It sounds easy to fall into the trap, but the premise is...

The fish must be able to accurately find the location of the net bag in the vast ocean before they can hit it.

However, the Wei army had not yet crossed Ji to the south, so Ju Wuba and Wang Mang could only walk north along the former Shangjia Avenue, hoping to meet a scout.

Jiyin County was once the richest land in Yanzhou in the world, but now, after five or six years of continuous wars and bandit chaos, it has withered into disgrace.

But unlike Wang Mang who witnessed the Green Forest Man in Nanyang who was drunk and dreaming of death in the fortress, dogs and pigs eat people and starves die in the Taoist state, the death of Jiyin County is not divided into wealth and wise and foolish.

Duke Fan was as warm as spring to the brothers and sisters of the Red Eyebrow Army, but was particularly cruel to "outsiders": the merchants in the county were the main targets of the Red Eyebrow Army's torture. Chimei, a small peasant, hated these cunning merchants who had different prices the most. If they could not find food, they would hang them on the trees to death. Not to mention the wealthy households, as the main source of food for the Red Eyebrow Army, the whole family was often destroyed. In addition, the Red Eyebrow Army's discipline was incomplete, and countless wealthy wives and daughters were humiliated. The forts were destroyed by the Red Eyebrow Army one by one.

The basic local order was maintained by the government and gentry together.

As the "rule" of Red Eyebrow also collapsed, what Wang Mang saw in Jiyin was a disorderly world completely in chaos.

The remnants of the army were running around, killing and looting people. The people of this county really "wanted to be slaves but failed." In addition to the dry bones on the road, there were not even a few pedestrians on the road. Those who could run had already run away, either went west to join Wei, or went east to enter Qingzhou. Occasionally, people who met lucky enough to survive were mostly dove-shaped faces and looked like ghosts.

Even like near Suiyang, people who beg for the three elders of the Red Eyebrows in groups and were nowhere to be seen - the backbone of the Red Eyebrows, who have become "Chinese people", were mostly destroyed by the fifth relationship between Heji. Since there is no buyer, the seller can only take his wife, daughter and young children to find a way out. What's more, they will take them to the "people market" and change their children to eat, and call them "vegetarians".

The locals lost everything, but they were "free".

The bones were exposed in the wild, and there was no rooster crowing for thousands of miles. Only Ju Wuba pulled the broken carriage found from a deserted village and dragged Wang Mang to walk forward slowly. Whenever he encountered a defeated Red Eyebrow passer, he would hide in the woods to hide. But no matter how they walked, they still did not see the Wei army's banner.

After the food was over, Wang Mang's stomach began to roar again. It was the end of February. There was no fruit in the wild to collect hunger. The wild beasts were not so easy to fight. You can't let the old emperor chew the bark, right? Ju Wuba ambushed a few lonely red-eyed soldiers, but they were also hungry and had no grain of food on their bodies. Under the beg for mercy and Wang Mang's kindness, they could only let go.

"Your Majesty, there is a surviving fort in front of you, and it seems that there are still people living there!"

The two of them approached the fort, dug deep ravines here, and the soil they dug was very new, probably because they had dug recently. Behind the ravines were reinforced walls, and under the wall were several corpses of the Red Eyebrow Army. They were so hungry that they wanted to rush in to grab food, but were shot and killed by locals.

This is a small armed force that reunited under a powerful organization to resist the Red Eyebrows and all foreigners. For the locals, if they want them to choose a side stand among the powerful masters and the Red Eyebrows army, the former must be more reliable.

This group of people was forced to escape into the mountains and forests by the Red Eyebrows. Recently, they were defeated by the Red Eyebrows, so they returned to their hometown, occupied the fort again, and began to recruit nearby refugees to join. A little spring millet was even planted in the nearby fields. The millet seedlings that were striving to emerge were heart-warming hopes.

A viewing building was erected inside the wall, and the people inside looked at the old and strong who came here with vigilance.

Ju Wu Ba Dao knew his purpose. After a while, the old fortress inside asked him: "Are you red eyebrows?"

This is simply a death question and answer. The natives don’t need to guess the attitude of the Red Eyebrows. If the answer is yes, the response to them will be an arrow.

Ju Wuba shook his head and said that it was a refugee. The fortress owner said again: "Heroic, would you like to be a guest in my fortress?"

In the chaotic times, there were no warriors like Ju Wuba. Ju Wuba looked back at Wang Mang and refused, but the owner of the fort still asked someone to let the rice wrapped in lotus leaves hanging from the wall, enough for them to eat a day.

"He is a very powerful man." Ju Wuba commented on this person.

"As long as he refuses to abolition the slaves, he will be a bad powerful man." Wang Mang thought so, but he did not stop eating the "bad millet rice" in his mouth.

The two continued on the road. After a day, the food was gone, and they could only find the smoke from the distance and touched the edge of a deserted village.

Unlike the fort I passed by before, this deserted village had no defense at all, there was no figure in the alley, and there was not even a single chicken or dog. Ju Wuba could only carry Wang Mang on his back and walk deeper into the village. The more he walked, the more he smelled a fragrance.

The meat smells.

When I got closer, I found a few people gathered in the open space of the village township community. Some were standing in the corner of the wall and peeing, while others were squatting by the stove to catch the fire. The water in the pottery boiled. Seeing that it was a defeated soldier in the red-eyed eyebrow.

They were defeated and fled from the Heji battlefield, and had long lost contact with Xu Xuan's large army and became a group of remnants. The Red Eyebrow used to make a living by plundering and purging grain, but they were targeted at big merchants before, but now they are completely indiscriminate.

Stealing and looting food is just a trivial matter, and what is presented to Ju Wuba and Wang Mang is an even more terrifying scene!

The ground was covered in blood. A naked village woman was tied to the ground, her head was leaning against a wooden stake, her eyes widened, and she had been dead for a long time. The fatal injury was a knife edge on her neck. As for her chest below, her thighs were plucked out of her flesh and she was thrown into a cauldron to cook by the remaining soldiers.

On the grass beside him, there was a thin baby two or three years old, crying powerlessly. He witnessed the scene of his mother being killed. Although he was frightened, he still couldn't stop sobbing.

This made the remaining soldier who was hungry and waiting for the meat to cook angrily drew his sword and pointed it at him: "Don't cry, I won't kill children, don't force me!"

"It's good to reunite him with his mother." Someone said this, licking his lips and touching his whine: "Reunite in our abdomen."

"There is a saying about vegetable people in the market. The young woman calls her a scavenger sheep, the thin old man calls her a scavenger fire, and the children call her a scavenger bone rot, which is the best food..."

As he said that, he walked over, but before he could reach the blood-stained towards the child, Ju Wuba roared and rushed over, and the stick in his hand directly picked up the remaining soldiers and smashed them on the boiling stove!

The other people were stunned and began to grab the broken weapons to siege him, but they were beaten down by Ju Wuba's three punches and two kicks.

The smartest one noticed Wang Mang, who was holding the wall and staring at the scene in front of him, immediately rushed over and wanted to take the old man as a hostage.

However, Ju Wuba took away the broken blade from others, threw it suddenly, and nailed the remaining soldier to the wall!

In a moment, half of the five or six remaining soldiers died, and the remaining wailed on the ground.

"It's pitiful, just cover her."

Wang Mang untied his body-wrapped felt clothes, letting Ju Wuba cover the mother who died tragically and could not hide her eyes, and walked into the child who was still sobbing in the same place.

Old Wang Mang wanted to say something, but his white beard was trembling, but he didn't say anything after all. His hand stretched out stopped in the air and did not touch the child's head, let alone hold him in his arms.

He is compassionate, but he is a savior

"Is it Mr. Tian?"

A red-eyed soldier whose legs were destroyed by Ju Wuba struggled to lift his body and recognized Wang Mang.

Wang Mang also recognized him. Wasn't this the red-eyed soldiers who were intercepted by Ju Wuba on the road a few days ago, but found that they had no food?

Old Wang Mang was very angry, as if he had become the moral teacher of the Red Eyebrow Army again. He pointed at him and cursed: "Red Eyebrow is an ancient benevolent soldier. He only killed the nobles and did not abuse the people. How could he become a man-eating beast now?"

"We don't want to do this, but we're hungry." The red-eyed soldier cried and said, "Previously, Weng Tian and the giant wanted to steal our food."

"We will grab food from the weaker ones."

"Those who have no food."

"In order to survive, we can only eat it! Even if we don't eat it, the mother and son will be abandoned, and she will still have problems with her legs and feet, and will sooner or later starve to death in the deserted village."

In contrast to the great similarity in the world that Wang Mang expected, the young and the young are different from the young. Without the belief in the paradise and the red-eyed soldiers who lost Fan Chong's backbone are no different from ordinary bandits.

No, they are no longer humans, but a group of wild beasts and ghosts!

But the red-eyed soldier still felt wronged and patted his chest and said, "You are hungry too. When you really can't hold on, is this person eating or..."

His argument came to an abrupt end, but Ju Wuba raised a stone for washing clothes in the village and smashed his head!

Wang Mang's heart was full of sadness. The war caused production to stagnate, and the food he saved was less and less. People were able to eat people, which was almost inevitable. That's why Wang Mang tried hard to help Fan Chong, wanting to reorganize production through land division, hoping to stop these tragedies, but the fifth relationship did not give him time!

At this moment, a burst of rapid horse hooves and footsteps came from outside, and a group of cavalry rushed into the village and surrounded the two of them in the middle.

Then came in. A powerful man with gray hair, who gave them food yesterday. Ju Wuba called him a "good powerful man". Now he has become a leader, pointing at Ju Wuba and Wang Mang and said, "The superior official, these two people!"

The visitor was Zhang Yu, the commander of the embroidered clothes. They followed the forward to attack Chu Qiuting and learned that Wang Mang had escaped. They searched everywhere and targeted Ju Wuba. Such tall giants are rare. In addition, they will be impressed by the combination with the white-haired old man.

Looking at the scene in the village, Zhang Yu roughly understood what was going on, and bowed to the vigilant Ju Wuba: "General Ju, I followed Emperor Wei back then and had the honor to meet him a few times. Now, Emperor Wei heard that the general was in Heji, so he specially asked me to invite him."

While saying that Zhang Yu's mind was not on Ju Wuba, he only stared at the old Wang Mang behind him. Wang Mang was not afraid and said loudly: "The fifth rebellion of the minister, don't you come to welcome him?"

This is asking for death! If it were someone else, Zhang Yu would definitely try the cruel methods of the embroidered captain, but at this moment he could only say: "Your Majesty is waiting for... Weng Tian."

Although he was dissatisfied, Wang Mang still competed with his hands in the face of bow arrows and spears, and asked Ju Wuba to drag him out with a carriage. He only said to Zhang Yu before leaving: "Let's bury this woman well."

"And that child..."

Why do you still treat yourself as the emperor? Zhang Yu was so angry that Wang Mang was indeed not an ordinary king of a country that was destroyed.

The fortress owner who led Zhang Yu volunteered: "I can take in this child."

"Make sure he has no worries about food and clothing. When he grows up, he can be my servant."

After hearing this, Wang Mang suddenly turned around, furiously pointed at the nose of the fortress owner and said, "We used to think you were a very powerful man, but you were so despicable?"

The fortress owner was inexplicably. Isn’t he doing good deeds? With this child’s origin, it would be better to let him be a slave than to starve to death, be eaten by someone, and be taken away by a wolf? The world is so chaotic, it would be good to survive. What else should I pay attention to? Don’t be a slave, raise a son? Be a father to offer it?

However, Zhang Yu looked at the child and couldn't help but think of himself and Zhu Di, and shook his head and said, "Well, bury the woman well, and I will take the child back together."

Then he laughed at himself: "I came to this chaotic place and walked around. The orphan army around His Majesty will probably increase from thousands to tens of thousands!"

After hearing this, Wang Mang was still dissatisfied and muttered: "After the fifth reunification pretending to be filial and righteous, loyal and trustworthy, he began to pretend to be kind again?"

But this should be the best result for the child. I just hope that he is still young and can forget the miserable situation today. Wang Mang only lets the cavalry hold him and Ju Wuba leave the village.

The fortress owner was still unsatisfied. Before leaving, he asked Zhang Yu: "Sir, are there any clean red marks on the giant and the old man's eyebrows? Could it be that those people are red eyebrows?"

"Yes, not all." Zhang Yu laughed. Since the emperor decided to disclose it to the world, he naturally had his plans and had nothing to hide. He just said before throwing down the golden cake.

"This white-haired old man with a mouth full of feces is named Wang Mang."

"Wang Mang?"

It was such a familiar and unfamiliar name. Perhaps it was because the days of troubled times were too difficult, or because the previous dynasty was too long, or because there was no chance to call the emperor directly, the fortress master suddenly realized after a while.

"The new family emperor? He is really not dead? He is still mingling with the red eyebrows, and the snake and the mouse are tying their nests together?"

Thinking of all the tragedies in my hometown today, the root of those relatives and friends who were killed by the Red Eyebrows was Mang Chao's humble state. Without Wang Mang, maybe the red eyebrows would not have breeded. The owner of the fort looked indignant and finally spat a mouthful of thick phlegm in the direction where Wang Mang went.

"It's not a good thing! I'm just feeding my bag of lotus leaf and millet rice!"

...

The fifth reunion did not allow the soldiers to launch a large pursuit of the remnants of the Red Eyebrows, because many places in Yanzhou were combed by the Red Eyebrows and almost became an unmanned land after being combed through the last line. The army's supplies were absolutely impossible to keep up, not to mention that the Wei army also captured nearly 100,000 Red Eyebrow soldiers.

So the fifth reunion only sent people to Chuqiuting to "rescue" Wang Mang. The large army was divided into two and Dingtao. The other half moved into Jiyang County with him and received food from Chenliu nearby.

Wang Mang and Ju Wuba walked west along the Jishui River under Zhang Yu's "escort". The more they went west, the more they could feel that they had entered a slightly orderly and civilized area from a chaotic place of beasts.

The first thing I saw was the charred corpses hanging on the trees and nailed to the wooden stakes. Going forward, the trees gradually became sparse, but there were still so many corpses. Crows were screaming and flying from the charred corpses, waiting for them to pass, and then fell down again.

There were even wild dogs lying on the edge of eating bones, not afraid of people. When they raised their eyes, their eyes turned red. Wang Mang seemed to see the few red-eyed soldiers who were feeding on those days!
To be continued...