It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

Jiang Fu and his team searched the main road of Jinjiazhuang all night and found a total of 23 bodies, large and small.

As for the possibility that there may be unexcavated bodies in the collapsed house, they only had time to check Zhu Xiaohu's and Jin Tianming's homes, and were powerless to do anything else.

Jiang Fu squinted his eyes and glanced at the position of the sun. "It's almost noon."

They dug a large pit in the land behind Jinjiazhuang for collective burial.

According to the customs of Rongcheng County, the deceased should be buried before sunrise to prevent the sunlight from harming the ghost.

But this time it was too much... Previous experiences also reminded them that if they couldn't deal with it in time, there would likely be some unbearable consequences.

Others hope to let the deceased see the sun to eliminate their fear of water during their lifetime.

"Light it up..."

Jin Tianming, Jin Tianliang and Zhu Xiaohu covered their mouths and noses and were the first to light the firewood in the pit. Jiang Fu and others then continued to throw torches in.

Before long, a huge fire was burning in the pit, and billowing black smoke rose into the sky.

The group of people stood there for a long time, adding firewood once, and then covering the fire with soil when it was small.

"They are still neighbors underground." Gao Zhuang comforted Zhu Xiaohu and the other two.

After a few final bows, they were about to leave Jinjiazhuang.

The black smoke that just rose into the sky was bound to attract the attention of people nearby and county officials and soldiers. Considering the time they stayed, they might be here soon.

This was indeed the case. Less than a quarter of an hour after Jiang Fu and his group left, several officers sent by the county government to investigate the situation arrived on donkeys.

They carefully surrounded the area where smoke was still rising, and saw only a piece of newly turned land.

Several officers used their wooden sticks to dig out a part of it with great effort. The upper layer was ashes from the burning wood, and the lower layer was human bones that had been burned gray and black by the flames.

One of the officers had some knowledge of coroners and after careful examination said, "They must be from the group that died in the flash flood. Someone has returned to collect the bodies."

"Why set fire to collect the bodies?" They thought something big had happened, and they rushed over without even having time to rest after dinner.

but……

"Didn't the county magistrate report the people who survived in this area to the provincial capital, and then take them to the provincial capital for resettlement? Why are they back again?" someone was puzzled.

"Who knows? Maybe he ran back secretly because life in the capital was tough."

Since there was no trouble, the officers took a look around and then rode their donkeys back to the county town.

Jiang Fu and his group were also rushing towards Hezhou Village via the forest path. When they saw a village below, they would quietly go down to investigate the situation.

Strangely, even though the houses in the two villages five or six miles south of Jinjiazhuang were severely damaged, the remaining traces showed that they had not been hit by the devastating mountain torrents...

How come it’s just like Jinjiazhuang, with not a single villager to be seen and the whole village is empty?

About two hours later, everyone arrived at the forest near Hezhou Village, which was the village where He Da, He Er, Zhou Duoping and Zhou Duomu lived.

Hezhou Village is not built on the mountain, but is separated from another village.

They observed for a while and vaguely saw people walking around in the village, and their hearts, which had been hanging in the air, finally relaxed a lot.

With someone around, the situation shouldn't be too bad. However, with so many people around, it's not convenient for them to accompany him.

Except for Jiang Fu, everyone else lives in Duage Village, which is not far from Hezhou Village.

Several people agreed to act separately, visit relatives secretly, meet here before noon tomorrow, and then discuss their next move.

Zhu Xiaohu and the others had nowhere to go, so they stayed with Jiang Fu so that he wouldn't be left alone.