In the twelfth lunar month of the 28th year of Qin Shihuang (the twelfth month of the lunar calendar), snow began to fall in the north. At first it was just sporadic light snow. Although it was a bit cold, the residents of Yiqu City could easily cope with it, but it continued to snow the next day, and on the third day
It’s raining, it’s also raining on the fourth day, and the inside and outside of Yiqu City are completely white. The snow covers the roof tiles, and the cold wind blows, carrying and rolling the snowflakes...
The temperature dropped sharply, and the poor shivered in coarse linen brown clothes that were thick but not warm, relying on the residual warmth of stove ashes to survive the cold night. The rich wore various animal furs and burned charcoal and drank wine in the house.
Even though we are keeping warm, it is still difficult to get rid of the severe cold.
But in the county captain's house, it was a different story.
When Chen Ping's wife Zhang was invited by the hostess and brought her son Chen Mai into the inner room, she was shocked as soon as she entered the room!
Unlike the severe cold outside, it was actually extremely warm indoors! When she entered here, the snowflakes on her hair immediately melted away, and her son Chen Maai's little face, which was flushed with cold, quickly became warmer...
"Madam, why is it so warm in this room?"
Zhang looked around, but didn't see anything like the charcoal basin, and was even more surprised.
However, Ye Zijin smiled, did not answer, and invited mother and son to sit on the couch and have some snacks.
This couch is different from ordinary wooden low couches. It is made of bricks and is several feet above the ground, so you have to climb up. Mrs. Zhang also comes from a wealthy family. She received a Confucian education since she was a child and pays attention to women's appearance for fear of being rude.
But Ye didn't care. She couldn't help but hugged Xiao Chen Mai first to the couch.
Chen Mai was only one year old and could not speak yet. He could only make babbling sounds. But after getting on the bed, he was extremely happy. Mrs. Zhang was afraid that her son would crawl around and break the utensils on the bed and table, so she could only
Then get on the bed.
As soon as her butt touched the couch, she suddenly felt a warmth. She lowered her head in surprise and touched it with her hands. She found that the couch was extremely hot, as if... there was a stream of hot air rolling inside!
"This is a fire kang. The surrounding house is an earthen bed. The fire is burning underneath, and people sleep, eat, and live on it. It is called a kang. In this severe winter, the only way to keep warm is with it."
Ye Zijin clarified her doubts. It turned out that not only was the bottom of the brick couch hollow, but the walls of the new house were also hollow "walls". A fire tunnel was dug under the wall, and a charcoal port for lighting the fire was placed in the adjacent house.
Under the eaves of the corridor, a charcoal fire is burned in the charcoal port, and the heat can be warmed along the wall to the main house next door, especially the kang couch. Ye Zijin can curl up on the kang to rest and take a nap like a cat.
There is no need to tremble by the charcoal pot like other housewives.
In order to avoid waste, she also had the cooking area moved from the east kitchen to the next door, killing two birds with one stone.
After explaining the principle of the fire kang, Ye Zijin told Mrs. Zhang another interesting story: "Did you know that the county lieutenant is the most afraid of the cold..."
Heifu, who was born in the south all his life, is indeed very afraid of the cold. It snowed a few times last month, and he complained that he couldn't stand it anymore. After entering the twelfth lunar month, he shivered so much. Because he was afraid of the cold, he strangled himself.
I started thinking about ways to keep myself and my family warm, and finally came up with something called "fire kang".
Hei Fu had never eaten pork and had seen pigs running away. Hei Fu suggested that he ask the craftsmen who specialized in building houses and repairing stoves to perfect it for him. He referred to the semi-underground cave dwellings that are common in the Loess Plateau and built it before the heavy snow fell.
This new house.
"With this house, we can have a warm winter in the Northland this year."
Heifu was very satisfied with this. He lit a fire in the charcoal mouth and found that the smoke would not pour back into the main house and cause danger. He then asked Ye Zijin to build a small room with a balcony in Chen Ping's courtyard after the snow stopped.
A house with a heated kang...
"Queen Lieutenant, Madam really loves my family very much!"
Mrs. Zhang quickly paid homage to Mrs. Ye. Last winter, Chen Ping left her eight months pregnant and went to Xianyang alone to attend Hei Husband's wedding banquet. Although she understood her husband, she still complained in her heart.
This autumn, Chen Ping, as Hei Fu's retainer, went to the north to take office with him. Although her husband jumped from a rural official to a county captain, the Zhang family was also happy about it, but the Huarong people in the north were mixed, and she was very unhappy.
Not used to it, and Chen Ping was busy all day long, taking care of government affairs for Hei Fu, so he could only see him once at night. When he woke up the next day, he was gone again. Although he didn't say it, Zhang was still a little depressed.
.
But Mrs. Ye treated them very well, giving them clothes and food. Although she knew that this was probably the wife's way of controlling the county captain, she was very touched that she could do this, so she
He said movingly:
"Madam treats my mother and son better than close relatives and distant relatives!"
Then, she began to talk about the life of their family in Yangwu County every winter.
Although the Zhang family was wealthy, Chen Ping also wanted to save face and could not spend all his money on his wife's family, so he still couldn't afford to burn charcoal in the winter. Chen Ping was eager to learn and borrowed books from the Zhang family and copied them.
The days are coming back, it's snowing, the inkstone is frozen, and I can't bend my fingers, but I don't dare to slack off at all.
"With this heated kang, my beloved doesn't have to do this anymore."
However, while the women were chatting on the kang, Heifu and Chen Ping could not enjoy the warmth. At this moment, they were braving the wind and snow to go to the county soldiers' barracks to reward the soldiers...
…
There are 500 county soldiers and 500 garrison soldiers in Yiqu City. The county soldiers are standing troops, while the garrison soldiers are recruited from all over the Kansai region to serve. In this weather, except for a few people who have to stand guard at the top of the city, the rest of them are
Hiding in the house.
In the county soldier's barracks, in a large room that can accommodate ten people, ten people were neatly gathered in a small circle. The daily limit of firewood had been burned, so they could only wrap themselves in quilts and stretch out their hands.
Above the completely cold pit, they huddled together to keep warm and kept talking, as if this could make the room warmer.
"I really want a pot of hot wine."
The old man, whose nose was red from the cold, sighed like this.
"It's better to have a warm woman." The skinny team leader laughed.
"There is a female slave in the market, can you afford to go?" The county soldiers began to boo.
At this time, the garrison soldier from Weinan swallowed his saliva: "I want to eat hot soup cakes more."
"What are soup cakes?" Several garrison soldiers from the north and Longxi looked at him and asked curiously.
"It's food brought by those immigrants from Shandong who can only eat wheat." The Guanzhong garrison didn't know that this thing came out of the kitchen of their county captain's house, so they just thought it was a custom in Guandong.
"You know wheat noodles, first mix them with cold broth, then knead them into large pieces, cut them into pieces with a foot, and cut them as thin as leek leaves with a knife, then add them to the soup and boil them until they are boiling, then take them out of the cauldron
, according to personal preference, add some green onions, leeks, mallow, or if you are rich, you can also pour a layer of minced meat... This thing is most suitable for eating in snowy days. One bowl of it will eliminate the coldness!"
When the guard said this, the other nine people all licked their lips and felt a sense of hunger in their stomachs. Their bodies seemed to be getting colder, so they could only squeeze more, wishing they could get into each other's clothes...
At this time, the door of the living room was pushed open! The wind mixed with snowflakes poured into the house, and the room that had been warmed by ten human bodies was once again filled with severe cold.
"who is it!?"
Shi Chang stood up cursing and was about to curse, but when he took a closer look, he was shocked.
A man stood at the door, dressed a little strangely: he was wearing a crimson official uniform and a dog-skin hat, and underneath he was wearing Qiang Rong black woolen clothes. He had a sword at his waist and his face was dark. He opened the door and swept
Taking a look at the trembling soldiers inside, he smiled:
"I heard that the second and third sons wanted to drink hot wine and eat soup cakes, so I brought them to you!"
…
The snow has stopped, and in the military camp kitchen, the stove is burning brightly, and the fragrance of the broth is overflowing. The county soldiers and garrison soldiers all brought their own pottery cauldrons and put them directly on the stove. Heifu invited them from Guanzhong
The chef made soup cakes for them. After it was cooked, he took the cauldron away and found a flat ground for everyone to share the food with their bowls.
In the military camp, there was the sound of wolfing down food, and from time to time someone burned his mouth because he ate too hard.
"Eat the second and third pieces slowly, don't get burnt, you have enough for today!" There was a bumper wheat harvest this year, and Hei Fu had a lot of it sent over.
"Thank you, Lieutenant Commander!"
The officer's words were spread throughout the military camp, and there was a burst of cheers.
In addition to soup cakes, there was also rice wine that they had been craving for a long time. After it was warmed by the stove, everyone was able to get a cup. After drinking it, they immediately felt warm in their stomachs.
Everyone was very satisfied, and some even shed tears while drinking.
"After serving as a county soldier for so many years, this is the only county captain who cares about our well-being!"
Looking at the garrison soldiers who were burping and patting their stomachs contentedly, and listening to the grateful words of the county soldiers, Heifu looked at Chen Ping aside: "You have a good idea."
On the way to the military camp, the weather was terrible, the blizzard came fiercely, and the wind was like a whip, causing my face to be sore.
But Chen Ping urged Heifu: "It is this kind of weather that is suitable for winning people's hearts..."
It was Chen Ping's idea to go out today: "The Art of War says that you treat a soldier like a baby, so you can go to the deep stream with him; you treat a soldier like a beloved son, so you can die with him. If the commander wants to use troops against the Huns next year, he must win first
Scholar’s heart!”
In addition to delivering food and hot wine, Heifu also brought something to the county soldiers and garrison soldiers.
After everyone had had enough wine and food, Heifu asked the captain and the corps commander to come out and have carts covered with linen be driven in, and pieces of wool were brought in, either white, black, or black and white.
Clothes were distributed to the soldiers.
"Isn't this the woolen clothing worn by the Qiang people?"
People in Longxi are no strangers to this. The Qiang people there often wear this thing.
But the people in the North are a little confused. It turns out that although there are long-haired sheep in the North, there are not many such clothes in the North because the wool is too rough and not suitable for spinning.
"Although this clothes is warm, it also smells strong, smelling like sheep."
A garrison soldier from Longxi said this, but when he took the woolen sweater, he was surprised to find that although there was a peculiar smell, it was not as strong as he imagined.
It turned out that Heifu went to Longxi Qiangzhong in the spring and was impressed by the Qiang people's shearing of wool, so he wrote "Shearing Wool for Clothing". This book was approved by Qin Shihuang. According to Heifu's suggestion, Wushiluo sent a caravan to Huang
During the period, they purchased a large number of long-haired Qiang sheep and rushed to Longxi to tame them. They also used many methods such as buying, cheating, and robbing dozens of Qiang women to enter the country and teach the weavers the art of reaming wool and spinning threads.
The East and West Weaving Rooms under the Shaofu, as well as the Mohists, brainstormed and discovered that the plant ash used in papermaking could also be used to degrease wool. So after the last sheep shearing in autumn, they rushed to make a batch of wool with lighter odor.
The clothes were completed in November and sent to Beidi, Shangjun and Longxi respectively.
Because of the snowy weather and difficult roads, 500 woolen coats arrived in Yiqu City today. Chen Ping suggested to Hei Fu that he should send them to the county soldiers immediately without delaying for a day!
"The county commander once said that adding icing on the cake is not as good as giving charcoal when the weather is in need. Sending clothes today is like giving charcoal!"
The garrison and county soldiers who were shivering in the snow felt a little itchy after putting on these clothes, but at least they were not as cold as before.
In addition to woolen coats, there were even some dog-skin hats. Heifu personally put them on the five hundred masters. His ears, which were red from the cold, were also protected. He was so moved that he bowed down and put his head in the snow...
However, the question arises again. There are more than a thousand county soldiers and garrison soldiers, but there are only 500 woolen coats and only more than 20 dog-skin hats. How should they be divided?
Hei Fu did not have to do this task himself, but left it to Chen Ping.
Chen Ping slaughtered the meat evenly, and it was no problem to divide the clothes and hats. He asked each hundred generals and village chiefs to go out and gave them dog-skin hats and the best woolen clothes. Then, he asked each chief and corps commander to go out and divide the meat.
Give me a sweater.
After that, they were arranged in order according to their title and distributed one by one...
In this way, the rich people will basically have a woolen coat, and the remaining people will be arranged according to their age until the carriage carrying clothes becomes empty.
The Qin army is inherently hierarchical, so divided that everyone has nothing to say.
"There are at least five pieces in every item. When it rains or snows, why not let the people who go out on duty wear them?" As he spoke, Heifu took off his woolen sweater and handed it to a man who looked very old.
Small, his face was frozen to the point of cracking in the hands of a young boy!
"How can I say that I have no clothes? I share the same robe with you!"
Led by Heifu, the county soldiers and garrison soldiers also followed suit. Just like they had huddled together for warmth before, everyone shared warm woolen clothes to protect them from the cold. The song "No Clothes" gradually became louder and spread throughout the military camp.
, spread throughout Yiqu City!
"How can I say that I have no clothes? I am in the same boat as you!"
"How can I say that I have no clothes? I wear the same clothes as you!"
"The king raised his troops and repaired my armor. Let's go with you!"
In the singing, it seems that the entire Yiqu City is surrounded by Huanzao. This warmth from the heart seems to melt the frost and snow all over the city...
…
The following month, after this incident was reported back to Xianyang, it was also praised by Qin Shihuang and ordered the officials of Guanxi prefectures and counties to follow suit. From this time on, it became a common practice for officers to give clothes and food to soldiers in winter.