Chapter 74 Refugees
"Alas, the refugees,
Not a ghost, not a human.
Alas, the refugees,
Men do not wear woven robes, and women do not wear full skirts.
…
Alas, the refugees,
The words are unbearable to hear, and the wailing is unbearable to hear.
…
Alas, the refugees,
The roads are full of the dead, and the living are neighbors with ghosts.
Alas, the refugees,
A girl is worth a bushel of millet, a boy a few coins.
..."①
In Taoli Hall, Master Qiu, with a heavy face, recited this poem with the students.
"I think you've all heard about the unrest in Qianzhong and the dispersal of refugees. In recent days, many refugees have fled to Xunzhou, with nowhere to stay."
"The academy has decided to suspend classes for a period of time and vacate the academy to temporarily accommodate the refugees."
"After you finish reading this poem, you can go back to the living quarters and pack your things."
The students of Taoli Hall were still a little confused. When they heard that they didn’t have to go to school, they hurried back to pack their things.
When Su Zhizhi was packing up her things after school, she was so quick.
When she was running to the entrance of the academy with Gu Qingning and Xue Che as usual, she suddenly stopped.
Outside the academy, the refugees who were about to move in were crowded.
Pale face and thin body.
Not a ghost, not a human.
…
The news of the riot in Qianzhong Road reached the capital and naturally spread to neighboring areas.
Lingnan is just to the south of Qianzhong Road, and the two are close neighbors.
When the news of the riot reached Lingnan, refugees fleeing from Qianzhou, Jinzhou, Chenzhou and other places also arrived in Lingnan.
A large number of refugees flocked in.
Every day, there is a group of new faces waiting outside the city gate to enter the city.
Lingnan is not as prosperous as Chang'an and Luoyang. The county towns are small in scale and it is difficult to accommodate such a large number of foreign populations at once.
It’s better if you have relatives in Lingnan, you can stay with them for a while.
Those who are rich can also hold on and can rent a yard or stay in an inn.
But the vast majority of them were refugees with no money and no relatives, who were forced to flee due to the sudden chaos and had nowhere to live.
A large number of refugees also poured into Baiyun County where Su Zhizhi lived.
Although the people of the county felt pity for the refugees, they were also wary. After all, when people are hungry, they are likely to do anything.
The only place in the county that took the initiative to open its doors to refugees was Zuichunyuan.
The madam of Zuichunyuan set up a stall at the door, specifically recruiting teenage girls who were good-looking.
Some good-looking boys are also accepted.
No decent family would be willing to send their children to such a place to engage in the flesh trade, but when they are desperate, there will always be people who offer their children in exchange for food.
Or some orphans sell themselves so that at least they can have food to eat every day.
County Magistrate Song has been very troubled these days because of the refugee issue. He doesn't want to see people selling their children, but he can't take care of so many people at once.
There was chaos in Qianzhong, and the refugees would not return home in the short term. They could only be settled in dilapidated temples and empty villages on the outskirts of the county.
Later, the dilapidated temples and farmlands were filled with people, and even the provincial school, county school, and academy were all vacated to accommodate the refugees. The students temporarily stopped classes and returned home.
People moved in, but there was not enough food to eat.
Magistrate Song was young, had been in office for only two years, and had previously lived in the capital. How could he have seen such a miserable scene?
He couldn't sleep for several nights and was so worried that two of his hair turned white. All he could think of was the scene of refugees kneeling at people's doorsteps and fighting with dogs for food.
"It's summer now, the spring planting season has passed, and it's too late to give them land to cultivate..."
“Even if the county granary is empty, it won’t be enough to eat.”
"If we send them to the countryside, many villages will be afraid of the danger and won't accept refugees..."
County Magistrate Song thought that it would be best to find a place with enough land, villagers who were not afraid of danger, and enough food to fill their stomachs...
County Magistrate Song's eyes wandered and happened to fall on the black mountain ink on the table.
I shuddered all over!
"Good Citizen Village!"
But after thinking about it, I hesitated again.
Liangmin Village has finally seen its life improve, but now with the influx of a large number of refugees, will this cause trouble that the villagers will find difficult to control?
"Sir! Someone from Liangmin Village is here." A bailiff hurried in.
County Magistrate Song's eyebrows jumped: "Quickly let someone in, what's the matter?"
The yamen runners were also shocked:
"They asked the lord to send the refugees from the city to their village."
…………
The rolling hills are like sleeping dragons coiled on both sides.
A small valley path winds its way through the middle.
A group of refugees walked slowly along the rugged path.
There were quite a few people in the team, about two or three hundred.
Unlike the refugees that Qiu Ming and his men had pretended to be before, this group of people were really thin, like a group of walking bamboo poles.
The few elderly people who survived were like skeletons tightly wrapped in skin.
The yamen runners who were accompanying them did not urge them, because looking at their appearance, it seemed that if they walked any faster, they might run out of breath on the way.
They are delivering people, not driving corpses.
In the crowd, there was a pair of grandparents supporting each other.
Wei Qi supported his grandfather Wei Dashuan and took a rest after walking a few steps.
Wei Qi looked to be about fifteen or sixteen years old, while Wei Dashuan had sunken eyes and was so thin that his age was hard to tell.
They were refugees from Qianzhou, and it was not easy for them to escape along the way.
Qianzhou was the first to become chaotic, so the grandfather and grandson, who depended on each other for survival, took some money and fled to Jinzhou for shelter.
As a result, just two days after arriving in Jinzhou, Jinzhou fell into chaos again.
They had no choice but to go to Chenzhou again. Before they arrived in Chenzhou, they saw the people of Chenzhou running out with their families.
Okay, then I won’t go to Chenzhou either.
The grandfather and grandson chose south among the four directions of east, south, west and north and ran all the way to Lingnan.
Because they thought Lingnan was a deserted place, there shouldn't be many refugees flocking there.
This idea is actually correct, but it just happens that many people think the same way...
It was summer, and the flowers and plants were lush, with many bushes growing on both sides of the path.
Wei Qi spotted a bunch of berries with his sharp eyes, and a half-grown child happened to see it too. They both reached out to pick them at the same time, and each of them grabbed half a bunch of berries.
Wei Qi gave the berries to his grandfather and licked the juice from his palm.
"Grandpa, it's sweet, eat it quickly."
Wei Dashuan was so hungry that he felt dizzy and took the berries and ate them.
The grandfather and grandson picked some grass and wild flowers and chewed them like cows.
After eating, I felt a little stronger and continued walking forward.
The other people in the team were also eating the flowers and plants on the roadside as they walked. After all, even the flowers and plants in the corners of the county town had been eaten up.
"Grandpa, why is this place getting more and more remote? It doesn't look like there's a village."
Wei Qi had a full meal and only then did he have the mind to look around.
Magistrate Song of Baiyun County told them that there was a mountain village in the countryside that was willing to take them in. As long as they were willing to work, they would have a place to live and food to eat.
The county will also help them to re-register their household registration so that they can settle down and stay.
County Magistrate Song did not say which mountain it was, but he said that the village was called Liangmin Village, which seemed to be a very kind and simple village.
Many refugees were naturally willing to do so when they heard that they could have food to eat. They were also very poor in their hometowns, so there was nothing wrong with them settling down here.
Some people are reluctant to come because they don’t know how dilapidated the countryside in Lingnan is, and they don’t plan to stay here for long.
County Magistrate Song did not force them and only asked the yamen runners to take those refugees who were willing to go with them.
But now, as we walked, it didn't feel like we were heading to the village. It felt like we were heading to the deep mountains and forests.
"Grandpa, are they planning to lure us into the mountains and kill us?"
Wei Qi shuddered and looked at the sword on the yamen runner's waist in horror.
He really had no trust in the so-called local officials, and this man surnamed Song might be a liar and a corrupt official.
Wei Dashuan shook his head and tapped his grandson's forehead:
"No, there are so many of us. If those yamen runners kill us, their knives will be blunt. If they really want to attack us, we can just bite them and eat them to the bone."
Wei Qi felt that what Grandpa said made sense, and just when he felt relieved, he heard Grandpa add:
"The most they can do is trick us into the mountains and leave us to fend for ourselves."
Wei Qi: ...
The group finally approached Black Bandit Mountain before sunset.
Wei Qi moved his nose: "Grandpa, I seem to be confused because of hunger. I smell the fragrance of vegetable porridge."
Wei Dashuan also sniffed hard:
"Aqi, grandpa smelled it too."
Not only the two of them, the grandparents and grandchildren, but the entire team smelled it.
At that moment, everyone on the trail suddenly looked up, like zombies coming back to life.
“Smells good! It smells so good!”
"The village must be just ahead."
"Go, go!"
The pace of movement suddenly quickened. The desire for food prompted everyone to move forward desperately, fearing that if they were a step late, the food would be snatched away.
Gu——
A huge eagle flew overhead.
Everyone jogged and looked up at the eagle in surprise.
The summer clouds are warm, and the sky is burning a bright red like a branding iron.
The orange-red glow soaked the eagle's feathers and everyone's clothes and skin.
The giant eagle landed in front.
Beside it was a little girl with a face as red as the clouds, waving at them:
"Uncles and aunts, come quickly! Dinner is about to begin!"
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