Chapter 221: Two People Frozen to Death in a Night of Snow
Are you asleep?
This devilish greeting pierces through my brain.
Xu Su is really going crazy.
Outside the door, Chu Lingyuan knocked lightly a few times, but heard no response from inside, so he thought Xu Su had already fallen asleep.
I stood outside the door hesitating for a moment, and just as I turned around, the door behind me opened from the inside.
Xu Su said seriously, "Miss Chu."
Chu Lingyuan turned around and subconsciously looked at his complexion, secretly wondering in his heart, it was really amazing!
Every day we can observe that Commander Xu, Lord Xu, has an extraordinary recovery speed.
Here we go again! Here we go again!
Seeing this kind of constant exploration and research, Xu Su sighed inwardly and snapped his fingers in front of Chu Lingyuan: "Miss Chu? You've returned to life."
Chu Lingyuan's bright eyes looked at Xu Su smartly.
"Master Xu, after Ling Yuan arrives in Dengzhou, can you stay with me for a while longer? I have some knowledge of medicine and am also good at medicinal cuisine. I can help you soothe the liver and regulate qi, and nourish the kidneys and spleen."
Xu Su's face was embarrassed, and he said in a deep voice: "My liver and kidneys are fine."
A faint sound of muffled laughter could be heard from behind the left and right door panels.
Xu Su thought to himself, a bunch of dogs...
He looked at Chu Lingyuan, who was still wearing the blue cloth shirt in front of him. Why couldn't he fool this little girl?
Late at night, the inn was very quiet and the guests had all gone to sleep. Xu Su didn't want to keep her in the room to discuss matters, so he just dealt with the matter vaguely. Anyway, he hurried back to Dengzhou early and threw the hot potato directly to Lord Zhai.
After Chu Lingyuan returned to his room "satisfied", the door of Xu Su's next room opened and a deputy came in.
"Sir, this is a letter from Master Han."
Xu Su's expression froze, and he said, "Come in and tell me."
Before rushing back to Dengzhou Prefecture, Xu Su finally received news from another good brother, Han Qiguang.
There were only a few words on a thin piece of paper:
[There is a war in the north, and there are dogs on the road. Ten divided by two and three]
After reading the message, Xu Su picked it up and lit it on the candle. After it burned, he flicked his fingers lightly to flick off the ashes.
Xu Su thought for a moment, then said, "Reply, I understand. Stay safe."
The deputy general nodded and said, "I will report back to Master Han in a moment."
Xu Su asked, "What's the news from home?"
The deputy general shook his head.
"Got it, go to sleep."
Lying back on the bed, Xu Su turned sideways with his arm as a pillow, wondering in his heart whether Han Qiguang and Xie Yuheng had met.
Blowing out the candle, Xu Su calculated the time and guessed that the people from the Xie family should have come out by now?
The moonlight is dim.
Outside the countryside, insects chirped and rustled, and the grass was wet and cold under the silent forest.
The exiles followed the route taken by the army until they could go no further, and then they set up camp to rest.
It snowed all day and all night, and late at night the wind was biting cold.
The temperature dropped sharply after the snow.
Even the officers had a hard time that night.
The journey of exile, like the days of crossing forests and rivers, was going to be tough. The officials wished they could sleep by the firewood pile, keeping warm while complaining to each other, saying how unlucky they were to be on a long mission in the middle of winter.
When the body is cold, people tend to be irritable and dissatisfied with everything. But when he turned around and saw a group of ragged convicts shivering with cold, he seemed to feel a little relieved.
However, many officers, seeing that the weather was getting colder, hugged their arms in their sleeves and couldn't help but show some kindness to the prisoners who were suffering in the cold night.
I boiled more hot water, praying that fewer people would die on such a cold night.
"Dad, I'm so cold."
Pang Jiming lowered his head. His son's cheeks were icy from the cold, as was his daughter who was nestled in his wife's arms. The biting cold wind blew mercilessly on these weak exiles.
He reached out and gathered his family together, his silent gaze cast unfocused on the ground, not knowing what to do to make his family feel better.
Not far away, Tie Niu was half asleep and half awake. When he was awake, he looked at Pang Jiming, a new "friend" he made on the road to exile, and then looked at another group of people in the distance, his eyes full of "confusion".
It’s really hard to guess what these people who used to be adults are thinking.
A cold night.
In the early morning, after the first ray of sunlight jumped out of the horizon, the sleeping exile team woke up shivering from the hazy cold fog.
Before the team set off, the officials still counted the number of prisoners as usual for record keeping.
Everyone cleaned up slowly and stiffly, yawning and puffing out white mist.
It’s so cold…
"one two three……"
The officials in charge of different duties carried out their daily work in an orderly manner. Every day of the long journey passed by extremely slowly in repetition.
Days like this can be completed in just over a month, and the soldiers and yamen runners are pretty much what they are looking forward to.
"Boss! Two of them are dead."
A young yamen runner, after counting the fugitives in his area as usual, found two people lying on the ground in a daze, stiff in the early morning.
Before leaving the border, after a not-so-severe snowstorm, the team began to lose members.
After Xiong Jiushan heard the news, he came to check.
There was a bit of noise and chatter at the back of the team, and soon the news spread from the back to the front.
When the Xie family heard the news, they were surprised and stood up and looked back.
Two people died, and the atmosphere among the prisoners was very depressing. I don’t know if it was because two people were frozen to death, but when the team moved forward again, coughing sounds were heard one after another.
Human life seems particularly insignificant under the cruel beating of nature.
Behavior in a group is always easily suggested and contagious. At first, there were only one or two coughs, and gradually, it seemed as if everyone felt weak and uncomfortable.
Under the low air pressure, Xie Yuchuan discovered that even among the Xie family, there were a few people who couldn't help but cough along the way.
Many people in the team had never experienced sleeping in the snow.
Xie Yuchuan looked at everyone with a serious look. No matter whether they were officials or fugitives, they were not in a good condition.
The bodies of the two fugitives who had frozen to death were thrown by the officers onto the carriage at the back of the team, and they were then driven with the team to the next county town to report to the government.
An old official who had been on a mission was used to it. "Carrying two corpses is troublesome and tiring. They died of freezing anyway. Why not just chop off an arm and take it back? Your Excellency is kind-hearted and even considered leaving their bodies intact."
The inexperienced young yamen runner came forward and asked, "Is it enough to just chop off an arm?"
"It's not a serious offense. There's no requirement to arrive alive on the road to exile. As long as I have a piece of flesh and blood to explain the situation when I pass through the prefecture and county, that will be enough!"
"Then our Lord Bear is really kind-hearted."
The old yamen runner narrowed his eyes and looked ahead, saying calmly, "Your Excellency has a kind heart, but this job cannot be done by a kind-hearted person."
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