The few days that Tao Zhulu was sent out by Lan Ziyi were the most difficult days for Lan Ziyi. Lan Ziyi was difficult not because Zhang Mingyue made another move, but because Boss Cao kept exerting pressure. Boss Cao's silver Lan Ziyi has been spent, but the results have not been seen so far. According to Boss Cao, the inland is not only salt mines, but also many of the various mining industries of him and his colleagues have been purchased at low prices by Beijing merchants who have cash grain in their hands because of famine, and the industries of Beijing Merchants are rapidly shrinking at a rate visible to the naked eye.

Lan Ziyi has to receive a wave of messengers sent by Boss Cao every day, and every time he is kind and persuasive, the person who comes leads Boss Cao's life, naturally understands the rules, just a petition, and there is no demand. It's just that silence is better than sound at this time, and the more the person who passed the message didn't ask for it, the more Lan Ziyi was gloomy and depressed in his heart.

Fortunately, after bidding farewell to the five waves of Cao's family, Tao Zhulu and Qiu Xiaozhi finally rushed back to the capital in the afternoon of the same day. The two of them hurried overnight, just to bring Lan Ziyi the news that Luo Yingmin had promised to see Lan Ziyi. When Lan Ziyi learned about this, where did he still have the heart to sit in the capital, even if he called Tao Zhutu and Qiu Wenruo to get on the horse and set off, Yueshan was also a good hand in charge of internal affairs, and he prepared a trip for everyone on weekdays, so Lan Ziyi was able to set off immediately.

Originally, Lan Ziyi didn't plan to let Tao Zhuhu accompany him, but Tao Zhuhu insisted on going together, Tao Zhuhu said:

"Young master, the general sent me to the capital to protect the young master, not to make me drunk in the gentle township. I can't forget the young master's errand just because I have a daughter-in-law. ”

Peach chased the tiger eagerly, and Tao Ling also leaned on the porch and said emotionally:

"Young master, you should take the tiger chase, the tiger chases the young master, the name is the master and servant, but he is actually a brother, and he should serve the young master in public and private. If Zhuhu abolishes his ministry because of his concubine, the concubine will become a disaster, and he will have the face to stay in the young master's mansion in the future. “

Lan Ziyi saw that his sister-in-law was so reasonable, so he no longer shirked, and immediately got on the horse with Tao Chahu, Tao Cha Rabbit, Qiu Wenruo, and Yueshan, and then Lan Ziyi instructed Tao Zhulu, who had just come back, and Qiu Xiao to say straight:

"The second brother and Mr. Xiaozhi are tired of saddle horses, it's really hard, you can stay in the capital to rest and take care of the house for me, and I will meet soon."

After saying that, Lan Ziyi and the other four rode away, rushed north to Beijing before the city gate was closed, crossed the river by boat overnight, and went north.

Lan Ziyi's trip was under the pressure of Boss Cao, and he was in a very tight hurry during the day, but he was not as starry as Tao Zhulu and Qiu Xiaozhi, and he would still go to the store on time to rest at night.

On the night of leaving Beijing, Lan Ziyi went to live in a small shop under the mountain, and when he was ready to burn his feet after eating, Lan Ziyi found that this time he came out of the peach tiger and peach rabbit clothes, lined with chain mail, prepared with bows and arrows, and the mountains were also dressed in men's clothes, knives and bows, and even Qiu Wenruo brought a sword.

Seeing this, Lan Ziyi was naturally puzzled, so he asked:

"We're just going to the old capital, not going out to suppress bandits, why are you all fully armed like facing a great enemy."

Peach Chase Tiger Road:

"Young master, the whole country is suffering from disasters and famines, and if you don't guard it like this, you won't be able to go to the old capital."

At this time, Yueshan interjected:

"Wei Hou, although I am also a person who was rescued by my father and raised in the palace since I was a child, I also know that it is not easy to walk in the famine years, even if we are in this suit, we are not allowed to be remembered when we walk on the road."

Lan Ziyi listened to what a few people said suspiciously, and didn't ask more, there was nothing to do that night, and at dawn the next day, the five of them went on the road again and continued to the north, and the road on this day finally told Lan Ziyi what a famine year is, and why he should go on the road fully armed.

Fortunately, there are many water conservancy projects in the Jiangbei area, although the weather is hot, there is canal water irrigation in the fields, and it is all green at a glance. But the further you go north, the less places you can divert water for irrigation, and the less green there is in the fields, the scorching sun is above, the heat is unstoppable, and the surface of the ground gradually cracks without rain, and the cracks are bigger and bigger the further north you go, so that the wild grass on the ground has died after entering Fengyang Road.

Lan Ziyi thought that the situation in Fengyang Dao was bad enough, but when he entered the realm of He**, he understood what hell on earth was. Fengyang Road is still just weeds dying, trees are withering, and there is no grass in the river. Lan Ziyi, who was still fighting in He** more than a month ago, clearly remembers that although the weather was hot at that time, the grass and trees were still lush along the way. And now re-entering the river**, Lan Ziyi's eyes are full of endless dust, and bare yellow earth, and occasionally a few dead trees standing in the wilderness have also been plucked of leaves, stripped of bark, the smooth and naked trunk is like a person who has been abused, silently telling passers-by about his miserable experience.

There was no vegetation, the land was barren, and the only people who were still moving on the ground were people, if that could still be called people. There are many pedestrians on the road to the north of Lan Ziyi, but these pedestrians are all walking in the opposite direction of Lan Ziyi, among these pedestrians, there are old and young, men and women, they are all described as withered, thin skin and bones, dull eyes, and disheveled hair. Only a few of them still had clothes to wear, and the rest, both men and women, were naked, as if their souls had been sucked away, and they marched in groups of three or five with the caravan.

Lan Ziyi rode his horse and walked in the middle of the road, and when he opened his eyes and looked at the scene in front of him, he felt shocked. Pedestrians walking on Lan Ziyi's side, someone will fall every three or five times, once someone falls, the surrounding people will go up to search it, and after all the items on the fallen person are stripped away, the person's body will soon disappear inexplicably. Lan Ziyi saw with his own eyes a child fell to the ground because of physical exhaustion, and before his mother could cry, several people surrounded him and dragged away the child who did not know whether he was dead or alive.

Lan Ziyi's mouth grew in surprise when he saw this, and he turned around and asked the person beside him:

"What, what the hell is going on?"

Qiu Wenruo had tears in the corners of his eyes, and sighed to the sky:

"Hasn't Wei Hou heard of Yi Zi eating and breaking bones and cooking?"

Lan Ziyi said in surprise:

"Are those people ..... In this way, all the grass and bark on the trees in the land were stripped and eaten? I thought there was a plague of locusts here. ”

Peach Chase Tiger sighed:

"Young master, it's good to be able to eat tree bark."

Lan Ziyi sighed and untied the pocket on his back, seeing this, Yueshanjian hurriedly raised his hand to hold Lan Ziyi, Yueshanjian said:

"Weihou, you're crazy, what are you going to do?"

Lan Ziyi said:

"Of course, I took out the dry food and distributed it to the people."

Moon Yamama scolded:

"Wei Hou, haven't you learned arithmetic? The world is suffering, there are hungry people everywhere, the river ** has a large population, there are not tens of millions of hungry people along the way, how much food can you have? How many people can you fill? ”

Lan Ziyi said:

"Feeding one person is one person, do you want me to watch them starve to death?"

Yue'er sneered:

"Wei Hou, you don't want to watch them starve to death, then you should go back and see how they watched you!"

Lan Ziyi turned his eyes away, but saw that his action of unpacking his bag just now had attracted the attention of everyone around him. These people didn't speak, they didn't move, they just cast their black hole-like eyes at Lan Ziyi, there was no trace of emotion behind the empty eyes, only a naked desire to survive, they all stared at Lan Ziyi's bags.

After Yue'er saw Lan Ziyi shudder, she immediately grabbed Lan Ziyi's arm and said:

"Do you think you can be the savior of this group of hungry people, relying only on your own strength, relying only on your small favor? Don't be stupid, you're a piece of fat in the eyes of these hungry people, in every sense of the word. Do you know how much they want to snatch you and eat you alive right now? ”

Lan Ziyi withdrew the arm that was grabbed by Yueshan, raised his hand to wipe the beads of sweat from his forehead and asked:

"If they want to rob me, why don't they rob me?"

Tao Zhuhu said silently in a low voice at this time:

"I thought we were well fed, had knives and horses, and these people who were dying of starvation didn't have the ability to rob us ......"

The cruel reality was placed in front of Lan Ziyi, like a hammer that smashed everything in Lan Ziyi's heart, Lan Ziyi remembered that whenever he encountered this kind of war between heaven and man and needed to sacrifice his life, Mr. Wenruo would always persuade him to take the right path, so Lan Ziyi turned back to look at Qiu Wenruo, but this time Lan Ziyi found out in despair that Qiu Wenruo actually hung his head on the horse with his eyes closed, and he was completely angry. Seeing Lan Ziyi playing, Qiu Wenruo actually agreed to Yueshanjian's words for the first time, he said:

"Wei Hou, Miss Yue'er is right, just relying on Wei Hou's small favor and small favors, you can't save the hungry people."

At this time, Tao Zhutu came to Lan Ziyi and said:

"Young master, there are more and more hungry people surrounding you, and it is not appropriate to stay here for a long time. While there's still horsepower, let's hurry up and break through. ”

Hearing these words, what else could Lan Ziyi do, he had to let out a long howl, quickly whip his horse, and gallop away towards the north.