Ancient natural disasters: The whole family traveled through time and was almost wiped out

Chapter

Jiang Suying helped her father, whose memory was still confused, into the car: "Dad, you are the doctor, you should know what to pay attention to. I will give you an injection when I get home in a few days, or ask grandpa to give you the injection!"

"Don't!" Jiang's father stretched out a palm, the meaning of rejection was obvious. He looked at his father carefully and saw that he was talking to the older generation of Jiangjia Village. Then he whispered to Jiang Suying: "Your grandfather has poor eyesight and poor accuracy. These days, I am almost stabbed by him and almost forgot that I am already over fifty."

Jiang Suying almost held her forehead with her hand.

Father Jiang felt miserable. In his heart, he still felt that he was a young man. However, his body, no longer young, really couldn't stand his father's torture. His father was about to paralyze him. Huh——

If Ying Niang had not clearly told him which acupoints could be touched and which could not be touched, he would probably have more than just a few blood spots and needle marks on his body.

Doctor Jiang was so obsessed with acupuncture that after studying the acupuncture point maps for a few days, he "happened" to meet Jiang Suying giving acupuncture to Jiang's father. So, with Jiang Suying's hands-on guidance, he gave the acupuncture on his behalf. The acupuncture point was not wrong, but when the needle was pulled out, blood spurted out three inches high.

Yingniang said that it would be okay to pierce the acupuncture point a little deeper, and his father thought it was okay, so let him do it!

Ying Niang was so careless that she actually taught her father how to give acupuncture. He didn't dare to say directly whether his father had learned it or not. Anyway, he was still alive. But without his daughter present, he would never let his father give acupuncture no matter what!

The villagers of Jiangjia Village stood at the entrance of the village and watched Doctor Jiang and his family drive away in the snow. Old Master Jiang called out to everyone, "Everyone go back and gather the food for this year's ancestor worship. See what you can get. You can't let our ancestors not have a full meal during the New Year."

In the past, Chinese New Year celebrations would always include killing a chicken, cutting a piece of pork, adding three bowls of white rice, and a pot of rice wine. This was the simplest ritual.

If conditions permit, the chicken will be replaced with a large white goose, the pork will be replaced with a pig's head, and a fish will be added.

But this year, there is a pig's head, smoked, pork, smoked chicken, duck and fish, all smoked, but the things for ancestor worship must be fresh! Who has ever seen these things used for ancestor worship!

It would be fine if there were really no conditions, but Jiang Lizheng's family has live chickens!

Ancestor worship during the Chinese New Year is a big event. Before the families came to ask for favors, Jiang Lizheng had already discussed it with Old Master Jiang - kill three live chickens to offer sacrifice to the ancestors.

Each family has one chicken, about sixty in total. It’s not that the Jiang family can’t afford it, but they can’t take it!

On the surface, Lao Jiang's family only had fifteen chickens, and one chicken for each family was definitely not enough. Together with the three chickens "picked up" by the villagers, there were only eighteen chickens in total, which was far from enough. Finally, everyone discussed and decided to buy three chickens from Lao Jiang's family, one chicken for each family, and offer them together for ancestor worship.

Although this chicken was picked up by Lao Jiang's family in the mountains, it belongs to them now and cannot be given to you for free. Don't say anything like "ancestors". Your ancestors will be unhappy to hear that. If you are not sincere in offering sacrifices to your ancestors and don't even want to spend a little money, they will definitely not bless you in the coming year!

There are three branches in Jiangjia Village, the first, second and fourth branches. The third branch was extinct more than 50 years ago, and so was the fourth branch. However, the fourth branch still exists because the last male in the fourth branch adopted a child from the first branch to be the head of the family, which led to the current fourth branch.

"We have chicken, rice and wine, it's not shabby. Our ancestors know that it's not easy for us, they will definitely not blame us." Old Master Jiang waved his hand and asked everyone to disperse: "Everyone, tidy up yourselves, the New Year is coming soon."

Although he said that, he didn't move at all. Why? Because he was cold!

He is a man with one foot half in the coffin. He has never experienced such a cold winter. If he didn't wear enough clothes to keep himself warm, he wouldn't like to go out. He would like to sit by the stove every day. However, after staying by the fire at home for too long, his nose becomes dry and he is prone to nosebleeds.

Anyway, I feel uncomfortable when it’s cold or warm. I don’t know if it’s because I’m too old, but I just feel uncomfortable all over!

"Wash it, wash it." Jiang Suying urged Jiang Xiaomi as she untied her hair: "You can't wash your hair from the first day to the seventh day of the New Year. Can you wait until then?"

"I'm convinced!" Jiang Xiaomi took off her cotton coat. Her movements were rough. Washing hair would easily get clothes wet. She threw the cotton coat on the clothes drying rack and put her hands on her hips: "Why does washing hair have to show that men are superior to women?"

I just learned the shocking news from Old Lady Yang that women, no matter if they are newborn girls or 80-year-old ladies, are not allowed to wash their hair from the first to the seventh day of the New Year. However, men are an exception.

It was troublesome for women in ancient times to wash their hair. Women had long hair, so it took a long time to wash their hair. It would take at least an hour or two to wash it clean. However, even so, there was a rule that women should not wash their hair from the first to the seventh day of the New Year?

What, are you losing money?

"There are already a lot of things to do, and I don't want to have a meaningless argument with the old lady about something like this." Jiang Suying said as she rubbed the shampoo into foam and applied it to her wet hair.

"Your hair isn't oily, so it lasts ten days after you wash it once. Mine, on the other hand, becomes oily the next day after I wash it, just like in modern times. I have to wash the front of my hair every other day. Chunya's eyes are a little like that every time she looks at me!"

"Miss? What did you say?" Chunya came in from outside carrying some water and vaguely heard her own name.

"Nothing, oh, come and comb my hair, it's tangled!"

Her hair was waist-length, and Chunya often combed it into beautiful buns, which was quite amazing. However, it was very troublesome to wash it, and if she didn't wash it, it would become as oily as Zhen Huan's hair after applying hair oil.

The Jiangjia Village was now only worried about what to do with the sacrifices. The Jiajia Village next door was already wailing. They knelt down on the side of the road, holding a small amount of wet yellow paper in their hands, and each of them held a lonely incense stick.

A young man cried as he burned wood: "Dad! Mom! Big brother and second brother! I'm back home now. I'm fine. I didn't lose any limbs. I'm fine! Our house is still there, but one room collapsed. I'm alone, so it's enough for me to live in. Did you receive the money I burned for you? It's not a lot. This is the money you bought during the Mid-Autumn Festival and didn't use up! I was going to burn it for our ancestors, but I didn't expect... Woo woo woo - I'm fine, don't worry, I will survive, and I'll bring your share with me."

It is already decent to have yellow paper and incense for the memorial service. Many families don't have these things at all. They can only wipe away tears every time they think about it. Those who died of illness still have a body, but those who were washed away by the flood would really have no body left, and their life or death is unknown. They know that the possibility of survival is almost zero, but they still think about what might happen!

What if he is still alive!

However, the possibility of this "what if" is extremely small. If he was still in Luoshui County, the possibility of survival would be a little higher, because every household still has some food stored, and the possibility of being given a bite or two of food to survive would be greater. But if he was in other places, even in the neighboring Chunzhou County, he would definitely not survive.

They themselves don't have much food left, so how can they use it to help strangers? Moreover, they themselves are in dire straits now.

When Governor Wen returned to the government office, he ordered his confidants to take their people to plunder food everywhere. In just ten days, they managed to grow a layer of meat on the skinny man. But he still felt it was not enough. There was not enough food in the county town, and there was only a little left after plundering. So he went further and further, to the towns and villages.

The people under Governor Wen were frightened by starvation as locusts invaded the territory they passed through. So they took away all the food without leaving a single grain behind. What should they do if the original owner disagrees?

Then kill him.

When the owner dies, the things naturally become ownerless.

Governor Wen was a bad man, but he was not stupid. Although he hated County Magistrate Chen to death, he did not rush to Luoshui County to kill him immediately. Instead, he collected food and grass and recuperated for a while before dealing with him.

Otherwise, with weak soldiers and thin horses, we won’t be able to gain any advantage.

But tomorrow will be a good day, and they will spend a prosperous year in the Luoshui County Government Office.

At this time, at the Chunzhou County Governor's Mansion, a group of spirited troops gathered on the road in front of them. They were sharpening their swords and were about to advance towards Luoshui County.

The people of Luoshui County were unaware of this, and only County Magistrate Chen remained on guard as always.

The night in Jiangjia Village was peaceful. Amid the sound of falling snow, the last day of the fifty-second year of Xiyou arrived quietly.

The next morning, the fat chef started killing chickens. Jiang Lizheng caught three fat and big roosters, weighing about seven or eight kilograms.

“This chicken is so fat!”

Butcher Jiang, who came to help, laughed and said, "Is this a pheasant? Why does it look so much like a domestic chicken?"

Remove the "like" and it becomes a domestic chicken.

The fat chef whispered in his heart.

As a professional chef, he knew it was not a pheasant as soon as he touched the chicken, but he didn't say anything. He took a wooden barrel, filled it half with boiling water, and then added half a bucket of cold water. He was just about to tie the chicken's feet and hang them on a bamboo pole. In this way, he didn't need anyone's help to grab the chicken's feet and wings, and he could kill the chicken by himself.

"No need to tie him up, I'll hold him for you." said Jiang the butcher.

"Okay! Thank you!" replied the fat cook.

"You're welcome!" Butcher Jiang's big hands held the chicken so tightly that it couldn't move.

The fat chef ran into the house tremblingly and brought a bowl. He added some salt to the water, stirred it, and put it aside. Then he plucked a tuft of hair from the chicken's neck until a one-yuan coin-sized piece of chicken skin was exposed. He picked up a kitchen knife and pulled hard, and the chicken's trachea was immediately cut off. The fat chef quickly used a bowl of salt water to collect the chicken's blood.

The blood was drained bit by bit. When the chicken felt the moment of death, it struggled violently, but was caught by Jiang the butcher and finally became motionless.

There is not much blood, only the bottom of the bowl. Just let it sit for a while and the chicken blood will solidify.

"Hey hey hey! The chicken ran away!"

Xiao Shun and Hunter Jiang also killed a chicken together, but it was not so smooth. He spilled a bowl of blood, and when he let the chicken go, it actually stood up and walked around four or five times.

"Kill him, kill him!" shouted Old Master Jiang.

It was not a good sign that the livestock used for ancestor worship could not be killed. Xiao Shun and Hunter Jiang quickly caught the chicken. Hunter Jiang said, "Hey, little guy, you are still very lucky."

As he said this, he pressed the chicken into the bucket of boiling water. The chicken flapped its wings a little and then suddenly became silent.

"It can't come back to life this time!" Hunter Jiang lifted the chicken out, put it on the ground, and began to pluck its feathers. He adjusted the water temperature according to the fat chef's method, which made it easy to remove the feathers without damaging the chicken skin due to the hot water temperature.

It is the easiest thing to pluck the feathers from a chicken. In no time, the featherless chicken will become a bald chicken.

There are many considerations when it comes to how to handle the chickens used to offer sacrifices to ancestors and gods.

First, make a hole in the cartilage under the chicken's butt, reach in and take out all the internal organs, so as to keep the chicken intact.

It is important to note that you should not break the chicken's gallbladder, otherwise the chicken will not taste good.

All the internal organs inside the chicken's chest cavity must also be cleaned. Chicken lungs cannot be eaten and must be picked out clean. The chicken gizzards must be cut open and the dirt inside must be cleaned. When dealing with chicken intestines, it is best to cut a bamboo stick and pick it up gently. The dirt in the intestines can be dealt with quickly. Finally, after the chicken gizzards, chicken livers, chicken hearts, and chicken intestines are all dealt with, use the chicken intestines to tie them together.

The chicken blood cannot be thrown away. Put the solidified chicken blood in the pot and cook it. Do not turn it over at this time, otherwise the integrity of the chicken blood will be destroyed. The chicken will be incomplete, and our ancestors will be unhappy.

When the chicken blood has set, scoop it out, add water again, put a single layer of bamboo strips in the pot, and then put the chicken in. This will prevent the chicken from sticking to the pot. Then clamp the chicken blood behind the chicken's neck and cook the chicken.

While the chickens were being killed and cooked, Old Lady Yang and the fat cook's wife were making rice dumplings. In some places people eat glutinous rice balls, but in Luoshui County people eat rice dumplings, which symbolizes reunion.

The Yuanzi has no filling and is very simple to make. Use boiling water to scald the glutinous rice flour, knead the glutinous rice dough into long strips like kneading dough, and then cut it into small pieces of even size.

If you want to eat something sweet, just add brown sugar and cook it. If you only add brown sugar instead of white sugar, the taste will be relatively monotonous, just a little sweet. The salty ones will be much richer. Jiang Lizheng’s family usually makes salty ones.

In previous years, leaf stickers would also be made at this time.

Yetie is what people in Luoshui County call it. It is a kind of rice cake, also made of glutinous rice, with fillings, both salty and sweet.

The salty dish is filled with peanuts and garlic sprouts. The fresh garlic sprouts are headed and leafed, leaving only the rhizome in the middle, split in the middle and chopped into small pieces. The peanuts are fried, pounded, and mixed with the chopped garlic sprouts. The mixture is then wrapped in glutinous rice skin, pressed into shape with a mold, and placed on tree arborvitae leaves and steamed in a steamer.

As for the sweet ones, use brown sugar and glutinous rice flour, and the fillings can be white sugar and crushed peanuts, or shelled mung beans.

Two different flavors, but both are delicious.

But now there are no fresh garlic sprouts, and the salty leaf paste always tastes a little bit lacking.

"It's time to put up the couplets!"

In some places, couplets are posted on New Year's Eve, in some places on New Year's Day. In Jiangjia Village, couplets are posted on New Year's Eve. After posting the couplets, people offer sacrifices to their ancestors.