Han Gang woke up, and his head was still a little drunk.

When I opened my eyes, a familiar pretty face was right in front of me. The light brown eyes revealed a strong affection: "Third brother, you are awake." ”

Immediately afterwards, the faces of the glamorous crowns also appeared in sight. The Oiran in the old school workshop was carefully dressed up for the New Year today, with thin grease powder, lips and eyebrows, which made people intoxicated at first sight.

Last night on Chinese New Year's Eve, the family was keeping watch in the main house, but not long after coming back to sit down after going to see the firecrackers and fireworks, Han Gang fell asleep groggy. When I woke up, it was already dark.

Han Gang sat up, looked at the clothes on his body, they had all been changed, shook his head and laughed self-deprecatingly: "It's the New Year." ”

Zhou Nan smiled: "The officials are very heavy, but our sisters are tired for a long time." ”

"Sister Nanniang is right, the third brother still hasn't changed it, and it took a lot of effort." Yun Niang said in a coquettish voice with disgust, as if complaining.

"Why don't you think I'm sinking day and night?" Han Gang teased.

Zhou Nan and Yun Niang's faces became hot all of a sudden, Han Gang was cheeky enough to say such meaty words, but their skins were very thin, and they couldn't cope with it at all.

smiled, turned his face sideways, and fell asleep beside him. The housemother of the Han family is now pregnant and was diagnosed just two days before the Chinese New Year. The pregnant woman couldn't bear to stay up late, so she went to bed early and didn't wake up yet.

Wang Yi is pregnant, and Han Gang on Yun Niang's side has also been working hard. As for Zhou Nan and Su Xin, Han Gang counted the safety period when he spent the night with them, and tried to stagger the time as much as possible. The rudimentary contraceptive method was used, but it was miraculous and there were no accidents. Although it is really blessed to have many sons now, Han Gang also hopes to have a few more children. But giving birth to children in a row is too draining, and Han Gang thinks they should take a break for two years.

After a few footsteps, Yan Suxin personally came into the house with breakfast: "Official, have you woken up?" ”

Zhou Nan and Yun Niang immediately got up to help put down the tray, and Han Gang smiled: "I've woken up a long time ago!" ”

Saying that, getting down from the couch, Wang Yi was also awakened by his movements, opened his eyes in a daze, and asked what time it was.

Han Gang turned around and covered her with the quilt: "It's early, sleep a little longer." ”

"Officials need to rest a little longer, and they didn't come back from outside the city until last night." There was some resentment in Wang Yi's words, but more distress, Han Gang, as the magistrate, was too busy.

"It's been arranged outside the city, and I can still have a good rest these days."

The officials in Beijing want to attend the New Year's Day court, and Han Gang is in the place, so there is not so much trouble. The seal was sealed, and nothing was done. Putting aside the worries about the drought situation, I enjoyed my annual leave as usual.

That being said, but before the New Year's Festival, a group of displaced people still crossed the river and came. In order to arrange for them to stay, Han Gang also worked hard for two days. Because it is exactly two days before the New Year's Festival, everyone is looking forward to going home for the New Year. Han Gang knew that if he didn't lead by example, even if he was under the pressure of his voice, everyone would inevitably be slack, and most of the hundreds of homeless people in the last few would die of starvation.

Han Gang also thought about letting his subordinates slack off first, and when something happened, he could take the opportunity to rectify it again. So that when it comes to the most critical time of spring, no one will dare to be negligent. But that's just for thought. Although Han Gang has long been full of blood and does not care about human life, he wants to avoid sacrificing innocent people as much as possible, this is a matter of principle, Han Gang has always believed that there must be the most basic limit of being a man, and he will not touch and break through.

At this time, the two wet nurses came over with Kuiguan and Jin Niang to pay New Year's greetings to Han Gang. Children also grow up quickly, and in more than a year, a son and a daughter have begun to learn to speak and walk. But I still haven't learned anything other than calling people.

The eldest son called Han Gang, closed his eyes and continued to sleep. And the lively Jin Niang was very energetic, shouting Daddy, and asking Han Gang to hug her with her little hands.

Han Gang took his daughter over, his little face was pink, and he smiled happily. Counting from the years, I have experienced six years in this era, and the real time has been more than four years. Looking at his daughter's smiling face happily, Han Gang suddenly realized that he seemed to have completely integrated into this era.

"The letter to Uncle Li should also be written early. In two days, the retinue sent by my uncle will go back to Jingnan. Wang Yi reminded her husband.

"Hmm." Han Gang nodded, "The return gift should also be prepared." ”

Just before the New Year's Festival, Li Xin wrote a letter to greet Han Gang's cousin. Li Xin performed prominently on the Jinghu battlefield and made many meritorious achievements under Zhang Dan. The spear-throwing technique passed down by the Li family is invincible among the leaders and generals in Jing Man. In a short period of time, Li Xin had already established a great reputation among the Jing Barbarian tribes.

The speed of the promotion of military generals has always made civil officials sad and indignant, Li Xin fought in Jingnan for a year and a half, during which he was strongly recommended and asked for merit by Zhang Dian many times, and this official has been repeatedly promoted to the deputy envoy of the supply and reserve treasury from the seventh grade, although it is the last of the forty rank of the deputy envoys, but it has also represented Li Xin to become one of the few middle-level generals in the Great Song Dynasty. Now he is doing capital inspections in Jingnan, and it is reasonable for him to continue to be promoted with his military exploits in the future.

For Li Xin's continuous promotion, Han Gang was happy for him from the bottom of his heart. Without a family background, it is actually time-consuming to create the family's power in the local area, and now with a cousin Li Shin who is good at fighting, the Han family's position in Kansai will be more quickly stabilized.

I spent four days at home with ease. On the fifth day of the new year, it is the beginning of spring.

Lichun persuaded the peasants, the emperor was from the field, the officials whipped the oxen, and prayed to the heavens for the safety of this year's farming. This is the most important event of the year in the agricultural society. From the palace to the state and county, up to the Son of Heaven, down to the small officials, they can't escape at will. Han Gang, as the head of a county and the marquis of a hundred miles, of course, is indispensable to go into battle.

Early in the morning of the beginning of spring, a spring cow made of clay and painted has been placed in front of the county office, and there are clay farmers and farm tools next to it.

When the morning sun just emerged from the eastern city wall, Han Gang wore court clothes and led the county officials to step out of the county government from the main gate. When he saw several clay fetal statues in front of the yamen, it seemed that he had returned to four years ago in an instant.

On the twenty-first day of the second year of Xining, the beginning of spring arrived ten days earlier than the New Year's Festival. Han Gang, who was about to leave at that time, watched Li Shizhong in Qinzhou and led a group of officials to whip the spring cow with colorful sticks. And now, four years later, he Han Gang is personally in battle.

The clay sculpture spring cow in front of him, its craftsmanship level is far less vivid and vivid than what Han Gang saw back then, and it looks extremely stiff. A master who can be compared to the inheritance of the Tian family in Yanzhou, of course, it is not something that can be found casually.

The so-called time has passed, and Tian Ji, a craftsman who made spring cattle in Qinzhou back then, now has an official body by making sand tables for the Son of Heaven. And Wang Hou, Wang Sunchen and others, who once stood side by side with him, are already the leaders of the younger generation.

After reading the sacrificial text made by You Alcohol, lighting a fire on the incense candle, Han Gang then picked up the colored stick wrapped in five-colored silk, circled the spring cow, and then whipped it three times behind the buttocks, which was considered a ceremony.

The county officials, county lieutenants, town supervisors, and tax supervisors below came up and lined up in a circle to wave whips.

In the process, a group of bands played cheerful tunes, but in the crowd of onlookers, the atmosphere became more and more tense, as if the thunderclouds that had taken up half of the sky in summer would be storms, thunder and lightning in the next moment.

This year, there are hundreds of onlookers of men, women, and old people. On the periphery, there are also vendors crowded into the crowd, selling clay sculptures of small spring cattle in their stalls. But the people at the front were all strong and strong, staring at the spring cow with their eyes, and the scorching seemed to glow with the green light of a hungry wolf looking at the sheep.

Han Gang looked at it and sighed secretly, the more calamitous the year, the more devout the people were to the sacrifice. In order to compete for a piece of soil from the spring cattle, so that the family field can have a good harvest this year, so that the disaster does not last for a year, I am afraid that they will use all their strength to eat milk.

When the last official whipped the bull, the salute officer announced loudly. The accompaniment of the music class also stopped abruptly in the soaring high notes.

Then there was a bang, and hundreds of wolves around the spring cow swarmed up, like the waves of a long river, and suddenly covered up the colorful mud cows. Countless arms often poked out, breaking the corpse of a clay spring cow that was similar to the size of a real cow into thousands of pieces, and snatching it clean. In the blink of an eye, the spring cow disappeared, and the venue originally used for sacrifice has become a gladiatorial arena for many people to fight.

The scene after the whipping of the bull was not much different from what Han Gang had seen four years ago, and it was even crazier. At first, they were still scrambling for the spring cow mud that could lead to a good harvest in the fields, but later, when some people got angry, they forgot the original purpose and really fought with their opponents. Although it is not included in the schedule of the ceremony, it is also the finale of the annual convention. The audience was blocked, and the applause was endless.

However, such a brawl would not continue, as soon as one of them saw blood, a group of archers in the county who were waiting for the call also swarmed up, dispersed the strong men who were still fighting and fighting, and carried out the wounded men in the field, and gave him a good lecture to go home, and the injured ones were treated by the bone-setting doctor who came from the sanatorium and was on the side.

What happens every year, the officials and archers know how to deal with it. It's just that this year is particularly intense, and I got the news afterwards that more than a dozen people have broken bones, which is twice as high as in previous years.

The competition for spring cattle represents the end of the spring ceremony. It is already the beginning of spring, and from the calendar, winter has passed. And this is supposed to be the coldest winter in more than a decade, but there is no snow on the Gyeonggi side.

The drought is still ongoing, and the hardships are just beginning.