Three thousand miles in exile

The Liu family spent a total of three days tidying up the grass shed so that it could be lived in.

The roof of the thatched shed asked the villagers to borrow all the unused straw and sealed it up. Under the guidance of the enthusiastic villagers, it only took one day to complete it.

Mud was dug out from the outer wall of the thatched hut to make it smooth, and Liu Zhan brought three children to help.

At the same time, the three wives finally tidied up their respective rooms. There was no quilt in the room. Fortunately, the kang bed would not be cold if it was heated, but it would be hard to say if the weather was colder.

On the fourth day, the three brothers also took Liu Zhan to see the cultivated land they were in charge of.

Because the county magistrate of Pei directly drew over the land, the rice in the field is almost mature, and it can be harvested in half a month, saving the Liu family the effort of reclamation.

Not only that, after the grain is harvested, they can leave some for rations after removing the handed-in part and the seeds for the next spring.

In addition to the food given by the magistrate of Pei County, as long as they save some food, they will not run out of food this winter, which is unexpected good news.

After dinner that night, the three Liu Xueyuan brothers sat together to discuss, and Liu Zhan also participated in it.

Liu Xueyuan said: "I heard from Aunt Zhang next door that winter will enter Qiyun Mountain in October, and it will be frozen for thousands of miles. We must be prepared for winter."

The third brother Liu Xueli said: "We are penniless, what should we prepare for? Now that the house is bare and there is not even a quilt, we can't even ask the villagers to borrow the quilt, right?"

The second brother Liu Xueyi smiled wryly. "The cotton coats we wear are not thick enough, how can we carry them in the middle of winter?"

The three brothers were helpless.

Liu Zhan couldn't help being distressed, and suddenly he remembered that straw can also keep out the cold, so he made an excuse.

"Aunt Zhang told me that laying some straw on the kang can also keep out the cold when sleeping. It would be more comfortable if you can pull some cloth and wrap the straw on the bottom."

"We don't have money to buy new cloth, so we can exchange some coarse grains with others for old cloth, and we need to exchange some daily necessities. Anyway, there are wild vegetables to eat on the mountain, so we can go dig wild vegetables."

How expensive is a quilt, four beds for a four-bedroom person, and according to the current situation of the Liu family, they can't afford it no matter what.

But the cost of replacing old cloth is much lower. The old cloth is simply stitched, and the straw is stuffed in the middle, isn't it a quilt?As long as you stock up enough firewood for winter, you can spend the whole winter on the kang.

Liu Zhan's suggestion was quickly adopted, and the three wives followed Liu Zhan to exchange cloth. Many people were willing to exchange grain for old cloth, but the three wives had no idea how much grain would be exchanged for cloth.

Food is much more valuable than old cloth. Liu Zhan had no special skills in his previous life, except for fighting and negotiating. He still has his own way of fooling people.

The neater and bigger the cloth, the more expensive it is, and the folks couldn’t produce such a good cloth at once, so Liu Zhan changed his mind to change the scraps of cloth, needles and threads, and bowls, chopsticks and pans.

He grabs into the bag with his hand, as much as he grabs, and other people's small hands don't grab much. The villagers don't care about the difficulties at his young age.

Liu Zhan was actually asked to exchange a bucket of coarse grain for a large pile of new and old cloth, and also exchanged a lot of daily necessities.Exclusive VIP novel resource group, the original price is 108, and the current special price is 50 yuan per month. There is a monthly fee, and the resources are updated 1-4 times a week. The radio dramas you want, calcium tablets, Begonia, Liancheng, and Jinjiang are all available!Buckle 924028525. ???? Note, this group is not the main attack group, this group is a group of rotten girls, boys do not disturb In addition, there is an AVGV online website for 45 yuan, free forever, no recharge, no remarks, you add wool

The three wives and the old lady were the best at needlework. It only took two days to sew and wash the quilt. Although the different colors of cloth stitched together did not look good, at least they could sleep warmly.

"Sister-in-law of the Liu family, we are going to pick wild vegetables on the mountain, will you go?"

Early the next morning, the women of the village went to the mountains together to collect goods from the mountains. The aunt who had brought buckets to Liu's family asked at the door.

Liu Zhan jumped out almost immediately. "Aunt Zhang, let's go, please wait a moment!"

The three brothers went to the fields with other tenant farmers early in the morning. Don't care about the rice is almost ripe, weeding, catching insects and catching birds have to be taken care of.

Enthusiastic villagers came up to remind them that ten mu of land is the lifeblood of the Liu family, and they are still counting on grain for the winter!The three brothers couldn't sit still and hurriedly followed to take care of the fields.

In the end, only Liu Zhan and Zhao Shi went up the mountain together. Ning Shi said that he had a cold and needed to rest, and Fang Shi said that he wanted to take care of the old lady.

Mrs. Zhao made a turban with the remaining rags to hold her hair up. After a few days of rest, she became more energetic.

Liu Zhan carefully memorized the route into the mountain along the way, and they picked whatever the women picked. At first, Mrs. Zhao couldn't let it go, but gradually he was able to chat with the women.

When the women saw that she didn't know anything about living, they all started to give advice.

Aunt Zhang was the most enthusiastic and asked Mrs. Zhao to distinguish wild vegetables. "This is lichen. Don't look at it looking dirty. It's delicious when you wash it and use it to cook anything. If you can't finish eating it, it can be stored for a whole year."

"Look, these are mushrooms. The white ones are inedible. The earthy yellow ones can be eaten in pieces. Also, this is rice with wild garlic mixed with coarse grains, which can be eaten raw, and this is sweet and delicious carob. , I was lucky today, we encountered several wild vegetables."

Liu Zhan and Mrs. Zhao carefully followed Aunt Zhang to distinguish the wild vegetables and did not dare to be distracted, especially Liu Zhan listened very carefully. If food poisoning was eaten wrong, it would be fatal in ancient times.

Aunt Zhang said again: "The grain will be harvested at the beginning of next month. The rice harvested from the field is fine grain, so you can't just eat it like this. If you eat only the fine grain harvested in the field, you will run out of grain within a year. The fine grain It has to be taken to the grain store in the county, where one bucket of refined grain can be exchanged for three buckets of coarse grain, so that the whole family can have enough food."

Another Aunt Wen also said: "Every household in the village owns the land in front of and behind the yard. The land is not big enough to grow food, but it can grow some vegetables and radishes, so that the vegetables at home will not worry."

Aunt Cao also said: "Yes, mountain products are also divided into seasons. They are not always available. Wild vegetables are not as good as green vegetables. I think your family is not very large. Children and women can't eat much. Like Lao Niu's family, there are seven or eight. This young man needs to eat, don't worry about Aunt Niu's day."

Another aunt said: "After the autumn harvest is over, men can also go to the county town to find some rough jobs and earn some money to celebrate the New Year."

However, Liu Zhan knew in his heart that he would not be able to earn much money from rough work, and a few copper coins a day from the employer was not bad.

Wuyuan County is not big, so naturally there are not many jobs. Employers usually have casual workers they are familiar with. It is too difficult to find a job if you are not familiar with the place.

What's more, the three brothers of the Liu family, with their literati's body, do rough work. If they don't make money, they will ruin their bodies. Liu Zhan immediately crossed out the option of working part-time in his mind.

Several women were talking passionately when Liu Zhan suddenly interjected. "Excuse me, my aunts, are there any wild animals to hunt in the mountains?"

The women were all taken aback, and Aunt Zhang hurriedly said: "There are naturally many wild animals in the mountains, but there is a wild boar king in this mountain, which is very fierce. This mountain is all its land. In the early years, the men in our village also went to the mountain to hunt. Since the Wild Boar King came, there were casualties every time he went up the mountain, and the hunters who settled in the village moved elsewhere because they couldn't fight the Wild Boar King."

Aunt Wen also said: "There are several widows in our village who were killed by this wild boar king. The head of a hundred households once asked the county magistrate, but the county sent a hundred people to encircle and suppress them but failed to catch them. The old people said That Wild Boar King has become a master, and he cannot be easily offended."

Aunt Zhang said again: "It's okay for us to pick some mountain products by the edge of the woods, but we can't go up the mountain alone. The wild boar king will patrol the mountain every day, and if he is targeted, he will eat people!"

The women were talking more and more fantasy, and Mrs. Zhao seriously warned Liu Zhan not to go up the mountain alone. Liu Zhan couldn't laugh or cry. He is not a fool. With his current physical condition, is it possible to fight the wild boar king bravely?

Time passed quickly as the women chatted from left to right, and everyone returned to the village before lunch.

Seeing that Mrs. Zhao came back with wild vegetables, Mrs. Fang came out to help wash the wild vegetables, and Mrs. Ning came out of the house slowly when she heard the noise.

Liu Zhan went to the kitchen to have a look. He didn't make lunch, and no one brought water. He exchanged grain for an old tank yesterday, and the tank is still empty. Fang and Ning just lay like this all morning!

Liu Zhan suddenly felt an unknown anger. If he hadn't taken care of the order of the elders and the younger, he really wanted to slap the two ladies awake one by one!

Liu Zhan endured and endured, and finally he could only say to Mrs. Zhao: "Father and my second and third uncles should be hungry. We have to deliver food at noon, but it's too late if we haven't cooked the meal at this hour."

Ning said sickly: "My head has been dizzy all the time. I wanted to fetch water for cooking but I couldn't move it."

Fang is more straightforward. "I do not know how to cook……"

The old lady in the room is taking her four-year-old Dan'er to take a nap, let alone intervene.

So, if he and Mrs. Zhao don't come back, they will choose to starve to death?

Liu Zhan didn't want to talk nonsense with the trash, so he took the bucket to fetch water from the stream.

At noon, I ate mixed vegetable soup and multigrain rice with lichen mushrooms and caraway. Yesterday, I exchanged grain for some salt. A large bowl of grain was exchanged for three tablespoons of salt, which is very precious.

Mrs. Zhao didn't want to put more, and there was no mixed vegetable soup at home, so it was very bland, and rice with mixed grains was not as delicious as polished rice, and I always felt that it tasted half-baked.

The old lady, the two wives and the children didn't know how to eat, and their eyes became red when they ate, and they seemed to be thinking about the past again.

Liu Zhan was very angry. He washed some wild garlic and mixed it with mixed vegetable soup and finished the meal in two or three bites. Liu Zhan took the initiative to pack the dishes and chopsticks to deliver the meal to the three brothers, and get acquainted with the village by the way.

Tiancang Village is located deep in the vast mountains. The village is located in a slightly flatter mountain depression, and the entire hillside in other places has been reclaimed to become terraced fields.

As far as the eye can see, Tiancang Village is full of military fields, only a few of them are private fields of Chen Baihu and a few better-off families.

Walking along the way, there are many busy figures in the fields, old and young, men and women, and children who help catch insects in the fields at the age of four or five can be found everywhere.

The Liu family allocated ten acres of land, which was a lot for the military households in Tiancang Village. More land means more grain after harvest, and no matter how many people ask for it, they can't get it.

But for the Liu family, the three brothers couldn't finish taking care of ten acres of land. When Liu Zhan arrived, they only took care of two acres of land in one morning.

Liu Zhan called the three of them over for dinner under the tree.

Liu Xueyuan said: "It's good to call out the women to help in the afternoon. There are many locusts in the field. If you don't catch them quickly, the harvest will be affected. I don't think it's rude to mix men and women here. We still have to focus on the rice fields."

The third brother Liu Xueli nodded in agreement, Liu Xueyi said: "What the elder brother said is, it's just that in our family... the women in the family have never done farm work, so I don't know if they can do it."

Liu Xueyuan said helplessly: "If you can't do it, you have to do it. These ten acres of land are our foundation. We can only eat if we take good care of the land. What is status and face? Only by surviving can we wait for the day of recovery."

Liu Zhan immediately gave Liu Xueyuan a thumbs up while listening. Fortunately, there is someone who understands.

Liu Xueyi smiled wryly. "Can our family get back together?"

Liu Xueyuan said affirmatively: "Several uncles and uncles are not implicated. Even if our branch has no possibility of recovery in the new emperor's reign, when the new emperor's son ascends the throne, the family will definitely find a way to help us restore our origin. What's more, with the help of our Yue family, we will surely succeed."

In fact, Liu Xueyuan has no idea, his words are just to encourage everyone.

Liu Zhan took it into his heart. The oldest emperor in the world is only 60 years old. As long as he persists for two or three decades, there will be a day when he will turn around. Even if he doesn't think about himself, he must think about his children and grandchildren!

After Liu Tonghe's death, Liu Xueyuan was the head of the family, and the two younger brothers did not refuse to follow Liu Xueyuan's orders.

Dafang Zhao had no objection, took a dustpan and led Liu Zhan to follow Liu Xueyuan.

The third Fang family was awkward at the beginning, and Liu Xueli followed after a good persuasion, but the second room Ning family has been confused all day long since Tao'er passed away.

"Oh, why is my life so hard! Tao'er, why don't you take mother away too! Mother doesn't want to live anymore, how can I live this day!"

When Liu Xueyi said to take her to the field, Ning's whole body collapsed, crying and fussing, looking a bit insane, Liu Xueyi didn't dare to force her, so he could only persuade her to take her two children to the field to help .

This year, the weather on Qiyun Mountain is good, and many locusts have been born. Although it is not to the extent of a locust plague, a lot of food will be lost if it is ignored.

While catching insects, Liu Zhan thought, the wild vegetables he and Mrs. Zhao picked today can last at most three days, and after three days, the family ran out of vegetables, so he and Mrs. Zhao have to go up the mountain with the aunts in the village every morning to pick more Save some for winter.

And just eating green vegetables is not enough, if there is no meat all year round, the physical condition of the Liu family is no better than that of native tenants, and sooner or later they will be folded in this ravine.

Liu Zhan didn't know the family background of the tenants in the same village, but based on his contact with Aunt Zhang and the others in the past few days, he judged that no matter how poor they were, they couldn't afford lard and salt.

In the early morning of the next day, Fang Mengmeng, Aunt Zhang came to ask Mrs. Zhao to go up the mountain together.

"Zhan'er, it's cold on the mountain in the morning, so why don't you go." Seeing that Liu Zhan also got up, Mrs. Zhao came over to help him re-tie his hair and put his clothes together.

The clothes Liu's family wore were the coarse cotton padded clothes issued by the county magistrate of Pei. The family didn't have an extra set of clothes. It was okay to wear in early winter, but it was not enough to keep warm when it was colder. Zhao looked at her son with distressed eyes.

Feeling warm in Liu Zhan's heart, he took Zhao Shi's hand. "I'm not cold, I sweat when I walk around."

In his previous life, Liu Zhan's mother left home when he was very young. Liu Zhan had long forgotten the appearance of that woman and lived a new life. Although he was a little embarrassed and uncomfortable with Zhao's maternal love, he cherished it very much.

When the other two wives of the Liu family were complaining about themselves, only Mrs. Zhao was doing things silently and taking care of her husband and son without a single complaint.

Liu Zhan saw it in his eyes and kept it in his heart. If he didn't help Mrs. Zhao share some of the housework, the housework of this big family would definitely overwhelm her.

Liu Zhan didn't follow the big team when he went up the mountain today. He had already learned to distinguish wild vegetables and walked around by himself.

Liu Zhan walked all the way to pick up the basket with his back on his back, and picked up half of the basket in a short while.

Suddenly Liu Zhan heard the sound of water and hurriedly pricked up his ears to argue. The creek behind Liu's house was a spring with no fish in it.

He had thought about fishing in the river for a long time, but he couldn't find the stream because he was not familiar with the mountain roads. Now that he finally found the stream, he naturally wouldn't miss it.

Taking advantage of the time between Mrs. Zhao and Aunt Wen talking, Liu Zhan quietly left and followed the sound to find the stream.

The stream in front of him was not big, and the bottom was clear. Liu Zhan saw the small fish in the crevices of the rocks at a glance.

It is impossible to have big fish in a stream like this, but no matter how small a mosquito is, it is still meat!It is also very good to stew a few small fish and wild vegetables into fish soup!

Without further ado, Liu Zhan took off his shoes and stripped his trousers, and then dumped the wild vegetables in the basket on the ground first, and took the basket into the water to fish for fish.

The water in the stream was icy cold, Liu Zhan's skinny feet entered the water, and there were a few shocks, but no matter how cold it was, it couldn't stop his determination to eat meat.

"Zhan'er! Zhan'er!" After an incense stick of time, Mrs. Zhao turned her head and found that Liu Zhan had disappeared. She had always thought that Liu Zhan was following behind, so she turned pale and her voice trembled.

Aunt Zhang and the others knew that the Liu family was a wealthy family from the capital, not as good as the wild children in their village, so they were busy and helped to find them together.

"I'm here." Liu Zhan emerged from the bushes with a happy face.

At this time, Mrs. Zhao was about to cry.

"There's a mountain stream over there, and I went to catch fish." Liu Zhan hurriedly dumped the contents of the basket on the ground, and there were about seven or eight small fish that were two finger wide jumping on the ground, and some finger-sized snails.

Zhao still cried, she felt very sorry for her son.

Liu Zhan stroked her back to comfort her, and wanted to say something, but he was not good at words and almost wanted to speak but gave up.

Tonight, the Liu family finally had their first bite of meat since being imprisoned.

Mrs. Zhao first used an iron pan to slowly sear a few small fish until fragrant, and then stewed them together with lichen mushrooms.

The fish soup has no fishy smell, only fresh and sweet. Even the old lady who dislikes wild vegetable soup drank two bowls.

Although the fish soup was delicious, Liu Xueyuan still told Liu Zhan not to catch fish after the meal.

The water in the mountain stream is cold and cold. If you get sick, it will be a fatal thing, and if you don't know the depth of the mountain stream, what should you do?Liu Xueyuan has been married to the Zhao family for [-] years and only has one son, Liu Zhan, who naturally attaches great importance to him.

As for Liu Zhan, he promised well the night before, and went to catch fish again the next day when Mrs. Zhao was not paying attention. When there were many, he could catch more than a dozen fish, and when there were few, he could catch six or seven fish. river snail.

No matter how much Liu Xueyuan said, it was useless, and Mrs. Zhao couldn't control him anymore. After drinking the fish soup for several days, Liu's family's complexion became better. Slowly, Liu Xueyuan didn't care about him anymore, but emphasized that he must pay attention every day. Safety.

In this way, the Liu family has been busy until the autumn harvest. The night before the autumn harvest, Chen Baihu sent someone to give them some farm tools. In fact, it should have been delivered a long time ago. .

The three brothers of the Liu family were very calm. They took the whole family to harvest the field early the next morning, but the Ning family still stayed at home and did not want to do housework.

There was no other way but to let Zhao shi run at both ends. Although Liu Xueyuan didn't say anything, every night Liu Zhan could often hear his cheap father comforting Zhao shi.

At the beginning of the autumn harvest, Chen Baihu also got busy. He spent the whole day in the field supervising the military households, threshing rice, drying the rice, and registering for warehouse entry all under Chen Baihu's eyes.