The last ray of light in the sky disappeared, and Ning Ye and the others had no choice but to return, as no one knew what dangers might occur in the darkness.

The campfires in the camp had already been lit, and the dozen or so huge tents perfectly accommodated all the refugees. Now, the refugees were baking hard flatbreads by the campfires.

Qingyuan County is indeed too remote, and Wang Mingyuan had already given Li Ruochen a portion of the grain from the granary.

Now, people basically just take whatever they have. Anything edible is taken out, mixed together, and baked into hard flatbread. Whether it tastes good or not is another matter, but it certainly fills their stomachs.

After taking a quick look at the situation, Ning Ye turned around and went straight into the county government office to find Wang Mingyuan.

"Sir, given the current situation, although we should be able to get through this, it might be difficult for so many people to wait until the snow melts."

Wang Mingyuan nodded and said, "I'm also considering this issue. After all, we can't stay in this tent forever. There's still at least a month until spring, not to mention the current situation, which could very well last even longer."

Ning Ye thought for a moment and said, "I do have a way to build a snow house, but the snow can't fall anymore, otherwise even if it gets better, it will probably be buried."

Lin Changhe chuckled and said, "Where did you come up with these methods, kid? Are they even reliable? If they're not reliable, then you shouldn't be talking about them."

"I can't guarantee anything else, but at the very least, people won't freeze to death. However, the supply of firewood is essential, otherwise they will still freeze to death."

The method of making the food is also quite simple. Just make some wooden frames, put the snow in them, and compact it to make hard snow blocks. Then, you can build a round house around them.

After hearing this, Wang Mingyuan exclaimed, "This method sounds feasible, but won't the temperature be very low?"

"Please rest assured, sir. As long as there is a fire source, the heat will circulate continuously inside the house, thus ensuring the sturdiness of the snow house and the temperature inside."

Wang Mingyuan made the decision immediately. Since there was no other way, they could only try their luck with their men and horses.

Lin Changhe then raised another question: "Although we have already rescued everyone inside the city, those outside the city are probably in just as dire straits. Can we go out of the city to rescue them tomorrow?"

Wang Mingyuan said with some difficulty, "We have already used everything we can in this county town. If we bring in all the people from outside the town, we may not be able to take care of both sides and will only end up in a worse situation."

Ning Ye rubbed his hands together and said, "Sir, although I'm afraid I can't solve the problem of Bupleurum, I can solve the problem of grain. We can't do business at a loss."

Wang Mingyuan laughed and scolded, "I forgot, you're a real big landlord, aren't you? You harvested a lot of grain this autumn. Now you want to negotiate with me? What do you want?"

Ning Ye chuckled, “I heard that Lord Wang’s power is limited to having one commander of a thousand and two commanders of a hundred. I dare not hope for the position of commander of a thousand, but I would like to have another commander of a hundred.”

Lin Changhe put his arm around Ning Ye's neck and said, "I asked you to make your own demands, and you went straight for the lion's share. Most people wouldn't dare to think like you."

"Hey, there aren't many opportunities to make demands here. If I don't seize this chance, I'll definitely regret it later. So I'm taking the liberty of asking again."

Wang Mingyuan squinted and said, "You know you're already a centurion. If you take another one, you'll have two centurions. If you have ulterior motives, no one will be able to control you."

Ning Ye shook his head and said, "The lord only has two hundred men. This number is nothing. Even if we really want to do something, we need enough manpower. These people are just sent to their deaths."

"Fine, it's rare for you to ask me for a favor, so I'll agree. But you can't run out of food until the spring harvest, or I might take back what I said before."

Ning Ye froze on the spot. If he had to supply everything by himself for such a long time, he would have lost everything in this business.

Once a promise is made, it's like spilled water; if I hesitated even slightly, this matter probably wouldn't need to be discussed any further today.

Two centurions are indeed not many, but back in the day, that guy who only started to make his fortune when he was in his forties had a bunch of thugs around him while he had two hundred elite soldiers under his command. That was a completely different story.

It is no exaggeration to say that two hundred elite soldiers, when fully armored, could easily slaughter an entire town without any chance of resistance.

They were truly capable of fighting ten men single-handedly, which is why possessing armor in ancient times was considered a serious crime.

Fortunately, Ning Ye hadn't touched the 30,000 shi of grain from the Huang family, and the share he received was also considerable, so the pressure of the grain wasn't too great. He could simply wait until next year to harvest another batch.

The next morning, Ning Ye led everyone to start working, and the people had to join in the labor. After all, it was all for their benefit, and if they were lazy, Ning Ye wouldn't bother with them anymore.

Fortunately, the method of making this is not difficult. After sandwiching a few wooden boards with snow inside, you just need to press it down with the wooden boards, and it will be ready to use.

Following this method, a large number of bricks were produced, and the construction method was very simple: just stack them in circles, and the gaps were simply covered with snow.

Before long, a large number of snow houses appeared outside the city. As long as no one maliciously damages them, they will definitely be able to hear the weather warm up and the snow will begin to melt, at which point they can start rebuilding the houses.

While everyone was working hard here, Ning Ye took some time to go home.

Lin Qinshu was looking at the family accounts at this moment. "Husband, according to our normal budget, the amount of grain that can be directly allocated now should be 15,000 shi."

"Based on the current situation, it should be enough for now. It's just unknown how many more people will be brought in later. I think Lord Wang is preparing to rescue all the disaster-stricken areas."

Lin Qinshu said with great satisfaction, "There aren't many people like Lord Wang who care about the people anymore, this is a good thing."