Infinite Disaster Survival

From Fengnan Village all the way east to the county town, the road is not short. Even if people on the road are greedy for pork, they dare not move when they see a machete on the ox cart.

It was not until he vaguely saw the low and dilapidated city wall of the county town that Yang the hunter put away the knife for self-defense.

Jinfeng County is not rich. The pedestrians coming and going are ragged. When they see Wen Zheng and his group driving the ox cart, they show a few envious expressions on their faces. When they notice the wild boar on the cart, they can't help but look at it a few more times.

The wild boar was already dying, and it was not easy for it to survive until now, so after entering the county town, they drove the ox cart to the nearest restaurant.

In the past, Yang the hunter sold the prey to the familiar store in the county town. When the clerk at the door saw them, he immediately took the people to the backyard, and the shopkeeper also came over quickly. Seeing that the wild boar was still alive, the clan leader stood by and said a few words to help the tongue-tied Yang the hunter, and finally gave them a fair price.

The shopkeeper handed over 18 taels of silver to Yang the Hunter, who immediately looked at Wen Zheng. Finally, Wen Zheng handed the silver to the clan leader for safekeeping. He borrowed some land to clean up the ox cart a little. The three of them discussed in a low voice and planned to act separately.

This wild boar should be slaughtered as soon as possible before it dies. Yang the Hunter was asked by the shop owner to stay and help, so that he could leave with some scraps later. Wen Zheng drove the ox cart and took the clan leader to find Wen Dianshi who worked in the county government.

Wen Zheng saw that Yang the Hunter had almost learned how to drive the ox cart on the way. He drove the cart slowly and smoothly. He had to be careful in the county town, and he could also take a look at the situation in the county town. Especially when he saw a shop with more customers, Wen Zheng would take a closer look. When he saw a crowded and noisy shop with a grain shop sign, he stopped the car on the side of the road.

Although he couldn't squeeze in, he could at least hear the noisy content of the crowd. After integrating the memories of his original body, Wen Zheng tried hard to distinguish the conversation with the local accent. Not only did he hear the content clearly, but the face of the clan leader sitting on the ox cart gradually became serious.

The villagers of Fengnan Village rarely go to the county town for nothing. It is too far and too tiring, so they don't know that the price of grain has been rising day by day in the past half month. The rice planted in the fields is about to be harvested. In previous years, the price of grain has not risen during the harvest season.

If Wen Zheng hadn't said that, the clan leader might not think much about it, but Wen Zheng was worried all the way, and he would think about where something happened.

There was no delay on the road. The clan leader sped up and went to the county government office, asking someone to call out his nephew who was the Dianshi. Wen Dianshi has worked in the county government office for many years and is not young anymore. When he saw his uncle, the clan leader, coming, he simply asked for leave and took them to his residence in the county.

Wen Zheng was younger than Wen Dianshi, so he should call him Second Master Wen. He did not miss the discomfort on Second Master Wen's face when he saw him. Except for the greeting when they first met, he did not take the initiative to talk to him afterwards, even though they were quite familiar with each other when they went to school in the county town.

There were many people on the road and he did not dare to say anything. When he arrived at Second Master Wen's house, the clan leader directly pulled people into the study. Wen Zheng followed behind and listened to the clan leader asking if there was any major event recently and why he did not inform the village about the recent increase in grain prices.

Master Wen did not change his expression when asked, and smiled: "Uncle heard about it when he first came here, nothing serious happened. Some time ago, there were heavy rains in Taiqing Prefecture next door, which washed away the Qingjiang Weir and flooded many places, which also affected the increase in grain prices here. Our county government received an order from above to collect some grain and send it to Taiqing Prefecture for emergency. I was busy every day and didn't have time to send someone back to the village to pass on the message."

The door knocked, Wen Zheng opened the door and took the tea made by Master Wen's aunt. Master Wen personally gave the family a cup of tea. The chief poured a cup of tea and continued, "Our village doesn't come to the county to buy grain. This year's new grain has not been harvested yet. Let the grain price continue to rise. When the new grain is harvested, it will be sold at a good price."

"Let me ask you, what is the disaster situation in Taiqing Prefecture? Has the heavy rain stopped so far? And the Qingjiang Weir, I remember it was built in less than three years. How heavy was the rain to wash it down?" The clan leader was so angry that he wanted to slam the table when he heard that he didn't take his words seriously. It seems that he has lived too comfortably in recent years and has lost his previous cleverness.

Only after asking did he know that the heavy rain in Taiqing Prefecture had not stopped. The terrain there is relatively low and prone to floods. In the past few years, the court spent a lot of money to build Qingjiang Weir in Taiqing Prefecture, but the officials in charge of the construction embezzled money and cut corners. Unfortunately, they encountered a heavy rain that was rare in a century. It was washed away by heavy rain in just over two years. I don't know how many places were broken up and displaced.

The news of the disaster in Taiqing Prefecture was sent out not long ago, and it is estimated that it has not yet been sent to the capital. They were able to get the news early because of the close distance. Yangning Prefecture, to which Jinfeng County belongs, is relatively high in terrain. Although it rains a lot, there are few floods. Therefore, even if the clan leader asked this question, Wen Erye did not think that they might suffer a disaster.

Until the clan leader pointed out his concerns.

Ancient people feared ghosts and gods but did not dare to talk about them casually. The clan leader did not bring out the story made up by Wen Zheng, but said that he had a bad premonition and asked his nephew to pay more attention to the news from Taiqing Prefecture in the county, and it would be better to prepare for the disaster year.

Seeing that his nephew did not take it to heart, the clan leader did not want to waste words with him. He was so anxious that he did not even feel like staying for dinner. He refused Wen Erye's repeated requests to stay, took the dry food prepared by his family, and left with Wen Zheng in a hurry.

After walking a short distance, Wen Zheng asked you about the recent price of salt, which was much more expensive than meat. However, because salt was government-run, the price did not increase with the price of grain. Wen Zheng took out five taels of silver from the pig money collected from the clan leader, bought a can of tightly packed edible salt, and carefully fixed it on the car.

When passing by the restaurant, he took Yang the hunter on the ox cart.

"I helped kill the wild boar. The shopkeeper not only gave me twenty cents for the work, but also gave me all the pig tube bones, and there was still a lot of meat on it. He asked me to send more game in the future." Yang the hunter got on the car with a large bundle of pig bones tied with wide leaves and straw ropes. He said excitedly, but did not get any response. He dared not speak now, and only took the rope from Wen Zheng and controlled the ox cart to return.

Some distance away from the county town, looking at the trees and weeds growing freely on the roadside, Wen Zheng pulled out Yang the hunter's knife and jumped off the car, cutting a lot of branches and grass leaves before returning to the car. Facing the puzzled eyes of Yang the Hunter and the village chief, he sat down with the materials in his hand and explained: "I dreamed of a useful trap that can be placed on the mountain to catch wild animals."

The clan leader was old and his eyesight was not very good, so he simply let Yang the Hunter concentrate on learning and drove the ox cart back himself.

After listening to what Wen Erye said, thinking that Qingjiangyan, which the court spent a lot of money on, was so vulnerable, he knew that the court had a lot of problems. Wen Zheng didn't dare to delay any more time, and even didn't want to spend time exploring Wen Erye's abnormal behavior. He had to hurry up to accumulate supplies.

Before returning to the village, the clan leader gave the money for selling wild boars to Wen Zheng and Yang the Hunter. Yang the Hunter wanted to refuse it. If it weren't for Wen Zheng, he would die under the wild boar's mouth. In the end, he accepted three taels of silver at Wen Zheng's insistence. The clan leader was unwilling to accept it, so he ran a trip and Wen Zheng got ten carts of silver, plus a jar of salt.

After returning to the village, Wen Zheng asked the clan leader to deal with the villagers' problems. Wen Zheng took out ten coins to ask the skilled aunt in the village to boil a few pots of broth with the pig tube bones brought back by Yang the hunter.

After explaining these, Wen Zheng and Yang the hunter took the traps they made on the road and couldn't wait to go up the mountain.

The two did not sleep all night. Wen Zheng drank the physical enhancer produced by the system store and exercised every day recently. Yang the hunter was nervous, scared and excited.

In the evening, he returned to the village to set up traps. At night, he took advantage of the moonlight to pick various wild vegetables and fruits on the mountain, as well as some plants that can be used as medicine. He didn't dare to go deep into the mountains at night, so he wandered around the periphery. When it was dawn, Yang the hunter heard the sound and looked into the trap. There were few empty traps, and most of them were caught.

There were wild birds, pheasants, hares, hedgehogs and so on. He released those who were too young. The harvest of this night was almost comparable to his harvest in half a month.

With the straw rope woven at night to tie up the prey, Yang the hunter went down the mountain excitedly, and the prey swept out the leaves and grass, making various noises.

Wen Zheng walked behind, and the slingshot polished at night occasionally shot out sharp stones. After a few breaths, the prey that was hit was caught by Wen Zheng and thrown into the portable space. There were many snakes that came out in the dark last night, but they were caught as prey before they could catch the prey.

As soon as I reached the foot of the mountain, my body, which lacked meat, was particularly sensitive to the smell of meat in the air, and my saliva immediately secreted. My steps couldn't help but speed up a lot, and my strength surged out again.

The meat tube bones that I asked several aunts in the village to cook yesterday, after a night of continuous cooking with firewood, the meat on them had already fallen into the soup, and it was almost melting into the soup. The doors of the houses where the meat soup was being boiled were crowded with young children from the village. They did not dare to cry or shout, but only squatted at the door to smell the aroma of the stewed meat. Some of them even drooled and wet their clothes.

"Yang the Hunter is back! Dashan is back!"

The children, who had not slept well because of the smell, were looking forward to it while smelling it. They jumped up and cheered when they saw the figure coming down the mountain. However, as soon as they stood up, their feet became numb after squatting for a long time. Before they could say a few words, they saw Yang the Hunter carrying a lot of prey. Their mouths opened in surprise and they did not intend to close them again.

Thanks to the harvest last night, the tribe leader did not need to call for help. The villagers automatically followed Wen Zheng and Yang the Hunter to the large open space in front of the tribe leader's house. Wen Zheng and the tribe leader said what they had discussed at this time.

The tribe leader knocked the ground hard with his cane to divert everyone's attention from the pile of prey. He tried to amplify his voice and told everyone about the situation in Taiqing Prefecture that he had heard in the county yesterday.

"...The heavy rain in Taiqing Prefecture has not stopped yet. If we encounter continuous heavy rain, this year's harvest will definitely be affected. The price of grain in the county town is rising day by day, and the prices of other things are also rising. When the residents of Taiqing Prefecture come to us, the price will definitely increase further."

Looking at the villagers who gradually quieted down, the clan leader drank a sip of water to moisten his throat and continued: "So, I discussed with several clan elders last night. While the fields are not busy recently, everyone should follow Yang the hunter to learn and find more food in the mountains. It will not be a loss whether it is used at home or sold outside."

Wen Zheng coughed lightly, and Yang the hunter quickly stood up and promised to teach the villagers his latest hunting trap. Today's harvest was caught with the trap together with Wen Zheng last night.

In fact, when Yang Hunter said this, he felt like his heart was bleeding. This was a skill for a living. If he had come up with it himself, he would never pass it on. But it happened that Wen Zheng had researched it and taught him first. Now that Wen Zheng wanted to teach it in his name, he taught it, but he admired Wen Zheng even more in his heart.

As soon as he finished speaking, the villagers began to discuss. In the past, few people dared to go up the mountain. First, the mountain was dangerous, and second, the hunters' skills would not be spread to others. Even those who went up the mountain would find it difficult to catch prey in the mountain, and they would not do so until the last moment.

But what the patriarch said made sense. The key was that Yang Hunter was really willing to teach his skills to others. They dared not even dream of such a good thing. After confirming with Yang Hunter again and again, they believed it a little and took the initiative to ask to learn it now.

"Not now." Yang Hunter shook his head.

Sure enough, it won't be that easy. The villagers sighed in their hearts and took over from Wen Zheng next to them. In order to thank them for helping Yang the hunter to move the wild boar yesterday and taking care of Wen Zheng during this period, they provided meat and money to make a few pots of broth to thank everyone. After everyone finished breakfast, they would teach everyone how to make traps.

It turned out that there was more than one good thing today. If it was really a dream, they would wake up after drinking the broth.

Every household went home to get their own bowls and chopsticks. Several buckets of broth were carried to the door of the clan leader. The villagers lined up to serve a bowl each. There was a little kid who couldn't wait to drink it and almost burned his mouth. He just opened his mouth to cry, but his mother coaxed him with broth to hold back his tears.

The floating foam when boiling the broth was poured out according to Wen Zheng's request, and some salt was added to it. It was a bit bland for Wen Zheng, but the villagers took a sip and couldn't bear to swallow it. Even the wild boar grain cakes made at home tasted much better with this broth. When the soup was almost finished, the meat foam at the bottom of the bowl was exposed, and it was even more delicious. Wen Zheng felt that the broth was much more delicious.

The pig leg bones were broken when they were in the restaurant, and the bone marrow inside was boiled out and blended into the soup. Several pots of broth were eaten cleanly by the villagers. After eating and drinking, it was time for class. Except for the elderly who were too old or the children who were too young, they were all left to learn how to make traps.

The materials were trees and grasses on the roadside, which were easy to find. A group of men went out and brought back a large bundle in a short time. In the dynasty they are now in, even the agricultural tools they rely on for survival have not been improved, and human wisdom has not been demonstrated.

The traps used before were too simple. Once Wen Zheng's trap was taken out, anyone who was not stupid would find the ingenuity in it. While wondering why they had never thought of doing it this way before, they hurried to learn and couldn't wait to try out the effect of the trap.

In half a day, they learned how to make two traps. It was almost time for lunch. The women in the village had to go back to cook and wash clothes, but the men took the newly made traps and planned to install them on the mountain first.