While speaking, Zhou Heizi took Chen Bai to his residence.

In the simple fence yard, a spacious house was built, and the roof was covered with thick snow, and Chen Bai was worried that such a thick snow would crush the house.

Following Zhou Heizi down the steps, Chen Bai noticed that many ditches had been dug near the house in the deep pit, which he guessed should be used for drainage.

Entering the house, the warm breath came to the face, the temperature here and the outside were two completely different worlds, Zhou Heizi warmly invited Chen Bai to sit on the earthen kang covered with straw mats.

Touching the warm earthen kang, Chen Bai couldn't help but be amazed, and said, "Why is it so warm here." ”

Zhou Heizi couldn't help laughing when he heard this: "Village Chief Chen thinks that he has never seen this ondol, this thing is said to have been invented by His Majesty, when General Shi told His Majesty about the cold of winter here, I don't know how His Majesty came up with a really good way, after handing over the construction method of the ondol to the Ministry of Industry, the craftsmen of the Ministry of Industry came here to teach us how to build a hot kang." ”

With that, Zhou Heizi pulled Chen Bai to another room.

The room was cluttered, with a mess of miscellaneous items, a stove built against the wall, and an iron pot on top of it was steaming.

"This room, is the usual place to cook, I am a soldier, we don't come to in this place, unlike in the army there are special cooks, what you want to eat here can only do it yourself, you see this stove, it is connected to the kang of that house, and the burning is also coal, lighting a fire on weekdays can not only heat but also make some food with hot water, which is very convenient." Zhou Heizi enthusiastically introduced.

Chen Bai was amazed when he heard it, looked back and forth between the stove and the kang, and was amazed by Wang Lang's whimsy, walked to the stove, carefully picked up the iron pot, looked at the red coal burning in the stove, and was very excited, he felt that he had liked it here.

After visiting this house, the two sat on the warm kang, and Zhou Heizi heated some meat on the stove and made some simple food, which can be regarded as washing the dust for Chen Bai.

Zhou Heizi took a sip of wine, a warm current flowed into his stomach, and he suddenly felt warm, looked at Chen Bai and said, "Village Chief Chen, what about this house, I will leave it to you to live in the future, and I will return to Yucheng tomorrow." ”

When Chen Bai heard this, he was very surprised and asked, "Chief Zhou, why are you in such a hurry to leave?" ”

"I've been in this place for a year, and I've only taken over here temporarily, I've been there enough, and someone has been sent from above to inform me that we will have to go back if we know that a new official will take office, and it is said that His Majesty the Emperor wants to expand to the west, and a large part of us who are soldiers will be transferred back." Zhou Heizi said slowly, with a faint hint of excitement in his expression.

Chen Bai understood Zhou Heizi's thoughts, picked up his wine glass, and said: "This is a good thing, conquering the barbarians, opening up the territory, such feats, as long as they are successfully completed, after coming back, Zhou Wuchang will inevitably be rewarded, maybe this official position can be promoted again, Chen is here to wish Brother Zhou a victory." ”

Zhou Heizi immediately grinned when he heard this, and said: "Village Chief Chen is worthy of being a scholar, and his words are more pleasant than others, let's do this glass of wine, and I also wish Village Chief Chen can realize his dream here." ”

Chen Bai smiled: "Come!" Dry. ”

The two of them quickly drank a jar of wine with a simple meal, and they were both drunk and unconscious, and Chen Bai didn't wake up in a daze until noon the next day.

Seeing that Zhou Heizi was not by his side, Chen Bai yawned and walked out of the house, the biting cold suddenly made him sober up, and when he returned to the house, he felt a lot better by wearing his bear skin jacket.

At this time, the two guards came over together, and after seeing Chen Bai, they said, "I've seen Village Chief Chen." ”

Chen Bai nodded and said, "You two had a good rest yesterday, do you have a suitable place to live?" ”

One of them replied: "It's okay to rest, the accommodation is in the dormitory where those soldiers lived before, it's just that I slept on the kang all night, and my throat was a little uncomfortable when I woke up in the morning,"

Hearing him say this, Chen Bai also felt that his throat was a little uncomfortable, coughed twice, cleared his throat and said, "By the way, have you seen Zhou Wuchang?" ”

"Chief Zhou Wu has left early in the morning, let us tell you before leaving, the personnel information of Guiyu Three Villages are all in the drawer of the table." One said.

Chen Bai said secretly: "I didn't expect Heizi to be so thoughtful this week, and this left me a lot of time to understand the situation." ”

"You two have already eaten, if you don't have one, come in and eat together!" Chen Bai warmly invited.

The guard shook his head and said: "We have already eaten, Village Chief Chen, Chief Zhou Wu and they are gone, and now this belongs to Yusan Village, except for the two of us, there are only three other militiamen, this defense force is too weak." ”

Although Chen Bai did not know anything about military affairs, he only had two soldiers and three amateur militiamen guarding this huge village, and he was a little frightened and realized that this was a very serious problem.

"Captain Zhou didn't leave anything behind before leaving, such as weapons and armor!" Chen Bai asked.

"We've seen it, there are only three waist knives, more than ten spears, two pairs of bows, a number of arrows, and a bed crossbow on the side of the soldier's dormitory." One of the guards replied.

Chen Bai nodded, these weapons should be enough to protect this village, and said, "You two try the level of those three militiamen, if so, give them weapons and let them assist you." ”

Hearing this, the two agreed to Chen Bai's suggestion.

"Tomorrow, I will gather the name of the village, I should get acquainted with these people when I first arrived here, and you and those militiamen should maintain order!" Chen Bai said slowly.

"Village Chief Chen, don't worry, there is no problem in handing over this little matter to us!" The guard patted his chest and reassured.

Chen Bai smiled: "Then it's hard work." ”

After bidding farewell to the two, Chen Bai took a piece of ice from the water tank, melted it in an iron pot, and washed his face and immediately felt refreshed.

After getting something to eat at random, he took out the booklet left by Zhou Heizi that recorded the information of the villagers.

Looking at the crooked handwriting, Chen Bai couldn't help but smile.

"List of villagers of the three villages!" Chen Bai looked at the text on the cover and muttered to himself.

Open the booklet, which records the population of each household, and writes in great detail, gender and whether there are children, which not only records the personnel information, but also records the tax of the year.

Since there is no farming here in the north, taxes are replaced by local equivalent local products, for example, one household's tax this year is replaced by three animal skins.

After reading this, Chen Bai had some understanding of the situation here, and after putting away the booklet, Chen Bai put on his bearskin jacket and went out of the room.

Since there are no people who have just started the people's wisdom, there is basically no concept of stealing, and it can be said that every family here is not closed at night.

Chen Bai walked around the village, and the villagers all knew that there was a new village chief, and after seeing this strange young man, they all guessed his identity, although they were a little restrained, but they still smiled politely at him.

The village is not big, except for the houses, there is no arable land, and in the yard of each house, there are strings of frozen meat, Chen Bai thinks that this is their winter ration, and the only advantage of this cold weather is that the meat is not easy to perish.

In order to better understand the situation of the locals, Chen Bai walked into the courtyard of a house and shouted, "Is anyone at home?" ”

In the earthen house, a white man with a messy beard came out after hearing the sound, looked at Chen Bai, and said a little reservedly: "You are the new village chief!" ”

Chen Bai nodded and said, "I'm the new village chief, my surname is Chen, my name is Bai, I want to come to know about your situation, I'm sorry." ”

"Don't bother, don't bother, Village Chief Chen will come into the house and sit for a while!" The villager greeted warmly.

Chen Bai arched his hand and followed him into the house, the villager's house was similar to the one he lived in, and a woman with two children in the house was a little nervous when she saw an outsider coming, and stood aside restrainedly.

"This is the new village chief Chen, you go and boil hot water." The man commanded in a language that Chen Bai did not understand.

When the woman heard this, she asked the two children to play by themselves and go to the kitchen by themselves.

"This is my wife, I don't know how to speak Da Xia, don't mind Village Chief Chen." The man explained.

Chen Bai nodded and said, "I don't know what your family depends on to make a living." ”

"Our side is different from the south, I have heard people who have been to the south say that they all grow grain there, and the weather in the north is cold, so they can't grow food, so they can only hunt and gather some game and sell it to the trading post in exchange for food." The man said slowly.

"It's two days away from Guiyu City, and I don't see any livestock pulling carts here, so how can you bring the grain back?"

"There are no livestock, but the craftsmen of Guiyu City have made a kind of cart that can be used in the snow, and we rely on this thing to transport the grain back, and the villagers generally enter the city once a month, and there are many wild beasts on the road, only several villagers can go together, and on the way from here to Guiyu City, a resting house was built, and the people who entered the city spent the night there."

As she spoke, the woman boiled water, took two brushed pottery bowls, and poured boiling water for them.

Chen Bai smiled at the woman, took the bowl and put it aside, and said to the man, "Can you just hunt in exchange for enough food, are wild beasts so easy to catch?" ”

"Village Chief Chen doesn't know, if we were invited before, we really can't deal with these beasts, but since Zhou Wuchang came, in order to solve this problem, he lent us the surplus weapons in the army, as long as we go out to hunt, just rent spears from him, seven or eight people go out once, as long as we catch a bear, it is enough for these to exchange for a lot of food, I heard that the people in the south like bear paws and bear skins, there are many bears in this forest, enough for us to hunt."

Listening to the man's words, Chen Bai subconsciously looked at the bearskin jacket on his body, and thought that he had spent more than 500 copper dollars to buy this dress, so he understood what the man said.

"What other sources of income do you have besides hunting?" Chen Bai asked.

The man nodded and said: "This is naturally there, half of the people in the village make a living by hunting, and the remaining part of the people don't want to take the risk of hunting, that is, they go to work in the coal mines, although the income is not as much as hunting, but it is very stable, and the money earned is enough to live." ”

"Is the coal mine around here?" Chen Bai asked.

"The coal mine is still some distance from here, and it's about half a day's walk east from here, and the miners come back about once every four or five days."

Speaking of this, the man hesitated for a while, and said to Chen Bai: "Village Chief Chen, there was news in the summer that the trading post in Guiyucheng would send people to various villages to buy goods and sell materials, and we don't need to go to the city to sell them in person, but there is no news so far, can the village chief talk to the above." ”

Chen Bai thought about it for a while, and felt that it was indeed a good thing to send someone to purchase the goods, so he nodded and said: "I know about this matter, I will go to the city after the New Year, and I will mention it to the above." ”

When the man heard this, he said happily, "This is great, if they can come, it will be much more convenient for us." ”

In the conversation with this person, Chen Bai learned about the process of changing from the establishment of Guiyu City and the various tribes in the north to the Xia people, and he couldn't help but feel a lot of emotion.

After almost half a day, after understanding the situation almost, Chen Bai got up and said, "Thank you for your introduction, dare to ask what your name is." ”

"Most of the people in our village are surnamed Zhao, and I heard that they came with the surname of General Zhao, because I have a long beard, so I am called Zhao Huzi." The man explained slowly.

Chen Bai nodded and said, "Thank you Brother Zhao, I still have some things to stay, so I'll leave!" ”

Zhao Huzi kept Chen Bai for a while, and seeing that he really didn't mean it for long, he had to send him out in person.

After Chen Bai returned to his residence, he took out a neat stack of neat paper from his bag, unfolded it carefully and threw the food on the table, and recorded the information obtained from the day's visit by the faint light of the candle.

In the early morning, after every family had breakfast, with the ringing of the village bell "Dang Dang Dang", the villagers walked out of their homes in surprise and gathered towards the small square in the village.

In the Xia Kingdom, as long as the bell rings, you must put down the things in your hand and come over to gather immediately, and these people naturally know this truth.

It didn't take long for the villagers to slowly gather over, Chen Bai walked to the high platform and said: "Call everyone over today, in addition to getting to know you, that is, to talk about the responsibilities of my new village head, now I am in Daxia, all the cities and villages have arranged officials, from now on in the next five years, Guiyu three villages will be managed by me, and the rules set by Zhou Wuchang before will continue to be retained, in addition to these, the villagers will get married and have children, and the death of relatives will come to me to report, and each family can also come to me if they have any difficulties in the future." ”