There are occasional fires burning in the mountains, and everyone still knows how to deal with them, but this time the fire burned too fast, and the drought lasted so long, the fire was as fast as thunder, and it didn't give everyone much time to react before it burned to the foot of the mountain. With the panicked crowd running with torches in their hands, they didn't pay attention, and the fire started in all directions, which added fuel to the fire.

The old and young of Rongshu Village will always remember this fire on the night of October 16 in the 15th year of Donglin Tianren. The fire burned for three days and three nights, and it burned heaven and earth like a heavenly fire, and most of the houses in Banyan Village were also burned, and many villages next door were also burned. God didn't hear everyone's wail, the rain didn't fall, and in the end, it was the joint efforts of everyone in the vicinity to control the fire within a certain range, and let it continue to burn in the mountains, but it only cut the isolation zone and could not continue to spread.

Numerous casualties were immense. For the first time, this word appeared so real in Guoguo's life, and the tragic scene was close to the vision. She closed her eyes, wishing it would be like in a novel or on TV: a few years later・・・・・・ but, no, her ears were full of wailing, and even, she smelled the smell of burning muscles, and when she turned around and saw a person covered in fire rushing out, she turned her head in fright and threw up, and vomited in the dark.

That night, everyone panicked in the fire, and soon, even the town's son-in-law was alarmed, and the only officials beat gongs and drums and shouted to the strong laborers in the street and the next village to control the fire. Everyone knows in their hearts that this disaster may be difficult to pass.

Although Guoguo's house had just been built, it was on the mountainside after all, and the village didn't know who had caught fire, so it was soon surrounded. Fang Yuqian and Liang hurriedly buried the grain in the cellar, and then escaped by the grass wrapped in a wet quilt.

The fire could not be controlled at all, and in less than a quarter of an hour, everyone tacitly packed up their things and fled in all directions. Some went to other villages to join relatives, some ran to the town, and many more fled to Guoguo's field. This time, he didn't care what happened to the wheat, but he fled to the edge of the big pond in panic, barely breathing. After all, Guoguo knows how to heal, she was pulled by Qingshu and held in her arms, and after the two of them trembled, when she saw Liang and Fang Yuqian, she cried for a while and then eased up. Start helping the injured person to deal with it simply.

Li Zheng also eased up at this time, and commanded the young and strong laborers to extinguish the fire, trying not to let the fire spread again.

Before dawn, Dr. Wang and Wang Hailong also came over and brought some medicines. But after dawn, the fire was even more pressing, and the air was scorching. Everyone's hearts were so heavy that they could hardly hear human voices, only low crying, as if they were afraid that the Buddha would blame the Buddha for crying too much.

The water in the pond is running out quickly, and everyone can't save the fire in the mountain, so they still try to save the fire in the village. Besides, all the surrounding area must be wet, and the fire stars will float over.

After the fire in Banyan Village was controlled, it was already the fourth day, and everyone was ragged and dilapidated. No one mentioned why there was this fire, everyone knows that if you didn't go up the mountain at the beginning, if you didn't panic at the beginning, things would have been completely different, but there was no if.

After quietly burying his dead relatives, Rizheng summoned everyone over. Many of Guoguo's familiar faces are gone, and Guoguo also discovered that Uncle Shi is gone. He was hit by the beam of his own house.

Banyan Village can't live anymore. Li is asking everyone to go out together to find relatives to take refuge. "This year's drought, there is not much grain in stock, and the house is gone, and the firewood is gone, so this winter, it will be difficult." Lizheng, naturally, is also going to go. His own house was burned, but he still had some spare money. It's barely enough to get by by building a house in the town.

But a lot of people, nowhere to go. Including Fang Yuqian's family.

Let's go to the town and build a house to live, there is not enough money to live, and even in the town, firewood and silver carbon are not cheap. What's more, Liang and Cao'er both fell ill, and Fang Yuqian also suffered from the cold. Dr. Wang took in Guoguo's family, but Guoguo insisted on going home to see.

Qingshu came back with Guoguo, and happened to see Shi Lei dragging a black wooden stake down the mountain. Uncle Shi went, Aunt Shi was sick, Shi Jian took his son back to his parents' house with Chunxiang, and Shi Lei built a shed alone to take care of Aunt Shi.

"Why don't you go to town?" Guoguo looked at Shi Lei, who had lost weight in just a few days, and asked, the scars on his face became more and more hideous.

"Mother can't bear Dad." When Guoguo thought that he would not answer, Shi Lei said in a low voice, Shi Jian and Fang Chunxiang also took advantage of the chaos to drain Shi Lei's money that night, and he was penniless.

Guoguo didn't know what to say. Go back and look at your own pond, there are no more fish in it, everyone has been caught and cooked and eaten in the past two days, of course I don't dare to do this in front of the Fang family, but I really can't bear to be hungry. It can only be said that I sneaked to fish at night. Guoguo naturally knew about it, but when she saw that the wheat in her field that had just been filled was also clean, she sighed and couldn't say anything. It's all about survival.

Guoguo didn't dare to blatantly dig out the food in the cellar, looked at the yard with Qingshu, and felt that he couldn't do it, so he spent thirty Wen to ask Da Zhuang to help tidy it up.

"If you don't give me some more wages, I'll ask a few people to go to the mountain to carry down the unburned beams and make roofs for you to continue to live in, it's just not good-looking." Da Zhuang looked around, and when he saw that there was no one, he leaned into Guoguo's ear and whispered, "It's not a problem for you to live in the town, if you have enough money, you can pay for us to go to the mountains to pick up all the charcoal, this year's charcoal fire will definitely be expensive." ”

Guoguo was shocked, he didn't expect Da Zhuang to think of this.

"Brother Zhuang, why don't you do it yourself?"

Da Zhuang smiled bitterly: "What if I know? Our family has nothing to eat now, and I am anxious to exchange cash for food, not to mention that I still need a way to do it when the time comes, won't Dr. Wang know how to get it? I know you still have some money to spare. ”

Guoguo thought about it, and calculated in his heart that the money in his hand was not much, only twenty taels. But one or two is a thousand Wen, so Guoguo didn't mutter for long, and he didn't go back to discuss with others, and after talking to Qingshu, he beckoned Da Zhuang to help invite someone.

Most of the people who are still in the village have no choice, so I heard that thirty wen a day can receive cash at night, and the big guys are coming. Soon, the black roof was erected, and the black walls were plastered with silt from the pond, which looked much more pleasing to the eye. The charcoal that was brought back was neatly piled up on the edge of the yard, like a hill.

It took three days to tidy up like this, and it took eight taels of silver to tidy up the house and everything. The charcoal piled up two large rooms.

After the rest of the village has tidied up their homes, they also go up the mountain to collect charcoal or something and come back to store it, or go out to find a part-time job. Anyway, life still has to go on.