Natural disasters in books: I stockpiled goods to escape famine in ancient times

It was just the end of the You hour. Zhang Wu had just finished feeding the horse water when he heard some noise. He turned around and looked in the direction they came from. He saw a group of about ten people walking slowly towards him. They looked like a family, both old and young.

Zhang Wu was worried that those people would come close and disturb his master's sleep, so after putting away the horse basin, he drew the long sword from his waist, and then took out a dark handkerchief from his bosom. He sat not far from the fire and wiped the long sword that was shining coldly.

It was indeed a family walking from afar. It was too hot to travel during the day, so almost everyone traveled in the morning and evening. Others had already stopped to rest, but this family wanted to walk a little further before it got dark.

The man carrying the shoulder pole was tugged at by his son. His dark, numb face smiled faintly as he looked at the child. He endured the dryness in his throat and asked in a low voice, "What's the matter?"

The child's face was dirty, and he looked at the man eagerly: "Dad, I can't walk anymore."

The woman with her hair tied up in a bun beside the black-faced man pointed to the front and said, "Dad, there are people ahead. Why don't we stop there tonight? We have been walking for a long time today. Not only the children can't stand it, but even we adults can't walk anymore."

The fire was too conspicuous, and the man would have seen it even if the woman hadn't said it. Looking at his parents and his younger brother's family, they also looked exhausted. Their legs couldn't stop shaking when they stopped. The dark-faced man pursed his lips and nodded slowly in the expectant gaze of his family.

"Then let's take a rest. Although there are no owners in the wilderness, they got there first anyway. We should have told them if we were going to rest there. If that doesn't work, let's just walk forward."

Hearing that they were going to leave, the burly younger brother said, "Brother, I see there are only two tents over there, there must not be many people there, and there is a lot of open space over there, there must be enough space for our family to rest. If you are really worried, how about I go over and talk to them?"

The black-faced man nodded: "Then go and ask."

The burly man put the burden on the ground and walked quickly towards the fire. As soon as he got close, he saw a long silver knife in the other person's hand, and his words were stuck in his throat.

Zhang Wu wiped his long sword while looking at the person who came and said slowly: "What's the matter?"

The burly man swallowed and said, "Well, little brother, I have no ill intentions. It's like this. My family and I have been walking for a long time and want to rest here. I see that there are not many of you. How about we stay together tonight?"

Zhang Wu stopped wiping his sword and looked at the other party expressionlessly: "It's okay, you can go somewhere else if you want to rest, but not here."

"No, I'm wondering why you are so unreasonable, little brother. We are not bad people, and we don't have any bad intentions. Look at our family, old and young, and we are not even close to you. Can't we just take a rest next to you?"

"No."

"you...."

Before he could finish his words, a long knife was placed across his neck. The burly man dared not move or speak anymore, and kept shaking his hands: "Brother...Brother, we are not resting here, we are not resting here, we have something to talk about."

Zhang Wu looked straight at the other person, and after a while he retracted his long sword: "Stay away from here, don't get close, otherwise don't blame me for being rude."

"Yes, yes, okay, okay, we will never get close, absolutely not," and then the burly man ran away in fear.

He ran back to his family, patting his chest in fear, "Mom, that little guy looked so young, but how could he be so murderous? He almost scared me to death."

The dark-faced man asked quickly, "What did the other party say?"

"What else can I say? If you don't agree, then tell us to stay away and not get close. Otherwise, you will be rude to us. I say, big brother, why don't we move forward? It's not safe in the wilderness. I think that little brother is even less safe. He wants to kill people with a knife if he doesn't agree with you. It's too scary."

The wife of the black-faced man was frightened just by what her brother-in-law said, and quickly agreed: "Why don't we listen to our brother-in-law and stay away from that place."

The dark-faced man nodded: "Then let's go a little further. Put the child in the basket and I'll carry him."

The woman glared at him and picked up the child with one hand with difficulty: "You have the most and heaviest things to carry, but I can just carry the child for a while, let's go."

The whole family resisted the urge to look at Zhang Wu, and walked slowly forward, supporting each other.

In the second half of the night, Song Shiwei woke up from his sleep, put ice in Zhang Wu's tent and began to keep watch.

After a peaceful night, the two set off again after having breakfast. This time, Song Shiwei got into the carriage, put ice cubes in the carriage, and tied the curtains and door curtains tightly so that not a trace of heat could get in. But after a while, the temperature in the carriage dropped a lot.

The carriage had been moving forward for only five minutes when Zhang Wu saw the family from last night packing their bags on the side of the road. He talked about this with Song Shiwei while driving the carriage.

The carriage drove away, and the burly man exclaimed, "Isn't that the little brother from last night?"

After hearing this, the dark-faced man glanced at the back of the carriage and said silently, "To be able to drive a carriage in this weather, he must be an extraordinary person. It was right for us to leave last night."

"That's definitely not an ordinary person. How can an ordinary person have that kind of knife? It's impossible for an ordinary person to swing a knife when he disagrees with something." The burly man shook his head and continued to pack his bags.

In the carriage, Song Shiwei listened to what Zhang Wu said and agreed with him: "You were right to do it last night. In this disaster year, people are living in poverty. Even bad people can't show off their face to you. You can't have the intention to harm others, but you must be on guard against others."

Zhang Wu wiped the sweat off his forehead and smiled: "Master is right, I am mainly worried that those people will disturb your rest."

Song Shiwei hummed: "This road is flat, let's speed up."

The master and servant traveled on the highway for six days. Fortunately, Song Shiwei had prepared enough ice, so they did not feel hot along the way. At night, the two took turns to keep watch and did not feel tired.

Song Shiwei basically slept in the space at night. He had bought too many clothes in the capital before, and he was too lazy to wash them. When they got dirty, he would just put them in a sack and throw them in a static area, waiting to find a mountain to throw them away later to prevent someone from picking them up and wearing them. Song Shiwei felt uncomfortable just thinking about it.

After traveling for six consecutive mornings, they arrived at Xingren Prefecture at the end of the seventh day. If they had walked in the mountains, it would have taken at least half a month to get there.

Seeing the gate of Xingren Prefecture from afar, Zhang Wu's eyebrows relaxed and he said loudly: "Master, we have arrived at Xingren Prefecture, which is closer to the north."

Song Shiwei was also in a particularly good mood. Although the two of them were not the first people to arrive here, they were much faster than most people. After all, many people walked or rode mule carts or ox carts, which were much inferior to horse carriages. Moreover, they gave the horses timely food and water along the way, so they were in particularly good spirits and naturally sped up a lot.