Chapter 4 Iron-armed Dayuan "Cricket"

When I was four or five years old, I was not yet at the age of school. Every morning, when my throat was bright, I would get up and practice martial arts with Ma Wenliang, the martial artist at home. I couldn’t learn three moves and two styles, so I forced him to take me to Xiaoshi to catch weeds and insects. , so that you can bring it back to feed the birds.It is said that birds that can speak and whistle, such as chins and starlings, must be given live food so that their feathers can be smooth and their whistles can be crisp. Grasshoppers, mantises, and other bugs were caught. Once, two miniature crickets were poured out of the pocket of grass bugs. Their calls were melodious and clear. I was reluctant to feed them to the birds, so I pretended to be them. In a matchbox, show it to grandma.Her old man knew the species of songbirds most clearly, and said that they were not small crickets called golden bells, but other species of crickets. There are many in the south of the Yangtze River, but they are very rare in Beijing and Tianjin.When I lived in Suzhou, every early autumn, there were golden bells ringing intermittently in the dark leather of the wall, and the sound waves were soft and beautiful, which was listed as an elegant play for orchids.People in the north don't know it as a golden bell, so they call it a golden bell. It's okay to call it a small cricket, but it's wrong to call it a golden bell.After finishing speaking, he took out a small box with exquisite and exquisite horn carvings and inlaid glass from the drawer, and asked me to move the pair of golden bells into the horn box to raise them. Only then did I arouse my interest in raising crickets.

When I started reading thread-bound books, I saw a word "蛬". The teacher pronounced it "Gong", and I only knew it was a kind of insect. Later, when I read "Erya", I realized that "蛬" is the oldest name for crickets.Even though crickets are small insects, they are especially favored by people, and they have been given several names. Literati and refined scholars call them "autumn insects" and "autumn crickets", and smart women in their boudoirs call them "promoting weaving" and "tending to weave". Southerners call it "cricket", northerners call it "cricket", and friends in this province also call it "oolong boy". Although the name of the word "cricket" is elegant, the sound is short and narrow, so everyone calls it cricket, which is more fluent and popular.

Catching crickets in the north is called digging, and in the south it is called Guan. When experts hear you are called catching crickets, they will know that you are a newcomer.Every year after the Mid-Autumn Festival, after the crops are harvested, the Qingqing Grassland can go to the countryside to dig out crickets.In Beiping, it is rare to ride alone when picking crickets. They always make friends with friends and go out of the city before closing the city gate. Prepare dry food, water bottles, flashlights, and medicines in advance, and bring a tool for picking crickets, long and short iron skewers. Baskets, iron-headed handcuffs, cricket covers, air pockets made of cold cloth, water bladders, small watering cans, matches, and dull lamps are all essential items.Experts in picking crickets should have light hands and feet, and a good ear tone. As soon as they hear the insects, they can conclude that the cricket is strong, old and young.Although the cricket's body is small, it has a keen sense of hearing and is extremely slippery. When it hears the sound of footsteps, it presses its wings, and the rhythm of the original sound becomes far and near, making it confusing and confusing for the crickets to figure out the direction. , it escapes easily.

All crickets live in burrows. Whether it is a mound of soil, a crevice in a rock, or the entrance of a male cricket's (commonly known as Erwei) nest near the root of a tree, there is always a small area that should be kept smooth and clean to lure the female cricket (commonly known as Sanwei) to mate. .The person who digs the cricket looks for the direction, finds the cave, inserts the skewer in about half a foot away from the cave, shines a torch or a flashlight at the entrance of the cave, and shakes the skewer. The cricket is shaken and panicked. It must be three tails. It jumped out of the hole first, and immediately buckled it with the cover. After a while, Erwei also jumped out, and also buckled it with the cover.Crickets like to climb to the top of the cover. At this time, loosen the opening of the air bag, point the cover to the opening of the bag and blow on it, and the crickets will naturally jump into the pocket.It is not uncommon for experienced people to spend an average of 20 to 30 pairs in one night when they are lucky, but it is not uncommon for them to stay up all night for nothing.However, there is a little superstition about digging crickets. If you get nothing for one night, no matter how bad you are, you have to dig out a pair or two of banger heads, saying that they are pressed cans, otherwise you will not be able to get good crickets this season (banger heads are a pair of crickets). A species of cricket called Budou, which sounds like knocking on a clapper, so it is called Bangertou).Although this is a kind of letter, but friends who dig crickets keep it.

Experts with special experience in raising crickets divide crickets into four types, including four yellows, eight whites, nine purples, and thirteen greens, a total of thirty-four grades.Copper skin yellow is the best choice for the yellow species, white hemp head is the most outstanding for the white species, chestnut shell purple is the leader among the purple species, and blue jiechin is the champion among the blue species.In terms of color, white is not as good as black, black is not as good as purple, purple is not as good as yellow, and yellow is not as good as blue. Even so, in a certain color, there is a Batulu who is a great talent in the nest and will win the flag and win the championship. Not without it.In terms of shape, the skull and forehead must be square, the neck must be strong, the legs and shins must be long, and the wings can be spread to be considered the best. As for the head, the neck, the legs are short, and the feet are soft, they are inferior.About the various bandits listed in Jia Sidao's "Zhizhijing": pipa wings, plum blossom wings, green gold wings, purple gold wings, black cloud wings, Qilong wings, brocade coir raincoats, three sections of brocade, red bell moons, forehead incense, and colored nitrile bells The different names are all up to the breeder to brag about, and there is no certain principle.

The cricket's decisive battle can be calm and durable, which is the key to victory or defeat, and this has the most to do with the place where it grows.There is one of the most famous crickets in Suzhou, Master Shixi, who said: "Those born in shallow wet and warm soil have a soft nature; those born in rocky crevices and secluded rocks have a rigid nature; Those born on sandstone and dead wood are irritable, those born on gravel mounds and have a strong body must go forward bravely, be fierce and resistant to battle, and be the best choice for the general army." These sayings are based on the records of cricket spectrum in "Zhi Zhi Jing", plus It is very reliable to gather insights from actual experience and observation on the spot.

After classifying the crickets by size, weight, and color, the crickets with head tilting, tendrils, teeth chewing, and leg swinging are excluded, and then a male and a female that are worthy of use are put in a pot, and the crickets are put into a pot. Their jargon is called "potting", and they will not be impatient and have endurance until the official end.The first thing to raise crickets is to be careful and patient.Before using the cricket jar, you have to use sandy soil to hit the bottom (the Beiping cricket style always advocates using the fine sand soil from the walnut garden outside Pingzemen, saying that soft, hard and fine-grained soil is the most suitable, but in fact it is nothing more than cheating the owner with a few feet) , so as not to store water.Every morning when the dew is still wet, wash the jars first, then rinse the food and water jars, smash the edamame and put them in the food jars, and add clean water to the water jars. The morning dew on the leaves Next, I will drink it for my beloved autumn insects, saying that it can increase their strength.

Crickets have their own recipes for feed. Clam cakes, mandarin fish brains, goby eggs, gorgon meat, pine nuts, and tuckahoe leaves are all nutrients they use to strengthen the crickets' muscles and bones. There is also a "cage" in the cricket pot, which is about four fen high and six fen wide. There are holes at both ends for the crickets to come in and out.Because the anger in the new cage has not faded, the cricket's whiskers tend to become brittle, and they will bend after one or two rounds of hitting the bucket. Although it has nothing to do with the victory or defeat, it has a great impact on the momentum.

When it comes to cricket jars, there is more attention to it. Anyone who plays crickets knows that Zhao Ziyu’s jars are the best from south to north. Players must have more than half a table of real Zhao Ziyu’s jars to count (twelve for half a table). .Zhao Ziyu is a native of Sanhe County, Hebei Province. He has been burning cricket pots all his life. His family has a piece of land, and the soil is fine and smooth.There are two sizes, the big one is five inches round, and the small one is only three and a half inches. The cover is thick and five cents high.The bottom of the lid-bottom pot is burnt with the five characters "Ancient Yan Zhao Ziyu" in square script.

The author just learned how to raise crickets. When I was in Sheqin Zakdan’s house, I accidentally found that there was a flower wall in the middle of his house from the living room to the garden. Stacked with cricket jars.Zha's family was originally the hereditary Iron Hat Lord of the Qing Dynasty. There is a couplet on the gate of his mansion, which is the imperial pen of Shunzhi: the first couplet is "the mansion of the founding father"; the second couplet is "the first family to eliminate the king".Although the words are ordinary, but the tone is bold and bold. I think back how grand his family was in those days.

It is said that my ancestor loved fighting crickets the most. In his later years, he did not raise crickets, so he built the accumulated cricket pots into flower walls. He knew that I was raising crickets, so he said that the walls were made of ordinary pots. Give me a better one to play with.Unexpectedly, within a few days, he and his servants picked out a round caged cricket pot, a total of twenty-four cricket pots on the table, and delivered them to me personally.He told me that most of the products sold in the market with Zhao Ziyu's picture inscribed on them are fakes. Although all the products on the walls of his house are genuine products from Zhao's Kiln, they are ordinary products, and the ones given to me are high-quality goods! He pointed out to me that there was a small gourd engraved on the bottom edge of the can lid, and there was a seal script Zhao character embedded in the middle. All the gourds with Zhao characters were made by Zhao Ziyu's specially selected clay, and the total did not exceed four. Hundreds of dozens.It is said that in the early years, Zhao Ziyu offended a certain prince's mansion in Sanhe County. Not only did he want to send the official to punish him on the excuse, but he also used his power to deprive him of his piece of muddy land.Fortunately, Grandpa Zha had a piece of flag land in Sanhe, he heard his love and helped him, and he went to Wangfuguan to confess in person, and Zhao Ziyu's precious land was preserved.In order to express his gratitude, Zhao Ziyu never forgets to give Zha Engong a copy of any high-quality goods that come out of the kiln.I turned over the lids of the cricket jars that Zhafu gave me, and they all had the sign of gourds that were smaller than corn kernels.Le Yongxi from Tongrentang said: "I also have two gourd-marked Zhao Ziyu jars, which are eight yuan heavier than ordinary Zhao Ziyu jars." To fight crickets, you must use "stealers", also known as skewers, to fight. The most primitive is to use weaving grass, which is shaped like the dog's tail grass growing on the wall. One stem has four spikes, and it grows in opposite knots. It is everywhere in the green fields. grow.Every year at the end of April and the beginning of May of the lunar calendar, the grass grows to six or seven inches long. It is picked off, the fringe neck and the inner layer of the stem bark are peeled off, and there are a bunch of flexible and soft whiskers more than three inches long. After exposure to the sun and wind, the sharpness becomes more sharp. For softness.Steam it in a pot to remove its grassy smell, and after drying in the shade, use it to drive away its tail and twist its beard, which can not only trigger its fighting spirit, but also not hurt its beard and tail.Back then, cricket dealers sold this kind of skewers (called scouts in the south).Later, some people used their brains to take ivory or bone picks, and use yellow wax silk thread to wrap a few mouse whiskers as skewers, which is much better than promoting weeds.In order to show off extravagantly, the general cricket style is even more skillful, and the skewers they use are decorated with jewels to raise their own social status. The masters said: "The rat whiskers are divided into house mice and voles, male and female, old and young, and there are many tricks in them, which can affect the outcome of the battle." Those are the mysteries of the masters, so they refuse to Just tell anyone! Cricket fighting in ancient my country was originally a kind of entertainment for viewing its intelligence, vision, courage, physical strength, leg strength, tooth strength, and watching the insect generals fight their anger, gnashing their beards and teeth, and head-to-head confrontation. If it turns into betting on their success or failure, it will lose its entertainment value. During the Japanese occupation period in Taiwan, betting on crickets was very popular. In order to cover up the gambling behavior, it was called "Qiu Xing".Since it has the nature of gambling, there are naturally a lot of people who preside over this kind of gambling game. They are either the leisure class with improper money, or the sons of rich people who are a little bit sloppy.All in all, to open a gambling game, there must be triad figures in the way, and the Japanese criminal police must support it, otherwise there will be no downfall.The boss of the gambling game is called Zhazhu, and the city usually starts at night, while in the countryside it is during the day. As for the time and place, it is uncertain, and those who run errands can contact them at any time with secret codes, so outsiders can't see their secrets. In order to prevent being caught, the casino does not use cash. They all use special small bamboo brands as chips. One brand is called a stick.Some people don’t raise crickets and specialize in helping flowers, and the lottery they bet is bigger than the owner. If they win, the owner can in turn get some red from the helper. This kind of big helper is the most popular character in the casino.Winners get 10% of the betting lottery. The bigger the bet, the more bonuses they will get. Naturally, they are regarded as the God of Wealth.All of the above was told to me by a fellow headman in Ligang Township from his own experience. As for the crickets in Beiping, they seem to be friends with insects, but after the winner is decided, the loser will give the winner a few packs of tea.In the early years, there was a cricket bureau in the east, west, and north cities of Beiping. Among them, the one in the west city was the smallest, and the one in the south city was the largest.When the author was in school, although my family did not prohibit me from keeping crickets, I was allowed to play cricket fights with my classmates after school. Going to the cricket game to gamble is strictly prohibited.The Guandi Temple (commonly known as the Xiaolaoye Temple) in Xikou Fengsheng Hutong in Xicheng is only a hundred steps away from the house. One day, Yin Huanran, the director of the Second District of the Police Department, came to the dormitory for business. Before he left, he wanted to check in the nearby area. He took me out for a stroll, and we walked to the Xiaolaoye Temple.He wanted to go in and have a look, so I naturally followed in. The small arena in the temple was in full swing, and the Eight Immortals Table was crowded on the third floor and the third floor was airtight. The smell of alcohol and smoke made people want to vomit. Looking at it from a high stool, you can't really see it clearly, and you don't know who is winning and who is losing.Everyone sees that the director's presence is not a gamble, but he dare not be overly arrogant. The fight ended hastily, and I can say that it is a disappointment. The Cricket Bureau in Nancheng is located in Dongkuayuan of the Sanyi Old Shop of the Qianmen Wai Grinding Factory. One year, Qian Zilian, who was famous at the time as Nanba Tian, ​​went to Beijing from Luodai to come down to worship the festival.He is a partner of Sanyi Store, just in time for the cricket shop "Hongguo Li" and the persimmon cake Huang's in the cricket finals in Sanyi Store. I followed my ancestor for nearly twenty years, and when he said he would take me out of the city to listen to operas and go to a small restaurant, my grandmother would not be able to refute his face. The Cricket Bureau is set up in the five open halls across the courtyard of Sanyi Store. The windows are bright and clean, and it is a place for customers to drink tea and sit. .Although the house was kept very clean, the floor was not made of square bricks, but real new loess was used. It is said that it is the rule of the cricket bureau. I think it is true that the crickets are easy to find.In the middle of the room, there are two elm white ballast tables for the Eight Immortals (the unpainted tables are called white ballasts).In addition to the pen and inkstone account book, there is a delicate small balance in the middle. There is a thin copper wire cage that is polished and polished at one end, and the balance shelf at the other end is full of small weights. Send your pet to a notary to be weighed, and then register and note.The winner hangs the number of bags of black tea leaves, and the number of bags with the name of the red note must be recorded one by one, and the fight can only start when everything is ready. Both parties or those who followed the red bet sat around the table to watch the battle, everyone watched with bated breath, and there was no sound.The two parties put the cricket into the bucket basin, and the notary uses a skewer to fiddle with the cricket's tail, leading the two sides to face each other, and then uses the skewer to gently tease the tentacles of both parties, until they twist each other's whiskers and wag their tails, and enter the level of hand-to-hand combat.If the two sides are evenly matched and peck at each other, showing their big teeth and biting together, they can turn around twice without letting go.In the second round, the two sides were able to bite until the legs were broken and the beards were broken, and the big teeth protruded for a long time and could not be closed.The winner chases after the victory, flutters his wings and sings loudly, while the loser sprints along the basin, panicking and losing all his style.The winner is proud of the hero, and wins the lottery and criticizes the red. The loser is dejected, and the anger is so extreme that it can tear the cricket to pieces on the spot.In a blink of an eye, the difference between cold and warm is clear. Although this is a trivial way, I can immediately see how realistic and cold the world is. Beiping Dou Cricket uses a few small bags of tea to calculate the lottery. At that time, it was based on the value of copper dollars, which means that it was calculated based on the number of bags of tea in a bag of two, five, or ten coins.At that time, all major tea houses in Beiping, such as Donghongji, Wu Detai, Zhang Yiyuan, and Qinglinchun, could issue tea tickets. If you open a package of 800 packs, you are welcome. more convenient.There are big cricket-fighting households in Beiping, such as Hongguo Li’s in Yaxing, Gan’s in Waiguan, Le’s in Tongrentang, Qiu Laizi, Xu’s in Tianshoutang restaurant, and Yu Shuyan in Xusheng. The high rollers will come whenever there is a game.At the beginning of the game, each family selects the crickets for a discussion table (twenty-four cans count as one table). Although it does not necessarily end only in the end, the discussion table is so powerful that it can also win the first place.Every cricket probably has a name, such as Iron Head General, Invincible Master, Sai Lubu, and Yong Luocheng.Hongguo Li has a foot named Li Chuangwang. He won four or five thousand bags of tea for nine consecutive fights. With the rise of the Anti-Japanese War, the Japanese invaded North China, and there were fewer and fewer people with money and leisure. At most, there were occasional or ignorant urchins in the streets and alleys who took out a few crickets to fight each other for fun. became a historical noun. The first National Assembly was held in Nanjing, and the author stayed at the home of a family friend on Baixia Road, Nanjing. After dinner, we chatted, and we talked about fighting crickets.According to the Nianbo: "When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom established its capital in Jinling, cricket fighting became the most fashionable entertainment at that time because the Eastern King Yang Xiuqing was a fan of crickets. Yang Xiuqing lived in Bafutang Villa, and there was a Yuhu bead curtain specially designed for fighting crickets. Cricket's flower hall, in the middle of the hall, there is a platform of cloud and white stone, with four red steps for people to stand on. A large piece of bright tiles is embedded in the middle of the roof facing the platform for lighting. The skylights are sparse and the sky shines everywhere. It can be seen in detail. It is a pity that the old Riming Hall has been reduced to a bulk granary, otherwise it would have taken you to see the luxurious remnants of Qiongpu Danyuan in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the past!" Later, I made tea at a wild teahouse called Lanyuan outside Xumen, Suzhou, and found that he entered a small open hall with four windows and eight windows, and the roof was also illuminated with Mingjue tiles. It is said that this teahouse was a famous cricket bureau in Suzhou in its early years. , all the facilities were built in imitation of the Cricket Hall in the East Prince's Mansion, but the specifics are only minor.At that time, cricket fighting was still a kind of autumn activity in Suzhou, and the government had not yet explicitly banned it. Unfortunately, it was late spring and it was not the right time to go, so I had to wander around and look around for a while before returning. According to the records in ancient books, as far back as the early Tang Dynasty in China, some people in the court concubines began to raise crickets, but at first it was just a quiet palace, hanging on the railing and entertaining themselves by hearing the sound.Because crickets, the singing insects, can change their pitches according to the weather. Not only the ups and downs of the melody are varied, but also the melody is tactful, which makes people feel suspicious.In the cold autumn night, listening to the crickets, there is indeed an indescribable charm.In the Tianbao reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the romantic emperor was indulging in leisure and pleasure. Fendai in the harem had a habit of raising crickets. Evolved into the most popular gambling. When the Song dynasty moved to the south, Prime Minister Wei Guogong Jia Qiuhe (Sidao) was the most famous expert in raising crickets in history. Although the Jin soldiers invaded the South in a large scale, the military situation was urgent, and the feathers flew like snowflakes, he still took time off to raise crickets. He wrote a book "The Book of Crickets" by describing the pictures of crickets, ordering all states and counties to select different species of strange insects according to the books, and send them to Nandu with 100,000 urgent documents for his entertainment.He built a villa in Geling just for Dou Crickets, and named it Banxiantang, which means that he could only steal the spare time for self-entertainment in the midst of military affairs. Concubines fight crickets for fun.Foreign officials deposed, even depending on whether they had good seeds for their entertainment.Some historians of later generations believe that the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty was caused by Jia Sidao's fight with crickets. Although this is not the case, it cannot be said that it is completely unreasonable. Fu Zengxiang (Uncle Yuan), an old man in the Tibetan garden, has a very miscellaneous collection of books. He has a Ming edition of Jia Sidao's "The Cricket Classic", which was re-engraved by Xuande and was searched for from Liulichang Bookstore with a lot of money. The owner of Laixunge Bookstore Xu is An edition expert, he said that this is the only rare copy in China.This sentence was heard by Yuan Baocen (the second son of Yuan Shikai), and he borrowed it from the old uncle several times, planning to republish it, but he never got the approval of Mr. Yuanshu, so the "Cricket Classic" finally became rare in the world. Cheats are up. Emperor Xuande of the Ming Dynasty was a sensual and unrestrained emperor, and he also loved to play with crickets. Although he did not leave a special book on cricket music to promote weaving scriptures, he ordered the official kiln to burn white ground blue and white flowers. The cages, food jars, water jars, and bucket basins have all become rare treasures in the hands of cricket breeders in later generations. At the end of Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng captured Beijing, Fu Wang Yousong was supported by his ministers to establish Nanjing, Ma Shiying, a scholar of Dongge University, was not only incompetent and authoritarian, but also a cricket fan. Le, and even the outcome of the cricket, to determine the army's offensive and defensive advance and retreat.Even when the army was defeated and his home was ransacked, he never forgot his love for his beloved cricket, which earned him the nickname "Cricket Master". Yuan Zhonglang, who was good at writing essays in the Ming Dynasty, his essays are elegant and timeless, but he is also a master of raising crickets.One day, he and some friends went to the countryside to drink wild tea, and on the way home, the autumn grass was already setting and the smoke was everywhere.Passing by an ancient temple, I suddenly heard the chirping of autumn insects. It was loud and clear from afar. I knew it must be an excellent species. I searched for it, and the chirping sound fluctuated from far to near. I found that the cricket was hiding outside the temple gate, and most of one was buried in the grass. In the lion's mouth.According to the records in "The Cricket Sutra", all autumn insects living in the snails in the valleys must be brave and good at fighting. It would be a pity if they escaped.So he blocked the left and right mouths of the stone lion with a scarf sleeve, let the book boy run into the city to fetch a set of tools, and finally captured the bloody general.Yuan Zhonglang has an article "Animals Promote Weaving", which is said to be the inspiration for that time when he stood up for a long time! Yuan Jianzhai, an old man in Suiyuan, was also very interested in fighting crickets in addition to eating and drinking. It is said that he caught a cricket from the cracks in the corridor. Yonghou".After it died, a small coffin was specially carved out of ivory, and it was buried on a hill full of silver osmanthus outside the window of the study, where it can be used as a tribute at any time.Suiyuan is a well-known prolific writer, and there are many poems about crickets. He has a poem about fighting crickets: "Zu Kai sings a song of cymbals, drums its wings like a golden bell, and there are generals in Han Dynasty, but you are of the same clan." It is for him. Fighting crickets with a rich businessman in Qiantang, his "Wei Yong Hou" won a painting of "Boiling Tea Garden" by a Song Dynasty.In addition, he has about 20 or 30 quatrains chanting cricket poems and ancient style poems. People in Baixia call him the cricket poet, which can be said to be worthy of the name. After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, the author served in the Northeast, and once went to Chengde for business, passed by Ye Baishou, and stayed in a hotel.That hotel is a one-story house with a courtyard. I saw a pile of cricket pots at the bottom of the south wall. There were about thirty or forty cricket pots. Dong must be an expert in raising crickets.The rest of the war was not calm, and when the sun went down, everyone closed their doors and closed their doors. The road was quiet and crowded, and there was nowhere to go after dinner. I wandered to the cabinet room to chat with the cashiers, only to find out that the owner's surname was Kang. Ye Baishou's richest man, his family was in decline in the early Republic of China, and the old shopkeeper's only hobby was raising crickets.He has a cricket named "Golden Head General". He has won consecutive battles with Tang Erhu (probably Tang Yulin). After the death of "Golden Head General", he buried the cricket in front of the altar in his family's tomb. Although it was sealed but not a tree, a small stone tablet was erected to mark the success of "Golden Head General". .The green color of the Ye family's tomb is towering, and the ground is full of shade. In front of the Xunzhang Baoding, there is a small treasure roof that is not too tall, which is very dazzling.The tombs of the Ye family extend far and wide, and the cricket's tomb has become a landscape of Ye Baishou according to legend.It's a pity that I was embarrassed by official duties, so I couldn't go there to open my eyes. It is really rare to bury crickets in the arms of the ancestors! When I was a child, my family did not prohibit me from feeding crickets, but I was absolutely not allowed to participate in any gambling-related fights.The first teacher, Yan Yintong, was very strict in supervising the classes. He thought that flowers, birds, insects and fish were enough to play with, so he was not allowed to breed. My crickets were kept on two rows of stone steps in the corridor of the Shuangteng Bieyuan with the teacher on their backs. The teacher will not come.One day his Shiyi Guo Shiwu (a famous Tibetan porcelain master) wanted to see the two exquisite Taihu stones arched on the left and right in the courtyard of the old house with double vines. He found that there were all kinds of crickets on the stone steps. .On the second day, in the Song Dynasty Ci Anthology, Jiang Baishi's "Qi Tianle" and Zhang Gongfu's "Man Ting Fang" were all related to crickets. I copied each of the two poems three times in block letters on the white booklet, saying that the two poems have a high artistic conception, and I can only remember them firmly after copying them several times.In fact, it's just irony and punishment, it's just mutual understanding.Until now, Jiang Ci's "the west window is blowing dark rain again, for whom is it intermittent, and the anvil and pestle..." and Zhang Ci's "the moon washes the tall wu, revealing the grass..." all kinds of feelings still linger in my mind. ! The crickets in Taiwan seem to be more fat than those in the mainland. I saw a cricket fight at the market in Douliu Town, Yunlin County.Without fighting for gold, they saw the hemp bamboo as thick as a child's arm into two feet long, and cut it into two petals. Both sides put the cricket on their palms and knocked it, and the cricket jumped into the semicircular bamboo slice.There is only one road, there is no need to sweep the tail with a skewer, and there is no need to weave the grass and twist the whiskers. Step forward, and naturally face each other. With his feet up in the sky, he immediately let go of his mouth and walked away.Regardless of the size of the body of the Taiwanese cricket, the fighting spirit is much worse than that of the mainland crickets. Although the mainland crickets are short and powerful, they can continue to fight endlessly, and they are bound to bite the opponent until their legs are broken. Exhilarating indeed. After the flood in Wuhan in the 20th year of the Republic of China, the vegetation was dense, and birds and insects reproduced abnormally.In the second year, among the long acres in the fields, autumn insects chirped everywhere in Xinliang and dew cold. According to the elders, this is an inevitable phenomenon after the flood.As soon as the number of vendors selling crickets in the three towns of Wuhan increased, everyone became interested in raising crickets.Lu Hanyun, a well-known person in the financial circles in Hankou, was given a cricket named "Invincible King".For Liu Shaoyan of Jiji Hydropower Company, someone caught a golden cricket with two wings from the mouth of Ouchi and gave him a gift. He named it "Golden Winged Peng".Both of them were tycoons in the shopping malls in Wuhan, and they were also poker players in the club. When they were drinking, someone urged them to take out the confident and invincible General Chong to sober up.The two crickets were indeed veterans of the battlefield. They fought fiercely for four or five rounds. Although they were all exhausted, neither of them would back down.As a result, the "Golden Winged Peng" slipped on his left crotch and was sprained by the enemy. He was frightened and walked around the basin.Liu Shaoyan lost to wine first, and then to worms. In a fit of anger, he grabbed his golden-winged roc and swallowed it in one gulp.Later, friends in the club called him "Ma Shumou" behind his back (Ma Shumou, a famous general in the Sui Dynasty, was famous for eating children).I usually only heard that someone was defeated in a cricket fight, and hated to swallow the cricket alive, but I didn't expect it to be true, it was too cruel. This year, Hewan suffered a severe drought in summer, with no rain for dozens of days. Farmers lacked water to transplant rice seedlings, and the frequency of spraying pesticides in the fields decreased. As a result, crickets reproduced in large numbers.In the early years, Tainan's salt water town was famous for fighting crickets throughout Taiwan. There were many crickets and it was summer vacation, which aroused the interest of young people to go to the fields to collect crickets. It is not uncommon to be lucky enough to catch a dozen or twenty Erwei who can only fight and bite at a time.Several cricket fights have been held in Yanyan this year. The news was heard by a department store in Taipei, who immediately invited cricket farmers from Yanyan Town to form a second team of red and white. They brought a number of crickets capable of fighting to Taipei in an air-conditioned car. Hold a cricket contest for customers to watch.Because of the severe drought and the depletion of water sources, it is really unexpected for everyone to see the grandeur of fighting crickets that have been extinct for decades. Butou Township in Changhua is the main asparagus producing area in central China. This year, the crickets reproduced too rapidly, and the young asparagus shoots that just got out of the furrows were gnawed by them. As a result, when the bamboo shoot farmers paid the asparagus to the farmers association, the gnawing marks affected the export. , typed back the ticket.Someone from the farmer's association used their brains to come up with a method of catching crickets. They mobilized members of the four health groups and members of the farmer's association as the backbone, and selected a holiday to hold the competition. Hundreds.Some of them had a whimsical idea, washed the crickets with water, and used garlic, fermented soybeans, salt, pepper, and monosodium glutamate to sip the wine.According to people who have tasted this peculiar smell, it is similar to Tianjin people eating fried grasshoppers.No matter what the taste is, people who have played with crickets in the past think about it, and they always feel that burning the qin and cooking the crane would be a disservice to the scenery. If Qu Lingjun and Yuan Zicai were left underground, I don’t know how many wonderful sentences would sigh in their sympathy! I told the famous biologist Professor Xia Yuanyu about the news about frying crickets for drinking. He said: "There is a species of big cricket in Taiwan, commonly known as 'Earth Monkey'. It eats a lot and has strong destructive power. The same kind of different species, they probably eat earth monkeys.” I think that when I raised crickets, I had to eat a single edamame for two days, so how could it cause asparagus and become a catastrophic disaster!Now that I know it's two different things, I feel relieved.