Ang Lee raised his head and looked around. The bamboo forest in front of him was very thick, at least one to two li. With so much bamboo, how long would it take to chop it down? It would be too time-consuming, so it was better to go around it.
However, at least a mile on both sides of the road was densely packed with bamboo. Li An was stumped as to where to go around it. The boatman clearly did not expect that after not coming here for so many years, the mountain path would be completely blocked by bamboo. This caught him off guard.
"Climb up and see if there's a way around it."
Ang Lee looked at a guard and requested.
When the guard heard the order, he immediately climbed to the top of the tree and carefully observed the surrounding road conditions. However, he didn't find anything of value because the surrounding trees were too dense. The line of sight was very poor. He couldn't even see a little further away.
"Assistant Minister Li, I can't see clearly! I can't see anything clearly. "
The guard helplessly came down, looking a little dejected.
The boatman's forehead was covered in sweat. He was the one who led the way, but the path was broken. Who should bear the responsibility? Of course, it was the boatman.
"If there's no other way, we can only go back the way we came."
Ang Lee did not want to make things difficult for the boatman. If they got lost in the mountain, it would not be a joke. It was fine during the day, but once night fell, it would be very bad. They would be trapped in the mountain and die.
Just as Ang Lee and the rest were about to give up looking for a path, they heard the sound of a flute. Clearly, there were people nearby and they were approaching. If there was something wrong with them, it would be best.
Soon, two herb-gatherers, one old and one young, appeared in Ang Lee's line of sight. From their appearance, both of them were honest herb-gatherers and were trustworthy.
The old man carried a medicine basket on his back, while the young man held a flute. There was also a sharp tiger head at his waist, probably used to guard against wild beasts. The two of them were also shocked when they saw Li An's group. They probably didn't expect that there would be so many people in such a sparsely populated forest!
"You are herb-gatherers."
Ang Lee stepped forward and asked.
"This old man is a farmer at the foot of the mountain. In his free time, he would occasionally go up the mountain to gather herbs to supplement his family."
The old man replied.
"Haha! That's great. We're lost and don't know how to get down the mountain. Please show us the way. "
The boatman said excitedly.
The old man thought for a moment and said, "There are no roads on this mountain. I can't show you the way. Let my grandson take you down the mountain!"
Obviously, because there were no obvious signs, there was no way to show the way. The old man didn't know how to show the way, but he and his grandson both knew the way and knew how to get down the mountain. However, they couldn't tell. The situation they encountered on the way was too complicated, and there were no road signs. They could only rely on their experience to get up and down the mountain. Only by walking a few times could they know the way.
"Grandpa, there are wild beasts on the mountain. I don't feel safe leaving you alone."
The young man looked like a tiger. Although he was not yet an adult, his strength was definitely not small. He should not be afraid of wild beasts.
The old man laughed and said, "Bastard, this old man has been on this mountain for decades. How could I be eaten by a wolf? Don't worry and go down!"
Ang Lee was also worried about the old man's safety on the mountain, so he said, "Old man, how much money can you make by picking herbs? Let's go down the mountain together! I'll pay for the loss of picking herbs. Here, take it. "
Ang Lee stuffed a handful of gold into the old man's hand and walked down the mountain with a smile.
"Ouch! So much. How can I accept this? This old man can't take it. "
The old man refused.
"Old man, take it! You deserve it. Don't be so polite anymore. "
Ang Lee said with a smile.
It was not easy for the old man to make money by picking herbs. Since Ang Lee really wanted to give it to him, the old man no longer held back after being polite.
"Old man, are there a lot of herbs in this mountain? How much can you get at one time? "
Ang Lee asked.
The old man said, "There are a lot of herbs on Qingcheng Mountain. There are herbs all over the ground. However, the valuable ones depend on luck. If you're lucky, you can make a lot of money. If you're unlucky, you can't make much money."
This was not a direct answer. It was a perfunctory answer. He didn't even give a rough income.
"Are there wild beasts in this mountain? You all have axes. "
Ang Lee continued to ask.
The old man said, "There are a lot of wolf pups and some other wild beasts. However, when have we ever been afraid of wild beasts? We can kill one with an axe."
The old man's body was not very strong. Obviously, he was exaggerating. With his small body, he could kill a wild beast with an axe. Obviously, he was bragging.
However, Mount Qingcheng was densely wooded, and there was no shortage of prey for carnivores. Therefore, under normal circumstances, they would not take the initiative to attack human beings, because attacking human beings with weapons was a risky behavior, and it was very likely that they would get hurt. Wild beasts that were not starving would not attack human beings with weapons at will. Therefore, the old man had no chance to chop down the wild beast with an axe.
"There are a lot of wolf pups? I haven't met a single one along the way. "
Ang Lee said with a smile. Then, he looked at the old man and continued to ask, "I heard that there are bandits on the remote paths of Qingcheng Mountain. Is it true?"
Hearing this, the old man said with a smile, "There are no bandits. It's just to scare people. There aren't many people on this mountain. Moreover, there are only poor people like me. Even if bandits rob people, what can they get? If there are no treasures to rob, why would bandits stay on Qingcheng Mountain? However, there are a lot of bandits on Wenshui. There are a lot of merchant ships on that waterway, so you can rob a lot of good things. "
Hearing this, the boatman said with a smile, "Old brother! I'm a boatman on Wenshui. There are indeed a lot of bandits. A few days ago, we killed thirty bandits from Xipu County. "
"Killing thirty bandits? That's so powerful. Other than soldiers, ordinary people can't be so capable."
The old man said.
The boatman said, "Isn't that so? These are all soldiers from the capital. They're all soldiers of the Dragon Martial Army. "
"Oh, so you're all soldiers from the capital. Sorry for the lack of manners."
The old man somewhat nervously said.
Ang Lee waved his hand and said, "It's just killing a bunch of small bandits. It's not worth mentioning, not worth mentioning!"
"Then you must have a lot of people?"
The old man asked.
"Not many, just three hundred soldiers."
Ang Lee said.
They chatted as they walked, and it was truly quite a joyous journey. Without realizing it, they were almost at the foot of the mountain. The boatman could already see the path he had once taken down the mountain. At this point, even without the old man leading the way, Ang Lee's group could smoothly descend the mountain.
"Old brother, what's up with that bamboo forest we ran into? I remember that there wasn't a bamboo forest there before! It blocked the path. If we hadn't run into old brother, we wouldn't have been able to descend the mountain. "
The boatman suddenly asked.
The old man said, "The mountain path in that place is too dangerous. Several people in our village were injured when they walked there. Later, we thought about it and directly planted a bamboo forest in that place. That way, no one would take a shortcut there, and no one would be injured. Although the new path takes a long detour, it's much safer."
After saying that, he gave a simple and honest smile.
The boatman suddenly understood. It seemed that the large bamboo forest was man-made. This man-made forest almost caused Ang Lee's group to have to take the long way back.
Of course, the scale of the man-made forest was mainly the result of natural reproduction. When the bamboo was first planted, there were only a few rows of bamboo. However, bamboo's ability to reproduce was too strong. As long as the bamboo's roots reached a place, it was an area where the bamboo could reproduce. A row of bamboo could easily reproduce into a large area, even forming a large bamboo forest several li in radius. As long as these bamboos were given a few years to reproduce, it was completely possible to achieve this.
Although he was a little vexed, the boatman was still very certain of the villagers' actions. After all, this place was truly dangerous. One needed to be very careful to safely pass through. Once the road was slippery on a rainy day, it was very easy to fall. Sealing off this place with a bamboo forest was also a very good measure.
"Using a bamboo forest to seal off the most dangerous path is really a good idea. Unfortunately, I almost couldn't find my way!"
The boatman said with a sigh.
When the old man heard this, he said, "Old brother's heart is really big. We haven't walked for more than ten years, and you still dare to walk, haha!"
Soon, the group walked to the foot of the mountain and arrived at the old man's village.
This small village was not big. There were only a few dozen families, and the population was only a little more than a hundred, including all the elderly and children. Most of the villagers were farmers. Of course, they would also pick herbs, chop firewood, hunt, and other jobs as long as they could earn money. The small village was not rich. The villagers needed to do some sideline jobs to better improve their living standards.
"Come to our village and have a seat!"
The old man invited.
Ang Lee looked at the sky and felt that it was still early. It was better to have a look and understand the situation of this village.
As soon as he entered the village, Ang Lee smelled a strong fragrance of flowers. Although this small village was not big, many fruit trees were planted. Almost every family's front and back were planted with various varieties of fruit trees. There were kiwis, peach trees, and many other varieties of fruit trees. There were many varieties of fruit trees. It could be seen that the villagers were very fond of fruits.
In fact, the biggest advantage of fruits was that they were very hardy. As long as they were planted, there was almost no need to worry about them. There was no need to fertilize or water them. As long as they were planted, there would be a harvest in the future. Vegetables and so on needed to be watered and fertilized to make the vegetables grow well. It was relatively more troublesome.
Of course, the output of fruits was not as good as that of vegetables. Fruits were usually only harvested once a year, but vegetables could be harvested many times a year. The output was much larger than that of fruits. Of course, the investment of money and time would be more. It needed to be taken care of diligently. In the case of too much land, naturally, it was impossible to take care of it.
Because the area of this village was relatively large and the number of households was relatively small, each household had a very large vegetable garden. Each family's vegetable garden had several acres of land. It was obviously a waste to use so much land to grow vegetables. They couldn't afford to spend so much energy on it, and there was no need to grow so much. Therefore, they only needed to set aside a part to grow vegetables, and the rest to grow fruits. This was the most optimal strategy.
As a result, there were a lot of fruit trees in this village. Many fruit trees were planted near each house. In spring, one could smell the intoxicating fragrance of flowers. In autumn, one could eat delicious fruits.
It was spring now, so one could smell a very obvious fragrance. All kinds of fruits were basically blooming, and there were all kinds of fragrances. It made people feel very comfortable.
This scene reminded Ang Lee of the village when he was a child. It was also a beautiful village full of fruit trees. There were different varieties of fruit trees everywhere. The front and back of every household were full of them. In spring, Ang Lee's favorite time was to break the branches of the fruit trees full of blooming flowers and then smell the fragrance of these flowers. He would feel very happy. Although this was suspected of destroying the fruit trees, breaking a few branches of the fruit trees did not have much impact on the growth of the entire fruit tree. In autumn, these fruit trees could still grow a lot of big and friendly fruits.
Ang Lee could remember that there were probably only a few kinds of fruit trees. There were more persimmon trees and peach trees. There were also pear trees, apple trees, apricot trees, and date trees.
Of course, there were also some wild fruit trees. Because they were all wild, the taste was not very good, so he could not remember them clearly. However, with the development of the village, the fruit trees became fewer and fewer. More and more people chose to cut down the fruit trees and plant white poplar trees that would not bear fruit.
As for the reasons for cutting down the fruit trees, there were naturally many aspects. First of all, the benefits of the fruit trees were not high. The fruit trees in the front and back of the house were not rationally pruned. Many fruit trees grew very tall, and the quality of the fruit was not good, especially when it was very troublesome to collect. It was more dangerous to climb to a high trunk. Even if all the fruits were taken down, they could not be sold for much money.
When the economic development was not good, as long as they could eat, no one would care about these things. But with the improvement of the economic situation, people's mood to make money was very urgent. Agriculture did not make money, industry made money, and the industrial wood factory needed wood. The fruit trees grew slowly, and the economic benefits were not good. Sawing the fruit trees and planting the fast-growing white poplar trees could be sold every few years. The economic benefits were very considerable.
Another point was that it was easy to get into trouble. It was fine when the fruit was blooming, but once the fruit was about to ripen, many naughty children would come to steal the fruit. Climbing the tree was a dangerous time. If the children who stole the fruit fell from the tree, it was not a joke. The owner of the fruit tree would have to bear the responsibility. Some children liked to use stones to smash the fruit on the tree. When the stones fell, it was easy to hurt people. They might even fall on the owner's house, causing damage to the owner.
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