imperial psychologist

Chapter 681 Remains
It was already midnight when the boat docked.

After watching those weird gray-robed men go away, they let out a long breath and sat down facing the river.

The horror on the river this night really made several people a little tired. After crossing the river and heading north, horses are strategic materials, and ordinary people can’t buy them even if they have money. Can only walk on foot.

After sitting for a while, all three of them felt that some weeds were always blown into their noses and mouths by the wind, and when they were rubbed in their hands, they felt like hair.

So several people got up, found a leeward hillside to sit down, lit a fire, took off the boots and leggings that had just been wet on the river, and started to bake.

By the time they finished their work and were about to rest, the sky had already dawned, and the three of them still took turns to watch the night as before, and it was Boling's turn tonight.

She looked at the changing sky in the east, and as the sun rose, she began to see everything around her clearly - including the "weeds" that had been blown onto her cheeks by the wind since the night, they were indeed It's the broken hair blown by the wind.

After dawn, the wind weakened a little, but as long as the wind blows, the wind will engulf the fluffy hair and dust, and turn it into light gray sand mist and blow it.

Bo Ling had never seen such a scene before, she just thought it was strange at first, until it got brighter, she lowered her head, only to realize that the "stone" kicked aside by herself last night because of the backache of "硌" was half a human skull.

She was frightened so that her hands and feet were cold, and when she got up to take a closer look, the bone was more than just the small piece in front of her eyes—it was surrounded by withered and yellow grass in autumn, and among the decayed and withered grass were scattered yellow and weathered bones. Dry bones.

Most of these bones were scattered all over the place, except for the human spine, hip bones and skull, it was difficult to discern where they once belonged.

The edges of the white bones are a bit rough and uneven, and they may have been eaten by ferocious beasts in the wild, some of them are neatly cut, and there are even traces of burnt.

The misty river mist floated from Jian'an River, Bai Ling couldn't sit still anymore, she stood up alone in the morning mist, and climbed up the small slope where they leaned on last night.

The plain in front of me stretches as far as the eye can see, and some of the forests in the distance are only dead branches, while others are still green.The yellow sand rolls up and down on the deserted road in the distance, and there is no trace of people as far as the eye can see.

In the huge world, there were only birds chirping from nowhere, and the slight breathing of Mu Cheng and Li Yiru behind them.

……

After dawn, the few people did not delay, and quickly got up and went to the river to fetch water and came back. They boiled the bamboo tubes they picked up and put them into the water bag, and then continued towards the direction of the north.

The three of them quickly found the official road. Although the road was full of dust, it had obviously been cleaned.

Bo Ling has never seen so many human bones piled up on the side of the road in her previous life or in this life. At dawn earlier, she tried to dig some holes to bury these bones in one place, but later found that she was What you see is simply a drop in the ocean.

From the official road all the way to the north, these dead bones have almost never been cut off.

Although weeds are overgrown on both sides of the road, it is still not difficult to see from the ridges during the period that these lands were once fertile fields for farmers, but now they are abandoned here.

Near noon, they passed a deserted village. Several people walked along the stone road at the entrance of the village, asking "Is anyone there?" while walking, but no one answered.

After a little discussion, they decided to go into the house separately to see if they could find any surplus grain. There were a few houses that looked a bit dilapidated. Just to be on the safe side, the three of them didn't even push the door.

The skeletons seen here are more complete than those outside, and some even maintain the posture before death, which is shocking.

"Without people, the house will collapse quickly," Li Yiru sighed, "My great-grandfather said the same thing before, as long as there are still people living in the house, supported by a wave of popularity, you can live in it for many years."

Bo Ling listened silently, and pushed open a door at hand.

From the outside, the yard looked very similar to her former small home, except that the fence was much taller.

However, as soon as he opened the door, Bo Ling gave up his plan to go into the house to search for the object again—there were two human bones spread out in the yard, one on the ground, and the other half buried in the soil.

Bai Ling stepped back and looked at Mu Cheng, "...Let's go, I don't think there is any food left here."

"Yeah." Mu Cheng nodded, and the rice tanks in the few houses he went to were also empty.

They must all be starving to death.

Only before today, Berlin had not had such a tragic understanding of the "famine".

In the past in Pingjing, she had also heard news of the famine in the north—whether it was Pingjing or Yuezhou, since the 45th year of Jianxi, there has been a large influx of refugees.

In the history books, there are also many records of "year-old epidemics, ten rooms and nine empties" and "great hunger, people eat each other".

A scene suddenly appeared in her mind, as if in a certain period of time in the past—maybe it was a night when she was drinking and laughing with many nobles in Baihuaya, under the same sky, thousands of people Starving people and refugees are fleeing south in fear and famine.

As long as you swim across the Jian'an River that separates the north from the south, you can survive.

The people who failed to go south probably stayed in the land under their feet forever.

Bo Ling felt a bitterness in his throat.

Did Chen Yicong see such a situation during his northern tour?

He should have seen it too...

Bo Ling's jaw trembled slightly, and she suddenly felt that things in the world were too cruel - she stood in today's Jiangbei and looked back, and soon saw the fate of more refugees from the past.

Even if we survived this Jian'an River, would it be safe to continue going south?
No... If he is lucky and stops in Jiangzhou, Yuezhou, Chuzhou or Pingjing, he may indeed be able to live temporarily.

What if we go all the way south to Huizhou?
And in Pingjing, Emperor Jianxi was able to secretly sacrifice the lives of thousands of refugees and send them to other places in order to catch the gold thief, so what would happen?
Berlin didn't dare to think about it.

Some things can't be thought about carefully, but once thought about, they are all tears.

"There should be no one in the village in Pingyuan," Li Yiru said softly, "Do you still remember what the mother-in-law said yesterday, they should all be on the mountain now, but this area of ​​the mountain is far away from the official road, if we are going to lodge, It is estimated that there will be a lot of delay.”

"We won't go into the mountains anymore." Mu Cheng said in a low voice, he obviously miscalculated the situation in Jiangbei, "We'd better take the official route, and if we encounter caravans on the road again, we can borrow their carriages. "

"Yes." Both Bo Ling and Li Yiru nodded.

In the silence, they all thought of Jiangzhou Chengwai, those Zhuozhou caravans who wanted to bring customers north at a high price.

Thinking about it now, the caravan's asking price might not be outrageous, but they didn't understand it at the time.

(End of this chapter)