Gushui Village is built along the river, the mountains and forests on the other side of the river are dense, and it is not the boundary of Yunzhou to go to the mountain.

When a group of six or seven of them drove two carriages into the village, they attracted a lot of people's attention.

Half a month ago, the river embankment in the village was washed down by the snowmelt on the mountain, and it didn't take long for a team of officers and soldiers to be stationed there, and the villagers even spoke a lot quieter.

The old village chief and the old people of the village sat together on the green grass under the ancient trees at the head of the village, weaving bamboo baskets, and when they saw the carriage stopped not far away, they put down the basket in their hands and greeted them with crutches.

Xiao Yunjiao got off the carriage with Shen Yuzhou, she stood beside him, didn't take the initiative to talk, just looked at the scenery in the distance.

She had never been to such a small village, and when there was no guard of honor, she naturally felt very novel.

While thinking about what role he should play here, Xiao Yunjiao listened carefully to the conversation between Shen Yuzhou and the old village chief-

Shen Yuzhou saluted to the village chief and said, "Uncle, we are merchants passing by to collect medicinal materials, and we dare to ask if there are any medicinal materials for sale in the village, and we want to collect some medicinal materials." ”

The village chief is very simple: "A few days ago, a batch of medicinal materials in our village was collected, and the young people went up the mountain to collect the medicine, if you can wait, they will come back in less than two days, but you can collect it." ”

This is exactly what they want, there is no inn in the village, and the village chief arranges for them to live in his own house.

"Old woman, someone from the house has arrived." The village chief pushed open the fence gate and led a few people into the courtyard.

"My son has gone up the mountain to collect medicine, and I can free up two rooms for you. It's to wronged you to squeeze into sleep. ”

Xiao Yunjiao looked curiously at this very clean courtyard. The village chief's house, which was similar to the rest of the village, had four thatched houses made of bamboo and wood, and within the fence walls was a clean, flat brick road leading to several houses.

There was a well in the corner of the yard with a few signs of wear and tear on the edges, apparently many years old. Next to the well is a small vegetable patch, next to the chicken coop enclosed by the fence.

The kitchen was steaming hot, and a gray-haired woman came out of it. After listening to the village chief's introduction of their identities, he smiled and groaned:

"It's been a long time since I've been so lively at home, come in and sit, I'm just going to cook dinner, just make more."

Xiao Yunjiao was embarrassed to let this eldest lady handle the food of several of them alone, and secretly pulled Shen Yuzhou's sleeve.

Shen Yuzhou said: "Excuse me, our guards are very diligent, let them go and help together." ”

The guards hurriedly rushed to the kitchen to help, and the kitchen, which was not too big, squeezed in four tall men, but they didn't give the village chief's wife a chance to do it. She watched for a while and saw that a few people were quite quick, but she didn't speak, and silently turned around and went out to kill a chicken.

They were busy in the kitchen, and the village chief accompanied Shen Yuzhou and Xiao Yunjiao to sit in the hall and talk.

After a conversation, Xiao Yunjiao learned that the village chief and his wife, who looked old and had gray hair, were only over fifty now, about the same age as Kang's father-in-law, but they were much older than him, and their faces and hands were full of shallow ravines, all of which were traces of the wind and frost years.

"Uncle Zhang, do we all make a living by collecting medicine in our village on weekdays?" Shen Yuzhou asked casually.

Uncle Zhang is the head of the village, and he said with a smile: "We don't have much arable land in Gushui Village, so we can only rely on the mountains to eat the mountains. A few years ago, the county yalai people collected a lot of labor to build a dam next to the village, and each person was given 20 copper plates a day. Later, more and more people began to work outside, and no matter what, life was good. ”

Twenty copper plates?

Xiao Yunjiao calculated carefully, a thousand copper plates are only worth one tael of silver, and adult labor can only earn less than one tael a month.

"What is the price of all kinds of medicinal materials in our village?" Xiao Yunjiao couldn't help but ask.

The village chief is like a few treasures, "The mountains of our village mainly produce wheat winter, Ma Lanju, soil notoginseng, and schisandra, which are common and cheap, so you can earn a hard money, and after drying, you can make three dollars of silver a pound." Forsythia and baiji are more expensive, eight coins a pound of silver. If you meet rare medicinal materials, you can only get the right price for each, last year my eldest son dug out a mountain ginseng, not to mention a few decades, sold for twenty taels! ”

Xiao Yunjiao couldn't feel the price of the drugs in front of her, but she knew about the mountain ginseng.

In the capital, the hundred-year-old ginseng cannot be bought for a thousand taels, and it is often priceless and marketable, and you can only see it at the auction.

Uncle Zhang only bought twenty taels of mountain ginseng that had been in his mouth for decades, and according to his meaning, twenty taels was a huge amount of money.

Thinking about the purple jade teapot of a few hundred taels of silver, the Guanyin diagram of thousands of taels, and then looking at Uncle Zhang who was talking to Shen Yuzhou, she suddenly felt that the people of Dongsheng were really too easy to be satisfied.

For them, as long as the clothes can cover the body and the food can be satisfied, it can be regarded as a stable life, and like Uncle Zhang, there are a few thatched huts and a few taels of silver, and they will live a good life.

This is the people in Lu Shi's mouth, the people of Dongsheng.

For them, who sits on the throne is a big deal? I'm afraid it's not as important as weaving two more bamboo baskets.

Just as he was distracted, Uncle Zhang suddenly turned the words to her.

"You girl is so quiet and good-looking, why are you willing to take her out to collect medicinal herbs? The hard work along the road is not something that the little girl can bear. ”

Xiao Yunjiao was taken aback, they only said that they were good at pretending to be brothers and sisters, and they didn't talk about this kind of problem in detail.

Shen Yuzhou suddenly changed his face and said: "My sister is not in good health, congenital deficiency, and the doctor said that fresh 100-year-old mountain ginseng can be used as medicine to cure it." Although 100-year-old ginseng is rare, it is not difficult for us pharmacists to find, the difficulty is that it needs to be fresh, so I have no choice but to take her around to buy medicine, and only treat fresh ginseng directly into medicine to heal her body. ”

Xiao Yunjiao listened, her eyes widened and widened, she never knew that Shen Yuzhou made up nonsense so well, and she came up with this big paragraph in the blink of an eye without changing her face.

No wonder when they were children, they were all punished by Fu Mingyuan.

After Shen Yuzhou said this, Uncle Zhang's eyes looked at her more kindly, as if she was about to die in the next second.

Even after Aunt Zhang and a few guards came over with the dishes, Uncle Zhang couldn't stop telling her that they were two hard-working brothers and sisters, so that Aunt Zhang desperately pushed the stewed chicken in front of her during the meal.

"Girl, if you are not in good health, you should eat more, my aunt knows that your big family is exquisite, so you can clip it yourself."

After speaking, he smiled and watched her eat first, which made Xiao Yunjiao embarrassed, and ate too much without paying attention, and was dragged by Shen Yuzhou to eat with a bulging belly.

Here is surrounded by mountains and rivers, and the houses are like a folk scenery. They walked slowly along the river, only to see that the river water was clear and the green hills were beautiful. The new buds that grow in spring dye the whole area in a green color, which is refreshing.

Xiao Yunjiao picked up a stone casually as he walked, threw it into the river hard, and the stone fell straight into the water with a "bang".

"Still won't work." She shook her head, picked up another stone and handed it to Shen Yuzhou.

Shen Yuzhou checked it, squatted down and picked a few pieces in the pile of stones for a long time, and spread them out in his hand to show Xiao Yunjiao, "If you want him to float, you have to use this kind of flat one." ”

Then he got up, leaned sideways, and sent the stone in his hand flat to the surface of the river—

The pebbles bounced several times in succession on the surface of the water, creating a series of circular ripples.

Stretching out her hand and giving the rest of the stones to Xiao Yunjiao, Shen Yuzhou stood aside with her arms crossed and watched her throw them one by one.

She raised her hands high each time, and it really took a lot of force, and after the stone was thrown, she ran two steps forward along the way. After a while, he was tired and panting, and his white and tender face was flushed with powder, like a shou peach bun that had just come out of the pot and was steaming out.

"It's done!"

Xiao Yunjiao suddenly turned her head excitedly and shouted at him, "Did you see it?" I just let it float on the water three times! ”

This is a game they would play when they were young, Xiao Yunjiao has always been unable to get it right, but he didn't expect it to be now.

She clapped her hands contentedly, "Let's go." ”

Shen Yuzhou followed her and continued to walk along the river, not asking her where she was going, only occasionally helping her remove the shrubs and branches that grew on the road.

After walking for a pillar or two of incense, they saw a battle not far away with officers and soldiers stationed and guarded.

The officers and men who stayed behind were scattered not far from the site of the collapsed embankment, and they did not know whose order they had received, and after half a month, the site of the embankment was still the same as when it collapsed.

They didn't rush over, and the two of them hid their bodies by a stout tree.

"It seems that there are people who want to protect the scene, and these officers and soldiers are the only ones." Shen Yuzhou looked at it for a while and said.

"Gushui Village belongs to Qingyuan County, which is probably the meaning of the county order." Xiao Yunjiao thought of Xu You, the former servant of the ministry, and couldn't help but recall for a while.

"Xu Yu is upright, he is a rare good official, but that mouth is too offensive."

Shen Yuzhou also remembered what his father said to him when he was at home-

"Xu Yu, this person, the mistake is that he has a mouth that can't speak."

didn't let the memories be delayed for too long, Shen Yuzhou analyzed: "Xu You sent people to watch here, it is definitely not as simple as the villagers outside said to prevent the recurrence of floods. ”

Xiao Yunjiao nodded, "Maybe it's to prevent someone from stealing the beams and changing the pillars." ”

After speaking, he tugged at Shen Yuzhou's sleeve and said, "Look at that gap." ”

Both of them have good eyesight, not to mention the large earthy yellow gap that was exposed a hundred steps away.

"It's like yellow mud." Shen Yuzhou said in a deep voice.

Seeing that Xiao Yunjiao didn't know much, Shen Yuzhou added: "Twenty years ago, the bridges and houses built have been replaced with lime slurry and glutinous rice syrup, and the color should be grayish. The color of the notch is earthy yellow, like yellow mud that was used a long time ago. Although yellow mud can also build houses and bridges, it is not so strong. ”

"You'll have to take a closer look." Xiao Yunjiao said, "Wait a minute, let's go back first, and let the guards come quietly to get two bricks at night." ”

The two tacitly turned around and left, without alarming anyone.