Qingzhou, Langya County, Huaxian County boundary.

A shriveled old man in ragged clothes, hunched over thin clothes, bulging inside, was protecting a two-year-old child.

The child was tied with strips of cloth to his chest, and at the same time, the old man dragged a carriage made of thorns around his waist, carrying dozens of catties of firewood. He was stuck in the heavy snow step by step and walked towards the county seat.

The old man had already walked twenty miles of mountain road, and when he came to the main road, the snow here was not so deep, and as long as he walked ten or so miles, he could see the city wall.

In this year of catastrophe, it was difficult to walk for 30 miles, and it snowed for ten days and ten nights!

It's the twenty-ninth day of the first lunar month! It's still cold, and the lake is frozen!

Countless houses were crushed by the heavy snow, and the people were like tigers, the people lacked food and clothing, and countless people died of hunger, cold, and cold.

The old man's house has long since collapsed, and he is a cat who has survived until now in the hole formed by the wall and the ice and snow.

At this moment, the wind was beating on his cheeks, and his ears were full of whistling sounds, and the cold wind was as cold as if God was going to kill.

The snow has stopped, but in such a harsh climate, even if there is no snow, it is unbearable.

But the old man endured it stubbornly, and he couldn't die yet.

When the heavy snow finally stopped, he took his grandson to the tea mountain to chop some firewood, planning to send it to the city to sell it for money in exchange for some rations.

He had not eaten for three days, and the child had not eaten rice for two days.

Everything near his hometown has been eaten, and his last hope can only be pinned on the county seat.

Maybe the city has opened a warehouse to release grain, and he saw a lot of homeless people fleeing two days ago. In this cold day, you can always exchange some food.

Suddenly, he stumbled over something under his feet, and when he looked down, it seemed to be a person, covered in snow, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead.

The old man hurriedly put down the trailer, pulled out the firewood knife on his waist and pulled the snow desperately, and when the man was completely dragged out, he sighed......

When they died, they were frozen into ice, harder than iron.

She was a woman with a child, and she was naked, with an iron wrench on her little finger.

She hugged the baby in her arms tightly, and the baby in her arms, maintaining a crying appearance, also became an ice lump.

The mother and daughter had no clothes, and they didn't know whether they were snatched away and froze to death, or if they were snatched away after freezing to death.

In recent years, it is not even surprising that some people have begun to eat people, and it is not even surprising that they have snatched the clothes of women and children and left them to freeze to death.

Along the way, the old man has seen many dry and hard corpses, or alone, or in pairs, and even the whole family hugging each other and freezing to death, it is not uncommon.

"Alas......" The old man looked at the mother and daughter, thinking of the little daughter-in-law who had starved to death.

The old man's surname is Jiang, and he has two sons, the eldest Jiang Tian is strong and strong, can dance with knives and sticks, and is a man who can fight, and died on the battlefield.

The second Jiang Nong has an honest temperament and is a good farmer, who was forcibly conscripted into the army two years ago and died on the battlefield.

Fortunately, he became a relative before enlisting in the army, and he also left a posthumous son.

It is not easy for a daughter-in-law, and these years have either been famine or rebellion. While taking care of her old age, she pulled the child to the age of two, but last year, Sima Jian, the king of Qi, expanded the palace, not only apportioned money and grain from them, but also forcibly conscripted labor during the autumn harvest.

There is no way, the whole family is just one man, and there is no money to support labor.

The daughter-in-law was alone with her children and desperately grabbed the harvest, but she still missed it, a heavy rain, most of the grain was rotten, and the tax could not be paid less.

was forced to have no choice but to sell the five acres of land given by the old war, and became a tenant farmer of the Zhang family in Huaxian County, and even sold the axe, leaving only a firewood knife in his whole family.

I thought that I would keep this firewood knife and go to the mountains to dig wild roots in the winter to survive this winter.

But I didn't think about it, and there was a snow disaster, and the mountains were covered by heavy snow, and there was a white expanse everywhere.

In desperation, he ran to the city and begged the nobles for help, but was ruthlessly refused. It was only because of the great calamity that there were many borrowers, and he was not willing to deal with him even if he was old.

When Old Man Jiang returned home, the house also collapsed, and the daughter-in-law held the child like this, shrunk in the ice cave, and froze to death.

Before dying, he took off his clothes, wrapped the child tightly, and waited until he returned.

"Wow, ahhhh The movement of the old man Jiang picking up the corpse woke up the grandson in his arms.

"Slave, don't cry......"

Old man Jiang named the child 'slave', so he didn't expect to be promising, just live.

Seeing his grandson crying and waking up, he hurriedly coaxed, and at the same time used a firewood knife to dig a pit to bury the frozen mother and son.

"Aweng, hungry ......" the grandson opened his mouth weakly in his arms, and his eyes did not open.

Old man Jiang coaxed again: "There is food, there is food, wait for Ah Weng to bury your mother...... Bury...... Bury her, and I'll take you into the city. ”

"Aweng climbed up the mountain and chopped a lot of wood, and when he entered the city, he had food to eat, and he was almost there...... It's almost ......."

While coaxing, he chiseled through the ice and snow, dug a shallow pit, and finally buried the bodies of the mother and daughter on the side of the road.

He didn't dare to delay, so he hurriedly dragged the firewood and continued to move forward.

Old man Jiang walked slower and slower, and he was already weak, he wasted too much energy digging holes, and he couldn't help but regret that he had been kind indiscriminately.

Under this severe cold, the living can't take care of it, how can they care about the dead?

"It's almost there...... It's almost ......."

"When you arrive, you will have food to eat......"

Old man Jiang walked in a daze for a long time, and finally saw the city wall.

However, when he got closer, he saw crowds of homeless people like him outside the city.

These people did not know each other, but they all huddled together, spreading out of sight along the city walls.

Most of them were covered in snow and motionless, as if they were dead.

Others shook as much as they could, pumped the ground, rubbed off the ice and snow on their bodies, and tried everything they could to keep warm.

Old Man Jiang's withered face became more and more stiff, and he approached and slapped a 'snowman'.

only to find that the man was already frozen, and even froze with more than a dozen people around him!

"Why don't you go into the city?" Old man Jiang opened his mouth and shouted, but his voice was dry and hoarse.

No one paid attention to him, and the living people here only knew how to shake and rub the snow, as if they could live in this way.

"Into the city!" Old man Jiang shouted as he walked, and finally found the closed city gate, but he couldn't get closer.

Because there are the most corpses piled up there, and even a snow slope made of ice men has been formed.

Looking at the city gate that was almost 'buried', Old Man Jiang's heart was completely cold, he couldn't cry if he wanted to, and he didn't know what to shout if he wanted to.

Obviously you could still enter the city three days ago, why didn't you let them in?

He didn't know, he didn't know anything, there was no one to explain to him, he had no one to ask, only hunger and cold awaited him.

Old man Jiang can only walk along the city wall, constantly walking, he is unwilling, maybe the other city gates are open?

However, no matter how far he went, he could see frozen people, countless people, mixed with ice and snow, surrounding the city.

Old man Jiang looked at the second sealed gate, and finally realized why the homeless people surrounded the city wall...... Like themselves, they put their hopes in the second gate, or even the third...... Fourth ......

Still leaving? Old man Jiang numbly took two more steps, and suddenly found that the dozens of catties of firewood had long been thrown by him.

Want to get it back? No need...... It's all wet...... Soaking wet......

Only dry firewood can be sold, and I don't know when I start to deceive myself when I go to the city to exchange food......

He was tired, and he finally collapsed helplessly.

Like other homeless people, they huddle next to snowmen, shaking and rubbing the snow.

But more than the others...... I also have to hold my thin grandson in my arms.

From a very early age, the grandson could not open his eyes, and as early as when he pulled the grandson out of the arms of his daughter-in-law, he was already confused and hot.

Old man Jiang knew that this kid wouldn't last long, but he couldn't help it, there was no way at all.

In the end, he could only take off his clothes stiffly, like his daughter-in-law, and wanted to wrap himself around the child.

"Aong...... Hungry ......" The grandson was carried out, and the cold wind was fierce, making a faint sound.

When the old man Jiang heard this, he finally collapsed, beat his chest and cried bitterly: "You eat me!" ”

"Ahh

War, taxes, levies, servitude, natural disasters...... Hunger, cold, and death crushed him step by step.

He was already hungry and cold, and after crying and venting, he finally got tired and fell asleep with his head tilted.

In the dark, he had a dream that the eldest and the second returned safely, and the court rewarded a total of ten acres of land.

The eldest became a daughter, and the second became a son.

So what's the granddaughter's name? It's called Cher, why is it called snow?

Old man Jiang had such confusion in his dream, and suddenly a heavy snow came, and then he saw the body of his daughter-in-law Chiguo, and suddenly looked up and said to him: "Father, the slave has been handed over to you......"

It's cold, it's cold!

Old man Jiang woke up suddenly, a bone-chilling cold, heart-warming cold.

It was the placket that had to be taken off before and was open...... and the ...... that freezes into a lump of ice in his arms

"Slave!"

Old man Jiang shouted heartbreakingly, crying bitterly in his heart: Slave, Ah Weng can take you to live, can live, Ah Weng will eat human flesh......

He frantically rubbed his frozen grandson, but he was also almost freezing, and his body could barely move, like a zombie.

But he still rubbed desperately, rubbed desperately, but in the end, except for moving himself, he finally confirmed only one fact...... The slave is dead.

The last loved one, the last spiritual pillar is gone, and he doesn't even know why he is alive.

"Oh my God! Why don't you take me away! Old man Jiang's tears formed ice picks on his eyelids.

If he fell asleep like him, he should never wake up again, but instead, he woke up...... At the last moment before freezing.

"Woo woo woo ......" Old man Jiang couldn't even make an expression, just whimpered numbly.

God took away all his relatives, leaving him alone to the end, looking at this white world.

Suddenly, he struggled to his feet.

"Slave, we can't die outside, Ah Weng will take you home."

Old man Jiang was not immersed in the pain of waiting for death alone, he convinced himself again.

He was thinking that God had asked him to wake up because he wanted him to collect the bodies of his relatives.

The fallen leaves return to the roots, the wife and daughter-in-law, as well as the clothes and mounds of the eldest and second son, are all buried in the dirt slope behind the house. He and his grandson also have to go back.

In this way, Old Man Jiang walked firmly step by step and embarked on the way back.

I don't know how long I walked, but the cold wind like God was going to kill gradually stopped.

And just then, he heard the cry of a baby in the wild.

……