Chapter 70 Chapter 34 Winemaking

On the third day, people from the next-door village came to ask Zhang Enpu to take a look, saying that they wanted floating gauze lanterns.Liu Dashao was surprised when he heard it, so he asked Zhang Enpu what a floating gauze lantern was. Zhang Enpu smiled and said that he would know when he arrived.The location is still by the pond in front of Yusuo's house.All the fish that came up in the pond yesterday were caught by Uncle Yusuo with a net and transported to the market for cheap sale, and the diesel oil floating on the water was also released.The people in their village had been waiting there for the arrival of Zhang Enpu's master and apprentice.

Zhang Enpu came to the edge of the pond and nodded to them, saying that they can start now.But seeing him lit a stick of incense and stuck it in the ground by the pond, he picked up some paper money and lit it and threw it in the air, muttering something in his mouth, Young Master Liu didn't hear clearly what he was chanting.Zhang Enpu went to the other side of the pond to repeat the actions just now. After all the preparations were completed, Zhang Enpu went down to the steps of the pond, where Tian Yusuo and the others took a bath the day before yesterday.Yusuo's parents spread a piece of straw paper on the water, and then put five white gauze lanterns on the straw paper. Zhang Enpu held a large handful of lit paper money and threw it into the pond, saying in his mouth: "Life is hard!" My child, die early and reincarnate early, start a new life, go, go, go with peace of mind, don't find any substitutes, and accumulate some virtue for your parents."

The burning paper money was extinguished the moment it hit the water, and then Zhang Enpu said to Yusuo's parents, "Let it go!" Only then did Yusuo's parents slowly push the white paper filled with gauze lanterns to the center of the pond. The action that Yusuo's father and mother just made is called floating gauze lamp.The gauze lamp is composed of two parts: the lampshade and the wick. The lampshade is made of white paper, and the wick is made of boiled glutinous rice glued with a cotton thread soaked in kerosene. It is no different from an ordinary river lamp. The same, but with some differences.

The white paper that pulls up the gauze lamp is straw paper.Grass paper is very different from ordinary paper, it is much better than ordinary paper, and it is difficult to tear it apart. It can be seen that it is difficult to see at other times.Every few decades, when it is time to revise the ancestral genealogy, papyrus will be made again. Of course, the craft of making papyrus is rare now.And why put five gauze lanterns on the paper?That's because Yusuo was only five years old when he died.If people in their 70s and 80s are drowned, then 70 or 80 gauze lanterns should be placed. Relatively speaking, the area of ​​the papyrus should be wider.When the gauze lantern was pushed to the center of the pond, the papyrus began to sink because it was soaked in water, and the gauze lantern floated on the water and continued to burn.The people on the shore all looked towards the center of the pond, mourning for the jade lock in their hearts, until finally the gauze lanterns floating on the water sank slowly, and the gauze lanterns that were slowly extinguished also disappeared on the water surface.

After floating the gauze lantern, under the guidance of Zhang Enpu, Father Yusuo threw a duck with a weight tied to its foot into the pond.There is a saying in the Northeast that a person who can't swim is a weighing mound, and it sinks when thrown into the water, while ducks are good swimmers.The duck that was thrown down soon sank into the pond, and after a while, a string of blisters began to appear in the pond, which was the duck's breath.The strings of bubbles were floating, and it was obvious that the duck was struggling under the water.Ducks are very good at water, but no matter how hard they struggle at this moment, they cannot escape the fate of being drowned.Throwing a duck into the pond is to sacrifice to the water ghost, and it is also to dissolve Yusuo's grievances, to make him feel more balanced, so that he can have a companion down there, so as to protect the pond from happening again.

Strange things happen every year, especially that year. So many strange things happened that year.First, there was the Jiuxian passage in Baibalzi's house, and then Xiao Mazi was scared out of his soul by a ghost.China has a long history of brewing wine. "Shuowen Jiezi" said: "In ancient times, Yidi made wine mash, Yu tasted it and it was beautiful, so he Shuyidi. Du Kang made rice wine." Counting from the time of Yu, there have been more than five or six thousand wines in China. Years of history, in sync with the development of Chinese civilization.There are many records about wine in the ancient books of our country, and in literature and historical works of more than 3,000 years, almost all cannot do without wine.Legend has it that the subjugation of Xia Jie and Shang Zhou all resulted from greed for wine.The earliest extant wine in our country was unearthed from the tomb of the Shang Dynasty.Archaeologists in Xinyang, Henan Province discovered the ancient wine in the tomb of the Shang Dynasty in Tianchao, Zhangxiang, Luoshan Mang. After a series of chemical changes, the aroma of the ancient wine has not yet evaporated, which is still an inexplicable miracle.

Alcohol is said to be a gut-piercing poison. Even so, there are still many, many people who love to drink, and it may be a good thing to be drunk.For weddings and funerals, wine is indispensable on the table. The white bald man in the village likes to drink very much. I heard from him that he often stole the family's wine to drink when he was young, so that when his family found out, he would inevitably get a spanking.Of course, White Bald's wife can also make wine.Liu Laoshi once said that the wine made by Mrs. Bai tastes very good, and many people in the village like to exchange rice for wine at her house.

Authentic mountain wine, real rice wine.However, it happened just as the winter was approaching that year. After breakfast that morning, Liu Laoshi said to Young Master Liu, Young Master, tell your mother to measure a liter of rice later and go to Sister Bai's house to order some wine.After hearing this, First Young Master Liu agreed, because he knew that he could go to Goudan's house to play with him later. When Young Master Liu arrived at Bai Tuzi's house, he saw Mrs. Bai was busy by the stove behind the house, and she had been brewing wine since dawn.Seeing Young Master Liu holding a jug in his hand, Sister Bai smiled and said to him: "Young Master, go play first, don't run too far. The wine will not be out of the pot until noon. I'll call you when I'm drunk."

Young Master Liu was even happier when he heard that the wine would not come out of the pot until noon, so that he could have fun all morning.Near noon, Young Master Liu was hungry, and he thought it was time for the wine to come out, so he and Xiao Mazi went to the stove at the back of the house to watch Sister Bai make wine.When I came to the stove, I saw Mrs. Bai picking up a spoon and stretching it out to the wine spout to scoop up a scoop of wine to taste, shaking her head and pouring out the wine again. He knew that the wine was not yet ripe, so he went with Xiao Mazi again He went to play in the house.

In less than ten minutes, Young Master Liu heard Sister Bai calling his name from behind, and he and Xiao Mazi went to the stove again.Young Master Liu handed over the jug with a grin, and Sister Bai laughed and said, "It's been a long time since I roasted such a fragrant wine." When the jug was full of wine, Young Master Liu returned to Went home for lunch. Two or three hours later, Baldy Bai ran to Young Master Liu's house out of breath and said to Liu honestly, "Brother, go and have a look quickly, something strange has happened!" Liu Laoshi, who was chatting with Zhang Enpu, asked him: "Brother Bai, what happened?"

The white bald man gasped and said, "Wine, wine." Liu Laoshi continued to ask: "What's the matter with the wine? I was just about to say that the wine my sister-in-law stewed today is more fragrant than before, really." Zhang Enpu also nodded in agreement, it seems that he also tasted some. Bai Bald said: "Brother, quickly take out all the wine jars in your house and lend them to me to hold wine, hurry up!" Liu Laoshi took Bai Baldzi to his house to find a wine jar without saying a word.After a while, two wine jars were found, which were cleaned by Wang Chunhua a few days ago and prepared to pickle kimchi for more than ten days. Liu honestly said to him: "Brother, enough is enough!" Baldy Bai said, "I don't know if it's enough." Liu Dashao and Zhang Enpu who were on the side were stunned after hearing this, and said in surprise at the same time: "Why, isn't it enough?" "Didn't my sister-in-law never borrow jars for roasting wine before? What's the matter today?" Bai Baldzi said honestly to Liu: "Brother, I don't know what happened today, but this wine has been dripping all the time! Go and see what's going on." Liu Laoshi's family all came to the stove at the back of his house. As soon as Mrs. Bai saw Zhang Enpu, she said, "Master Zhang, today is really strange. This wine has been dripping all the time! I put all the jars in my house and It's not enough even if it's full, don't you think it's strange!" Zhang Enpu saw that several jars filled with wine had been placed by the stove, so he said to her: "It's really a bit strange, I have stayed here for a while, as far as I know, you usually roast wine At most, it’s just two or three jars.” Sister-in-law Bai nodded again and again: "Yes." Liu honestly thought about it and said to her, "Sister-in-law, did you put too much rice, or too much cake medicine (yeast)?" Sister-in-law Bai quickly shook her head and said, "No, there's not the same amount of rice, pancakes and medicines as usual. It's really strange." Then she said to Baldy Bai, "Then, change the jar quickly." Seeing this, Liu Laoshi stepped forward to help, and Bai Tuzi removed the jar full of wine and replaced it with the jar just brought from his home. Young Master Liu asked Zhang Enpu: "Master, what is going on?" Zhang Enpu thought for a while and said to everyone with joy on his face: "No wonder, it turned out to be like this!" Several adults asked Zhang Enpu, "No wonder why?" Zhang Enpu looked a little excited and said, "This is the Jiuxian aisle." "Jiu Xian aisle?" Several people were taken aback. Young Master Liu said to Zhang Enpu: "Master, can't it be such a coincidence?" "It must be Jiuxian's aisle!" Zhang Enpu nodded and said, "I've heard of such things before, and the situation is the same as now, Mr. Bai, I didn't expect Jiuxian to walk in your house." Baldy Bai and Sister-in-law Bai were confused. Xiao Mazi then asked First Young Master Liu: "Young Master, what is the Jiuxian Pass?" Liu Dashao explained: "Jiu Xian's aisle is when Jiu Xian goes down to the mortal's house to be a guest. Generally, it is very difficult to encounter such a thing, it all depends on chance. Jiu Xian is the great immortal who is in charge of all the wine in the world. The owner of the house happens to be roasting wine again, and the Jiuxian will cast a spell on the wine pot, so that there will be endless wine in the wine pot until there is nothing to hold the wine in the house. Just pour water on the pot , the funnel below will leak wine, and the leaked wine is more fragrant than the wine baked at any time before, and the wine has been flowing out continuously, just like a mountain spring. But the most important thing is not to waste Wine, even if you don’t have a jar of wine at home, you can borrow it from someone else’s house. Therefore, when the Jiuxian walks in the aisle, someone must be by his side. If the wine is wasted, the Jiuxian will be unhappy when he sees it, and he will not let it go again. Give the wine." Liu Laoshi was very surprised to hear it from the side, and then he understood why the wine was more fragrant than before, so he asked Zhang Enpu, "Brother Zhang, what if there is no more wine jars to hold it? Then don't leak it on the ground." ?” Sister Bai also nodded and said, "Yes." Zhang Enpu laughed and said, "I'll tell you later, okay?" Everyone naturally nodded. Zhang Enpu said to Liu Honestly: "Brother Liu, go back and bring all the wine jars at home." Liu Laoshi and Bai Tuzi went to get wine jars at home.Xiao Mazi sang and danced around the wine stove and said, "Oh, oh, a lot of wine, a lot of wine." It took several hours to fill up all the jars.After filling the last jar, Zhang Enpu said to Young Master Liu, "Young Master, let's do it for you." Young Master Liu nodded and said to the wine pot with a smile, "That's enough, that's enough, no more, there's nothing left to hold wine." Everyone watching from the side was surprised, only to see that the bamboo tube that leaked wine actually stopped leaking wine. The bald man counted the jars and said: "There are eight jars of wine in total, haha, there will be no need to roast wine for half a year next year." Sister-in-law Bai watched from the side, her heart was full of joy, and she asked Young Master Liu: "Young Master, why didn't the wine stop leaking once you shouted no more?" Liu Dashao smiled and said to her: "Because we don't have any jars to hold wine anymore, if there are no jars to hold wine, we will say no to the wine pot. If this is the case, Jiu Xian will naturally not let the wine pot drip. Alcohol." Only then did Mrs. Bai understand why Zhang Enpu didn't answer how he could stop it earlier. It was because if the Jiuxian heard this sentence, he would mistakenly think that their family didn't want alcohol.But Mrs. Bai still didn't quite understand, so she said to Young Master Liu, "If we don't have any jars at home, we can borrow them from other people's homes." All the adults present laughed, and Zhang Enpu stroked his beard and said: "The matter of the Jiuxian aisle cannot be mentioned to outsiders. The fewer people who know about it, the better. If you go to someone else's house and borrow a jar to say something that has leaked, Jiuxian will know." He won't be happy if he does, and he'll stop leaking." "Then don't everyone in our family know about it?" "Neighbors can occupy the light." Zhang Enpu explained. Everyone nodded, but they still didn't understand the mystery. Bai Bald said honestly to me: "Brother, you can take three jars of wine. I drink alone in my house. Besides, I can't drink so much wine even if I drink it alone for half a year." Liu Laoshi said to him: "Brother Bai, I only need two jars. I only drink at night. You can't do without alcohol for three meals a day. You should keep six jars for yourself." As a result, it took several months for Liu Laoshi and Zhang Enpu to drink the two jars of wine in Liu's house, and it took more than half a year for Bai Tuzi's house to drink the six jars of wine.Since then, there has never been such a thing as the Jiuxian aisle in their family. Rice is planted for two seasons in the Northeast, and early rice seedlings start more than ten days after the end of the new year.The late rice was only planted after July and a half. When the early rice was transplanted, cuckoos could be heard all over the mountains and fields. Farmers said in the fields: "Huoxiang Bapo, Bayou Grandma." The pronunciation is very similar to the cry of a cuckoo.The late rice is only transplanted in the middle of July and a half, and the early rice has just been harvested at this time, and it is extremely busy. This period is called double rush and busy farming. When I was young, my elders always said that every grain is sweat, and we must cherish the grain.He also told me that he said that in the past 60 years, he even ate the bark, but now people still think that the food is not good when they have food.I really don't know the suffering of people who have been here! After hearing this, First Young Master Liu got into the horns and said to Liu honestly: "Our family harvests so much grain in a year. Did you and your mother really sweat so much? You even ate bark at that time. Is that bark eaten by humans?" After Liu Laoshi heard what Young Master Liu said, he couldn't laugh or cry.Straw can be of great use.The larger use is that they can be used to grow oyster mushrooms, and the smaller use is that they can be thrown in pigpens and cattle pens, so that pigs and cattle will not be cold in winter.Every household collects the straw from the paddy fields and forms a pile for later use, because the straw will not be available until the second year when the late rice is harvested. The early rice is not good, and the early rice straw must be thrown in the field. Making fertilizer here is a bit like the meaning of fallen leaves returning to their roots. The old Liu family also has a bunch.It was that pile of straw that started the thing. That morning, Xiao Mazi and Goudan set up mother's meal (play house) in the small valley behind the house.Xiao Mazi stole matches and some bowls and chopsticks from his house. He had told First Young Master Liu before that since it was serving mother's meal, he had to look like it. There is a pile of grass next to the small valley, which is more than two meters high. The straw surrounds a tree that has lost all its leaves. The grass pile belongs to Liu Laoshi's family.It just so happened that Young Master Liu caught a cold that day. Young Master Liu was working in the field. After a few hours, he could see thick smoke billowing from the sky above his house from a distance. Liu Laoshi yelled that it was not good, threw down the hoe, and rushed towards home.When I was about to get home, I realized that there was no fire in the house, but the pile of straw in the small valley behind.When everyone walked to the pile of straw, they saw that the pile of grass had turned into a pile of ashes, and the tree was also burnt black and disfigured, and the tree was burned into a charcoal. Poked in there alone.