Separation of Families in Famine Years: from an Ancient Well to the Border City

After three years of drought, food prices skyrocketed. When Zhou Ye was crossing the northern border of Daqian, his uncle was preparing to sell his twelve-year-old sister to a grain merchant for twenty kilograms of corn. As an orphan of a military household, he forced the grain merchant to retreat and took the initiative to separate the family. He only took away a broken hatchet, half a bag of wheat bran, and an abandoned kiln in a barren mountain that everyone despised. Everyone said that the brother and sister would not survive more than three days. Until Zhou Ye activated the Settlement Book of Heaven and discovered an ancient well buried under the barren mountain. A mouthful of water can be used as a job for a homeless person. A bowl of food, in exchange for a veteran returning home. The carpenters, hunters, blacksmiths and deserters that others did not want had a new way of life in his hands. Digging wells, clearing wasteland, stocking grain, burning bricks, building walls, and training troops. Broken kilns turned into villages, villages turned into forts, and the forts eventually became the majestic city across the northern border. Many years later, Hu Qi went south, the imperial court was defeated, and the cities in the north were lost one after another. Only a city built by refugees stood in front of thousands of troops. Zhou Ye stood on the city wall, looking at the endless enemy troops outside the city. "They once said that a group of refugees cannot build a city. Now, this city is the last home in the north."