The weak scholar in the end of ancient times

Chapter 36 Take them all away

County Magistrate Zhou gathered people.

He Da and the others were curious. County Captain Zhou hadn't come over yet, so they couldn't wait to go over and look at the paper that Wen Gu gave them.

There is no need for County Magistrate Zhou to explain. Even if you are illiterate, you can understand it just by looking at the pictures on the paper.

"Is this a map of the area at the entrance to the town?"

He Da stared at the paper.

I thought: Is this the ability of a high-end scholar?
Where to enter the town, which house to go to, what shops and residents are around, what might be found, which places to focus on searching, where to stay at night, whether there is a well, what the road conditions are like...all are drawn on it.

Just a few simple strokes can convey the message.

The attendant beside him whispered to He Dadao, "Brother Daqiu, we don't have to worry about anything else from now on. Just eat and drink as needed, and then listen to Wen Shusheng's words. Scholars are really amazing!"

He Da nodded in agreement. Of course, scholars are great. Otherwise, why would his family devote so much effort to supporting his younger brother's education? It can change one's destiny!

For example, right now, if they were in their place, they would definitely rush in headfirst, searching every house, time passing, energy expended, and they wouldn't even find much by dark, and they would have to hastily choose a place to stay for the night.

Mr. Wen can arrange everything while chatting.

He Da and Yu Er were all full of admiration.

However, Zhou Shan's attention was not on this.

Gather the exploration team and enter the town again.

This time I didn't grope blindly, I followed the map and was very efficient.

There weren't many evil creatures in the town, and after killing two of them, they followed the map to the peddler's house.

It does look ordinary from the outside, but the pastry shop next to it is much more eye-catching.

However, it was obvious that someone had searched the pastry shop before. However, few people paid much attention to the peddler's place.

County Lieutenant Zhou took out a small bundle of fuel he had brought with him, which was firewood made of dry grass, branches, and bark. He lit it to create thick smoke and threw it into the house.

There was no sound of any evil being smoked out.

"Clean it up, we'll stay here tonight."

"Then let's go in and search now? There's a wheelbarrow over there!" He Da said excitedly.

"The peddler's wheelbarrow can hold a lot of things!" someone agreed.

County Lieutenant Zhou only glanced over there without further investigation. He said in a deep voice, "First, look for secret compartments, cellars, and other hidden places to hide things."

"What can a peddler like him hide..."

"Salt!"

The few people who were about to walk towards the wheelbarrow suddenly turned around and rushed into the house.

……

Wen Gu, who was waiting outside the town, didn't have to wait too long.

Soon, a signal came from Ma Tuaner in the sky.

"Let's go into town!"

At the entrance of the town, Uncle Yu Wu and Xiao Liu were waiting there, both with obvious excitement on their faces.

Seeing Wen Gu, Xiao Liu hurried over and said, "I found the salt!"

When it comes to searching things, County Lieutenant Zhou has professional experience.

After a simple cleaning of the peddler's house, a fire was lit and some distracting debris was thrown into the fire and burned, with smoke wafting through the yard.

The barn wasn't big, but it would hold three animals if they squeezed together.

The person in charge of mixing the feed was absent-minded at this time, and kept glancing into the house.

Salt!

You will feel hungry without food, and eating salt will give you strength!
Salt and grain are important!
Under today's conditions, there is no such thing as excessive intake, and many people cannot afford it.

Inside the house, County Captain Zhou had already brought out two large bags of salt.

"There must have been four or five bags stored here before, but now there are only two. The peddler must have taken two or three when he left, but he was in a hurry to escape and needed to pack up food and supplies, so he hid these two bags."

Smuggling is serious in areas where urban and rural areas meet.

The peddler sells a limited variety of goods at affordable prices. Who would have thought that he doesn't make money from those small commodities at all, and uses them to cover up the real transactions!

The town was too conspicuous, so the peddler's trading partners were always in nearby villages, and it was unknown how many subordinates he had developed.

County Magistrate Zhou pointed to the two bags of salt and said to Wen Gu:
“It’s all coarse salt, with a distinct bitter taste.”

He has experience with this.

"It's not like the salt produced by the big salt farmers on the coast. The technology there is more mature, and the illegal salt they produce is generally not shipped to a small place like this."

"The private salt produced by small salt farmers is bitter. Due to insufficient technology, the salt they produce is of poor quality. However, for us now, having coarse salt is already very good."

County Magistrate Zhou couldn't help but smile.

He Da and the others also nodded repeatedly.

Why be picky at this time? Even in the past, the salt they ate was similar to this, and it was more expensive, so they usually saved it.

Wen Gu frowned at this time, his face serious:
"Coarse salt? Tastes distinctly bitter? That won't do! Eating low-quality salt for a long time is bad for your health. We're going to be traveling for a long time, and we can't let our bodies break down!"

As he said this, he looked at Master Qingyi.

The Taoist priest's alertness instantly reached its peak: What are you looking at me for?!

Wen Gu walked over quickly: "I'm traveling to study..."

Taoist Priest Qingyi frowned and looked fierce: Say that again!

Wen Gu: "Ahem, Taoist priest, please refine this crude salt."

They will stay in this town for one or two more days while searching for supplies. During this time, Taoist Qingyi can start refining salt. Anyway, this Taoist dog has nothing else to do.

"I heard that a wealthy family here has a tripod, and there are also iron pots in the town. Taoist priest, if you need any tools, we will go and find them for you."

Without waiting for Master Qingyi to refuse, Wen Gu lowered his voice and said mysteriously, "I understand everything."

"I heard that crude salt refining may also produce Glauber's salt, bittern, saltpeter, etc."

Taoist Qingyi was silent.

Although I don’t know what this dog scholar “understood” during his study tour, it seems that there are some uses for it that I don’t know about?
The Taoist priest quickly weighed the pros and cons in his mind.

Regardless, he did need certain things when performing rituals. Materials were scarce, and some of the items refined from crude salt were indeed useful to him.

Moreover, there are many people in the team now, and many chores can be assigned to others without much effort.

After thinking it over, Taoist Qingyi, with the demeanor of a master, said in a high voice, "If we work for the benefit of the people, there's no need to worry about hard work."

Wen Gu bowed respectfully in front of everyone: "The Taoist priest has a kind heart and great virtue!"

Then, immediately have County Magistrate Zhou allocate some of the crude salt. There's no need to purify all of the two large bags; keep some for external use. Salt can also be used as a trading currency, and is even more valuable in troubled times.

Nowadays, no one cares whether it is private salt or not, so there is no need to hide this crude salt.

After arranging the disposal of the salt and leaving the children and a few people to guard the yard, Wen Gu selected a few more people and turned to Cheng Zhi and said, "Let's go to the place of sacrifice you mentioned. There is a big cauldron over there." Cheng Zhi was talking about a wealthy family in the town. There was a small courtyard used for worshiping gods and sacrifices.

It was not far from the peddler's house, so everyone found it quickly.

Taoist Qingyi followed him, and he wanted to find more things that would be useful to him.

There was a large tripod in the small courtyard where the rich man enshrined the statue of the god.

Taoist Qingyi was a little envious and a little disgusted.

He was envious because a tripod of this size was a luxury for him at that time and he couldn't take it with him.

He dislikes it because he has seen better ones.

The Taoist priest stared at the tripod with a critical eye, while the others looked at the statue first.

The statue is nearly half a person's height and is made of bronze.

"It's so rich!"

“Looks rich!”

He Da and Yu Er sighed and were about to go over to worship the gods.

County Captain Zhou and Xiao Liu first looked around to see if there was any food.

You can worship the gods later, the most important thing is of course to find food!
They have learned their lesson!
Cheng Zhi pointed to a location and said, "That's where glutinous rice was found."

Wen Gu said, "This family is considered wealthy in town. In addition to grains, they should also use dried fruits and malt sugar for sacrifices..."

Before he could finish his words, He Da and Yu Er, who were about to go to worship the gods, immediately changed their target.

food?

Malt sugar?

Let me see where the sugar is!
As for worshipping God...

Hey, it’s not disrespectful to God. I’ll worship later.

The gods will definitely not be angry with us over such a small matter.

County Magistrate Zhou has his professional experience, and He Da and Yu Er also have their social experience.

Soon, the missing food was found one after another, and two cans of hard candy were also found in the cellar.

The opening of the jar was sealed with oil paper. County Magistrate Zhou opened it, took a look, and said happily, "It's edible!"

He Da and his companions were breathing rapidly.

The valuable items were taken away by the owner when he fled, but there must be some left, and not all of them may be in the warehouse.

Later, they found some molasses in a room, but it was spoiled and could not be eaten.

Everyone sighed.

Cheng Zhi felt even more distressed. He and his family had come here before, but they hadn't found it! Maybe the syrup was still edible back then!
In addition to food, they also search for incense and candles.

Cheng Zhi's family took some incense back with them for worshiping the gods, but they didn't take all of it.

Incense and candles are not placed in just one place, find several more places, and the quantity will be quite large.

These incenses are not medicinal incense made by Taoist priests and cannot drive away evil spirits, but they can cover up the smell.

it works!

take away!

Even the paper money used for the sacrifice was packed up and taken away.

Two small incense burners were also found in other rooms of the house.

Many foods had also gone bad, and everyone was heartbroken.

At the beginning of the troubled times, there were not many people left in the town, and there was no one to organize or cooperate. Those who came here were in a hurry to look for things, and they might not understand the storage habits of these wealthy families, so it was difficult to search carefully.

Now, after clearing away the evil things around, everyone searched carefully.

Master's room, servant's room.

Salt, sugar, dried fruits, medicinal herbs, cloth and clothing, weapons and tools...

The more they searched, the more excited they became.

What is worshipping God?
Which god do you worship?

Put it all aside for now!

Their minds are now filled with food, salt, sugar, and dried fruits...

There's already a lot of food spoiled here. If they don't find it, the rest will all go bad.

waste!

Such a waste!

We must find all of them and take them away!
Although I am eager to search, time is limited.

Wen Gu looked at the sky and said to them, "We will stay here for one or two days. There is no need to rush tonight. Let's go back and have a good rest. We will continue tomorrow morning."

He Da wanted to say, it’s still daylight now, I can still find another hour.

But then Wen Gu said, "Everyone has been tired these past few days. I found two cans of malt sugar. Let's share one can with everyone first. Eat some sugar to replenish your energy."

He Da followed immediately.

Although County Lieutenant Zhou had found the two jars of malt sugar first, they had also contributed to the process. It was okay to get a smaller share, at least they had some.

How long has it been since I last had malt candy?
He Da thought: My brother is helping me record, so he can get a few too, right?

Our family will definitely get more than Yu Er!

Must keep an eye on!

While others were excited, Cheng Zhi looked dazed.

Cheng Zhi and his family had been to this house before, and his mother and brother and sister-in-law had been there more often, but at this moment he had the illusion that "everyone was not searching for the same house."

There are so many things hidden here!

Wen Gu seemed to see through his thoughts and said, "One or two people can only do so much, but five or ten people can achieve results many times greater than what they have achieved."

Wen Gu's voice was neither too loud nor too low, and everyone around him could hear it except Cheng Zhi.

"As the ancients said, 'A single person is easily broken, but a group is hard to destroy.' A pile of feathers can sink a boat, but a crowd can easily break an axle. In other words, there is strength in numbers."

Several people seemed to be thinking about something.

Wen Gu thought to himself: So, this number of people is far from enough! We have to increase it fivefold, tenfold at least!
Three or four is never too few, a little adds up to a lot.

They did not return to the peddler's house immediately.

Wen Gu said to Cheng Zhi, "Let's take you back. It's been so long, your family must be very worried."

(End of this chapter)