Chapter 16:

On a rare sunny day, Li woke up early to do the laundry. He now lives in the staff dormitory—what the owner calls it. They felt awkward at first, but after getting used to it, it became natural. He poured water in a tub and held it on the balcony. When washing clothes, there is a long rope hanging on the balcony. It is thick and strong. It can hang a lot of clothes. They don't have any clothes. Even the old cotton clothes they wear were given by the owner.
So now it’s all underwear, a few rags, just a little wash.
"What are you eating this morning?" Lao Zhang next to Li asked.
Li Da: "How do I know? I will go to the cafeteria after I wash my clothes."
The canteen is a straw shed, but it is well built. The women cook on the back of the stove. It is a smorgasbord. The only advantage is that there is no shortage of oil or salt, which is delicious enough for them.
The women are all family members of the brothers of Yang Zi'an. After their autumn harvest, they took the family and escaped the disaster in Wucheng.
Old Zhang smiled at Li Da: "Look at what you washed, it's almost broken."
Li Da looked at the pile of rags in his hand, unable to deny what Lao Zhang said. He looked at the woods not far away: "My boss is going out?"
He saw the bullock cart.
Lao Zhang followed Li Da's gaze and found that Lin Yuan was getting in the car. After thinking about it, he said, "Xu is the boss going to Wucheng to see?"
Li Da was taken aback: "What are you going to do in Wucheng? To die for nothing?"
Lao Zhang slapped Li Das slap: "Close your crow's mouth, the boss has his own plan."
At the edge of the woods, Lin Yuan rushed to see off the people and said: "Go back, I'll be back when the business is over."
They went far away. Wucheng was hit by a disaster, and the nearby towns would not be much better. He and Jiang Gui went into battle with nothing but silver.
"No matter good or bad, you can buy all the food you can eat." Old Lin exhorted.
Lin Yuan: "Father, I see. I'm not here during this time. If you have any questions, please ask Brother Li and Brother Yang."
Father Lin also knows that Lin Yuan has three righteous brothers. He thinks his son is very smart. It is good to have a few righteous brothers in a place where he is not familiar with his life. His attitude towards Li Congrong and Yang Zian Jiang Gui is also Very good, as if to treat them as their own sons.
Li Congrong said to the side: "Little brother, you don't have to worry about this, as long as I am here, you will not waste your efforts."
Lin Yuan: "Brother, it's our hard work."
Li Congrong smiled and said, "Yes, I said something wrong again."
Yang Zi'an said, "Don't take the big road, just go around a little bit. If you notice something wrong, just abandon the car and hide."
Jiang Gui answered: "Brother, don't worry, we know it in our hearts."
Lin Yuan knew that when the time comes, he will either hire a group of people to come back, or buy a group of people to come back, because of so much food, relying on him and Jiang Gui, let alone transporting it back, it’s good if you don’t get robbed and lost your life on the road. .
Such troubled times will not end easily, at least there are still several years, or even ten years or so.
If there are too few people, it is difficult to be self-sufficient. Farming is possible, but other necessities will continue to be consumed. Once the virtuous circle is broken and the vicious circle begins, his small base will be easily disintegrated from the inside.
Compared with employment, Lin Yuan is more inclined to buy people, and most of those who are unwilling to be slaves have become bandits.
For those who are willing to be slaves, they have already brainwashed themselves and will not easily betray their masters.
He wanted to take people away from his side, but the problem was that there was only one cow and one donkey, but he was afraid that the donkey would die on the road, so only the bullock cart could be used.
Jiang Gui was very confident. He had been to Liuzhen where they decided to go, where the people were strong, but if they were also hospitable, most of them depend on farming for their livelihoods, and a small part of them depend on hunting.
I heard that in the early days, the people in their entire town were good hunters. Since they were young, they would arrange traps and bows, as well as blow arrows with poison. A local toad secreted venom on its back, and only a little , It can paralyze a cow, so that the cow can only be slaughtered.
Jiang Gui said: "Their land is fat, there are fewer people and more land, and Chen Liang will never be less."
Lin Yuan doesn’t know how to drive a car, so it’s Jiang Gui who drove the car. Lin Yuan was sitting in the car. He drank and looked at the same trees and grass around him. If he came out to pick the greenery, maybe he would still praise the scenery. , The air is fresh, but he is not, so all this makes him feel a little irritable.
They drove for five days. During these five days, they simply ate some dry cakes, washed their throats with water, slept in the car at night, drove the bullock cart to the depths of the woods and set fire to them to prevent wild animals from attacking them. You have to stay alert at all times and take turns to watch the night.
After all, a fire can really scare away wild animals, but it can't scare away people.
These five days made Lin Yuan feel like a month has passed.
Jiang Gui’s beard has grown a lot, and he looks more vicissitudes of life than five days ago. Lin Yuan is okay. His body is only fifteen years old, and his hormones are not as much as Jiang Gui secreted. There was a little stubble, just a few stubbles—he was pulled out.
How many beards are on the chin... Is that fair? !
"It's almost here!" Jiang Gui became excited and shook Lin Yuan, who was sitting beside him. Lin Yuan rubbed his sore and looked at the suddenly widened road with his eyes wide open.
There are even tea stalls set up by the local people on the roadside for passing pedestrians and merchants to drink. Of course, they have to collect money.
It seems that the refugees have not been affected at all here. They live a self-sufficient life. Both men and women have the ability to protect themselves. Even children who have not learned to walk must learn to hold a bow.
Lin Yuan also asked Jiang Gui carefully and determined that most of the people here are Han, only a small number of Mongolians.
The Mongols here are not officials, or ordinary people, and they live together and marry the Han people, and they have been fully integrated here.
"Auntie!" Jiang Gui drove the bullock cart to the tea stand on the roadside, calling for people to come and tie the bull.
The auntie is about forty years old, she is already a bit old, but she is strong, and if she doesn't look at her face, some people believe her in her early thirties.
"Feed beans or grass?" The aunt touched the cow.
Jiang Gui looked at Lin Yuan, and Lin Yuan said, "Feed some soy ingredients."
The soy ingredients here can even be used to feed cows, and Lin Yuan felt that he had found a treasure.
The aunt checked them, and there was a plate of side dishes and two bowls of porridge. There were no other guests at this time, and the aunt sat with her grandson in her arms and sang the local nursery rhymes.
After Lin Yuan drank the porridge, he felt that he was finally alive, and then asked, "Mother, we are from a field and want to buy some food back."
He is not worried that this is a black shop, no black shop owner will be a woman, and no black shop owner will not only be a woman but also hold his grandson.
In addition, this shop can afford soy ingredients and cooks white rice porridge. It will not take risks for the sake of money.
The aunt turned her head, her face was joyful: "How about Chen's?"
Her family received new grains, and the granary could not be put down, but Chen Liang did not sell at a price. She was so angry that she would not sell it. This is good, but it is smashed. Chen Liang tastes musty, and adults and children are not willing to eat They are very remote here, and the nearest neighboring village has to drive an ox cart for three days. There is no road, and it’s difficult to buy food. There may be bandits on the road. The aunt has been suffering from that batch of Chen Liang for a long time.
Almost every family in the local area suffers from this headache.
They were starving to death outside, but they were worried that they had too much food. Lin Yuan didn't know what to look on when he knew it.
In a sense, this is also a paradise.