At the hour of Mao, the village chief and the elders of Xiaoshi Village came over with more than 200 people from Xiaoshi Village.
There were two ox carts in the village, one belonging to the village chief and the other to a hunter.
Behind the oxcart, almost every family had a wheelbarrow. Elders led their children, women carried baskets on their backs, and the head of the household pushed the wheelbarrow or carried some other things. The two Li brothers, Li Dazhu and Li Erzhu, along with their wives and children, were inside.
Yesterday, Li Dazhu and his brother had already found their sister and said that no matter what the village decided, they would follow her family.
There are three 70-year-old people in Xiaoshi Village who refuse to leave. No matter how much they are persuaded from last night to this morning, it is useless. They know that they are old and they can live so long because of their family's careful care. Their family said they would push them in a wheelbarrow, but they threatened to commit suicide.
This delayed a lot of time in the morning. In the end, the families of these elderly people all knelt on the ground and kowtowed to them several times.
I left them some extra food and water and asked them to live together. This farewell might be forever.
The sons and grandsons of these old people dug a big hole in the yard while crying. They put everything in place carefully and covered it with straw mats and sheets.
When they arrived at Xiaoshi Village, all the people from Liujia Village, big and small, lined up neatly, with red eyes, and knelt down in the ancestral hall to worship their ancestors. After the worship, they put away the wooden tablets and took them with them.
The road ahead is difficult, and I hope the ancestors will bless them...
Before setting off, the two village chiefs and their respective elders took the map Liu Yuhan had given them and discussed which route to take. They decided to head east toward Luoyang County. There was an official road from the town to Luoyang County, which was about 80 miles long.
If there are too many people, it is not certain whether they can arrive in time after walking for a whole day. Going east from Luoyang County is heading south, and going north is heading towards Lin'an Prefecture. Lin'an Prefecture goes straight through two prefectures to reach the capital.
Like Xiaoshi Village, Liujia Village consisted of about 40 people per team, each with two captains. One captain sat in front of the other, each with a machete strapped to their waist and a bow and quiver slung over their back.
That's right, the team leaders are all selected from the hunters. As compensation, the village will give them more food when distributing it.
The elderly, children and women walked in the middle, and the strong laborers walked closely on both sides.
They also prepared hemp ropes. If there were many people on the road, the children's hands would be tied to the adults' hands. At the front of the team, Village Chief Liu had a long bamboo stick inserted on his ox cart, and a conspicuous red cloth tied to the bamboo. The ox carts in Xiaoshi Village also followed suit and tied red cloth.
The team moved forward slowly and arrived at Stone Town after more than an hour. They prepared to rest for quarter of an hour beside the official road outside the town.
Liu Yuhan told his grandparents that he wanted to go to the town to say goodbye to Yan Shi and Xiao Yu, so the two elders asked Liu Shinan and his wife to accompany him.
Liu Yuhan only asked Liu to accompany them. If they did not come back by the departure time, she would ask them to follow the team first and they would follow later.
Knowing that Liu was good at martial arts, the two elders felt relieved. Liu Shinan asked his daughter-in-law to bring a machete, and the mother and daughter secretly walked towards the town.
In just one day, the town became even more deserted, with almost no people around. Even if there were people, they were just hurrying along with their valuables.
All the shops were closed, and Liu Yuhan couldn't buy anything he wanted.
The mother and daughter followed the address given by Xiao Yanshi and found a house with two entrances. The door was closed. Liu Yuhan knocked tentatively and heard a voice shouting, "Who is it?"
"Xiaoyu, is that you? I'm Sister Han, and I'm with my mother."
After a while, the door creaked. Liu Yuhan opened the door and saw Qin Yu holding a small stool. It turned out that he was standing on the stool to help them open the door.
The front yard was empty, so Qin Yu locked the door again and led them to the backyard to find his mother.
"Mom, it's Aunt and Sister Han."
Yan ran out of a room.
"Oh, you're here. I was just thinking of sending someone to notify you today, but my family and the driver were busy at the escort agency."
"My husband has a good friend in the capital. We are going there. Would you like to come with us? You can go back and pack. We will leave tomorrow morning. I have already agreed with my husband."
The capital? Liu was in a daze for a moment.
The mother and daughter were very grateful to Yan. You know, if they asked the whole family to go to the capital together, Yan would be creating a huge burden for herself, but she still spoke without hesitation.
After thanking Yan, Liu said that their two villages were preparing to flee famine in the south and had already reached the town, so they came to say goodbye to her.
Yan understood.
"Have you packed everything? We might not come back after we go to the capital, and there are some things at home that we can't take with us. Please take a look and take anything you need."
As Yan spoke, she walked to the room next to the stove, which should be a utility room. There was a two-wheeled cart in it, and Yan pulled it out.
Then they took them into the kitchen and told them that they had packed up all the things in the kitchen and put them in the escort agency, and they didn't want the rest that were difficult to carry.
In the stove, there was a large machete with a wide mouth, two large iron pots, a few scattered earthenware jars, and more than ten bowls. Such good things were actually going to be thrown away. Liu Yuhan was not polite and put them all on the cart together with Liu.
Yan took them into another room, where there were three or four half-new, half-old quilts piled up. These were also unwanted and were put away.
Yan asked them if they mind having old clothes, and gave them all to her two sons, more than 20 pieces of old clothes that they didn't want anymore, both thick and thin.
Yan also took more than a dozen new sets of clothes from her inner chamber and stuffed them with them. She had a shopping addiction and had so many clothes that she couldn't fit into them anymore because she had gained weight.
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