Wang Zizhao's consciousness began to blur, he had been walking back and forth in the snow for almost two hours, and at this moment, lying in front of a small forest, the little sheep he had been holding was still curled up beside him motionless, giving himself warmth.

In the past, when I was in the salt lake of Lu Fangguo, I thought that I had tasted all the bitterness in the world, so under the scorching sun, I still insisted on using a nail rake to constantly stir the salty soil for salt production to speed up the evaporation of water, and the sweat on my back seemed to never dry up, and sometimes my eyes couldn't open, and there seemed to be countless suns swaying in front of me, making people unable to think, unable to stop, mechanically repeating simple actions, as if he was just a walking corpse.

And now, the spring cold in Buyeo is no better than that of the salt lake. Since being brought to this grassland by the officials of the Yang Department, he and Zhou Jin and Sun Wang have become veritable sheepherds. Several shepherds take turns grazing large flocks of fattened sheep, usually six hundred and twenty (not counting the lambs). There is a shepherd on top, a captain on top of the fifteen shepherds, and then on top of it is set up according to the management of the army. The highest department in charge of sheep shepherding in Buyeo is the Sheep Department, which is under the jurisdiction of Taifu Temple.

Under the leadership of the shepherd, the shepherds also have a division of labor, taking turns grazing during the day and taking turns on duty at night to prevent the sheep from being stolen. The vast Hongji Thorn Ranch is divided into many parts, the shepherds are constantly moving under the leadership of the shepherd, and the shepherds and the shepherds will inhabit in the same simple small tent at night, eat the food in the same wooden basin, generally only the porridge made of fried rice, the shepherd will have an extra mare's milk tea and even sometimes have mare's milk wine to drink, when the shepherd is in a good mood, he will occasionally pour a little mare's milk tea for the shepherds to drink, at this time, the shepherds will have a feeling of festival.

On this night, the shepherd needs to sleep in the middle of the sheep in the open sheepfold and be with the sheep, and the dense fluff of the sheep can play a role in avoiding the cold. At first, the smell of the sheep will make people unable to sleep, and over time, they will be too tired to get used to it, but they will be infected with a strong smell.

In winter, the sheep need to be regularly supplemented with fodder twice a day, and when the weather is fine, the shepherd will also instruct the shepherd to go to the field to herd the sheep to supplement the feed on the grounds that the grass is insufficient. The flock of supplementary feeding can go out of the grazing later, return to the grazing earlier, and the sheep do not need to return to the circle at noon, and generally have to come out to graze against the cold wind, and then return to the grazing in the direction of the wind. The shepherd forbade the shepherd to lead the sheep over the ditch, not to let the sheep be frightened, and required the shepherd to stop the sheep from walking around when entering and leaving the pen, and not to find a leeward place to set up a nest when grazing the sheep. Every time, the whistling north wind will scrape scars on the faces and hands of the shepherds, which are hot and painful, and it is difficult to heal for a long time, often old wounds that have not healed and new wounds are added. The whole person looks red, his face is red and black, and he is not yet twenty years old, but he seems to be in his early thirties.

In addition to this, the most difficult part is to get the sheep to drink water at least three times a day during the winter. When drinking, it is forbidden for sheep to drink ice ballast water and eat snow. Because in the low temperature season, sheep drinking ice ballast water and eating snow will consume a lot of sheep body heat, which will convert nutrition into heat energy, thereby increasing the consumption of feed and increasing the cost of feeding.

I and Zhou Jin and Sun Wang are working under the same shepherd Gao Tian, and today it is my turn to go out to herd. Because it snowed a few days ago, the ice and snow in winter have not yet melted, in order to let the sheep drink the freshly released water, they can only dig the ice to dig the water, the ice is a little thick, and the ice will also soak their clothes and sleeves for a long time, so that the cold air will reach the spine, so that the scars on the hands are thicker. The water under the ice is generally kept at a constant temperature level and does not irritate the stomach of the sheep, but the sheep still do not like to drink water. When they first came, because every time the sheep didn't drink water, or lost the sheep, he and Zhou Jin didn't know how many whips they had received and how many times they had been fasted.

After coming here for a long time, the shepherd next to him saw that the three of them were very honest, so he also taught some methods. For example, in order to prevent the water from freezing too quickly, and to lure the sheep to drink, each shepherd needs to carry a bag of bean flour with him. After digging the ice, quickly sprinkle with bean flour, at this time the sheep will bury their heads in water in order to eat bean flour, and they can also use cornmeal instead, but the cornmeal precipitates too quickly, and often the sheep will freeze before they have time to eat after drinking water.

After driving the sheep to drink water, a snowstorm suddenly fell in the sky, so he had to find a sheltered cave to let the sheep hide from the blizzard. After the snow was lighter, he drove the sheep home, due to the sudden attack of the blizzard delayed the hour, Zhou Jin and Sun Wang, who were worried about their accidents, came to meet themselves all the way, and it was only then that we found out that a lamb was missing. Zhou Jin and Sun Wang both persuaded me to go back, but I knew that we would all be punished for the lack of sheep, and at the same time, I was also worried that the little sheep would freeze to death and starve to death in the ice and snow, so I let them take the sheep back, and I walked in the direction of the cave where I was sheltered from the wind and snow, hoping to try my luck.

Fortunately, I found the lost lamb in the cave, but somehow it was injured in one of its feet, so it was not able to get out of the cave with the sheep, and it was stranded here, and at this time, it was almost dark, so I took it in my arms and walked in the direction of the tent where I lived at night.

Unexpectedly, it was snowing again, and I was about to rush back, when the familiar tent appeared before me, and there was a fire pit on the ground, and the dung of the sheep and other animals was burning brightly, reflecting the streaks of the oversized wooden basin for the supper that all our shepherds and shepherds used.

It was dark, it was so fast, so obvious, the snow was losing my way, I couldn't tell the way, I was lost. The snowflakes floating overhead, the biting cold and unbearable hunger, and the lamb in my arms all made me feel that the way back was getting farther and farther, and my steps were getting heavier and heavier.

Yingxue was walking with a lantern in front, and suddenly found that there seemed to be a lamb's cry in the snow, and when she looked closely, under a thin layer of snow next to the lamb, a man's side face and the skirt of her clothes leaked out, and she hurriedly shouted: "Grandpa, come and see, there is a person lying here!"

Lao Jiangtou hurriedly jumped down from the carriage he was driving, and shone the lantern on the lamb waiting beside the man, and then on the man's confused eyes, only to see that this person was wearing a round-necked dress made of burlap, the clothes were connected up and down, and a straw rope was tied in the middle, the length of the clothes was less than the ankle, and there was no ornament on the head, so he said: "It should be a nearby shepherd, maybe lost."

"Grandpa, take him back, or he will freeze to death." Yingxue pleaded.

So, in a daze, Wang Zizhao was carried into the carriage, and then, soon after, he was completely unconscious.

When I woke up, I saw a sixteen or seventeen-year-old girl sitting in front of the kang on the soil, holding a bowl of soup that had just been fed to herself in her left hand, and holding a wooden spoon in her right hand. He was dressed on the top and on the bottom, covering the knees, but the back of the robe was long to the feet, and a belt made of unknown animal fur was tied around the waist.

I was about to ask her something, but she ran out like a swallow and shouted, "Grandpa, he's awake."