Surviving in the chaos of war begins in the wilderness.

Chapter 18 The Time of Harvest

Waking up groggily, Zhou Ye had slept in for a rare long time. Smelling the fresh scent of wood in the room, he finally overcame his laziness, gritted his teeth, and got out of bed.

However, as soon as I got out of bed, I felt a chill. Counting the days, autumn had arrived without me even realizing it.

There are still two weeks until the harvest. In the original owner's memory, the winters here are quite cold and long. Even in early spring there is a cold period.

Then we should plan ahead and start preparing for winter. Now that rock salt has been discovered, food storage shouldn't be a problem.

Therefore, in the following days, Zhou Ye dug up a large amount of rock salt and finally extracted more than 300 kilograms of salt.

Then the hunting season began.

First, we went to the bamboo forest and caught a large number of bamboo rats and bamboo vipers. The vast majority of them are kept as pets at home.

However, due to extensive hunting, both bamboo rats and bamboo vipers have begun to decline significantly. I have over 200 bamboo rat pelts piled up at home, and even more than 50 snake skins.

Then they headed towards the great river. Zhou Ye also planned to catch as many prey as possible...

……

On the mudflats, Zhou Ye had already erected a large canvas at an angle, supported by a long pole with a rope attached to its base. He had also scattered a considerable amount of wheat grains beneath the canvas. These grains had been fried in lard, emitting an enticing aroma.

After doing all this, Zhou Ye quickly ran away, pulling on the long rope, and hid in the reeds nearby.

Sure enough, the birds couldn't wait to get in after smelling the aroma. At first, a few were rather cautious, given the large canvas overhead. But as they began scrambling for the food, they started scrambling. Before long, the area under the canvas was packed with a large flock of birds.

Zhou Ye suppressed a laugh and pulled the long rope sharply. The large canvas fell with a "whoosh," covering most of the birds.

Zhou Ye could only shake his head and smile bitterly at the few birds that managed to escape from the edge.

The best tool is actually a large net, which can basically catch all the birds. However, given these conditions, isn't there no other way?

Even though many escaped, a large number of birds were still captured.

They tied all the birds' wings together and carried them on a shoulder pole. Two large baskets of freshly collected bird eggs were hung at the other end. Since they already had salt, they might as well make a batch of pickled bird eggs.

Back at his little home, Zhou Ye used a wicker basket to cover all the birds. He didn't recognize some of them, but there were others that looked like pheasants and wild ducks. It seemed... he could raise them, right?

There were still quite a few building materials left in the yard. It didn't take Zhou Ye much effort to build a chicken coop and a duck coop.

It was already afternoon, but Zhou Ye realized he still had plenty of time, so he picked up his prey and continued hunting.

This time, the location changed. However, the process was very similar, and those birds were still just as foolish.

When the large canvas fell, most of the birds had nowhere to escape, and only a few on the edge were startled and took flight.

However, Zhou Ye had also gained experience. He had prepared his javelin, aimed at a pheasant in the air, and "whoosh—!", he ended up shooting down a swan beside it? Experience points +3.

That evening, Zhou Ye ate a large bowl of stir-fried goose offal with seasonal vegetables. Meanwhile, the swan had already been pickled into salted goose.

But during the meal, Zhou Ye suddenly realized that he seemed to have plucked quite a few goose feathers.

Since catching birds is so easy, and we've caught about 10 pheasants and 10 wild ducks, we won't lack feathers to use as arrow material. And there's no shortage of fish in the river; we can keep their swim bladders and boil them down to make fish glue.

As for the arrowhead? You can sharpen a bamboo pole and make it into a single bamboo arrow.

In this way, I can easily gain experience points in basic archery, and I can also go hunting at the same time, so I won't feel bad about losing a few arrows.

However, the next day, Zhou Ye was surprised to find that catching fish was even easier than catching birds. It was the migratory season, and many fish had entered their feeding period. There was no need to catch them at all. Just look at the stranded fish; there were plenty to be found. He didn't even need to go out in the afternoon; he stayed home cleaning and marinating the fish.

And so, catching birds every other day and fish every other day, the yard was soon filled with birds and the fishpond was full of fish.

Even on the last day, Zhou Ye was too lazy to continue catching them. He went to the apple tree and picked several large baskets of wild apples.

Wild apples aren't actually very tasty; they're not very sweet and are quite sour. But when cooked into apple soup, they have a unique flavor.

Finally, the harvest time has arrived.

Zhou Ye worked tirelessly for four whole days, harvesting beans and vegetables, tilling the land, sowing seeds, and fertilizing...

After a final inventory check, we found over 300 jin of soybeans, about 100 jin of peas, and several dozen jin of black beans. This will greatly replenish our household inventory.

In addition, there are over 200 jin (approximately 100 kg) of potatoes, over 200 heads of cabbage that can be stored for a long time, and about 100 jin (approximately 50 catties) of radishes and carrots. There are also some other vegetables. Although these vegetables are not easy to preserve, they can be made into pickles…

After everything was over, Zhou Ye finally breathed a sigh of relief.

There's not much to do right now. The next task is to find a way out of the mountains. Ideally, we should establish contact with the outside world.

The most convenient route, of course, is to go through the old campsite and then take the charcoal transport route out of the mountains.

But this route can only be considered a backup plan. After all, Zhou Ye is a deserter; what if he gets discovered?

Then we need to go around the steep cliff, through that unfamiliar mountain forest, to find a way out of the mountains.

I glanced at my stats. After this period of relentless grinding and hunting, I found that my Basic Slash (Underachievable): Master (352/500); Basic Throw (Underachievable): Minor (31/200)

With the mastery of basic movement techniques, you should have a certain ability to protect yourself... right?

However, when going out of the mountains, one cannot go empty-handed, as that would easily arouse suspicion. But one also cannot carry too much weight or value, so that in case of danger, one can discard everything at any time.

Since that's the case, I'll bring 100 bamboo rat pelts. To be honest, the fur doesn't smell very good, and I already have too many bamboo rat pelts at home. I'll also bring some snakeskins!

We already have plenty of meat at home, so let's add a smoked wild boar hind leg. That should be about right.

As for weapons for self-defense, a knife is a must, along with a dagger from the boot. I'll bring a bow and arrows this time, and also a five-pronged javelin. And of course, there's also that wood-chopping knife.

Because many people ventured into the mountains near the county town, even woodcutters would carry weapons for self-defense. Therefore, this kind of attire was not particularly eye-catching.

Finally, there's food. So, bring five days' worth of dry rations!