Waves at the end of Han Dynasty

Chapter 94 The Death of the North
At dusk, the setting sun gradually sets, hiding behind the winding mountains in the distance.

The mountain is like a light shadow, and it seems that the painter is not willing to spend too much ink, leaving only a layer of blurred traces in people's eyes, so that people know-oh, there are some mountains in the distance.

The fiery red sun that hung high in the sky in the past has now fallen behind such a mountain, leaving only a crimson doubt stubbornly in the sky.

On the city wall of Fushi County, the prefecture of Bingzhou Shangjun, countless pairs of sad eyes looked over the high crenels to the endless abyss outside, which used to be their hometown.

There, there are also their dilapidated houses, and the land they have worked so hard for half a lifetime, and now they are all swallowed up by this dark and greedy abyss...!
Old farmer Niu Ershi is one of these people.

Now, like those companions, he is being watched by the auxiliary soldiers in the county to do the hardest coolies. These tasks should be done by them, but now that the battle is tight, the auxiliary soldiers have also become the main force...

From time to time, he looked at the world outside the city. The alien army was drinking, talking and laughing loudly, all in languages ​​he could not understand.

He was still looking forward to when he could leave this fence and return to his meager land.Although the place is withered, it is at least a small nest that belongs to itself.

But thinking about the situation at home, his eyes were full of despair, and he had no emotions other than despair.

His eyes are often squinted, his brows are often wrinkled, and the wrinkles on his face are like deep ravines, which are the traces left by repeated sufferings one after another.

His dark skin was not formed in a day, and the layers of dirt recorded the fission of his heart again and again.

Before despair took over, his emotion was resentment, and at that time, he hated everyone.Hate the county guard, hate the Xianbei people, hate the Eastern Qiang people, and hate the Southern Huns.

If it weren't for the sheriff, he wouldn't have lost everything. His relatives, his home and his dignity are all gone now.

And if it wasn't for those alien races, he wouldn't lose his precious freedom. Even if he couldn't live with enough food and clothing, he could at least have a place to hide his bent body.The gang of dog officials had no reason to put his old bones on the tower to do this inhuman job.

His ears still lingered in that ferocious voice that day, and that gang of policemen in official uniforms with hideous faces.

His own life was not good, and he was ravaged by these people, but he still heard the cry:

"Eastern Qiang and Southern Xiongnu rebelled, and the county guard ordered that all the people outside the city rush to the city immediately to build fortifications and assist in city defense. All villages and buildings outside the city were burned to prevent the enemy from capitalizing on them!"

He knew that there was no way for him to have any luck, even for a person of his age, it was impossible to avoid this final catastrophe.

As long as they can still do a little bit of work, they are valuable in their eyes. It is not until the last bit of value is squeezed out and turned into a corpse that the glory of being a big man is completely degraded.

Even if the battle goes well in the end and he survives, the final honor has nothing to do with an old farmer like Niu Ershi.

After all, home is gone...

He was injured on the eve of climbing the tower and began to bear the weight. He was beaten, and he was really beaten.The person who beat him was the local Lizheng, because he did not obey the regulations and hand in the Fu on time.

In the Han Dynasty, there was a difference between "tax" and "fu". "Tax" is the collection of food, which is fixed, while Fu is the collection of money, which can be temporarily increased.

After the disciples of the eunuch party became the new county guards, they cleverly set up names and set up many new Fu.Such as the Fu for preparing for war, the Fu for building new roads, the Fu for guarding against thieves and robbers, the Fu for being on duty at night, and many other Fu that he has never heard of...

All these extra burdens suddenly fell on the common people, and they couldn't bear the burden at all. Niu Ershi was beaten because he couldn't pay these taxes even though he was selling everything.In the end, he had no choice but to sell his only daughter.

When his daughter looked at the carriage sent by the gentry to pick her up full of sorrow and fear, he lowered his head without saying a word, and did not dare to meet his daughter's eyes. When he returned home, his sick wife cried and made a fuss.

Niu Ershi also has more than one daughter. He used to have two sons, but they were gone before that.

Once, he also had a complete family. He had his own wife, two sons and a young daughter. He was a self-cultivator who owned his own land and worked hard every day to make ends meet on the harvest of these few acres.

Even if they work hard every day, the family can barely fill their stomachs. It is impossible to save a little money these days.However, he has survived many storms, and the most difficult and dangerous thing is to prevent his land from being annexed by the gentry.

Because Niu Ershi's land is in a good location, there are more than one local gentry, and they sent people to him more than once to take over the land, but he tried various methods and kept dragging it on, finally keeping it.

His eldest son was originally an auxiliary soldier in the county, which was not a prominent thing, and it was also just to make a living.Put your head on your trouser belt to earn three meals a day, and you can't control your own wealth and life. Wherever the officer wants to go, he will go there immediately without delay.

A few days ago, Yanmen County was in a tight situation, and Bian Ma came to report urgently, asking the local army to rush to support immediately.His son was among them, but this army was intercepted by Xianbei's ambush soldiers on the road, and was defeated in the end, and his son was never seen again.

The official news is that it is missing.Missing, but the body was not found, and naturally there was no need to issue a pension, but in fact he knew that his son was dead.

Niu Ershi's wife began to get sick at that time.

After learning that his elder brother was killed in battle, his second son was furious and clamored to take revenge every day, but how could the only strong laborer in the family go to die casually?
He strongly disagreed with his son's idea of ​​joining the army. He believed that the child was still too young and lacked due consideration to the dangers of the front line.He must risk his life to keep this son and keep him by his side, otherwise his school will be extinct.

However, the young man still failed to stay according to his father's wishes. On a dark and stormy night, the youngest son slipped out of the house to join the army.The young man left nothing, not even a letter—it was useless to keep it, since no one in the family could read, and he couldn't write it himself.

Niu Ershi didn't need to guess, he knew that as long as his youngest son disappeared, he must have defected to the army, and nine out of ten he had gone to Lu Bu's flying cavalry army.Because the prestige of General Lu's Flying Cavalry Army has long been spread in the north, this unfilial son has expressed his intention to defect to that rebel army more than once.

Knowing that his son had done something stupid, the wife cried out her eyes dry, only beating the bed and yelling, and in the end, only moaning feebly.Niu Ershi had no choice but to look at his last hope—his little girl, thinking that he would bring this child up no matter what.

Unexpectedly, now even the girl has not been kept...

When the officers and soldiers came to the village to arrest the strong men, his wife was frightened to death...

His family left him again and again, and he was afraid that he would die soon. Niu Ershi suddenly thought, maybe, go there, their family can be reunited!
(End of this chapter)