The twelfth lunar month had only just begun, but the wind already cut to the bone, and waterways throughout Hebei were freezing over. In ordinary years, although this curtailed farming and cultural activities, it somehow made trade a little livelier, since people could easily cross prefectures and counties while avoiding checkpoints... This winter, however, Hebei was not entirely without trade, but mostly only the estates of local magnates and the caravans of great aristocratic clans qualified to enjoy this convenience.
This produced a strange pattern of traffic across the lifeless Hebei plain.
Either there were great caravans numbering hundreds of people, or there was nobody at all.
None of this, however, meant anything to certain people living in Gaoji Lake-the remnants of the Gaoji Lake Righteous Army, mostly the old, weak, sick, and disabled, along with some women.
With such a composition, they had already struggled from the moment the able-bodied men first left. As winter deepened, the bitter cold closed in, and the waters began freezing over, it became a matter of life and death.
"What are we going to do?"
"What can we do? It's frozen solid. We can't break the ice or scoop out water weeds. We're going to starve."
"Who was on night watch? Why weren't they more careful? There are hundreds of mouths to feed..."
"Never mind feeding them, we don't even have water... In weather like this, how can the adults and children manage without a mouthful of hot broth?"
"Why must you all blame me like this? I need to pick shrimp out of the weeds to eat too, and I need drinking water. How could I not take it seriously? I didn't sleep all night. I got up four times, right on schedule, to break the ice, and only stopped at the