It's really hard to just farm peacefully.

The night gradually brightened and the sky began to lighten slightly.

As soon as the Jiang family heard the morning bell, Jiang Da and Yu Qian, who had been packing for half the night, immediately picked up the four old boxes that had been packed long ago, and the other four carried their packages and bowls and chopsticks and rushed to the city gate.

The bottom layers of the four boxes were filled with more than 80 jin of first-cut flour, more than half of which was bran. The coarsely sifted wheat kernels, ground fine flour, millet and beans were hidden in the special box walls around them, totaling more than 30 jin.

The boxes were separated by a deep-looking wooden pallet, on which sat a dozen small cloth bags filled with a mixture of wheat grains and first-cut flour, each weighing about a pound. Also stuffed were old clothes, dish brushes, salt shakers, sauce jars, needles and thread, and a small pile of round stones to mix things up and add weight.

Everyone also hid some useful items in the packages they carried and inside their clothes.

In the Northern Jin Dynasty, the gatekeepers guarding the city gates would conduct random inspections on pedestrians and luggage entering and leaving the city to check whether they were carrying any dangerous items into the city or taking any important items out of the city.

As Rongcheng County and its surrounding areas experienced several conscriptions, the county's economy became increasingly weak, with few travelers and poverty. The doormen did not receive sufficient salaries, so they were very concerned about checking the luggage of people leaving the city, and often withheld two or three tenths of their property or food on the pretext of something to supplement their own income.

Yu Qian took this into consideration when packing her luggage. She chose to take things out of the city as worn and usable as possible. The food couldn't be too good. While the doormen weren't as well-off as they used to be, they currently ate only clean, whole grain rice, without any wheat bran. She couldn't bring too much food either; too much might make the doormen greedy and go to the trouble of sifting out the wheat kernels to eat...

The more valuable items should be spread out and hidden among Jiang Yan and Jiang Nian. Rongcheng County currently doesn't have any female doormen, so I haven't heard of them searching. And since it's a girl, the doormen probably wouldn't expect adults to be around and put money on a girl...

After the gatekeepers had thoroughly searched the luggage and personal belongings of Jiang Yan and his group, mainly Jiang Da and Jiang Yuan, and took away the food bags specially prepared by Yu Qian, and made Sun Yun and Yu Qian search their bodies to collect six cents as a toll to pay, they were allowed to pass.

Everyone walked for four kilometers in one breath, leaving the city gate far behind and out of sight. Only then did they relax and head towards Dongshan Village at a normal pace.

It was already bright when we arrived at the village entrance. Judging by the biological clock formed by the river geese, it was already past ten o'clock.

Jiang Wang, Jiang An, and Jiang Ning were waiting at the village entrance for someone to arrive. The old man was whittling sticks with a hatchet in one hand and a branch in the other, while Jiang An and Jiang Ning were gathering fallen branches and debris.

"Grandpa Jiang Wang, we're back~" Jiang Yan was the first to greet him.

Jiang Wang raised the corner of his mouth, exchanged greetings with Yu Qian and others, and then led them towards the ancestral hall, which was Yu Qian's home.

At this time, the people of Dongshan Village were setting up an assembly line in the open space in front of Jiang Fu's house, cutting wooden sticks, making clogs, kneading dough, building a stove, lighting a fire, and steaming wheat bran buns...

Yu Qian was a little confused and asked, "Uncle Wang, what is going on?"

"Prepare the supplies for exploring the mountain early tomorrow morning," Jiang Wang explained. "As you know, we plan to let the boys hide in the mountains. Whether the map is useful or not, we have to look for it."

"Look for a cave, or some other place suitable for people to stay."

Upon hearing about the route map and the cave, Jiang Yan, who was already engrossed in the aroma of steamed buns despite being hungry, quickly spoke up, "Jiang Nian and Jiang Yuan had an idea last night. They can give it a try. My intuition tells me that they can definitely do it."

"Little kids don't have any intuition," Jiang Wang couldn't help but grin. "Scholars are incredible, incredible."

When Jiang Yuan and Jiang Nian heard the praise from their elders, their ears turned red.

After Jiang Wang finished speaking, he arranged for Jiang Yan to cooperate with Jiang Yuan and his sister to translate the route, and asked Jiang Da, Yu Qian and others to go home and rest quickly.