Today in the capital, we have the warmest sunny day since the beginning of spring, and the streets are extremely lively.
Turning south from Erlang Temple Square on the east side of Dengshikou Street is Miaoyou Hutong, and facing west is Miaoqian Hutong. This is the most famous cricket fighting place in the capital.
Cricket is also known as promoting weaving. The game of cricket fighting originated in the Tang Dynasty and became popular in the Southern Song Dynasty. Jia Sidao, the treacherous prime minister of Emperor Lizong of the Song Dynasty, was an expert in this field. He once wrote a special book called "Promoting Weaving", which elaborated on weaving, color identification, catching, conditioning and fighting skills.
After the fall of the Song Dynasty and the rise of the Yuan Dynasty, the game was spread from Hangzhou to Yanjing. After the death of the Yuan Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, especially after Emperor Yongle moved the capital to Yanjing, the game of cricket fighting became popular in the capital, which was filled with nobles, nobles, gentlemen Qi Wan and even dandy men. It has lasted for two hundred years and has not declined.
Especially during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong, this play reached its peak. When Emperor Xuanzong heard that the ground in Suzhou produced high-quality crickets, he secretly ordered Kuang Zhong, the prefect of Suzhou, to capture a thousand crickets and send them to the capital. As the saying goes, what is good at the top must be bad at the bottom. For a while, crickets in Suzhou were able to live in a strange place. Wu Bian of the Suzhou Guards was rewarded for catching a cricket as if he had beheaded a prisoner.
There was once a Weizhong primary school who was good at catching crickets. Because he caught a lot of crickets, he was awarded the rank of one of the 100 households in the guard school. It was an unprecedented miracle. The cricket basins in the Xuande Kiln have also become treasures among porcelains. Up to now, a basin as small as five feet is worth hundreds of taels of silver. At that time, a ballad was written about this incident. The song goes: The emperor Xuande wants to promote the weaving of Qu Qu. All department stores are cheap, but the cricket basin is pretty.
Due to Xuanzong's promotion, after the autumn in the capital, every household was engaged in weaving and weaving, and fighting and weaving fields were everywhere. An Jingxian, a native of Shexian County who was an official in the capital, wrote a song called "Song of Watching Crickets Fighting", which was dedicated to the grand occasion of fighting in the capital.
After the Longqing period, although the grand battles in the capital were not as grand as those in the previous dynasties, whenever the weather got warmer, gambling was still open and half the city went crazy. The alley in front of the temple is where the fighting organizations are most concentrated in the capital. On this small street, door to door, door to door, are all fighting sites. Therefore, over time, people forgot the original name of Miaoqian Hutong, and called it Rikuzhi Hutong instead.
On this evening, at the turn of Youxu, the lights in Jiuzhi Hutong were bright and there was a huge crowd. There are more than thirty Dou Su weaving shops on the street, and each one is full of people. The largest Dou Su weaving shop is called "Feiteng Building".
There is a screen wall at the entrance. Go around the screen wall and enter another door, which is a five-couplet hall, which is the main battle arena. There is a short mahogany table with three chairs in the middle. The masters of the two parties are sitting opposite each other. The person sitting in the middle is the tooth man of the shop, who plays the role of arbitration. There are many long benches placed around, one level above the other from the inside to the outside, all prepared for the audience.
There are many separate rooms in the back of the two verandas and upstairs, which are prepared for those who have status. They can either drink and have fun here, or they can fight with each other. If the weaving battle starts in the main hall, they will even participate in placing bets.
It should be noted that all those who enter the weaving field are gamblers who come to the market with money. If most of the gamblers in the other shops on Guzhi Street are ordinary people, then this Feiteng Building is a place where huge sums of money are spent on gambling. Many people have become rich overnight here, but many more people have ended up going bankrupt.
The person setting up the ring in the Feiteng Building tonight is a man named Wang Dengbang. Judging from the name, his father must have hoped that he would study hard and become a member of the gold list in the future. However, at this moment, his nickname is "King of Promoting Weaving". It seems that there is no hope of being on the list. But just by hearing this nickname, you can tell that he is famous among the people.
Wang Dengbang has lived in the capital for generations. He has been naughty and wild since he was a child. After three years of private school, he can't even recite "Hundred Family Surnames". However, when it comes to digging out bird's nests, catching dragonflies, training dogs, catching mice, etc., he is good at everything. They are all experts. He started playing with knitting when he was nine years old, and he couldn't stop it. He simply skipped school and devoted himself to tinkering with this bug. His parents had no choice but to let him go.
When Wang Dengbang was fifteen years old, he brought straw cages, bamboo tubes and cricket pots to the street to fight. Although it was a small fight, he won more and lost less. After more than ten years of experience, he finally earned the title of "King of Promoting Weaving". There was no other person in the capital who could compare with him. Relying on this skill, he actually accumulated tens of thousands of dollars and became the revered Uncle Wang in Zhizhi Hutong.
The unitary hour is over, and the lights in the Feiteng Tower are bright and crowded. But the three chairs next to the mahogany table in the hall were still empty. For no other reason than Wang Dengbang competing here, he has won twelve games in a row. Many masters who did not believe in evil inside and outside the capital were defeated, and a lot of money flowed into Wang Dengbang's pocket. Now no one dares to challenge him.
The tooth man in the store was afraid that he would be cold. He stood in front of the mahogany table and twitched his nose and shouted loudly: "Masters in front of us, Uncle Wang said that everyone who challenges the battle tonight will give way. You say What kind of concession is this? Ha, as long as the insect king you have tamed can bite his 'Golden Winged Eagle', even if it only loses its legs, wings, or teeth, any of these will happen. , even if your treasure insect dies in battle, it will count as his uncle Wang's defeat, and you can get his one hundred taels of silver. Guys, tell me, is this a big deal?"
"big!"
"Is Uncle Wang very generous?"
"big!"
All the gamblers roared together, the sound was like thunder.
Yalang shouted again: "Okay! Then, who will come out to challenge?"
There was silence in the hall again.
Everyone sitting on the bench knows Wang Dengbang's unparalleled skills, who is willing to fall for this trick.
Seeing no one said anything, Yalang ran into the first elegant room on the right side of the hall. Wang Dengbang, the "King of Promoting Weaving", sat leisurely in it.
After a while, Yalang came out again and shouted again: "I asked Uncle Wang for instructions to increase the lottery prize to one hundred and twenty taels. Who will take the challenge?"
Some people began to whisper in the crowd, but still no one answered.
Yalang became anxious and his nose became sniffled even more. He shouted more loudly: "One hundred and fifty taels."
Still no one answered.
"One hundred and eighty taels."
"One hundred and ninety taels!"
"Two-hundred-two!"
Yalang kept raising the stakes, and the crowd began to commotion. These gamblers are all here for the money. After hearing about this huge fortune, who can not be tempted? For a while, I saw some people with green eyes, some people with red cheeks, some people whispering to each other, and some people gearing up. But despite the excitement, no one had the courage to stand up.
But this tooth man was so sharp that he teased people's hearts: "Gentlemen, you have all seen those war bugs of Uncle Wang. Are you really invincible? You all embroidered your own bamboo tubes and straw cages. Take a closer look at the basket, maybe there is a Sun Dasheng in it who can win these two hundred taels of silver. The two hundred taels of silver are just white, my man!"
