From the county seat to the capital city, the journey takes six days.

Wake up early in the morning and start from the county seat when the city gate is opened, and in the second half of the night, both people and mules and oxen can not bear it, and Mrs. Xu and her party have to set up camp in a place where there is a stream.

The so-called encampment is nothing more than using the oilcloth brought from the village to simply erect two simple windshield shelters.

More than 100 households in Erdaohe Village can only gather six livestock carts.

Of the six mule and ox carts, Liu Laozhu's family accounted for two, and Liu Jingdong's ox cart was sent back. There is no bicycle, and he has recently lived in the academy and has not returned to the village.

There is also an ox cart with Yu Jiaba, which is also requisitioned by the village, and it has to be borrowed for more than a month, and Hao Yinhua's family can't go out to work.

The six cars were chewed all the way to money, and they couldn't use the cars of these families in vain, and when they went back to the village, they had to be counted into the cost together with the borrowing fee.

Therefore, Mrs. Xu and her party couldn't even bring luggage, everything was simple, only six oilcloths to prevent rain fans, and straw mats spread on the car board. And the long sticks that support the shed are their weapons, thinking that they can support the shed and beat the people to bring a few long sticks, and nothing else.

I didn't bring a single thick cotton coat, so I had to try to make the largest amount of space for the cattle cart to pull more goods to earn the difference.

When the two simple tents were erected, the height of the shed was only enough for Xu Tianxin and Mrs. Xu to go in without much effort, and the other tall young men, such as Uncle Xu, had to be short to get in.

Set up two tents, one large and one small, in Liu Laozhu's words, the small one is to take care of Mrs. Xu and Xu Tianxin's two female dependents, so you don't have to listen to their snoring.

But Mrs. Xu was skeptical that they would not set up a bigger tent.

Just this one big and one small, it was her granddaughter who instructed how to use sticks and oilcloth stones to build it.

At this time, Xu Tianxin unloaded the straw mat on the board and spread it on the grass in the small tent.

The tent can shelter mosquitoes and the cold wind of autumn, otherwise it would have been windy today, and the cold wind in the second half of the night would have made it impossible for people to take a nap.

Because there was no quilt and cotton clothes, there were no six pieces of tarpaulin to set up a tent, so Xu Tianxin went to fetch another one, planning to cover his body with a rainless tarpaulin as a quilt.

When Xu Tianxin was arranging the shed, Mrs. Xu was using the small clay pot borrowed from Mr. Liu's family to go to the stream to fetch water.

Mrs. Xu used the torch light to scoop the relatively muddy water in the middle of the stream with a long wooden spoon and put it into the pot.

Speaking of pots, in fact, when I went out, I also brought a small clay pot with me.

It was originally used for boiling milk medicine packets, and it was convenient to think that it would be convenient for my granddaughter to bring a small pot stove to make milk soap. For this reason, the second son also modified a brazier at home, so that the small clay pot could sit on it and burn firewood directly below, which was very easy to use.

But this set of guys even gave a full table.

Mrs. Xu remembered that there was no one she knew when she went to sell sets in other counties with a full table, and it was not possible to borrow a pot stove from a Chase shop, so she put this set of guys on a twinkle rope and straddled the neck of the table to take it away.

At present, it is the clay pot of Mr. Liu's family, which looks very dilapidated after not being used for many years. When I turned around and came back from Fucheng to batch goods, I always had to pass by the county seat to pick up the oil I bought, and then return the pot and spoon to Mr. Liu.

Mrs. Xu scooped up water while looking at what everyone was doing.

Liu Laozhu was leading four young men in the village to unload the truck, and after unloading the truck, he led the six mules and oxen to the stream to let the mules and oxen drink.

And he didn't forget to soak the sweat towel he brought with him when he was tired, and he was not in a hurry to wipe the dust on his face, but first wiped the body of the mule and ox.

Mrs. Xu has been here for a month, and she has already understood that people here regard livestock as more important than people, and many men have not even washed their father's feet, but they serve the fields and big animals as if they were serving their ancestors.

She reminded: "Stay away from me, go downstream", and she scooped up the water that people drink.

After reminding, he turned to look at the others.

The rest of the people were scattered around, or picking up or picking up some dry grass and branches, which were used for a while to make a fire.

Among these people, the third child of her family has gone the farthest.

There is not even a shack nearby, let alone a village.

It's the second half of the night again, it's windy today, there is no moon in the sky, Mrs. Xu is more than enough to see the light of the torch of the third child, and when she sees that she is going farther and farther, she shouts at ease: "Just enough firewood to boil water, come back quickly!" "Who knows what will happen with a foot deep and a foot shallow.

Liu Laozhu admired the eldest sister of the Xu family, and rushed to spend half a night outside the road all day, and slept late at his eldest brother's house last night, and he was still full of energy.

Xu Youcang didn't listen to the old lady, and thought that he would pick up more hay and branches, so that it would be enough to burn the fire in the middle of the night.

Xu Youcang was worried that there would be no quilts and cotton clothes, and his mother and niece would live outdoors and suffer from the cold.

Second, he was worried that the more wilderness mats there were, the easier it would be for wolves to come out at night.

Xu Youcang planned not to sleep tonight, he was in good health, and it was okay not to sleep for a few days. Tonight, I will sit in front of the small tent and bake the fire and guard the door for my mother and niece.

Fear of wolves is also the main reason why everyone is no longer greedy for the dark.

I heard Uncle Li Zheng say that further forward is a continuous series of mountains, one next to the other, standing on the side of the road.

During the day, it is fine, people do not recruit wild beasts, and wild beasts do not lack food and drink in autumn and do not go down the mountain casually, but at night it is difficult to say, if you go there and settle down, it is very unsafe.

Because of this, everyone discussed it, and chose to camp in the desert tonight, and wait for tomorrow morning to sleep enough to continue the journey.

It is said that after another day and a half, nearly two days, you will be able to arrive at the inn that Boss Liu co-opened with others to rest. Seeing the inn opened by Boss Liu also means that the journey is more than halfway through.

At that time, after entering the inn, he could sleep again and recharge his energy for the next three days.

Xu Youcang was disobedient, still holding a torch in the distance to look for hay, and came back thanks to others picking up some points, otherwise Mrs. Xu would not be able to cook if she wanted to.

Mrs. Xu put a pot of water on the firewood to cook, and she opened a palm-sized oil bag and sprinkled some salt into the water, which was the "soup".

It's not that they are reluctant, they have to make themselves miserable, as if they can't even afford to drink egg drop soup, it's that they can't take the egg thing along the way.

Therefore, when they could see water on the road, they put some salt in the water to drink, and if people did not eat salt, they would have the strength to hurry.

When there is no water, they will take out the small pickles given by each family and eat two bites of baked potatoes and roasted sweet potatoes.

Mrs. Xu didn't bring a small pickle when she set off, she brought out a small jar of chili sauce, but tonight she specified that she was reluctant to give everyone to eat.

Even the boys in the village looked at her expectantly, shouting that the hot sauce she made was delicious and fragrant on the potatoes.

But I'm not in a hurry, I'm going to take a break soon, and I'm still eating hot sauce, and I'm thinking about beautiful things.

The small jar of hot sauce she brought with her was for the return trip. On the way back, the mule cart will be full of goods, and even she and her granddaughter will no longer be able to travel by car, so they have to walk, which shows how hard it is to return.

At that point, let this group eat better.

In Liu Laozhu's words, at least he won't let everyone eat potatoes anymore when he comes back, and he will buy some dry food to take away before he sets off from Fucheng.

After Mrs. Xu boiled the water, she threw the potatoes and sweet potatoes in the fire.

Remembering that Mrs. Liu's daughter-in-law stuffed two ears of raw corn for her this morning, Mrs. Xu found them out of the basket, put them on a corn stand with a long branch, roasted them on the fire, and left them for her granddaughter.

Before Xu Youcang returned, Xu Tianxin had already hid in a small tent and finished eating the roasted corn.

It's not that I deliberately avoided it, but the smell of stinky feet on the side of the tent and near the fire is very strong. Grandpa Lizheng and those uncles took off their shoes for relaxation and sat on the side peeling potatoes.

Mrs. Xu entered the tent, watched her granddaughter finish eating roasted corn, and asked if she was full, do you want sweet potatoes, and the milk will open the hot sauce for you to eat again?

Xu Tianxin shook his head and said that he wouldn't eat so much.

Mrs. Xu didn't persuade her more, but took the corn cob in her granddaughter's hand, and handed the soft corn leaves to her granddaughter: "Let's go, the milk will take you to the toilet first, and you can wipe your face with a handkerchief and go to sleep." ”

Corn leaves are used by granddaughters to go to the toilet.

Mrs. Xu uses corn cobs.

The grandfather and grandson were draped in an oilcloth and spread their arms to cover each other like eagles catching chickens.

(End of chapter)