Quick travel: the life of smuggling is so exciting

Lin Xia quietly looked at him, and seeing that he was carrying luggage beside him, she asked tentatively, "I think you are going into the city, right?"

"Yes, many people died of the severe cold this time. The village is unable to fight back. It's too dangerous outside, so we are preparing to go into the city to avoid the disaster.

There are only my father and I left at home, and my son doesn't want to go to the city, so we are arguing with each other."

The little man next to him heard it and retorted silently: "I thought my father was going to sell me, just like a stone, into the county town and never come back." As he said this, his nose felt sore and tears welled up in his eyes. He knew that he might never see his little friend again in this life.

"Dad would rather sell himself than sell you. Your mother saved you with great difficulty." The man slapped the child on the back angrily, his back hunched, and his voice choked with sobs.

After the other party calmed down, Lin Xia revealed her true thoughts.

"Brother, since you are going into the city, I wonder if I could discuss something with you."

"What's the matter, girl?"

"Take me with you into the city."

When the other party heard this, he immediately refused. This was absolutely unacceptable and he would be sent to jail if caught.

"I just want to seek refuge in the city. I see that my eldest brother's family is poor and the expenses in the county are high. I am willing to pay for it. 200 coins."

The other party's expression relaxed slightly, but after hesitating for a moment, he still refused.

Seeing that there was a chance, Lin Xia immediately raised the price from 300 coins to one tael of silver. The other party finally agreed, and it was finally agreed that a deposit of 500 coins would be paid before entering the city, and the remaining 500 coins would be paid after successfully entering the city.

At the same time, Lin Xia had to solve the problem of the big knife.

After the agreement was reached, Lin Xia walked with the father and son for more than two hours. She already understood their identities and her own future identity.

She will play the role of the man's 16-year-old sister, who was washed away during a flood last year and her body has not been found yet.

Because Lin Xia had a different accent, they were worried that the secret would be exposed, so they asked her to pretend to be mute.

The moment he saw the towering city wall, Lin Xia decided to wait in this county town for news from the refugee army before making any arrangements.

The towering walls surround a huge castle. Although it is made of rammed earth, it still gives people a full sense of security.

It is about seven or eight meters thick overall, and there is a city wall at the gate for defense. The outermost part even has a wide river dug in the distance to form a moat.

With such defensive capabilities, even an army of 100,000 refugees might not be able to capture it. The small county towns I have seen before are completely incomparable to it. No wonder the villagers are fleeing to the city.

Lin Xia first walked with the other party to the grassland one thousand meters away from the city gate, asked the other party to wait for her at the gate, and she looked for a place to bury the knife.

Even if there is not enough space to put it in, it cannot be thrown away, as it will need to be used again.

After dealing with the machete, Lin Xia put the iron pot, all the remaining food, sickle, axe, map, silver and all other suspicious items into the space, and put the rest in the backpack.

After everything was checked, Lin Xia reunited with the father and son and came to the outside of the city. There were more normal people around, and they all brought their families and packed their luggage. It seemed that they were all people who came to seek refuge.

While waiting in line, Lin Xia discovered that the county town did not reject outsiders, but rather poor outsiders.

As long as you have money and power, you don’t care whether the person is from a foreign hometown or not, just give him/her money directly. For example, the carriage in front was stuffed with silver and people were let in easily.

The three of them lined up and soon it was their turn.

"Bring me your household registration. What are your identities?" the soldier asked impatiently.

"Sir, I am Zhang Er, a farmer from Huiping Village. This is my son Daniu and my sister." Zhang Er was a little nervous. It was the first time he did something illegal in front of officers and soldiers. His heart was pounding and his voice was trembling.

The officers and soldiers lowered their heads to check the household registration, and then glanced at Lin Xia who was following Zhang Er with lowered brows.

"Your sister is old enough, but she's still not married?"

The original owner was pretty, so Lin Xia evenly smeared ash on her face to prevent any trouble.

"Because my sister is mute, it is a little difficult for her to get married," Zhang Er explained.

The officers and soldiers didn't know whether they believed it or not, and their eyes swept over the three people.

"You can't speak, okay, go over there."

The officer finally did not make things difficult for them and pointed to the luggage inspection area to let them pass.

The three men stepped forward to be checked, and since they had no weapons, they were allowed to pass.

After entering, the three of them breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, it went smoothly.

After entering the city, Lin Xia paid the balance and they parted ways.

She walked around the city alone for a while and came to a conclusion.

This county town called Chenxi is a super large county. Although many households in the city have hung white flags, it is still prosperous, with many pedestrians coming and going, roads extending in all directions, and various shops on both sides.

Clothes make the man, and Buddhas rely on gold. Lin Xia decided to go buy some clothes, otherwise no shopkeeper would be willing to accept her with her tattered beggar clothes.

I randomly found a clothing store and changed everything from inside to outside. I bought an ordinary thin cotton coat and cotton shoes with thousand-layer soles to change into on the spot, and then bought a pair of waterproof leather boots to take away. The total cost was 2 taels, which was a high price, mainly because the price of cotton coats had increased several times.

The clothes I brought out also included the bearskin coat, which was so warm that it became cumbersome.

The weather is getting warmer now, and even if winter gets colder, it will be several months away. It will be inconvenient to travel with it, so Lin Xia went into the pawnshop.

She compared prices in three different pawnshops and her face darkened. How could she say she was cheated? Wasn't it true? She was cheated as soon as she entered the pawnshop. Each pawnshop offered a lower price than the last. The cheapest one treated her like a fool and only gave her 100 cents.

My own thin cotton-padded jacket cost 1 tael, but the bearskin coat only cost me this much.

There was no other way, so Lin Xia finally chose the one with the higher price and pawned it for 1 tael. Even so, the shop owner still disliked her poor craftsmanship and broke it into pieces.

Although I pawned my clothes, I kept all the hats, knee pads and other items. These were small and practical.

After the clothes were dealt with, the backpack suddenly became much emptier.

Then there is the one-day trip to the inn. Due to the large number of people entering the city recently, the inns in the city are in short supply and have increased their prices.

It was impossible for Lin Xia to stay in the lowest-class dormitory. Even the medium-sized room could not meet her needs because there was no quilt. She could only stay in the superior room that cost 200 wen a night.

Pay the highest price and enjoy the most considerate service.

The bath water was boiled in advance, but it was not free because firewood was expensive. She still paid for it with satisfaction.

Lin Xia relaxed and leaned back in the bathtub with her arms and legs spread out, looking very happy.

But it was not easy to take my first hot bath in nearly a year.

An hour later, Lin Xia got up, wiped the water stains, called the waiter to deal with the dirty water, and ordered food, which was also brought by the waiter.

Lin Xia was satisfied again, finally getting to eat other vegetables and the fragrant white rice.

In fact, the cheapest meat dish in the store is fish, which is even cheaper than vegetarian dishes, but Lin Xia doesn't care. She is hurt by eating, and she just wants to enjoy life now.

Waiter - a magical profession, they know a little bit about everything, and you can get the information you want by just spending a little money.

Lin Xia paid money to learn from the waiter that Shaobei County had been captured by the refugee army the day before yesterday, but was quickly recaptured by the reinforcements from the provincial capital.

At that time, there were more than 10,000 people gathered in the refugee army, but they had no cohesion. Soon several main leaders were captured, and the remaining half of the refugees saw that the situation was not good and fled in all directions.

Their county town was the first to be hit, but there was no need to worry. After the weather got warmer, a batch of grain was delivered to the grain store in the city. Currently, there was enough food, and the city gates had several defenses, so that group of rabble had no way to deal with it.

According to him, Shaobei is just a small county town, only about a hundred miles away from Chenxi County, and it takes three or four days to walk there. We will know whether the war situation is true tomorrow or the day after tomorrow.

On the second day, everything in the city was back to normal, so Lin Xia went to the grain store to buy food. It was just as the waiter said, the grain store had no shortage of food and no purchase limit, but for ordinary people, it was almost unaffordable.

In fact, Xiangzhou was the least affected by the disaster last year. It can barely produce three crops a year, but in previous years only two seasons of rice were planted. After all, manpower is limited and the fertility of the land is limited. Last year, due to bad weather, three seasons were planted. The late rice was destroyed by heavy rain, and the first two seasons were only slightly affected, but they could still reach 70% to 80% of the harvest in previous years.

Logically speaking, if people had saved food, so many people in Xiangzhou would not have died during the heavy snow. Many villages were even wiped out. This was because the court imposed more taxes and levied heavy taxes. You have to know that freezing to death was not only caused by insufficient warming measures, but also because there was not enough food and the body did not have the energy to survive the winter.

At this time, let’s talk about the importance of having a good official.

I also heard from the waiter that Lingzhou not only did not levy taxes, but also reduced taxes and levies. When the city was closed due to heavy snow, it actively provided relief to refugees.

As a result, many people endured hunger and cold and sneaked to Lingzhou to get help when the snow melted, which further strengthened Lin Xia's determination to rush to Lingzhou.