In mid-April, in Pei County, Yuzhou and Daze Township, Qi County, Huaibei, the sky was covered with clouds and was very low, making people breathless.

At the end of the Qin Dynasty, Chen Sheng and Wu Guang called out here, "Will the kings, princes, generals and ministers be more likely to be a seed?" But now, another group of poor people have no interest in the status of the kings and kings, and just want to use their hoes to dig out grain from the ground.

During the six-month occupation period of the Red Eyebrow Army, the great surname of Pei County had been completely destroyed, and the Zhao family, the largest surname in Qi County, could not survive. The two sons of the Zhao family also ran to the people and had already snatched all the things they could snatch.

But now Chimei is back, just because of a local rumor.

"The head of the Zhao family was General Tian He of Wang Mang, who was specialized in the field of farming. He pulled the grain from home one by one. I heard that a large cellar was dug under the fort, which was dozens of feet deep, and thousands of stones of grain were stored in the storm!"

Huaibei was famine, and the millet planted in spring was still only green seedlings, but the old grain had been eaten up. In order to search for grain, the Red Eyebrow Army left in Peidi had reached a madness and wished that the land would be scraped. This rumor sounded absurd, but Liu Xiaqing believed it and took his subordinates back to the broken Zhao family fortress.

Liu Penzi and others squatted outside the fort and added firewood to the set stove. They were engaged in the talk. After digging the grain, they immediately put down rice and cooked porridge. Some people would probably not be able to hold on if they didn't eat the food.

He used a stick to pound the ground and an axe to smash the wall. The hungry people could do anything. Finally, with a surprise shout, he really found a cellar!

But when they were excitedly going in, they found that there were mostly silk lacquerware and grain, and there was no grain!

The silk is exquisite, but what are the uses of these things in the year of famine? Liu Xiaqing was so angry that he threw them into the fire and burned them as straw.

"Dig! Keep digging!"

Liu Xiaqing was unwilling to give up and asked someone to pry open the floor tiles in the yard. He dug more than a dozen holes, and even hollowed out the pigpen. He didn't find any food. Everyone worked for a day in vain, but they just sat on the ground so tired that they were sitting on the ground. The atmosphere was extremely depressed.

How many red eyebrows, old, weak, women and children were waiting outside the fort, their faces were dry, their eyes collapsed into two holes, and their cheeks were also sinking into two pits, and their skin was like a piece of white paper, sticking to their bones. The food that could be eaten was taken away by the young and strong who went to the west to fight. This month, everyone didn't know how they survived it, and they were eager to drink porridge, but they didn't expect it to be empty.

"Bring people up!"

Liu Xiaqing was furious and asked someone to push a half-large child with a big tie up, tie it to the pillar, and raise his hand and hit it!

This person is the second son of the Zhao family, named Zhao Li, who is about the same age as Liu Penzi, has a pale face and a thin skin, and looks sick.

"Where is the grain!?"

"I don't know, I don't know, there is no food." Zhao Li was very scared, and Liu Xiaqing had lost patience when he looked at the hungry people outside.

"If you don't say it, then I'll cook you!"

Liu Penzi was stunned, but was kicked by Liu Xiaqing: "Go and add to the fire!"

The stove was set up outside the fort early in the morning, and there was a huge and crude pottery cauldron. The cauldron was filled with boiling water, which made Liu Benzi's cheeks hot.

Liu Xiaqing just used this to scare Zhao Li and asked him to explain where the food was. However, many red eyebrows really became energetic when they heard it, and even licked their cracked lips.

"God of your life, General."

It was not Zhao Li who spoke, but the voice sounded outside the crowd. A man in rags walked in on his own initiative, but he was the eldest son of Zhao, who had been fleeing among the people, Zhao Xiao, whose courtesy name was Changping.

He and his brother were hiding in the zen. The day before yesterday, they went out to find food. When they returned to their hiding place, they found that their brother had been arrested. So they pretended to be a beggar to find out the news, but they didn't want to see such a scene in the ruins of their own house.

"Zhao Family, I have been looking for you for a long time and finally showed up."

Liu Xiaqing grabbed Zhao Xiao, slapped twice, and made a heavy blow to his nose. He held a knife and slashed his eyes: "Say, where is your family grain hidden?"

"There is no surplus food." Zhao Xiao looked up angrily: "There was a famine last year. My father had passed away in Chengchang. I distributed the food to the hungry people in the county. The rest were taken away by the generals and others, and there was no grain left."

"I originally hoped to plant some wheat, but..."

But in winter, the red eyebrows came and Huaibei was in chaos. Who had the heart to farm? In addition, there was no snow in the winter, which caused almost no harvest of wheat fields. Now it is sparse. Even if the harvest is in two months, the harvest will not be enough.

"You are so stubborn!"

Liu Xiaqing was furious: "Cook Zhao Li!"

"Don't eat my brother!"

Zhao Xiao thought that the red eyebrows were hungry and would not choose to eat, so he hugged Liu Xiaqing's legs tightly and said, "My brother is sick and very thin. His meat must not be delicious. If you want to eat it, eat me!"

Zhao Xiao's face was covered in tears, and his arm was exposed and said, "I am healthy and not sick. I must be better than my brother."

Liu Xiaqing and others were stunned for a moment. Unexpectedly, there were people in the world who were willing to die, looking at each other in shock.

"Don't eat my brother!"

Zhao Li also cried and said, "It was me who was accidentally caught. It was destined to be eaten by you. But what are the sins of my brother?"

For a moment, the brothers hugged each other and advised each other to let themselves die. In desperation, they were already crying.

This scene made Chimei feel very uncomfortable, and Huan Tan also took the opportunity to come in and persuade him.

"Are you really going to kill such a filial and brotherly person? "

Liu Xiaqing knew that the Zhao family really had no surplus food. After Huan Tan persuaded him, he gave up and drove the two brothers into the captive camp of the army. He did rough work with Huan Tan, Liu Penzi and others, and even cursed and found a way out for himself.

"Just scare you."

"Fan Giant said that even if Red Eyebrow starves to death, no one cannibalizes people!"

...

But no one has the final say whether the tragedy in the world will happen.

There are only tens of thousands of red eyebrows left in Peidi, most of whom are the elderly, weak, women and children. The food is gone and there is no porridge.

So Huan Tan, Liu Pengzi and Zhao Xiao, the former masters, could only eat bran with Red Eyebrow, roast the aged grain clothes, pound them finely, then dig out the kudzu root and chop them into noodles, mix them and drink them with a bean curd. Some plants have to drink in big gulp, and some rhizomes are very bitter and can't swallow them in small gulp.

Some people also peel the bark of elm trees, as if they were peeling the clothes of rich people, cutting them into pieces, drying them, and grinding them into noodles to make soup. The soup was very delicious and sticky. It was cool and sucked and drank it, and drank a bowl of soup in one sip.

Liu Pengzi learned to dig wild vegetables and pick up the ground softly. Fortunately, it was summer. As soon as there was rain, the hillside was full of green plants. People who knew the species could accurately find something to eat from a pile of weeds. However, Liu Pengzi and others didn't understand it, so they could only dig around like cutting cow grass. All the cows were gone, either killing them and eating meat, or carrying baggage to the main force of the Red Eyebrow to fight the west.

There are many people digging wild vegetables, and some people are so hungry that they pinch the wild vegetables and stuff them into their mouths, chewing them to their teeth green. Liu Banzi felt that they were like rushing to the green grass to grab the green cattle and sheep, leaving only the instinct to eat.

There are also many people who accidentally ate poisonous weeds and died. Liu Penzi and Zhao brothers went to collect the corpses. He found that these people were not hideous when they died, and always smiled. Later he realized that dying at this time was luck, so he no longer had to experience more painful hunger.

When the wild vegetables were eaten up and the new ones were not too late to grow and the bark in the forest was stripped naked, even more crazier things began to happen.

Some people who were hungry and went to eat rotten wood, stuffed the wood residue and firewood into their mouths and chewed.

There are also dirt-eating things, and what you can eat are things called "kaolin" later generations.

During the most difficult days, Liu Banzi gave the safe food to Huan Tan who accidentally ate poisonous vegetables and vomited and had diarrhea. He was dying, but he tried to eat soil, which was extremely difficult to swallow, just like chewing sand.

"Isn't soil just sand?" Zhao Xiao also swallowed with him. He gave more food to his younger brother and took care of Huan Tan. Zhao Xiao also called Xiaolian a man and met Huan Tan in Chang'an.

After swallowing the soil, it can relieve hunger, but the most uncomfortable thing is that the stomach is bloated in the back, but it can't be discharged for an hour. After half a month, some people died of bloating.

Liu Pengzi was afraid, so he could only lie on the stone and asked Zhao Xiao and Zhao Li brothers to use chopsticks to pick him up feces. The pain made him scream like a pig killer, and the blood dyed Zhao Xiao's hands red.

Liu Penzi cried so hard. When his brother was still alive, even though he was herding cattle in the Red Eyebrow Army, he had never suffered such grievances. He just sobbed and said that he would never eat dirt again, and would not eat it when he starved to death.

There are many people who think the same as him. In the past few days, corpses have been stolen one after another. The corpses that were buried were dug out. The people who died of starvation were so thin that they were only left with bones, their flesh was cut off by insharp objects.

Liu Xiaqing was very angry. The bandits outside could do this, but the red eyebrows were not good. They also caught a few red eyebrows. The people were quite aggrieved: "Don't the dead people thrown in the ravine also called dogs and wolves to chew them? Instead of being cheaper beasts, why can't people eat them!"

"Man is not a beast!" Liu Xiaqing cursed and killed several people, but it was useless. The corpse stolen more and more severely, and finally even ate living people...

On this day, Liu Banzi and Zhao Li went to look for wild vegetables as usual. When they passed by a room, Zhao Li said that he smelled the fragrance.

Following this smell, he came to a room, and the heat was coming out of the crack in the door. When he opened the door, he saw no one. He saw the stove burning, something was cooking in the pottery, and the sound of the gust of the windows inside the house was closed, and the meat was filled with fragrance.

Maybe it was a wild dog or a wolf? They knew that the local hunters who lived here were lame, who often could catch some birds, and occasionally felt sorry for them. They were rich and noble families who had fallen to this point. They gave them some bird legs, and Liu Banzi could suck them all day, while the old hunters looked at them and smiled with strange eyes.

Liu Banzi had been eating soil for a few days and was so hungry that he walked over and wanted to drink some soup. This was not considered stealing.

But Zhao Li grabbed him tightly and pointed at the water tank in the room in fear!

It was a human hair bun, which was placed on the head of the water tank. Liu Pengzi was so hungry that he was dizzy. He thought someone was hiding behind the water tank. When he walked over, he saw that the back of the tank was empty! But the hair bun was stained with blood! Fresh blood!

He immediately became scared and his legs were weak. At this time, another door in the kitchen walked in to the hunter's limp figure and asked them why they were here.

Not only are there red eyebrows on the forehead, but even their eyes are red and watery.

"It's a young man."

The old hunter did not look at the faces of the two, but his arms, legs, belly, and his attitude was still quite kind. He stretched out his hand, as if he was about to touch Liu Benzi's hair bun.

"I'm hungry, I have meat, can you eat it?"

...

Liu Penzi and Zhao Li escaped, and when the Red Eyebrows were engaged in the incident, Liu Xiaqing was so angry that he was so angry that he immediately brought people to the door to capture the hunter. Only then did he realize that he had used the dried bird legs to deceive a father-less child and killed him and ate his flesh.

The old hunter was executed in public, but before his death, he still had red eyes and cursed: "In the past, everything in the land was good. Even in the disaster year, he could peel the bark and eat it until you reach this point. It was a drought and the land was deserted, and even the bark of grass roots and trees was eaten. It was not that I wanted to eat people, but that you forced me to eat people!"

After saying that, Liu Xiaqing had already chopped his head with an axe and threatened that if there were any cannibals in the future, he would be killed without mercy.

“He made sense.”

Zhao Xiao took Liu Penzi and Zhao Li to watch this scene and said, "The locals were all forced to death by the Red Eyebrow."

"Although Red Eyebrows do not eat people personally, it is the culprit of the great hunger in Peidi. There are hungry birds in the wild, which is to lead beasts to eat people!"

"Doctor Huan said that Chimei thought that your family members of the Liu family and my family's wealthy clan were all big rats."

Zhao Xiao looked at Chimei with hatred, killing his father and destroying his family's hatred: "That's the more hateful locusts! The man-made disasters caused are ten times more than before!"

But after hatred, they did not escape from Chimei's escape, because the Zhao brothers had been to the marginal areas controlled by Chimei, which was completely out of order. The bandits were rampant, eating people or changing their children, which was common.

But if this continues, the people in Peidi will starve to death. The Red Eyebrows are already discussing that it is not possible, so they go to Huai River to try their luck. The two forces in Huainan: Li Xian, King of Huainan and Liu Xiu, King of Wu, both sent ships to block the water surface and block the Red Eyebrows from moving south. Maybe they can find the ship to cross it.

But whether they can beat the southern regime by the elderly, the weak, the sick and the disabled is also a question.

Fortunately, at this moment, a good news came from the west: "Runan has been captured by Giant Fan!"

"Green Forest is defeated and withdrawn to Nanyang!"
To be continued...