The two sisters' families belong to military households, although they belong to a thousand households, but they belong to the Gaozhuang Fort Hundred Households, and they are also defending against the Mongols along the North Great Wall, and they are about 20 miles away from Lingsha Castle. Pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info Niuniu sat in the carriage, and Feng Youcai and Feng Di followed on horseback. If you ride all the horses, it will take you 2 hours, and the carriage will go much slower, so it is estimated that you will not be able to catch up with lunch.

Although it is south of the North Great Wall, there is still a depression where the road passes, and the fields of the military households have been deprived by the general banner, hundreds of households and even thousands of households, and the military households have become their tenants, creating new aristocrats, and people are getting poorer and poorer, and no matter how many children the military households have, they can only let one of them join the army, and now the military salaries are in arrears for more than half a year, and some places are in arrears for more than 1 year, and the other boys are all surplus soldiers, and the military households cannot do business, can not take the imperial examination, and can only be limited to a small area, Suffering and poverty. It turned out that Feng Youcai's father was also Xiaoqi, even if it was Xiaoqi, the family had no land for a long time. After so many years of reproduction, the population has increased a lot, coupled with the uneven land, and more importantly, the frontier has given up a large area of fertile land, so the military households are even poorer, and the grain produced in the west itself is small, and the grain is transported from the south.

At noon, they stopped and dismounted, and everyone continued to hurry after eating some dry food, and finally arrived at Gaozhuang Fort at more than 2 o'clock, but Feng Youcai didn't know where his sister's family lived? Fortunately, this fort is not big, and the locals see that they are all riding big horses and carriages, and they are not ordinary people in terms of dress and appearance, and no one dares to lie when asking for directions, so after asking a few old people, they found the eldest sister's house.

At the door of the eldest sister's house, Niuniu was helped off the carriage, Feng Yi and the others unloaded the things on the carriage, paid the fare, and the carriage went back.

Feng Youcai knocked on the door, and an old man came out after a while, seeing that it was an officer and soldier, he hurriedly asked who the adults were looking for, Feng Youcai said: "Uncle, I'm looking for my sister, my sister's name is Feng Youhua, I asked others to say that they live here, so I knocked on the door and asked." “

"And who are?"

"I am Feng Youhua's younger brother Feng Youcai."

"Oh, son-in-law, come in quickly, I'll call your sister."

Then the old man shouted to the East House: "There are flowers, your brother has come to see you."

Feng Youcai and others walked into the courtyard, the earthen wall of the courtyard was more than 2 meters high, and the house was earthen with a thatched roof, which was now dilapidated.

Feng San was watching the horses outside, and Feng Di and the others carried the supplies to the yard in two times.

After a while, my sister came out of the east wing, my sister was dressed very thinly, she felt very cold, very thin, her face was very yellow, she was not as smart as when she was a girl at home, if Feng Youcai was in the past, she would definitely not notice these changes.

Seeing that there were so many soldiers in the yard, my sister was a little scared and shouted timidly: "Brother, why are you here?" “

"There's nothing going on lately, Niuniu said that she missed you and her nephew, so I accompanied her to see you and the second sister," Feng Youcai said, and hurriedly took off his cotton coat and draped it on the eldest sister's body. My sister originally wanted to oppose it, but she didn't have the financial resources of Feng You.

At this time, Niuniu also came over and shouted, "Sister, where is the nephew?" ”

"It's all in the house, and I haven't gotten up yet."

Niuniu followed the eldest sister into the East House, Feng Youcai didn't go in, so she arranged for Feng Yi and Feng Er: "You two go cook quickly, you didn't eat well at noon, and now you're really hungry." “

"Yes, young master"

At this time, the old man came again, and invited everyone into the house. There was a low table and a few stools in the room. Feng Youcai said to him: "Uncle, you do me a favor, you lead the way, go and pick up my second sister." ”

"Okay"

Let Feng San go with him to pick up the second sister. Feng Youcai looked at the house, it was really a family with four walls, and the poor would not even settle here.

The eldest sister heard that someone was arranging to cook, so she came over to help, the kitchen was very small, and it couldn't hold so many people, so Feng Youcai asked Feng Yi and Feng Er to come out, let my sister do her own work, and the second sister would help when she came.

The eldest sister has 2 children, the eldest is a niece, 5 years old, and the younger is a nephew, only 3 years old. Both children are very thin and their clothes are very thin, so in winter they are warm on the kang even during the day, and the quilt is very thin.

Niu Niu has already helped them get dressed.

Taking advantage of my sister's cooking, Feng Youcai and Niuniu took the two children to play on the street, first went to the tailor shop, made 2 cotton clothes for the 2 children, made one first, and could not get it at noon tomorrow at the earliest, because they were in a hurry to wear it, and gave an extra 50 yuan, so they promised to finish a set of clothes for each person tonight, and they could come to pick it up tomorrow morning.

Feng Youcai saw that there were cotton robes on display in the store, and it would be bigger if he wore it for his niece, so he didn't have a choice, he bought it first, put it on first, and let it be bigger if it was bigger, and put it on for his little nephew to become a coat, but now he doesn't care about looking good, just wear it warmly, the shoes are not sold, he bought 20 catties of cotton at the request of Niuniu, and let the eldest sister make quilts and children's cotton shoes by herself after going back.

After coming out, I bought some food for the child, such a big child knows how to eat, sugar gourd has always been the favorite of the children, so I bought a few more, even Niuniu likes to eat.

When I got home, the second sister and the child also arrived, Feng San was very sensible, and gave his coat to the second sister to wear, the second sister hugged the child tightly with the coat, looking at the appearance, I knew that the second sister's family was the same as the eldest sister's family, the little nephew of the second sister's family was 4 years old, and he would also call him uncle, and he met with these little guys when his father died in May.

Let Feng Er hurry up and go to the tailor shop to buy another set of small cotton robes for the second sister's little nephew to wear, although he is wearing a bigger one, he doesn't care so much for the time being, buy it and put it on first, at least it will be warmer. Such a big child is reluctant to be held all the time, and it will be too cold to go to the ground, and it will be really difficult to do if it freezes.

The rice is also very simple, it is steamed rice, and the dish is Chinese cabbage stewed pork.

I borrowed a low table from a neighbor's house, a few stools, because there was nothing else in the house, so it was very easy to set up 2 tables, the eldest sister and the second sister Niuniu and 3 children at a table, here is Feng Youcai 5 people and the old man at a table, even to eat, and not to drink.

The eldest brother-in-law did not go home for dinner because he was on duty, and his three younger brothers were all military surpluses, and they went out to help others in winter, and they did not eat at home.

A few little ones were happy to eat. Feng Youcai said: "Children, don't eat too much, let's stew whole sheep and eat it at night, and keep your stomach." “

The niece sneered happily.

The eldest sister and the second sister were very embarrassed, and the younger brother came to the house without anything to entertain, so they had to bring their own things.

After lunch, Feng Di and the others began to prepare to make whole sheep soup, Feng Youcai and his 2 sisters, Niuniu and 3 children went to the tailor shop again to make cotton clothes for the little nephews of the 2 sisters and the second sister. I sold 20 catties of cotton to my second sister's family, and asked her to take it back to make quilts and cotton shoes for children. They were given an extra 100 yuan, and asked them to find a few more helpers, and they must do it by tomorrow night, and the tailor was happy to agree when he saw that he had given more money, and in this era, all women can make clothes, and now it is winter and there is nothing to do, and it is still easy to find a few women to help make clothes.

At dinner in the evening, the second brother-in-law and the eldest brother-in-law came back, Feng Youcai put forward a few opinions, the first is to take the eldest sister, the second sister and the child to Lingsha Castle for the New Year, he has not been at home, no one accompanies his mother, the mother is very lonely, and she misses these children very much, and she is often not at home, they go to accompany her mother; In addition, he is already a hundred household officials, and the hundred households are located in Zhenguan Fort, if you are not afraid of the Mongols, the military surplus of the two families can go to Zhenguan Fort to work or join the army, and now they have close to 1000 private soldiers, and they don't care about how many more people.

Baihu is a very big official in their eyes, so they listened to what Feng Youcai said and did not refute it.

So, Feng Youcai decided to pick up the finished cotton clothes tomorrow, go back to Lingsha Castle early the day after tomorrow, and let Feng Yi book 2 carriages tomorrow.

Because the family couldn't live, Feng Youcai and 5 people went to live in the carriage and horse shop at night.