The early winter of the ninth year of Yanxi.

There is a beautiful legend in the desolate land, and countless people who have suffered from hunger and cold have said that they had a beautiful dream before they died.

They all said that they had seen a beautiful blessed land, with the cleanest stream and the softest meadow, and beside the meadow there was a silvery waterfall, and the bottom of the waterfall was full of purple flowers, which made it incomparably fragrant.

Those who saw this picture soon passed away, leaving the living with infinite grief and reverie.

"Is what he said true? Is there really that place? ”

Guo Jie looked at a thin corpse in Zhang Jiao's arms and asked with tears in her eyes.

This is one of several starving people that Zhang Jiao met along the way, a child clutching a clod of earth tightly in his hand.

When they found the child, he was leaning against a dead tree stump on the side of the road, although Zhang Jiao was desperately trying to export Yuan Qi at that time, trying to save the child, but it was too late, the child's life fire was already extremely dim, at the last moment, the child's body trembled, his eyes were scattered, but his eyes were smiling peacefully.

"It's really beautiful here, Daddy didn't lie to me......"

These were the child's last words in the world.

"I don't know... It's me who is so incompetent......"

Zhang Jiao hugged his thin body, suppressed his grief, and responded to Guo Jie's words in a low voice, Zhang Jiao was afraid of waking up the child and disturbing his dreams.

"It's not Ah Lang's fault, let's find a place to bury him, lesp..."

Guo Jie was stunned for a long time, wiped her tears, and said to Zhang Jiao, because she felt several greedy eyes around her, staring at the child in Zhang Jiao's arms.

"Let's go, let's get in the car, let's go faster, we must be at Yuan's in two hours."

Zhang Jiao took the child's body and put it in the carriage, took Guo Jie's hand with one hand, wiped away her tears with the other, and said distressedly: "It's just to come out and borrow food, you have to follow..."

"The two younger brothers followed Senior Brother Yu to Jingzhou to borrow grain, you have just been in a coma for three days, you said that you were fine, and you were in a hurry to travel far the next day, I can't bear Ah Lang to be alone, no one to take care of......"

"There's nothing to worry about, I'm already fine, I knew I would let you stay at home, and the family has been busy recently, you might as well stay at home and help with the soup kitchen, and besides, I'll move faster alone, and I'll be back soon, I don't have to let my family Ajie suffer this kind of crime, I don't want to see you cry......"

Zhang Jiao didn't want to see Guo Jie crying, but after only half a day, Guo Jie cried several times.

"I don't care, I'm going to follow."

Guo Jie muttered and sat in front of the carriage, wanting to sit next to Zhang Jiao, who was driving. Although she was very soft-hearted, she still did not dare to stay in the carriage with the corpses, although she was not afraid of the begging homeless, but she was afraid of the dry and exposed corpses.

"That's it, there's no one here."

After driving for a while, Guo Jie pointed to an empty space and said.

Zhang Jiao buried the child in the clearing, and put the clod of earth that the child was holding tightly in front of the grave.

"We don't have much dry food, so we don't go to Runan anymore, so we go to Hejian County instead."

Zhang Jiao looked at the empty Qiankun bag, and then looked at Guo Jie beside him, and made up his mind to go to Hejian County.

The soft-hearted Guo Jie only took half a day to distribute the three days of dry food brought by the two to the homeless, and at this time the two only had a small piece of cake left, so Zhang Jiao gave up the idea of borrowing food honestly and decided to rob the royal family that was closer to him.

"Don't go out of the county! Where did it come from, where did it go, where did it go! In the past few days, granaries have been opened in various places to put porridge, why do you still say that you want to escape the famine? ”

When he was about to leave the giant deer, Zhang Jiao found that some of the homeless people were blocked in the wasteland by a patrol of county soldiers, preventing them from leaving the city.

"Master Jun, we have also suffered from the locust plague, but we have not seen any relief food, and we may have already been received by others, please let us go, otherwise we will really starve to death."

A big man said boldly.

"Fart! What locust plague!? There is no disaster in our county! It's just a small swarm of locusts, and it's not far from the point where you can't eat! You don't lie here to confuse the public, besides, why can others get the porridge but you can't? ”

The county soldier pointed a knife at the crowd and roared loudly.

"What the little people said is true, there is really a locust plague, and the little relief food in the county has been distributed to the people who have a relationship with the county government, and it is not my turn to wait, I hope that the military master will be merciful and let us go."

Another man walked out of the crowd, gritted his teeth, saluted the county soldiers, and said in a trembling voice.

"Poof!"

His head was immediately cut off by the county soldiers, and the bright red blood immediately shocked everyone.

"If there is any more gossip to confuse the public, behead! Where did you come from, go back! ”

The county soldiers held bloody long knives to intimidate everyone, and many women and children standing behind were so frightened that they turned around and fled.

"Why did he lie to confuse the people!? How can you kill someone for no reason!? ”

Seeing this scene, Zhang Jiao stopped the carriage and pointed to the nose of the county soldier and asked angrily.

"It's... You... Who are you? ”

The county soldier who took the lead was stunned, and a carriage stopped in front of him, so that he didn't have time to think and react, so he hurriedly saluted Zhang Jiao, and even if he was horizontal to the people, most of the people who could take such a luxurious carriage could not be provoked by a big soldier.

"Is what these people say rarely false? Why did you kill him? Answer me! ”

Zhang Jiao pointed at him with a look of anger, if Guo Jie hadn't followed, he would have slashed this person a long time ago.

"It's... Who are you who asked me to wait on patrol at the border and let us repatriate the displaced people who had gone out? How dare you obstruct us in the execution of our official duties? ”

The county soldier shouted boldly, looking a little nervous, he looked at Zhang Jiao, although his aura was extraordinary, but he was not very old, and he was still carrying a woman, and there was no guard, and he faintly wanted to kill the young man in front of him and avoid future troubles.

"Bang!"

Zhang Jiao flicked his fingers, and a bloody flower suddenly exploded on the leg of the leader of the county soldiers, and he fell to the ground.

"Answer my question!"

Zhang Jiao got out of the car, stepped on the leg of the county soldier, glared at him and asked.

"Brothers, come on! This kid will only hurt people with secret arrows, and chop him together! Leave the woman behind! ”

The county soldiers looked at Zhang Jiao gloomily and resentfully, only thinking that Zhang Jiao was a kid who could play tricks, and he was accidentally overshadowed by him.

"Bang! Boom! Boom! ”

Zhang Jiao waved his sleeves, and the three county soldiers who rushed up flew out in an instant, and Zhang Jiao stepped on the leader's head again.

"Since you don't answer, pay for your actions!"

Zhang Jiao had no mercy in his heart, and his feet moved, crushing the leader's head into blood foam.

"It was the county keeper who made us do this! He... He had just bought an official position, and he didn't want to lose his official position due to the locust plague! Be... He sent us to patrol the border and kill people! ”

When a county soldier saw Zhang Jiao's eyes looking at him, he was so frightened that his soul was scared, and he hurriedly said.

"To disregard the lives of millions of people for the selfish interests of one man! You also work hard for such a villain!? You also carry out such a ridiculous order? ”

Zhang Jiao was very angry, thinking of the new county guard Deng Baixiang, and thinking of the old county guard Wei Fan who was killed, his heart was filled with grief and anger, so he looked at those county soldiers angrily.

"Spare your life, spare your life! We are also helpless, and our families have been afflicted, and if we do not do what he says, we will have no food to eat! Except for the leader, who killed anyone, the rest of the brothers did not kill anyone, but only repatriated the displaced people. We'll never again, never again! ”

"You ...... Get lost! ”

Zhang Jiao wanted to angrily scold them for bullying the villagers for a bite to eat, and even killing people, but he also thought that some people even sold their own children for stuttering, and even ate them, so he immediately had nothing to say and scolded the county soldiers.

"When I come back, I'll go to the county guard to settle accounts!"

Zhang Jiao angrily returned to the carriage and drove away.

"Ah Lang don't worry, this matter can be discussed in the long term after meeting Senior Brother Yu! Although the county guard is hateful, it is inevitable to teach him a lesson, but we must always think of a perfect way, although we are not afraid of him, but what about the villagers and people who have a relationship with us? ”

Guo Jie saw that Zhang Jiao was angry and hurriedly explained.

"I know, if I hadn't thought about this, I would have killed that horseman and hated Wei Fanxue a long time ago!"

……

It was easy to find the Hou Mansion, Zhang Jiao and Guo Jie were outside the walls of the Hou Mansion at the moment, flipping their sleeves on the invisible carriage.

"It's so rich! So much food! ”

Zhang Jiao looked through his sleeve for a while, and saw a warehouse full of corn.

"Ah Lang, don't rush to pack too much food, herbs, remember herbs!"

Guo Jie's eyes were smiling, this feeling was both novel and exciting, and she reminded Zhang Jiao, who was packing food into the Qiankun bag.

"Loaded back!"

Zhang Jiao shook the bag and smiled.

"The car is full, too! It's such a big place. ”

"Okay!"

"That's too greedy, isn't it?"

"Huh? Your voice? ”

Zhang Jiao looked up and found that Guo Jie had shrunk into a corner of the carriage and looked at his side in horror.

Zhang Jiao turned his head and looked at a wrinkled face.

"Who are you?"

Zhang Jiao was also taken aback, and hurriedly took two steps back to block Guo Jie, and looked vigilantly at the old woman who appeared inexplicably.

"Who are you? How dare you come to the Hou Mansion to steal food? ”

The old woman opened her mouth, with a pretty girlish voice, which made Zhang Jiao and Guo Jie instantly have goosebumps.

"What... What is it called to steal! It's clearly to take! Who the hell are you, pretending to be a ghost here, say it quickly, or I will split you! ”

Zhang Jiao said viciously.

"My name is Dou Cai, you can call me Master Caiyun, don't be afraid, little doll, I won't rob you of food."

The old woman's voice was extremely inconsistent with her appearance, and when she spoke, it seemed very unreal.

"Dou Cai? What are you doing in my car? ”

Zhang Jiao still looked at the old woman who called herself Dou Cai vigilantly.

"If you have nothing to do, take a few people here with the trust of the family to take a look, see you sneaky, tease you, your method of doing things in your sleeves is very interesting, teach me, let me learn too."

The old woman leaned directly on the side of the carriage, without any intention to leave, and looked at Zhang Jiao with interest.

"Your transfiguration technique is much worse, and you may not be able to learn it if you teach it, if you don't teach it, you go down quickly!"

Zhang Jiao stared at the old woman for a while, then he was no longer vigilant and began to drive people away.

"The Hou Mansion treasury has just lacked more than this bit of grain, where are you hiding? You also taught me how to hide things. ”

"Don't teach!"

"You should be quite short of food, right, how about five hundred stone of grain for you?"

"Don't change!"

"A thousand stones?"

"Don't change!"

"Hmph, it's just a thousand stones! If I don't change it, I'll sue the official, saying that the giant deer is stealing food with its horns! ”

"Change! A thousand stones and a technique, if it doesn't work, I'll slash you with one palm, and you can also walk, and you have to tell me, how do you know my name, you can't walk if you can't tell! ”

Although Zhang Jiao was surprised that the old woman in front of him knew her name, he still responded calmly, because in his senses, the qi in this old woman's body was very weak, and it could not pose any threat to him.