The sergeants guarding the city opened the city gates, and after collecting the road guides of the carts one by one, they lifted the curtains to routinely see if there were any dangerous characters with portraits pasted next to the city gates, or salt and iron that were strictly forbidden to be smuggled.

As for the more expensive leather goods, gold and jade jewelry, etc., they either brought their own road guards early or invited a martial arts dart master from the dart bureau, and they were not easy to provoke, so they let them go.

If there are idle people with no serious status, etc., and there is no filial piety of a few dollars and silver, it is a joke to go out of the city.

Wei Changpan's cart approached the city gate, and as a rule, a sergeant had to enter the car to verify that he was behind him before he could be released, but the hemp sergeant who was loose and loose and sloppy set of the city gate captain cotton armor approached the cart, and the groom who was driving the car smiled and went up to the man with a small cloth bag in his palm, and the latter threw the cloth bag in his hand, and his face was very satisfied at first, but after a while, he suddenly changed color, and threw the cloth bag back to the groom, and shouted: "Get off the car for the master, grind and chirp, be careful that the knife and gun are not long-eyed, and a transparent hole is a hole." After saying that, he shook off the spear in his hand, and pulled out a few spears from the ash pole, which was still quite capable of bluffing, and everyone in the cart came down.

The groom's face was extremely ugly, and he was about to whisper a few words to the pockmarked sergeant who didn't know what kind of wind he had smoked today, and he didn't even want silver, but the sergeant also lowered his voice and replied, and the negotiation was completed without a cup of tea.

The horseman took a few steps forward to follow the more than ten people who jumped down from the cart and were shivering: "It's not a big deal, the top boss of this soldier is on duty today, and he is a master who doesn't eat oil and salt. ”

Wei Changpan looked up, and sure enough, there was a tall figure in full clothes on the city gate building looking down, and the pockmarked sergeant roared and touched a few people randomly, and then took a few glances at the curtain with the spear in his hand, and then shouted with his colleagues who were on guard in front of him, saying that he was not looking for anything forbidden, and let him go.

When he got into the car, he listened to Xu Xian beside him muttering, scolding the officials on the city gate building for being brainless, but just for show, the money that his subordinates should collect was still collected, and he was so tired that he had to move down from the seat that was finally hot in the cold weather, so that Wei Changpan couldn't stop wanting it.

When he entered the city gate, when the groom threw the small cloth bag at the pockmarked sergeant again, he did not throw it back.

The city wall of Wuhang City is more than one zhang and three feet wide, it can run horses, and it has not been affected by the smoke of war for a long time, so the wall is neat and smooth far beyond the border city of the north, and the city has allocated a sum of money from time to time to repair, this city has more and more shown the atmosphere that can only be had in the peaceful and prosperous era.

When Wei Changpan's car walked on the road out of the city, Xu Xian beside him became active again, asking him about some trivial matters, large and small, Wei Changpan also replied politely at first, how could he have to ask an endless inch, which made him tired of coping, and the rest of the guests were also annoyed.

Just as Xu Xian was pointing fingers and spitting in the carriage of the big car and talking about how rich his developed distant cousin was, suddenly some pungent strange smell wafted into the big car, and it became more and more intense, Xu Xian covered his nose and scolded:

"Who doesn't look at the barbecue in the field, doesn't have a nose or what, can't smell such a big smell?"

"Don't shout. An elderly man who worked as a carpenter in Wuhang City said in a deep voice, "Now that the bark and grass roots outside the city have been dug up and peeled clean, where can there be meat to roast, you can figure it out with your toes." ”

"What could that be?"

"Burn people. The old carpenter said, "There are too many dead people to bury them, so a fire is burned and filled with a few adobes, not to mention saving time and effort, and there will be no epidemic in the coming year." ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone in the car, including Wei Changpan, was nauseated, and their stomachs were overturned.

"Old man.... How do you know this?" Xu Xian easily stopped his nausea and asked suspiciously.

"When there was a great drought in Jiangbei, those who fled the famine came to Jiangzhou, at that time the officials and lords were not more merciful than at this time, there was no shadow of the porridge shed or anything, and the city gates of the states and counties with city walls were closed. ”

The old carpenter sighed, "Three years of drought, starving to death, there is nowhere to bury, selling children and daughters but fighting rice, that is, we escaped from the famine early, only luckily entered Wuhang City, in the next few years, but if you are willing to work hard, you will always not be hungry, Jiangzhou is good, I have been here for all these years, and I have not seen a big famine." ”

"Then why did the old man return to his hometown in this situation? The people of Huizhou, Jiangbei are not having a good time at this time, are there still relatives at home?"

"What kind of relatives, no, there was a great drought back then, and they died completely, originally a prosperous clan, we are the only ones who survived, where is there anyone else. The old carpenter said calmly, "It's just that I can't do carpentry work when I'm old, and I want to go back to Huizhou in the ravine and ravine for the rest of my life, but now I have suffered a natural disaster, and the house and land are all cheap. ”

The scorching smell became stronger, and the owl hovered in the sky, making a creepy cry, and the man with a white cloth on his face looked blankly at the passing cart, and then turned and threw a fluttering hungry corpse into the fire, and the firewood was poured with oil, and in a short time the fire was more than high.

Wei Changpan opened the curtain of the car to see that the dozens of people covered with white cloth were also dressed as hungry people, but they were much more powerful than those carried, it seemed that they were the powerful men selected by the Wuhang City Government to burn the corpses of hungry people who had no one to collect, and the two officials dressed as officials stood far away with knives on their shoulders, like overseers.

After the corpse bearer lit a huge pile of fire, he threw a corpse into it, and sprinkled some oil on it, and then quietly stood two teas, and then repeated the previous action, and the human body was neatly stacked like a hill next to it.

The hovering owl bird stopped on the branches of a few dead trees around it, and its cry became more and more terrible, Wei Changpan couldn't bear to look at it anymore, and the last thing he saw was a skinny child who made the slingshot shoot down and kept making noise, and the internal organs were not feathered or plucked, so they roasted it by the fire of burning the corpse.

"If the bird is shot down by the hunter, it is all bad luck, let alone eaten. ”

"Eating the dead?"

"By the way, there is only such a thin line between eating this bird and eating human flesh directly, but it is better than eating nothing. ”

Wei Changpan was silent.

The cart pulling more than ten people did not go fast, and when it was sinking westward, it only walked forty or fifty miles, and the boundary of Wuhang County was not yet out, so he had to find a guest house to live in, after all, in this world at present, camping in the wilderness, he really did not have the courage.

There is not much money on the body, the original intention is to lie in the car and lie in the carriage to make up for a night, but Xu Xian is close to the inn, a inquiry, good guys, a night does not count the water will have to ask for eight dollars of silver, but the horseman is a regular customer, a few words will cut the price to five dollars of silver, Rao is so, Wei Changpan is still too expensive, a few years of hard work is also too expensive, the shopkeeper is helpless, promised to add a bed in each room without collecting money, these more than ten people lived.

The inn is not big, the decoration is also old, the guest room is quite bright, but the ground paved with wooden planks creaks when stepped on, the shopkeeper saw Xu Xian's eyes disgusted, so he explained with a smile: "This board is good, step on it and make a sound, here the thief is not daring to come, a step on the movement is not small, do not worry about saluting." ”

Xu Xian reluctantly accepted the shopkeeper's explanation that sounded quite reasonable, but the bedding in the store was black and shiny because of how many people had been lying down, Wei Changpan couldn't lie down when he saw it, so he had to sleep without undressing.

When the two of them placed their baggage and went to the lobby of the inn, the shopkeeper brought up the dinner, which was exactly the same as what Wei Changpan had eaten in the building a few days ago.

A few people in the same car worked hard as if they were used to such a crude meal, took a big gulp of the red rice, washed the Ma Lantou leaf soup into it, licked the scum that couldn't be pulled up with their tongues, and then went back to the room, seeing that Xu Xian was stunned for a moment and then looked at the bowl of rice in front of him, thinking that this should not be the same bowl, otherwise how could he eat so sweetly....

He looked left and right, and saw that although the rest of the people around him were frowning, they also picked up the dishes and chopsticks one after another, and Wei Changpan, who was sitting next to him, was no exception, and asked him: "Brother Xu, move the chopsticks, don't eat cold anymore." ”

"Is this for people to eat?" Xu Xian shook his head, turned sideways and shouted to the shopkeeper who was in the inventory: "Shopkeeper, is there any meat and vegetables, bring it up, and the silver money will be counted separately." ”

"This year, where did the meat and vegetables come from in the country shop?" The shopkeeper didn't raise his head, "When you go out, many things will be done, if you really can't eat for a while now, just wait for a few hungry meals." ”

Xu Xian swallowed his saliva and wanted to refute it, but his stomach and intestines were not angry first, so he had to pinch his nose and swallow the red rice, and then looked at Wei Changpan, seeing that he was still eating this meal, his face was still as usual, and he said that he couldn't lose to this fellow villager who was younger than him, and thought of this red rice as a fragrant stew, and finished eating it with his eyes closed.