Ang Lee and the people of Yugong Village began to chat enthusiastically. According to the elders in the village, their humble little village had been passed down for more than a thousand years. Their ancestors had already settled down here more than a thousand years ago. However, because Mount Red Lotus blocked the road, the villagers had to take a long detour every time they went out. It took a lot of time to go back and forth. In order to save time and make it easier for the villagers to go out, an elder led everyone to dig a tunnel. In the beginning, this decision was naturally opposed by many villagers. After all, Mount Red Lotus was too wide. It was not easy to dig a tunnel that was more than a dozen miles long. Digging a tunnel of such a scale required a lot of time and energy. It was very likely that it would take the efforts of several generations to finally open this tunnel. The villagers who were in charge of leading the way might not live to see this day.
However, the elder who led the way quickly convinced the villagers. In the end, all the villagers worked together to dig the tunnel bit by bit. After several generations of digging, the tunnel was finally opened. It took more than a hundred years, a total of four or five generations.
In order to dig this tunnel, many villagers died from exhaustion. The village specially erected a monument in Mount Red Lotus to commemorate this event. However, one thousand years later, this monument had turned into dust and could no longer be found.
This was because a villager in the village had once learned outside and heard of the story of the Foolish Old Man moving the mountain. Therefore, at that time, the villager who led the group was called the Foolish Old Man. Over time, other people also called him that, and the Foolish Old Man became a great hero in the hearts of all the villagers.
When the tunnel was first opened, the villagers of Yugong Village had disguised the two exits of the tunnel to a certain extent. Generally, outsiders would not be able to discover this tunnel. However, as more and more people discovered the tunnel, the villagers did not bother to disguise it. After all, the tunnel was for people to go through. There was no point in disguising it.
As the village was relatively remote, there were not many people going in and out. Therefore, the path at the two ends of the tunnel was not obvious. If there were too few people walking on it, the path would be easily covered by weeds. There were also many creepers at the entrance of the tunnel. Naturally, no one purposely cleaned these creepers. Over time, the entrance of the tunnel was blocked. It was not easy for outsiders to find the entrance of the tunnel without knowing it.
Of course, as long as the specific location of the entrance of the tunnel was known, these creepers would not affect it. Ang Lee and his group were outsiders. Naturally, it was not easy for them to find the entrance of the tunnel. It was the soldiers who carefully checked the area nearby and walked closer that they found the entrance of the tunnel.
According to the villagers, the people in their village would only go to the county town once every half a month. Every time, they would travel in groups and would never travel alone. After all, this was a mountainous area. Even if they did not consider bad people, they still had to be on guard against wild beasts. It was inevitable that there would be packs of wolves in the mountains. Even if it was a lone wolf, it was still quite scary. A group of people traveling together could reduce the danger to a minimum and prevent too much danger.
The chances of outsiders passing through Yugong Village was very small. This was not a major road. Although it could lead to Pyu, it was a difficult mountain road. It was very difficult to walk. Merchants would not use this road to transport their goods. They preferred to take the eastern trade route. No merchants would choose this road.
After chatting with the villagers of Yugong Village, they found out that there was indeed a problem with the quality of the soil in Mount Red Lotus. They had tried to plant other trees on the mountain, but they all withered. No matter how hard they tried, they could not plant them. They had no choice but to give up.
Fortunately, there were thousands of acres of fertile land near the village. They did not have to worry about survival. As long as they farmed peacefully, they would have enough food to fill their stomachs. Occasionally, they would go to the nearby mountains to hunt. They would also have a good harvest.
Of course, they rarely went to Mount Red Lotus to hunt. There was only one type of tree there. The prey there was pitifully little. Basically, there was not much to harvest. However, there were a few low hills nearby that had a lot of prey. It was enough to satisfy their hunting needs.
When Ang Lee told the villagers about the road construction, the villagers were very surprised. They did not expect the imperial court to build a road for them. Their village was closed off. It would be best if they could build a road to the outside world. However, building a road was not an easy task. It required a lot of money. These villagers were somewhat doubtful. They did not believe that the imperial court would be so good to them for no reason.
In addition, they did not know anything about trains. They did not understand what kind of train Ang Lee was talking about. They did not even dare to think about it. Many villagers did not know about the existence of the Indian Ocean. Only a few villagers who were knowledgeable had heard of the Indian Ocean in the southwest. The rest of the villagers did not have the concept at all. They all thought that the village they lived in was very, very far from the ocean. In fact, as long as the road was built, their homes would be equivalent to being by the sea. They could go to the seaside to pick up seashells and go back and forth in a day.
Telling the villagers about the road construction was to let them be mentally prepared in advance. When the road was built, they would be able to cooperate. This was especially true for the tunnel that had already been dug. It was to be used as a railway tunnel. This had to be told to the villagers of Yugong Village. This was to prevent the villagers from obstructing the road construction in the future.
When the villagers of Yugong Village heard that the imperial court needed to use the tunnel that they dug to build the road, they were quite nervous. They did not understand what this meant. Would it affect their future travel?
For this reason, Ang Lee gave a detailed explanation. He also told the villagers that the tunnel needed to be modified appropriately. It needed to be widened and straightened as much as possible. After all, the tunnel that the villagers dug in the past was only roughly straight. It was not really completely straight. For a railway, the tunnel could not be too curved. At most, it could only be slightly curved in a certain direction. If it was slightly curved, the road would not be able to be built.
Knowing that occupying the tunnel would not affect their daily travel, they were relieved. However, they could only walk along one side. Moreover, there was a time limit. After all, if they happened to meet the train in the cave, it would be very dangerous.
After the cave was opened to traffic, people had to be stationed at the entrances on both sides of the cave. They would be opened regularly every day. When the train did not need to pass through, pedestrians could pass through freely. However, when the train was about to pass through, the entrances had to be closed.
Every time the tunnel was opened, there would be a few guards in charge of leading the way. This was to prevent the people from staying in the tunnel and causing danger. Of course, it was also to prevent people from causing damage. If someone put something on the railway track, it would cause disastrous consequences. After all, the train was relatively fast. If it hit something, it would cause a major accident. In the enclosed tunnel, once a car accident happened, it would cause great losses.
As it was already late, Ang Lee stayed in Yugong Village. He planned to stay for a day and leave early in the morning of the third day.
Early in the morning of the second day, Ang Lee and Zhao Yefu went to Mount Red Lotus together. They would stay on the mountain for a day and return to Yugong Village to camp at night. After all, the scenery of Mount Red Lotus was too beautiful. If they did not enjoy it here for a day, they would feel sorry for themselves. It was not easy to come here, so naturally, they had to see all the beautiful scenery. They could not miss anything.
The soldiers also needed to pass the time. They patrolled the mountain in groups of three to five. As they enjoyed the scenery, they searched for precious herbs. Due to the problem of the soil, there were very few weeds on Mount Red Lotus. There were no herbs at all. The soldiers were destined to find nothing.
At the top of the mountain, a pavilion was built the night before. This was requested by Ang Lee. He wanted to sit in the pavilion and enjoy the beautiful scenery.
The chairs and ingredients had already been prepared. Ang Lee and Zhao Yefu would personally cook. They would personally make a table of delicious food. The two of them would enjoy the beautiful red leaves while tasting the delicious food.
There was not much prey on Mount Red Lotus. Some birds were not attractive to Ang Lee. The ingredients were all brought over from Black Mountain. There were meat and vegetables. The meat was obtained from hunting. The vegetables were given by the villagers of Black Mountain Village. They were very fresh. As long as they were kept fresh, they would be fresh for three to five days.
The first dish that Ang Lee wanted to make was roasted mutton skewers. This dish was too simple. There was basically no skill involved. It was just cutting the mutton into thin slices and skewering them with bamboo skewers. However, before roasting, various spices had to be sprinkled on the mutton slices. Only this way would the mutton skewers be delicious. After all, the mutton had a bad rank odor. Spices were necessary to remove the rank odor. Without spices, the taste of the mutton would be greatly reduced.
Along the way, Ang Lee did not forget to collect various spices. Naturally, he did not lack any. These spices were personally mixed by Ang Lee. There were at least dozens of ingredients used. The spices that were mixed were naturally the best. Not only could they remove the rank odor of the mutton, they could also make the mutton more delicious.
Ang Lee and Zhao Yefu had eaten this delicious dish many times. Naturally, they were familiar with the process of making it. Zhao Yefu quickly made the skewers while Ang Lee was responsible for roasting the meat. The two of them worked together and the fragrant mutton skewers were made.
"Wow, it smells so good!"
Zhao Yefu tasted the meat skewers while continuing to roast the meat.
In fact, eating the meat skewers was not the most enjoyable thing. Smelling the fragrance of the meat skewers was the greatest enjoyment.
The smell was really fragrant.
"An, if you open a barbecue shop here, it seems that you can live for a lifetime."
Zhao Yefu said with a smile.
Ang Lee shook his head and said, "This is impossible. There are only a hundred people here. How can they afford to eat barbecue skewers? It's more likely to open a barbecue shop in the county. However, I'm afraid that life won't be peaceful!"
"Why can't life be peaceful? Others can open a barbecue shop. Why can't we?"
Zhao Yefu said unconvinced.
Ang Lee touched Zhao Yefu's head with a smile and said, "Because Zhao Yefu is too beautiful. Someone will be tempted. With my current identity, no one dares to have any ideas about you. But if my identity is just a butcher shop, it's hard to guarantee that no one will have any ideas about you. If the other party is a powerful person, it will be troublesome."
This was not Ang Lee's nonsense. This situation was completely possible. There were all kinds of strange things these days. As long as one was beautiful, there would always be people who had ideas about them. If one's identity and strength were strong enough, it didn't matter. But if one didn't have the strength, there was nothing one could do even if one's wife was stolen.
But one was useless. Not to mention a small man who opened a butcher shop, even a prince might have his wife stolen. For example, the unlucky Prince Shou had his wife stolen by his father. This kind of thing could happen, let alone ordinary people.
Zhao Yefu didn't seem to believe that these things would happen. She looked at Ang Lee and frowned slightly. She had always lived in the palace and had someone to help her deal with all kinds of affairs. How could she understand the dangers of the world?
"If I don't want to, how can others take me away?"
Zhao Yefu said unconvinced.
Ang Lee shook his head with a smile and didn't want to explain anything more. Since Zhao Yefu thought that he was very powerful, then let her think so. Anyway, Ang Lee couldn't give up his position to be a small butcher shop owner. Once he was bullied without status, he would be helpless. The feeling of being bullied was not good. Therefore, people with ambition always kept climbing up. The higher the position, the fewer people who could bully him. The more he could get what he wanted, the lower the probability of losing what he cared about.
Of course, the Way of Heaven was ruthless. A person's lifespan was limited. No matter what he got, it was only temporary. A person couldn't live forever. It was impossible to have everything he had. What should be lost would be lost sooner or later. A person came from the yellow earth and would eventually return to the yellow earth. This was a reincarnation. No one could change it. Immortality was only an ideal.
Everyone wanted to be immortal, but no one could get what they wanted. In the face of life, everyone was equal. There was no doubt about this. No one could go against the Way of Heaven. So, there was nothing really worth fussing about.
Eating meat skewers alone was not enough. Ang Lee and Zhao Yefu also made a few delicious dishes. There were meat dishes, vegetarian dishes, and a fragrant egg soup.
Li An and Zhao Yefu spent the whole day at the top of Red Lotus Mountain. They chatted together, cooked together, and enjoyed the beautiful red leaves together. This kind of pleasant feeling was really good. If it wasn't for the fact that he wanted to get the railway line done as soon as possible, Li An would have stayed at Red Lotus Mountain for ten days to half a month to savor this kind of happy feeling.
In the evening, Ang Lee returned to the camp in Yugong Village. After a night's rest, he led the team to leave Yugong Village at dawn the next day and continued to head southwest. Ang Lee's goal was the Indian Sea. He wouldn't return until he reached the sea.
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