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

The people in the Lujia Village team were a little panicked when they heard the noise behind them. At this time, someone shouted:

"The barbarians are coming!"

This voice was like a thunder, exploding in everyone's heart.

In an instant, the entire team fell into chaos. People were terrified and fled to both sides of the road like headless flies.

The men were desperately pulling the loaded carts in front, while the women were stumbling behind with their children in their arms.

Lu Qingqing, who was at the front of the team, naturally heard the movement behind them. The hurried sound of horse hooves came from far away, and it was obvious that there were a large number of people coming.

Regardless of whether they are barbarians or not, the wisest choice is to avoid them first.

Lu Qingqing acted decisively, waving the whip in her hand and driving her ox cart towards a hillside on the right.

At the same time, Lu Qingqing saw Lu Tianming not far ahead still observing the situation behind, so she hurriedly shouted to him to go together.

Lu Tianming no longer hesitated and drove his horse-drawn carriage to catch up with Lu Qingqing's ox cart. The two families quickly rushed to the slope.

As soon as we stopped the car, a large group of soldiers appeared on the official road not far away.

The officers and soldiers in front were all riding tall horses, with big swords slung on their waists. They were driving away the refugees who had not had time to run away from the official road.

Behind them, carriages were lined up neatly, one after another, and each carriage was loaded with heavy wooden boxes.

There was a team of soldiers guarding each side of the carriage. Lu Qingqing found several familiar faces among the officers and soldiers. They were the soldiers who were responsible for collecting the city fees when they entered the city before.

The identities of these people are obvious, they are officers and soldiers from Gaoyuan County!

As for the boxes on the carriage at the back, they are probably the city entrance fees collected in the past few days.

There was a luxurious carriage in the middle of the team. A man dressed as a civil servant lifted the curtain of the carriage, and the captain of the guard hurried over.

The civil official frowned and gave a few words of scolding. The captain of the guard rode his horse to the front and asked several soldiers to go ahead to clear the way. The team behind also began to speed up.

Not until they were far away did people come out from both sides of the road.

Lu Qingqing and Lu Tianming returned to where they were just now to wait for people, while County Magistrate Yao came back from the other side in a carriage.

Yao County Magistrate's face was solemn, and he said to Lu Tianming:

"Brother Lu, I just observed from a distance that the group passing by are the guards of Gaoyuan County, and the person in the carriage should be the Gaoyuan County Magistrate."

Lu Tianming also had a worried look on his face and sighed:

"I saw it too. The team that just passed by even had guards at the city gate. I'm afraid Gaoyuan County has no defense left!"

Yao County Magistrate angrily pounded the carriage with his hand and said angrily:

"How dare he? He abandoned the city and fled before the barbarians even arrived. There are still so many people in Gaoyuan County who haven't left!"

Lu Tianming lowered his head and sighed deeply.

Magistrate Gaoyuan had the support of Prince Lu. Even if he escaped early, Prince Lu could find countless excuses if he wanted to protect him.

It only harmed the remaining people, which really proves the saying.

When a country prospers, the people suffer. When a country perishes, the people also suffer!

Suddenly, Lu Tianming seemed to think of something, looked up at County Magistrate Yao and said:

"Brother Yao, the Gaoyuan County Magistrate suddenly abandoned the city and fled. Could it be that he received some news?"

County Magistrate Yao reacted suddenly, then seemed to lose his temper and fell down on the shaft of the cart.

"You mean, Pingkang County has fallen? And Brother Xuehai..."

Lu Tianming hurried forward to support him and comforted him:

"It's hard to say. It's possible that Pingkang County is peaceful and the Magistrate of Gaoyuan County is timid and has escaped early."

Yao County Magistrate raised his hand to indicate that he was fine, and said in a hoarse voice:

"When we met before, I knew that Brother Xuehai might..."

County Magistrate Yao stood up and looked at Lu Tianming.

"Brother Lu, no matter whether this is true or not, we have to speed up and get on our way."

At this time, many people had returned to the team.

Lu Tianming briefly explained the situation and told everyone to speed up their journey, and asked the men in the village to search for people in various directions.

Soon, everyone in the team came back. They didn't run far when they were escaping, and they stopped when they heard no movement behind them.

The Lujia Village team set out again. This time, Lu Tianming in the lead increased the speed, and everyone quickened their pace to keep up.

At this time, on the official road ahead, Gaoyuan County Magistrate Xin Fengmao kept asking the soldiers to speed up.

He just received news that Pingkang City had been broken and the barbarians were now raiding the area around Pingkang City and would probably reach Gaoyuan County soon.

As Xin Fengmao's order was passed down, the soldiers on horseback in front once again sped up, and the soldiers guarding around them almost ran.

The soldiers had no regular training, so most of them could not keep up with the sudden acceleration. The soldiers on horseback behind them supervised them with whips.

If anyone fell, the whip would hit them. Now the clothes are thin, and each whip would leave a bloody mark.

The guarding soldiers were beaten so hard that they cursed in their hearts, wishing that the dog county magistrate would be killed by the barbarians.

It was dark, and many soldiers suffered from night blindness, which made it difficult to see the road and caused them to stumble many times.

The captain of the guard asked Xin Fengmao for instructions many times, and only then did the team begin to station and rest.

In addition to his wife, Xin Fengmao also took with him two concubines and a number of children born from both marriage and illegitimate children.

In order to ensure comfortable meals on the road, they naturally brought along a group of cooks from the mansion, and there were four cooks in total.

Including the maids and old women serving, there were more than a dozen servants serving alone.

As soon as the team stopped, the cooks began to prepare dinner. Xin Fengmao liked to eat meat and must have meat at every meal.

One of the cooks was good at cooking meat. After asking, she learned that the master wanted to eat barbecue today, so she prepared spices and started grilling.

Once grilled, the aroma of the secret spices spreads farther and farther.

At this moment, the soldiers were eating dry coarse grain bread, smelling the aroma of meat coming from the team, and swallowing their saliva continuously.

The soldiers sitting together were discussing quietly, and one of the younger soldiers said:

"Brother Li, hurry up, take a few more sips of the fragrance before it spreads far away so that you can enjoy your meal."

The soldier called Brother Li took a deep breath, but still pretended to be disdainful and said:

"You've never seen good food, kid. Do you know what our Lord Xin usually eats? This little bit of barbecue has you so greedy!"

The surrounding soldiers were also interested in this sentence and pricked up their ears to listen.

"You've heard of the Twin Dragons and the Phoenix, and the Five Heroes Gathering. Besides that, every meal must include crystal rice and Pearl Spring."

"Brother Li, what are you talking about? Why haven't we heard of it?"

Brother Li raised his chin proudly.

"You've all heard of it. It's still called a famous dish, what a bunch of bastards!"

The soldiers watching grumbled disdainfully and returned to their seats, but they were still curious in their hearts, wondering what the county magistrate ate.

Brother Li breathed a sigh of relief when he saw people disperse. In fact, he didn't know what Lord Xin was eating, and the names of the dishes he had just mentioned were all made up.