Ping An led Ah Huang to the foot of the mountain and saw a middle-aged man carrying a pair of baskets and walking slowly.

The man was covered in dust and had a good face. The basket he was carrying was not a cargo, but a pair of boys.

The boy was weak and lay on the edge of the basket, looking at Ping'an and Ah Huang curiously and blankly.

Ping An saw a lot of people like these along the way.

Most of them were in groups of three or five, holding the elderly and young, carrying tiled pots and thorn baskets, but they were all ragged and staggering.

Those who are hungry or evade troops and move are called refugees.

Ping An knew that these were refugees who suffered disasters, had no livelihoods, were forced to leave their hometowns, and were left here.

He looked at the boys for a few times, hesitated for a moment, took out two cakes from Ah Huang's pocket and handed them to the boys.

Unexpectedly, the boys suddenly reached out before they could hand it over, snatched it hard, and then started to swallow it.

Novel + 3. Even because the pancake was too dry, I rolled my eyes so hard that I could not stop swallowing.

The middle-aged man next to him looked at Ping An gratefully, licked his skinless lips, untied the water bag from his waist, patted the boy's spine, and fed them each to take a sip of water. The boy's condition improved a lot.

When the man turned around and thanked him, Ping An smiled and didn't care. He took Ah Huang and wanted to go up the mountain.

But he suddenly noticed that there were still people walking slowly like ants around him. He stopped at some point and was staring at himself, his eyes burning with hunger, like hungry wolf.

Ping An couldn't help but think of some of the words recorded in historical books: the people are hungry and poor, the wandering people are looking at each other, the old and the weak are abandoning the road, and the hunger are everywhere.

People eat each other, eat when they change their children... and so on, they jumped into his mind, which scared him.

So many people are watching now. They probably don’t dare to eat themselves, but what about Ah Huang?

A man cannot be rich without wealth, and a horse cannot be fat without grass at night.

Ah Huang had less weeds and had a meal. Although he would not have a strong body, he could see that he had obviously lost a lot of weight and was not considered a fat cow.

But in the eyes of hungry people, this is a fat cow, and it can be eaten for ten days and half a month if it is killed.

Ping An was panicked when he was afraid that Ah Huang would be killed and eaten by the refugees, so he slapped Ah Huang's butt hard and then trotted up the mountain.

However, on the mountain road to Gu Niang Temple, you can still see refugees from time to time. He suddenly wished he had a few more legs and kept working hard. He slowed down until he saw Gu Niang Temple approaching.

"Safety?"

Ping An was so angry that he rushed to the scene. He heard the screams and looked up, and was slightly happy on his face. Finally, he felt relieved: "Sister Chen, why are you here?"

The person who came was Chen Yuci. Ping'an knew that Sister Chen was very skilled in martial arts and had her around. No matter what, Ah Huang would never be arrested.

Chen Yuci smiled and said, "I have been in the temple these days. But are you, there is a tiger chasing you behind you? You are sweating all over the place?"

Relying on Ah Huang's peace, he waved his hand and replied panting: "There is no tiger, but their eyes at Ah Huang are even more terrifying than tigers."

Chen Yuci asked in surprise: "Who are they?"

Ping An explained a few words, and Chen Yuci was amused and trembled with laughter, Ping An's face turned red.

"You little dear, aren't you very brave on weekdays? Now you have learned to worry too much." Chen Yuci was so embarrassed that he teased him, and then turned a few sword flowers with the sheathed sword in his hand and said, "Don't worry, with your sister Chen here, I will definitely not be eaten by those refugees."

Ping'an immediately said, "Thank you, Sister Chen."

Chen Yuci nodded with satisfaction and asked, "Are you here to find your sister Nie?"

Because of Nie Xiaoqian, Ping'an and Chen Yuci met each other in the temple and had a lot of contact with each other, they became familiar with each other after a while.

Ping'an replied: "Yes, did Sister Chen see Sister Nie?"

Chen Yuci's expression was slightly dark: "I don't know where she went, and I haven't returned yet. I haven't seen her for some days."

Ping An said disappointedly: "So my sister hasn't come back yet."

The two of them walked towards the temple with one cow.

There were a few large pots at the entrance of the temple, and there were clear porridge in the big pot. Dozens of refugees lined up in a long queue to get the porridge there.

Ping An recognized that the servants who gave porridge were from Chen's mansion, so he asked, "Sister, are you giving porridge?"

Chen Yuci replied: "Well, in the past half month, many refugees have gathered in the temple one after another, and they have dug up all the grass roots in the mountains. After eating the grass roots, if they continue to starve, they may even break the statue of Gu Niang in the temple and eat it. By then, I don't know how many people will starve to death."

The statue of Gu Niang contains part of Guanyin earth, which is also called glutinous rice earth.

The dry Guanyin soil has a smooth and delicate texture, and looks like flour. It is used to steam it into steamed buns. It looks soft and white, and looks real.

But if you can't get out of this kind of steamed bun after eating it, you will be swelled to death.

Chen Yuci, who lives in Gu Niang Temple, couldn't bear to see someone dying in the temple, so he sent someone to transport a batch of white rice from Chen's mansion and cook it into porridge and distribute it every day.

Fortunately, when the temple was renovated, a deep well was dug. Otherwise, even if the spring water was exhausted, even if there was rice, it would not be able to cook it.

Although not too many distributions are distributed, as long as they come to the temple, everyone can get a little bit of it so that they will not starve to death.

With porridge and water, you can survive, and the number of refugees in Guniang Temple is increasing.

Chen Yuci saw it and was anxious.

More than a decade ago, when the New Year was good, you could get one stone of white rice for 500 mins, and one stone would cost nearly two hundred kilograms.

In recent years, the price of rice has risen to 700 min per stone.

After the drought in summer, the rain will not drop, the crops will die, and the autumn grain will be hopeless. In just a few months, the rice price rose to one tael and four stone.

Just one or four stones, it is still the price of warehouse rice.

The rice in Qiandeng County is mostly dried rice. Not only are the rice with many impurities, but also has many molds. Rich people do not eat it.

But the drought is still spreading. Not to mention new rice, even the price of Chen rice will continue to rise, and it may not be impossible to rise to two taels in a short period of time.

It should be noted that an ordinary family of several people can’t afford ten taels of silver if they spend money a year.

Chen Yuci is kind-hearted and originally intended to send porridge to refugees.

But manpower is sometimes poor, let alone a little lady like Chen Yuci who is raised in the "deep boudoir".

She is not the head of the Chen family, and she is not a child. To be honest, she is actually a "rice insect". She is kind-hearted and can give three or five hundred kilograms, or even thousands of kilograms, and it doesn't matter. In the eyes of the elders who are the masters of the Chen family, she just throws it into the lake as a joke, and hears it, gaining a good reputation.

But no matter how much more it is, it is impossible. No matter how big the Chen family’s business is, the money and food are not blown by the strong wind.

Chen Yuci is anxious because he understands these things.

After thinking about it, she couldn't come up with a solution to the problem.

What she didn't know was that in Qilu Province, dozens of prefectures and counties, were suffering from disasters, and there were truly thousands of refugees in the land that were barren, with hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Some people wrote a poem about this: When the grass is burning in the middle of the day, the grass is burning in the furnace, and when the crops are deserted, they will not recover at night. There are thousands of miles of Qi and Lu, and the 84 cities are wild and wild.

That is, in several counties near Qiandeng County, the drought came later, and the disaster situation was slightly lighter than other prefectures and counties.

The natural disasters that stretch across a province are by no means something that a certain household can deal with.

In fact, let alone a certain household, even the government office cannot solve it.

What's more, the county magistrate of Qiandeng County and the parents of the people, when someone below responded to the drought, he pointed at the lush grass and trees in the backyard of the yamen, quoting the poem by Lin Bin of the Song Dynasty: "The sparse shadows slanted across the water, and the faint fragrance floated at dusk. Such a beautiful scenery. How can there be a drought? When the drought is said, it is just a rumor and a function word in the mouth of the unruly people."

In fact, the rockery ponds, flowers, plants and trees in the yamen courtyard are raised by the yamen runners carrying water from a faraway well every day. If they forget to pick them one day, most of them will die of drought. However, the magistrate of the county magistrate put his swords and guns into the warehouse and put his horses in the south mountain to embellish the peace.

That is, after a severe drought of 150 days, how can there be wheat on the ridge? I still don’t believe it when I report to the court, and I say that the trees in the courtyard are still swaying.

Chen Yuci, who is not sure about the truth, just hopes that Nie Xiaoqian will come back soon. Even if the problem of refugees cannot be solved, if you have a support, you will feel much more at ease.

Ping An followed Chen Yuci to the temple, but saw refugees everywhere, sitting or lying down, their eyes were empty and unmoving. If they hadn't walked closer, they would have thought they were all corpses, with decay all over their bodies, and the air was dirty and unpleasant.

"Sister Chen, they..." Ping'an wanted to speak but stopped.

Chen Yuci glanced at the refugee, shook her head, and sighed softly. She had done everything she could, and the rest was all for the sky.

I had nothing to say all the way, and I arrived at the backyard.

There are Chen's servants guarding the door of the backyard, and no refugees can enter.

In fact, the refugees were grateful to Chen Yuci, the female Bodhisattva who gave porridge. After knowing that she was living in the backyard, they did not dare to come here.

However, the backyard, which should have been quiet and quiet, also seemed a little declining under the influence of the severe drought.

Ping An allowed Ah Huang to move in the yard, but he followed Chen Yuci to the study.

He thought that since Sister Chen was there, he would stay in the temple for a night to see if he could get Sister Nie back.

While the two people in the study were talking, a noise suddenly came from outside.

When the two of them heard the sound, they saw several yamen runners pulling a unkempt beggar walking out.

One of the yamen runners looked like a leader and said as he walked, "Feng Mazi, your incident has been revealed, come with us to the yamen."

"Feng Mazi?"

Ping'an was shocked when he saw that the beggar who was locked by the yamen runners turned out to be Feng Mazi.

He was stopped by his mother that day and did not participate in the burning of the drought-bahn. However, he later learned that Feng Mazi's father's grave was dug, his body was burned, and even his ashes were scattered into the Gan River.

Many people speculated that Feng Mazi would go to the county town to report to the official position, after all, he was right. If he reported to the official position, I don’t know how many people would be unable to afford it.

But after a few days in a row, Feng Mazi not only did not report to the official, but suddenly disappeared. No one knew why he disappeared, and no one knew where he disappeared.

Unexpectedly, Feng Mazi turned into a beggar, mixed with refugees, and hid in Gu Niang Temple.

"Has my incident been broken?" Feng Mazi was very shocked at first, then struggled and shouted, "What happened to me? Why are you arresting me?"
To be continued...