"Sir, I have already found out that the families are hiding in the cave."

In front of a cave in the Yunzhong Mountains, a group of soldiers appeared, and a man in plain clothes said to the leading soldier.

"Fuck, I finally found them. Follow me to get them. Remember, don't kill them, otherwise you won't be able to complete the mission this month."

The leading soldier cursed, and then a group of people rushed into the cave quickly with torches, and several screams came from the cave.

Then there was a noisy sound, with crying, begging for mercy, and the sound of people being whipped.

When everything was quiet, a group of soldiers lit torches and shone them on the captured people. The plainclothes officers came forward to identify them and said, "Sir, yes, they are from Shihao Village at the foot of the mountain. They are all craftsmen."

"Didn't they say there were seven? Why are there only four?"

"Sir, they are three families, and each family has a kid, thirteen or fourteen years old."

"Where are those people? The task given to me this month is to recruit sixty new soldiers, and now there are only more than thirty people,"

the leading soldier asked angrily. They came here to recruit soldiers. The task given by their superiors was to recruit sixty new soldiers, and now they are still short of half of them, so the thirteen or fourteen-year-old boys cannot be let go.

"Sir, please let me go. My Dalang and Erlang have died in the battlefield. According to the law, our family can be exempted from military service."

"Bullshit, what law? How could I not know it? Hand over your son quickly, or he will be treated as a deserter. It will not be like joining the army. It will be a direct sacrifice of your son."

"Sir, I didn't know. The families of our three families are all separated."

"Haha, you can fool me? Come on, keep looking. The cave is so big. I wonder where they can go."

The leading soldier sneered, but he was not angry. He could not be angry. The war on the front line was tense and they had been recruiting soldiers. Before, they could abide by the rule of one out of ten or one out of five men, but now all men are wanted. They are all cannon fodder anyway, there is no difference.

The remaining soldiers quickly searched in the cave. The cave was not big, so they quickly looked around. The soldier came back and reported, "Sir, there is a cliff ahead. I've looked, but there is no one." "

I'll go and have a look."

The leading soldier walked forward. Sure enough, there was a cliff deep in the cave. It was pitch black. He shone a torch and saw no one.

"Unlucky, let's go to the next one."

The leading soldier didn't think too much. He didn't have time to investigate. The task was heavy. It would be better to go to the next one if he had time. Anyway, there was not much food in this cave. Those teenagers would have to go down the mountain if they were hungry. Then they could just sweep the other side.

The sound of the soldiers going away came, and the voices of the old men begging for mercy came. They were nearly fifty years old and really couldn't go to the battlefield, but the soldiers ignored them. Ordinary cannon fodder was in short supply, and craftsmen were even more in short supply. These people were all craftsmen and must not be let go.

When the soldiers were completely gone, three people appeared on the edge of the cliff. They were hiding in the concave part of the cliff, just avoiding the sight of the soldiers.

"Brother Zhai, what should we do now?"

The two younger boys asked the older one.

"We can't go back to the village. My father said that there are traitors in the village. If we go back, someone will come to find us. So many people in our village went to join the army, and none of them came back. They all died."

"Yes, my eldest brother and second brother are also dead."

"We still have a small bag of food here. The three of us should save some food. I hear the sound of water below. Let's go down and take a look. If there are fish, we will go catch them and hide for a while."

The boy pointed to the food bag on his waist. There were more than ten pounds of food in it, which was enough to last for a while. If there were fish to catch, it would be even better.

The three of them quickly climbed down from the cliff little by little. The three of them were also the ones who went up the mountain to catch birds and went down to the river to catch fish in the village. They were agile and climbed down safely.

·······

When the soldiers were running in the cave, Lin Jiang woke up. He looked at the time and found that he had been asleep for a thousand years. After the soldiers left, he saw three young men climbing down the cliff. Their agility surprised Lin Jiang. They were very good young men. Lin Jiang

did not show up immediately, but watched the three people groping in the underground river under the cliff. However, Lin Jiang knew that they would be disappointed. There would be no big fish in this underground river. There were only some very small fish, and they were difficult to catch.

As expected by Lin Jiang, they groped for a while but did not touch anything. Instead, they were frozen by the cold river water. They quickly lit a fire to barbecue.

The three of them were very melancholy, chatting by the fire. Lin Jiang heard words like Zheng and Qi from their mouths, and the most common words were conscription and evading military service.

"Is the Xia Kingdom really gone?"

Lin Jiang sighed a little. After a thousand years, the Xia Kingdom could not escape the cycle of dynasties.

Lin Jiang had actually expected this. Unless he kept an eye on it all the time and always remained rational and smart, he would not be able to avoid the cycle of dynasties. The change of dynasties was inevitable. Lin Jiang

had a lot of feelings for the Xia Kingdom, but Lin Jiang was also very rational.

Lin Jiang saw that the three of them were a little drowsy, so he took the initiative to make some noise.

"Who, who is there?"

Mo Zhai exclaimed, holding a sharp dagger in his hand. His father was a carpenter, so it was normal for him to hold a dagger in his hand.

"Don't panic, little brother, I'm not a soldier."

Lin Jiang took a deep breath, ready to burst out his acting skills, and said in a very weak voice.

Mo Zhai raised a torch, took two steps forward, and saw Lin Jiang lying on the ground. Lin Jiang had been traveling for many years, and his clothes were all tattered. Later, Lin Jiang used furs from hunting to make clothes. Now he threw away the furs and smeared some mud on his body, which was so miserable.

"Who are you?"

"I'm from Huangmu Village at the foot of the mountain. Brother, which village are you from?"

"Where is Huangmu Village?"

Mo Zhai was a little confused. Although he had been a carpenter with his father for several years, he had never left the village and had never heard of Huangmu Village.

"Brother, Huangmu Village is at the foot of the mountain. What about you?"

"We are from Shihao Village. My father is a carpenter. These are my two younger brothers. Their fathers are my father's sworn brothers."

"My father is a stonemason."

"My father is a blacksmith."

The other two teenagers raised their heads and said, talking about their identities, they were quite proud. After all, craftsmen are craftsmen, and craftsmen are much better than ordinary farmers.

"Your father is really awesome"

"Big brother, what do you do?"

"I'm a deserter, hiding here for several days. I heard you all coming down just now, but I couldn't make a sound. I just breathed a sigh of relief now"

"Big brother, are you hungry?"

"Yes, I'm so hungry"

"I have some dry food here, you should eat some quickly"

The three of them were not prepared at all and took out the dry food very enthusiastically. It was a kind of multi-grain cake, very rough. Lin Jiang immediately regretted playing this trick, it was because he slept too long and was too bored.

"Big brother, don't you want to eat?"

"Brother Zhai, this big brother may be too hungry to bite, otherwise we can chew it up and feed it to him"

"No, no, I can eat it"

Lin Jiang was a little anxious when he heard it. Damn, this is good, it's a bit out of control.

Under the kind eyes of the three people, Lin Jiang gritted his teeth and swallowed two rough cakes, almost choking him to death.

Lin Jiang hurriedly pretended to have recovered some strength, and then asked them some questions, wanting to know the situation outside, but the three of them were teenagers, and although they might be a little better than other people of the same age, they really didn't know much, and they knew very little.

"Let's go out hunting."

After Lin Jiang knew the three people's mentality, the three of them didn't dare to agree to go out hunting, but how could they resist Lin Jiang's deception, and soon agreed.

Lin Jiang led the three people to climb out of the cave with difficulty. After searching for a long time, they found two hares and a pheasant. Lin Jiang picked up a small stone and knocked them down, which made the three people stunned.

"My family used to herd sheep. Do you know what shepherds do? If the sheep are disobedient, they pick up stones and throw them. One hit will kill them."

Lin Jiang explained with a smile, I am a shepherd, and there is nothing wrong with throwing stones.

The three looked at each other, how could they know so much, Lin Jiang didn't explain, picked up some firewood and made them a beggar's chicken and roasted rabbit, and the few people ate it so much that their mouths were full of oil.

After finishing the game, Lin Jiang was ready to find out what was happening outside, but Mo Zhai followed Lin Jiang with two people. Lin Jiang asked them what they wanted to do.

"Brother, we want to follow you. We can eat meat if we follow you."

Mo Zhai was very direct. They had never eaten so much meat at one time, and a meal of meat had already bought them off.

"Okay, follow me."

Lin Jiang didn't care. He saw that these three people were also honest and decent, so he accepted them as his younger brothers. Maybe they would be useful to him.