It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

Chapter 172

Jiang Yan walked through the dense forest, paying attention to his surroundings until he saw something not far away, and suddenly fell to the ground with a thud.

"Hurry up and get up." Another yamen runner, who was a little jealous, kicked Jiang Yan's calf.

Jiang Yan turned away and pleaded weakly, "I really can't walk any further. Can you let me rest for a while?"

When the people walking in front and behind Jiang Yan heard this, they all stopped and looked expectantly.

They had been walking for three hours and it was almost dark when they reached the forest. They stopped to rest four times, each time for less than a quarter of an hour, and they were already exhausted.

"Don't make excuses to be lazy. It will be dark soon."

Jiang Yan didn't move. "Can we rest once it's completely dark? Sir, I haven't had anything to eat or drink for two days. I'm really tired and hungry."

As if to prove that what she said was true, the sound of rumbling intestines could be heard one after another in the forest.

Yamen runner Hong noticed the movement behind them and came over. He said to the yamen runner with different eyes, "We need to hurry a little further before it gets completely dark. She can't walk, so you can find someone to drag her."

Jiang Yan quickly refused. The clothes she was wearing were so thin and of poor quality. They were already worn out from being dragged once before. If she was dragged again, they would all be torn and would only make the injuries worse. She absolutely couldn't do that.

She asked nervously, "Sir, how about you guys go first? I'll just lie here for a while and find my way back when I have more strength?"

The irritable yamen runner who followed sneered: "With a pile of mud like you, you still have the energy to keep up?"

He didn't think Jiang Yan was going to run away. In the wild mountains and forests, there were already faint roars of insects and beasts around. If he ran around alone, he would probably die.

Jiang Yan was a little embarrassed and had to keep silent. Suddenly, she felt her neck tighten and realized that someone was dragging her forward by her clothes.

The feeling of being suffocated by the neck was not pleasant. When Jiang Yan was thrown down, he had to raise his head and breathe deeply, and his throat became more swollen and painful.

Fortunately, due to her posture, only the tops of her shoes were worn out, while her clothes and flesh were not worn out.

Because of Jiang Yan's interruption and delay, and the others' delay in stopping their journey after hearing it was getting dark, the resting place was not far from the one Jiang Yan had just spotted.

Jiang Yan was quiet for only a moment before he took advantage of the cover of night to remind the people around him to get food.

Since they had no food prepared and could not let people starve to death, the yamen runners could only untie the ropes of some people and let them go into the forest to find food to fill their stomachs.

Jiang Yan was assigned to look for food in the early morning of the second day. Whatever he found would be used as a backup food, and then he would continue to head towards Changshui County, with almost no stops in between.

Jiang Yan used the action of digging wild vegetables to gradually move away from the area marked by the yamen runners, and then she simultaneously observed the escape spot she had chosen yesterday.

It was a series of steep slopes with lush vegetation. She only needed to protect her head and neck while no one was paying attention, and she could slide down like a grass skier.

Then she would quickly find a bush to hide in. Even if the bailiffs wanted to catch her, they would have to consider other people who might want to escape, or even themselves.

Just now, Jiang Yan spoke to the people around her in an unusual way, telling them about the tragic scenes she had seen along the way from the provincial capital, and about the many unburied corpses in Changhe County and the epidemics that had arisen from them. She couldn't help but raise her voice to complain that the government was sending them to die by forcing them to do forced labor.

"They just don't want us to live!" Jiang Yan's voice was as rough as gravel. "The government won't let anyone infected with the disease enter the city. Anyone who gets close will be shot to death with a bow and arrow."

"Believe it or not, even if the yamen runners who escorted us didn't enter the city, they would still be considered to have contracted the disease like us. Then they would either continue to supervise us or... die."

Jiang Yan said this on purpose for the yamen runner to hear. Seeing that he had withdrawn from his thoughts and turned hurriedly to look for other people, her breath stopped for a second: the opportunity has come.