Chapter 157 Escape
Qiyang County changed its appearance in one day. Shops were closed, people stayed at home, the army entered the city, and important places in the city were controlled by soldiers. The East Market close to the city gate was still preserved, but the West Market far from the city gate and the former county school became places to resettle the villagers.
Of course, these two places alone cannot accommodate so many people from the surrounding villages. There are two thousand households in Qiyang County. Even though many people died in corvée and military service over the years, and several groups escaped and another group was recruited, there are now more than 5,000 people gathered in one place. It is definitely not something that can be accommodated in just one West Market and the County School.
In every open space and street far away from the city gate, shacks were built one after another, and most of them only had a small space for people to stand against the wall.
Where do we get the materials for building a shack?
The soldiers had already dispersed into the countryside as soon as the villagers left their homes, and brought all the usable wood and straw from the villages to the county. The villagers just went to the county government office to collect them.
As for the shops on the main street near the city gate, especially the big shops like Dongfulou, all the shop owners were directly invited by the yamen runners to the back hall of the county government office. The person sitting in the main seat in the hall was not County Magistrate Wei, but the spirited young general.
He summoned all the shopkeepers, not to discuss matters, but to inform them that their shops had been temporarily requisitioned as a place for the soldiers to rest after their patrols.
When someone plucked up the courage to ask about it, the answer they got was that due to the unrest, the garrisons in various counties would become regular garrisons as long as they were not transferred from above.
Then I don’t know when this temporary situation will end.
Of course, it wasn't just the shops that were requisitioned, but also the houses where the generals lived. There were 1,500 garrisons, and there were many generals. Soldiers lived in tents, so it was impossible for the generals to live in tents. But he didn't need to ask for it himself. The wealthy families who managed their fortunes well were very discerning. There were more than one house in the city. Without waiting for anyone to ask, they took the initiative to go to the government office and offered their houses.
In the small county town of Qiyang, there were 6,500 soldiers and civilians.
After visiting the county government office and seeing the young general's behavior and finding out the exact number of people in the city, Shopkeeper Xu felt cold under his feet. He returned home and whispered to his wife and servants, "We have to flee! No matter what happens outside the city, when we leave, or whether it's appropriate to leave, we have to find a way to get out of the city before the food runs out!"
Uncle Xu, an old servant who had already deeply understood the essence of digging underground holes, said, "Shall we dig a tunnel out of the city?"
Shopkeeper Xu nodded: "Yes!"
Only Wei Lingzhen and her two sons had not seen the ground-drilling technique and were still a little confused. However, the literal meaning was easy to understand, so they listened to what Shopkeeper Xu and Uncle Xu discussed.
The small house where Manager Xu lives now was once considered to be in a good location in the county, in the center of the county town.
But if you want to secretly dig a tunnel out of the city, it won't work. It won't be close to any of the city walls, so you have to dig through half of the city. There's too much soil and nowhere to put it. If it's crooked in the middle, you don't know the direction underground. If you dig it up, you'll dig directly into someone's house or someone's shack. In the worst case, you'll dig in front of the soldiers, which will be a lot of fun.
"Go find a house!"
He went looking for a house in the name of the old servant Uncle Xu, in the direction of their cave, near the city wall or close to the city wall.
It was also because Chen Lie and Chen Dashan had chosen a good location for them. That place was far away from the city gate, in the deep mountains on the side of the county town. As long as the bandits' den was not stationed there, the possibility of successfully escaping to the shelter would be very high if they could dig out from that direction.
However, the house was not that easy to find.
There are too few houses close to the city wall. Most of them are separated by a long distance. As for the empty spaces, the military tents are now close to the city wall, and the huts are near the inner circle...
They couldn't just build a shack and dig a tunnel; the noise would be impossible to hide, and there was no place to hide the excavated soil.
There are two or three households close to the city wall, but who would sell their houses now? If I sell my house to you, I will live in a shack?
The master and servant looked around and were lucky enough to find a family at the westernmost end of the county. The family was very poor, so they lived in a remote place, which made them relatively close to the city wall. “Relatively close”, really just relatively. The master and servant looked around secretly and thought that although it would be difficult and a huge project, at least they were confident that they could dig the house out.
Uncle Xu went in and said that he could exchange two bags of grain for the house. When the family saw the grain, their lips trembled for a long time. The man in charge moved his hands several times but couldn't lift them. Finally, the woman wiped her tears and agreed, then went back to the house and took out the house deed.
The house was passed down through several generations in the family, but now it has become someone else's.
When it came to transferring property at the county government office, Uncle Xu's identity as a foreigner did not attract attention, because the soldiers took over the county town suddenly, and people were allowed to enter but not leave, so it was not surprising that there were a few foreigners trapped in the county.
After the transfer was completed, Uncle Xu moved into the old thatched house. The original family went to the county government office to find some wood and straw, and then found an empty space not far from their home and built two shacks.
Because there was an open space near the city wall, the environment was extremely bad. It was no exaggeration to say that it was a mixed bag. There were shacks all around, and military tents further away. Therefore, that night, only Uncle Xu and Xu Wenqing, the two main tunnel diggers, went there. Shopkeeper Xu had lived in the county for a long time, and many people should have seen him. They didn't dare to hang around the house during the day.
…
The Xu family found a possible way out. At the same time, from one of the dozens of shacks in the open space outside the county school, there was a very crisp sound, and someone was slapped hard in the face.
In the shack that the Shen family had just built, in a cloth bag that was pulled out from the side of Shen San, the aroma of smoked meat, which had become very faint, overflowed from the torn bag.
No matter how faint the aroma was, it was smoked meat. Li hid the things very carefully. All the way to the county, even before the shack was built, Shen San did not smell it. It was not until the shack was built that he lay down to rest. The air in the shack was not circulating, and gradually he smelled the unique aroma of smoked meat.
It has been a long time since he last smelled meat. No matter how faint the smell of meat is, it is still the smell of meat and how can it escape his nose?
Following the smell, he turned the things out and saw Shen Jin rushing towards him nervously. What else did he not know? The bastard had been able to hunt for a long time, so why did he hide the meat from him?
Shen □□ gave Shen Jin a big slap in the face.
"You are really my good son, Shen Sanyang. You are good at hunting, but you keep it to yourself, right? You just want me to starve alone, right? Do you still recognize me as your father? Do you know how to write the word filial piety?"
"So what you learned from Chen Lie is not only hunting, but also how to break away from your father, right?"
He didn't have any strength to slap him, and his hands were numb from the shock. He was really angry, especially when he thought about the life he had been leading for the past three months, and then saw that this damn kid had hidden such a bag of meat, he felt that hitting him was the least he could do.
But the excitement was real, meat, a bag full of meat.
Shen San's face was twisted into a very strange expression, showing anger and extreme joy.
Half of Shen Jin's face was numb from being beaten, and his ears were buzzing. He couldn't hear what his father said for a moment, but when he saw his father was about to grab the bag of meat, he still rushed over.
"My eldest brother gave it to me to save my life."
Shen Yin, Chen Tie and Shen Tian were all terrified. The youngest, Chen Tian, saw her eldest brother being beaten suddenly and started crying out of fright.
Shen San didn't care whether his daughter was crying or not. Seeing Shen Jin rushing towards him like a wolf cub, he was so angry that he kicked him. It wasn't a heavy kick. He just wanted to teach Shen Jin a lesson. He really hated him for hiding the meat and starving him.
When Li rushed in after hearing the sound of the slap, she saw Shen San kicking Shen Jin. She rushed over with a clay pot filled with water in her hand and smashed it on Shen San's face.
Shen San dodged quickly and was not hit hard, but the water from the clay pot did soak him all over, and also soaked the newly laid floor in the shack.
"You crazy bitch? You hit a man too? You know that Shen Jin is a fat bastard, right?"
When Li heard him yelling out the word meat, she was so angry that she felt dizzy. She shouted, "Yes, there are only two pieces. They were given to the child by Chen Lie, the nephew who was almost killed by you. You want to eat them too? Do you have the nerve to eat them?"
"Why can't I eat it? Why don't I have the face to eat it? I raised three of them!"
When the people in the nearby shack heard the word "meat", their ears perked up. Most of them were villagers from Shili Village, who knew too much about the Shen family's affairs.
The meat given by Chen Lie?
Some people were craving for meat, and the word meat filled their ears and minds, while others thought of Chen Lie and the families who had left with Chen Lie.
Chen Lie, and Chen Dashan are both capable people. How are those families who escaped into the mountains doing now? If they encounter wild beasts, Chen Lie and his men will be able to protect them, right?
They didn't pay any taxes, and they took all the food away. They must be living much better than what they left behind, right?
Some people envy them, some people regret it. Of course, many people feel sour because they think that those who went into the mountains might have been eaten by wild animals. What is the use of one or two people? Can they protect so many people, young and old? How can they be safe now?
At this time, none of them knew that Qiyang County’s nightmare was just the beginning.
…
When Shen San and his wife were fighting, Shen Lie and Chen Dashan, who were remembered by other villagers in Shili Village, had no idea what was happening outside. The two of them, together with Lu Erlang and Shi Dalang, were more than half a day's journey away from the valley, and had just hunted a lone wild boar together.
The wild boar was very large, and the entrance to the valley was not wide enough to get it in intact. The four men found a cave, one of them was on guard, and the other three directly cut the wild boar into more than a dozen pieces.
After cleaning up the bloodstains, they picked a lot of large leaves and put them in more than ten thick layers at the bottom of the basket to ensure that no blood would drip. Then each person picked up a basket and loaded the pork into the Yun Valley.
This was the second time I went hunting for big game after I had finished furnishing every home.
It was almost May at this time, and there was limited space for planting in the valley. Almost all the usable space was planted with grains and vegetables. After the seedlings had taken root, Chen Lie and his companions found a way to get some suitable fish fry from outside and released them into the fields. The only way they could quickly stockpile food was hunting.
They no longer targeted pheasants or rabbits, but instead specifically looked for animals with a lot of meat. In terms of meat, the most likely choice in this mountain was the wild boar, so the four of them basically focused on the wild boar's traces.
The other families didn't dare to follow for a large-scale hunt, but the four of them were used to walking in the deep mountains and forests and didn't feel any pressure.
The meat was carried back to the valley, and the old people and children in Yun Valley were as happy as if it were New Year.
Small prey was fine, but for big guys like wild boars, the four families divided the meat almost according to their strength. Chen Lie and Chen Dashan got the most, followed by Lu Erlang. Shi Da got the least because he had a broken arm and was slightly weaker in combat.
But it is very common to see a big wild boar weighing two or three hundred kilograms, so even if you take less, it is still a big harvest.
There are only six families in the valley. They get along well, help each other, and each makes their own contribution. Even Wei Qinghe, who is unable to do anything, takes the job of teaching the children to read and write.
Zhou Cunzheng's family was not idle either. Zhou's two daughters-in-law were good at weaving. Together with Feng Liuniang, they found Chen Youtian. The four of them relied on their memory and successfully made a loom after seven or eight experiments.
A while ago, it was discovered that the wild ramie in the mountains could be harvested, so Chen Lie took the men from several families on a long journey to cut a lot of it. Now the loom is placed under the big tree where the children study. Each family has worked together to build a small pavilion that can provide shade and shelter from the rain. The children study in the pavilion, and the looms are also in the pavilion, shared by six families.
Therefore, when Chen Lie and his companions come back from hunting such a big prey, they usually don't just share it with the four families who went out. Depending on the size of the pig, they will first give about five or eight kilograms of the prey to the Zhou family and the Xu family who didn't go. At least that way they have enough oil and can eat meat from time to time.
Judging from the frequency with which Chen Lie and Chen Dashan go out, life in Yungu is really comfortable and humane.
The Shen family had another bumper harvest, and they kept the pork to make bacon and dried meat. In the evening, Sang Luo processed the pig stomachs that were allocated to her family, preparing to stew some pig stomach soup, and then set aside some to make a casserole of pig stomachs tomorrow.
Washing the pig's stomach was not difficult, Shen An took on the job and could wash it clean with just a handful of bean dregs.
At night, the aroma of meat wafted from every cave. Sang Luo and Chen Ning were preparing dinner. Chen Lie discussed with her, "A Luo, it seems to have been 40 to 50 days since the last time I went out. Everything at home has been arranged and there is enough food. I was thinking about going out to see if Manager Xu has left a letter for me."
Sang Luo slowed down her movements and thought that Chen Lie could easily go in and out of the forest, so there would be no danger.
Life in the valley is pretty good now, but they still don't know what's going on outside, and they can't cut off the news. Thinking of this, she nodded and said, "Then go. I think the old lady is actually quite concerned about the situation outside the mountain."
Life in the valley is good, and as a mother, how could she not miss her children and grandchildren? She just didn't dare to show it.
Seeing that she had no objection, Chen Lie laughed and said, "Then I will discuss it with Dashan later. Uncle Lu and Uncle Shi will stay in the valley. This way, your safety can be guaranteed and I can feel at ease when I go out."
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