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Chapter 10 The Indescribable Whole Fish Feast

Fang Yu had no experience at all in escaping from famine.

The only experience I have is some information I learned from movies and TV series before.

These materials generally describe how terrifying the famine was and how difficult it was to escape.

There are corpses scattered all over the fields, and the grass and trees are all empty. They are so hungry that they eat dirt or change their seeds to eat.

When seeing these information or descriptions, Fang Yu naturally had some palpitations, but not much.

After all, I have never experienced it myself.

But in this world, Fang Yu could truly experience what it was like to escape from the wilderness.

Because everyone left in the afternoon, the sun in the sky was no longer so bright.

At the beginning, Fang Yu was still quite novel, but he found that except for him, everyone else seemed a bit depressed, so he could only keep his head down and move forward.

On the way, they also discovered a novel thing.

A group of Taoist priests were riding horses and galloping past on the official road.

Not only Fang Yu, but also Fang Sanduo and the others met a Taoist priest for the first time.

Finally, an old man in the village said that the Taoist priest might be from Bishop Ling.

As for the rest, he wasn't very clear.

Fang Yu seriously suspected that this old man only knew the name Bishop Ling, so when he saw the Taoist priest, he all used this Christian name.

But, Bishop Ling?

The name is also interesting, and these Taoist priests seem to be at least middle class.

It looked like he was living a good life, which made Fang Yu suddenly want to become a Taoist priest.

This matter was just an episode on the road. After the discussion, everyone quickly returned to silence.

The route of escape is never chosen randomly.

Fang Yu learned from his inquiries that this time he would use the river as a guide to escape and head south.

Along the way, when encountering official roads, they would try their luck to find a county seat or village. After finding the county seat, everyone would enter the county seat together, first begging, and then observe the situation in the county seat.

If this county is not a disaster area, some people will stay, find a village here to join, and live here.

However, neither counties nor villages can accept unlimited number of disaster victims.

Those victims who cannot stay can only continue to wander until they die on the way or find a place that can accept them and survive.

It sounds like this, but no one can experience the hardship and suffering except those who are fleeing from famine.

The reason why rivers are used as guides is because, even in ancient times, everyone knew that to survive, one must be close to a water source.

Therefore, following the river and referring to the directions below, you can basically reach the cities in the south smoothly.

Moreover, even if you can’t find it, you can’t live without water along the way.

Especially when we encounter a drought, we can survive without food, but we really can’t survive without water.

The river they are following now is a branch of the Chu River, and is generally called Chu River in the village.

To give each mountain and river a name would be called literature and art in modern times, but in ancient times, it would be silly*.

From all over the country, a company of people can be called out with just one sound of dog egg.

To expect these hungry people to name these mountains and rivers is simply overthinking.

People don't often call it Chu River. Jiaoling is generally called Houshan. This river is called Xiaohe. People who don't have any knowledge don't even know that this river is a branch of Chu River.

Well, this knowledge point is what the old man said before.

Fang Yu secretly observed him several times.

Neither his sparse hair nor his old skin that could kill mosquitoes with a smile could conceal his eyes that revealed a sense of vicissitudes of life.

This uncle is a man with stories~

Fang Yu walked all the way, looking at the situation on the road.

In fact, he was not very willing to leave.

He had just eaten a meal of meat at noon today. He originally wanted to go to Jiaoling for a few more days and catch more game to replenish his body. But now that he left, he would not be able to go hunting, which was a pity for him.

But Fang Sanduo's concerns are not unreasonable.

Escape from famine also requires timing. If you wait until the end of the road before you start escaping, it will be too late.

Drought is not just for humans.

No humans have to eat it.

Other animals and plants would have no chance of survival.

Not to mention anything else, just by looking at the current river, Fang Yu could see that the water had dropped by almost an arm's depth.

Moreover, the amount of water is less, and the river water becomes much turbid after being mixed with sediment.

But it was precisely because there was less water that Fang Yu and the others discovered new food.

That is the fish and shrimp in the river.

In the past, when the depth of the river was relatively high, fishing was not that easy.

Don't talk about fishing nets or anything like that.

Except for the fishermen on the seaside who make a living by fishing and making fishing nets, other areas basically make a living by farming and fishing. Just such a small river can't sustain it for even a month and is gone.

Therefore, most of the villagers here do not know how to make fishing nets.

Not to mention, making fishing nets requires weaving ropes, which is expensive and laborious. Even after you make them, you have to watch them carefully to avoid being stolen accidentally.

This is not modern, some plastic fishing line can easily make a fishing net.

The materials used to make fishing nets here are basically hemp rope.

Fishing nets made of hemp rope are not corrosion-resistant and durable. They will become brittle immediately after being exposed to the sun for one time. A fishing net can only be used twice at most, which is considered good.

At most, make a fish cage.

Moreover, in the absence of suitable fishy-removing spices, the fishy smell of river fish is quite strong, and not many people can get used to it.

Therefore, everyone still focuses on farming.

But now, after all, the situation is different.

The famine began to spread. In order to sustain themselves for a while, everyone decided to eat fish and meat as the main food, supplemented by rice. If they could eat less rice, they would eat less, so that they could go.

further.

So, before it got dark, everyone chose to set up camp on the shore.

The so-called setting up camp actually means finding a forest. Everyone finds a suitable open space in the woods, and then starts to chop some branches and firewood.

They were a little confused at first, but soon, under the arrangement of the old man whose name Fang Yu didn't know, they soon found their respective divisions of labor.

Some people cut down the branches, and some people cut down the trunk.

The amount is not very large, because no one wants to waste too much energy on it.

After everyone cut down four fist-thick tree trunks, they cut off enough branches and pulled out some vines, and then stopped.

Because there were so many people, it only took about ten minutes to get these things done.

Then, under the guidance of the old man, everyone began to tie the three cut tree trunks into a triangular slope structure based on the original trunks.

The last tree trunk was placed in the middle of the slope and tied up.

Finally, cover the slope with branches, and a simple triangular shelter is ready.

Then everyone laid the beds on the ground in the shelter, and a collective bunkhouse was laid.

During the whole process, Fang Yu didn't say a word, and they just relied on the old man's command to get out of the shelter.

This is how Fang Yu knew that this old man had fled Fangjia Village when he was young.

Therefore, he knows better.

Especially in terms of experience in escaping from famine, he has the most rich experience in the village.

I heard Er Niu and the others chatting and said that this old man's name was Wang Er. When he was young, he fled to Fangjia Village and took root in Fangjia Village. Originally, he also had a wife, but her wife had tuberculosis and cough a few years ago.

After he dies, he will live alone.

This time Erniu and the others were preparing to leave Fangjia Village, but not many people in the village followed them.

Erniu and the others would not have left if it hadn't been for the incident in Huanglin.

But they couldn't tell them about Huanglin.

After all, they have done something illegal, how can I tell them this?

Therefore, under the confused eyes of the villagers, they finally met at the entrance of the village, but they did not expect that Wang Er would follow.

After hearing that he had escaped famine when he was young, Erniu and the others immediately took him in.

But now, seeing this triangular shelter, Erniu and the others felt that they were right to accept Wang Er.

It's no wonder they want to support such an additional population.

After the shelter was completed, they went to the river to fish.

Because the water surface has become shallower, the movements of fish and shrimp that were originally hidden deep in the water can now be easily caught.

Also under the guidance of the old man, each of them had a wooden stick. After entering the river from both sides, everyone surrounded a section of the river. Then they followed the old man's instructions and used sticks to hit the water surface hard when the river surface fluctuated.

A dozen or so people surrounded the river, and wooden sticks fell in turn.

The fish in the river were immediately in trouble. Under the shallow water, they could not hide their traces. Soon some fish were knocked unconscious or beaten to death with sticks, and they floated on the surface of the water with their bellies turned.

After seeing the first fish turning white, the fishermen all screamed with joy.

Just like picking wheat during the spring harvest, my face was filled with a long-lost happy smile.

Er Niu and his uncle were also in the river, but Fang Yu did not let him go into the river because he was still too weak.

Seeing Er Niu and his uncle's happy faces catching fish, Fang Yu couldn't help but smile.

The dinner tonight is very sumptuous.

In just half an hour, everyone caught a dozen fish.

Fish soup was stewed in seven or eight large earthen pots. Some big fish were put in a whole can, and some small fish were put in a few more. The fish soup was also added with some wild vegetables such as yellow plums and other wild vegetables collected by the women in the woods.

Although the fish soup tastes quite fishy, ​​after all, it is still meat.

Everyone present was dazzled by the fish soup in the earthen pot. They stared at the earthen pot and swallowed their saliva.

Even Fang Yu is no exception.

By this time it was already dark.

At night, the originally sultry weather became cooler, and it was even a little cold in the woods.

Fortunately, the bonfire in the middle gave everyone enough light and warmth.

Everyone is cooking fish soup in front of the small stove they have built.

After the fish soup is cooked, everyone starts to share it.

Because they are river fish, most of these fish are carp, grass carp and crucian carp, as well as some river fish that Fang Yu doesn't recognize.

If it were a sea fish, he would still recognize it, but river fish happened to be in his blind spot.

These fish, even the big fish, are basically fishy and have many small and numerous fish bones.

Grass carp is better, with fewer bones, but crucian carp is a nightmare.

Although some small fish have less fishy smell, they also have more fish bones.

When everyone actually started eating, the original appetite was completely wiped out by these fish bones.

After eating a big mouthful of fish, I ended up vomiting the fish bones for a long time.

Er Niu, a careless and reckless man, didn't have the patience to bite the fish bone and swallow it, but the fish bone got stuck in his throat. If Fang Yu hadn't stabilized Er Niu in the end and asked several people to fix Er Niu's body.

, used a branch to pinch out the fish bone from his throat, and relied on his swallowing method to get it stuck to death.

Everyone who was shocked by Er Niu's recklessness no longer had such a big appetite for fish.

There is no way, the fish bones are too annoying. Even in modern times, some people are unwilling to eat fish because of the problem of fish bones.

However, this is a rare food, so you have to eat it even if you don’t want to eat it.

Therefore, the final scene seemed quite funny.

A large number of people were sitting next to the earthen pot. To eat a piece of fish bone, they had to use their teeth and tongues for a long time to knock out all the fish bones before they dared to swallow it.

Having learned from Erniu's experience, everyone swallowed it twice before swallowing it.

There wasn't much fish meat in one bite, and it took me a long time just to pick the bones.

Only half of a fish was eaten and the soup was cold.

Even Fang Yu was so angry that she almost threw the bowl when she picked fish bones!

You know, everyone is hungry now, but because of the problem of fish bones, it takes a long time to eat meat.

This is undoubtedly a torture.

No wonder no one in ancient times was willing to catch river fish to eat!

If you catch a fish with few fish bones, you can still have a full meal. If you catch some fish with a lot of fish bones, you won’t be angry to death after eating a fish!

Fang Yu specially picked two grass carp, thinking they would have fewer fish bones.

But I didn't expect that this is just a small river. Grass carp is not very fat, but it also has a lot of spines. Although it is better than crucian carp, it is still troublesome to eat.

The initially cheerful atmosphere of cooking was reduced to the sound of spitting out fish bones in the end.

After everyone finished eating the fish, no one felt full because they ate too slowly.

It seems that I have eaten, but it seems that I have not eaten.

Instead, my tongue and lips were pricked more than once by fish bones.

But after all, everyone was poor, so what else could they do to escape the famine? At least they would be eating meat. So, after everyone had processed the fish bones, they crowded into the shelter and fell asleep on the ground across from each other.

The next day, just after dawn, everyone woke up one after another.

In this era, there is no alarm clock and it relies solely on the biological clock.

Rise at sunrise and rest at sunset.

Basically everyone can wake up naturally at dawn.

As soon as they woke up, everyone picked up a branch and chewed one end. After chewing out the wood fibers, it was the tooth wood for cleaning the mouth.

After simply cleaning the mouth with toothpaste, everyone went to the river.

Last night they caught more than just those fish. They dug a small pit by the river and kept many fish in it.

Seafood or river fresh food, in this situation where there is no convenient means of preservation, whether it is dead or cooked, will deteriorate directly after one night, making it completely inedible.

This is also the reason why Hexian is not popular.

Food that cannot be saved can only be eaten as snacks.

Even with this puddle, because it is stagnant water, these fish look a little bit dead after one night.

But at least they didn't really die, so these fish were fished out and processed directly.

Although the scene of eating fish last night is still vivid in my mind.

But the people at the scene were really not stupid enough not to eat fish.

Although eating fish is troublesome and expensive.

But they had no choice.

After a while, the familiar and slightly disgusting smell of fish soup came from the earthen pot.

Fish soup without removing the fishy smell always smells like dead fish when cooked, which is very disgusting.

After another unspeakable morning meal, everyone began to pack their things and prepare to continue on their way.

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