Chapter 1053

Wu Bensheng was an old herbalist. Since he first entered Xinjiang seven or eight years ago, he had been in the mountains, starting to dig for fritillaria.

Wu Bensheng came from a family of herbalists. His grandfather often dug for fritillaria in Sichuan. Since childhood, Wu Bensheng had also learned one or two skills from his grandfather.

After coming to North Xinjiang, he found that the money earned from hard work really couldn't compare to digging for fritillaria in the mountains for a few days, so he simply completely transformed into a herbalist. Every spring, he came to North Xinjiang, prepared supplies, and drilled into the depths of the Tianshan Mountains to start digging.

Digging for medicine in the mountains was not only hard but also dangerous. Relying on the skills he had practiced for a few years, plus his experience living in the mountains, these past few years had been smooth sailing.

The price of wild fritillaria was getting higher and higher, and Wu Bensheng's family fortune was getting thicker and thicker. Every year after the fritillaria season ended, he could take a large sum of money back to his hometown to repair houses, marry a wife, and add furniture.

A few years ago, the forestry team started setting up checkpoints at the mountain pass to confiscate the fritillaria of the medicine diggers. Wu Bensheng knew early, so every time he got fritillaria, he would quietly go down the mountain under the cover of night.

In the past two years, when supplies were scarce in the mountains, he could still exchange fritillaria for some daily necessities at the small wooden house, but the small wooden house hadn't opened for the past two years, and Wu Bensheng was also a bit worried.

After all, the supplies that could be brought into the mountains at the beginning were limited. Wanting to dig for fritillaria continuously for a month in the mountains was a bit unrealistic.

People decades later would think that there were wild vegetables, mushrooms, and wild animals in the mountains, so no matter what, it was impossible not to find food.

But the real situation was that without food, eating those wild vegetables and mushrooms, ordinary people might not be able to persist for a week, and would collapse in three or five days.

Food was the most basic, but it was also the most easily ignored by ordinary people in later generations.

What was the most lacking in the mountains? The first choice was food, followed by others.

This year, Wu Bensheng didn't come alone. In the past few years, he had earned some money, and there wasn't just one or two people in the family who wanted to follow him to North Xinjiang to make a fortune.

At first, Wu Bensheng refused. After all, this path was not easy to walk, and he had no way to guarantee that he would definitely let those who followed him earn money. There were forest rangers in the mountains, and for the first two years, he had several times almost been caught by forest rangers—if caught, the light ones were confiscated, and the heavy ones would be taken away and sent home.

So Wu Bensheng refused for the first few years. But this year, he couldn't refuse. When his eldest brother was doing farm work, he fell from the mountain, and his leg was broken.

The family originally relied only on those few acres of mountain fields, and now his eldest brother's family had lost their main labor force, which was adding frost to snow. His sister-in-law knelt at his door with her seventeen-year-old nephew, asking him to take the nephew out. He couldn't help but agree.

To say that every family had a scripture that was hard to recite, this was truly the truth.

Since he brought his nephew, Wu Bensheng thought he must let him earn money.

His own child was still okay in terms of digging for medicine, but this kid was seventeen years old now. If he was disobedient, he had no way.

So when leaving his hometown, Wu Bensheng called his sister-in-law and nephew together and put the ugly words in front.

If his nephew was obedient, he would take him to work for half a year and earn some money back to subsidize the family.

If his nephew was disobedient, then don't have this idea.

At this time, it could be seen that the nephew was very honest and expressed that he would definitely listen to his second uncle after going out.

"I am also entering the mountains to dig for medicine over there. Not to mention the danger of wild animals in the mountains, there are forest rangers over there, and you can't dig for medicine at will. So you must listen to me, otherwise, not only will you not earn money, but you might also have life danger."

Wu Bensheng intentionally rendered the situation over there as relatively dangerous, just hoping that his nephew wouldn't just say he would listen on the surface.

After taking his nephew to North Xinjiang, Wu Bensheng calculated that the time was almost up. They bought supplies together in the county, divided them into two large pockets, and then went to the mountains.

Now the county hadn't opened a bus to Qingshuihe Township. When they walked along the road to the mountains, Wu Bensheng chose a shortcut, the distance could be shorter, but the two of them carried large pockets and walked for a whole day before entering the mountains.

In the past few years digging for fritillaria in the mountains, Wu Bensheng had already become familiar with this piece of land in the south of Maxian. He first took his nephew to an abandoned winter shelter, preparing to stay here for one night, and then enter the ditch with fritillaria early tomorrow morning.

Wu Bensheng's nephew was named Wu Donghai. After careful observation, he was very disgusted with this abandoned winter shelter. It was full of cattle and sheep manure, one wall had collapsed, and there was also manure left by unknown animals inside.

Wu Bensheng said to him while gathering firewood:

"If you want to earn money, you have to be able to endure hardship. Now at least there is a place to shelter from the wind and rain. The place to live later might have to be dug by yourself, and it's possible to make do in a stone crack for one night. If you regret it, it's still in time now... returning along the original road can reach the county town."

Wu Donghai gritted his teeth and shook his head. He couldn't regret it, and he didn't have the capital to regret it.

The travel expenses to North Xinjiang were paid by Wu Bensheng, and he had to pay his uncle back after digging for fritillaria and earning money.

The two of them made do here for one night. The next day, while the forest rangers hadn't entered the mountains, they went to the familiar fritillaria ditch early, preparing to start digging for fritillaria.

"Hehe, there was no such road here last year, but it was repaired so long this year. These people are still amazing." When going to the fritillaria ditch, Wu Bensheng discovered the road repaired by Li Long, Meng Hai, and the others, and felt it was quite magical.

Of course, he was just surprised for a moment, and then focused his attention on the fritillaria.

Wu Bensheng took his nephew Wu Donghai and specifically drilled into that kind of remote mountain valley. These places had fritillaria, because few people came, weeds were overgrown, it wasn't easy to be discovered, and of course, the harvest was also large.

In a few days, the two of them each got a bag of fritillaria, but the supplies they brought were also used up by more than half.

Originally thought these things could persist for five, six, seven, or eight days, but didn't expect the stone cave they lived in that night was attacked by wolves. Although the uncle and nephew successfully avoided the wolf attack, the supplies they brought were ruined by the wolves.

Wu Bensheng was quite open-minded. It was inevitable to encounter such and such unexpected situations in the mountains. Since the supplies were gone, then stop digging for medicine and think of ways to get supplies first.

The safest way was to go out of the mountains. Now in the villages outside the mountains, the villagers also knew the benefits of fritillaria. As long as people went out of the mountains, they could get fritillaria in the village and exchange it for food.

But Wu Bensheng didn't want to run so far. He wanted to save some time, dig more fritillaria, so he wanted to go to the small wooden house to try his luck. If he could exchange things, he wouldn't need to go out of the mountains.

Wu Donghai was skeptical about this: "The exchange point that hasn't opened for two years, can it open this year? If it's really so profitable, who would abandon this place and leave it alone for two years? I'd better go out of the mountains to the village, at least it's more reliable there."

Having dug a bag of half-dry and half-wet fritillaria, according to the price given by his uncle, these fritillaria could at least sell for several hundred yuan. In his hometown, this money was equal to a family's annual income. Wu Donghai didn't want to stay in this deep mountain anymore. If he stayed any longer, he would become a wild man. He felt he was almost going crazy.

"No, this is just where it is?" Wu Bensheng was determined not to go back. Which year in the past few years didn't he get two or three bags of fritillaria before going out of the mountains? He really didn't look at this little harvest in front of him.

"Let's go to the small wooden house and take a look. If we can exchange for supplies, it's naturally the best. If we can't exchange, then talk about going out of the mountains. Do you think going out of the mountains is not dangerous? If you encounter those forest rangers, the fritillaria you carry will be confiscated by them. With your current temper, maybe people will directly catch you and send you home."

The scene described by Wu Bensheng frightened Wu Donghai. He knew his experience was still too shallow, so he restrained his temper, carried the fritillaria, and silently followed his uncle forward.

Wu Bensheng also held a stick he picked up in his hand. With this thing in his hand, ordinary wild animals wouldn't dare to approach.

Passing through the last piece of forest, the small wooden house appeared in his field of vision. What surprised Wu Bensheng was that he saw a jeep parked by the small wooden house.

"Someone, someone, that boss is back!" Wu Bensheng screamed out of control, "Hehe, this is good, no need to go out of the mountains!"

The uncle and nephew carried the fritillaria, and their bodies gained some strength, and they walked quickly toward the small wooden house.