In the midst of the hustle and bustle, it seems that winter is coming quickly, accompanied by a sudden cold wind overnight, the first snow of the second year of the first peace is fluttering, shrouding the sky over the entire Pingyang City.

Standing at the head of Pingyang City, watching the snowflakes fluttering down, gradually dyeing the whole earth into a pure white, it is indeed a boundless scenery.

Especially when there is a small red clay oven next to it, an urn of corn wine. Although it is not a green ant wine, it is better than being made from new corn this year, which has some special meaning.

Fei Qian looked for a while, and saw Xu Shu and Zao Yi coming together, so he greeted with a smile: "Come on, try the new corn wine brewed this year, haha, speaking of which, this is still the blessing of Tuo Zijing, and when the old farmer sent it, he also named and thanked you......"

Although he is young, some farmers near Pingyang are familiar with this farmer, especially when Zaoyi arranges livestock to carry out large-scale plough ploughing, measure the planting plant spacing, and organize topdressing irrigation, the prestige of Zaoyi is also established in such trivial field things one after another.

Nowadays, farmers near Pingyang County, it is estimated that not many people know the full name of jujube, but when it comes to jujube, it is basically clear......

Zao only arched his hand and said, "I just try my best, I really don't dare to take credit." ”

Fei Qian smiled and didn't continue to say anything, but motioned for the two of them to sit down.

"Yuan Zhi, how is it in the barracks?" Fei Qian poured two glasses of wine for the two of them, and then asked Xu Shudao.

Two days ago, the 3,000 cavalry who accompanied the Southern Xiongnu Shan Yu Fuluo to the armed parade also rushed back to Pingyang, and now they are also stationed in the barracks.

Xu Shu took the wine glass and said, "Ji Dang is now organizing that ...... in the camp Well, literacy competition, hehe, now all the soldiers are desperately trying to recognize words, I heard that many soldiers are even dreaming at night to recite the newly recognized words, and some people even directly changed the names of everyone in the team with the words they knew......"

It's winter, and the rain and snow are the umbrella of nature, and in this case, even if you have the intention, you are probably powerless, and the outdoor temperature close to zero will be a nightmare for all those who are marching and hurrying outside.

Therefore, since it is not easy to carry out training or anything, Fei Qian simply ordered to organize a literacy competition in the barracks, and the victory or defeat is linked to the wine and meat that can be obtained in the New Year.

People take food as the sky, and it's time to celebrate the New Year, who doesn't want to eat something good?

Originally, there were some veterans in the barracks who insisted on literacy and uselessness, but now they have to be forced to learn together, otherwise their partners in the same team will not be able to eat wine and meat, and it is estimated that they will be talked about for a whole year......

Haha, Fei Qian raised his head and smiled, I knew that there was such an effect, this kind of competition should have been held earlier, but can we also do some military exercises and competitions in the future, anyway, you can't go on a long-distance expedition in winter, and you can't let these soldiers be completely idle, right?

"What about the farmer?" Fei Qian asked Zao.

Zao Yi put down the wine glass and said, "The briquettes have been delivered to all households, although the amount is not much, but presumably there will be many fewer people who will die from the cold this winter......

Fei Qian nodded, silent.

Every winter, someone freezes to death, and there's no way around it.

I thought about explaining Zaoyi about asking farmers to pay attention to carbon monoxide when burning honeycomb coal in closed houses, but then I thought about it, and in the Han Dynasty, this thing was almost impossible to happen......

The houses of the Han Dynasty were too poorly sealed, and the houses were leaking air up and down, and the farmers were definitely reluctant to use a large amount of honeycomb coal, and they were definitely willing to use it when it was too cold to stand it, so it was not easy to form a lethal concentration.

But this cotton......

Some time ago, when I was chatting with Linagu, I talked about some melons and fruits in the Western Regions, and then Linagu said that he seemed to have seen this kind of fluffy snow-like flowers in Xiqiang, but I don't know if Linagu was describing cotton......

Heavy snow closed the road, and the caravans also stopped, including whether there is cotton in the Western Regions, etc., and these things are estimated to be known until the snow melts in the spring next year.

But for now, maybe there's something to replace cotton for a while......

Fei Qian took out a ball of string from his sleeve, then handed it to Xu Shu and Zaoyi, and said, "Come, take a look, guess what this is?" ”

Xu Shu took it in his hand, identified it, and said, "This is...... Wool...... Wool rope? ”

"Wool rope? But the 'rope' should be thicker, and this might be called a 'thread'? Zao Yi also looked at it, and then said.

Nowadays, in the Han Dynasty, whether it was the Hu people or the Han people, most of the animal furs were used to keep warm, the better ones were tigers, wolves, mink foxes, etc., the middle ones were sheep and dogs, and the worst was the hare fur, but for these furs, ordinary people and soldiers still couldn't afford to use them.

Because, too expensive. Therefore, most of the people and soldiers used two layers of arrowroot cloth, and then filled the middle with hay to make simple down jackets to keep out the cold. There are few chickens and ducks that are usually raised, and there is no large-scale breeding of chickens and ducks, there are no anti-inflammatory and antibacterial antibiotics, and chickens and ducks are easy to form chicken plague and duck plague or something, so there is no chicken and duck fluff or anything in the Han Dynasty.

This yarn was said casually when Fei Qian and Huang Yueying were chatting, but I didn't expect Huang Yueying to make it out directly......

In fact, in the Han Dynasty, there was already a preliminary process for the processing of wool, and wool was used for weaving, which was also a skill used by nomads to resist wind and snow.

The collection of wool from sheepskins has been started since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but it has not formed a large scale, and no one has paid special attention to it.

Fei Qian asked some Hu people, most of them are in the spring is about to enter the summer, for the sheep to comb, and then can comb a lot of wool, these are the source of wool, sometimes there is no time to comb, the sheep will also rub on the stake somewhere, and then can also be collected, called wool picking.

Then it is soaked in alkaline water, then dried, and the bristles are elasticated, and finally the thread can be kneaded.

However, the wool of the Hu people in the Han Dynasty was very thick, and there was no way to be as thin as Huang Yueying's wool, so most of the Hu people also used wool to weave felts and blankets, and very few people used it to weave woolen clothes.

But now that Huang Yueying has the technology to process wool again, it seems that knitting woolen sweaters can be put on the agenda. However, the way the Hu people collected wool was too wasteful, so Fei Qian took out this wool from Xu Shu and Zaoyi, just to formulate an action on sheep shearing.