The heavy snow a few days ago dyed the earth a silvery color. From a distance, the mountains were undulating like white clouds. However, Cui Er, who had just come out of Jincheng, didn't want to enjoy the beautiful scenery. He was carrying a basket in his hand, and there was a small sharp pick in the basket. However, the sharp pick was ground with stones. Some time ago, when he fought with Baekje, all the iron products from the people had to be handed over, and Cui Er's family was no exception.

Cui Er is in his twenties this year and is a resident of Jincheng. He has lived in the city for generations. Originally, there was a small restaurant in his family. Although his income was not large, it was enough for them to live. However, since the war with Baekje last year, the city was extremely scarce, so the restaurant in his family could not be opened at all. Moreover, his elder brother was arrested to serve in the army. Now he is not sure whether it is dead or alive. He is the only young and strong left in the family. This is thanks to his uncle who is a small officer who helped him plead for his love and allowed him to stay to support his family.

When Cui Er thought of this damn war, he couldn't help but curse in a low voice. Their brothers and both were married. The eldest brother had two children, one child in his family, and an old mother in his family. Now, in addition to a brother who doesn't know how to live or die, there are seven mouths at home to eat. If they hadn't secretly hid some food when they opened a restaurant, they would have been starved to death.

However, Cui Er is just a small person. No matter how much he curses this war, it is useless. What he cares most about is what to eat at home for the next meal. Although he had hidden some food in the past, after consumption some time ago, although the family had tried to save food, it was still not enough. So Cui Er has been wandering outside the city these days, trying to find some food to take back.

Thinking of the hungry child at home, Cui Er sighed helplessly, tightened his dirty sheepskin robe, lowered his head and walked out of the city gate, and rushed to a small hill southeast of Jincheng, where there were mountains and water, and there were lush grass and trees. Although it was already winter, if you were lucky, you might find something to eat.

Although the sun has not yet fully risen, there have been more and more people on the road, and most of them are like Cui Er, carrying a basket to the mountains to find food. After all, the city has been out of food for many days. Even if you have money, you can't buy food. Ordinary people like them can only rely on themselves. I even heard that some slums have starved to death.

"Brother Cui, you came very early today." While Cui Er was rushing forward quickly and was about to enter the mountain ahead of everyone, someone suddenly rushed out from beside him, pulling his arm and smiling.

Cui Er turned his head and looked at it, and said with a smile on his face: "So it's Xiaojiu, there's nothing to eat at home?"

The one who held Cui Er was a boy who looked only eleven or twelve years old. He was very thin and his name was Zheng Guang. He was Cui Er's former neighbor. Because he was traveling at home, people he usually knew called him Xiaojiu. In fact, Xiaojiu is already fourteen years old this year. It is just because his family is too poor. He often has no food and cannot grow up, so he looks much smaller. However, it is precisely because of this that he escaped military service and did not die on the battlefield like his eight brothers.

When Xiaojiu heard Cui Er's words, he immediately said with a bitter face: "Second brother, you don't know when there was any food at home?"

Cui Eryi also smiled bitterly when he heard this. Xiaojiu's eight brothers were killed in battle and his parents all died of illness. Now he is alone, and he can be said to be full of food for the whole family and not hungry. Speaking of which, although there is some food in his family, there are seven people to support him, so compared with the other party, he is not as light as Xiaojiu's burden.

After chatting with Xiaojiu for a few gossips, Xiaojiu suddenly grabbed Cui Er mysteriously, looked at no one around and said, "Second brother, I found a good place in the south of the city. There is a small river. The ice layer in the river is not thick, and you can catch fish in it. You can go there with me later!"

"Really?" Cui Eryi was also very surprised. After fighting for nearly a year, the families of Jincheng people had almost no food. As for the surrounding mountains and fields, almost everyone was digging up. As for the fish in the river, they could not escape the poison. In addition, it is winter now, a thick layer of ice has formed on the river surface, making fishing even more difficult. Xiaojiu could find a river with a thick layer of ice. What's even rarer is that there are fish in the river. If you are lucky, you can drink fish soup tonight.

Thinking of the delicious fish soup that had not been drunk for more than a year, Cui Er couldn't help but drool and urged Xiaojiu to lead the way quickly and not be snatched by others. However, just as the two of them were running forward excitedly, a sound of horse hooves came from the front, and then the pedestrians in front were in chaos and flashed to both sides of the road.

Seeing this situation, Cui Er and Xiaojiu naturally did not dare to stand on the road stupidly, and quickly jumped into the snow on the side of the road to stand. When they looked up, they found a team of mighty Tang cavalry running in front of them. Without even looking at them, they rushed over Cui Er and the others, splashing snowflakes on the roadside.

"These Tang people are so domineering. They are not afraid of hitting people when they run so fast!" Cui Erjiao knocked out the snow on his body and spoke with some dissatisfaction.

Xiaojiu next to him said with a smile: "Hehe, these Tang people went to pursue the general a few days ago... Bah, no, it was Jin Gengxin's rebel, but he still fled to Dingchuan City. Later, the Tang army sent someone to attack, but was still run away by Jin Gengxin, which made His Highness the King of Qi very angry. The Tang army seemed to be crazy, trying hard to find the traces of Jin Gengxin and others, so we must not mess with these people now."

Although Xiaojiu was small, he usually hangs around the streets and is very informative and knows very well about these things. Cui Er had an uncle in the army, so he also knew some things. Jin Gengxin and Jin Chunqiu seemed to be dissatisfied with the arrival of the King of Qi, so he led his troops to escape and was chased by the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty. He finally fled to Dingchuan City, but the cavalry could not attack the city. When the Tang Dynasty sent troops to attack Dingchuan again, Jin Gengxin and the others ran away with them. This time they ran away, they could no longer find any news about them, which made the Tang army search for people everywhere during this period.

However, these things are not something that little people like Cui Er should care about. After watching these Tang troops rush away, Cui Er and Xiao Jiu carried their own baskets and rushed to the southeast hill happily.

After entering the hill, Xiaojiu and Cui Er did not run around the mountain like others. Instead, they turned around on the east side of the mountain, and after passing through several valleys, they came to a small valley. Although the valley was covered with snow, the snow in the valley was much thinner than other places, and there was a stream passing through the valley, with a layer of shining ice on the surface of the stream.

Seeing that there were not many footprints in this valley, Cui Er was overjoyed. There were few footprints, which means that there were few people coming here, so there were much greater opportunities to find food here.

Cui Er and Xiao Jiu ran down excitedly and first came to the stream in the middle of the valley. For some reason, the ice on the stream was not thick, and the stream was not deep, and at most it only reached the thighs of people. Both of them could see the sand and stones under the stream from the ice.

"Fish! There are fish here!" Before Cui Er could take a few steps on the river, he suddenly heard Xiaojiu shouting loudly, which made him run over quickly and look along Xiaojiu's fingers. Sure enough, he found several fish half a palm-sized one frozen in the ice.

"Hurry! Find a sharp stone and let's smash the ice open!" Cui Er was also overjoyed. Although he brought a sharp pick made of stone, it was not worth smashing the ice. After all, the sharp pick was only polished out by him after all, and he felt sorry for him if he smashed it.

When Xiaojiu heard this, he quickly found a large stone, and Cui Er held it and started to smash the ice. He was young and strong, and quickly smashed the ice surface. Then Xiaojiu couldn't wait to catch the fish in the ice and put them in his basket for the time being. Then the two of them walked down the stream. After spending half a day, they finally found several fish. Although they were not big, if they were not too big, they could endure it for a few days.

However, these fish alone obviously could not satisfy Cui Er and Xiaojiu. In addition, it was still early, so the two of them took a small pick and started digging hard on the frozen soil on the river bank. The vegetation grew very lush in the water. The two of them wanted to dig some plant rhizomes on the river bank. Although these rhizomes were bitter and astringent, they could still fill their stomachs.

It was not until the sun set that the two of them dug two baskets of edible rhizomes. As for the fish they caught before, they were all divided equally by the two, and then carefully placed them at the bottom of the basket and covered them with rhizomes. After all, they were going to enter the city later. If the soldiers guarding the city saw that there were fish in their basket, they would definitely be detained privately.

They were catching fish and digging rhizomes. Both of them were very tired. They found a clean place to sit down and rest for a while. Cui Er took out a piece of gray wild vegetable dumpling from his shiny black sheepskin robe, broke it hard in half, and gave one of them to Xiaojiu. This was what Cui Er’s wife gave him before leaving the house. Originally, Silla only had two meals in the morning and evening, but Cui Er’s wife knew that Cui Er was running around looking for food, and was afraid that he could not bear it, so she made him an extra piece of wild vegetable dumpling.

When Xiaojiu saw that there was something to eat, his eyes lit up immediately. He didn't be polite to Cui Er. He snatched it and stuffed it into his mouth. Although the wild vegetable dumplings were made of the digging rhizomes and were bitter and astringent when eaten, Cui Er's family had some food, so the wild vegetable dumplings were added with some thick noodles, which diluted the bitter taste a lot, which made Xiaojiu feel particularly sweet when he ate it.

However, just when the two were eating with relish, they did not notice that on the ridge on the other side of the valley, there were several eyes staring at them fiercely._______________________________________________________________________________________
Chapter completed!