The old man carried the two jars of wine as if they were treasures and went into the inner room. He wanted to put them away carefully first.
Li Xue glanced at Zhao Xian and said:
"Brother Zhao, is that wooden box of yours a treasure chest? How much stuff can it hold, and won't the things inside spoil?"
Upon hearing this, Zhao Xian laughed and said:
"This is just a regular wooden box, but it's a bit big and can hold quite a lot of things. If the princess likes it, this big wooden box is for you."
"Is there any more wine in that box?"
"Not much left, only two jars," Zhao Xian said.
"My goodness, this box is truly a treasure. It contains four jars of wine and has traveled such a long distance without breaking. What else could it be but a treasure? I want this box. You can give it to me later," Li Xue said.
At this moment, the old man had already stored away the two jars of wine. He came out of the room, looked at everyone, and said:
"Please wait a moment, distinguished guests. I have some business to attend to and will be right back." With that, the old man hurried out.
At this moment, the woman took out a small cloth bag from the house, opened the bag layer by layer, took out a piece of silver, and begged her neighbor to help her sell some rice.
The woman must have realized that with so many guests, they would need to eat a lot of rice for one meal, but they didn't have enough rice at home.
Li Xue quickly stepped forward to stop her and said:
"There's no need to buy rice. We brought plenty of rice with us this time. We can cook for ourselves, so there's really no need to bother."
"How can that be? You are all honored guests, how can we let you cook for yourselves?"
"It's alright, they're all soldiers, and their cooking is excellent. You should try some later."
So that's how it is, and the woman stopped insisting.
Just then, the screams of a pig came from outside. The group was taken aback. Could it be that they were going to slaughter a pig?
Zhao Xian and Li Xue rushed outside and saw the old man dragging a pig along with a rope.
The pig wasn't very big, weighing less than a hundred pounds, and the old man dragged it along, making it tumble and crawl.
Zhao Xian immediately realized what was happening and quickly stepped forward to stop him.
The old man smiled and said:
"We don't have much food at home. It's quite far from town, and it takes more than two hours to go there and back to buy vegetables. We can't have lunch without vegetables, so we're planning to slaughter the pig at home."
Zhao Xian was speechless. This family was too polite. In order to entertain them, they not only had to use their hard-earned money to buy rice, but also had to slaughter their own pig.
"Grandpa, please don't do this. We brought everything we need, including not only vegetables but also a lot of meat."
Besides, this pig is still young and in its prime for growing; it would be such a waste to slaughter it now. We should release it.
The old man looked at Zhao Xian and found it a bit unbelievable. They had traveled so far, how could they possibly be carrying meat?
Besides, in this sweltering heat, even the freshest meat will spoil in two days.
Seeing the old man hesitate, Zhao Xian spoke up:
"Grandpa, I really didn't lie to you. Here, let me take these dishes out and show them to you."
After Zhao Xian finished speaking, he walked to the large wooden box, opened the lid, and after some fiddling inside, took out a piece of meat. It was a piece of pork from the hindquarters, weighing at least forty or fifty pounds.
The old man believed them. He hadn't expected them to bring so much meat. His pig was too small; after slaughtering and removing the internal organs, there wasn't nearly enough meat left.
The old man nodded, untied the rope binding the pig, and the terrified piglet ran away in a flash.
Since he had already gone this far, Zhao Xian took out some more dishes from the large wooden box, including chicken, duck, and fish.
Zhao Xian instructed several soldiers to burn all the vegetables and cook extra rice so that the neighbors could eat together at noon.
"Yes, Lord Shaoqing, we'll start preparing the meal now."
The soldiers were overjoyed. They hadn't expected Zhao Xian's large box to contain so much food, and now they could enjoy a delicious meal.
The villagers were very curious; it was the first time they had ever seen someone dig a stove in the ground to cook, and they were even invited to eat together.
The village suddenly became lively, just like during the Spring Festival. Some villagers volunteered to help, gathering firewood and carrying water, while some women even came to help them prepare vegetables.
Inside the thatched hut, Zhao Xian and Li Xue were chatting with the old man, who was introducing some information about the Kingdom of Jindian.
The old man said that as far back as he could remember, the Kingdom of Jindian had never been peaceful. There were two powerful families there, and even the royal family dared not do anything to them.
This family is both interdependent and competitive. The strength of each family alone cannot rival that of the royal family, but if they unite, the royal family will be very wary of them.
The two families were aware of each other's intentions. The royal family wanted to eliminate both families, but they were also worried that the two families would unite against the royal family.
Neither family wanted the other to become powerful, and both hoped to use the royal family to restrain the other.
This relationship persisted for decades, causing immense suffering for ordinary people in China, especially immigrants like them.
Although the royal family unified the world, the spheres of influence of the two families basically occupied the eastern and western regions of the Golden Kingdom. They carried out rampant plunder within their spheres of influence, and the people of the country suffered greatly as a result.
"So, this area where you live is within the sphere of influence of that family, and how do they plunder the resources here?" Zhao Xian asked.
"These two families are the Xie family and the Peng family. This area belongs to the Xie family's sphere of influence."
But they weren't interested in the area, which actually saved us from disaster and allowed us to barely make ends meet, though who knows what will happen later.
Zhao Xian was taken aback, and then said:
"Could the elderly person please explain in more detail?"
"In the Kingdom of Jindian, there is a plant called Yingguo. This plant is valuable in its entirety, especially its fruit, which can be made into black spice. The Persians love black spice very much, and the people there are very rich, which makes black spice more expensive than gold."
Due to the unique climate of the Golden Kingdom, most areas are suitable for growing the Wild Oriole Fruit, and the two families have been cultivating it extensively within their spheres of influence.
Besides extracting oolong from them, their leaves are also ground into powder and added to tobacco leaves to make tobacco. This kind of tobacco is very popular and earns them a lot of money every year.
Because planting iris fruit could bring huge profits, the planting area was getting larger and larger. However, the population of the Golden Kingdom was not large to begin with, so they brought in slaves from abroad to cultivate the fruit. Many people died from exhaustion while cultivating iris fruit.
In short, there will never be enough laborers to cultivate the oriole fruit. Since this area is under the influence of the Xie family, they might come here one day to conscript people and force them to cultivate oriole fruit.
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