Chapter 180 File
On the narrow mountain road opposite, four big men were walking towards them from afar, all carrying tall baskets on their backs. The baskets were filled to the brim and piled high with things that were mostly animal furs.
It is really rare to suddenly meet a few people in this deep mountain and dense forest.
Two teams were coming towards them, and the leaders were holding machetes in their hands. At first glance, both sides couldn't help but feel nervous and looked surprised.
Li Song was indeed experienced. He turned around and exchanged glances with Qin Yi, then took the lead to greet him with a smile:
"Oh my! In this deep forest, I can actually meet a few fellow villagers. Are you guys...getting out of the mountains?"
Perhaps because Li Song spoke in an authentic dialect and looked rather plain, the leading man on the opposite side hesitated for a moment and said:
"Let's... go out and exchange some mountain products."
Then he looked at the team behind Li Song, and perhaps seeing that there were quite a lot of people here, he said with a vigilant look in his eyes:
"Where are you all going?"
"Let's go to the mountains to collect some medicinal herbs. We're going to Wushanao!" Li Song said.
When the men behind heard about Wushanao, their expressions suddenly became nervous. The leading man turned around and glared at them, then turned back and said:
"We are from Wushanao. If you collect skins, we may be able to get some, but if you collect medicinal herbs... I'm afraid you won't get anything."
Li Song smiled, "With so many of us, of course we have to go deep into the mountains! Only in the deep mountains can we find good medicinal herbs! At most we can take a break in Wushanao. Don't worry! I know Village Chief Ge!"
The man was stunned, "You, you know Village Chief Ge!"
"That's right! If you don't recognize it, you will just wander into the mountains blindly. How can you find the ball? You will have lost the ball long ago!"
The man then relaxed a little, "That's right! You have to pass through our village to enter the mountains. You...are you going to do big business? You have to hide your power!"
If you go further into Wushanao, it becomes really sparsely populated. You won’t be able to find a single person for several days. If you don’t have some skills, you dare not go in.
"Look at what you're saying! We're all trying to make a living, right? Fine, then we won't delay your journey and let you pass first!"
Li Song smiled and stepped aside.
The mountain path was narrow, and the men were carrying large backpacks, so they couldn't get through if they didn't give way.
The man paused, nodded to the person behind him, then tightened the backpack on his back and walked forward.
The two teams passed each other.
Even after walking a long way, the three men kept looking back with uncertain expressions.
When the team was back on the road, Su Tong followed Li Song and asked:
"Old Li, is there more than one village ahead?"
Li Song said, "There is a fork in the road a few miles ahead. One road goes west to Wushanao, and the other road goes south to Wangjiacha. These are the only two villages that our government can reach in this deep mountain! If you go further in, you will reach the old mountain, which is sparsely populated and out of reach!"
Sure enough, not long after walking, I saw a fork in the road.
In fact, the fork in the road is not obvious, but this piece of land is a sunny slope, a rare open area along the way.
The trees were not that dense, and there was a rare patch of dry, hard, brown and yellow soil on the ground. There was dead grass lying next to it, and it seemed to be a place where people often stopped to rest.
There were also obvious burnt ashes on the ground, so the men who had just passed by must have rested here.
Qin Yi looked at the time and told the team to rest here and have lunch.
After the game was put on the fire, Qin Yi said to Li Song:
"Old Li, tell us more about the situation of the two villages."
Li Song nodded and began to preach:
"Wushan'ao and Wangjiacha are two primitive natural villages deep in Dayun Mountain. If the villagers want to get out of the mountain, there is only one way, the one we took today. They need to set out before dawn and walk for a whole day in good weather to barely get out before dark. The villagers are all mountain people for generations, and most of them have never left the mountain in their lives."
"It is said that during the second national census in 1964, many women from the mountains who had not settled down were found in remote villages under the jurisdiction of Jiangping County. After asking, we learned that it was a hunter in the village who got lost in the mountains and accidentally entered Wushanao. When he came out, he brought back a woman. She was timid and afraid of strangers, but she could do any job. The most important thing was that she didn't need to spend a dowry."
"Later, when the poor young men in the village could not afford to marry, some of them thought of going to the mountains to exchange for wives. With some food and cloth, girls would be willing to follow them. But it was not easy to go into the mountains, and many of them never came back. Unless they were forced to that point, most people would not think of this."
"This discovery made the government comrades realize that there are still our compatriots in the mountains, without household registration, not under the management and protection of the country, and their descendants cannot receive education. So the government departments spent a lot of effort and sent a lot of people. It took several years to make the two villages of Wushanao and Wangjiacha accept the government's management, compile household registration for the people in the village, and regularly send people in to publicize the national situation and policies, but..."
"well!"
Li Song sighed and said:
“It is too difficult to go in and out of the mountains. The people in the village have lived in the mountains for generations and have their own set of concepts and norms. It is too difficult to get them to accept new policies and new concepts.
I went there once in 1968 when I was working at a grassroots police station, following the then chief. The villagers were very hostile and wary of outsiders. At that time, it was not like today where you could find the way into the mountains. You would get lost if you were not careful.
It took us nearly three days to get into the mountains. We encountered wild boars and almost fell into deep ravines several times. We almost never came back..."
"Fortunately, after so many years of hard work, the villagers have learned more about the outside world. More and more people have left the mountains and learned to exchange mountain products and leather for new items from time to time. Some have intermarried with people from outside the mountains, and some have gone out of the mountains to receive education, but they are still a minority...
You can see that this road is passable now. It is much easier to walk on than before. However, only the men who just passed by can get out. They not only need to be strong, but also have the ability to defend themselves. "
"Besides, something more serious happened..."
Li Song said this but glanced at Qin Yi and said:
"The boss knows more about that matter than I do."
Qin Yi nodded and took over the topic.
“When reviewing the files of the two villages, the most striking thing was a disappearance case from two years ago.”
"Two young cadres in Jiangping County went missing on their way into the mountains. After the incident, the Jiangping County Public Security Bureau sent a large number of people to search and rescue them. However, the terrain was too complex and the area was too wide. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack to find two people in the dense forests of the mountains."
"The search and rescue team searched the road leading into the mountain and the two villages for nearly a month, but still couldn't find anyone, either alive or dead."
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