Chapter 33 An Ordinary Small Village

Xiao Yi smiled, looked at Li Jidao and waved: "Wait for me!"

After saying this, he jumped on his horse and said to Feng Ying, "I will send a few people to take my mother-in-law back. I still have things to do for my father-in-law, so I can't take you back in person."

Feng Ying accepted it without hearing her daughter's voice.

"Thank you very much."

…………

"Brother Tianyang, that's our home." On the slope, a dark-skinned fat boy saw his hometown and tears filled his eyes.

A scarred man next to him was looking at the calm river from afar, his eyes deep and gloomy.

I don't want to wait any longer. I don't know how long I have to wait.

Not only the dead villagers can't wait, she can't wait even more, right?

But how can he overcome this difficulty?

Black Fatty wiped his tears and said, "Brother Tianyang, why don't we go and collect food as well? There must be some in the big villages nearby."

"Then what's the difference between us and them?" Scarface's eyes were as sharp as lightning as he looked at the fat black man.

He said: "We have suffered, shed blood, cried out for injustice, and we must never let others suffer the same way as we did."

"Also, don't call my name. If it's exposed, everyone will be in danger."

"Yes, General!" The fat black man said with a worried look on his face, "But don't force it. Where can we get the military pay and food? They are still waiting for us to perform meritorious deeds and come back to seek justice."

Yes, they must make meritorious deeds, and then have the capital to ask that person and seek justice for all the villagers in their village.

Military pay, rations, and fodder...

Scarface looked ahead and narrowed his eyes.

…………

The Li family lives not far outside the city. It is not on the main street, but on a large area of ​​farmland to the northwest. That is all the Li family's territory.

So Xiao Yi only left four people for Feng Ying.

With the addition of Feng Ying's own people, Feng Ying felt a lot more at ease.

But the further you go, the fewer people there are.

When passing by Changshui River, there were many houses on both sides of the river bank, but the houses looked like they were about to collapse and no one was maintaining them. There was no one in sight.

Feng Ying was really curious, as she had never traveled on a ox cart before.

I asked Liu, "I remember there should be a lot of families here, why can't I see anyone?"

"Here!" A Liu had wandered in Chang'an City and Luoyang City before and was very familiar with the environment of both places.

She said, "Madam, this is called Xilin Village. There is a river in the village called Xilin River. There is a kind of fish in the Xilin River called Xilin fish, which is very delicious. Unfortunately, I don't know what happened, the upper reaches of the river are blocked, and there are no fish here. I was lucky enough to eat two when I was very young."

"The scales of the fish were extremely delicate, and the fish body was slender. When the scales were shone in the light, they glowed golden and were very beautiful. The meat was also really tender and delicious, more tender than crucian carp, with a natural sweetness, no fishy smell, and no bones. Even without any seasoning, it was a delicacy. It was really delicious. What a pity."

People here don't eat much fish because most fish have an earthy and smelly taste.

Feng Ying seemed to have heard of this kind of fish before: "Isn't this a tribute?"

So she never ate it.

Feng Ying said, "Now that you mention it, I seem to remember that twelve years ago we could eat this kind of fish, and it seemed to be in the river. Suddenly one day, we couldn't eat fish anymore."

Feng Ying was pregnant with her third child at the time, who was just over two months old. She was taking care of the baby and didn't ask about what was happening outside.

She vaguely remembered that something happened in the palace because of the fish. The current Emperor Wansheng was loyal to the emperor and had kept the throne. The old emperor, considering his son's filial piety, passed the throne to Emperor Wansheng and dismissed the ineffective crown prince.

"I remember now, I remember now, that's it."

"Prince Jing was plotting a rebellion and had the old emperor and the crown prince captured. It just so happened that the current emperor was bringing a batch of tribute to the capital at that time. Upon hearing about this, he led the military officers and soldiers escorting the tribute to break through the city gate and rescued the old emperor and the crown prince."

Yes, that's the reason.

It is said that the most common tribute brought by Emperor Wansheng at that time was fish.

The general Xiao Jingze who discovered the tribute fish at that time now controls the Secretariat and is one of the emperor's most trusted men.

He has already reached the highest position among the officials.

Ah Liu reminded Feng: "Madam, please keep your voice down. You are discussing the affairs of the royal family. Prince Jing is also a taboo in the palace now. You should be careful not to say anything disastrous."

Emperor Wansheng was merciful and did not kill Prince Jing and the Crown Prince. The Crown Prince became a leisurely prince, and Prince Jing was imprisoned in the North Garden of the Imperial Palace because he was guilty. He was quite lustful, and the Emperor often rewarded him with several women.

This shows the emperor's benevolence.

Feng smacked her lips. She was becoming more and more presumptuous now. She didn't know who she learned this from.

"No, aren't we talking about why there are so few people in this village?" Feng Ying looked at A Liu and asked.

Ah Liu: “…”

"I don't know. I'm just a street kid. As long as I'm full and not hungry, that's fine. I don't care about other things."

[There was a big flood here.] Li Jidao sat up, looking at the "scars" left by the flood, and frowned slightly.

The houses here were all in varying degrees of disrepair, and the bluestone slabs on both sides of the riverbank were covered with a kind of moss that only grows underwater.

This means that this place is flooded.

Li Jidao stood up slowly and looked upstream at the riverbed. There was a gate there that could be controlled.

[There has been a man-made flood here.] Li Jidao was certain of this.

"Hey, Ajian, please sit down quickly, or you will fall." Feng Ying slowed down the carriage and helped his daughter sit down.

Then he smiled and recalled, "Isn't it the year with the heaviest rain? That was the year I had you, and the spring flood came unexpectedly. That year our village was hit by a disaster."

She also took a sum of money to supplement her family income, and from that time on, she had little money left for her dowry.

It really hurts.

Feng Ying patted her thigh again and said, "I remember now. There was a girl in our yard named Qiu Ran. She was seven years old at the time. She seemed to be from here. She said that everyone in her village had died and she was the only one left. She had nowhere to go, so I took her in."

A Liu:?

It seems like I have no idea what the lady is saying.

The lady is talking to herself.

"My lady!" Ah Liu took over and said, "Let's go quickly. There are still people here. I came here with the beggars when I was a kid. Guess what?"

Feng Ying was still asking: "What's going on?"

"Hey, we originally came here to beg for food, right? Unexpectedly, half of the food we escaped from other places was taken away by the people here."

"There are only half-grown children here, and it seems there are no adults. It's very dangerous here."

"But Qiu Ran said they were all dead." Feng Ying murmured.

Ah Liu shook his head: "She herself is a survivor, maybe there are other survivors that she doesn't know about. There must be more than ten of them. They are so arrogant, saying that their brother has become an official and will come back sooner or later. If we don't give them, then their brother will kill us."