The family of the No. 1 squire in Xiangxiang County is having a big funeral. His family name was Zeng, and he lived in Heyetangdu, a hundred and thirty miles south of the county seat. Heyetang is located at the junction of Xiangxiang, Hengyang, and Hengshan counties. Surrounded by high mountains and blocked by traffic, it is a remote, desolate, desolate and poor place. The human-high white powder walls tightly surround the hundred and ten buildings in the mansion; the gold-rimmed blue-bottomed "Jinshidi" vertical plaque hanging at the gate, and the two tall and mighty stone lions beside the gate all show the special status of the owner.In the past, people who entered and exited the Zeng Mansion always held their heads high. Inside the white powder walls was a world of joy, as if the happiness and luck of the entire Xiangxiang County were concentrated here.Now, it is shrouded in a thick sadness, and it is white everywhere, as if a heavy snowfall fell prematurely.

A archway was built with pine branches and white flowers at the gate. In the past, the four red lanterns with "Zengfu" written in black and white in Bian-Song script were all replaced by plain lanterns made of white silk. Covered with white cloth strips.On the flagpole of Daheping in front of the gate, there is a long soul-calling streamer, which is blown by the evening wind, slowly floats up for a while, and falls gently for a while.A tall stele pavilion was erected in the middle of Heping, and in the stele pavilion was enshrined a large vermilion tablet with gold letters, which read "the right hall of the Ministry of Rites before the Jinshi of the 1898 Division".Around the stele pavilion, four mountains of gold and silver were ignited. Clouds of smoke mixed with firelight sent ashes of yellow and white tinfoil into the air, and then fell to Heping.

As the sky gradually darkened, the candles in the plain lanterns at the gate were lit.Lights were lit up everywhere in the yard.The golden hall, the central building of Zengfu, is brightly lit.In the middle of the Golden Hall is a hall, with eight wing rooms symmetrically arranged on both sides.At this time, this hall is a solemn mourning hall.On the front is a white curtain that stretches to the ground, and the black lacquered coffin is placed behind the curtain, with only one head exposed.There is a line of block letters on the upper part of the curtain: "Grand seal first-rank Zengmu Mrs. Jiang Tai through the ages".There is a huge "Dian" character in the middle, and under the character "Dian" is a portrait of an old lady wearing a Yipin Ming uniform.I saw her sitting on the grand teacher's chair, with kind eyebrows and kind eyes, and a smile on her face.There are elegiac couplets for the children hanging on both sides of the curtain.The first one is "Duanzhu has taught children for forty years, he is a scholar of the country, and the second minister of Jin Dian." The second one is: "Bian Zhou cried for his mother for two thousand miles. The waves are evil in Poyang, and the clouds in Hengyue are sad."

The left and right walls are covered with sacrificial banners.The leading one is a thick black Hara cloth, with four large characters pasted on it: "Yide is always there".Inscribed: No doubt about the title of Meibu, the prefect of Changsha.Next is the milky white Hangfang gifted by Wang Jingzhai, a professor of Changsha Fuxue. There are also four big characters on it: "Style will last forever".Below it is a long strip of white satin, also pinned with four large characters: "Eternal Mother Yi", and a line of small characters written on the lower left: "Shi nephew Zhu Sunyi kneels and pulls in the main hall of Xiangxiang County." Immediately behind the county magistrate's banner, Hanging are all kinds of silks, satins and fleeces given by the commander-in-chief of the Forty-three Capitals of Xiangxiang County.Right below the portrait is a strip-shaped black lacquered wooden table, on which there are incense burners and fruit offerings.In the mourning hall, only cigarettes curled up, but no sound was heard.

After a while, an elderly monk led twenty-three monks into the mourning hall.They first stood in two rows and bowed together to the portrait of the old lady, then separated, walked slowly into the curtain, and sat down around the black-painted coffin.After hearing the sound of a heavy wooden fish, the twenty-four monks hummed at the same time.Twenty-four voices—clear, turbid, deep, agitated, old, and delicate are mixed together, high and low, long and short, and generally consistent. No one can hear what they are humming: it seems to be reciting scriptures, and it seems to be singing.At this time, large bundles of sandalwood wood began to burn in the iron furnace.Cigarettes permeated the golden hall, and were squeezed out of the house, spreading into the ping, covering everything around like a spring mist.The entire mourning hall became gray, only some light-colored satins with better texture, under the light of nearby candles, flickered coldly like will-o'-the-wisps.There was an endless stream of people changing incense sticks, cutting candle stubs, burning money paper, and pouring tea, all of them in plain clothes, tiptoeing around.The mourning hall is full of dignified and mysterious atmosphere.

In a side room on the east side of the mourning hall, there was a sixty-two or three-year-old white-haired old man who sat expressionlessly on a carved chair.The Zeng family's ancestral home was in Hengzhou, and they moved to Heyetang in Xiangxiang in the early Qing Dynasty. It has been passed down to Zeng Linshu's great-grandfathers, who were officially recognized as Xiangxiang people due to the increasing number of clan surnames and a little wealth.Linshu's father, Yuping, was strong and dissolute when he was young, and he didn't like reading. He didn't get on the right path until he was thirty, so he set out to let his children study.Unexpectedly, the three sons are not proud in the field of fame.The second son, Ding Zun, died just after reaching adulthood, the third son, Ji Yun, was born as an old boy all his life, and the eldest son, Lin Shu, tried 17 times to be a boy, and only managed to be a scholar at the age of forty-three.Linshu knew that he was not suitable for studying, so he gave up his ambition to earn a living, and taught the children to make a living, and educated his sons carefully.Lin Shu is cowardly by nature, but his wife Jiang Shi is shrewd and capable.Jiang is five years older than her husband, and the couple have five sons and four daughters.Every matter in the family, big or small, was handled by the Jiang family.Jiang's housekeeping is orderly, and she takes good care of her husband.Linshu was so happy that he didn't find out about everything and was at ease.He once wrote a pair of couplets, which hung in his study for many years: "There are children and grandchildren, there are fields, and the family tradition is half-cultivated and half-studied, but the Jiqiu is inherited from the ancestors; Hand over the difficulties." Now that his wife has let go, Zeng Linshu seems to have lost his backer.Who will be in charge of such a large family business in the future?These days, he has been looking forward to his eldest son's return all the time.Zeng's mansion is today because of this uncle who is a servant in the imperial court.The funeral still depends on him to preside over it, and the future family affairs also depend on him to decide.

When Zeng Linshu was sitting on the grand teacher's chair, thinking silently by himself, a man in his early thirties, dressed in filial piety, walked in lightly.This is Linshu's second son, named Guohuang, styled Chenghou, he ranks fourth in the family, and the family usually calls him the fourth master. "Father, it's late at night, you should always go and rest! Brother will definitely not be home tonight." "Jiang Gui has been back for five days." The old man opened his half-closed eyes, which were bloodshot, "He said he met your brother at Xiaochi Station, Taihu Lake, Anhui. Jiang Gui only walked for 16 days on the road, you Brother is three or four days behind him, and he will be back in a day or two."

"Father, how can Jiang Gui compare favorably with brother!" The second daughter Guohui spoke.Her eyes were red and swollen, her face was thin, and a long and large white cloth was wrapped around her head. She was cleaning up the clothes left by her mother in a corner of the room. Which one is not flattering? This one please eat, that one please write an inscription, in my opinion, it will be a good thing for brother to be home in half a month." Linshu shook his head and said, "You don't know what your brother is like. At this time, how could he have the heart to go to a banquet and write an inscription? Could it be that something happened!" Surprised, an inexplicable fear gushed out.

"What kind of accident will my brother encounter? Although Chang Mao is attacking Changsha, the road between Yuanjiang and Yiyang is still peaceful! Didn't Jiang Gui come back safely?" Guohuang didn't understand his father's mood, but put the "accident" in two The word thought carefully. "You don't know, Jiang Gui told me that he was almost scared out of his wits along the way." A young man in his twenties and eighteen years old answered the conversation. He was Linshu's fourth son, named Guoquan, His style name is Yuanfu, he is the ninth in the family, and he is known as Jiuye.He was also dressed in pure white, but he didn't see many relatives.Guoquan put down the ledger in his hand and said, "Jiang Gui said that on his way back to Xiangxiang from Yiyang, he encountered two cases of long-haired men wrapped in red kerchiefs and holding bright swords, which made his legs tremble and he hurriedly hid Go to the haystack, and don't dare to come out until the long hair has walked two or three miles."

"Where is Tuanyong? Why doesn't Tuanyong catch those long hairs?" Guohuang is the head of the regiment of Heye Tangdu, and he has a high estimate of Tuanyong's strength. "Fourth brother, there is no group practice in Yiyang yet!" Linshu's third son, Guohua, who was the sixth in the clan, spoke up.This sixth master has been adopted by his uncle as his son. Although he is also wearing a hemp belt, he is sipping tea carefully with his legs crossed. He is not so much a dutiful son as a tea drinker.He said with a little contempt, "Fourth brother is always brave in the regiment. If you really come to Changmao, what role can your brave regiments have? If you can’t win, Changmao is easy to deal with? I think Changsha will be occupied by Changmao sooner or later.”

These conversations between the young masters of Zeng's mansion frightened the old man, who was called the commander-in-chief of Xiangxiang County regiment training.He left the grand master's chair, walked around the house, and prayed silently: "God bless, and bless my eldest son to return safely as soon as possible." Walked heavily into the bedroom. ① Du, the name of the administrative division in the Qing Dynasty, roughly equivalent to the current township.