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Chapter 2 Countless people die from hunger and cold

The boundaries of Qingzhou, Langya County, and Hua County.

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

The toddler was tied in front of his chest with cloth strips, while the old man was holding a plank tied with thorns on his waist, which carried dozens of catties of firewood.He was stuck in the heavy snow step by step, walking towards the county town.

The old man had already walked twenty miles on the mountain road, and came to the main road. The snow here was not so deep. If he walked another ten miles, he would be able to see the city wall.

In this year of catastrophe, it is difficult to walk a mere [-] miles away, and it has been snowing continuously for ten days and ten nights!
It is the twenty-ninth day of the first lunar month!It's still freezing cold, and the lake is frozen!

Countless houses were crushed by the heavy snow, and donations were exorbitant. The people lacked clothing and food, and countless people died of hunger, cold and freezing.

The old man's own house collapsed long ago. He is a cat living in the hole formed by the fence and ice and snow until now.

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

The snow had stopped, but even without the drift it would have been unbearable in such a harsh climate.

But the old man forcibly endured it, 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 send it to the city to sell for some 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 seat.

Maybe the city has opened granaries to release food. He saw many refugees fleeing in the past two days.In this cold weather, we can always exchange some food.

Suddenly, he tripped over something, looked down, it seemed to be a person, covered by snow, he didn't know his life or death.

The old man hastily put down the mop, pulled out the hatchet in his waist, and desperately scraped the snow. When he was completely dragged out, he sighed...

When they are dead, they are all frozen into ice, which is almost harder than iron.

She was still a woman with a child, naked all over, with an iron wrench on her little finger.

She hugged the baby tightly in her arms, and 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 died of freezing, or whether they were snatched after freezing to death.

These days, some people have started cannibalism, and it is not even surprising that women and children are robbed of their clothes and left to freeze to death.

Along the way, the old man has seen many dry corpses, either alone, or in pairs, or even the whole family embracing each other to freeze to death.

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

The old man's surname is Jiang, and he has two sons. The eldest, Jiang Tian, ​​is strong and strong. He can wield a knife and wield a stick. He is capable of fighting and died on the battlefield.

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

Fortunately, they got married before enlisting in the army and left a posthumous child.

Being a daughter-in-law is not easy. These years are either famines or rebellions.While taking care of her old self, she raised the child until he was two years old. However, last year King Qi Sima Jiong expanded the palace, not only did they distribute money and food from them, but also forced labor during the autumn harvest.

There is no way, he is the only man in the whole family, and there is no money for labor.

The daughter-in-law was alone and took the children desperately to collect it, but she still missed it. After a heavy rain, most of the millet rotted, and the tax must be paid less.

Forced to do nothing, he could only sell the five acres of land bestowed by his boss, Da Zhan, and became a tenant farmer of the Zhang family in Huaxian County. He even sold his axe, leaving him with only a hatchet.

I wanted to keep this hatchet and go to the deep mountains to dig wild roots to survive the winter.

But before I thought about it, there was another snow disaster, and the mountains were blocked by heavy snow, and there was a vast expanse of whiteness everywhere.

In desperation, he ran to the city to ask the nobleman for help, but was ruthlessly rejected.Just because in the year of the catastrophe, there were many borrowers, and he was an old man, so they didn't want to talk to him.

When Mr. Jiang returned home, the house collapsed, and the daughter-in-law hugged the child like this, shrunk in the ice hole, and died of freezing.

Before he died, he took off all his clothes, wrapped the child tightly, and waited for him to come back.

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

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

Old man Jiang named the child 'Nu'er', so he didn't expect to be successful, as long as he lived.

Seeing his grandson waking up from crying, he quickly coaxed him, and at the same time used a hatchet to dig a hole, trying to bury the frozen mother and child.

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

The old man Jiang coaxed again: "There is something to eat, there is something to eat, and when Ah Weng buries your mother...buries...buries her, I will take you into the city."

"Ah Weng climbed up the mountain and chopped a lot of firewood. When we enter the city, we will have food to eat. It's almost here... almost here..."

While coaxing, he dug through the ice and snow, dug a shallow pit, and finally buried the bodies of the mother and daughter by the roadside hastily.

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

The old man Jiang walked more and more slowly. He was already weak, and he wasted too much energy digging holes. He couldn't help but regret his indiscriminate kindness.

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

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

"When we arrive, there will be food to eat..."

Jiang old man walked for an unknown period of time, and finally saw the city wall.

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

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

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

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

Old man Jiang's withered face became more and more rigid. He approached and patted a 'snowman'.

But he found that the person was already frozen to the point that he was frozen together with the dozen or so people around him!
"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 any attention to him. The living people here only know how to shake and rub the snow, and it seems that they can survive 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 the most corpses are piled up there, it even forms a snow slope composed of icemen.

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.

He was able to enter the city three days ago, so why not let him in?

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

Old man Jiang could only keep walking along the city wall, he was not reconciled, maybe the other city gates were open?

However, no matter how far he went, he could still see the frozen people. 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 would surround the city wall... They were all like himself, pinning their hopes on the second city gate, or even the third... the fourth fan……

Do you want to go?The old man Jiang took another two steps numbly, and suddenly realized that he had thrown the dozens of catties of firewood long ago.

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

Only dry firewood can be sold, and I didn't know when I started to deceive myself about going to the city to exchange food...

He was tired, and finally he fell helplessly.

Like other refugees, curled up next to each snowman, shaking and rubbing the snow.

But more than others is... still clutching his skinny grandson in his arms.

From very early on, the grandson couldn't open his eyes. As early as when he was pulled out of his daughter-in-law's arms, he was already confused and hot all over.

Old man Jiang knew that the child wouldn't last long, but he had no choice, nothing at all.

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

"Ah Weng...hungry..." The grandson was carried out, and the cold wind blew up, making a weak voice.

Old man Jiang finally broke down when he heard the sound of Ah Weng, beating his chest and weeping bitterly: "You eat me!"

"Ah ah ah ah ah!"

Wars, taxes, increased donations, hard labor, natural disasters... Hunger, cold, and death crushed him step by step.

He was already hungry and cold, and after weeping bitterly, he was finally overtired and fell asleep with his head tilted.

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

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

What is the name of the granddaughter?Let's call it Xueer, why is it called Xueer?
Old man Jiang had such confusion in his dream, suddenly a heavy snowfall came, and then he saw the body of his daughter-in-law Chiguo, suddenly raised his head and said to him: "Father, I will leave this slave to you..."

Cold, so cold!

The old man Jiang woke up suddenly, a bone-piercing cold, heart-warming cold.

That was the open front of the clothes that the future had not had time to take off... and the one that was frozen into lumps of ice...

"Slave!"

The old man Jiang screamed heart-piercingly, crying in his heart: Nuer, Ah Weng can lead you to live, if you can live, Ah Weng will eat human flesh...

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

But I still rubbed desperately, rubbed desperately, but apart from letting myself move, I finally only confirmed one fact... Nu'er died.

The last relative, the last spiritual pillar was gone, and he didn't even know why he was alive.

"God! Why don't you take me away!" Jiang old man's tears formed icicles on his eyelids.

If he falls asleep like him, he should never be able to wake up again, but unexpectedly, he woke up... at the last moment before freezing.

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..." Old man Jiang couldn't even make an expression, he just sobbed blankly and numbly.

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

Suddenly, he struggled to get up.

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

Old man Jiang was not immersed in the pain of waiting to die alone, he convinced himself once again.

He was thinking that the reason God woke him up was to collect the corpse for his relatives.

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

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

I don't know how long I walked, but the cold wind that God wanted to kill gradually subsided.

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

……

　PS: sorry.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)