Zhao Han was in a daze and did not wake up completely. He only felt extremely hungry and thirsty.

In a daze, his lips and teeth touched the earthen pot, and he subconsciously opened his mouth to drink water.

The cold porridge with dirt and gravel poured into his stomach. Fortunately, Zhao Han regained his energy and opened his eyes to see a girl lying next to him.

"Second brother, are you awake?" Zhao Zhenfang smiled happily with tears in her eyes, and her confused eyes instantly glowed.

"I..." Zhao Han struggled to speak, but after saying just one word, he felt a tearing pain in his throat.

He wanted to use support to get up, but he felt weak all over, as if a ghost was pressing down on the bed. He was clearly conscious, but he couldn't control his body. He couldn't even move his fingers, as if he didn't belong to him below the neck.

Gradually, Zhao Han fell asleep again.

Zhao Zhenfang was also very hungry, so she stayed by her brother's side and ate up the remaining gruel, even holding the earthen pot and licking it all with her tongue.

Finally, officials in Tianjin city organized people to cross the bridge and collect the bodies.

It is summer now, and if hundreds of corpses are not disposed of, it will easily lead to a plague.

Those responsible for carrying the corpses were all officers and soldiers of Tianjin City.

Due to the serious flight of sergeants and the Tatars' expansion in Liaodong, a new Tianjin Army was formed in the last years of Wanli.

The New Army is a battalion system and does not belong to the garrison system. It is allocated from the central government. Excluding the "Zhenhai Camp" and other coastal defense forces, there are more than 6,000 New Army troops in and around Tianjin. However, in the past ten years alone, only a few have escaped.

Two or three thousand.

Moreover, none of the two to three thousand new troops can fight, and they have long been reduced to a slave-like existence.

In addition, there are thousands of guardsmen all over Tianjin, who have been serving as serfs to generals for generations.

Inside and outside, there were tens of thousands of officers and soldiers nearby, but they were so frightened by dozens of horse bandits that they dared to come here now.

"Brother Xiaowu, this one is still breathing."

"If you can't survive, you will be dragged to a mass grave together."

"If you're not injured, you're just hungry. You can still survive with half a bowl of porridge."

"You give him porridge?"

"I don't have enough to eat myself, so how can I give him porridge?"

"Then why are you talking nonsense?"

All of them, living and dead, were loaded onto trucks and dragged to a nearby graveyard for simple burial.

After going back and forth several times, I finally arrived at the Zhao family.

Zhao Zhenfang threw herself on her father's body and screamed: "Don't touch my father!"

When a soldier saw her young age, he couldn't help but said pitifully: "Oh, she's dead. Let's bury your father."

Zhao Zhenfang shook her head and said: "Daddy is not dead, he is asleep."

The soldiers ignored him and moved to carry Zhao Chen's body.

"mother!"

Zhao Zhenfang rushed over like crazy again, making these soldiers shake their heads repeatedly. There were only two corpses, and the little girl refused to move them away, so it would save them trouble.

Zhao Zhenfang finally protected the bodies of her parents and saw the soldiers walking towards her brother. She quickly shouted: "That's my second brother!"

A soldier sighed: "We are the same family, so miserable."

The soldier next to him said: "This guy is not dead, his chest is still moving."

The soldier before leaned over and touched Zhao Han's forehead, shook his head and said, "I have a severe fever, and I only have one breath left."

The soldiers left the Zhao family alone and ran to carry other corpses. Seeing that it was getting dark, this was the last trip. There were still hundreds of corpses left to carry out tomorrow.

The sun sets in the west and the sky becomes dusk.

Six-year-old Zhao Zhenfang's stomach was growling with hunger. She supported her thin body and dragged her second brother to the middle of her parents, and then stayed there silently waiting for dawn.

Zhao Han woke up from hunger in the middle of the night. His head was dizzy, his belly was hungry, and his whole body was weak.

After getting up with difficulty, through the dim moonlight, I could vaguely see the little girl next to me. She seemed to be very hungry, and she curled up even when sleeping, with a pair of small hands covering her stomach.

This is my little sister, Zhao Han suddenly remembered.

No, I am an only child. Where did I get a sister?

Zhao Han shook his confused head and looked down at his clothes. He didn't know what material they were made of, but they felt very rough and had worn patches everywhere. Not even horse bandits would like this kind of clothes.

In the first year of Chongzhen, the new emperor ascended the throne?

Zhao Han sat slumped on the ground and looked at the bright starry sky in ancient times. The situation was so ridiculous that he could not accept it.

He was born in an ordinary family in New China, and his academic performance was pretty good since he was a child. He barely got into a key high school, but unfortunately he didn't get into a key university, so he could only study for an ordinary undergraduate degree.

Because he had dreamed of being a soldier since he was a child, and saw a recruitment banner at school, Zhao Han decided to join the army and became a college soldier.

After two years of hard work in the army, Zhao Han did not apply for promotion, but retired from the army and returned to school to continue his studies.

Seeing that I am about to graduate, I am thinking about whether to take the postgraduate entrance examination or choose to take the civil service examination. Why did I come to ancient times?

And it was still the first year of Chongzhen!

It seems that the Chongzhen Dynasty only lasted seventeen years, and Zhao Han was not sure. Anyway, the Ming Dynasty was not far away from its demise.

Zhao Han knew the general history of the late Ming Dynasty, but he had forgotten many details.

His major is Chinese language and literature. He has studied ancient literature, philology, and classical philology, but unfortunately he has not studied ancient history in depth.

His health was really bad and his high fever had not gone away. Zhao Han fell asleep again in a daze.

Awakened by hunger again in the morning, Zhao Han crawled and rummaged through nearby corpses, but did not harvest any food.

The remaining hundreds of corpses had been turned over several times. Not to mention leaving money and food, even the better clothes were taken away by the officers and soldiers responsible for collecting the corpses.

But Zhao Han was really hungry, his eyes were red from hunger, his stomach hurt like a knife, and he had an urge to bite human flesh.

Looking at those corpses, Zhao Han really wanted to pounce on them and take a few bites.

"Second brother, I'm hungry..."

Zhao Zhenfang didn't know when she woke up. Maybe she was hungry or maybe she was frightened yesterday. She was very depressed at the moment.

Zhao Han still remembered that when he woke up yesterday, the little girl fed him porridge. Whether it was out of the remaining affection in the body or to repay the other person's life-saving grace, he should also take care of this sister, and immediately comforted him: "Don't be afraid, my second brother will find it for you."

food."

There was absolutely no food to be found!

The bark of nearby trees had long been stripped off by hungry people, and even the weeds on the river bank had withered and turned yellow. Most of the water in the canal had dried up, exposing the mudflats of the river bed, with cracks as wide as a palm's length.

Zhao Han wanted to look for insects to supplement some protein, but there was nothing except mosquitoes.

The ground is so dry that even a hoe can't dig it, and earthworms can't even be thought of.

Zhao Han picked up two broken earthen jars and took his sister to the middle of the official road, trying to meet passers-by to beg for food.

After only standing for a few minutes, it was obvious that Zhao Han's body couldn't hold on anymore. He felt so light that a gust of wind could blow him away. He simply knelt down and pretended to be pitiful.

Zhao Zhenfang suddenly reminded: "Second brother, dad said that when a man is alive, he will only kneel to the Lord of Heaven and Earth and his teacher, and will not kneel to ask for food."

"Come on, eat." Zhao Han corrected.

Zhao Zhenfang said: "Yes, it's the food that comes after sighing."

Zhao Han asked back: "Did Dad ever say that a real man should be able to bend and stretch?"

Zhao Zhenfang shook her head.

Zhao Han sighed and said: "Standing is stretching, kneeling is flexing. Kneeling now is so that you can stand in the future. Kneel down, we don't have the strength to stand firm anyway, so just think that we are kneeling to rest."

The brother and sister knelt side by side on the official road, each holding a broken earthen jar, and the morning sun gradually rose.

About two-quarters of an hour later, a caravan came out of the city. Because the canal was dry and it was difficult to sail, they used mules and horses to carry them and headed north.

Zhao Han, who had never begged before, saw the caravan getting closer and closer, and quickly knelt down and picked up the earthen jar in his hand.

But he didn't say a word. After all, he didn't have the nerve to ask for help.

"Get out of the way, stay out of the way!"

The person speaking is a escort escort. Due to the rapid development of business and the lack of peace in the world, the escort industry has become increasingly prosperous in recent decades.

Zhao Han still held the earthen pot high, and a strong bodyguard came over, grabbed him and his sister by their collars, and threw them to the roadside like chickens.

Zhao Han endured the pain and got up, completely letting go of his shame, kneeling down and shouting: "Master, please do me a favor and give me something to eat!"

No one responded, they all turned a blind eye, and the long caravan passed in front of them.

Not long after, another team came from Tianjin City. However, the canals were dry and water transportation was cut off. The imperial court pressed hard and the grain was transferred by land instead.

The soldiers and civilians who transported water were dressed as shabbily as Zhao Han. Some simply wore only a piece of crotch protection cloth and pushed and pulled the grain cart forward under the scorching sun.

The water transport general who was responsible for transporting grain looked smooth and smooth. He was riding a strong horse leisurely. He took out a water bag from time to time and took a few sips to quench his thirst. There were also two hundred servants beside him, all equipped with armor, and he was not afraid of small groups of bandits.

Grab food.

"Second brother, I'm hungry."
To be continued...