When I went out, it had never snowed, and so I took water and plasters from Yin Bei's hands, and walked out of Kuanzhou Mansion, when suddenly a gust of wind pressed the top, the snow became a clump of flocculents, falling with the wind, and the thatched houses on both sides of the road all collapsed, leaving only a few mansions still standing in place.

On the official road, the officials were shoveling snow, and there were rut marks on the ground, pressing the residual snow tightly, and it had not been frozen hard by the cold wind, and the horses' hooves stepped on it, constantly making a "clattering" sound.

Mo Lingfeng put his head in his hands, quickly whipped his horse, and left Kuanzhou along the rutted tracks.

The white horse she rode was a war horse, faster than the horse that handed the shop, if she did not hesitate to run the horse, it could reach three hundred miles a day, and the green horse ridden by Yin Nan was slightly inferior, both of them tried their best to raise the whip, estimated that they ran for thirty miles, immediately dismounted, ate, closed their eyes and rested.

In this way, in the evening, the two had already left the official road and walked along the path drawn by Yin Bei.

The darker the sky, the more the snow was overwhelming, and the snow on the fox's fur did not wait to disappear, but fell layer by layer, and the gloves were still frozen and numb in the leather tube.

The long and soft fox fur surrounded the lower half of Mo Lingfeng's face, the circle of hair above the nose was wet by the heat, and was frozen into tufts by the cold wind, and there was no moment of comfort, the upper half of the face exposed was already blue, and the two circles of eyelashes on the eyes were separated, and the ice ballast hung in clusters.

She rode forward, leading Yin Nan forward in the silent night.

The more you deviate from the official road, the more deserted it is, the thicker the snow becomes, and the low-lying places are five feet long, and every step the horse takes requires all its strength above the chest and abdomen of the man.

Both men and horses are exhausted to the point of insensitivity.

Just as Mo Lingfeng was estimating the distance, the white horse suddenly stepped into the air, suddenly let out a neigh, and rolled to the side with the people and horses.

Mo Lingfeng was stiff, and when the horse fell, he couldn't move at all, and he planted an upside-down onion and plunged into the snow.

The snow quickly engulfed her, and her eyes were instantly white, and she struggled to move, her mouth and nose were all blocked by ice and snow, she couldn't breathe, and her brain was "buzzing", and she could only hear her own huge heartbeat and gasping sound.

The feeling of suffocation came up in an instant.

She forced herself not to move, lest she flutter deeper, and at that moment, Yin Nan grabbed her leg and pulled her out.

"Whew-" Mo Lingfeng gasped, raised his hand to sweep away the snow on his face, opened his eyes and looked around.

Where it just rolled down, three inches further, a man and a horse would roll down the mountain.

It's dangerous.

The wind swirled back and forth, making a roaring sound, she took a breath, saw Yin Nan help the horse stand up, jumped up the mountain road, and said in shock: "It should be almost ugly, go forward and go to a place where the snow is not so thick to rest." ”

There are no stars and no moon tonight, and she can only judge the hour by the sky, and she doesn't know if it's accurate.

Yin Nan nodded, turned over on the horse, shook off the snow on the fox fur, and this time she held her bridle and walked ahead.

Mo Lingfeng turned over and walked out a few steps, only to find that there was snow in the leather covers on both hands, and a lot of snow in his leather boots, which was melting into water and forming ice cubes.

Half an hour later, they walked to a place where the wind and snow were not too big, and dismounted to trim themselves.

Yin Nan picked up firewood, lit a small bonfire, took out the water bladder placed close to him, pulled out the stopper, gave Mo Leaf a few sips, and took out dried meat and a cake, the size of a chess piece, and the two ate it separately.

The horse chewed on the snow, then tilted its head to nibble on the bark of the tree, eating the evergreen leaves.

Mo Lingfeng moved his hands and feet, looking at the dark and dreary sky, and the snowflakes as big as a mat fell from the black hole-like sky, allowing the firelight to take shape and silently melt above the firelight.

She doesn't believe in gods and Buddhas, but in order to use the name of gods and Buddhas to govern the army, she has read Buddhist scriptures well, and at this moment, she suddenly remembered a Zen saying in her mind: "Only by standing on the rock head of life and death can you be at ease." ”

Yin Nan brought the stone and said in a low voice, "Girl, sleep for a while." ”

Mo Lingfeng nodded, sat on the stone, slept back to back with Yin Nan for an hour, and after waking up, he rubbed his face and went on the road again.

On the fourth day of December, after a day and a half and a whole night of trekking, they finally arrived outside Shuozhou.

Although there is snow in Shuozhou, the snow is not big, and it is enough to enjoy it, but the state has suffered from locust plagues for three consecutive years, and the six materials have not been harvested.

The imperial court has been relieving and treating locusts for many years, but there is still no improvement.

At that time, there were almost no lights on the streets, except for a few mansions where the lights and laughter were still heard.

In the second hall of the Shuozhou Governor's Mansion, charcoal basins were lit and candles were lit to illuminate the general judge Wu Jin, Zhizhou Tao Ping, the prefect Lou Jiang, and a county official Gao Yi, who were sitting in danger.

Tao Zhizhou sat in the first place, Lou Zhifu and Wu Jin sat in the bottom, and Gao Xiancheng sat in the last seat.

The four of them were all wearing regular clothes, Wu Jin was wearing a collared white shirt, wearing a Tang scarf, and his eyes were wet, Tao Zhizhou picked up the tea cup, took a sip of hot tea, and said with a smile: "In ancient times, Wang Yao Yao was like the morning glow, illuminating the court, and today I am fortunate to have Wu Tong's judgment to illuminate the Burrow, so I know that what the ancients said is true." ”

In this compliment, Wu Jin smiled: "Dare to ask Zhizhou, why did the starry night summon me?" ”

Tao Zhizhou took another sip of tea and sighed: "Gao Xiancheng, let's talk about it." ”

"Yes." Gao Xiancheng hurriedly got up and shook at the top three peaks.

His expression was respectful and humble, but the words he said were hard: "There is no silver or food in the county, I don't know if immigrants will eat?" ”

"It's not proper, there are many wars at the border gates, the treasury is tight, and the immigrants have food, which is a problem for Your Majesty, and the people should also be considerate and considerate of the difficulties above," Tao Zhizhou saw that Wu Jin was as stable as Mount Tai, and he didn't even frown, so he had to furrow two eyebrows, "Wu Tongju, what do you see?" ”

Wu Jin said: "Since the locust plague in Shuozhou, the imperial court has allocated a total of 3 million taels of disaster relief silver, and has been relieved of the position with regular liquidation, exempted from taxes for one year, 600 wen per stone of rice, and now it has risen to 1,000 wen, how much rice and grain can be bought, I calculate it, you should also calculate it, such relief, comparable to military salary, why did it reach the point where immigrants eat?" ”

He looked at Governor Lou's Mansion: "When I came in, I saw that Governor Lou was reading tabloids, and I must have seen that six people from Ningzhou City were confiscated, and a total of 26 million taels of silver were copied. ”

Tao Zhizhou and Lou Zhifu originally wanted to throw the problems of Kochi County to Wu Jin, but at this moment, when they heard Wu Jin Yu Shuozhou in Ningzhou, their hearts were full of joy, and a layer of sweat appeared on their backs.

Wu Jin sneered: "Two, why don't you have food or money, haven't you counted it in your heart?" ”

Kochi County is desperately trying to offend Shangfeng today, and he also wants to ask for a countermeasure, hearing Wu Jin's straightforward sarcasm of the two state officials, his eyes widened, he swallowed a mouthful of saliva, and his cold hands became hot in an instant.

Tao Zhizhou's face was extremely ugly, and he was frightened, but he was speechless for a while, and when he was about to scold Wu Jin, Wu Jin had already gotten up, walked into the hall, and waved his hand: "Please Tao Zhizhou build a community warehouse, and the state officials will first launch the family to store chestnuts, put them into the warehouse, and then ask the rich to donate food, so as to help the victims and tide over the difficulties." ”

After that, he looked up at Tao Zhizhou: "The eggs have been dug up, and there will definitely be material to be harvested next year, and one handsome will cover up all the ugliness, what do you say?" (End of chapter)