The refugees had hoped to enter the city to buy supplies and rest for a while.
Instead, they couldn’t even get through the gates.
A sea of people crowded beneath the city walls.
“Why won’t you let us in? I have a travel permit!” one man shouted.
“Spies sent by the Tatars are hiding among you. For the safety of Yanggu County and the people of Yuansheng Kingdom, no one is permitted to enter the city.”
“My lord! My lord! I’m from Yanggu County! I have my Household Registration documents!” another man cried.
“No. No one is allowed inside.”
“Why won’t you let us in?”
“Open the gates!”
“I want to go home!”
The crowd erupted into angry protests.
“You officials don’t even treat common people like human beings! You’re no different from the Tatars! You—”
Before the man could finish speaking, an arrow pierced his body.
He collapsed on the spot.
“Anyone who continues to incite unrest will be executed without mercy. Archers, ready!”
“They’re killing people!”
“The soldiers are killing people! Run!”
The crowd immediately surged backward.
People shoved and trampled one another. Some fell beneath the stampede and never got back up.
Chen Yuan retreated with everyone else until they reached a forest about a li away.
The men who had fired the arrows were government soldiers, and there was clearly a commanding general standing atop the city walls.
How could such a small county town have regular troops and a military commander stationed here?
There was only one explanation.
The imperial court had dispatched soldiers to defend Yanggu County.
The people of Songshan County, however, had been abandoned.
These refugees had nowhere left to go.
Government troops blocked the way ahead, while the Tatars closed in from behind.
Their only options were to cross the Yellow River or flee into the mountains.
But there wasn’t even a ferry crossing here. Crossing the river was nothing more than a fantasy.
That left only the mountains.
Tianlin Mountain—known as the Taihang Mountains in the modern era—stretched for hundreds of kilometers in an endless chain of peaks.
No one knew how long it would take to cross those mountains… or how many people would ever make it back out alive.
As for entering the city, Chen Yuan wasn’t worried.
Once night fell and the streets were empty, all she needed was a single Spatial Blink.
She just didn’t know what all the people outside the walls were supposed to do.
…
“I didn’t expect to run into you again, young brother.”
An old man approached her.
Chen Yuan recognized him immediately.
He was one of the villagers she’d rescued from the bandits a few days earlier.
There’s only one road south, she thought. Of course we’d run into each other again.
Outwardly, however, she merely nodded.
“Hmm.”
“I didn’t have the chance to thank you properly that day before you left. It’s weighed on my mind ever since. Now that we’ve met again, let me introduce myself.”
The old man smiled.
“I’m the village head of Shanxia Village. Our village has decided to head into the mountains and find somewhere to take refuge. If you don’t mind, why not come with us? It’s better than traveling all alone.”
“So you’re not going any farther?” Chen Yuan asked.
“We’re not.”
“The mountains are full of wild beasts. The roads are long and difficult, and nobody knows the terrain deep inside. Most of us are either elderly or have young children. If we venture too far, we might not even be able to find our way back out.”
He paused before continuing.
“The other nearby villages have made the same decision. They’re all planning to settle somewhere in the mountains.”
“But there’s nothing there. How will you survive?”
“We’ll live off the mountains. As long as we’re willing to work hard, we won’t starve.”
He looked at her expectantly.
“So? Would you like to join us?”
“I’m afraid not.”
Chen Yuan came up with an excuse.
“I’m still waiting for my family.”
“I see…”
The village head sighed.
“In that case, I won’t try to persuade you further. We’re leaving immediately.”
“If fate allows, we’ll meet again someday.”
“I can only repay your life-saving kindness when that day comes.”
Chen Yuan cupped her fists.
“Until we meet again.”
…
By the dead of night, only a handful of people remained in the forest.
Chen Yuan quietly rose and headed toward the city walls.
When she judged the distance was close enough, she used Spatial Blink.
In an instant, she appeared inside Yanggu County.
Good grief…
Had she not reacted instantly and slipped into her Storage Space, she would have collided face-to-face with a patrol of government soldiers.
“I thought I saw something just now. Did you?” one soldier asked.
“What thing? It’s the middle of the night. Your eyes are playing tricks on you,” another replied.
“But I swear I…”
The first soldier hesitated before lowering his voice.
“Do you think… it could’ve been a ghost?”
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
The second soldier immediately hushed him.
“It’s the middle of the night. Don’t go saying creepy things like that. If the General hears you, we’re finished. He hates all this ghost-and-spirit nonsense.”
“Right… right…”
The two soldiers continued on their patrol.
Only after they had gone did Chen Yuan emerge from her Storage Space.
There were actually military patrols inside the county.
Had the imperial court finally begun taking the crisis seriously?
She didn’t dwell on it.
Using another Spatial Blink, she moved into a deserted alley before entering her Storage Space once more.
…
At dawn the following morning, Chen Yuan left the Storage Space early to avoid being seen.
She planned to browse the town during the day before leaving that afternoon.
One after another, the shops opened for business.
Very few food stalls remained open, though the larger restaurants were still operating.
As she wandered through the streets, she eventually arrived at the carriage and livestock market.
She still didn’t have a proper carriage.
“Boss, do you have any carriage cabins?”
“I do, I do.”
The shopkeeper blinked.
“You… you only want the carriage? Not a mule or horse?”
“How much are the horses? And how much are the carriages?”
“A horse costs thirty-five taels of silver. A mule is twenty-five taels. Donkeys and oxen are twenty taels each. A carriage cabin is another five taels.”
Chen Yuan was taken aback.
“Have prices in Yanggu County always been this high?”
The shopkeeper sighed.
“It’s all because of the Tatars. Refugees fleeing from the north have been buying everything in sight, especially grain.”
“We’ve already suffered two years of drought, so grain was scarce to begin with. Once those refugees started buying in bulk, grain prices shot up.”
“And when grain prices rise, everything else follows. Even fodder has become more expensive.”
He shook his head helplessly.
“We can barely afford to feed these animals anymore.”
Chen Yuan understood.
She purchased a complete horse and carriage for forty taels of silver, then accompanied the shopkeeper to the government office to transfer the ownership papers.
Having a carriage would make things much easier.
She could openly store supplies inside it and use it as an excuse whenever she needed to take things out of her Storage Space.
Driving the carriage, she headed for a grain shop.
Her Storage Space was filled with premium white rice and refined flour.
She needed to buy some coarse rice and dark flour to keep up appearances.
At the grain shop, she learned that coarse rice now cost thirty copper coins per dou, while dark flour cost twenty copper coins per dou.
Purchases were limited to one dou per person per day, and buyers had to present their Household Registration.
According to the original owner’s memories, Old Madam Zhao had once said that coarse rice used to cost only six copper coins per dou, while dark flour had been four.
The prices had increased fivefold.
Chen Yuan had plenty of money, so it didn’t matter to her.
Ordinary people, however, would soon be unable to afford food at all.
She bought one dou of coarse rice and one dou of dark flour.
Then she secretly took another five jin of millet from her Storage Space, packed it into a cloth sack, and placed everything together in the corner of the carriage before continuing her shopping.
“Benefactor!”
Hearing someone call out, Chen Yuan turned around.
It was Shi Yu and his grandfather, Shi Maolin.
Somehow, they had managed to get into the city as well.