As the wind blew, a strong stream of dust came towards us. Minister Yang beside him spat, tilted the red hat on his head down, blocking the blowing wind and sand, and then holding the back basket behind him, cursing endlessly.

Yang He also frowned. This road was too difficult to walk.

He looked back and saw that everyone was wearing hats beside him. The clothes that everyone changed not long ago were covered in dust.

In order to prevent the wind and sand from blowing into their eyes, everyone wore this kind of hat with gauze scarf, and Yang He was no exception.

The veils are very practical for covering up wind and sand. They are widely used in the northern part of the Ming Dynasty, especially in the capital.

Matteo Ricci, a European missionary at that time, wrote: "It rarely rains in this place. In order to overcome the annoying dust, people from any class here want to go out. Whether walking or taking transportation, they must wear a long yarn and hang down from the front of the hat to cover their faces."

Yang He also has a veil hat, which was placed in the package of Minister Yang earlier. The wind and sand are strong, so naturally he has to wear it on.

In order to prevent the wind and sand from blowing into his eyes, he put a hat on his younger brother and sister.

The same is true for those refugees, but Minister Yang doesn't like to wear it, after all, it affects his vision a little.

It was still dead, desolate, and yellow on the side of the Sui River. It was the same as the road he took a few days ago. The more he walked down the Sui River, the more sandy land there were, and then all kinds of saline-alkali land and pond land made it difficult for the group to rush on.

It is actually not far from Duxu to ZN County. If we talk about it in a straight line, the distance is only 160 miles.

But in this era, you can’t calculate this way. Without an official road, you can only walk on the path and then you have to go around.

There are many plains in Huaibei, but the plain terrain is not necessarily easy to travel.

Not to mention all kinds of sandy soil, saline-alkali land, and depressions, from Suzhou to Suining, it is also an important Yellow River drainage area and flood diversion area. Therefore, from the Yellow River to Sui River, countless river channels and ditches are gathered crisscrossed.

Some of these rivers have dried up, and some have water. If there is no bridge, you have to take a detour or look for bridges.

It is impossible to walk straight along the river bank. The bank of Sui HB is not a closed river bank. There are constant flow of rivers into the river along the way. Small ditches and small water can be directly crossed. If the river channel is wider, you have to look for a bridge.

Because the river water is silted, the Sui River channel is still very high, and many tributaries cannot be discharged into the water or flow backwards, many ponds, lakes, large and small swamps have formed at the mouth of the river, often for many miles.

When encountering such terrain, you often have to take a detour and walk far away.

Yang He frowned. There was actually an official road from Suzhou to Suining, but it was on the banks of Sui HN. He had to pass through LZ County first, and then turn north, which was 108,000 miles away from this place.

There is also an official road from Xuzhou to Suining, but it is on the edge of the Yellow River, which is also far from here.

Yang He was considering whether to turn north and walk to the official road from Xuzhou to Suining.

Although the official roads in this era are not good, they are much better than ordinary folk roads. At least there is no need to go around, and there are basic bridges to cross ditches and cross rivers.

On the other hand, they walked a lot from morning to afternoon. Although they walked a lot of roads, they were all unruly and did not move much.

Yang He estimated that the effective journey today was only more than 20 miles. At this speed, when will it take to reach ZN County?

"My husband, can you rest? Look at a mouthful in front of you, you can stop and wash your face and drink water."

Qi Youxin beside him said panting, using the stick in his hand as a crutch, and then there was a backpack behind him, inside which were his two young daughters Qi Wanjun and Qi Wande.

As for the older children, Qi Zhixiang and Qi Wanrong, they could only walk.

Inspired by him, Yang He also brought a backpack for his younger brother and sister, which was carried by the book boy Minister Yang.

At this time, Qi Youxin was unkempt and dirty, with no image. It can be seen that he was very tired, mainly because he only had some rice porridge for each meal, which was very fast for physical failure.

Yan Dezheng, who was behind him, also gritted his teeth. Like his wife Sun Zhaodi, they were carrying one on their backs and one on their feet, and there were also a group of refugees, all of whom were tired and haggard.

As before, Yang He also planned his itinerary and would take a break every hour and drink some water.

Before leaving, he asked Zhao Zhongju to burn a lot of clean water, and the water capsules and water hyacinths of each refugee were filled with it.

It was almost time to rest. Yang He looked up and saw that the fields were silent and no one was there, but there was indeed a river not far ahead. An unknown small river flowed into the Sui River from there, and the water and grass were very dense.

There seem to be several abandoned houses in the river bank.

Yang He said, "Okay, let's go to the entrance in front to rest and then find a way to cross the river."

Everyone was excited and responded loudly, speeded up and walked over there.

Seeing that Minister Yang had entrusted the backpack behind him again, Yang He asked with concern: "Secretary, are you tired?"

The honest young man opened his mouth and smiled: "Don't worry, young master, just two little masters have enough weight, it's okay to carry a hundred miles."

Yang He saw that his younger brother and sister were indeed much more energetic than when walking. This was a reward for carrying a basket and a benefit of having more people.

In the past, Minister Yang was responsible for exploring the way and was always alert, but he could not carry it on his back like this.

Soon everyone walked down the sandy land. When the terrain was lowered, there was a large area of ​​saline-alkali land and a large area of ​​weeds around.

Everyone was very careful to bypass it. The saline-alkali land in Huaibei is usually connected to the swamp, so be careful not to get stuck.

The more you walk towards the river, the denser the weeds, some thatched grass even higher than the heads, and one pond after another appeared.

At this moment, Han Daxia, who was exploring the way ahead, suddenly discovered something. He told his son a few words, and the two of them quickly returned.

Hero Han walked up to Yang He and said softly: "My husband, there are wolves."

Yang He was shocked: "Where is it?"

He lifted the gauze scarf and looked in the direction Han Daxia pointed out. Sure enough, on the left side of the saline-alkali land, some evil wolves with faint eyes were coming quietly.

Yang He counted roughly, and there were only 30 or 40 evil wolves that he saw, plus some hidden tightly, so he was afraid that there were fifty or sixty, and a huge pack of wolves.

They were silent and knew that with the cover of weeds, if Han Daxia had not been a hunter and had rich experience, they would have discovered the traces of the wolves at the first time, and their group was attacked by a sneak attack, they would have suffered heavy losses.

He pulled out his Kaiyuan bow from the bow pot, then drew out another heavy arrow, and said softly to Minister Yang beside him: "If you pass it down, there will be a pack of wolves, all of them will go to the pond there."

Minister Yang had heard Han Daxia speak, and he nodded quietly and gently passed the words to Qi Youxin, Yan Dezheng and others behind him. At the same time, he tightened the backpack behind him and subconsciously held the copper stick in his hand.

The news spread immediately, and the group became a little nervous. Fortunately, the refugees had experienced too many dangers. Although they were shocked, Yang He was the backbone. At that moment, they followed the orders and pretended to be unaware of it and leaned towards the pond.

Everyone moved step by step, and finally moved collectively to the edge of the pond. Yang He felt relaxed. The pond was quite large and there was a lot of water. It was like a small lake. When the group of people leaned on it, at least the wolves could not attack from the right side of the pond.

At this moment, he quickly made arrangements, with young and strong men outside, women, children, elderly and weak inside, each holding sticks and weapons to form a semicircular protective circle.

Minister Yang had taken off his backpack, and Sun Zhaodi, who was behind, rushed over to take it and placed it in the safest room.

The stout book boy stood on the right side of Yang He. He inserted his copper stick to the ground, pulled out the small bow of the bow pot, and said viciously: "I haven't eaten wolf meat for a long time."

On the right side of Minister Yang was Qi Youxin. The Ming Dynasty scholar, Minister Yang, pulled out his waist knife and inserted it on the ground. He tightened the stick in his hand nervously, muttering, "So many wolves."

Han Daxia and his son were on the left side of Yanghe, and they might have been used to seeing wolves. The father and son were not panicked. They saw Han Daxia pulling out the fire skeleton from his waist calmly. He took off the bamboo cover and swung it hard, and the fire in the inner part rekindled.

Then he took out a section of fuse stuffed around his waist, placed one end of the fuse in the fire stick and lit it, and covered the fuse without panic and stuffed it back into his waist.

He changed the fuse to his right hand, pulled out his waist knife and inserted it on the ground, and said to his son beside him: "Please be careful and aim for it later."

His son Han Guan'er nodded silently. After Yang He gave them the three-eyed gun, the two not only installed a new wooden handle on the three-eyed gun, but also made a tripod. At this time, Han Guan'er put the three-eyed gun on the tripod, his body was half-deep, and silently aimed at the group of wolves.

Judging from their father and son, they planned to cooperate with each other, one ignites and the other aims, so that they can hit more accurately.

Han Guan'er's three-eyed gun also filled the medicine before going out, installed the lead wires on the fire door, and poured in the dispersed medicine to tighten it so that the lead wires on the fire door will not fall off. This is a simple technique that ordinary people don't know.

Yang He glanced at them a few times. The father and son did not look like simple hunters.

Yang He and others were on strict guard against each other. On both sides of their left and right, there were the remaining twelve young and strong men wrapped in black scarves and hung their hats on the back of their necks.

They formed a semicircle, each holding a stick in his hands, ready to fight at any time.

Behind the young and strong people, Yan Dezheng, Zhao Zhongju and others tightly held the sticks in their hands nervously. In troubled times, women, children, elderly and weak must work hard at any time. Even children cover their mouths tightly, for fear of making noises to cause trouble for the adults.

At this time, the wolves stopped and obviously realized that their whereabouts were exposed.

They openly revealed their bodies, and immediately the sound of wolf howlings sounded one after another, which was extremely invasive.

...
Chapter completed!