Riding the wind of rebirth

Chapter 1914: The Thief Across the Street
"Don't point randomly." Zhou Zhi quickly pulled Mai Xiaomiao's hand under the car window and said, "That's called a hero's knot. Look at that kid. Boys of the Yi ethnic group in our country keep a lock of hair behind their foreheads from a young age. It's called Tian Pusa, which means they are always blessed by the gods. When they grow up, they will wrap a scarf around their heads and braid the scarf and braids together to form a pointed cone. It's a place that others can't touch or point at. It's called a hero's knot."

"This is actually a kind of hair ornament popular among non-Han ethnic groups in China thousands of years ago. It's called a cone bun."

"The Huayang Guozhi, Volume 4, Nanzhong Zhi 1 records: The Nanzhong counties of Shu were governed by Beijiang Dudu. In the past, Nanzhong was the land of Yiyue people... There were dozens of kingdoms, some with topknots and farming, some with towns and villages, some with braided hair and left-side lapels, and moved with their livestock."

"Here we are talking about two types of ethnic life in southwest Sichuan. One is what you see now, with a bun as a hairstyle, farming, and living in villages. The other is braided hair, with the right lapel pressed against the left, and they are mainly nomadic and do not have the habit of living in villages."

"I know, Tibetan, right?" said Mai Xiaomiao.

"Yeah," Zhou Zhi nodded. Due to well-known historical reasons, the Tibetans are much more well-known internationally than the Yi people.

"Why do we have to press the right side against the left side? Is there any particular reason for this?" Wu Renzhong asked, "I've wanted to ask you this question for a long time, but I always forgot to ask it, several times."

"That's because you didn't even think to ask." Zhou Zhi smiled and said, "This is mainly related to the hunting habits. Nomadic people are good at using bows and arrows. They usually draw the bowstring with their right hand, and press the right lapel against the left lapel. Even if the clothes are caught by the bowstring, it will only be swept away at most, which will not affect the effect of archery. But if the left presses the right, it will produce great resistance, and the bowstring and clothes may be destroyed."

"Hunters on horseback are also accustomed to holding the hawk or whip in their right hand, while the left hand holding the reins can let the horse run freely, freeing up the left hand to do something else. Clothes with left lapel make it easier for the left hand to take things into the right chest."

"Another point is that this kind of clothing will provide an extra layer of protection on the left chest. A cloth robe is useless, but if it is a leather robe, or even a leather robe with a fur collar, it will provide an extra layer of protection for the heart, which is quite useful."

"So the custom of wearing clothes with left lapel is actually a natural selection formed by nomadic peoples in their long-term production and life. Almost all nomadic peoples in the world have this in common."

"Although there are many advantages, there is also a disadvantage, which is that it will have a greater impact on the flexibility of the right arm than the left lapel. Therefore, we often see that ethnic minorities are accustomed to taking their right arms out of their sleeves when working, forming a half-exposed state. In this case, the right lapel does not affect the tightness of the clothes, so the left lapel also makes it convenient for nomadic people to 'expose the right side', freeing up the right arm for milking and fighting."

"So that's how it is." Wu Renzhong gestured with his arms and felt that what Zhou Zhi said made a lot of sense.

"But for agricultural peoples who rely more on the flexibility of the right arm, right lapel can make the right arm more flexible, which is very necessary." Zhou Zhi said: "But in addition to this, it actually contains the meaning of direction worship."

"Take the character 'Ming' as an example. The left side is the sun and the right side is the moon. The left side is yang and the right side is yin. So in addition to the fact that farming makes the right arm more flexible, it is also due to the custom that the yang of living people is greater than the yin, so the lapel should be on the right side."

"So in Han customs, only the last set of clothes worn by the deceased has left lapel. The Book of Rites, Records of Funerals, has such a record: 'Small burials and large burials, sacrificial clothes are not turned upside down, all have left lapel, knotted but not buttoned.' And the Tongdian also has a related record: 'All burials must be square, and loose clothes can be turned upside down. Left lapel, lapel to the left, back to the time of birth.' It shows that it will not be untied again."

"Grandpa said that China has a lot of rules, and it turns out to be true." Mai Xiaomiao exclaimed.

"Actually, there aren't so many requirements now," Zhou Zhi reminded, "but you still have to pay attention to the ethnic customs and taboos of ethnic minorities when interacting with them. Anyway, you will learn about them slowly." As the car drove towards Lianhe Township, more and more people recognized this car. The current Warrior has been modified into a pickup truck style, and sometimes a trailer is hung on the back to increase the cargo capacity. The villagers often use it as a free bus that can be stopped by waving.

This is also the reason why Zhou Zhi and Wu Renzhong are very popular among the villagers. They never refuse villagers to take a ride, and if there are elderly people and children, because it is inconvenient to get on and off the car, they will take the initiative to invite them to sit in a more comfortable car.

Soon there were quite a few people sitting in the back of the truck, as well as a few sheep, a cage of Muscovy ducks, a few rock hawk chickens, and two bicycles.

Two college students, Li Lu and Liang Guangping, also got into the car. They were going to Meigu by bicycle. Their original plan was to ride there and back as a way to exercise. However, when they saw the Land Rover Warrior coming, they immediately lost the courage to complete the last leg of the ride.

After sitting down, there was naturally another introduction. Zhou Zhi was more concerned about the progress of the green energy power station.

"You can see it when you get to the village," Li Lu said. "There are ten large white windmills erected along the mountain ridge. The substation is going to be built to the west of our institute. Now they are digging the graded water transfer pool and pipeline. Engineer Lu said that after it is all completed, it will be able to meet the standards of a small power station."

This is amazing. The scale of small power stations ranges from one thousand to ten thousand kilowatts. Previously, the small-scale projects in Lianhe Township could only be considered micro at best. Now, it has increased tenfold, which is more than enough for the use of Lianhe Township and the two scientific research bases, at least at the current stage.

But now the total power generation capacity of Lianhe Township has been solved, but the problem of unbalanced power generation in the windy season, dry season and rainy season still exists. Water pumping and energy storage can only solve the problem of intermittent wind power most of the time, but cannot solve the problem of the wind stop period between the dry season and the rainy season.

However, after Li Yutang learned about the problem during that period, he solved it through administrative means. That is, Lianhe Township would "sell" the excess electricity to the state power company during the windy and rainy seasons. When the power shortage season came, the power company would give priority to Lianhe Township's electricity use and deduct it from the electricity it sold.

This involves the issue of grid connection, which is a sweet potato that ordinary small hydropower stations cannot enjoy.

This means that in the future Lianhe Township can get a long-term and stable fixed income by selling electricity. However, it is extremely difficult to get such approval for a small hydropower project. It is entirely because Zhouzhi has built Lianhe Township's power generation project into a green energy ecological integrated system that combines solar energy, wind energy and hydropower, and has gained support with such a name.

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"It's not easy." Zhou Zhi was a little impressed with himself for being able to solve the energy problem in Lianhe Township: "It's almost like picking up a cake on flat ground and catching a thief on the other side."

"What do you mean?" Everyone was confused.

"Oh, this is crosstalk terminology. In the old society, crosstalk artists would go to the streets and draw a circle with white powder as the stage. They would attract the audience with a few words. After a crosstalk, they would make people pay money to buy cakes for the whole family. This skill is called "picking cakes from flat ground and catching thieves across the street" in their jargon."

“Hahahaha…” Everyone in the car was amused by this statement. Zhouzhi changed the electricity out of thin air in Lianhe Township. This metaphor was quite appropriate.

However, Wu Renzhong still found a loophole: "Don't flatter yourself and let other people's money go into your pocket in front of you. This is not called stealing from the other party, this is clearly stealing from the other party!"