Traveling through the mountains and farming

Li Changli and his group and He Yunzheng and his group separated before entering the village, each heading towards their own village, and agreed to meet at the place where they had separated in the evening of the next day.

When they were about to enter the village, snowflakes began to fall from the sky.

Li Changli and others sneaked into Lin Wan's backyard from the back mountain of her house.

I haven't been back for a few months, and the yard is now overgrown with weeds compared to before I left, making it look particularly desolate.

They did not let down their guard at all, but spread out and quietly explored the entire village.

After some investigation, it was found that there were no officers or soldiers patrolling.

This was the first time they came back after escaping. The first time they went to inquire about the news, they did not enter the village because they met Wu Cunzheng and knew that there were soldiers guarding the village.

Except for Lin Wan's house, which was located at the innermost part of the village, far away from the center and therefore not burned down, all the other houses were more or less burned down, and the whole village looked desolate.

Li Changli reached behind his house and walked into the backyard. Looking at his house that had been burned beyond recognition, he felt sad.

The once familiar home is now only left with broken walls, and the blackened walls seem to be telling of the disaster it once suffered.

He slowly squatted down, picked up a piece of burnt wood on the ground, and rubbed it gently with his fingers.

Then he stood up and walked into the house, where all the furniture was burnt beyond recognition.

The warm scenes of the past appeared before his eyes, which made him feel extremely sad.

Fortunately, they are living a pretty good life in the mountains now. Although it is not as comfortable as when they were in the village, it is stable.

The most important thing is that everyone can have enough food and warm clothing.

But every time I think of my former home, I can’t help but feel sad and helpless.

I don’t know when I can return to the village and rebuild my home.

He took a deep breath, suppressed his emotions, and turned back to Lin Wan's house.

As soon as I entered the yard, I saw my companions coming back one after another.

They searched the entire village and found that there were indeed no soldiers guarding it. It seemed that the village was simply uninhabitable, and the weather was so cold that the soldiers had probably evacuated long ago.

Li Changli said, "We'll stay at Lin Wan's house tonight, and tomorrow we'll go to the nearby villages or the county town to check out the situation."

"Okay, I see the snow is getting heavier outside. Let's dig out the sweet potatoes and potatoes in Lin Wan's backyard now, to prevent them from freezing." Li Chongwu suggested.

Everyone thought it made sense and immediately walked to the backyard.

According to the stems and leaves of the two plants that were about to dry up, we locked the position and started digging sweet potatoes and potatoes.

Unexpectedly, the harvest of potatoes and sweet potatoes that Lin Wan mentioned was quite good, filling a small basket in total.

At night, everyone ate some simple dry food, burned firewood, spread wooden boards on the ground, and slept together.

The snow was still falling, and the whole world seemed to be covered in white.

The next morning, Li Chongwu vaguely heard a noise in his sleep. He woke up instantly, sat up alertly, walked to the window quietly, and looked out through the gap in the window.

He noticed that three people were carrying bags and walking cautiously towards Lin Wan's house, so he quickly turned around and woke up the others.

"Everyone wake up, something's happening!" Li Chongwu said in a low voice.

Everyone suddenly woke up, and Li Changli signaled everyone to keep quiet and observe the purpose of these people first.

I saw the two or three people walk to the gate of the yard and stop, as if they were looking at the situation of the house.

After a while, one of them gently pushed the gate and found that it could be opened, so he walked in carefully.

Li Changli and others held their weapons tightly, ready to deal with possible dangers at any time.

One of the young men spoke up, "Is anyone there? We have no ill intentions. I came to this village to look for someone I know."

Seeing no one responded, another middle-aged man said:

"I think this is the only house that hasn't been burned down. Let's make do here."

Then he continued, "I've said it before, your classmate's village must have been burned down like the other villages, how could there still be people there."

"I just want to try my luck. Besides, we have no other place to go. All the villages we passed along the way were burned to ruins. It is not easy to have a place to stay now." The young man said helplessly.

"Don't complain, father. At least we have a house here that is windproof and rainproof. We are lucky to have managed to escape from the mess in the county town."

"Dad, at least we have found a place to stay temporarily. After we get through this snow, we will consider where to go in the future." The young man said with a smile.

"This is the only way. Let's go inside. It's too cold outside."

Through the conversation between the three people, Li Changli judged that these three people should have come from the county town, but wasn’t the county town closed?

How did they get out, or did they say that the county town has been unsealed?

Moreover, the three of them looked like they came from well-off families and they were carrying packages, which made it seem like they were planning to escape.

Although he was not worried that the three men had any bad intentions, he did not let his guard down when they pushed the door open and still held his weapons tightly.

The three men walked into the house and saw Li Changli and others pointing weapons at them. They were so scared that their faces turned pale.

The young man said quickly: "Don't be impulsive, my friends. I'm here to find Li Chonghao. Do you know him?"

When Li Changli heard that he was looking for his nephew, he was shocked, but the alertness on his face did not fade away. He asked, "Why are you looking for Li Chonghao? Who are you?"

The young man said quickly, "I am Li Chonghao's classmate and good friend at the county academy. We studied together, and I came here to seek refuge with him."

At this time, the middle-aged man next to him suddenly said in surprise: "Brother Li, is it you?"

Li Changli was stunned and looked at the middle-aged man, and found that he looked familiar.

His third nephew Li Chongzheng beside him was also surprised and said, "Uncle, it seems to be Mr. Zhou from the cloth shop."

He recognized the middle-aged man as the owner of a cloth shop in the county where his family had a cooperative to sell dyed linen.

Li Changli looked carefully and found that it was indeed an acquaintance. He asked in confusion, "Mr. Zhou? Why did you come to our village?"

Zhou Dongjia smiled bitterly and said, "Alas, Brother Li, this is a long story. The county is now in chaos, and I couldn't leave my family business at the time. I thought that the county was relatively stable except for the purchase restrictions on grain. I also saved up grain in time, so I wanted to stay in the county to live a stable life. I didn't expect that the county would be sealed off a month ago, and then the county was taken over by the King of Chu himself. Those of us who have some family business were required to hand over large sums of money and grain. We really had no way to survive, so we used our connections to find a way to escape."