The heavy snow of the other day had stained the earth a blank of silver, and from a distance, the mountains rose and fell like white clouds. However, Cui Er, who had just come out of Jincheng, didn't have the heart to enjoy any beautiful scenery, he was carrying a basket in his hand, and there was a small pickaxe in the basket, but the tip of the pickaxe was made of stone.

Cui Er is in his twenties this year, a resident of Jincheng, who has lived in the city for generations, and originally had a small restaurant at home, although the income was not much, but it was enough for their family to live. However, since the outbreak of the war with Baekje last year, the city is so short of supplies that his family's restaurant cannot be opened at all, and his eldest brother was also arrested as a soldier, and now he does not know whether he is dead or alive, and he is the only one left in the family.

As soon as he thought of this damn war, Cui Er couldn't help but curse in a low voice, their two brothers, and they are both married, the eldest brother has two children, he also has a child in his family, and there is an old mother above, now in addition to a big brother who does not know life and death, there are still seven mouths to eat at home, if it weren't for the fact that they secretly hid some food when they opened a restaurant before, I'm afraid their whole family would have starved to death.

However, Cui Er is just a small person, no matter how much he curses this war, it is useless, he is most concerned about what to eat at home for the next meal, although he has hidden some food before, but after some time of consumption, although the family has tried to save food, it is still not enough, so Cui Er has been wandering around the city these days. Try to find something to eat and take home.

Thinking of the children waiting to be fed at home, Cui Er sighed helplessly. He tightened his dirty sheepskin robe, and went out of the city gate with his head bowed. Hurry to a hill southeast of Jincheng, where there are mountains, water, and lush vegetation, and although it is already winter, if you are lucky, you may be able to find something to eat.

Although the sun has not yet fully risen, there are already more people on the road, and most of them are like Cui Er, carrying baskets to the mountains to find food. After all, the city has been without food for many days, and even if they have money, they can't buy food, and ordinary people like them can only rely on themselves, and even heard that some slums have already starved to death.

"Second Brother Cui, you came quite early today." Just as Cui Er was rushing forward quickly, intending to enter the mountain ahead of everyone, a person suddenly appeared next to him, pulled his arm and smiled.

Cui Er turned his head to look at it, and said with a smile: "It turned out to be Xiao Jiu." You don't have anything to eat at home? ”

The one who grabbed Cui Er was a boy who looked to be only eleven or twelve years old, with a very thin figure, his name was Zheng Guang, and he was Cui Er's former neighbor. Because he walks nine at home, people who generally know him call him Xiao Jiu. In fact, this Xiao Jiu is already fourteen years old this year, just because his family is too poor. Often there is no food, and I can't grow tall. So it looks a lot smaller, but that's exactly what it is. Only then did he escape military service, and he did not die on the battlefield like his eight older brothers.

As soon as he heard Cui Er's words, Xiao Jiu immediately said with a bitter face: "The situation of my family, second brother, you don't know yet, when did the family have anything to eat?" ”

Cui Eryi also smiled bitterly when he heard it, Xiao Jiu's eight elder brothers were all killed in battle, and his parents all died of illness, and now he is alone, it can be said that one person eats enough and the whole family is not hungry, speaking of which, although there is some food in his family, there are seven people to feed, so compared with the other party, he is not as light as the burden on Xiao Jiu.

After chatting with Xiao Jiu for a few words, suddenly Xiao Jiu grabbed Cui Er a little mysteriously, looked at no one around and said: "Second brother, I found a good place in the south of the city, there is a small river there, the ice in the river is not thick, you can catch fish in it, you can go there with me in a while!" ”

"Really?" Cui Er was also very surprised when he heard it, after nearly a year of fighting, almost all the people of Jincheng ran out of food at home, as long as they could eat in the surrounding mountains, they were almost all dug up, as for the fish in the river, it was even more difficult to escape the poison, plus it was winter now, a thick layer of ice formed on the river surface, and it was even more difficult to fish.

Thinking of the delicious fish soup that he hadn't drunk for more than a year, Cui Er couldn't help but drool, urging Xiao Jiu to hurry up and lead the way, don't be preempted by others. However, just as the two of them were running forward in high spirits, suddenly there was a thunderous sound of horses' hooves in front of them, and then they saw a great confusion among the pedestrians in front of them, and they flashed to both sides of the road.

Seeing this situation, Cui Er and Xiao Jiu naturally didn't dare to stand stupidly on the road, and hurriedly jumped into the snow on the side of the road to stand. And when he looked up again, he found that there was a group of mighty Tang cavalry rushing in front of him, and without even looking at them, he rushed past Cui Er and them, splashing snowflakes on the side of the road.

"These Tang people are really domineering, they are not afraid of bumping into people when they run so fast!" The snow on Cui Erjiao's body was knocked off, and he said with some dissatisfaction.

And Xiao Jiu next to him said with a smile: "Hehe, these Tang people went to pursue the general ...... a few days ago, phew, no, it was Jin Gengxin's anti-thief, but he still let him escape to Dingchuan City, and then the Tang army sent people to attack, but he was still run away by Jin Gengxin, which made His Royal Highness the King of Qi very angry, and the Tang army was more like crazy, desperately looking for Jin Gengxin's traces, so now we must not provoke these people." ”

Although Xiao Jiu is small, he usually messes around on the streets, and he is very well-informed, and he knows these things very clearly. Cui Er has an uncle who serves in the army, so he also knows some information, Jin Gengxin and Jin Chunqiu seem to be dissatisfied with the arrival of the King of Qi, so they fled with their troops, and were chased and killed by the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty, and finally escaped to Dingchuan City, and the cavalry could not attack the city, and when the Tang Dynasty sent troops to attack Dingchuan, Jin Gengxin and the two ran away with people again, and this time they ran, and they could no longer find their news, so that the Tang Army had been looking for people everywhere during this time.

However, these things are not what a little person like Cui Er should care about, after watching these Tang troops rush away, Cui Er and Xiao Jiu carried their baskets and rushed to the hill in the southeast direction.

After entering the hill, Xiao Jiu and Cui Er did not run all over the mountain like others, but turned around on the east side of the mountain, and after turning around through several ravines, they came to a small valley that was not large, although this valley was also covered with snow, but compared to other places, the snow in the valley was much thinner, and there was a small stream passing through the valley, and there was a layer of shiny ice on the surface of the stream.

Seeing that there were not many footprints in this valley at all, this made Cui Er overjoyed, and the few footprints meant that there were fewer people who came here, so the chance of finding food here was much greater.

Cui Er and Xiao Jiu ran down happily, and first came to the stream in the middle of the valley, I don't know why, the ice on the stream is not thick, and the stream is not deep, at most it only reaches the thighs of people, and both of them can see the sand and gravel under the creek from the ice.

"Fish! There are fish here! Cui Er hadn't walked a few steps on the river, when he suddenly heard Xiao Jiu shouting not far away, which made him run over quickly, and looked along Xiao Jiu's fingers, and sure enough, he found several fish half the size of his palm frozen in the ice.

"Quick! Find a sharp rock, let's smash the ice open! Cui Er was also overjoyed, although he had a pickaxe made of stone, it was not worth smashing the ice, after all, the pickaxe was also grinded out by him with great difficulty, and he was distressed if he smashed it.

When Xiao Jiu heard this, he quickly found a small stone, and Cui Er held him and began to smash the ice, he was young and strong, and quickly smashed the ice open, and then Xiao Jiu couldn't wait to pick up the fish in the ice, and put them in his basket for the time being, and then the two walked down the stream, and it took half a day to finally find a few more fish, although they were not very big, but if they were saved to eat, they could survive for a few days.

However, just these fish obviously couldn't satisfy Cui Er and Xiao Jiu, and it was still early, so the two of them took a small pickaxe and began to dig the frozen soil on the riverbank, where there is water, the vegetation is very lush all the time, and the two of them just want to dig some plant rhizomes on the riverbank to go back, although these rhizomes are bitter and astringent, but they can still fill their stomachs.

It wasn't until the sun was setting in the west that the two dug up two baskets of edible rhizomes, and as for the fish they had caught before, they were all divided equally between the two, and then carefully placed at the bottom of the basket, and then covered with rhizomes, after all, they were going to enter the city in a while, and if the soldiers guarding the city saw that there were fish in their baskets, they would definitely be detained.

Fishing for fish and digging roots, both of them were tired, so they found a clean place to sit down and rest for a while, while Cui Er took out a gray wild vegetable dumpling from his black shiny sheepskin robe, broke it in half, and gave one of them to Xiao Jiu. This was stuffed to him by Cui's second daughter-in-law when he was about to go out. Originally, Silla only ate breakfast and dinner here, but Cui Er's daughter-in-law knew that Cui Er was running around looking for food, and she was afraid that he would not be able to stand it, so she deliberately made him an extra piece of wild vegetable dumplings.

As soon as Xiao Jiu saw that there was something to eat, his eyes immediately lit up, and he was not polite to Cui Er, so he grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth, although this wild vegetable dumpling was made of dug rhizomes, and it was bitter and astringent in his mouth, but Cui Er had some food at home, so a little thick noodles were added to this wild vegetable dumpling, which diluted the bitter taste a lot, which made Xiao Jiu feel extra sweet when he ate it.

However, just as the two of them were eating with relish, they did not notice that on the mountain beam on the other side of the valley, there were several pairs of eyes staring at them viciously. (To be continued.) )