Traveling through 1942 with space

After a week of rest in Xiaojie, the wounded had almost recovered, and the refugees, who were already eager to move, began to break camp and head northwest.

Xiaojie is about sixty miles away from Hou Xiaoge’s current hometown, Hedi Township. The group traveled during the day and rested at night, and finally returned to their hometown again in early September.

Along the way, Hou Xiaoge faced the barren land and chaotic social environment, and he really felt sad for the people in the Central Plains.

The people in the Central Plains were not fleeing famine or disaster, but both. It was truly too difficult.

This fleeing group was disbanded when they arrived at Hedi Township, because some of the refugees were from other areas and wanted to continue heading northwest.

The locals will naturally stay in their hometown for a while, and some even feel that the situation in their hometown is better than outside and are ready to stay.

"Brother Yangmin, goodbye, we will meet again in the mountains and rivers."

"Goodbye, fellow villagers of Nangou Village!"

"Bon voyage, everyone."

……

When we arrived near Nanjiagou Village, several teams that continued to head northwest and the friends we had met during this period said goodbye to the villagers of Nanjiagou Village one after another.

Looking at the mighty team continuing to march northwest, the team from Nanjiagou Village stood at the entrance of the village for a long time and were unwilling to look back.

"Let's go! Go home."

Several elders waved their hands, and everyone slowly walked down to the long-lost small mountain village at the bottom of the ditch.

"My hometown is still the best! I feel very close to this remote mountain area." Erhuan said happily as he ran in front of Hou Xiaoge.

"Oh! I don't know if your grandfather and grandmother are still alive." Hou Yangmin, who was pushing a wheelbarrow, said with tears in his eyes as he looked at the small village at the foot of the mountain.

After hearing what the uncle said, the crowd, which had been somewhat delighted just now, fell silent in an instant. Everyone was unable to move, as if there was something terrifying in front of them.

Hou Xiaoge had no memory of his original body, so naturally he didn't know. He carefully asked Erhuan who was standing beside him.

Hearing Hou Xiaoge's question, Erhuan, who was cheerful just now, became a little dejected, and then told Hou Xiaoge about his hometown.

After listening to this, Hou Xiaoge felt goose bumps all over his body and a chill on his back.

It turned out that the reason why there were few elderly people in the fleeing team was that the elderly in the village did not go out to escape the famine, but stayed at home waiting to die.

My hometown suffered a disaster last year. The autumn crops were gone by the end of the year. In the end, we had no choice but to sell our belongings, borrow money, and sell our children.

By this summer, not a single grain of summer grain had been harvested, and after the autumn seedlings were eaten by locusts, the people could no longer bear the famine and had to flee.

But many of the elderly people in the family who were over 60 years old could not hold on any longer. Their life experience told them that they were too old and there was no chance of survival if they fled from the famine.

There is a long-standing Chinese belief that fallen leaves return to their roots. Naturally, the elderly did not want to flee famine and die in a foreign land, so when fleeing famine, most of them refused to go with the children and stayed at home to wait to die.

Most children naturally wanted to take their parents with them, but the elderly chose to run away in the middle of the night and die in the mountains. There were also various suicides. They just refused to leave.

In fact, the elderly do this so as not to burden their children, because if there are elderly people following them, the difficulty of escaping famine will only be doubled.

In the end, the children at home had no choice but to leave the elderly at home. If a group of elderly people live together like this, they might be able to survive.

Even if they don’t survive and die at home, when the famine is over, the young people can come back and bury the old people in peace instead of leaving their bodies in the wilderness.

But after several months of fleeing famine, life became increasingly difficult. Even the young and strong laborers were starving to the point of being skin and bones, let alone the elderly who stayed at home!

So when Hou Yangmin mentioned the elderly in his family, the team instantly became quiet. Who doesn’t have one or two elderly people in their family?

After a period of silence, cries and shouts gradually emerged from the crowd.

The sounds of calling for parents and crying for grandpa and milk gradually filled the entire team.

In such an atmosphere, no one could help but shed tears. Even Hou Xiaoge, a half-Nanjia Village Hou family member with a shallow physical memory, had tears in his eyes.

Accompanied by the crying, some young people began to run quickly down the ditch to check the situation at home.

Because they had to push the cart, several adults in Hou Xiaoge's family followed behind, and the children all ran down the mountain. For a moment, pond soil filled the entire mountain village path.

Hou Xiaoge followed with a few younger brothers and cousins. When they arrived at the entrance of the village, a three-meter-high circle of dilapidated earth walls blocked Hou Xiaoge.

This is the village wall of Nangou Village. However, because it has not been repaired for a long time, it is somewhat dilapidated and several parts have collapsed.

When they reached the entrance of the village, they all stopped under a big locust tree, chattering away, pointing at the tree with lush branches and leaves.

The big locust tree is so lush and leafy that an adult could never hug it. It seems out of place in this arid environment.

Hou Xiaoge stood under the tree, feeling emotional. He didn't know why the big locust tree had survived the disaster and had not been barked and eaten by anyone.

However, there are signs of picking. The leaves below four or five meters on the tree have been picked, and the branches are bare. Only the leaves above five or six meters are still lush.

At this time, a breeze blew, and the leaves rustled gently, and Hou Xiaoge seemed to smell the fragrance of the leaves.

"Brother, the locust tree is so big and has so many leaves, why doesn't anyone pick the leaves or scrape the bark to eat?" Hou Xiaoge asked puzzledly.

“This is the sacred tree at the entrance of the village. You cannot cut the bark. You can only pick some leaves.

I also climbed up to pick leaves this spring. When I left, the branches were bare, with only a few leaves at the highest point left.

There are so many leaves now, probably because we have all fled from famine in recent period and they have grown again.

Grandpa God Tree, please don't blame me. I will come to pick some leaves later and exchange them with water." After saying this, my eldest cousin Hou Huanying kowtowed to the tree three times, and many children and adults nearby did the same.

Watching everyone kneeling, Hou Xiaoge also discovered a trace of incense ash and a shrine left under the locust tree.

Chinese people have always worshipped when they come across a temple, and Hou Xiaoge was no exception. He kowtowed three times respectfully to the big locust tree, and then followed a group of people into the village.

After entering the village, adults and children ran and started calling for their parents and grandparents. Hou Xiaoge didn't know where his home was, so he could only follow his eldest and second brothers.

Everyone stopped in front of a dirt yard. Looking at the half-open black wooden door and the familiar-looking yard, Hou Xiaoge guessed that this was his original home.

However, the gaps in the wooden door were covered with dust, and it was obvious that it had not been opened for a long time. Hou Xiaoge had some guesses in his mind, and his face darkened.

When he got home, Little Radish Head naturally felt at home. He couldn't wait to open the door and ran into the yard.

Hou Xiaoge also followed him into the yard. The yard was not small, a typical Central Plains three-courtyard building, with three rows of houses built on the left and right sides and in the middle, and the gatehouse was just two sheds.

When he approached the middle house, Hou Xiaoge smelled a faint foul odor and thought to himself that something was wrong.

"Brother, please tell the younger ones not to go into the middle house yet. Sister, please keep an eye on the younger ones first." Hou Xiaoge called out to his eldest cousin and sister.

The two knew that the grandparents lived in the main house. When they saw Hou Xiaoge's bad complexion, they understood what he meant because they also smelled the smell.

After the eldest sister took a few younger ones into a room, the eldest cousin took Hou Xiaoge and a few older ones into the main room.

After entering the room, two half-dried corpses dressed in old clothes came into view.

"Father, milk!"

A few people could clearly see from the half-dried faces that these were the grandparents who stayed at home. They were shocked and sad, and they knelt on the ground and cried.