Traveling through the mountains and farming

After hearing this, the hope that had just been ignited by everyone dimmed a little.

"What should we do? We can't stop eating salt in the future," someone said worriedly.

Lin Wan immediately expressed her thoughts: "We can temporarily use the fruit of the Rhus chinensis tree for emergency. At the same time, I also have some salt stored here, but not much, only ten kilograms of salt. I will give it to everyone for emergency use first. We still need to continue to think of other ways."

She had thought it over carefully and decided to keep more than ten kilograms of salt at home and share ten kilograms of salt with everyone. Although it was not much, combined with the fruits of the Rhus chinensis, it should be enough for everyone to survive for a while.

This will not only alleviate everyone's urgent need for salt, but also allow one's family to use it sparingly for about a year.

Everyone was very grateful when they heard that Lin Wan was going to give out ten kilograms of emergency supplies.

"The salt given by Lin Wan is considered as borrowed from her and must be returned in the future." Uncle Li reminded everyone.

Everyone agreed and then asked whether they should go out to look for Rhus chinensis fruit as soon as possible.

"In order to avoid wasting too much manpower, we should first send one or two teams out to look for Rhus chinensis. Once they are found, we can organize a large number of people to go there and pick them together." Lin Wan then made a suggestion.

She also wanted to go out with them and check out where the kudzu vines and konjac that she had seen before could be found, and it would be even better if there were also yams and lilies.

"I think this is a good idea too." Uncle Li agreed.

Everyone thought that Lin Wan’s proposal was very good, and then they quickly divided into two teams. Luo Dashan and Li Chongwu each led two or three people to look for Rhus chinensis.

Lin Wanze returned home and packed about ten kilograms of salt, handed it to Uncle Li, and asked him to distribute it to each household.

When she heard from Grandpa Li that people looking for Rhus chinensis had just set out, she immediately went home, picked up her backpack, and ran towards the outside entrance.

Passing by a gentle slope, she saw Li Chongle who was still guarding the smoked bacon. She told him to take care of the house. If she didn't come back in time to make lunch, he and Li Ke would have to cook it themselves.

Then, Li Chongle watched his sister-in-law run away like a gust of wind.

Lin Wan caught up with Li Chongwu, Li Chongshan and others at the outer cave entrance and told them that she wanted to go with them to pick some wild fruits.

In addition to checking out foods like kudzu, she also wanted to see if there were any kiwis.

Now is the season when wild kiwis mature. The climate here is similar to that of her hometown. The wild fruits and plants she has seen before have many similarities, so there should be kiwis.

The group walked towards the depths of the forest.

On the way, everyone was carefully searching for traces of Rhus chinensis.

Lin Wan was not idle either. She kept looking around, keeping an eye out for any familiar food or fruit that might appear nearby.

When we see Pueraria lobata and konjac, it is inconvenient to pick them at this time because we have to hurry on the road to find Rhus chinensis.

Lin Wan asked Li Chongwu to help remember the location, because they often went to the mountains and were familiar with the directions.

In this way, they cooperated with each other to search along the way. When they came across wild fruits that were easy to pick, such as wax gourd and trumpet fruit, they would stop to pick them and put them in their backpacks.

After more than an hour, the backpack was already half full.

"Look, there seem to be a few Rhus chinensis trees over there!" Li Chongshan, who was walking in front, shouted excitedly.

Everyone gathered around immediately and saw that several Rhus chinensis trees were full of fruits.

"Great, I finally found it!"

"Remember the location, let's continue looking to the east." Li Chongshan did not forget that the main task was to find more Rhus chinensis trees.

They continued along the previously planned route, marking the locations wherever they came across Rhus chinensis.

Lin Wan was also happy about finding the saltwort, but she was more focused on finding other food.

Finally, after her arduous search, she saw an area covered with kiwi vines in front of her, with clusters of furry fruits hanging on them.

"I saw kiwis. Let's go over there and take a look." Lin Wan said, pointing ahead.

Li Chongshan took a look and said with a smile: "It really is a kiwi fruit. You have a very good eye."

Everyone hurried to pick kiwis.

This morning, the backpacks they carried were almost full.

"We found a lot of saltwort today. Let's go back now and take a shortcut from here." Li Chongwu suggested, pointing ahead.

"Okay, it seems like we'll pass by Horimasa's valley when we go back from here."

Lin Wan suggested: "Then let's go and see He Lizheng and his men. They must be even more in need of salt. Let's tell them that this Rhus chinensis fruit can temporarily replace salt."

She mainly wanted to get information from He Lizheng. Although Li Changli and others had obtained some information from He Lizheng the day before, she still wanted to try to find out more.

Everyone thought this was a good idea, so they changed their route and headed towards the valley where He Lizheng was.

When they arrived at the entrance of the valley where He Lizheng was, they found that He Lizheng and others were preparing to build a house.

As soon as they entered the valley, they were discovered.

He Lizheng came over upon hearing the noise and said with a smile, "Hey, why are you here?"

"We were looking for Rhus chinensis. We passed by here and came to take a look." Li Chongshan responded with a smile.

"Rhus chinensis?" He Lizheng looked puzzled.

"It's the gallnut tree. Its fruit can be used as salt in an emergency." Lin Wan explained immediately.

"Is this still possible? Are you out of salt?"

When Lin Wan heard He Lizheng ask this, she felt that he didn't seem to be short of salt for the time being, so she hurriedly said:

"Salt purchases were restricted more than a month ago, and no one stockpiled salt, so it's almost all gone. What about you? Did you stockpile salt before?"

"I didn't stockpile salt. I just bought some a few days ago before I went into the mountains, but not much."

When Lin Wan and the others heard this, they immediately asked how to buy salt. Isn't it impossible to enter the county town now?

It turned out that before He Lizheng went into the mountains, he learned from another village head he knew before that some family members or relatives of the gatekeepers were taking advantage of their positions to go out of the city to sell some daily necessities.

They would take the goods out of the city before dawn on the agreed date and sell them at a high price to people in urgent need in a secret location on the outskirts of the city. They privately called it the "dark market."

However, this usually requires an acquaintance to lead the way and introduce you, otherwise you won’t be able to buy it even if you go there, and everyone is worried about being betrayed by the other party.

After hearing this, Lin Wan couldn't help but sigh, it turns out that where there is demand, there is trade.

Because many people fled to the mountains or were afraid to enter the city, people in the city used their connections to transport goods out and then resell them to these people at high prices.

"What about food? Is there any for sale?"

"Food and ironware are not available. It is difficult for people in the county to buy food themselves, let alone transport it out to sell. Ironware needs to be registered for purchase, which is not easy to do." He Lizheng shook his head helplessly and said.

Then he sighed and continued, "We are also short of food now. The weather will get cold soon, so we can only build houses first. We don't have time to open up wasteland and plant crops."

Lin Wan then said, "There are still a lot of wild vegetables, wild fruits, mushrooms, and game in the mountains. You can go out and get some to store, so that you won't have a hard time finding food when you go out in winter."

"We thought so too. We have to build the house first and then concentrate our manpower on getting food." He Lizheng said with a frown.

Then he added: "If you are not in a hurry to use the salt, when we have built the house, we will go out with you and buy salt in the same way as before."