Famine and Chaos: Weaving Cloth in Exile to Escape the War

After Yang Xiaoniu finished speaking, he was already sobbing uncontrollably.

Jing Zhichun listened, and for a moment she didn't know how to comfort Yang Xiaoniu.

War has always been brutal.

Especially these ordinary people at the bottom of society.

But with the Northwest in such a mess right now, what does it matter if Yang Xiaoniu is a deserter?

Why must we go to the point of entrusting our children to others, leaving the rest of our family to die?

Kyoto Haru felt that they could all escape together.

Just as she was about to speak, she saw that the rest of the Yang family had arrived in the backyard at some point, and they were all crying with tears streaming down their faces.

It's likely that the rest of the Yang family knew about Yang Xiaoniu's idea of ​​entrusting his orphan to someone else.

With his back hunched, Yang Dawang knelt down three meters away from Jingzhichun and kowtowed three times in a row towards Jingzhichun.

"Madam Shen! All my belongings, and this hundred taels of silver, are yours! I beg you... I beg you, when you flee, take my three children with you! If... if the rest of us are lucky enough to survive, we will definitely find you in the south and serve you as your servants to repay your great kindness!"

The other members of the Yang family also knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly.

For a moment, the muffled thuds of kowtowing mixed with suppressed sobs echoed in the courtyard.

Kyoto Haru was startled and quickly took a few steps back, stepping aside to avoid the danger: "Get up! Everyone, get up! Things haven't gotten to that point yet!"

Listen to me, we can actually escape together. With the Northwest in such chaos, who cares whether Brother Yang is a deserter or not?

If we don't tell anyone, who will know?

Even if the imperial court found out, with the plague raging and barbarians pressing in, the court was too busy to bother with capturing Brother Yang, a mere pawn.

Stop kneeling and get up!

After Kyoto Haru finished speaking, the courtyard fell silent for a moment.

The Yang family members stared at each other blankly, and after thinking about it carefully, they realized that it made sense.

Now that the Northwest is in chaos, why would the imperial court care about a deserter?

However, over the years they have come to regard the imperial court as the heavens above them, always feeling that disobeying it would only lead to death.

But now, this day has been broken by myself.

Only Yang Xiaoniu looked somewhat heavy-hearted. Although Jing Zhichun's words made sense, he still felt uneasy.

He looked at Jing Zhichun and asked, "Madam Shen, you are right. Perhaps the court is indeed too busy to pursue a deserter like me right now. But what if... what if the court defeats the barbarians and then seeks revenge on me later? My life and my family will also be doomed."

Upon hearing Yang Xiaoniu's words, the excitement on the faces of the Yang family members subsided, and they all turned their attention back to Jingzhichun.

Jing Zhichun felt that Yang Xiaoniu's words made sense.

However, everything is in complete chaos right now. We should be thinking about how to escape. We can deal with other things after we get out of there.

But seeing the fear on the faces of the Yang family members, she swallowed back what she wanted to say.

Jing Zhichun looked at Yang Xiaoniu and asked, "Brother Yang, tell me, did anyone in the military camp see you run away?"

Yang Xiaoniu thought about it carefully and shook his head: "I slipped away during the darkest part of the night, so no one should have seen me."

"That makes things easier. Once we leave this area and reach a safer place, we'll find a way to get Brother Yang a new identity. As long as we don't let it slip, who will know you were a deserter?"

Upon hearing this, the Yang family members gradually stopped crying, and hope rekindled in their eyes.

Yang Dawang wiped his face and said excitedly, "Madam Shen's idea is great! Even if... even if we really can't get a new household registration, we can just live in the mountains as unregistered residents! Anyway, our family has been hunters for generations, and with this skill, we won't starve!"

Jing Zhichun nodded, took the map from Yang Xiaoniu, and carefully put it in her pocket before saying, "I'll keep this map for now, but the most important thing right now isn't what to do next, but how to escape! Where do you think we should escape to right now?"

Yang Dawang and the other members of the Yang family quickly snapped out of their grief. Indeed, the most important question right now was where to escape to.

Yang Dawang quickly said, "Now that the snow is falling so heavily, if we take our families and flee south, we're afraid we'll freeze to death on the way, or be caught up by the barbarians."

Madam Shen, how about we escape to the mountains and hide there for a while?

"Once the war is over, or the snow stops and melts, we can decide whether to continue south or find another way out."

Jing Zhichun nodded: "Uncle Yang's suggestion is good. It is indeed suitable for us to hide in the mountains right now. However, the mountains are dangerous and there are many wild animals. We need to find a cave. Uncle Yang, you often hunt in the mountains. Do you know of any caves that people can live in?"

"Yes. Go southeast for about fifty miles, cross two mountain peaks, and there is a place called Yeren'ao."

There's a rather deep cave on the mountainside there, which we discovered years ago when we were chasing an injured wild boar.

The entrance to the cave was covered by a patch of old vines, making it difficult to spot without careful searching.

It's quite spacious inside, enough to accommodate about ten people to shelter from the wind and snow.

There's a narrow crevice at the bottom of the cave, and water is still inside.

It's perfect for our group to hide in.

Yang Xiaoniu added from the side, "That place is surrounded by dense forests and has plenty of wild animals, so we won't lack food or water."

Jing Zhichun's eyes lit up: "This place sounds nice. How far is it from here? In this weather, how long would it take to walk there with the whole family?"

Yang Dawang did the math: "If it were just a few of us men, we could get there in a day. But with our belongings and all that, and with the heavy snow... it'll probably take two or three days."

"Alright, this is the place then. You all hurry up and pack your things. We'll set off in an hour, so let's get there as soon as possible."

"Okay, then we'll hurry up and pack, and we'll call you when we're done."

"OK."

As Jing Zhichun stepped out of the Yang family's courtyard, she heard a series of clanging gong sounds.

A teenager was banging a gong and shouting at the top of his lungs as he went from house to house.

"Listen up, everyone! Brother Niu is back from the battlefield! The barbarians have already reached the county town! Everyone, hurry up and assemble at the threshing ground! Quickly, quickly!"

"Brother Niu is back from the battlefield! The barbarians are attacking..."

Jing Zhichun's lips twitched as she listened, turning back to look at Yang Erniu, who had seen her out: "Your older brother, is he afraid people won't know he's a deserter?"

Yang Erniu gave a wry smile and sighed, "If we don't call her that, the villagers won't move."

They have made their living on this land for generations, and it's hard for them to leave their homeland!

Our family used to be poor, and the villagers helped us a lot. My older brother couldn't bear to see the whole village, young and old, die under the barbarians' blades, so he said this to force them to flee.

Jing Zhichun glanced in the direction where the sound of the gong had faded into the distance, then suddenly asked, "In your opinion, where will the people from your village flee to?"

"In the mountains. The only place around here where people can hide is in the mountains."

"Do the people in your village know about the cave in Yeren'ao?"

"Yes, there are quite a few hunters in our village, about seven or eight households, especially the village chief's son, who often goes there..."

When Jing Zhichun heard about the village chief's son, she frowned. "Then we can't go to that cave in Yeren'ao."

Yang Erniu was taken aback: "Why...why?"

Jing Zhichun patted the snowflakes off her clothes. "Brother Erniu, have you ever heard that the barbarian army calls our Great Zhou people 'two-legged sheep'?"

Yang Erniu shuddered violently. "You...you mean they eat human flesh?...

"That's exactly what I'm talking about."

The barbarians chose to launch their attack in the dead of winter, not just because they wanted cities and land, but also because they wanted food!

Qingshi County was already impoverished. After the barbarians conquered it, their tens of thousands of troops faced a food shortage. Where would they get their food?

Therefore, I guess they will use the people of our Great Zhou as military rations this year, just like in previous years.

If the village chief's son leads all the other villagers to flee to the Savage Pass, then hundreds of people from the village will also run there, and the entire mountain will be filled with people, footprints, cooking smoke, and cries...

These things can't be hidden from the barbarians; it's only a matter of time before they find us.