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

In fact, Shi Anan was not wrong in his guess. There were indeed more refugees outside Cangwu City.

Moreover, these refugees all came from one place, that is Jiangnan!

Although it was rumored that after the King of the North conquered the south of the Yangtze River, he slaughtered and robbed almost all the surviving people in the city, of course most of those killed were useless old people and children, and the young and middle-aged men who were willing to obey were incorporated into the army, and the women became playthings.

But there were always some people who had a long-term vision and were more sensitive to the political situation and had already escaped in advance. In order to survive, they had to leave the prosperous Jiangnan and continue to move south.

The north is now the domain of the Northern King. If they want to survive, they have no choice but to continue heading south. However, they do not know whether the complex terrain in Lingnan can stop the Northern King's invading army.

The Bai family was also one of these refugees from Jiangnan.

When it comes to the Bai family, many people may not know which Bai family this is, but if we talk about Bai Youcai, the richest man in Jiangnan, regardless of whether the people of the entire Tianqi Dynasty know him or not, all the people in Jiangnan know him.

That’s right, he is Aunt Bai’s biological father and Shi Chengze’s grandfather!

Bai Youcai has a long-term and sharp vision in business, and he can always grasp the market trends well. In the past, the Bai family was just a small merchant in the town, but since Bai Youcai inherited the family business, the Bai family has developed step by step to the status of the richest man in Jiangnan. He really lives up to his name and is very wealthy. It's a pity that this era is not good and all his work has been in vain!

However, just like his vision for making money, he was equally sensitive to the political landscape, otherwise he would not have been able to seize opportunities to develop his family business time and time again. This time, he took his family away from Jiangnan and avoided the disaster of the King of the Northern Territory, which was a manifestation of his long-term vision and courage.

The only failure was that his daughter, who had been pampered since childhood, became someone else's concubine. However, he could not be blamed for this. It was mainly because Aunt Bai had poor vision and threatened to go on a hunger strike, so he had no choice but to agree. If he had been behind her in the past, he would have thought that the Shi family would treat Aunt Bai well because they were greedy for their money. But now he could not even contact the capital. It was said that the first disaster there was very serious, and he did not know how she was doing there.

Thinking of his daughter, a white-haired old man among the refugees sighed.

"Dad, are you thinking about your sister again?" asked a middle-aged man next to the old man. This was Aunt Bai's eldest brother Bai Mingtang.

Although the Bai family has now become refugees, they are not as miserable as other refugees because they are well prepared. Otherwise, Bai Youcai, who is over 60 years old, would have given up on this journey long ago.

However, with the mentality of not showing off one's wealth, the appearance of the Bai family members was not much better, with all the same dishevelled hair and dirty faces, but the expression in their eyes was not as numb as that of the others.

Hearing Bai Mingtang's question, Bai Youcai murmured, "I don't know how Mingzhu is doing now."

Bai Youcai only married one wife in his life and had two sons and one daughter, the eldest son Bai Mingtang, the second son Bai Mingjie, and the daughter was Aunt Bai, Bai Mingzhu.

From the name, we can tell that Aunt Bai is the girl that is doted on by both her father and brother at home. Because his wife died early, the only daughter left by his wife was the youngest, and her personality and appearance were very similar to his mother, so Bai Youcai favored her a little.

The Bai family was extremely lucky in this time of encountering continuous natural disasters. Although it is unknown how many casualties there were among the side branches, at least there were no casualties on the main family side.

Both the eldest son Bai Mingtang's family and the second son Bai Mingjie's family were safe and sound by his side, so Bai Youcai was relieved. The only thing he couldn't let go of was his daughter and grandson who were far away in the capital. The grandson was okay, after all, he was also a child of the Shi family. No matter how useless Shi Zhengde was, he would not abandon his son.

But his daughter was just a concubine of Shi Zhengde, and now without his support behind her, he didn't know how Zhengde would treat his daughter at that time.

Bai Mingtang heard his father's mumblings and didn't know how to comfort him. Ever since the earth dragon turned over last year, they have been trying every means to find out the news in the capital, but all they heard were bad news without exception.

There were reports that the capital city was destroyed, the ground cracked and everyone fell down, the emperor was gone, etc., but they didn't receive any specific news, and they didn't want to believe that something had happened to his sister's family. But not believing it was one thing, but he honestly didn't have any hope since he couldn't find them.

However, he naturally couldn't say such words to his old father. His father had always favored Mingzhu since she was a child. If he really heard some bad news, he didn't know whether his father, whose health had been deteriorating since the disaster, could withstand it.

Thinking of this, Bai Mingtang comforted him, "Father, my sister and Ze'erji are all blessed by fate. Maybe they have already escaped to a safe place. They are in the capital, and my brother-in-law is an official in the court. He must have received as much information as we do."

Hearing Bai Mingtang mention Shi Zhengde, Bai Youcai snorted coldly: "You don't know your brother-in-law yet. When it's profitable, he will naturally worship you as his own father. When it's not profitable, he will only selfishly protect himself. After so many years, he still relied on his face to get to the fifth rank. What kind of foresight do you expect from him? I really don't know what Mingzhu sees in him. Can that face be eaten!"

Bai Mingtang smiled helplessly. Over the years, whenever Shi Zhengde was mentioned, his father would never stop complaining about him.

To be honest, he didn't understand why Mingzhu would fall for such a man, but his father didn't stop his daughter from falling in love, so what could he, as a brother, do?

However, after scolding Shi Zhengde, the old man at least regained some energy and was no longer immersed in thoughts and worries.

Bai Mingtang did not interrupt him, but just looked at the road ahead. The roadside was filled with large numbers of refugees. Since entering Lingnan, he saw even more refugees.

In addition to those who came from the south of the Yangtze River, there were many who came from the north. Those refugees were easy to recognize. They got extremely excited when they saw water. It seemed that the severe drought in the north had not been alleviated.

"Brother! I found out that we can reach Cangwu City in another day!" At this time, Bai Mingjie, who was walking in front to explore the way, hurried back and said.

Bai Mingtang perked up and asked, "What's the situation in Cangwu City? Are they accepting refugees?"

Bai Mingjie hesitated for a moment: "It is said that the situation in Cangwu City is relatively stable, but it seems that they are not accepting refugees, saying that there is not enough food."

Bai Mingjie was afraid of dampening everyone's enthusiasm after he finished speaking, so he quickly added: "But I heard this from other refugees, and rumors may not be credible. Maybe Cangwu City will accept us." As he spoke, he looked at both sides and whispered: "If it doesn't work, our silver..."

Bai Mingtang stopped him from finishing his words with a look. There were too many people here, and if they let those people know that they had money, they would be stripped of their underwear.

They saw many such wealthy families along the way, and some of them were in serious condition and even lost their lives.

Bai Mingtang frowned: "Anyway, we are here now. Let's go see what Cangwu City is like. I will talk to my father. You go and notify the others. Let's rest for another quarter of an hour and then we will continue on our way!"

Bai Mingjie agreed and left in a hurry.