There was thick smoke everywhere and flames shooting into the sky.
In this abandoned city, there was a sound more terrifying than the howling of wild animals tearing their prey. It was the sound of evil made by the rebels who had entered the city.
Although there had been bad news for a long time, and the rebels were fierce and conquering cities in the north, for the people living in Chang'an, the imperial capital, even the barrier of the East Gate would be breached. This was a joke that could never happen. So half a month ago, when the news began to spread everywhere that the government troops were retreating step by step and the rebels might attack soon, no one took it seriously. What, afraid? The emperor is still sitting here, how could the sky fall? Even on this day, another piece of news was spreading wildly in the streets, that His Majesty the Emperor had quietly fled to the west last night, and all the officials went to court this morning, but no one was seen. They all fled. The palace was empty, and the whole city began to riot, but there were still people who were lucky enough to refuse to believe it. Chang'an is forever solid, how could it be breached
Until this day, when the last moment arrived, countless refugees fled in panic in the suburbs outside the city, with the rebels about to kill them from behind. These abandoned and belated people cried out and followed their emperor on the road to escape.
When the girl woke up in the dark and struggled to climb out of a deep ditch on the side of the road, the world she was familiar with shattered and turned into a hell on earth.
The first rebels to enter the city had finished sweeping the imperial palace and were now running wantonly through the main thoroughfares and neighborhoods, killing, burning, and looting everywhere.
Her head hurt as if she had been hit. She couldn't remember anything. She didn't know why she woke up alone in this place, let alone where her home was. The little girl stood alone in a wasteland, her eyes wide open in fear, looking at this completely unfamiliar world to her, wanting to find her mother. But she couldn't remember where her mother was, and why she was left alone in this strange and scary place. She only remembered that she had a mother, who kissed her and went to a place, and then never came back to her. Instinctively, she took a step, crying, and headed towards the direction of the city where the fire was the brightest and almost illuminated half of the night sky.
Her mother must have gone to that place.
On the way to find her mother, she saw more and more dead people. Some of them fell at the gate of the town, with bags cut open by knives scattered in the pool of blood. Some of them were piled together, with mothers protecting their babies in their arms, motionless and already stiff. She stumbled past them, and her initial fear turned into numbness. She fell down and got up, got up and fell down again, and kept moving forward. The skin on her delicate palms and knees had long been broken and bleeding, but she seemed to feel no pain and only wanted to find her mother.
Finally, she arrived at the place she felt, and the palace gate that was usually closed was wide open. She wandered outside and saw another eunuch, who had taken away the property but had no time to escape, and was chopped down outside the palace gate. He was not dead yet, holding the half of his arm that had fallen off his body, howling miserably, and suddenly saw her, dropped his broken arm, and crawled towards her with a twisted body. She was terrified and rushed in regardless of everything.
Guided by her instinct, she finally found this place. But where was her mother? She didn't know. She searched everywhere like a headless fly, searching palace after palace. From time to time, she ran into outsiders who took advantage of this opportunity to steal things, but she never found her mother. Finally, she broke into another place. The palace was as tall as the sky, and the walls were painted with brilliant gods and mountains and rivers. But there was still no mother here. She wanted to leave and look for it somewhere else, but she found that the surroundings were surrounded by fire. She lost her direction and couldn't find a way out. She was forced to stop in the corner of a mural that had not been burned yet, calling for her mother and crying loudly.