The boundaries of Qingzhou, Langya County and Hua County.

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

The child was tied to the chest with cloth strips, while the old man was holding a trailer made of wattle sticks around his waist, carrying dozens of kilograms of firewood. He walked towards the county town step by step through the heavy snow.

The old man has walked twenty miles on the mountain road and reached the main road. The snow here is not so deep anymore. He only needs to walk another ten miles or so to see the city wall.

In this year of great disaster, even a mere thirty miles of road was in dire straits. It snowed continuously for ten days and ten nights!

It’s already the twenty-ninth day of the first lunar month! It’s still freezing cold and the lakes are frozen!

Countless houses were crushed by the heavy snow, and the taxes were as high as a tiger's. The people lacked food and clothing, and countless people died of hunger, cold, and cold.

The old man's house collapsed a long time ago. He is a cat who survived until now in the hole made by the wall and the ice and snow.

At this moment, the strong wind was beating against my cheeks, and my ears were full of whistling sounds. The cold wind was as cold as if God wanted to kill someone.

The snow has stopped, but in such a harsh climate, even without falling snow, it is unbearable.

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

When the heavy snow finally stopped, he took his grandson to the Tea Mountain to chop some firewood, intending to sell it in the city in exchange for some food rations.

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

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

Maybe a warehouse has been opened to store grain in the city. He saw a lot of refugees fleeing in the past two days. If things don't work out, he still needs firewood, right? In this cold weather, he can always exchange for some grain.

Suddenly, he tripped over something under his feet. When he lowered his head, he saw that it seemed to be a person, covered in snow, and he didn't know whether he was alive or dead.

The old man quickly put down the mopboard, took out the hatchet from his waist and tried to pull at the snow. When he completely dragged the man out, he sighed...

Dead and frozen into ice, almost harder than iron.

She was still a woman with a child. She was completely naked except for an iron wrench on her little finger.

She held the baby in her arms tightly, but the baby in her arms kept crying and turned into a lump of ice.

Both mother and daughter had no clothes, and they didn’t know whether they were snatched away and frozen to death, or whether they were snatched away after freezing to death.

These days, it is not even surprising that some people have begun to cannibalize people and take away the clothes of women and children and leave them to freeze to death.

Along the way, the old man has seen many dry and hard corpses, some alone, some in pairs, and even whole families hugging each other to death from freezing.

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

The old man's surname was Jiang, and he had two sons. The eldest, Jiang Tian, ​​was strong and capable of wielding a sword and a stick. He was a capable warrior and died on the battlefield.

The second child, Jiang Nong, had a dull and honest temperament and was a good farmer. He was forcibly drafted into the army two years ago and died on the battlefield.

Fortunately, they got married before joining the army and left a posthumous son.

It’s not easy for a daughter-in-law. These years have been either famine or rebellion. While taking care of herself, she raised her child to two years old. However, last year, King Sima Jiong of Qi expanded the palace and not only allocated money and food to them, but also raped them during the autumn harvest.

levy labor service.

There was no other way, he was the only man in the family, and he had no money to pay for the labor.

The daughter-in-law, alone with her children, desperately rushed to harvest, but she still missed it. A heavy rain destroyed most of the grains, and the tax could not be reduced at all.

Forced to have no choice but to sell the five acres of land given to him by his boss Zhan Zhan, he became a tenant farmer of the wealthy Zhang family in Hua County. He even sold his axe, leaving only a hatchet in his possessions.

I originally thought about keeping this hatchet and digging wild roots in the mountains to survive the winter.

But before I thought about it, there would be another snowstorm, the mountains were blocked by heavy snow, and everything was completely white.

In desperation, he ran to the city to ask for help from nobles, but was ruthlessly rejected. This was because in the year of great disaster, there were many borrowers, and even though he was an old man, no one wanted to pay attention to him.

When Old Man Jiang returned home, the house also collapsed. His daughter-in-law hugged the child and huddled in the ice hole, freezing to death.

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

"Wow!" The sound of Old Man Jiang picking up the body woke up his grandson in his arms.

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

Old Man Jiang named his child "Nu'er" because he didn't expect to have any future, as long as he lived.

When he saw his grandson waking up from crying, he quickly coaxed him while digging a hole with a hatchet to bury the frozen mother and son.

"Ah, I'm hungry..." The grandson opened his mouth weakly in his arms without even opening his eyes.

Old Man Jiang coaxed again: "There is food, there is food. When Aweng buries your mother... buries... buries her, I will take you to the city."

"Aweng climbed up the mountain and chopped a lot of firewood. When we enter the city, we will have food to eat. We are almost there... we are almost there..."

While coaxing them, they cut through the ice and snow, dug a shallow pit, and finally buried the bodies of the mother and daughter on the roadside.

He didn't dare to delay, so he quickly dragged the firewood and moved on.

Old Man Jiang walked slower and slower. He was already weak and wasted too much energy digging holes. He couldn't help but regret his indiscriminate kindness.

In this severe cold, if you don't care about the living, how can you care about the dead?

"Almost there...almost there..."

"There will be food to eat when we arrive..."

Old Man Jiang walked in confusion for an unknown amount of time, and finally saw the city wall.

However, when he got closer, he saw refugees like him crowded outside the city.

These people may not know each other, but they are huddled together and spread out of sight along the city wall.

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

Others shook as hard as they could, twitched, rubbed the ice and snow off their bodies, and tried every means to keep warm.

Old Man Jiang's withered face became stiffer and stiffer. He approached and patted a 'snowman'.

Only to find that the man was frozen to the point that he and the dozen or so people around him were frozen together!

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

No one paid attention to him. The living people here only know how to shake and rub the snow, as if they can survive in this way.

"Enter the city!" Old Man Jiang shouted as he walked, and finally found the closed city gate, but he couldn't get close.

Because there were the largest number of corpses piled up there, a snow slope made of ice men was formed.

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

You could have entered the city three days ago, why weren't you allowed in?

He didn't know, he didn't know anything, no one could explain it to him, and he had no one to ask. All that was waiting for him was hunger and cold.

Old Man Jiang could only keep walking along the city wall. He was unwilling to do so. Maybe other city gates were open?

However, no matter how far he walked, he could still see people freezing to death. Countless people, mixed with ice and snow, surrounded the city.

Old Man Jiang looked at the second sealed gate and finally realized why the refugees were surrounding them along the city wall... They were all just like him, placing their hopes on the second city gate, or even the third... The fourth

fan……

Do you still want to go? Old Man Jiang took two more steps numbly, and suddenly realized that he had thrown those dozens of kilograms of firewood somewhere.

Do you want to get it back? No need...it's all wet...soaked...

Only dry firewood can be sold. He went to the city to exchange for food. He didn't know when he started to deceive himself...

He was tired and finally collapsed helplessly.

Like other refugees, they huddled next to each snowman, shaking and rubbing the snow.

But what was more important than the others was...the skinny grandson who was still being held in his arms.

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

Old Man Jiang knew that the child wouldn't survive much longer, but he had nothing to do, nothing at all.

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

"Aweng... I'm hungry..." The grandson was carried out, and the cold wind stirred up, and he made a weak voice.

When Old Man Jiang heard this, he finally collapsed, beat his chest and cried bitterly: "Eat me!"

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

War, taxes, increased donations, labor, natural disasters... hunger, cold, death, crushed him step by step.

Already hungry, cold and exhausted, after crying and venting his sorrows, he finally got too tired and fell asleep with his head tilted.

In the darkness, he had a dream. He dreamed that the eldest brother and the second son returned safely, and the court rewarded him with a total of ten acres of land.

The eldest got married and gave birth to a daughter, and the second eldest got married and gave birth to a son.

What's the granddaughter's name? Let's call it Xue'er. Why is it called Xue?

Old Man Jiang was confused in his dream. Suddenly a heavy snowfall came. Then he saw the body of his daughter-in-law Chiguo. He suddenly raised his head and said to him: "Father, I leave this slave to you..."

Cold, so cold!

Old Man Jiang woke up suddenly, feeling a chill that penetrated his bones and made his heart feel cold.

Those were the clothes that were opened before I had time to take them off... and the ones in my arms that were frozen into lumps of ice...

"Slave!"

Old Man Jiang screamed heartbreakingly and cried in his heart: Nu'er, Aweng can help you live, if you can live, Aweng will eat human flesh...

He rubbed his frozen grandson frantically, but he was almost frozen, his body could hardly move, and he looked like a zombie.

But I still rubbed it as hard as I could, but in addition to letting myself move, I only confirmed one fact in the end... the slave was dead.

His last relative and last spiritual support was gone, and he didn't even know why he was alive.

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

If he fell asleep like that, he should never wake up again, but unfortunately, he woke up...at the last moment before freezing.

"Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..." Old Man Jiang couldn't even make an expression, he just whimpered in a daze and numbness.

God took away all his relatives and left him alone until the end, looking at this vast white world.

Suddenly, he struggled to get up.

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

Old Man Jiang did not immerse himself in the pain of waiting to die alone. He convinced himself again.

He was thinking that God wanted him to wake up just to collect the bodies of his relatives.

The fallen leaves have returned to their roots. The graves of his wife, daughter-in-law, and the eldest and second son are all buried on the soil slope behind the home. He and his grandson also have to go back.

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

I don’t know how long I walked, but the cold wind that was killing me gradually subsided.

At this moment, he heard the cry of a baby in the wild.

…
Chapter completed!