The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 57 Trapped on Stone Monkey Mountain

The sky seemed to have been pierced with a hole across the entire Central Plains.

Lightning and thunder that occur day and night.

The rain poured down relentlessly.

When the small stream rises, the big river overflows.

The crops in the fields were buried in mud and water.

The old emperor was so worried that he no longer wanted to have children or take any elixirs.

The Imperial Observatory would pass him small notes several times a day.

Every time is an unlucky omen, a sign of great misfortune.

Rumors of the calamity spread from ordinary people's homes to the ears of officials.

The palace eunuch covered the emperor's ears, keeping the old emperor in the dark.

Residents living near the riverbank moved to higher ground overnight despite the rain.

Many ministers also requested the emperor to move the palace.

Moving the emperor's palace was no small matter, and preparations took several days.

The torrential rain waits for no one!

The Zhuohe River ultimately could not escape the fate of breaching its banks.

Its collapse was officially announced that morning.

Fortunately, the city walls of Shangdu were sturdy enough.

When the floodwaters poured into the inner city, the city walls blocked the various beams and pillars brought by the flood.

The water in the inner city quickly spread from people's feet to their calves.

My house is flooded!
The people of Shangdu, wearing rain gear from home, carried their children and the elderly onto their rooftops.

They bothered all sorts of deities, hoping their houses would hold up in the flood!
The highest and safest place in the imperial city was the Moon-Viewing Tower, which the old emperor had built with white marble at a cost of a million taels of silver.

The octagonal, nine-story Lanyue Tower stands 99 meters tall, with flying eaves and bracket sets, making it majestic and magnificent.

From the top of the pavilion, one can enjoy a panoramic view of the entire commercial city.

When the full moon shines on the white marble, it creates a feeling of heaven and earth.

This territory was usually reserved for the old emperor alone.

At this time, the Imperial Noble Consort and the children of the princesses who were studying in the palace all gathered here.
This torrential rain was like igniting a rainstorm virus.

The torrential rain started in Shangdu.

A few days later, the infection spread to Daming Prefecture.

Next is Yuzhou Prefecture.
Now we've arrived in Ruzhou.

Ruzhou is now a vast expanse of water.

Gan Minglan and her companions are now trapped in Ruzhou, in a mountain forest called Stone Monkey Mountain.

Stone Monkey Mountain gets its name from a giant rock resembling a monkey that rises into the clouds at the top of its main peak.

The main peak is over 2,000 meters above sea level, with all sorts of strangely shaped boulders towering into the air.

Here, mountains surround and water flows, water runs through mountains, and ravines crisscross the landscape.

The officials were worried that they would not be able to reach the border town within the stipulated time.

The original plan was to take a shortcut through the valley and cross this Stone Monkey Mountain.

Who knew that such bad luck would happen!

They encountered a severe rainstorm just a few hours after entering the mountains.

The stream in the valley suddenly swelled, making it impossible to continue crossing.

They could only find a large cave abandoned by bats halfway up the mountain in this rugged, rocky place.

The two leaders looked at the Rain Curtain Cave with worry.

Leader surnamed Huang:

"If this rain continues for a few more days, the streams in the valleys will turn into rivers! This is forcing us to change our route around the mountains."

The leader surnamed Mao scratched his head:

"We have to change it, otherwise people will die if there's a landslide in the mountains!"

The subordinate responsible for procuring supplies along the way gave a miserable report:

"Boss, three of our handcarts are missing, and most of the mixed flour we bought before going into the mountains was washed away. We don't have enough to eat for three days." There couldn't be worse news.

What can be done when faced with such a severe rainstorm disaster?
I guess I'll just have to tighten my belt and eat less.

The leader surnamed Huang said, "Stop steaming buns. Just cook some porridge once a day. Pick more wild vegetables and cook them in the porridge to eat."

She was also in a dilemma after receiving the task:

"Sir, we can't find any firewood in this weather, and the mountains are full of rocks. Where are we going to find wild vegetables? We don't know this place at all. What if we get lost in the mountains?"

The messenger glared at him and said, "If you can't do this job, find someone else!"

Zuo Wenkang, who overheard the two men's conversation from a short distance away, volunteered:
"Sir, we don't know when this torrential rain will stop, and the cave is very damp right now."

We not only need firewood for cooking, but also a fire to keep warm and drive away wild animals that might try to come in to take shelter from the rain.

We must hurry up and go up the mountain to chop firewood, otherwise it will be even more dangerous after dark!

Gan Minglan also followed suit, saying, "Leave the task of finding wild vegetables to us; we have experience."

She had it all planned out.

If you can't find wild vegetables in the mountains, scatter some Space Dog Rice Grass seeds along the way and then use your superpower to accelerate their growth.

Groundhogs like to eat this, and humans can eat it too.

Zuo Wenkang originally wanted to stop his wife from going out to find wild vegetables.

It's raining so hard outside, what if you slip and fall?
Gan Minglan gave him only a look, and he silently shut his mouth.

No way!
Obeying his wife's orders was a habit he had developed over ten years ago.

For the time being, this scholar's body really couldn't straighten up!

The lives and safety of more than 300 people are not to be taken lightly.

After discussing it, the two leaders agreed to Gan Minglan and her husband's plan.

Then they sent two teams of twenty officers to assist them.

They claimed to be assisting, but in reality, it was for surveillance.

Both groups consisted of people who had elderly parents or young children to care for.

There is no rain gear.

They braced themselves and braved the wind and rain as they emerged from the cave.

Zuo Wenkang led the group of men toward the more wooded southern slope.

Gan Minglan then led the She family and others to search for something called Diqulian in the grass on both sides of the ditch.

Diqulian, also known as Dimu'er, Diruan, Ditacai, Tiancai, Leigongshi, etc.

It gets its name from the grass that grows in the fields after a thunderstorm.

They typically grow in dark, damp places.

It's dark black, somewhat like soaked black fungus.

In this season, after a thunderstorm, this can be seen everywhere in the mountains and fields.

Soon.

The city girl, Ms. She, exclaimed as if she had discovered a new continent:
"Come and see, there really is one! Xia'er's teacher's wife, can this thing really be eaten? It's sticky and a bit disgusting when you touch it."

"Don't worry, it's edible! It doesn't taste weird!"

Gan Minglan has certainly eaten it. After washing it clean, she stir-fried it with eggs, and it tasted quite good.

Occasionally, you can also see other mushrooms in the grass, which look "poisonous"!

It took several women more than half an hour to fill a basket with lotus seeds.

On the way back, they picked two more large baskets of dog rice grass that Gan Minglan had used her supernatural abilities to grow to ten inches long.

That's enough vitamins for today!
Come home full!

Inside the cave, a group of men were watching Zuo Wenkang start a fire.

He used a cleaver to split a wet, bowl-sized, withered branch in half.

Then pick out the relatively dry half of the wood.

Keep chopping until the wood is split into a pile of small sticks about the thickness of chopsticks.

At last.

He grabbed a handful of black "sand" and threw it onto the small wooden stick.
(End of this chapter)