The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

Seeing the people outside getting closer, Zhang Pingan was about to stand up and take the initiative to say hello and identify himself to avoid any misunderstanding.

After seeing this, Zhang reached out and pressed it, then propped herself up and stood up, walked out of the statue, bowed and said, "Gentlemen, we are all citizens of Yuezhou City. We are planning to go east to Lin'an to seek refuge with relatives. We happen to be staying in this dilapidated temple for the night. If you find it inconvenient, we will leave immediately."

The people outside took a look and saw that Zhang was just an old woman, dressed very casually and looked more relaxed.

At this time, the follower named Shi Jia also walked to the side of the statue and looked inside. When he saw Liu Sanlang, he was startled by this big guy. Then he immediately saw a pair of frightened eyes. There were old and young, about seventy or eighty people, all dressed like ordinary people.

At first glance, they didn't pose any threat. The only ones with some fighting ability were the sturdy men. However, there was no murderous aura around them and it was obvious that they were honest people.

So he replied, "Sir, there are about seventy or eighty people behind, young and old, they look like ordinary people."

The man in fancy clothes nodded nonchalantly and replied, "That's not a problem."

Then he turned to Zhang and said, "Old man, you should go back and continue to rest. Everything has a first come first served principle. This dilapidated temple is big enough. There is no reason for us to chase you out just because we arrived."

"Hey, thank you all, gentlemen," Zhang bowed and thanked them, then sat back down at the statue. She whispered to the female relatives to keep an eye on the children and not make any noise, then she leaned against the wall and fell asleep.

The two sides spent the night in peace, and the children were sensible and even breathed softly, trying not to make any noise.

When it was just dawn, everyone woke up. The farmers got up early and were already accustomed to their biological clocks, but since the people outside hadn't left yet, they didn't dare get up and had to endure it.

Donkey Egg and Cat Egg had been holding their urine for the entire night and couldn't bear it any longer. They groaned softly, "Mom, I need to go pee."

Daya was also worried about the child. Just as she was about to carry the child out, Zhang stopped her and whispered, "Let your mother-in-law go."

Mrs. Liu the Butcher also understood at this time and stood up and said, "I'll take them there, don't get up!"

Then he whispered to the children, "Let's go quietly and don't make any noise."

The children nodded sensibly, and a few of them tiptoed out of the temple.

One of the attendants in the temple opened his eyes and looked at the few people, then closed his eyes again, hugged his sword and continued to sleep, pretending not to know anything.

After a while, the sound of children peeing came from outside the door. Maybe they were afraid that the noise would be too loud and wake people up, so they urinated intermittently.

The man in gorgeous clothes couldn't sleep anymore. He looked at the sky and saw that it was already dawn. It was already the hour of Mao and it was almost time.

He simply stood up, washed himself briefly with the water in the water bag, and prepared to leave.

When the man stood up, several followers stood up together, and it was obvious that they were well-trained.

When a few people passed by Liu the Butcher's wife, Liu the Butcher and several children were so scared that they huddled together and stood on the side, not daring to breathe.

Fortunately, nothing happened.

The man in gorgeous clothes walked straight towards the horse tied in the yard with his entourage. He put his left foot on the stirrup and jumped onto the horse nimbly, looking so handsome and cool!

Donkey Egg and Cat Egg were stunned by what they saw. They didn't even care about being afraid. Their eyes were shining with admiration.

The elegantly dressed man mounted his horse and pulled the reins, preparing to leave. A glance at the two children's expressions inadvertently gave him a faint smile, and he said loudly, "If you're going to Lin'an, you'd better hurry. Yuezhou City was captured yesterday evening, and there will only be more and more refugees from now on. The journey won't be as smooth as it is now."

After saying that, he waved his whip and left without looking back. The horse was a rare good horse. In the blink of an eye, the few people were hundreds of meters away, galloping at lightning speed. Donkey Egg stared blankly, and soon he couldn't even see the hairbands of those people fluttering in the wind.

After a few people left, the people hiding behind the statue came out one after another.

Everyone heard what that person said just now.

Shen patted her chest and said thankfully, "Luckily we managed to get out together at the last moment."

Zhang Pingan frowned. "It's too early to be happy now. We're not far enough from Yuezhou City yet. We need to get up and leave quickly."

Zhang also said: "Let's go, we have some dry food, we can eat on the way."

Zhang Pingan was particularly envious of those people at this moment. If they had good horses, traveling 300 miles a day would be no problem, and they could reach Lin'an in just a few days, which would save a lot of trouble!

It’s a pity that now there are not even enough mules, let alone horses. Even if there were horses, I couldn’t afford to buy them. Alas!

Soon, everyone no longer had the heart to think about these strangers. They walked all the way, and there was no end in sight on the road in the distance. Everyone just wanted to find a place to rest as soon as possible before it got dark.

Our luck tonight was not as good as yesterday. When it got dark, there was no village or shop nearby, so we had to sleep in the wilderness.

Zhang ordered everyone to pull the car to the woods near the official road to rest, with an unshakable sadness between her brows.

Li asked cautiously, "Mother, what's wrong?"

"Are we walking too slowly?" Zhang Pingan asked.

Zhang nodded. "We can't rest so early in the future. I think it would be best if two shifts took turns pulling the cart, sleeping on the cart at different times and moving forward as much as possible. That way we can reach the destination as quickly as possible and keep some distance from the other refugees."

Ma disagreed and muttered, "Mother, I'm already tired enough. I have to walk dozens of miles a day. If you say so, I'll be exhausted if I keep walking day and night!"

Zhang was annoyed: "Can you pull a cart or what? You don't always lie on the cart to rest when you sleep. It's your husband and your son who are tired!"

Although Xu's family didn't have enough men, they had a mule to pull the cart, so she was quite in favor of it. She said, "We only have two men in our family: the child's father and Ping'an. His father is fine, as he has some strength, but Ping'an can't pull the cart. Fortunately, we have a mule. My family can do it!"

The others were hesitant, butcher Liu tried to smooth things over by saying, "Auntie, let's wait and see tomorrow!"

Zhang didn't say anything after hearing this. After eating the dry food, everyone went to bed.

It’s still the same old routine, with two shifts keeping watch.

Although there were no torches, the moonlight was bright enough that anyone passing by on the road could be seen clearly.

By midnight, the sound of wheels of cars passing by could be heard one after another on the official road.

Everyone was awakened, but because of yesterday's experience, no one made a sound.

Zhang Ping'an looked carefully and saw that they were probably refugees fleeing the war, bringing their families, the elderly and children with them, and walking in a hurry.

Those who took the lead all seemed to have good family backgrounds. Zhang Pingan saw that most of them were pulling carts.

Because their side was in the forest, blocked by tall trees and grass, and people on the official road were walking in a hurry and had no time to pay attention to the movements in the forest, so they did not notice the crowd.

"We were caught up so quickly?" Daya exclaimed in a low voice.