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Ren Yingying pushed open the window, leaned out, and shouted into the yard, "You two, master and disciple, stop making trouble and come over to eat."

"coming!"

Yi Feiyan responded crisply, tapping the ground with her feet and rising. She flew towards the window like an arrow. In the blink of an eye, she was at the window, tapping the window sill with her toes, and then she firmly entered Ren Yingying's arms and said affectionately:
"Master's wife, I haven't seen you for a long time. Yan'er misses you so much."

"Haha~ How old are you? Why are you still acting like a child?"

Ren Yingying raised her hand and gently brushed off the ice chips on Yi Feiyan's hair. She said softly, "You must be starving after traveling all night. Let's eat first."

Walking into the kitchen, Ren Yingying carefully poured the last half spoonful of lard on the edge of the iron pan. The "sizzling" sound echoed throughout the house. Three freshly baked pancakes were neatly stacked on the stove, like a yellow and white hill.

Wisps of morning mist quietly seeped in through the cracks in the windows and condensed into densely packed small water droplets on the edge of the rough pottery bowl.

Yi Feiyan stepped into the main room, took off her muddy leather boots with great effort, and stepped barefoot on the rammed earth ground. Seeing this, Ren Yingying handed over the bamboo chopsticks:

"Taste it."

"Thank you, Master!"

Yi Feiyan took the chopsticks, without even blinking, she stretched out her hand to roll the whole pancake into a tube shape and stuffed it into her mouth. The scalding grease quickly flowed through her fingers to the leather wrist guard on her wrist, but she was completely unaware and just focused on swallowing.

Yi Huawei raised his head from the stove, with a helpless look on his face. He raised his hand and gently tapped Yi Feiyan's head, saying, "Eat slowly! No one is going to snatch it from you."

"Don't worry, you know your master can eat a lot, let him eat less later."

Ren Yingying raised her lips slightly, revealing a faint smile, and gently lifted the lid of the bamboo steamer. In an instant, white mist with the aroma of wheat surged up and filled the entire kitchen.

With deft movements, he placed three coarse porcelain bowls on the fir table, and the golden corn porridge in the bowls was emitting fine bubbles.

Yi Huawei squatted in front of the stove, holding a long bamboo chopstick, slowly flipping the dough. After a while, the aroma of burnt food mixed with chopped green onions quickly filled the entire room.

Yi Feiyan was attracted by the aroma and involuntarily moved closer to the pot, reaching out to grab the dough. Yi Huawei didn't even raise his head, and quickly stretched out the chopsticks in his hand, tapping them accurately on the back of her hand, and said, "Go set the table."

Yi Feiyan curled her lips and muttered a few words under her breath, but still went to set the table obediently.

Ren Yingying placed a cotton cloth on a ceramic jar and brought the pickles. The celadon plate was filled with chopped sour beans, each piece cut into even sizes.

Putting down the pickles, Ren Yingying sat down next to Yi Feiyan and gently rubbed her head: "How many days did it take you to get here from Xiangyang?"

Yi Feiyan's cheeks instantly puffed up like a hamster, and she said incoherently, "Four and a half days. I was delayed in Wuchang Prefecture. There is a farm twenty miles west of Jiangxia County, and the tenants said that the well water has been red for half a month."

Yi Huawei scooped a spoonful of pickles and poured it evenly over the steaming porridge. He said in a deep voice, "Go on."

Yi Feiyan swallowed the cake, took a gulp of tea, and cleared her throat. She picked up the chopsticks, dipped them in the tea, and began to draw on the table, saying as she drew: "At first I thought it was rust, but later the oxen drank the well water and started spitting white foam on the spot. I felt something was wrong, so I followed the water vein to the north and found an earthen kiln downwind of the mass grave. I sneaked in at night, and wow, there were more than twenty large vats inside..."

Ren Yingying paused while serving porridge and blurted out, "Saltpeter?"

"more than."

Yi Feiyan said, reaching out to pour out a piece of dark red gravel from the brocade bag on her waist: "They are refining cinnabar. The waste is discharged into the groundwater through the underground canal. The wells of the three villages downstream have been poisoned. The people have no clean water to drink. Life is miserable."

A few sparks popped out of the charcoal basin, making a crackling sound. Yi Huawei took the gravel and fiddled with it with pliers: "What are you guarding?"

Yi Feiyan stuck out her tongue and said, "There were six guards, all of whom used goose-feather knives. Their kung fu wasn't very strong, but they were well-equipped. They changed shifts at 3:30 pm, and I saw an opportunity and sneaked into the storeroom to set it on fire. As soon as the fire started, a guy wearing a copper wrist guard chased out and shot a sleeve arrow at my neck. I would have lost my life just by a little bit."

Ren Yingying put down the bowl of porridge and frowned slightly: "No poison?"

"It should just be a warning."

Yi Feiyan shrank her neck and said, "It seems that they dare not make a big noise. I ran two miles away and looked back, and the fire was out, as if nothing had happened."

Outside the window came the sound of hoes hitting the frozen soil. It turned out that a few tenant farmers were spreading wood ash on the frozen soil while it was still daylight, in preparation for spring plowing.

Yi Huawei stood up, walked to the window, closed it tightly, took off his gray squirrel fur scarf, threw it to his apprentice, and said, "The cinnabar mine is under the control of the government. It is a capital crime to refine it privately. The one who can afford six guards with swords must be someone who is not an ordinary gentry."

"I followed the mule carts carrying sulfur into town."

As Yi Feiyan spoke, she pulled out a roll of yellow paper from her bag: "This is the invoice from the accounting office. It's stamped with the seal of the Prince of Chu's Palace."

The crispy oil cake crumbs fell on the edge of the bill of lading, and Ren Yingying stretched out her fingernails and carefully picked them up. After thinking for a moment, she slowly said, "The caravan that came from Hengzhou last month also said that the King of Chu was collecting saltpeter and sulfur. This is strange."

Yi Huawei's Adam's apple rolled twice, and after a long pause, he slowly spoke: "The gunpowder that the King of Chu paid tribute to the East Factory once blew up the Nanyang Charity Granary, causing countless deaths and injuries. There must be something behind this!"

"On the fifteenth of last month, at Hanyang Ferry."

Yi Feiyan bit into the crispy pancake, the heat instantly sticking to her eyelashes. As she ate, she said, "I saw twenty canal boats, and those boats had unusual drafts. Standing on the bow of each boat were three men wearing cowhide armor, with scorpion tattoos on the base of their right hands."

Yi Huawei paused while scooping porridge, frowned slightly, and said slowly: "They are private salt dealers from Jiangxia Cao Gang. But in previous years, after the frost falls, they would withdraw their boats and stop moving."

“So the disciple followed them for three days.”

Yi Feiyan said, taking out half a charred wooden sign from her bosom and gently placing it on the table. The edge of the wooden sign was engraved with wavy patterns. Although it was charred, the patterns were still clearly visible: "On the fourth night at Parrot Island, the things they loaded on the boat were wrapped tightly with oilcloth, more than seven feet long."

Ren Yingying reached out her hand and used a hairpin to gently fiddle with the carbon marks on the wooden sign. She put it under her nose and sniffed it, then said with certainty, "It smells like a thunder and fire bomb."

"Even stranger is the escort."

Yi Feiyan swallowed the last bite of the biscuit and drew three fold lines on the table with her fingers. "Among them, there was a man wearing a bamboo hat. When he walked, his left shoulder was half an inch lower than his right shoulder. When we met at the river beach, I saw him lift his collar, revealing half of a flying fish embroidered with gold thread.

"Crack~"

Suddenly, a string of sparks exploded from the stove. Yi Huawei used tongs to pick up a piece of unburned firewood and said in a deep voice, "It's a secret agent of the Jinyiwei. It seems that the eunuchs have already reached Huguang."

Just as Yi Feiyan was about to speak, a crisp bell sound suddenly came from outside the courtyard. Ren Yingying immediately stood up, walked quickly to the window, stretched out her hand to push open the wooden window, and saw an old man wearing a felt hat driving a donkey cart parked outside the fence, with dry reeds piled high on the cart board. The old man took off his frozen cotton gloves with great effort, took out an oil-paper bag from his arms, and shook it towards the house.

"Mr. Zhu has brought fish."

Ren Yingying said as she unbolted the door: "Yan'er, go and answer it."

When Yi Feiyan heard this, she immediately became energetic and jumped over the windowsill, creating a gust of wind. The stove fire was blown violently by the wind and shook violently.

"All the fish caught within the last thirty miles were caught by land."

Ren Yingying counted the copper coins while saying, "It is said that there are official ships setting up checkpoints on the Yangtze River waterway."

Yi Feiyan rushed back to the house holding the oil paper bag: "Grandpa Zhu said that the county government is recruiting civilians and wants to convert the charity granary in the northern suburbs into an observatory."

The frozen crucian carp wrapped in the oil paper rolled onto the table with a "pop", with ice beads still hanging on its gills.

Ren Yingying picked up the dagger and skillfully cut open the fish belly, revealing half of the bamboo tube between the dark red organs. Yi Huawei immediately wrapped it with a cloth, carefully took out the copper tube, and gently unscrewed it, and a sulfur smell instantly wafted out.

"The wax seal was from half a month ago."

Yi Huawei slowly unfolded the mulberry paper, his brows furrowed tighter and tighter, "A letter of help from Hengzhou Wei."

Yi Feiyan hurried over to read the scribbled words on the letter: "The eighth day of the twelfth lunar month...White Lotus Monster...Yongzhou Granary..."

He suddenly raised his head, eyes wide open, and said, "Last month I saw the grain transport team of Hengzhou Guard in Yueyang. The leader was a lame captain, and they were transporting 20 carts of moldy old rice."

Ren Yingying threw the fish into the pottery basin, and the blood quickly spread in the clear water. After wiping the dagger clean, she said with a serious look: "There will be trouble in Wuchang Prefecture. The Jinyiwei interfered with the grain transport, the military rations of the guards were mixed with sand, and the White Lotus Sect started an uprising in southern Hunan..."

At this point, he suddenly reached out and grabbed Yi Feiyan's wrist, and asked anxiously: "The canal boat you just mentioned, which lacquer line is it from the waterline?"

"Two fingers below the third wave."

Yi Feiyan reacted quickly, using chopsticks dipped in the sauce to accurately draw a line on the table: "If it's salt, it should be the fourth one."

"It's loaded with weapons."

Yi Huawei brought the letter close to the stove fire, and the charred edges slowly curled up: "Twenty cannon boats can carry eight hundred strong bows."

After a moment of silence, Yi Feiyan exhaled a breath of hot air, which instantly condensed into a ball of white mist in the cold air: "From Xinyang to Wuchang, the 300-li official road is covered with ice."

Yi Feiyan rubbed her hands as she spoke: "The grain ships are frozen at the mouth of the Han River and can't move. The merchants in silk shirts are huddled in the post station to warm themselves by the fire. They have hired away all the mules and horses that transport grain, and I don't know where they are going."

Ren Yingying raised her eyes to look at Yi Feiyan, her gaze fell on Yi Feiyan's braid, where a piece of dry grass was stuck. Ren Yingying reached out to pick it, and her fingertips touched Yi Feiyan's cold earlobe. She was slightly startled and asked, "Have you stopped in Xiaogan?"

"I passed by at 3 pm the day before yesterday. There was a line of porridge stalls for two miles outside the city gate." Yi Feiyan pouted, her face full of pity: "Those refugees looked so miserable, skinny, and in such a cold weather, their clothes were thin, and they were shivering in the cold wind."

Ren Yingying frowned slightly and sighed, "Since Prime Minister Zhang surveyed the land, there has been no winter without food shortages. Last month, Liu Qin wrote to me saying that the military warehouses in Hengzhouwei were empty and the soldiers' rations were a problem."

“This time is different.”

Yi Feiyan shook her head:
"The refugees from Henan brought sickles with them. The horses at Xiangcheng Post Station had their horseshoes stolen. This is not just a runaway group of refugees. There may be some conspiracy behind this."

Ren Yingying asked, "How much dry food did you give them?"

"Six breads, and some fire-proofing sticks given by Master." Yi Feiyan swallowed the last mouthful of porridge and said, "There is an old man with a white beard who can read the sky. He said that this freezing rain will last until the winter solstice. What should we do? How can the people survive this?"

"The relief grain from Wuchang Prefecture cannot pass the inspection of the Censorate."

Ren Yingying spread out the cotton wool in the sewing basket, preparing to mend Yi Feiyan's cotton coat: "Last month, the county magistrate of Jiangxia sent a visiting card, saying that the county warehouse only had 800 dan of grain. This amount of grain is probably a drop in the bucket and is not enough to distribute to the people."

Yi Feiyan suddenly took off the leather bag at her waist, and with a "clatter", she poured out two rusty arrowheads on the table. "I found this on the Yunmengze official road. There are wheel tracks within five steps. The depth is three inches and seven tenths of an inch, and the wheelbase is four feet and two inches."

"Specifications of grain trucks."

Yi Huawei picked up the arrowhead and scratched a mark on the table: "The Wuchang Guard's baggage camp uses a four-foot-three-inch wheelbase, which is the size of a civilian cart. It seems that there are many secrets behind the transportation of grain."

The cold wind blew up the ice particles, which "crackled" against the window paper. Ren Yingying put the patched cotton coat on the girl's shoulders and said, "Your master has a rice shop in Xiangyang. If we can transfer some food from there, it may be able to solve the urgent problem."

"It's too late to go by land."

Yi Huawei squatted on the ground, using charcoal to draw a map on the blue brick floor: "The Han River is frozen, and the fleet of the Cao Gang is trapped in Xiantao Town. The water route is blocked. Let the brothers in Mobei take the Xinyang Road and use camel teams to transport sorghum. Maybe it will work."

Yi Feiyan's eyes lit up, and she suddenly pointed to the southeast and said:
"How about taking the Poyang Lake waterway? If the grain ships of Raozhou Prefecture can break the ice, they might be able to bring in a large amount of grain and solve the food shortage problem."

"The Poyang Lake Inspection Office is under the jurisdiction of Prince Ning's Mansion."

Ren Yingying paused, a trace of worry flashed across her face: "During the Dragon Boat Festival this year, they seized the Hengshan Sect's medicinal materials. They acted very overbearingly. I'm afraid it won't be easy for us to borrow the passage to transport grain. We don't know what tricks they will play."

Yi Huawei stood up, paced back and forth, thought for a moment and then said, "I'm going to the capital. Go back to Blackwood Cliff and tell your father to wait for my news before the first day of the first lunar month."

Then he turned his head and looked at Yi Feiyan: "You wait here for my news. Starting tomorrow, we will open the warehouses and release grain. Keep an eye on your junior brother and don't let him get into trouble."

"Master... have you decided?"

Yi Feiyan widened her eyes, a hint of surprise flashing in her eyes.

"Well! If you don't make a decision when you should, you will suffer the consequences."

Yi Huawei took a deep breath: "Although time is on our side, the longer it drags on, the better it is for us. But... the people of this world can't wait... Let's end this sooner and recuperate sooner!"

(End of this chapter)