After several consecutive snowfalls in the north, Daye's eleventh year finally came to an end.

According to the imperial edict issued by the court, after this cold twelfth lunar month, the court will change the republic next year, which is the first year of the republic. For the people, it doesn’t matter much whether they change the republic or not, but seeing that the great cause of disasters and difficulties is finally over, the people still feel a little relieved.[]

The great cause finally went away. Although they did not understand the republic, there were also scholars who explained to others that the republic began in the Zhou Dynasty. During the Western Zhou Dynasty, King Li of Zhou was tyrannical, extravagant, favored treacherous ministers, and killed innocent people. The people of the country were dissatisfied with King Li, but King Li of Zhou was surveillance across the country, and those who slandered the king were killed.

The famous saying "Defending the mouth of the people is better than waterproofing" is the advice of the minister Zhao Duke. King Li still refused to listen. After three years, the people of the country revolted in anger and attacked King Li, and King Li fled. After King Li fled, the minister Zhao Duke Mu, and Duke Ding of Zhou were in charge of the administration, and the name was Republican. The first year of the Republic (Qian Aomen, the beginning of the ancient Chinese history. In the 14th year of the Republic, it was not until King Li died and the crown prince succeeded to the throne to change the reign.

Some people also say that after the King of Zhou fled, the country was recommended by the princes to serve the Emperor, so the reign was called the Republic.

Whether it was the republic of Duke Mu and Duke Ding of Zhou, or the republic of Gongbohe, they were all subjects to the emperor. Therefore, many literati in Hebei secretly speculated that the court's change of republic must have acted on behalf of the emperor because of their own republic. Moreover, the establishment of the republic as the republic is undoubtedly a vague declaration to the world.

However, whether it is a great cause or a republic, the people cannot control these things.

It is already the twelfth lunar month, and the annual Spring Festival is coming. Although the lives of the people are still in dire straits this year, the people in Hebei are many times better than in previous years.

Especially since King Chen entered the pass, he welcomed the crown prince to succeed to the throne and established the Beijing court. He quelled the chaos in Hebei, wiped out bandits from all over the country, and restored the local governments, and the people finally did not have to wander around.

No one starved to death in the fields beside the road, and no one was frozen to death on the cold night.

Not only that, after this period of busy work, all the people in northern Hebei have returned to the countryside and have equalized the fields again. Although the real fields are still deserted and waiting for the next year to cultivate, for ordinary people, with land, everything is there.

Although the court was still fighting, it no longer forced them to join the army, nor did it come to confiscate their last bit of food, and forced them to transport food and perform labor service. Although it was said that the court was short of food, it could not eat porridge mixed with wild vegetables, fish and shrimps every day to satisfy their hunger. Every night on cold nights, they could sleep in the rebuilt cottage overnight. This was a success for them, and their long-lost smile appeared on the face of the vegetables.

Liu Tantou was a man in his early thirties, looking like a legendary Kunlun slave. Liu Tantou was an orphan when he was young, eating a hundred families and wearing a hundred families clothes to grow up. Since he was a teenager, he relied on climbing the mountain to make firewood every day to make money. When he was in his teens, he began to cook firewood on the mountain and sell charcoal by himself. From his ten years old to nearly thirty years old, everyone had long forgotten his real name, and everyone called him Liu Tantou.

In his early years, Liu Tantou was conquered three times due to insufficient troops in the palace, and he survived the disaster. However, after fighting for several years, he got nothing except the countless scars and sword marks left on his body. He was neither appreciated by his superiors, nor was he appointed a mate to a troop, nor gave money and property for his war courage. He was not as good as those brothers of the Liaodong Army now. He was not a subordinate of Chen Pojun, nor stayed in Liaodong.

The boss he met was an aristocratic officer who was greedy for military merits and restrained his subordinates from rewards. He was lucky to be able to come back alive after eating food under his command. After returning from Liaodong, his military merits were taken by his boss, and he was cut off from the team with scars. Perhaps this was the only thing the boss did to him.

With scars on his body, he returned to his hometown Boling County and started his old business again, going up the mountain to harvest firewood and burn charcoal. Not long after returning home, Boling was renamed Gaoyang County because the emperor temporarily stayed. However, this did not change his life at all. He was still a charcoal burner.

Originally, he thought that the military merit rewards were falsely taken by his superiors in three expeditions to Liaodong, which should be considered the most angering thing he had ever encountered. But in fact, that was not. In the ninth year of Daye, the emperor finally returned to Luoyang from Gaoyang. Originally, he thought life could be calmer. But what followed was the great turmoil in Hebei. Gaoyang County was in the middle of Hebei. No matter where bandits were robbed, they would always be taken one or two times by the way.

Come and go, he couldn't even burn charcoal anymore. He didn't want to be a bandit when he died. He brought an axe to chop wood. He and the villagers were wandering around, year after year, as the land in Hebei was deserted and the villagers who fled together kept starving and freezing to death, he could only be helplessly sad.

I thought that he would be like those dead villagers, and he would never be able to hold on. He would die in the wilderness on the roadside, or die silently in his dream on a cold night.

But no, maybe he participated in the three conquests of Liao, or maybe because he had been cutting firewood and charcoal in the mountains for many years, his health was better than most people. Even with his agility, he could still catch one or two prey from time to time, and everyone would make soup together.

The Liaodong army came, but after the initial panic, he found that they were not as spread as those aristocratic tribes and landlords in the forts. Not only did they not come to destroy Hebei, but they brought hope to the Hebei people. The Liaodong army was strong in soldiers, well-armed in armor, and even rich in food.

They did not like the aristocratic families in the fortresses, and the powerful hated driving away the refugees, but instead gathered to comfort them. They gave them food, clothes, and fields, so that they could help each other rebuild their houses.

The charcoal head, who is already thirty years old, has always been a bachelor over the years. When he was displaced in recent years, many of the villagers with him survived by him. At that time, there were many young and unmarried girls who wanted to live with him in this troubled times. But he always felt hopeless and unwilling to accept it.

When he finally returned to the countryside, he was like everyone else and was assigned to a field that he had never seen before.

Even his house was not an ordinary thatched house, but a large wooden house built by the villagers who felt that he had worked together to help him build. With fields and houses, all he lacked was a woman and a child to live together.

Facing those villagers who were kind-hearted to say goodbye to him, he finally stopped refusing and chose a woman who was not beautiful but was virtuous, gentle, but very strong and healthy, and decided to marry her.

Getting married is a big deal. Even the villagers who have just experienced years of painful disagreement, they pay more and more attention to the first lively marriage to return to their hometown. The home brings a hare caught in the mountain, the west home brings some dried fruit, and the third uncle’s house in the south sends some dried fish that he saved.”

If you put all kinds of gifts a few years ago, you may not be able to take advantage of them. But at present, these things are extremely precious. People who have been wandering for several years are hunger the most feared in their hearts, so even if you don’t have enough food, you will try to save some and store them.

"Carbontou, the daughter of the Zhang family is a good girl. If it weren't for the chaos of this world. Such a good girl would never have been married even if you burn incense. After getting married, you have to treat others well." said Aunt Nannan, the matchmaker, who said she was a marriage.

Liu Tantou sat there, his black face turned red with a rare redness, and was as restrained as a young man. He nodded quickly but didn't know how to speak.

Seeing him like this, Aunt San smiled, "Carbon Head, this woman can only get married once in her life, but she must not lose money. Although everyone has no conditions now, everyone likes this daughter. In recent years, we have also asked you to take care of her to survive. We have also discussed that if this girl in the Zhang family gets married, our Liu family village cannot lose etiquette or something. Aunt San has discussed with your other aunts, and we can't take out other brides, but the bride's phoenix crown and red wedding robe must be prepared."

Aunt San took out a handkerchief bag and opened it layer by layer. There were several small pieces of gold and silver jewelry, including gold hairpins and gold earrings. These things were known to be the dowry of these aunts in the village, and some were even old items passed down from generation to generation.

"Carbont, Auntie, I heard that your third uncle had started from Shangguan in Juntian. It seems that in two days, there will be a monk in Xianyu City, our county town, and a sliver of the charity. Then I heard that many people will come to accept donations. And I also heard that the shops and markets in Xianyu City have been restored. All kinds of things, such as cloth, silk, satin, jewelry, rouge, etc. When you go to the county town tomorrow with the jewelry that your aunts gave you, sell the things, pull some silk to make a wedding robe, and buy some things."

Looking at the few jewelry handed to him, Liu Tantou's thirty-year-old man choked up and his throat seemed to be blocked. He felt his nose sore, but his eyes couldn't help but become wet.

Looking at the third aunt who was no longer young and wrinkled, Liu Tantou felt a sense of emotion. When he was a child, both his parents died of illness, and thanks to the care of this third aunt and other aunts in the village, he was today. Now that he is getting married, they help him like a child, and they kneel on the ground and kowtowed a few times to express their feelings.
Chapter completed!