Chapter 10 Chapter 9 Tea King

The train crawled slowly among the green hills like a snake, and a cool breeze blew into the sweltering compartment, stirring up the smell of sweat from everyone dancing in the compartment.Liao Lao Er was spitting and telling the story of the tea king. He was very scheming, and he would definitely not waste his time, and he might have to charge money after telling the story. Liao Er wanted to continue telling the story, but Zhao Shuai interrupted: "Isn't Junshan in Changzhou located in Yixing? It belongs to Wuxi City, right?" "Little brother, I'm not lying!" Liao's second son was a little unhappy. "In ancient times, Yixing was called Yangxian. It has always belonged to Changzhou. It was only transferred to Wuxi in 1983. We are old and used to the old name. You young people don't understand the law."

I snorted and signaled Zhao Shuai not to interrupt, but Li Xiuzhu was not very happy and gave Zhao Shuai a hard look.Then, Liao Laoer went on to say that in the Tang Dynasty, tea culture was already very prosperous. In addition to its medicinal properties, it also had the function of entertainment and enjoyment.Lu Yu, who wrote the world's first tea book "The Classic of Tea", was from the Tang Dynasty. He stayed in Yixing, so he discovered Yangxian tea and strongly recommended it. Yangxian tea was selected as a tribute tea. Yangxian tea is also called Jinling purple bamboo shoots, Yangxian purple bamboo shoots, and Jinling is Changzhou. There is a record in the "Tea Classics": "Yin cliffs and yin forests, the purple ones are the top, the green ones are the next, the bamboo shoots are the top, and the buds are the next."Later, due to the large demand, purple bamboo shoot tea was distributed to Changxing County, Zhejiang Province for production.In ancient times, Yangxian tea was called Yangxian purple bamboo shoots, and Changxing tea was called Huzhou purple bamboo shoots at first. Later, the purple bamboo shoots tea was named as Changxing tea, and Yangxian tea was still called Yangxian tea.Nowadays, it is generally said that Yangxian tea is produced in Yixing, Jiangsu, and Zisun tea is produced in Changxing, Zhejiang, but in fact they belong to the same family.

Since Junshan is the place where tribute tea is produced, many tea masters from the Tang Dynasty gathered there.As soon as there are many masters, they often fight for tea. There is a man named Yang Tianling who overwhelms everyone and wins the leader.It is rumored that Yang Tianling has a copy of "The Classic of Tea", but it is not the one written by Lu Yu, and that Yang Tianling's is a fragmented copy, and the content behind it has been torn out.A tea master asked for advice and wanted to read the fragmented copy of "The Classic of Tea", but Yang Tianling refused. Yang Tianling built a tea king valley in Junshan, which specially taught people the tea ceremony, even cured people of all kinds of diseases and prolonged their lifespan.But no one knows exactly where the Tea King Valley is located in Junshan. Someone once walked all over the mountain but found nothing. Only Yang Lingtian wanted to find him.Yangxian tea was even more popular among literati in the Song Dynasty. Many people wanted to go to Tanggong Mountain to meet the tea king, but it was still difficult to see it, even though the tea king had changed many people.

The tea war originated in the Tang Dynasty and flourished in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, a huge tea war was held every few years, and the winner was judged by the tea king every time.The successors of the tea king are all selected by the tea king himself. After the successor is selected, he must change his surname to Yang and follow the first tea king, Yang Tianling.Although the whereabouts of the tea king are secretive, something happened in the Southern Song Dynasty, which made the tea king attract more people's attention. It turned out that in the Song Dynasty, the tea king had passed to a man named Yang Wudao, but during the annual tea war, Yang Wudao was poisoned to death in public.You know, the tea king can read the year, type, and heat of the tea from the taste of the tea, so if there is poison in the tea, it must not be hidden from the tea king's eyes.After Yang Wudao was poisoned to death, everyone was stunned and couldn't believe it was true.Yang Wudao may have predicted that the end will come, so the day before, he had already passed the title of tea king and the remnants to the next person.

The history of Tea King has continued until the old China was invaded by foreign powers. At that time, the country would not be a country, but at that time there was a big tea war, and even foreigners came to provoke it.At that time, tea had already become popular in the world, and some even shamelessly said that India was the origin of tea.According to the tradition, the Tea King was supposed to be there, but when the tea battle ended, the Tea King didn't show up either.At that time, there was an Englishman who overwhelmed the people of other countries with his superb tea art, so everyone hoped that the tea king would teach the foreign devil a lesson, but nothing came of it.

Although the people of the country refused to admit it, the Englishman claimed to be the king of tea. From that day on, the ownership of the king of tea was no longer conclusive, and the valley of the king of tea seemed to have completely disappeared.In modern times, there are tea wars at home and abroad, but there is still no recognized tea king.Recently, a rich and powerful Englishman spent many years trying to establish relationships around the world, preparing to hold a big tea war and choose a recognized tea king. When I heard this, I asked Liao Er Er: "The tea king you mentioned that didn't show up is Yang Chengshan, right? What's the name of the provocative Englishman?"

Second Liao thought for a while and said, "The names of foreigners are too difficult to remember. They seem to be called from something. Why do you ask this?" Li Xiuzhu glanced at me knowingly, and I was also surprised, thinking what a coincidence, could it be the owner of the Fohai Demon House—Lyle Nelson?After this foreign devil returned to England, he never came to Fohai again. I don't know what happened to him in the end.I am very interested in the tea king, but my grandfather never mentioned these things, maybe he doesn't know these things.However, since people like Lao Er Liao knew about it, why didn't the grandfather who had become a tea master not know about it, or maybe he didn't want to mention it.

The incomplete book of tea that Liao Lao Er mentioned should have originated in the Tang Dynasty, but if the books after that time have been handed down to the present, they would have rotted into ashes if they hadn’t been rummaged. Is this book in my hand the tea king’s hand? the one fromSecond Liao saw that I was lost in thought, so he asked me what I was thinking and if I remembered something.From the tone of Liao Lao Er, I obviously wanted to use the story of the tea king to cover my secret, so I denied it in a panic. I think I used to lie for food back then, but now I blushed unbelievably. Unless Liao's second child is an idiot, the kid can see it.Li Xiuzhu had seen the fragments of the tea scriptures in my room, and she also knew the origin of the Fohai Yaozhai. She was clever and immediately helped me out, and changed the topic to the matter of whether the second Liao had a wife.Liao Er didn't know what it was, so he was taken further and further away by Li Xiuzhu, as if he had forgotten the questioning just now, but Liao Er still glanced at me from time to time.

After Zhao Shuai heard the story, he remembered the hatred again. He found that Liao Er always looked this way, so he slandered that Liao Er might really have a habit of breaking sleeves.I got goosebumps in disgust, and asked Liao Laoer where he was going in Yunnan. He opened his mouth and said to Dali, and then asked where we were going.I always felt that Liao Er Er was weird, and I didn't want him to know our whereabouts, so I lied to him that we were going to Lijiang. Finally, the train arrived in Kunming, and the three of us were going our separate ways when we got off the train.Liao Laoer's eyes flickered, and he took out something wrapped in silk from his bag, and when he opened it, it turned out to be a pair of yin and yang sacrificial spoons.This thing is definitely a treasure. After using it for a long time, it will become so dark and bright that you can't tell the difference between Yin and Yang.The second brother Liao said that we are destined to have knowledge, so I will give this pair of Xi Piao to me as a souvenir. Don't forget him when you get rich in the future.

I wanted it very much in my heart, but I said hypocritical words and pretended to refuse.Liao Lao Er couldn't help but stuffed the pair of sacrificial spoons to me, said that the green mountains will not change, and the green water will always flow, and then he got into the crowded crowd.I was flattered and stood where I was, without saying a word, wondering what I could do, and why the philistine Liao Er Er was so enthusiastic about me.Looking at the crowd, Li Xiuzhu and Zhao Shuai stood on the same front as never before, happily cheering Liao Er Er to get out, but immediately looked at each other coldly, as if saying who knows you.

When we arrived in Kunming, we rested for a few days, processed some documents, and bought some things in Kunming by the way, such as daggers, flashlights and so on.Menghai is in the southwestern border. I heard that there was a miasma, and I got a big neck disease due to iodine deficiency from eating well salt. We were so scared that we bought a lot of daily necessities and food, and we didn’t even forget to bring soap and sea salt. I bought a small jar and the family was reluctant to eat the saved bacon. Li Xiuzhu didn't return to Menghai in the past 9 years. She brought a lot of presents back from Beijing. She dressed like a lady, and it was impossible to tell that she had ever been a young lady.There is still nearly 1,000 kilometers from Kunming to Menghai, and it takes another four days to travel by car for daytime and overnight stays. At that time, many sections of the road were not asphalt roads, and most of the roads along the way were all dirt, stone and hairy roads.We traveled all the way in the shuttle bus, and all we could see on the winding mountain road was the vast dust that covered the sky and the sun. Poor Li Xiuzhu became Cinderella, and Zhao Shuai and I became dirty beggars. Along the way to Xishuangbanna, there is a feeling of "mountains and rivers are full of doubts and no way out, and there is another village with dark willows and flowers". There are countless flat lands hidden in the mountains.After driving a few kilometers on the Kunluo National Highway, the car turned into the sidewalk and began a difficult journey of turbulence.The road is very narrow, and usually only one tractor or a shuttle bus can pass through. If there is a car coming from the opposite side, you must honk your horn from a distance to signal, and quickly find a slightly wider road section close to the rocks and let the other party slowly brush your body However, without skilled driving skills, you would never dare to show off in these places. Anyone who watched the 1965 movie "Green Pine Ridge" knows that the horse that pulled the cart was frightened every time it saw the strange elm tree when it passed the mountain pass.On the way to Menghai, you have to pass through several passes. Among them, the big pass is the gate of hell that the driver will tense up when he arrives here.Its terrain is precipitous, and the narrow road between the two peaks is steeply sloped. Once out of the pass, it turns sharply, and on one side is an abyss of tens of feet.Especially in the rainy season, the roads are muddy, and the curves are covered with deep and shallow ruts. If you are not careful, the car will overturn and people will die. I went to see Marx. Zhao Shuai bumped all the way and vomited badly, but Li Xiuzhu and I were fine and didn't feel uncomfortable.Suddenly it rained heavily on the road, and the bus was slower than pedestrians, so we couldn't wait to get out of the bus and walk.Just when Zhao Shuai and I were about to break down, Li Xiuzhu said that we were going to Menghai soon, and we could get out of the car and walk by then.I was about to applaud, but the bus actually stopped, but it was still far from Menghai County. Passengers chirped and asked what was wrong, but the driver answered loudly in thick Yunnan dialect, saying that a tractor in front had overturned.Because the road is very narrow, the tractor is overturned on the road, so the vehicles in front and behind cannot pass.Some people said unconscionably, why didn't they climb down the cliff, but wanted to block the road, as indifferent as a wild beast.The lead-colored sky kept falling with drizzle, and there was no wind flowing in the mountains, so the passengers in the car were all bored, and everyone seized this opportunity to get out of the car to breathe. We sat at the back, eager to squeeze out of the car, but the passengers in front were all motionless, and no one got out of the car.Zhao Shuai yelled, why didn't he open the door and get off the bus, but the driver yelled in panic that he couldn't open the door, and tried to turn the bus back.