Natural disasters in books: I stockpiled goods to escape famine in ancient times

It is now the early afternoon, and the heat outside is not as scorching as it is at noon. It would not be possible to walk outside under the sun, but fortunately there are many trees in the mountains to block the sunlight. Even if it is hot, it is still hot, but at least it is better than being exposed to the sun.

Zhang Wu packed up the tent quickly. It was no longer practical to take a carriage into the mountains, so he could only lead the horse and walk slowly. Fortunately, when the carriage was ordered, he only asked to lengthen it and did not ask the carpenter to widen it. Otherwise, if the carriage wanted to go into the mountains, he would have to abandon the carriage.

However, no matter how good a horse carriage is, it is better than a mule cart. After all, the carts that the villagers bought for the mules were wider than the horse carriages. The mule carts of the Shen and Xie families were equally wide. The main reason was that the two families had a large population, and several mule carts had to accommodate so many people, so they had to enlarge and widen the carriages.

The road into the mountains was difficult to walk on, so Huang Changyuan specially arranged for the young and strong men in the village to hold machetes and clear the way in front, so that everyone could pass safely.

Song Shiwei and Zhang Wu were standing behind Huang Changyuan's house, at the front of the team. One of them held a knife and the other a sword. They led the horses while cutting the weeds and branches on both sides. In order to prevent snakes and insects in the mountains, they also wrapped their calves with cloth strips.

This little trick was proposed by Chen Qiang and others who go into the mountains to hunt all year round. It not only prevents mosquitoes, but also relieves leg soreness.

After walking for a while, Huang Changyuan wiped the sweat from his forehead and called Liu Dong over.

"While it's still early, take a few people to find a place to stay ahead and check if there's any water. Let's try to find a good place to rest tonight."

Liu Dong nodded in agreement, took his son Liu Daming and Huang Ping and others with him, and with a wave of his hand, they quickly disappeared into the forest.

Zhang Wu looked at the direction where the others disappeared, frowning, "Master, do you think we can find water in this mountain?"

Song Shiwei shrugged: "I don't know, but if we are lucky, we can find underground river water. It depends on whether we have this luck."

"Underground rivers are usually deep in the mountains. We have just entered the mountains, so there is definitely no hope. It depends on whether there are other water sources in the mountains. Otherwise, the water we bought in the city a few days ago will not last long."

Song Shiwei smiled indifferently: "Seeing that you are so worried, we will not lack water. If you really want to contribute to the village, I have a suggestion for you."

Zhang Wu immediately straightened his back and tilted his head to listen.

Song Shiwei raised his head and glanced at the sky, his eyes gentle: "If you really want to find water, just follow the direction of the birds in the sky, they can lead you to the water source."

Zhang Wu looked up instantly, and at that moment a few birds flew over his head, heading towards the deep mountains. He turned around to look at the team behind him, and after thinking about it, he decided to give up the idea of ​​catching up.

Song Shiwei noticed the expression on his face and couldn't help laughing: "It's useless for you to follow them now. We are not walking in the same direction as those birds. At our current pace, we may not be able to enter the mountains tomorrow. Let's take a look first and go again when we have a chance."

This was the only way now, Zhang Wu waved his sword resignedly.

The group walked from the beginning of the Shen hour to the beginning of the You hour, a whole hour, and they walked with a lot of difficulty.

It was getting late, and Liu Dong and the others had not returned yet. However, they kept following the marks along the way and walked forward for another half an hour. At this time, a loud and long partridge call was heard from the forest ahead. Huang Changyuan urged everyone to walk faster.

According to the secret code agreed with Liu Dong, they found a suitable place to rest. No wonder Huang Changyuan was so excited.

The group walked forward two miles and met Liu Dong and others.

Liu Daming walked up to Huang Changyuan with a big smile on his face, pointed to the right in front of him and said loudly: "Uncle village chief, my father found a good place, a flat ground, just convenient for us to rest, I will take you there."

Hearing that there was finally a place to rest, everyone's spirits instantly perked up, and they hurriedly followed Liu Dong and the others, walking much faster than before.

Although no water source was found, they were fortunate to have a safe place to rest. As soon as they arrived, Huang Changyuan asked everyone to set up tents and cook dinner. The villagers tacitly chose the middle position, leaving a large open space on the right for the officials to settle down. Song Shiwei took Zhang Wu to the innermost part of the left side, not far from the villagers.

Afterwards, Huang Changyuan and the officers began to arrange people to keep watch at night. Each household sent out one person, the older ones guarded the first half of the night, and the younger ones guarded the second half. The officers also selected five people to keep watch at night, who were responsible for patrolling the surroundings.

With this arrangement, the night was safe.

Everyone began to set up tents in full swing. The women went to the surrounding woods to collect firewood and wild vegetables. The men cut branches, sharpened them, and tied them together for later use. The children did what they could and helped pick up nearby stones to build a stove for the family.

Song Shiwei also built the tent. The main reason was that the tent he bought in Beijing was convenient and practical. He just had to pull it out and then fix it. Shen Yan also came to ask about the tent in the past two days. When he heard that it was bought in Beijing, he knew that he had no chance.

The villagers did not give up looking for water. In the afternoon, Liu Dong led people to look for a place to stay, and Chen Qiang led people in front to open the way. The others could not sit still. After picking up the firewood, they found Huang Changyuan and said they wanted to go around the forest to see if they could find some water. Even if they couldn't find any water, it would be good to hunt some prey.

Huang Changyuan knew that everyone was worried, so he just reminded them to be careful and let them go.

There were two hares and some wild boar meat in the carriage, so Zhang Wu did not go with them. He waited until the stove was built and started cooking dinner.

Fortunately, the location they chose was remote and would not attract the attention of other people. Zhang Wu simply did not worry about it and followed Song Shiwei's instructions to carefully wash the hare and rice, and finally poured the rice into a clay pot to stew. As for the hare, Zhang Wu thought about it and finally decided to roast it directly. He hadn't eaten barbecue for a few days.

Song Shiwei came out of the tent at this moment, and went into the carriage to take out the pickled wild boar meat.

"I'll watch over the roasting of the rabbits. You cut the wild boar meat into strips and roast it into jerky. You can eat it directly when you get hungry while traveling."

"Okay," Zhang Wu took the wild boar meat and slowly cut it into long strips on the stone slab. Then he went into the forest and cut some thin branches, strung the wild boar meat strips together and roasted them next to the fire, not forgetting to sprinkle salt on them.

"Would you like to have barbecue tonight?" Huang Ying came over with a basket on her shoulder. She simply asked without waiting for the two to respond. She raised her hand to take out the dried vegetables in the basket and said with a smile, "My father said that it is difficult to find wild vegetables in the mountains during this period, but we can't not eat vegetables, so he asked me to bring the dried vegetables that I made at home and cook them directly in water."

Zhang Wu quickly stood up and took the dried vegetables. His dark face turned red, and his other hand seemed to have nowhere to put: "Thank...thank you Miss Huang, and thank you Village Chief for your concern."

Huang Ying chuckled: "Brother Zhang, you don't have to be so polite. We are all here together. You took my brother to hunt a lot of pheasants and rabbits to improve the food. Then I won't disturb you and Master Song from having dinner."

"I...I'll take you there," Zhang Wu said as he stuffed the dried vegetables into Song Shiwei's arms and quickened his pace to catch up with Huang Ying.