Armed with a machete and a gun, armed with a system, they fled the famine.

"What's wrong with you?" Zhao Yan asked coldly.

Yang Sanlang suddenly froze in shock.

"W-what?"

My heart was churning with turmoil.

Could his wife have discovered something?

The man's stunned expression seemed genuine. Zhao Yan suppressed her unease and shook her head. "It's nothing."

Then he turned and went into the tent.

Only then did Yang Sanlang dare to move his eyes, secretly relieved.

It’s good that it wasn’t discovered.

It was indeed him... who did something wrong.

……

The night passed peacefully.

Except for the younger Zhao Xiaomi and Yuan Tianbao, everyone else woke up grimacing.

After a busy day, a good night's sleep feels wonderful.

Breakfast consisted of sweet potato and wild vegetable porridge and some leftover wild vegetable and fried dough cakes.

After finishing the meal, they ate all the wild vegetable and fried dough sticks they had brought.

But the people were not panicked.

They had over a thousand kilograms of sweet potatoes and kudzu roots that hadn't been fully dug up, enough to last them until a month later.

After breakfast, Yang Sanlang took Zhao Yunchen to the hot spring valley to continue building the wooden house on the men's side.

Yuan Gang and Yuan Yutang took Zhao Yunjie and two other boys to dig up kudzu roots.

Zhao Yan entrusted her daughter to Chen Qingjiao and discussed making sweet potato chips with Tian Xiu'e.

"You mean, you want to turn all those sweet potatoes into dried sweet potatoes?"

Tian Xiu'e was quite surprised by this.

How do you make dried sweet potatoes? Are they tasty?

"Of course it's delicious."

Yesterday, Yuan Yutang, along with Yun Jie and the other kids, brought back all the sweet potatoes they had dug up.

Since there wasn't enough room on the wagons, they put most of it on tarpaulins, which are currently lying on the ground in the camp.

Zhao Yan glanced at the plump sweet potatoes on the oilcloth and said to Tian Xiu'e with a smile, "To make dried sweet potatoes, you need to peel them first and then steam them. However, our steamer is too small, so I need to make one first."

"As for water, there is a stream in the hot spring valley where you can fetch water."

With her mind on what to do next, Zhao Yan began assigning tasks to everyone.

"Sister Tian, ​​you peel the sweet potatoes first. Pick the big ones without wormholes and leave the small ones or the bad ones for us to eat."

"After you peel the sweet potato, cut it into strips, not too thick or too thin. Once I've prepared the steamer rack, we'll put it in the steamer to steam."

Tian Xiu'e readily agreed, "Okay."

Just do it.

Zhao Yan told her daughter and Jiao Jiao to stay in the camp, then picked up her machete and went to find the dead tree.

If you want to make a comb, bamboo is actually a better material.

However, Zhao Yan did not see any bamboo growing within a few miles, so she had no choice but to make a very rough wooden grate.

After a flurry of chopping and shaving, dozens of wooden strips were completed.

Zhao Yan tied the wooden strips of roughly the same thickness together with rattan, and after a short while, a square wooden grate was finished.

Looking at this oddly shaped comb, Zhao Yan burst out laughing.

"That's great, what are you laughing at?"

Tian Xiu'e took the comb from her hand and examined it from top to bottom.

The wooden strips fit together perfectly, without any gaps.

Although it doesn't look good, it's definitely practical.

Zhao Yan shook her head, offering no further explanation.

"It's nothing, it just doesn't look good."

Unexpectedly, this ambitious young woman from modern times found herself trapped in ancient times and forced to learn various skills.

She chuckled, not with any other meaning, but simply because she felt a mix of sadness and amusement.

While Zhao Yan was making the comb, Tian Xiu'e had already peeled a portion of the sweet potatoes and, according to Zhao Yan's request, cut them all into strips two or three centimeters thick, which she then placed in the slightly larger iron pot.

Zhao Yan poured water into the pot, and secretly sprinkled a handful of salt into it, stirring it well.

The purpose of doing this is to prevent the sweet potatoes from turning black during the drying process.

Because salt can remove the oxidase in sweet potatoes, they are less likely to discolor due to oxidation.

After soaking for about ten minutes, Zhao Yan placed another iron pot on the stone stove, added water, and put a newly made wooden grate on top.

Drain the salt-soaked sweet potato strips, place them one by one on a steamer rack, and start steaming.

When the sweet potato fries were about 70-80% cooked, Zhao Yan removed the firewood, took off the steamer rack, and set it aside to cool down.

While waiting, she used the remaining wood to work around and made a smaller wooden grate.

By doing the same method, when the next batch of sweet potato fries is cooked, the previous batch has already cooled down.

Zhao Yan placed the cooled sweet potato strips one by one on an oilcloth, and then moved them to the sun to dry.

She took the freshly put sweet potato strips out of the pot to cool them down, and then used another steamer rack to continue steaming them.

This process was repeated many times throughout the morning, and one-fifth of the sweet potatoes were consumed.

The sweet potato fries were placed on the open ground between the tents and would be taken away when they were about 70-80% dry.

Yuan Gang and the others dug up all the remaining kudzu roots and carried them back to the camp in baskets.

Yang Sanlang and Zhao Yunchen only managed to build one wooden house in the entire morning.

The house they built was large, a full nine square meters, one of which was equivalent to two of the lady's houses.

What made everyone even happier was that while Yang Sanlang was cutting down trees, he discovered several caves hidden by wild grass and thorns on the south side of the hot spring valley.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yan rushed to the scene to take a look.

There are a total of six caves of varying sizes in this mountain area. However, two of the entrances are so small that only children can pass through them; adults can forget about it.

The other apartments vary in size, but the smallest is about five or six square meters, which is enough for a family of three like Zhao Yan if they don't have high requirements.

Moreover, the cave is located on the south side of the valley, close to the hot spring.

Back in the sweet potato grove, Zhao Yan discussed with Yuan Yutang, "Uncle Yuan, let's move into the cave."

“Look, it will take some time to make sweet potato chips. Although there isn’t much kudzu root, I want to process all of it into kudzu root powder. All of this will take time.”

"We can't live in tents every day; it would be inconvenient if it rained."

Yuan Yutang felt that it was inappropriate for them to stay there for too long.

"How about we take everything with us and continue on our way?"

As we approach the end of summer and the beginning of autumn, the weather is gradually getting cooler.

They can't afford to waste any more time.

Zhao Yan's brows were tightly furrowed.

"There are too many sweet potatoes, the carriage simply can't hold them all, and we can't carry many on our backs either."

"Leaving at this point means sacrificing a part of the situation."

But this is all food; who would be willing to throw it away?

Tian Xiu'e said no.

“Uncle Yuan, let’s listen to Yan’er. Sweet potatoes don’t take up much space when they’re dried, and kudzu root powder takes up even less space. This way, we won’t waste food, and we won’t have to worry about food on the road. It’ll just take a little more time.”

"Once we've finished making the dried sweet potatoes and kudzu root powder, we can walk faster on the road and reduce our rest time. We'll definitely be able to reach the capital before it gets cold."