This was Jiang Wan's first New Year.
In her previous life, there were no holidays like New Year. She had only heard about the Spring Festival from the elders in the base, but had never experienced it.
So, she was quite looking forward to celebrating the New Year.
However, given the current situation where everyone had to eat sparingly, how could they possibly celebrate the New Year?
Jiang Wan was unwilling to accept this. She pulled a few children aside and asked, "Tell me, how do you usually celebrate the New Year?"
Zhao Xianlin's son, with a big snot bubble hanging from his nose, said, "I know, you have to make new clothes!"
Another child said, "You have to buy meat and make delicious food!"
Cheng Sinian said, "You have to paste peach charms, paste Spring Festival couplets, and on the morning of the first day, you have to go to pay New Year calls, say auspicious words, and receive lucky money."
Jiang Wan had never experienced any of these things!
So, she rubbed her hands together and decided that she must arrange for this New Year!
As for new clothes, she wasn't lacking. Her father had bought cloth for her and her elder sister-in-law to make clothes when he bought grain a few days ago. Her elder sister-in-law was currently making them for her.
There was no need to worry about lucky money either; her parents had it.
Delicious food was a bit more troublesome. With the mountains sealed by heavy snow, it was said that even in the towns, not much could be bought because of this heavy snow.
Jiang Wan went home and checked her stored food. She found that besides some dried snake meat, there were only some chestnuts and mixed grains left, as well as the small green vegetables she had managed to grow herself.
With so little food, how could they celebrate the New Year!
No, she had to get some meat!
Hunting in the mountains was unrealistic. So, why not let the prey come to them?
Jiang Wan felt this method was very feasible.
After letting the little pony grow bigger, it could carry grain and scatter it in the mountains. The mountains were now frozen, and the wild animals must be starving with their eyes turning green, so they would surely take the bait easily.
However, there was one problem that was difficult to control: she couldn't guarantee what kind of prey she would attract.
It might be a few small squirrels, or it might attract a pack of wild boars.
If the villagers were caught unprepared, it could lead to trouble.
So, after much deliberation, Jiang Wan decided to discuss this matter with Jiang Pan and have him make arrangements, so as not to scare the villagers later.
Jiang Pan listened to her plan and found it very feasible. He immediately gathered a group of men and told them to bring weapons and stand guard at night.
The men were confused: "Haven't we stopped standing guard for a long time?"
Since they had moved into the village, the need for standing guard had been temporarily lifted. After all, the entire area was covered in snow and ice, and the village was in a remote location, making standing guard completely unnecessary.
Jiang Pan said with a straight face, "The New Year is approaching. Everyone's life is difficult right now. What if someone sneaks in at night? Do we want the old and young of our village to survive?"
Upon hearing this, the crowd felt it made sense.
Back in their hometown, the end of the year was also the time when people needed to be most vigilant. There were many instances of thieves targeting families who had prepared their New Year goods, sneaking in at midnight and stealing everything.
So, everyone no longer had any complaints and began to stand guard diligently.
Seeing how easily her father had resolved the matter, Jiang Wan couldn't help but give him a thumbs-up, which made her father quite proud for a while.
With the matter of standing guard properly arranged, Jiang Wan sent out the little pony.
The little pony, having shed its smaller form and grown several times larger, carried a bag of grain in its mouth and flew into the depths of the mountain forest, beginning to scatter grain along the way.
Before long, there was movement in the mountain forest. A deer that had come out to forage followed the grain and walked towards the village.
The little pony waited for it to pass before scattering more grain behind it, waiting for the next wild animal to fall for the trap.
At the village entrance, Jiang Pan rubbed his face with his gloved hand, occasionally glancing in the direction of the mountain forest.
Just as he was wondering in his heart if the method would work, the deer poked its head out of the mountain forest.
The village was not far from the mountain forest. Jiang Pan was worried that the men on guard would get excited and scare the deer away, so he quickly made a shushing gesture to them and then pointed towards the mountain forest.
Following his direction, a few men looked and immediately became excited, but they still restrained themselves and did not cry out.
The deer was also cautious. Seeing that it had emerged from the mountain forest, it hesitated and wanted to retreat.
However, it was too hungry and couldn't resist the temptation of the grain, so it moved forward step by step.
The men's eyes widened, wondering why it was behaving this way.
Jiang Pan was prepared. He took out the bow he had bought a few days ago, nocked an arrow, and when the deer was within his sure shooting range, he shot the arrow without hesitation.
In the dark night, the whistling sound of the arrow cutting through the air was very distinct. The deer sensed something was wrong and turned to escape, but it was too late.
The arrowhead accurately pierced its skull. It struggled a few times unwillingly before falling to the ground.
"Deer blood is a good thing, quickly, carry it back to collect the blood!"
"Don't move yet, it seems something else is coming!"
Everyone quickly looked in the direction of the mountain forest and saw a wild boar snorting and running out.
As soon as the wild boar saw people, instead of running away, it became very excited and charged forward. The men quickly grabbed their weapons and began to fight the wild boar.
With some experience from hunting with Yang the hunter and their experience in eliminating the wolf pack, the men had gained quite a bit of skill. Therefore, the not-so-large wild boar was soon severely wounded and dragged into the village by the men.
Jiang Wan wanted to let the little pony scatter more grain, but the pampered creature refused to go any further.
Seeing how it was shivering from the cold, Jiang Wan felt reluctant to enslave it any longer. She could only let it rest for now and talk about it tomorrow.
The next morning, the news that wild animals had come down to forage last night and were caught by the villagers quickly spread. Everyone rushed to Jiang Wan's house to watch the excitement.
They had been stranded here for a month. During this month, everyone had lived very frugally. Now, seeing meat, their eyes were almost glued to it.
Someone shamelessly stepped forward and asked, "Village Chief, is this wild boar meat to be divided equally among everyone?"
Although only a few people asked, everyone's eyes were filled with hope.
Jiang Pan, while directing people to process the wild boar, said to the crowd, "Not for now."
A man immediately said, "Then let me stand guard tonight!"
This way, if he encountered any wild animals and caught them, his own family would have meat to eat.
Hearing this, other men also eagerly expressed their desire to stand guard.
Jiang Pan smiled and said, "Don't rush, you'll all have a turn to guard. When I say not for now, I mean we'll store all this meat. There are plenty of wild animals in the mountains. Let's find a way to lure them down the mountain, try to catch more, and then distribute it to everyone per head. We'll celebrate a good New Year together! When spring comes and the snow melts, we'll head to Jiangnan as quickly as possible!"
Upon hearing this, the villagers immediately cheered happily.
To be honest, since Jiang Pan became the village chief, their lives had indeed improved considerably.
It wasn't that the old village chief was bad, but he was old and rigid in his ways, unwilling to take risks. Unlike Jiang Pan, during the two months he had been village chief, although the days of fleeing famine were hard, everyone had never worried about their livelihood.
Most importantly, no one in their group had died!
They had experienced bandits and wolf packs. Apart from the old village chief being injured by Jiang Er, there had been no casualties. If this were to be told, it would likely shock others.
But, this was the reality.