A gust of wind blew through the canal for no apparent reason. Hong Dashou was already feeling frightened, but now he was even more violently trembling.

"Yeah!" I almost jumped up.

But Han Sanshi and Han Wushi, who were sitting paralyzed opposite, were so frightened that they almost rolled over before they got up and ran away through the ditch.

"Brother Hong, you..." The three of them were so frightened that they were speechless.

The pine torch in the canal had been burning for half the night. Now I don't know whether it was because of the cold wind just now or because the end was really approaching. It went out with a slight "pop".

This was great, the three of them stared at each other, even more nervous.

"It's okay, it's okay. It'll be dawn soon. It'll be fine when it's dawn!" Hong Dashou comforted himself and the two Han brothers.

"Yes, yes, yes, it will be dawn in less than a quarter of an hour!" Han Sanshi also agreed.

The ground has been dry for a long time, and it's winter again, so there are no living creatures. I could still hear two owl calls, but now I can't hear them anymore.

After struggling for more than half a quarter of an hour, thin morning mist steamed from the ground, and the sun on the horizon, which had barely seen its shadow a moment ago, suddenly appeared in the blink of an eye.

The three of them seemed to be relieved all of a sudden and stood up. The cold in the morning was still very cold and there was no warmth at all. But the slight sunshine made people feel that their whole bodies were full of yang energy, and even the coldness was reduced a lot.

There were main canals on both sides of the street. It was obvious that there was no water, and there was only some residual snow. Looking more carefully, I found that there were more than thirty or forty dead people in the canals. There were piles of threes and twos in front and behind, and you couldn't even see the sides.

Han Wushi climbed out of the ditch and took a look at the main ditch on the other side. There were also many bodies that died of hunger and stiffness, and it was hard to count.

"Going forward is Nanchuandian. After passing Ruixing and Fengshan counties, you can reach Huangzhou. After passing Huangzhou, you will reach Pyongyang."

Han Sanshi felt that everything was back on track. It seemed that what happened last night had not happened and he could completely forget about it. As long as he returned to his hometown, everything would be fine.

"If I don't go to Hanyang during the New Year, it will be just desolate at that time. The situation now is..."

Hong Dashou really didn't expect that Huanghaidao would be in such a state due to a drought, and he didn't know what happened to Ping'an Dao.

Severe drought, locusts, severe cold, exorbitant taxes, violent officials, death penalty... all came together to weigh on the once living people in this ditch. The hanging rope did not loosen for a moment, and was tightened tightly in the end.

Completely strangled the person struggling in the rope circle.

"Okay, okay, stop talking. We have neither water nor food. In less than three days, we have to fill the ditch. It's better to hurry up and survive."

Han Sanshi is the oldest, already in his thirties, and has seen all kinds of tragic things. In his eyes, surviving is the most important thing. If he cannot survive, everything else is meaningless.

"Brother Han, how far is the distance to Nanchuan store?"

"If you hurry, you can get there in the afternoon. If you have a good sleep, you can get to Ruixing in one day's work the next day."

Hong Dashou tightened the wooden box upwards so as not to drag down the two brothers. He also spread his legs and sped up to keep up with the two of them.

But the further I walked, the more I felt something was wrong. The fields on both sides of the street were naturally irrigated with good flat water. Unfortunately, the drought had lasted for a long time and they were all abandoned. Even the weeds had not grown much.

Except for the hunting sound of the north wind, there was no other sound at all on the road. It was too quiet. Even a disaster area should not be so quiet.

There were several villages on both sides of the street, but there were no fireworks, and there were signs of being set on fire. But except for the corpses lying dead on the edge of the ditch and field, no living thing was seen.

It stands to reason that they should be on guard at intersections, and there are no officers and soldiers to isolate the so-called epidemic areas. No matter how bad Pingshan County is, there will always be hundreds of county soldiers. Last night, there were only about thirty soldiers missing, and an entire street could be cleared.

There are no soldiers left.

And it stands to reason that even if the village was washed away by the officers and soldiers, not a single living person would be left behind.

The previous Zhuangzi was only looted, the patients were burned to death, and the ordinary people had no officers and soldiers to take care of it. The people who had no money and water were not as good as shit in their eyes.

"Brother Han, after thinking about it over and over again, something is really wrong. There are no humans or animals in the countryside. It's really strange."

"Well... some of them, maybe they have actually died of the epidemic and filled the ravines?"

Han Sanshi didn't believe what he said. The drought was really severe, but the typhoid fever did not sweep across the country in such an exaggerated manner. At most, the epidemic occurred in two or three counties in a sporadic manner.

The government's handling methods were so brutal that they even dealt with people who showed only signs of illness. In theory, the epidemic should be very effectively controlled. After all, it doesn't matter whether you have typhoid fever or not, if you just set a fire, it will be dealt with very cleanly.

.

Moreover, most of the dead people on the roadside, on the field ridges, and in the ditches died of starvation or cold and hunger. As long as there is half a mouthful of food, there should be people alive.

Even if you say you eat tree bark, grass roots, or even Guanyin soil in the end, you can still live for dozens of days. And "when people are hungry, people eat each other!" "In severe drought, people change their children to eat." This kind of thing is recorded in the history books.

There are countless of them, and they are nothing unusual.

What could cause the collective disappearance of all living people? Or collective migration?

Songdu has distributed food for disaster relief? This is a possibility. After all, according to Hong Dashou’s previous analysis, maybe a decent imperial minister came this time to clean up the officialdom of Ping’an Road, Huanghai Road, open warehouses to release food, and provide relief.

Disaster victims.

However, news spread so slowly in this era that even the victims of Ruixing County could not hear the news of disaster relief within ten days and fled collectively to Songdu.

If he has this kind of organizational ability and can enable tens of thousands of disaster victims to cross a distance of three to four hundred miles in just a few days, then this organizer is a god-like figure, and it would not be an exaggeration to praise him as a prime minister.

I can't figure it out. That kind of deity definitely doesn't exist, and it can't exist.

Where have all the people gone?

After thinking about it all the way, the three of them arrived at the so-called Gongdaopu Station Nanchuan Store in the afternoon. The scene in front of them was shocking.

The entire market town was reduced to ruins in a fire. Many houses and villages were still burning, and billowing black smoke filled the ruins. With a "bang", a thatched house burned through and collapsed in the flames.

"Those dog officers and soldiers shouldn't even dare to burn the bunk stations on the tribute road, right? In two months, the envoys will leave, so how can they rest at this station?"

Hong Dashou turned his head and asked the Han brothers who looked in disbelief.

The Nanchuan store in front of me was even called "Destroy the Thieves Mountain" during the Japanese occupation (don't ask me, I don't know why it was called this, but it was really the name on the map in 1924.) The main station of the mining area,

There should be between 1,000 and 2,000 people now.
Chapter completed!