The villagers first went to the mountain temple under the leadership of the village head to offer sacrifices and put food, including pig and sheep heads, but no cattle, and a chicken to form three animals.
Then everyone went to cut mugwort. Others had to go to the wild to collect mugwort. The village specially grew mugwort as a medicinal material.
I have to collect a lot today! Next comes processing and storage. In fact, we harvested a lot in the first two days. After the Dragon Boat Festival, the effect of mugwort will become worse.
There is also Artemisia annua, which is used for cold soaking to treat malaria. It has been written in the prescription given to Tai Hospital that Artemisia annua must be used.
Then go to the memorial arch to burn incense. The ancestors will wait for a while and go to lunch time.
Everyone makes rice dumplings, boils eggs, and hangs colored glaze lanterns. At night, everyone ties colorful threads and wears sachets.
There is no dragon boat race, and conditions do not allow it this year. The village chief is planning to wait until next year when other villages become richer, and everyone will race again.
The guards of the Prince's Mansion and Zhu Taiyi also received colorful ropes and sachets with mugwort inserted in them.
Children in the village touch eggs, including chicken eggs, duck eggs, and goose eggs. The latter two are salty and are eaten for lunch.
The eggs are bland and are given to the kitchen to make egg-stuffed meatballs.
Gotta hit it quickly, the kitchen is waiting!
Do not use raw eggs. Raw eggs are stronger than cooked eggs and are difficult to recycle if broken.
Seeing the lively and festive look of the people in the village, the people in the Prince's Mansion were happy because the village sent things to their family.
Including the boatmen, each family has a lot of gifts to help them have a happy Dragon Boat Festival.
When noon arrived, everyone went to the well to fetch water. After fetching water, they followed the chief to the sacrificial hall. The people of the Prince's Mansion could only stand outside.
The sacrificial hall was built to be large and had three entrances, because there were so many people in the village, men, women, old and children all entered.
The chief first laid out the offerings and offered incense, then he knelt down on the futon and began to cry.
"Ancestors! I, Zhu Yichang, am ashamed to be the head of Dangqiu Village! I didn't do my job well. Some time ago, I was invited by the prince to take the villagers to attend the prince's concubine ceremony. When I saw the current emperor, I thought! I am Why can't the chief do it well?
I offered my skills and advice to the court and used the wheat that increased the village's yield by two bushels per mu as seeds. I am guilty. I... wu wu wu...
Also, this year I led the people in the village and worked very hard to get back three archways. One is Zhongzhengfang, one is Renyifang, and one is Liangshanfang. They are all erected at the entrance of the village! Too little! There are simply too few.
When we were invited to attend the ceremony of the crown prince's concubine, we bought a large yard next to the imperial city and added a property to the village. We wanted to buy another better one, but unfortunately it was a pawn shop and I was incompetent!
Now the village has to learn the blacksmith's skills on its own, there's no other way! The imperial court allowed the village to make its own firecrackers. Oh, what a firecracker! We gave you a good idea, and then we made a better flintlock ourselves.
When I think about the slow speed of making guns, I feel that I am useless and useless, my ancestors! I have no face to face you! Wuwuwu..."
The villagers wiped away tears. Xiaqiu Village was better this year than last year. Everyone worked very hard and got three memorial arches. Many people ate His Majesty’s banquet.
The chief said that there would be a chance in the future, and everyone would be able to meet His Majesty and the Prince, which would make this life worth it.
People from the Prince's Mansion standing outside: "..."
They looked at each other in confusion when they heard the pitiful cry and shouts of the resident leader, always feeling that something was wrong.
"Come on, Hanhan, you go first, then the village elder." After the village chief finished crying, he wiped his tears and recovered instantly.
Zhu Wentian stepped forward and knelt down: "Okay, hi, um! Hey hey hey hey!"
When the village elders came up, they all really cried, wiping away their tears and describing the current situation in Xiaqiu Village.
In the end, all the villagers knelt down and kowtowed, including the married daughters-in-law. They gave many gifts to their parents' families, which made the neighbors around their parents' families envious.
There are unmarried girls in the family who all want to get married with Xiaqiu Village, but young men who are not married do not dare to think about women from Xiaqiu Village.
After the ancestor worship is over, everyone washes their faces and eats. Except for the very young children who apply some medicated wine, everyone else drinks a cup of realgar medicated wine.
Realgar is poisonous and is also a medicine. It can be made into arsenic. This has been done and is available in the village drugstores.
After drinking the medicinal wine, those who don’t drink will eat normally, and those who drink will drink slowly. There is nothing urgent today.
There are twelve dishes per table, four meat, four vegetarian and four cold dishes. The staple food is naturally rice dumplings and bean flour cakes.
The cake is stuffed with bean paste, walnut kernels and sesame fillings.
Zongzi is made with dried fruits and pork. The pork contains lard, so you have to eat it while it's hot. It will solidify when it's cold.
Everyone in the Prince's Mansion smiles with sincerity. Each of them is wearing silk clothes, a gift from Xiaqiu Village.
It has the same style as the people in Xiaqiu Village. It has several pockets, for the sleeves, the left and right inner pockets, and the waist pockets. The waist cannot be seen unless you look carefully. The texture of the pockets is well processed.
The silk clothes are actually robes, and with a new pair of boots, they feel very good.
They want to buy it themselves and get a year's salary, without food or water.
Less than a quarter of an hour after eating, a large group of people arrived, including officials from Ningguo Mansion, including officials from Xuancheng County.
The headman took Hanhan to a new table and served food from the village kitchen.
As Hanhan mentioned, you have to be prepared in case someone from a village comes over, or an official comes, and it turns out to be useful.
"Zhu Lichang, today is the Dragon Boat Festival. I am inviting local people to offer sacrifices. That..."
Magistrate Song found an excuse. He had already held a sacrifice in the mansion, and immediately rushed to Xiaqiu Village after the ceremony.
The same goes for Li Zhixian and others. On festive days, they feel comfortable staying in Xiaqiu Village.
"So Xiaqiu Village has set up a stage?" the village leader asked, and he was also prepared for this.
Soon the altar was set up and things were put on. Magistrate Song took the lead and said a lot of blah blah blah, ok, wash your hands and eat.
The village elder tied colorful ropes and hung sachets for them. The identity of the village elder was different. He had accepted Zhu Yuanzhang's banquet, and the two sides had talked a lot, such as their experiences in raising cattle.
The officials looked at the people in Xiaqiu Village, and they were indeed in a good mood. They were all dressed in silk clothes, and the girls had red dots on their foreheads.
It was only when I arrived at Xiaqiu Village that I felt what the prosperous times were like. I looked at the dishes, the colorful glazed lanterns without candles, and the big two-story houses.
The officials sat down and drank a cup of realgar wine first. There were no extra dishes today, but twelve was enough. If more dishes were added, the number could only be sixteen, because fourteen divided by two is an odd number.
The officials are already very satisfied. The food in Xiaqiu Village is delicious. Many of the dishes cannot be seen outside, unless they go to the palace to eat, which is even more difficult.
Magistrate Song took a sip of ice-cold rice wine and said, "Yichang, today I'm not just here to bring everyone to offer sacrifices, but I also want to see more of the village. Maybe I won't be able to go back until dark..."
"But we can't go back. The room has been tidied up. There are rules for watching lanterns and putting out river lanterns at night. Please ask Magistrate Song and other officials to help correct me."
The head of the village understood what the other party meant, he just didn't want to leave, so he ran over here in the morning, spent half a day, and went back after dinner, which took half a day.
Obviously too tired, I drank again at noon, and when I got home in the evening, it was already dark.
