Crossing the Unknown Country

In the evening, the men of the Ye family gathered together to discuss the specific information brought back by Ye Jingchen's father. They agreed with the method of planting grass and trees that he finally proposed. Ye Jingchen also stood up and expressed his opinion. He came up with this idea after thinking about it all night yesterday. He thought that he could build a passage with stone slabs, cover it with soil and plant grass, so that there would be a buffer zone. In case the stone pressed down, it would be easier to dig out from the inside.

The adults immediately had a new understanding of Ye Jingchen. The child's perspective was very practical. He was so young that he could come up with this idea, which surprised the adults in the family. It seemed that the younger generation of their family was going to rise. The whole family was very pleased. They knew that as long as there was such a child leading the family, the family would not be without succession.

The family decided to send people to work for an hour every night these few days, but not too early, after all, there were more than one family in this place. Although everyone was punished for offending the higher-ups, there would be disputes wherever there were people, so it was better to be careful. Because their family was large, they were not very close to people from other families, and no one knew each other's background. There were not that many friends in the officialdom. Besides, they were all criminals, so it was better to stay away from each other.

Their closest neighbor was an official from the capital, who was about 30 years old and had no background. He was implicated and exiled here. There were more than a dozen people in the family, mostly children. The family kept a low profile here and did not dare to interact with others. Because the children of this family were too young, they dared to come to their place to play with their own children. The adults of the two families were just nodding acquaintances. They had not spoken to each other for more than half a year. The main thing was to avoid their house.

After the Ye family finished their meal in the evening, several adults took tools and quietly went up the mountain. It happened to be on the mountain, so there were few people and it was not easy to be noticed. It was not realistic to dig a cellar at home. Because they didn't know how long they could live here. Once the higher-ups asked them to move, it would be easy to be exposed. So they reinforced the house when they came here, put in bedding and moved in. Even the study room they specially vacated was filled with simple bookshelves and tables, chairs and benches made by themselves with wooden boards. As long as they could study, it didn't matter how good the furnishings were.

The Ye family was the first to make preparations. When the war started, the refuge cave had already been prepared. Some pots and pans were placed in it in advance, as well as some firewood. These all needed to be prepared in advance. In the next few days, some large kangs had to be built. When they moved in, they could not sleep on the floor. That was fine for adults, but the children would get sick. It would be best to build a room so that it would be warmer. Anyway, the men in the family took turns going up the mountain to repair it every day, and they tried their best to fix the cave.

In the meantime, Ye Jingchen also went there with his father a few times. He asked his father to build a stove inside and scattered some grass seeds and vegetable seeds inside, hoping that some weeds and vegetables would grow. People couldn't eat the grass, but they could catch a few rabbits and raise them. The rabbits would be something to eat, and when they grew up, people would have meat to eat.

There are a few wild rabbits at home, which were caught by the adults in the mountains. The rabbits are now fed by the children, and they cut grass for them every day. After coming here, they realized that many animals can be raised by feeding them grass. Chickens can be raised directly in the wild. They don't need to worry about them because they will go home when the time comes. They just need to watch them and prevent others from catching them.

The children here are also very busy. In addition to doing housework, they have to feed livestock, and when they are a little older, they have to go to work. And their range of activities can only be near this mountain, and they cannot enter the city casually. The place where they are is a mine, which mainly mines stones. The stones here are used to build the walls of the border town. Generally, the border town has three walls, the inner city, the outer city, and the urn city. With such heavy walls and heavy guards, as long as the commander is not a problem, the foreign enemy can generally be repelled. Moreover, there is General Wang An of Ansheng State guarding here. He has been guarding here for more than ten years. Small frictions often occur, but major wars have never occurred.