A fierce wife enters the house: She helps up a house full of spineless people.

The atmosphere in the prefectural city was becoming increasingly oppressive, and there were hardly any people to be seen on the streets.

Ten days ago, Wang Jinzhu went to deliver goods to Fuyinghao. That day, Manager Liu was nothing like his usual enthusiastic self; his eyes were filled with lingering worries.

"Miss Jinzhu, we'll take this batch of goods. Starting tomorrow, the shop will have to close." Manager Liu rubbed his hands, his sigh longer than his words. "These days are not peaceful. The south is in complete chaos, and the battlefield is getting closer and closer to us."

Wang Jinzhu had already expected this, so she simply nodded and accepted the silver handed over by Manager Liu, saying, "Manager Liu, take care."

From that day on, the city changed every day.

First came the general store, then the cloth shop, the jewelry store, the teahouse… one after another, nailing the doors shut tightly.

Today, only the "Hengtong Rice Shop" remains on the corner of the entire South Street.

There was a long queue at the entrance, all of them women with red eyes.

The price of a pound of brown rice was more than twice as high as that of polished rice in the past. The person buying rice was trembling as he clutched the loose change.

Wang Jinzhu and the others barricaded the courtyard gate from the inside, refusing to go out. Wang Gui and Wang Shun even started to conserve their food, eating only half full at each meal.

A storm is brewing in the capital, but hundreds of miles away in Chenjia Village and Wangjia Village, a real disaster is quietly approaching.

At the entrance of Chenjia Village, the old locust tree's leaves have turned yellow unusually early this year for some reason.

In recent months, the number of refugees fleeing from the south has been increasing. At first, they were just two or three people, ragged and begging for water at the village entrance. The kind-hearted villagers would always give them a cornbread or a ladle of thin porridge.

But gradually, the number of refugees increased, forming groups and bringing their families. The way they looked at people changed from pleading at the beginning to numbness, and even carried a hint of barely perceptible ferocity.

The village dogs barked more and more fiercely. At night, every household barked their doors and windows tightly shut.

Fortunately, Wang Jinzhu left instructions and money before she left. Chen Defu used the money to buy grain and organized the able-bodied men in the village into a patrol team. They patrolled the village day and night in shifts, and if anyone suspicious approached, they would sound a gong to warn them.

Thanks to this patrol team, Chenjia Village was much safer than the surrounding villages. In the neighboring Zhangjiatun, three cows went missing, and in Lizhuang, a family was broken into in the middle of the night, and all their valuables were stolen.

Not a single case has been discovered in Chenjia Village.

The stability is temporary.

That afternoon, the sun was blazing. Villagers working in the fields suddenly heard a heart-wrenching cry coming from the west end of the village.

Immediately afterwards, the gong at the village entrance was struck with a deafening bang, the sound urgent and chaotic.

"The soldiers and bandits are here! The soldiers and bandits have entered the village! Run!"

Chen Defu suddenly stood up. It was over! His worst fears had come true!

These days, they've heard far too many rumors. The defeated soldiers, without pay or discipline, have become more ruthless than bandits. Wherever they go, they burn, kill, loot, and commit all sorts of atrocities.

"Don't panic!" Chen Defu shouted at the top of his lungs, "Do as Jinzhu says! Men, women, old, young, all run to the back mountain! Hurry! Forget about the things!"

The village was thrown into chaos. Cries, shouts, and the wailing of children mingled together.

But there is order within the chaos.

This was something Wang Jinzhu had repeatedly told her, and Chen Defu had repeatedly told the villagers—when that day comes, don't hesitate, don't look back to grab your things, grab your family and run. Run towards the back mountain, run into the depths of the forest, and spread out.

The fried rice and dry rations had long been hidden in several secluded stone caves in the mountains.

Being alive is more important than anything else.

At the time, many people agreed verbally but didn't take it seriously.

Now, no one hesitated.

Everyone is running.

Only after the last person had crossed the earthen slope at the foot of the mountain did Chen Defu dare to look back.

The house on the far edge of the village is already on fire.

The firelight illuminated half the sky, and the thick smoke carried the smell of burning wood. The sounds of soldiers smashing things and laughing wildly could also be faintly heard.

Chen Defu's eyes were red, and his hands gripped the carrying pole so tightly that his knuckles were white.

Beside him, an old man knelt down with a thud, kowtowed in the direction of the village, and said in a hoarse voice, "Our ancestors' house is gone..."

No one responded.

They were all panting, they were all trembling.

But everyone was there.

Not one was missing.

When the village chief of Wangjia Village, which is not far away, saw black smoke rising from the direction of Chenjia Village, he struck a gong.

No further explanation is needed.

Wang Jinzhu's words before she left were already etched into everyone's minds.

The entire village, along with their families, evacuated to the back of the mountain.

Children were carried under the arms of adults as they ran, and elderly people were carried on their sons' backs. They didn't even have time to see the road clearly as they stumbled into the mountains.

Night fell, and the soldiers and bandits left.

Chen Defu lay prone in the bushes behind the mountain, listening to the gradually fading sound of horses' hooves and drunken shouts from the direction of the village, his whole body felt weak.

He dared not move.

He waited until late at night, when the moon peeked out from behind the clouds and all was quiet in the village, before he got up in the dark and, with three young men from the patrol team, crouched low and crept back to scout the way.

When he entered the village, Chen Defu almost didn't recognize him.

This is Chenjia Village, where he has lived for over fifty years.

The western part of the village was mostly burned down. The roof beams had collapsed and were piled up on the ground in blackened ash. The embers were not completely extinguished, and the red glow flickered on and off. The air was filled with the smell of burning.

The courtyard wall was torn down, the door was smashed, and the chicken coop and pigsty were all empty. The soldiers and bandits looted everything they could, and smashed what they couldn't take. The ground was littered with shards of pottery, scraps of cloth, and crushed grain.

food.

Chen Defu squatted in the ruins of his own yard, picking up the rice grains that had been trampled into the mud with his hands, one by one, and putting them into his palm.

Behind him, a young man who had followed him whispered, "Uncle Fu, don't pick it up, it's dirty."

"Dirty what!" Chen Defu roared, his voice cracking, "This is grain!"

He clenched the few grains of rice in his palm, raised his head, looked at the devastated village, and remained silent for a long time.

"Go back and tell everyone that the soldiers and bandits have left. But don't rush back yet; we'll talk about it at dawn."

As dawn broke, people from both villages came down from the back mountain one after another.

When the woman cried, the children cried too. The old woman, however, stopped crying, her face blank, as she rummaged through the ruins of her home for anything still usable.

The situation in Wangjia Village was somewhat better than in Chenjia Village. The bandits came from the west, first ravaging Chenjia Village, and by the time they reached Wangjia Village, they had already looted almost everything. Since it was dark, they only circled a few houses at the village entrance before leaving. However, the granaries and livestock sheds were also thoroughly searched.