Chapter 150 Playing in the Snow

Su Zhizhi woke up after a good sleep.

She stretched, got up and dressed as quickly as possible.

After washing up, I had breakfast and ate all the noodles cooked by Aunt Qiu.

Then she ran back to the tent excitedly and found the deerskin gloves.

She is going to do something big today.

She's going to play in the snow!

You have to make snowballs, have snowball fights, and even find a piece of unstepped snow to put in your mouth and taste it.

"Ache, let's go over there and play." Su Zhizhi pointed to a small hill not far away.

Although the sun was out, the temperature was still very low and the snow had not melted yet.

The low and gently sloping hill was tightly covered with a layer of white clothes, like a big soft white bun.

Xue Che ate his noodle soup, his eyelashes stained with the mist rising from the hot soup:

"Okay, wait until I finish eating."

Xue Che didn't sleep much last night. He slept lightly in the first half of the night and talked with his father for a long time in the second half.

But he didn't feel tired at all this morning, he was even very energetic.

Not only Su Zhizhi wanted to play in the snow, Xue Che also wanted to play.

When I was in Chang'an, I was so weak that I couldn't even stand the wind in winter, let alone the cold snow.

He had never seen snow in Lingnan in the past two years, so Xue Che had never played in the snow.

After Xue Che finished his meal, he went back to the tent and took out his gloves.

The two children took out their thickest cotton coats and put them on.

Although the lining of the winter coat I'm wearing today is made of cotton, the outer layer is made of processed animal skin, which is not easily soaked.

Su Zhizhi and Xue Che had just walked out of the military camp, each holding a board, when they saw Qin Xiao and Wei Dashuan walking towards them, carrying two boards.

"Grandpa Wei, Grandpa Leopard, do you want to go play in the snow with us?"

"Yeah, it's been a while since I've been to the northwest and seen such heavy snow. I'm going to stretch my legs today."

Wei Dashuan and Qin Xiao showed childlike excitement on their faces.

I didn’t want to play in the snow when I was young, but now that I’m older, I have a desire to play.

The two children and two elders walked towards the small mound together.

No one had passed by the small mound yet, and the snow on the ground was white and soft.

Su Zhizhi grabbed a handful of snow from the ground and put it in her mouth.

"Wow, it's so cool!"

The snow melted on the tip of the tongue, spreading into a cool feeling throughout the mouth.

Su Zhizhi grabbed another handful of snow and murmured to herself regretfully:

"It must be very comfortable to eat in the summer. It would be great if I could bring some back home so that the villagers can try it, and Qing Ning and Liu Xiangxiang can also try it."

As Su Zhizhi was thinking this, something suddenly hit her on the back of her head.

Bang! A snowball splashed on Su Zhizhi's hat.

The snowball hit the hat, neither light nor heavy, but it successfully aroused Su Zhizhi's "fighting desire".

Su Zhizhi turned around and saw that the three people behind her had already started throwing snowballs at each other.

Whoosh—another snowball came flying.

Su Zhizhi bent down to avoid it, scooped up a handful of snow from the ground, rolled it into a ball and threw it back.

Grandpa Leopard had the fastest hand speed and he sent several snowballs in a row, actually fighting one against three.

Xue Che, Su Zhizhi, and Wei Dashuan surrounded Qin Xiao from three angles, coordinating with each other:

"Grandpa Wei, hit the back!"

"Zhizhi, Ache, now's the time!"

"Ah Che, hit him on the head! Hey, don't worry about your great-uncle, just hit him!"

Qin Xiao was finally beaten into submission by the three men.

"We can go up the slope." Xue Che's face turned red from the heat, and a few shiny beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Su Zhizhi also nodded: "We brought boards, we can sit and slide down, just like we did at Black Bandit Mountain."

In summer, Black Bandit Mountain is lush with vegetation. Su Zhizhi and Xue Che would sometimes choose an open green grass slope, sit in a wooden basin or wooden board, and slide down the slope.

Now in the snow, they want to do the same.

All four of them climbed up the hillside.

Su Zhizhi and Xue Che sat on the board, leaned back, and slid down the slope.

"Wow—it's flying—"

“Hahahaha… so fast…”

Su Zhizhi opened her hands to the wind and exhaled a cloud of mist.

Xue Che reminded Su Zhizhi: "Zhizhi, steady yourself and don't fall over."

As soon as Xue Che finished speaking, he fell down on the snow slope.

He fell into the snow and when he looked up, his hat and face were covered with snow, turning him into a little old man with white hair and beard.

"Hahahaha...Ache has become Grandpa Che!" Su Zhizhi burst into laughter.

She laughed so hard that she didn't pay attention to her feet, stepped on the ground, and fell into the snow.

She turned into a little old lady with white eyebrows.

Xue Che also laughed.

"You two move aside, we are about to slip down." Wei Dashuan reminded the two children to pull over.

Xue Che saw that Wei Dashuan and Qin Xiao were carrying long and narrow boards tied under their feet.

"Grandpa Wei, how do you play this?"

Su Zhizhi also dragged her own board to the side and looked at it curiously:

"You guys wanna slide down on the board?"

Qin Xiao held two long branches in his hands and stepped on a longboard:

"Let me show you two what it means to have the wind under your feet."

The two playful old men slid down the slope and reached the bottom smoothly.

Su Zhizhi exclaimed that it was fun: "How did you guys come up with this idea?"

Wei Dashuan shook his head and laughed: "I didn't think of it just for fun."

One winter in the northwest, I once received an urgent errand that required me to cross a snowy mountain.

"Walking with one foot deep and one foot shallow is too slow and tedious. I happened to think of this method. It's much faster to slide down the snow. There's no other problem except that you can fall easily."

Wei Dashuan took the board off his feet and asked the two children:

"Do you two want to try it?"

Su Zhizhi and Xue Che both nodded: "Yes!"

So, half an hour later, Su Zhizhi and Xue Che slid up and down the low slope, leaving many traces of falls on the slope, but they both enjoyed it.

Wei Dashuan and Qin Xiao played with the boards brought by Su Zhizhi and Xue Che.

By the time they were tired of playing, they were already sweating, and then they sat on the top of the hill to rest.

Xue Che looked towards the east, pointed there and asked:

"Is that my dad and the others training?"

The other three looked in the direction and saw many soldiers standing on a vast snowy field, arranged in neat rows in an orderly manner.

A general's platform was set up at the front of the team, with several generals standing on it, who seemed to be Xue Yucheng and several deputy generals.

There was a command desk and a flag on the podium, and drummers and buglers were ready on both sides.

Wei Dashuan nodded: "Ache and Zhizhi, this is their first time seeing military training, right?"

Qin Xiao: "It's a good opportunity to see the strength of the Xue family army now."

Xue Che and Su Zhizhi watched intently, not wanting to miss a single moment.

At a command from afar, drums thundered and trumpets blew.

The fierce drumbeats and long trumpet sounds seemed to shake the ground.

The soldiers below quickly changed formations according to the commands from the platform. When they formed a line, they were like an impenetrable city wall, and when they formed a column, they were like sharp arrows piercing the wind. As they changed formations, they displayed a mastery and tacit understanding.

The archers lined up in a row, drew their bows like a full moon, and the arrows flew through the air and hit the target.

Sword and shield soldiers faced off in pairs, with long swords sweeping and stabbing, and heavy shields defending vital points.

The cavalrymen rode away in the snow, their hooves splashing the air, and they managed to maintain a straight formation as they galloped...

The iron armor reflecting the light looks like constantly moving spots of light, and from a distance it looks like a large expanse of shimmering river surface.

The sounds of orders, shouts, and horse hooves intertwined together, crossing the plains and valleys, echoing in everyone's ears.

Qin Xiao and Wei Dashuan were very excited when they saw this.

Well, the Xue family army is still the Xue family army.

As powerful as a lion.

Su Zhizhi and Xue Che were shocked when they met for the first time.

They had also seen many villagers practicing martial arts in Black Bandit Mountain, and their skills were very powerful, but everyone practiced their own skills and would not fight in an orderly manner like this.

This method of attacking and defending according to formation seems to amplify the strength of each person.

Qin Xiao: "The Hu people are brutal and cruel. Only elite soldiers and generals like the Xue family army can resist them."

Su Zhizhi's thoughts suddenly drifted away, drifting to the Black Bandit Mountain thousands of miles away.

"The people on our mountain are also very powerful. If the people nearby from Black Bandit Mountain practice like this, then we are also a team, right?"