The official road was dusty, and the dull and chaotic footsteps accompanied by the flying dust drifted away into the distance.

Chen Wang led the jujube red horse under the seat, and walked not far from the side of the marching army column under the sanitation of a group of armored horsemen.

As far as the eye can see, it is full of hazel wilderness.

The grass and trees are withered and yellow, the branches are sparse, it is obviously the early spring season, but there is no trace of vitality, and there is no half of the vigor, only the scene of bleak and dilapidated like the autumn and winter season.

Many of the residential villages lying in the distance have long been turned into ruins, and there is not the slightest human population in sight.

On both sides of the official road, there are acres of fields, but there is not a single farmer working on them.

Yellow weeds are scattered across the fields, most of which are already dry and watered, and there are cracks caused by drought.

The cobweb-like cracks stretched all the way to the distant sky.

Everything in front of him made Chen Wang can't help but have an illusion, as if he has returned to Shaanxi in the eighth year of Chongzhen, and some vague scenes from the past have become clear again at this moment.

Along the way, there were starving people who fell to the ground, homeless people who froze to death, and many of the corpses were even half decomposed.

It's obviously a human world, but it's like being in purgatory.

The death of a person who starves to death is horrible, and when he dies, it is as if even his flesh and blood have dried up.

Beneath that thin skin, there was almost no flesh left......

On the side of the official road, another group of about a few hundred people was walking south along the official road.

These people came from the north, fleeing the famine.

When they encountered the army, they did not dare to block the way of the army's advance, so they could only leave the official road and walk not far away.

They didn't dare to run away, how could a two-legged person outrun a four-legged war horse, they could only walk to the side with trepidation, for fear that if something was wrong, they would cause death.

Chen Wang's face was gloomy, and all the way north, they didn't know how many hungry people they had encountered who had fled the famine in the south.

Refugees fleeing the famine are in groups, huddling together for warmth, and countless things along the way can threaten them.

Cold weather, harsh living conditions, elusive horse bandits, rampant bandits, and desperate food shortages......

Chang Guoan's death is still of great value to Chen Wang.

Although Chang Guoan's behavior as a chess piece was not qualified, with the help of Chang Guoan, Chen Wang obtained a detailed map of Yunxiang Mountain.

With the help of the newly established inspection office, it has been connected with many mountain people's gathering places in these places.

In the midst of these mountains, the mountain people gather at the bottom of the valleys in the mountains to support themselves.

Then, as time passed, coupled with the need to hide from the government and the need to protect themselves, they finally gathered together to form a large-scale gathering place, which basically lived together in the form of the original region to which they belonged.

Large-scale gatherings are naturally organized, and the organizational structure of each large-scale mountaineer gathering place is different and different.

However, the same thing is that the organization is relatively loose, although there is a leader to manage, but there is no food and no tax, all the people are soldiers, when they encounter a foreign enemy, everyone will take up arms to meet it, and the people are extremely strong.

These mountain people's gathering points are all recognized by the government, and they also need to pay a certain amount of taxes on time every year, but compared with the outside world, the taxes are not load-bearing.

Everything is the product of compromise.

Chen Wang's contact with these mountain people and the way to improve relations is the simplest way to interact with each other.

They sell things that are not found in the mountains, such as salt, and then buy precious items such as animal skins and herbs in the mountains.

Not only can you keep in touch and maintain a relationship with the mountain people, but you can also earn a lot of money by earning the difference.

In addition to the grass-roots personnel other than Lifu, all the management personnel of the commercial bank are the officers of the supervision office.

The firm was responsible for trading with a group of mountain people in the Yunyang Mountains.

Originally, there were quite a few trading houses doing the same thing, but since the arrival of the rogue, the market has been cut off.

Later, after Chang Guoan came, because Chen Wang also gave orders, most of the caravans trading with the mountain people were also looted by him, so it caused a short window period.

When he was in Yunyang Mansion City and Yunyang Wei commanded Kang Ruiwu to go online, Chen Wang had already thought of this aspect.

After taking over a lot of territory militarily, Chen Wang used the soldiers and horses in his hands and the power to manage the Yunyang Mansion.

and Kang Ruiwu, the head snake of the land, with the help of detailed maps, Chen Wang actually monopolized all business transactions with the mountain people.

The profits brought by trade are undoubtedly huge, and the Yunxiang Mountains are vast, and the annual silver earned by trading with the mountain people in Yunyang Prefecture alone has exceeded 100,000 taels.

This number will only increase as subsequent deals deepen.

If you have the power of soldiers, you can have money, and the private salt business in Yunyang Mansion is intended to be mineralized, and Chen Wang has also begun to take over.

As the distance continued to get closer, the group of refugees fleeing the famine became clearer and clearer in Chen Wang's vision.

They used tattered straw rope as a belt and tied it tightly to their stomachs, as if this would reduce some of the hunger in their stomachs.

The body is a tattered cotton jacket full of patches, and it is said that it is a cotton jacket, but it is not very thick, and I don't know how much cotton there is in it.

All of the people in the team were unkempt and looked like they hadn't showered in a long time.

The men hunched their backs, carrying pots and utensils, carrying the only things they had in the house.

Some shoddy carts were dragged along with some broken black bedding.

In this year, even the bark of the grass and trees has been eaten, so how can there be any livestock to help pull the cart.

The women, either with children in their arms or with their bags, followed the cart and helped push it as much as they could.

It's just that most of them are thin and weak, and they don't actually have much strength.

All of them were hunched up, their heads bowed, without the slightest bit of energy, like the walking dead.

Such a scene has appeared countless times along the way.

At first, when Chen Wang led the troops from Yunyang Mansion into Nanyang Mansion in Henan Province, he would also take out part of the food from the military rations and distribute them to these fleeing refugees, guiding them to flee in the direction of Yunyang Mansion.

But now, as it goes deeper and deeper into Henan, the army's grain and grass have gradually begun to be unguaranteed.

The original grain and grass can also be transported from Yunyang Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion.

There is also grain and grass in the southern part of Nanyang Province to support.

But once we got to the north, we started to have problems with the grain.

The prefectures and counties that passed through couldn't give much grain at all, and if there was food in the official warehouse, how could there be so many hungry people in Henan Province?

As for the landlords and gentry, they only cared about their own situation, how could they be willing to give up their food.

How can the army be able to distribute precious food to these refugees, given that they are struggling to supply food?

There was a sudden commotion in the ranks of the refugees, and the group that had been moving slowly came to a halt.

Zhao Huai's conscience was slightly cold, he pulled out the Yanling knife on his waist, and drove his horse in front of Chen Wang, and all the armored horsemen guarding Chen Wang held their respective weapons one after another.

The rangers, who were wandering between the fields on both sides of the official road, also approached the team a little at this moment.

Chen Wang raised his hand and stopped the commotion of the armor rider on his side.

In the event of a commotion in the ranks of the refugees, it was caused by a man who fell to the ground.

The cries of children came from among the ranks of refugees.

It appeared to be a woman who fell, because right beside her, two children, one adult, one child, were sitting on the ground.

"Ah Niang ......"

The crying of the group came from the two children's positions.

Chen Wang stared at the movements of the crowd, someone stepped forward, knelt on the ground, checked it, and then probed the snort of the woman who fell to the ground, and finally responded to everyone with a long sigh and a shake.

It's all in plain sight......

Life and death are common in today's world.

Someone stepped forward and picked up the smaller child, while another, older child, was pulled to his feet.

It didn't take long for the fleeing procession to move on again.

The difference is that this time, there is always the sound of crying in the team.

But the crying didn't stop them, nor did they stop the team again.

The person who fell on the way to flee was not only this woman?

The dead are gone, and the living are like us.

For those who are still alive, they still need to continue to flee the famine, and they also need to continue to move forward strongly, and continue to do their best to live.

The body of the dead woman lay silently on the ground, no one to bury it, no one to dispose of it.

Everyone is hungry and their physical strength is already limited, so how can they waste these things.

"The ...... of the main town"

Zhao Huailiang, who was following Chen Wang's side, had red eyes and a trembling voice.

He wanted to say something, but knew he shouldn't open it.

Zhao Huailiang didn't finish the follow-up words, he clenched the reins in his hand, and turned his head hard, not looking at the refugees fleeing the famine.

No one spoke, everyone fell silent, and everyone looked away.

Whether it was the armored cavalry following Chen Wang's side, or the group of infantry marching on the official road.

The tragic situation of these refugees reminds them of their miserable past.

They were also once among the refugees, who did not hesitate to sell their children and daughters, leave their hometowns, wander around, and even be coerced into the army by rogues to wander everywhere in order to eat and live.

The pain of being separated from their wives, the feeling of hunger, they have all tasted it.

It is precisely because they have experienced the same pain and suffered the same suffering that everything in front of them makes them feel more empathetic.

The crying grew quieter and farther away, until it finally disappeared completely.

The last thing left above the official road was the sound of people and horses stepping on the ground.

There's only one chapter for the time being.,It's a bit of an unexpected situation today.,Modified a lot of things.,Update two chapters tomorrow.。

(End of chapter)