Innumerable Starved and Frozen to Death

In the territory of Hua County, Langya Commandery, Qingzhou.

A withered old man, clad in rags, hunched his body, tightly clutching his thin clothes. They bulged within, protecting a two-year-old child.

The child was tied to his chest with cloth strips, and at his waist, the old man dragged a sled made of rattan, laden with dozens of pounds of firewood. He trudged through the deep snow, heading towards the county town.

The old man had already traveled twenty li of mountain paths and reached the main road. The snow here was not as deep. Another ten li or so, and he would see the city walls.

In this Year of Great Calamity, a mere thirty li journey had become a struggle to take a single step. The heavy snow had fallen continuously for ten days and ten nights!

It was already the twenty-ninth day of the first lunar month! The weather remained frigid, the lakes and marshes frozen solid!

Countless homes had collapsed under the weight of the snow, compounded by oppressive taxes that were like fierce tigers. The common people lacked food and clothing, and countless perished from hunger, cold, and frostbite.

The old man's own home had long since collapsed. He had survived by huddling in a gap formed by the wall and the ice and snow until now.

At this moment, the fierce wind whipped at his cheeks, the howling filling his ears. The biting wind felt as though heaven itself intended to kill.

The snow had stopped, but in such harsh weather, even without falling snow, it was unbearable.

Yet, the old man endured it. He could not die yet.

Taking advantage of the finally stopped snow, he and his grandson had gone to the tea mountain to chop some firewood. He intended to sell it in the city for some food.

He hadn't eaten in three days, and the child had not had a grain of rice in two days.

Everything near their old home had been eaten. His last hope rested on the county town.

Perhaps the city had already opened its granaries. He had seen many refugees fleeing there a couple of days ago. At the very least, they would need firewood, right? In this bitter cold, he could surely exchange it for some grain.

Suddenly, his foot tripped on something. He looked down and saw what appeared to be a person, covered by snow, their life or death unknown.

The old man quickly put down his sled and used the cleaver at his waist to frantically clear the snow. After he dragged the person out completely, he sighed...

Dead. Frozen solid, as hard as iron.

It was a woman with a child. She was completely naked, except for an iron thumb ring on her little finger.

She tightly held the infant in her arms, and the infant, frozen in a crying pose, had also become an ice block.

Mother and daughter were both without clothes. It was unclear if they were robbed before freezing to death, or if their clothes were taken after they died.

In this era, some people had already resorted to cannibalism. Stealing the clothes from women and children, leaving them to freeze to death, was not even considered unusual.

On his journey, the old man had already seen many stiff corpses, some alone, some in pairs, and even entire families, young and old, frozen to death embracing each other.

"Alas..." Looking at the mother and daughter, the old man thought of his youngest daughter-in-law, who had starved to death.

The old man's surname was Jiang. He had two sons. The elder, Jiang Tian, was strong and robust, skilled in martial arts, and a capable fighter. He died on the battlefield.

The younger, Jiang Nong, was dull-witted and honest, an excellent farmer. He was conscripted two years ago and also died on the battlefield.

Fortunately, he had married before being conscripted and left behind a posthumous child.

His daughter-in-law had a difficult life. Not a year passed without famine or rebellion. While caring for this old man, she raised the child to the age of two. However, last year, King Qi, Sima Jiong, expanded his royal residence. Not only were money and grain levied from them, but labor was also conscripted during the harvest.

There was no choice. He was the only man in the family, and they had no money to pay for labor exemption.

His daughter-in-law, alone with the child, desperately tried to salvage the harvest. Yet, it was still in vain. A heavy rain spoiled most of the grain, but the taxes could not be reduced.

Forced into a corner, she had to sell the five mu of land bestowed upon them after the elder son's death. They became tenant farmers of the Zhang Clan, a powerful family in Hua County. She even sold their axe, leaving them with only a firewood knife.

She had intended to keep the firewood knife and dig for wild roots in the deep mountains during winter to survive.

But before she could, they encountered a snow disaster. The heavy snow sealed the mountains, and everything was a vast expanse of white.

In utter desperation, he went to the city to beg for charity from the nobles, but he was ruthlessly rejected. In this Year of Great Calamity, many were seeking loans, and no one was willing to pay attention to an old man like him.

When Old Man Jiang returned home, his house had collapsed. His daughter-in-law, holding the child, was found huddled in a hole in the ice, frozen to death.

Before she died, she had taken off all her clothes and tightly wrapped the child with them, waiting for him to return.

"Waaahhh!" The sound of Old Man Jiang digging at the corpse startled the grandson in his arms.

"Nu'er, be good, don't cry..."

Old Man Jiang had named the child 'Nu'er', not expecting much from him, only that he would survive.

Seeing his grandson wake up crying, he quickly soothed him, while using the firewood knife to dig a pit, intending to bury the frozen mother and child.

"Grandpa, hungry..." the grandson weakly opened his mouth in his arms, his eyes not yet open.

Old Man Jiang coaxed him again, "There's food, there's food. When Grandpa buries your mother... buries... buries her, I'll take you into the city."

"Grandpa chopped a lot of firewood on the mountain. Once we get into the city, we'll have food. We're almost there... almost there..."

While coaxing, he chipped away at the ice and snow, digging a shallow grave. He finally managed to hastily bury the bodies of the mother and daughter by the roadside.

He dared not delay, quickly dragging the firewood and continuing forward.

Old Man Jiang's steps grew slower. Already weak, digging the grave had consumed too much strength. He couldn't help but regret his misplaced kindness.

In this bitter cold, even the living could not be cared for, let alone the dead?

"Almost there... almost there..."

"Once we get there, we'll have food..."

Old Man Jiang stumbled onward, his mind hazy, for an unknown amount of time, until he finally saw the city walls.

But as he got closer, he saw that outside the city walls, there were crowds of refugees just like him.

These people, most likely strangers to each other, huddled together, stretching along the city walls as far as the eye could see.

Most of them were covered in snow, motionless, seemingly dead.

Others tried their best to shake off the ice and snow, shivering and trembling, doing whatever they could to stay warm.

Old Man Jiang's withered face grew even more rigid. He moved closer and patted one of the 'snowmen.'

He discovered the person was already frozen stiff, and had even frozen together with the dozen or so people around him!

"Why aren't you going into the city?" Old Man Jiang shouted, his voice dry and hoarse.

No one paid him any mind. The living here only knew how to shiver and rub off snow, as if that would keep them alive.

"Go into the city!" Old Man Jiang shouted as he walked, finally finding the tightly shut city gates, but he couldn't get close.

Because the most corpses were piled up there, forming a snowdrift of ice figures.

Looking at the city gates that were almost 'buried,' Old Man Jiang's heart sank completely. He couldn't cry, and he didn't know what to shout.

They could still enter the city three days ago; why weren't they letting people in now?

He didn't know. He knew nothing. No one explained anything to him, and he had no one to ask. All that awaited him was hunger and cold.

Old Man Jiang could only walk along the city walls, unwilling to give up. Perhaps the other gates were open?

However, no matter how far he walked, he could see frozen citizens. Countless people, mixed with ice and snow, surrounded the city.

Looking at the second sealed gate, Old Man Jiang finally understood why the refugees were circling the city walls... They were all like him, pinning their hopes on the second gate, or even the third... the fourth...

Should he keep walking? Old Man Jiang numbly took two more steps and suddenly realized that the dozens of pounds of firewood he had been carrying were long gone, thrown away somewhere.

Should he go back for it? No need... it was all wet... soaked through...

Only dry firewood could be sold. The idea of entering the city to exchange for food was a lie he had been telling himself for who knows how long...

He was tired. He finally collapsed, helpless.

Like the other refugees, he curled up beside a snowman, shivering and rubbing off snow.

But what set him apart was... he also had to shield his emaciated grandson in his arms.

His grandson hadn't been able to open his eyes for a long time. As soon as Old Man Jiang pulled him from his daughter-in-law's arms, the child had become disoriented and feverish.

Old Man Jiang knew the child wouldn't last much longer, but he was powerless. He had no way to help.

In the end, he could only do what his daughter-in-law had done, stiffly taking off his clothes, wanting to wrap the child in them.

"Grandpa... hungry..." The grandson, pulled out into the cold wind, let out a faint sound.

Hearing the word "Grandpa," Old Man Jiang finally broke down. He beat his chest and stamped his feet, weeping bitterly, "Eat me!"

"Ahhhhhh!"

War, taxes, additional levies, corvée labor, natural disasters... Hunger, cold, death, step by step, they crushed him.

Already suffering from hunger and cold, after his tears and cries of anguish, he finally became overcome with exhaustion and slumped into unconsciousness.

In the darkness, he had a dream. He dreamed his eldest and second sons returned safely, and the court rewarded them with ten mu of land.

His eldest son got married and had a daughter. His second son got married and had a son.

What would they call his granddaughter? Xue'er, perhaps. Why Xue?

Old Man Jiang had such a question in his dream when suddenly a heavy snowfall began. Then he saw his daughter-in-law's naked corpse, who suddenly looked up at him and said, "Father, I leave Nu'er to you..."

Cold, so cold!

Old Man Jiang suddenly woke up, a bone-chilling cold seeping into his heart.

It was from his unbuttoned robe, left open... and the frozen lump in his arms...

"Nu'er!"

Old Man Jiang cried out with all his might, weeping inwardly: Nu'er, Grandpa will take you to live, we will live, Grandpa will go eat human flesh...

He frantically rubbed his frozen grandson, but he was also freezing, his body almost immobile, like a zombie.

But he kept rubbing desperately, rubbing desperately, but besides getting himself moving, he only confirmed one fact... Nu'er was dead.

His last relative, his last pillar of spiritual support, was gone. He didn't even know what he was living for anymore.

"Heavens! Why didn't you take me too?" Ice shards formed on Old Man Jiang's eyelids from his tears.

He should have fallen asleep and never woken up, but somehow, he did wake up... in the last moments before freezing.

"Wuwuwu..." Old Man Jiang couldn't even make a facial expression, only whimpering blankly and numbly.

The heavens had taken all his relatives, leaving him alone until the very end, looking out at the vast white world.

Suddenly, he struggled to get up.

"Nu'er, we can't die out here. Grandpa will take you home."

Old Man Jiang didn't wallow in the pain of waiting alone to die. He convinced himself once more.

He thought, the heavens must have woken him up so he could collect his family's bodies.

Leaves return to their roots. His wife, daughter-in-law, and the burial mounds for his eldest and second sons were all buried on the dirt slope behind his home. He and his grandson had to go back too.

And so, Old Man Jiang, step by determined step, set foot on the road back.

He didn't know how long he had walked before the biting wind, as if heaven itself wanted to kill him, gradually subsided.

And just then, he heard the cries of a baby in the wilderness.

p.s.: Sorry.