The weather in December was bitingly cold. The sun was too lazy to come out to show off his face. He just covered his face with the clouds all over the sky and didn't know what he was doing.

The hunters in Panshan Village tightened the collars of their coats, which had been worn black and shiny, and tucked in their winter coats with large or small holes, all trying to block out the cold and embarrassment. Those with wives drank the heat.

Soup, the mother-in-law swallowed a few mouthfuls of saliva, rolled up her sleeves and stamped her feet, and in twos and threes, they stepped on the heavy snow that was thick enough to cover their feet, "creeping, creaking" and gathered towards the wheat field in the village.

According to tradition, the fifth day of this month every year is the day when the Zhang family in Panshan Village buys furs. In this small border village, in addition to planting two acres of thin farmland, purchasing is the only way for the Zhang family to make money this winter.

You can't get away with a few pennies of money on the special styles or quantities that your family requires, so you can cover a season's expenses by saving money.

Even though this was the first year of Zhenguan, for Panshan Village, a small village belonging to Yunzhou, Hedong Province, the new emperor's accession to the throne failed to change their lives. One black iron pot, six or seven cracked

Bowls, two wooden boxes, and some broken stools and tables are the belongings of most of the villagers' families in this Panshan village.

Of course, there must be exceptions in everything, and Zhang Dashan in the village cannot compare with that. His house has red clay walls, two courtyards, green tiles on the roof, and owl kisses on the roof. I heard from Zhang Shan’s housekeeper that this is how the rich families in the city behave.

Whether it is or not is unknown. But in the eyes of most Panshan villagers, it is definitely a symbol of ancestors' smoke and lingering blessings.

Panshan Village is a miserable place, with few fields and poor soil. A year of hard work may not yield much, and from time to time it is raided by Turkic dogs from the north. Last year, I heard that the two Turkic Khans led an army of 100,000

After occupying Jingzhou, they advanced to martial arts, and even the capital city of Chang'an was under martial law. How could this Panshan village, a small border state village, avoid being invaded by Turkic invaders?

What? Isn’t there a Great Wall above Yunzhou? Yes, there is, but there is always a way around it, right? Yunzhou in the Tang Dynasty borders East Turkestan. There are many mountains and wild ridges in both places, and there are not even a hundred shortcuts.

Also eighty. This year is the new emperor's accession to the throne. There is no big turmoil on the surface, but the turmoil behind the scenes is indispensable. Just like the soldiers of Yunzhou Prefecture, they are training hard, but they dare not move. The top is tense, even if the Turks are small

The scale of the border is so large that without the governor and generals being able to issue talismans, not a single soldier can even think of moving.

Although it is hard, people never lose hope in life. Even if they get a brocade coat next year, a daughter-in-law the year after that, and grandchildren to be their descendants in the future, that is still good.

No, all the hunters from Panshan Village rushed there early in the morning to see if there was any good money to be made this year for the reward for the Zhang family's fur purchase.

Before the hunters reached the wheat field, half of the excitement of going out was gone. They saw that there were already more than a dozen people squatting in the wheat field, dressed similarly, including a few with newly sprouted hair on their chins.

The boy's doll was wearing a shabby coat that belonged to an adult in the family. It was pretending to be an adult. There were less than a hundred households in this village in Panshan. How many people would it take to snatch this fat piece of meat purchased from the Zhang family's fur?

Fortunately, there is no need to queue here. Zhang Zhuzi, the old housekeeper of the Zhang family, will naturally not let these dolls go hunting in the mountains. If they don't come back after purchasing, they will risk their lives if they don't do it right. How can I tell you this clearly, fellow villagers?

Everyone tightened their tattered coats tightly, not only because they were afraid that the holes would be shabby, but if you break them, I would break them too. We all broke them together, and there was nothing embarrassing about it. They just straightened their backs and straightened their waists, and showed off their figures with tight coats. After a while,

So that the housekeeper of the Zhang family can take a fancy to it, and it is only right to buy better furs and make more money.

"Qi Lang, why are you in such a hurry? At this moment, the housekeeper of the Zhang family hasn't gotten up yet, so why don't you rush to catch the northwest wind?" The person who spoke was a woman in her mid-twenties.

He has a rosy oval face, half-moon eyebrows, and cloudy hair at the back. The upper body is in a floral jacket, and the lower body is thick hemp trousers, which are faintly white. I think he has been wearing them for a long time and washed them a lot. He has a hunting bow slung over his shoulder.

, a pot of arrows beside his waist, and a small hunting knife hanging next to it, giving off a refreshing vibe.

The person walking next to her was a man in his late thirties, about five or six feet tall, with thick eyebrows and a square face, of medium build. However, the hand holding the black hunting fork was covered in veins and intertwined scars, which made him look uncomfortable.

People were shocked. When he heard the woman next to him being weird, he turned around and grinned and said: "Mother Yun, I'm not in a hurry, I'm just worried that if it's too late, this year's purchase will be in vain. You also know, mother, her body...

....", his face turned gloomy after speaking.

When the woman named "Yun Niang" heard this, she frowned and said, "Qi Lang, I know, you can relax. Our husband and wife somehow managed to take the top spot in this purchase today. How can we make some money?"

I’ll give my mother the money to treat her illness. My mother will be fine.”

Qilang just sighed and nodded, but the fork in his hand was shaking slightly, showing that he was exerting force, and his hand turned white from the effort.

Nearly twenty men have gathered in the wheat field, chatting and squatting, covering their ears and stamping their feet. They gather in groups, guessing what they will buy this year.

They came down and talked about some interesting naughty things. Before the old housekeeper of the Zhang family came, everyone was in a peaceful mood. I don’t know if their faces were cold or because they were excited. Their faces were more or less red.

.Grinning and showing yellow teeth, you were talking to each other there, and the saliva was flying back and forth, so the early morning time was not wasted.

Not far from the threshing field stood a dilapidated earth temple. In the early years, although this earth temple was small, the incense never ceased. In later years, people in the village discovered that burning a few more incense sticks would increase the number of temples.

A few mouthfuls of oil did not exchange for a few more buckets of grain in the field, nor did they stop the Turkic dog from threshing the grass. Therefore, young men, young men, ladies and grandmothers all reached a consensus: This is a small temple dedicated to an unknown god.

It's just a useless decoration, of no use.

A gust of wind picked up, and the half-remaining temple door creaked and swayed, blowing the dead leaves and dry grass on the ground in the temple and swirling them into the temple. The wind blew all over the head and face of the man who was sleeping on his side. The man was making noises.

He was naked and could only see his back, but he was dressed very strangely. The inner part of his upper body was a thin sleeveless fir made of unknown material, and a large sack on the outside. He only had three holes cut out of the bottom of the sack, and a head.

Two arms came out from the middle, and a finger-thick hemp rope was tied around the waist. Underneath the lower body was also a pair of trousers made of an unknown material, with light blue and light blue dyeing very evenly, on the exposed arms and knees.

They were all tied with small pieces of sacks and wore a pair of indescribable shoes on their feet. They looked like beggars.

When the dead leaves and dead grass in the temple were blown away, his body shivered and he curled up again, but one hand kept slapping the dirt on his face.

"Damn, you're making so much noise so early in the morning that you can't let anyone sleep!" The man didn't seem to care about the flying grass blades, but just disliked the noise of the wheat field not far away. There was another shiver, then

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, the man jumped up hastily, opened his eyes slightly, glanced around the temple, walked to a corner in a few steps, untied his pants and peed.

"Hey~" He let out a satisfied sigh from his mouth, which ended with the steaming urine, and the frown that had been frowned all night was lifted.

Turning around and tying up my clothes, I first turned my stiff neck. A "quacking" sound came from the muscles and bones of my neck. Then I opened my arms and stretched hard. Just when I was satisfied, another strong cold wind blew up, and the broken body was blown away.

The snow fell one after another on the roof, and it got into his neck. He shivered from the cold, so he quickly wrapped himself in a sack and sat on the ground.

At this time, I can see his full face clearly. He has short hair, starry eyebrows and sharp eyes, a straight nose and thick lips, and healthy bronze skin. He is more than six feet tall, well-proportioned and tall, but with a slightly childish face. How do you look at it?

How weird.

He sat on the ground and put a few handfuls of withered grass under his buttocks. He picked up the wooden stick next to him and picked at the extinguished fire. Only a few sparks buried deep in the fire suddenly burst out, but more ashes were burned by the cold.

The wind rises.

"Bah, bah~" He spit out the ashes in his mouth, moved his butt towards the leeward, touched his deflated belly, shook his head and smiled bitterly. Just as he was thinking about how to solve the problem of hunger and fullness in his stomach today, he heard

There was a "creeping, creaking" sound of stepping on the snow outside the temple door, and two footsteps, one light and one heavy. When he heard this, he already knew who was coming...

Note 1: The owl kiss is a kind of decoration at both ends of the roof of a house. The owl kiss on wooden buildings in the Tang Dynasty is generally in the shape of an owl beak or an owl tail.
Chapter completed!