Li Shi suddenly heard the news, the whole person was stupid, it was obviously a sunny noon, and his brain was in a trance, and he only felt that the sun was dizzy, his eyes were dazzled, and his ears seemed to be buzzing with thousands of bees, and the voices of Zhou and Xu in front of him could not be heard really, and their smiling faces were blurred.

Chen Xuejiao held the letter, her round face was smiling, her eyes were full of tears, she pinched the letter in her hand and turned her head to Xue Ru and said, "Sister, since this letter was written by my father, my father is safe and sound." ”

The news was like thunder, and the Li family was stunned and stood up strongly. Only she knew the torment of the past few days, and the strength she had built up was drained in an instant.

"It's a good thing, it's a good thing, your man is fine." Xu wiped his tears and pushed Lee.

Li pulled his mouth, the smile did not squeeze out, but he shed tears, the whole person couldn't stand and was about to fall down with his hands on the door frame, and shouted hoarsely: "Quick, quick, quickly read that faith!" ”

Chen Xiucai earned thirty taels of silver by selling tea, and went to Yuhang to sell silk after the Qingming Festival. This year, Yuhang silkworms are good, mainly because the rainy days are later than in previous years. In previous years, the rainy weather always had to die half of the silkworm seeds, this year all came to life, one by one the silkworm babies raised fat and snow-white, spit out the silk smooth and even, the silk roots out of the silk are white and smooth, and the silk woven out is better than in previous years. Chen Xiucai didn't compare with the big head, and chose the retail investors who the big head didn't look down on. One by one, a lot of them were collected. Don't look at the retail households, but the silk that comes out of the retail households is more than the real light and flowers, no more than the single-door silk workshop, those embroiderers took the money to weave machinery, as long as there is no mistake, the girls of the retail households have nothing to do and rely on silk to subsidize the family. The effort spent is naturally varied and of good quality, and such a batch of silk can be at least five times more in the north.

Merchants from Xuzhou Prefecture and Shandong come to Yuhang every spring to sell silk, especially this year. At first, it was one boat, but later there were more and more merchants, and each person simply gathered two large boats, intending to go to the north through the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.

Chen Xiucai has been running outside for three months, and he is no longer a scholar. This road is used to boatmen, and many of the shopkeepers on the ship are sharing boats with people, and some of them are full of net worth. In the summer, Jiangnan was already hot, and dozens of people were crowded in the cabin, and the heat couldn't stand it. Chen Xiucai learned from those vendors to be shirtless, and occasionally said a few foul words. I can't see the appearance of the former Mr. of the village private school at all.

The weather in the south of the Yangtze River is uncertain, and the rainy season before and after Qingming is postponed to the beginning of summer. Silk and tea can not stand the moisture, the silk after the tide is yellow and wrinkled, and the purchase price of one or two silver. It's good to be able to sell for 500 wen. The cabin was set up to store silk through the board, and people could only hunch their bodies when they entered, otherwise they would bump into the two big bags when they looked up.

Chen Xiucai guarded his two baskets of silk day and night, and did not dare to leave for a moment. The bedding was full of moisture, and the body was full of red bumps and itching when I slept on it. The windows were not open, and it was even more stuffy in the cabin. The window flowers opened, and a layer of foggy water vapor spread outside, and I was afraid of being touched by silk. Chen Xiucai found a clean place on the deck, picked up the broom on the cabin and swept it, laid out his thick clothes, and spread the silk on the clothes to dry.

It was also a long time before he realized that a merchant like him did not have much in the entire cabin, and his idea was less than a fraction of that of others, who would take it seriously.

There was no food in the lower cabin, and Chen Xiucai had no silver on him, so he shrank in the cabin all day long to pass the time, except for drying silk. He ate with the sailors every day, and for a penny a day, he ate brown rice mixed with pickles. Chen Xiucai spoke gently, and was polite and courteous to everyone, and those sailors had a good impression of him, and when they saw him eat these inferior meals every day, they knew that he was not rich enough, and when he came to eat again, they would spare him a bowl of soup, and the pig's head meat and wine dishes that got off the boat would also ask him to come and eat together.

He was not used to eating rice, and he carried steamed buns on his body, because he was afraid of getting rancid because of the heat, so he simply borrowed the stove on the ship, cut it into slices, coated it with salt and fried it in oil. When the boat docked on the shore, I went to the market to buy small fish and pig skin at a cheap price, and I also used oil, stacked them in a jar, and sandwiched them with steamed buns every day.

There was a familiar sailor, seeing that he was carrying two boxes of silk, but he did not think that he had little capital, and invited him to eat the roasted pig's head meat and said: "Who on this ship is not a family with one basket or two baskets, regardless of what others say, live in a low-class warehouse, and eat hardships to become a master, and you are literate and literate, and there will always be a prosperous day." ”

After a month's journey to the north, Chen Xiucai gradually became familiar with the people on the boat, and those big heads all suffered from it, and they learned a lot of business experience from them. Multiple friends and multiple roads, these people run all over the world, and there is nothing new they don't know. Chen Xiucai picks on himself, but he is willing to spend money on other merchants, he doesn't have much money, but every time he goes to the dock, he will take out the little silver left to buy wine and meat, once or twice, but also handed over a few acquaintances.

The first five days were very smooth, and when I arrived at the mouth of the Qiantang River, there was heavy fog on the river. Everyone has rich experience in boating, and they know that there is fog when there is a lot of plum rain in the south of the Yangtze River, and it is not the same thing. The boat walked through a narrow place, stuck on the cliff and sailed out slowly, from early morning to dusk walked for nearly a day and did not sail to the port, it is taboo to sail in the dark, the stars and moon in the sky were covered by clouds and mist, and the surrounding water was boundless, and it was impossible to see clearly. The boss of the ship frowned, such a day naturally could not be forced to move forward, after getting off anchor, he first anchored against the shallows for a night, and then went to the port at dawn.

Because of the heavy humidity, Chen Xiucai had a rash on his body and couldn't sleep because of itching. The wind outside blew the branches and crackled the windows, the cabin was stuffy and uncomfortable, the hot day, the people in the warehouse had not taken a bath for a long time, and the men in the room slept in one place with smelly feet and sore sweat, not to mention how bad the smell was. Chen Xiucai rolled over and got up, cautiously passed someone else's bed, walked to the deck and sat down against the railing.

In the past few days, he has been a little homesick, and he doesn't know what the situation is like at home or how his four children are. He took out the cloth bag containing silver that Li had sewn for him before leaving, and thought that he had earned more than a hundred taels of silver after this trip, so he went home and came out in the future.

Chen Xiucai sat on the deck for half an hour, and was blown by the river breeze, and his body was a lot more comfortable, and even the rash on his body was not itchy.

At this time, a thunder exploded, and then lightning crossed the sky, seeing that a heavy rain was coming, Chen Xiucai was afraid that his clothes would be soaked through by the heavy rain, so he hurriedly turned around and entered the warehouse.

He was about to enter the cabin, when he felt the deck sway slightly, and a sound came, followed by a rope thrown up.

With a flash of lightning, Chen Xiucai saw that there were several people lying on the side of the ship, the iron hooks in their hands glowed with cold light, the iron hooks on the top tightly fastened the railing, and the people below tied the ropes around their waists, and then put down the ropes and pulled the other one up.

The boss of the ship had already fallen asleep, and at this time the cabin was full of sleeping vendors, and Chen Xiucai wanted to return to the cabin to wake everyone up. How can a group of more than a dozen bandits, carrying a big knife, and the iron pass guarded by each hatch is also like. He had to look at the railing, climbed the ladder and jumped down, and at this time he couldn't care about the two baskets, and he didn't dare to come out of the side of the boat. Those people were hungry wolves begging for a living on the water, and with bright knives, they entered the hatch one by one, stabbed one by one, and were killed in their sleep.

Chen Xiucai broke out in a cold sweat and slid down on the railing. Slipped into the water and swam ashore, fortunately he knew the nature of water, and when he was a child, he learned to swim in the Xiaohuai River in front of the door, otherwise he would be drowned in the water if he was not killed by the water bandits.

He stabbed two fierce men, got out of the water, and hid in the shade of a tree along the way. From a distance, I saw that the torches were lit in the cabin, and I thought that the bandits had killed people, and they were counting the cargo. He was afraid that the water bandits would get off the boat to check on the living people, so he scooped up a handful of aquatic plants from the water and covered his body, and the fishy smell drilled his nose, and choked tears came out.

In the haze, the boat gradually walked away, only to see the corpses being thrown into the water one by one, Chen Xiucai's frightened hands and feet were weak, if he hadn't come out to breathe the wind, he was afraid that he would also be the soul on the river at this time.

The sky was overcast, thunder exploded overhead, and then torrential rain followed. Chen Xiucai's sweat and rain were mixed together, his clothes were soaked and stuck to his body, it was originally a hot day, but the wounds on his body were cracked after a soak in the river, and he was chilled by the rain.

This place is backed by mountains and rivers, if you want to go out, it is difficult to get out, the slippery mountain cliffs, even a fly can't fly over, let alone people.

The rain fell until midnight, Chen Xiucai gritted his teeth and insisted on turning white in the east, he was cold and hungry, he wanted to touch two fish to eat, but he was weak and couldn't take a step.

Fortunately, it rained, the sky was clear, and the sun dried up, and the clothes were dry, but the fever on the body could not go away. Chen Xiucai hid in the shade of a tree, he was not afraid that the water bandits would come to take his life at this time, but he was afraid that he would not know what fierce beasts would emerge from the mountains, and no one would know if he ate him.

After three days in a row, all the leaves around him were eaten, and the ship did not pass by.

Just as he sighed that his life should have come to this, he suddenly saw the shadow of a ship in front of him. Chen Xiucai took off his clothes, waved and shouted at the boat, and the people on the boat saw it, stopped the boat and shouted inside: "Qianhu, this eighty percent is a water bandit." ”