Chapter 7: Fragment

  New book uploaded, collection and recommendation are very important for cavalry, thank you everyone.

  Li Wenjun didn't understand knives and guns, but even he, an outsider, could tell that this was a poorly made pu dao, probably something the blacksmith had made a long time ago to practice his skills. With such poor craftsmanship, it's no wonder the blacksmith could only do odd jobs like repairing plows and hoes.

  Li Wenjun furrowed his brow and asked, "Aren't there any other knives or guns?"

  The blacksmith shook his head and said, "Just this one."

  Li Wenjun asked again: "Besides here, where else is there a blacksmith shop?"

  The blacksmith chuckled and said, "In our Military Fort Town, there's only my family's ironwork shop. Young man, I'm not bragging, but within a radius of fifty miles, the best ironwork is mine. If you want to buy a better pu dao than this one, you'll have to go to the county town a hundred miles away."

  Li Wenjun thought for a moment and asked: "How much are you planning to sell this knife for?"

  The blacksmith stretched out three fingers, "If you really want it, three silver coins."

  Li Wenjun turned around and walked away. The blacksmith hurriedly stopped him, "Young man, don't go, we can still negotiate."

  "Don't even think about it, even if you're selling a silver coin for one cent, I still don't want it." Li Wenjun said without hesitation.

  Business is hard to come by, and the blacksmith can't let it go easily. He rubbed his hands together and chuckled: "One silver coin? I won't even cover my costs. Unless you think about it some more and see if you can choose something else. I'll give you a discount."

  "Anything else?" Li Wenjun glanced at the pile of scraps that the blacksmith had taken out of the wooden box and asked, "Apart from this pu knife, chopping knife, and vegetable knife, do you have any other sharp blades here that can be used for self-defense?"

  The blacksmith really wanted to make this deal, he thought hard and suddenly remembered something, hastily saying: "Young man, wait a minute."

  Li Wenjun felt a sense of wonder when the blacksmith turned around and went into the inner room. A moment later, he came out with a bundle wrapped in cloth. He opened it up to reveal a half-broken dagger. The tip of the dagger was gone, the break was very clean, only half of the blade remained, covered in several cracks, more importantly, it was covered in rust stains.

  "Hey, little brother, don't look at its appearance, it's a treasure knife. I dare not say it can cut iron like mud, but it can definitely cut wood like mud." The blacksmith was afraid that Li Wenjun wouldn't believe him, so he grabbed a wooden stick as thick as an adult's arm and held the half of the dagger, casually slashing at the stick.

  Hmph...

  A single crack and the wooden stick broke into two pieces.

  Li Wenjun was both surprised and delighted, hastily taking the dagger from the blacksmith's hand, also asking for that wooden stick, personally testing it twice, finding that this half dagger was indeed not to be underestimated, however just like the blacksmith said, its appearance was a bit off, especially the crack on top, who knows when the dagger might continue to break. However under current conditions, Li Wenjun couldn't find a better choice than this, no matter what, this half dagger was much stronger than his jujube wood mallet.

  Small in volume, sharp and can play its unexpected effect in close combat.

  "How much?" Li Wenjun asked.

  The blacksmith raised a finger and said, "I won't haggle with you either, one tael of silver. Young man, don't try to bargain, if it weren't for the crack on the dagger, I would be asking you for ten taels instead of one."

  He had a dollar in silver, but that was almost all he had. If it were before he ate noodles at the noodle shop, he might have just taken out the money to buy them, but now he didn't dare do so. Prices were skyrocketing and he couldn't help but think of his own stomach first.

  Li Wenjun is a straightforward person. He didn't say he had no money, nor did he say he wouldn't buy it. He took the package off his back and pulled out the wolf skin.

  "Uncle, what do you think of this wolf skin? It's almost complete, and making a fur coat out of it would be both majestic and warm for winter. This wolf skin is worth three silver coins at the very least, I'll trade it with you for that broken dagger, how about it?"

  The blacksmith grasped the wolf skin in his hand, took a look and nodded: "It's wolf skin. But I'm just a blacksmith, what do I need it for?"

  Li Wenjun said: "How can you not use it? Even if you don't wear it, you can give it to your wife, my aunt can make a leather jacket. If not, take it back home and show filial piety to your father or father-in-law, Old Tai Shan. Who wouldn't praise you for being filial?"

  The blacksmith chuckled and said: "You kid are quite eloquent. However, I won't exchange."

  Li Wenjun's smile froze on his face, but it was impossible for him to take out the silver and exchange it with the blacksmith. So he could only awkwardly prepare to put away the wolf skin.

  The blacksmith also realized at this time that Li Wenjun was a poor devil and had no mood to talk to him.

  Just as Li Wenjun was packing up, the blacksmith inadvertently swept a glance over and his eyes suddenly widened. He caught sight of the dried meat in Li Wenjun's bundle. "Hey, kid, wait a minute."

  Li Wenjun stopped his action and asked: "Uncle, have you changed your mind?"

  The blacksmith nodded, pointing to the dried meat wrapped in Li Wenjun's package and said: "Is that meat? If you're willing to give me that piece of meat along with the wolf skin, I'll return your dagger."

  The blacksmith's family was not wealthy, and they could only eat meat a few times a year. Moreover, no one in their household knew how to catch fish. It had been several months since they last ate meat, and the old and young people in the house were all tired of eating vegetarian food. Even the blacksmith himself was a bit hungry for meat.

  Li Wenjun hesitated for a moment, wolf meat jerky was food, he subconsciously didn't want to let go, but after thinking twice, reason won out over emotion, he nodded and said: "Okay, I'll trade with you."

  A moment later, Li Wenjun came out of the blacksmith's shop with a package that had been wrapped in a piece of cloth, and also the half dagger hidden under his clothes. The blacksmith was quite kind and gave Li Wenjun a free scabbard made of tree bark so he could put the dagger away. With this scabbard, he didn't have to worry about the dagger cutting his skin anymore.

  Li Wenjun came out of the blacksmith's shop, but he didn't intend to leave Junbao Town immediately. He still had a silver coin in his pocket, and he planned to buy some steamed buns and sell a little salt, which would be convenient for him to eat on the road. What he didn't know was that while he was eating noodles at the noodle shop, there was already an undercurrent surging inside and outside Junbao Town.

  After negotiating a result, the Li Chang immediately ordered the start of the plan to exchange half a bag of bran for boys and girls. However, Li Chang and others soon discovered that it was not easy to gather 7963 boys and girls, not because they were reluctant to give up bran, but because there were not enough boys and girls.

  The escape route is a road of elimination, the old, young, sick and disabled can hardly hold on without any food or drinking water. So, although there are thousands of refugees fleeing to Junbu Town, the proportion of children inside is very small, almost all of them are from the disaster-stricken areas near Junbu Town.

  These kids are at most forty or so in total, even if they were all exchanged, there would still be nearly twenty gaps.

  The town chief didn't dare to easily put the blame on the local children, if nothing happened, it would be fine, but if something did happen, their whole family would have to bear the brunt of the townspeople's criticism for a lifetime. The main problem was that there were too many missing mouths to feed, if only one or two were lacking, he might grit his teeth and forcibly buy two from poor villagers' homes, it wouldn't be a big deal.

  Helpless, the village head called the clever and resourceful scholar again to ask for his advice.

  The scholar has read a lot of books, but his career path is not smooth. However, he has many clever ideas, such as using the children of refugees from the famine to be child brides and grooms, which was his brainchild.

  As soon as he finished speaking, the scholar said calmly:

  "Li Chang, you haven't read many sacred and virtuous books, your understanding is biased."

  Boys and girls are not necessarily referring to children, in fact, unmarried men and women can also be called boys and girls. The immortal elder did not specify that we must give him male and female children, so let's expand the scope of the boys and girls we collect to include young men and women, maybe we can gather sixty-three boys and girls.

  "Right, didn't you say that Xian Chang emphasized the need for someone with abundant vitality? It's hard for a young child to have anything to do with abundant vitality; only half-grown boys and girls have this possibility."

  Inside the palace, he suddenly had an idea and praised the scholar for a couple of sentences. He then hastily ordered to expand the scope of recruitment to boys under 14 years old. The reason for setting the limit at 14 years old was that according to the national law, people who were 14 years old could get married.

  Suddenly, outside the military fortress, a commotion broke out, and when the refugees learned of the exchange conditions announced by Li Chang, few were willing to make the trade. Teenage boys who could already lend a hand were not about to be swapped for half a bag of bran, let alone toddlers.

  Inside the Li's Long Life Building, people were rapidly changing into young boys and girls, which not only shocked the refugees outside Junbao Town but also many of the town's own residents, including the pawnshop's attendant.

  One of the people sent by Li Chang happened to be a fellow clansman of Chao Peng's, and he was stopped by the latter as he passed in front of the pawnshop door. Chao Peng asked him what had happened.

  Upon learning what Li Zhang wanted to do, Chao Feng was overjoyed and immediately came up with a sinister plan to avenge himself for being threatened by Li Wenjun.

  Early the next morning, Er Gouzi told Benjia that he knew a young outsider who was probably also an escaped prisoner. Although not very old, he could single-handedly kill wolves, and must be a person with vigorous vitality, meeting the requirements of a fairy master.

  Chao Feng's family relied on Li Zhang for a living, and he was afraid of messing up the task. He let Li Zhang scold him for minor mistakes, but losing his job would be a big deal. He had been thinking about doing a good job all along. When he learned that such a person existed, he immediately stopped thinking about anything else and focused on catching Li Wenjun.

  Zao Feng briefly handed over and left the pawnshop with Benjia to find Li Wenjun.

  Li Wenjun had just come out of the blacksmith's shop and was searching all over the street for a place to buy mantou, intending to buy some dry rations before leaving Junbao Town. He never expected disaster to strike.

  Junbao Town is not very big, soon, Chaofeng and his family found Li Wenjun.

  He thought of Li Wenjun's ferocity and didn't dare to go over, he pointed at Li Wenjun from a distance and said to Benjia: "It was him."