The seventh year of Yong'an reign of Jingguo.

There is a severe drought in the north, and wars are everywhere.

Li Zhigao, a powerful minister of Jing Dynasty, supported his troops by suppressing bandits, separatized northern Xinjiang, established himself as king, and called him "King Shu".

In October of the seventh year, King Shu Li Zhigao raised his troops and went south.

In May of the following year, Shu's army captured the forty states of Jingguo and captured the capital of Jingguo. Ten days later, King Li Zhigao of Shu ascended the throne in Mingzhou and proclaimed himself emperor. The country was named "Shu" and the Yuan Dynasty was changed to Yuan Dynasty.

In the fifth month of the same month, Emperor Jing abandoned his old capital and fled to southern Xinjiang in defeat. He defended the thirteen states in the south. Relying on the natural dangers and luckily Da Shu established enemies on all sides, the small imperial court in exile was able to survive.

The years are like a sad song.

In the blink of an eye, it is already the twenty-third year of Nanjing.

…

In the twenty-third year of Nanjing, in July of the seventeenth year of Zhongxing.

Xunzhou, Wutong Mountain.

In the southern barbarian language, 'Shou' is called 'Wu', and 'Li' is called 'Tong'. Wutong Mountain refers to this mountain standing alone, high into the clouds, like a person standing tall with his head raised.

This day.

Zhou Yan, his second brother, and twenty-five other prisoners stood in a row in the deep valley.

Zhou Yan is not yet sixteen years old. In his previous life, he was still a junior high school student, but in this life he has gone through many hardships. He is now wearing rags and linen clothes, with whip marks visible on his body, and his face looks like a skinny monkey due to weight loss.

The scars and scars left behind made his already plain face look even more discolored.

But this is a good thing. In this world, even for men, as long as they are of average status, being too good-looking is not something worth bragging about. Instead, it may be a disaster.

Zhou Yan and his second brother were standing together, like livestock. Someone pinched his bones and muscles with his hands, then pinched his chin and looked at his teeth. Zhou Yan's eyes were cloudy. He was blind eight years ago and couldn't see. But

He could hear it. When he heard the man checking on himself and his second brother, he felt that the man was obviously unhappy. He turned around and complained to someone: "Why are there two disabled people?"

Two cripples!

One is him, a blind man.

One is the second brother, who is lame.

"A blind man and a lame man, don't waste your strength. The two brothers only need one share of money, so let's make do with it."

Zhou Yan recognized this person's voice.

This is the leader who made the deal with the military leader of the baggage team two days ago. The crimes of this group of prisoners were not serious. Originally, they could be pardoned as long as they followed the baggage team to transport this batch of grain and grass to Dashan Pass.

I was very motivated. But no one expected that after more than 40 days of hard work, I would give up halfway!

So I ended up here, not knowing where to go!

"Fine."

"Divided into flower beds, one pruned the branches and the other watered them."

The man didn't say anything more after hearing this, and randomly assigned the Zhou Yan brothers to some "flower garden" to be responsible for pruning and watering.

Zhou Yan was nervous all the way, but he was slightly relieved when he heard this.

He is used to hard work. No matter how hard it is to prune branches and water, it is still a way to survive. After he has figured out the situation here and the surrounding environment, he can then slowly figure it out. Whether it is to offer suggestions to climb up, or to quietly climb up.

Mimi can run away and think about it later.

The second brother on the side obviously also let go of a lot of worries.

He quietly patted Zhou Yan to express comfort.

"It seems that these people are not too vicious!"

Zhou Yan felt the whip marks on his body and thought to himself.

However, before he could make up his mind, the next moment, he saw what it meant to be extremely evil.

"You are here at the right time. Two flower slaves escaped yesterday and were caught. They are about to be dealt with today. Come along and see what happens if you escape."

Zhou Yan and his group had just been bought and had not yet settled in. They were led through the forest and then came to a flower bed that exuded fragrant fragrance.

As soon as I got close, I heard two people crying and begging: "Let me go! Don't dare to do it again! Please let me go. I still have my mother, wife and children waiting for me at home. Please!"

The two of them were shouting at the top of their lungs, full of fear.

"Two people were buried in a flower bed, only their heads were outside."

Second brother Zhou Xian was whispering to Zhou Yan.

Is this going to be buried alive?

Zhou Yan made a guess in his mind.

next moment.

Swish, swish, swish~

Hisssssss~

Zhou Yan had good ears. He smelled the fragrance of the flowers and listened to the screams for mercy. Suddenly he heard a grinding and hissing sound, which seemed to be——

"Dry!"

"snake!"

"So many snakes!"

As soon as Zhou Yan had a guess in his mind, someone beside him screamed at the top of his lungs. He was very frightened, and others were also very frightened.

"There's a snake!"

Zhou Xian was also frightened.

Zhou Yan was grabbed by him and took two steps back, and then he heard the screams of 'Ah! No! Let me go! Don't come over! Ahhh!', which was pitiful and frightening.

Zhou Yan couldn't see it.

But he could imagine the scene in the flower garden just from the sound——

Two people were buried in a flower bed, with only their heads exposed.

A group of snakes suddenly appeared here, hissing and started biting.

The two people could not move their heads. They were surrounded by snakes, climbing on them, entangling them, and then eating them.

"hiss!"

When Zhou Yan thought of such a scene, he couldn't help but shuddered and felt chills all over his body.

So does Zhou Xian.

He grabbed Zhou Yan's hand and squeezed it tightly, which even hurt Zhou Yan.

Both brothers were frightened.

Not only the two of them, but the other twenty-five prisoners who were traveling with them were also frightened.

After such a show of force, Zhou Yan and Zhou Xian were placed in a flower garden. In the same flower garden with them, there were four other people, all prisoners of Jingguo who were sold by the transport team like them.

.

…

Wutong Mountain seems to be surrounded by clouds and mist. The clouds and mist are like veils undulating and moving, and the peaks appear and disappear in confusion. It feels like a paradise in heaven.

Only in this mountain, I don’t know where the clouds are.

Zhou Yan couldn't see it, but his second brother could see it, but when he was in the deep mountains, he only knew that it was roughly in the Wutong Mountains, and he didn't know exactly where he was.

The two middle-aged men who came to teach them how to prune branches and water them also came and went in the morning and afternoon. They were taciturn and rarely communicated with them.

But at least I know that the flower planted in this flower garden is called 'dura flower'.

Zhou Yan heard from his second brother that the flowers were very beautiful and fragrant. If he was free and had wages, he would feel good working here.

But they were sold as slaves.

And after experiencing that show of intimidation, whether it was Zhou Yan, his second brother Zhou Xian, or the other four flower slaves in the same flower garden, they would all unconsciously think of the original scene.

They didn't know if anyone had been buried in this flowerbed or if anyone had been eaten by snakes here.

But whenever I think about that scene, I shudder.

Fortunately, the tasks are so heavy that they don't have time to think too much most of the time.

Datura flowers grow and bloom very quickly. Second brother Zhou Xian needs to cut off the blooming flowers every day and store them carefully. He also needs to cut off the excess flower bones that grow on the same datura flower in advance.

The work is very delicate and very tiring.

I have to trim it carefully every day, and sometimes I have to bend over all day long. After a few days, my back starts to ache, and the pain lasts all night long.

Zhou Yan is not easy either.

He was blind and unable to prune the mandala flowers, so he was assigned to carry water. The flower garden was equipped with a deep well, and Zhou Yan had to fetch water from here every day to water the flower garden. The mandala flowers loved water very much and could not eat water for a day.

There is a shortage, so Zhou Yan's workload is also very heavy.
To be continued...