The female soldier looked at the villagers in front of her, all with sallow complexions and emaciated figures. Her heart ached with sorrow.
"Everyone, follow us. Once we reach Fengzhou, everything will be fine. We have enough food there as long as you work. A better life is coming for you all."
A better life?
The villagers had no concept of what a better life was and didn't dare to hope for it.
For them, not having to go completely hungry and having just three - tenths of a full meal was already considered a good life.
However, they were too weak and dispirited to speak at the moment. Most of those left in the village were the weaker ones, carrying their immobile relatives or household belongings on their backs, which made the burden extremely heavy.
A quarter of an hour later, a raging fire broke out in the fields of Wangshan Village...
Not long after they set off, Liu Xiaomei reunited with her family. Her father, who had been on her back, was now carried by her elder brother, Liu Dachuan. Looking back at the smoke billowing in the distance, she felt her eyes well up with tears for some unknown reason.
She had always dreamed of leaving this place, but when the day finally came, seeing the destroyed fields and the village, she felt a void in her heart.
This was the place where she grew up and so far the only place she had ever been.
About twenty miles away from Wangshan Village, in another village, a young man, naked and covered in wounds, was hanging from a big tree at the village entrance.
Not far from the tree, there was a decomposing body lying on the ground. It was his father.
Two days ago, his father, exhausted from long - term overwork and hunger, fainted while working in the field and fell on the rice stalks, crushing them.
Coincidentally, a soldier from the Anwu Army saw this and, without asking any questions, lashed out at him with a whip. The blood stained the muddy water in the field.
That very night, his father passed away.
The young man didn't even have the energy to be sad or shed tears because his grief had become numb as his family members had passed away one by one.
His father was his last remaining relative.
The next day, he went to work as usual. When he saw the soldier who had beaten his father the day before, he didn't say a word and swung the hoe in his hand at the soldier.
The soldier didn't expect a commoner to dare to attack him. But he was an experienced veteran and managed to dodge in time. The hoe hit his arm, gouging out a large piece of flesh.
The young man didn't have the chance to swing the hoe a second time because the soldier's companions nearby grabbed the wooden handle of the hoe and one of them kicked him.
The young man was knocked to the ground and the hoe flew out of his hand.
Then he was stripped naked, beaten in front of the whole village, and finally hung on the tree, barely alive.
His long - starved body made him feel numb, or perhaps his heart was already dead. No matter how the soldiers scolded, beat, or humiliated him, he felt nothing.
Until they dug out his father's body from the backyard and threw it in front of him. At that moment, he felt a long - lost pain and hatred.
A whip lashed across the young man's body.
His body twitched, and in a daze, he opened his swollen and purple eyes. After seeing the scene in front of him, he closed them again.
"Such a tough life. He's still alive after two days?" The soldier saw the young man's calm eyes that showed neither fear nor pleading. He couldn't help but whip the young man a few more times. Instantly, blood and pieces of flesh splattered everywhere.
The tall soldier beside him laughed, "Low - lives are always tough."
Another burly soldier chuckled, "I bet he won't survive the night."
The soldier looked at his bandaged arm and snorted, "When he's dead, I'll chop up his body and throw it into the mountains for the wild wolves to eat."
The tall soldier joked casually, "Won't the wolves be grateful to you then?"
The soldier sneered, "Sure they will. I've given them a lot of food in the past two years. It's not an exaggeration to say that I've been feeding them."
Just as the tall soldier was about to say something, he suddenly tensed up and looked at a group of people who had suddenly appeared in front of them, "Who are you?"
Without saying a word, Xie Nanxiao raised his Longming Crossbow.
Hearing the commotion, the young man opened his eyes and saw the three soldiers who had always held the power of life and death over them. All of them had arrows in their necks. They didn't even have time to scream and fell to the ground, their eyes wide with horror and fear. They soon stopped moving.
Xie Nanxiao looked into the young man's dazed but excited eyes, "You're still alive. Leave two people to take him down. The rest, follow me into the village."
It seemed like a long time had passed, or perhaps just a short while. The young man felt himself being taken down from the tree.
Soon, the faint fragrance of medicine wafted into his nose.
He didn't understand why these people had taken him down and were applying medicine to his wounds.
He trembled and asked in a hoarse voice, "Who... are you?"
The soldier of the Jinyang Army smiled and replied, "We are the Jinyang Army."
"Jinyang Army?" The young man repeated the words in a low voice. He had never heard of the Jinyang Army before. He thought it might be a newly - emerging force.
Looking at the soldier who was cleaning and dressing his wounds, he gasped and said, "I'm about to die. Saving me is a waste. Don't waste the medicine."
He didn't know what kind of army the Jinyang Army was, but they had killed his enemies and saved him. So he believed that they were good people.
As a dying man, he didn't want to waste the good people's precious medicine.
Medicine was so expensive that it was something that low - lives like him couldn't afford.
The soldier shook his head, "Your wounds are just on the skin. You'll recover after a period of rest."
The young man frowned slightly, not understanding why the Jinyang Army would save a common low - life like him. The money for these medicines could buy several strong young men.
The soldier seemed to understand his thoughts and smiled to comfort him, "The Jinyang Army is the army of our Han people and also the army of the common people. Our Lord has said that as long as you are her people, she will protect you."
"Now that the Jinyang Army is here, you have naturally become the people of our Lord. We will take you away to Fengzhou and you will become the people truly protected by the Jinyang Army."
The young man was stunned, "Will even low - lives like us be protected?"
The soldier's voice was full of strength, "You are the common people, not low - lives!"
"In Fengzhou, you may become soldiers of the Jinyang Army like us, or you may become officials, scholars, workers, and so on. In short, as long as you want to, there will always be something you can do."
The young man felt as if he was listening to a fairy tale. His limited imagination couldn't picture the world described by the soldier. After a long time, he asked in a low voice, "Are we really not low - lives?"
The soldier nodded seriously and took off his coat, covering the young man's simply - treated wounds with it, "No. In the land of our Lord, there are no low - lives."
After hearing his words, the young man, who hadn't cried for a long time, felt tears welling up in his eyes. They were hot and swollen.
Half an hour later, the village caught fire, and the villagers left under the leadership of Xie Nanxiao and the others.
Scenes like this were happening in villages all over Anwu County and Chunyi County.
Chunyi County was the first to notice something was wrong, but they had no time to worry about the villages because Anwu County was being besieged by Qu Zhao!
The county magistrate anxiously asked, "Have we sent someone to ask the Jiao Army for help?"
The advisor nodded, "We've already sent someone, but it's a long way. It may take some time."
He also looked anxious, "General, should we lead our troops to rescue Anwu County?"
The county magistrate frowned, "How many soldiers of Qu Zhao's army are there besieging the county?"
The scout standing below quickly replied, "There are about forty to fifty thousand of them."
The county magistrate paced back and forth in the hall for a few times, hesitating, "We have so few soldiers. If we go against Qu Zhao, I'm afraid..."
Remembering something, he asked anxiously, "Did the soldiers guarding Shishan River go to the rescue?"
