The sweater on Ju Ming's body was already torn, with scratched holes everywhere.

He took off his sweater and cut it into several pieces with his sword. Then he put the sword back into its sheath, carefully wrapped the strips of tattered sweater around the scabbard and hilt, and tied it tightly with a few shoelaces.

Strict sword control was implemented in the Song Dynasty. The Eight-sided Han Sword is definitely a prohibited item and cannot be exposed to strangers!

After hiding their weapons, the father and son followed the sound of horses and walked towards the depths of the tea farm.

After about ten minutes, the two of them looked disappointed - there was indeed a horse there, but there was no trace of humans at all.

It can be seen that the horse has a tall frame and its fur is brown. However, it is very skinny, with every rib protruding, and the horse's belly has been completely deflated, which reminded Ju Ming of the starving Africans in the photo.

A long rope is tied to the horse's head, and the rope is messily wrapped around the tea tree.

With the horse as the center of the circle, the tea trees and weeds in the surrounding area of ​​three to four meters were eaten bare. It is estimated that all the edible ones have been eaten. The horse was eager to break free, so it ran and jumped around, causing the rope to become more and more tangled.

The shorter it is, set it completely next to a tea tree.

Seeing two humans coming, the horse first took a step back in panic, then shook its head as if asking for help.

Ju Ming came closer to check and found that the horse's neck had been strangled with many scars. Some of the scars had scabs, while others had festered, and there were even live maggots swarming in the wounds.

"There are words here!" Zhu Guoxiang suddenly shouted.

Ju Ming walked to the left rear of the horse and saw that there were brand marks on its left hip, and there were two brand marks on it.

The first place is a large seal with several characters, the key word being "Qin". The second place is a small seal with only a single character "A".

Zhu Ming carefully recalled the information. Perhaps due to the influence of time travel, the relevant papers were quickly recalled. He combined the clues and guessed: "This is a horse bought by the Tea Horse Company from the Hehuang area. It was first sent to Qinfeng Road to buy the horse and file it.

It was then transported to Kaifeng via the Han River and used as a military horse for the imperial army of the Dianqian Division. The character 'A' is the abbreviation of the Dianqian Division number. Some accident occurred during the escort, and the army horse fled to the tea farm and was trapped.

"

"Since it is a military horse, it cannot be kept by private individuals," Zhu Guoxiang swallowed and said hungrily, "I'd rather kill the horse and eat its meat."

Ju Ming did not take action immediately, but said to himself: "If it were the Northern Song Dynasty, the Hanshui horse gang had not yet been customized, and the Hehuang horses were generally used as frontier war horses, and were rarely transported to the prefectures and counties further south.

Even if it was to be transported to Kaifeng, it would be through Tongguan and across the Yellow River. How could it be taken around the Han River? Could it be that we have traveled to the Southern Song Dynasty and this horse is destined for Hangzhou?"

There is too little information and I can't understand it.

Zhu Guoxiang was so greedy that in his eyes, this army horse was just a piece of barbecue.

"Qiang!"

Ju Ming took off the shoelaces wrapped around the hilt of the sword, drew the sword out of its sheath, and planned to kill the horse.

The horse turned to look at him, as if he understood human nature, and there was a hint of pleading in his eyes.

Ju Ming looked at the yellow gelding and couldn't help but feel soft. He couldn't kill him. He asked his father: "How about letting it go?"

Zhu Guoxiang was silent for a few seconds, nodded and said, "That's okay."

Ju Ming stepped forward with his sword in hand and carefully cut the rope. The horse did not struggle and just stood there obediently and cooperated with the action.

After cutting all the ropes around the horse's neck, Ju Ming stroked the horse's mane and said, "You are just left to fend for yourself in the mountains. It will be very troublesome for us to take you with you."

The father and son turned around and left, but the horse clung to them and followed them step by step.

When passing the tea tree ahead, he did not forget to eat tea to satisfy his hunger. The horse was obviously starving.

Following them all the way to the river, Ju Ming went to clean the clay pot, took a pot of river water, and put it in front of the horse. The horse quickly lowered its head to drink the water, swaying its tail happily, already treating Ju Ming as its master.

Zhu Guoxiang looked at the white maggots swarming around the wound on the horse's neck and silently went to look for herbs nearby.

After the herbs were found, Ju Ming lit a fire and burned the sword, used the hot blade to dig out the carrion, scraped off the maggots and threw them away. The horse just neighed twice and stood upright until the herbs were applied.

move.

The father and son sat down around the fire, while the horse stood beside it and grazed.

"Let's bake two sweet potatoes." Zhu Ming couldn't bear it anymore, although the 20 kilograms of sweet potatoes would be of great use in the future.

Zhu Guoxiang nodded heavily: "The roasted sweet potatoes are delicious!"

When rolling down the hillside, some sweet potatoes had their skin and flesh broken. The father and son selected the seriously injured ones, built a kiln with soil, and roasted the sweet potatoes in the same way as a kiln chicken.

When they ate the fragrant roasted sweet potatoes, they were so happy that they wanted to cry.

Since I finished eating the snacks I brought, I have been eating wild vegetables to satisfy my hunger. Fortunately, I snatched a small deer from the yellow-throated marten on the way, otherwise I would have been malnourished and unable to trek.

We also encountered many wild animals, but the two of us don’t know how to hunt!

After eating a roasted sweet potato, although he was still hungry, Ju Ming felt strong again. He stood up with his sword and said, "Let's go, Dean Zhu."

The father and son continued to walk along the Han River, followed by a scrawny yellow gelding.

Perhaps it was the good luck brought by the horses, but we only walked for three hours this time. Around four or five o'clock in the afternoon, we actually saw bursts of smoke rising from the front.

"Finally I met a living person." Zhu Ming wanted to cry at this time.

We haven’t seen the houses yet, but the scenery before our eyes is completely different.

The lowlands by the river have been cleared, and instead of endless weed forests, there are large expanses of golden rapeseed flowers.

Further away from the river bank, there are some wheat fields at the foot of the hillside, and the wheat seedlings are lush and growing gratifyingly.

In the wheat field, a few figures can be vaguely seen.

The farmers were wearing short shirts, casually wrapped in linen turbans, and tied with collars on their arms, and were working hard to weed the wheat fields.

"No chewing!"

Ju Ming slapped him in the face and stopped the skinny horse who wanted to eat rapeseed.

This horse is actually quite sensible. After encountering the big bully, it moved along the field ridge obediently.

At regular intervals, the field ridges become slightly wider, and mulberry trees must be planted in the wide areas. First, they can collect mulberry and raise silkworms, which increases farmers' income; second, they can stabilize the field ridges and prevent soil erosion; third, they can prevent others from invading the fields (the mulberry trees are the field boundaries).

, it will be useless to move the field ridge, unless all the roots of the mulberry tree are removed).

After passing through several rape fields, we are already close to the village. There are about a dozen families living here. They are all thatched houses with earth and stone walls and roofs covered with thatch to protect them from rain.

The father and son had been discovered a long time ago. As soon as they reached the entrance of the village, several farmers came over.

The leader was a farmer. He seemed to be in his thirties or forties, or in his forties or fifties. His face was so wrinkled that it was difficult to tell his age.

Before the other party could speak, Ju Ming bowed and saluted: "Hello fellow fellow, my father and son would like to ask for a drink of water."

This move made those farmers unable to survive.

The two endured ten days of hard work overcoming thorns and thorns, and their clothes were all in tatters. Zhu Guoxiang even had a full beard. They both had short hair, as if they had been tortured, or like monks who had gone down the mountain to seek alms.

Ju Ming behaved politely, bowed and bowed, and seemed to be a scholar.

The most important thing is that Ju Ming has a weird accent and I don't know what he is saying.

In fact, it’s nothing, they all belong to the northern dialect system. The difficulty of communication between the two parties can be imagined as if a Henanese meets a Sichuanese, and everyone can understand except for a few rural slangs.

Seeing those farmers standing there stunned, Ju Ming slowed down and spoke again.

The leader of the farmers finally understood and invited them into the village to drink water. He then curiously asked, "Where are you from?"

Zhu Guoxiang has friends who are from northern Shaanxi. The accents of these farmers are relatively similar to northern Shaanxi dialect. He tried his best to imitate: "We came from the south to join our relatives. We met bandits on the way and were teased by the bandits and had our hair cut off. It was not easy.

Just escaped."

"This horse is quite thin," the farmer said intentionally or unintentionally.

Zhu Guoxiang explained: "There is an abandoned tea mountain in front of us, and this beast was entangled in the tea tree with a rope. We rescued it from the trap, and it followed us all the time."

The farmer smiled and said: "It's quite human nature."

Zhu Guoxiang imitated his son and asked, "What's your surname?"

"My surname is Tian, ​​and everyone in the village calls me Tian San," said the farmer.

Zhu Guoxiang introduced himself: "I, Zhu Guoxiang, this is the dog Zhu Ming."

Chatting all the way into the village, Zhu Ming was silent the whole time and quietly observed several farmers next to him.

The farmers were also observing them, sometimes staring at their backpacks, sometimes looking at their skinny horses.

One of them glanced at Ju Ming's shoulder intentionally or unintentionally - the sword wrapped in a torn sweater was carried behind Ju Ming's back, with the hilt protruding from his right shoulder.

The farmers seemed to be walking casually, but in fact they secretly surrounded the father and son, ready to attack immediately if an accident occurred.

Arriving at the farmyard, Tian San asked Hun's family to get a ladle of water.

When the father and son were drinking water, Tian San asked deliberately: "Where are you going?"

Ju Ming tried to slow down his speech: "We came to visit relatives. I heard from the elderly at home that our relatives grow tea here and haven't moved around for decades. But when we came here, the tea mountains along the way were deserted. Where can we find our relatives? From now on.

I don’t know where to settle down.”

Tian San shook his head and sighed: "The tea mountain in front was deserted ten years ago. There are so many good tea trees, no one dares to pick them. If you pick them, you have to pay tax to the government. The tea tax is okay, but I'm afraid it will be excessive.

Miscellaneous donations and errands.”

"Even if we don't pick tea, why don't we plant grain fields?" Zhu Ming asked.

Tian San suddenly became full of resentment: "It is said that Xianggong Cai is carrying out a reform, and he is making land orders. The bigger households have less and less land, and the small households have more and more land. If small households can't survive, they have to devote themselves to farming.

The tenants had to either flee into the mountains. By the second year, the big households would also be given lots of land, and any number of mountains and forests would be considered fertile farmland for the rich families. The big households without a backer in the county government would also have to break up their homes and flee."
To be continued...