"Planting three crops of rice a year?" Chen Song asked in surprise. (I was confused at the end of the previous chapter and it was wrong. It has been corrected)
Li Ping'an nodded and said: "Yes, rice is harvested three times a year, but it can only be found further south. Most areas still have continuous rice farming like we do here. After planting early rice, we will plant late rice."
After figuring it out, Chen Song calmed down a little. He thought that rice was harvested three times a year in the south. If that were the case, then he would not hesitate to flee south. Even if the yield was not high, Three crops will yield more than two crops.
Since most places in the south still grow two crops of rice a year like they do here, we need to weigh it, "I heard that there are more rivers in the south and it is hot and rainy? Will floods occur easily?"
"If you put it like that, there is less rain in the north, but there will also be droughts. There are many mountains in the west, and there are often disasters caused by earth dragons. Uncle Asong, there will be natural disasters wherever you go. Even if you stay here, isn't it just now? Has there been a flood? The top priority is to survive. It’s not a good place to stay here for a long time. I’ve said all I can say here. You’d better make a final decision as soon as possible.”
After speaking, Li Ping'an stopped talking and helped his mother pack the belongings. Although he felt guilty for the death of the old village chief Chen An, if Chen Song delayed making a decision, he would not run away with him and wait until he made a decision.
Chen Song left in a hurry again. He still needed to go back to discuss with his family. As for how other people in the village ultimately decide, he can't interfere too much.
…
At that time, I had to give up a lot of things when I moved up the mountain. Now I have to embark on the road to escape the famine, and I can take even less things with me. Chen Dajuan is reluctant to part with anything, but Li Ping'an is not reluctant to part with it, but he has not escaped from the famine either. Which items to bring are not necessary and I am not sure.
Fortunately, the elders of the Li family had experience in escaping. Li Pingan, her grandmother Zhou and aunt Li Dafang gave them advice from time to time. Li Pingan followed what they said, taking what should be taken and discarding what should be discarded. It was very straightforward. . But in the end, looking at just a few things, I couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable, and I finally understood why so many people were unwilling to leave their homes.
The originally prosperous days ended up with only pots and pans, a few quilts and a few sets of clothes. I risked my life and left my hometown to go to a place I was unfamiliar with. I had no fields, no house, no money and no food. Everything had to be started from scratch. start.
Not everyone has the courage to start from scratch.
The children felt that the atmosphere was a bit solemn and depressing, and they did not dare to be naughty. They sat quietly next to their brothers and sisters, not daring to take a breath, cautiously, and with confused faces.
Mrs. Zhou sighed when she saw this, and called her three daughters-in-law to comfort her.
Li Ping'an was also irritable, and told Fugui to be optimistic about his younger brothers and sisters, so he ran to Zhang Xiaoshan to tease him. Unexpectedly, as soon as he approached, before he could speak, he heard Chen Taohua softly ask Zhang Xiaoshan: "We really want to leave here." ?"
"It's impossible not to leave. We can't buy food. The granary was burned down again, and there are no grains for summer planting. Moreover, there are corpses everywhere under the mountain, and the plague is prone to occur. Let's leave early and start over in a different place."
"I, I..." Chen Taohua hesitated. Under Zhang Xiaoshan's doubtful gaze, she gritted her teeth and said with red eyes, "I don't really want to leave. I'm afraid Caoya will come back to find us. If we leave, Caoya will You can’t find us.”
Zhang Xiaoshan was silent for a moment and advised: "It's better to leave. Zhaodi is still young. It will be difficult for you two girls to survive if you stay. We don't know whether Caoya is dead or alive. Even if she is still alive, we don't want to come." I hope you will risk your life and wait here for her to come back."
Chen Taohua glanced at the little girl Zhao Di next to her and said nothing.
Zhang Xiaoshan added: "Don't think too much. You two have no news about each other. At least you still have something in mind..."
Li Ping'an didn't finish listening and quietly turned around and left.
At dusk, my uncle Li Silin also came back, holding a girl by the hand.
"The place where the second uncle and the third uncle were hiding from the flood collapsed. Half the village was washed away and buried. No one from the third uncle's family survived. The second uncle's Yan Yatou and Ling Yatou were in someone else's house at the time. Playing with my friends and escaping, the two of them are the only ones left in my second uncle's house. They have been taken care of by the villagers these days. I went to see them today. The villagers who took care of them handed them over to me. What they are going to do next. I'm running away and can't take care of them."
When the Li family fled north, Li Ping'an, his grandfather and his two younger brothers traveled with the family. After going through hardships and death, they finally arrived in Qingfeng County. The government did not arrange them together when the government allocated them. Li Ping'an's second grandfather and his third grandfather They were placed in Shijia Village, a dozen miles away from Xiaochen Village.
During the day, Li Erlin and Zhang Yu went to the county town to inquire about the situation and news. Li Silin went to Shijing Village to talk to his second and third uncles about escaping from famine. They fled together back then, and now they are escaping back together.
Hearing such bad news, Ms. Zhou's heart ached. Looking at the two girls with numb eyes, she couldn't help but feel distressed. The older one was only seven years old, and the younger one was the same age as Jixiang, only five years old. They were still watching helplessly at such a young age. The whole family died in an instant, leaving only the two sisters.
After a long time, Mrs. Zhou regained her composure and said to her three sons: "Take them with you. We will take good care of you on the road. If it weren't for your second uncle and third uncle, we, mother and son, would not have survived to come here."
Li Erlin and the others nodded silently. Their father and Li Sanlin died halfway back then, and Li Dalin broke his leg again. There were only a few women and children left in their family. The second uncle and the third uncle did not despise them as burdens and protected them with all their lives. Only then could they come to Xiaochen Village and settle down alive.
Now that the third uncle's family is dead, there are only two little girls left in the second uncle's family, and they cannot ignore them as a burden.
But this was not the only bad news that Li Silin brought back. His maternal family was also from Shijia Village, and it was his second and third aunts who helped him fall in love with the girl. Faced with the eager look from his wife Shi, he sadly told She and her natal family were also buried, leaving no one alive, and several of them were washed down the mountain and washed away by the flood, and their bodies were not found.
As if Mrs. Shi had been struck by lightning, she collapsed on the ground and cried bitterly. Chen Dajuan, her sister-in-law, and Li Dafang hurriedly tried to comfort her, but they couldn't do it for a while, and when it was time to make dinner, they went back to their own business.
The two little girls Li Silin brought back had no life in their eyes at all. They were at the mercy of others like puppets on strings. If they were not told to sit down, they would remain standing. When told to sit down, they would sit next to each other. Sitting, silent and motionless.
As if he had lost his soul.
Fortunately, I still know how to eat. After the dinner is ready, each of them is handed a bowl. They hold the bowl and eat in small mouthfuls. They eat very slowly. Everyone has finished eating, and there is still a little half of the bowl left in their bowls. , I didn’t finish the meal until it was time to wash the dishes, and then I took the dishes and chopsticks to wash them myself.
"Big pot, these two sisters are so strange." Xiao Ruyi whispered in Li Pingan's ear.
Li Pingan's face was expressionless, and he couldn't help but cursed again in his heart, this is such a shitty world.
