Some of the villagers had a little dry food left, while others were still hungry.
Liu Qiaoer took out a stack of pancakes from the space, gave each person one, and distributed them to everyone, asking them to wait here.
Zhang Lingzhi was a little surprised: "Where did you get the cake?"
Liu Qiao'er patted her bag and said, "That fellow gave me a lot, but I couldn't bear to eat it. Let's go. Help me find the spring, and then you can go home."
Since Liu Qiaoer has space, she has to let Zhang Lingzhi leave early, otherwise it will be exposed.
Zhang Lingzhi asked again: "How do you know there is a spring ahead? You have never been here, so how do you know people can live in the mountains?"
When Liu Qiaoer was mobilizing everyone just now, Zhang Lingzhi didn't have the courage to ask. Now there are only two of them and a child left, and he has a million questions.
Liu Qiaoer didn't want to explain at first, for fear that he would become suspicious, so she had to make up a story.
"Look at the village we came from. Aren't there a lot of people there? Are they living in the valley? There is a water source next to their village."
"Look here, is there a dry river? It means there was a water source a long time ago. As long as you find the water source, you can find food. With both food and water, far away from the chaos, over time, you can build a paradise."
Zhang Lingzhi glanced at Liu Qiao'er and said, "You know a lot. The villagers are all fleeing. If you settle them down, you will have done a great deed for the court. I will commend you to the queen."
Liu Qiaoer smiled slightly: "It doesn't matter whether I want to take credit or not. I mainly want to find a relative in Liangzhou. It would be great if I find him. If not, I'm afraid I won't be able to return to the capital."
The space showed that Cui Boxiao was nearby, but Liu Qiaoer only found one child.
Things are too strange, she can't leave, she must find Cui Boyiao.
Besides, King Xiang is about to start a rebellion, and chaos is coming. It would be better to rebuild our home here and live in peace and stability than to go to the capital.
There was no baby formula in Liu Qiaoer's space, but there was rice porridge. She was hungry but no one could let the child go hungry. Although the child could eat thumb biscuits, he was still a child after all.
She was eating and defecating at the same time, and would cry loudly if she wasn't careful. She was also having a headache.
From the time they picked up the child until now, they have eaten two meals, and the child has also eaten two meals. I don’t know why he is so well behaved.
While Zhang Lingzhi was going to the bathroom, Liu Qiaoer quickly fed him some rice porridge and warm water, and changed the child's diaper. She didn't know how she took out a pack of diapers from the space. With these, taking care of the child became easier.
Finally, they walked forward for another hour and a half, and Liu Qiaoer discovered the location of the spring. She found a sturdy wooden stick and knocked the stones on the spring. At first, only a little spring water gushed out, but later more and more, rolling down.
Zhang Lingzhi was surprised: "There really is water."
Liu Qiaoer pulled him to the foot of the cliff and pointed it out to him: "This valley is very big. There are stone houses over there. It's no problem for dozens of people to live in it. I'll make the spring bigger here. You can go and lead them over."
Zhang Lingzhi walked two steps forward along the cliff. He was blinded by some light. He looked up the hillside and shouted in surprise, "Is there another temple there?"
Liu Qiaoer looked in the direction he pointed, and sure enough, there was a dilapidated Taoist temple. It seemed that there were no Taoist priests and no incense.
"That's even better. Let's find a place to shelter from the wind and rain first, and then rebuild our home."
With the Taoist temple, the spring and a place to stay, by the evening, Zhang Lingzhi finally led the villagers over.
Liu Qiao'er was already at the Taoist temple. It was indeed very dilapidated, but fortunately the temple was not small and there were steps going down the mountain. However, the steps disappeared halfway up the mountain and were replaced by a stone road. As it had been abandoned for too long, the road was overgrown with grass and it was unclear where this road led to.
This clear spring was not far from the Taoist temple. Liu Qiaoer dug a small pond two meters square beside the spring and then diverted the water to the direction of the valley, changing the original direction of the river. In this way, they could build ditches in the valley and did not have to run too far to fetch water to drink.
The Taoist temple is not big, with two courtyards. There is a large courtyard at the entrance with an incense burner in the middle, but there is no incense left.
The next person to go in was a Taoist priest, who looked like Taiyi Zhenren or Bodhi Patriarch. Anyway, all Taoist priests looked the same, and Liu Qiaoer couldn't tell them apart.
Although it was tall and big, it was covered with dust and had many spider webs, and there was nothing inside.
Going further back, there are three houses. The front door leads to three main halls with tables, chairs and benches, and it is a mess.
After leaving the main house, there is a kitchen on the left, which contains an iron pot and some broken bowls.
On the right is a wing room with a bunk bed on both the left and right sides, and it is a heated kang. As long as firewood is burned, the room will be very warm.
In the middle was an eight-immortal table, also empty, with a painting of cranes hanging on the wall.
There was a gap between the wing room and the main house on the right, which was closed with a wooden door. Liu Qiaoer tilted her head and looked over. It was a very simple toilet.
This residence is quite good. Although it is small, it has everything needed and can easily accommodate dozens of people in the village.
After Liu Qiaoer finished the tour, she first tidied up the west wing, picked up some firewood, and burned the kang. The adults could freeze, but the children could not.
It had already snowed when they came from the capital. When they arrived in Liangzhou, everything was covered with ice and snow. The cotton-padded jackets everyone was wearing were already old, and the cotton of some people's jackets was exposed.
Fortunately, Liu Qiaoer's space was upgraded. In addition to the original villa, she also had several acres of land, food, chickens and ducks. It would be even better if she had two oxen.
There is no shortage of food, so she should be able to feed these refugees temporarily.
In fact, if she stayed in the Taoist temple, she could survive, but she still needed to find someone, so she had to have a safe place and a place to stay.
Zhang Lingzhi led the villagers over and passed by the spring first. Some villagers couldn't wait to drink a few sips and shouted in surprise: "The spring water is sweet."
Everyone filled their water bags with water.
When they entered the Taoist temple, they were even more surprised: "We can live here. As long as we have food, we don't have to hide anymore."
Indeed, there is no need for that, because this place is really far from the foot of the mountain.
Liu Qiaoer brought out the roasted sweet potatoes in a broken bowl.
"This is a Taoist temple that no one uses. I found a barren field behind the temple with some sweet potatoes in it. I dug some up and I'll give them to you all. If anyone is still hungry, they can go dig more. However, it seems there aren't many left."
Everyone was really hungry and started eating sweet potatoes.
Liu Qiaoer took a quick look and found that there were only thirty-four people in total, only four of them were men, and including Zhang Lingzhi, there were five of them.
There are six children under ten years old, thirteen women between the ages of 10 and 40, four elderly people, all men in their fifties, and seven mothers-in-law.
There is not much labor force, so women can do most of the work.
One of the old men, named Uncle Pei, stood out from the crowd.
"Everyone, eat first and let me talk for a while. We are all from the same village. Now the village is gone, and the home is gone. If we continue to live at the foot of the mountain, we will be dead. Now this girl has found a place for us to live. From now on, we will take root here. We will listen to this girl, okay?"