Even in the mountains, it was winter, and a group of people were trekking in the mountains and forests, but from a distance, they could see the fire light coming from the distant mountainside.

The long journey had already made Feng Shi very tired, but after seeing the torch-like firelight, he was like a chicken blood, and his vision for the future immediately suppressed the double fatigue of his body and spirit.

Feng Shi is an authentic mountain people, the ancestors moved into the mountains and forests because of the avoidance, and barely took root in the mountains.

The village where he is located is called Aoki Village, and its name is derived from a green tree in the center of the village that has grown for nearly a thousand years.

A long time ago, Aoki Village was also brilliant, just like Lianyun Village, it was a large village, every year, or every year or two, there would be outside merchants, who came from thousands of miles to trade with the village.

But later, time passed, natural disasters and man-made disasters Aoki Village declined because of this, and in the back, merchants stopped coming because of less profit.

By the time Feng Shi's generation arrived, there were more than 200 people in the entire village, and most of them were elderly, young and strong, and few were children.

Among them, the least is the children, as a mountain people, a couple, it is not surprising that more than a dozen children have been born in 20 years, but the environment in the mountains is harsh, and the infant mortality rate of children is extremely high.

Among them, especially girls, are more likely to die.

It's not that the mountain people abuse their daughters, but that in a harsh environment, boys are naturally stronger and more likely to survive.

In fact, in the mountains, daughters are very precious, and the villages generally marry each other, that is, this village marries a daughter out, and the other village also has to marry a daughter.

Such rules, although backward and cruel, can even be said to treat people as objects nakedly, but this is also the way of survival of the village.

But this is the only way to keep the village going.

And if there is no daughter in your own village to exchange with other villages, the only way for the village not to perish is to spend a lot of money to buy a daughter-in-law from the merchant.

As for having neither daughters nor enough money and goods, after a long time, the village will naturally perish.

For a long time, a fragile and stable ecology has been formed, showing the law of survival of the fittest to the fullest.

Those young men who can't marry a wife have only two paths, either they will perish from there, or they will follow the merchants out of the mountains.

As for the roaring mountains and forests, turning into bandits, and looting other villages, this will lead to a hundred villages!

Aoki Village is now such a situation.

There are fewer and fewer girls in the village, young and strong people can't marry a daughter-in-law at all, and the people brought by the merchants are too expensive.

As for going out, it's also a big gamble.

Even if it is a peaceful and prosperous world outside, a mountain man without household registration wants to survive outside, even if he tries his best, he may not be able to do it.

In troubled times, this is even more so.

Therefore, when the legend of General Yingtian gradually spread in the hundreds of villages in Lianshan, those large villages were just that, and those who were already on the verge of extinction were very excited.

The mountain people are a group that does not lack the wisdom of survival and has the shrewdness that belongs to the mountain people, but in other places, their ideas are also very simple.

That is, the outside world is strange, but General Yingtian is different, when all kinds of legends and stories spread, become a topic of conversation after tea and dinner, a little longer, naturally no longer strange.

Especially when I knew that Ying Tianjun was recruiting the army, many young people who couldn't marry their daughters-in-law were moved.

It's just that the distance between the village and the village is long, and the mountain road is difficult to travel, plus when recruiting soldiers, the recruiters have to record the situation of the young and strong families, and the recruiters only recruit people from their own villages, which dispels the idea of many mountain people and going directly to join the army.

And the things that are difficult to get are undoubtedly easier to make people think about it, and the young people of the village, in this temporary situation of not being able to ask for it, will continue to make up for it in their imaginations, and they will have a brilliant future after joining the army.

Feng Shi is like this, he is a person, born with a bit of bravery, at the age of twelve, he started hunting alone, at first just set some small traps, but later he learned to make his own rough bow and arrow, and archery skills were gradually honed.

Now, within twenty paces, there were few targets he couldn't shoot.

More importantly, although he can't write, but he has a little culture, when he was seven or eight years old, there was a Taoist in the village, the Taoist lived in the village for a while, he was very pleasing to the Taoist, so the Taoist told him a lot of stories, and also taught him how to judge something through the environment.

This makes him far more powerful than ordinary mountain people in terms of farming and hunting.

Now he is only sixteen years old, and if he is given another ten years, it will not be difficult to save enough money to buy a daughter-in-law.

Before General Ying Tian appeared, saving money to marry a daughter-in-law was his goal in life.

But now, he thinks differently.

Along with the legend and story of General Yingtian, there is also a wonderful world outside, the rivers and mountains are picturesque, worship the prime minister, worship the marquis, brocade clothes and jade food, such as beautiful flowers......

This is the reason why many mountain people choose to join the army despite their peaceful lives.

Everyone knows that the war is dangerous, and one careless person may lose his life, but when he knows the outside world, the desire in his heart can no longer be suppressed.

This is the case with Feng Shi.

He thinks that he is not lost to any mountain people, whether it is hard work or bravery, or character and ability, he is not bad, as long as he joins the army, with his own ability, he will be able to quickly emerge.

In addition, the legend of General Ying Tian also gave him strong confidence.

That is the arrival of the gods, even the Red Emperor and the White Emperor, the two emperors, also identify with each other, and even some villages, their ancestors, for the sake of the future of future generations, do not hesitate to anger the ghosts and gods, so that they will not be at peace after death, but also to warn their descendants, let them seize the opportunity.

Of course, more importantly, it was General Ying Tian, who did show extraordinary miracles.

It turned out that the general was trapped in the mountains, and there was a lack of military rations before, so the mountain god drove the beasts to be hunted by the Ying Tian army, and in the end, the beast meat was so much that it could not be eaten at all, and it was directly piled up into a mountain.

Later, the general burned the wasteland and cultivated the land, and the heavens also gave the heavenly dew, so that the grain produced by one acre of land directly increased tenfold.

(End of chapter)