The Concubine of Crossing

There has been almost no rain for a year. Most of the original creeks and wells have dried up. Only the largest river can still see a little river water, but the water level has dropped drastically, exposing a large dry and cracked river bed, and the river water has become turbid. Unbearable.

If such a water source is placed in normal times, no one will use it.But now, it has become a life-saving thing. Many people run long distances just to have a sip, and then bring a bucket back to the old and young at home.

There are even many people who stand on the side of the road and snatch other people's buckets in order to save a little walking and take advantage of their health.And many people who return the water will silently hand in the water, and then go back to fetch two buckets again.There are also people who are reluctant to give up water, and they argue and start a fight, and the people next to them just watch silently, their expressions numb.

This is the second disaster-stricken city they passed through. For a little food and water, fights can be said to abound. Bandit, just need a small introduction.

Li Xiao almost subconsciously blocked Luo Laibao, because unfortunately, they were regarded as rich by these dirty common people.

He could clearly feel that when those people looked at them, their throats were rolling.

Li Shu, Hemerocallis and the others also stared at them, as if they were going to fight if they disagreed.

Luo Laibao held Li Xiao's arm tightly. The way these people looked at them made him very uncomfortable, and even faintly aroused the killing intent deep in his heart.

Gradually, his eyes became colder a little bit, and he looked at those who looked over with a very gloomy look.Probably his eyes were too terrifying, the people he stared at subconsciously took a few steps back, then turned their heads and stopped looking at them.

Luo Laibao walked for a long time before looking away.

Qian Yaoliang, who was walking behind the two, sighed, "Oh."

Li Xiao turned around, thought about it and didn't know how to comfort him, so he turned back again, "The front should be here soon."

As if to confirm his words, the outline of a city appeared at the end of the line of sight ahead.

Several people were startled, and their fatigue seemed to have been swept away. They glanced at each other, and then accelerated the pace of entering the city.

The soldiers at the gate of the city felt a little weak, as if they couldn't support the weight of the armor on their bodies, leaning against the city wall, and didn't even have the thought of looking up at them.

There were not many people going in and out of the city, and most of them carried buckets to carry water into the city. The water was not very clean at first glance, but the people who carried it were very careful not to waste a little bit.

Even the drinking water is like this, naturally there is no extra water for washing, even the most particular person, the clothes on their body have lost their original brilliance, at most they can clean their face a little bit, compared to Can only meet people.

As soon as Li Xiao's group of clean-clothed people entered the city, they were immediately surrounded by people around them, and many people even had a look of eagerness in their eyes.

Luo Laibao's eyes darkened again, Qian Yaoliang frowned slightly, the situation was obviously on the verge of breaking out.

Many shops in the city have closed their doors, only a few grain shops are still open. There are several big men standing at the door of these shops, looking at the people around them with eyes like tigers.

The people who had been passing by and kept looking in saw the big man's eyes, one by one quickly looked away, and hurried past.

Qian asked for food and was immediately curious: "There is still a food store open! Why don't people around buy it?"

An old man passed by and shook his head when he heard his words: "I can't afford it, I can't afford it."

When I heard that money needs food, I immediately became interested. I don't know how expensive this food shop is, so people say that they can't afford it.

Speaking of which, these cities in the south have always been big cities for grain harvesting. Every year, a batch of food tribute paid by the people will be kept and stored in the warehouse of the county government.It is to prepare for the unexpected needs of the disaster year, or to facilitate the requisition of the army.Every year when new grain is harvested, the old grain will be sold and supplied to the court.

Especially since the harvests in these cities have been good for so many years, it shouldn't be a year of drought, and it will cause trouble to the point where the people have nothing to eat.

Qian Yaoliang and others entered the city ahead of time just to check the situation.Now that he heard that someone was selling grain at a high price, he naturally wanted to go in and have a look.

Compared with the yellow and thin faces of the people outside, the people in the grain shop obviously dressed much more glamorously.Seeing a few people enter the door, the big man at the gate glanced at them, thinking that they should be able to afford food, so they all turned their eyes back.

As soon as a few people entered the door, a waiter immediately greeted them, "How much food do you want to buy?"

Before asking for money and food, a woman just walked in at this time, and she was shocked when she saw so many people in the store.But obviously she didn't care about other people, so she walked directly to the counter, gritted her teeth, took out a large pile of copper coins from her pocket, and said, "Please give me ten buckets of rice."

The shopkeeper counted the copper coins, and then said with some distaste, "That's all? Three buckets at most."

When the woman heard this, her eyes widened, "Why is it so expensive?"

The shopkeeper smiled sarcastically: "It's all at this price now, if you want to buy it, you can buy it, if you don't buy it, you will lose it, anyway, other stores sell it like this!"

The woman's eyes were red, and she was about to turn around and leave, but she seemed to think of something again, and finally gritted her teeth: "Three fights, three fights!"

The shopkeeper then smiled, and said to the waiter, "Hurry up and scoop up three buckets of rice for the little lady!"

Li Xiao and the others watched helplessly as the waiter scooped up three buckets of rice for the woman. The rice looked like old rice, and there were a lot of grass and gravel mixed in it, which was not worth the price no matter what.

But the woman put away the rice, turned around and left worriedly without saying anything.Judging by her reaction, she is obviously used to such "rice".

Qian Yaoliang's eyes sank a little bit, "Shopkeeper, the price of your rice is a bit ridiculous, right?" This is not a little bit expensive, it is more than a hundred times more expensive.

As for the copper coins that the woman just brought, if they were used normally, they would be enough to buy an adult's food for a year, but now they are so small that she can eat by herself for ten days and need to save a little.

But obviously, it is too rare to see a woman living alone these days. Most of them are with their families, or the kind of woman whose life of the whole family is on her. Only in such an environment can she be alone Go out to buy food.

The smile on the shopkeeper's face softened a bit, and the businessman's expression became fast without pause.He looked them up and down, "Don't you look strange?" He didn't care who they were, and waved his hand, "The price of food is the same now, and it's the same when you go to other places."

Then he waved his hand again, "If you don't buy it, leave, how much such a group of people are here will affect my business!"

While talking, someone came to the door again, and the shopkeeper rushed to greet him. Hearing the news that the price of grain had risen again, the man hesitated for a while, and finally paid for a few buckets.

Several people stood for a while, and people came to the door one after another, some gritted their teeth and bought, and some hesitated for a long time, and finally left reluctantly.

Whether they bought food or not, they all looked at the shopkeeper with unfriendly eyes. Everyone understood why there were so many big men standing at the door.

After several people walked out, Li Shu leaned close to Li Xiao's ear and said, "Brother Xiao, let's go quickly."

Li Xiao lowered his head slightly: "What?"

Li Xuancao also looked around vigilantly, "An accident is about to happen."

They grew up on the street since they were young, so they are naturally more sensitive than ordinary people.Especially when they were young, they encountered countless fights of all kinds, big and small. If they didn't avoid them sharply, they would have died countless times.

In fact, not only the two little ones felt something was wrong, but the others also felt something was wrong. After such a short time, there seemed to be too many people gathered around.

Luo Laibao also leaned into Li Xiao's ear and said, "They are planning to rob the grain store." I have seen such things too much in my previous life, so when I said this, Luo Laibao's expression was very calm.

When Qian asked for food, he was taken aback, "How dare they!"

Several people turned to look at him.

Money needs food: "..." Well, when people are hungry, they can do anything.Especially the grain shop is so overdone, if it were him, he would probably want to grab it too.

I am a little anxious for money and food: "Our troops must not be able to catch up now, and now we can only go to the county government in advance, and we must not let them do it!"

Some things, once you take that step, there is no room for turning around.As long as he thinks that good people may immediately turn into mobs in front of his eyes, he will be anxious for money and food like ants on a hot pot.

The few people didn't dare to procrastinate, so they hurried to the county government office, waited for money and food to rush into the government office to find the county magistrate, took out his imperial envoy's card, and before the county magistrate showed any excitement, he said in a hurry, " Hurry up and take your people to me."

When the county magistrate heard this, his eyes lit up immediately, and he rubbed his hands together and said, "Is my yamen enough? Do you want to find some people outside to carry it?"

Qian Yaoliang was stunned for a while before realizing that he probably meant to bring people to carry the grain.He was a little dumbfounded, and was too lazy to explain for a while, "Just take your people and follow us, speed up!"

The county magistrate didn't dare to delay, so he hurriedly asked people to follow.

However, they rushed quickly, but it took a while, and when they arrived, the grain store was surrounded, and a group of people violently smashed the grain store, "Come out profiteers, get out! "

"Profiter, pay us back!"

"Everyone, go! As long as this door is smashed, the food inside will be ours!"

"They still have a lot of food. I saw it when I bought the food. It's enough for us to eat for a long time!"

"Smash it! It's all ours now!"

When the county magistrate was excited and led people to take over the relief food, he was taken to the grain shop by the imperial envoy in a dazed expression. What he saw was just such a scene, and the county magistrate felt completely stunned.

It was Qian Yaoliang who reacted quickly, rushed forward and said: "Stop! Stop it for me!"

The county magistrate finally came to his senses and shouted, "Stop, everyone stop!" At the same time, with a wave of his hand, a group of officers and soldiers rushed forward and stopped the excited crowd.

After all, they were ordinary people. Although they became impulsive because of hunger, they still flinched when they saw officers and soldiers.The scene suddenly calmed down a little.