Chapter 9 Chapter 1 Old Beijingers' face is priceless

I remember one time, a French radio station came to Beijing with sophisticated and advanced recording equipment, preparing to record a sound that best represented old Beijing.They spent a long time, consulted a lot of information, and went through on-the-spot investigations, excluding the bell of the Telegraph Building, the noise of the crowd riding bicycles when going to work in the early morning, the cries of vendors, etc., and finally chose and successfully recorded it. Pigeon whistles over Beijing. Pigeons are the symbol and symbol of old Beijing and the most representative thing in Beijing culture.The high obsession with the pigeons of the old princes Baylor, the royal family and the relatives of the Eight Banners, and the influence of the wealthy businessmen and even the common people, made the old Beijing ornamental pigeons form a separate strain, with a variety of names, and determined meticulously. At the same time, the meticulous evaluation standards have created the noble lineage of the old Beijing ornamental pigeons.

There is a saying that foreigners like natural beauty, while Chinese people admire deformed beauty.Since ancient times, bonsai, rockery, Jingba, goldfish, including women's foot binding are all examples of Chinese people's advocacy of deformed beauty, among which the old Beijing ornamental pigeon is a typical example.The original pigeon has a gray body, a small head, a long beak and a small nose, while the old Beijing ornamental pigeon has undergone years of improvement and directional training, and has formed the current square head, short beak, and big nose, and has various plumage colors, which are obviously different from the original pigeon. And out-blood ornamental pigeons.Regardless of whether this statement is correct or not, in short, there has never been a shortage of obsessed with old Beijing ornamental pigeons in history.

Of course, this includes me. I came into contact with ornamental pigeons when I was in the second grade. At that time, I lived in a large courtyard. My classmate and neighbor, Fa Xiaoer, had an unused small west room in another courtyard. to ten square meters.We used to take out the keys from his house and go to the little west room. At that time, the little west room was our toy room. There was a lovebird, a yellow sparrow, two little rabbits and three little chickens hidden there. Cubs—both of us saved from food and money.One day he ran to my house and told me mysteriously that there was a pigeon market near Madian, and we wanted to go and have a look together, so the two of us took all our savings and set off.

At that time, the Madian Pigeon Market was on a pitted mound, and it seemed that there was a section of the old city wall nearby, which was dilapidated. Now it is inferred that it should be near the current Yuan Dadu site.The most obvious building in the surrounding area is the building of a cancer hospital. The surrounding area is desolate, and only the pigeon market is lively. People walking, pushing carts, carrying pigeon cages, and carrying pigeons are all talking and bargaining with great interest. .There are quite a few of them, not to buy or sell, but to show off in the market with a few of their own high-quality pigeons. While chatting with their friends, they are content to listen to the praise of others and accept the envy. vision.

And the two of us were already dazzled at this time, seeing, hearing, and asking, trying to absorb as much information as possible.Only this time did we really know what Dianzi, Tielonger, Mohuaner, Wutou, and Tieyibai are - finally after repeated bargaining, we finally emptied our own pockets and offered three yuan plus ten catties With the price of food stamps, I bought a pair of ideas, and happily took one home with each hand. After entering the small West Room, the two of us got busy. First, we found an abandoned cabinet, cleaned it up, and then made a nest mat with straw curtains thrown by other people’s houses. Then we went back to each house to steal food.Rice, millet, mung beans, and red beans are mixed together a little bit. As for the drinking water cans, they are not so particular. Picking up two cans from the garbage station, cleaning them and putting them there, it looks very regular.In order to prevent the pigeons from flying around the house, we found tape to wrap the wings. After everything was arranged, we sat by and watched. The pigeons stretched their heads to eat and drink water, which was the greatest reward for us. We felt that all our efforts were not in vain. It's worth the risk, the money, and the trouble!

In fact, based on our little understanding of pigeons at that time, the interest in this idea will gradually fade after a period of time.But who would have thought that after less than two weeks of breeding, the pair of pigeons began to pick up grass to build a nest, and within a few days, they laid two eggs, and they started to hatch eggs in turn!This caught us off guard, without mental preparation, without knowledge and experience in this area, and we were immediately blinded.In desperation, we started the first independent social public relations in our lives.In the alley, only three doors away from my house, there is a neighbor who raises pigeons. Usually we rarely go to that yard, because the idea instilled in children at that time is that people who carry cages and birds are social idlers, and dogs and pigeons are raised. They are not good people, so I have never dared to contact these people.But this time it won't work, I'm an expert, and I have to ask him all the questions about pigeons, call him a teacher, so I can only bite the bullet and go to that yard, chatting with people in fear.Only after getting in touch did I realize that they were a young couple in their thirties, the man was a worker, the woman was a shop assistant, and there was a little girl over three years old.Because of the man's genetics, as long as a boy is born, he will die when he is five or six years old. Therefore, the two sons before him have passed away, and the couple love their daughter very much like a baby.It is also for this reason that they especially love little boys, and they are very happy that there are always two little boys visiting at home for no reason.

With the patient help of the teacher, we learned that pigeons only lay two eggs at a time. Usually, the first egg is a male and the second egg is a female.The hatching period of pigeon eggs is 18 days. After hatching, the young pigeons do not need to be fed artificially. They are fed by the parents in turn.In the early stage, it is liquid food, called pigeon milk. In the middle stage, it is semi-digested food. In the later stage, it is directly fed to the young pigeons after eating by the parent pigeons. The cubs can eat by themselves in about a month.With this knowledge, we felt much more at ease, and followed the instructions of the teacher step by step, patiently waiting for the young pigeons to break out of their shells, and then watched the parent pigeons feed their sons and daughters one bite at a time.At the same time, we experienced the hardships of being parents and the difficulty of growing up as a small life-this experience is also the beginning of my true understanding and love for pigeons.It is also this experience that changed my initial impression of the pigeon breeder, shortened the distance between us and him, and made us admire him, appreciate him, and respect him from the bottom of our hearts.

I became a frequent visitor to the teacher's house, and I often went to his house to see how he fed and tamed the pigeons.Taming pigeons is actually the process of letting them fly. Now it is called taming and releasing, but it used to be called Frisbee.Ornamental pigeon Frisbee is for the breeder to train the formation, height and speed of the pigeons in the air by means of food control, water control, and driving.As the old saying goes, the more people eat, the more gluttonous they become, the more they sleep and become lazier. The same is true for pigeons.Therefore, people who raise pigeons can't sleep late, they have to get up at dawn.Because the release in the morning is the most important and the most satisfying for the feeders.

A pigeon that has slept all night wakes up in the morning with the most energy and energy. When it comes out of the cage, it will be a cloud for a long time. It is as big as a group of ants in the air. It makes people stare at it. It can fly for more than half an hour.Of course, this has to be strictly domesticated, especially for young pigeons that have just laid their nests, the flying time must be strictly controlled, step by step, and if there is a slight mistake, it may be lost in the flight. This is a very common thing during the release process. One Sunday at noon, after dinner, I came to the teacher's house, wanting to see his frisbee and listen to him talk about pigeons, but as soon as I entered the courtyard, I saw him looking up at the sky with an anxious expression on his face.I looked closely at all the pigeons falling on the house, and there was none in the sky. "Did you lose it?" I asked. "Well, the ink ring that just came out of the nest, turned around twice, and it was quite stable. I don't know why it suddenly went north and stuck down." Hearing this situation, I also became anxious in my heart, but I can only keep it in my heart, I can't say a word, even the teacher has nothing to do, what can I do as a student?Besides, the course I studied is far from here, so I can only stare blankly.After looking at it for about ten minutes, he said to me: "You help me keep an eye on it, I will go to the north to look for it." He pushed his bicycle and walked out.

Cycling to find a pigeon that flew away, now you feel incredible, isn't it like finding a needle in a haystack?But it was so normal at the time.A few yuan, a dozen yuan, or even dozens of yuan for a pigeon is the monthly salary of an ordinary person!What's more, good pigeons can't be bought with money, so it was common for the owner to ride a bicycle dozens of miles to find a lost pigeon.This Mo Huan'er is quite good in appearance, and it was bred by the teacher himself, so I am really unwilling not to make the last effort. After he explained a few words to me, the cart was just about to go out, and I, who had been looking up at the sky, suddenly saw a white dot appearing and disappearing on top of the clouds, flying high and fast. , I yelled: "Is this it?" Strange to say, people who raise pigeons can accurately recognize their pigeons no matter how high the pigeons fly.After hearing the shout, the teacher only glanced at the sky, threw away the bicycle and ran to the pigeon nest without saying a word, caught a pigeon that was hugging the nest, held one side of the body with one hand and shook it up and down, and let the other side of the wing free Fanning - this trick is called "give pad" in jargon (I don't know which word it is, and the origin can't be verified), the purpose is to attract the attention of flying pigeons. When pigeons chase the flock, they must Will take a closer look.This trick really works!Originally, the pigeon had already flown over the small courtyard, but after giving it a cushion, the pigeon suddenly made several rapid dodging and turning movements, then drew an arc in the air, pierced the ground like an arrow, and landed instantly. When she landed on the pigeon nest, she was terrified and flustered. It was the beautiful little Mo Huan'er.

At this time, the teacher was not in a hurry. Although the little pigeon kept looking around nervously and fluttered its wings several times, but he watched the pigeon without moving, and whispered to me: "Don't move! Let it calm down." My son." We waited like this for more than ten minutes, and the little pigeon gradually calmed down and went back to its nest to lie down.At this time, the teacher went to grab the pigeon and looked around, and saw a small piece of blood near the pigeon's crop. Blowing away the white feathers, there was a small hole in the skin, and a lead bullet was embedded in the meat.He quickly took out the lead bullets, went back to the house and brought red medicine to apply to the pigeons, then found two small boxes, filled them with water, put the pigeons in a separate nest, closed the door and lit a cigarette. , Then he said with confidence: "It's okay, this time the pigeon will never be lost again!" I have been watching him treat the pigeons just now, and now I have the opportunity to express my doubts about the whole incident.After his reasoning and narration, he finally understood the truth and understood the little pigeon's every move just now.It turned out that during the release, the pigeon was hit by an air gun and flew north in a panic. After the pain subsided, the strong desire to return made it turn around and return to find its own home.In order not to get shot, it flew high into the clouds, away from the range of the air gun, but in a panic, it flew over the small courtyard of its own house. After noticing the "pad", it saw the signal of the owner clearly, and turned over and dodged a few times. It is to avoid bullets, confuse the imaginary enemy on the ground, and then quickly pass through the dangerous area and land on the roof of your house-what a smart little guy!So far, there is only one thing I don't understand. Why do you say it won't fly away from now on?The teacher confidently told me that since then, the little pigeons will always be vigilant and pay close attention to their own position when they are released.Because it knows that only home is the safest. It is very common to lose pigeons, and it is also common to catch pigeons, and this loss is one of the important reasons why pigeon breeders are so fascinated by pigeons.The anxiety when the pigeons are lost, the excitement and joy of finding them again; the wits and courage when catching the pigeons, and the discouragement after failure; all these give the breeder a strong psychological stimulation, which makes a huge contrast in the mood instantly.Therefore, pigeon breeders at that time would often fight and even kill themselves.Because losing pigeons not only means the loss of the beloved, the loss of money, but more importantly, the loss of craftsmanship and face, and the face of old Beijingers is not exchanged for gold.