From Chief to Ball

After the corn and rice were cooked, the soldiers took out the wooden bowls they carried on their backs and lined up to receive the food, while the woman retreated obediently. At this time, she knew that she could not eat, and she needed to reward herself after the master finished eating .

This is something even a child knows, so even if he was only six or seven years old, the child did not complain about being hungry, but skillfully picked up a few snails by the river and pulled out a few thatch roots.

But two wooden bowls were handed to the woman, which were empty.

"When you're hungry, serve your own food and eat as much as you want. Also, when you go to Yucheng in the future, you must abide by the rules and not eat snails."

A former slave soldier approached the boy, threw the boy's snails back into the water, and gave him a small piece of steamed dried fish.

The child looked at his mother in a daze, and the woman stood there holding two empty bowls.

The two empty bowls were heavier than the full rice, because what the other party gave her was not rice, but a bowl that could hold rice.

Holding two bowls, the woman approached the cooked corn and rice, and said with some coyness and embarrassment: "The child is really hungry, and you don't allow him to eat snails, no no... I'm not saying you are wrong, It's the child, he's hungry..."

It was a bit incoherent in the middle of the speech, but the soldiers who had been slaves did not laugh. They understood this woman's thoughts very well, because they had been slaves, and the scars on some people's bodies were left by stealing a bite of food.

He handed over the wooden shovel to hold the rice and said: "Eat, you don't need any other reason to eat, just eat when you are hungry. But your corn rice is a bit hard to cook, it's not Tao Li, put more water next time. "

This was originally a word to relieve the atmosphere, but it was not good at this time. The woman took the wooden shovel a little scared, and kept explaining that she must be careful next time when using an iron pan for the first time, and so on.

She was very hungry, and this meal was the first time she ate it under the pretext of being hungry.

It was a simple reason to eat because I was hungry, but it made this woman feel as if the sky had changed.It turns out that being hungry is also a reason to eat...

The corn rice was indeed a bit hard, and when the woman ate it, it seemed to be more delicious than the little meat that the master gave her after sleeping with her a long time ago. She didn't need that bit of salted fish or pickled vegetables, so she ate two bowls by herself.

After eating and washing the dishes, the woman carefully put away the bowls for herself and the child, and hid them in her bosom for fear of losing them.

In her eyes, this is no longer a wooden bowl, but the right to serve food in a wooden bowl.

This simple wooden bowl that is not easy to break is very important to her. Her biggest dream before was to be able to eat enough corn and rice every day, but now this bowl should not be snatched away or broken.

So much so that when the strong man who was bitten by her before came to ask her name, she thought for a while and said that her name was bowl and her seven-year-old child was called chopsticks.

In fact, she has no name at all. When she was very young, her mother was still alive, and she vaguely remembered that her mother called her Yan'er at that time, but later her mother said that swallows are cheerful birds that can fly away, so it is better not to call her by this name. A piece of jade pendant in the shape of a swallow was secretly thrown away together.

"Wan, do you know there is a city near here?"

"I know... Lord..."

"My name is Ji Bo, not the master. That's right, we are going to attack those who treat you as slaves, but we are not familiar with this place, can you take us there?"

The woman nodded, then shook her head again.

She doesn't know how to count, but she knows that there are many people in the nearby city, so many people that she can't beat them.In her eyes, this group of people in weird black clothes and holding up black and white banners are the best people, so she doesn't want these people to die.

Ji Bai saw through the woman's mind, and said with a smile: "You don't have to be afraid, you don't need to go to war with us, you just need to take us there."

The woman's face was flushed, and she felt ashamed for the first time, and quickly explained: "It's not that I'm afraid, it's that I'm afraid of you."

Ji Bai smiled, nodded his thanks, and asked, "Is that city big?"

"Big. Lots of people."

"Is it far from here?"

"It's not far, it takes two days to walk."

"Do you know the way?"

"Yes, my original owner bought it back with sheep in that city."

She gestured to a half-sized lamb, indicating that she was exchanged for such a big sheep.

"How about this, you take us. If we can't come back, you can run back here by yourself and wait for a boat to come. If you are caught by them, tell us that we are from Xiacheng, from the west."

After a few instructions, Ji Bo asked some people to escort the captives to the downstream to prepare to build a camp, and the rest gathered together.

He discussed it with Xie, and felt that the movement was a bit small, so after approaching the city, he took advantage of the night to cause some chaos to make the movement bigger.

It's dangerous, but not impossible.Those Dongyi people who escaped must have reported the news, but many young and strong people in the city followed Qiongxi to go out to fight, and not many stayed behind.If you are looking for an opportunity at night, and you don't know how many people are outside, the best way is to stick to it, so that the movement will be much larger.

After resting by the river overnight, the remaining hundred people took advantage of the mist to head towards the hinterland of Dongyi in the early morning of the next day.

Knowing that this is on someone else's land, he walked carefully, and the outpost was sent far away.The distribution of village settlements in this era is extremely sparse, and there is no need to deliberately avoid main roads, because there are few small roads.

In many cases, it is clear that you can walk as close as the valley, but Ji Bo only allows everyone to walk on the mountain ridge, and you are as careful as a mouse going to a barn guarded by a cat to steal food.

Three days later, the exhausted people finally approached the nearest Dongyi city. After finding a forest, Ji Bai left some food for the bowl and told her to let her run back if these people couldn't come back.

Everyone walked out of the woods before dawn, quietly observing this typical Dongyi city.

In fact, the cities and towns all look similar. They are nothing more than a wall of adobe or stones. Outside the city is a piece of land. The slaves need to work collectively on the land to save management costs.

It was the end of June at this time, and the corn had already grown very tall. Through the stretches of fields, one could see a city standing in the distance. It was actually not that big. It should be just a small city among the Dongyi tribes. Yap.

The city wall is about three or four steps high, and there is a circle of river water outside. Basically, all the people within dozens of miles around live in the city.

As for the settlements that are a little further away, it is because the city has reached its limit.Before there were no advanced farm tools, a 34-mile radius of land could support thousands of people. No matter how many people there were, they would have to leave tens of miles away to plant and settle down, because it was impossible to set off in the morning and arrive at the field in the afternoon, so there was no need to do it. alive.

The scale of Xiacheng is larger than this, because Xiacheng produces more per mu of land than here, so it can accommodate more people.

With cattle but no horses, roads but no cars, and boats but no boats, it is a simple and normal city.

This is also the reason why Chen Jian sent these people to create chaos in advance. The speed of information dissemination in this era is too slow.In the previous life of the Zhou Dynasty, the vassal states rebelled and killed the kings, and the Zhou royal family only found out about it more than ten years later...

Hiding in the woods for a day, Ji Bo and others noticed that the city was a little chaotic. Today, there were very few people entering and leaving the city, and even the slaves did not come out to work.

It is idiotic to want to capture this city, but there are many ways to make the city chaotic.

"When do you start?"

"At the end of the month, there is no moon in the first half of the night. We have to wait for the moon in the second half of the night. At that time, it is also the time when the city sleeps most soundly, so we will start at that time. Tell everyone to sleep first, and wake them up when the time comes. .”

Ji Bo forgot the flakes of corn, frowned and said, "It would be nice if we come again in autumn, they won't be able to catch up if the fire burns down. If it burns like this for three to five years, the Dongyi people will not be able to survive." Can't stop."

Nodding his head in agreement, he said again: "That's exactly what Jixia meant, let the battle be fought on the land of the Dongyi people. Didn't he say that Xiacheng is where the people of Xiacheng are, why bother to stick to one city?" Yi? Now we stand here, it is the city wall of Xia City."

The two chatted in low voices and touched back. One would sleep first and the other would keep watch until the moon appeared after midnight.

……

At night, the bowls and chopsticks and the younger children who have not yet been named are hiding in the cave, lighting a fire, and for the first time in their lives, they have a thought of hoping that one side will win and the other side will lose.

Since being a slave, she has seen many wars, but every time she is numb, it doesn't make any sense to her who wins and who loses, since she is a slave anyway.

There is no hatred and no love. When the war is chaotic, he hides and shrinks. After the war, he follows everyone to a new place and continues to be a slave.