Han Mingjiang thought of his mother and comforted them, saying, "Don't worry, there will always be a way. As long as we can settle down, we can eat wild vegetables from the surrounding mountains and catch wild animals."
Once we have the opportunity to enter Youzhou City, we can buy the seeds.
The group agreed, thinking that as long as they could settle down and stop fleeing the famine, that would be fine.
Han Shunde said, "My grandfather also kept more than a dozen sweet potatoes and potatoes hidden away."
He heard from Aunt Lanzhen that it was a high-yield grain, and that people always carried it in a bundle, wrapped it tightly, and even slept with it under their heads.
Everyone laughed when they heard this, but they were also very sad inside.
The six of them walked for about four miles before they saw that the road ahead was blocked by a tall mountain.
They turned around and looked again at the place they had just come from.
Lu Dashan, the son of the village chief of Lujiazhuang, grinned happily and said, "This is really a good place. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides, with a small plain in the middle. Moreover, the land is fertile. Look, it is already autumn, and the wild vegetables, thatch and trees here are growing lush and green."
The six of them were incredibly excited, wandering around and looking at everything. Suddenly, Han Mingjiang pointed to the cliff behind them and shouted.
"Great! Do you think that area is a cave?"
Everyone stopped walking and looked in the direction he was pointing.
Indeed, there were many caves on the back mountain, of all sizes, stretching out to both sides of the mountain.
Xue Bao frowned. "Could there be a large animal inside?"
Upon hearing this, the men's expressions turned serious, and they picked up their weapons again.
Xue Bao drew his bow and arrows from the quiver on his back and solemnly warned everyone, "Follow me, we're going up to check it out."
If there's no danger, that would be great.
Several people followed behind him, cautiously approaching the back of the mountain.
As they approached the cave, Xue Bao waved and crouched down, and the others behind him also crouched down.
Xue Bao drew his bow and shot an arrow, whistling through the air, and an arrow flew into one of the caves.
The group waited for a long time, but no animals rushed out or any sound came out.
Xue Bao stood up and waved, "Let's go take a look; there shouldn't be any animals."
But everyone still needs to be careful. If any animals chase us, don't run around. The six of us should quickly form a circle.
When they arrived at the entrance of the nearest cave, they looked inside, but it was pitch black and they couldn't see anything.
However, judging from the tall weeds growing at the entrance of the cave, there shouldn't be any animals here.
Xue Bao picked up a few stones and threw them in with a whoosh.
After a long silence, Han Zhaoxiong and the others quickly made torches, which Han Mingjiang lit with a lighter he carried with him.
Han Zhaoxiong had seen them use lighters before, but the others were seeing them for the first time.
"Han Mingjiang, what are you holding? It's so amazing! Just press it and a flame pops out!" someone exclaimed in surprise.
Han Mingjiang chuckled and said, "This was given to my mother by Jin Fulai's young master."
Fearing they might have some ulterior motives, he added, "My mother saved the son of Jin Fulai, the young master. This is his way of thanking my mother."
Holding torches and gripping their broadswords tightly, they slowly entered the cave. The cave was dry, without any strange smells, and covered with wild grass.
The snow leopard examined the cave carefully. "If there's no danger, let's move on and look for other caves."
They looked at more than a dozen caves, and they were all the same.
Just then, Han Zhaoxiong shouted loudly, "Come out quickly, look what this is!"
The snow leopard, bow and arrow in hand, was the first to run out. Only then did everyone see rabbits scurrying about everywhere. Swish, swish, swish! The snow leopard shot out three arrows, and three gray rabbits fell to the ground dead.
The others quickly gave chase, wielding clubs and knives, and engaged in a fight with a group of more than 20 wild rabbits.
When there were no more live rabbits in front of them, they laughed heartily as they looked at the few rabbits that had escaped into the forest.
Han Mingjiang patted Han Zhaoxiong on the shoulder, "Brother, you're really something. Consider these dozen or so rabbits our victory feast tonight. We've found a place to stay, and we even caught some rabbits. It's been so long since we've had any meat."
Han Zhaoxiong swallowed hard and pointed to the cave ahead, "This cave should be a rabbit burrow. Let's go see if there are any baby rabbits."
The six of them tiptoed into the smaller cave, and once inside, they heard squeaking noises.
Sure enough, there were baby rabbits inside, and there were even more than a dozen pregnant female rabbits that hadn't run away.
They trembled as they watched the torches in their hands, huddled together.
Han Mingjiang clapped his hands and cheered, "Great! Let's use this place as a rabbit pen and raise these wild rabbits. That way we'll have a constant supply of rabbit meat."
As they spoke, they moved some stones and dug up some soil to block the entrance of the hole to a height of half a person.
After finishing all that, they looked at the caves of various sizes and discussed them.
"We can live in this cave this winter, and when the weather gets warmer next year, we can build a house."
Han Mingjiang looked around and said, "I wonder if these caves can accommodate all of us."
Several people lowered their heads and calculated how many households there were in each village.
As a result, there were a total of 37 households.
Han Zhaoxiong said, "Let me count how many habitable caves there are in total."
Several people stood up to count how many habitable caves there were.
When viewed together, there are a total of 83 caves of various sizes here.
"Han Mingjiang, I counted two of these caves that are particularly small. If there are five or six people in your family, they should be able to fit. But if there are more people, they won't be able to fit."
Xue Bao said, "Actually, it's better to choose a smaller cave to live in, so it won't be too cold in winter."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
Suddenly, Lu Dashan said, "Why haven't I found any water? Have you noticed? How can we live here without water?"
The group was taken aback. Yes, they had been walking upstream along the river until they discovered this valley. In their excitement, they forgot where the river had gone.
Xue Bao looked around and said, "Let's look around. If there's no water source here, it will be very troublesome, and we probably won't be able to settle down here."
He pointed at Liu Quan and Lu Min, and said to Han Mingjiang, "Brother-in-law, the three of you go east to look for them. I'll take the other two west. Be careful and stay safe. Whether you find them or not, we'll meet up here in the end."
The six people were anxious. What would they do if such a good place had no water source?
Do they have to continue searching in these mountains? I'm afraid they'll never find such a good place again.
(Thanks for following, my darlings.)
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