It is said that in the southwest of Jinghai County, the fields are not soil, but full of gunpowder face.Scrape off the white nitrate that has dried up on the ground, mix it with sulfur charcoal, and it will be a bomb.In addition to salt and alkali, the fire in the soil is too strong, too strong, and the crops will not grow, and the weeds will die when they grow less than three inches; Black smoke comes out... But there is a kind of shrub-like Suaeda salsa, commonly known as red willow, but it survives in patches. Sometimes, for some reason, it all dies at once, and when it dies, it becomes red and red, like clumps. Hot flames.Looking at it in the sunset, it is quiet and bright, as if all the gunpowder in the ground is burning wildly.People rely on mountains to eat mountains, water to eat water, and gunpowder to eat gunpowder. They have come to many villages. Every household is a small workshop for making firecrackers and fireworks. , flesh and blood flying everywhere; bandits, roving soldiers, and miscellaneous troops often come here, not to grab food, but to grab gunpowder, and if they get it wrong, they will explode and kill people.So what is the temperament of the people here? Is it urgent, slow, tough, or fierce? As people often say: light a medicine letter and see.

Niu Bao, known as "Niu Bao who sells tank fish", is twenty-three this year, from Chenguantun: his ancestors are Shinto, and his name is as accurate as a fortune teller, and the word Niu Bao is everything to him.Let’s talk about a cow first, he is as strong as a cow, a pair of bull’s eyes that are always open and round, and he doesn’t seem to blink. He can't talk cleverly; besides, Bao, he was born with a pair of precious hands. Although they are short, thick and hard, and their palms are like meat pancakes, they learned a good painting from Yang Liuqing's grandmother's house. Expensive tank fish: a fat carp swinging its head and tail, paired with lotus flowers, which is more than enough year after year! The red fish, green water, golden lotus and pink lotus, at first glance, the pattern is rich, the lines are vividly engraved, and the colors are exquisite. There are many people who draw fish in tanks, but no one can learn this festive and exuberant vigor.Every year at the twelfth lunar month fair, many people are waiting for Niu Baolai, who "sells tank fish".As soon as he shows up, he sells everything. The money saved in the twelfth lunar month is enough for pocket expenses all year round.

On the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the big fair in Jinghai County is already a bit old-fashioned.Niu Bao carried 300 pieces of tank fish to the market, looking for a place where people flowed back and forth, stood for a while, sold it clean, and had nothing else to do, so he went to the Pao Market in the west of the top to watch the excitement. The gun market here is rare in the world.It was originally a river, but every autumn the river dries up, and the river mud freezes hard every year, so the riverbed has become a market for selling firecrackers.Niu Bao loves to watch this battle the most. Cars of firecrackers come from villages far and near, and they are all parked on the embankments on both banks. Stop, plug your ears with red cloth, lest you be frightened by the sound of cannons.Why use red cloth? Those who make firecrackers are desperate and full of disasters. It is said that red wards off evil spirits.People took their homemade firecrackers, walked down the embankment, went to the river bed to sit together, and competed with each other to win. Whichever firecracker was outstanding, naturally attracted many people. The eyes, the smoke choked the nostrils, and the continuous sound of cannons made the ears hurt.This fiery and ferocious energy made Niu Bao happy to watch, and he didn't realize that he got off the embankment, but before he reached the center of the firecracker array, his head was full of firecracker crumbs.

It was this woman who picked things up.The woman suddenly jumped into Niu Bao's eyes.How can it be said that this woman jumped into his eyes? She is still far away! But the most beautiful women in the world are not seen by you, but she jumps into your eyes with her own troubles and troubles.She was in her early twenties, with a big red cloth kerchief on her head, and a piece of black hair drooping on each side of her temples, like a crow's wings, sandwiching her small bulging face, which was red and white, bright and bright.She was so far away, how could Niu Bao see it so clearly? The soul was hooked! After a while, I finally realized that there was a donkey cart parked under an old willow tree with a crooked neck on the north embankment. She was sitting on a cart full of firecrackers covered with a big red quilt.There were two boys leaning on the station, one big and one small, each holding a long bamboo pole for whipping. Niu Bao didn't see what these two boys looked like.

He seemed to be riding a cloud, his feet could not be controlled by himself, and he walked towards the woman step by step in a daze.Looking at this woman is like looking at a flower, the closer you are, the more beautiful it is. The eyebrows, eyes and facial features can't be drawn so beautifully, and they are so clear, the white parts are snow white, the black parts are black, and the red parts are bright red, fresh and delicious like sheep intestine soup. Chong...Suddenly, a bamboo pole lay across in front of him, and Niu Bao was stunned to see clearly. It turned out to be the boy standing in front of the woman's car, the older one, probably eighteen or nineteen years old, with a round head and round brain. The square mouth is thick, and the plump mouth is as cold as if it was slapped with rouge in an opera, but it looks like a tiger, but it is a pity that it has a pair of single eyelids.The round-headed boy asked, "Are you a cannon buyer or a seller?" in a very rude tone.

When Niu Bao was about to reply, the boy's shoulders happened to be eye-to-eye with the woman's, and he felt that two deep wells, shining with skylight, were facing him, and he might fall into them.My heart was in a trance, and the words I said went off the rails: "Selling guns, what are you doing?" Where did he sell guns before? Why did he say that? If he made a mistake, he would be on the verge of death. The round-headed boy said: "This is the area where our Cai family sells firecrackers. If you want to buy firecrackers, I won't stop you; if you want to sell firecrackers, I'm sorry! You can let us have a look at it first. If you are stronger than us, this land will belong to you." After saying that, he pouted his lips to the sky.I don't believe that there is a boss in the world, and I don't believe that there is a second child.

Niu Bao came up with a surge of energy: I can't tell whether it's because of this kid's arrogance, or because of that woman's beauty.Anyway, he tops the bull.After listening to the boy with the round head, he turned his head and left, went to the center of the cannon market over there, walked around twice amidst the choking smoke and cannons, and found a whip seller, a big one.The thief made a noise and bought four hanging whips with thousands of heads. He also bought the big bamboo poles used by others at a high price, and returned to this round-headed boy. , Pick it up and hang it up, there is a burst of fire and smoke, and the sound is like thunder.It sounded like crackling and crackling, it was really a good whip! It provoked many people to gather around and applaud.But after the whip was set off, the round-headed boy stood still, his mouth still pouted, with a look of disdain on his face.Niu Bao looked at the whip he was hanging on the pole, and almost didn't laugh out loud; the small steel whip hanging on the hard paper roll was very small, like bean sprouts, while his big cha whip was the same as the little finger Thick, put together, I'm afraid that little steel whip looks like a pile of rat droppings.It must be that this round-headed kid is guilty of not daring to compete, pretending to be arrogant, no matter how dishonest he is

The shelf still hasn't fallen down? It's obvious that the other party told him to get down! Looking up at the woman, he became more and more excited, tied the remaining three big chawhips into a bunch, raised the pole high, took a little fire, and hung all three together The sound doubled, and hundreds of small firecrackers sprayed fire and smoke, and exploded down one after another, like a wanton rain of bullets.Niu Bao didn't know how to set off firecrackers. He lifted the pole too straight, and many firecrackers fell on his head, shoulders, and hands, and some fell into his clothes from the collar, and exploded on his chest and back. Seeing the woman laughing at him through the flames and gunpowder smoke, she immediately burst into joy, yelling loudly, shrieking loudly, half-singing, jumping legs, swinging shoulders, the bamboo pole in her hand was like the waist of a drunk man. , swaying here and there, throwing firecrackers everywhere, forcing the onlookers to back away with shouts and laughs, someone recognized Niu Bao who sells tank fish, I don’t know if he met Xie or Xie, and came here to make a fuss , playing tricks.

At this moment, there was a "snap!" in the air, which was extremely crisp, like a dewy whip flicking in the cool air in the early morning. Niu Bao didn't understand where the sound came from, and then he heard the whip whipping in mid-air. The whip became tighter and denser, and the sound was not sticky. Every sound was extremely clear, crisp, and strong. Left and right, where the sound is clearly clear.Only then did Niu Bao see that it was the round-headed boy who had ignited his little steel whip.Strange! Why does the sound of his whip seem to be drilled into the ear and exploded, almost bursting the eardrum? The sound of the explosion also drove the sound of the three big whips out of the ear and drove it outside, making it sound like The dull sound of slapping the padded jacket or blowing the bubbles of pig urine completely became the foil of the little steel whip of the round-headed boy.That's amazing! How can his little whip like bean sprouts be so powerful? When the two of them put all the firecrackers off their poles and stood opposite each other, Niu Bao stared dumbfounded, and the round-headed boy pointed to the ground. Niu Bao was even more surprised when he took a look.Around the round-headed boy was a piece of firecracker crumbs that had been blasted to powder, like a basket, as fine as powder, which showed the power of the explosives; but around him, there were many firecrackers that hadn't exploded at all, and there were black papers everywhere that had burned the gunpowder. Zhizi, the onlookers booed and booed him, which is considered a hit home.He raised his head and forced himself to look under the crooked willow tree, and the woman was also laughing at him.This smile embarrasses him more than anyone's sarcasm. If he was Tu Xingsun, he would immediately plunge into the ground.Embarrassed, he threw the bamboo pole and said to the round-headed boy:

"Episode 18, let's see you here again.!" "Why wait until the eighteenth," said the round-headed boy, "you don't want to accept it. Bring good goods to Duliu Town to find us, and there will be a market the day after tomorrow!" The surrounding applauded, people here like this kind of exciting words.