Zhongmu is on the edge of Zheng County, not too far from Dengfeng, only about one hundred kilometers.

There is no railway connection between the two.

For Wei Dayong, who had only been to the town at the foot of the mountain after becoming a monk, this time he was a long trip.

He can choose to ride a horse, ride a carriage or walk any way to travel.

Kongming Temple raises more than a dozen horses every day, and Wei Dayong's riding skills are not bad. However, considering that the horses are not useful in the yellow area and it is inconvenient to keep them with him, he gave up this plan.

If time is not urgent, Wei Dayong can walk directly along the route of Dengfeng-Xinmi-Zheng County-Zhongmu.

Anyway, with his footsteps, he should be able to arrive in Zhongmu in less than two days.

But at the moment, Wei Dayong was eager to rush to the road, so he made up his mind to take a carriage and go directly to Zheng County, and then walk into the flooded Zhongmu County.

However, when Wei Dayong arrived in the town and asked about the price of the carriage, he realized that his pitiful savings would go bankrupt if he took the bus directly to Zheng County.

The reason is very simple.

At that time, the monks in Kongming Temple had a fixed monthly silver every month after they were fifteen years old, but the amount was very small, which was better than nothing.

Anyway, the monks eat and live in the temple, and their ordinary clothes, shoes and hats are also supplied in a unified manner.

Even if you are traveling, you will beg for alms all the way, and you will have a place where you can give alms and rice with good men and women, and there is no place to spend money.

Wei Dayong was a monk for 10 years, but when he was a novice monk in his early years, he did not earn a little bit of income, and it only took two years to get monthly money.

Therefore, there was not much money in his pocket, thanks to his master who gave him two silver dollars before going down the mountain.

On weekdays, Wei Dayong decided not to spend money indiscriminately. Traveling in a carriage was a luxury for him.

But at the moment he was anxious and wished he could reach Zhongmu with both wings. So after thinking about it, he finally hired a carriage.

Wei Dayong was reluctant to spend the silver dollars given by his master, and his own money was not enough.

In desperation, Wei Dayong set his destination in Xinmi and decided to get off there, walk through Zheng County, and then head towards Zhongmu.

Even so, more than a dozen people in the carriage were looking at Wei Dayong with strange eyes—

They have seen so many customers who are so generous in spending money, but it is the first time that the monk who is willing to spend money to hire a car has seen it.

It is called a carriage, but it is actually a convertible flatbed cart, which is usually used to transport goods.

However, there was no better means of transportation in the town. Wei Dayong was born as a poor child and did not pay much attention to it, so he didn't care much. He jumped directly to the carriage board, and the coachman raised his whip, and the carriage "dede" was on the road.

After a bumpy journey, the carriage took nearly half a day to arrive from Dengfeng to the suburbs of Xinmi City.

This is a three-way intersection in the suburbs, with no houses around it.

One of the roads under his feet is the way to the city of Xinmi County, and the other road bypasses the city of the county and leads to Zheng County.

The coachman tied the reins, shouted at the horses to stop, and shouted to Wei Dayong, who was leaning on his bag to make up for his sleep: "Here, get off!"

Wei Dayong opened his eyes and sat upright.

He got up early in the morning to practice martial arts and spent his energy in the competition. Now he slept in the car and felt clear and refreshed, and he became much more energetic.

Look at the sky, it is already evening.

Wei Dayong paid for the car and jumped out of the carriage with a bag.

After patting the dust on his body and exerting his muscles and bones, Wei Dayong did not rush to rush, but glanced around first.

He had never been to Zhongmu. Due to the rules in the temple, his parents had only been to Kongmingsi once. At that time, he asked him to write his specific address on the water surface of the paper.

From then on, around the Spring Festival every year, his mother would ask someone to give him some things.

Xinmi is a strange place for Wei Dayong.

However, he had already inquired about the route before. As long as he walked along this highway around Xinmi Road and headed east, he would reach Zheng County and then go to Zhongmu.

Wei Dayong, who had just got off the bus, immediately noticed that there were many people on the road, hiking from Zheng County with their families and heading towards the opposite direction of him.

There are also many tired people sitting on the road and resting weakly.

All of these people looked sad, their bodies were dirty, covered with unwashed mud, and they didn't carry a few decent luggage. Most of them had only a few simple bags.

I don’t know if they were too frightened, tired, or hungry, but Wei Dayong felt that they were all in a daze and almost everyone didn’t speak, like a walking corpse.

Wei Dayong realized that this was probably the surviving victims of the Yellow River Flood.

They escaped by chance and did not dare to stay in their hometown and wait for death, so they began to flee to places they felt relatively safe.

However, Zheng County is a relatively large city. Why don’t they stay in Zheng County but come all the way to Dengfeng?

Wei Dayong was interested in asking someone to find out the situation in the disaster area, but when he thought about it, these people had just suffered a disaster and were in great depression. If they rashly stopped the question, most people would not pay any attention to him.

Thinking of this, Wei Dayong did not easily inquire about the news, but carefully tied up his bags and walked along the road.

After walking for a long time, Wei Dayong saw an abandoned pavilion on the side of the road, with a huge straw hut next to it. It must have been a place to sell big bowls of tea.

Nowadays, the place is in ruins and no one has been seeking livelihoods here, only a large number of victims are stranded.

It was getting late at this time, and Wei Dayong decided to stay here for the night.

He saw someone cooking outside the straw hut, throwing a few wild vegetables dug out of the straw hut, pouring some flour, and cooking it into a batter, and then making it a good meal.

Some people also silently chew on their own dry food.

Because they had just left for two days to escape, these people still had some food on hand, and after a few days, their lives would be sad and I was afraid they had to beg for a living.

Wei Dayong glanced at him and saw a young man sitting alone in a corner of the straw shed, about the same age as him.

This man is solid and sturdy, with empty hands, and his clothes are like beggars, covered with yellow mud spots and mud spots, which is very sloppy.

Looking at his pants again, they may have been waded in the mud. Although they have been dry after being sunburned for two days, their black pants have been soaked in the yellow mud and almost turned yellow.

Not only was the clothes worn in disguise, the boy looked dull, as if his soul had left his body, leaving only an empty body.

Only those eyes that were still jumping with the flames of life, staring at the food in their hands, and kept licking their cracked lips with their tongues.

Wei Dayong thought: This young man was alone and should be able to take out some useful things from him.

He paced forward calmly, put his hands together, and said to the despaired young man: "Geji Tofu! The little monk is polite!"

The young man raised his godless eyes and looked at the little monk who suddenly appeared from somewhere in a daze. The corners of his mouth twitched twice, as if he wanted to say something, but he couldn't say a word.

Looking at the worrying mental state of the boy, Wei Dayong sat down beside him: "The little donor's surname is Gao?"

At this time, the boy seemed to suddenly wake up, and looked at the stranger in front of him alertly without answering.

Of course, Wei Dayong could show off his fierce look and threaten the other party to answer, but he did not do so.

He took out two steamed buns from his bag, handed one of them to the other party, and started to chew with the other one with his mouth.

The boy obviously hadn't eaten for a long time and was already hungry. He took the steamed buns without hesitation and started to eat them voraciously. Because he ate too fast, he almost choked and couldn't breathe.

Wei Dayong handed over the bamboo tube containing water. The young man took a few sips and hurried to eat steamed buns, fearing that Wei Dayong would take them back.

With food in his stomach, the boy's spirit recovered a little, and his originally dull and unconscious eyes also became a little more agile.

Wei Dayong felt that at the age of this young man, he must have family members. Since this person was alone, perhaps his family was washed away by the flood, or he might have been separated on the way to escape.

So he changed his tone and said, "I know you fled because the Yellow River broke out. I will ask you one thing, do you want to find your parents?"

The boy's eyes lit up, and a little bit of expression flashed, and even his chewing stopped: "Are you serious?"

Wei Dayong looked stern: "Mencius will not lie. As long as you answer my questions well, I will do my best to help you find your parents."

The young man nodded repeatedly: "Please speak with your words, little master, you must speak with all your words."

"Okay! Or the question just now, your name?"

"Liu Tiezhu."

"Where are people?"

"Zhongmu County."

Wei Dayong was delighted when he heard this: "Which village in Zhongmu?"

"Liujiazhuang."

Wei Dayong didn't hear his parents mention the place name Liujiazhuang, so he asked: "Have you been to Yaojia Town? How far is it from Liujiazhuang?"

"I have heard that our town is called Hutou Town, and Yaojia Town is our neighboring town. There are always twenty or thirty miles, and I have never been there."

Wei Dayong nodded and began to ask questions related to the flood: "Tell me everything you see, start with the flood flooding Liujiazhuang."

When the word "flood" was mentioned, Liu Tiezhu, who was originally confused, subconsciously shuddered, as if he was deeply afraid of this word.

He slowly closed his eyes and recalled the most terrifying day in his sixteen-year-old life.
Chapter completed!