"Hey, there's someone over there!" When Xiao Jiu was gobbling up wild vegetable dumplings, Cui Er suddenly found that on the mountain beam facing them, several people were rushing towards them quickly.

"Oh no, second brother, let's run, these people must be trying to rob us of our things!" When Xiao Jiu looked up and saw those people, he was also startled, especially when he saw that the other party seemed to be holding a weapon in his hand, he immediately stuffed the wild vegetable dumplings in his hand into his mouth at once, and then jumped up and ran away with the basket.

Cui Er's reaction was not slow, he jumped up and ran, now most of the people in Jincheng are starving, some people have crooked thoughts, they naturally dare not do it in the city, but there is nothing to care about outside the city, there are often people who go out to look for food are robbed, and sometimes people are killed because of a little food.

Cui Er and Xiao Jiu fled, and the people behind naturally refused to let them go, shouting for them to stop, while also desperately starting to chase, but Xiao Jiu was very familiar with the terrain of this mountainous area, and after taking Cui Er to drill a few ravines one after another, he finally threw the people behind him.

"Huhu~, total ...... Finally got rid of it, two...... Second brother, let's take a break, raise enough strength and go back, so as not to run into those bastards again. Xiao Jiu panted and said, he was tired after working for most of the day, but now he ran for so long without his life, and he almost didn't tire him to death.

Cui Er also gasped and nodded, the two found a place to sit down again, looked at the things in the basket again, and found that there were no fewer fish, but the rhizomes dug up were scattered on the road, which naturally caused the two of them to curse. Finally, I waited until my strength was almost restored. The two of them cautiously walked out of the mountain until they found that no one was paying attention to them. The two of them rushed back to the city.

After returning home, when Cui Er took out a few fish from the bottom of the basket. Immediately, several children cheered loudly, and as for his wife and sister-in-law, they also showed excitement, after all, in this famine, it is really a luxury to be able to drink a few sips of fish soup.

At that moment, Cui's second daughter-in-law and concubine began to clean up the fish, and then cut it into pieces and boiled it in a pot, and also cut off a lot of rhizomes, but unfortunately the seasonings such as salt and oil at home have long been gone, fortunately, they used to open a restaurant. There are a lot of pickles stored at home, and pouring a spoonful of pickle juice into it can be regarded as putting salt.

After the fish soup was ready, Cui Er's family smelled the smell of meat that had not been seen for a year, and all the old and young were drooling, Cui Er first served a bowl to the old mother, and deliberately put a piece of fish, and then served the remaining fish meat to the three children, and he and his wife and sister-in-law only drank soup. Then each person ate a wild vegetable dumpling, although this meal looked extremely simple, but for Cui Er's family, it was simply supremely delicious.

After eating. Cui Er took two more wild vegetable dumplings with thick noodles and put them in his arms, and went to Xiao Jiu's house to give him the wild vegetable dumplings, after all, today is thanks to him for leading the way. Otherwise, there would simply be no such big gain. And Xiao Jiu was also very happy, after taking the wild vegetable dumplings. asked Cui Er to go out together tomorrow, and Cui Er naturally would not refuse.

But when they go back to the valley the next day. It was found that the entire valley had been cleaned, not only the fish in the river had been caught, but even the grass roots along the river had been dug up. Seeing this situation, Cui Twenty was very discouraged, and wanted to run farther away to find it, but Xiao Jiu, this guy has been a master of fishing and catching turtles since he was a child, and he actually found a nest of river snails in a turbid mud pit, which was full of half a basket, and there were seven or eight palm-sized river mussels.

However, on the way back to the city, he encountered two or three people blocking the road and robbing him, fortunately, these robbers were old and young, Cui Er relied on his youth and strength, and fought to beat people away with some injuries, and finally kept the food that he finally got hard.

It's a pity that Cui Er and Xiao Jiu's good luck ended here, in the next few days, they didn't find anything good, even the grass roots were difficult to find again, and as for the bark and the like, it had already been stripped naked.

Early in the morning, Xiao Jiu came to Cui Er to go out together, although he didn't find anything to satisfy his stomach in the past few days, but he had to go out, after all, there was still a whole winter to survive, and with only the little things stored at home, he could only starve to death in the end.

"Second brother, where are we going today?" After coming out of Cui Er's house, Xiao Jiu asked weakly, eating only grass roots for a few days in a row, making his already thin body look even thinner, as if a gust of wind could blow it away.

Cui Er also had a headache, all the places around him that could be gone, those things that could fill his stomach had already been dug up, and now he went in vain, and finally thought for a long time, Cui Er sighed and said: "Let's go to the north mountains to try our luck, there are many woods, see if there is any bark that has been missed." ”

Xiao Jiuyi pouted when he heard this, there are indeed many trees in the mountains in the north, but there are also many people who go, and the bark that can be eaten in the woods has long been stripped of by someone, and it is estimated that it will be in vain to go. However, although Xiao Jiu thought so, he couldn't help but go, after all, he also had the idea of trying his luck in his heart, maybe he could find something to eat.

However, when the two of them just walked to the gate of the city, they suddenly found that there were many people gathered next to the door, these people formed a large circle, and there was a faint voice of a person talking in the middle, and both of them felt a little curious, and couldn't help but surround them.

"Dear people of Silla, we are merchants from the Tang Dengzhou, and we came to Jincheng to recruit workers on the orders of His Royal Highness King Qi, and we also know that everyone's food is not enough to eat, so the situation of this recruitment is a bit special......"

Cui Er and Xiao Jiu just squeezed in, only to see a businessman in Tang costumes in the middle shouting loudly in a very proficient Silla dialect, the two listened carefully, and found that here is a businessman from the Tang Dynasty who is recruiting, and it is paid with grain, as long as someone is willing to follow them to work, they will give the corresponding food to the workers' families in Jincheng, as for the workers themselves, they are in charge of food and shelter, and if they are injured or killed while working, there is corresponding compensation, which is not a small amount.

Hearing this businessman's promise to recruit workers, the people around were very moved, after all, in this year when they couldn't even eat enough, as long as they could stutter, they were willing to do almost anything. It's just that after the merchants of the Tang Dynasty finished speaking, no one stepped forward to apply, mainly because the reputation of the merchants of the Tang Dynasty was too bad, and there were many slave hunting teams in Silla to catch slaves, and they have not stopped until now, so they are worried that this is a trick of the Tang people, and they will trick them out of Silla with a little grain, and then sell them as slaves.

Seeing this situation, the Tang merchants in the crowd were also a little anxious, he usually often traveled between Silla and the Tang Dynasty, so he naturally knew that the reputation of the Tang merchants in Silla was not good, and it was indeed a little difficult to recruit people, but fortunately, there was a wise His Royal Highness the King of Qi above him, and he had already noticed this problem.

"Dear folks and elders of Jincheng, this time our recruitment is the result of the joint discussion between His Royal Highness King Qi and Her Royal Highness the Queen, mainly to solve the problem of famine in Silla, so you don't have to worry, and we can't recruit workers now, if you want your family to eat the food in exchange for recruitment, you must first go to the newly established household registration management office to register your household registration, and then obtain the household registration certificate, and then according to their own ideas, take the certificate to different merchants to register, and you can receive food after registration." The Datang merchant said with a smile again.

Hearing these words, the eyes of all the Silla people around suddenly became hot, they didn't believe in the Tang people, but they still believed in the queen very much, so they heard that this was a method discussed by the queen and the king of Qi of the Tang Dynasty, and they had to pass through the Silla court in the middle, which immediately convinced them a lot of this recruitment.

"Datang merchant, if we apply, how much grain can you give every month?" Finally someone started asking. And this issue is also a concern for all Silla people.

Hearing someone ask, the businessman's face finally showed a satisfied smile: "The amount of this grain depends on the number of people recruited differently, for example, taking this firm as an example, we recruit people to build a new city called Shanghai in Datang, and we usually do manual work, so the recruits are strong laborers between the ages of eighteen and thirty-six, and each person has twenty buckets of wheat per month." ”

"Wow~" As soon as I heard that there were twenty buckets of wheat every month, and it was wheat, it immediately caused an uproar below, and twenty buckets of wheat had at least two hundred catties of grain, so much grain was enough for a family of four to eat.

And seeing the excited appearance of these Silla people, the Datang merchant secretly despised it in his heart, a bucket of grain is only sold for five cents in Datang, and the price of aged grain is even lower, even if the freight to Silla is added, it is only seven or eight cents per bucket, that is to say, the wages of these Silla people are less than two hundred wen a month, and if this is placed in Datang, they can't even hire a sweeper.

Cui Er was also very hesitant, they were a family of seven, in addition to him, there were six people, but these six had three children, if he followed the Tang people to work, it would be barely enough for the family to eat, but when he thought of going to Datang away from Silla, he was a little uneasy, after all, he was the only man left in the family, in case there was anything to do, there was not even a top matter.

"Second brother, are you going?" At this moment, Xiao Jiu's eyes next to him flashed with hope, and he asked Cui Er seriously.

"What, you want to go?" Cui Er asked rhetorically.

"I'll go, anyway, I'm a single, instead of starving to death here, it's better to go around Datang, but I don't want food, let them exchange it for wages for me, maybe after working for a few years, I can save money to marry a daughter-in-law." Xiao Jiu is already planning his better life in the future.

Hearing Xiao Jiu's words, Cui Er also gritted his teeth secretly, the food at home was about to bottom out, and if he didn't think of a way, he would really have to wait to starve. Thinking of this, Cui Er also stomped his feet and said, "Okay, let's go together, go to the household registration first, and then come back to sign up!" (To be continued.) )