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Huli Village is a remote mountain village located in the mountains of Shonan.

It was so poor and small that almost no one knew about the small village. In the rolling mountains, dozens of acres of barren paddy fields with few harvests, a few dilapidated farmhouses, more than a dozen broken households, and a pile of ...... The pile of mass graves is all there is to this village.

For the people of the village, in order to make ends meet, they can do any kind of work, no matter how heavy it is, as long as they can make ends meet. However, the people in the village, every winter, often go to Guangdong to pick salt, although the money is not much, but in the winter leisure time, if you pick a few times of salt, at least this year can be passed.

Picking salt is thousands of miles!

But for many, they don't have a choice!

Lying in the ruined temple on the side of the road, Deng Mingzhao once again put his body close to the fire to make his body warmer, and the cold wind in the mountains poured in from time to time through the wide open door and broken wall.

At this time, Deng Mingzhao seemed to be able to feel his father's hard work back then!

Looking at the fire, he seemed to be able to see that the shrewd and capable mother was holding her shoes there under the oil lamp, and the two children Mingli and Mingquan were lying next to their mother and sleeping soundly.

Thinking of his family, Deng Mingzhao's heart swelled with some comfort, and the swollen legs didn't seem to be swollen anymore. In order not to let my mother go back and forth about tomorrow's rations, the day after tomorrow's rations, this month's rations, whether the next month's rations are in place, whether they can ensure food and clothing, how sure they are, and so on. Like the rest of the village, he picked up a pick, and went to Canton to pick up salt with dry food.

Nowadays, this salt is more expensive than in the past, and the natural benefits are even greater.

"A pound of salt is one hundred and seventy wen, and one hundred catties is ten taels of silver. If you pick up a dozen catties more, you can give out a tael of silver......"

Silently calculating this account in his heart, Deng Mingzhao's heart is hot, if this is the case, his mother will no longer have to worry about her livelihood. After the death of his father, there were only a few thin fields and two old houses left in the family. It was from then on that he realized what life was when he didn't know what the world was all about.

That is, since then, as the eldest son, Deng Mingzhao left his private acquaintance, and after his father left, he could no longer afford the annual bundle repair, although it was a pity, but he had to do it, he had to support the family, from then on, he took off his long shirt and worked in the fields like everyone else, working hard just to make the family have a full meal.

Even so, in the days when the harvest is scarce, the family can only rely on sweet potatoes in the dry land to satisfy their hunger. Life has no source at all. In order to survive, he tried everything he could, and now he picked salt with the people in the village, and it was only after his hard work that his mother agreed.

After all, this salt picking is all the way to a thousand miles, and no one knows what accidents will happen.

"If you can pick it again before the year, then you will be able to leave more than 20 taels of silver, and you won't have to worry about it again next year, maybe you can let Mingli and Mingquan go to study in private ......"

Thinking in his heart, he rolled over, perhaps because he was too tired, and soon fell asleep. The next day, before dawn, with the shouting of Uncle Suozi in the same village, Deng Mingzhao in the broken temple, like everyone else, quickly woke up, ate dry food and continued to hurry.

For the next few days, they slept in the open, eating the dry food they had picked in their picks when they were hungry, and drinking the cold mountain spring water. All the way to the salt works of Guangzhou Prefecture.

After walking for almost half a month, a group of people finally came to the salt field, the salt field is located by the sea, in addition to the same rags stove people, there are many poor people who pick salt from all over the world like them, because the "salt law" example allows "poor soldiers and civilians, carry the private salt on their shoulders, easy to live", although many people take the opportunity to sell smuggling, but there are indeed many poor people who make a living from this, which is also a "moral policy".

When they arrived at the salt farm, according to the rules, before picking salt, everyone had to eat a good meal, so Deng Mingzhao and the people of the same village went to the rice stall by the salt field to eat a good meal - in fact, it was a bowl of rice with a few slices of meat. Just as they were ordering the meat rice, there was a sudden sound of scattered footsteps, and a large group of people. Straight to this food stall.

"Come on, one bowl of rice per person, one bowl of meat on one table!"

The leader shouted as he walked.

This group of people wore green cloth horse coats, black cotton trousers, hats, and short knives, hand plugs, iron rulers, daggers, and other guys pinned to the wide belt around their waists.

Because of the remoteness of southern Hunan and the distribution of Huai salt, the price of salt is extremely high, and the sale of illicit salt is naturally very profitable. As a result, a group of outlaws have been selling salt in groups to southern Hunan all year round. These salt lords are extremely fierce, and often draw their swords against each other when they don't say a word, and even the government has nothing to do with them.

Of course, more importantly, they have already set up the government.

After this group of salt lords entered the store, they put several tables together in the middle, sat down randomly, asked for fifteen or sixteen bowls of braised pork, took out a few jars of spirits they had brought, indulged in wine and meat, and feasted on it. A few more people took out pai gow and dice, drank five and six, and gambled. There was no quiet in the straw huts on the side of the road, and there was no noise and a miasma of black smoke.

Looking at these salt lords, the lock frowned and whispered to Deng Mingzhao:

"Hurry up, hurry up, let's go."

Although his words were not loud, the salt lord who was drinking next to him listened to his words, and suddenly became interested and shouted.

"You're from Hunan?"

"Uh-huh, yes, master!"

Although he knew that these people were not easy to deal with, the lock still nodded in response.

"Then why didn't you cut your braids, didn't you hear that they were cut in Hunan?"

"The city, the city is cut, and there is no one in the ravine......"

"Oh!"

Although Uncle Suozi didn't notice it, Deng Mingzhao still felt that when the salt lord responded, a look flashed in his eyes. But before he could figure it out, he listened to the man.

"Shopkeeper, bring them a bowl of meat from this table!"

"This, how can this be done?"

Without waiting for Uncle Suozi to refuse, the salt lord said with a smile.

"It's not easy to meet people from my hometown in this place now, so this bowl of meat should be a friendship!"

The salt owl blurted out a mouth full of Hunan dialect, a large bowl of fragrant meat was brought over from the salt owl table by the shopkeeper, although half of it was eaten, but there were still more than a dozen pieces left, until Uncle Suozi and everyone thanked the salt owl, the big guy ate one by one.

After eating the meat and the rice in the bowl, Uncle Suo Zi specially led everyone to thank the fellow before leaving, and then left.

"I never thought that I could meet such a person here......"

"It's not, this is going out, you still have to rely on your fellow countrymen!"

Just when everyone said a word, they had the feeling of going out to touch a nobleman, but Deng Mingzhao only felt dizzy, and the person next to him was the same as him, shouting in his mouth.

"What's wrong, why is my head dizzy......"

Before he finished speaking, the person fell, and when Deng Mingzhao fell, he was dizzy and sore, and he only heard a voice behind him.

"Hey, this anesthetic is quite smart, more than a dozen people, all of a sudden!"

It was the salt lord who had given them meat earlier.

"Hurry up, be quick, get all these people on board, it's all silver!"

In a daze, Deng Mingzhao felt that he had been lifted up, but his heart was full of doubts, after all, everyone who came to pick salt to live was poor, and what was this person trying to numb them.

What's the picture?

When the hull of the ship was jolting with the waves, Deng Mingzhao finally understood what those salt owls were trying to figure out - they were people!

They were sold by the salt lords!

Sold to the pig house! According to others, each of them is worth dozens of taels of silver.

And this is the reason why the salt lord kidnapped them, the reason why the salt lord kidnapped them, these outsiders, is precisely because they have no relatives in Guangzhou, even if they die, no one will ask about their whereabouts, even if their family knows, what can they do? Can we still go to Guangzhou to find them?

Thinking of his family, thinking of his mother and two young brothers, Deng Mingzhao's heart ached, and now that he was sold to foreign countries by the salt lord, what should his mother and younger brothers do?

"Eight years!"

With such a mouth, Deng Mingzhao even had the heart to die, he didn't know what those foreigners said, but looking at the handprint on the contract that he didn't know when, it was a deed of sale. According to the agreement on the deed of sale, he would not be able to return home until he had worked for eight years. He didn't know if he could make it to the ocean alive.

Standing in the stuffy cabin, Deng Mingzhao, who had chapped lips, looked at the lacquered cabin, no one is crying anymore, it seems that everyone has accepted their fate, and it is also said that now this foreign ship is floating on the sea, what can I do if I don't accept my fate? Isn't it possible to jump into the sea?

Jumping into the sea is only a dead end.

"Eight years, eight years, just get through it, just get through it......"

Talking like this, as if to cheer himself up, Deng Mingzhao said to himself over and over again, but deep in his heart, there was endless regret and resentment, he regretted why he didn't listen to his mother, hated that he had too little knowledge, why did he have to eat that piece of meat, if it wasn't for that, how could he be sold as a piglet?

Even, he hated the salt in his heart, if it weren't for the high price of salt in Hunan, if it wasn't for earning the ten or twenty taels of silver, how could he have traveled thousands of miles to pick salt...... (To be continued.) )