Go to ancient times and engage in construction

Zheng Yuming woke up from the pain when his forehead hit the carriage. When he got up while rubbing his red forehead, he found that the mule cart had stopped. Chu Chaohui was nowhere to be seen, and the steel rods in the compartment were not in their original positions.

"Brother Chu Xian, after killing this man who killed a thousand swords, he came to Xiao Xiangou's mule cart again." Wu Da was obviously very angry, and his face turned red when he shouted.

Zheng Yuming climbed to the door of the car and found Chu Chaohui standing not far away holding a steel rod, with a man in yellow standing under his feet.

"What's going on?" Zheng Yuming quickly jumped off the mule cart and ran to Chu Chaohui's side.

"Are you awake?" Chu Zhaohui looked very relaxed, not paying attention to the man in yellow who was humming at his feet.

"Uh..., is this the last time you came to rob a mule cart?" Zheng Yuming fell asleep for two hours unknowingly, the mule cart had already passed the back slope, and Nanbu was in front of it. This place turned out to be the path where Wu University was robbed last time At the corner, the man in yellow lying at Chu Chaohui's feet, holding a thigh in his hand and humming, was one of the two robbers last time.

"How do you deal with the robbers?" Chu Chaohui turned to ask Wu Da.

"Don't send him to Dacheng, just break his hands and feet!" Wu said loudly. Generally, there are two ways to deal with criminals who are caught. One is to hand over to the official. Basically, they were punished as slaves or hard labor, and the officials had to escort the robbers to the city. Wu Da obviously didn’t want to run away, but wanted to deal with them directly. This is the most common punishment for villagers who catch criminals. It is lynching. It was also the official acquiescence, because the number of officials at that time was very small, and the official could not manage it.

"Gentlemen, spare your life! The little one can't think about it either. The fields are not harvested, and the little one just wants to use the mule cart for food to survive." The man in yellow couldn't help crying loudly when he heard that Wu Da was about to interrupt his limbs. Repeatedly begging for mercy.The robber was actually not wearing yellow clothes, but yellow and white sackcloth, which turned yellow because it was not washed properly.

"You can snatch other people's mule carts if you can't think about it?" Chu Chaohui raised his eyebrows, picked up the steel rod, and was about to break the hands and feet of the man in yellow. The man in yellow and the escaped accomplice were determined to rob once. If he didn't succeed, he still wanted to snatch the second time. If he was easily spared, there would be no guarantee that there would not be a third time. In the future, he would often go to Dacheng, and the robbers along the way must be resolutely attacked.

"My lord, be merciful!" Just as Chu Chaohui was weighing the stick, another robber in yellow rushed out from the woods on the hillside. The man in yellow threw himself on his knees and kowtowed loudly in front of Chu Chaohui.

Chu Zhaohui and Zheng Yuming were stunned for a moment, they never thought that the escaped robbers would be reluctant to leave their accomplices, and when they saw that their accomplices were going to be punished, they would foolishly come out to plead for their accomplices, did they think they were talkative?Or do the two of them look like Bodhisattvas, with benevolent eyebrows and kind eyes?

"You are from Houpo!" Wu Da next to him jumped up. The man in yellow who came to beg for mercy looked familiar to him, as if he had seen him in Houpo.

"Wu Dong's family, please let our brother go." Huang Yi, who was pleading, was obviously better at talking than his accomplices. While begging, he told why the two of them snatched Wu Da's mule cart.

It turned out that the two men in yellow were villagers from Houpo, and they were cousins. The one who was caught by Chu Chaohui's steel rod was Tian Hu. This year, the only one who came to beg for mercy was Tian Bao, Tian Hu's cousin. One year younger than Tian Hu.Both of Tian Bao’s parents died when he was young, and he was adopted by Tian Hu’s parents. There are four brothers and sisters in Tian Hu’s family. Two older brothers are already married, and one younger sister was married last year. Unlike Nanbu, which can carry water for irrigation by relying on the big river, the crops in the field are even more unbearable. A few years ago, Tian Hu’s father died of illness, and his two older brothers followed the village’s hunting team into the mountains to hunt and failed to return. The family lost two laborers. It's even worse.After the Spring Festival this year, it has not rained or snowed for a month. It is estimated that the drought will continue. There is little hope for the survival of the grain in the field. Tian Hu’s mother is 55 this year, and it is the age for the old woman to send her to the mountains. Hu was filial and didn't want his mother to go into the mountains. Seeing that Wu Da often drove a mule cart to Dacheng, he came up with the idea of ​​a mule cart.

"Send mountains? What is send mountains?" Zheng Yuming didn't understand what it meant.

When Wu Da heard Tian Bao mention that Tian Hu's mother was going to be sent to the mountain, his anger dissipated, his face was full of unbearable, and Tian Hu, who was lying at Chu Chaohui's feet, cried even more sadly.

Tian Bao raised his eyes and rubbed his red eyes. It was strange that the two tall and strong men didn't know what sending mountains was.

"The mother of this Tianhu is 55 years old." Wu Da said in a low voice.

"What's wrong with turning 55?" Zheng Yuming was still puzzled. Why would he be sent to the mountains at the age of 55? People in this era age very quickly, and they will be dying in their 50s. Sending them to the mountains is not a dead end.

"There is no food at home, so I can only send my mother away! I don't want my mother to feed the animals." Tian Hu burst into tears.

"You mean to send your old mother to the mountains to die?" Zheng Yuming was stunned. He seemed to have heard that in ancient times, in order to save food, some old people who lost the ability to work would be sent to the mountains to feed the wolves.

Tian Hu's family only has two laborers, Tian Hu and Tian Bao, but they have to support two widows, four young nephews and nieces, and an old mother who is dying. Offered to send her into the mountains.It was rare to see people in Wudi sending elderly people in their sixties to deep mountains, but as the famine intensified, this phenomenon began to appear again.Tian Hu couldn't bear it. Seeing Wu Da staying overnight in their village with a mule cart, he wanted to snatch the mule cart and sell it for some grain. For food, my mother doesn't have to send it to the mountains.

A dull atmosphere spread among the crowd, the five present, except for Tian Hu's low sobbing, there was no sound for a while.

"You two virtuous brothers, let them go." Wu Da sighed.

Chu Chaohui let go of Tian Hu's right foot and retracted the steel rod.

"Thank you three bosses! Thank you three adults!" Tian Hu got his freedom, got up and kowtowed quickly, and Tian Bao next to him also kowtowed non-stop.

"If you go back like this, will my mother still send you to the mountains?" Chu Chaohui narrowed his eyes slightly, and asked suddenly when the two cousins ​​wanted to leave.

Tian Hu and Tian Bao looked at each other, wondering what the tallest and burly foreigner meant by asking this question.

"Do you want to help these two people?" Zheng Yuming asked Chu Chaohui in Mandarin in a low voice.

"It's not about helping, it's that they are useful." Chu Zhaohui was not as kind as Zheng Yuming thought, he only thought that in the future plans, a lot of labor would be needed, and this cousin is not too weak to eat enough.

After Chu Chaohui and Zheng Yuming finished talking, they turned to face the Tian brothers.

"Tian Hu Tian Bao, Nanbu needs coolies next month. If you come to help, not only will you be fed, but you will also be able to bring back a day's rations."

"Really?" Tian Hu and Tian Bao's eyes are bright. If you can bring two laborers' rations home after working as a coolie for a day, and add some wild vegetables, the other seven old and weak women and children in the family can stutter and survive. .

Looking at the Tian brothers who went away, Wu Da was worried: "Brother Chu, is there any work in Nanbu for people from other villages?"

The porting work at the Nanbu Wharf has always been done by the villagers themselves. If people from other villages want to recruit some work, they will always drive the Nanbu villagers out of the village with their concerted efforts.

"Brother Ang, don't worry, there will be a lot of hard work in Nanbu in the future, and the people in the village alone won't be able to do it." Chu Chaohui comforted Wu Da, who was also afraid that Chu Chaohui would hand over the portage work to him. Without the Tian brothers, the coolies in their own village would have to starve.

"Should we gather all the villagers for a meeting today?"

"No need, I'll meet the villagers later." Zheng Yuming felt that there was nothing to say when he saw the villagers now, and he had better meet his tenant farmers when he was about to grow grain. He and Chu Chaohui each had their own thoughts about Nanbu Village. Tonight, Zheng Yuming decided to have a good talk with Chu Chaohui.

The mule cart entered the village, and the residents of the village didn't know that the strangers on the mule cart had become their landlords, so their attitude remained the same as before.Wu Da's driving a mule cart is even more imposing. His two brothers with different surnames said that his elder brother is also a landlord in Nanbu, and the three of them will share blessings and difficulties together in the future.

When the car entered the house, Wu Dacai got off the mule cart. Wu Feng ran out of the house and threw himself on his father. Immediately afterwards, Mu Zhu rushed out of the house, whining and whining around Zheng Yuming. Zheng Yuming, Chu Chaohui The three of them, Mr. Wu and Mr. Wu, went to Dacheng for five days. Mu Mu stayed in a strange place, his appetite decreased a lot, and the dog hair on his body became less shiny.

The Huo brothers and sisters timidly followed Wu's wife, their eyes couldn't hide their joy. Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui were their reliance in this world.

The three of them returned to Nanbu from Dacheng in the morning. They were delayed by Brother Tian for a while on the way, and it was already afternoon when they returned to the Wu family. A child and a little milk dog bid farewell to go back to the valley, and agreed to meet Wu Da tomorrow on a small road not far from the gap. Do something in Dacheng, and when Wu Da comes back, at the beginning of this month, the three of them will go to Dacheng to buy slaves together.

Wu Da's mule cart did not send Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui to the gap this time, because the horse mule needed to rest from the continuous journey, and Wu Da had to go to Dacheng tomorrow to let the horse mule rest and recover.

When they went back, the Huo brothers and sisters sat on a basket, and Chu Zhaohui carried it while walking, while Zheng Yuming followed beside him holding the wood.After going out for five days, Mu Mu was so haggard thinking about his master, but the brothers and sisters of the Huo family blushed a little more on their faces. When they arrived outside the village, Huo Sizhong whispered to his two adopters.

"My lords, my sister and I didn't say anything, not even Auntie asked." Auntie is Mrs. Wu's wife.

"That's right, he's a good boy, very obedient." Chu Chaohui bowed his head and praised the children in the basket. Before he and Zheng Yuming set off to reach the city, he took care of the two children. He couldn't tell anyone what happened in the valley. Once he told, There will be bad guys coming to snatch it, but then there is no food to eat, no clothes to wear.

The Huo brothers and sisters spent two days in the valley as if they had entered heaven. How could they allow heaven to disappear and return to hell? They always kept in mind the care of Zheng Yuming and Chu Chaohui. .

The two time travelers don't want outsiders to enter the valley yet, and they don't want to let outsiders know about the gap too early. The way to tell Wu Da to leave the valley is that they find a small mountain road to leave the valley.They lived in a self-made house in the mountains. Mrs. Wu was curious about the clothes the two children were wearing, so she inquired about the conditions of their residence. Unexpectedly, the Huo brothers and sisters were like two pieces of wood, and there was no response.

It takes [-] minutes to walk from Nanbu Village to the foot of the mountain at Gapkou. At the foot of the mountain, Chu Chaohui put down the basket and gave it to Zheng Yuming. Zhao Hui still stood still.

"Are you tired? Do you want to rest for a while?" Chu Zhaohui carried the basket to the foot of the mountain in one go. Zheng Yuming thought that Chu Chaohui might be tired because he stood still.

"You go first, I'll come right away." Chu Zhaohui waved to Zheng Yuming.

Zheng Yuming walked for a few minutes before Chu Chaohui slowly followed behind. Zheng Yuming flashed behind the big camphor tree with a basket on his back and entered the gap. Chu Chaohui followed closely, and when the figures of several people disappeared behind the big camphor tree, A black shadow flashed from the grass to the side of the camphor tree. The black shadow listened intently to the sound of footsteps fading away before cautiously poking behind the camphor tree.

The author has something to say: In the pre-Qin period, due to the backward productivity, in order to get rid of the burden, the elderly over 60 years old were buried alive or fed to wolves. Later, Li Si proposed to Qin Shihuang to prohibit this behavior, and Shihuang agreed.There is also a record in Shiji: Shiji says: Sun Yuanjue was born in Chenliu.On the fifteenth day of the new year, love and filial piety.His father was unfilial, and Yuan Jue's grandfather was old, sick and thin, and his father hated it, so he tied the basket and abandoned it deep in the mountains.Yuan Jue wept and remonstrated with his father.The father said: "Ah Weng is old, although he looks like a man, he is like this, he will not die when he is old, and he will turn into a fox." Then he abandoned his father in the mountains.Yuanjue wept bitterly, and went to the mountains with his grandfather, bitterly admonishing his father, but his father refused.Yuanjue then looked up to the sky and cried loudly, and brought his father back again.The father said to Jue: "What is the use of this fierce thing?" Jue said: "This is a mature thing. If you send it to your father later, let alone make it." When the father heard this, he was very surprised: "You are my son. How can you abandon me?" Yuan Jue said: "Father's son is like flowing under water. Since he has inherited his father's instruction, how dare he disobey it." The father was enlightened, and then he brought his grandfather back, and cared for him more diligently than usual. .Confucius sighed and said: "A filial son does not disobey his relatives, this is what he does." Yingcai commented: "Zheng Hongrenyi gave up his brother's clothing with chariots and horses, and did not wear his own clothes. He was famous all over the world. Situ also."