Perhaps it was the events of tonight that were hard for the tribespeople to accept, because the resting place was no longer as noisy as usual, with only the sounds of women cooking and children talking quietly.
An Shuyi looked at the children in the carriage, opened her bundle, and took out some pastries. There weren't many, but she would give each child a small piece whenever they complained of being hungry.
Now, apart from grain, she can quietly take some and put it on the oxcart, but not anything else. Every time Zhao cooks rice, she puts some in a bag, thinking that there will be enough food for them so that the children won't suffer. Otherwise, they will be too hungry to travel, which would be a real problem.
Although the children are tired this month, they are more energetic than before and not as thin. After all, they used to eat porridge and coarse grains, but now they can eat rice, stir-fried dishes with oil, and steamed buns for lunch. Their living conditions are much better than before.
In the past, we had to work in the fields, but now we just need to travel by horse-drawn carriage or oxcart every day. It's not that tiring, just a matter of being on edge.
The night passed quickly. When they woke up in the morning, although the tribesmen were not as noisy as before, they were much better off than the day before. With water, they could travel further this time. They traveled for another half month, and their water was running low. Some tribesmen had no food left.
In the end, the clansmen chipped in from one family to another to feed those few families. But even this couldn't last long. Looking at Anhe Prefecture in the distance, they huddled together during their rest to discuss whether they should go into the city to take a look. This was the prefecture they had encountered after traveling for a month and a half.
“If we don’t go into the city, we don’t have much food left. If we continue, we’ll die anyway. I agree that we should go in and take a look.”
"What if Anhe Prefecture also has no food? We've encountered quite a few refugees along the way, and there must be refugees coming to Anhe Prefecture as well. The Prefect won't let those refugees in."
“Even if there is food, we may not be able to get in. In the eyes of those officials, we are refugees now.”
Village Chief Lin looked at An Shuyi and asked, "Sister-in-law, what are you thinking?"
"See that path?" An Shuyi pointed and said, "We'll go that way, bypass Anhe Prefecture, and head south directly. But before that, we need to send some people into the city to buy things. Don't send too many, and don't send too few either."
"Too many people will make us a big target, and we don't even know if we can get into Anhe Prefecture. Too few people, even if we buy grain, we won't be able to bring it back. So you make arrangements: those people go into the city, and the rest go to that small path and wait."
"Besides buying food, we also need to find out how the higher-ups are currently handling the refugees. You guys discuss it and see if this works."
Village Chief Lin looked at the others and said, "What do you think? If you listen to my sister-in-law, then arrange for someone to go to town. The rest of you can wait on that path."
The clansmen nodded, "We'll listen to Sister An. Anyway, there's no other good way."
“Yes, we’ll listen to Sister An. She’s right. We’ll arrange for the two sisters-in-law to go into the city. They’re resourceful and smart, so there won’t be any other problems.”
“Okay,” Village Chief Lin nodded. “Since you all agree, I’ll start arranging people. Ideally, they should all be strong enough to carry grain and fight. Is there anyone who would like to volunteer?”
"Hey, village chief, I'm strong and capable. We're going to run out of food too fast, I need to go buy some," said Zhu the hunter. His family were hunters who made a living by hunting year-round. They didn't own any land. Although they could buy grain, they had many sons, so their food consumption was even greater.
Other clansmen hurriedly added, "Me too! I'm going too. We've run out of food at home and need to buy some. Otherwise, we can't rely on your help regularly."
"And me, our family is almost out of food too!"
"And me..."
Village Chief Lin looked at the group and said, "Those of you who don't have any food at home, come along. If anyone needs anything else, have someone else bring it back!"
"My two sisters-in-law, I'm entrusting the matter of going to the city to you. You take them and see if you can buy any grain. I'll take the rest of the clansmen and wait for you on that small path. If anything happens, just send someone back to inform us. Is that alright?"
An Shuyi glanced at Xia Hua, and after receiving her consent, nodded, "Okay, then let's choose forty tribesmen to go with us. Find some strong ones who look fierce, and have them bring the household registration documents."
"If we can get into the city, that would be best. But if we can't, we'll think of another way. It's getting late, so everyone should get some rest and we'll set off at dawn."
Although she didn't know if she could enter Anhe Mansion, she would try her best to get in. Although there was still food at home, it wasn't much. She had already taken out as much as she could, but even if she took out more, it wouldn't be enough to last.
So we have to go into the city to buy some. If we take too much from the trading system, others won't know, but the Zhao and Wu families will be suspicious. After all, no matter how much grain we have, we can't eat it all and then have more. "Eldest brother, third brother, come into the city with me tomorrow. Second brother, the rest of the family depends on you. Keep an eye on them. If anything happens to any of them, you're doomed."
The second son nodded, "Mother, don't worry, your son will definitely make sure nothing happens to them." Although he knew that his mother favored his eldest brother and only took them, not him, he didn't dare to rebel. He obediently listened to his mother, hoping that she would take him next time. During this month's famine relief, he found that apart from her temper not being very good, his mother was still the same as before. She was easily swayed by gentleness but not by force. So as long as he was obedient, he would still be his mother's favorite child.
Unfortunately, An Shuyi didn't know his thoughts, otherwise she would have told him that no matter how obedient he was, her favorite children had become Xiao Wu, Xiao Liu, and Xiao Qi, and it wouldn't be him.
The next day, before dawn, the villagers got up early. Without washing up, they looked disheveled. They then took their baskets and followed An Shuyi and Xia Hua. After they left, Village Chief Lin led the remaining villagers to the path. Although the path was narrow, it was still wide enough for horse-drawn carriages and oxcarts to pass.
However, the road here leads uphill, so you can no longer ride in the oxcart. It's not very steep, and even children can walk on it. This is the outer edge of the mountain, and the weeds are all withered, with no green in sight. But if you go further up, you'll see groves of trees.
The tribespeople were told to get down and walk. Some tribespeople saw grass for horses and cows to eat and cut some and piled it up. However, they had to wait for An Shuyi and the others. They stopped at the path.
Meanwhile, An Shuyi and her group were also approaching Anhe Prefecture. Just as they had guessed, there were many refugees outside the prefecture. However, they did not look like the refugees they had encountered on the road. These refugees seemed to be in good spirits.
Without paying much attention, they simply found a place to sit down and rest. It was still dark, and the government officials wouldn't be here so early.
They sat there for a while and then heard some refugees say that to enter Anhe Prefecture, one only needed silver. One tael of silver could get them in for five days. To settle down in Anhe City, each family needed one hundred taels of silver, which was an astronomical price for refugees at the time!
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