Chapter 44 Pine Branches Greeting the Spring Breeze Ksitigarbha Festival of the Dead
Chapter 44: Pine branches congratulate the spring breeze and Ksitigarbha sacrifices to the dead souls
Zhao Xin and the others left early the next morning.
Liu Sheng, who was seeing them off, stood at the gate of the camp, watching the six of them retreating, laughing three times in his heart, thinking that it was finally my turn to make the decision.
So Liu Sheng issued the first order to Sheng Haizhou.
He wrote in pencil on the booklet Katsu Kaishu carried with him: Beef stew for lunch.
Sheng Haizhou looked at Liu Sheng in embarrassment, thinking that he hadn't finished what he cooked last night. But this couldn't be used as an excuse, as it dampened Mr. Liu's interest for no reason. But then he thought of another reason,
Very confident.
So Sheng Haizhou wrote on the booklet: "Sir, today is the first day of the lunar month, as usual, every household will dust themselves off."
Liu Sheng took a look and thought, what they said is reasonable. Who doesn't tidy up during the New Year? I'd better go to the beach and shoot a gun.
So this guy carried a target and went to the beach to practice pistol shooting.
It is said that when the women in the camp started cooking in the morning, they steamed a pot of glutinous rice. It was the New Year and they were preparing to make rice cakes.
The glutinous rice that Zhao Xin brought was actually given as a gift by the merchant when he bought rice. The quantity was only a hundred or ten kilograms. And the glutinous rice had been soaked all night.
Island people usually eat rice cake directly, or dip it in sugar or soy sauce; they also often cook it with radish and wild vegetables in a pot of "mixed cake".
After having breakfast, the other refugees began their New Year's cleaning, dusting off the old dust.
It is said that New Year's cleaning in the island country is usually completed before the first day of the year. But this year, if it weren't for Zhao Xin's reminder, many people would have almost forgotten about it.
Even though some old people had been counting the days and knew that Zhengdan was coming, they didn't dare to say anything when they saw that Zhao Xin didn't say anything.
Sheng Haizhou asked Zhao Xin for instructions on this matter last night, and Zhao Xin nodded in agreement, so the refugees began to get busy the next day.
A Miao and Zhinao were responsible for cleaning the RV, and the Xu brothers also came to help. Xu Shounan, a little follower, followed closely behind his elder brother, and from time to time he would tease Duofu to pass the time.
The weather today is very good, the wind is not strong in the morning, and the thermometer in the RV shows that the outdoor temperature is only minus 5 degrees.
The refugees took the quilts, mattresses and mats in the tents outside the tents and beat them with branches to dust them off. Others carefully wiped the stoves in the tents clean.
After all, we are still living a collective life now, so everyone works together, and the tent is tidied up very quickly.
Some people held shovels and were responsible for transporting the cleared garbage outside the camp; while the old people took a group of children to the bushes on the edge of the camp to pick pine branches from the low pine trees. These pine branches are for
Hanging it outside the tent door as a "door pine" represents the meaning of welcoming the New Year.
(As a side note, in modern island countries, the kadomatsu selling business of various merchants in the city before the New Year is monopolized by the underworld. There was once a street association president who planned to promote environmental protection and save resources. He was there.
In the street under his jurisdiction, Kadomatsu was replaced by advertising paintings with pine and bamboo paintings. As a result, the underworld came to negotiate with him the next day. They were also very polite and said that if they want to do what you do, a lot of us will suffer.
What? The president of the neighborhood association immediately realized that his behavior was hurting the other party's job, so he immediately apologized and made corrections quickly.)
The logging team led by Heita and Jiuzang did not go to work today. Several people who had worked as carpenters had nothing to do after cleaning the tents.
At this time, several old people found them. After a conversation, the carpenters went to find Liji. After explaining their purpose, they got the tools and went to the place where the wood was piled.
Several carpenters first cut a piece of wood into twenty sections with a hand saw, with the average length of each section being forty or fifty centimeters. Then, they used an ax to remove the outer bark and short branches, and used a plane to
Polished it a little.
Next, a guy who was already very skilled in craftsmanship started chopping short pieces of wood with a hand axe. After a while, the general appearance of a person's idol came out. Several other people followed the other person's demonstration and started to get busy.
stand up.
One of the other two guys used an ax and a chisel to make a dent on the top of a thick piece of wood half a man's height. When he felt that the depth was about the same, he began to smooth the dent as big as a sea bowl bit by bit.
.This is the mortar used to make rice cakes.
The other person quickly made a pestle.
The two people worked together, and after making the tools for making rice cakes, they happily took them to the kitchen; while several other people continued to carve the dolls of similar sizes and faces.
Some women and old people approached Katsu Kaishu, hoping that he could draw an eggplant, an eagle, or a small picture of Mount Fuji for them.
This request is also to seek good luck in the New Year.
People in the island country attach great importance to dreams in the first month, because a good dream means everything goes well that year. Mount Fuji, eagles and eggplants are said to be Tokugawa Ieyasu’s three favorite things. So today
Before going to bed at night, put the pictures under the pillow. As long as you can dream of one of them, it means good luck that year. This can be regarded as a little spice in life.
Katsu Kaishu welcomes all comers and has been painting since the morning, so tired that his hands cramped up. At first, he could draw it in detail, but later, he just finished it with a few hasty strokes, as long as the idea was achieved.
Lu Shoushan, who had nothing to do, was approached by the women in the kitchen. Monk Zhang Er was confused and was pushed and pushed by several women and brought to the kitchen.
Lu Shoushan felt very uncomfortable. He couldn't understand what others were saying. He blushed and wanted to push the person away, but seeing that everyone was smiling and polite, he couldn't get angry easily.
As soon as he arrived in the kitchen, a woman handed over a wooden pestle and pointed to the wooden mortar.
Hey, Lu Shoushan's heart suddenly dropped into his stomach, he asked me to do something.
The women put the steamed glutinous rice into the wooden mortar and signaled Lu Shoushan to beat it. Then, amidst the exclamations of several women, the glutinous rice in the wooden mortar was beaten by Lu Shoushan and flew around.
Wan Zao's wife laughed so hard that she couldn't stand up straight. She stepped forward and grabbed the wooden pestle and demonstrated the strength and technique to Lu Shoushan.
You can't beat hard at the beginning. You can only slowly crush the cooked glutinous rice in the wooden mortar, and then beat the center with the cooperation of another person, while the other person dips his hand in water and beats the surrounding areas.
Gather the rice cakes to the center and repeat the operation.
Lu Shoushan blushed, looked at it sheepishly for a while, and nodded to show that he understood. Then Wan Zao's wife handed him the wooden pestle.
On the beach, Liu Sheng stood fifty meters away, shooting at the target with a pistol.
The SIGP226 in his hand is very different from the 92 he used in the army before. The recoil is much greater. However, Liu Sheng feels that this gun is suitable for his hand shape, and the 92 is a bit too slender.
I don't know when, Jiuzang slipped over and stood ten meters behind Liu Sheng. He looked at Liu Sheng's shot after shot like a fool.
Liu Sheng turned around inadvertently and happened to see Jiuzang. The startled Liu Sheng opened his mouth and cursed: "You didn't even say a word, so I shot you to death!"
Although he didn't know what the other party was talking about, Jiuzang knew from his tone that Master Liu was angry. So he was so frightened that he hurriedly knelt down on the sand.
Liu Sheng flipped the hammer release button on the pistol to reset the hammer, but did not eject the magazine.
The biggest difference between P226 and 92 is that it does not have a special safety. Instead, the strength of the trigger is changed by releasing the hammer. After the hammer is reset, even if the trigger is accidentally touched, it will not cause misfire unless it is pulled very hard.
move.
Liu Sheng looked around and saw that Jiuzang didn't have a knife. So he walked up to Jiuzang, lifted him up with one hand and asked, "Curious? Want to learn?"
Jiuzang stood up tremblingly, not daring to raise his head. However, when he heard Mr. Liu talking, he raised his head and looked at him.
I saw Liu Sheng holding up the strange continuous iron gun and swinging it twice, and said another sentence.
When Liu Sheng saw the longing look in the other person's eyes, he knew he had guessed correctly. So he waved to Jiuzang to follow him, and the two stood ten meters away from the target.
Liu Sheng unloaded the magazine and left only one bullet in the magazine. He motioned for Jiuzang to stand in front of him. When the other party stood, Liu Sheng put the pistol into Jiuzang's right hand, and
One of his own big hands tightly grasped Jiuzang's right hand.
As the hammer was pulled down by Liu Sheng, Jiuzang excitedly raised his right arm following Liu Sheng's strength, and Liu Sheng pointed the blunderbuss in his hand at the target.
"Bang!" There was an explosion, and the powerful recoil force made Jiuzang fall back, while Liu Sheng held his arm tightly so that he did not raise it.
"Your arm strength is not good, you still need to practice shooting." Liu Sheng shook his head, took the gun out of Jiuzang's hand, and ejected the magazine. After thinking about it, he motioned for the other party to follow him and arrived at the wood accumulation point.
Several carpenters were still decorating the human puppets. When they saw Liu Sheng coming, they quickly put down their tools and stood up to salute.
Liu Sheng found a piece of wood, took a chisel from a carpenter, and asked the carpenter to carve something on the piece of wood. The carpenter hurriedly bowed and agreed.
Liu Sheng took out the P226 with the magazine removed again, raised the empty gun to the carpenter's eyes, and let the carpenter look at it for a while. Then he pointed to the wood and then pointed to the gun in his hand.
The carpenter suddenly realized that the master wanted him to carve something out of wood that looked like the iron tool in the master's hand.
He immediately held up the wooden board to signal Liu Sheng to place the pistol on the wooden board, and then he used the short blade of the chisel to carefully trace around the edge of the pistol.
Jiuzang looked at Liu Sheng busy there with a stupid look on his face. He didn't know what Mr. Liu was going to do. After thinking about it, he decided to go find Katsu Kaishu.
Over there, Katsu Kaishu was desperately trying to survive, drawing pictures of Mount Fuji, eagles and eggplants one after another. However, the eagles looked more and more like doves, and the eggplants looked more and more like sausages...
Jiuzang listened to the instructions and hurriedly found the "great painter" Sheng Haizhou who was painting.
"Ah, there must be something urgent when you come to me, right?" Katsu Kaishu saw Jiuzang and felt like a drowning person when he saw him and handed him a bamboo pole.
"Master Sheng, that Master Liu...forget it, please come with me quickly."
"Oh, oh~~~" Sheng Haizhou stood up quickly as if he suddenly understood, and said to the refugees waiting around him: "Sir, look for me. I will paint again later, and then paint again later."
As he walked, he rubbed his wrists and asked Jiuzang, "What's the matter?"
"I don't understand what Mr. Liu means. Please go over and explain it to me."
Not long after, the two came to the place where the wood was piled.
Sheng Haizhou stepped forward and bowed to Liu Sheng, then took out the booklet in his arms and wrote with his trembling right hand: "What's the offense for Jiuzang?"
Liu Sheng took a look and realized that he had misunderstood. He took the booklet and wrote: "He needs to practice his wrist strength." After he finished writing, he looked at the carpenter and saw that he had almost finished it, including the general shape and trigger guard.
The shapes are all there.
Liu Sheng directly signaled the carpenter to come down, and he picked it up and weighed it in his hand. The weight was not enough. So he found some rope, hung a wooden block on one end, and tied the other end to the trigger guard.
"Well, this is enough. Let's do this for now." Liu Sheng had no choice. Communication was not smooth, and the steps of aiming and loading would have to be taken slowly in the future.
He handed the wooden gun to Jiuzang, then took Katsu Kaishu's notebook and wrote: "Practice with a gun, 5 minutes each time." As soon as Liu Sheng finished writing, he realized that the other party didn't have a watch either, so he thought about it and added
He crossed out and wrote again: "One stick of incense each time. Three times a day."
If Wang Yuanfang saw this, he would definitely be ridiculed. Are you planning to do physical therapy? Three times a day.
After finishing writing, Liu Sheng also demonstrated to Jiuzang with a wooden gun.
Katsu Kaishu saw that he was going to teach a repeating iron gun! He quickly explained it to Jiuzang. Then he ordered the carpenter to make an identical one for him.
There were only more than three hundred people in the camp, and there were only a few dozen men. The news spread quickly, and not long after, Rikichi, Heita, Manzo, Kokichi, and Mosuke all came, and the carpenter
Tell everyone to make a handful.
The carpenter is about to cry. It’s hard to have a day off today!
Because they don’t have to go out to work today, lunch is rice cakes and “mixed boiled cakes” made with radish and green vegetables. The food eaten by the refugees from the island country is very delicious. Lu Shoushan, Zeng Xiucheng and the two children are all used to hardship, so they don’t
I don’t think it tastes good, but I just think the food is very novel.
Liu Sheng, on the other hand, looked at the bowl of "radish stew" in front of him and frowned.
"Speaking of which, you haven't practiced survival in the wild for a long time, right? What, are you going to let me review it today?"
Liu Sheng murmured in his heart for a long time, but in the end his hunger overcame his hesitation, and he put it into his stomach no matter what.
After finishing this bowl, Liu Sheng decided not to eat this thing again at night. If they still brought such a bowl at night, he would roast some beef himself.
In the afternoon, the women began to boil water in the large iron pot in the kitchen again, preparing for everyone to have a New Year's bath.
According to the custom of the island country, the elderly bathe first, followed by the men, and finally the women and children.
At dusk, everyone had finished washing. Someone walked out of the tent, lit a few torches, and walked towards the north wall of the camp. The refugees came out of the tents one after another, followed the direction of the torches, and came together.
Under the camp wall on the north side of the camp.
Twenty Ksitigarbha Bodhisattvas carved from wood, about four to fifty centimeters tall, were neatly lined up in a row, facing the crowd. The brows were vaguely visible on the roughly carved faces.
People kept coming forward and inserted the branches with white cloth strips in their hands behind the statue of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva. On the white cloth strips, Katsu Kaishu wrote in the afternoon that the refugees had lost their lives during last year's famine.
The names of the deceased family members.
This is the soul-calling flag.
Heita writes about his sister and father.
Jiuzang's cloth strip is full of names, all of which are his family members.
There is only one person above Hu Ji, his mother.
Mosuke's family is a family of four.
With tears in his eyes, Wan Zao inserted the soul-calling flag with his parents written on it behind the Ksitigarbha statue.
As an old man in the crowd recited a Buddhist chant, everyone knelt down, put their hands together, and prayed for their relatives and friends who died last year.
A Miao knelt in the crowd, thinking about her mother and brother who were buried by the flash flood, and her grandmother who hanged herself so as not to drag her down. Tears rolled down and fell on the ground in front of her. Gradually, her crying became louder and louder.
The bigger it gets, the more heartbreaking it becomes.
And with A Miao's cry, many people were also awakened by the cry. The numbness in their hearts was awakened by this cry. Thinking of their wandering away from their hometown, their dead relatives were thousands of miles away from themselves, and the seemingly endless waves of sadness came one after another.
It impacts the souls of the refugees.
The white cloth strips fluttering in the wind made bursts of noise, as if to say that the dead cannot be saved!
In the crowd, low and suppressed sobs could be heard one after another.
Rikichi and Shino knelt at the back of the crowd, with tears streaming down their faces.
Sheng Haizhou stood at the end of the crowd, bowed his head and prayed.
Lu Shoushan and Pan Xiucheng took the two children of the Xu family and gathered some soil to make incense in an open space not far from the crowd. They knelt facing south and kowtowed three times in the direction of Dongtai.
After getting up, he asked the two children to kowtow in the direction of Ninggu Pagoda in the west to worship their mother.
After Xu Shounan stood up, his eyes were filled with tears and he looked at the praying crowd with a worried look. He just heard A Miao crying, and she was crying very sadly.
Liu Sheng stood not far away, looking solemnly at the praying refugees with a heavy heart. He didn't understand what the ceremony was, but he understood its meaning.
He sighed deeply and raised his hand in a military salute.