Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1853: Work for Work, Meat for Meat

"Hey, hey, don't look at the lighter, just look at whether the fire is lit well." Zhou Zhi waved his hand to remind the two to pay attention to this side.

"Isn't that thing in Grandpa Chi Ri's hand a lighter?" Liang Guangping was still a little dazed.

"Don't look at it this way. You should view using a flint to make fire today as a ritual of respect for our ancestors. Isn't that solemn now?"

"I'm so solemn, you idiot!" Liu Hongtao said with a smile, "Hurry up and show me how to use this fire starter!"

"It's impossible. Once the fire stick is lit, it will take time to extinguish it."

"Didn't you say that everyday reed and moss can be ignited?" Liang Guangping felt that this matter did not seem that complicated.

Zhou Zhi certainly wouldn't stop him from doing this. This reminded him of himself two months ago. He quickly reached out and handed over the flint and steel: "Then you guys take them and try them!"

With the fire, the next thing is to prepare food. The staple food is yesterday's bait, which is processed into thin slices by Gillette Abi. The slices are put on a frying pan and fried. The outside of the small slices will become crispy and brown on one side, while the inside will become loose and soft.

After that, you can take it in your hand, sprinkle it with bean flour and sugar and roll it up, which is the traditional way to eat glutinous rice cake.

You can also brush it with a layer of hot sauce, put the fried loach that you didn’t finish yesterday, diced tomatoes, onion strips, and green pepper shreds on it, roll it up and eat it saltily, which tastes very good.

Zhou Zhi also brought cold cut lamb, which was rolled with coriander, garlic slices and green peppers, and was also a must-try.

Lao Chi Ri boiled black tea, poured out the tea soup, added milk powder, ghee, and a kind of powder ground from "sesame seeds" special to the Liangshan area, and made a pot of fragrant milk tea.

You can add salt or sugar to milk tea. Traditional Yi people prefer salt, but people in Zhouzhi are not used to it and still prefer sugar.

In short, each of them got what they wanted, and Li Lu and Zhou Zhi both enjoyed their meal very much.

Because there was only a small pot, people had to take turns to eat the pancakes. After Zhou Zhi and the other two had eaten their fill, they called Liang Guangping and Liu Hongtao, who were still trying to light the fire, to come and eat.

Liang Guangping's fingers were all red and swollen. He threw the thing back to Zhou Zhi and said, "If I hadn't seen you operate it with my own eyes, I wouldn't believe that this thing could really start a fire! It pissed me off!"

“Hahahaha…” This result was exactly what Zhou Zhi expected, and he couldn’t help but laugh: “So for the Qiong people, the invention of the fire stick may be a groundbreaking invention. With it to carry fire, they can spread civilization throughout the Anning River Valley.”

"It's a pity that these ancient ethnic groups have not been able to pass down." Liang Guangping said as he took the bait cake handed to him by Zhou Zhi.

"That's not necessarily true. They are more likely to have merged." Zhou Zhi said, "For example, the Wu, Yue, Sui, Yong, Shu, Ba, etc. in the Spring and Autumn Period all merged rather than conquered."

"Wu, Yue and Sui were the regions where the Zhou royal family sent their clan members to serve as feudal leaders. They brought with them the cultural etiquette of the Central Plains, as well as farming and military techniques, and led the indigenous people through a long period of evolution, ultimately completing the process of 'Sinicization'."

"Ruyong, Shu and other states were the eight states that responded to the call of King Wu of Zhou and sent coalition forces to participate in the destruction of Shang. They were called the 'Eight States of Mushi' or the 'Eight Pu'. At that time, they had very close ties with the Zhou royal family. Later, they were enfeoffed by King Wu and had closer exchanges. They also gradually accepted the Zhou Dynasty's etiquette system and achieved 'Sinicization'. Finally, they were annexed by powerful neighbors during the turmoil of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period." "But we have to realize that when they were annexed, they were already one of the vassal states of the Zhou royal family and were already members of the Chinese family at that time."

"The Qiong people seem to have some tricks in choosing cemeteries." Liu Hongtao looked at the beautiful valley: "The vegetation here seems to be a little different from what we have seen along the way."

"It could be." Zhou Zhi said, "But when the Qiong people lived here, the environment was not like this. The vegetation must have been much more lush, and the entire Anning River area was like this. It's just that the forest is gradually disappearing and has shrunk to this little bit."

"But the fact that it has been preserved to the end shows that this place is not ordinary, right, Grandpa Chiri? Do you Yi people also believe in Feng Shui?"

"We don't call it Feng Shui, we call it the Eight Heavenly Stems and Four Dimensions. There are the Scripture of Sacrificing to the Earth, the Scripture of Sacrificing to the Mountain, the Scripture of Sacrificing to the Dragon, the Scripture of Driving Away the White Tiger, and the Scripture of Naming the Spring. All of these are related to settling down and establishing a village."

"There are rules for setting up a village. For example, 'grazing sheep on the slopes and working in the fields at the bends' is the most common saying. It is similar to the feng shui of the Han people. To set up a village, you have to choose a middle location that is convenient for both grazing and working in the fields."

"When we build a house, we not only consider the location, but also the season. Generally, we build a house in the cold season."

"Grandpa Chi Ri, what does the cold season mean?" Zhou Zhi had already turned on the camera and switched to interview mode.

"In addition to the traditional months of celebrating the New Year, we Yi people also have a tradition of dividing the year into three seasons based on the busy and slack seasons." Lao Chiri said: "From March, we enter the 'big season', which is the 'hot season'. We call it 'Eru', which means 'spring food', and start planting rice, corn, buckwheat and other food."

"The beginning of July is called the 'middle season', also called the 'small season'. We call it 'Wulede'. 'Wule' means sweet buckwheat, 'le' means the short period of time for growing crops in a year, and 'de' means sowing, planting, and planting. So it means 'the short solar term for growing sweet buckwheat'."

"The autumn harvest starts in September, and after the harvest comes the cold season, which we call 'chu tuo guo', which means 'cold weather'."

"During the hot and mid-seasons, relatives and neighbors often help each other by exchanging labor, and everyone works together on the farm, so it is also called 'work for work'."

"In the cold season, relatives and friends visit each other and eat and drink together around the fire pit, so this season is also called 'meat for meat'."

"Hahaha, this division is even more interesting. Work for work, meat for meat. Now it's the meat for meat season!"

Li Lu was holding the cold cut mutton sandwich and was a little worried: "I'm afraid that all the meat will be taken away from me..."

Everyone laughed when they heard this. Old Chi Ri lit up another Lanhua cigarette, took a puff and said, "There are so many things to say here that we won't finish talking about them today. However, every Yi family has their own stories to tell. You often visit our homes as guests, so I can tell you some of them today."

"Our Yi people's houses are usually divided into two floors. The ground floor is called 'Muduo', which usually includes six rooms."

"The largest room in the middle of the first floor is equivalent to the main hall of the Han people. We call it 'Aduo'. Every family god is set up here. The souls of ancestors and deceased people also guard here. So we have festivals, meals, sacrifices, and life rituals here."

Pulling out a branch, Lao Chi Ri began to draw the structure of the house on the ground, while explaining it to the children.