The Republic of China that Lu Xihua came to is not like the ten-mile ocean field and the wind and snow in the world movies and television, more of a starvation and selling children, in the short eight years since he came, there have been more than 700 battles between the northern warlords, and many places are really bandits running all over the ground and there are no people for hundreds of miles.

At this moment, there was a "hey!yo!" from the river in front of him. Hey!" Hearing this voice, Lao Yu glanced at the side of the boat and said, "Big man, keep to the left!"

"Gotcha!" the eldest son Yu Dong heard Lao Yu's words, and gently turned the oar in a different direction, and the sailboat moved along the river to the center of the river.

Lu Xihua was surprised when he saw a long string of wooden rafts on the right, going down the river and passing by the sailboat he was on. A middle-aged man on the wooden platoon raised his hand and made a few gestures to Lao Yu, and Lao Yu also responded quickly.

Talking about the sad matter of the boat owner just now, Lu Xihua changed the topic at this time, "I watched the wooden raft in the river go down the river, but you sailboats are going upstream, will something happen? What if it hits?"

"Mr. Lu is a scholar, so he doesn't know anything. It is common for this wooden raft to collide with the boat, and the master on the wooden raft just now shouted loudly, just to remind me that there is a wooden raft in front of the boat. I relied on sails and oars, and I walked closer to the river, so he reminded me to avoid it. After all, my ship is small, so I can adjust the direction. Lao Yu explained.

Lu Xihua nodded, "I see. ”

Lao Yu continued, "When this boat platoon collides, it is generally the wooden platoon that is mainly responsible, which is a common rule, so the master on the wooden platoon shouted loudly just now." There is also a little story in it, which I have heard from elsewhere, and if the gentleman wishes, I will tell it, and it should be a joke. ”

Lu Xihua smiled, "Thank you so much." ”

Lao Yu patted the head of the thin man, motioned him to go to the bow of the boat to watch, and reminded him if there was a situation, and pulled Lu Xihua to sit on the board of the boat. Now the sun is big, the river breeze is slow, and the plank that the fine man just wiped has dried up, and it is clean and tidy enough to sit on the spot. Lu Xihua is not a fake Taoism, he sat down, Lao Yu was happy in his heart, this Mr. Lu was refreshing, he was really a good person, so he told the story with a smile.

"In the past, in Hankou, there were several accidents of collisions between ships and rows every year in the former dynasties, although they were all good men on the water, they were easy to talk about during the day, but they were negligent at night, and there was always no time to avoid them. Generally, the accident is a small boat, if the big ship carries passengers has already entered the river port according to the itinerary to rest, if the cargo needs to travel day and night, it is also the ship closer to the center, there are many boatmen on board, the lights are bright, and the wooden raft can always be found in advance. There were few people in the boat, and it was too late to replace it, so I was a little tired and took a nap and collided with the wooden raft going down the river. The small boats are weak and weak, and most of them are overturned and died when they go down the river. Lao Yu told the story of the situation.

"It was also in the previous dynasty that there was a collision between a wooden platoon and a civilian boat, and the owners of both sides invited lawyers to fight the lawsuit on the basis of reason. At that time, Hankou was still a county, and the magistrate learned that the situation was difficult to conclude the case, and finally the county magistrate came up with an idea to write an article in the respective lawsuits of both parties. This is because the words 'immediately collide' are included in the arguments of both parties, but the writing of 'horse' is different for both sides. The proprietor of the wooden row wrote the character 'horse' as a horse with a horizontal pen of 'yi' at the bottom, which was considered to be a sleepy horse and could not catch the boat, while the character 'horse' on the owner's paper used the '灬' dot as the base, which was considered to be a galloping horse in the run. According to these two words, the magistrate county decided that the wooden row should let the civilian boat pass first, and the wooden row would compensate the civilian boat for a certain loss. Later, a monument was erected at the wharf to explain, and sure enough, there were many fewer such disputes after that, and if something happened, they all dealt with it themselves, and more or less the wooden row had to pay some compensation. ”

When Lu Xihua heard this little story, he was happy, although it was not true or false, the officials in this ancient time were also interesting, because the situation at that time could not be reproduced, and he could only rely on the testimony of both sides to make articles. This master started from the text, and he is also a wonderful talent, who has broken the case and solved the matter, and also set up rules to guide future generations to do things according to the rules, and I can't help but say admiration.

"Since then, whenever there has been a similar collision, whether the boat is going forward or in the wrong direction, the wooden platoon has been primarily responsible. So since then, there is an extra waist brother master on the wooden raft, and when the wooden raft sails, you have to pay full attention to whether there are civilian boats coming ahead, and when you encounter the upper and lower beaches, you have to make a hoarse voice in succession beforehand, "Hey! yo!" Hey!' When the two ships meet, they also use hand signals to indicate their respective courses. Later, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was warned, and the stone monument was damaged, but this rule was retained and was observed by us shippers who supported the ship and placed the goods. ”

In the past few days, the sun is right, there are no twists and turns along the way, everyone arrived in Jingzhou, got off the dock and hired an ox cart, everyone took the car to the mountains, went to Guo Wen's village to see the situation, Guo Wen has been gone for five years, the family still owes the landlord's rent, only grandma and sister are at home, and I don't know what the situation is.

A dilapidated thatched hut in the mountains, with a broken shed in front of the door, and several broken bamboo baskets under the shed, looking dilapidated, and one of the walls has collapsed.

"Mother-in-law! Qiao'er!" Guo Wen got off the ox cart and ran all the way to the home in his memory. Lu Xihua hurriedly motioned for Han Cai'er to follow, afraid that Guo Wen would be impulsive and couldn't think about it. In fact, Lu Xihua had long thought in his heart that the old and the young had no income, and there was only one way to die if they lived in such a dilapidated house, and the key was how they died, whether they were forced to die? or other circumstances.

Lu Xihua paid for the car, let the ox cart turn around and prepare to go back, and walked slowly towards the grass hut.

Guo Wen's cry came from afar, this strong girl, who had gritted her teeth and pushed through in the face of those bullies, bustards, and guests countless times over the years, until now, she cried loudly, and her efforts seemed to be far from working. The grandmother and sister in the hometown finally left, and the two lonely graves on the grass behind the house, one large and one small, showed the two lives that once lived in this house.

Lu Xihua took out some wine, food, melons and fruits, there were no incense candles, so he could only find some wild flowers instead, put them on the graves of Guo Wen's grandmother and sister, found stones and stood on them with handwritten tablets, and finally had some atmosphere.

"Wen Yan'er, is it you?" An aunt came over with a basket in the distance, and Lu Xihua waited for her to take a closer look, it was full of wild vegetables, presumably their family's dinner.

"Huang Xiao, it's you! Do you know how my mother-in-law and Xiaoxiao went?" Guo Wen heard the acquaintance greeting, and hurriedly approached to ask.