When Li Lanzhen brought her two children to the front of the government office, she saw the scene there.
A group of men carrying broadswords and clubs, clearly refugees, surrounded by a haphazardly piled-up group of government soldiers.
When Han Mingjiang saw his mother return, he quickly went to greet her and said, "Mom, let's go quickly."
Li Lanzhen nodded. "Where is Xue Bao?"
"Xue Bao led a group of men to attack the guards at the city gate."
Because many people fleeing famine had to pass through the city gates to get out.
She asked anxiously, "Is his firecracker enough?"
Han Mingjiang said, "That's enough! The situation here was resolved quickly. These soldiers were already quite drunk from eating meat and drinking alcohol last night. We took them all down without much effort."
After Han Mingjiang finished speaking, he hurriedly said to Li Lianzhen, "Mother, we have to hurry. I heard from a soldier that their reinforcements will be here soon."
Li Lanzhen didn't originally come here to eliminate these soldiers. She just wanted to rescue the people and collect some supplies, which would have made her a lot of money.
She said, "Let's go! Let's hurry up and leave. Have all the people from Hanjia Village come out yet?"
Han Mingjiang nodded, "They've all come out. They're all very capable!"
"Mother, we searched all the soldiers' bodies and found a lot of silver and other things. We even stripped them of their clothes and shoes."
When Li Lanzhen saw this, she saw that the soldiers' clothes had all been stripped off, especially their shoes.
She looked down and saw that her second son was also wearing a pair of soap boots.
"Alright! Let's hurry up and get out of the city!"
Gou Dan said, "Grandma Lan Zhen, are we not going to crawl through the dog hole anymore?"
"We're not going any further. We need to go through the city gate and see how things are going with your Uncle Xue Bao and the others."
Li Lanzhen turned her head and saw the people of Hanjiacun, almost everyone was leading a horse.
Han Mingjiang, seeing Li Lanzhen gazing at the horses, said smugly, "Mother, we've confiscated all the soldiers' horses."
Li Lanzhen nodded and said with a smile, "Okay, let's go quickly."
Han Mingjiang shouted, "We're leaving! Pack up the grain you found. Let's go!"
The men of the Han Family Village Guard Team, along with the able-bodied men captured from other fleeing groups, found the government office's large canteen.
There are quite a lot of ingredients here. Although they are not as refined as those in the prefect's mansion's large kitchen, in this place where there is not much food and we are fleeing famine, we are already very happy to have this much food.
Everyone carried some things on their backs, and some even carried a pot, perhaps they had lost their pots on the way to escape famine.
Several other people were pushing a cart together, which was piled with burlap sacks, pots and pans, and wooden buckets.
Li Lanzhen held the two little ones' hands tightly and followed Han Mingjiang as they ran quickly through the bustling market.
At midnight, a series of clanging and rumbling noises caused the people in Ankang City to close their doors tightly, afraid to come out.
So they ran very fast and soon arrived at the city gate.
At the city gate, the situation was also one-sided. More than a dozen soldiers guarding the city gate had been tied up and thrown aside, their fate unknown.
"Xue Bao!"
Li Lanzhen called out when she saw Xue Bao.
Li Lanzhen genuinely liked this child.
Although young, he is courageous, resourceful, and responsible.
He's a good kid.
Upon seeing Li Lanzhen and the others approaching, Xue Bao said, "Aunt Lanzhen, we must get out of the city quickly."
I heard from some guards that some of King Jin's soldiers were conscripting men nearby and were supposed to return to the city that night, but they hadn't come yet. They'll probably arrive soon.
Just as they were talking, the other men who had been captured while fleeing quickly pushed their carts and carried their baskets out of the city gate and disappeared into the moonlight.
They should be thinking about their families now.
The men of Hanjiacun were skilled and quick, and they stripped the city gate guards, who were tied up, naked.
Xue Bao burst into laughter upon seeing this.
With a whoosh, they left the city.
Xue Bao and his colleagues thoughtfully closed the city gate tightly.
Li Lanzhen saw the people who had come out first. In the fleeing crowd, she quickly found her family. Without lingering, she led her family and the villagers, and they fled quickly into the mountains.
The remaining members of Li Lanzhen's and Hanjiacun's guard team also prepared to go up the mountain.
Xue Bao said, "Aunt Lanzhen, can you ride a horse? Let's ride horses faster."
Li Lanzhen said, "It should be possible."
Han Mingjiang helped her onto a horse, handed her the reins, and told her to sit firmly.
Xue Bao sat on one horse with Gou Dan in his arms, while Han Mingxiang sat on another horse with Han Yinan in her arms.
The men from Hanjiacun village staggered up to the horse and quickly disappeared into the woods.
Li Lanzhen said, "Xue Bao, our horses' hooves should leave footprints!"
Xue Bao said, "Auntie, don't worry. After walking for a while, a tree branch will be tied behind my horse to clear away our tracks. You should hurry on your way."
Riding a horse is indeed fast; in less than the time it takes to drink two cups of tea, they arrived at the cave.
The sound of horses' hooves going up the mountain startled Xue Laohu and Han Shunde.
They didn't know whether the approaching force was friend or foe, so they all prepared for defense.
There was no open flame in the pitch-black cave. If Li Lanzhen hadn't known they were hiding here, the visitors probably wouldn't have discovered them.
After dismounting, Li Lanzhen's legs were trembling as she shouted, "Old village chief, we're back!"
With a whoosh, the people of Hanjiacun finally emerged from the various caves.
In an instant, cries of joy and calls for their fathers echoed throughout the mountains and forests.
Xue Laohu also hugged his son tightly, looking at his arm wrapped in cloth, his eyes slightly red, and pounded his back, saying, "You brat, be smarter in the future, or you won't dare to make your old man worry anymore."
Xue Bao chuckled and then said, "Father, I think we should hurry up and leave. The soldiers from the government office said that another group of them went to the nearby villages to conscript men."
I was afraid they would return and discover the situation at the government office, and then hunt us down.
Xue Laohu asked, "Have you cleaned up the hoofprints along the way?"
Xue Bao nodded and said, "Look, I still have a big tree branch attached to the back of my horse's tail. I swept it all the way here."
But Father, even so, we should still leave as soon as possible.
Xue Laohu quickly told Li Lanzhen and Han Shunde about the situation, and also informed the old village chief.
The old village chief nodded and said, "Let's go, we can't stay here, we should leave as soon as possible!"
Almost every member of the guard team in Hanjiacun has a horse.
So with the strength of my legs, I can walk quite fast.
Taking advantage of the darkness, Li Lanzhen released a horse from her spatial dimension.
Leading the horse, she handed it to Gou Dan, saying, "Gou Dan, Grandma Lan Zhen is rewarding you with a horse. You were clever and quick on the job this time. Good job!"
Dog Egg jumped up excitedly, grabbed the horse's reins, and said, "Thank you, Grandma Lanzhen!"
Then they hung the basket that his grandmother was carrying on her back on the horse's back.
He gave his grandmother a stick and said, "Grandma, use this stick to walk slowly."
Several men from Dongjiazhuang were also leading horses.
The eldest son of the village chief of Dongjiazhuang injured his arm, so he handed the horse over to his younger brother to carry the family's heavy loads.
And so, people from both villages, with their families, began climbing the mountain again.
The place they were in was a little higher up the mountainside. They had been walking quickly, and the children had already fallen asleep, swaying gently, in the baskets carried by their parents or in the baskets on the horses' backs.
Xue Bao led a few guards and remained at the very back of the group.
They were responsible for keeping watch and clearing away any traces of the advancing group.
They not only erased their tracks, but sometimes they would deliberately ride their horses down the mountain in other directions, leaving clear marks behind.
If soldiers do come looking for them on the mountain, we should confuse them and buy time for the people of Hanjiacun to escape.
And so they walked until dawn before finally reaching the top of the mountain.
By the time we reached the summit, we were exhausted.
Such a forced march should mean that they would lie down and rest once they reached their destination.
However, people's eyes were bright and clear, and none of them were sleepy. Instead, they seemed to have been injected with chicken blood, full of energy.
Not only is there a small waterfall at the top of the mountain, but the surrounding vegetation is also lush and dense.
As they walked, if everyone hadn't been urging them to hurry, the women would have surely filled their baskets with mushrooms and wild vegetables along the way.
As for the pheasants that occasionally fly by and the rabbits that run by, they just smack their lips and walk away with regret.
Now, we can safely go dig for wild vegetables and catch pheasants and rabbits.
Having found a tall pine forest, Han Shunde suggested setting up camp and resting there.
Li Lanzhen saw her eldest daughter-in-law, two pregnant women from Hanjiacun, and the second daughter-in-law of the village chief of Dongjiazhuang, who was also pregnant.
The four pregnant women didn't look well and didn't want to move, lying on the straw mats laid out by their family members.
Li Lanzhen thought she had scavenged some treasures from the prefectural government office and hoped to exchange them for some medicine, especially medicine to prevent miscarriage.
She also had to prepare all the things a woman needs when giving birth.
Because it was unknown whether these pregnant women would give birth before finding a place to settle down.
Han Minghai and Han Mingjiang quickly used the surrounding trees to enclose an area with straw mats.
There's no canopy on top, just an enclosed area, which makes it convenient for the trees to rest.
Everyone followed their example and built their own homes.
When families didn't have enough straw mats, they would cut grass that was half a person's height on the spot, bring it back, and nimble women or elderly people would weave a straw mat in no time.
When Li Lanzhen saw this, she asked everyone to weave more straw mats when they had free time. They could be used on the road, to keep out the rain, or to be laid on the ground to sleep.
At this moment in Ankang City, one of Jin Wang's squad leaders was furiously whipping Ankang City Prefect Wu.
"Tell me, did you join forces with these refugees? Otherwise, how come all our soldiers died, but your government officials suffered few casualties?"
"And the fireworks they set off were the same kind of weapons that injured several of our soldiers last time. Do you know what kind of weapons these are?"
(My darlings, two long chapters today. Thank you all for following along!)
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