The new hope gave great spiritual support to the Xue family of four. The two boys were more attentive in studying, and the temper of the little scholar became much smoother. Patience cut countless small holes on it to make a bag-style fishing net.

The Yangjiang River passes through Fuchun County, only a dozen meters away from the store, and you can touch it with your eyes closed. Because of the curfew, Xue Yinsong waited until midnight to dispatch him. He was as agile as a monkey all the way, and ran to the river without any effort. , the water in Yangjiang still flows unhurriedly, because it is not yet the season of flooding, and the water level is not high.

Xue Yinsong slipped under the long bridge, first touched a stone as big as a millstone, and rolled to the bottom of the bridge desperately, then took out the cloth bag and rope he had prepared earlier from his arms and fixed it under the stone.

In order to conceal the traces, he also half-submerged the stones in the water, so that he could not see the end of the rope left on the bank.

Due to the lack of materials, the net was not sealed, and the fish could come in and swim out freely, so he waited quietly by the river, picking up the net every once in a while to have a look.The place under the bridge was overgrown with mosquitoes, but in a short while there were more than a dozen bites on the exposed parts such as his face and hands. Xue Yinsong endured the itching and paid attention to the patrolling soldiers on the bridge from time to time.

There are not many fish in Yangjiang, and the net can carry at most one or two at a time, and the biggest one is no more than the length of a palm, so he is already grateful for this, and even blames himself for not thinking of this method earlier.

After catching 7 or 8 tails, the morning star in the sky lit up. He still hated not having enough, but he could only collect the nets and go home.

Before everyone got up, Xue Yinsong cut up a few fish and cooked a pot of fish soup, attracting two cats at home to circle around him vigorously, rubbing their legs to eat.

Xue Yinsong deftly boiled the fish head and intestines in a small pot, mixed with some rice and poured them into the cat bowl. It happened that the rest of the people woke up hungry after smelling the smell.

The smell of fish was too strong, and the fragrant and fresh fishy smell irritated everyone's nose and stomach. They didn't even bother to wash their mouths and wash their faces before eating around the table.

It was just dawn at this time, and the morning breeze still carried a bit of heat. Xue Yinsong stood aside and watched a few people eating happily, and felt a bit of joy and sadness in his heart, especially the scholar, who paid the most attention to elegance and etiquette He even picked up a bowl to drink porridge, which made him feel a little guilty and guilty.

Xiao Qi licked the bowl after drinking, Chang Hui followed suit when he saw this, Xiao Xiucai frowned and wanted to stop, thinking about the suffering of two children in the past month or so, he sighed and said nothing.

Xue Yinsong walked over, put his hands on his shoulders, and said softly: "It's almost over, everything is about to end." Xiao Xiucai turned her head and saw red bumps all over his face, neck, and hands. I was taken aback: "It was bitten by a mosquito? You fed these fish with blood, right? The old man often said that ten eggs can't make up for a drop of blood. How many drops of blood are there?"

Xue Yinsong smiled and said: "It's okay, I've already wiped it with salt when I came back." The scholar was still distressed, stood up and said: "When you came last year, your father dried some mugwort leaves, go and boil some water to wash."

"Ai Ye can only repel mosquitoes, but can't treat mosquito bites." Xue Yinsong smiled and said, "It's okay, it will disappear in a day or two."

The little fellow hurriedly said, "I'll go fishing tonight!"

Xue Yinsong nodded: "Okay, then you take a mugwort leaf to take a bath at night, I have to go to sleep, I'm a little sleepy."

After fishing like this for two or three days, the fish are no longer willing to be fooled, and sometimes even one night may not be able to catch a fish. Even so, he is unwilling to give up hope and still guards the net every day.

It is probably because the mosquitoes have become acquainted with each other after biting too much, or there is no place to eat when the bag is folded. Gradually, the mosquitoes are less infested, and naturally fishing is more comfortable, so it is rain or shine.

Probably because the smell of fish stimulated the neighbors' sense of taste, more people came to fish in the middle of the night, one or two at first, and then gradually developed to more than a dozen people.

Xue Yinsong unreservedly taught him the skills of fishing with sheets, and received an idle fishing rod as a gift.

During the fish fishing breaks, everyone chatted, mostly complaining, encouraging each other, and more asking questions—everyone knew about the rice shop opened by Xue’s family, and thought there would always be some extra food.

Of course, Xue Yinsong didn't dare to sell it, so he could only laugh and say that his family closed the shop ten days before the city was closed because all the rice was sold out.

This is the truth, because he took the scholar back to the countryside at that time, and someone confirmed that his house was indeed closed, so they all believed this statement, and others talked about going to other rice shops to get some rice.

Talking about it, to put it bluntly, he was going to grab it, and he was so polite to Xue Yinsong because he had done a good deed by selling rice at a low price before, and everyone still had a good impression of him, while other rice shops, including the Rice Grain Association, were A thorn in the side of people.

The Rice and Grain Association represented by the He family has been bullying the old and young in Fuchun County for a long time. They have done a lot of things like less weighing and mixing stones, and the price of rice only rises and never falls. How can it be as cheap as Xue Yinsong's rice? With such a comparison, everyone naturally thinks that Mipu has made a lot of money.

Several people next to them discussed for a while, and decided to unite more people to act together, and naturally also recruited Xue Yinsong to join the group.This is a very subtle move - if you don't participate, it means you have rice. Xue Yinsong immediately understood the meaning of this, and agreed with it.

After discussing for a while, everyone decided to attack the Li family. First, the location of Li’s rice shop was a little bit closer to the intersection, so they could disperse and run away after the robbery was over. Second, it was also because his family had offended too many people in the past. , everyone thought of his home at the same time.

The time is set at the second watch in the evening of the day after tomorrow. The night will be used as a cover to facilitate escape, and the night patrols will be relatively lax.

Xue Yinsong really didn't want to go. There were more than a dozen sacks of rice in his house, so there was no need to flee for the sake of the rice, but it was absolutely impossible not to go. After struggling for two days, he still changed into black clothes and went to the agreed meeting place.In order to prove that he was there, he went with two people he knew well.

In the middle of Changqiao Lane, there is a natural flat dam, which used to be the residence of an old Chinese doctor. After the death of the old doctor, the house was always haunted by ghosts, so the county government ordered it to be demolished.

Xue Yinsong arrived a little late, and there were at least a hundred people crowded into a small place. Everyone was wearing dark clothes, holding their breath and waiting for the leader to speak. They held all kinds of weapons in their hands, including hoes, iron Shovels, hatchets, sticks... an elderly woman even had a kitchen knife in her hand.

In the darkness, only a deep and powerful voice said loudly: "The city has been closed for a month and a half. The officers and soldiers did not distribute food, and the rice shop did not sell rice. Is there any reason for that?"

"No!" Everyone shouted in unison.

"Is there no food in your family? Are you hungry? God let us come to this world for a while. We will be recognized as cows and horses, but we can't do without food. Now the rice shop doesn't sell rice. Should we go?" Should I grab it?"

The thick and powerful voices of the men replied: "Yes!"

"Anyway, sooner or later, we will not be able to escape death. Let me explain the big deal here! If you don't give me rice, you will kill us! You will die, are you going to fight?"

"spell!"

"Fight! Smash these bastards to death!"

"Fight! Kill them!"

……

The crowd spontaneously turned to the back and rushed towards Li's house like a flood of beasts. In the summer night, the two high-hanging rice shop lanterns were shaken by the sound of the door being smashed, and the door was finally broken.

The crowd rushed in and wandered around like headless flies. The Li family only entered the yard three times, and soon it was full of angry crowds. .

The lock of the rice warehouse was broken, and the crowd began to fight against the rice outside. Everyone rushed to squeeze in, and two people even fought for the same bag of rice.

Soon the commotion attracted patrolling defenders. Xue Yinsong thought he had shown his face, and immediately turned and ran into the alley. Unexpectedly, a group of patrolling soldiers came in front of him, and hurriedly dodged into a narrow alley.

The patrolling soldiers ran to the front, Xue Yinsong came out hurriedly, turned around and ran to his home, but luckily they were all on the same street, not too far away.

The scholar and the boy were in a hurry at home, and when they saw him come back, they were relieved in vain: "You didn't get hurt?"

Xue Yinsong shook his head, but felt uncomfortable: "Actually, mobs are no different from bandits. They said they wanted food, but they robbed everything. Fortunately, I sold some cheap rice before, otherwise I might not escape."

The little scholar was silent for a while and said: "It's pitiful and hateful, don't think about it, hurry up and go to bed, it's getting late."

Xue Yinsong stood up and went to fetch water from the well, only to hear the watchman knock on the gong and pass by: "The curfew is over! The curfew is over! Every house is closed, the windows are closed and locked! Any wanderer will be killed!"

The little scholar let out a sigh of relief: "Fortunately you came back, otherwise I would have to worry to death."

Xue Yinsong looked up, and saw a figure standing in the darkness far away, and he seemed to feel deep concern from such a distance: "Didn't I come back?"

The little scholar also felt that the words were too ambiguous, so he immediately changed his tone: "Go to bed quickly after washing, and if you have to check the household later, it will be too long-winded!"

Xue Yinsong immediately started to fetch water. He ran in a hurry for a while, and the cold well water poured on his body was still a bit exciting, but when he slowed down, he only felt that his heart was very hot.

The night passed quietly, and the next day was nothing special, except that the daytime curfew was suddenly lifted, and the watchman and Lizheng knocked on the door, asking each family to go to the county government office to collect ten catties of rice.

This time it seemed that the common people had won, but I heard that the officers and soldiers still arrested a few people, and they will be locked up for a period of time, Xue Yinsong thought, isn't it about to open the city?Should be out soon.

Sure enough, more than ten days later, the imperial army really came. In just two or three days, a large part of the east city wall of Fuchun County was broken, and the entire city defenders surrendered immediately.

When the officers and soldiers entered the city, trade resumed immediately, but all the people in the nearby countryside ran away, and even if someone entered the city to sell vegetables, it would be like a robbery.Xue Yinsong didn't wait, he packed up his clothes and took his wife and son back to the countryside the next day. If his father hid all the animals well, he could at least kill two chickens and ducks to make up for it.

The journey was not fast, and after two months of staying at home and suffering from malnutrition, all four were a little weak.

Entering Chenjia Village, I saw broken walls and broken tiles, and some houses had their courtyard walls smashed down. The door of my own house was also wide open. Xue Yinsong tried to shout, but no one answered.There was no sound in the backyard, let alone cows, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits, pigs, dogs, foxes, etc., all disappeared.

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