“Errui and Xiaoman went back and covered the grain in their house with stones and mud, then brought people over.”
Jiang Zhi had already come up with a way to deal with the wildfire. Food was easy to deal with; it could be placed on an open ground and covered with soil and stones to prevent it from being burned.
But people have to leave.
You can't stay in that house. The bark roof and wooden pillars and beams make it a flammable place, so you need to get away from it as soon as possible.
You shouldn't run around blindly, and you definitely shouldn't go to the top of the mountain.
As the smoke rises, the wildfire spreads towards the mountaintop faster than anyone can imagine.
Before it could even be burned, the thick smoke alone was enough to kill people.
If you cannot escape the fire, you should choose an open area with sparse vegetation to reduce the amount of combustibles around you, that is, find a natural firebreak.
Jiang Zhi thought of the terraced fields she had just dug out today; they were on gentle slopes, and the flames would slow down.
Moreover, most of the trees there had been cut down, leaving only low shrubs and some weeds.
Clean it up now, and you'll have a safe area.
Xiaoman and Xu Errui went down the cliff. Xiaoman's family was unable to save themselves and needed help.
Jiang Zhi and Qiao Yun returned to their home. The few bags of grain were their lifeline and needed to be dealt with properly.
The two of them moved everything they could carry to the open space near the charcoal kiln.
The road was dark and uneven, and Jiang Zhi was afraid of falling, so she told Qiao Yun not to walk back and forth, but to protect her torch halfway so that it wouldn't be blown out by the wind. She then carried the grain to the terraced fields.
Fortunately, Jiang Zhi had leveled the road while repairing the terraced fields during the day, so the torchlight made the journey relatively smooth.
Bring over the grain, bring over the bedding, and Xu Errui and Xiaoman also brought their whole family over.
Xu Errui carried Dazhu on his back, Xiaoman held three-year-old Nini in his arms, and Xiaoman's grandpa and grandma helped each other to the edge of the charcoal kiln.
"Auntie, I'm afraid we can't escape this disaster tonight!" Xiaoman's first words were filled with despair.
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