Chapter 11: Preparing to Enter the City
With the approval of the village chief, Hunter Wang led a few skillful young men and quickly ran down the mountain.
The few of them walked quickly for about half an hour before they vaguely saw the official road.
He observed at the end of the mountain for a while, and finding nothing unusual, he ran forward.
After running for two miles, they could vaguely see the city wall. When they ran closer, they found that there were refugees gathered in groups of three or four outside the city.
Wang the Hunter looked up at the words "Baoning Prefecture City" and was very confused. Fortunately, the refugees were tall and had sticks in their hands, so they did not dare to come forward.
The king's hunter saw the gatekeepers guarding the city and walked over.
"Sir, I wonder what the procedure is for entering the city."
The guard saw that the man was dressed like a refugee and said sarcastically, "If you want to enter the city, you have to pay silver. Ten taels of silver per head. Do you have it?"
"Then may I ask, sir, can we buy grain and salt once we enter the city?"
The doorman looked him up and down and said, "As long as you have money, you can buy as much as you want."
Wang Hunter got the news he wanted to know, and without asking any more questions, he took a few people and went up the mountain again.
Although it was time for the villagers to rest when the hunter king came back, no one except the young children was asleep.
When they heard the news brought back by Wang the Hunter, everyone's face was filled with sorrow, and some women even sobbed softly.
"Is this going to let us live? The official's lips are worth ten taels each, and all our belongings are not worth ten taels!"
"God damn corrupt officials, this is going to kill an old woman like me."
“…”
I don't know who cursed first, but curses of varying heights and pitches followed one after another.
No one tried to stop them because everyone was telling the truth. The lower class people couldn't save more than three taels of silver a year, and sending them into the city was no different from leaving them to die.
But we had to enter this city.
"We have no salt left, and we have very little food left. If we want to survive, we must enter the city. There are nineteen households in total, and each family should share their food."
As soon as the village chief finished speaking, the cry of an old woman was heard.
"Wang, you eighteen households should just pool your money. My family has no money left to buy food even if we spend the money we bring into the city."
Several families cried out in despair, and the village chief was also in a dilemma.
In fact, Xu Yaozu had an idea. Before he could say anything, he heard a female voice.
"I have an idea, can you tell me?"
Xu Yaozu turned around and saw that it was his daughter Xu Nian.
It wasn't really Xu Nianqiang who was speaking out, but she really couldn't stand the crying of these women.
Especially the low sobs of her elderly mother-in-law echoed in this empty cave, giving her goosebumps all over her body.
The village chief nodded absentmindedly.
"Grandpa Village Chief, uncles and aunts, if we want to reach the Northern Frontier smoothly now, we can no longer rely on the strength of one family. Not to mention others, I am afraid that my family will have very little money left after entering this city.
So for now, we need to pool all our strength. Instead of everyone contributing their own money, we need to pool all our money together to get through this difficult time."
Everyone's eyes lit up when they heard this, and then they all sighed. The three families with the best life in the village were the village chief, the Xu family, and the Wang hunter, but no one was stupid, and no one was willing to take out their own money and give it to others to spend for nothing.
"Grandpa Village Chief, we don't know what the city ahead is like, and whether we can buy food there. Even if we get to Baoning City, we have to get there as soon as possible."
The village chief also understood this truth, but he did not expect the girl from the Xu family to be so kind and righteous. You know, if this was done, the Xu family would definitely pay the most money.
But these were just children's words after all, so the village chief turned his inquiring gaze to Old Man Xu, the head of the Xu family.
Old Man Xu was not a fool. He knew that doing this would be the most beneficial to his family.
"What the eldest girl said is what I mean, old woman, take out all the silver you have."
Although Wang was somewhat dissatisfied, she never questioned Mr. Xu's decision over the years.
Wang and the three daughters-in-law of the Xu family turned around, untied their belts, fumbled for a while, and took out a few silver coins and some copper plates.
Wang counted the money and replied, "I spent some money on my exams before, so this is all I have left, 28 taels, 375 coins."
This was considered a huge sum of money in Dahe Village. After all, most of the money that other people could come up with was two or three taels of silver.
At the village chief's suggestion, the village chief's wife also found out her own silver, totaling 15 taels, 682 wen, and Wang the hunter's family also had 12 taels, 150 wen.
All the silver taels collected by the village chief amounted to 102 taels, more than 600 coins.
The villagers felt hopeful when they saw so much silver, but Xu Nian was not so optimistic. He thought that food in the city might not be as easy to buy as they thought.
Finally, the village chief decided that Xu Yaozu should go to the city to buy food and selected thirty strong men to meet him outside the city gate.
After discussing the matter, each family returned to their own territory and prepared to go to bed.
Xu Nian originally thought that she would be scolded. After all, if she hadn't suggested it, the Xu family wouldn't have to take out all the money.
Unexpectedly, the Xu family said nothing, laid the floor and went straight to sleep.
In fact, no one slept well that night, and Xu Nian tossed and turned thinking of a solution.
She entered the space and looked through her belongings, but unfortunately she didn't like gold jewelry, so none of her jewelry could be used as cash.
Suddenly she saw her water cup, a pink gradient water cup, a set of six cups of different sizes. She remembered that ancient colored glass was more valuable than gold. Why not let Xu Yaozu pawn it tomorrow?
But on second thought, she rejected the idea. She was afraid that as soon as Xu Yaozu took out the cup tomorrow, she would be without a father.
Looking at the empty black soil, it seems that she still has to rely on this land to grow food.
But she didn't plan to grow corn anymore. Although she still had two bags of seeds, the corn was too troublesome to handle and difficult to take out.
She looked through the various vegetable seeds she had bought, picked out a few varieties that were not available in Sheng Chao and planted them, then looked at the few remaining sweet potatoes in the plastic bag and buried them in the soil.
Only after doing all this did she feel more at ease.
Xu Nian walked to the stream and took a look. She found that the rabbits were still in the den. She walked over and poked them. She was relieved when she saw that the rabbits had opened their eyes. She was counting on these rabbits to give birth to rabbits and provide them with food.
Xu Nian drank a few sips of stream water, then took out a plastic bag and started picking fruits from the trees.
The cherries and dates had already ripened, but Xu Nian had not picked them all even after so many days of picking them by himself. Fortunately, the things in this space would not rot, and some of them just fell under the trees.
Moreover, Xu Nian discovered a secret in the past few days. Although the stream water is useless if it is taken outside the space, the things grown in the land in the space irrigated with the stream water have the effect of improving health.
Because Xu Kang and Xu Jian ate the crispy dates in the space, their complexions have become noticeably rosier these days, but the Xu family members haven't noticed it yet.