Chapter 22 7. On the relationship between Liu Xiu's proclaiming the emperor and the old Zhang's mulberry garden

The appearance of the ghost in the mulberry garden made my heart jump.I vaguely felt that there was a terrifying secret hidden in the mulberry garden. Grandpa used "mulberry therapy" to restore my love for mulberry gardens.Mulberry is a purple-black shiny, sweet and juicy fruit shaped like a caterpillar.Grandpa took my hand and wandered around under the mulberry tree, straightened his back from time to time, stretched out a big, thin and veined hand high on the branch, picked mulberries and stuffed them into my mouth quickly, Urge me to eat quickly.Grandpa said that as soon as the mulberry is picked from the tree, put it in your mouth as soon as possible, so that you will not be contaminated with the turbid air of the world, and you can get the vitality that the mulberry tree grows from the ground, and the mulberry leaves absorb from the rain, snow, frost and dew. Aura.Grandpa stuffed a fat and juicy mulberry into my mouth, slapped my face, and said, "Baby, remember, Liu Xiu became emperor only after eating the mulberries from our mulberry garden." He picked a mulberry leaf, wiped the purple-red slurry left on my face and mouth by the mulberries, and revealed to me a little-known history: "As soon as Liu Xiu became emperor, he left our old Zhang family behind." To one side, forget about it.” Grandpa picked another mulberry, and before stuffing the mulberry into my mouth, he had great worries about my future again, looked at me fixedly and said: “There is nothing wrong with me in the world. There are too few emperors, my grandson only eats mulberries, so I can't be an emperor!"

From this, the grandfather began to enlighten his grandson on the subject of history. My father also deduced from this that my family's mulberry garden and its original pioneers should have a long history before Liu Xiu ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor in AD 25. Grandpa said that Liu Xiu's hometown is just south of Zhang'an, and it is a close neighbor of our old Zhang's family.When he competed with Wang Mang for the world, Wang Mang drove him so that he had nowhere to hide.Hungry, thirsty, exhausted, leaning on a walking stick, he staggered into the mulberry garden and fell under a big mulberry tree.Grandpa pointed to a soil pit in the mulberry garden, and there was a puddle of green water in the pit.Grandpa said: "That mulberry tree used to grow green here. During the Three Kingdoms period, Guan Gong pulled out the mulberry tree and left this tree pit." I asked who Guan Gong was, and grandpa patted my head. Er said: "Today I only talk about Liu Xiu. I ate too much and couldn't swallow it."

But Liu Xiu fell headlong in the mulberry garden, which alarmed an old man who was watching the mulberry garden in Zhang's house.After I became sensible, I finally realized that our old Zhang family made a major decision, which changed the fate of China.His name should have been recorded in the history books, but the people of the old Zhang family didn't pay attention to whether the name could be recorded in the history books, and practiced the "nomenclature" that "the humble can be an adult", calling everything from dog babies, cow eggs, and toads.The old man's name is no longer available or suitable for investigation, and everyone calls him "the grandfather of the mulberry garden".The grandfather who was looking at the mulberry garden saw a beggar lying under a tree, and hurried over, touched his heart, and didn't jump for a long time;He was afraid that someone from the beggar's house would blackmail him and beg for his life, so he was about to drag him into the ditch when he heard a bird chirping incessantly on the tree, which made him feel sore , and thought, maybe there is an old Gaotang mother who is over eighty years old in his family asking him to support him, and there is a little older child who is crying!Just because of this thought, he hurriedly took off his straw hat, took off a piece of mulberries in shell, and stuffed them into his mouth one by one to feed him. After feeding him two mulberries in shell, he opened his eyelids and saw that his pupils flickered. It was all gone, and my heart jumped up and down.

A man ran out of breath from Shuitai Village to the east of Zhang'an, saying that he saw a wisp of red mist curling around and drifting into the mulberry garden and disappearing abruptly; Covered the entire mulberry field.He went straight to the mulberry tree, and saw the beggar with his legs spread out, his arms outstretched, a dog-beating stick under his head, and his face lying on his back, forming a Chinese character for "Heaven". Son of Heaven".The person who knelt and kowtowed was Deng Yu in "Nanyang Twenty-Eight Places", who later became Liu Xiu's military adviser.He kowtowed to Liu Xiu, Liu Xiu had already woken up.Wang Mang's pursuers came from the west, and the grandfather who saw the mulberry garden handed Liu Xiu a mulberry pole, dressed him as a woodcutter, and urged him to leave.Liu Xiu bowed his hands to the grandfather who was looking at the mulberry garden and said: "When I sit in the court, I will make your mulberry tree the king of the tree!"

Grandpa asked me: "Baby, do you understand?" I ate the mulberries and said, "Understood." "What did grandpa say?" "Mulberry is good!" "Yes, my grandson is still smart, and the mulberries from our old Zhang's family are the best!" Grandpa said, "If the grandfather who watched the mulberry garden used our old Zhang's mulberries to feed that beggar, there would be no Liu Xiu in the world." , there will be no Eastern Han Dynasty, and we don’t know what China will become now!” Grandpa squinted at the mulberry garden and looked at the blue sky. Said to himself: "Clouds, clouds, time has flown away, the mulberry garden is still there, and Liu Xiu is long gone."

Grandpa said that Liu Xiu had been the emperor for many years, only to realize that he was alive after eating Zhang An's mulberry, so he sent a minister to hang a gold medal on the mulberry tree.The minister didn't know the mulberry tree, so he hung the gold medal on a eucalyptus tree by mistake, and returned to Beijing for business. "Look," grandpa pointed to an old black tree outside the mulberry garden, "it's that toon tree, it holds the gold medal high, it's not shy, and it's boasting to the world!" I didn't have time to find the toon tree The gold medal on the tree, grandpa pointed to the mulberry tree and said: "Baby, look, our mulberry tree feels that it has buried itself, and it is still crying!" My tears were sticky and stained my fingers red.Grandpa said: "Look, is it bleeding from crying? Blame it for being too small, we don't need to coax it." Grandpa pointed to a curved tree again, "Boy, that is a cypress tree. It laughed at the ministers for hanging gold medals. Laughing at the toon tree is too self-respecting, laughing at our mulberry tree for its small size, it bends its waist." Grandpa pointed to a row of tall and straight trees, "Son, that's Zhutian poplar, it's rattling, rattling , talk to us, do you understand?" I shook my head.Grandpa said: "I can't blame my grandson for not understanding. Yang Shu said five-character poems: "Don't be beautiful, Chunshu, don't cry, don't laugh, cypress, it's better to pretend to be confused." Grandpa continued two lines of seven-character poems : "The world is like smoke blowing away with the wind, not tofu mixed with shallots."

It’s my fault that I didn’t have a deep understanding of Bai Yangshu’s five-character poems and grandpa’s seven-character poems. Although the knowledge of “pretending to be confused” can be accumulated and improved over time, I haven’t fully realized it.Last night, I was bitten by a dumb mosquito on the neck, and I shouted loudly: "How can you bite people without making a sound? How can you not suck blood openly, how can you not learn to be an upright mosquito, and turn towards me howling and moving forward?" Therefore, I lived a tired and ridiculous life, often hearing the snoring and laughing of mosquitoes.

So I thought of the grandfather who watched the mulberry garden again.In the year when Liu Xiu sent ministers to hang the gold medal, the grandfather of Sangyuan was ninety years old.The tribe said: "Old birthday star, why did the emperor forget you? You saved the emperor. If you don't save him, the mulberry will not fall into his mouth, and he will not wake up. You should have buried him long ago." It's in the ditch!" The grandfather who saw the mulberry garden pretended to be confused and said, "I didn't save the emperor, I just saved a beggar." But he held up his silver whiskers and looked again and again, and suddenly burst into tears, "It's just My two sons followed that beggar to beat Wang Mang, and they both died on the battlefield. When I died, no one went to the grave to beat me up." Grandpa said sadly: "There are more than a dozen brothers in our old Zhang family who followed Liu Xiu left, only came back a cripple who was missing a leg, and a man who was missing an arm, and the rest became bricks and tiles to be built on the Golden Temple."

Grandpa sighed, and revealed another secret to me: "I don't know which grandfather of the old Zhang family sent the broken pot in the crock to the blacksmith's stove and shot it on the blacksmith's stove, and followed Liu Xiu. Since then, Zhang An has no evidence of the old Zhang family's confession. The patriarch secretly forged one, waiting for the descendants of the second and third grandfathers to come back to recognize the relatives. After a long time, the fake Seriously. If you can really come back, this fake broken pot will not be able to close the seams, and the dragon body, dragon head, and dragon tail will not match up!" Grandpa exhorted: "Baby, we can't wait any longer. Let’s bake buns and pack flat food by ourselves!”

"What are you giving your grandson?" Grandma blamed Grandpa, "You didn't ask our baby if he understood?" Grandpa said: "How do you know he doesn't understand? Feed a calf with a basket of tender grass, and you have to give it time to pour foam. Our grandson just doesn't understand right now, and it won't be too late to pour foam when he grows up." Grandpa squinted at grandma, "I know you want your grandson to watch over you every day. Doesn't he sleep with you when it's dark? You'll give grandma something like 'Grandma Yue, shine brightly, open the back door and wash clothes' You can never finish washing your clothes. You don’t even want to think about... ” Grandpa’s eyes turned red, and his Adam’s apple twitched, “If you don’t ask me to talk to our grandson, can we wait until the next time the child comes back?”

Grandma suddenly shed tears, went back to the loofah stand, shook the spinning wheel and said, "Then you can tell the baby!" I don't know why grandpa and grandma are sad, and I don't know what calf foaming is. I only found out after asking my father. The cow swallows the forage and cannot digest it for a while, so it has to return the forage to its mouth and chew it slowly. This is called pouring foam, also called rumination, which can only be digested after swallowing.I ate the mulberries that my grandfather fed me, and I am still pouring foam to this day.Mulberries from sixty years ago are still delicious, but with a bit more bitter taste. However, I must uphold justice for grandma, grandma does not just say "Grandma Yue, bright and shining".Grandma also has her own world.At night, she let me sleep on a small bamboo bed under the loofah stand, let the green vines and green leaves cover me, gently shook the fan, and hummed nursery rhymes in a low voice.In grandma's nursery rhyme, there is a huge animal family including wolves and tigers, living harmoniously and vividly with grandma: "Flower mills, everyone sits, and tigers pass on the bridge carrying water. Little Swallow holds a clay pot in his mouth, and a yellow ox comes to pull the mill. Wolf beats firewood, dog burns pot, rabbit baby smashes rice and sheep baby winks. The old hen laid a big duck egg, and the little monkey came to pinch the nest. Ma Ju'er wags his tail and wipes the table, and Pig Baby guards the pot gluttonously. Maowa licks the bowl and beats the basin, scares the mouse and closes the door. " I thought of butterflies.I was on grandma's loofah stand, and saw groups of butterflies flying around the golden loofah flowers, so I asked grandma, "Where are the butterflies?" Grandma complained to herself: "Hey, why did I forget the butterfly?" She shook her fan and said: "Little butterfly, flowery dress, flying north and south. Fly to the east, and the chicken will call you; fly to the west, and the dog will catch you. Fly into my baby's palm, talk to me, and let you go. " In the palm of my hand was a huge black butterfly whose wings were like a huge and gorgeous light veil covering my head.The little animals all fell asleep around grandma.Grandma gently shakes her fan, guarding my childhood dreams. Grandpa's memory continued to linger in ancient times, and he began to comment on the "Three Kingdoms" with his unique discoveries. Most of the stories of the Three Kingdoms that grandpa commented on are related to mulberry trees. For example, Liu Bei, Guan Yu, and Zhang Fei's "Taoyuan Jieyi" has also become "Mulberry Garden".That was after the three of them had a drink in the mulberry garden, Zhang Fei asked: "Which of us will be the elder brother and who will be the younger brother?" "Chi Chi Liu Liu" climbed to the top of the tree.Guan Yu asked Liu Bei to climb first, and as Liu Bei climbed up the tree, Liu Bei's legs softened, and he came down from the tree again, hugging the roots.Zhang Fei said: "Okay, I will be the eldest brother." Liu Bei said: "I ask you, do you have the roots or the tops first?" Zhang Fei said: "Of course the roots come first." Liu Bei said: " Well, I am the elder brother, and you are the younger brother." Grandpa looked down on Liu Bei for this, and complained for Zhang Fei of our old Zhang family.It's just that I forgot to ask my grandpa if they were climbing my mulberry tree. However, Grandpa said clearly that Guan Gong did get away with a big mulberry tree in my mulberry garden.That was when Guan Gong was stationed in Xinye with Liu Bei. He lived in Xinye County, and the common people called him Guan Erye.Guan Erye's groom tied his red rabbit horse to a mulberry tree. The horse was hungry and gnawed the bark. The mulberry tree lost its vitality and died within a few days.Guan Erye found out, apologized to the tree owner, and asked the groom to find the same mulberry tree and plant it in the original place.The groom planted several trees one after another but failed.Erye Guan was in a hurry, so he rode a red rabbit horse out of the city to look for a tree. He found Zhang An, only to see a big mulberry tree as thick as a bucket and more than two feet high in the mulberry garden of our old Zhang family. Take a big umbrella.Guan Erye took out two hundred taels of silver and said to the guy who looked at the mulberry garden, can you sell this mulberry tree to me?The young man saw that it was Guan Erye, so he said that he could not collect money, and gave the tree to the general.Guan Erye said, how can that work?If you don't take money, I'm violating the military regulations, and I still have to beat my own ass with a military stick, what do you want me to do?The boy tried it with a stick, but he really couldn't spank his own butt, so he had to accept the money.Guan Erye rolled up his sleeves and was about to pull up the tree. The young man said, no, it’s not that the general doesn’t have the power to pull up trees, it’s just that it will hurt the roots of the tree.As soon as Guan Erye heard that it was reasonable, he ordered the soldiers to dig a big hole around the root of the tree, and then uprooted the mulberry tree. There were lumps of mud on the root to protect the root.Guan Erye carried the mulberry tree on his shoulders, strode back to the county town, planted the mulberry tree in a tree pit, filled the bottom of the pit with dozens of carts of horse dung from red rabbit horses, watered it every day, and the mulberry tree grew alive and fresh It has become a big tree that blocks the sky and the sun.Zhuge Liang burned Xinye and killed countless Cao soldiers. After the fire, the tree looked more energetic.The Xinye people called it a sacred tree, and built a courtyard wall around it, called "Han Sang City". It has been more than 1,700 years, and the mulberry tree is still alive with greenery, called "Han Sang Tree". Grandpa asked me: "Boy, why can this mulberry tree be moved?" I said, "Good tree." Grandpa nodded and said: "Hey, my grandson is still smart, the tree from our old Zhang's family is the best! But remember, when the tree gets up and leaves, it also has a big piece of mud. What is that muddy called?" I shake my head. "Remember, that's called 'Lao Niang Tu'." Grandpa said, "When a tree moves its nest, it needs to carry the 'Lao Niang Tu' to survive. No matter where people move, they can't live without the 'Lao Niang Tu'. Grandpa will tell you about ancient , is to tell you to bring our old Zhang's 'grandmother soil'." Grandpa held me in his arms, and said with tears, "Good boy, you have to remember!" I remember that my grandfather seemed to have ended the enlightenment of history for me here, with tears in his eyes, trembling into the hermitage.I was worried that my grandfather would still cry when he returned to the place where he became a fairy, so I took off the dried wheat straw mud on the wall of the thatched cottage, and peeped into the world that belonged to my grandfather.Grandpa's world is complicated and confusing. The leaves shattered the sunshine of Liu Xiu and Guan Erye's era. The sunlight penetrated into the hermitage from the damaged stalk wall, like countless strange-shaped fragments sifted out of a sieve, and sprinkled on grandpa in a flash. body.Grandpa lay down on the low bed, fumbled to light the oil lamp again, held a short and thick cigarette pouch in his left hand, rubbed a black mud ball with his right finger, pressed it into the smoke pot, and put it on the oil lamp He took a deep breath, narrowed his eyes beautifully, and let out a slow breath.I think that black mud ball is what made grandpa a fairy.When Grandpa opened his eyes, a vague smile appeared on his face again, and his loose eyes seeped out of the hermitage, spreading to the far, far sky.Another cloud from the Three Kingdoms era floated over, as if it was about to hump up to grandpa and go to the sky.Grandpa closed his eyes. In the evening, after my grandfather came back from the sky, my father also came back from outside the village with a big bookcase in his arms.Father didn't seem to care about Grandpa's mulberry garden, and he ran around with his book clips every day.Grandpa complained: "I can't see you all day, and you went to find a singer again?" Father said: "They are all folk artists, I will ask them for advice." Grandpa scolded: "I can sing, Why didn't you ask me?" The father said, "I heard my father sing a lot when I was young, but I don't know there are others I haven't heard." The grandfather said, "You haven't heard many things, and it happens that your grandson is here. I will sing to you a section of "Second Master Guan Says Farewell to Cao", which is about the second master Guan saying goodbye to Cao Ying and going to find his righteous brother Liu Bei. Cao Cao chased him to the Bali Bridge to stop him..." Grandpa squinted at the sky, "Okay, Guan Gong and Cao Cao are here." He sang in a hoarse voice: Cao Mengde rode a donkey up the Bali Bridge, and respected Brother Guan Xian, please listen. What's wrong with me treating you in Xuchang?For a meal, two of the four plates are set on fire. You think mung bean noodles mixed with lumps are clichéd, and your sister-in-law Cao is too busy in the stove. Spread the pancakes and mix them with hazel pepper sesame oil, and I also wrapped some purslane buns for you. Sesame leaf mixed noodles are all there, and a pot of elm cabbage is steamed to pour garlic juice. Just because you love to read "Spring and Autumn" at night, add lamp oil and renew lamp grass every day. ...  I remember that my father suppressed his laughter while making notes, and kept saying, "Okay, that's great!" After the grandfather sang, his shriveled chest opened and closed like a bellows. He gasped for breath and stopped talking. He just stared at the mulberry tree in a trance.A few mulberry leaves floated down from the tree.Grandpa said to himself again: "Leaf, leaf, time has been drifting away with you. Guan Gong is gone, and Cao Cao is also gone." Grandpa sat blankly, looking at my father sadly, And said: "Your uncle is gone, your father should go too!"