The next morning, Cheng Huai arranged for an ox cart to load sixteen lambs in four bamboo cages, and called a young man younger than him to help drive the cart.

No one knows how much a lamb is worth, Lu Yu left twenty taels of silver, he felt that it should not be enough, this money is what it means.

The ox cart is not big, the lamb is loaded on it, and Lu Yu and Lao Gao can't sit on the car at the same time, so Lao Gao takes the car and Lu Yu walks.

It is indeed much more convenient to have an ox cart to deliver the lambs, but it will not save more time on the road, and when I return to Yangshan Village, it is afternoon again. The young man who sent the sheep can't go back today, and Lao Gao asked the young man to stay at his house for one night, because he has a lot of houses.

The sisters and brothers of the Yan family were very happy to see the little lamb, Yan Xi'an said that he was going to herd the sheep now, and Yan Xiding was clamoring to build a shed for the lamb to live in.

Lu Yu said that it was too late today, and the shed would not be built, but he could take the lamb to the valley first.

Carrying the cage into the Anding Valley, the lambs were just released, they were a little wilted, and when they saw the grass all over the grain, they quickly became alive again, and the eight lambs went to the stream to drink water, and then ate grass quietly on the grass.

Yan Xi would not let the lamb be quiet, he would grab the tail of the sheep, knock on the head of the sheep, and make the lamb bleat, he would laugh happily.

Yan Xi'an saw that his younger brother liked the lamb so much, and said with a smile: "Xiding, you will be our family's shepherd in the future." ”

"Okay, then these sheep belong to me, and whoever wants to eat mutton in the future will have to ask me."

"Cut, you didn't buy the sheep, why do you have to ask you why you eat meat." Yan Xi'an looked unconvinced.

"I didn't buy it, and you didn't buy it, Uncle Da Yu is definitely willing to give me these sheep."

Yan Xi'an grinned and said, "That's not necessarily, the uncle is not yours." ”

"It's not yours either, huh."

Yan Xi'an smiled slightly, thinking, "Uncle is mine, you kid miscalculated." ”

When the sister and brother were arguing, Lu Yu had already turned around in the valley again, and he came back and said to the sister and brother: "I am going to fence a yard here, and the sheep will be raised in the valley." ”

"Then why fence them up, can't they be stocked in the valley?"

"Okay now, wait until the seedlings are planted here, and you won't let the sheep run around." Lu Yu thought in his heart again: "Someone in the village already knows that they have bought lambs, so these eight lambs can't be hidden in the valley." However, when these sheep grow up and give birth to lambs, they can be put in. ”

After a while in the valley, the three men returned home with the lambs. In the evening, Lu Yu cooked the meal, he made more, and after it was done, he went to Lao Gao's house and called the young man who sent the sheep to come over for dinner. Lu Yu thought, the young man slept in Lao Gao's house, so he should eat at his own house, which was more appropriate.

Before the young man left the next day, Lu Yu carried two bags of rice and put them on the ox cart. The young man refused to ask for it, saying that their boss would be unhappy if he found out. But Lu Yu insisted again and again, and in the end, the young man still pulled two bags of rice back.

With sheep, the days of farming should be more fulfilling. Lu Yu drove the goats to graze on the nearby hillside every morning and afternoon, and the pair of little followers of the Yan family must have followed.

In the past, there were also people in Yangshan Village who raised cows, and Lu Yu would sometimes go up the mountain to play with his cattle herding friends. Herding cattle is much simpler than herding, just find a tree or a rock, tie the cow to a leash, and the cattle herder can go to play nearby. You can't do this with sheep, you have to watch all the time, otherwise the sheep will run around, and if you run into the mountains, it will be difficult to get it back. Or they were quietly brought home by the ill-intentioned villagers, and it was impossible to get them back.

Before going out, Lu Yu also made two small whips with thin bamboo and hemp rope, and Yan Xi'an said that he didn't need them, so he only made two.

Drive the sheep out of the village up the hillside, this is a series of several gentle slopes, on the edge of the edge of Yangshan, there is only grass on the slope, there are no trees, it is a good place to herd sheep and cattle. In the past, there were people in the village who wanted to reclaim this hillside into crop land, but because the grass was not deep and there were hard stones, there was no way to grow crops.

After an hour in the morning, he went back for breakfast, and Yan Xiding shouted that he wanted to herd the sheep again. The sheep can be herded twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening, how can it be kept put.

After breakfast, Lu Yu went to the mountain to cut a few bundles of thick branches and trunks, cut them into sections more than two feet long with a firewood knife, surrounded a small fence against the west courtyard wall, and locked the lambs in it. There wasn't much left of the vacant space in the backyard, and almost all of it was planted with vegetables, except for the pond. The sheep should be corraled, or the vegetables will be destroyed.

After lunch, I rested at home for a while, and then went to herd the sheep again.

As soon as the three of them drove the eight lambs out of the village, they saw a group of people walking towards the village, most of them were young men, a few women and children, but there were no old people, they were all very strange faces. Lu Yu felt that something was not quite right, and when he was about to return to the village, the group of people stopped him.

The stranger had a chieftain, a man in his fifties, tall and strong, with dark skin. In fact, this group of people, regardless of gender, are relatively tall, and compared to the people on Jinhua's side, these people are considered to be big men.

The leader behaved very kindly, and he told Lu Yu that a group of them had come from the north and reported their hometown. Lu Yu knew their hometown, which was far, far north and heard that it was very cold in winter.

The chief said that they had come from the north to beg for food, and that there was no malice.

Lu Yu said very straightforwardly: "We are also very difficult here, and we may not have extra food to give...... Divide it among you. He wanted to say almsgiving, but he found it a bit impolite.

The leader smiled and said, "We are not here to ask for food, we are all good people, we have hands and feet, we can work for you, as long as we give us food." ”

Lu Yu scratched his head and said, "In this way, I'll take you to meet our village chief and see what arrangements he has." Lu Yu felt that these people seemed to be quite honest, Yan Xi'an was so beautiful, few of the men in this group of strangers stared at her, Lu Yu was very satisfied.

The chief was very grateful, and hurriedly said, "This way, this way, let's first visit the chief of your village and listen to what he has to say." ”

Lu Yu did not take them to Fang Daping's house, but took them to the dirt field, asked the sisters and brothers to drive the sheep home, and went to find Fang Daping by himself.

That time, because of the matter of cutting bamboo, Lu Yu "said" Fang Daping, and the two rarely interacted with each other after that, which is also because the village and the village have been very peaceful recently, and Fang Daping has nothing to do with Lu Yu's help.

Fang Daping and Lu Yu arrived at the dirt field together, and the leader was very discerning, and immediately came over to say hello and reported to his home. Lu Yu now knows that this leader's surname is Qi and his name is Qi Xiang.

Qi Xiang told Fang Daping that his group of people came from the same place, and there was no way to live in his hometown, so he went all the way south, and when he saw that the situation here was better, he stopped, wanting to find a job here, as long as he could eat together.

Fang Daping was very embarrassed and said: "It is true that no one has starved to death in our village, but our Jinhua County is not much better, and many people in other villages, as well as in the town and county, have starved to death. There are a lot of relatives who have come to join us, and we really don't need to ask you to help with the work. ”

"Hehe, before we entered the village, we took a look around the mountains and fields, and the crops are growing very well, and I think this year's harvest will definitely be good."

"I hope so." Fang Daping sighed and said, "We are all croppers, we are used to planting crops and harvesting crops, and we don't need to invite people." ”

Qi Xiang lowered his eyebrows and begged a few words, but Fang Daping still refused to agree to take them in. In fact, even if he agreed, it was useless, this village was not something that Fang Daping could say.

Qi Xiang and the others had no choice but to leave. But it was not to leave completely, but to go to the edge of the village to set up a tent to live, obviously this group of people did not plan to leave in a short time.

Soon, Lu Yu heard that there were many refugees from the north who came to this neighborhood, and they went to various villages in groups of one or twenty people to "beg for a living". So far this year, the weather has been smooth, and the land can be planted with crops, but many villages have no people to grow crops, and some villages that are mostly empty have been occupied by these displaced people.

Lu Yu felt that it was unwise for Qi Xiang's group to come to Yangshan Village, there were many people in Yangshan Village, but there was not much land.

I don't know why, Qi Xiang and they just refused to leave. Fortunately, they didn't make trouble, they just walked around the crops all day long. The villagers were very curious about these outsiders, and feared that they would destroy the crops that were about to grow in the fields, so they followed them all the time. The displaced people have always boasted that the land in Yangshan Village is fertile and the crops are growing very well, and there will definitely be no famine this year.

What they said is not right, although there were continuous natural disasters in the past two years, Yangshan Village has not had a famine here because of the topography and the presence of Lu Yu.

The people of the village felt that even though these outsiders were not doing anything bad now, they were always wandering around the outside of the village, which was very disturbing. In addition, some people have heard that there are many homeless people in other villages who have done evil.

Later, Lu Wuye, who had some status in the village, came out, and he asked Qi Xiang directly: "What's the situation outside now?" How long do you want to stay here? Everyone in the village is curious about what the natural disasters of the past two years will "transform" the outside world into.

"Outside? Worse! The people in our village are almost dead, and all the living ones have come out. ”

Lu Wuye asked again: "Then why do you dare to come out?" Didn't think it would be worse out there? ”

"There's no way, I can't live, it's all a death anyway, it's better to come out and take a look." Qi Xiang smiled and said: "We won't leave either, wait for the autumn harvest in a few days, and any of you will come to us if you lack help, and you don't ask for much, five catties of food a day for one person, good or bad." ”

Lu Yu felt that Yangshan Village should not need to ask someone to help collect food, but Yan Jibai felt that it was not necessarily, last year the dragon crocodile entered the village, killing and injuring many men, and those families without men, relying only on women and children, it is difficult to recover the food.