Chapter Twenty-Four: The Town Market
"The cunning rabbit has three holes, and these caves must be made by bamboo rats.
Let's look around for these caves, leave one cave to burn the fire, smoke the bamboo rats in the cave, and block the other caves so that the bamboo rats don't run away. Baizhu affirmed.
Immediately after that, the Huang Shisu siblings began to look for other caves around the largest cave.
In a short time, the brother and sister found seven or eight caves of different sizes and came out, and all of them were blocked.
Then use wooden sticks to fence the left and right sides and above of the last cave, in case these bamboo rats escape after coming out of the hole, and reserve a hole below for fire and smoke.
Fourth brother, you go and collect some firewood and prepare to make a fire and smoke it. Huang Zisu put her hands around her chest, just stood aside and watched her four brothers work, without her touching a single touch.
Even if she wanted to work, her four brothers always had various reasons to snatch away the work in her hands, and they were so helpless and happy to see her.
"Alright, let's make a fire." Seeing that the cave was surrounded on the left and right, and that everything was ready, he only owed himself a fire, so he lit some dry wood first, and when the fire slowly burned, he added some more wet firewood.
The fire was suddenly smaller, and the wet wood was not allowed to burn, and it was easy to smoke, and after a while, plumes of smoke came out of the firewood.
Cangshu didn't know where to find a few large leaves, and distributed them to the other three brothers one by one, and the four of them took the big leaves and fanned the smoke vigorously into the cave.
After a while, Huang Zisu heard some movement underneath, and the sound of stumbling and running.
"It's coming out, get the rope ready to tie up." Cangshu heard the movement in the cave getting louder and louder, and it was coming from the cave in their direction.
He hurriedly threw the big leaves in his hand, and took a wooden stick to burn the fire in front of him, so as not to block it on three sides, and the things in the cave would escape from his direction at the risk of fire.
"This rabbit is so fat! They all weigh six or seven pounds. Huang Mai Dong is not a loss of learning a few hands of kung fu, his eyes are sharp, and he saw that what escaped from the cave was a big gray rabbit, he raised one hand, instantly grabbed the rabbit's ears, took it in his hand and shook it a few times, and after the rabbit fainted, he tied it with a rope and weighed it a few times.
"Here we go again."
"It's coming, it's coming."
"Grab it." When the three brothers, Tiandong, Baizhu and Cangzhu, saw that there was another prey coming out of the cave to catch them, and the three of them all showed excitement on their faces.
"Hey, this one is too small, it's a little rabbit."
"The one I caught isn't big."
"The one I caught is smaller than the one my big brother caught." Tiandong and the Baizhu brothers saw that Mai Dong had caught the big rabbit, and then they ran out of the cave with little rabbits, and they couldn't catch them, and their faces showed disappointment.
"This movement is obviously about to come out." Suddenly, the brothers and sisters clearly felt that the prey that came out of the cave this time was very large, because the movement of the ground was much bigger than before.
The three brothers Tiandong, Baizhu and Cangzhu were even more eager to try, and the three of them also looked at each other to see who could win this game.
Huang Shisu on the side looked a little funny.
"I'll come." Tiandong is an honest and honest person, in order to win the first prize this time, he saw a black shadow running out of the cave, and he didn't see what the black shadow was, he threw himself directly towards the black shadow.
The black shadow suddenly raised its head, its upper body stood up, and it grinned and screamed 'wow' to Tiandong.
Tiandong was shocked when he saw it, and regretted that he was reckless, but it's okay now, injuries are always inevitable.
"Be careful." After Mai Dong saw that it was not a rabbit that escaped from the cave, but a huge bamboo rat, he also saw his eldest brother stupidly pounce on it, and bit it with the sharp and big teeth of the bamboo rat, not to mention that the bone was broken, and the flesh and blood always had to be gnawed off.
Floating in the air above the bamboo rat, the bamboo rat jumped a few times, and wanted to bite his eldest brother, but he didn't even stand next to him
"Second brother, thanks to you, otherwise I would have been injured today." Tiandong saw that he was not thrown to the ground, nor was he bitten by the bamboo rat, but was carried by his second brother like a chicken, he immediately breathed a sigh of relief and thanked.
"The eldest brother, the third brother, and the fourth brother can see more clearly, if they are bitten by this huge bamboo rat, they may cause some diseases." In this era, I was bitten by an animal, and I don't know if I will get rabies, if I really get it, it will be really an incurable disease, Huang Shisu hurriedly instructed her four brothers.
"Susu, don't worry, we'll be careful."
"It's coming, it's coming."
"It's out again." After learning from Tiandong's previous experience, they all became cautious next, and they didn't reach out to catch it, but no matter what prey came out of the cave, they knocked it out with a stick first, and tied it up.
In the end, their brother and sister caught three or four rabbits, five small and twelve rabbits, and seven fat bamboo rats from this cave, the smallest of which weighed three catties, and the big one weighed at least six or seven catties.
The five little rabbits weighed less than a pound, and Huang Shiso released the five little rabbits.
so that they can grow up, reproduce, and continue to give back to them in the future.
.........。
Shanshui Town is not far from Yunhe Village, you can reach the town by walking for an hour, if you drive ox carts and horse-drawn carriages, you must be able to reach the town in half an hour.
There are more than 20 villages in the vicinity of Shanshui Town, some of which have more than 100 households per village, and some of which have less population, and 40 or 50 households form a village, scattered around Shanshui Town.
Every 5th, 15th, and 25th is the market day, and every three days, the villagers of the nearby villages will take their own mountain goods, their own bamboo products or their own chickens, ducks, fish and other things that can be sold, and they will go to the town to catch up with the market on these three days.
Sell some money to supplement your household or barter for something you need.
The day the Huang family went to town that day happened to be the 15th day of September.
Before the family arrived in the town, along the way to the town, they met many villagers from nearby villages rushing to the town.
Three or five people were in groups, most of them were in a hurry with big bags and small bags, talking and laughing.
Occasionally, a bullock cart full of people passes by.
The people sitting on the ox cart met acquaintances, and they also greeted each other from time to time, and this scene had a feeling of déjà vu for Huang Shisu.
It's like they're fleeing the famine again.