Chapter VIII: The Dead and the Wounded
After a few days, the convergence made the team longer and longer, and the team of several dozen people now became two or three hundred. Pen~Fun~Pavilion www.biquge.info Feng Junyan followed his father to meet more people and received more appreciation. There are successors to the Feng family, and there is Lin'er in Brother Bei's family, which is really the style of a father. Listening to these words of praise, Feng Junyan, who should have been happy, couldn't be happy. After the enthusiasm, he was afraid, and the farther away from home, the weaker Feng Junyan's desire to make contributions became, until the last little bit faded. For a moment, Feng Junyan even began to regret following his father and coming to this world in advance.
The road ahead became more and more desolate, and there were fewer and fewer villages where people could be seen, and all eyes could see lush green. Tall trees, lush bamboo forests, lush thatch, bottomless swamps, danger everywhere. The forest coverage rate that Chinese people have been pursuing in their previous lives, at this time, there is no need to pursue it at all, just tall trees as far as the eye can see, and the overlapping green makes you want to be able to have a little more people. The only thing that can comfort is these familiar green trees in front of him, telling Feng Junyan that this place is the familiar land where he once lived.
Along the way, they have encountered mountain boars, met mountain kings, chased poisonous snakes, avoided giant pythons, sucked miasma, fought evil dragons, and were embarrassed by wasps and leeches all over the mountains. Although there were guides in front of them, they took a shortcut, and after only a few days, the team began to shrink.
Heavy rains in the summer, which were different from usual, widened the area of the swamp, which had been reduced. The trailblazers who were moving along the old road of previous years were flooded with mud before Feng Junyan could catch up.
Because he couldn't save the remaining four pathfinders of his companions, he went crazy and pulled out his weapons and slashed at the surrounding vegetation, venting his powerlessness. No one blamed them for losing their minds, and no one laughed at them for being ashamed, hundreds of people just quietly looked at the swamp not far away, watching the evil Jiao tumbling in the swamp from time to time silently.
The procession had to leave after all, and the deceased's companion made a brief salute and continued on the road with the deceased's relics. The people who opened the road changed batch after batch, and every few batches someone had an accident. Everyone is careful enough, they have lived here for hundreds of years, and they also have instinctive protection and warning of the dangers in this jungle, but people are still too small in the face of the mystery of nature.
Approaching Chongyang, the purse bee pupae is the most fat, but also the most dangerous time. Tens of thousands of black hornets, even bears, have to retreat, and if they are not careful, they can make a group of people come and go. A young freshman, after all, is still too inexperienced, and accidentally disturbed a nest of ground wasps with a diameter of nearly one meter when exploring the path, although he ran fast, he was still stung half to death, and he was feverish, and obviously only half a life was left. Whether he can live or not depends on whether his life is hard or not.
Life is so fragile, and in the face of the mysterious and unpredictable nature, human beings are really too delicate. Even Feng Junyan himself was almost killed by the bamboo leaf green on the bamboo branch when he was passing through the bamboo forest, if it weren't for Feng Siji's quick eyesight, he, a self-righteous traverser for more than ten years, would really die before he could get out of the school.
Feng Junyan looked at the mountains and rivers in front of him, and once again walked through the same place that he had stepped under his feet in his previous life, read it in books, and acted in on TV, and really felt that he could live so well in his previous life. Everything in front of him told him vividly how ignorant it was to live in a land that had been developed and there were few dangers, and how many ancestors he enjoyed the relics, but he still hated the barbarism here. No immortal emperor has ever given you a home, only your ancestors have given you a home, and it is they who have left you a land for survival and reproduction with their lives and blood and tears.
At the beginning, the naïve Feng Junyan also asked Feng Siji that since this road is so dangerous, why not take another path? In the face of Feng Junyan's ignorance, Feng Siji gave a cruel and reasonable explanation.
"Because a lot of people have died on this road."
Many people have died on this road! The other way has not yet begun to die man! It turned out that just to open a road required such a big sacrifice. Feng Junyan was silent.
The teenager who was poisoned by the wasp finally survived. Unfortunately, before everyone had time to rejoice for him, an even greater tragedy occurred when everyone was completely unprepared. Several of the trailblazers didn't have time to leave their mouths and noses helpless when they reached the area where the miasma might appear, and after bringing the news back to the group, three of them didn't survive and took their last breath. The dream of making a contribution died in this damn jungle before it could be implemented.
The three dead were not very old, the oldest looked no more than thirty, and the youngest was not even twenty depending on his hairstyle. His face was hideous and pale, his hands were unwillingly clutching his throat, and he lay on the ground in a daze, telling everyone here how much pain he suffered before he died, and how much unwillingness he had in his heart. Three good men with strong bodies died so easily on the way forward.
For the three dead people on the ground, the older ones were not surprised, and they packed up their mood and continued to urge everyone to move forward. No one spoke, so the person in charge arranged for people to carry the dead and take care of the two poisoned people who were not dead, with stinky grass that Feng Junyan couldn't name on his mouth, and the people and horses covered their mouths and noses, and passed through the miasma belt without danger.
After carrying the heroes through safety and fulfilling their last wishes. The crowd that arrived at the safe area placed the bodies of the three pioneers on the ground and began to pick up the firewood. The crowd of people traveling with the three deceased each took out a clay pot from their luggage and carefully placed it on the ground, with skillful movements and indifferent expressions.
This was the first time Feng Junyan had seen a dead person in his two lives, and he was as pale as the other young people in the team who had seen the same kind of death for the first time, and a few of them even turned around and vomited after seeing the dead man at close range. Feng Junyan, who saw the dead man for the first time, was worried in his heart, but after ten years of training by Feng Siji in this life, he was half a person who had seen blood, and finally held back the steps of wanting to escape. However, when he calmed down, he was chilled by the skillful movements and indifferent eyes of these people in front of him, how many lives and deaths have these people seen before they can become so numb? This is his own sibling, can't his face show a little bit of sentimentality?
Nearly 100 people quickly prepared the fire, one person and one pile, and it was simply a fire. The literate people in the team solemnly wrote the name, place of origin and age of the deceased on the clay pot, and prepared to collect the ashes into the clay pot at the ember and put them on the road, and then take them away when they came back or passed by on the next way. Thinking of the clay pots on the roadside along the way, and the burning places that left ashes one by one, Feng Junyan's heart was even more chaotic.
"Oh Father, don't these people have to be buried in the ground?" Feng Junyan's teeth chattered, but he still resisted cowardice and asked Feng Siji, who was looking at the burning fire not far away with a solemn and serious face. Fortunately, no one in the Feng and Liu families had an accident, and after helping to pick up the fire, Feng Siji and Liu Nianqi took the two families and retreated to the back to watch the family that someone died and began to pay tribute to the dead. Feng Junyan even smelled the faint smell of flesh in the air that began to emanate as the fire became more and more intense.
"Time is too tight, it's too late to let the Heroic Spirit settle down." Feng Siji was obviously used to seeing these scenes, but this time he brought Feng Junyan out to let him learn, and since he asked Feng Siji, he still explained it carefully.
"It is said that it is not uncommon for us outcasts to die in a foreign land. However, since we have settled here for hundreds of years, it is natural that this place also has our ancestral land. If you are buried here, you will have to bring the bones back to the ancestral place for burial in the future, and I am afraid that it will take more than ten years to clean the flesh and blood. After more than ten years of vicissitudes, no one knows if they can come back here. And this road is full of dangers, and there may be trouble at that time, and after cremation, the ashes are put into clay pots, and when the procession returns to their hometowns, if they pass by, they will send the ashes back to the deceased's home. This is the safest way to do it. ”
"But the children saw a lot of clay pots along the way, how could there be so many dead people walking on this road?" Feng Junyan still couldn't let go.
"You don't have to worry, the reason why this time is dangerous is that the miasma suddenly appeared, and the person walking in front of me here will be attacked if he is unprepared. And we have a short road ahead, which has been passed by few people in recent years, and the strong winds of this summer have made the grass and trees dense and swampy. The next is the avenue, just be careful. As for the clay pot, you have to remember that the most terrible thing about going out is not the evil dragon of the mountain, nor the poisonous snake and wolf, but the people. Feng Siji looked at Feng Junyan, who was clenching his teeth, and explained earnestly, but it made Feng Junyan fall into deep thought.
After speaking, the two or three hundred people present all sang a ballad: Ge Sheng Mengchu, and the vines are in the wild. Yumei dies here, who is alone with it! Ge Sheng is covered with thorns, and the vines are in the domain. To the beauty of the death of this, who is alone with the rest! The corner pillow is sloppy, and the brocade is rotten. Yu Mei died here, who is with Dudan! Summer days, winter nights. After 100 years old, return to its home! Winter nights, summer days. After 100 years old, return to his room!
This is a mourning poem in the Book of Songs, Feng Junyan originally thought that this "Tang Feng" was used to commemorate the love between men and women, but he didn't expect it to be used in this place. Feng Junyan, who was still thinking of singing with everyone, didn't open his mouth when a strong wind blew, the fire swelled, and a more intense burnt meat came to his nose, and Feng Junyan, who finally couldn't hold back the discomfort in his stomach, finally vomited this time. This smell of burnt human flesh, I'm afraid he won't forget it in a short time.
Feng Junyan, who was full of tiredness, was like a walking corpse, and his mind blanked and followed the crowd step by step over the hills, over the deep forests, across the big river, and across the stream, and finally stepped on a normal avenue two days later, step by step towards the distance that he didn't know when he arrived.
It wasn't until the end of the day that the group finally arrived at the first makeshift station, where the whole team decided to spend the night. The camp was set up on the impact plain next to the one-day creek, and the surrounding trees were not too tall, and the whole place was relatively flat and had easy access to water. The entire garrison was surrounded by a rudimentary fence, with men with weapons patrolling around it. The men in rudimentary leather armor were questioning those who had returned from the front, urging those in the rear to get out of here and go to the front to support.
The military situation is like fire, news is constantly coming back from the front, the wounded are constantly being transported back to the rear, and those who arrive in the rear are also urged to rush to the front. It's just that it doesn't seem that the situation is too good, the people who came back in front of them have a haze on their faces, and a group of people are fierce and vicious, and no one dares to provoke them.
Feng Junyan, who followed Feng Siji into the camp step by step, saw such a tragic situation for the first time. The humble camp was lined with rudimentary thatched huts, and the wounded with their worn weapons still on the sides of the huts were everywhere. The man with blood on his arm was wrapped in a dirty, stiff linen cloth, and drops of black blood kept dripping down. The person who broke his leg just wrapped his short leg with his trousers, howling weakly. Feng Junyan even saw that a bearded injured man had opened his chest, and the pus and blood flowing from the stabbed wound looked disgusting in red and white.
Looking at those who were missing arms and legs, seeing their purulent wounds, and smelling the disgusting smell, Feng Junyan vomited again very spinelessly. Seeing that the young patriarch of the Feng family was so weak, several people with foreign surnames who were traveling together also lowered their heads and whispered to Feng Junyan, who was also spitting out bile. Feng Bing, who followed Feng Junyan behind, and several young people of the Feng family saw that the young patriarch of the small family was so looked at the young patriarch of the small family like this, although they were also dissatisfied with Feng Junyan being so cowardly, but they unanimously looked at the few people with foreign surnames who were whispering to the outside world and snorted coldly, so frightened that the young people with the small surname hurriedly closed their mouths. Even Liu Nianqi, who was advancing with Feng Siji, frowned when he looked at Feng Junyan, who was vomiting again.
"Jun'er has seen death and injury a few days ago, how can he be so unbearable today?"
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