On December 12 of the fifth year of Chongzhen, the next day of the great cold.

When Qin Chuan woke up from his sleep, he faintly heard bursts of laughter like silver bells outside the window.

Judging by the light streaming in from the window paper, it was already bright.

Qin Chuan got up from the warm quilt, quickly got dressed with his hands and feet, put on the mink again, and then opened the door and went out.

As soon as he opened the door, he was stunned before he could step out.

Because the courtyard outside the gate was snow-white.

There were also pieces of pure white goose feathers falling in the air, falling in the courtyard, and merging with the snow-white.

Qin Chuan ran out suddenly, raised his head, opened his hands, and looked at the white sky with joy on his face.

It's snowing.

It was falling heavily, and the snow in the yard was half a foot thick overnight.

"Let's go down, go down more, and get him a few nights."

Qin Chuan was full of anticipation and muttered to the air.

Heavy snow means a good winter wheat crop next year.

Winter snow covers three layers of quilts, and you will sleep with steamed buns in the coming year.

Heavy snow also means that when the snow melts next spring, the newly dug reservoir will be able to store a lot of water.

It means that the Jianhe, Nanchuan River, and Xichuan River in the west, the Longquan River in the north, the Chi River, the Tunlan River, the East and West Huluchuan River in the south, etc., all the dry seasonal rivers will return to their former gurgling vitality.

That's a good thing.

After only standing for a while, Qin Chuan felt that his neck was cold and his body was covered with a layer of snow, so he hurriedly walked back to the porch.

In a courtyard not far away, there was another laughter like a silver bell.

Qin Chuan raised his feet and walked in the direction of laughter.

When he turned around a corridor and walked into a courtyard filled with a faint fragrance, Qin Chuan saw several figures scattering joy in the snow, including the daughters of the Wang family, the sisters of the Li family, and a woman wearing a mink and being so beautiful that she was bubbling.

Qin Chuan stopped and looked at the woman quietly.

The woman soon spotted him, and hurriedly walked under the corridor with her head down, hiding behind Ning, and sneaking a glance at him from time to time.

"I'll go out to see the villagers, you pay attention to yourself, don't catch a cold."

Qin Chuan smiled at her, and then strode away.

……

Lao Huang and Bobcat have deceived the villagers of Jiaoqu Grange, a total of 80 households, with a population of 320.

Wang Jizong gave them some cotton clothes and was placing them in Mengjiazhuang.

"Are there enough cotton clothes and quilts?"

Qin Chuan walked over and asked.

Wang Jizong nodded: "It's barely enough, a lot of them were seized in Huangcong Mountain, Shentai Peak and Dujiazhuang before, and I went to Jingle and Taiyuan to buy some some some time ago, and now it's barely enough." ”

"Well, let the villagers who lack clothes stay in the house as much as possible and don't come out."

"They know it themselves."

"Let's go, come with me to town."

"Okay."

The two put on dog skin hats, and found sewn sheepskins to wear on their bodies to resist the wind and snow, and then took a few entourages and walked towards the outside of the village under the goose feather snow.

The town had been flooded with snow, and everywhere was white, except for the occasional patrol of the Emperor Guan, who was heavily clothed, and there was not a single figure to be seen.

There are not many brick and wooden houses in the town, less than 200, and the rest are all makeshift thatched huts and ground nests, inhabited by hungry people who have been taken in from front and back.

Nowadays, the vast majority of villagers are huddled in their own houses and sleep without going out.

Although they didn't work during this time, Qin Chuan would still support them, and changed the daily two thin and one dry to two dry and one thin to help them resist the cold and get through this most difficult time.

……

On the side of the mountain in Lou Fan Town, in a nest that was covered very thickly, Huang Erdan added a handful of firewood to the stove, warmed his hands, and then retracted it on the cover, hugging the stout aunt tightly.

"The baby is sleeping on the side."

His mother-in-law pushed him.

"Hey, hey, hey."

Huang Erdan let go of his hand at this time.

"Erdan, if Mother and Xiwa were still alive, how good it would be." The mother-in-law hugged him with her backhand.

The smile on Huang Erdan's face froze.

"Alas, I was at the beginning, the gang couldn't believe it, your brother didn't believe me, and took our family to vote for Zijin Liang, killed my mother and Xiwa, and he himself died in the meander......"

"Daughter-in-law, farewell."

Huang Erdan pressed his aunt's mouth.

The mother-in-law broke his hand, looked at him fixedly, and said: "Erdan, you are not allowed to be like your brother, you always want to rebel, now our family of three has food, shelter and food, but it is not given by the righteous army, but by the chief steward." ”

"Let me tell you, from now on, you will honestly work for the big steward, and after the harvest next summer, you will have a few good words to Mr. Wang, and let him rent a few acres of land to our family, and then we will take root in Lou Fu and not leave."

"Huh."

Huang Erdan grinned in response, and then got his hand under his aunt's padded jacket.

Even if his mother-in-law didn't remind him, he would never run around with Zijinliang's gang again.

It was a group of beasts that ate even their own people, and did not spit out their bones after eating.

Chunwa was only thirteen years old, and she was ruined to death by that gang.

The mother went up to fight with them, and gave a knife to pierce from the front to the back.

Huang Erdan was so frightened that he collapsed on the ground, or his mother-in-law, who had just given birth to a baby, quietly dragged him away and escaped from the dead man's pile in Yangqu overnight.

After that, they begged all the way south from Yangqu, to Lanzhou, and then to Lanxian.

In Lanzhou, when his aunt and baby were dying of starvation, he begged for a bowl of stewed venison back, and his aunt devoured it and fed the baby zero broth.

There was still a two-finger-sized piece of meat left in the bowl, and when he was half a bowl of soup, his mother-in-law handed him the bowl, and he shook his head desperately, he had eaten it.

He didn't dare to tell his mother-in-law, it was a bowl of human flesh.

Since then, he has been sleeping at night with nightmares.

He knew he would be punished.

Before that, he had to raise the baby first.

Later, they met an old man with big yellow teeth and a half-grown man in Lan County, who gave them three pieces of jerky, and the family of three followed each other back to Lou Fu.

Later, he knew that the old man's name was Lao Huang, and he was a good man, and the half-eldest son was called a lynx, and he was very ghostly, and he had hundreds of lives in his hands at his age.

Later, he learned that it was a chief steward surnamed Qin in Mengjiazhuang who gave them food.

The more than 1,000 Guan Emperor troops, as well as the Mr. Wang who spoke Si Swenwen, were all subordinates of the Great Steward of Qin.

He knew that his mother-in-law and baby were saved.

Without being reminded by his mother-in-law, he will also work for the chief steward and earn a few acres of land for his aunt and baby, and at that time, he will not be afraid of karma.

Just as he was thinking about it, the aunt in his arms arched his body.

At this moment, there was a sudden sound of footsteps outside the door, as if there was still the sound of someone talking.

"Who?"

Huang Erdan pulled his hand out and stared vigilantly at the low doorway of the nest.

"The chief steward and Mr. Wang came to inspect it, and the people in the house opened the door." A voice rang out outside the door.

"The chief steward and Mr. Wang are here?"

Huang Erdan's mother-in-law reacted faster than him, hurriedly got up, straightened the clothes on her body, and then kicked Huang Erdan.

Erdan came back to his senses, hurriedly ran to drive, and then hunched his waist: "I've seen the chief steward, I've seen Mr. Wang." ”

Qin Chuan and Wang Jizong stood outside the door, and they didn't enter the door, but only glanced inside.

"If you have a stove in the house, you must pay attention to ventilation, otherwise the charcoal fire will smoke Rao." Qin Chuan pointed to a pile of firewood in the middle of the nest.

"Okay, ventilation, ventilation." Huang Erdan nodded hurriedly.

"Also pay attention to fire prevention, carefully check the walls and roof, if there is thatch exposed, paste it with mud in time, and don't let the thatch be exposed."

"yes, okay, I remember."

Qin Chuan took a closer look, and saw a restrained woman in the corner of the house, and a one- or two-year-old doll lying in the bed on the ground, so he took out a black thing from his pocket, handed it to Huang Erdan, and said, "Take it to tease the baby, don't give too much at once." ”

Huang Erdan took it and looked at it, it was a palm-sized piece of brown sugar.

"Thank you, Steward, Mr. Wang."

Huang Erdan knelt on the ground with a puff and banged his head.

The mother-in-law in the corner of the house also knelt down.

"Let's all get up, let's not do this."

Qin Chuan waved his hand, and then retreated.

The heavy snow still kept falling, and Wang Jizong caught up and helped Qin Chuan remove the snow from the sheepskin.

Qin Chuan walked as he walked: "Ming Zhao, as soon as the snow stops, I will send someone to Yongning Prefecture to pick up Liu Youzhu, that place is far away, he has to transport cotton, and he is escorting a large number of hungry people, I am afraid that they will be trapped halfway and will not be able to come back." ”

"Okay, when the time comes, I'll bring some cloth over and make some quilts temporarily."

"There is also Li Dingliang who went to Taiyuan, and when the snow stopped, he sent some people out to pick them up."

"Yes."

"Send a few more people to Lanzhou, and tell the surnamed Xue that before Chinese New Year's Eve, I can't see Luo Wen and five thousand taels of silver, and let him see the heads of his sons and wives on the first day of the new year."

"Yes."