On the Difficulties of Escape in Ancient Times

Chapter 31 Mingzhou
  What Lin Xuan didn't dare to say was that pirates would occasionally visit Mingzhou, which was a devastated place and a hell on earth.

It's a pity that although Xiao Youfu has never been to Mingzhou, he has heard many businessmen talking about this in the casino.

Seeing that his two daughters were very curious, he couldn't help but say: "As the saying goes: merchants from Mingzhou, masters from Shaoxing, and green bandits from Taizhou are all famous."

"I heard that Mingzhou is not only famous for its merchants, but also for its rampant pirates."

When Xiao Lian heard this, she looked disappointed and had no interest in listening anymore. No matter how abundant, cheap and delicious the seafood in Mingzhou is, the prerequisite is that you have to live to enjoy it.

"Mingzhou?" Xiao Xiao also felt that the place name was very familiar. After chanting a few words, he suddenly realized that Mingzhou is also Ningbo.

No wonder it felt familiar to her.

Her hometown in her previous life was only three hours away from Ningbo. She liked to eat seafood and would go there several times a year and book a hotel to stay for a few days.

However, there is no highway now, so coming and going is not so convenient.

Mingzhou is indeed a good place, but she doesn't dare to live there.

If possible, she would like to settle in her hometown in her previous life.

Sometimes, she felt it was very fantasy. She was originally from Yuzhang, which would be Jiangxi in the future.

If it hadn't been for the war, I might not have had the chance to come to Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

It was as if she was destined to return to her homeland in the end.

Lin Xuan was a little embarrassed when Xiao Youfu revealed what he originally wanted to hide. Seeing Xiao Xiao's interest, he whispered: "Mingzhou is near the sea, and there are also merchant ships going to sea. We have specially set up a shipping department, which is quite profitable." It’s so rich that many merchants have made fortunes from it, so it has also attracted the covetousness of pirates.”

Randomly sighed again: "Now there are wars and chaos everywhere, and I don't know what the situation is like in my hometown."

After saying that, he was afraid that the Xiao family would be frightened by his words and retreat, so he pretended to be relaxed and said: "However, Jiangsu and Zhejiang are rich and have brave soldiers. The generals will definitely be able to keep the people under their direct jurisdiction safe."

Although Xiao Xiao and the others fled to Jiangsu and Zhejiang with their family, they had nowhere to go. They happened to meet the Wu family who came to Jiangsu and Zhejiang to seek refuge with their relatives, so they followed them.

Now that he had accidentally saved Lin Xuan, he had one more choice.

If the Wu family is unreliable, there is still the Lin family to rely on.

With the grace of saving their lives, I think the elders of the Lin family will help them settle down.

The main reason is that now, they are considered refugees, and some prefectures and counties are unwilling to accept them.

Unless money is used to clear the way.

Otherwise, the local government would settle them in relatively remote villages to reclaim wasteland.

Soon, Xiao Xiu followed Lin Xuan's instructions and found the grove.

Xiao Xiao did not forget to tie a few pieces of red cloth to a tall tree and let the red cloth flutter in the wind.

This was agreed before, Xiao Youfu or the Wu family would look for the red cloth when they saw it.

There were five carriages and mules parked in front of them. There were several women and wives setting up stoves and lighting fires. There were also more than a dozen men of different ages gathered to discuss things. When they saw them coming, they were wary at first, and then they saw the driver. The young woman didn't think so.

Among them was a fat middle-aged man who raised his chin and ordered them with an arrogant look: "You are not allowed to come over!"

Then he pointed to a place: "Go and rest over there!"

Xiao Xiu was worried about her father's injury and would not argue with them. She stopped the mule cart in the direction pointed by the man.

The big pot and most of the rice and noodles were in Xiao Yougui's car.

In their mule carts, they only had small iron pots, clay stoves, earthen pots, and the most important medicinal materials.

The Xiao sisters and the Lin sisters moved a few rocks together, built a simple stove, found some pine needles to start the fire, broke some dead branches, and quickly boiled water to brew medicine. Mrs. Liu saw that the white cloth binding the wound was stained with blood. When she untied it, she found that the wound was red, swollen and dripping with blood.

She endured her panic and fear, poured some more golden sore medicine to stop the bleeding, and then bandaged the wound with cotton cloth. Then she asked worriedly: "Does it hurt? If you keep patiently, the medicine will be gone soon."

It almost hurts the bones, how could it not hurt.

In fact, he almost cried from the pain.

But Xiao Youfu was afraid that she would worry, so he pretended to be strong and said: "It doesn't hurt very much. I have suffered injuries like this when I went to ask for debts and fought with others. It's just a minor injury. It will be fine in three or four days."

Fortunately, he was worried about uneven roads the day before yesterday, so he went out to buy some medicine. Unexpectedly, he would use it now.

Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Ms. Liu dug out the sweet-scented osmanthus cake and gave it to him: "You should eat something to cushion your stomach before taking the medicine."

On the other hand, some of the three Liu brothers who escaped together were injured in the panic.

They brought the golden sore medicine and some tonics. Now they saw Xiao Xiu boiling the medicine. They also saw that they only had a mule cart. The man who was a bit threatening was injured, and there were four young women and a little girl.

Boss Liu was secretly happy. He walked over with a proud look and threw two silver ingots in front of Xiao Xiu: "Take out all your medicine!"

When a person is free from illness and disaster, medicine is worthless.

But when a person is injured and becomes unstable in the future, medicine can save lives and is worth thousands of dollars.

Of course they don't want to give them the medicine.

Xiao Xiao smoothly pulled out the knife from under the carriage shaft, suddenly stepped forward and put it on his shoulder, with one smooth movement.

She snorted coldly: "If you want medicine, give me your life!"

It turned out that Boss Liu didn't even notice Xiao Xiao, who was wearing gray clothes. He didn't expect that the little girl would go under the knife at the slightest disagreement. He was so frightened that his legs were as soft as noodles and he almost sat down on the ground.

However, he turned his eyes to look at the shining knife on his shoulder and near his neck, and did not dare to move it at all.
  "Misunderstanding, misunderstanding, I just want to buy medicine," Mr. Liu was sweating profusely and begging for mercy with a sad face: "Girl, I was wrong. You have a lot, please forgive me?"

It's a pity that they used to open restaurants on the street. Even though they had money and acted a little arrogantly, they could still be considered good people. How could they have imagined that after finally escaping from the tiger's mouth, they encountered robbers again.

As soon as Xiao Xiao moved the knife, Xiao Xiu, Xiao Lian, and Lin Xuan also took out the knife from the carriage.

Even Lin Long held a pestle in his hand and stared at him warily.

He didn't know that the Lin Xuan sisters were just showmen, and he didn't know that the Xiao sisters didn't know how to use knives. He just watched them draw knives whenever they disagreed.

This is definitely not the behavior of a good citizen, it is definitely a bandit in disguise.

He thought wrongly, no wonder these women dared to walk outside in a big way.

Liu Laoer and the others were also shocked and hurried over to apologize and say good things.

In fact, Xiao Xiao was just trying to scare them. When he saw that they were afraid, he took back the knife and blew the knife loudly: "We don't offend the river, so don't disturb us and the others!"

"Yes, yes, we'll leave right away!" The Liu brothers are worthy of being born from the same mother, and they are all good at thinking.

Hearing Xiao Xiao's words, everyone thought they were waiting for their accomplices.

Thinking of this, they turned around and ran away, not even cleaning up the stove, and hurriedly drove away.

I was deeply afraid that if I left a little later, bandits would make dumplings for me.

Xiao Xiao was dumbfounded: "I'm not a tigress, why are they running away?"

Xiao Lian laughed heartily: "Don't tell me, you were really fierce like that before, like a mountain king who blocked the road and robbed you."

(End of this chapter)