Madam Hou reached out to push open the window, and a cold wind suddenly hit her face from outside. The bone-piercing cold that was unique to Northland in the early morning cleared her head, which was groggy from getting up.
She felt the warmth in the room surge out violently, and quickly pulled the window back, leaving only a gap.
She turned her head and saw that the child on the bed behind her was still sleeping soundly, and she felt a little relieved.
She held the window sill with her hands and looked out through the gap in the window. From top to bottom, the upper part of the window showed a line of sky, and the lower part showed the snowy scene of the house.
A light snowfall just fell in Beixin City. This snow came very late because it should be the last snow before the weather gets warmer. It also came very early. It was already early spring, but because of the late spring cold, it became the first snowfall this year. Snow.
But just after the snow fell, the weather began to warm again, and the snow powder covering the branches on the wall turned into trickles and flowed everywhere.
When Mrs. Hou saw that the ice in the pond in the yard had melted and a fish jumped out of the water, she thought that spring was coming.
Outside the courtyard wall, there was a faint sound of people, and it seemed quite lively. Madam Hou knew that these were the refugees who had been waiting outside the city gate to pour into the city after the city gate opened early in the morning, and these refugees were almost They all escaped from Montenegro.
There was a lot of excitement outside the wall, but it was deserted inside. Ms. Hou felt a little uncomfortable because the owner of the mansion had been away for more than half a year and hadn't come back.
In her spare time, she often listened to the chats of the dozen or so ladies who stayed in the mansion, talking about the deeds of the mansion owner Yuan Xi after he left. These ladies often regretted it, why didn't they follow the young master in the first place?
Now that the young master is married, he has become the governor of Youzhou!
Mrs. Hou also felt a little uncomfortable in her heart. After meeting Yuan Xi in the small building, the feeling left on her hands was like it happened yesterday.
However, Hou had a feeling that Yuan Xi might never come back.
What Yuan Xi has done in the past six months, the Hou family has already heard from the little girls, he is now a prince, and has conquered a large territory in Youzhou and Xuzhou, and now he has returned to Guangyang County, which is adjacent to Zhuo County. Jicheng.
Mrs. Hou heard the little girls murmuring that Yuan Xi had been staying in Jicheng for a few months, and it seemed that he had no intention of leaving. He was afraid that he had forgotten about Beixin City.
When Gongsun Zan was still alive, the Hou family went to Jicheng. Both the population size and the convenience of water transportation there were not comparable to Beixin City. In particular, most of the Black Mountain refugees were also led to Jicheng. This is clear evidence that Beixin Town will be abandoned.
Speaking of these fleeing Montenegrin people, Hou heard that Yuan Xi had issued a general order in Bingzhou, Youzhou, saying that some Montenegrin refugees had defected to Youzhou to farm and work, and he should let the past go. This led to people constantly fleeing from Heishan.
Mrs. Hou felt that although Yuan Xi was young, he acted with a maturity that was not commensurate with his age. His actions were decisive and no less decisive than when her late husband was at his peak.
This pair of Montenegrin troops pulled out all the stops and showed their style of conduct.
There are hundreds of thousands of people in the Taihang Mountains under the control of the Black Mountain Army, but there are dozens of scattered forces. In order to suppress and annex each other, the Black Mountain bandit leaders all use the young men under their control as soldiers.
Although this ensures its own military strength, by fishing in the swamp, the labor force engaged in production will be much less. As a result, Montenegro has been in an embarrassing situation of not having enough food and clothing, neither getting enough nor getting enough.
Last year was especially disastrous. The locust plague and drought that affected every state in the world made it difficult for the Montenegrin forces to move in the back door of Texas.
Yuzhou and Yanzhou also suffered disasters. Yuan Shu and Cao Cao were often short of food, so the intensity of expansion was much lower, and there were almost no decent wars.
On the contrary, Hanoi County, which was sandwiched between Bingzhou and Sili, had a good harvest because Zhang Yang had no intention of expansion and concentrated on farming.
The Black Mountain Army once sent people to Hanoi to borrow food, but the answer they received was that there was really nothing they could do. Because Lu Bu's army was stationed in Hanoi, and the Baibo Army in Hedong Hanoi was also short of food, the two forces had already borrowed food in every possible way.
Under this situation, the farmers and people in Montenegro ushered in spring plowing.
There is already a shortage of food for the winter, and most people have even eaten the seeds. Not to mention that it takes more than half a year from farming to harvest, and many people cannot even survive the spring.
However, in order to maintain the military strength, the leader of the Montenegrin Army still forced the people to surrender. After all, the soldiers would not wait until the autumn harvest to eat. There were hundreds of thousands of mouths, but they had to eat food every day.
But food cannot be transformed out of thin air, so what should we do?
When the people of Montenegro were desperate, a news spread secretly.
When the governor of Youzhou takes office, he will not blame the people of Heishan. As long as he goes to Youzhou to seek refuge, he will be allocated a piece of wasteland and open up wasteland on it. The land will be his own!
Although this is a great temptation, it still does not solve the most troublesome problem of eating.
Then, there was another news.
People who escaped could borrow food on credit and pay it back after the harvest, or they could work as craftsmen's apprentices to earn food, work on the same day, and get paid for the food that day.
As for those who can join the army, the treatment is even more generous. As long as one person joins the army, the whole family can be exempted from hard labor and can receive rations to feed at least two people.
When the news came out, many people immediately thought: they couldn't survive in the first place, why not find a way to survive?
Some people also doubt that Youzhou can really afford to support so many refugees?
You can't trick them into coming there and then be captured and work as slaves!
While hesitating and watching, some people couldn't hold on any longer and began to try to escape and went to Youzhou.
The northern part of the Taihang Mountains controlled by the Black Mountain Army was originally at the junction of Youzhou and Jizhou, adjacent to Zhuojun. The northern pass of the Taihang Mountains was only a hundred miles away from Beixin City.
Although Jizhou has a better climate and is more prosperous, it is very wary of the refugees because of the feud between the Yuan family and the Heishan Army. Therefore, people want to escape. Now Youzhou is the only option.
More than half a month later, the news came back that those who escaped had indeed had to work and someone would take care of their food!
Combined with the real-life rumors spread by Yuan Xi in Heishan, the people in Heishan were already unstable. Now that they heard that Youzhou can provide people with enough food, they were completely in chaos, and large-scale fleeing began.
When Zhang Yan heard this, he became furious and ordered several leaders to plunder the area near Beixin City.
As a result, they were ambushed by the Youzhou Army as soon as they came out of the North Pass, and were beaten in a panic. When the leader of the opponent's army appeared, several Montenegrin generals who still wanted to resist were shocked and turned around and fled in embarrassment.
The general who defended Beixin City was actually Yuan Shao's supervisor, Jushou!
It is said that Jushou and the Heishan Army are also old enemies. In order to retaliate against the Heishan Army for attacking Yecheng, Yuan Shao attacked Heishan with his entire army and killed Hu Shou, Yu Du and others. Everyone in the Heishan generals were frightened.
At that time, Yuan Shao's subordinates who attacked the Black Mountain Army the hardest were Lu Bu and Ju Shou.
Therefore, in the eyes of the generals in Montenegro, Jushou was an untouchable figure, and no one wanted to face him head-on.
After Zhang Yan heard about it, he became even more irritable, and what gave him the biggest headache was Hanoi County in southern Montenegro.
Originally, the Black Mountain Army and Zhang Yang had a good relationship, and sometimes they responded to each other. However, after Lu Bu, who had a better relationship with Zhang Yang, arrived, he couldn't deal with Zhang Yan.
Logically speaking, both Lu Bu and Zhang Yan were enemies of Yuan Shao, but when Lu Bu was under Yuan Shao's command, he killed many of Zhang Yan's men, which made Zhang Yan very resentful.
Both of them were feudal lords of the imperial court. Lu Bu had a high status and Zhang Yan was senior. Neither of them were willing to take the initiative to make friends. Since then, the two sides have been at a standstill.
Zhang Yan gritted her teeth, Lu Bu was taking care of him in Yanzhou, why did he come to Hanoi for nothing?
Hanoi is one of the two retreat routes for the Montenegrin Army. If Lu Bu becomes his enemy and cannot resist it, wouldn't he have no choice but to run to the southern Xiongnu territory of Bingzhou?
When Zhang Yan was indecisive and in a dilemma, Ju Shou in Beixin City felt even more at a loss.
It's just that he was sent to Jizhou by Yuan Shao, but he hasn't seen Yuan Xi since he took office. What is the other party thinking?
Jushou felt more and more that Youzhou, a cowardly place, was no longer compatible with him. He was left alone by Yuan Xi to defend the city in Beixin City. How could the dignified Jizhou Supervisory Army be reduced to this situation!
The crux came soon, and he and Xu You fell out in the blink of an eye. However, the other party relied on his position to be ahead of him and made trouble for him at every turn. It was simply too much!
However, it is not without good news. A month ago, Yuan Xi led an army to inspect Jicheng and found out that the county magistrate Xu Jie was corrupt and perverted the law. He secretly opened the treasury and robbed women of the people. He had evil intentions and attempted to assassinate Yuan Xi. After investigation, the evidence was conclusive. The order was sent to the whole city and hung on the top of the city to show the public.
I heard that a month had passed and Xu Jie's head was still hanging on the top of Jicheng City.
When Xu You heard about this incident, Ju Shou was also present. He saw Xu You's face turned pale and fell to the ground. If it were anything else, assassinating Yuan Xi would also involve a lot of money. Xu You couldn't afford it!
When Jushou saw this, he felt secretly happy. He took advantage of the time when he and the others were helping Xu You up, and secretly let go, causing Xu You to fall. The bad breath in his chest was relieved a little.
Xu You immediately wrote a letter to Jicheng to apologize. Yuan Xi's reply was lenient and comforting. He only said that Xu Jie was bewitched by others and had nothing to do with Xu You, so he should not worry.
When Jushu learned about it, he felt very regretful, wondering why he didn't just deal with Xu You!
He always felt that Yuan Xi had big intentions, but Yuan Xi was mysterious and mysterious in Jicheng and had not contacted him until now.
This made Jushou feel a little depressed. Did he not believe in himself, or did he feel that he was useless?
You can't stay in Beixin City forever, right?
Do you want to write a letter yourself and ask?
In the courtyard of Jicheng, Cao Xian and Cao Jie, one holding Cao Hua and the other holding A Xiang, were teaching them how to play Wuqinxi.
Cao Hua and A Xiang are similar in age and are both toddlers. In line with Yuan Xi's idea that babies should be trained from an early age, they are forced to do Wuqinxi gymnastics sadly.
In the room, Yuan Xi took a wooden spoon, scooped up the thick concoction in the bowl, blew a few mouthfuls, and said to Mrs. Wu in front of him: "This is a bit bitter, do you want to add a piece of sugar?"
Mrs. Wu's face was hot and she thought to herself, are you treating me like a child?
She whispered: "No, I can just drink it."
Yuan Xi heard this and said, "Okay, madam, open your mouth."
As soon as these words came out, Mrs. Wu's face turned red, and she gritted her teeth and said, "I have hands, so I don't need to feed you!"
(End of chapter)
