In his daze, Li Yan was pushed awake. When he opened his eyes, he saw the fourth sister Li Xiaozhu. The third brother beside him was no longer there. The fourth sister looked at him with red and swollen eyes and said, "Fifth brother, the village chief is here, dad." Let you get up and pass over."
Li Yan didn't sleep much last night. It wasn't until the rooster crowed several times that he fell asleep. He sat up straight and said to Fourth Sister, "Fourth Sister, I'll go right away."
Li Xiaozhu did not move, still looking at him with reluctant eyes.
Li Yan smiled and said, "Fourth sister, there is no need for this. I will come back to see you next Chinese New Year, but I don't know if you will be home by then."
Li Xiaozhu was stunned for a moment, then blushed and said, "Poor talk", then turned around and went out.
Li Yan looked at the back of the fourth sister and couldn't help but sigh softly. He didn't believe what he said. He would come back next time for the New Year. Although it was already late summer and early autumn, let alone half a year later. No matter what, I don’t even know what the New Year will be like next year or the year after.
After briefly washing up, Li Yan came to the front room. At this time, there were five people sitting in the front room, father, mother, third brother, fourth sister, and a strong man in his forties. The strong man sat Sitting on a slightly higher chair was a man with a Chinese character face, a full beard, and a short-sleeved Orion suit. In this early autumn morning in the mountain village, he did not look cold. kind of momentum.
Seeing Li Yan come in, he smiled and said, "Li Yan, you got up a little late."
Li Yan came to the strong man, bowed and said, "Good morning, Uncle Guoxin!".
The strong man’s name is Li Guoxin, and he is the head of this village. In addition to farming, he is also a good hunter. He often leads the young and strong men in the village to hunt outside the mountains. The locust plague in the past two years has Thanks to him, life in the village was better than in other villages, at least no one starved to death.
Li Guoxin looked at Li Yan, then at Li Yanniang, Li Wei, and Li Xiaozhu, and then said, "Originally, I was going to the county town two days later. The second boy from the Laoshan family and the Li Tian family in the village The boss wants to go to the county town to work as a kitchen helper and a blacksmith apprentice. He asked me to send him there and give him a certificate. Uncle Chang came to my house last night and told me about Li Yan, so I decided to leave today."
Li Yan’s father’s name was Li Chang, and everyone in the village called him Chang Bo. Li Guoxin looked at everyone again and continued, “Actually, I also told Chang Bo yesterday that Li Yan and They can also go to the county town to work. This is a comfortable job, but I have to explain this. Young people like you must have no experience in working. You must start as an apprentice. Apprenticeships charge fees. Secondly, the apprentice has to do all the work and has to sign a contract. If something happens during the apprenticeship, the master will not pay anything, but Chang Bo still decided to let Li Yan go to work as a soldier for food."
This is actually mainly a matter of money. Li Yan’s family itself has little money. Although the apprenticeship fee is only 500 yuan, for this family of five, the monthly expenses are only about 50 yuan. , this is nearly aIt is definitely impossible to come up with annual expenses. The second reason is that apprentices are very hard-working, have no personal freedom, and have no dignity before they learn. Masters often hurt or kill apprentices.
Chang Bo glanced at Li Yan and said, "That's it."
Then he smiled at the village chief and said, "This will cause trouble for Guoxin."
Upon hearing this, Li Yanniang, with red and swollen eyes, hurriedly said to the village chief, "Are you leaving today?"
The village chief nodded and said, "Yes, although now Recruiting troops is a common thing, but yesterday someone in the village came back from the county and said that Marshal Hong had started recruiting troops yesterday morning. The soldiers this time may be city guards. This kind of guards usually protects the families of officials in the city and guards the city. Granaries, armories, etc., they generally don't encounter any battles, so they should be full within two or three days."
Li Yanniang was anxious when she heard this, "Ah, there's still going to be a war?" Li Xiaozhu also looked at Li Guoxin anxiously.
After hearing what his wife said, Chang Bo saw the anxious look of his fourth daughter. He slapped the table in front of him with his dissatisfied hand, "Didn't Guoxin say that this is the Guards, guarding the city?" Look after the house, don’t fight, let’s see what you look like.”
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Li Xiaozhu and Li Yanniang glanced at Li Guoxin timidly. Li Guoxin glanced at Uncle Chang, then nodded, and then comforted them. Then they felt relieved and stopped asking questions.
Li Yan, however, had been silent since he came in and said hello. When he saw his mother and fourth sister like this, he couldn't help but feel sad and sad, and felt a sour feeling in his heart. In his throat, his eyes began to turn slightly red, thinking that if he made money in the future, he would definitely go home and stay with his parents and relatives, no longer staying away. He would see their satisfied smiling faces every day and enjoy the warmth of happiness.
In fact, although the Guards do not need to participate in wars in normal times, if a war comes and the troops are insufficient, it does not matter whether you are a Guardsman or not, at least you have to go to the city to defend the city. The swords, spears, and arrows used during the siege were also indiscernible. It was difficult to tell who was the Guards and who was the General, so he had to kill them all. In addition, he might have to go out of the city to meet the enemy. At that time, it was really of close combat.
But generally speaking, the Guards are really much better than other troops that are usually recruited. Li Wei on the side looked at Li Yan worriedly. He vaguely knew that things were not as simple as the village chief said.
Li Guoxin looked at Li Yan and said to him, "Do you have anything to ask?"
Li Yan said, "Uncle Guoxin has already told me about Konoe The army was personally recruited by Marshal Hong to guard granaries and armories, and even to look after the homes and homes of officials. This job is already very good and hard to come by, so you should just do it well."
After hearing this, Li Guoxin frowned slightly, thinking that Li Yan really believed all his words.But he said, "On the way, I have to tell this kid that he doesn't really believe in this risk-free job."
Li Guoxin then said goodbye to Li Yan and his family, "We will set off in half a quarter of an hour. This time, I will go with the three young people. No one at home can see them off. On the mountain road of more than a hundred miles, the family went to see someone off, plus their luggage, but the carriage couldn't go fast, and it was difficult to get there today."
There were only two good horses in the village. After pulling the car and adding the weight of the four of them, it was already the limit to reach the county seat before sunset.
Shortly after the sun rose, the carriage drove out of the village. The mountain village slowly pulled away behind. Looking at the few households still standing at the head of the village and the crying women in the crowd, the carriage The other two children, who were only thirteen or fourteen years old, started to cry and kept wiping their tears.
Li Yan was silent as he looked at the crying fourth sister and mother in the crowd, as well as the third brother who was walking with a limp and supporting his father.
Until Li Yan got on the carriage, the third brother and his father did not say a word, but just smiled hard, while the fourth sister and mother kept pulling the corners of his mostly new coarse cloth clothes. As if they were afraid that their clothes would be uneven, they cried and explained various things, asking him to come back and see them when he had time. There were dry food and pickles in the package, and they could eat them when they were hungry...
Li Yan didn't cry, he was just holding back his tears, with bursts of sadness in his heart. He forced a smile and waved to them, "Father, mother, third brother, fourth sister, take care. I will bring you a lot of things in the city when I come back next time. Third brother, take care of the family."
"Lao Wu, remember it, remember it, let's go, let's go..."
"Fourth sister, wait until I'm safe Come down and bring you the rouge and gouache from the city."
"Lao Wu, sister, wait, woo woo..."
"Lao Wu... ..." With a heartbreaking cry, Li Yanniang fell into the arms of the fourth sister...
The other two families around were also crying, and the sound of sobbing on the carriage was even louder. , Li Yan could no longer control his tears and let them flow freely on his face.
The carriage finally slowly moved away, away from the place where I grew up, away from the foot of the Daqing Mountain, and away from the familiar plants and trees here. As the carriage turned a corner of the mountain, the mountain village slowly became smaller and smaller, and finally was no longer visible. However, the crying in the village seemed to be a little louder in the wind.