Capital Datang

---------------------- The heavy snow a few days ago dyed the earth with a silvery color. From a distance, the undulating mountains look like white clouds generally.However, Cui Er, who just came out of Jincheng, was not in the mood to appreciate the beautiful scenery. He was holding a basket in his hand, and there was a small pick in the basket, but the tip of the pick was made of stone. During the war in Jiji, all the iron products of the folk had to be handed over, and Cui Er's family was no exception.

Cui Er is more than 20 years old this year. He is a resident of Jincheng. He has lived in the city for generations. There is a small restaurant in his family. Although the income is not much, it is enough for their family to live.However, since the war with Baekje broke out last year, the supplies in the city were so scarce that the restaurant in his family could not be opened at all, and his elder brother was also arrested and enlisted as a soldier. Now he is the only one left in the family. Young and strong, it was thanks to his family uncle who was a small military officer who interceded for him and allowed him to stay and support his family.

Thinking of this damn war, Cui Er couldn't help cursing in a low voice. There are two brothers in their family, and they are both married. The eldest brother has two children, and he also has a child in his family. In addition to an elder brother whose life and death are unknown, there are still seven mouths to eat in the family. If they hadn't secretly hidden some food when they opened the restaurant, the whole family would have starved to death long ago.

But Cui Er is just a small person, no matter how much he curses this war, it is useless. What he cares most about is what to eat at home for the next meal. Although he has hidden some food before, after consumption some time ago, even though the family has tried to save as much as possible After eating, it was still not enough, so Cui Er has been wandering outside the city these days, trying to find something edible to bring back.

Thinking of the child waiting to be fed at home, Cui Er sighed helplessly, tightened his dirty sheepskin robe, lowered his head and walked out of the city gate, and hurried to a hill in the southeast of Jincheng, where there are mountains and rivers , and lush vegetation.Although it is already winter, if you are lucky, you may find something to eat.Capital Datang 318

Although the sun has not yet fully risen, there are already more people on the road, and most of them are like Cui Er, carrying a basket to the mountains to find food.After all, the city has been out of food for many days.Even if they have money, they can't buy food. Ordinary people like them can only rely on themselves. It is even heard that people have starved to death in some slums.

"Second Brother Cui, you came quite early today." Just as Cui Er was rushing forward, intending to rush into the mountain ahead of everyone, suddenly a person jumped out beside him, pulling his arm and said with a smile.

Cui Er turned his head to look, and said with a smile on his face: "So it's Xiao Jiu, and you don't have any food at home?"

The one holding Cui Er was a boy who looked only eleven or twelve years old.He is very skinny, and his name is Zheng Guang. He was Cui Er's former neighbor. Because he practiced Jiu at home, everyone he knew generally called him Xiao Jiu.In fact, Xiao Jiu is already 14 years old this year, just because his family is too poor.He often had no food and couldn't grow up, so he looked much smaller, but it was also because of this that he escaped military service, unlike his eight brothers who all died in battle.

Listen to Cui Er's words.Xiao Jiu immediately said with a bitter face: "Second brother doesn't know the situation of my family. When did the family have food?"

Cui Er also had a wry smile on his face when he heard that, Xiao Jiu's eight older brothers were all killed in battle, and all his parents died of illness.Now that he is alone, it can be said that one person is full and the whole family is not hungry. Speaking of which, although there is some food in my family, there are seven people to feed, so compared with the other party, the burden on Xiao Jiu is not as light as that of Xiao Jiu.

After chatting with Xiao Jiu for a few gossips, Xiao Jiu suddenly grabbed Cui Er mysteriously, looked around and said, "Second brother, I found a good place in the south of the city. There is a small river there. The ice layer is not thick, and fish can be caught in it, and you will follow me there in a while!"

"Really?" Cui Eryi was also very pleasantly surprised when he heard that. After fighting for nearly a year, the people in Jincheng almost ran out of food in their homes. As long as there was food in the surrounding mountains and fields, they were almost dug up. In addition, it is winter and a thick layer of ice forms on the river surface, making fishing even more difficult. Unexpectedly, Xiao Jiu was able to find a river with a thin layer of ice. What is rare is that there are still fish in the river. If you are lucky, you will be able to drink fish soup at home tonight.

Thinking of the delicious fish soup that he hadn't tasted for more than a year, Cui Er couldn't help drooling, urging Xiao Jiu to lead the way quickly, and don't be preempted by others.However, when the two of them were running forward excitedly, there was a thunderous sound of horseshoes ahead, and immediately after that, the pedestrians in front of them were in chaos and dodged to both sides of the road.

Seeing this situation, Cui Er and Xiao Jiu naturally didn't dare to stand on the road stupidly, and quickly jumped to stand in the snow beside the road.But when I looked up again, I found a group of mighty Tang cavalry galloping in front of them. They didn't even look at them, and rushed past Cui Er and the others, splashing snowflakes all over the roadside.

"These Tang people are really domineering, and they are not afraid of bumping into people when they run so fast!" Cui Erjiao knocked off the snow on his body, and said a little dissatisfied.

But Xiaojiu next to him smiled and said: "Hey, these Tang people went to chase the general a few days ago..., bah, no, it was Jin Gengxin's rebel, but he still made him escape to Dingchuan City. Later, the Tang army sent another People went to attack, but Jin Gengxin ran away, which made His Royal Highness Qi very angry, and Tang Jun seemed to be crazy, desperately looking for Jin Gengxin and their traces, so now we must not provoke these people .”

Although Xiao Jiu is small, but he hangs out on the street and is very well-informed and knows these things very clearly.Cui Er has an uncle who works in the army, so he also knows some things. Jin Gengxin and Jin Chunqiu seemed dissatisfied with the arrival of King Qi, so they fled with their troops and were hunted down by Datang's cavalry. They managed to escape to Dingchuan City , but the cavalry could not attack the city. When Datang sent troops to attack Ding Chuan again, Jin Gengxin and his men ran away again, and this time they ran away, and they could no longer be found. Been looking around for someone.

But these things are not what a small person like Cui Er should care about. After seeing these Tang soldiers galloping away, Cui Er and Xiao Jiu rushed to the southeast hill excitedly with their baskets on their arms.

After entering the hill, Xiao Jiu and Cui Er did not run all over the hill like the others. Instead, they turned around on the east side of the hill, crossed several ravines, and came to a small Although this valley is also covered with snow, compared with other places, the snow in the valley is much thinner, and there is a small stream passing through the valley, with a layer of shiny snow on the surface of the stream. of ice.

Seeing that there are not many footprints in this valley, Cui Er is overjoyed. Fewer footprints mean that there are fewer people coming here, so the chances of finding food here are much higher.

Cui Er and Xiao Jiu ran down excitedly, and they came to the small stream in the middle of the valley first. For some unknown reason, the ice on the stream was not thick, and the water was not deep, at most it reached At the thigh of the person, both of them can see the sand and stones at the bottom of the stream from the ice.

"Fish! There are fish here!" Before Cui Er had walked a few steps on the river, he suddenly heard Xiao Jiu shouting loudly not far away, which made him run over quickly, and followed Xiao Jiu's fingers, Sure enough, I found several half-hand-sized fish frozen in the ice.

"Quick! Find a sharp stone, let's break the ice!" Cui Er said happily, although he was carrying a sharp pick made of stone, it was not worth smashing the ice, after all, he had to grind out the sharp pick with great difficulty. Yes, it hurts him even if it is broken.Capital Datang 318

Hearing this, Xiao Jiu quickly found a big stone, Cui Er hugged it and began to smash the ice. He was young and strong, and quickly smashed the ice surface, and then Xiao Jiu couldn't wait to fish out the fish in the ice After getting up, they put them in their own baskets for the time being, and then the two of them walked down the creek. After spending half a day, they finally found a few more fish. It can also last for a few days.

But these fish alone obviously cannot satisfy Cui Er and Xiao Jiu, and the weather is still early, so the two of them took a small pick and began to dig hard on the frozen soil on the river bank. Where there is water, the vegetation grows very lush , the two of them just wanted to dig some roots of plants on the river bank to go back. Although these roots are bitter and astringent, they can still fill their stomachs.

It wasn't until the sun slanted that the two dug up two baskets of edible roots. As for the fish they caught before, they were all divided equally by the two, and then they were carefully placed at the bottom of the basket and covered with roots. After all, they If they want to enter the city, if the soldiers guarding the city see fish in their baskets, they will definitely be detained privately.

Fishing for fish and digging roots, both of them were very tired, so they found a clean place to sit down and rest for a while, while Cui Er took out a piece of ashes from his shiny black sheepskin robe. The wild vegetable dumpling was broken into two by force, and one of them was given to Xiao Jiu.This was given to him by Cui's second wife when he was about to leave the house.When I come to Silla, I only eat breakfast and dinner, but Cui Er's wife knows that Cui Er is running around looking for food, and she is afraid that he can't stand it, so she specially made him a piece of wild vegetable dumpling.

When Xiaojiu saw that there was something to eat, his eyes lit up immediately, and he was not polite to Cui Er. He grabbed it and stuffed it into his mouth. Although the wild vegetable dumpling was made from the roots that were dug out, it tasted bitter and astringent in his mouth. , but Cui Er's family has some food, so some rough noodles were added to the wild vegetable dumpling, which diluted the bitter taste a lot, which made Xiao Jiu feel extra sweet in his mouth.

But when the two were eating with relish, they didn't notice that there were several pairs of eyes staring at them viciously on the mountain ridge on the other side of the valley. ______________________