Three thousand miles in exile

The harvest is good this year, and every household in Tiancang Village is happy.

On this day, the three, five and one teams of villagers carried grain down the mountain to Wuyuan County to exchange coarse grains. The three brothers of the Liu family also went down the mountain with the Zhang family next door.

Zhao Shiben also wanted to go, but Liu Xueyuan asked her to stay at home on the grounds that the mountain road was difficult to walk and only brought Liu Zhan with him.

In the morning, the food exchange team set off at Tianfang Mengliang. The Liu family had four baskets of freshly beaten rice, originally there were five baskets, but Liu Xueyuan decided to keep one basket every now and then for the old lady and the children to order some polished rice porridge.

The three brothers took turns picking food but were still far behind the team. The three brothers didn't complain but gritted their teeth.

Liu Zhan is still young and does not need to carry food, but he is responsible for carrying water, and the two large kettles are also heavy. His body is still far inferior to that of a boy who grew up in the field, and his legs and feet began to feel weak after walking half the distance.

After walking on the mountain road for an hour, the Liu family could finally see the county town from a distance. There were also many people coming from all directions to exchange food on the road. The food store must be overcrowded. The three brothers did not dare to stop and hurried to the city.

There are only three food stores in Wuyuan County, and at this time, the inner three floors and the outer three floors are full of people.

Liu Zhan squeezed over to take his place at the first moment, and when he approached, he heard the grain dealer shout loudly.

"His Majesty the Emperor has decreed to send troops to the Xixia Kingdom, and the Ministry of Households is collecting grain from various places. There is a shortage of food in the country and the price of food has risen! Now one bucket of refined grain can only be exchanged for two buckets of coarse grain!"

For most of the tenants who live on this little grain, this news is undoubtedly a bolt from the blue!

For a family that can only eat and wear food and clothing, one less bucket of coarse grains means that they can only eat half full for each meal, and a family that can only eat half full means starving!

The three brothers looked at each other bitterly and stepped aside to discuss.

"Your Majesty has been enthroned for less than half a year, why did you suddenly send troops to Xixia?" Third brother Liu Xueli asked.

Liu Xueyuan frowned. "Western Xia Kingdom and Yan Kingdom have always been at odds with our Great Chu. When Emperor Deren succeeded to the throne, the western border and the northern border were almost empty. Rendi felt that the people's life was hard, so he changed the national policy and made a good relationship with the two countries. Not invading, this is the ten-year peace and prosperity of Dachu."

Liu Xueyi said: "After counting the days, Emperor Ren's coffin has not been in the mausoleum for a long time, and the year name has not been changed to Yuan. The new emperor can't wait to implement the new policy?"

Liu Xueyuan shook his head and said: "Not to mention whether the ministers of the family will agree, and the princes and nobles will not allow His Majesty to act so recklessly, I think this matter is mostly rumors, and those businessmen who heard the rumors took the opportunity to increase the price of food to profit from it. "

Liu Xueli said: "Brother is right, so what should we do?"

Liu Xueyuan thought about it. "Wait here for me, I'll go and inquire about grain prices."

Liu Zhan was fascinated by the analysis of the three brothers, and he also agreed with Liu Xueyuan's point of view in his heart. Seeing that Liu Xueyuan was going to ask about the price of grain, he hurriedly followed.

The father and son struggled to squeeze into the food store.

"Dare to ask this fellow, what is the price of food now?"

The guy shouted arrogantly. "A dou of white rice is 450 Wen, medium white rice is [-] Wen, rice is [-] Wen, coarse grain is [-] Wen, and coarse grain is [-] Wen!"

Immediately, people around screamed. "Food prices have more than doubled compared to last month!"

The crowd was in an uproar, who can afford such a grain price?

Liu Xueyuan asked again. "Little master, I have medium white rice and want to exchange it for money, how much is the price?"

The guy said again: "250 Wen coins a bucket."

Liu Zhan looked at the dou as a unit of measurement, and visually estimated that a dou weighs about ten catties, and ten dou is one stone.

Liu's family has four stones to exchange for coarse grains of white rice, which is forty buckets, logically it can be exchanged for 120 buckets of coarse grains, not to mention two hundred cash less than the selling price.

Liu Xueyuan took Liu Zhan back to join his brothers.

When Liu Xueyi heard the situation, he immediately cursed in anger. "This merchant took advantage of the fire to rob! This is forcing the tenants to exchange one bucket of white rice for two buckets of coarse grains. If they sell the money to buy coarse grains, they can't even buy two buckets!"

Liu Xueli said angrily: "Does the county government just ignore it?"

Liu Xueyuan said helplessly: "If the county magistrate did not allow this matter, do you think those merchants would be so blatant?"

Originally, the Liu family could have more than 1000 catties of coarse grains enough to feed the autumn harvest in the coming year, but now it is one-third less. OK.

The mountain will be covered by heavy snow for another month, and the commercial roads for spring plowing will not be reopened until March next year. If the tenants don’t change their grain now, they will have to wait until next year. Everyone’s grain is so tight, how can they wait?

Although angry, everyone chose to accept it, including the Liu family.

That night when we had dinner at home, everyone at the dinner table was in a depressing atmosphere, thinking that next year we might run out of food after eating, and no one would be happy.

After the meal, Liu Xueyuan made up his mind, no one can move the stone of refined grain left at home, and keep it for next year to exchange for some coarse grain.

After the autumn harvest, every household in Tiancang Village is busy preparing for the winter again, repairing houses, hoarding firewood, collecting more mountain products or storing them in the sun or pickled.

The three brothers of the Liu family went up to the mountains to collect firewood every day. The Liu family did not have enough clothing to keep out the cold, so the three brothers could only collect as much firewood as possible to ensure that the kang bed would not burn out in winter.

In addition, Mrs. Zhao took the children to pick wild vegetables, fungus and wild mushrooms. Now Mrs. Zhao can tell which mountain products are edible.

But Liu Zhan was restless, and quietly left the Zhao family to wander around in the woods.

Suddenly a snowball landed on the back of his head.

"Hey! What happened to your family and you were exiled? Some people say that your family is a murderer."

Liu Zhan turned his head, and not far away were three teenagers of his age, one tall, one short and the other fat.

The tall man said again. "Hey, talking to you, are you deaf?"

The teenagers laughed together happily.

Liu Zhan hooked the corners of his lips, and walked towards them unhurriedly. "Who is the leader of the three of you?"

The three boys were taken aback. "What boss?"

Liu Zhan loosened his fists and feet. "In this way, the three of you will beat me to one. If you win, I will be your younger brother. If I win, I will be your boss in the future, and you all have to listen to me."

The three boys understood, the fat man was the first to stand up and glared at him viciously. "Just because you want to beat me? In our Tiancang Village, no one can beat me except my father!"

This fat man was very strong, at least as strong as three Liu Zhans, no wonder he was invincible against his peers in Tiancang Village.

Liu Zhan was a soldier in his previous life, and only came out to start a business after retiring from the army. Whether he was a soldier or mixed black and white, he was used to using younger brothers. It is really difficult to have few younger brothers in this life. If they didn't reach the target, the three of them came to their door.

Liu Zhan took off his coat and said, "Let's say it's a matter between us men. Whoever goes back and cries for his father and mother afterwards is a woman."

The fat man also tore off his shirt. "Happy! If anyone asks parents to come over, they will be girls!"

The twelve or thirteen-year-old boy was in the period of high incidence of secondary illness, and his blood boiled immediately after being stimulated by Liu Zhan, and he rushed towards him screaming.

Liu Zhan's body first suffered a serious illness in the prison, and then traveled long distances and suffered from hunger and hunger, and he still hasn't recovered.

Facing a fat boy like Roshan, anyone would think that he has no chance of winning. The only thing Liu Zhan relies on is his rich fighting skills.

However, no matter how rich the fighting skills are, they cannot withstand the crushing of Roshan... This Liu Zhan fight was so unbearable that he could be included in black history when he returned to the capital.

"No more beatings, no more beatings." The fat man begged for mercy with a bruised nose and swollen face.

Liu Zhan's body had long been exhausted, relying on a willpower to hold on, as soon as the fat man surrendered, he sat down on the ground and gasped for breath.

The tall man and the short man were terrified that someone could beat the fat man like this!

"My name is Liu Zhan, what's your name?"

The fat man said weakly. "My name is Cao Zhuang, the thin one over there is my cousin Cao Ming, and the tall one is Wen Qingshan."

Liu Zhan stood up and pulled Cao Zhuang up as well. "In the future, don't say that our family is a murderer. My father is a Juren master. Have you ever seen a Juren master kill someone?"

The three boys were stunned.

"Our family just committed a crime and was punished by the court, but it definitely didn't kill anyone." Liu Zhan warned seriously, and then said. "It's getting late today, you go back first, we'll see you here after noon tomorrow."

During the fight, Liu Zhan deliberately protected his head, so there were only a few scratches on his face. If his parents asked, he could just say that he accidentally fell and they could cover it up.

Cao Zhuang's appearance was much worse. Liu Zhan asked the three of them to go back first to see if they would sue their parents. If they sued, they could not use it.

After the three of them walked away, Liu Zhan lifted his coat to check his body. There were several bruises on his body. After careful inspection, he breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, they were all just skin trauma.

Cao Zhuang's strikes were really ruthless. If he hadn't had rich fighting skills as a foundation, he might have been beaten internally by him.

The next day, Liu Zhan came early and hid in the dark waiting for the younger brother who was newly recruited yesterday. In fact, he was not sure whether the three of them would file a complaint, so he could only come earlier and hide to observe secretly. Seeking revenge, he ran away.

Liu Zhan didn't wait too long, and soon three people walked down the hillside together, and there was no adult behind them.

Liu Zhan pursed his lips and walked out of the woods. The three of them felt awkward seeing him. Logically, they should call him the boss, but the three of them couldn't yell out Liu Zhan and didn't force him.

"Do you know where in the mountains the Wild Boar King doesn't often go?"

Wen Qingshan said: "Do you want to enter the mountain?"

Liu Zhan said bluntly. "I want to go into the mountains and set some traps to catch wild animals."

The eyes of the three teenagers immediately brightened. "Would you set a trap?"

Liu Zhan clasped his hands. "of course."

Cao Zhuang was very excited, but he was too embarrassed to ask Liu Zhan to take them with him, so he pushed Cao Ming to tell him.

Cao Ming stood up timidly. "Well, I know where it is, shall we go together?"

Liu Zhan didn't know their little thoughts, didn't they just want to learn?Liu Zhan was amused in his heart, but he still pretended to be inscrutable.

"Let's go then."

Cao Ming excitedly led the way. "We know there is a forest, because the wild boar king doesn't like to go to the forest because of the thorns growing in it."

The forest with thorns is not far away. According to the field survival experience he learned when he was a soldier, Liu Zhan touched a few small animal paths as soon as he entered the forest. Judging from the size of the animal paths, they should be small animals such as hares and pheasants. .

Liu Zhan purposely looked for places where the wild boar king would not go. Apart from not wanting to challenge the mountain king so soon, he also knew that there are not many small animals in places where there are wild boars. This forest with thorns is simply a natural shelter for small animals. Place.

Liu Zhan used local materials and simply used vines and branches to set up eight traps on the animal path. Perhaps the trap was too simple.

In fact, Liu Zhan wanted to follow the beast path to the little beast's lair, but he was not in a hurry when he saw the itchy face of the three boys. Seeing your cards slowly whet their appetites.