Beginning to practice immortality as a refugee

Chapter 10 Temporary Stay

At this time, there were changes in the city below.

When the porridge team returned to the city, the officers and soldiers kept the gun formation unchanged, and more than a dozen horses rushed out.

A scribe in official robes in the middle took out a document and read something loudly.

He recited a sentence, and the other soldiers repeated it loudly.

But the distance was too far, and Lu Ye and Wang Hu couldn't hear anything at all. They could only guess what happened through his shaking his head and the documents in his hand.

After the noisy refugee team was quiet for a moment, someone suddenly burst into cheers.

The large crowds of refugees were like waves of harvest wheat blown by the wind, falling down row by row.

The crowd had already knelt down, shouting loudly, and some were crying with joy, and the sound shook the sky.

However, there were also a small number of homeless people in the crowd who stood still, even choked with tears, and seemed out of place in the joyful atmosphere.

Among the many kneeling refugees, many people squeezed out of the crowd and walked quickly towards the officers and soldiers, and soon they formed a large crowd in front of the moat.

The remaining refugees who stayed in the same place stood up and slowly gathered together. They stood on tiptoe and formed a half-moon shape around their companions who were standing a few meters apart, watching carefully.

Lu Ye and Wang Hu looked at each other, not knowing what was going on under the city. The two of them could only speed up and run towards the foot of the mountain.

"Brother, could it be that the government is recruiting soldiers? In the past, every time there was a disaster, the government would recruit soldiers. I'm afraid it's the same old way this time. If someone becomes a soldier and gets military rations, he can give food to his family. In this way, The whole family will starve to death!"

"Hu Zi, this is a good thing for everyone. If others serve as soldiers, the whole family will not starve to death. If a wealthy family recruits slaves, there will be fewer people to fight against us. Won't there be more opportunities for us brothers?"

"Huh? Brother, what you said makes sense. Let's walk slower then."

At this time, there were changes under the city, and the scene began to become chaotic.

The crowd of refugees who came out of the queue gathered into a group, pushing and shoving each other, each one seemed to be very anxious, and finally gathered into waves and rushed towards the officers and soldiers, some even screamed and were pushed into the moat.

The cavalrymen were still waving their whips roughly, and the infantrymen were leveling their spears. Their spearheads were like forests, and they were shouting loudly. They moved forward in teams, and used the cold spearheads to suppress the rioting crowd who were in high spirits. Order was barely restored.

The officers and soldiers quickly set up dozens of vertical poles outside the long bridge of the moat. There was a red mark on the pole as high as a person. There was also a sack at the bottom of the pole. There were four or five soldiers standing under each pole.

The large number of refugees who came out immediately were like a big river diverting, automatically dividing into dozens of long lines, rushing to get over.

After a gong sounded.

Some refugees in ragged clothes rushed to the front, standing under the pole with their feet up, their heads almost crossing the red line, and then they bent down to hold their breath, holding the sacks in their arms, trying hard to pick up the sacks, their faces turned red and their necks were thick from holding back the sacks. Veins popping.

The tall and sturdy refugee easily succeeded in one attempt. He received a small triangular red flag representing passage, and happily crossed the moat bridge and entered the city.

There were also the refugees who were not tall enough to reach the red marks on their heads even with their tiptoes. They were eliminated in the first round, but they were not the worst off.

There were those who were tall enough but were too weak to know their own strength. They tried their best to pick up the sack, but in the end they couldn't hold it in anymore. They lost their breath and spurted out a mouthful of blood. They fell to the ground sluggishly and even their breath became much weaker. .

Naturally, some officers and soldiers dragged out the injured man who was vomiting blood and threw them randomly in front of the crowd of onlookers, like throwing sacks.

This kind of thing happened under every assessment pole. Soon, the sacks set up for the assessment became stained with blood and stained with a dazzling bright red.

Among the crowd of refugees watching from the outside, some people broke out heart-wrenching cries from time to time and were snatched out of the crowd and knelt in front of the injured man who was vomiting blood and howling.

The main pillar of the family fell down. In this year of famine, it meant disaster for the whole family. I originally wanted to earn a share of food rations, but I didn't expect that I would have to pay for it with my life first.

Among the refugees, from time to time there are lucky ones who pass through the customs and enter the city, and from time to time there are unlucky ones who vomit blood and fall down. On the same land, there are different joys and sorrows.

Naturally, Lu Ye and Wang Hu couldn't catch up with the test on the hillside, and they couldn't experience the sadness and joy in the scene.

They only saw a small number of people among the dense crowd of refugees crossing the moat bridge, entering the dark city gate, and disappearing.

When the two of them hurriedly arrived at the foot of the mountain, they heard the sound of a gong.

It turned out that there were no more people queuing under dozens of poles.

As the gong sounded, the officers and soldiers pulled out the wooden poles and returned to the city, leaving only the holes in the ground where the poles were inserted and the earth around the holes that had been dyed red. The large group of refugees had dispersed long ago, and they lay down in their shacks to conserve their strength.

In front of the moat, there were occasionally a few refugees who had vomited blood during the assessment and were lying on the ground, groaning miserably. There was no one to care for or protect them. It must have been that the whole family had died and only a bachelor was left, who could only wait to die.

Lu Ye and Wang Hu supported each other and rushed for the next meal of relief porridge.

However, due to Wangshan's lack of physical strength, it was already a long time before they arrived at the refugee shack.

In the shacks, some people were moaning and wailing, some were sobbing softly, and some people's voices were brisk and even laughing.

Lu Ye hurriedly found someone to understand the situation. Fortunately, he was a local speaker. After asking a few more people, he finally learned the whole story.

It turns out that the prefect of Dongsai Prefecture issued an official document today. According to the practice of this dynasty, soldiers will be recruited from disaster victims, and there will be no test on martial arts. As long as they are over five feet tall and can hold a fifty kilogram sack upright, they can be selected.

The selected candidates are required to go to the city for training, formation, team formation, and training. Their families are not allowed to enter the city, but they are promised to receive an extra half-person ration per day. They can go out to the camp at night but are not allowed to stay in shacks outside the city.

Correspondingly, due to the need to recruit refugees into soldiers and food shortages, from now on the disaster relief food distribution will be halved, and the original two meals a day will be changed to one meal a day.

Therefore, the refugees enthusiastically signed up one after another. In the end, some people estimated that about two to three thousand strong men entered the city.

In addition, since the food was released once today, there will naturally not be a second time.

Wang Hu was so angry that he slapped his legs red.

"Another missed meal."

Lu Ye also had a wrong expression on his face.

There is also bad news, that is, because there are many refugees and there are rebels and thieves inside and outside the province, the government officials are cautious and are afraid of traitors and spies sneaking into the city, so the city gates are not open to the outside world.

Naturally, no wealthy family would recruit slaves from the refugees.

The two of them ignored their regrets and found a place to settle down. Fortunately, there were many homeless people here, and there were naturally many shacks. People often disappeared, so they found a place to settle down without much effort.

Fetch water, light a fire, chop up the hard buns in your arms and soak them in them. After eating, you can hear the sound of wind, coughing and crying. It's a mess.

Wang Hu couldn't sleep, his eyes were full of longing for the future.

"Brother, when do you think this gangster will be put down? When can we join a wealthy family and become slaves?"

Lu Ye's eyes were deep and he mumbled a few words casually, fast, fast.

He didn't know what to do.

It is written in the history books of the past life - ten rooms and nine empty houses, dynasties change...

I just hope that I and Wang Hu are not nine out of ten.

I hope that this city is reliable and can protect the safety around the city. Even the worst order is better than precarious chaos.

If he could wait until the order stabilized, there was no chance that the city gate would be opened. As long as he and Wang Hu entered the city, they would be one step closer to their ideal of joining a wealthy family and becoming slaves.

The next day, Lu Ye and Wang Hu woke up. They had divided half of the hard buns and were huddled in the shack to recuperate, preparing to conserve their strength so they could grab the only disaster relief porridge every day.

Suddenly, they heard noises outside, ranging from small to loud, with chaotic sound waves roaring and washing over the entire land.

The two of them hurried out of the shack.

I saw the city gate wide open, with generals riding tall horses ahead, followed by armored soldiers on the left and right, followed by a long marching line of infantry wearing cotton armor.

The infantry was divided into two columns, with the young refugees who entered the city yesterday sandwiched between them. These young men walked slowly along the official road with mournful faces, trembling legs, and some even shed tears.

(End of this chapter)