Some members of the Bai clan even suspected that their Xu family ancestor and the Chen family ancestor might have known each other.
Because every time they appear and bestow treasures, many of them are the same.
What's most frustrating is that the Chen family seems to be able to communicate with their ancestors and know the names of the bestowed treasures and how to use them.
The Bai clan has never communicated with their ancestors. Is it because they are not sincere enough?
After the group had been walking for an hour, more than a dozen people who had gotten separated were found. Some were found by the patrol team, and the rest were found by following the traces and movements.
The guards suddenly heard a noise in the woods and shouted, "Who's there? Come out now!"
A group of people suddenly appeared, and a leader stepped forward and said, "Brother, we mean no harm. We are refugees fleeing famine to Youzhou Prefecture. We were robbed by bandits and fled into the mountains. We just found your group and wanted to come over to say hello and travel with you."
"Our team also has injured members, and many people have gotten separated. While we were looking for the lost people, we found two people who were unconscious after being shot with arrows. We brought them with us. See if they are from your team."
The team leader took one look and realized they were indeed their people; soon, family members from the group carried them back.
As for the suggestion to stay with their group and travel with them, the village chief stepped in.
The village chief spoke with him for a few moments and, seeing that there were wounded men in their group with the same arrow and knife wounds as them, he knew that they had been robbed by the same group of bandits.
Their group also included elderly people, women, and children, a total of 60 people, so they agreed to let them follow first.
As soon as these people joined the group, everyone couldn't help but ask questions.
"Are you all from the same village?"
"Yes, we all fled from the same village together. There were originally more than 500 people, but now there are only a little over 100 left. We just encountered bandits, and half of them got separated. Sigh!"
"Out of more than 500 people, only this many are left?"
"Alas, along the way, we were either robbed by refugees, attacked by bandits and homeless people, and on top of that, we couldn't find food and water, so many people died of disease and starvation. Your group is so large, are you traveling through dozens of villages together?"
"No, there are only three villages. We formed an alliance before we set off and have been traveling together ever since."
"Three villages? And there are still so many people?"
"We haven't lost many people along the way, but we're almost at our limit now. Many people are injured, some have fainted from hunger, and others have fallen ill. We have no medicine, no water, and no food, so it's very difficult to keep going."
"It's like God isn't giving us a way to survive!"
"Can our Li Family Village join your alliance?"
"You'll have to discuss this with our village chief."
The procession only stopped when the sky began to lighten with the first hint of dawn.
The village chief sent out a patrol team to find a safe place for everyone to rest, and then sent out another team to look for those who had gotten separated from the group.
They cannot give up on those who have gone missing; they must find them.
The girls, including Da Ya, sat down on the grass and rubbed their legs, saying, "We're so tired from walking."
Chen Nong and the other boys rolled up their trouser legs, looked at their knees and frowned, saying, "They're all bruised. This is such a hassle."
When he was little, he spread out his hands, which were chafed and bleeding from the fall.
After resting for a while, several patrolmen returned.
"Village chief, we've found a place to rest. There's a cave that can hold more than two hundred people."
The village chief struck the gong and said, "Get up, everyone, go to the resting place!"
He always kept his gong hanging on his waistband, so he didn't lose it when he fled. He wanted to direct the crowd, so he didn't take anything but an ancestral tablet.
The patrol team found a resting place at a relatively high altitude, requiring them to walk uphill. It was located halfway up a mountain, and the cave was in a somewhat remote, shady valley, surrounded by many bushes and grasses.
They stood on high ground and saw a small opening in the hole, then felt their way to it.
The area around the cave entrance is relatively flat and spacious; they just need to clear away the weeds.
When the group arrived there, there was no way to get there. The village chief ordered people to cut a path through the mountains so that everyone could reach the cave.
The area was surrounded by weeds, shrubs, and thorns. The village chief asked everyone to hand over their farm tools and assigned a team to clean up the surrounding area.
This place is not easy to find, and people will stay here for several days until they are found.
A doctor took out a smoke bomb to repel insects, lit it, and threw it into the cave. Soon, many insects scurried out of the cave, and everyone crowded at the entrance, scrambling to catch them.
These are all edible foods; as long as they are not poisonous, they will eat them.
The Chen family wasn't idle either. They knew the cave was out of their reach, so they had to find a better spot outside and clear it out as soon as possible to build a thatched hut.
They found a place near the mountains, but they had no tools; all their farm implements had been handed over.
Zhou said, "Let's find some thick branches and chop them down as we go. By the time the team gets there, that spot will have already been taken."
The leaders and a few others found thick branches in the bushes that the team had cleared and led the others to push them over.
The same applies to the people in the team; they first find a spot and clear out a place to rest as soon as possible.
When Chen Jia led everyone to the foot of the mountain wall, he observed it for a while, and then led everyone to start clearing the area from the side of the mountain wall. Weeds and shrubs that could be pulled by hand were pulled by hand first, and those that were difficult to pull were left for the team members to come and clear.
The leader estimated the distance and placed a stone at intervals parallel to the mountain wall. They would then dig holes and drive wooden stakes into the stone locations to support the thatched hut.
The adults knew the children were tired, so they let them help dig the hole, and the adults cleared away the weeds around it.
Xiao Bao plopped down, grabbed a branch, and started prying up the soil from a spot where there were stones. Da Ji and the others gathered around to help pry up the soil.
Daya picked out some useful branches from the pile of branches cleared by the team and came back with an envious look on her face, saying, "Someone caught a snake while clearing weeds, how lucky!"
"Wow! We caught a snake! We can eat snake meat now, that's great!" Er Ya swallowed hard.
Chen Nong and the others looked on with envy. How wonderful! They caught a snake and now they can eat snake meat.
Chen Kai suddenly asked, "Xiao Bao, when can you harvest your hay?"
Xiao Bao opened it and looked at it. "It'll be ready soon. We'll have some sweet stalks to eat in a bit."
After the cave was cleaned up, torches were lit and dry grass was laid on the ground. The village chief then ordered people to carry the seriously injured people inside.
The three village chiefs discussed the matter on the side.
Suddenly, his eldest son came over and said, "Dad, the count is done. There are a total of 950 people in the team who are injured, sick, fainted from hunger, or got separated."
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