On the third pole of the day, under Pidongcheng County, a convoy is slowly moving south, heading for Huainan.

The relocation troops of the Zhuge family were much faster than the elders of Huangmenting Township.

In April, Zhuge Xuan left Langya with his family, and in early May in Xuzhou, he was delayed for a while because Cao Cao surrounded Yan County.

After Cao Cao retreated, Tao Qian heard that a small army was passing by in the territory, and after inquiring, he learned that it was Langya Zhuge clan, so he invited him to come to Yan County for a while.

This situation is normal, and later Zhuge Xuan was stopped by Yuan Shu on the way back to Liu Biao, and Yuan Shu recommended him as Yuzhang Taishou, because bureaucratic families like them would be valued by the princes because of their fame.

So Zhuge Xuan stayed with Tao Qian for a few days, and it was not until mid-May that he asked Tao Qian to resign, left the East China Sea Kingdom, and entered the territory of Xiapi.

At that time, people had a relatively poor understanding of the plague, and they did not know that the plague was caused by bacteria that decomposed on the corpse, so Zhuge Xuan did not want to avoid the country of Xiapi.

The closest and fastest way to Huainan from Xiapi is the fastest, so it is indeed best to take this route when it comes to putting aside the problem of plague.

What's more important is safety.

Tens of thousands of square kilometers are deserted, white bones are exposed in the wild, and there is no rooster crowing for thousands of miles.

Unless hundreds of thousands of people in Xiapi become ghosts and let Xiapi become a ghost domain, there is really no problem of public security.

However......

However, Zhuge Xuan would never have thought that because he chose the closest and safest road to Huainan, it affected Prime Minister Zhuge Cheng's later life.

At the same time, it also left a legendary deed for Ji Han, the last orthodox descendant of Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty.

It was May 16, the convoy officially entered Xiapi, and it was okay when Liangcheng and Siwu counties passed, when Cao Cao asked Cao Hong to feint to attack these two counties, but he did not force the attack, so there were not many casualties.

It's just that because Cao Cao slaughtered Xiapi, the people of these two counties moved to the Donghai Kingdom and other places in the north after learning of the situation, which made it much less popular.

But there are still some people who are smoulder.

It wasn't until May 20, when he entered the territory of Xiaxiang County, that Zhuge Xuan realized that something was wrong.

He had also heard that there were many killings in the places where Cao Cao's army had passed, but after all, he had only heard about it, and had not seen the real situation.

After Siwu County, Xiaxiang County is close to Surabaya, dozens of miles away, and you can smell the stench.

There are many villages on the surrounding plains, but by this time the villages have long been uninhabited, the houses are dilapidated, the countryside is barren and overgrown, and the original pavilions have become ruins.

Such a situation was also common when Zhuge Xuan first entered Xiapi, or not only Xiapi, but now there is such a phenomenon in all parts of the Han Dynasty.

For example, Qingzhou, due to natural disasters and man-made disasters, millions of Qingzhou yellow turbans left Shandong, some went to Jizhou and were cracked by Gongsun Zhan, some went to Yanzhou and became Cao Cao's prisoners, and some went south to Xuzhou and were attacked by Tao Qian's Zang Ba.

But after these villages, the closer you get to Surabaya, the worse the situation becomes. Soon they saw the first body, lying on the side of the road, and after almost a month, the body was already decomposing.

Maggots and flies haunted, and it may have been more than twenty days since the appearance of death, and due to the sweltering heat of summer, it took on the appearance of giants and liquefaction, and the yellow corpse water flowed disgustingly.

The convoy slowly passed by the side of the road, Zhuge Liang frowned slightly, gently blindfolded his younger brother Zhuge Jun, and said in a low voice: "Don't go and see." ”

"But I smell it, it stinks."

Zhuge Jun was only ten years old this year, and he glanced at it from a distance before, and although he was blindfolded, the scene was also unforgettable to him.

Zhuge Liang said gently: "Then don't think about it, don't smell it, just wait for the wind to blow." ”

"Well, got it, brother."

Zhuge replied.

They thought that a corpse on the side of the road was nothing, after all, Xiapi had only been fighting for a long time, and Cao Cao had attacked Xiapi in early May, and now only twenty days have passed.

But when the carriage traveled less than 100 meters, they knew what hell on earth was.

The whole village was dead, and there were corpses and blood stains that had turned dark red and brown everywhere in the fields, in the vegetable fields, in front of the house, by the streams, under the mulberry trees, and in the ponds.

Some of them were beheaded, some were pierced through the heart, others were shot to death by arrows, and the village was like a slaughterhouse.

Even the elderly, weak, women and children could not escape the catastrophe, and even they were the ones who died the most.

Zhuge Liang saw with his own eyes that at the east end of the village near the door of a family on the side of the road, there was a corpse at the main entrance.

It was a man with a hoe in his hand, who had been pierced through the heart by Cao Jun, lying straight outside the fence made of bamboo at the door, and there was another wreck inside the door.

It was a woman, lying on the ground with one arm still outstretched to the door, as if begging Cao Jun not to kill her husband.

On the right side of the house, an old man is holding a toddler, and next to him lies an old woman and three children.

Zhuge Liang quickly sketched a picture in his mind.

Cao Jun entered the village, burned and looted everywhere, the man heard movement outside, went out with a hoe, and happened to meet the oncoming Cao Jun.

After the man was slashed to death by Cao Jun's soldiers, his wife witnessed all this at the door, and she stumbled towards the man's body while calling for the elderly in the family to escape through the side door with the child.

As a result, while still on the way, the woman was killed by the cruel Cao Jun, and the corpse was lying down against the gate of the outer courtyard, with her arms outstretched, which probably proves this.

As soon as the old man and the child came out of the side door, they met the soldiers who came in, two old men, three children ranging from six or seven to ten years old, and two or three years old children in the arms of the old man, all of whom were slaughtered.

Their corpses had already liquefied, the smell of fishy smell was in their nostrils, and the dense flies were as dense and frightening as locusts flying in the sky during a locust plague.

Zhuge Liang himself closed his eyes and couldn't bear to look at it again.

But he thought that the slaughter of villages was just the most terrifying thing in the world, but the closer he got to Surabaya, he realized that the slaughtered villages he passed along the way could only be regarded as hors d'oeuvres.

Xiaxiang County is located at the junction of Suishui and Surabaya, and Zhuge Xuan walked here because there was a ferry to cross the river. Then go south to the country, Xuxian, Huailing, Dongcheng, the county seat on this road is the most, the road is the smoothest, and it is also the fastest direction to Huainan.

But Zhuge Xuan didn't expect that it was precisely because of the county, township pavilions, and villages along this route that the county seats, township pavilions, and villages gathered the most, and the roads were the best, and the massacres suffered were the most serious.

In the morning, they passed by the county seat of Xiaxiang.

At a glance, what you see is full of devastation, the city is dilapidated, a ruined wall, and a sea of corpses and blood.

The whole city is no longer populated, the roads are full of corpses, and the city walls are black, because there was a fire in the city, which burned the whole city clean, except for the rammed earth city wall, which bears witness to this history.

Zhuge Liang raised his head, the carriage slowly drove outside the city, and there were still hundreds of corpses hanging on the city wall, the summer wind blew and swayed, bringing countless fishy smells, like a jungle of corpses.

In the afternoon, they finally arrived at the Surabaya River.

Along the way, they had seen thousands of corpse pits, flesh and blood mulberry forests, and corpse ponds, but it was not until they came to the Surabaya River that they finally understood what real horror was.

Surabaya is not a small river, in the Han Dynasty known as one of the four desecration and eight streams, although not as good as the Yellow River, the Yangtze River, the Huai River, and the Jishui, but also belongs to the large rivers second only to the four major rivers, especially the downstream areas are about to inject Huaishui, the width of the river is very large.

On the surface of the river, which is more than 100 zhang wide, there are countless corpses floating densely, and there is no end in sight. It was summer time, and the corpses were piled up on the banks of the river, and the smell of fishy could be smelled miles away.

Their corpses were drifting down the river, but if you looked at the upper reaches of the river, endless corpses were slowly drifting down. Looking further down the river, there are still countless corpses.

At first glance, the river looks as if it is not flowing. The corpses blocked the entire river, the flies obscured the sky, and the world was blood-red.

Even hell is more like a human world than here.

"Gross!"

The accompanying guards couldn't hold back any longer, and vomited out all the overnight meals one by one.

In fact, along the way, they vomited more than once.

The soldiers sent by Liu Biao to protect Zhuge Xuan were also elite, protecting Zhuge Xuan from Jingzhou to Chang'an, and it was not without fighting with bandits and bandits along the way, slashing and killing the enemy on the battlefield without even blinking an eye.

But in the face of such a great terror, they are as fragile as children, and they are not even as good as children.

Because at least Zhuge Liang didn't spit it out.

It's just that.......

It's just that it's not physiology that's uncomfortable, it's seeing the countless corpses floating densely on the surface of the river......

Zhuge Liang looked at all this in front of him blankly.

There was a flash of fear in his eyes, then sadness, then pity, and finally everything turned into an indescribable mourning.

They were all living people......

They are not animals in the mountains and forests.

Not a livestock beast.

They are all people like you and me, who can laugh, be sad, be happy, and be sad.

How...... How so?

Why are they like this, like lambs to the slaughter.......

The body was thrown into the river.

Let their bodies rot, stink, dissolve, and finally disappear into this world without a sound.

Not even a name was left.

Zhuge Liang's eyes were already full of sadness, he closed his eyes and didn't want to look at it anymore, and a tear in the corner of his eye was gently left.

He couldn't figure it out.

Why did Cao Cao avenge his father and not go to Tao Qian, but he wanted to be angry with these people?

He couldn't understand, did Cao Cao have a father, but these innocent people didn't?

Trade your grief for the lives of hundreds of thousands of people.

This...... Is it the so-called filial piety?

At this moment.

Zhuge Liang's mood can no longer be described in words.

Maybe.

In this world, there are things that must be done, and there are hatreds that need to be settled.

But who can tell him what these innocent people are guilty of?

Why should these people, who are already struggling to survive all day long, be treated like this?

Is it the world's fault?

Or is it Cao Cao's fault?

Maybe both.

In the heart of the young Zhuge Liang, looking at this terrifying scene, he couldn't return to his senses for a long time.