Located between Yulin and Xi'an, the city is not large or rich, but it is home to 50,000 soldiers and horses of the Western Qin army.

These 50,000 soldiers and horses do not belong to any guards, nor are they on the roster of the military department, they are recruits, they have no military status, when they fight, they are at the forefront, and the soldiers are poor people, a soldier bravely gives ten taels of silver, knowing that being a soldier will send him to death, but when a person dies, he can feed the whole family.

When they were alive, they had military salaries and could support their families, they were all young and strong, and they were still very young when they died, so their children were still young and could not support themselves, they could only come out to beg, most of them came from poor rural areas, their fathers used to be soldiers here, and they didn't know where else to go except here.

Year after year, day after day, the city is full of such orphans.

"Grandpa, where are the most beggars?" Fang Fei asked the old man who was setting up a stall on the side of the road.

"The City God Temple, the old shop street, the Baizi River, and the place in front of me are all beggars who often come, alas, I have been setting up a stall here for ten years, and these beggars will change every year." The old man sighed.

"Will it change, why?" Fang Fei was puzzled.

"Some people died, some people went to richer places, and some were taken away by people's teeth, alas, they are gone, and there will be new ones, the border is always fighting, whether it is winning or losing, there will be deaths, more and more people are dying, more and more children come here, every day there will be dead children who are carried to mass graves and buried, the child who often comes to me to eat cold steamed buns has not been here for several days, I don't know if he is still alive."

Where there are many displaced people, there will be many epidemics, and if there is an epidemic in the city, it will also spread to the army outside the city.

The old man sighed, began to wipe the stall, and stopped talking.

Fang Fei flattened her mouth and walked back to Shen Tong with red eyes: "Miss, those orphans are really pitiful." ”

Yes, it's really pitiful, and you can't raise all of it when you open a porridge shed all year round.

Shen Tong turned around and walked towards the alley in the distance, where two beggars were looking at this side.

Xu An strode forward, walked to Shen Tong's side, and said, "Miss Shen, this place is very messy, let's go and have a look first." ”

"It doesn't matter." Shen Tong smiled.

Also, she has also been to more chaotic places, and when she came out of the shadow of the sword and sword, how could a few beggars make her afraid.

Xu An and Luyou hurriedly followed.

It is said that it is an alley, but in fact, it is outside the back wall of a store, the back wall is very high, and the color of the green bricks is different, probably because they are worried that these beggars will climb over the wall to steal things, so it is heightened.

The wall is high, and the alley is particularly dark, and the sun is shining outside, but the alley is still hidden in shadow.

The children standing at the mouth of the alley were a little surprised to see someone coming, and the people here avoided them, and when they saw them from afar, they would shout, and no one would walk into the alley where they lived.

They looked at the people who came by in amazement, looking dull and dazed.

Fang Fei wanted to give them the rice cake she had just bought, but Shen Tong held her hand down.

Those few rice cakes are enough for the children here to fight for their heads.

There were more than a dozen children in the alley, lying or leaning, unkempt, the eldest thirteen or fourteen years old, and the youngest only five or six years old.

Shen Tong nodded at Xu An Luyou, and the two stepped forward and bent down to check on the lying children.

"He's alive, not dead, don't carry them away!" A child ran up to him, stretched out two dirty hands, and stopped in front of a lying child.

Shen Tong recognized him, this was the child who had just been at the mouth of the alley.

The child was about the same height as her, and his face was so dirty that he couldn't see what it was, and the voice was that of a boy.

"Little bunny, get out of the way!" Road-by-road shouted.

He was tall and stout, and his voice was fierce, and instead of avoiding him in fear, the child puffed up his chest and said viciously, "Don't touch him!" ”

Lu You is hot-tempered, and he was about to hit when he raised his fist, but was stopped by Xu An.

At this time, Shen Tong, who was standing behind, said lightly: "Do you think we look like we are collecting corpses?" ”

The child was stunned, and looked at the four people in front of him again, it really didn't look like they were collecting corpses, and the people who collected the corpses were all tightly wrapped, for fear of contracting the epidemic that there was no epidemic at all.

The child's tense back slackened slightly, but soon collapsed again: "Then what are you going to do, we don't have any money." ”

Lu You was no longer patient, so he pushed the child away and bent down to look at the child lying on the ground.

"I have a fever." Lu You first probed the child's snort, and then touched his forehead.

Shen Tong looked at the other children in the alley and asked, "Who else is sick?" ”

A little girl's voice raised: "Are you sent by the county lord to treat us?" ”

Shen Tong looked over, it was a seven or eight-year-old girl, different from other children, although her clothes were shabby, her face was very clean, not like a beggar.

"County Lord?" Shen Tong asked.

"I heard that the county lord came to us, the county lord is a living bodhisattva, I went to the official post yesterday, but those soldiers didn't let us approach." The girl said, there was no grievance in her voice, more excitement.

"Is there something wrong with you going to see the county lord?" Shen Tong was curious.

"The Bodhisattva's divine water can cure diseases, the county lord is a living Bodhisattva, she must also have divine water, I want to ask her for divine water, just a few drops." The little girl was thin, but her eyes were sparkling.

"I don't have divine water, but I can get the doctor to heal them." Shen Tong smiled.

"Really? Are you really going to treat them? They can't die, and when they do, they have to be carried away. The little girl's voice was excited, but with a crying tone.

"Of course it's true, how many are sick?" Shen Tong asked again.

While speaking, Lu You and Xu An checked a few more children, and when they heard Shen Tong asking, Xu An turned around and said, "Only this one has a fever, and the others are not, like they are hungry." ”

"Hungry?" Shen Tong remembered what the old man had just said, and the old man said that he hadn't seen a child who often came to beg for two or three days, "Can't you beg for food?" ”

"No, although the people here hate us, there will be kind-hearted people who give us alms", it was the boy who stopped them before, he said more and more angry, and said loudly, "It's because the county lord is coming, the officials are afraid that we will disturb the county lord, so they sent officials to come over, and don't let us go out to beg, there are officials patrolling the streets every day, and when they see us, they beat us to death, we don't dare to go out, let alone beg, we can only let Xiaomei go out alone every day, and the things she asks for alone are not enough for us to eat." If the county lord doesn't leave, we won't die of illness, but we will starve to death. ”