Traveling through the mountains and farming

"Why didn't you take the food with you when you fled the village?" Li Changli asked puzzledly.

He Lizheng sighed, "Alas, on the morning of September 1st, I learned that the officials would forcibly conscript soldiers when collecting autumn taxes. After I told the villagers the news, the officials had already entered the village within an hour. We were in a panic and fled to the mountains with only a little food."

I remember that the conscription came too suddenly. Some villagers escaped, some were captured and conscripted, and some were even killed or wounded.

Fortunately, his family escaped together, and later found several relatives from the same village, and they all took refuge in the mountains together.

He looked worried and continued, "I had thought I would hide in this mountain for a while before going back, but the county government sent soldiers to the countryside to arrest people and send them to the army. The village was almost completely destroyed, so I couldn't go back."

"What about you? Have all the villagers escaped?" He Lizheng asked.

Li Changli described the situation in the village. Some people fled into the mountains, some did not have time to escape and were caught and forced to serve in the military, and some fled to Jiangbei County.

When He Lizheng heard Li Changli talking about fleeing to Jiangbei County, his expression changed drastically and he said hurriedly:

"Don't go to Jiangbei County. We fled into the mountains and found that we couldn't go back to the village. We wanted to go to Jiangbei County, but we met someone who turned back halfway and said that the King of Chu had sent people to set up ambushes in several places in Xiaojiang and Xiaoshan."

"At that time, we took into consideration the high mountains and long roads, so we did not choose to flee to Jiangbei County. Now we can only live in seclusion in this deep mountain to avoid disaster." Li Changli sighed helplessly.

He Lizheng frowned: "Alas, I don't know when this kind of day will end."

He was thinking about the future, and he didn't know whether they could live safely in this deep mountain.

He continued to ask, "You guys are not far from here, right? If you have any news, please share it with us and take care of each other."

Li Changli nodded solemnly and agreed: "Of course."

Seeing that the two had almost finished chatting, He Lizheng's son He Yunzheng asked with a red face:

"Uncle, can we split this wild boar in half?"

This wild boar was killed by Li Changli and his men, and should have been taken away by Li Changli and his men, but they were in great need of food now, so he had no choice but to make this request.

Li Changli hesitated for a moment, looking at He Yunzheng's eyes full of desire and pleading.

He looked at the haggard faces of He Lizheng and the others again, and finally said with a soft heart:

"Of course, but this wild boar still needs to be dealt with."

He Lizheng was delighted when he heard this and said quickly, "We live in a nearby valley. You can go to our place and take it away."

In fact, it is also possible to split it directly, but the internal organs will be easily damaged and difficult to clean up.

So, the group followed He Lizheng to their residence.

The valley was quite secluded and surrounded by trees.

There are about five families in total, including He Lizheng, with about twenty people.

He Lizheng's family was the largest with seven people, including his wife, his parents, a son and two daughters.

In addition, two households belong to his two younger brothers, and the other two households belong to his cousins.

They have only been here a few days, and the houses they have built are very simple.

It was just a shack made of a few wooden boards, which could barely provide shelter from the wind and rain.

Some simple daily necessities were randomly piled around the shack.

After seeing Li Changli and his group, everyone greeted them and then started to deal with the wild boar.

Some of them were boiling water to remove the hair, some were preparing knives to cut up the wild boar, and some were busy cleaning up the site and clearing away debris.

Everyone worked together and the atmosphere was harmonious.

After dealing with the wild boar, Li Changli and his team took their own share and said goodbye to He Lizheng and his team.

When they returned to the secluded cave, Lin Wan's family had just finished dinner.

She was still a little worried about the fact that Li Changli and the others had not returned, so she planned to go to Uncle Li's house again to check.

As soon as I walked out of the house, I saw Li Changli and others who had just entered the cave.

She hurried over and asked, "You guys are finally back. How are you? Did you find anything?"

Li Changli smiled and replied: "It's nothing, those traces belong to He Lizheng and his men."

"Did you meet He Lizheng?" Lin Wan looked surprised.

"Yes, they have only been here for a few days. Let's put down the wild boar meat and call dad and the others to talk in detail."

Li Changli and the others put down the wild boar meat and invited Lin Wan to go into the house.

Everyone sat together, and Li Changli recounted in detail the exploration process, his final encounter with He Lizheng and his group, and the information he obtained from He Lizheng.

"Did the King of Chu set up an ambush to intercept people who fled to Jiangbei County? Do you know the details?" Uncle Li asked anxiously.

Li Changli shook his head helplessly: "I asked, but I don't know the details. I only know that this happened. As for how many people were arrested and the consequences of being arrested, I don't know."

"Oh, I don't know how your cousin Changren and the others are doing?" Uncle Li sighed worriedly.

The room fell into silence and the atmosphere seemed a little heavy.

After a while, Lin Wan broke the silence and said, "No matter what, let's take care of ourselves first, and then see if we can find out more information."

She also wanted to know the situation of the war outside. The fact that the King of Chu was able to send troops to intercept those fleeing to Jiangbei County showed that he still had the energy to control the surrounding areas for the time being.

However, he ordered all men to be captured and sent to the army, which also showed that his military strength was insufficient. I really hope that as she expected, this damn civil war can end soon.

Uncle Li sighed and said, "This is the only way. I hope Changren and the others are safe and sound."

"Dad, how should we divide this half of the pork? It's mainly Li Chongwu who contributed. He said that there is so much pork and his family doesn't have enough salt to pickle it, so we need to share some of it."

"Then wait until Li Chongwu has finished taking his share, and divide the rest equally among the people."

Li Changli distributed the pork according to what Uncle Li said, and the others also dispersed.

They divided the pork in the activity area at the entrance of the cave.

Lin Wan got more than 20 kilograms of meat, because Dr. Zhong's share was also given to her, so she got a total of five servings of wild boar meat.

Just as she was walking back with the wild boar meat, she was stopped by the ladies.

Aunt Li was pushed out and said with a big smile on her face, "Wan'er, can you teach us how to make bacon?"

Today everyone saw Lin Wan smoking bacon outside, and the smell was quite fragrant, much more fragrant than the ones they had simply dried in the sun in the past.

I hadn’t originally thought about making bacon, but everyone had just shared a lot of wild boar meat, so I wanted to make some bacon and store it.

Lin Wan responded readily: "Sure, no problem."

The other young ladies nearby saw this and came over to say they wanted to learn.

Lin Wan told everyone the method of smoking bacon on the spot.

In fact, the only difference from the sun-dried bacon they made before is that cypress branches are used for smoking, so everyone will know how to do it once it is mentioned.

"I think we can build a small bacon smoking room so that everyone doesn't have to always find a temporary place to stay," Lin Wan suggested.

"Is this a problem?"

"It's not a problem. We have all the materials ready for building a small house. If my second cousin and his friends bring a few more people with us, we can probably finish it in a day." Lin Wan replied with a smile.

She saw that there was a lot of clay, hay and other things left over from when Li Changyi and his team built the house.

"Okay, I'll go talk to your second cousin later, and you tell him how to build it tomorrow." Aunt Li immediately made the decision and asked her second son to help take the lead in the construction.

Finally, they agreed to go out together tomorrow to pick cypress branches for smoking bacon.

"Lin Wan, wait a minute."

Lin Wan continued to walk home carrying the wild boar meat when she was stopped again.