Chapter 79

79 Tongzhou

Li Yu turned her head and glared at Zhou Jia, gesturing for him to leave quickly. Unexpectedly, that fool walked toward Li Yu.

When Zhou Jia approached, he realized that the team consisted of soldiers. The middle-aged man in the lead was obviously a general. Zhou Jia’s heart skipped a beat as he walked toward Li Yu.

Li Yu turned her head away, not wanting to look at him. Zhou Jia walked to Li Yu’s side and held her hand. He said to her gently, “Follow me.”

Li Yu muttered softly, “Why did you come back? Are you here to die?”

Zhou Jia’s heart warmed. He held Li Yu’s hand and walked a few steps away from the tall man. He bowed. “Student Zhou Jia greets General.”

The tall man looked at Zhou Jia and frowned. “Student? Are you a scholar?”

Zhou Jia bowed and replied, “Yes, General.”

The general walked up to Zhou Jia and looked at him with an oppressive aura. “Since you’re a scholar, why are you here?”

Zhou Jia bowed and handed over his identity plate. “General, we’re from Clearwater Town in Green Mountain County. After the drought and locust plague, bandits came to Clearwater Town to rob us. Helpless, I could only bring my fiancée and some villagers to find a place to settle down.”

After the general looked at the disc, he returned it to Zhou Jia and nodded. “The drought and locust plague in the Qingzhou Prefecture are very serious this time. I’m afraid it will continue.” As he spoke, he looked at Li Yu again. “Is this girl your fiancée? I see that she’s extraordinary. I wonder which family’s daughter in Qingzhou she is?”

Zhou Jia cupped his hands and replied, “General, my fiancée is not the daughter of any family. She’s just an ordinary commoner.”

The youth cupped his hands and thanked Li Yu. “Thank you for saving my life. I saw your moves were sharp just now. May I know who you learned them from?”

Li Yu casually said, “I don’t know who my master is either. He’s the one who looks for me every time. I can’t find him either.”

The young man was a little surprised to hear that. The general looked at him and smiled. “That’s what those people in the mountains are like. They do what they want and don’t care about secular etiquette.”

“Sister, are you alright?” Li Mei and Li Qing ran over from behind and pulled Li Yu to check nervously. The village chief and villagers surrounded her.

Li Yu sighed in her heart. Now, it was all over.

Zhou Jia bowed to the general and said, “General, the villagers have all come looking for us, so we’ll take our leave.”

The general looked at Li Yu and then at the villagers. He smiled and said to Zhou Jia, “Scholar Zhou since you want to find a place that’s not affected by the disaster, follow us to Tongzhou! To be honest, I’m Tongzhou’s commander, Shen Yu. On account of your fiancée and these good men helping my nephew, I’ll make appropriate arrangements for you.”

When Zhou Jia heard this, he thought to himself, As long as they don’t kill us to silence us, we were planning to go to Tongzhou anyway. We’ll be safe as long as we can follow the soldiers.

Zhou Jia raised his head and bowed gratefully. “Greetings, General Shen. It’s a blessing to be able to go to Tongzhou with you.”

Shen Yu waved her hand and smiled brightly. “Alright, let’s set off!”

The Zhou family bowed and replied, “General Shen, please allow me to inform the villagers.”

Shen Yu nodded in agreement. Zhou Jia turned to the village chief and said, “Grandpa Chen, this is General Shen, who is stationed in Tongzhou. General Shen invited us to Tongzhou and will help us arrange it.”

When the village chief heard that the burly man in front of him was a general, he knelt down excitedly and kowtowed. “Greetings, General Shen.”

Shen Yu smiled and helped the village chief up. He said to the village chief in a pleasant manner, “Old man, you don’t have to find a place to flee to anymore. Come with me to Tongzhou! Our Tongzhou has plenty of water and very little drought. The fields are also wide.”

The village chief looked at Zhou Jia, who nodded and said, “Grandpa, we won’t have to be afraid of bandits anymore if we follow General Shen.”

When the village chief heard this, he hurriedly knelt down and kowtowed. “I thank General Shen on behalf of everyone.”

Shen Yu smiled and helped the village chief up. “Old man, please get up.”

Shen Yu left behind a young general called Shen Wu and four personal guards. He left with the youth and the others.

On the way, the youth asked Shen Yu, “Uncle, actually, we don’t have to keep them. I don’t think they look like bad people.”

Shen Yu looked at the youth and laughed loudly. “I thought that you would become suspicious after this murder. I didn’t expect you to be as generous as before.”

The young man shook his head. “Uncle, I’ve changed, but I can tell from their eyes that these people are different from those people.”

Shen Yu laughed out loud. “Alright, I hope I’m being paranoid. Let’s wait and see!

The village chief watched as Shen Yu and the others walked away and asked Zhou Jia in a low voice, “Mr. Zhou, we won’t be made soldiers if we follow the officials, right?”

Zhou Jia shook his head. “I don’t think so. I’m afraid there are some reasons behind this.”

The village chief nodded. “They’re all afraid that they’ll be made into military households. I’ll go over and tell everyone.” Everyone was relieved after hearing the village chief’s explanation.

The village chief looked at them and said in a low voice, “As long as we don’t become military households, we can live anywhere! Besides, we originally planned to go to Tongzhou. General Shen also said that Tongzhou has plenty of water. It’s safer to travel with soldiers.”

“Alright, let’s follow the officials!” Everyone packed their luggage and set off.

Zhou Jia glanced at Shen Wu, who was riding in front of him. He looked at Li Yu and said in a low voice, “Her Majesty’s maiden family is also surnamed, Shen. Her elder brothers are all generals. I wonder if this General Shen is one of them?”

Li Yu smiled. “Who cares! We’ve already encountered them, so we can pretend not to know. Besides, we’re going to Tongzhou anyway. It’s much safer with them escorting us along the way.”

Zhou Jia smiled and nodded in praise. “Yes! You’ve thought it through.”

Li Yu leaned against Zhou Jia tiredly as the mule cart staggered towards Tongzhou.

With the officials escorting Li Yu and the others, it was as if they had a talisman. They walked safely for more than half a month and arrived outside Tongzhou City in the early morning of August.

The young general, Shen Wu, pointed at the towering city walls of Tongzhou City and boasted to Zhou Jia, “Mr. Zhou, look at how good our Tongzhou City is. Even the city walls are higher than in other places. I don’t understand why those people keep saying that we’re a barbaric place. They all like to escape towards the capital.”

Zhou Jia smiled and nodded. “That’s because everyone doesn’t know the good of Tongzhou. It’ll be good if they get to know it more.”

Shen Wu brought everyone into the city. Li Yu saw that the roads in the city were wide and neat. There were shops on both sides of the street, and the pedestrians on the street looked peaceful.

Shen Wu brought Li Yu and the others to the garrison office. When they arrived outside the office, Shen Wu said to Zhou Jia, “Mr. Zhou, wait a moment. I’ll ask the general where he plans to place you.”

Zhou Jia nodded and watched as Shen Wu entered the government office. He turned to look at Li Yu and the village chief. “Everyone, rest for a while and wait for the general to settle down.”

The villagers waited uneasily at the entrance of the government office and prayed in their hearts that the Great General had arranged a good place for them!