At this moment, there was another change at the city below.
The team distributing congee returned to the city, the Government Soldiers maintained their Spear Formation, and over a dozen horses galloped out.
A scholar in an Official Robe in the middle took out a document and read something aloud.
For every sentence he read, the remaining soldiers repeated it loudly.
However, the distance was too great; Lu Ye and Wang Hu could not hear anything at all, and could only guess what had happened by his nodding and the document in his hand.
After a moment of tranquility in the noisy crowd of refugees, someone suddenly burst into cheers.
Large swathes of the refugee crowd, like a bountiful harvest of wheat waves brushed by the wind, lowered row by row.
The crowd had already knelt down, calling out for a just official, and some were even weeping with joy, their voices shaking the firmament.
However, a small portion of the refugees in the crowd stood still, some even sobbing and shedding tears, appearing out of place in the joyful atmosphere.
Among the many kneeling refugees, many squeezed out of the crowd and walked quickly toward the Government Soldiers, soon forming a large group in front of the moat.
The remaining refugees, who were more numerous, stood up and slowly gathered together, standing on tiptoe, separated by a few meters, surrounding their companions who had stepped out in a half-moon shape, watching carefully.
Lu Ye and Wang Hu looked at each other, not knowing what had happened under the city, and the two could only quicken their pace and run toward the foot of the mountain.
"Eldest brother, could it be that the Government authorities are recruiting soldiers? In the past, whenever there was a great disaster year, the Government authorities would always recruit soldiers. I am afraid this is the same old method. If someone becomes a soldier and gets Rations from the army, they can share food with their family, and this way, the whole family won't starve to death!"
"Hu Zi, this is a good thing for everyone. If others become soldiers, their whole family won't starve. If any Influential families recruit Servants, there will be fewer people competing with us, and won't our opportunities as brothers increase?"
"Eh? Eldest brother makes sense. Then let's walk a little slower."
At this time, there was another change below the city, and the scene began to become chaotic.
The crowd formed by the refugees who had stepped out gathered into a group, pushing and shoving each other, each appearing extremely anxious. Eventually, they gathered into wave after wave, surging toward the Government Soldiers, and some were even screaming as they were pushed into the moat.
The Cavalrymen swung their Horse whips violently, and the infantry leveled their Spears, the Spearheads like a forest, shouting as they moved forward in a team, using the cold Spearheads to forcefully suppress the agitated and chaotic crowd, reluctantly restoring order.
The Government Soldiers soon set up dozens of poles outside the long bridge of the moat. There was a red mark at the height of a person on the poles, and a Sack was placed at the bottom of each pole. Under each pole stood four or five soldiers.
The many refugees who had stepped out immediately split like a river, automatically dividing into dozens of long lines, scrambling to run over.
After the sound of a Gong rang out.
Some ragged refugees scrambled to the front, standing on tiptoe under the poles, their heads just barely exceeding the red line, and then bent over, holding their breath, hugging the Sacks with both arms, trying hard to lift the Sacks, their faces turning red and their necks thick with bulging veins from the effort.
There were those strong refugees who succeeded easily in one go, received a small triangular red flag representing a pass, and happily crossed the moat bridge to enter the city.
There were also those refugees whose height did not meet the standard, and even on tiptoe, they could not reach the red mark on their heads, so they were eliminated in the first round, but they were not the most miserable.
There were those who met the height requirement but were physically weak and overestimated their strength. In order to lift the Sack, they desperately used all their strength, but in the end, they could not hold their breath, lost their energy, and sprayed out a mouthful of Fresh Blood, collapsing to the ground listless, their breathing becoming much weaker.
Naturally, there were Government Soldiers who dragged the injured and spitting blood people out and threw them in front of the watching refugee crowd, as if throwing Sacks.
This kind of thing happened under every pole set for the assessment, and soon, the Sacks set for the assessment became covered in Bloodstains, stained with a dazzling and bright red.
And among the refugee crowd watching from the outer perimeter, from time to time, someone would burst into heart-rending crying, rushing out from the crowd to kneel and wail before their own injured and spitting blood Male Adults.
The collapse of the pillar of the family, in this great famine year, meant a devastating disaster for a family. They originally wanted to earn some Rations, but did not expect to lose their lives first.
Among the refugee crowd, there were Lucky Persons passing the test and entering the city from time to time, and there were also unlucky ones spitting blood and falling down from time to time. On the same piece of land, the joys and sorrows were different.
Lu Ye and Wang Hu naturally could not catch up to this test on the hillside, nor could they experience the sorrow and joy in the field.
They only saw that among the dense refugee crowd, a small number of people straggled across the moat bridge and entered the Black Hole of the city gate, their figures disappearing.
By the time the two hurried to the foot of the mountain, they only heard the sound of a Gong.
It turned out that there were no more queues under the dozens of poles.
As the Gong sounded, the Government Soldiers pulled up the wooden poles and returned to the city, leaving only the holes in the ground where the poles had been, as well as the land around the holes that had been stained red.
The large group of refugees had also long since dispersed, lying back in their own Shacks, barely surviving and conserving their strength.
In front of the moat, there were occasionally a few refugees who had spat blood during the assessment lying on the ground, moaning miserably, with no one to take care of or protect them. Presumably, their whole family had died, leaving only a Bachelor, who could only wait for death on the spot.
Lu Ye and Wang Hu helped each other, hurrying for the next meal of disaster relief congee.
However, looking at the mountain while running tires the horse, and coupled with the two's lack of physical strength, by the time they reached the gathering place of the Refugee Shacks, more than an hour had passed.
Inside the cluster of Shacks, some were moaning and wailing, some were sobbing in a low voice, and some could still hear voices that were light and even carried laughter.
Lu Ye hastily found someone to understand the situation. Fortunately, he spoke the local dialect, and after asking a few more people, he finally learned the ins and outs of the matter.
It turned out that today the Prefect of Dong Sai Prefecture issued an official document. According to the custom of this dynasty, they wanted to recruit soldiers from the disaster victims. They did not check any Martial Arts; as long as they were over five feet tall and could lift a fifty-jin Sack, they could be selected.
Those selected had to enter the city for drills, organization, team formation, and training. Their families were not allowed to enter the city, but they were promised an extra half-portion of Rations per day. They could leave the camp at night but were not allowed to stay in the Shacks outside the city.
Correspondingly, because they wanted to recruit refugees as soldiers, food was in short supply. From this day on, the disaster relief food would be halved, and the original two meals a day would be changed to one meal a day.
Therefore, the crowd of refugees was eager, and they signed up one after another. Finally, some estimated that about two or three thousand strong men had entered the city.
In addition, since food had been distributed once today, there was naturally no second time.
Wang Hu was so angry after hearing this that he slapped his legs.
"Missed another meal."
Lu Ye also had an expression of having missed a fortune.
There was another bad news, which was that because there were many refugees and there were still Bandits causing trouble inside and outside the province, the Government authorities were cautious and afraid that Bandit Spies would mix into the city, so the city gates were not open to the outside.
Naturally, there were no Influential families recruiting Servants from the refugees.
The two could not care about being annoyed and regretful, so they first found a place to settle down. Fortunately, there were many refugees here, and there were naturally many Shacks, and people often disappeared, so they did not spend much effort to find a place to stay.
Fetching water, making a fire, and soaking the hard steamed bun from their arms into it, after they were full, the sound of wind, coughing, and crying could be heard from the surroundings, which was messy.
Wang Hu could not sleep, his eyes full of longing for the future.
"Eldest brother, when do you think these Bandits will be pacified? When will we be able to enter an Influential family and become Servants?"
Lu Ye's eyes were deep, and he casually brushed it off with a few words that it would be soon, soon.
He had no bottom in his heart either.
The History Books of his previous life wrote—nine out of ten houses were empty, dynasties changed...
He only hoped that he and Wang Hu were not among the nine out of ten.
He also hoped that this Prefecture City was reliable and could protect the peace around the city. Even the worst order was better than the chaotic situation of not knowing if one would survive the day.
If they could wait for the order to stabilize, perhaps the city gates would open. As long as he and Wang Hu entered the city, they would be one step closer to the ideal of entering an Influential family and becoming Servants.
The next day, Lu Ye and Wang Hu woke up. The two shared half a hard steamed bun and were huddled in the Shack, recuperating and preparing to conserve their strength so they could grab the only disaster relief congee of the day.
Suddenly, they heard a noisy sound outside, growing from small to large, the chaotic sound waves whistling, washing away the whole land.
The two hastily left the Shack.
They saw the city gate wide open, with a general riding a tall horse in the lead, followed by Iron Armor Guards on the left and right, and behind them was a long line of infantry wearing cotton armor.
The infantry was divided into two columns, with the young and strong refugees who had entered the city yesterday sandwiched in the middle. These young men had mournful faces, their legs trembling, and some were even shedding tears, walking slowly along the Official Road.
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