Han Zuo Gaomen

Chapter 88 Wukang Mountain God
Ji You was also very interested in visiting the tofu workshop with Ge Hong, but after watching a few processes, he was a little disappointed.

The jade plate is admired as the curd cream of snow cream, pure as the virtue of a gentleman. In Ji You's imagination, you might want to pick jade from the mountains, or ask Qionglou to receive nectar, but after you actually entered the workshop, you didn't. There is a sense of disillusionment contrary to imagination.

The brick-built canal draws clear water, and a group of women raise their arms and use bamboo tubes to scoop up water to soak the bean grain. In the middle, under the steps, there are bamboo pipes that have opened up the joints to continuously flow out the soy milk that still has dregs.

Everything seems to be in order, but it is unremarkable.Soon Ji You became boring, which was far from the scene described in "Yuban Fu". What "cardamom Wu Wa picked it up lightly with bare hands, and the [-]th virgin prayed for the dew from the sky" is all a lie!
Ge Hong was very interested in every process, and even personally asked a woman for a basket of screened, full-grained soybeans, washed and soaked them by himself, and planned to experience the process himself.

The women didn't know the identity of the old man, but since he was Mr. Xiao Lang's guest, they let him laugh and make fun of Ge Hong's unfamiliar movements.This old gentleman is what Mr. Xiao Lang said, all nobles are people with dexterous eyesight and clumsy hands.

Ji You was not interested in making tofu by himself, so he left the workshop after walking around. Shen Zhezi's loyal servant Liu Chang hurried up and followed Ji You to listen.

Outside the tofu shop is a river embankment, with willow trees planted all over the river embankment. The willow leaves are withered and yellow, not like the green and lovely spring and summer.Walking along the embankment for a certain distance, Ji You saw houses in front of him arranged in an orderly manner.It looks neat and uniform, but it loses the charm of the changing style of the manor buildings.

"Where is Wei Zhou's residence?"

Ji You raised his finger and asked that row of houses, feeling a little surprised in his heart. In his opinion, Shen Zhezi was a person full of charm and elegance, and living in that kind of place was not very harmonious.

Liu Chang looked in the direction Ji You pointed, and then said with a smile: "Mr. Ji misunderstood, my Xiaolang lives in Liquan Valley, and that is just the house of the servants."

"Get down from the house?"

Hearing this, Ji You was surprised, he had a farm in his own house, although he would not visit the shady household servants in person, but if he went in and out a lot, he would always understand something.But that piece of house is quite different from his home, the rammed dirt road is flat and wide, the house is continuous and orderly, not at all chaotic and cramped as it should be, so Ji Youcai misunderstood it as the owner's home.

Curious in his heart, Ji You walked over to look, and when he walked closer, his heart was even more shocked.These houses are square and neat, and there is no civil material on the outside. The courtyard wall plastered only reaches the adult's chest. Outside the wall, you can see the situation inside the courtyard. The courtyard is more than ten feet wide. There are pigeon coops, chicken coops and goose coops below. Occasionally, children are playing outside the front gate of the court.

Walking by, there are hundreds of houses in the field of vision, all of which are in such a uniform pattern.

"To build such a house, the consumption of materials should be quite huge, right?"

Ji You was not interested in these common affairs at first, but he was the only one left in his family, and he had to take on the responsibility of the family business whether he wanted to or not, so he asked this question.

Liu Chang couldn't answer this question, and only explained from his own understanding: "It took more than a month to dig the earth and burn bricks during the slack season."

Hearing this, Ji You was shocked again.Unexpectedly, the Shen family was so extravagant to build a house with bricks and tiles as a shade. To build such a large house, no matter the labor, the fuel alone would also consume a lot of money!Although the Shen family is rich, but they are willing to treat the people kindly for this reason, indeed it can be regarded as one of the few kind people in Wuzhong.There is no way to build a family without virtue, and it seems to be a matter of course to be able to sit on a family property of ten thousand hectares of fertile land.

While Ji You was still thinking about it, Shen Zhezi had already walked lightly, and smiled from a distance: "It's really impolite for me to be burdened with trifles when you have a distinguished guest."

"Haha, when I come to Wukang this time, I plan to disturb you for a long time. Weizhou, why do you have to be polite, because I abandon my business by myself, then I am the real villain." Ji You also said with a smile.

"It's okay, I'm just idle. Literature is exhausting, I've already asked someone to prepare a meal, let's eat first."

Shen Zhezi led Ji You to the main courtyard of the manor, but Ji You didn't want to delay Shen Zhezi's affairs because of himself, so he persuaded him not to accompany him.

Shen Zhezi didn't lie, the previous visitor was Wukang Yao's family, and they came to Longxi to visit more than once or twice, and what they asked was to ask the Shen family to help print some albums.

The printing business went even smoother than Shen Zhezi imagined. Nowadays, there are already printing tools similar to engravings, and most of them are printed by Tianshidao to distribute to villagers, but what they get are inscribed like inscriptions.The reason for this unexpected discovery is that Shen Zhezi couldn't get his mother Wei to force him to donate to the Qingyang Temple enshrined by his family a few years ago, and found that there are quite a number of sculptors in the temple doing such things.

Shen Zhezi was naturally blunt, and immediately dug the corner of the door, and hired dozens of craftsmen to improve the technology.The technology of this era cannot yet be called printing, which is similar to stele rubbing.The ink material is also not up to standard. It is okay to print some messy rune pictures, but it is still not enough to print the text clearly.

An improvement was made a year ago, but the effect is not very great.In addition, at that time, Liquan Zhenjiang had a huge aftermath in Wuxing, so Shen Zhezi simply used the ready-made crafts and printed a batch of New Year pictures of the door gods regardless of cost, adding a magical story by the way, and distributed them to the villagers in Wukang.

Nowadays, there is no custom of pasting Spring Festival couplets during Chinese New Year, but Taofu New Year paintings already have this custom. Peachwood carved villains hang in the courtyard, tigers are painted on the door panels, and there is also the ceremony of offering sacrifices to the door for the sake of well-being.

Naturally, Shen Zhezi couldn't take advantage of others by doing this, so he elected Shen Ying, the most famous former prefect of Wu Danyang in the Shen family, and named him the God of Wukang Mountain.The short story under the portrait tells that after Shen Ying died in the country, she became a Yin god, and she sealed Wukang Mountain to entrust her dream to future generations. Therefore, Shen's family dug a sweet spring in the mountain and prospered their family business.

This kind of story is very in line with the interests of the people. Even after the death of Shen Zhezi's father, Shen Chong, who rebelled against him, the people regarded it as a god of yin, who cured diseases and eliminated evil spirits. The deeds can be seen in wild books.

The improvement of Shen's family's outlook is due to this move.The villagers are simple and superstitious, and their ancestors have become the gods of Wukang Mountain, so it is not easy to flatter them on the face and scold them behind the back, so as not to bring trouble to their own family.

The Yao family has been visiting the Shen family since Qingming, hoping to use the power of the Shen family to make their ancestors famous.Although his family claims to be descended from Emperor Shun's blood, it is too old, absurd, and there are no miracles spread, so it is difficult to convince the villagers.

The Yao family is more grandiose than the Shen family, directly going back to the ancient times, and enshrining their ancestors as the gods of the Kyushu. Afterwards, they felt that it was too empty and lowered the standards one by one.This time when I came to the Shen family again, I no longer dared to confer the title of Emperor Shun, so I found an ancestor of unknown generation in the pile of papers, and fabricated it as the king of Wu Xing Yinfu.

This is really unreasonable!Shen Zhezi was so good at playing, he only dared to confer Wukang Mountain God on his ancestors. The Yao family wanted to let the Shen family ancestors be their subordinates. Shen Zhezi was too lazy to talk to them, so he dismissed them casually.Of course, the main reason is that the Yao family members are too stingy and unwilling to spend money, and only said that if the Shen family is willing to help, the matter of marrying the Shen family can be discussed.

Shen Zhezi scoffed at this condition even more, even if they got married, then Wu Xinghan was not the daughter-in-law for him to marry, and besides, the Shen family didn't need to marry the Yao family anymore in order to raise their prestige.

Ji Youshang was in mourning period, so Shen Zhezi asked people to prepare vegetarian meals, a tofu feast.After the meal, the Ji family's servants' luggage was also transported to Longxi Manor.Shen Zhezi had asked Ji You to vacate a courtyard in the manor for a long time. After the arrangements were made, he went to see Ge Hong who was lingering in the tofu shop.

Ge Hong was grinding soybean milk with a small hand-cranked mill, looking very interested, turning a deaf ear to Shen Zhezi's greetings, Xinxinran seemed to have found the true meaning of life.Seeing this, Shen Zhezi let him go.

Living in the country has its own wild charm. When Ji You woke up in the morning, he heard the chickens and dogs outside the yard, and people chatting, which made him feel infected, and his mood was much refreshed.

Walking out of the door, Ji You saw Shen's servant Liu Chang chatting with his servants in the corridor, walked over and asked with a smile, "Where did your lord go?"

Liu Chang got up quickly and replied: "My Xiaolang doesn't live in the village, he is currently in Liquan Valley."

"Liquan Valley? Is there really a Liquan nectar gushing out? I'd like to have a look."

Hearing what Ji You said, Liu Chang quickly ordered someone to get off the ox cart, and then led Ji You out of the house to the Wukang Valley not far away.

It's time for the late rice to be harvested. The Shen family has a bumper harvest this year, and many farmers in the large rice fields are harvesting rice.Ji You put up the curtain on the ox cart and watched the farmers busy. Some harvested in front, and others bundled them later. Bamboo raft carts shuttled between the ridges of the field to transport out the bundled rice seedlings in an orderly manner.

This small valley named Liquan Valley has been developed now, surrounded by bamboo fences, and tile-roofed houses can be seen from a distance.As the ox cart passed through the gate, two Zhuang Ding stepped forward to stop it. Liu Chang, who was in charge of driving the cart, turned around and explained to Ji You apologetically, "My Xiaolang has established a rule that only walking is allowed in the valley. Don't be offended by Mr. Ji Lang."

"It's okay."

After Ji You heard the words, he got out of the car, and the guests did as they wanted.As soon as he got out of the car, he heard a loud voice from inside the valley: "What is benevolence and righteousness?"

"Strengthen my body and protect my country! Mess up my home and kill it with swords and soldiers! Jiehu flesh and blood, fatten my fields! Words must be practiced, no merits are worthless!"

A uniform voice responded, piercing through the sky, and Ji You was so startled that he froze on the spot.Then, in his slightly sluggish vision, he saw a well-arranged square team jogging from the other side of the stream with their elbows close to their bodies.The people who make up these square teams are teenagers in their teens, each with a solemn expression, uniform and close-fitting clothing that resembles a bearded robe, and their footsteps are uniform, and they make a very rhythmic sound of "pa, pa" when they step on the ground.Although his age is still immature, his momentum can already be called awe-inspiring.

And at the front of the first phalanx was Shen Zhezi, dressed in the same way, leading the team along the stream and running into the valley.

(End of this chapter)