Everyone in Hanjiacun, adults and children alike, was on edge. The little children hid in their mothers' arms, silent, their dark eyes fixed on the person lying on the ground in terror.
They saw children their own age, meowing like hungry kittens in their mothers' arms. Seeing these children, even more pitiful than themselves, their eyes welled with tears. So pitiful!
Leading the way was Xue Laohu, driving his family's donkey cart. On it were Xue Nizi's two sons, covered by a blue cloth by Wu Shi, with only their eyes showing.
Xue Bao led his guard of young men, carrying broadswords or clubs, walking on both sides of the procession.
In the middle were the women, elderly, and children of Hanjiacun Village. Bringing up the rear were the butcher Han Dazhong and his family, along with three members of the guard team.
Inside Li Lanzhen's large blue mule cart sat Zhang Yuniang. She held Miaomiao and Linglong in her arms, while Han Yinan and Su Chen, the two children, helped Gou Dan push a small cart.
The number of baskets piled on Gou Dan's cart was even greater than when they first fled the famine. In the mountains, the grandfather and grandson were more diligent than other families, digging up wild vegetables, drying them, making wild vegetable pancakes, and of course, jerky. Gou Dan's grandmother even boiled chicken and rabbit bones, dried them, and put them in a cloth bag.
The people of Hanjiacun were on high alert as they quickly passed through the area, which was frighteningly crowded with disaster victims on the official road.
Li Lanzhen was terrified of the lying disaster victims. What if one of them suddenly got up, rushed over, and knelt down begging for food? If there was one, there would be two, and if there were two, there would be ten…
The phenomenon that Li Lanzhen feared did not occur.
Her heart ached even more, which meant that these disaster victims had no strength left, and perhaps one or two more people would die as they passed through.
They have left this area far behind, but the people of Hanjiacun will probably never forget those lost, longing eyes.
When they had traveled about two miles from this area, it was still not dark. Han Shunde and his group decided to continue onward and rest after dark.
At this moment, the pace of travel in the entire village slowed down. Just as everyone was relaxing, suddenly, about a mile ahead, dust billowed up from the official road and rolled in.
Then I heard the sounds of people running and crying.
Xue Laohu immediately issued an alarm signal to the team behind him. The guards quickly gathered the people of Hanjiacun together, forming a circle, raising their weapons, and looking at the running crowd opposite them.
Immediately, a cloud of dust surrounded Han Family Village.
Suddenly, Han Shunde shouted, "Let go! Let go of me!"
Before he could finish speaking, the person kneeling on the ground, tightly hugging his legs, cried out, "Brother, big brother, I've finally found you! Waaaaah..."
Han Shunde stared in disbelief at the person clinging tightly to his leg and asked, "Second brother? You're Shunkui?!" He knelt down as well and hugged his younger brother Han Shunkui tightly in his arms.
She burst into tears, "Soon-kyu, what happened to you? You disobedient stubborn brat. Waaah!"
The two brothers embraced and wept bitterly. The old village chief and Aunt Huaihua heard them and ran over to see what was happening. When they saw the person kneeling on the ground, they froze in place.
He was dressed in rags, so thin he was barely recognizable, with half of his legs showing through his trousers. His calves were covered in knife wounds, some bleeding, some festering. A deep, fresh knife scar ran down his cheek, still bleeding.
With tears in their eyes, they stepped forward to see their son, and then they heard two voices.
"Grandpa! Grandma!"
The old village chief and Aunt Huaihua turned around and saw their grandson Han Zhaocheng and granddaughter Han Shuying, the two children of their second son. The two children rushed into their arms and cried loudly.
Aunt Huaihua hugged Han Shuying tightly, feeling that she was just a skeleton with only a pair of big, rolling eyes on her face.
The two children cried and cried until they fainted in the arms of the two elderly people.
The people nearby quickly picked it up and placed it on the cart.
Just then, a woman rushed over from the side. As soon as she reached Aunt Huaihua, she sat down on the ground, slapped her thigh, and cried out, "Oh, my dear in-laws, I've finally met you! If I had been any later, I would have died! My dear in-laws, you look so radiant. You must have some food. Quickly, give me some food. I'm starving to death!"
Aunt Huaihua was about to go to the donkey cart to get some food for them when she saw Han Shunkui stand up and loudly say to Han Shunde.
"Brother, run! Run! We encountered a group of soldiers on horseback, carrying broadswords, looking for Han Family Village. My father-in-law thought it was a good thing, so he told them we were from Han Family Village. As a result, they came up and tried to tie us up. We barely managed to break free and escape, and they are chasing after us."
The people of Hanjiacun immediately tensed up. Why would the soldiers be looking for the people of Hanjiacun? They must be looking for them, right?
Han Shunde immediately became serious, pulled up Han Shunkui who was kneeling on the ground, and turned to see Xue Laohu and Xue Bao.
He shouted, "Everyone back up! There are soldiers looking for people from Hanjiacun ahead. Let's run back!"
Upon seeing this, Xue Laohu said, "We can't retreat. There are so many refugees behind us; we'll be attacked from both sides."
Li Lanzhen also heard these things and thought that this should be the second son of the old village chief. Wasn't he supposed to be fleeing famine with his father-in-law's village? How did they end up here? And it seems they were supposed to be going to the capital.
Hearing the mounted soldiers searching for Hanjiacun, she knew these soldiers must be in Ankang City, where they had killed the Jin King's soldiers.
She turned her head and looked to both sides. One side was a desolate area with hardly any grass, and the other side was a messy rocky beach. She shouted to Xue Laohu, "My dear in-law, I think we should run this way. Let's run into the pile of rocks. They shouldn't have a good chance of finding us on horseback."
After discussing it, Xue Laohu and Han Shunde decided to run into the rocky beach. Han Shunde shouted loudly to the people of Hanjiacun, "Everyone, quickly take your children and run this way!"
Xue Laohu led the way and immediately turned into the rocky beach.
The snow leopards were still the last to leave, each of them carrying a dry branch, constantly sweeping away the traces of their path towards the rocky beach.
Just as the people of Hanjiacun were rushing into the rocky wasteland in a panic, a group of more than a dozen soldiers rode their horses and charged along the official road.
These soldiers were the troops of King Jin in Ankang City. That day, they received orders and went up the official road, running for several miles towards Youzhou. Then they turned back and encountered the refugee group of the old village chief's second son. They asked them if they had any people from Hanjia Village.
Because the soldiers were asking questions in a friendly manner, Han Shunkui's father-in-law, Zhou Laonian, thought it was a good thing and nodded, saying yes, yes, yes, they were from Han Family Village.
As a result, the soldiers dismounted and tried to arrest them all, but they managed to escape after a fierce resistance.
They encountered the real people from Han Family Village halfway there, which led to the scene that just happened on the official road.
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