Go back to the valley to farm

Chapter 9

Chapter 9 Fourth Grandfather
Li Junge quickly took the broom from the old man, looked at the old man whom he admired since childhood, and called out respectfully: "Fourth Grandpa."

Li Liangchu raised his head and looked Li Junge up and down, his eyes were full of love and compassion, but he didn't say much, he just patted him on the shoulder lightly, signaling him to continue sweeping the floor.

After sweeping the floor, the two washed and dried their hands next to a washstand in front of the left wing, and then entered the wing one after the other.

There is a large wooden niche inlaid on the facing wall in the wing room. The wooden niche is divided into two floors. The patriarchal family tabooed the position of Lord Shenqin", and one of them wrote a letter "Li's clan house tabooed the position of Duke Shenqing".

On both sides of the wooden niche are two figures on silk. The one on the left is dressed in the costume of a village sage, wearing a black cloth crown, with an amiable face, and a line of small characters on the left: "Li's taboo, Shenqin, the character is like a foolish image".The one on the right is dressed in a court dress, wearing a Jinxian crown on his head, crowned with six beams, which means second rank, with a solemn expression, and a line of small characters written on the left reads "The image of Xiangshan, the public character of Li's Taboo and Shenqing".

Below the niche is an incense table.There are several futons on the blue brick floor in front of the incense table.

Li Junge knelt down respectfully on the futon.The fourth grandfather stood in front of the case, bowed to the memorial tablet, and said with a solemn expression: "Li's son, Junge, returned to his hometown last night, and today he will enter the temple to worship the ancestors and pay respects to the ancestors."

Then he turned to face Li Junge, and said sharply: "Li's son, Junge, respects his ancestors, but thinks about his own affairs, is there any crime of stealing, humiliating and prostitution?"

Li Junge said in a deep voice, "No."

Li Liangchu said again: "Is there anyone who disrespects the teacher and doesn't work diligently?"

Li Junge said again in a deep voice, "No."

Li Liangchu said again: "Is it true that you don't care about yourself and make friends with flatterers?"

Li Junge said again in a deep voice, "No."

Li Liangchu looked relaxed, and said: "Li's son, Junge, is cautious, good-natured, loyal to friends outside, diligent in doing things, sitting up and walking, worthy of the family tradition, you are allowed to hold incense and salute, and comfort the ancestors." spirit."

Li Junge stood up neatly, took out three sticks of incense from the table, lit them and inserted them into the incense burner in front of the memorial tablet, and then respectfully returned to the futon and kowtowed three times. A stone, half black and half white, looks good, so I picked it up and put it in my pocket.

After completing a set of procedures, the two of them exited the wing room.

When they got out of the wing room, the sunlight was dazzling, both of them felt as if they had come out of another world, and they relaxed again.

Fourth Grandpa looked at Li Junge with a smile, and said, "Come on, boy, go to my room and have a chat."

The two left the ancestral hall and walked into the big house next to them.

As soon as you enter the big room, there are two walls of bookshelves, all of which are full of books. One is after the Republic of China, and there are no categories.The other shelf is full of ancient books, the number of which is much smaller, and they are all neatly arranged according to the subset of classics and history, very neat.

Li Junge looked at it and said in surprise: "Oh! You have collected a lot!"

The Li family in Shanghe is a farmer and reader. The so-called "eight hundred gauze hats" used to have a lot of old books in every household, but after several catastrophes, there are not many left.After the fourth grandfather retired and returned to his hometown, he collected and sorted everywhere, and that's how he got this little shelf.Compared with what Li Junge saw last time, this time it was much more.

The Fourth Grandpa took out a book from the shelf of ancient books, opened a page and handed it to Li Junge, saying, "Recently I'm studying the history of Lijiagou. Read this article, it's about reforming the land and returning to the local people."

"Here, it tells about the aborigines in this area, which can be traced back to the Han Dynasty. At that time, when Zhuge Liang conquered the south, Meng Huo had an elite army called 'Wuximan'. The book said that his living environment is not the same as that of the Wuxi River area. very similar?"

Li Junge read the text in the book, and compared it with the environment of Lijiagou, it really fits well.

Li Liangchu took out another book and said with a smile: "Look at this book again, it mentions the history of our Li family's prosperity. It's an interesting legend."

Li Junge read it carefully, and couldn't help laughing.

It is mentioned in the book that Li Demao, the patriarch of the Li family, migrated from Meizhou to Panao Township in order to avoid military service in the late Song Dynasty.Pan'ao Township was a barren land at that time, and Li Demao lived in a hut here, reclaiming wasteland and farming, and his life was very difficult.

One day, a man named Yazi passed by with a woman. Li Demao thought that he was too old, so he exchanged the woman from Ren Yazi with a load of millet, and the two became husband and wife.

I don't want this woman to be a fool, she doesn't know anything, every day besides eating and sleeping, she just has fun, plays everywhere in the mountains and fields, and Li Demao does all the housework and farm work by herself.

Li Demao couldn't help it, so he gave the silly daughter-in-law a basket and told her to bring back a basket of pigweed when she went out for a stroll every day.

One day when Li Demao came home, the silly daughter-in-law had already come back first, and was in a daze under the eaves, leaving the pig grass basket aside.

Li Demao was about to feed the pigs, and when he poured out the pig grass, he found two shiny things mixed in it.

Those are two silver ingots.

Li Demao was taken aback, quickly picked up the ingot, dragged his silly wife into the back room, and asked quietly, "Where did you get these two things?"

The silly daughter-in-law didn't know what it was, but she just thought it was fun, so she said, "There is a hole in the mountain. I sleep there at noon every day. There are many things in it."

Li Demao's heart was about to jump out of his throat, and he immediately put on his backpack and said to the silly wife, "Take me to see it."

When the couple went to Bifeng Mountain, the silly daughter-in-law found the hole and pointed to it: "Well, that's not it."

Li Demao got into the hole, oh my god, there are several jars of ingots.

That night, when the silly daughter-in-law fell asleep, Li Demao went back and forth several times and moved all the silver ingots in the cave to his home.

Li Demao's life has since been reversed.

……

Later, after the silly daughter-in-law gave birth to Li Demao's two sons, Shenqin Gong and Shen Qinggong, she passed away within a few years. After the death, two plum trees grew out of nowhere on the grave. The plums on one tree bore many plums, but the taste was average. , the same as ordinary plums.There were few plums on one tree, but they were very sweet and delicious.

Everyone said that this was a silly daughter-in-law implying that the two branches of the Li family, the eldest, Shen Qingong, would have many descendants, but there were no outstanding talents.The second son, Shenqing Gong, has a thin membership, but most of them are outstanding and will become officials.

Later it did.

Later, Lord Shenqing became an official. When he was in Jiangxi for a general judgment, several local wealthy families joined forces to mine copper mines, but after digging the ground, they still couldn’t mine copper mines, so they asked an expert to do a fortune telling. The expert pointed out that they were still short of one People with all five elements in the horoscope will join.

Several wealthy families searched hard, and finally found this person, it was Mr. Shen Qing, so they gave Mr. Shen Qing [-]% ​​of the shares as nominal shares.

Strange to say, after Mr. Shen Qing bought the shares, the group of people dug out a certain one. From then on, with the money on the backs of the mules and horses, they came to Pan'ao Township one by one.

From then on, the Li family really developed.

Li Junge hid the book and laughed, the old man told him this story before, but now he saw it written in elegant diction in ancient books, it felt very funny and weird.

The fourth grandpa said: "This is a reading note written by an ancestor of the Li family. It contains a lot of introductions about the customs, allusions, and people's livelihood of Pan'ao Township. Alas, the cultural heritage of Lijiagou is actually very rich, but it has not been discovered. .”

"So I'm going to write a book, collect all these, and leave a family history for the family. What do you think?"

Li Junge said: "This is a good thing! I must support it, but you are getting old, and your body and spirit may not be able to handle it. Do you think this is okay? For you, just treat it as a pastime and organize the big frame first. It’s no longer two months since the children will be on summer vacation. At that time, they will all be called to the ancestral hall to do their homework. After finishing the homework, I will do some chores for you, such as searching for information, copying and writing, and taking care of them by the way. Don't play like crazy all day long."

He just cheated the children of a village without any hassle.

The fourth grandpa said: "Your brains are spirits. I am worried about how to deal with this matter. You have a good idea. My son comes to me every morning during the summer vacation, so I will hold a remedial class. Hahaha, old man, I am already 94." , this time I will go back to my old job again.”

The fourth grandfather graduated from the Nanjing Institute of Education in [-]. He joined the underground party while in school. After graduation, he taught in Nanjing and worked underground until Nanjing was liberated. After that, he was transferred to the Liu Deng army as an educated youth to participate in the Liberation Army. Southwest, after changing his job as the political commissar of the Youth League, he has been moving around in the education system of Shudu.So doing education is really his old profession.

Li Junge said: "I have to tell my uncle about this matter. He is the village head. Let him announce it with a loudspeaker."

The fourth grandfather said: "Why don't you just go now, I don't bother to cook, so I'll have lunch at your uncle's house."

The grandfather and grandson went out for a stroll, and they would come to the door of uncle Li Sicheng's house. The uncle was harvesting cowpeas in the field, and the aunt Song Guangju came out to say hello: "Old man, Piwa, sit down quickly." He pulled Li Junge and said: "You It's been a long time since the child came back, let the aunt take a good look at it!"

Seeing the old and the young coming from a distance in the field, the uncle knew that it was the fourth grandpa and Li Junge who had come, so he also stopped his work and walked home with the picked cowpeas.

The aunt came out with a few mats and spread them in the middle of the dam. When the uncle came back, he threw cowpeas on the mats and came to say hello to his grandpa and grandson.The aunt spread out the cowpeas to dry, and said, "This year, you won't be allowed to take a boat, and you can't go to the city to sell vegetables. You have to dry the vegetables first, and then make a few jars of sauerkraut and kimchi."

Fourth Grandpa frowned and said: "This matter is still a bit troublesome. In two months, the lychees will be ripe, and those things will change color after being plucked from the tree for a day. There is no way out and it will not be easy to sell."

While making tea for the two, the uncle said: "Isn't it? I asked about the policy some time ago, and said that the current passenger ship must have a draft of [-] tons and more than [-] seats to allow it to go down the river. It also needs to be equipped with management. personnel, drivers, and various certificates.”

"Not only is it troublesome, but the boat alone costs more than 50 yuan. Now that the surrounding towns are all accessible by car, it is quite convenient, so the passenger boat is not profitable. But we in Pan'ao Township, across a Bifeng Mountain, take a dry road It's really difficult."

The three sat down to chat, Li Junge saw the aunt walking towards the chicken pen, and said quickly: "Auntie, don't make such complicated things at noon, just get a few vegetables and a whole plate of bacon. I miss the bacon from Auntie's house."

The fourth grandfather also said: "Guangju, don't be so busy, just follow what Piwa said, it's all a family, don't be so polite."

The aunt looked at the uncle, and the uncle waved his hand and said, "Just do what the old uncle told Piwa, and cook some beans and peanuts for us to drink."

Aunt just went.

(End of this chapter)