The end of natural disasters: the daily life of child brides in ancient times

As soon as the sky was getting light, Aunt Lu got up with Erya, while most of the villagers were still asleep.

By the time the villagers got up, Aunt Lu and Erya had already dug up half a bag of wild vegetables.

Everyone hurriedly had breakfast and set off again. In the middle of the morning, the people of Lujia Village finally got on the official road.

This official road is very wide and looks like it can accommodate two carriages running side by side. The road surface is higher than the road next to it, and there are drainage ditches dug on the side of the road.

When the ox cart got on the official road, Lu Qingqing couldn't help but sigh that the official road was easier to drive on and it was finally not so bumpy.

However, there are a lot of refugees on this official road. Apart from those traveling alone, you can occasionally encounter groups of people fleeing famine. Most of the refugees have no belongings.

At this time, the refugees saw that the Lujia Village team had both horse-drawn carriages and ox-drawn carts, and even the families pulling carts had carts full of things.

Although they saw that most of the things in the car were bedding and iron pots, and no food, they still made them very envious.

Lu Tianming noticed the gazes of the refugees around him and readjusted the personnel distribution of the entire team.

The front row still consisted of families whose carts were pulled by livestock, and the elderly and weak people in the family were arranged in the middle of the team. The back row was composed of families with more male members, and everyone was asked to keep their weapons at hand so that they could take them out at any time.

Lu Tianming warned everyone that there would be many people behind Shangguan Road, so if they wanted to go to the bathroom, they should try to go during the team's rest time.

If there is a particular urgency on the road, the family members will continue to follow the group with the luggage, and the person going will call a few people to go together.

Never leave your luggage outside the queue, as it will cause trouble if someone snatches it.

Everyone knew the seriousness of being left alone, and no one went out to relieve themselves until the lunch break.

When the gong sounded at noon, the man and the woman went to relieve themselves in two directions respectively.

Lu Qingqing was watching over the luggage while Qin Lang went to the bathroom first.

At this time, every family in the team had someone left to look after the luggage. Lu Qingqing saw Aunt Lu and Erya in the team and greeted them with a smile.

Erya ran over happily and pestered Lu Qingqing to talk as usual, talking about what happened during the past two days on the road.

Lu Qingqing looked at the cute little Erya and touched her hair.

The little girl had never been far away from home, so she was very curious about everything she saw along the way. She talked about whatever she thought of, and talked about everything.

It was not until he mentioned that she would not be sold again after the family split up that Lu Qingqing realized that Old Man Lu had kicked out Aunt Lu and her daughter last night.

Lu Qingqing looked at the smiling faces of Second Aunt Lu and Erya, and felt that for them, getting their household registration and being kicked out of the Lu family might not be a bad thing.

At this time, Qin Lang also came back. Aunt Lu brought the luggage over and asked Qin Lang to look after it. The three of them went to the woods to relieve themselves.

At this time, everyone had gone to the toilet outside the forest, so Lu Qingqing and the other two walked into the forest.

As soon as she squatted down, she heard footsteps behind her. Lu Qingqing turned around and saw that it was an old woman.

But seeing the old woman walking straight towards the three of them, Lu Qingqing's heart was alarmed and she quickly stood up and pulled up her pants.

At this time, the old woman had already approached and pleaded:

"Good man, have pity on me, the old woman, and give me something to eat."

Aunt Lu and Erya were both startled by the sudden sound behind them. Except for those women who knew each other and made appointments to relieve themselves, the rest of the women in the woods would avoid each other when doing so to avoid embarrassment.

This person suddenly appeared and was so close!

Second Aunt Lu and Erya hurriedly stood up and pulled up their pants, and saw the old woman squatting down and hugging Erya, who was closest to her. She put her hand on Erya's neck and continued to say to Second Aunt Lu and the others:

"Do you two have anything to eat?"

Seeing this, Second Aunt Lu became anxious and wanted to go forward and pull Erya out, but she didn't dare to act rashly. She could only appease her:

"Yes, I have food at home. I'll go back and get it for you later. Let the child go first."

At this time, several men came out from behind the tree and walked towards this side, all holding knives in their hands.

Lu Qingqing's whole body tensed up. When the old woman hugged Erya just now, she had already taken out the dagger from the space.

Now he knew that he couldn't wait for the men to get close, so he quickly stepped forward and stabbed the old woman in the neck, then quickly pulled Erya back.

At this moment, blood spurted out from the old woman's neck and she fell down limply.

Seeing this, the men behind hurried forward and tried to subdue them.

Lu Qingqing pulled Erya and ran in front, and Aunt Lu followed closely behind, shouting as she ran,

"Help! There's a thief!"

Seeing that the man was about to catch up, Aunt Lu gritted her teeth, grabbed a nearby branch, and hit the man behind her, hoping to hold them back and buy the two children some time to escape.

However, the woman's strength was far inferior to that of the man, and the man had a knife in his hand. In just a few strokes, the stick in Aunt Lu's hand was chopped off.

Then, another man slashed his arm with a knife, and he fell to the ground with a cry of pain.

When Lu Qingqing heard the sound, she asked Erya to go back and call for help, and she went back to help.

The dagger in her hand was too short, and Lu Qingqing was almost injured several times during the fight. She hated herself in her heart and wondered why she didn't bring the bow and arrow when she went out to relieve herself.

Lu Qingqing helped to block these attacks, and Aunt Lu also got up.

After blocking another knife attack, Lu Qingqing shouted, "Run!"

The two men ran quickly out of the woods, and then they saw Qin Lang running towards them with a Tang sword in one hand and a bow and arrow in the other, followed by Lu Tianming and a group of men from the village.

Lu Qingqing ran towards Qin Lang quickly. When she turned around after getting the bow and arrow, she saw several men rushing towards her.

Qin Lang had already rushed forward with a Tang sword in hand, and Lu Qingqing quickly put an arrow on the bowstring and shot it towards the man, hitting him right in the heart.

At this time, Lu Tianming also rushed over with the men from the village.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the men who launched the sneak attack started to run back, and the offense and defense were reversed.

Qin Lang chased after him, Lu Qingqing pulled the bowstring and shot the arrow, and the men in the village also followed.

After a while, the two remaining survivors were tied up by the villagers and taken back to the team.

Both of them burst into tears and begged for mercy:

"Gentlemen, please spare my life. We are just starving and want some food."

Lu Tianming didn't listen to their arguments and asked directly:

"Where are you guys from? When did you get here? How many people are there in total? Besides the one who just died, do you have any accomplices?"

The shorter man wanted to defend himself, but his hands were tied behind his back by the pillar and he exerted force, causing his arm to dislocate. He immediately cried out in pain.

The taller one trembled with fear and answered honestly:

"We're both from Taojiagou, near the provincial capital. A few days ago, the barbarians attacked the provincial capital, and some deserters attacked the villagers. Those of us who survived started fleeing south."

"We just arrived here this morning. We are the only ones who escaped here from the village. No one else is here."

Upon hearing this, County Magistrate Yao nodded and said:

"I received news earlier that there have indeed been many deserters from the provincial capital since the barbarians attacked the city. What these two people said may be true. We still have to rush to Pingkang County as soon as possible, otherwise if we encounter deserters, I'm afraid there will be casualties."

Lu Tianming nodded in agreement.

"Yes, these deserters are all armed. It's hard for ordinary people to win against them."

After Lu Tianming finished speaking, he asked Zhuzi to remove the two men's arms to prevent them from playing tricks. He planned to take them to Pingkang County and hand them over to the county government for punishment.

Then, let everyone hurry up and have lunch so that they can set off early at noon.

Lu Qingqing was applying medicine to Aunt Lu at this time. The knife had cut her arm and the wound was quite deep. When she was applying the medicine, Aunt Lu hissed in pain, which made Erya beside her cry.

The little girl looked at her mother's arm and remembered that when she had broken her arm before, such a shallow wound was very painful. Her mother's wound was so serious that it must be too painful.

Aunt Lu looked at her daughter with amusement, touched her head with her other hand, and comforted her that everything was fine.

After applying the medicine, Second Aunt Lu thanked Lu Qingqing solemnly. Lu Qingqing waved her hands and said frankly that when they were escaping, Second Aunt Lu stopped and risked her life to buy time for her and Erya, so she should thank her.

After they finished speaking, they both laughed and stopped being polite.