Chapter 379: Guilt-filled Kindness
The Kuzi people waited outside the granary, their dry throats swallowing constantly due to tension and hunger.
Aguli held his mother's hand.
A Niang's hands were cold, but his hands were warm.
He drank two bowls of multi-grain porridge mixed with minced meat in the morning, and now his body is warm.
Aguli stared at several generals of the opposing army and watched them walk towards a tent.
Not long after, he saw the girl who had given him porridge in the morning and a group of soldiers walking towards him.
"Mother." Aguli and Melina leaned against each other.
They thought the soldiers might be protesting.
After all, they eat the food provided by the army to the soldiers. Who would be willing to give up the food and risk starving?
After a while, the soldiers came in a large group.
Each soldier held half a bowl of porridge and half a piece of bread in the bowl.
The eyes of the Kuzi people were glued to the porridge and bread, and their eyeballs were almost popping out.
Melina hugged her son, her internal organs screaming. She lowered her head and moved her gaze to the snow at her feet, forcing herself not to look.
She lowered her head and saw her and her son's broken boots, and then a pair of riding boots appeared in her sight.
A hand was stretched out in front of her, and the porridge and bread were under her eyelids.
"You can eat it, but you have to return the bowl to us."
The soldier who came up to her said to her.
Melina looked up in shock and saw a soldier with a very dark face.
The soldier stuffed the bowl into the dazed Melina's hands.
Aguli pulled A'niang's hand, and she came back to her senses. She handed the porridge and bread in the bowl to Aguli:
"Aguli, eat, eat quickly."
Aguli: "Mother, you eat. I've already eaten."
Mairina turned around and saw other soldiers coming over and giving the half bowl of porridge and bread in their hands to the tribesmen.
Anyone could see that it was half a bowl of porridge that had already been drunk and half a piece of bread that had already been eaten.
The Kuzi people realized that these soldiers had saved half of their rations for them.
Bang bang bang.
This time they really threw away all their weapons like hammers and axes, and held the bread and porridge in their hands.
The eyes of the Kuzi elder who had spoken earlier were red. He buried his head in drinking porridge and tasted a faint salty taste on his lips.
"Fellow villagers, we have discussed the issue of food."
Qin Xiao and others also came over.
The attention of the Kuzi people who had eaten the bread and porridge was immediately diverted to that.
Qin Xiao cleared his throat and said:
"You should know that we are going to support the reinforcements in the northwest. Military rations are the food of the army. If the army is without food, the consequences will be disastrous. We don't feed idle people with our rations..."
As Qin Xiao spoke, the hope in the eyes of the Kuz people dimmed.
Then, Qin Xiao changed the subject:
"But Heaven is merciful and kind. We are all citizens of the Great Qi. In times of crisis, we must overcome difficulties together. From today on, as long as you can contribute to the army, you will be provided with one meal of rations every day.
Are you willing?"
Upon hearing this, the eyes of the Kuzi people suddenly lit up:
"Yes, yes!"
"good!"
"What do you want us to do?"
So next, all the Kuz people were assigned tasks.
Strong adults had to work with the soldiers to clear the snow at Yuhan Pass.
The elderly who lacked strength were responsible for using the sheepskin and cowhide stored at home to help mend the military uniforms.
Children can help collect firewood and carry dry cow dung to burn.
After the tasks were assigned, the scene became much more orderly.
The Kuz people followed different leaders to do their work. They also used the shovels they had just brought, which were just right for shoveling snow.
By the evening, everyone had received food.
Qin Xiao was talking about one meal's ration, but what they got were two large pancakes and a large bowl of porridge. If they ate sparingly, they could save up enough for two meals.
Work a day, eat a day, and suffer one less day of hunger.
The Kuzi people worked even harder the next day.
Kong Wu stands out in the snow-clearing team. While others dig one hole, he can dig three.
Of course, while others only eat one big pancake for a meal, he has to eat at least three.
Everyone in the barracks knew how much Kong Wu ate, and they would make exceptions for him. After all, he ate a lot and worked hard, so there was nothing to complain about.
But Kong Wu only ate two cakes that day and gave the third cake to Old Man Qin.
Old Man Qin glared at him: "Why don't you eat?"
Kong Wu pointed to his stomach and waved his hands: "Ahh, ah."
The pancake was bigger than Kong Wu's face. Old Man Qin slapped the pancake on Kong Wu's face.
"You're not hungry? You're not hungry, you idiot! You still dare to lie to your grandpa? I have no idea how much you can eat. Take it and eat it!"
"Don't worry. When we calculated the rations, we considered you as three people. Three pieces of bread are just right for you. Don't worry about anything else."
Kong Wu took the pancake off his face, squeezed it in his hand, hesitated for a moment, and then ate the pancake.
"We're back!"
At this time, Su Zhizhi came back riding a donkey, with a small cart behind it.
There were several children driving donkey carts around, and Aguli was among them.
"We brought back a lot of dry cow dung." Su Zhizhi was in high spirits.
She had originally planned to shovel snow, but she happened to be menstruating and would easily get wet and catch a cold if she shoveled snow, so she took on the task of supervising the Kuzi children to transport dry cow dung.
When Kong Wu saw them coming, he ran over to help with a smile, holding a half-eaten cake.
Some children were frightened by Kong Wu's huge figure, but when he tore the cake into small pieces and gave them to them, they quickly became friends with him.
At this time, Old Xu went over to join in the fun and used his internal energy to hit a ball of snow in the air.
This attracted a group of half-grown children to laugh.
When the Kuzi people heard the children's laughter, they felt more energetic to work.
Old Man Qin looked at Zhizhi, Kongwu and the others from afar, his eyes becoming somewhat cloudy.
Murong Di walked to Old Man Qin and looked in Zhizhi's direction:
"The Hu people intended to sow discord between the army and the people and hinder reinforcements, but they probably didn't expect there would be a group of Black Mountain soldiers willing to share their food."
"However, I didn't expect that Master would also give up the export rations with them today." Murong Di smiled, with a teasing tone in his voice.
Old Man Qin: "Why? You mean, I'm so greedy that I even take things from other people's graves. How could I be willing to give up my food rations?"
Murong Di hurriedly said, "Master, I didn't say that."
"Xiao Di, you came to Black Bandit Mountain late, so you don't know what it was like during the chaos in Lingnan more than a decade ago. We too have suffered hardships, and when we were hungry, we had evil thoughts and committed evil deeds.
I am not a good person. I did evil things in the past, and now I feel guilty and want to do good things."
Old Man Qin didn't smile when he said this.
His cloudy eyes seemed to be woven with a net, and every mesh was filled with sin.
Fourteen years ago, when famine and plague ravaged Lingnan, they did even more cruel things.
Murong Di noticed that something was wrong with Old Man Qin: "Master?"
Old Man Qin: "Before the refugees from central Guizhou came up the mountain, there were no children as old as Zhizhi in Black Bandit Mountain. Do you know why?"
Murong Di didn't answer, but he obviously thought of something, and the smile in his eyes disappeared.
Old Man Qin smiled bitterly: "You are right."
When the Mi Po people invaded Lingnan, many people said that they were vicious and would eat human flesh.
But it’s not just the Mi Po people who have eaten human flesh.
Old Man Qin knows the taste of human flesh.
We even know that baby meat is the most tender.
These are the past events that the earliest villagers of Heifei Mountain knew about tacitly and were unwilling to look back on.
In that past event, the last baby they wanted to eat was none other than—
It’s Zhizhi.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
