Firewood, rice, oil, salt, sauce, vinegar, tea, noisy and disturbing are the practices that cannot be avoided by big families. The Zhu family's compound was not quiet until dinner, and finally because of the strong intervention of his grandfather, it was over.

It's just a pity that the five fish I caught, the little fourth aunt cooked with dissatisfaction, and the fish were all pasted.

I've never eaten such a terrible fish.

The uncle did not appear at the table, because the uncle took the money out of the county early in the morning to study and travel. In fact, thinking about it, the uncle is also quite unrighteous, he took the money and went out to get away, leaving the eldest aunt to deal with the suspicions and questions of several concubines. The aunt is very protective of the uncle, and no one can say a bad word about the uncle. It can only be said that the uncle has good means, and he is worthy of being a scholar, and he has the ability to turn his hands for clouds and rain at home.

At dinner, his grandfather gave Zhu Ping'an an extra cake, and also gave Zhu Pingjun half an extra cake, and instructed the two grandsons to eat to their heart's content.

"Old man, the cake doesn't cost anything." The grandmother was already angry because of the quarrel of several daughters-in-law, and saw that the old man gave the two grandsons cakes lavishly. Jun'er just goes to school, especially the little grandson, who was already given half an extra cake, but now he has given one more cake, and it is all the adult's measurement.

"What do you know about a woman, and in ten days, it will be another day when our village and Shanghe Village will compete for water. Today, a village elder came to me and said that Jun'er and Yu'er will participate this year, both of them are the new force of our village, which is related to the vital interests of our entire village, and land is our lifeblood. Last year, our village did not rob Shanghe Village, and this year's harvest suffered a lot of losses. Especially these days, the family should be able to eat with Yu'er and Jun'er, and make up some good ones. ”

Grandfather knocked the cigarette bag and pot, and said to his grandmother anxiously, blaming his grandmother for being a woman and having no knowledge.

When her mother Chen heard this, her face was much better. Last time I fought for water, although the village lost, but Dachuan performed well and won a lot of praise from the village and outside the village, and it is estimated that it will be much easier to find a daughter-in-law in the future. This time, the second child can participate when he is just five years old, and there will be more opportunities to show his face in the future.

When he went back after dinner, Zhu Pingjun learned from his father Zhu Shouyi what the so-called competition for water with Shanghe Village was.

Relying on the mountains to eat the mountains and relying on the water to draft the water, but the two villages rely on the same mountain and the same water, and disputes between the two villages are inevitable under the interests. It's okay to say that the mountain is so big, it is enough to toss with the two villages, but no one can do it, and the two villages rely on the stream of Qingxi for farming.

Shanghe Village is upstream and Xiahe Village is downstream, and the two villages have relied on this stream for irrigation for generations. However, when crops need to be watered, or when there is a drought, the water in this clear stream is not enough. In the past, whenever this time, Shanghe Village would cut off the clear stream, and irrigate their village, and Xiahe Village would not do it, the amount of water was already small, and you would cut it off, and we would not get a drop of water in our village, and the crops and fields would not be harvested.

Therefore, a village should be cut off, and a village should not be cut off. Cut it off today, and tomorrow I'll take someone to dig up the hole you cut off and release it into water. If they couldn't reach an agreement, the two villages began to fight, and dung forks, sticks, hoes, and shovels crackled, and they went up to fight a big fight, and they couldn't hold back when they were in a hurry, and blood, death, and hatred followed. In the past, more than 10 people would be killed and injured in the two villages every year because of the competition for water, and even the families who suffered afterwards would break out sporadically because of revenge, causing further damage.

With so many dead and injured people, the losses caused to their villages were too great, and the crops were also lost a lot during the water season.

The village elders of the two villages are working together, and in order to avoid innocent harm, they have set up a tradition of fighting for water that has been observed to this day.

Children between the ages of 5 and 10 are 30 children from each of the two villages, participating in the competition for water in the two villages. In this way, no matter how these children fight, it will not cause much serious injury, at most, they can be alive again after lying in bed for a day or two, unlike adults fighting for death or injury.

There is also a set of rules for sixty children to compete for water, otherwise how to judge whether they win or lose.

There are ten flags in each of the two villages, one attack and one defense, the defender is on a small hillside, the attacker is under the hillside, and the gong party goes to the hillside to grab the other party's flag. After a stick of incense, the two sides swap positions, the offense and defense are transposed, the gong side becomes the defender, and the defender goes to attack and grab the flag, which is also a stick of incense time, and the flags that can be grabbed are a few, and after grabbing it, it is also handed over to the village elders.

The village elders of the two villages decide whether they win or lose according to the number of flags in their hands, and decide who has the most flags next year, who wins, one flag represents the five-day water period, and one more flag will give priority to irrigation for five days, and so on. The winning village has the right to give priority to the use of the water from the clear stream for irrigation, and the other village cannot block or irrigate until the water period represented by the flag in the winning village's hand is exhausted.

Last year, Shanghe Village won two flags, which caused the village to be at a disadvantage in irrigation, but fortunately there was no drought this year, otherwise the consequences would be unimaginable.

Seeing that it is time to decide the water rights of the next year, the village elders have also begun to investigate the candidates who will participate in the water competition in the village, because the number of children in a village is limited, and there are not many children between the ages of 5 and 10. Zhu Ping'an was selected when he was just five years old, and it is estimated that the village elder took a fancy to Zhu Ping'an's chubby figure. The eldest brother Zhu Pingchuan was not selected because according to the village's age calculation method, the eldest brother was just past his age and was 11 years old.

This tradition of fighting for water, the two villages have been abiding by it for hundreds of years, and now the water competition is more like a fraternity of the two villages, and it is also a place for the younger generations to express themselves.

Every year, on the water day of the two villages, there will be a small assembly nearby, the juniors compete for flags between the hillsides, the elders cheer and laugh not far away, and there are village elders in the two villages drinking tea, drinking and laughing on the high platform erected. It even attracts many street vendors to set up stalls to sell, which has become one of the most lively festivals in the two villages.

A group of bear children grabbed flags to play, what was the energy, but looking at the appearance of his mother Chen's eyebrows, Zhu Ping'an wisely did not speak.

The eldest brother Zhu Pingchuan also taught Zhu Ping'an his experience of participating in the water competition before going to bed, and the eldest brother, who usually speaks little, chattered a lot, but Zhu Ping'an snored and fell asleep unconsciously when he listened to it.

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