The journey of the only child of a peasant family to take the imperial examination

"Oh," Daya took the medicine and applied it to her man quickly, feeling very distressed.

My daughter Zhuzhu blew gently on the wound, "Dad, I'll blow on you and it won't hurt!"

Liu Sanlang smiled, raised his hand and touched his daughter's hair, saying, "Daddy doesn't feel any pain."

Liu Dalang used to help slaughter pigs at home. He was very skillful and in a short while he had peeled off the skins of several wolves. The skins were still bloody and there was no place to wash them, so he had to roll them up with straw and throw them on Uncle Xu's cart. At the moment, Uncle Xu's cart had the least things.

Zhang saw that everything was almost packed and said, "Let's go. Everyone, please keep an eye out for water sources along the way."

It was already dawn when everyone pushed the cart out of the woods, and there were no houses in sight on the road ahead or behind.

I walked forward for another ten miles before I saw a pond not far away. The presence of a pond meant that there must be houses nearby.

After getting off the official road and walking along the ridge to the front of the field, Zhang Ping'an scooped up a handful of water and took a look. The water quality was okay, so he quickly asked his father to unload the frame and lead the mule over to drink water.

The others also filled their bamboo tubes and water bags with water.

Liu the butcher's wife was a hardworking person with a keen eye for work. After everyone had fetched water, she took a few wolf skins to the pond, cleaned them, and scraped off the grease on the skins. Liu Sanlang at home knew how to make leather. Although his skills were average, they were enough for their own use. The leather used for the rabbit fur hats for the children in the family was all made by Liu Sanlang himself.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a wooden basin falling to the ground not far away while I was washing. Then, a nervous woman's voice rang out: "Who are you and what are you doing here?"

It has a strong local accent and is somewhat similar to the Yuezhou dialect. If we hadn't stayed in Yuezhou for such a long time, we really wouldn't understand it!

Everyone turned their heads and saw that the woman who came was about thirty years old, not young anymore, with a sallow face, skinny body, and thick, red and swollen knuckles. While asking questions, she picked up the wooden basin on the ground again. There were still a lot of muddy radishes in the basin. It seemed that she came to the pond to wash vegetables.

Butcher Liu's wife said cheerfully, "Sister, we're on our way to visit relatives in the city. We're halfway there, and the livestock and people need water. Come get some. We don't mean any harm, so don't worry!"

"What are you washing? Wolf skin?" The woman pointed to what Liu the butcher's wife was washing.

"Yes, we encountered a few wolves in the forest ahead when it was almost dawn. Fortunately, the men in the family were alert and nothing unexpected happened," said Liu the butcher's wife with a smile, her hands moving non-stop.

The woman looked at the crowd, young and old, including children, and asked suspiciously, "Haven't you been conscripted or forced to do labor service? Why are there so many able-bodied men left at home?"

"Yes," replied Liu the butcher's wife, and then sighed and continued, "It's because the world is bad that we want to go and live with our relatives. We used to live very well in Yuezhou."

With this expression and tone, Zhang Pingan wanted to give an award to Aunt Liu. His own mother probably would never be able to learn this trick, so he could only count on his future daughter-in-law.

The woman opposite her looked a little better, then sighed, "Who says it's not true? Not only have we had to pay a lot more taxes this year, but we've also been forced to go to war, and the men have to do corvée labor in the winter. Now there are basically only women and children left in the village, and the entire village can't even muster thirty strong laborers."

After saying this, his eyes turned red and he raised his hand to wipe the corners of his eyes.

"What kind of forced labor requires so many people to go?" Zhang Ping'an asked with a frown.

"Repairing city walls, river embankments, and digging canals, all of that," said the woman.

After saying that, he seemed to remember something and asked, "Are you going to Gao'an County ahead?"

Zhang Pingan nodded. "We're not going to Gao'an County, but to Quzhou, which is further ahead. But when we pass through there, we might go into the city to buy some salt and other sundries. Is that a problem?"

The woman looked up at the crowd, shook her head, and said, "Your hometown must be quite far from here. You may not know that the villages within a hundred miles of us have been ravaged by bandits in the past six months. We're robbed every few days. Now that there's nothing left to rob, they've come to the county town to rob merchants and passers-by. That's why the authorities have conscripted us to build city walls and dig moats to protect us. They're really evil!"

"They are so rampant and dare to hide near the county town. Don't the higher-ups care?" Grandpa Jinbao said in surprise.

"I can't do anything about it. Everything is in chaos now. Some soldiers are not good people. I heard that some young wives were raped by soldiers. Let's just live our lives. Sigh," the woman sighed again.

Mrs. Liu the butcher quickly said, "Sister, I'm done washing. It's just that you made the water muddy. I'm so sorry!"

"It's nothing, I'll just go wash over there," said the woman.

"That's still better than where we are. Look, there are radishes to eat here, auntie," Zhang Ping'an said with a smile.

The woman waved her hands and said, "How can I eat this? It's hidden in the cellar of a wealthy family in the village. I came here to help wash and pickle it for them. I can only eat a bowl of wheat rice to make ends meet."

After saying that, he stopped chatting with everyone and went to the other side of the pond to wash radishes with a loofah.