August 23, the seventeenth year of Chu Yanguang's reign.

Henan, Zhangde Prefecture, Anyang County.

This is the hometown of Shang and Yin Dynasties. It was called Yecheng in ancient times. It was called Xiangzhou in the Tang and Song Dynasties, and was renamed Zhangde Prefecture in the Jin Dynasty.

Zhangde is connected to Beijing in the north, Kaifeng in the south, Taihang in the west, and Shandong in the west. It is known as "the strategic point of northern Henan and the thoroughfare of the four provinces" and is a must-have for military strategists.

For thousands of years, in this land, Pan Geng moved to the Yin Dynasty, Wu Ding resurrected the Zhong Dynasty, Fu Shuo paid homage to the prime minister, King Wen was arrested and performed "The Book of Changes", Ximen Bao surrendered to Wu Zhiye, Xinling Lord stole the talisman to save Zhao, Xiang Yu broke the cauldron and sank the boat, Cao Mengde

Prosperity in Yecheng...

The poem goes: "Anyang in the Huanshui River is well-deserved. It was the imperial capital three thousand years ago. The culture of the Central Plains was founded in the Yin Dynasty. Seeing this is better than reading ancient books."

But in today's Yanguang period, the past events of the ancient capital of the Seven Dynasties have been buried in the dust. Outside the dilapidated city walls, looking at the past, there is only a traceless dry and cracked yellow earth.

The floods have passed, but the drought is still there, frosts have hit, and snow has fallen. Bandits of all sizes raided and sifted once, and hurried officers and soldiers sifted again.

The white bones were buried in the yellow sand, and the land outside was cracked and lifeless for hundreds of miles.

But there are always tenacious lives growing out of the cracks in the rocks like weeds.

Qugou Village.

Qu Zhu took Xi'er and sat on a field stalk, peeling off tree roots with a sharp stone.

In the field, their father Qu Dachang and their second uncle Qu Erchang were carrying water to irrigate the fields.

After the robbing and murdering bandits and officers and soldiers left, Qu Dachang and Qu Erchang took their children back to the village, hoping to pick up their little livelihood...

Otherwise, where can I go if I leave my hometown?

After the last bit of wheat was planted in the ground, the Qu family usually only had some wild vegetables to eat, and occasionally they could catch one or two birds.

Qu Zhu and Xi'er have been feeling hungry all year round. In fact, they have forgotten what it means to be full.

But we are still lucky and survived after all.

This year, because we were fleeing famine, the seeds were sown late, but we will be able to harvest wheat in another month, so we have survived another year.

The autumn wind blew through Qu Zhu and Xi'er's necks, feeling a little chilly.

They didn't think about the distant problem of having clothes to keep warm when winter came. They just looked at the bent ears of wheat and looked forward to next month as soon as possible.

Sudden.

A heart-rending cry rang out.

"Quick! Light the smoke bug!"

"Light up the smoke bug..."

Qu Zhu and Xi'er turned around and saw their mother and several villagers running toward them with brooms and branches in their hands.

Xi'er opened her mouth wide and said, "Wow, what a big black cloud!"

Qu Zhu stared blankly for a while, then suddenly howled: "Locusts!"

The bucket in the hands of brother Qu Dachang over there has fallen to the ground, and his eyes are full of despair.

A long drought will lead to locusts. An old farmer like me should have thought of that...

But for these two dark and thin old farmers, they could not cry like those women and children.

In panic, Qu Dachang hurriedly went to collect hay, while Qu Erchang panicked and struck flints. His hands were trembling, and he didn't even have time to light a fire for a long time.

Qu Zhu was stunned for only a moment, then threw himself on the ground to help his father pile hay.

"Quick! Make a pile of grass..."

Xi'er was confused for a moment, and the next moment, the sky suddenly turned dark.

Locusts pass by and cover the sky.

Everything was dark before her eyes, and there was a loud buzzing in her ears. Xi'er was so frightened that she burst into tears.

The locusts hit my face and it hurt.

Swish, swish, swish...

The leg of the band saw scratched her face and cut the skin. After a while, Xi'er's face was covered with fine marks.

She cried and lay on the ground for a while, and saw that her father had already lit a fire.

Swish, swish, swish...

"Quick! Fight!"

"Xun!"

In the gloomy sky, Xi'er stood up, picked up a branch like her brother, and cried at the locusts in the sky.

…

Someone started to cry: "Just die, just die, why are you still trying to survive?"

Xi'er turned around and saw Aunt Yang from next door, her hair disheveled, slumped on the ground.

Although there was smoke, the crops were all destroyed and not a single blade of grass grew on the ground.

The surrounding villagers were all in messy clothes, with disheveled hair and dull eyes. They were wailing and taking sacks to pack the wheat and insect corpses on the ground.

"Damn it! How are you going to live like this!"

Aunt Yang sat on the ground and cried for a while. When she saw everyone was pretending to be insects, she got up, took off her clothes and wrapped up the wheat and insect corpses on the ground.

Xi'er also followed her family to pick up insects in their fields.

Qu Dachang seemed to have been drained of all his energy by the locusts, and his figure became even more stooped, with his eyes dully pressing the sack.

There were miserable howls all around.

Xi'er couldn't help but asked Qu Zhu: "Brother, can locusts be eaten?"

"Yeah," Qu Zhu replied weakly, "I just can't eat it for a few days."

After a while, there was a quarrel over there.

But it is the villagers fighting for the locusts on the ground.

Another old man from the village came over with a staff and howled: "Don't eat the locusts. You have angered the locust god. Next year..."

Before he finished speaking, the people fighting over him knocked him to the ground.

"Won't the worms eat you?"

"Don't grab..."

"this is mine……"

Xi'er listened to their quarrel and felt a little confused for a moment.

The next moment, a small sack mixed with wheat locust soil was snatched from her hand.

Xi'er looked up and saw that it was Aunt Yang.

Aunt Yang's hair was disheveled and she was only wearing a ragged single garment. Her own baggage was snatched away in the chaos, so she rushed over and snatched Xi'er's.

After running only two steps, Aunt Yang fell down beside the field stalk in panic.

Qu Dachang walked up and reached out to grab the bundle in her hand.

"Brother Dachang, please, I don't have any food stored at home..." Aunt Yang cried.

Qu Dachang said nothing.

Aunt Yang said again: "The dog is only three years old, I beg you..."

Qu Dachang sighed and said in a low voice: "Widow Yang, I would like to advise you that in the future, the children at home should be well hidden. After a while, when the wheat is gone, people will have to look for food everywhere. Every year they flee from famine.

, they all start eating from the children..."

Aunt Yang was stunned.

It took her a while to react, then she screamed "Ah!" and burst into tears.

Qu Erchang couldn't bear it, so he stepped forward and said, "Brother, how about we give her a bag?"

Qu Dachang shook his head and said: "On weekdays, I give in a little, but now this is life-saving food."

"Brother Erchang, let me be your wife." Aunt Yang hugged the baggage in her arms tightly and begged: "As long as I have this bag, I will be your wife..."

"Please, you escaped the famine, please beg us mother and son, brother Erchang, I will let Gouwa be your son, and I will carry on the family line for you..."

Qu Erchang pouted and turned to Dachang.
Chapter completed!