The Legend of the Condor Heroes: I became one of the Five Great Masters by drawing cards

Chapter 137: Officials Arrest People
"Clap!"

The young woman's breathing stopped and she dropped the chopsticks on the table.

The old woman coughed lightly and forced a smile, which made the wrinkles on her face appear a little deeper.

"Sir, you're joking. There are only us, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law, and Sanbao in this family. The men have all gone to Gengzhou. Where else is there?"

Gu Ping'an was not afraid of any poison in the world. He took a sip of rice soup and spoke again.

"Don't worry, Auntie. We have no ill intentions, we're just curious. Of course, that's assuming we're not being schemed against."

The room was quiet for a long time, and the old woman finally sighed.

"Forget it, disaster is inevitable. If you are here to recruit young men, my family really has no one left. If you want to take someone, just take me with you."

"mother"

The woman called out softly, tightened her arms around the child, and her eyes were filled with panic.

Conscripting men?
Gu Ping'an suddenly realized that all he saw along the way were women and children. Weren't those men all taken away by the Jin people to defend the city?

The door of the woodshed was pushed open with a bang, and a man with white hair and beard holding a pitchfork rushed out.

"What nonsense are you talking about, old woman? Since I can't hide, I'll go!"

This man looked extremely thin, with a hunched back. He must be at least sixty years old, yet he was counted as an "able-bodied man".

Mu Nianci suddenly stood up, furious: "You're still applying for a job at such an old age, you're nothing!"

When these words were spoken, the three of them were stunned.

Gu Ping'an tried to soften his voice and said, "Don't be alarmed, the three of you. We are just passing through. We are not sent by Jin Gou to recruit men."

The old man looked suspicious, but his hands were still tightly gripping the pitchfork.

"In the past, when recruiting soldiers, has there ever been a situation where only one man and one woman showed up?"

“That’s true.”

"If you really don't believe me, let's leave."

"No, no." The old woman was already convinced and quickly stopped them. "You two are right. We are just being overly suspicious."

Although this family was in a state of panic because of the Jin people, they were honest and kind people after all. Once the misunderstanding was resolved, they immediately felt guilty.

"Oh my goodness, you two haven't even had a good bite of your meal. Old man, go and light a fire and heat up the food."

"Hey, good!"

The old man threw away his pitchfork and went into the kitchen.

Gu Ping'an took a look at the porridge and wild vegetables, then took out the dry food they had with them, leaving only one Hu pancake, and stuffed the remaining ones and all the dried meat into the young woman's hands.

"No no no!"

The woman hadn't seen such "sumptuous" food for more than half a year. Although she was tempted, she kept waving her hands to refuse.

The old woman looked over and refused again when she heard the voice.

The two sides were deadlocked for a long time, and Gu Ping'an insisted again and again, and finally sent these things out.

The dried meat was sent to the kitchen, and soon it was torn into rice soup and served into the bowls of two people.

Finally they had their meal and started chatting at the table. The two finally knew the whole story.

The family's surname is Shi. The old couple had three sons. The brothers and sisters-in-law had a close relationship and never separated.

Although this kind of life is not rich, it is happy.

Until a year ago, the Mongolian army launched a large-scale attack on Shanxi, determined to capture Pingyang Prefecture and march straight into the Central Plains.

The Jin army also knew the importance of this city and held it firmly for more than half a year. The massacre of Jiangzhou took place during this period.

After all, the Mongolian army was far more powerful, and the defenders could only rely on piling up their lives, which made life difficult for the people under their rule.

At first, only one man from each family could be drafted, but as the fighting progressed, no male of military age was spared. The three sons of the Shi family had all gone to Gengzhou. A few days ago, the third son sent a message back, saying that his eldest and second brothers had both died in the battle. The war was not going well, and they were afraid that more men would have to be drafted.

The children of the eldest and second sons were already twelve or thirteen years old. Upon hearing the news, they dared not stay any longer and went south together to avoid the disaster. Only the old couple and the third son's wife were left at home.

The third son's child was only two or three months old, so he was not included in the conscription. However, the officials came to the village several times and even included the old man in the family.

Because his grandson was too young to travel far, Old Man Shi had no choice but to hide in the woodshed every day and never show up again.

Gu Ping'an and Mu Nianci felt upset and sighed repeatedly after hearing this, but the world is so difficult, even if they have high martial arts skills, how many people can they save?
I couldn't sleep all night until dawn.

The two of them secretly hid two five-liang silver ingots on the couch, said goodbye to their family, and went to the Yellow River.

The source is from Kunlun Mountain and the stream flows out, and the nine turns of Yuguan are collected in one pot.

This is the world-famous Hukou Waterfall. When the Yellow River flows here, the river surface of more than a hundred feet suddenly shrinks, the river valley drops sharply by more than ten feet, and the turbulent water rushes down with great momentum, hence the name.

According to the route, it was impossible to cross the river here, and the two should have gone straight downstream.

But Gu Ping'an saw from afar that the water mist was spreading on the shore, and the steam was reaching the sky, just like thick smoke rising from the bottom of the water, and he couldn't help but feel moved.

"Nianci, I want to go over there and take a look."

Mu Nianci just let him go, and rode side by side with him for more than ten miles before reaching the shore.

The rapids rushed down, and the sound shook the valley. It was like the sound of thousands of drums beating together and thunder in a drought.

The Yellow River was abundant in the Song Dynasty, far surpassing later times, and the might of this waterfall was also far beyond what it would be a thousand years later.

Gu Ping'an moved closer and chose a flat rock to sit on. He didn't care about the mist wetting his clothes and just sat there in a daze.

Mu Nianci did not urge him and waited patiently behind him.

"look."

I don’t know how long they sat there, but Gu Ping’an suddenly spoke. His voice was not loud, but it was clearly heard by Mu Nianci.

"The water of the Yellow River comes from the sky. Isn't it majestic?"

"Ah."

"But even with such a powerful force, when it encounters this riverbank, won't it just huddle together and become the waterfall before us?"

Mu Nianci had the same idea as him and immediately guessed what he was thinking.

"You and I, Qi Gong and the others, are we like the Yellow River? Majestic and indomitable, this riverbank represents the general trend of the world. It allows us to be wide or narrow."

Gu Ping'an sighed, filled with emotion.

"It's like Uncle Shi's family. Even if we have great abilities, we can help them temporarily, but not forever. We can save three or five families, but not thousands of them."

Mu Nianci was stunned by what he said and couldn't think of how to respond for a moment.

At this moment, a noise of shouting and crying suddenly came from the distance.

Although the rapids of the river were loud, it could not hinder the hearing of the experts. The two men followed the sound and looked back.

Two men dressed as gangsters were holding two women at knifepoint and dragging them towards the river. Behind them were several Jin soldiers, laughing wildly.

The two people who were dragged here were the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law of the Shi family who had just said goodbye this morning.

"Hide? Damn it! How dare you try that on me?"

One of them dragged Aunt Shi and walked while gritting his teeth.

"Look, I'm going to throw these two women down, are you still hiding?"

It turned out that after the two of them left, Jin soldiers actually came to their door!

"I really don't have any male heirs left in my family!" Aunt Shi cried out loudly, begging desperately, "If you want to drag people off to the battlefield to die, can't I go with you?"

　The inspiration comes from Du Fu's "The Stone-Harrow Officer". Readers may not like these chapters, but I really want to try my best to write out the changes in the protagonist's mentality. If you don't like it, I apologize.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)