Chahar Prefecture Yin Li Bingjun is a capable person, and the officials under him are also doers with good official reputations. Fu Yin has been talking about this matter since he saw the gloves Qi Shi wore and the cowhide cotton boots he wore. And this year, Chahar has a bumper harvest of cotton, cotton is sold very cheaply, and cotton cloth is also an easy thing to obtain. In the past, a few people would die every winter, and although the court didn't pay much attention to it, it would always reprimand it as usual. This year has been another eventful year. At this time, if someone in Chahar froze to death, it would be too bad and annoy the emperor, and he would not be able to please him.

After thinking about it, he summoned the officials and told him his plan: he planned to requisition the women of the people, and use the method of exchanging them for forced labor, so that they could use the cheapest coarse cloth and miscellaneous cotton to make some quilts, gloves, shoes and socks, and distribute them to the poor in the city, so that no one would freeze to death.

Chahar has a good income this year, and Li Bingjun, the governor of the government, wants to be a good person in exchange for political achievements, how can anyone say that it is not good? Maybe the boss gets a commendation, and he can bring some benefits to the people below, in case he doesn't get any benefits, but he eats and hangs up, anyway, it's Lord Yin's mention, and they won't be blamed. In view of this, not only did everyone echo in unison, but the Fu Cheng also proposed to find a few uninhabited but relatively sturdy houses in the city, take in homeless beggars and others, provide some porridge and water and bedding every day, and then summon doctors to give medicine to the poor on fixed days, which would be more secure.

Lord Fu Yin nodded and said that this kind of thing had a good reputation, so he assigned a task, and everyone started to do things separately. When the number of people who died due to the continuous low temperature in Chahar City reached a third person, the cold prevention and poverty alleviation operation was officially launched.

As long as the government really wants to do something, it will always see results. It wasn't until the month of Layue that the number of people who froze to death in Chahar City stagnated at four, and the number of people who froze to death in Chahar City did not continue to increase, and in the past, twenty or thirty people froze to death every year, so for the people in the government office, this mere four people was simply negligible. This feat is incredible, although it should be said that the statistics should be counted after the spring weather warms up after the year, but this great feat of Chahar still reached Kangxi's ears through the constant correspondence between several "friends" and Jingli.

Kangxi Longyan Dayue, not only issued an order to praise Chahar, but also gave Fu Yin Li Bingjun a handwritten letter of "Gong Zhong Ti Guo", and happily found the best craftsman to make a plaque and hang it. Lord Fu Yin felt that the color head was caused by Qi Shi's gloves and cotton boots, and when he drank with the officials above and below to celebrate, he also pulled Qi Shi and said that he was not only a master of the capital who had a good set of military affairs such as military training, but also a lucky general!

Suddenly, it has entered the wax moon, and the new year is coming. The Manchu New Year is no less cumbersome than the Han New Year, and since the Qing soldiers entered the customs, the two ethnic groups have lived together with each other, and their customs have gradually converged, and in Chahar, a remote and barren place, some old customs have been retained.

Since autumn, every household in the city has been pickling Chinese cabbage, storing radish, buying all kinds of winter food, preparing red paper to make window flowers and blessing characters, and girls and daughters-in-law have rushed to make purses for people to give away overnight.

Qi Shifu not only had to prepare for these, but also had to worry about the New Year's gifts sent back to his homes all over the capital. Fortunately, the Nalan clan is shrewd and capable, and the people serving around the Nalan clan such as Shulu tried their best to come up with ideas, and decided that each family should send twelve wind chickens, twelve wind sheep, plus twelve jars of Chahar wine and other local specialties, a set of a full set of glass dishes with a dozen or so five-bat lianyun patterns, a complete set of tea sets with entwined lotus flowers, small copper coins for ingots, fruits and vegetables, fresh twelve kinds of flower styles, etc......

After these things were explained, Nalan asked a carpenter to come and tell him carefully about the box for gifts, the carved decoration and lacquer color on the surface of the box, and the fabric used for the lining. In the next few days, I have to prepare the New Year's gifts for my colleagues in the Qi Shi Yamen, as well as clean up the gifts given by others.

It was easy to reach the tenth day of the lunar month, the glassware and silver bills were ready, and Nalan personally led people to pack the utensils into boxes, plug the gaps with fine white cotton, and then wrap the boxes with satin wraps. Then I asked the girl to tie the silver coin with a good red silk thread, make a knot, twelve in a box, containing two boxes of small ingots, two boxes of small copper coins, two boxes of silver coars of fruits and vegetables, and then two boxes of silver hairpins. All the boxes were bundled up, and the ten fine silks that had been prepared before, wrapped in linen, plus the wind sheep, the chickens, and the wine, filled the three carts. Let a steward in the house rush to Beijing with the letter that Zhang Bao had written the night before.

The New Year's gift came to an end, Chinese New Year's Eve was approaching day by day, the people in the mansion were busy cleaning the courtyard, posting couplets, hanging notes, window flowers and blessing characters, and Nalan took Mother Shulu to steam rice cakes, make snacks and other food. Qi Shi finally took his annual leave, and he also personally put a red flag on the door. Looking out the door, every household on the street has posted various colored flags to show that their flags belong to them, and some families are still tying poles in front of the door to prepare for firecrackers.

On the twenty-third day of the lunar month, the noodles for the whole New Year must be prepared on this day, and the chefs and kitchens in the entire house are busy in an orderly and hot manner. And Qi Shi led the hand-washing of sugar melons, honey offerings, sugar cakes and other desserts to smear honey on the mouth of the stove king.

On Chinese New Year's Eve, Nalan got up early in the morning and took people to make blood sausages and dumplings. Qi Shi stayed in the study, and carefully explained to his son and daughter the rules of the New Year, how to worship the ancestors, etc., he said slowly, interspersed with some stories and allusions, which was very interesting, and Eruri and Qi Buchen listened to it with relish.

As soon as it was dark, the whole house was lit up, and the pole in the front yard was hung with red lanterns, which were not allowed to be extinguished. Mama Shulu had already led people to set up an offering table in the front yard, and when the time came, she would worship her ancestors.

The family sat down around a large table and ate some festive food. At this time, in addition to the pastel openwork plate of mackerel, shrimp, leeks, beef mushrooms, pork cabbage, winter melon and mutton, etc., there are all kinds of dumplings on the table; A pair of colorful cups with twisted branches and crocus are bird's nest, red and white duck nan, wine stewed meat and stewed tofu; Vegetarian three-color fruit pattern plate with a fresh hot pot; The enamel sunflower box is stuffy with steamed duck and paste pork, and small snacks are attached next to it: enamel silver plate bamboo roll small steamed bun, green pastel begonia dish small dumpling, all kinds of colorful flower plates are placed on small buns, god cakes, boxes, jade dew cream, square crisp filling, white honey prints, egg prints, yellow and white dot muffins...... Hajlan was young, and Qi Shi personally hugged her. Hajlan looked at the large and small dishes on the table, which were sumptuous, delicious and pleasing to the eye!

After eating, Qi Shi hugged his daughter and took his wife and son to sit and laugh on the pit. After a while, Hajran felt a little unbearable, and looked up to see that Eruri on the other side was also asleep little by little.

Qi Shi smiled and said, "This is because of the anger of the meal, take him to the yard for a walk, just be afraid." ”

Nalan felt sorry for his son and said, "There is still a vigil at night, so it's better to let him sleep first." Qi Shi felt reasonable, so he put down his daughter and hugged him to the pit, and Nalan took off his son's big clothes again, covered him with a small quilt, and watched him sleep. Qi Shi turned around and saw that Hajilan couldn't open his eyes either, so he smiled and hugged her to his son's side and let her sleep too. Only the well-behaved Qi Buchen still supported the Nalan clan.

Hajlan was dazed, and he didn't know how long he had been asleep, when he suddenly heard a "boom" outside, followed by a "crackling" explosion, and he was startled and woke up.