Chapter 391: into the mountains
Pei Xiu took Xiao Jiu and the third child's basket and looked at it again, and digged it out with his hands. They all picked it up very seriously, and the third child's basket would have a little more wheat.
"Can you hold on in the afternoon?"
"It's okay, mother, we did it in the countryside a few years ago. It's easy to cut wheat. It's just that I haven't been on the ground for a few years, so I'm not used to it at first."
"What about Xiao Jiu and the county master? Don't force yourself."
"It's not in the way, Mrs. Zhou. We work as if we were playing, and we can still chat and laugh, but it's too hot, and our legs are numb after squatting for a long time."
Pei Xiu tidied up the small broken hair on her cheek for the county master, and instructed her and Xiao Jiu, "The sun is stronger in the afternoon. If you feel uncomfortable, go to the shade of a tree to rest for a while."
They nodded obediently.
After the guards ate the steamed buns soaked in the soup, Qingsong and Qingzhu put away the tableware and chopsticks and put them on the carriage, and Pei Xiu also got into the carriage and went back.
There is also a little grandfather at home waiting for her to comfort her. When I woke up this morning, I saw that my brothers were gone, so I kept looking for them, thinking about going out to play.
It was useless to talk about where the sun was shining brightly. In the end, Mrs. Li made a little rabbit out of dough for her, and then coaxed her to play in the main room.
Sister Li took her to make noodles again. There were a dozen or twenty people living in the yard. Today, because they were working in the fields, they had to prepare three meals. Although the dishes were simple, they couldn't hold up to many people, and the quantity needed to be large.
Pei Xiu had nothing to do in the afternoon, so she washed her hands and helped her face.
"Madam, I'll just do it. You can play with the girl."
"It doesn't matter, she's obedient now. I'm also idle when I'm idle. It can be faster if I help you together."
"Hey."
They steamed as they did it, with mung bean soup boiling in the pot, steamed buns on top, and needing to steam several cages. Prepare a little more, and you can still use it as a hot breakfast the next day, otherwise it will be too rushed to get up in the early morning.
In the future, she asked Qingsongqingzhu to send a few more buckets of the cold mung bean soup to the fields. In such a hot day, the work is fine, but there is no heat stroke.
When they came back in the evening, dragging their tired bodies, they were almost unable to straighten their waists, and lay directly on the table, with blisters from the tiger's mouth on Zhou Shan's right hand.
Pei Xiu looked at them as if they were fished out of the water, and gave them a few bowls of warm salt water, "You're exhausted, drink a bowl of this, don't get dehydrated in the sun."
"Bah, why is it salty, mother."
"You are sweating too much, and your body loses salt. You need to add light salt water."
I don't understand what light salt water is. It should be salt in the water, right?
Anyway, ask them to drink, then kill it.
After they all drank, Pei Xiu poured warm water for them to drink, "Go back to the house to take a bath first, the water is all boiled, then come out to eat dinner after washing, I'm exhausted today, eat early and go to bed early. ."
They responded weakly.
They were really tired today. They were earnestly harvesting the wheat and picking up the grains, and they were not lazy or slippery at all.
The three boys also cut almost one mu of land, but they were not tied up. The village chief helped to bind them.
After dinner, when they went back to the house and lay down, there was a slight snoring sound, which they usually do not snore.
Yesterday, I was still laughing and joking for more than an hour before I was willing to sleep. Today, I really don't have any extra energy. I can sleep immediately after touching my pillow.
When I woke up the next day, I was alive and kicking again, refreshed, but I felt a little sore in my lower back.
When Chen ran into the fields, the village chief greeted them with a smile, "Master Zhou, how are you today?"
"It's very good. After a sleep, my strength has recovered."
"Do you want to go down again?"
The village chief was looking forward to them working one more day, so that they could have the help of the guards, and they would receive a lot faster.
"Haha, no, we're going to go shopping on the mountain today."
"Then you have to be careful, there are wolves in this mountain."
"It doesn't matter, we have a lot of people with us. If we really meet, we can help you eliminate the wolves."
"That's daring!"
"Don't bother, you are busy, we have to run a few more laps."
The old third said as he ran: "The village chief is interested in our free labor."
"Of course, who doesn't like laborers who don't need money, get the food at home early and feel at ease. Not to mention that there are so many guards helping to do it together."
When they returned to the yard after the lap, they found that Xiao Jiu had gotten up so early, which was a great surprise.
The third child asked, "Why don't you sleep more and get up so early?"
"I also want to exercise with you guys in the morning." Xiao Jiu said with a shy smile.
The youngest patted his shoulder gigglingly, "Then you should start with squatting. We must be steady when practicing martial arts. We will squat every day when we don't have space in the house. We have only run in the morning on Zhuangzi for the past two days. , it's over now, if you want to run, we'll call you early tomorrow."
He nodded, found an open space, and squatted with open legs.
The third child stepped forward to correct his posture, "Well, that's it, you have to hold on longer."
The boss touched his chin, "It is estimated that he will have to fall in a quarter of an hour at most."
Second child: "We were the same back then. Well, the sun has risen, hurry up and practice the stick technique."
Seeing that there was one more person in the yard today, Pei Xiu smiled and gave Xiao Jiu an encouraging look, then went to the kitchen to see if breakfast was ready.
These children are restless, and they have to run into the mountains after eating. That's fine, just cook another meal at night. With so many people, it's not easy to prepare a meal.
"Auntie, I'll leave my guards for you to send. The twenty guards of the county master can follow us up the mountain." Zhou Shan was worried that Pei Xiu and the others would stay in the village, all the old and the weak.
"Alright, so be careful."
Excitedly, they put on their steamed buns, carried bows and arrows, and carried their own knives, and set off.
There is a road next to the farm to enter the mountain.
The guards flanked them around, and there were people in front of them exploring the way, which made the Zhou brothers a little uncomfortable.
Whoever went into the mountains to hunt and hugged, the boss frowned and looked at Zhou Shan, Zhou Shan spread his hands, this is not his guard.
They want to protect the county master, she is golden branches and jade leaves, and there is no room for loss.
The three brothers had no choice but to give up, so let's go all the way.
The road near the foot of the mountain is very easy to walk. It should be that the villagers often chop wood from the mountain on this road. There are many people walking, and it becomes a road.
After entering the mountain, the trees are shady, and the wind blows so cool, not hot at all.
Xiao Jiu has never been in the mountains when he is so old. Yanyun Prefecture is an endless grassland with few mountains and forests. He has only seen it, but has never entered it.
He looked around, "It's really cool in this mountain, can we come again tomorrow?"
The boss said amusingly: "Today has not passed, and I don't know if there is any prey on this mountain, so you are thinking about tomorrow."
"We've always had good luck, and we'll definitely be rewarded." The third child vowed.
"It's a pity that I'm going back to the palace tomorrow, so I can't stay here any longer." Princess Xuexi was extremely regretful, why didn't he fight for two more days at that time.
"It doesn't matter, I'll come again next time. Anyway, Zhuangzi is here and can't escape."
"Ah, there's a rabbit..."
The excited voice of Princess Xuexi startled the rabbit, and it immediately began to flee.
The three brothers and the four Zhou Shan reacted quickly to catch up, drawing bows and arrows while chasing, but none of them hit.
They are not discouraged, they have just entered the mountain, and they have a lot of time.
A group of people ran after the rabbit, but it disappeared into the grass.
They had to admit to being lost.
"Ah, it's a pity that it ran away." Princess Xuexi stomped her feet depressedly, "I saw it running here, why did it disappear in a blink of an eye?"
"Is there a rabbit den nearby, and it has escaped into the old nest?"
"It's possible, the three caves of the cunning rabbit, let's look carefully."
A group of people were turning around, when a guard said, "In the grass below..."
They hurried over and saw the rabbit jumping and jumping, and the second child was closer, and took the lead to shoot an arrow, but the shot missed, and the startled rabbit began to flee again.
A new round of chasing started again, but their archery skills were average, and they couldn't hit the prey while it was running.
In the end, the rabbit paused, and the boss took the opportunity and shot it in the foot with an arrow.
"Wow, shot."
Everyone spoke in unison, and hurried forward excitedly, Princess Xuexi picked up the rabbit and kept stroking it happily, "This one is different from the one just now."
The boss also touched it happily, "Well, it's not the same one, it was just off-white just now, this is just pure white, it looks better."
"Let's have roasted rabbit meat for lunch, it's been a long time since I've eaten game." The third child pouted, nostalgic how his mother made rabbit meat for them every few years when he was in the countryside a few years ago.
"This one is so beautiful and cute, do you want to eat it?" Princess Xuexi said with a bit of reluctance while holding the rabbit.
"If you don't eat it, are you still going to keep it?"
She looked at the boss, "Can't you?"
The boss hesitated and agreed. Who let her be the county owner, "Okay, if you want to raise it, then I'll raise it for you. We'll hunt another roast later."
Others don't matter, it's just a rabbit, just hunt it.
She hugged the rabbit happily and nodded, then handed it to Caiwei to hold, and continued to follow them inside.
This time, after walking for a long time, there was no movement, and nothing happened, as if all the good luck just now was used up.
"What kind of fruit is that, it looks like a green apple?" Xiao Jiu pointed at the fruit tree under the hillside strangely.
They looked in the direction of his fingers, and they really were.
If Pei Xiu was present, he would definitely recognize that this was Green Apple.
"Let's go over and see, there is no prey, it's good to have wild fruit picking." The boss ran down first.
They turned around the tree.
"It's all over the floor, it should be cooked, right?"
"Will it be poisonous?"
"Safety comes first, the origin of this is unknown, let's not touch unfamiliar things, shall we?" Princess Xuexi said hesitantly.
"Try it with a silver hairpin to know if it's poisonous?" Zhou Shan looked at the hair accessories on Caiwei's head and said to her, "Can I borrow it?"
Caiwei nodded, took down the hairpin and handed it to him.
The head guard was worried that the trees would also be poisonous, so he stopped the boss from climbing the tree. He took the silver hairpin and tried it first, and let him climb only when there was no problem. Be careful.
The boss wrapped his hands in a handkerchief, picked a large green apple and handed it to Zhou Shan, asking him to try it with a silver hairpin.
Zhou Shan also carefully placed the handkerchief on his hand before taking the green apple. He inserted the silver hairpin in and pulled it out, and said happily, "It's non-toxic and has a faint fruity fragrance."
"Then let's take it back." The third child was so happy that he climbed up the tree.
"Is it safer to try it?" Caiwei also does not support picking this unfamiliar fruit. Who knows if there will be poisons that silver needles can't test.
They also thought it was reasonable, and looked at the rabbit in her arms, with the idea of ??letting the rabbit try it, it was a livestock anyway.
Princess Xuexi was a little reluctant, but she still agreed. She also wanted to climb up to pick fruit, but she had not climbed a tree yet.
He took a small piece of the fruit with a knife and handed it to the rabbit's mouth. It sniffed the smell, and after one bite, it didn't want to eat anymore, and Zhou Shan didn't force it.
"Let's make a mark on the **** first, and then pick it up when we come back. It's too heavy to pick it and put it in the back basket. And the rabbit's reaction will have to wait for a while to observe."
This statement was approved by everyone and passed unanimously.
"Do we have to make marks all the way? What if we come back and get lost?"
He thought that they had just chased the rabbit and ran all the way, and had long since deviated from the mountain road that the villagers had come out of. This is the first time they have entered this mountain today, so don't get lost and trapped in the mountain.
Others became worried when they heard it, and the head guard said, "Please, the princess, young masters, rest assured, we have made a mark along the way, so we won't get lost."
"That's fine, you're fine."
Everyone was relieved now, and the group walked in happily again.
After walking for a while, they saw a small river ahead, and the captain of the guard silenced them.
Remind them that where there is a river, there may be animals coming out to drink water, so that they walk slowly, don't make a sound, and take a closer look.
When they heard it, they were excited, and finally they had another prey. They crept close, looking at the empty river, so disappointed!
"Walking up the river to have a look~ Maybe they were lucky, they just walked for a short distance, and they saw a group of sika deer drinking water, and they looked at them with glowing eyes.
Afraid that these deer would be scared away, the boss asked the guards to ambush around, and joined the roundup together, but they had to wait for their arrows to shoot out before shooting.
The guards were eager to try. They had itchy hands since they saw the rabbit. Unfortunately, they didn't bring bows and arrows. Now they can come in handy.
The three brothers and Zhou Shan held their breaths, drew their bows and arrows, and made a gesture when the guards went to ambush around. The deer had finished drinking and were about to leave.
"put!"
As soon as the boss's voice fell, four arrows flew out, and they all hit the target they aimed at!
Running prey is not easy to hunt, can they still fail to shoot when they are stationary? Practice day after day for several years is not in vain.
The sika deer scurried around in shock, and the guards also jumped out with knives from all around at this time. They were all good players in the army.