Zheng Gangling took Li Rizhi with him, talked all the way, went out of the city gate, and went south.

Zheng Gangling was wearing civilian clothes, and Duan Baokang and Zhang Laoliu, who were responsible for protecting them in the back, were also wearing civilian clothes, and the carriage that was running Li had already left in advance, and the four of them just walked and stopped, as if they were out of the city and traveling.

Zheng Gangling pointed to the sky and said, "You see, the wind is beautiful today, and my uncle sent you to study, so do you know why we don't take the car, but walk?" Fifty miles away, it's not far, it's not close! ”

Li Rizhi thought for a while and said: "Uncle works hard every day, so I want to take this opportunity to come out for a walk, and by the way, see if there is a suitable village girl, you want to take it back as a maid, because Sister Azhu is gone, so uncle, you have to have a new maid ring!" ”

"Uh, why do you think so!" Zheng Gangling didn't expect to get such an answer!

Li Rizhi smiled and said: "I'm joking with my uncle, my uncle must want my nephew to have more experience, it's better to read thousands of books than to travel thousands of miles, my nephew is still young, so I will walk fifty miles first and see for a long time!" ”

Zheng Gangling smiled: "That's right, you kid, you made a joke about your uncle just now, it's too unusual!" ”

On the way from Xingyang County to Shangyang Academy, there are many villages, and after walking for more than ten miles, I passed through seven or eight villages, and when it was almost noon, I arrived at the side of a forest.

Duan Baokang followed from behind and said, "County Zun, this forest is quite big, half a mile wide, through the woods, there is a town behind it, we can have lunch there, so County Zun, do you want to take a rest before passing through this forest?" ”

Zheng Gangling lowered his head and asked, "Rizhi, are you tired, do you want to take a break?" There are a lot of mosquitoes in the woods, and there may be poisonous insects on the ground, so if you want to rest outside the forest, after entering the forest, walk along the path in one breath, what do you think? ”

Li Rizhi was young, he had walked more than ten miles, and he was already tired, and when he heard his uncle say this, he nodded again and again, indicating that he wanted to take a break.

The four of them sat on the edge of the forest, caught Zhang Laoliu and took out the water bladder, and asked Zheng Gangling and Li Rizhi to drink water to quench their thirst.

There is a path into the woods, not the kind of people who come and go, but the kind of sheep intestine path that is stepped out by the nearby villagers, because it is a random road, so there are several entrances, but after the path extends into the woods, it will converge into a small path.

The place where Li Rizhi and they walked happened to be an entrance, and at this time, a little boy, who looked a year or two younger than Li Rizhi, was walking towards them with a big bamboo basket behind him.

Seeing that there were people at the entrance, the little boy stopped, hesitated, and then slowly approached, lowered his head and passed by Li Rizhi and them, and entered the woods.

Li Rizhi looked at the little boy and saw that he was wearing coarse cloth clothes with patches and patches, thin straw sandals on his feet, and his pants were full of patches, and because they were too short, both of the little boy's ankles were exposed.

Although the little boy is not unkempt and neat, the skin on his face, the clothes on his body, and the behavior of wanting to hide when he encounters a rich man show that this is a child living at the bottom of society.

When the little boy entered the woods, Duan Baokang said: "This child should be from the Orion family, he is really poor, even poorer than the tenant farmers. ”

"If you don't have land, you don't have craftsmanship, what can you do if you don't get poor?" Zhang Laoliu said.

Neither of them had that sympathetic expression, but on the contrary, their tones were full of contempt for people like boys, as if it was a matter of course to see Orion being poor.

No matter which dynasty, there are rich and poor, and the Tang Dynasty is no exception, and the same is true of Xingyang. No matter how hard Zheng Gangling tries to govern, he can't make all the people live a prosperous life.

Some hunters have fields, but some have no fields, the days of hunters without fields are particularly sad, there are not many forests here in Xingyang, and there are no big animals, even if there were big prey, but they were soon wiped out, at most they were some pheasants and hares or something, and it was impossible to make a fortune by hunting these prey.

Duan Baokang suddenly smiled and said: "I'm afraid that kid is going into the woods with hope, seeing that he is going to check the condom like that, carrying such a big bamboo basket, is it possible that he still wants to lasso the head deer or something!" ”

Li Rizhiqi said: "Are there deer in this forest?" ”

Duan Baokang and Zhang Laoliu shook their heads together, and said: "This forest is too small to raise that kind of big prey, there are a lot of pheasants or something, especially that kind of grouse, which is delicious, if it is sold to the restaurant in the town, it can definitely be sold at a good price." ”

Zhang Lao Liu also said: "If it is the kind of pheasant with beautiful feathers, it is more valuable, and the more beautiful chicken feathers are more expensive than chicken!" ”

Zheng Gangling snorted, slowly stood up, and said, "Let's go, let's go into the forest, don't be scattered, if you disperse, then meet in the town in front of you, let's go!" ”

Li Rizhi also grabbed up, followed his uncle's side, and walked into this big forest.

They hadn't gone far before they heard a cheer from the depths of the woods, and the voice was childish, presumably the little boy they had just seen, who had caught some good prey.

Immediately afterwards, there was another cheer, again from the little boy, at very short intervals.

Even if he didn't see what the little boy caught, just listening to the excitement of the game, he knew that the prey he caught must be quite valuable.

After walking more than ten zhang, I heard someone coming from the woods, stepping on the dead leaves, making a loud sound, and in a moment, the little boy appeared in front of everyone.

I saw that the child was carrying a pheasant in each hand, these were two very beautiful pheasants, both male birds, with bright feathers, Zheng Gangling and others were knowledgeable, and they saw that these were the two best pheasants, and the long feathers on the tail could be sold by the root.

Li Rizhi looked at the two beautiful pheasants and said, "It's so beautiful, this is the most beautiful pheasant I've ever seen." ”

Duan Baokang agreed: "It's beautiful, if it is sold in the town, it will not be a problem for a pheasant to be sold for silver!" ”

Zhang Lao Liu also nodded and said: "Chicken feathers are more expensive than chicken, and rich people like such long feathers the most!" ”

They were only talking, and had no intention of buying pheasants, and certainly did not mean to stop the little boy, who saw them again, lowered his head again, dodged a few steps, and walked around the crowd.

The little boy ran away, and he seemed to be very shy and did not like to be in contact with strangers.

Duan Baokang added: "Look at the two pheasants are still alive, this little boy's ability to set traps and rope nooses should be good, and the harvest will be abundant, why are you still so poor?" ”

Li Ri knew: "There may be patients in the family, I have seen such a family, and taking medicine has eaten up all the family's property." ”

Zheng Gangling hummed and said, "You have been in the pharmacy for a long time, and sure enough, you don't leave your profession in three sentences!" ”

Li Rizhi smiled and said: "Fortunately, not the whole body is full of medicinal smell!" ”

Duan Baokang followed and joked: "I heard a joke about the medicine residue, which is about an old rich man who was old and had a lot of beautiful concubines in his family, and these beautiful concubines were all haggard......"

Li Rizhi shouted: "I heard this joke, in the end, that young man was skinny, but those beautiful concubines were all radiant, so that young man was called medicine scum!" ”

Zheng Gangling hadn't heard of it, and said strangely: "Why is it an old rich man and a young man, what's going on with this joke?" ”

Li Rizhi rushed to finish the joke, Zheng Gangling shook his head again and again, the child is not very old, how can he listen to such a joke, I don't know who told him, it is simply insulting!

Everyone talked and laughed, but it was not lonely, until they walked out of the woods, to the small town on the edge of the forest, the town was a little too small, there was no good food to buy, everyone dealt with it, and then walked forward, until the evening, there was a big town in front.

After walking for a day, although he had only walked more than 20 miles, Li Rizhi was young, but he couldn't stand it anymore, he said: "I'm too tired, uncle, let's get to the town, I want to take a bath, take a hot bath, and relieve the fatigue on my body!" ”

Zheng Gangling didn't feel how tired he was, he said: "It's only a long way, you are tired, we are walking very slowly, I want my uncle to travel the world back then......"

"Uncle, you have traveled all over the world, why haven't you heard my mother say it?" Li Rizhi asked in surprise.

Zheng Gang made the old man blush, and said: "Okay, I originally wanted to travel around the world, but I didn't travel around it, but at least I traveled around the thirty-seven states in the northwest, hey, what I want to talk about is not this, what I want to talk about is why you get tired so easily?" ”

"Because I'm young!" Li Rizhi said confidently, isn't this reason sufficient?

At this moment, there was the sound of footsteps from behind, and a little boy in rags, carrying a big bamboo basket on his back, ran past them quickly, and went straight to the big town in front of them, this little boy was the one they had seen in the morning!

Zheng Gangling pointed to the little boy in the past and said, "Look at people, you're not as old as you, you're still embarrassed to be tired!" ”

Li Rizhi looked at the back of the little boy, and was also quite dumbfounded, this physical strength is really enough, he was embarrassed to be tired again, and obediently watched Zheng Gangling enter the town.

Duan Baokang pointed to a small restaurant in the town and said: "The little one has been to this town before, and the crescent wonton of that family is a must, and it is better than that made in the big restaurant. ”

"Crescent ravioli? Okay, that's going to break the bank! Zheng Gangling said with a smile.

Everyone entered the small restaurant, and each person asked for a big bowl of crescent wontons, which were rolled into round dough with noodles, and then wrapped in various fillings in the round dough, cooked in water in a pot, fished out when eating, and put them in a small bowl one by one to eat.

This is a new way to eat wontons, because the appearance resembles a crescent moon, so it is called crescent wontons, which has just become popular in the Xingyang area, the taste is incomparably delicious, and it is deeply loved by the people.

Li Rizhi was eating a crescent moon wonton, when suddenly the little boy walked by outside the store, looking around, looking for someone who could buy his pheasant.

Li Rizhi thought to himself: "Hasn't his pheasant been sold yet, what about his family?" ”