On the way back, the group still swept under the tall walls of Yecheng. Perhaps it was because it was almost dusk, and the farmers and merchants in the city had to return to rest, so there were many pedestrians on the road. There are wealthy gentry with gorgeous frames, there are knights in a hurry, and more are still homeless.

In recent years, Jizhou has been the main battlefield of the clan's kings, and the people's livelihood in various places has reached an extremely fragile state. After the Shile thieves raised their troops, they fought fiercely with the Jizhou and Yanzhou armies in the southwestern counties of Jizhou for three months, which completely disrupted the agricultural time and turned countless farmlands into battlefields. Half a month ago, when the battle reached its peak at its fiercest point, the Shile thieves swept through the county and county towns with lightning speed, slaughtering everywhere they went, and entrapping many people into his army. The people who were lucky enough to get out had no clothes on their bodies and no food in their mouths, and they looked on all sides, and there were battlefields to the west and north, and there were surging rivers to the south, so they could only run to Wei County. Even if Wei County has also been war-torn for a long time, it may not necessarily ensure safety, but for the dazed and wailing Li Min, even if it is a flat boat in the churning and angry sea, it is worth pinning the greatest hopes on.

Some of the displaced people staggered in groups, some rested on the roadside, some were scattered in the fields and woodlands, carefully manvering with the scattered soil, trying to find fruit, seeds, and even grass seeds for everything that could be used to feed their stomachs. If you distinguish them carefully, you can find that although they are all yellow and thin, most of them are men and women in the prime of life, unless there is obviously a large team of dozens of people gathered, there is no old man in sight.

Lu Yao had seen the scene of escape in film and television in his previous life, but after experiencing the troubled times, he realized that compared with the real tragic scene, the travel scene with the old and the young in the imagination of later generations is probably more like a warm and affectionate outing.

In this forced mass migration, the elderly are almost completely burdened. Their energy and physical strength are not enough to sustain the arduous journey, and their presence can drag down their loved ones. Lu Yao could imagine that on the countless roads from Jizhou to Wei County, the tired and hungry old man took the initiative to leave the team and bid farewell to the clan relatives. They collapsed on the side of the road, waiting for the rest of the outcasts to pass by and get a little food, or they would just starve to death as roadside paraphernalia.

In the Great Jin Dynasty, which advertised to rule the country with filial piety, such a human tragedy was enough to arouse the anger of the scholars, but their lofty talk and discussion were like untouchable on the clouds, and the lowly people would only bury their heart-rending pain deep in their hearts and continue to struggle.

What about the elderly, but what about the children? Not far in front of Lu Yao's eyes, a child about two or three years old was crying intermittently, and the young mother was beside the child. If it weren't for being too thin, his face would be delicate. She hugged the child tightly, with no one else by her side, and seemed to have fled here alone. She muttered comforting and shoved the shriveled nipple into the child's mouth, but where would the skinny mother, who was skinny due to lack of food, have enough milk? The child cried unrelentingly, the shrill and poignant cries drifting intermittently in the wind, and the mother could only look at the child with a sad expression, and there was nothing she could do anymore.

Ma Rui's face was unbearable, he suddenly took two steps forward with the reins, and then looked back at Lu Yao.

Lu Yao knew that although Ma Rui was a person who helped the wind, he had been in the army for many years in Bingzhou, and his family members were all in Jinyang. His wife is in her youth, and she is still happy last year. However, when Ma Teng of Dongying Company was defeated, Ma Rui was separated from his family and never saw each other again. For Ma Rui, perhaps this tragic situation of orphans and widows can most touch the soft part hidden under his iron heart.

So Lu Yao bowed slightly. Ma Rui took a few more steps forward, lifted the cloth bag hanging from the side of the saddle, and threw it in front of the woman. The cloth bag fell to the ground and spread out, revealing some scones, miscellaneous fruits and other foods wrapped inside.

This meager gift immediately caused the woman's eyes to widen. With unimaginable agility, she pounced on the dry food thrown by Ma Rui, and then knocked her head in ecstasy. Although the amount of dry food is not much, it is enough to save the life of the mother and son!

However, her actions attracted the attention of other homeless people. Food is the most attractive among the homeless population, and a few young people in a larger group of displaced people farther away noticed Ma Rui who gave food. Those people were relatively neatly dressed, and some even carried weapons, obviously a team with a strong clan as the core, different from scattered homeless people. They stared at Ma Rui intently, with a faint fierce light in their eyes, and one of them, a middle-aged man who seemed to be the leader, straightened his back slightly, as if he was about to get up.

Ma Rui immediately felt it, he frowned, reined in his mount, looked at the mother and son with some hesitation, and then put his hand on the hilt of the knife at his waist and glared back at the group of young men fiercely.

Lu Yao suddenly found that although the county lord of Jingling had been gone for a long time, his emotions were still excited because of this, and even affected his judgment. Giving food to a dense group of displaced people does not actually help the weak. The starving outcasts were no longer bound by the moral law, and there was almost a thin line between them and the bandits. This grain will almost certainly be snatched by the able-bodied, and even Lu Yao and the others themselves may become the targets of the robbers.

Of course, Lu Yao and the others will not be afraid of these rabble, so they can just leave. But if the group leaves, what situation will the mother and son put in front of them?

"Old horse, take them with you." Lu Yao said in a low voice: "Let's go, don't delay any longer." ”

Ma Rui saluted Lu Yao with a smile, then leaned down, wrapped one arm around the woman's waist, and lifted both mother and son up with a slight exertion.

The crowd continued along the official road, and soon left the people far away, and there was no obstacle on the way.

In fact, the bold and reckless are always a minority after all, and most of the displaced people, after all, are just the peasants who face the loess with their backs to the sky.

These farmers have spent their entire lives in the fields, and generations or dozens of generations of families have worked tirelessly on the small plots of land passed down from their ancestors. The depth of the soil, the sowing of the soil is sparse, the fertilizer is thick and thin, and the amount of watering is ...... That's all they are familiar with. They love the land and value the earth, and the land is their only connection with this world, and it is also the only reliance they rely on to live in this world. If it weren't for the fact that the current situation forced them to the point where they had no way to live, they would never have left their homes and would never have become homeless.

For them, Wei County, hundreds of miles away, was already an absolutely unfamiliar environment, and the different accents, different geographical conditions, and different faces of officials and servants all brought them heavy pressure, making them feel deeply afraid and humble. And when they finished eating the food they carried, the imperial court had no way to provide relief, and ruthlessly abandoned these ordinary civilians who had been forced to the lowest level to lower and lower.

When they have exhausted their few goods and barters, they have no normal means of making a living, but they can only beg or steal, like locusts, and scavenge the villages and fields in the areas they pass. This is not the original wish of the displaced people, but it is just forced to survive.

Lu Yao's heart tightened, and he thought of the question he had almost completely ignored: What will happen to Yang Heng's manor? The manor was close to the intersection of two official roads, where the first group of displaced people gathered, and the number of people would only increase at the moment. After he leaves, will the people in the manor be able to cope with it?

******

There is a serious problem...... What should the county lord be called? I haven't figured it out yet...... Sincerely ask for fame!