Di Ming

Chapter 7 Entering the village
The custom of Jurchen women rolling ice in the first month of the lunar calendar is called "rolling away all diseases," and it has a very ancient history.

At this moment, dozens of Jurchen women saw a strangely dressed little girl carrying a baby girl into the river and couldn't help but turn their heads to look at her.

These Jurchen women must have been the wives and daughters of hunters from nearby villages.

Unlike the Jurchen nobles in the castle, they wore expensive clothes, but rather simple sheepskin coats, bone rings hanging from their ears, and necklaces of animal bones adorned with wolf teeth and pig tusks hanging from their chests.

They all had a brisk and straightforward expression, rough faces, and rugged features, giving them a bold and untamed look.

Their laughter is also very cheerful and unrestrained. Whether it is gentle or not is unknown, but it is definitely not reserved.

However, they were very vigilant, and as soon as they saw a strange stranger, even a child, they would immediately show a wary expression.

Several women immediately rolled to the riverbank, took the bows and arrows hanging from the branches of the trees, and with a "whistle," were about to draw their bows, their movements very decisive.

These aren't women; they're practically a pack of female leopards.

They are the wives and daughters of the forest dwellers, the daughters of the deep mountains and forests, as simple as roe deer and as resilient as jackals.

They were also female hunters, assisting their fathers and brothers in hunting and fishing. What adult woman, unless ill or suffering from illness, couldn't draw a bow and shoot an arrow? What woman couldn't wield a knife and kill?

At least in this current period, Jurchen women from the lower classes are still very brave.

Seeing their overreaction, Zhu Yin quickly spoke loudly in Manchu:

"Eyun (sister)! Kusisesain! (Hello)"

"Biwolagu is excellent! (I am a friend)"

"Ania Amba, Urgun! (Happy New Year!)"

He shouted as he waved his little hand.

"Hmm?" The women who had picked up their bows and arrows immediately burst into laughter.

"It turned out to be a few little kids!"

"Welcome, guests!"

"Sain!"

Ning Caiwei didn't know what they were talking about, but she knew that Zhu Yin had resolved the crisis, so she immediately smiled ingratiatingly at them.

"Little princess, come and roll around with me!" a round-faced woman laughed. "Let's roll together!"

Zhu Yin breathed a sigh of relief and said to Ning Caiwei, "They said they welcome us and want you to get out with them."

Ning Caiwei hesitated for a moment, "Do we really want to roll around together?"

Zhu Yin encouraged them, "It's okay, don't be afraid, they're not hard to get along with. Once you've rolled around on the ice with them once, you'll be friends."

"Whether we can stay overnight and have a meal tonight depends on you. Get lost."

Ning Qingchen, who had been afraid, was no longer afraid. When she heard something about rolling around, she couldn't help but giggle and happily kicked her two tender, lotus-root-like legs.

Difficult to stretch.

Their sense of humor has become outrageously low these days.

Hearing Ning Qingchen's laughter, a Jurchen girl immediately stepped forward, peeked inside, touched it, and giggled:

"What a beautiful baby!"

Although Ning Caiwei couldn't understand the language, she knew the woman meant no harm, so she took the opportunity to give her a friendly smile and said in Chinese, "Thank you, sister!"

The other person couldn't understand Mandarin, but seeing Ning Caiwei's charming smile, they knew it was out of goodwill.

At this moment, a smile is the only language.

"Your smile is so beautiful, like a peony blooming deep in the forest," the Jurchen girl couldn't help but praise Ning Caiwei.

Are all the princesses (girls) in Han Chinese families as beautiful as flowers?

In fact, if Ning Caiwei had washed her face clean, she would likely have praised Ning Caiwei as a fairy.

Then, Ning Caiwei joined the group of Jurchen women in ice rolling.

The Jurchen women sang as they rolled, patting the ice surface after each line.

The animal bone chains hanging from their chests made a clear, crisp sound as they touched the ice, a pleasant sound like accompaniment.

Ning Caiwei rolled around with them a few times, and they quickly became "familiar" with each other, laughing and joking.

It is clear that the Jurchens were very welcoming and hospitable.

The premise is that you are not considered an enemy. Zhu Yin held the tiny, warm puppy in his arms, standing on the high slope by the riverbank watching them roll on the ice, while observing the surrounding environment.

We can see the fence (village).

It was in the woods west of the stream that there seemed to be a small village with dozens of houses.

A fenced village is a settlement where a family or clan lives together and builds a fence around the settlement to enclose it, similar to a small fortified village.

Of course, fences are generally much simpler than fortified villages.

In Jurchen tribes, these fences in the forest or along the river were the most common settlements for the lower-class Jurchen people.

The foundation of the Han Chinese in the Central Plains was the agricultural population, while the foundation of the Jurchen tribes was the hunter population.

In reality, the status of Jurchen hunters was lower than that of farmers in Han areas.

Because they do not have complete personal freedom.

Above them were the Jurchen nobles who ruled, and they had to obey the enslavement of various Jurchen nobles, such as the Mukunda (clan chief), the village chief, the city lord, and the Beile.

In terms of social status, they were the slave class.

However, they were able to organize hunting, production, and sacrificial activities relatively independently, based on clan units.

In reality, it was the Jurchen nobles who preferred to plunder Han Chinese people into slavery.

These people were already slaves, so Han Chinese prisoners of war would certainly not be given to them as slaves.

Later, with the rise of the Later Jin dynasty and the expansion of the war, the lower-ranking Jurchens were allowed to share the captured Han slaves through their war merits, thus motivating them to serve the Jurchen nobles.

Zhu Yin climbed to a high place and looked out, and saw that inside the fence, which was more than ten feet high, some open spaces were covered by heavy snow.

These open spaces are definitely for growing grains and vegetables.

Although the Jurchens primarily relied on hunting and fishing for their livelihood, they also engaged in farming, gathering, and animal husbandry. Their main occupation was hunting and fishing, while their secondary occupations were similar to those of Han Chinese farmers.

He also saw smoke rising from the fence and heard the sounds of roosters crowing and dogs barking.

This human village was so simple and primitive, but it was still much warmer than the snowy wasteland we had seen before.

At this point, the women finished rolling on the ice and began to return to the fence.

Before Zhu Yin could even speak, a middle-aged woman took the initiative to say:

"Niu Niu, go home, go home!"

“It’s getting dark, and the three oxen aren’t dressed warmly enough. Mother Foduo won’t feel at ease. Let’s go to the village to warm up.”

This means "invitation".

"Amubulabaniha! (Thank you very much!)" Zhu Yin said with great joy.

He turned to Ning Caiwei and said, "This aunt invited us to be her guests."

Zhu Yin's Jurchen language skills also became more and more fluent.

The Jurchen woman looked at Ning Qingchen and smiled:
"It's still a cow that needs to drink milk! Go to the village and drink some milk. My daughter-in-law just gave birth to a baby, and she's been blessed by Mother Foduo. Her milk supply is as plentiful as a spring."

"Let her be the wet nurse and feed this child."

Zhu Yin stepped forward, knelt on his left knee, opened his arms and embraced the Jurchen woman's waist, pressing his head against her chest and abdomen, performing a Jurchen greeting. He then gratefully said in Jurchen:
"Then thank you, Grandma. May Mother Buddha bless you."

The middle-aged woman patted Zhu Yin's head in return, and said in a singing-like manner:
“Niu Niu, it was Master Cuoha Zhan who guided you here.”

"You've already received a blessing from Mother Fodo for being able to carry a puppy with you that hasn't even opened its eyes yet, and for not heartlessly abandoning it."

It turns out that the Manchus loved dogs very much, regarding them as family members and friends, and as hunting partners.

Zhu Yin holding a small dog was enough to win their favor and approval.

Zhu Yin stood up and gave Ning Caiwei a reassuring smile.

That's it.

Then, the three people and one dog followed dozens of Jurchen women into the simple fence.

"Wang Wang Wang!"

A large group of dogs—white, black, gray, and yellow—ran over to greet us, wagging their tails.

Nearly a hundred dog tails were wagging wildly, which was dazzling and quite spectacular!
(End of this chapter)