The Pentium Era - South to North

Zhang Chen and the others followed Xiao Zhuge to the door of the Grand Hall. Xiao Zhuge saw a young man squatting and smoking not far away. He waved. The man ran over and asked, "What's the matter, mayor?"

"Go and arrange a table for me tonight." Xiao Zhuge said.

The young man nodded and said yes and ran away. Liu Ligan shouted: "Not bad, little Zhuge, now he is the mayor!"

Little Zhuge laughed and said: "It's a fool's errand, it's a fool's errand."

They walked into the ancestral hall. In the open space inside, there were bridge lanterns. Many people were setting up the lanterns on them, and some were painting.

The so-called bridge lantern, also called "bench dragon", is a kind of Lantern Festival lantern in western Zhejiang. It is on a pine board about one meter long, thirty centimeters wide and more than an inch thick, similar to the long bench in every household. , using bamboo strips to tie up various shapes of lanterns, including flower baskets, animals, buildings, and even beautiful women and characters on the stage. Of course, the arched dragon body is also indispensable.

After tying it, paste tissue paper on the outside. After the cotton paper paste dries, melt the suet on the stove, dip the suet in the suet with a brush, and draw on the tissue paper. After the suet dries, then Use a brush to paint the entire lantern with various colors.

Because the areas painted with suet do not stick to paint, stripes of white patterns show through. When the candles inside are lit at night, the bridge lights become lifelike.

Two holes are drilled at both ends of the pine board. The holes of the two boards are stacked together, and a wooden stick is passed through the top and exposed below. In this way, the boards are connected together, and each board is a bridge. , the wooden sticks connecting them are like bridge piers. When playing, people hold the wooden sticks below to lift the entire bridge light.

There are small bridge lanterns, dozens of bridges, and hundreds of bridges. The front of the bridge lantern is tied with a dragon's head, and the last is tied with a dragon's tail. Dozens or hundreds of people lift it up and walk around the bell pond. It's like a giant dragon coiling around the bell pond. The scene is very spectacular.

There are also bridge lanterns in Yongcheng. The bridge lanterns in Yongcheng are deeply remembered by everyone who participated. The bridge lanterns in Yongcheng are more powerful and hot than Zhuge's. The scene cannot be described as spectacular, it can simply be described as tragic. .

When Zhang Chen was a child, his father would take him to the factory every day to help them draw bridge lanterns. In the conference room where the bridge lanterns were made, after the suet melted, there was a strong smell of sheep that filled the air every time Zhang Chen entered. He felt suffocated, but he quickly overcame it and entered a state of excitement.

The reason why the bridge lanterns in Yongcheng are different from those in Zhuge is because the bridge lanterns in Zhuge are all put up by farmers or residents purely for display, while the bridge lanterns in Yongcheng are put up by every factory, which is an annual event in the town. The highlight is that every factory has its own characteristics.

Yongcheng people don't call it playing with bridge lanterns, but call it pulling. Pulling the bridge lanterns. When you pull the bridge lanterns forward and backward, a pine board more than an inch thick will be pulled alive, which shows the strength.

And when a factory's bridge light was pulled off, it was a very embarrassing thing. Later, the scene became a bit scary.

The bridge lanterns in Yongcheng were originally larger than those in Zhuge. Each bridge was 1.6 meters long and 40 centimeters wide. In order to prevent their bridge lanterns from being broken, everyone later covered them with pine boards. Layer steel plate, anyway, there is plenty of material in the factory.

The wooden rod connecting the two bridges is not a wooden rod. The wooden rod can be easily broken. Once broken, the entire bridge light will be scattered. They use galvanized pipes. Even galvanized pipes will be damaged. Being pulled to bend, the strength can be seen again.

The bridge lanterns in Yongcheng, with their dragon heads and tails, are even more majestic. The wooden boards at one end and one end are eighty centimeters wide and two and a half meters long. The dragon heads and tails stuck on them are more than three meters high, pulling up the bridge. When the lights come on, the other bridges are held by a pipe by one person. The dragon head and dragon tail bridges each require six people to carry them.

The whole process of pulling up bridge lights in Yongcheng is like this. Each factory usually has more than twenty bridges of lights. In your own factory, you connect these twenty bridges together and walk through the market after leaving the factory. They are also showing off the bridge lights in their own factories, which are more beautiful than other factories. Many factories put their own factory names and products on the bridge lights.

The bridge lights of eleven units were all gathered on the playground of the Metallurgical College at the north end of the town. According to the order of drawing lots, the bridge lights of more than two hundred bridges were connected together to form a giant dragon. In front of the dragon, there were four The strong man held a homemade gun and fired it while running. The sound was so loud that the whole town could hear it.

These gunmen always run in front of the dragon's head. Firstly, they drive away the onlookers on both sides of the street to make way for the bridge lights. Secondly, they also show their power. Thirdly, and most importantly, the dragon's head is pulled by the dragon's tail, and it moves towards the dragon's head. When they were retreating, their muskets would not go off. When they saw that they had almost retreated and it would be embarrassing to retreat any further, they would start firing their muskets "bang bang".

As soon as they fired the cannon, the people in the front half of the bridge knew that they should stop and rushed forward, so everyone pulled forward together.

There are also four gunslingers at Longwei, and their role is the same.

After the bridge lights of hundreds of bridges were connected, everyone first circled the track of the football field politely. When the commander in chief who pulled the bridge lights shouted "start", the entire bridge lights started to move. Start with the dragon's head chasing the dragon's tail, or the dragon's tail chasing the dragon's head.

The most interesting thing is the dragon body in the middle. Several units gathered together and decided to cause trouble. They suddenly ran to the middle of the football field, but they brought the dragon's head and tail with them. It became a mess and the whole dragon was on the football field. and running around on the runway next to it.

This is the most exciting and dangerous time, because you are holding the galvanized pipe in your hand and you don't know where the force comes from in the next second. That powerful force can easily throw you off.

Just like the Spanish Running of the Bulls Festival, where people are injured every year, people are also injured every year during the dragon lanterns in Yongcheng, because there are not only people pulling the dragon lanterns on the court, but also crowds of people running around to join in the fun.

Even though people get injured every year, everyone still feels that huge joy.

One year, after Zhang Chen painted the bridge lanterns for them, he definitely asked to join the team to pull the bridge lanterns. The factory director looked at it and felt that he was so helpful every year and helped them earn back one by one. Their factory's bridge lanterns were the most beautiful. , and agreed to him.

As a result, in this playground, when the bridge lights started to move, Zhang Chen was completely confused. The forces coming from the southeast, northwest and northwest were completely confusing. He grabbed the galvanized pipe with his hand and felt the whole No one is under his own command. He can only run along the pipe, but he cannot keep up. He is quickly thrown out by a strong inertia.

When the man fell to the ground, he saw the pipe that had separated from his hands flying over his head and back, and then saw the dark crowd of fleeing people rushing toward him. Zhang Chen closed his eyes and shouted, "It's over, it's over, I'm done." It's over.

At this moment, he felt a strong force and took his people flying again. He heard a voice yelling at him, grab, grab the pipe! Don’t let go even if someone falls!

Zhang Chen opened his eyes and saw his father's apprentice standing behind him. When he saw him falling to the ground, he picked him up, otherwise those who were running away would have to step over him.

His father's apprentice asked Zhang Chen to grab his tube. Zhang Chen quickly grabbed it. When Zhang Chen and the others came out, they were all wearing gauze gloves. Zhang Chen's gloves had already fallen to nowhere. His father's apprentice stuffed a pair of gloves into his trouser pocket and yelled at him to put them on again when he stopped. Do you hear him? !

Zhang Chen nodded quickly.

His father's apprentice then left him and ran a few steps to catch up with Zhang Chen's empty galvanized pipe.

Under the tube, even if no one has been holding it for so long, it is still fine, because the force from the front and back has stretched the entire bridge light tightly.

"Bang, bang," two gunshots were heard, and then the commander-in-chief shouted hoarsely from the loudspeaker: "Stop! Stop!"

The entire bridge lights stopped after the commander-in-chief shouted for five or six minutes and the team leader of each factory yelled from the side.

Only then did Zhang Chen have time. He took out the gauze gloves from his pocket and put them on his hands. After wearing the gauze gloves, when he held the galvanized pipe, the pipe was not so slippery.

The entire bridge lights up again on the playground and around the football field, walking quietly in a circle.

The commander's voice came from the loudspeaker: "The parade begins!"

The leader began to lead the whole dragon towards the gate of the Metallurgical School. The gate of the Metallurgical School was directly opposite Beimen Street. Beimen Street passed several blocks and reached the intersection in the center of the town. , is Nanmen Street. The entire Nanmen Street and Beimen Street combined are four to five kilometers long.

As soon as the dragon head left the school gate, the gunman in front fired the gun, and the whole dragon started running. When the dragon tail felt that the dragon head in front was almost crossing the cross street, he suddenly also fired the gun. At this time, the dragon's tail section Several leaders shouted to stop, stop, so everyone stopped and started to use force to push the whole dragon back.

The faucet is not convinced and pulls forward. At this time, it becomes a tug-of-war. Sometimes water will be released in front or behind. When you want to pull, I will run with you. When you have used up your strength, they With another force, the whole dragon suddenly stopped on the street, and then moved forward again.

The whole night, this giant dragon was like this on this street, moving back and forth, competing. In fact, there would be no winner in the end, and it didn't matter whether everyone won or lost. They all enjoyed happiness in the process.

Unless the bridge light of any unit is broken during this process, it will become the laughing stock of the whole town the next day.

During this struggle, people on both sides of the street watching the excitement would also join in and help pull together.

When pulling up front and back, the unit in the middle of the dragon becomes the key. Whoever they help will have the advantage.

The leaders of several units at the tail of the dragon would run over, get close to the leader of that unit, and promise various benefits. Then the whole dragon would retreat. If they couldn't stop it, they knew that the center was betraying them, and they hurried to the center and promised more benefits.

The whole dragon suddenly ran forward with a roar. The units behind knew that there was a problem, and the leader yelled: "Damn you, you rebelled again."

Run to the middle quickly.

…

Several people in the ancestral hall knew Zhang Chen. As soon as they saw painter Zhang coming, someone handed him a brush, and someone else brought him suet, and Zhang Chen started painting.

Jacques and Jason saw it and immediately became interested. They also started to draw. Jason soon became very good at drawing. Jacques didn’t know how to use a brush and couldn’t draw well. Zhang Chen saw a section of a dragon body and taught him how to draw it. Drawing dragon scales, he said, was just like writing brackets. Jacques learned how to draw them one bracket after another seriously.