Three days later, the group finally reached the county border and stopped in front of the boundary marker.
After nearly a month and a half of walking, they are finally about to leave the county. They have endured countless hardships along the way, and they wonder if they will ever be able to return.
At the border, people stood or sat, gazing silently at the boundary marker, their eyes filled with reluctance.
As the autumn wind rises, a few withered leaves are swept up by the raging wind, and the sandstorm it stirs up blurs everyone's vision.
After standing there for a while, the village chief's hoarse voice rang out: "Let's go!"
After leaving the county, the group traveled along the official road for a while, and then turned onto a side road.
They encountered trouble before even leaving the main road.
The refugees on the official road surged toward them in huge numbers. Before they could even huddle together to defend themselves, they were attacked by this frenzied group of refugees.
These people came over and started robbing things; they wanted to take everything.
Needless to say, the things in the car were also there.
Upon seeing a donkey, it would immediately rush up and bite it, causing the donkey to kick and run wildly.
Several people held them down, took off everyone's clothes and shoes, and ran away.
Some people even snatch children.
Even more terrifying is that these refugees even snatched the guards' knives. Even after being stabbed, they would still pull the knife out of their stomachs and try to stab their own men in return.
The guards were also frightened by the group of crazed refugees.
The team leader shouted, "Quickly, cover everyone's retreat!"
The group was robbed and left in a very sorry state.
Some people, in an effort to get their children out of the evacuation quickly, threw their belongings from their vehicles into the distance to attract the attention of the refugees.
The adults of the Chen family surrounded the child's mule cart, ignoring the fact that the other donkey carts had been robbed of their contents.
The dogs blocked refugees who tried to approach the train carriage, and attacked them viciously as soon as they got close.
The village chief's mule cart had its roof open, and Bai Yu was standing inside, shooting arrows at the refugees who approached them. Bai Chuan wanted to help, but he was too short to reach the roof, so he could only nervously watch the window with a kitchen knife, ready to chop down any refugees who dared to climb through the window.
The village chief's wife and the others were hacking wildly with machetes, and any refugees who got close to her were hacked to death.
It was a chaotic day of fleeing. After shaking off the frantic refugees, the group kept moving forward without stopping for a moment, not wanting to be bothered by these people again.
The team was in a terrible state. All their supplies and tools were stolen from their vehicles, a third of their donkeys were taken, or they ran away in the chaos. More than half of them were injured, and five people were stabbed and are currently being treated.
The Chen family also lost a donkey, which made everyone furious.
Chen Nong sighed, "If only we could go out and help, the donkeys wouldn't have been stolen by the refugees."
Chen Laowu rolled his eyes. "Get out of here? You guys? You'll be stripped naked before you even walk a few steps, then taken away, and they might even bite you a few times."
Chen Nong: "I have a knife, how dare he arrest me!"
Chen Laowu: "You're delivering equipment to them. Didn't you see that some of the guards had their knives stolen?"
Outside the carriage, many people shouted, "Does anyone have extra clothes? I need to borrow a set. I need it urgently. If you have any linen, a piece of linen will do too."
"They've all been looted. Who still has any? You might as well go and weave grass skirts to wear."
Chen Kai looked outside and sighed. They had only just left the county and had already suffered this misfortune, being robbed and left without even clothes. They must have entered hell mode.
The Chen family had a few pieces of cloth, which they lent out so the children could use them to cover themselves up for now.
Zhou took out the two bottles of water she had saved earlier and used them to brew medicine for the five members of the guard team. The guard team was the backbone of their team and their protector, so they couldn't afford to lose them.
"Aunt Zhou, is there any water left? Please lend me some. My child is quite sick and needs to brew medicine."
"Aunt Zhou, could you lend me some food? Several members of my family have fallen ill."
"Get out of the way! If you want water, go ask your own ancestors! My house is dry too!"
As soon as Zhou returned to the carriage, Chen Xiaohua gave her two bottles of water.
"Xiao Bao just took these out; we can take out two more bottles of water tonight."
The family of several people lived hand to mouth, relying solely on the juice from Xiaobao's candied hawthorn skewers to make ends meet.
The road was difficult to travel on; it was very bumpy and full of potholes and stones. If a car got stuck, you had to call someone to help pull it out.
The sharp pebbles on the road cut the soles of the feet of those whose shoes had been stolen, causing them to bleed profusely.
"Chen Nong, do you want to come out and help weave straw sandals? I just went and cut a batch of hay." Daya asked from outside the carriage.
Chen Nong replied, "Okay." His family had prepared several pairs of straw sandals, but they had all been taken by the refugees, so they needed to prepare some more.
There were also families with donkey carts in the group, but the carts were all empty, having been looted. Since there was nothing left, several families huddled together on the carts, weaving straw sandals and skirts as they traveled.
There's nothing you can do if everything's been snatched up. What's the point of complaining? You'd be better off figuring out a solution sooner rather than later.
On a donkey cart, the women got busy.
"Hey? The hay you cut is pretty tough. Can I have some? I'll return the same kind to you later."
"Take it if you want, it's just something from the roadside."
The donkey cart jolted, and the old women hissed from the impact.
"Ouch, this road is really hard to walk on, it's making my butt hurt."
"If you put some dry grass down, it won't hurt as much."
"My butt isn't that precious. I'm lucky to have a donkey cart to ride in. It's just that these wobbly straw sandals are hard to weave."
"Sigh, all my sickles have been stolen. Can I borrow one of your sickles later?"
"My sickle was almost stolen too, but luckily I was quick-witted enough to grab a handful of sand and throw it at them to get it back."
“What do you think? Should we ask the village chief to bring out the ancestors so we can kowtow and beg for some water? We’re thirsty enough; we’ve lived long enough. But the child can’t. He’s still sick and needs to drink his medicine.”
"Yes, we really have to try our luck by kowtowing. They even managed to get some water from the Chen family."
The team dared not rest for a moment, and did not stop even at night, continuing their journey through the darkness.
In Chen Nong's carriage, the kids couldn't sleep after finishing their beef jerky because the road was very bumpy.
Xiao Shi licked her dry lips and said, "I'm thirsty."
Wu Di: "Didn't we drink it in the evening?"
Xiao Shi: "I just wet my mouth a little, I didn't even swallow the saliva, I was thirsty."
They now have nothing left to eat, not even grass roots. There was some left on the donkey cart, but it was all taken away. The grass roots in the cart were also gone. Chen Nong had put some in his steamed buns, but he ate that too. After the group was robbed, they kept moving without stopping, so they didn't have time to dig up grass roots.
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