Chapter 3 Chapter Three

At the border of the two provinces, those who have been in charge of the local military for more than ten years have paid attention to conservatism in Anji, handled it well, and there have been no accidents.Water and land commerce will neither be stopped by war nor be affected by bandits. Everything is very orderly and the people are not restless and happy.These people, apart from the death of a cow at home, capsizing a boat, or other great changes of death, feel very sad when they stumble over a kind of misfortune, and how other misfortunes are struggling in other parts of China, it seems that they will never be overwhelmed. The people of this city feel it.

The busiest days of the year where the border town is located are Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival and Chinese New Year.How the three festivals excited the people of this place thirty or fifty years ago has not changed until now, and they can still become the most meaningful days for the residents of that place. On the Dragon Boat Festival, local women and children all wear new clothes, and draw a king character on their foreheads with realgar dipped in wine.Any family will be able to eat fish and meat on this day.Around eleven o'clock in the morning, all the people in Chadong had lunch. After eating, those who lived in the city locked their doors, and the whole family went out of the city to watch boating by the river.If you have acquaintances in He Street, you can go to the gate of the stilted building on He Street, otherwise you can stand at the gate of the customs office and various docks.The dragon boat in the river starts from a certain place in Changtan and ends in front of the tax customs.Compete for competition.Because on this day, military officials, tax officials and local people of high status all watched the excitement in front of the tax customs.Everyone had already prepared for the boating a few days ago, and each group selected a number of young men with strong bodies and nimble hands and feet to practice advancing and retreating in the pool.The shape of the boat is quite different from ordinary wooden boats. They are all long and narrow, with both ends raised high, and the hull is painted with long lines of vermilion. They are usually stored in dry caves by the river in normal seasons. When they are needed, they must be dragged into the water. go.Each boat can seat twelve to eighteen oarsmen, a leader, a drummer, and a gong player.The oarsmen each held a short oar, and moved the boat forward slowly to the beat of the drum.Sitting on the bow, with a red cloth baotou wrapped around his head, he holds two small command flags in his hand, waving them left and right to direct the advance and retreat of the ship.Those who beat drums and gongs usually sit in the middle of the boat. As soon as the boat is rowed, they will immediately beat the gongs and drums in a simple way to adjust the rhythm of the oars for the oarsmen.The speed of a boat has to depend on the sound of drums, so whenever the two boats race to a fierce stage, the sound of the drums is like thunder, and people on both sides of the bank cheer and cheer, which reminds people of Liang Hongyu's old stork river. Yang Yaoshi was also fighting with water and beating drums.Those who row the boat a little ahead will be rewarded in front of the tax customs. A red horse and a small silver medal, regardless of whether they are hung on the head of a person on the boat, all show the glory of the boat's cooperation.Good soldiers, and every time a certain ship wins, it must set off five hundred firecrackers by the water to celebrate the victory.

After the regatta, the chief of the city's garrison, in order to have fun with the people and increase the joy of the festival, put thirty male ducks with green heads and long necks tied around their necks with strips of red cloth into the river. Swimming soldiers and civilians, etc., went into the water to chase the ducks.Whoever catches the duck will become its owner.So Changtan changed a new pattern, ducks are everywhere on the water, and there are people chasing ducks everywhere. The race between boats and boats, and the race between man and duck, can't be finished until nightfall.

Shun Shun, the leader of the Water Wharf, was a master swimmer when he was young, chasing ducks in the water, and never lost under any circumstances.But when the second son, Nuosong, was over twelve years old, he was able to enter the water and close the bunk to boil next to the duck, and then suddenly emerged from the water and caught the duck. The father said mockingly: " Well, if you do this kind of thing, I don't need to go into the water anymore." So I really didn't go into the water to compete with others to catch ducks.But going into the water to save people is another matter.Anyone who helps people stay away from adversity is one who falls into the fire, and when a person is eighty years old, it still becomes an inescapable responsibility for this person!

Tianbao Nuosong and both are good local swimmers and rowers. The Dragon Boat Festival is coming again, rowing on the fifth day of the new year, and a meeting on the first day of the first day of the river street, it is decided that the boat belonging to the river street will enter the water that day.Tianbao happened to go up on that day, and accompanied the land merchants to deliver festival goods through Longtan in eastern Sichuan, so only Nuo delivered.Sixteen young men, as strong as calves, brought joss sticks, firecrackers, and the same tall drum covered with raw cowhide and painted with vermilion Taiji pictures, to the upper cave where the boat rested, burned joss sticks, and dragged the boat into the water. At that time, everyone got on the boat, lit firecrackers and beat drums, and the boat shot down the downstream Changtan very quickly like an arrow.

It was still in the morning at that time, and in the afternoon, the dragon boats of the fishermen on the opposite river also launched into the water, and the two dragon boats began to preview various competition methods.For the first time, the sound of drums was heard on the water, and many people felt the joy of the approaching festival from the sound of the drums.Those who live in stilted buildings in Linhe have expectations and hopes for people from afar, and they think of them because of the sound of drums.During this festival, there must be many boats that can be rushed back, and many boats can only join halfway to celebrate the festival. In between, there are some human affairs, sorrows and joys that are hard to see. It also made some people frown.

When the puffy drum swept across the water and over the mountains to the bow of the ferry, the first thing he noticed was the yellow dog.The yellow dog barked, and walked around the house as if frightened. When someone made a transition, he crossed the river bank with the boat, and ran to the hilltop to bark at the city. Cui Cui was sitting on the big rock outside the door and playing with grasshoppers and centipedes made of brown leaves. Seeing the yellow dog fell asleep in the sun, suddenly woke up and ran around like crazy. After crossing the river and coming back, she asked it and scolded it:

"Dog, dog, what are you doing! Don't do this!" But after a while she discovered the sound, so she also ran around the house, and crossed the creek with the yellow dog, stood on the hill and listened for a long time, letting the charming drum sound bring herself to a place Went in past festivals.