The winter of Zhengde seven years has left a deep impression on many people, especially in the vast areas south of the Qinling Mountains and the Huai River, where the winter is not very cold, and snow is even rarer, but the winter of Zhengde seven years is extremely cold, and most of the southern areas have also snowed, and even Hainan Island, which is known as the summer of the four seasons, has also fallen a lot of snow.

In this winter with abnormal weather, the north of Daming is better, after all, they are used to the cold weather in winter, and they are more prepared before winter, but the southern region did not expect this winter's winter to be so cold, and the building structure is not very suitable for winter, so many people's houses were overwhelmed by snow, and many people were frostbitten, and occasionally there were frail or elderly people who were frozen to death.

For this winter's disaster, Zhou Zhong only learned about it from the Di newspaper, but he didn't see it with his own eyes, but now his carriage is walking on the road, looking at the villages on both sides of the road that are almost covered with ice and snow, and occasionally passing through the town, the streets are also deserted, and most of the people he sees are frostbitten, and even the price of food has risen by a few percent compared to usual, which shows the impact of this year's severe cold on the south of the Ming Dynasty.

"Wenda, this cold disaster is even more serious than we expected, you see the road under our feet, it was dug up by the local county magistrate leading the people, otherwise the heavy snow in front of us alone can seal the entire county!" Li Zheng lifted the cotton curtain on the car window and looked at the scenery outside with emotion.

"Indeed, the county order here is not bad, Zhilu Dao organized the people to save themselves, and when I see Governor Xu in the future, I must ask for merit for him!" Zhou Zhong also nodded at this time.

When Li Zheng visited Zhou Chong. Tell him about Zhang Jing and Zheng Jing wanting to become officials. The result surprised Zhou Da. It wasn't until Li Zheng explained the reason why Zheng Jing and Zhang Jing wanted to become a leader that he finally fell silent. Although it was not difficult to arrange two people to be officials under his rule, Zhou Chong felt that he had to meet Zheng Jing and Zhang Jing in person.

Originally, Shuangyu Port was frozen, ships could not move at all, people in the port were trapped on the island, and Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng couldn't get out for a while, but Shuangyu Port was originally a strait, and this year it was not only unexpectedly frozen. And it was very frozen, and even both sides of the strait could walk on the ice, which finally solved the traffic problem, so Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng traveled together, stepped on the ice and boarded Ningbo Mansion all the way to the north, and finally entered the boundary of Songjiang Mansion today.

Matsue Prefecture is located by the sea, and the climate is warmer than that of the mainland, but now even the seaside is frozen, so it is not really warm here, but because the water is too heavy. So some time ago there was a heavy snowfall, which was waist-deep. Almost all roads were blocked, and Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng also went around several times before they found a way to Songjiang City.

Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng walked and looked at it all the way, and found that compared with Ningbo and other prefectures in the south, Songjiang Mansion was more northern, so the disaster was more serious, for example, in some villages that passed by before, there were some houses of Zhuang households that were crushed by heavy snow, so Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng also deliberately stopped the car to inquire, and found that there were still some casualties, which was much more serious than several state capitals in the south.

After passing through several counties on the periphery of Songjiang Mansion, Zhou Chong's carriage finally came to the city of Fucheng, when he saw this familiar Songjiang City, Zhou Chong couldn't help but sigh for a while, since he got married here, he rarely came here again, and he hadn't been here for more than a year recently, so when he saw Songjiang Mansion now, he couldn't help but feel very emotional.

Zhou Chong was visiting a friend this time, so he didn't bring his own guard of honor, and he didn't plan to be too public, so this time in addition to a carriage, he only brought Wu Shan and a dozen other guards, and these people all followed behind on horseback, but even so, when the city gate official saw the momentum of Zhou Chong and their party, he immediately nodded and invited them to enter the city, and he didn't dare to delay at all.

Zhou Chong and they delayed a lot of time on the road, and it was already dusk when they entered the city, which was really not suitable for a visit at this time, not to mention that he and Li Zhengyi had been in the carriage for so long, and they were not light, so the two simply went to Li Zheng's house to rest first, as for Zhou Chong's house, there were also people to take care of, but if they didn't live for a long time, the house would be less popular, so it was better to go to General Li Zheng's office for a few days.

It is common to sleep until three poles in the morning, Zhou Chong woke up, got dressed and found Li Zheng, the two did not eat breakfast at all, but went out to the North Street of Songjiang City, which is the most lively area in the entire Songjiang Mansion, there are countless stalls set up every morning, all kinds of local food are available, Zhou is important to have a rice ball, that is, glutinous rice wrapped in fritters, plus a bowl of salted tofu brain, and the small pickles are very sweet, although the food on the side of Shuangyu Port is similar to that of Songjiang, But Zhou Zhong still thinks that the food here is the most delicious.

After eating breakfast on the street, Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng came to Zheng Jing's house with a few gifts selected in Shuangyu Port, and the old servants guarding the door had already known them, especially Zhou Chong's identity was very different now, so he immediately invited them into the living room, and then rushed to the backyard to invite Zheng Jing.

However, after a while, I saw Zheng Jing hurriedly coming to the living room, and when he saw Zhou Zhong and Li Zheng sitting in the hall, he was also very enthusiastic: "Wenda, Berao, aren't you all in Shuangyu Port, now that the snow is closing the road, when will you return to Songjiang?" ”

"Ha Luha, Minglun didn't know, we were originally trapped in Shuangyu Port, but this year it was too cold, and the sea was frozen, so we stepped on the ice and went ashore, but the road from Ningbo to Songjiang was full of ice and snow, and it took a lot of effort to come, and I just returned to Songjiang yesterday!" Zhou Zhong also stood up and said with a smile at this time.

"Yes, we have suffered a lot along the way, and we have not seen a few people lose their homes and relatives due to the cold disaster, and the rest of the people can only live in other people's homes, which is really pitiful!" Li Zheng also said at this time.

"Alas, I have also seen the people who have been affected outside the city, they are indeed very pitiful, but compared to the displaced people I met before, their situation is much better, after all, they can still have a warm shelter, and they can eat hot meals every day, as long as they survive this winter!" Zheng Jing also sighed and said.

Next, the three of them chatted a few words of gossip, and then Li Zheng proposed to visit Zhang Jing together, after all, Zhou Zhong rarely had time to come once, and the four of them hadn't gotten together for a long time. Zheng Jing also agreed with this very much, so the three of them came to Zhang Kuang's house together again, but unfortunately, the subordinates of Zhang's mansion told them that their young master was not in the mansion, but went to Zhangjia Zhuangzi outside the city a few days ago, where all the tenants lived in Zhang's house, and I heard that it was also a disaster, so Zhang Kuang went to Zhang's Zhuangzi to deal with it.

Speaking of Zhang's family background is also very good, and Li Zheng's family is completely different from Li Zheng's family, the Zhang family does not have much industry in business, but it is one of the famous large landowners in Songjiang Prefecture, not only has industry outside Songjiang City, but also has a lot of land in several nearby counties, and there are tens of thousands of tenants hired alone, such as Zhangjia Zhuangzi outside the city, the whole village is tenants who farm land for the Zhang family.

Hearing that Zhang Guo was outside the city, Zhou Zhong discussed it with Zheng Jing and Li Zheng, and decided to simply go outside the city to find Zhang Kuang, anyway, they had nothing to do, not to mention that in this cold weather, stepping on the snow to find friends outside the city, it was also an elegant thing to say that Lu was going, and they also wanted to know more about the disaster outside Songjiang City.

Said to go, when Zhou Zhong and Zheng Jing two of them boarded the carriage again and drove to Zhangjia Zhuangzi outside the city, although the coachman did not recognize the road, but the Zhang family sent a servant to lead the way, so there was no need to ask others, and soon came to the vicinity of Zhangjia Zhuangzi, but when there were nearly ten miles away from Zhuangzi, the carriage stopped, because the road in front was covered with heavy snow, although a small road was cleared, but it was too narrow, and the carriage could not enter at all.

In desperation, Zhou Zhong had to let the coachman wait here, the three of them took Wu Shan and a few other guards, and the Zhang family servants walked the road in front of them, along this path all the way forward, although the land under their feet was rugged, but fortunately the weather was very cold, so it was frozen very hard, if it was time for the snow to melt in spring, the whole road would probably be muddy and impassable.

Walked a body of sweat, the most Zhou Zhong and their entourage finally came to Zhangjia Zhuangzi, Zhang Kuang's family built a courtyard here, when the city is too hot in summer, the Zhang family will bring their families to the courtyard to escape the heat, Zhang Guo now lives here. It's just that Zhou Zhong and the others pounced again, because according to the servants of the other courtyard, Zhang Kuang went to the village to visit several tenants who had been affected by the disaster, and he had not returned yet.

Although Zhou Chong felt a little tired, they did not go into the other courtyard to rest, and the three of them immediately followed the Zhang family servants in the other courtyard into the Zhuangzi to find Zhang Qian, and Zhou Chong found that this Zhang family Zhuangzi was not bad, although they lived in the tenants of the Zhang family, but the houses were quite neat, unlike what was seen in the films and television films of later generations, all the tenants were not well fed and clothed, at least now the houses of these tenants he saw could be sheltered from the wind and rain, and the occasional few children were wearing clothes with patches, but their faces were ruddy, It doesn't look like he's starving all the time.

However, Zhou Chong also knew that he saw that these tenants were only a few, after all, Songjiang Mansion was originally rich, and Zhang Kuang's family was also a family of poetry and books, so the tenants were treated preferentially, so the tenants could also eat a few mouthfuls of food, but if it was replaced by other masters, if the land was relatively barren, those tenants would really not be able to eat for many years, otherwise there would not be so many rebellions in the Ming Dynasty. (To be continued......)