Chapter 28: Escape from the Troubled Times 26
Lin Xia followed the two people toward the river.
At first, all three of them were silent, but finally the young man couldn't hold back his words.
"Girl, why do you want to go to the other side of the river? It's not safe over there."
Lin Xia's heart skipped a beat.
He asked calmly, "I was just going there to live with my relatives. What happened? Why do you say that?"
"Don't you know?"
"That's right. From your accent, I can tell you're not from our area. You may not know much about it."
"Do you know about the plague outbreak in Quzhou last year?" the young man asked.
Lin Xia nodded, "I know this. It seems to have happened in September or October last year."
In fact, she didn't know when the plague broke out completely, nor did she know whether it had been cured. But seeing that this man didn't seem to be at all shy about it, he must have been cured.
He asked tentatively, "Don't we already have medicine? What does the unsafe situation on the other side have to do with the plague?"
“Oh, it was that month-long torrential rain that brought the plague directly into Xiangzhou, and the plague also broke out in Xiangzhou.
We are all scared.
Suddenly, a miracle doctor came to Lingzhou and cured the disease in just a few strokes. My mother also suffered from the plague and it was the miracle doctor who cured her. His merits are truly immeasurable. "The young man said and bowed to the south.
The old man next to him also agreed when he heard it, and they all bowed towards the south together.
The young man then continued, "Later I learned that the miracle doctor was sent by Lord Xu, the governor of Lingzhou. At that time, not only was there a plague raging, but there were also many refugees causing chaos everywhere. However, they were all poor people, so Lord Xu sent people to receive the refugees. He not only opened warehouses to provide disaster relief, but also distributed land to the refugees so that they could settle down."
The other party suddenly became envious: "If our family hadn't lived here for generations, I would also like to move there."
Hearing this, Lin Xia also envied.
Can we still get land to settle down if we move there now?
On second thought, things are not that simple.
"Isn't this a good thing? What happened next?"
"After Lord Xu accepted the first batch of refugees, word spread quickly, and many, many people headed for Lingzhou.
Many people from our county also followed them because they could not survive. As a result, when they arrived at Lihe, they found the big river in front of Lingzhou and the boundary between Lingzhou and Xiangzhou. As a result, Xiangzhou sent troops to guard the place and prevented them from passing.
It was snowing heavily at that time, and many people rose up in rebellion. They captured several cities. It was scary. I heard that rivers of blood flowed, especially for the rich families, whose entire families were killed. ”
The young men's voices, originally filled with fear because of the uprising, were now filled with gloating when they spoke of the rich being robbed.
Hearing this, Lin Xia's thoughts began to drift away. The reason why Xiangzhou officials did not allow people to cross the border was probably because of serious population loss, and they used the most brutal method to preserve the population.
However, it is also possible that he is an enemy of Lord Xu of Lingzhou and is deliberately doing so.
When gods fight, innocent people are affected. She wants to go to Lingzhou.
The young man didn't notice Lin Xia's expression and continued talking to himself.
"But that happened several months ago, on the other side of the river. Our river is long, so we'll be safe as long as we don't cross it. And this time it snowed heavily, and there's no firewood to burn. Several boats in the village were chopped up for firewood. I'm sure the number of boats in other villages has also decreased, making it even more difficult to cross the river."
He said with some regret, "A boat is so expensive, it's a waste to use it as firewood. We are the only family in the village that has a boat."
Lin Xia came back to her senses and continued, "Have you heard about the destruction of the city recently?"
“I haven’t heard of that. The weather was so cold before that everyone stayed at home.
Speaking of which, we have never had such heavy snow before. Many people were frozen to death. More than a hundred people froze to death in our village. Fortunately, my family members are all safe. "The young man scratched his head with a look of relief.
"Then you are really lucky. My family came here to live with relatives, and I am the only one who died on the way." Lin Xia talked nonsense and felt sad inwardly.
"Alas... My condolences." The other person came closer and wanted to comfort me but didn't know where to start.
Lin Xia's nose twitched slightly, and she changed the subject and said, "It's all over. I'll be fine when I get to my relatives. But I'm out of food. I see that your village is still farming. I wonder if there's any surplus grain in the village that you can sell me a pound of?"
The young man immediately refused when he heard it.
"We have no food to sell in our village. Last year the weather was bad and the harvest was poor. When we were harvesting the autumn rice, a heavy rain destroyed everything."
Just at that moment, the old man leading the way stopped and said to her, "Girl, wait here for a moment, I'll go row the boat out." Then he went into the reed marsh.
The remaining two people were silent, and the other party casually said: "Girl, I don't think you are a vicious person, why are you carrying a big knife?"
"I encountered bandits before and stole it from them."
"Haha... I thought you bought it for self-defense, but I didn't expect it was stolen. You're pretty awesome." The other party was a little embarrassed, then quietly moved away.
"Yes, at that time, everyone in my family was dead and there was no food. I thought that those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes, so I got mad, grabbed a big knife, and killed the three robbers. They were all bandits anyway, and they deserved to die." While saying this, Lin Xia's face showed a ferocious look.
The other party saw the expression on Lin Xia's face, swallowed, and moved away.
Just then, the old man came out paddling the boat and invited the two men to get on board.
They successfully crossed the river smoothly and quietly. Watching the fishing boat return, Lin Xia put his mind at ease and walked forward.
On the other side of the boat.
"Xiao San, why did you stop me from taking action just now?" the old man asked.
"Dad, that person is not a good person. I saw it with my own eyes. She really killed someone. Her eyes are the same as Zhang the Butcher's."
"Hey, you... your second aunt will definitely say that she fought so hard for us when we go back."
"Dad, it's not worth it. Anyway, we don't lack food for the time being, and we can't keep it when the weather gets hot."
"Yeah, looking at the weather, we just have to wait until this crop of grain is harvested." The old man sighed. He didn't want to do that either.
The boat slowly rowed back...
Lin Xia was walking on the road and reviewing what had just happened. At the beginning, the villagers were really normal, and all their reactions were the same as those of normal people. They were nervous and repulsive when they saw her holding a big knife, and they did not surround her when everyone gathered.
She had a knife, and the boatman was worried about passengers getting hurt, and she understood that they were going in pairs, so she didn't doubt anything.
It was not until she started chatting with the young man and got closer that she smelled a faint scent of meat. It must be just after noon and the smell had not yet dissipated.
Thinking back, they were not looking at her knife, but assessing her strength and her body. Perhaps because she was a woman, even though she was holding a big knife, the other party did not take her seriously, so they did not attack her directly.
She knew she had made a mistake, and she became even more alert afterwards.
In order to confirm whether her guess was true, she went directly to the other party to buy food. The other party did not hesitate at all and said bluntly that he had no food.
People's subconscious reactions are 99% true, so she believed that there was no food. The heavy rain came suddenly and it was just before the rice harvest.
How did their village survive the long four months without food? Perhaps the bodies of the people who froze to death were reused, or there were some lone people passing by.
So Lin Xia later revealed that she had killed someone because she had to increase her deterrent power.
Those two men didn't look very strong, and their original plan might have been to push her into the river and drown her.
But she still boarded the boat even though she knew there was a problem, because she wanted to take a gamble. If she won, everyone would cross the river smoothly. If she lost, two of them would feed the fish and only one person would cross the river.
If the two people following you are big and burly, there is no need to say anything, just turn around and run as fast as you can.
When they were on the boat at last, she really caught a glimpse of the two people arguing out of the corner of her eye. Fortunately, the young man was really sincere and did nothing, otherwise he would have fallen into the river and drowned after a fight on the boat. Although she had placed a piece of wood in the space, she would not necessarily be drowned.
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