My father Zhu Gaoxu

Chapter 839 Escape (Part )

"Dear fellow villagers, let's work harder. Qingzhou City is ahead of us. As soon as we get to Qingzhou, someone will pick us up. We will have food and drink by then. When we have enough strength, we can rush to Laizhou and go to sea in one go!"

Among a group of hundreds of victims, a tall and thin young man, although his face looked exhausted, still cheered up and shouted encouragement to the victims behind him.

Hearing that there was food and drink, the victims who were already swaying felt a little stronger, so they helped the old and the young one by one, pulling each other forward a little bit.

The tall and thin young man who shouted was not idle either. He bent down and carried a middle-aged man with injured legs and feet on his back. He wiped his sweat and walked in front of the team, because among the hundreds of people, he was the only one who knew anyone going to Qingzhou. road.

"Gouzi, leave me alone, Qingzhou is still so far away, you can't carry me on your back all the time!"

The injured middle-aged man struggled for a moment, and then whispered to the tall and thin young man.

"Uncle Qi, don't worry. My bones are still good. I can carry you to Qingzhou. Speaking of which, if you hadn't taken me in, I would have frozen to death that winter!"

The tall and thin young man named Gouzi said firmly that although it was tiring to carry someone on his back, the other person was his great benefactor, so even if he didn't risk his life, he would still bring the other person to Qingzhou.

"You kid..."

The middle-aged man known as Uncle Seven also looked moved, but in the end he didn't say anything he wanted to say.

"Lao Qi, Gouzi has been a righteous kid since he was a child. Even if he got out of his way, he never forgot about us fellow villagers. It's because we are short-sighted. If only he would have listened to Gouzi two years ago and taken everyone with him. If you are a big man, you won’t have to suffer this crime.”

At this time, a gray-haired old man next to him came forward and said.

"Who says it's not the case? You should have listened to Gouzi from the beginning!"

"That's right, if we had gone to Dahan earlier, we would have enjoyed the spicy food in Dahan, so why are we suffering from hunger here?"

……

As soon as the old man's words came out, he immediately aroused the approval of most people around him, and many people showed expressions of regret.

"You can't say that. After all, who could have known that we would encounter such a huge locust plague?"

On the contrary, Gouzi spoke to comfort him at this time.

Gouzi and these people come from Kuangcheng County, which is also one of the areas with the most serious locust plague. Kuangcheng was originally a major grain-producing county, but because of the locust plague, there was no harvest, and the people in the entire county had no choice but to flee.

Compared with other disaster victims, this team is lucky because they have Gouzi among them.

Both of Gouzi's parents died when he was young. He was a fellow villager like Uncle Qi. You and I raised Gouzi every meal. It can be said that Gouzi grew up eating hundreds of meals from a young age, and when Gouzi became an adult, he also He left the village and wandered around, and later went to sea to go to Han Dynasty. Although Gouzi is young, he has made a career in Han Dynasty and even has his own boat. He made a lot of money by running boats between Han Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. In the past two years, he even returned home in glory. I want to persuade the folks like Uncle Qi to go to Dahan with me. After all, people are needed everywhere in Dahan, and even farming is better than here in my hometown.

But people like Uncle Qi have a strong sense of localism, and would not want to leave their homeland if they couldn't survive, so in the end only a few young people followed Gouzi to make a living in the Han Dynasty.

It's a coincidence that Gouzi took advantage of his business trip to Dahan a few months ago to return to his hometown with many gifts to visit his elders like Uncle Qi. Unexpectedly, a huge locust plague swept across the entire north, and there was even more damage in his hometown of Kuangcheng. The entire county is infested with locusts. There is not even a hint of green for hundreds of miles, and even the trees have been gnawed away by locusts.

The grain that was about to mature in the fields was eaten away, and everyone was starving, so Gouzi once again proposed to take everyone to Dahan.

Although there were still some elderly people who were reluctant to part with their few acres of land, they could not just watch their children and grandchildren starve to death, so they were finally persuaded. Hundreds of people in the entire village packed their luggage and followed the dog into Shandong. boundary.

But now is the year of the disaster, and Shandong is also the hardest-hit area. Not only are there victims of the disaster, but there are even robbers. In fact, these robbers are also victims of the disaster. They just start to rob other victims when they are hungry. If they encounter the government's army, they will They will become disaster victims again, and if some disaster victims cannot survive, they will also become robbers.

Although Gouzi and his group of several hundred people were quite young and strong, they also encountered many victims who wanted to rob them along the way. For example, Uncle Qi was injured in a previous conflict with another group of victims.

Gouzi carried Uncle Qi on his back and led the team towards Qingzhou. The road was all yellow, and there was not even a hint of green anywhere he passed. There were big holes in the soil in the fields, and the rivers had dried up. , the dead fish in the river had long been picked up and eaten by the victims who passed by before.

Until evening, Gouzi and his group came to an abandoned village. The houses in the village were all intact, but all the things that could be taken away were taken away. At a glance, it was clear that the entire village had fled.

"There is water! There is water!"

The people who went to check the wells shouted excitedly that the locust plague was caused by drought. Many wells in Kuangcheng had dried up, and even the Yellow River had stopped flowing. The biggest problem for Gouzi and the others along the way was food and water. The problem with water is actually on top of food.

Gouzi had already put Uncle Qi down at this time. When he heard the shouts of his companions outside, he immediately ran over and saw cool water in the well at the head of the village.

"Quick, get some water quickly. Let's have a good meal today and try to get to Qingzhou tomorrow!"

Gouzi also said excitedly.

They took all the food with them when they fled. Although they were frugal along the way, there was not much left now. Fortunately, Qingzhou was not far away, and it was rare to encounter a well today, so Gouzi decided to let everyone After a good meal, maybe we can walk to Qingzhou in one go tomorrow.

When the others heard Gouzi's words, they also cheered happily. The young people fetched water, the people gathered firewood, and the women also washed the iron pots on their backs. After all, the iron pots are a big item in the house. Even if you are fleeing from famine, you should take it with you.

Soon the fire started to rise, and the little food left was thrown into the pot, along with some bark and grass roots collected on the road, and cooked into a pot of soup that exuded a strange smell.

But even this kind of soup is a rare delicacy in the eyes of victims like Gouzi. After all, they saw too many victims who starved to death on the road. In comparison, they did not starve to death, and even You can also have hot soup to drink, which is pretty good.

(End of this chapter)