Traveling through ancient times to escape famine, the prince led me to rebel

The further north you go, the fewer victims there are.

I think the disaster victims in the south would not be as surprised as Uncle Li, who gave up Changzhou, which was doing a lot of disaster relief, and did not go to the prosperous and wealthy Kyoto.

He was only focused on moving northward, and his determination was no less than that of Master Tang who went to the West to obtain Buddhist scriptures.

This is the northern border of Daliang. It is vast and sparsely populated. It is a buffer zone that isolates Daliang from the northern barbarians who move southward. It has been a military stronghold since ancient times.

Thanks to the iron-blooded defense of Prince Yan, the northern border enjoyed peace for ten years without suffering from war.

People no longer have to wander around and can farm the fields in their hometowns with peace of mind.

Luo Xiaoran could even imagine how quiet and peaceful the small village here would be.

That must be the time when the corn in the fields is about to mature. The yellow color gradually spreads from the base of the corn stalks to the top, until it dyes the corn cobs with red tassels yellow.

After cutting down the corn stalks, pulling down the heavy corn, and peeling off the light yellow husks, what comes out is the darker yellow corn.

It can be roasted, cut into pieces and used to make soup, fried into popcorn, or ground into flour to make pancakes.

Corn stalks and corn husks are used as firewood after the moisture is dried. Although they do not burn as long as firewood cut from the mountains, they are good materials for starting a fire.

Especially the dried corn husks, which can be ignited easily with a simple touch of a tinder. Put them on the stove and light the branches that are not easy to burn. Once the fire is burning, add chopped firewood and the fire can continue to burn.

Of course, this is a rough way to use corn husks. There are also more delicate ways to use them.

Corn husks are very tough and not easy to rot. Cut them into strips with scissors and soak them in water to increase their toughness.

Take out the corn husks and dry them for a while. Experienced people know when to dry them and then weave ropes with them.

The woven ropes are also tough and durable, and can be used as raw materials to weave mats and cushions, which are commonly used items in the home.

The peanuts must be harvested early. After pulling the peanut vines out of the ground, the roots of the vines are covered with large and small, white and plump peanuts.

The peanuts are wrapped in soft soil and placed in the field together with the peanut vines, with the roots facing the sun to speed up the drying of the moisture in the soil and lay a good foundation for the subsequent threshing of the peanuts.

"A hemp house, a red tent, and a fat white man living inside." This is about peanuts.

When the soil is dry, you can grind the peanuts.

Grab the head of the peanut vine and smash the roots hard on the ground, so that the peanuts can be separated from the roots, while also knocking off some of the soil on the peanuts.

If you don't have enough strength, you can pick the peanuts from the roots of the peanut vines one by one, but it will take more time.

The peanuts that fall from the vines are not considered a complete harvest. There must be many peanuts that have escaped the net in the peanut field.

At this time, you need to carefully turn the land over one, two, three, four times to collect all the large peanuts that were separated from the peanut vines during the pulling process because they were too mature.

Dried peanut vines are also good at starting fires.

There are also crops such as soybeans, sorghum, sesame, and cotton, which Luo Xiaoran had dealt with at her grandparents' house when she was a child.

But in reality, the official roads were lined with either woods or wasteland, and Luo Xiaoran did not see the scene she had imagined at all.

She, Uncle Li and Xiao Xingchen walked in this quiet scene for an entire afternoon.

"Uncle Li, I don't know where you are heading north?"

Although Luo Xiaoran likes the well-behaved and sensible Xiao Xingchen, she also doesn't dislike the somewhat mysterious Uncle Li.

But traveling aimlessly without knowing the destination makes me feel like there is a stone hanging in my heart that won’t fall down.

"Yizhou, we are going to Yizhou." Uncle Li looked at Cai Cai, who had been walking with him for nearly a month, and told him the final destination.

Yizhou is the first of the seven states in the northern border. The other six states from north to south are Qizhou, Youzhou, Liangzhou, Qingzhou, Ningzhou and Dingzhou.

Luo Xiaoran had read all these in the book "Records of Daliang's Territory".

“Last time I told you, we were going to King Yan’s territory.

In fact, the entire northern border is the sphere of influence of Prince Yan, and Yizhou is the location of Prince Yan's palace and the center of the northern border.

We have now passed Ningzhou and are heading towards Qingzhou." Uncle Li, who was driving the carriage, slowly introduced to Luo Xiaoran, who was riding a horse.

"When I was young, I couldn't sit still. I traveled all over the country doing business. I found a relative in Yizhou, and it was he I went to seek refuge with this time."

"When we were young" refers to the friendship that happened many years ago.

"God-relative" means there is no blood relationship.

It is also a friendship that spans the north and the south.

Every description made Luo Xiaoran's heart beat fast. She reasonably doubted whether Uncle Li could find this family, and even if he did, whether they would still remember him.

After all, time and distance are the most challenging things.

"Cai Cai doesn't want to go so far?" Uncle Li asked Luo Xiaoran who seemed to be thinking about something.

To be honest, yes.

You just said that Yizhou is where the King of Yan lives, which is equivalent to a small imperial court, a local version of the capital city. It goes against my wish to farm and become a small landlord.

But Luo Xiaoran still lied: "I just think they just happen to be famous places.

Qiu Niang is going to Kyoto, where the emperor lives, and you and Xiao Xingchen are going to Yizhou, where the emperor's uncle, the Prince of Yan, lives."

"Isn't it good to go to these places? Many people of noble status also live in these places. These are rare places with abundant resources in the world." Uncle Li was a little puzzled.

“It’s not that it’s bad, it’s just that some people in this world are eager to stand out and make a career in this precious land.

But some people don't have such big ambitions and just want to live a peaceful and stable life.

Even though you may not believe it, I still have to say: 'Birds fly back to their homeland, and foxes die on their own hills.'

I came from the mountains, and I want to go back to the mountains.”

Uncle Li stroked his long, neglected beard and frowned slightly:

"Everyone in the world is pursuing wealth and glory, and everyone is busy and bustling about for profit. Why do you want to go to the mountains alone? Are you going to be a hermit like a chrysanthemum?"

“It’s not that I have such high sentiments.

But after experiencing this famine, I became indifferent to many things. I felt that fame, wealth and fortune were nothing but passing clouds and not worth mentioning.

Only when you think that your life is comfortable, then you are truly happy, and a simple and ordinary life is true."

"Simplicity is the truth. What a great sentence! Simplicity is the truth!" Uncle Li repeated Luo Xiaoran's last words in his mouth. He chewed them carefully for a moment and felt that they were very insightful.

What Luo Xiaoran didn't see was that after Uncle Li finished saying "the simplicity is the truth", he actually looked at Xiao Xingchen thoughtfully.

A rare moment of seriousness appeared on his usually cynical face, and then he took a deep breath, as if he had made up his mind.