In early October, seven days have passed since people were mobilized to deal with the snow disaster.
The cold wind howled across the northern Qinling Mountains and the temperature plummeted.
"Report to Commander Su, the current outdoor temperature is minus 23 degrees."
Su He listened to the guard's report, and the temperature dropped at a rate of three to four degrees per hour.
He glanced at the alcohol thermometer outside.
The thermometer housing is made of very precious clear crystal.
Thermometers are hand-made and are not very accurate. The output is only one or two pieces per day.
He looked up at the blue sky above his head, and there was no sign of snow falling at all.
Follow-up information came from Xiaozuo, and the heavy snowfall was only in northern Shaanxi.
In other places, there were at most two snowflakes, and there was no sign of heavy snowfall at all.
"I was hoping for a heavy snowfall, so that there would be water in the rivers and we would be able to grow food next year, but now there is only the howling cold wind."
Su Wuniu looked at the howling cold wind and sighed constantly.
This heavy snow has wiped out the last hope of farmers. Without heavy rain next year, there will be no chance of growing food.
After the heavy snow melts into water, the water from the Qinling Mountains can nourish the dry land through rivers. This opportunity is not available now.
"Uncle Wuniu, don't worry, we have enough food now.
Once Hanzhong is conquered, there will be land to grow food, there will be no shortage of water there, and we will no longer have to worry about going hungry."
Su He saw Su Wuniu's worry and comforted him.
"It's too cold here in Gada. The cold wind is more terrifying than what I saw when I was a child. I have never seen such a low temperature in October in Liaozhong City."
Zhang Yuliang also saw such a strong cold wind for the first time in Shaanxi, and he couldn't help but comment.
"Let's go inside and have a chat. It's too cold outside. Don't get typhoid fever.
We don’t even have a well-known doctor in this place, they have all been taken away by the gentry.”
Su He, please hurry up and let people come in to warm your body. In this era, there is a lack of medical treatment and medicine, and a small cold can kill someone.
The coal stove in the house is burning hot, dispelling the cold surrounding it.
Li Fengming sighed and said:
"This coal stove is really good. With it and the briquettes, there will be no casualties among soldiers in such a cold weather.
It's just that my prediction was too far off.
The snow has not started falling, and the current weather is worse than the conditions recorded in the literature.
We must be prepared for a grain harvest failure in the north every year. This is the beginning of troubled times."
“Our preparations for snow disasters are not in vain.
Such cold weather, lack of snow, and lack of preparation will cause terrible disasters.
Now the soldiers have cotton-padded clothes and the people have enough firewood, so it won't cause too much disaster." Su He said in a relaxed tone.
Fortunately, they were prepared beforehand, otherwise they would have suffered heavy casualties if they encountered a cold wave of this magnitude.
…
At the Guanyintang Township Welfare Home, the mayor of Jinyinhua Township was leading the village officials, braving the cold wind, and slowly marching towards the welfare home.
"Hurry up and nail the windows with wooden strips and block them with thatch. If the wind blows open the windows, the babies and young children inside will not be able to bear it."
Honeysuckle looked at the windows that were rustling in the wind, and he shouted anxiously.
These houses are all newly built wooden houses, and there are a large number of babies and young children living in them.
He was afraid that the strong wind would blow the window open, so he immediately sent someone to reinforce the window.
Honeysuckle reinforced the windows and walked into the orphanage.
Most of the babies here are abandoned babies sent by village chiefs, and they are generally under one year old.
There were a total of sixty-two abandoned babies and twenty-seven orphans.
The village hired several wet nurses and raised more than ten cows to barely support them.
Honeysuckle picked up the warm milk on the coal stove.
He looked at the thermometer next to him. The temperature indicated on the thermometer was now twenty-five degrees. He felt very comfortable here.
Honeysuckle poured the milk into the porcelain vase herself. The porcelain vase had two mouths, a large mouth for ventilation and a small mouth covered with pig skin.
Babies who are fed milk are all three months old, and they can already drink milk from this simple bottle.
Honeysuckle watched the baby drink milk and he was very happy.
He is an orphan himself. If he hadn't been adopted by the shopkeeper, he might have died of freezing somewhere long ago.
"You guys are in good times. If it weren't for Commander Su's benevolence, you wouldn't be able to survive this winter."
Honeysuckle told the director of the welfare home: "Be sure to keep an eye on the coal stove. If you find that the flue of the coal stove is not properly ventilated, tell me immediately and I will send someone to repair it."
Honeysuckle must pay attention. There are already people in the neighboring village burning the briquettes they brought in while working in cave dwellings.
This resulted in the death of two villagers, and the township head was directly reprimanded by the governor, with no hope of promotion.
…
Zheng Baiya led a calf into the mud house.
This is a new house built by their family. The gentry can afford to live in a large wooden house, while ordinary villagers like them could only dig a cave dwelling before.
He took the villagers to work everywhere, and now he had some spare money. As the village chief, he had to show his authority.
He paid for the masons and built three mud houses for him.
Zheng Baiya put the calf next to the coal stove, touched the cow's head and said, "You are my lifeblood. I will wait for you to grow up and cultivate the land, but you must not catch cold or get sick."
"Master, don't worry about your cow. The thatch on the roof has been blown away, and the cold wind is pouring into the house."
"You watch the cow, don't let it freeze.
I immediately asked someone to help us deal with the house." Zheng Baiya, wearing a cotton coat, ran out in a panic.
…
Qian Fuwen was shivering from the cold. He walked into the wine cellar and ordered: "Light the coal stove quickly. It's too troublesome to make wine in this cold weather."
"Dad, isn't it a bit immoral for us to do this?" the young man muttered in a low voice.
Qian Fuwen immediately slapped him on the head and said, "Mingyi, don't worry about this, just keep making wine."
"Dad, you bought moldy grain from the governor's office to make wine, and you planned to sell the wine to Shanxi businessmen.
If you eat moldy grain, you will die, but you can still drink wine brewed from moldy grain.
You are doing this to harm your morality, and you want your son to be extinct.
I thought you were making some big deal here, so I sent someone to pick us all up."
Qian Mingyi thought what his father did was too damaging.
Qian Fuwen patted his son on the shoulder: "You don't understand."
He recalled the day he was recruited into the Commander's Mansion and Commander Su gave him a difficult task.
The wine brewed from moldy grains was sold to Jian slaves through Shanxi merchants.
Commander Su said that there is something called Aspergillus aflatoxin in the wine made from moldy grains, which is a chronic and highly poisonous substance that no doctor can detect.
Also talk about some topics about the status of merchants.
Only then did Qian Fuwen make the decision to bring his whole family here.
The man left the job to make wine, and Qian Fuwen and Qian Mingyi walked into the county town.
Qian Mingyi saw that the county was in good order. In such a cold day, there were even officers wearing cotton-padded clothes coming out to patrol.
He asked in surprise: "Dad, how come this county is so well managed that there are no beggars or homeless people freezing to death on the streets?"
Our Xi'an Prefecture is not as cold as here, and hundreds of frozen corpses are transported out of the city every day.
There are countless refugees freezing to death outside the city."
Qian Fuwen sighed. When he went back, he also saw the miserable situation there.
Refugees in thin clothes and usually hungry cannot survive such extreme weather.
"This is why I brought you here. Commander Su is a ruler who truly treats the poor as human beings.
A leader of the rebel army with this characteristic will do great things as long as he does not die midway."
Qian Fuwen educated his son, and he always judged people very accurately.
From the moment he walked into the county seat and observed Commander Su's response to natural disasters, he knew that his choice was correct.
