Chapter 296: Refugees

Hearing Jiang Xuelien's words, even Jiang Wei, who was always calm, couldn't help but be stunned.

"... This is indeed picking up a treasure." She laughed low.

Jiang Xuelien, sitting in the front, didn't hear it and thought Jiang Wei was still considering finding a new coachman, so she hurriedly said: "T-that... Madam Jiang, actually there's no need to find another coachman; I can drive the horse carriage for twelve hours a day continuously; I'm not afraid of being tired, and I won't be sleepy."

Jiang Wei laughed rarely: "You're not afraid of being tired, but the horses will be tired; let's rest in the next town for a night."

As for whether to find a coachman or not, that's another matter.

Jiang Xiaoxiao did intend to find a coachman, but in the end, she didn't find one.

They traveled for a day and a night before finally reaching the town.

As soon as they arrived in the town, the mother and daughter took Jiang Xuelien to the biggest restaurant to have a meal, and then found an inn to rest for a night.

It wasn't until the next day that they started to buy some dry food in the town to eat on the road.

Originally, they didn't plan to buy any, but considering Jiang Xuelien was with them, the mother and daughter couldn't easily take food directly from the space, so they decided to hoard some dry food.

However, when passing by a grain shop on the street, Jiang Xiaoxiao was startled by the high price of grain inside.

The normal price of rice is fifteen wen per jin; even during the few years of drought in Yong'an Town, the highest price of grain was only twenty-eight wen.

But the price of rice here had actually exceeded thirty wen per jin!

Even the cheapest brown rice was sold for thirteen wen per jin.

Are they crazy!?

With such expensive grain prices, how could ordinary families afford to eat?

Jiang Xiaoxiao looked at the farmers kneeling in front of the grain shop crying and wailing, and felt very uncomfortable in her heart.

This area is still very far from Yong'an Town; Yuhe Village had continuous droughts for several years, and if it weren't for her mother finding a way to divert water down the mountain to irrigate the farmland, I'm afraid the people in the village wouldn't be able to afford grain either...

Jiang Xuelien looked at those lonely and helpless families preparing to sell their daughters in exchange for grain, and her eyes couldn't help but turn red.

She tried hard to turn her head away and not look.

Jiang Xiaoxiao was also pulled away by Jiang Wei.

The three soon arrived at the post station.

There were many horses at the post station, and naturally many coachmen, but as soon as they heard it was such a long way to Yong'an Town, they wouldn't go even for a lot of silver.

"Sigh, you don't know, this road all the way south is full of refugees, it's not peaceful on the road, refugees are running around everywhere, and all kinds of bandits are rampant..."

"How could there be so many refugees?" Jiang Xiaoxiao didn't quite understand; clearly, it was fine when they were in Xuzhou, and every place was prosperous, so why, as soon as they left the Xuzhou boundary, were there so many people suffering?

The man sighed: "Sigh, you don't know, the floods in the south this year are very serious, and many places have had no harvest; refugees are homeless and have started to run around everywhere."

"The weather is getting colder; if these refugees don't find a place to settle, they will surely freeze to death on the road, right?" Someone with a soft heart sighed on the side.

"Why are you being kind? It's better to hoard more grain for the winter, otherwise, if those refugees flood here, it will be troublesome."

Listening to the people at the post station talking one after another, they were all discussing what to do if refugees flooded here.

Jiang Xiaoxiao's complexion, however, gradually became unsightly.

Xuzhou City belongs to a region that is neither south nor north, and refugees won't be able to come here for a while.

But Yong'an Town, located in the south of Xuzhou, is hard to say.

Once refugees arrive, they will inevitably pass through Yong'an Town.

She had seen the appearance of those refugees in the original work; they had long since extinguished their humanity, and wherever they went, they burned, killed, and looted, snatching food, snatching silver, snatching women... doing all kinds of evil.

Finally, the three left the post station, got back on the horse carriage, and started heading toward the official road in the south.

They didn't find a coachman, so Jiang Wei decided that she and Jiang Xuelien would drive the carriage in shifts.

When one was driving the carriage, the other would take the time to rest, trying not to stay on the side of the road, and going as fast as possible.

Jiang Xiaoxiao sat in the carriage, no longer having the leisurely mood she had at the beginning.

However, after traveling for two days, they still saw some refugees wandering aimlessly on the side of the road.

Almost every one of them was sallow and thin, starving to the point of being skin and bones, with dull eyes, walking on the road like walking corpses, as if they could be blown down by a gust of wind.

Jiang Xiaoxiao watched for a while through the carriage window, and in the end, she couldn't bear it. She looked at the dry food she hadn't finished in her hand.

However, just as she was about to speak, she caught a glimpse of a woman not far outside who was dressed quite decently and richly, walking down from a horse carriage, supported by a maid beside her.

The woman asked the maid to take some cakes out of the carriage, preparing to distribute them to the refugees on the side of the road.

But who knew, as soon as the cakes were taken out, those refugees swarmed over crazily, and without waiting for the woman to distribute them, they all swarmed up and snatched all the cakes and dry food in the maid's hands.

They didn't even let go of the remaining grain and water in the carriage.

Some refugees who came late and didn't snatch any food cast fierce, greedy, and wolf-like gazes at the woman and the maid.

The coachman protected them in front, but was beaten black and blue by the swarming refugees, covered in blood, and couldn't get up from the ground.

The woman and the maid were snatched of all their valuable things by the swarming refugees, jewelry, hairpins... they didn't even let go of their clothes.

That woman didn't expect that her momentary kindness would lead to such a disaster, and she was so angry that she fainted on the ground.

The maid knelt on the ground, almost crying into a tearful mess.

She gripped her clothes tightly; once her clothes were stripped off in public on the street, her innocence would be ruined.

Just as those few refugees were preparing to dismantle the carriage and snatch the horses along with it, someone shouted:

"Run, the soldiers are coming!"

Those refugees then let go of the things in their hands and fled in all directions...

Jiang Xiaoxiao withdrew her gaze, feeling a chill all over.

Jiang Wei looked coldly at the situation outside the window and didn't say anything, only asking Jiang Xuelien in the front to speed up, and not to let the carriage stop.

Their carriage was moving very fast, and even though many refugees had their eyes on it, they had no chance to take action.

The carriage traveled through this area and continued for another two days.

Just when Jiang Xiaoxiao thought that everything would pass peacefully like this, trouble still found them.

The further south they went, the more refugees they encountered.

These refugees were dressed in rags, their bodies almost completely exposed, starving to the point where even their bones were protruding.

They wandered on the side of the road like walking corpses, but whenever they encountered pedestrians, they would pounce like crazy to snatch food and silver...

If that person had no food on them, they would be dragged into the alley next to them by a group of refugees and never come out again.

As soon as their carriage arrived in this boundary, it was targeted by the refugees wandering here.

Not long after they started walking, refugees swarming from all directions surrounded the carriage tightly. ===== CHAPTER 297 =====