"Pingzhou is now a place of war."

Yang Dong said this sentence without a beginning or an end, and was about to continue to explain, when he saw the gate of the courtyard and was pushed open by Gu Sanniang.

Behind her, there were twenty or thirty children, who were brought in by some village women.

These children are not very old, and they have been frightened a lot just now.

Most of them had stopped crying, but they were still trembling with fear.

Gu Sanniang swept around the rice in the bowls of the other children, and couldn't help frowning.

"Didn't you say that you should feed these children more dried fish?"

"It's not that you don't know what the identity of these children is! If we come out hungry, we will all have to be unlucky together! ”

Gu Sanniang's words quickly aroused the rebuttal of many village women.

"I said the Gu family, you really don't have a backache when you stand and talk! You also don't look at what time it is! It's freezing on this day, and it's nice to have a stutter! ”

"Yes, yes, look at our bowl, don't say it's fish, not even rice."

Gu Sanniang frowned again, and said coldly:

"We adults, if we have a stutter, we will not die of hunger. But these little babies are all very delicate! ”

"Go, bring some dried fish that we've dried, and give them to these children."

However, this time Gu Sanniang's words did not respond to the village woman.

They stared at Gu Sanniang in unison, expressing their dissatisfaction.

"I said Sanniang, it's almost done! Don't you know how important those dried fish are to our village? ”

"I'll tell you, if anyone in our village starves to death next year, it will all depend on these dried fish. The village chief said in his own mouth that if anyone dares to touch the dried fish now, he will skin him! ”

"You can't even ignore the words of the village chief, right?"

Gu Sanniang frowned, and finally didn't immediately open her mouth to refute.

Indeed, the village chief has said before that these fish officers are related to the life and death of the village next year, so there is no room for failure.

But these children ......

Gu Sanniang gritted her teeth, looking at the faces of many children, full of hunger, and suddenly felt unbearable.

"Okay, okay, since it's the order of the village chief, I won't ask you for dried fish."

"Just our Gu family, now there is only one person left, I'll take out the dried fish, it's okay, right?"

As soon as these words came out, the rest of the village women were stunned at first, and then the original full smell of gunpowder disappeared in an instant. Instead, everyone's care and persuasion were followed.

"I said the third child of the Gu family, your Gu family, except for your younger brother who was a soldier, you are the only one left. Even if you don't think about yourself, think about your brother, right? ”

"That's it, now these soldiers are also living a very hard life, you see Jiang Wazi ......"

In the middle of speaking, the village woman who had just spoken suddenly paused.

Immediately afterwards, the rest of the village women stared at her in unison, their eyes full of warnings.

"Forget it, I can't do it when I don't mention it!"

The village woman shrunk her neck and did not dare to speak again.

The rest of the village women continued to persuade Gu Sanniang to come.

It's just that Gu Sanniang has always been an assertive woman, if not, how could she support the entire Gu family by herself.

"Okay, okay, let's all say less."

Gu Sanniang waved her hand and continued:

"I'm a person who eats a small amount of food, and one more meal or less meal is not in the way."

As he spoke, he ignored everyone's objections, turned his head and walked towards his courtyard.

The village women looked at her back, and tried to persuade each other several times, but they could only sigh in the end.

Baihua, who was hidden in the shadows, also heard the conversations of these village women.

She looked at the village women, and then at the hungry children.

She felt as if she understood something, but it was still a little worse.

At this moment, Yang Dong's voice sounded in her ears.

"See, this is the life of ordinary people."

"They had dried fish, but they didn't dare to eat a mouthful. Not because they're not hungry, but because they can't. ”

"A few days ago, the battle of Xiongguan, these ordinary people must have known. It is precisely because of this that they are even more sure that there will be a big war after the spring of next year. Even if you want to grow food, you won't necessarily be able to wait for the harvest. ”

"So these dried fish that they are drying are actually preparing food for next year?"

Baihua finally figured out the joints, and when she looked at the village women and children again, her gaze became complicated.

"Young Master Yang, what do you think these villagers of Dahe Village are trying to do?"

This time, Yang Dong didn't give her an answer, but shook his head with a wry smile.

"I didn't figure it out."

"Those cavalrymen seem to have a good relationship with the villagers of Dahe Village. The villagers of Dahe Village even helped them and took care of the children. ”

"But...... Don't you think these children are special? ”

"I think, that Gu Sanniang just now, didn't you say it!"

Baihua looked at Yang Dong in surprise, but Yang Dong pointed to one of the little fat babies and hesitated:

"Look at that child, his hungry face has changed, but he hasn't drunk a single bite of the gruel in the bowl."

"If it is replaced by a child from an ordinary family, it is already a rare delicacy to be able to drink a bowl of gruel."

Although Baihua is simple and ignorant of the world, she is not a fool.

I soon understood the meaning of Yang Dong's words.

"Are you trying to tell me that these children are not ordinary, so they are not used to eating food in this big river village?"

Yang Dong nodded,

"Yes, let's see the situation first."

As she spoke, Gu Sanniang had already gone and returned.

She was carrying several dried fish in her hand, but in her eyes, there was a flash of imperceptible distress.

After all, in the first place, she had to put a lot of effort into catching these fish.

"Children, eat fish~"

Gu Sanniang squeezed out a smiling face, carefully tore off a piece of dried fish, and handed it to the children.

Most of the children, when they saw the dried fish, became hungry and took the dried fish and chewed it one after another.

But there were also a small number of children who did not reach out to take the dried fish, but just frowned and did not say a word. Among them is the little fat man mentioned by Yang Dong just now.

The little fat man took the dried fish, and his face immediately showed a disgusted expression.

But because of the hunger in his belly, he tried to stick out his tongue and lick it gently.

The next moment, his face changed instantly, and he took several mouthfuls of "babaa" several times one after another, and threw the dried fish to the ground and stepped on it several times!