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

Chapter 226

At dinner time, Jiang Yipei and Jiang Lizheng walked into the house one after another.

"Why are you back so late?" Old Lady Yang asked the old man sitting next to her. Seeing that he was cold, she hurriedly asked the maid to move the stove closer to him.

"Something happened to me, so I was delayed." Jiang Lizheng rubbed his hands: "How is my third daughter-in-law? Is she okay?"

"Yingniang came back in time, and both mother and child are safe, but they suffered a great punishment." Old Lady Yang briefly told the story of her grandson who was born without breath but was revived. Jiang Lizheng was naturally thankful. He watched dead people outside every day, so he naturally didn't want such things to happen in his own home: "Let the maids and nannies take good care of him."

"I know, I know! Rong Niang gave birth to our Jiang family, so she is a great contributor!" She did not forget the other two daughters-in-law present: "You are all heroes of our Jiang family! Eat, eat! Try the chicken pot that Xiaomi taught the fat chef to make!"

"Hmm!" After the elders started eating, Jiang Xiaomi also started eating. She squinted her eyes in delight at the delicious food. This meat is so fresh and delicious!

She has to urge Jiang Xiubai!

Now that you are here, you should make use of your strengths!

Liu and Jiang Xiubai did not stay at the old Jiang's house for dinner tonight, but someone sent a portion of Jiang Xiaomi's chicken pot over. We must remember that without Jiang Xiubai, there would be no chicken. We should remember where the water came from, and Jiang Xiubai's family should also have a portion of what the old Jiang family has.

After dinner, everyone went about their own business. Jiang Lizheng called Jiang Yipei to the study and told him about what had delayed him from returning home. Jiang Yipei was really stunned by the three words "I've never seen this before".

Jiang Lizheng frowned and said, "Dahe Village wants to find a new bride for the river god, but no matter how much we persuade them, they won't listen. Maybe you or County Magistrate Chen will have to handle it personally."

Jiang Yipei was puzzled: "It's snowing heavily now, not flooding. What does it have to do with the river god? Can he control the snowfall?"

"There was a flood before the snow started!" Jiang Lizheng reminded him, "Besides, they believe that the gods are connected. If we send off the New Year well this year, the river god will be happy and say a few good words to the snow god. Maybe the snow will stop!"

"Jiang Yipei: "…"

Really, he was going to pinch the Ren Zhong point.

How can they be self-consistent with such far-fetched logic? Huh???

Now you know how important reading is!

Even if you have a kindergarten diploma, you can't use a living girl to gamble on a "maybe"!

Jiang Yipei: "What about the head of the village and the head of the village? Do they mean the same thing? Don't care?"

"I can't do anything about it..." Jiang Lizheng sighed: "Life is too hard. Many families even take the initiative to push their daughters out. Sigh..."

"Dahe Village..." Jiang Yipei thought for a moment, "Is it the village that suffered the most damage? The one where only one out of ten houses and fishing boats survived?"

“This is the village!”

Some people's lifelong savings, even ancestral property left by the previous generation, were all destroyed in the flood. Their houses were gone, and their money-making boats were also gone. How could they want to buy new ones?

——It's impossible!

In this kind of weather, it is impossible to fish, and there is no way to make money.

Many people feel that life is hopeless.

"But haven't they been arranged to live in other villages? And there is already a plan for the construction of their houses. If I remember correctly, the next batch of red bricks should arrive in their village! It won't be long before they can build houses, and those fishermen who live on boats can also build houses!"

What Jiang Yipei needs to do is to grasp the general direction. As for the details in people's lives, that is, the conflicts between living in the village and living in other people's houses, he cannot take care of every detail. These must be considered and coordinated by the people themselves.

But even so, compared with people from other states, it is already pretty good. There is no need to marry the river god again!

Jiang Yipei thought about it seriously again and felt that... it was not impossible!

The harder life gets, the more cults there are. Some unscrupulous bastards are keen on making money from national disasters.

It is completely reasonable for them to take the river god worshipped by their ancestors as their spiritual sustenance and restart the river god plan!

If that's the case, this matter will be difficult to handle!

Jiang Yipei had a headache. He discussed with Jiang Lizheng for a long time but could not come up with a feasible solution. It seemed that County Magistrate Chen had to take action!

There is a big river in Chunzhou, which runs through Luoshui County and Chunzhou County, named Luochun River.

Hundreds of years ago, there were many fishermen who lived on boats on this river. Many fishermen and civilians drowned there. They felt that these people died in vain and were full of resentment. Over time, monsters would be born!

Therefore, people would be invited to the river regularly to perform rituals to suppress the rebellion. This was useful at first, but over time, it had no effect at all. Often, once the master left, two boats would be overturned the next day.

If the master can’t help it, who else can cure it?

Moreover, the river monster has a bad temper. It either causes high water levels or huge waves, making the fishermen miserable.

Until one day, a girl who had just come of age accidentally fell into the river and drowned. It was not known whether it was a coincidence or not, but that year, the river was calm and there were no more storms. The fishermen's lives were much better, but the next year they were not doing well again. Someone had a quick mind and thought that the drowned girl might have been favored by a river monster, and the monster thought they had done a good job, so he gave them a year of good weather. But there was no new bride this year!

The river monster is unhappy again!

But some people are still rational and think that this cannot be the case, but most people think that -

Whether it is true or not, you will know if you try it!

So the last orphan was chosen by the village. There was no wedding ceremony at the beginning. They just pushed her in and did not allow her to come out until she drowned.

I thought that the year of sacrificing the bride would also be a year of good weather and good harvests, but a few days later, a big typhoon overturned all the fishing boats and drowned several people!

But they did not think the method was useless. Instead, they felt that the orphan girl was unlucky and the river monster did not like her, so they forced another innocent girl to drown. Three days later, the typhoon stopped, and apart from some light rain, there was no more catastrophic damage.

The villagers became even more convinced that there was a river monster in the river!

Over time, the river monster became the river god. If the river god was still angry after getting married, it meant that the bride was not chosen well. He would change another one. If it was still not good, he would change another one again until the river god was satisfied.

After County Magistrate Chen took office, he felt that this was absurd and what difference was there between this and taking human life lightly. He dealt with the head of the village, the chief, and some old pedants with thundering means and slowly suppressed the matter. But less than three years have passed and it has happened again?

The next day, Jiang Yipei and Jiang Lizheng went out early, and Old Lady Yang prepared the things needed for washing the taro at home.

The little guy got a nickname, Taro, which means food.

As the saying goes, "Washing a baby on the third day is called washing the third day."

The custom of bathing on the third day of the lunar year was very important in ancient times.

It is said that this can wash away the dirt brought by the baby from the "previous life" and make the baby safe and auspicious in the "present life". It is not only to wash away the filth and avoid disasters, but also to pray for good luck and blessings.

On the day of the third day of the baby's bath, Jiang Xiaomi got up early. She was quite interested in these ancient customs.

The Jiang family's house was bustling early in the morning. People from Jiangjia Village came early, bringing some small gifts.

Under normal circumstances, people would definitely give "tonics" such as cakes, eggs, brown sugar, etc. Some well-prepared and thoughtful people would even give some children's clothes, shoes, socks, etc. as gifts.

But now, bring up whatever you have!

Old Mrs. Yang brought Mrs. Liu to receive the guests. They were not picky about what gifts they gave, as they were all little tokens of thoughtfulness from everyone.

Taro was carried out for a walk, and after meeting all the relatives, he was taken back to his mother's room. There were many stoves in the room where the child was bathed, for fear that the child would catch a cold while bathing, but the fire was not yet burning well and it was still a little cold.

Everyone gathered together to talk. During this period, everyone was very busy. Apart from the basic rest time, don't think about anything else.

So taking advantage of today's happy event, everyone gave themselves a day off!

"Come on, come on, everyone, come here and take your seat. After lunch, give my taro a bath!" Old Mrs. Yang entertained everyone with a smile.

We added a few dishes today, but the most important one is noodles. If you want to celebrate the third lunar month, you have to eat noodles.

The child is too young, so we can’t hold a grand celebration. If we want to hold a grand celebration, we have to wait until the “full moon”, which is the full moon.

The "Third Day Bath" ceremony is usually held after lunch, which is noon and the sun is out, so the children won't get cold when bathing.

The ceremony was presided over by the midwife. It was Nanny Cui who delivered Qin, and she was also the midwife. This was also the reason why she had not been dealt with in the past few days.

Matron Cui was a little nervous at first, but after two or three days of peace, she gradually calmed down and treated the young master's third-day baptism ceremony with even greater dedication.

Before the "third day of bathing", many things need to be prepared, such as clean stream water instead of well water, navel hairpin, basin cloth, snacks, and if possible, gold and silver ingots or other flowers; if not, some copper coins.

There were many other things that Jiang Xiaomi couldn't even name, including locks, scales and so on. She even saw the ginger slices and green onions that she gave to the fat chef, as well as some red dates and longans, the longans of which were even dyed.

Throughout the ages, auspicious fruits such as longan, lychee, red dates, and chestnuts have always been indispensable on big days.

Happy fruit means fresh or dried fruit with good meaning.

Red dates and chestnuts-early birth of a child.

Lotus seeds and longans - bring you sons and daughters.

Longan - Longan, Longan, three in a row.

After some preparations were made, Aunt Cui chanted: "Add the basin——"

Jiang Lizheng went to the basin with a smile and added a small spoonful of water. Aunt Cui followed and sang: "Grandpa adds water, the water flows, smart and clever——"

Jiang Lizheng gave some small change and copper coins, as well as other prepared things, and then came Old Lady Yang, then Jiang Yiyu and Qin, Jiang Yipei and others, according to their age and seniority, also added some clear copper coins, and then came the relatives.

Every time they added something, Aunt Cui would recite it and sing it, creating a strong sense of ritual.

"Take a shower—"

As Aunt Cui spoke, she held the little master and put him into the basin. As soon as the little taro touched the water, he cried "Wow--" Aunt Cui smiled happily and said, "The little master is great. Even the basin cried--"

"Wash your hair first, then become a king..."

"Wash your waist later, each generation is taller than the previous one——"

"Wash the eggs and become a county magistrate—"

"Wash the ditch and become the governor——"

They sing wherever they wash, from head to toe, from belly to waist, all the words are auspicious and festive, and everyone loves to listen to them.

Old Mrs. Yang was extremely happy.

The complexity of the rituals for the "third day of the deceased" in ancient times really reached an unprecedented level.

The "washing the third day" ceremony is usually held after lunch and is presided over by the midwife. First, an incense table is set up in front of the delivery room's outer hall, offering thirteen statues of Bixia Yuanjun, Qiongxiao Niangniang, Yunxiao Niangniang, Cuisheng Niangniang, Songzi Niangniang, Douhua Niangniang, and Yanguang Niangniang. The incense burner is filled with millet, which is used as incense ash to insert incense. A pair of "small double packages" (small red wax with sheep oil used for sacrifice) are inserted on the candle sticks, and yellow money, ingots, Qianzhang and other full-portion money and food for worshiping the gods are pressed below. The statues of "Kanggong and Kangmu" are offered on the head of the kang in the mother's bedroom, and three to five bowls of osmanthus jar stoves or oil cakes are used as offerings. As usual, the old woman burns incense and kowtows, and the midwife also bows three times. Then, the family puts a copper basin filled with soup made from locust branches and mugwort leaves and all ritual items on the kang. At this time, the midwife holds the baby in her arms, and the prelude to "washing the third day" is opened. If you want to spend money to look good, some people will put gold and silver ingots and "yellow and white" jewelry in the basin. In the late Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China, some people put silver dollars, and even the poorest people would put in a few copper coins. The midwife has a set of fixed blessings. Whatever you add, she will say the same thing. If you add clear water, she will say "Long flowing water, smart and clever"; if you add some auspicious fruits such as jujubes, laurels, and chestnuts, she will say: "Early son ("jujube" and "early" are homophones, "chestnut" and "establish" are homophones), and continuous noble sons ("laurel" and "noble" are homophones); laurels, laurels, continuous three prizes." To win the favor of the family and guests.

If you add some clean water, she will; if you add some auspicious fruits like jujube, laurel and chestnut, she will say: "May you have a son soon ("jujube" and "early" are homophones, "chestnut" and "establish" are homophones), may you have noble sons in a row ("laurel" and "noble" are homophones); laurel, laurel, may you win the first prize in a row." to win the favor of her relatives and guests.

After "adding water to the basin", the midwife picked up the mallet and stirred the basin, saying: "Stir once, twice, and three times, and the elder brother will lead the younger brother to run. The seventy-year-old, the eighty-year-old, the crooked-haired, the naughty, they are all here!" Then she began to bathe the baby. If a child cries because of a cold, it is not taboo, but it is considered auspicious, and it is called "ringing basin". While washing, she recited blessings, such as "Wash the head first, you will be a king; wash the waist later, each generation will be higher than the previous one; wash the eggs, you will be a county magistrate; wash the ditch, you will be a prefect". Then, light a moxa ball, use ginger slices as a support, and place it on the baby's forehead to symbolically roast it.