klisemfg Chapter 342: More than 5 people
Chapter 342: More than 5 people
The book tells the story of the Southern Chu royal family's escape.
After the destruction of Southern Chu, the royal family members ran around like headless flies, and finally fled here, splitting into several groups.
There was a group of people who were obsessed with restoring their country. They felt that they had to secretly accumulate strength first, contact their former subordinates, and wait for the opportunity to mature before taking action.
There is another group of people who just want to live a peaceful life, don't want to get involved in these fights anymore, and plan to hide their identities.
In addition to the prince's group, several other groups of royal family members also came here.
The prince was obsessed with restoring his country and was extremely radical. He recruited soldiers everywhere and made a lot of noise.
But the people in this village are different. They just want to live a quiet life and don’t want to be involved in these troubles.
But the prince didn't think so. He felt that these people were traitors and stumbling blocks on his road to restoration because they were hiding here and not helping to restore the country.
The contradictions between the two sides became more and more serious. Whenever there was a conflict, the prince's side had more people and better weapons, and they always looted the stronghold in a mess, and all the food and property were stolen.
The people in the village resisted several times, but they were too weak to win. Their houses were burned down, many people were killed or injured, and they could not survive.
There was no other way, they could only harden their hearts and leave the stronghold that they had spent so much effort to build, and find a new way to make a living somewhere else.
Master Bai sighed and said:
“So that’s how it is. No wonder everything here is ready-made, and no wonder the architectural style here is so similar to that of Southern Chu.
This place is quite nice, we can make use of it.”
The space in this basement is larger than you can imagine. Standing inside, it feels like you are in a huge cave.
A rough estimate shows that the area is several hundred square meters, which is more than enough to store the rare treasures, ancient books, calligraphy and paintings collected from the Nanchu warehouse.
Come to think of it, when the royal family of Nanchu hid here, they must have accumulated countless treasures, all of which were stuffed into this basement.
Everyone took action immediately, and some people were responsible for cleaning the basement.
They took brooms and rags and cleaned every corner. After a while, the basement looked brand new. Although the light was still dim, it was much cleaner and tidier.
Another group of people were busy moving things to the basement, one trip after another, taking those precious items out of the car and placing them neatly on the shelves in the basement.
These days, the entire village is bustling with busy figures everywhere.
Everyone worked together to move back almost all of the old emperor Nanchu's belongings, including tables, chairs, ornaments, porcelain, etc. in the palace.
Even the wood in the palace was not spared, as it was all made of high-quality wood and exuded a faint wood fragrance.
When the little carpenter saw the wood, his eyes widened and he shouted excitedly as if he was crazy.
From then on, he would shuttle through the pile of wood every day, touching this piece and looking at that piece, and kept muttering about how beautiful furniture and exquisite ornaments these woods could be made into.
He was even more eager to do the job of transporting wood, taking one trip after another.
Just when everyone was busy, Master Bai heard a noisy sound of voices and footsteps coming from afar.
He looked up in confusion, only to see Liang Tieshan and Zhao Lei returning with a large group of people.
The team was winding and there was no end in sight. Master Bai was stunned and estimated in his heart that there must be at least tens of thousands of people!
Liang Tieshan and Zhao Lei exchanged a glance, a trace of embarrassment on their faces. They looked at Master Bai with embarrassment and said, "Uncle Bai, we brought a lot of people back. We're worried that our village won't have enough accommodation."
Master Bai's eyes widened in shock. He looked at Liang Tieshan and asked, "How many people did you bring back?"
Liang Tieshan scratched his head and answered in a somewhat honest and nervous tone:
“We brought over 50,000 people, most of whom were members of our army at that time.
Some of them were their family members, so I thought of bringing them all back.
The situation outside is bad right now. There are more and more disaster victims and refugees everywhere. You haven't seen the places we visited before. The scenes there are simply too tragic."
Liang Tieshan's expression was solemn, and his voice trembled slightly as he continued to describe:
"The roadside was full of disaster victims, all of them skinny and with dull eyes, so hungry that they barely had the strength to walk.
People who had starved to death were lying all over the ground, with no one to collect their bodies. Their corpses were exposed in the wilderness, a horrible sight.
The child cried loudly because of hunger, and his cries were full of despair.
The young and strong people could only sit weakly on the ground, hoping for a bite to eat.
Many people wander around with their families and their only belongings, not knowing where to go.
We couldn't bear to leave them there to die, so we brought them all back."
Master Bai looked at Liang Tieshan and asked, "How many people are there in total? Do you have an exact number?"
Liang Tieshan scratched his head embarrassedly and said, "More than 59,900 people. I'm afraid it will reach 60,000. We...we can't afford to support them."
His voice gradually became lower and lower. Master Bai sighed and said, "Can't you just be more straightforward?"
Liang Tieshan's eyes turned red: "I also know that bringing so many people back is risky, but...but I can't just watch them die!"
Master Bai said helplessly, "I don't mean to blame you, it's just that it's hard to arrange for so many people at once."
This stronghold is indeed quite large, but it is simply impossible to accommodate 65000 people.
Madam Bai quickly said, "Let's cook the porridge first. I'm afraid these people must be hungry all the way. We are here to help the victims, so there's no need to go out now."
Master Bai nodded. He had to cook dozens of pots of porridge every day, which put him under a lot of pressure!
When Master Bai feels stressed, he likes to hug Lin Wanwan:
"Oh! I'm anxious too! But...but these disaster victims are here, we can't just chase them away, right?
Wanwan! What can I do? More than 60,000 people, isn't this embarrassing for me?
Lin Wanwan yawned. She didn’t sleep well last night and felt very uncomfortable. It turned out that children should not stay up late.
Master Bai continued to chatter:
"My dear, baby, do you think Grandpa should save him or not? If I don't save him, it seems inhumane, but I can save him!
We even sacrificed ourselves. We had just managed to get some food, but now it's all gone.
We have over 60,000 people to feed. How long do you think our food supply can last?"
Lin Wanwan sighed and stretched her head to look at the victims. There was probably not even a pound of flesh on their bodies. Their skin was tightly attached to their bones, and their ribs were clearly visible.
The children sat on the ground, their eyes empty and dull, staring around, numb as soulless puppets.
No matter what happened around them, they did not react at all. Their bodies curled up together, becoming so thin that only a small skeleton remained.