In the early autumn of 1783, the Hirosaki Domain of Tohoku Mutsu, an island country.
This is the third year of Tianming.
Since the spring of last year, the Kanto region has been experiencing rainy weather; in early summer, the temperature is still cold, and most people are still wearing winter cotton-padded clothes.
Everything seems to indicate that an ominous era is coming.
Liji and Shino walked tiredly on the road in the forest. Since the freeze last year, they had never eaten serious food. They usually ate wild vegetables, tree roots mixed with barnyard grass to satisfy their hunger.
Half a year ago, the Iwaki volcano belonging to the Hirosaki Domain began to erupt.
The lava erupted from the volcano and the ensuing mudslides destroyed the mountain forests and villages, and the birds and animals in the mountains fled in all directions. The sky full of volcanic ash also buried farmland, and all crops died; the land full of lava and mudslides could no longer be cultivated.
The villagers waited for dozens of days, and sent messengers to the feudal government several times, but except for the officials from the feudal clan who sent two men to check, nothing happened.
Without waiting for relief, villagers in Liji's village began to flee.
But if they are all gone, what will happen to the fields? So even though survival is difficult day after day, and the food stored in each family's home is gradually used up, some people still stay in the village and wait. Slowly, some starved villagers became food for the villagers who stayed behind. What's more, everyone exchanges wives with each other. Anyway, it's not because of your own feelings, so let's do it...
Liji didn't want to eat human flesh, and he didn't want his wife Shino to be eaten, so they had no choice but to escape.
He thought that he might be able to help his distant relatives who had defected to Kyoto, even though they had no contact with him for two generations.
So before dawn, Liji and his wife Shino packed up the tattered belongings at home and quietly left the village.
At noon, one hand was holding the big bag on his back, and the other hand was holding his trembling wife Shino, who was already hungry, walking on the road in the mountains. At this moment, Li Ji felt like the world was spinning, his chest was pressed against his back, and he was very dizzy.
But, we have to leave no matter what!
I don’t know how long they had been walking, but just as Liji was hobbling with his wife, he suddenly smelled a burst of fragrance coming from the woods in front of him.
It smells so good! Although he had never smelled this kind of smell, Keliji instinctively thought that it must be food!
Rikichi and his wife Shino walked quickly in the direction of the aroma wafting regardless of the cost. But their weak bodies could no longer withstand the sudden movement, and both of them fell to the ground with their soles mixed with their feet. However, they rolled over and found it difficult to get up. They had to crawl over.
After climbing through a bush of low shrubs, the couple smelled the fragrance and came closer.
At this time, a not-unsightly face suddenly appeared in front of them, holding a bowl of food with an inexplicable aroma with a smile, and said to Li Ji in a weird accent: "Want to eat?"
…
Li Ji and his wife saw this man with short hair squatting in front of them in a daze.
"Monk?" This was the couple's last thought before they fainted.
"I'll go! Why did you faint?" The man said helplessly. He was holding food in one hand, but the other hand was behind his back. The short knife in his hand was shining brightly in the sunlight behind him.
In a daze, Liji felt that someone was feeding something into his mouth. He swallowed instinctively, and gradually he felt that the feeling in his empty stomach was no longer so uncomfortable.
I don't know how long it took, but Li Ji woke up from his coma. As soon as he opened his eyes, he was dazzled by the light of the bonfire next to him and closed his eyes again. The firelight was very warm on his body. Then, he thought of his wife Shino, so he called his wife's name.
"Liji, I'm here."
Shino's voice came from the side. Li Ji opened his eyes and looked around, seeing his wife running towards him.
"Shino, Shino. What happened? We seemed to have fainted, right?" Liji tried hard to figure out what happened.
"Thank you, sir." Shino said as he helped her husband up. Only then did Liji realize that it was already dusk.
"You two are both awake. Hey, you scared me." The weird accent in Li Ji's memory before he fell into coma rang out again. I saw a very tall young man walking out from behind a big tree, with short hair, wearing strange clothes, and holding a strange black thing in his hand.
The young man walked up to Li Ji and the two of them, knelt down and said, "Your name is Li Ji, and she is your wife? How about it? Do you understand what I say? Do you understand how to do your work?"
Both of them understood the first sentence, but what was the second sentence about?
Looking at the young man's tall and strong figure, the couple shrank their necks, lowered their heads, and nodded.
"Ha. It's good if you can understand." The young man grinned and said to Li Ji with gestures: "After you passed out, I fed you some food."
When Li Ji heard this, he quickly took his wife and knelt down to salute. He said to the young man with a tearful voice: "We escaped from Yanmu Mountain. The village suffered a big disaster, the wildfire broke out, and the crops were all destroyed, all destroyed!"
Liji couldn't help but feel extremely miserable when he thought that the several acres of land he had rented had been destroyed. What would he do in the future? !
The young man helped the couple up and sat up, and said to Liji: "Speak slowly, speak slowly."
"Yes, sir." Liji wiped his tears with his tattered sleeves and continued: "Since last spring, the weather has never gotten warmer. Heavy rains and cold winds have continued. Until early summer, the weather was still very cold. By September In the middle of the month, the rice planted was still green and not mature at all.
When the New Year comes around, I think God will be kind and give the poor a way to survive. It turned out to be still cold, stormy and rainy. Before the rice was planted in the fields, a wildfire broke out in Yanmu Mountain, and the fields were destroyed by lava and mudslides.
The village elders said that the feudal lord would distribute relief, so we kept waiting. But a few months later, all the food stored at home was used up, and there was no relief from the feudal clan. Not to mention wild vegetables around the village. Even the rats were dug up and caught, and they still ate people... I thought, instead of starving to death in the village, it would be better to escape and maybe there would be a way to survive. "
"Then you met me." The young man looked at the two young couples in front of him who were no more than 1.6 meters tall and said: "You said you are small and not big, but you can really carry it. How can you carry such a big package?" Are you taking all your belongings with you? It’s like a donkey.”
Li Ji and his wife felt that this adult was saying weird things again because they didn't understand the last sentence he said.
The young man thought for a moment and asked, "How long have you been without food?"
Before Liji could think clearly, Shino on the side said: "The village ran out of food more than three months ago. Except for those who went out to look for food, the elders told the old and young not to run around and to stay at home and lie down, so that they could not So hungry."
The young man murmured to himself after hearing this, and the couple was confused. However, Li Ji discovered that when the young man was questioning the couple, he kept holding the strange black thing in his right hand.
Mr. and Mrs. Liji kept kneeling on the ground obediently until their knees were numb. Then the young man remembered that the couple had been kneeling all the time, and then said: "Get up."
Gu~~gu~~" Li Ji felt that his stomach was growling. After he stood up, he glanced at his wife and found that her face was red.
After the couple passed out together, they were first fed some porridge by the young man. After Shino woke up, he was worried about Li Ji, so he didn't eat.
The young man smiled and said, "Are you hungry? Wait a moment."
After that, he turned around and walked behind a big tree not far away on the left. After a while, he turned around and waved to them to come over.
Liji and Shino looked at each other, plucked up their courage, and walked over. He thought that since this young man could save the two of him, he probably wouldn't do harm for the sake of property.
As the two followed the young man around the big tree, Liji and Shino couldn't help but froze.
Under the big tree, there was a blue mat, which glowed in the sunset and looked like an oilcloth. On top of the oilcloth, there were two or three large cardboard boxes stacked.
The young man called the two of them closer and opened a box with one hand.
"This is porridge." As he said this, he took out two palm-length jars from the box and handed them to Li Ji.
Then I grabbed three or four bags from another cardboard box. Li Ji could see clearly. The bag was actually transparent, and he could clearly see the contents inside the bag. But what is that thing? It had a golden appearance and looked soft, something he had never seen before.
The young man dropped the rest of the bags on the blue mat at his feet, holding only one in his hand. He grabbed the bag with one hand and tore open the transparent bag with his teeth. Suddenly, a scent of milk mixed with wheat came out. Li Ji and his wife swallowed in dissatisfaction. After the young man handed the contents of the bag to them, they looked at it in a daze.
The young man made an eating gesture: "Eat."
Li Ji took a small bite, and the rich taste of milk mixed with wheat filled his mouth. He felt relieved and took another big bite.
"It's actually red bean filling...is this wagashi?!"
When Liji was a child, he went to the feudal city with his father and ate it once in the castle town. But the wagashi in my hand was actually more delicious than the ones I had eaten before!
Liji had never eaten such delicious food. As he ate, he thought about how lucky he was to escape from the village, the hardships he and Shino had along the way, and how all the utensils handed down from his father had been replaced by food. He began to cry uncontrollably. fall.
"Oh. I forgot. You still don't know how to open this." The young man patted his head, casually took the porridge jar in Liji's hand, opened it for him, and handed it back to him; then he helped Shino also put the porridge jar away. Open.
Shino took the porridge pot and lid, looked at it, and said in surprise: "Hey, there is a small spoon here."
Hearing the sound and looking around, he saw a transparent folding spoon of unknown material fixed on the inside of the lid.
The young man explained: "You can take this down and use it for porridge."
After Rikichi and Shino ate two pieces of red bean bread and two cans of porridge respectively, the young man stopped letting them eat any more. He explained that people who have been hungry for many days should not eat too much in one meal, as this will damage their intestines and stomach.
The young people also ate the same as the couple, but Li Ji found that the young people always looked disgusting when eating. He didn't understand, how could such delicious food taste bad?
After eating the food, Liji squatted under the tree and thought for a while, and then whispered to his wife. The two immediately stood up, walked to the young man, and knelt down.
"Thank you very much for your shelter and reward! I, I..." Liji stumbled for a long time, and finally bowed his head and said: "I hope you can take me and my wife in, and I am willing to serve you as a slave."
The young man was stunned: "What? You want to be my servant?"
"The land can no longer be cultivated. I heard you say that the famine will last for a long time. We are really desperate. Please have mercy on us, sir!" After saying that, Liji and Shino kowtowed to the young man.
The young man's eyes were rolling, and after a while he said: "Okay. Follow me for now. What happens next depends on your fate."
Liji and his wife were very happy when they heard this. He quickly kowtowed heavily and said, "I haven't asked you what your surname is yet."
The young man touched his short hair and said, "My surname is Zhao, Zhao Xin."
The protagonist of our story is this young man Zhao Xin.
