One day in early autumn in 1783, the island country Tohoku Riohirosae.

On the mountain road outside Hirosaki Castle in the Fan Hall, two young men and women in ragged clothes and thin as ghosts were staggering.

The man walking in front was named Li Ji. His eyes were dull and his face was dark, like a walking corpse. The woman following behind was Shino, who was his wife. Since leaving Hirosaki Castle, the woman almost wiped her tears in three steps, as if the sky had collapsed.

The naiveness has really collapsed!

From last spring, oh, that is, the second year of tomorrow, the Kanto region has been raining for days. In early summer, the temperature is still as cold as early spring, and most people dare not even take off their cotton coats. With such an abnormal climate, it is inevitable that the grain harvest or even the absolute harvest will be poor.

It would be fine if it was just a freezing disaster, but the weather would always warm up. However, half a year ago, a major eruption suddenly occurred in the Iwaki volcano belonging to Hirosaki.

The entire rock and wood mountain has become hell, especially large magma flows into the rice fields, and after cooling, it becomes dark like a group of ghosts. All the farmland that has been hard-earned has been destroyed, and all the farmers can do is to hold their heads and cry, scold God for not giving the poor a way to live.

After the disaster, the village chief immediately sent someone to report the letter to the Fanzhong, but the villagers waited for more than ten days, except for a minor official coming to see it, there was no further information.

The Hirosaki family was a small vassal, with a territory income of only 46,000 shi. It was not until 1805 that the Tsugu family was increased to 70,000 shi by their contributions to defending the Hokkien land. The sudden natural disaster immediately paralyzed the vassal state and had to ask for help from Edo.

Unexpectedly, on the eighth day of the seventh lunar month, Asama Mountain, 300 miles west of Edo, this active volcano, famous for its hot spring, ushered in a massive eruption after three months of continuous roaring and dissipation of stench.

The huge amount of volcanic ash floated to the east and southeast with the west wind, and even Edo, which was far apart, fell a lot of dust. Because the volcanic ash was sprayed into the stratosphere, blocking the sunlight, resulting in a complete harvest of food in most areas of Kanto and the entire Muro region.

A national famine, known as "dawn famine" in history, has begun.

The insane shogunate can't even care about the famous names like the Tsugu family. My father and mother get married, everyone cares about their own people!

For lower-class farmers like Liji, they have no food harvest and cannot get rescue from the vassal states, so they have no way to die.

The small amount of stored grain was eaten up, and all the wild vegetables could be dug out. The villagers started cooking grass roots and peeling the bark. In desperation, Li Ji had to take his wife to the feudal city.

He had a distant relative who worked as a manager in a winery in the town town, so he thought about whether he could do a short-term work for a few months first, just give him some food.

Unexpectedly, when the couple arrived at the place, they found that the eaves of the towns were filled with refugees, all of whom were unable to survive and escaped from famine.

Nowadays, residents of Fancheng have a difficult life. The famine has caused rice prices to soar. All the shops and workshops that use rice as the raw material for production are closed. The first ones are dim sum shops and wineries. So when the relative of Liji learned about the couple's situation, he was unable to help, and his family was almost out of business.

So, Liji and his wife drank a bowl of porridge at their relative's house, and after spending a night under the eaves, they had to set out on the way back to the village.

Well, it was normal for farmers to escape famine during the famine period. The government will open porridge sheds in states, prefectures and county towns, one meal a day. Although they are not full, they cannot starve to death. As long as they can survive until the beginning of spring, they will go back and continue to farm. The government will also send seeds and even some relief grains.

The problem is that this method simply did not work in Japan during the Edo period. According to the shogunate laws, once farmers abandon their homes and embark on the road to escape famine, they will become tribal people, also known as filthy and non-human.

The tribes in the Edo era were even worse than dogs. If a farmer quarreled with a tribe, the farmer killed the latter in anger, and the government would not accept it at all.

Are they not considered human beings? Death is also in vain.

Therefore, for the lower-class farmers, no matter how poor their living conditions are, as long as they can survive, they will not easily embark on the road to escape.

When the couple was halfway through the journey, it was already noon. They were hungry and they were already shaking and dizzy. There was no way, so Liji helped his wife to a big rock on the side of the road, intending to drink water to rest.

Unexpectedly, just after sitting down, a faint fragrance floated into Liji's nose.

"Meat!"

The couple's eyes lit up, and without thinking, they crawled into the woods beside the road after exploring the smell.

Many people in later generations had a misunderstanding, that is, in ancient times, the Japanese did not eat any other meat except fish and poultry. In fact, this is not the case.

From the 9th century to the 19th century AD, although ancient Japanese officials issued many regulations prohibiting eating and killing, folk meat eating records are still everywhere.

For example, in the book "Taki Komachi's Book of Growth" written in the mid-ninth century, it is recorded that Ono Komachi, who was called the beauty singer at that time, was a carnivorous woman who liked to eat chicken, bear, rabbit, and venison.

The most obvious fact that the ancient Japanese ate meat secretly is the notes of the Spanish missionary Francis Xavier in the 16th century. When he first arrived in Japan, he was told by the official that "the Japanese do not like to kill, so they do not eat meat."

However, Xavier gradually discovered that the Japanese do not eat meat. They not only eat fish and poultry, but also wild boars, bears, wild dogs, monkeys, and cats. But no one dares to eat beef and horse meat.

This is true among the people, let alone those famous vassal lords. For example, Tokugawa Shiaki, the ninth-generation vassal lord of the Mito family, was a rare carnivorous fan. He liked the specialty of the Hikoen family - Miso marinated beef. This guy is extremely looking forward to gifts from the Hikoen family every year, until Ii Naohime inherited the family governor and the habit of giving beef came to an abrupt end.

When the Liji and his wife walked through a bush with their hands and feet, they finally found the source of the fragrance. Under a pine tree dozens of steps away, a tall man sat sideways on a small stool, cooking food.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! In front of him, there was a short black shelf like a small table, and there was nothing on it, and green smoke came out. Occasionally, a few drops of grease fell off, making a "sizzling" sound.

Although he found the source of the fragrance, the Liji couple who were lying in the grass did not dare to move because the person was so strange.

This person is wearing a dark "robed suit" that is not long or short. The lower body is not wearing a "sakura" with loose legs that he usually sees, but tights that are similar to "thigh-strings".

The most special thing is that this man has a short hair of about a long position, just like a monk in the temple.

You should know that in ancient Japan, except monks, they would tie their hair into a single bun. Since the Kamakura era, samurai would shave their hair into a lunar head in order to facilitate wearing armor, which means that the head was bare. In the Edo era, lunar heads were popularized to the common people, including tea mat, 2-fold hair, chen pine wind, Wen Jinfeng, and Honto bun.

Of course, not everyone shaves the moon's head. For example, sumo wrestlers, Taifu, doctor, and Confucians above the Wujiatang are not shave. As for farmers, they don't have the idle intentions. The one they leave is called "Ding Tou", which means a small bun behind the head.

The couple was already very careful, but because they were really weak, they still led the branches under them and made sounds.

The man turned his head suddenly, stared at the bushes where Riki and Shino were, and shouted: "Who is it! Come out!"

The man's accent was very strange, definitely not the accent in Mua, and the couple could only barely understand it. However, when the other party stood up suddenly, they were immediately frightened by the terrifying height.

In the Edo period, due to the barrenness of food and lack of nutrition, the Japanese were generally between four feet, six and five feet, which was converted into the metric system of later generations, which was 1.4 to 1.5 meters. If someone could reach 1.7 meters in height, it was already a rare tall person, and he could be watched by thousands of people on the street.

What about the person in front of you? Li Ji was able to see that the other person was about six feet (1.8 meters) tall. Is this still a human?!

Li Ji felt that he must have encountered a mountain monster.

Just as the couple was trembling and in a dilemma, the "monster" suddenly disappeared!

It wasn't running away, it wasn't flying, it wasn't a cloud of smoke rising from the ground, but it disappeared out of thin air! It was gone!

Liji rubbed his eyes in disbelief. If it weren't for the thing that was like a small table that was still emitting blue smoke under the tree and the strong aroma of barbecue in the air, he would even think that everything he had just had been an illusion.

This time, he became more convinced that he had encountered a monster.

Run or not? This is a big problem before Li Ji.

If this were ordinary years, he would definitely run away. However, now he is hungry, not to mention running, he will sway when walking. Facing the food that is within reach, Li Ji only hesitated for a moment, and finally made up his mind and decided to eat it first.

Even if you die, you must be a full devil.

Liji winked at Shino, then whispered again, signaling the other party not to move first and to take a look. Although Shino was afraid, she was very hungry and had to nod. Liji slowly stood up and walked under the tree. At first, he would pause for a moment every time he took a step, and he didn't dare to breathe. He looked around carefully before he dared to take the next step; but as he walked, the burnt fragrance emitted by the barbecue made him unable to control it, and he threw away all caution.

"This!" Li Ji, who came to the tree, looked at the food in front of him and was stunned.

I saw that the tabletop of the small black table was a grid-shaped metal grill with red charcoal burning underneath. On the grill were two cylindrical objects with a thickness of two fingers and a length of one, which looked a bit like the grilled rice bars he had seen in the city.

Just when Liji was hesitating, Shino suddenly screamed in a shrill voice. When he looked back in surprise, he saw that the tall "monster" had appeared in the bushes. A big black hand had already grabbed Shino's hair, and in his other hand, he was holding a sharp short knife.

"Liji! Save me!"

"It's actually a woman!" The "monster" showed a white teeth, which was particularly ferocious in Li Ji's eyes.

"Barbecue or tempura? Or cook it? Huh~~It's too smelly, you have to wash it before you can eat it." After the monster said that, he pointed at Liji with a knife and said, "You, stand and don't move! If you run, I will cut off her neck."

When Li Ji was scared to death when he heard the "monster" say this, he suddenly turned his eyes and fainted on the ground, unconscious.

I don't know how long it took, Li Ji, who was in a coma, heard a familiar voice calling him in his ears, and then something pressed on his mouth, and then a warm and sweet sticky substance slowly flowed into his mouth, and he instinctively swallowed.

It smells so good! Liji dares to swear that he has never eaten such a sweet thing in his life.

"Ahem~"

Because he was eating too quickly, Li Ji was choked and then coughed violently. Now he woke up and found that he was resting on his wife's lap.

"You're awake!"

"I'm not dreaming, right?" Li Ji clearly remembered that his wife was caught by a monster before she fell into a coma.

Shino, who was disheveled, shook his head and said, "It's not a monster, we've met a kind-hearted person."

Li Ji sat up suddenly when he heard this, widened his eyes and said in surprise: "People?"

"Haha, wake up. Come and have something to eat."

Li Ji was shocked when he heard the sound. He turned to look and saw the tall man like a monster sitting under a tree not far away. There was still a strange black grill in front of him, with something roasted on it and blue smoke emitting.

Seeing that the couple didn't respond, the other party picked up two penis inserted with bamboo sticks from the grill, stretched out without turning his head, and said, "This is called sausage, made of pork. You two are one."

"Sausage? What a weird name."

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content behind! The thoughts in my mind just flashed, and Li Ji, who was hungry in front of his heart and stuck to his back, didn't care about being hot. He just gulped up and almost swallowed his tongue into his stomach.

The crust is crispy, sizzling oily, and the perfect combination of the mellow meat and seasonings seems to have a delicious carnival burning in the mouth.

To put it bluntly, it's just four words, it's delicious~~

The pork sausage, which was thick with two fingers and a long one, entered the stomach in a blink of an eye. The two of them hadn't eaten a serious meal for several months, and in the past month they had even had wild vegetable soup, and their faces turned green.

A sausage was gone in a blink of an eye, and the problem was not solved at all. So the tall man handed over two roasted ones, which looked brown and covered with beans. The other party said this was called "corn", and only the yellow particles on the surface could be eaten.

Although Liji had never seen corn, the smell of burnt fragrance still made him shake off his cheeks and chew it on, and in the end he even swallowed the corn cob.

Well. Although corn was brought to Japan and China by the Portuguese in the 15th century, it has not been widely promoted and planted, especially in Japan, which did not accept this kind of staple food from the new world from top to bottom.

After a sausage and a few roasted corn were put on the stomach, Li Ji felt that he had come alive.

At this time, the tall man asked, "Your name is Liji? Are you full? Do you understand what I said? Do you understand what you work?"

Both of them understood the previous sentence, but what is the next sentence?

"I can understand. Thank you so much. This is the most delicious food we have eaten in our lives!"

"Ha. Just understand." The young man grinned and said with gesture: "Where are you two from? Local?"

When Li Ji heard this, he hurriedly pulled his wife to kneel down and salute, and said hesitantly: "We are farmers in Yanmu Mountain. The village is more than twenty miles away. To be honest, the vassal state has suffered a major disaster and I originally wanted to go to the vassal city to seek refuge with relatives, alas!"

The tall man said expressionlessly: "Is it a volcano erupting?"

"Yes, sir." Liji wiped his tears with his tattered sleeves and explained: "Since last spring, the weather has never warmed up, with heavy rain and cold winds constantly. Until early summer, the weather was still very cold. By September, the rice planted was still green and not mature at all.

When the New Year is over, I think that God will be kind and give the poor some way to survive. As a result, it is still cold and storms are constantly rising. Before the rice in the field is planted, wildfires broke out in Yanmu Mountain, and magma and mudslides have destroyed the fields.

The elders in the village said that the vassal lord would distribute relief, so we kept waiting. But after a few months, all the food stored in the family was eaten up, and there was no relief in the vassal lord. Let alone wild vegetables around the village, even the rats were caught."

The tall man asked, "How long has the food been out of stock in your village?"

"I lost food more than three months ago. More than a dozen people have starved to death in the village."

"Does the government care?"

"Official government? Alas..." Li Ji immediately described what he saw and heard in the vassal city.

The tall man was silent after hearing this, sometimes looking up at the sky, sometimes looking at his feet, and sometimes looking at what he was thinking.

Seeing that the other party was not paying attention to him, Liji's eyes turned around and savored the delicious food he had just eaten, so he pulled his wife Shino's sleeve. The two turned around and retreated aside and started whispering.

"Thank you very much for saving my husband and wife's lives! I, I..." Li Ji stumbling for a long time, finally bowed his head and bowed and said, "I hope that my husband and wife can take me in, and be a slave, and serve you for your whole life."

The tall man was stunned: "What? Do you want to be a servant for me?"

"The land cannot be cultivated anymore. We are really desperate. Please pity us, sir!" As he said that, Riki and Shino kowtowed to the young man.

The young man's eyes rolled, and after a while, he said, "Okay. Follow me for the time being, in the future... forget it, take a step by step."

When Li Ji and his wife heard this, they were very happy. They quickly kowtowed: "I haven't asked you what your surname is?"

The tall man touched his short hair and said, "My surname is Zhao, Zhao Xin."
Chapter completed!