It was winter in Lianshan, and a group of people were trekking in the mountains and forests, but from a distance, they could see the light of fire coming from the mountainside in the distance.
The long journey had already made Feng Shi very tired, but after seeing the torch-like light, he felt like a shot of chicken blood. The longing for the future immediately suppressed both physical and mental fatigue.
Feng Shi is an out-and-out mountain man. His ancestors moved into the mountains and forests to avoid disaster, and barely took root in the mountains. When they first entered the mountains, there were over a hundred people with the surname Feng in total. But now, it is difficult to get married.
Due to the reason, there were only a dozen or so people left.
The village where he is located is called Qingmuzhai, named after a green tree that has grown for nearly a thousand years in the center of the village.
A long time ago, Qingmuzhai also had its glory. Just like Lianyun Village, it was a large village. Every year, or every one or two years, there would be merchants from outside, traveling thousands of miles to trade with the village.
But later, as time passed and natural and man-made disasters occurred, Qingmuzhai declined. Later, merchants stopped coming because there was less profit.
By the time Feng Shi's generation arrived, there were only more than 200 people in the entire village, and most of them were old people, with fewer young adults and children.
Among them, the least important thing is the children. As mountain people, it is not unusual for a couple to give birth to more than ten children in twenty years. However, the environment in the mountains is harsh and the death rate of children is extremely high. Often, more than ten children will succeed in the end.
When they reach more than ten years old, they can start working, but only three to five of them can start working.
Among them, girls, especially, are more likely to die young.
This is not because mountain people will abuse their daughters, but in harsh environments, boys are naturally stronger and more likely to survive.
In fact, in the mountains, daughters are very precious, and villages generally intermarry with each other. That is, if a daughter from one village is married, a daughter from another village must also be married.
Although such rules are backward and cruel, and can even be said to blatantly treat people as objects, this is also the way for the village to survive.
But this is the only way the village can continue.
And if there are no daughters in one's own village that can be exchanged with other villages, the only way for the village to survive is to spend a lot of money to buy a daughter-in-law from a merchant.
As for if you don't have a daughter and don't have enough money, the village will naturally perish over time.
Over a long period of time, a series of mountains and hundreds of villages have formed a fragile yet stable ecology, vividly demonstrating the law of survival of the fittest.
Those young men who cannot find a wife have only two options: either they will perish from now on, or they will follow the merchants out of the mountains.
As for Xiao gathering in the mountains and forests, turning into bandits and plundering other villages, this will attract hundreds of villages to attack!
Qingmuzhai is in such a situation now.
There are fewer and fewer girls in the village, young men cannot find wives at all, and the people brought by merchants are too expensive.
As for going out, it is also a big gamble.
Even if it is a peaceful time outside, if a mountaineer without household registration wants to survive outside, no matter how hard he tries, he may not be able to do it.
This is even more true in troubled times.
Therefore, the legend of General Yingtian gradually spread in hundreds of villages in Lianshan. It was just the large villages, but the young men in the villages who were already on the verge of extinction were extremely excited.
The mountain people as a group do not lack survival wisdom and have shrewdness that is unique to the mountain people, but in other places, their ideas are also very simple.
That is, the outside world is strange, but General Yingtian is different. When various legends and stories spread and become the subject of conversation after dinner, after a little time, it will naturally no longer be strange.
Especially when they knew that Ying Tian's army was recruiting troops, many young men who could not find a wife became interested.
It's just that the distance between the village and the village is long and the mountain road is difficult to travel. In addition, when recruiting soldiers, the recruiters have to record the family situation of young people. The recruiters only recruit people from the village. This discourages many mountain people and goes directly.
The idea of joining the army.
And things that are difficult to obtain are undoubtedly more likely to make people think about them day and night. In this situation where the young men in the village cannot get what they want for the time being, in their fantasies, they will continue to imagine the glorious future after joining the army.
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This is the case with Feng Shi. He was born with a bit of bravery. When he was twelve years old, he started hunting alone. At first, he just laid some small traps, but later he learned the art of archery using homemade crude bows and arrows.
It was gradually tempered.
Now, within twenty steps, there are few targets that he cannot hit.
More importantly, although he could not write, he had some culture. When he was seven or eight years old, a Taoist came to the village. The Taoist lived in the village for a while. He was very popular with the Taoist, so the Taoist gave him a gift.
He told a lot of stories and taught him how to judge something through the environment.
This makes him far more capable than ordinary mountain people in both farming and hunting.
Now he is only sixteen years old. If you give him another ten years, it will not be difficult to save enough money to buy a wife by then.
Before General Ying Tian appeared, saving money to marry a wife was his life goal.
But now, his thoughts are completely different.
Along with the legend of General Yingtian, there is also the wonderful world outside, with picturesque mountains and rivers, ministers and marquises, rich clothes and fine food, beautiful flowers and beautiful families...
This is the reason why many mountain people choose to join the army despite living a stable life.
Everyone knows that military warfare is dangerous, and a life may be lost if you are not careful. But once you know the outside world, the desire in your heart can no longer be contained.
This is the case with Feng Shi.
He believed that he was not inferior to any mountain people, whether it was hard work, bravery, character, or ability. As long as he joined the army, he would be able to stand out quickly with his own abilities.
In addition, the legendary story of General Yingtian also gave him strong confidence.
That was the coming of the gods into the world. Even the two emperors, Red Emperor and White Emperor, agreed with each other. There were even some villages where their ancestors, for the sake of the future of their descendants, did not hesitate to offend ghosts and gods, leaving them with no peace after death.
We must warn our descendants so that they can seize the opportunity.
Of course, what is more important is General Yingtian, who indeed showed extraordinary miraculous power.
It turned out that the general was trapped in the mountains. There was a lack of military rations before, so the mountain gods drove wild animals to be hunted down by Ying Tian's army. In the end, there was so much animal meat that it was impossible to eat it all, and it piled up into mountains.
Later, the general burned the wasteland for cultivation, and God also sent dew, which increased the grain output from one acre of land tenfold.
