Today's Jingshi ushered in the warmest sunny day since the beginning of spring, and the streets were extremely lively.

From the Erlang Temple Square on the east side of Dengshikou Street to the south, it is the right alley of the temple, and the side facing the west is the alley in front of the temple. This is the most famous place for fighting crickets in Kyoto.

Crickets are also known as weaving, and the game of fighting crickets originated in the Tang Dynasty and began to flourish in the Southern Song Dynasty. Emperor Lizong of the Song Dynasty was an expert in this area, and once wrote a special "Promoting Weaving Sutra", which made a detailed elaboration on weaving, color identification, capture, recuperation and fighting skills.

After the death of the Song Dynasty and the rise of the Yuan Dynasty, the game of promoting weaving was passed from Hangzhou to Yanjing, and the Yuan Dynasty died in succession, especially after the Yongle Emperor moved the capital to Yanjing, this game of fighting crickets, in this lord and noble, gentleman Qi Wan and even the Beijing master full of squirting and plastering, has been two hundred years without decay.

Especially in the Xuanzong Dynasty, this play has reached the pinnacle. When Xuanzong heard that the ground in Suzhou produced high-quality crickets, he secretly ordered the prefect of Suzhou to capture 1,000 heads of tribute to the Beijing division. The so-called good on the top, the next must be very good, for a time, Suzhou crickets can live. The reward for catching a cricket in Suzhou Weizhong is like killing a captive.

There was once a small colonel of Wei who was good at catching crickets, and because he caught a lot of crickets, he won the secular position of the 100 households of the guard, which is an unprecedented miracle. And the cricket pots in the Xuande kiln have also become treasures in porcelain. Until now, the basin of only five feet is worth hundreds of taels of silver. At that time, there was a ballad to talk about this matter, and the song cloud: Promote the weaving of Qu Qu screaming, Emperor Xuande wants. Department stores are cheap, and crickets are pretty.

Due to Xuanzong's advocacy, after the autumn of the Beijing Division, every household was hunting and promoting weaving, and fighting to promote weaving also abounded. There was once a Shexian who was an official in the capital, and he wrote a song "Watching the Cricket Song", which was dedicated to the grand occasion of the Beijing master fighting and promoting weaving.

After Longqing, although the grand occasion of the capital is not as good as that of the previous dynasty, whenever the climate warms, it is still a gambling door wide open, and half of the city is like a madness. The alley in front of the temple is the most concentrated place in the capital to promote weaving, a small street, house to house, door to door, are all to promote weaving arena. Therefore, over time, people forgot the original name of the alley in front of the temple, and called the day to weave the alley.

At the turn of the night of the unitary year, the lights in the weaving alley were bright and crowded. There are more than 30 fighting weaving yards on the street, each of which is full of hoarding people, and the largest one is called "Feiteng Building".

The entrance is to shine on the wall, bypass the wall and then enter a door, is a five-wing hall, which is the main arena for promoting weaving. In the middle is a low-legged mahogany table, three chairs, the owners of the two sides of the main bucket sit opposite each other, and in the middle sits the shopkeeper, who plays the role of arbitrator. There are many benches around the perimeter, one layer higher than the other from the inside and outside, all for the audience.

There are many separate private rooms in the two rooms, and upstairs, for those who have status. They can drink and have fun here, they can also fight each other, and if the weaving battle in the main hall starts, they will take part in the betting.

It should be known that all the people who enter the weaving hall are gamblers who come with money to catch up. If most of the gamblers of the rest of the shops on Zhizhi Street are small people in the market, then this Feiteng Building is a place to gamble a lot of money. There have been many people who have become rich overnight here, but many more people here have only gotten the tragic end of bankruptcy.

Tonight's ring in the Feiteng Building, is a person named Wang Dengbang, judging from the name, his father must have hoped that he could study seriously and be on the gold list in the future, but at the moment his nickname is called "Promoting Weaving King", it seems that there is some hope for Dengbang. But just by listening to this nickname, you know that he is famous in promoting weaving.

Wang Dengbang has lived in Beijing for generations, has been naughty since he was a child, studied in private school for three years, and can't even memorize a "Hundred Family Names", but if it comes to digging birds' nests, catching dragonflies, training dogs, catching rats, etc., he is an expert in everything. Since he was nine years old, he started to play weaving, and he couldn't take it anymore, so he simply escaped from the school and tried to tinker with this bug, and 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 promote the weaving of the street to fight. After more than ten years of experience, he finally mixed up the title of "King of Weaving", a great Beijing master, and there is no second person who can compare to him. With this skill, he actually accumulated tens of thousands of family fortunes and became the uncle Wang who everyone in the weaving alley was feared.

The time has ended, and the lights in the Feiteng Building are bright and crowded. It's just that the three chairs next to the mahogany table in the hall are still empty. It's not for anything else, just because Wang Dengbang is here to swing, and he has won twelve games in a row. Many masters who did not believe in evil inside and outside the capital were all defeated, and a lot of white silver flowed into Wang Dengbang's pocket, and now no one dares to come to the battle.

The tooth lang in the shop was afraid of the cold, and stood in front of the mahogany table with his nose and shouted: "Ladies and gentlemen, Uncle Wang said that all those who fight tonight will give way." How is your Tao a way to give way? Ha, as long as you, the tameled insect king, can bite his 'golden-winged eagle', even if it is just a loss of legs, broken wings, or damage of teeth, any of these appears, even if your treasure insect is killed in battle, it is considered that his Uncle Wang loses, and you can get Uncle Wang's one hundred taels of silver. Big guy, let's talk about it, is this a big head? ”

"Great!"

"Is Uncle Wang angry?"

"Great!"

All the gamblers roared in unison, and the sound was like thunder.

Yalang pouted again and shouted, "Good! So, which master came out to fight? ”

The hall was silent again.

The people sitting on the stool know Wang Dengbang's world-beating stunts, who is willing to fall for this.

Seeing that no one squeaked, Yalang ran into the first elegant room on the right side of the hall, and Wang Dengbang, the "King of Weaving", sat idly inside.

After a while, Yalang came out again and shouted again: "The little one asked Uncle Wang, increase the color head, one hundred and twenty taels, which master should fight?" ”

Whispers began to be heard in the crowd, but no one answered.

Ya Lang was in a hurry, and his nose became even more sloppy, only to hear him shout more: "One hundred and fifty taels." ”

Still no one cares.

"One hundred and eighty taels."

"One hundred and ninety taels!"

"Two-hundred-two!"

Yalang kept raising the gambling stakes, and a commotion began in the crowd. These gamblers are all here for money, and who can't be tempted to hear this big fortune? For a while, there were those who saw green light in their eyes, some with red cheeks, some with heads and ears, and some with fists. But excitement is excitement, after all, no one has the courage to stand up.

It's just that this toothy man has sharp teeth, which tickles people's hearts: "Ladies and gentlemen, you have already seen those war insects of Uncle Wang, is it really invincible in the world?" You all take a closer look at your bamboo tube straw cage embroidered and carried in the basket, and maybe there is one Sun Dasheng who can win the two hundred taels of silver. Two hundred taels of silver for white flowers, my lord! ”