Natural disaster at the beginning: I will lead the system to build a safe zone

After moving forward at full speed, they soon came out of the forest. The road outside the forest was just as Chen Huairen had described. The view suddenly became much wider and the road was not so bumpy.

According to Chen Huairen, this open terrain will continue all the way to the provincial capital.

In addition, since leaving the mountains and forests, we can see some scattered villages and fields and skinny people along the way, but the fields are dry and cracked, and the crops are withered and wilted.

Shi Anan couldn't help but ask, "Is there such a shortage of water near the provincial capital?"

Chen Huairen replied: "Although we have plenty of tap water in Lingnan, it also depends on the region. For example, in Qinghe County, there are many mountains and forests, and more water. In addition, it is not easy to lack water for a while because of Qinghu Lake."

"The water source of this provincial capital depends on a tributary of our Qing Lake. Now that it has not rained for a long time, even the water level of Qing Lake has dropped so much. This tributary of the provincial capital must have been affected."

"This is also why we are worried that too many refugees will drag down the provincial capital. Although the provincial capital has a plan to store food, if the weather continues to be so dry and crops cannot grow, how can we feed so many people?"

After saying that, Chen Huairen sighed helplessly. Times were tough. This was what he had experienced when something happened in Qinghe County before. If he hadn't met Shi An'an, they wouldn't know what kind of life they would be living now. They might have starved to death in the hot weather, or died painfully from an epidemic.

So he now cherishes his current life, and when he sees people struggling to survive along the way, he feels very empathetic.

The closer to the provincial capital, the more scattered people there were. However, each of them was pale and thin, with tattered clothes, and they walked towards the provincial capital like zombies.

Seeing their huge procession of carriages and horses, some refugees also rushed over:

"Sir! Sir! Can you please give us some food and water?"

A group of refugees suddenly blocked Shi Anan's group. The leaders, Wang Fuan and Qian Jinbao, frowned and drove them away: "Go away! Go away!"

But the refugees were not so easily dismissed in order to save their lives. They knelt on the ground and refused to leave. Wang Fuan and his men did not want to hurt anyone, so they could not let the guards use overly harsh measures. As a result, the team was stuck in a stalemate.

The commotion in front naturally attracted the attention of Shi Anan and others. Chen Huairen took a closer look and was in no mood to feel sad: "It's bad!"

Shi Anan frowned: "What happened in front?"

Chen Huairen: "It must be that group of refugees coming again. We were blocked by them before and we gave them some money out of kindness, but they rushed over and tried to steal our goods. If we hadn't brought so many guards, we would have been robbed clean."

Xiao Yi said coldly: "You can't give alms in this situation."

It's not that they are cruel. If there were only one or two refugees, it would be fine. They would definitely help if they could. However, when the other side has more people and their own side has fewer people, showing kindness indiscriminately will not only fail to save people, but will also cause greater chaos.

Chen Huairen sighed, "We know now, but I guess they got something out of it last time, so they came to surround us again when they saw us this time."

Shi Anan looked ahead. In just a short while, the refugees became more and more agitated, and their eyes turned red as they looked at their supplies.

She immediately ordered: "Let the security team clean it up. As long as no one is killed, it's okay to use tough measures."

The security team followed orders and handled the situation, but to little avail. As they did not want to harm the civilians, they could not use heavy-handed tactics. Although they tried to get them to disperse with a fierce attitude, these civilians had nowhere to go. Without water and food, they would die sooner or later, and they refused to leave no matter what.

Just when the two sides were in a stalemate, the weather suddenly changed!

The sky suddenly darkened, the wind stagnated for a moment, and then a strong gale arose. The surface, which originally lacked vegetation, was easily blown up by the wind, and sand was covered all over Shi Anan's face.

At this time, she hadn't realized what was happening until a cry of surprise came from the crowd -

"What, what is that over there?!" No one knew who was speaking, but everyone could hear the frightened tone in his voice.

The crowd that was originally pushing and shoving stopped at the same time and looked in the direction the man was pointing. Their expressions gradually changed from confusion to fear.

After Shi Anan rubbed the sand out of his eyes, he also looked in that direction. Then his pupils dilated, as if he had seen something terrible. He uttered softly from his strangled throat: "That's - a sandstorm!"

As soon as the words fell, the crowd exploded with a bang, and screams rang out instantly: "Hurry up and find a place to hide!"

The originally clear sky was instantly covered by a yellow gloom, as if a huge devil's hand was slowly pressing down from the sky. The wind was howling, making a deafening roar, like thousands of troops galloping past. The sound of the wind was mixed with sharp whistles, as if a demon was screaming in my ears.

In the distance, a yellow-brown sand wall was approaching at an alarming speed. The sand wall towered into the sky, like a surging wave or a galloping beast, with the momentum of destroying everything. The sand and dust rolled and surged, like a cloud of rolling smoke, constantly changing shape.

At this point, people no longer cared about quarreling and wanted to find a place to hide. However, there were no buildings or trees in this place, which made people run around like headless flies.

The horses in the caravan were neighing constantly, their hooves pacing restlessly in the mud. If they hadn't been held tightly by people, they would have run away long ago.

Seeing the strong wind and sand gradually approaching them, Shi Anan finally came back to his senses from his daze. He didn't have time to think about why the sandstorm suddenly appeared. He said hurriedly: "Quickly lead the carriage and the goods to the shelter over there, and let everyone climb down!"

The shelter that Shi Anan mentioned was a dilapidated temple. This temple looked quite old. The roof was dilapidated and some of the walls were collapsed. But compared to being in an open space with no shelter, it was obviously able to block some of the wind there.

Due to the obstruction of refugees running around and the large number of vehicles and horses, they could not move very quickly. As a result of this delay, the sandstorm that was relatively far away just now was now closer.

"Hurry up, hurry up!" Shi Anan couldn't help but urge.

The strong wind became stronger at this time. In order to prevent being blown away, Shi Anan asked everyone to hold hands to increase stability. Xiao Yi also held Shi Anan's hand tightly, and they ran towards the temple against the strong wind. Every step was extremely difficult. The strong wind kept pushing them backwards. The sand was like fine needles, pricking their faces and hands. Shi Anan could hardly open her eyes.