Traveling through the mountains and farming

"Under such circumstances, it must have been very difficult for you to escape, right?" Li Changli continued to ask.

"It's not just very difficult, it's as difficult as ascending to heaven." Zhou Dongjia smiled bitterly and shook his head, "We spent a lot of money and went through a lot of trouble to escape!"

Li Chong was standing nearby and saw that it was snowing heavily outside. He quietly reminded Li Changli to let them in to talk, "Uncle, it's snowing so heavily outside, why don't we let them in to talk in detail first?"

Li Changli finally realized that he was so eager to find out the situation that he forgot to let anyone in. He couldn't help but say awkwardly:

"Oh, look at my brain, hurry up and get into the house!"

As he said this, he stepped aside and invited the three people into the house.

Everyone entered the house, and Boss Ling and the other two rubbed their red, frozen hands and breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Changli invited them to sit around the fire. These stools were found and cleaned yesterday. Those who didn't have stools sat down on them using wooden boards.

They added firewood to the fire hole in the main room, the fire became bigger, and the room gradually became warmer.

"Mr. Zhou, can you tell me in detail what the situation is in the county?" Li Changli asked anxiously.

Zhou Dongjia stretched out his red, frozen hands, warmed them by the fire, and said,

"Alas, after the King of Chu was defeated by General Gu, he fled to our county and let his subordinates take over the county. They sealed off the county and said they wanted to fill the treasury, so they targeted those of us who had some property. They listed a long list of shops and asked us to hand over a large sum of money and food, which made everyone miserable! My cloth shop's business has been bad for a long time, and now it's impossible to operate. If I stay any longer, I'm afraid I won't be able to save my life, so I had to escape."

"Where are the other people in the county? Can they escape like you?" Li Chongwu asked hurriedly.

"It's no exaggeration to say that the county is about to become a living hell. The long-term purchase limit on grain has caused everyone to be short of food for a long time. With the closure of the county, most people in the city have eaten up their stored grain. Now they are clamoring to open the warehouse to release grain. Two days ago, someone took the lead in making trouble, but was arrested and severely punished. Now no one dares to make trouble, but the King of Chu is forcing wealthy merchants and wealthy families to hand over their property and grain, saying that it is for the ordinary people in the city."

"Yes, now those families in the county who seem to be slightly wealthy are in panic. Unless they have a large number of guards, they may be robbed at any time." Zhou Lingtong said with a worried look on his face.

"We spent a lot of money to smooth over relationships and bribed the government officials who were responsible for transporting charcoal. We hid in the charcoal trucks. Now the only vehicles entering and leaving the county are the ones that purchase supplies for the King of Chu." Zhou Dongjia said in a low voice.

He had never felt so miserable in his life. He hid in the big box of charcoal before escaping. He looked so miserable.

"We have been looking for this opportunity for a long time. The county was sealed off and there was no chance for us to escape. If it weren't for the cold weather, the King of Chu needed charcoal and heard that there were problems with his rear supply, so he relaxed the inspection of the charcoal transport vehicles."

After hearing this, Li Changli and others looked at each other in surprise.

Li Chongzheng beside him asked in confusion: "We are not close to the county town. You also know that there are not many people in all the villages now. The people in the village have either fled or been captured and sent to the army. Why did you come here?"

“We were also hiding all the way. We wanted to escape to Beijiang, but we were afraid of being caught. All the villages we saw along the way were destroyed. We walked and walked until we came to the vicinity of your village. Then my son told us that his good friend and classmate’s village was here, so we came here to give it a try.” Zhou Dongjia said helplessly.

Li Changli sighed: "This world is really in chaos, and I don't know when it will end."

"Yes, we are now desperate and can only hide here first. I wonder if Brother Li can take us in?" Zhou Dongjia's face was full of worry.

He observed when he came in and found that this should not be the place where Li Changli and others lived for a long time. They must have a safe place to hide.

Now the family of three has nowhere to go. Seeing that the snow is getting heavier, how are they going to live in the future?

Mr. Zhou continued, "I know this is difficult. In this situation, no one can protect themselves. Don't worry, we are not eating and living for free. We will pay a certain amount of money and help with the work."

Li Changli said awkwardly, "Boss Zhou, it's not that I don't want to take you in. This is just our temporary place to stay. If you want to stay here, you can. But we won't stay. We'll leave as soon as this afternoon."

Zhou Dongjia wanted to follow Li Changli to a safe place to avoid disaster. It would definitely not work here. He thought about it in his mind and thought about how to convince Li Changli.

At present, they have nothing but money, clothes and almost running out of dry food, so they must follow Li Changli and his men.

Zhou Dongjia continued to persuade him, "I know you are in a difficult situation. After all, there will be many troubles with the three of us. So I will take out two hundred taels of silver. Please don't misunderstand that I am insulting you by taking money. This money is the life-saving money given by our family of three. We asked others to do something for us. This way, you can explain to others."

The truth was that they had almost spent all their wealth in order to escape from the county, and now they didn't have much money, and some house deeds and land deeds could not be given directly.

Otherwise he would definitely give more.

When Li Changli heard that Zhou Dongjia was offering two hundred taels of silver, he was tempted, especially when he saw that all the houses in the village were burned down. He thought that they would have to rebuild the houses after the war subsided, so he felt that this money might be able to solve many problems for them.

Li Changli was silent for a moment, then said, "Boss Zhou, this is not a matter of money. Bringing you along will put us under a lot of pressure, and I can't guarantee that we will have enough food to support us."

Although everyone living in the cave has enough food, and there will be no problem with three more people for a short period of time, if the war is prolonged, it will cause trouble to the people in the cave if they have to feed three more people all the time.

Zhou Dongjia also knew how precious grain was. Grain purchase had long been restricted, and he didn't know whether Li Changli and his colleagues' grain had been confiscated.

But he still wanted to fight for himself and his family, so he quickly said, "We are the ones who made things difficult for you, so I will give you an extra 100 taels as food expenses for the three of us."

Li Changli felt a little shaken. He looked at Zhou Dongjia's expectant eyes, and then looked at Li Chongzheng and others around him.

Li Chongzheng said, "Uncle, why don't you agree to the agreement of Mr. Zhou? Mr. Zhou's son is my brother's classmate, so let's help them."

When the others learned that they could get 300 taels of silver for helping these three people, and that they had enough food, and they could also grow potatoes and sweet potatoes next year, food would not be a big problem, they all nodded to indicate that Li Changli should agree.