Firmament

I don't know the cuteness of my hometown.

- Uyghur proverb

Most of Gong Shixiang's descendants stayed away from the political arena and military battlefields, and lived a life of small prosperity and peace in Jinling's Bamboo Lane.

Not long after the establishment of the Southern Kingdom, the Gong family produced a big living treasure. He is the lively and cynical Gong Binggui.

Gong Binggui is the cousin of the war general Gong Bingliang, who often ridicules the powerful, satirizes the world's evils, and speaks surprisingly and sharply and harshly. This living treasure is to use a lantern that implicitly satirizes the unbound feet of the women of the Wang family to send the citizens of Jinling to the distant and desolate West Sea.

The king's wife, Ma Lanying, did not have feet bound and grew a pair of big feet, which was nicknamed by the people. You are the mother of a country, and Queen Ma has to show her head in public. At this time, she found that her big feet were very piercing, and she felt sorry and inferior. She stays in the harem every day, and it is easy not to come out to meet people. If she has to meet a guest, she always covers her big feet tightly with a skirt.

Living in a simple way is not in line with the queen horse with a bold personality. One day, she was bored in the harem, so she got on a sedan chair and went to the streets to relax.

Queen Ma came to the river in a sedan chair. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew from the river, and the curtain of the sedan chair was lifted. The two big feet on the pedals at the back end of the horse queen are exposed in broad daylight.

Queen Ma was stunned to find many passers-by staring at her big feet in surprise. She panicked and hurriedly shrank her feet under the collapse. However, it was too late. The townspeople have seen her big feet clearly.

"Queen Ma has grown a pair of big feet!" This news quickly spread in Jinling City, and for a while it became an interesting thing for people to discuss after dinner. Because it is the queen of horses who show her big feet, people laugh at it and call it "showing horses' feet". Later, people referred to the exposure of dishonorable things as "showing horses' feet".

During this year's Lantern Festival, Jinling City held a large-scale lantern festival. In order to reflect the peaceful, festive and peaceful atmosphere of the country, the government called on folk artists to make lanterns and actively participate in the lantern festival.

Gong Binggui made several riddle lanterns and hung them on the lantern venue for people to enjoy. One of the lanterns depicts a woman with big feet riding a tall, red-colored horse with a large watermelon in her arms.

When the citizens saw this lantern, they immediately thought of the legendary Queen Bigfoot a while ago, and they couldn't help laughing, and secretly made fun of the Queen of Horses.

In order to control the ideological dynamics of the citizens and public opinion, the king arranged many secret agents throughout the city. These spies carefully inspected the lantern riddles made by Gong Binggui at the lantern festival site. After some careful research and analysis, they unanimously determined that Gong Binggui deliberately used the riddle guessing to satirize the noble Queen Ma. Instead of confiscating the lanterns, they left one part to watch the lanterns while the other returned to the palace to report to the king.

The king listened to the secret report and decided to make a private visit in person. He disguised himself as an ordinary eunuch and quietly came to the lamp venue accompanied by a eunuch.

The king stared at the suspected lantern riddle for a long time, and a great anger rose in his heart: the lantern riddle is indeed insulting to my noble queen horse! Who is so bold, and must be punished severely!

The king calmly thought again: No, if the Wang family publicly accuses this lantern riddle of having a problem, wouldn't it be self-confessing?

The king's face turned blue with rage, and he returned to the palace in a rage. He pondered for a long time and issued a holy decree: all the citizens of Bamboo Lane were sent to the West Sea on the same day to open up land for the southern country and guard the frontier.

Tens of thousands of citizens of Bamboo Lane were dumbfounded when they received the king's decree. They didn't understand why the citizens of Jinling City, Nuoda, had only sent the citizens of Zhuzi Lane to Xihai? Later, they learned through the gossip that came out of the palace that Gong Binggui's lantern riddle had caused the disaster.

The citizens ran to Gong's house one after another, reproaching him, and said: "Do you have nothing to do when you have a full stomach? What can't you draw, but you want to draw a woman with big feet? This is good, it has angered the king's dragon face! Our ancestors have lived in Bamboo Lane for generations, and we will be sent to the distant and bitter cold West Sea on the same day." Isn't this uprooted, displaced?"

Gong Binggui regretted that he had even burdened the neighbors, and even his intestines were repentant. However, the holy decree has been issued, and the citizens cannot disobey it, otherwise they will be beheaded and the nine clans will be connected.

Gong Binggui took his wife and children to the eldest brother's house near the drum tower and said goodbye to his elderly parents in shame.

When Mrs. Gong and Mrs. Gong heard that their son's family was going to be exiled to the West Sea, they were so surprised that they couldn't speak for a long time. They had a total of 5 children, and they were looking forward to a prosperous family and a prosperous life, so that they could live for a long time. Now, the son's family is going to the remote West Sea, which is equivalent to stepping into the ghost gate in advance, what is the difference between death and death. Isn't this the great misfortune of life "white-haired people send black-haired people"?

The old couple was so sad that their liver and intestines were broken, and they cried to death, blinding all their eyes.

No matter how the citizens of Bamboo Lane pleaded, the king was indifferent. With tears of grief and grief, the citizens had no choice but to sell the property handed down from their ancestors, bid farewell to their homeland where they had lived for generations, help the old and the young, and staggered towards the West Sea with wailing and crying.

The

guards who escorted them were afraid that the citizens of Bamboo Lane would run away, so they tied their hands to a long rope, forcing them to act in groups. If anyone wants to pee and, they have to ask the guards to untie the rope from their hands. Therefore, untie later became a pronoun for going to the toilet in the Xihai dialect.

In fact, even if Gong Binggui did not offend the supreme king and queen of the southern country, many old citizens of Jinling would have to relocate to the West Sea.

After years of war, the southern country was full of barren land and ruins, the population was very short, the labor force was seriously insufficient, and the fiscal revenue was drastically reduced, which directly threatened the operation of the country. Especially in the vast northwest region, the cities are empty, the fields are barren, the people are dying of starvation, nine out of ten rooms are empty, the economy is extremely depressed, and commerce and trade are in decline.

In order to maintain the long-term peace and stability of the society, the king carried out the strategic decision of emigrating to the west and opening up wasteland and fields, sending reliable people to unreliable places, guarding those who were unreliable, mixing sand, digging up walls, and consolidating the frontiers of emerging countries.

Gong Binggui's family went through the cold, summer, wind and rain, and traveled a long distance to the Xisai Huangshui Valley, where they were arranged by the government to settle in a small town called Nian Bowei.

Nian Bowei, formerly known as Ledu, has a very long history. The Qiang people first thrived here. The Nanliang Kingdom established by the Xianbei people used to have its capital here. In the Sui and Tang dynasties, it was called Shanzhou. The eastern country is called Michuan City. In 1378, the southern kingdom changed the name of Ledu to Nian Bowei.

Nian Bowei is sandwiched between Lazhi Mountain and Daban Mountain, high in the north and south, low in the middle, and the landform is dominated by river valleys and valleys and middle and low mountains and hills. The Huangshui River flows from west to east through Nianbo.

Gong Binggui read a lot of poetry books in Jinling and opened a shop that sold antiques. Other than that, he had no other labor skills. In order for his family to survive in Xihai, he had to work while studying, and followed the farmers to reclaim wasteland on the banks of the Huangshui River, planting vegetables and wheat. At the end of the year, in addition to meeting the needs of the family, the harvested grain can also pay some public grain to the government.

Located on a plateau with a cold climate, Mill Bowei can only produce cold-tolerant and drought-tolerant barley and barley. Gong Binggui used to eat white rice in Jinling, but now he is forced to accept barley and barley. While eating coarse pasta, they miss Jinling's salted duck, five-spice beans and duck blood vermicelli soup.

More than 20 years have passed in an instant. Gong Binggui has gray hair, aging body, and is entering old age. He took care of his grandchildren at home and no longer had the strength to farm.

Xihai is located in the western frontier, and its cultural and educational undertakings are relatively backward, and there has not been a single government-run school for a long time. After many requests from the local government, the government agreed to establish Pingxi Wei Confucianism.

Gong Binggui saw that more and more families had moved to Nian Bowei, and there were groups of children, but there was no school for children to read and write. He had an idea and opened a private school at home, recruiting other people's children to go to school, and teaching them together with his grandchildren, not only earning other people's money, but also educating his own grandchildren, killing two birds with one stone, the best of both worlds.

Although the life of the Gong family is not rich and expensive, it is not bad compared to those who make a living from farming, at least they can eat a meal of big fish and meat during the New Year's holidays.

Most of the people of the West Sea were soldiers from the southern country to conquer the Northwest Guard, and came from the Jianghuai area in the east. The military and civilians stationed in the western part of the country in Hehuang, Taomin, Hexi, Amdo, Hezhou, and Wusi Tibetan Guards have multiplied from generation to generation. Therefore, the vast majority of Xihai people believe that their ancestors came from Jinling.

In fact, the immigrants who came to the West Sea not only included the military and civilians in the Jianghuai region, but also a large number of Li people from Taihang.

Taihang is located in the northern corner, surrounded by natural barriers such as large rivers and Taihang Mountain, and rarely involves war. Most areas have not experienced major natural disasters. The wind and rain are smooth, and the crops are harvested year after year. When wars were frequent and epidemics were prevalent in other places, Taihang was a scene of peace and prosperity. Compared with the neighboring provinces, Taihang has a stable society, a prosperous economy, and a prosperous population, coupled with the continuous inflow of refugees from the surrounding provinces, the population in the south is particularly dense.

Taihang, a province with a large population, has naturally become a large province with a large population output.

Wang Shouye, a descendant of Wang Chen, a native of Bingzhou, inherited the family business and ran the ancestral Wang Ji noodle shop, with a stable income and a solid family background.

One day, Wang Shouye saw that there was not much old vinegar in the noodle shop, and planned to buy two jars from the vinegar shop on the street. Taihang people love pasta and vinegar, and three meals a day are inseparable from old vinegar. There is a proverb in Taihang that says: "If you have two taels of vinegar at home, you don't need to go to the pharmacy." "

Wang Shouye walked out of the store with a vinegar jar and came to the noisy street.

Suddenly, he saw a large crowd gathered around the wall. They seemed to be talking about something. Wang Shouye stepped forward to see the excitement, only to see a notice posted on the city wall: the king asked each large family to send out a family and move to the border of the West Sea in the near future. If there is a violation, the punishment will be the forced relocation of the entire family.

Wang Shouye muttered in his heart: Why did the king come up with such a bad idea? Why did our ancestors want to exile us to the West Sea, so we have lived in Bingzhou City for generations, and we are not homeless refugees running around

He calmed down and thought carefully: After all, this is an order issued by the king today, and the common people have no way to resist. Our Wang family is such a big family, and there is a family that immigrates to the West Sea. The eldest brother's health is not good, and he will definitely not be able to bear the long journey. The second brother's body is very strong, but the second sister-in-law suffers from foot disease and cannot travel far. The third brother and three sisters-in-law are in good health, but the daughter-in-law is pregnant, and it is not appropriate to travel far away at the moment. Alas, it seems that he is the only one who bears the heavy responsibility of the royal family's immigration.

Wang Shouye returned home and told his family what he had seen and heard and what he was thinking.

His wife, Murong Clan, is a descendant of the Xianbei people who have been extinct and orientalized. Murong Clan cried: "I heard that the West Sea is a wild land, the weather is extremely cold, and it is difficult for crops to grow. How did our family live when we got there? Besides, where is there any hope of coming back? I'm afraid it will be sad to see my father and mother again in this life and this life. "

Wang Shouye was patient and persuaded his wife and children with benevolence, righteousness, morality, loyalty and filial piety. It wasn't until the evening of the third day that Murong and his children reluctantly agreed to emigrate.

Wang Shouye transferred the noodle restaurant to the second brother, settled the second brother to support the elderly second elder well, and then packed up the necessary household belongings, ready to move west at any time.

On the day when the immigrants set off en masse, members of the Wang family came to the gate of Bingzhou City.

They stood in a line to see off Wang Shouye's family and thank them for their selfless westward migration on behalf of the Wang family. The relatives shed tears, a thousand advices, ten thousand reminders. The women gave steamed buns and fried noodles to the Murong clan to satisfy their hunger during the journey. The men stuffed some silver taels into Wang Shouye's hands.

For a while, the cry of life and death resounded, which made people break their intestines and lungs. The heavens and the earth were sadly moved, and a gentle drizzle fell.

Wang Shouye and a large number of immigrants walked out of the Taihang Basin, entered the Sanqin Plain, crossed the loess high slopes, and came to the West Sea with bumps and toils. According to the government's arrangement, their family settled in Xiguan, Nian Bowei.

Wang Shouye started his old business and opened a noodle restaurant.

It is not as populous and economically prosperous as Bingzhou City, but it is a remote town with a very limited population. The business of Wang's noodle shop is uneventful. The income is only enough to sustain the basic life, and there is not much surplus.

Gong Binggui's family from Jinling and Wang Shouye's family from Bingzhou took root in the Huangshui Valley of the West Sea, and participated in the development and protection of the western territory of the southern country with the meager strength of the Li people.