Pages 226-253 Summary

The brothers take the Grand Canal as far as they can until they are told the way is no longer passable because the Yellow River has flooded. The brothers decide to walk toward Beijing, but are warned about traveling through the flooded regions, where there is famine and people are killing one another for what little food they can get. Despite the warnings, the brothers decide to proceed.

They come across a small house where two weakened men with pitchforks come out to demand food. Hong shakes his pointed walking stick at them and they lumber back into the house. Nearby, the brothers find two women sitting, weak with hunger. One of the women explains she is the mother of the woman next to her, and that most of their family was killed in floods. She is too weak to walk...