RPAGF Chapter 164 By the Canglan River
Chapter 164 By the Canglan River
Meng Fuqing ignored the cunning White Wolf, quickly washed herself, and went to help with the cooking.
In the current situation, having a wolf guarding the group can also serve as a deterrent.
After dinner, Du Zhong and Meng Bochang reminded the night watchmen to stay alert and not to let their guard down.
Recalling what they had seen and heard on the road over the past two days, and the various chaotic situations among the refugees, everyone nodded solemnly.
In the middle of the night, the caravan was attacked by refugees.
Before they even reached their resting place, the white wolf had already become alert. Its long howl startled everyone, and Meng Fuqing immediately recognized it as the white wolf calling its companions.
She quickly reached the white wolf's side, and the wolf's howling stopped abruptly.
Not far from her, some disheveled and emaciated refugees seemed to be afraid of the white wolf's presence and hesitated to approach.
Just then, one of the refugees shouted, "We're all going to die anyway, the bold get rich and the timid starve, I'll go for it!"
Upon hearing this, the refugees swarmed forward.
Qi Liang, who had rushed to Meng Fuqing's side, sneered, "These are all tricks I've played before!"
As he drew his knife, he was about to charge into the crowd of refugees when Meng Fuqing called out, "Come back!"
Qi Liang paused, glanced at Meng Fuqing reluctantly, but ultimately did not disobey. He simply stayed by Meng Fuqing's side with Niu Er and the others who arrived a little later.
Meng Fuqing took out the bamboo bombs he had just made that day, lit the cotton core, and threw them between the refugees and the caravan.
With a loud bang, dirt and rocks flew everywhere, and the refugees closest to the bamboo bomb were hit, screaming in pain.
Niu Er's eyes lit up. "Boss, when did you get gunpowder? This stuff is amazing! It's much faster than us fighting one by one!"
"Made by Miss Ling Qi this afternoon."
At the same time, an explosion was heard from the side where Xie Jin and the others were guarding the supplies and horses, and the twisted screams of people reached everyone's ears.
Xie Jin said coldly, "Anyone who dares to take a step forward will be treated like this person."
He seemed to be using internal force when he said this, and others felt their eardrums bulge, or even had the illusion of tinnitus.
Suddenly, the white wolf beside Meng Fuqing twitched its ears, took a step forward, and howled at the moon once more.
A wolf howl echoed from afar.
Meng Fuqing frowned as he looked at it. Could it be contacting its companions?
What she thought of, others among the refugees also thought of. A rustling sound arose, and the refugees, who were already stunned by the explosion, quickly dispersed like a tide.
Everything returned to calm, but Meng Fuqing was still a little worried about the white wolf. She had raised it for so long, what if it ran away with a wild wolf?
"The explosion you made earlier, was it this powerful?" Qi Liang suddenly asked.
Meng Fuqing was taken aback, recalling the first time she met Qi Liang. "Oh, no, it's mainly so you can hear a sound."
After saying that, she left.
Qi Liang stood there, his face darkening.
Niu Er chuckled twice, then pulled Qi Liang along and led the group of brothers to patrol the area around their resting place before finally settling down to rest.
There was no further disturbance in the latter half of the night.
When Meng Fuqing woke up in the morning, he was comforted to find that even though he hadn't tied up the white wolf, it hadn't run off with the wild wolves during the night.
The white wolf would never know that Meng Fuqing's vines had wrapped around its legs, and that it would be discovered by Meng Fuqing if it tried to escape.
Once they were back on the road, the white wolf was very attentive, running around the caravan. If any refugees tried to approach, it would pounce on them before they could even be alerted.
Even Du Zhong praised the white wolf for being intelligent and even asked Meng Fuqing for advice on how to raise wolves.
Remembering how he had captured the white wolf, Meng Fuqing felt that it just wanted to eat and drink for free.
So Meng Fuqing replied, "It's lazy and doesn't want to hunt."
Du Zhong choked for a moment, then chuckled and left.
Whether it was because news traveled quickly among the refugees or something else, the large group of refugees who had followed them had vanished without a trace.
The closer one gets to the river, the more large numbers of refugees there are, and the more desolate the surrounding scenery becomes.
The roadside weeds that were once ubiquitous along the way are now hard to find, the bark of the trees along the roadside has been stripped off, and you can even see refugees surrounding corpses doing something.
Before reaching the river, they clashed with the refugees again, and the bamboo bombs proved their worth.
Upon hearing the commotion from afar, the refugees realized that they should absolutely not provoke these people unless absolutely necessary.
There is water by the river, and if you look further out you can find grass roots and tree bark. If all else fails, there is other food to eat. What they have been doing for so long is trying to survive.
Upon arriving at the riverbank, the group was once again shocked by what they saw in the river.
The water level of the Canglan River has dropped significantly, and some parts of the riverbed have even dried up. Not only are there the bodies of displaced people floating in the river, but there are also many bodies trapped in the mud.
Even so, some people were still drinking water from the river.
Meng Fuqing and Xie Jin stood on horseback by the river, observing the scene before them, each lost in their own thoughts.
"Meng Fuqing, are you wondering if the river, once frozen at night, can support the weight of the carriage?"
“No, I’m looking at that person.” Meng Fuqing pointed to a man not far from them.
The man was clutching his stomach, vomiting incessantly, and his body was shivering uncontrollably.
He seemed to have just drunk water from the river, and when he vomited, he vomited it all back into the river. The man, who was already barely skin and bones, collapsed on the riverbank, barely alive, after vomiting.
Xie Jin noticed the man's unusual behavior and frowned slightly. "Plague?"
Meng Fuqing nodded, "Very likely."
Xie Jin immediately summoned Mu Sheng and instructed everyone not to touch the river water, and even more so, not to have any contact with the refugees.
The caravan then found a place with relatively few refugees, extensively fumigated it with sulfur, and then temporarily settled down there.
They need to wait until the early hours of the morning, after the river and riverbed have frozen, before they can cross the river.
As for whether the ice or the riverbed can withstand the weight of the carriage, we can only wait until the early hours of the morning to find out.
All they could do was try their best to lighten the load on the carriages, discarding what they didn't need and carrying the rest by hand.
At worst, a few hundred people can make several trips back and forth to move it.
As the caravan was busy at work, they suddenly heard a man speak in a mocking voice: "You don't mean to transport your goods across the river by horse-drawn cart, do you? You're from the north, aren't you? Stop dreaming."
Meng Bochang stood up and looked at the man, only to find that the man's hair was disheveled and he could not see his face clearly at all. He could only vaguely tell that he was a young man.
Seeing that he was alone, Meng Bochang wanted to inquire about what had happened that night, so he cupped his hands and said, "Young friend, what can I do for you?"
Seeing that someone responded, the man immediately tried to step forward, but after taking only two steps, he was blocked by two long halberds.
"Stand here, do not come any closer."
The man rubbed his hair dejectedly. "I'll talk, but you have to give me a pancake. Otherwise, I won't have the strength to talk."
Seeing that he didn't ask for an exorbitant amount, Meng Bochang tossed him one of his own pancakes, which the man sat down on the spot and began to wolf down.
After he finished eating, he spoke: "This isn't the North. At night, the ice freezes, and people can walk, but carriages might not. Not to mention, if the riverbed isn't frozen solid, you can easily get stuck in the mud and not be able to get out. See those people in the riverbed? There are quite a few who are completely buried."
"If you want to cross, you should head east along the Canglan River. There's a suspension bridge there, but unfortunately, it's been taken over by a gang of bandits. You have to pay silver to cross, and with so many carts and goods, you probably won't be able to cross without paying a hefty toll."