Chapter 3 third chapter

If Niu Bao didn't go to Yanerzhuang, the entanglement between him and Chun Zhi would be nothing more than that.I was confused, foolish, and muddled for a while, and forced a good woman into that pitiful look.He couldn't figure out why Chun Zhi was in such pain.Staring at the tears splashed on the spring branches on his cotton-padded clothes, he regretted it to the end and kept scolding himself. Finally, he piled up half a carload of firecrackers in the Dakai depression and lit them. , thinking that someone built a cannon, caught the evil fire, and blew up the nest. Two days later, Brother Dou came to him with two bottles of Laobaigan and a pack of egg cakes from Tianjin Wei Dadexiang. He wanted to go to Yan'erzhuang together. "Jia Lei" really worked hard. The giant big thunder cannon was specially made by Mr. Wan. It is really exciting! This matter is related to the loyalty and loyalty of Brother Dou in business, so Niu Bao came with Brother Dou Along Erzhuang.

People in Yan'erzhuang, from seventy to eighty, down to boys and girls, if they don't know how to make cannons, they are either disabled or stupid: especially in this twelfth lunar month, the trees, clothes poles, and eaves in every yard are full of dry air. The heavy whips hung all over are like big peppers strung on strings and dried outside the house after autumn; the walls are covered with bundles of thunderbolts, like big pumpkins piled up, which is very beautiful.The carts entering and leaving the village are filled with fireworks and covered with red quilts, which are even more eye-catching in the ice and snow.Although the town of firecrackers in the twelfth lunar month is very lively, there is not a single sound of firecrackers.Absolutely quiet, bizarrely quiet, and heart-wrenchingly quiet.

Niu Bao never imagined that this old man Wan, who had dealt with gunpowder all his life, was as timid as a mouse, or even less timid than a mouse.In the winter of March and September, the house was as cold as the outside. There was no fire on the kang, no firewood on the stove, and the water in the tea bowl was all frozen. Only a little heat came out of the mouth when talking.As soon as Niu Bao and Brother Dou entered the door, Mr. Wan wondered if there were any irons on them, smoking and lighting guys, and whether there were "orange petals" nailed on the soles of their shoes? He had to ask them to lift their feet to lighten the soles of their shoes to see clearly.Brother Dou pretended to be unhappy and said:

"Master Wan always tosses me like this every time, next time I have to come here naked." "Don't blame me for being paranoid. Fire is a disaster in our business. I can't read, and my father said that the word 'cry' means the word 'fire' on the bottom and three flames on the top. So we don't light fire until cooking, smoke No smoking, except for cooking pots at home, no iron utensils are allowed. The "Pao Da Deng" Yang Si of Jiushibao, when weighing gunpowder, the weight fell on the ground, sparks went in and out, and a barrel of gunpowder was blown up. , the explosion left Yang Si dead, and the weight flew more than half a mile away. I don’t know where the fire came from. Sometimes two houses are separated by a wall. When one family lights cigarettes, the fire can go through the wall and blow the firecrackers in the other house. Leading, the fire is evil..." When Mr. Wan said this, his eyes were straightened, as if he saw a ghost,

"Hey, brother Dou, be careful with the pot of gunpowder on the table!" After Brother Dou talked about the scene of "Wan Jialei" showing his prestige in Duliu Town the day before yesterday, Mr. Wan let go of his face, the vertical wrinkles on his face were bent, and he bared a yellow-toothed smile up.The well water here is also highly saline, and human teeth are scorched.He asked proudly: "How is my life?" "Needless to say. Sheng blew up a big hole in the land, and people say that if you blow it up again, you will blow up a well. Is that what you said, brother Niu Bao?" Brother Dou winked at Niu Bao, asking him to help and coax Mr. Wan Happy.

With a clumsy mouth, Niu Bao couldn't find anything to say, so he just smirked and nodded. Mr. Wan became more and more complacent, and asked again with a smile: "Who are you fighting against?" "How can we use your 'Wan Jialei' to compete with the unknown junior? If that's not the case, please ask Master Guan to compete with the small soldiers? The opponent is the Cai family of Wen'an County, 'Cai Jiabian', okay?" "Oh?" Mr. Wan was very surprised.He said, "Once Boss Cai died, everyone said that the Cai family closed its doors and did not make cannons. The plaques hanging in Tianjin Wei were all removed. Why did it show up again? Is it a fake?"

"How can it be fake? The four living members of the Cai family are all present!" "Why four?" "The Cai family's second, third, and fourth brothers, the three brothers..." "Yeah, only three, why four?" "And the handsome daughter-in-law Chun Zhi of Boss Cai. Chun Zhi—" Brother Dou talked about Chun Zhi, seeing Niu Bao staring at him, he quickly stopped talking. "Brother Dou, move your mouth, don't move your arms, be careful of my gunpowder pot!" Old Man Wan shouted.Then he sighed and said, "That child Chun Zhi suffered enough, the three men who were close to her were all killed—her father, her father-in-law, and her man! I say she is the life of fire! It is fire! It is disaster: "

Niu Bao was amazed when he heard it, and he wanted to understand it even if he died; Brother Dou knew exactly what Niu Bao was thinking, not to mention that he himself wanted to know this unheard of thing, so he was so angry that he went round and round, and finally got out of Mr. Wan's belly. Take out the words below: ''Hey, brother Dou, I think you know everything, why don't you know that Chunzhi's surname is Yang, and her father is 'Paodaodeng' Yang Si of Jiushibao.It was still in the Qing Dynasty, there was a saying in Tianjin Weipao Market, "Cai Jiabian, Wan Jialei, and Yang Jia's Pao Da Deng". These are all brands created by the previous two generations, and they have been around for a hundred years. Old cannon.At that time, because the Yang family was from the county, they were familiar with our Wan family, and the Cai family was far away in Wen'an, so they only knew each other by name: In our generation, the Yang family and the Cai family have known each other, and they are very close. Made a baby kiss with Boss Cai.But Chunzhi's mother died when she was ten years old, and she and her father depended on each other for life.Later, when the children grew up and it was time to get married, the old man of the Cai family went to Yang Si to discuss the date of the marriage. Yang Si was afraid that Chun Zhi would leave and could not bear to be alone, so he insisted on asking Cai Boss to intervene in the door.In fact, there are four sons in the Cai family, what are you afraid of if one is missing? The old man of the Cai family refused, and the conversation collapsed, and he was very angry. Dozens of damp whips were still roasting on the kang! After roasting for a while, the cannons burst into flames. The strange thing is that the four young men caught their father out of the fire and burned him alive.The Cai family hated Yang Si to death, and no one mentioned the marriage.Two years from now, hey, it's what I just said - people from Yang Si's village came to ask him to borrow some gunpowder, and they carried steelyards to measure the weight.Cannonmakers never use iron to get gunpowder. They use wooden spoons for spoons and wooden shovels for shovels. How could he forget that the weight is an iron lump? When the scale tilted, the weight hit the stone, sparks entered the gunpowder, and the The people were blown up, and not even a single bone was found. Do you think it’s surprising? A good person, as if turned into a puff of smoke, without leaving a shadow, what crime did this suffer? What disaster? Yang There is only one girl left alone in the family, Harue.Then Boss Cai came to propose to her, but she refused, maybe because her father owed his life to the Cai family, or was he afraid that if he left, the roots of the "Pao Da Deng" Yang family would be wiped out? Knowing that this girl's temperament is stronger than gunpowder, he actually made a hundred "cannon-beating double lamps" and put them at the gate of Yang's house.It means that the ancestral property of your Yang family has been taken over by Boss Cai, and the roots cannot be broken.Boss Cai is an expert at making cannons, and even more so at setting them off. He put the 'cannons with double lights' on his palms one by one and put them on.All cannons fired into the sky must use "vertical explosives" at the first shot, and they only shoot up to high places, not to explode horizontally.At most, I can feel a little sitting strength, and it will never hurt my hands.This also means that Mrs. Cai has already learned the Yang family's "cannon and lamp" at home.After one hundred were released, Chunzhi left the house in tears, and went to Wen'an with him without saying a word... Hey, brother Dou, why don't you know these things?"

"I've only heard about it in pieces, but there are accidents every year in every village and village, and people die every year. How can it be such a long story like yours!" said Brother Dou, "I've heard people talk about the death of Boss Cai. Did you offend the Great Immortal?" "That's true. In the second year of Chunzhi's marriage to Cai's family, it was also at the end of the year. She made a plate of 'cannons and lights', and planned to put them on for 30 nights, to worship the ancestors! She left a bunch of explosives and had no place to put them. I made a bag wrapped in Korean paper and stuffed it in the gap behind the chicken coop. This place is never touched by anyone, and it is the safest place. Who would have thought that there would be weasels at night, stealing chickens, and Mr. Cai got up and touched a wooden stick to beat the weasels. Seeing the weasel get into the gap behind the chicken coop, this is also strange. It climbed over the wall of the house, couldn't go anywhere, and stuck on the gunpowder bag. Boss Cai poked it with a stick, hey, just right, boom Sheng blew up Boss Cai so that he flew up, hit the eaves, fell down, and became a bloody man... Alas, how could it be such a coincidence that it happened to happen to Chun Zhi alone? It was also fate! On the day of the funeral, Chun Zhi threw himself Weaving two large whips for ten days and ten nights, there are hundreds of thousands of heads, hanging on the old trees on both sides of the gate, and let them ring for a whole night, so that the whole village listened and cried. It's..."

When Niu Bao heard this, he suddenly turned over and lay down on the ground, kowtowing to Mr. Wan.Mr. Wan was dumbfounded, he bent down to help him, and said: "Which thing I said hurt you, get up, get up, tell me, I will apologize!" But Niu Bao couldn't get up, hit his head on the ground, and there was a thumping sound, then raised his teary face and said: "You have to teach me how to make 'cannon lamps', you have to teach me how to make 'cannon lamps', you have to teach me Make 'cannons and lamps'..." Xia repeated this sentence repeatedly.

Mr. Wan is even more confused.But Brother Dou knew very well in his heart that he was afraid that Niu Bao would cause trouble again, but what Niu Bao was trying to do was getting worse and worse, so he didn't stop him.Instead, he kowtowed to Mr. Wan on the ground and said: "You fulfill my brother!" These words were like lighting a lamp in Mr. Wan's head.Mr. Wan was surprised at first, then shook his head and said in a low voice: "If you say that Chun Zhi is a good girl, sensible, and knowledgeable, it's a pity that she was born with a life of fire and a disaster! Go and ask the bachelors in Wen'an County, does anyone dare to marry her as a wife? Listen to me, brother! You As soon as you touch her, disaster will strike you, quickly let go of this idea!" With his forehead on the ground, Niu Bao remained motionless, and his voice was muffled and heavy: "I, I want to be Boss Cai." He won't say another word. People in the village don't rely on talking, humming or humming, everyone can know what someone means.Old Man Wan sighed, and said helplessly, "It's all fate! Okay, everyone get up, I'll teach you!" His buttocks did not leave the stool, and when he turned around, there was a catcher hanging from the beam next to him.He made the plates one at a time, and drove out forty or fifty cannon barrels to Niu Bao.Then he brought over the gunpowder basin and several bowls on the table and said, "One nitrate, two sulphur, and three charcoals, gunpowder is these three things. If you want to shoot to the sky, put less sulphur, and more charcoal. Medicine; if you want to explode horizontally, put more sulfur and less charcoal, this is called horizontal medicine. "Pao Da Deng" is to send the lamp to the sky, and you must use vertical medicine when the lower part rings. Do you understand? Sulfur is easy to buy , the shops in the county town sell it, and you can burn the charcoal yourself?" "I start with charcoal for my sketches. Seal the willow branches with mud and burn them in tin cans, okay?" Niu Bao said. "This is impossible! The charcoal used to make cannons cannot be made of willow branches, only green hemp stalks can be used." "There are hemp stalks, but where can I get nitrate?" "There are lots of white flowers by the Alkaline River. People say that the nitrate on the ground in Wen'an Renqiu is better, it's fire nitrate." Brother Dou interrupted. "It's better to fart than make a cannon. I'll tell you a top secret. If you tell outsiders, I'll blow you up with a cannon—" Mr. Wan leaned over his wrinkled old face, with a mysterious expression, and said in a low voice. , "You go to the wall behind the toilet opposite my house and scrape." "That's urine nitrate," Brother Dou said. "Who says it's not: the people in this village are full of nitrate, the urine that comes out is hot to the hands, and the nitrate that forms is strong! My family's can't do it, they are old and have no firepower. The five boys of the Cui family across the street are all like Maverick, the nitrate is a good thing for saving face." Mr. Wan said, "The nitrate can't be used directly when you take it back, first boil it in a pot, boil it into water, pour it on charcoal, dry it, press it into powder, and then mix it with sulfur. Remember, one part of nitrous charcoal, one part of semi-sulphur. "Pao Da Deng" is used as a vertical medicine, and more nitrous charcoal is added!" "Then what do you do with the lamp that hits the sky?" Niu Bao asked. Mr. Wan said, "This thing is called Mingzi. You don't deserve it. I'll give you some." He took out two crock pots from behind, which contained soybean-sized pill-like things, each took out dozens of pills, and wrapped them in red and green paper. "The one wrapped in red paper is a red light when it hits the sky, and the green light is a green light when it is hit in the sky." Lights', but the lights are all yellow. Only this 'cannon with double lights', one red and one green, looks good when it hits the sky! I heard from my grandfather that in the Qing Dynasty, when a man proposed to a woman, it was on This cannon was set off in front of the house. That’s probably what Cai Boss meant when he set off the ‘cannon hitting double lights’ in front of Yang’s house.” Niu Bao groaned and lay down on the ground again, knocking his head repeatedly to Mr. Wan, as if meeting a great benefactor.He moved so violently that he almost knocked down the gunpowder bowl on the table, but fortunately Brother Dou had quick eyesight and hugged him quickly. After Niu Bao and Brother Dou thanked each other and said goodbye and went back, Mr. Wan sighed, shook his head, and punched himself several times, as if he was hurting the sky and sending someone to heaven. When Niu Bao and Brother Dou came out, they went around to the opposite toilet.A look, along the base of the wall is white, it is indeed urine nitrate, thick and hard, so that the scraped tiles, crystal clear and shiny.The two were shaving vigorously, when a child shouted: "Someone stole the nitrate." They were so frightened that they quickly put on the nitrate on their hoods, fled out of the village in a panic, and then fled back home. Niu Bao follows Mr. Wan's method, buying materials, ingredients, and pretending. He usually works seriously, but at this time his head is possessed by a demon, and he always flashes the red and green lights of the old marriage proposals, confused I couldn't figure out how much nitrous charcoal and sulfur should be, and when I filled half of it, I didn't dare to add any more.In the evening, Brother Dou came. When the two talked, Brother Dou smiled and said: "You're full of spring branches in your head, how do you figure it out? 'Pao Da Deng' makes the vertical medicine shoot into the sky, just add more charcoal!" Niu Bao added some charcoal to the medicine.The two tried two on the open space behind the house, and they really worked it out! After the sound, two bright lines flew out of the cannon barrel, one red and one green, and went straight up to the sky. The two green lights were so bright and colorful that the sky was darkened.Brother Dou looked, the lights were not in the sky, but in Niu Bao's eyes; in the middle of the big eye sockets, there were colorful lights, shining brightly.But Brother Dou didn’t know that before Niu Bao added charcoal to the gunpowder, some of the cannons that had been assembled just now had the ingredients reversed, and the vertical medicine became horizontal medicine!