"What are you arguing about, you little brat? Get out of the way." After saying that, the village chief shakily stepped onto the wooden bridge. With Si Cheng holding him up, it was very sturdy. When he was halfway across, he started to tremble because the ground on the other side was a bit uneven.
Having already gone halfway, it wasn't a good idea to turn back. So the village chief took a deep breath and continued walking forward step by step.
He finally reached the other side and saw a pit that was only two meters deep, but he felt like he had walked two kilometers and his legs were a little weak.
"Don't come over yet," the village chief shouted to the other side. "I'll level the ground here first, so it won't wobble when you walk on it."
Seeing the village chief walk away, Si Cheng stood up to observe the support points on both sides and found that only a small amount of soil was falling into the pit, and the two sides were basically still stable.
"There shouldn't be any problem, but we have to cross one by one. If it's too heavy, there might be a landslide," Si Cheng suggested to everyone. "If you're still worried, you can string a line across both sides and have people hold onto the line as they cross. That way, even if the bridge collapses, there will be a buffer."
"This idea is feasible, and it will put everyone at ease." Everyone agreed, and they immediately put it into practice.
First, find the long stones that were originally used as the roadbed, pile them up to a height of one person, tie one end of the rope tightly around the bottom stone, and then wrap it around the top stone once more.
Si Cheng led the rope across to the other side, where the village chief had leveled the ground, making the walk smooth and stable.
Seeing Sicheng cross the wooden bridge so easily, the rest of the people also easily crossed by holding onto the ropes.
Once everyone has arrived, we all need to work together. We secured the rope here using the same method. Luckily, we brought extra rope with us this time, otherwise it would have been really difficult.
Seeing that it was still early, the village chief told everyone to rest for a bit, have something simple to eat, and then continue on their way.
Fearing further landslides along the way, everyone carefully took each step after various attempts.
When it got dark, we would light a campfire by the roadside and make do for the night, eating some dry rations when we got hungry.
I don’t know if it’s because of the movement of the earth’s crust, but many roads have become unrecognizable. Everyone is struggling to move forward based on their general direction.
On the third day, Majia Village, the closest village to the county seat, came into view. Simple thatched huts were erected everywhere. Many people had white bandages on their arms, indicating that they had lost relatives.
"Is your village chief Ma here?" Yun Mingwu used to come to Majia Village often and was quite familiar with their village chief.
"You must be Village Chief Yun from Pinghe Village, right? I know you. How are things going there? Hu Haiyin is my aunt, and I know you're my son-in-law's brother. Are they all doing well?" He had just arrived and bumped into his sister-in-law's nephew, but Village Chief Yun didn't have much of an impression of him.
Someone nearby saw that they had come to see Village Chief Ma and ran over to inform him.
"Everything is fine here. How about here?"
"As you can see, everything is destroyed. Some people just wouldn't listen to advice and ran into the houses to salvage their belongings, and they got trapped inside too. We've been digging through the rubble to find people for the past two days." Ma Donglai's face was full of helplessness when talking about the current situation here.
"Didn't they ask for help from the county town?" Yun Tao wondered why no one cared, given that they were so close to the county town.
"The county town is now a flat plain. It is said that many people died there. We were unable to get there. The moat and the bridge have all collapsed, and the river has been widened. Now it is like an isolated island."
"Then how did you know about the other side's situation?"
“Every night now, people are throwing bodies into the river. We’ve tried to stop them, but the people on the other side won’t listen. They say there’s no crematorium there, and nowhere to bury them. The bodies are rotting, so they have no choice but to choose sky burial. Isn’t this harming people? It’s polluting the water source.”
"Isn't anyone in the town in charge?"
“There are patrols along the river every day, but they can’t keep up. It’s like a guerrilla war. As soon as the patrol team leaves, someone else runs to the riverbank and throws things in.” He finished with a long sigh.
"So there's no rescue?"
"This is the fourth village to come asking for help. The two neighboring villages came here for help on the first day, but they couldn't get through! The other two just left yesterday, saying they also suffered many casualties, and I heard that the entire Hu family village was wiped out."
Upon hearing this, Si Cheng quickly asked, "Is it Hu Family Village, south of the county town?"
"It's over there. Do you have any relatives there?" She then looked at Si Cheng with sympathy.
"It seems that Sister Ming is from Hu Family Village." Yun Mingwu remembered that Sister Ming's surname was Hu.
"What happened over there? How could they have been completely wiped out? Weren't we prepared beforehand?"
“Why weren’t we prepared? I heard that the village was crushed by two mountains at the same time, which swallowed the entire village.” Ma Donglai still felt lingering fear when he talked about it. “It was Gaojia Village next door that discovered it first.”
"How is Gaojia Village?" Most of the villages have relatives by marriage, and everyone wants to know how their relatives are doing now.
"It's said that many people died in Gaojia Village, apparently due to a landslide."
"How is your village now?" Ma Donglai asked curiously.
“All the houses in our village have collapsed, but no one was injured. There’s a lake at the entrance of the village now, and the road to the county town is blocked. We had to build a new bridge to get here. We were hoping to get some help, but it looks like that will be difficult.” Yun Mingwu sighed deeply as he thought about the days ahead.
"Forget about rescue efforts; most of the roads out are blocked now." There's a road in the middle of the county that leads directly to the city, but now the entire county is isolated, so there's no way to escape.
"The county town is already experiencing a shortage of supplies. I heard that some people have already started looting and vandalizing," Ma Donglai added mysteriously, offering another piece of gossip.
"How do you know they're already looting and vandalizing? Haven't they already cut off communications?"
“Yesterday, an aunt from our village who married into the county town called out from the other side of the river, asking us to find a boat to pick them up.”
"Shouldn't a county town be able to afford to build a ship?" Si Xun thought that building a ship should be an easy task, and it was impossible that not a single ship had been built.
"You wouldn't understand, would you? I heard from the old lady in our village that a lot of boats are heading towards the city now, and the tickets are being sold at exorbitant prices."
"What's the point of them going to the city at this point? It's all the same everywhere now."
“So you guys are out of the loop.” Ma Donglai showed off the information he had gathered. “There are supposedly troops stationed in the city, and they’ve gone to the troops to resolve this issue.”
At this moment, Village Chief Ma also came over. "Brother Yun, it's so good to see you again."
"Yes, many people will never be seen again." Everyone was still in shock after hearing the news from Ma Donglai.
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