Chapter 131: Disaster relief snow, endless snow. ...
Snow, endless snow.
It was dim in the old felt tent. Herder Gerile and his wife Chag huddled together, with all the clothes, mattresses and sheepskins they could use to keep warm piled up outside. The wind whistled, causing the felt tent to sway slightly, and the wind came in through the gaps in the felt, bringing a bone-chilling chill.
In the fire pit, the fire was burning weakly, emitting a little dark red light.
The two of them looked at the dim light without saying anything, and listened quietly to the sound of the wind outside. Only when they saw that the fire was about to go out did Geerle get up to add dry sheep dung.
"There's not much dry dung left. I'll go to the sheepfold later to get a basket." He bent over and stretched out his hands to warm them in the fire.
"I don't know if there's enough fire in the greenhouse." Geerile murmured.
His wife Chag continued, "After all, it is next to the post station, there must be someone to take care of it, there will be fire. Isn't it rumored that the princess was kind enough to build the greenhouse? The situation over there is better than ours. A-sneeze-"
As he said this he sneezed.
"Are you okay? Come and have some milk tea." Geerile quickly picked up the teapot and poured a bowl of milk tea into a wooden bowl and brought it to his wife's mouth.
"It's okay. Maybe I caught a cold when I went to feed the sheep yesterday. It's okay." His wife Chag was about to lower her head to drink milk tea, but suddenly paused. "You don't need to pour so much. Just leave a small half and pour the rest of the milk tea back."
She said, "This snow keeps falling. It looks like a white disaster. We have to eat sparingly. Who knows when the snow will stop?"
Geerile nodded and carefully poured some of the milk tea back. Then his wife drank it.
After drinking the warm milk tea, he felt better. Chag sighed and said, "Fortunately, Eji and Xiaobao are not here."
Geerle was also thankful. After much hesitation, his old mother and young son stayed in the greenhouse and did not move to the winter pasture with them. Otherwise, they would not be able to bear the continuous heavy snow, not to mention the elderly and children, who would have been frozen and sick.
He sat down next to his wife again and saw that her profile was slightly sad.
She must be thinking about Dabao who also died in such a snowy day.
Geerle then squeezed closer to his wife and spoke in a deliberately bright tone: "In my opinion, the snow will stop soon, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow at the latest. The sun will definitely come out, and then spring will come. We will lead the livestock back to them and take them to the spring pasture. Xiaobao hasn't seen you for a long time, maybe he will cry as soon as he sees you. By the way, we can buy some candy from the merchant at the post station in advance. This way, when he starts crying, we can put the candy in his mouth and he won't cry..."
Chag curled his lips and said, "Don't buy him too much candy, or his teeth will turn black."
"Okay, then just a little bit, about the size of a fingernail."
The two chatted aimlessly, thinking about spring. Suddenly a strong wind blew, and the felt tent shook violently. The top of the felt tent made an ominous "creaking" sound, and a large part of it dented downward.
It must be the snow that was pressing on it. Geerle and Chag immediately stood up, stretched out their arms, and tried to support that piece.
However, it was useless, and the pressure only grew stronger. This was not going to work. If the felt tent collapsed, they would freeze to death in the wild. Geerile gritted his teeth, asked his wife to hold on, and found a shovel and rope, and rushed out of the felt tent with a felt blanket. As soon as he went out, the wind and snow immediately enveloped him, and the cold wind scraped his face like a knife.
Geerile squinted his eyes and tried hard to clear the snow on top of the yurt. It was too cold, and it was raining and snowing, and the ice was hard to shovel away. The cold wind quickly froze his hands red, and his movements became stiff and slow.
It was not until his eyelashes and beard were covered with frost that he finally shoveled away the snow and fixed this section of the roof.
After returning to the felt tent, Geerle's teeth were chattering. His wife Chag fed him milk tea and rubbed his hands. It took a while for him to calm down.
The whistling sound of the wind seemed to have died down.
Geerile recovered and said, "The wind seems to have died down. I'll go check on the sheep."
"Go later. You're freezing cold."
"It's okay, I'm fine." Geerile shook his head. "I'm worried about the sheepfold. With so much snow, the fence may not be able to hold up."
The sheepfold was just behind the yurt. Geerle took a closer look and his heart sank. The fence he had built was already a little crude, and it couldn't withstand such a strong wind and heavy snow. Half of it collapsed, and the broken wooden poles were scattered in the snow, some of which were buried, and some of which had a little tip missing.
The worst thing was that more than half of the sheep were gone—there were originally more than 50 sheep, but now only a dozen were left, huddled in the corners of the remaining fences. The sheep were covered in snow.
"Oh no! The sheep pen has collapsed and most of the sheep have escaped!"
Geerile stumbled back to his yurt, his face pale. These sheep were their only possessions, and their only hope of exchanging them for food, tea and other necessities next year. Without sheep, even if they survived this winter, it would be difficult for them to survive the next winter.
Upon hearing the bad news, his wife Chag's face turned pale. She rushed out to see that most of the sheep were gone.
"How could this happen?" She murmured, pursing her lips.
Geerile hastily put together the remaining sheepfold and turned around and said, "I'll go look for them. It won't take long. Sheep can't walk far. They should be nearby."
"No!" Chag, the wife, grabbed her husband's arm. "It might snow heavily soon. What if we get lost?"
"No," said Geerle, "We are very familiar with this area. The sheep must be hiding from the wind. I will go over there and will be back soon."
"You can go if you want. I'll go with you." His wife Chag refused to let go, "otherwise, neither of you should go."
Geerile looked at the sky and saw that there was not much snow at the moment, so he said, "Let's go, let's go quickly and come back quickly."
The snow had been heavy for days, and the depth of the snow was waist-deep. The two people leaned on each other and trudged through the snow. The cold wind penetrated the sheepskin coat, chilling them to the bone. Soon, they could no longer feel their toes, but they just kept moving forward in the snow with their last breath. The two looked around, searching for any traces of sheep.
I don't know how much time passed, but I still couldn't find anything. There was nothing around except the vast white snow.
Suddenly, the snow started to fall again. The snow in Mobei had no reason at all, it came when it wanted, and it came wantonly. The snowflakes blew in their faces, making it impossible for the two of them to open their eyes.
Unable to walk anymore, Geerile hugged his wife, curled up in the snow, and prayed that the wind and snow would stop soon.
The snow was falling heavier.
"I feel a little sleepy." murmured his wife Chag.
"No, you can't sleep. Think about Xiaobao. He's waiting for us to go back."
His wife tried to open her eyes as wide as she could. Gerile kept mumbling to himself, repeating the same words he had said in the yurt about spring.
When he had said all, he paused, shook his wife's shoulder, and said with a whine in his voice: "Zag, are you afraid?"
Chag turned to look at him slowly, with ice particles on his eyelashes: "A little scared, but a little happy."
She leaned towards his arms with great effort: "I'm worried that Xiaobao won't be able to see us, but... I'm also a little happy, maybe we can see Dabao. They are all waiting for us."
The sounds between heaven and earth gradually quieted down, and the sound of the wind was not so obvious.
His eyelids were getting heavier and heavier. Geerile used the last bit of his strength to lift his eyes. In his blurred vision, he saw a few swaying black shadows in the distance. Was it a flock of sheep? Or an illusion?
"Hello, there's someone over there!" The voice was unclear in the wind and snow.
It seemed as if someone grabbed his shoulders and tried to pull him out of the snow.
"No, Manager, their hands are clasped together and cannot be separated."
"Where's the wine? Give them a few sips of wine."
The spicy liquid poured into Geerle's throat, and the burning sensation spread from his stomach to his whole body. He coughed violently, and his consciousness gradually became clear.
"Save my wife."
"Save them all, tie them all to the horses!"
When I woke up again, I was in a strange felt tent, the sound of boiling milk tea rang in my ears.
Geerile opened his eyes, looking confused.
His wife, Chag, who woke up before him, shouted happily: "He's awake, he's finally awake."
A man in a robe came over and offered a bowl of milk tea: "Eat something warm."
Geerile devoured the food, came to his senses, and thanked you repeatedly: "Who are you? Thank you so much."
"We are the relief team sent by the fourth princess." The man replied, "Why are you running outside on a snowy day instead of staying in your tent? You are lucky to have met us by chance. If it were later, we would not have known about it."
"My sheep is lost..."
"Don't worry about the sheep for now. Let's wait until the weather clears up." He said, "Anyway, we won't starve to death. When we set out, we heard that the court had issued an order to distribute disaster relief grain. The princess has already ordered the grain to be transferred here. No matter whether it tastes good or not, it will always fill our stomachs."
His wife Chag suddenly asked, "Are you coming from the post road?"
"yes."
"So is everything okay over there in the greenhouse? The greenhouse hasn't collapsed, right? My child and mother are still there."
The man laughed: "Collapse? If it collapses not long after it was built, the craftsman's head will be chopped off by the princess. Don't worry, the greenhouse is fine."
Chag finally breathed a sigh of relief, thought for a moment, and then pulled Gerile to kowtow on the spot, saying sincerely: "Thank you, Eternal Heaven, for giving us this kind princess. May Eternal Heaven bless her forever."
The posture is pious, just like worshiping a living Buddha.
But they didn't dare to imagine that the fourth princess would actually appear on the grassland where the snow had not yet melted.
Half a month later, Geerile followed the relief team's instructions and drove the recovered sheep and the remaining sheep to the leeward side of another banner, digging up the ice and snow to find grass roots for the sheep to nibble on. Chag followed another relief team to the warm shed of the post station to meet his family.
At this moment, a team with colorful flags fluttering appeared at the end of the snowfield, and a woman walked slowly down from the canopy carriage surrounded by guards and maids.
It’s the fourth princess.
She came in person to comfort the victims and brought a lot of dried meat and candy.
The child from Chag also got a piece of candy.
Such a noble person came here and brought candy to her children. It was simply... I'm afraid I will never forget it in my life.
As spring came and flowers bloomed, a memorial about the relief efforts for the white disaster in Mobei was sent to the capital.
The four princesses wrote memorials, the Mongolian princes wrote memorials, and the naturalized officials also wrote memorials, all of which talked about disaster relief.
Kangxi read through them all and his eyes fell on the memorial submitted by the Mongolian princes. There was a line of words saying that the Fourth Princess "was completely convinced by the Mongolian people."
He closed the letter and said with satisfaction, "The fourth girl did a great job."
His performance in disaster relief was even better than that of the crown prince and several princes during previous floods.
Maybe you can try naturalization.
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