With a shabby cotton hat on his head and a dirty cotton robe wrapped around his body, Xiang Youbao led the nine monkeys to dress up as a passer-by who had just entered Sijiu City to see the excitement, sitting in the teahouse opposite the Jushe and drinking a pot of Gao Mo'er slowly, gnawing on the cold sesame fire without a bite, but his eyes were all fixed on the dozen pigeons hovering near the left side of the Jushe shop.

The gentlemen in Sijiu City, regardless of whether they are rich or poor, are all looking for fun for their own pastime.

Liba, who is near the left side of Dashilar, earned the family's money for chewing and wrapping in a day, and the extra dozen or so eldest children were either thrown into the theater garden or sprinkled in the field where the pot was painted and talked about. The driver of the rickshaw ran on the streets of Sijiu City for a day, sat in the second meat shop and rubbed the calves that ran around finely, and did not forget to ask the guy from the second meat shop to pinch two pieces of tender cabbage for himself when he stir-fried vegetables, picked up his clothes and wiped the dew on the cabbage, and then fed the cabbage to the gourd in his arms.

There are even more clever people in poor small households, taking advantage of the spring season to find some wild pigeon chicks in the forest outside Sijiu City, and build a pigeon building on the roof of their house with broken bricks and wood, so they raised pigeons.

On weekdays, I save a bite of food and feeding, minus a piece of clothing on my body to protect, and then I want to find a leading pigeon that has barely been trained for a few days to press the formation and hold the group, and after two years of hard work, these wild pigeons have also developed into domestic pigeons.

If the scene of this play is small, the pigeon eggs collected by a dozen pigeons are sold to the rich families who know how to play with pigeons, and if you are lucky, you can earn a small two months of chewing for the family. If the scene is really big, 100 pigeons with pigeon whistles can cover half of the sky like patrolling the city in the morning. Regardless of whether it is selling pigeon eggs or selling good pigeons, it is not good to say that the family can eat and drink without worrying about it in a year, and they can also save a few pieces of ocean in the hole in the wall, which is really a good thing to support the family and pastime without delay!

But in this world, words are always said at two ends, and things are done from the beginning. Since there are poor families who want to have fun, they can also piggyback on their families. There are not a few people in Sijiu City who are serious about raising pigeons and having fun.

There are those who have been considered wealthy in the city since the time of the Great Qing Dynasty, and in the back garden they hold the wood of pine and cypress to build a three-zhang high pigeon tower facing south, the entrance and exit, the active door, the observation deck, the string of bells, the window, the nest, the perch, and the trough. The salt soil trough and the drip trough are indispensable, and they all have to be renovated by the famous craftsmen in Sijiu City to be eye-catching.

In the grange outside the city, barnyard seeds, buckwheat, peas, sorghum, rice, wheat, and corn were all bought from the time-honored grain stores in Sijiu City, for fear that the old grain would be eaten by pigeons and lose their coats.

Build a stone platform with a width of one zhang near the left side of the pigeon tower, carefully place some yellow sand, yellow mud, lime, coal shavings, broken mussel shell powder, broken bones, and let the pigeons forage for food. So that the pigeons can restrain the food that they have eaten.

In the summer, mung beans and vegetables are fed, and in winter, grasshoppers and mole crickets are roasted and kneaded into meat balls. The specially prepared water tank is changed twice a day for the fresh spring water from Yuquan Mountain, once a day in summer, every five or ten days in winter, and you have to find someone to serve the pigeon to bathe.

Regardless of the windy and rainy weather, every morning and evening, the owner who specially invited to serve the pigeons pinched a little bit and pulled the string of bells to tease the pigeons who were full of food and drink and raised their spirits to go out of the cage for an hour. Wait for those carefully fed pigeons to be trained to have strong wings and love the nest, and then slowly take those pigeons to fly out from near and far. It wasn't until the pigeon could return home from a hundred miles away that it was really a thing that turned a pigeon into something that could show its face in front of people. The value is also like a monkey in the sky!

Resting in the time of the Guangxu Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, there were several big families who played pigeons in the four or nine cities to gamble and fight, and sent their pigeons in carriages to five hundred miles away, and made an appointment to release the pigeons raised by each family at three o'clock in the afternoon three days later, to see whose pigeon returned to the nest first to win.

Originally, I thought that the pigeons would fly back to the nest from 500 miles away. It would have taken two days. But just when the big families were preparing for the dinner and eating heartily, a few pigeons that had been taken five hundred miles away had already returned to their nests, and there was only a cup of tea before and after.

With such a thing to boast about in front of people, the big families who play with pigeons in Sijiu City are even more like phoenixes, holding those high-quality pigeons in their hearts. If you want to exchange some pigeons that can be mated, you have to talk about friendship first, and then pay for it. If only you could take a pair of eggs from the finest pigeons, they would have just laid them as a greeting gift. Maybe you can rely on this generous gift to find a golden chair in Sijiu City to sit on the ground and make money!

Stretching his neck and swallowing a piece of cold fire, the nine monkeys looked at the tea bowl with a blank brown high-foam tea, and looked at Xiang Youbao sitting opposite him with a bitter face: "Senior brother, you have led me to sit here all morning, and you have watched the pigeon circle in the sky for an hour, what are you looking at?" ”

Chewing vigorously on the cold fire, the leopard stared at the pigeon hovering above the Jushe store, and replied to the nine monkeys casually: "Have you been watching for an hour?" My Nine Monkeys, tell me, what have you seen at this hour? ”

Looking at the leopard dumbfounded, the nine monkeys snorted for a long time before shaking their heads and responding: "Isn't it just a group of pigeons raised in the chrysanthemum club circling around, and the pigeon that is holding the formation is still hanging a pigeon whistle." It is estimated that the pigeon whistle is not neatly tied, and it is uncomfortable to listen to it! And then there is the side"

Seeing that Xiang Youbao was still staring at the pigeons hovering in the sky, the nine monkeys immediately paused, and turned to Xiang Youbao and asked with a hippie smile: "Senior brother, I really didn't see anything on the side, so can you give me some pointers?" ”

Towards the pigeon array hovering in the sky, he replied to the nine monkeys with a leopard voice: "Where do I dare to point out to you the nine monkeys?" If you ask you if you are gossiping, how many pigeons are there in this flock? ”

Almost without thinking, the nine monkeys quickly replied: "I have counted three times earlier, there are nineteen in total, and I can't make a mistake!" ”

Hehe, chuckled. Xiang Youbao stretched out his hand and picked up the tea bowl in front of him, and gently took a sip of the faint tea: "Master Nine Monkeys, although the door has not carefully taught you the temperament of various things, but this pigeon is something you are used to in ordinary times, and you have never heard the old saying that pigeons are in pairs?" What's the deal with one of the pigeons in this flock? ”

I didn't wait for the nine monkeys to answer. There was a leopard, but he looked at the flock of pigeons hovering in mid-air: "According to Han Liangpin Han Ye, the pigeon who sent the letter only showed up once in seven days." But if it is a slightly trained carrier pigeon, it is rare to fly more than 1,000 miles a day. If this is calculated according to the time of half, then Han Ye's master will have to ask the people of the Jushe to hide thousands of miles away! But these pigeons in front of me, when they fly one by one, they all look like meat pigeons that ordinary people raise and play, and they can slaughter the pot in winter! To say that these pigeons are carrier pigeons, I don't believe them! ”

Staring at the pigeons that had begun to fly slowly for a while, the nine monkeys suddenly nodded and shouted: "It's true!" In those years, when I lived in a ruined temple, sometimes I would go to someone's pigeon nest in the middle of the night when I was very hungry. Some pigeons have a lot of meat on them. One pot of stewed two is enough for those little brothers to drink hot soup, and look at the appearance of these pigeons in front of them! ”

The probe patted lightly on the melon seeds of the nine monkeys' brains, and the leopard said half-truthfully: "This hasn't been seen yet, the nine monkeys, you really have the stealth ability brought by the womb, and your hands are stretched out to other people's pigeon nests to get live food!?" ”

With a smiling face, the nine monkeys replied in a low voice, "Isn't this so hungry?" Senior brother, in fact, I still pay attention to the rules. Like a pigeon with a pigeon whistle on its pole, I never touch it. It is also necessary for people to have to go through the trouble to find another exchange. ”

Sticking his teeth at the nine monkeys, Xiang Youbao stretched out his hand and pointed to his ears: "Since you have said that the nine monkeys have spoken about the pigeon whistle." Do you feel right about the pigeon whistle you are listening to today? ”

Shaking his head like a rattle, the nine monkeys immediately responded: "The pigeon whistle movements that I have heard on weekdays are all fluttering and flickering down my ears and eyes towards my heart, no matter how I listen to it, it makes people feel bright and comfortable." But now the pigeon whistle seems to have not been picked up, and it sounds straight into the brain. After listening to the hours for a long time, I still feel that the head in the pigeon whistle seems to be mixed with some movement next to it? I can't tell you what it is, but it just sounds upsetting and irritating?! ”

Nodding approvingly, Xiang Youbao took out more than a dozen eldest sons from his arms and threw them on the table: "Finally, Old Man Hong didn't hurt you in vain, and taught you that little bit of basic kung fu to do eight-tone whistles." This is where it comes in handy. I'll give you a head here, and you can figure it out for yourself -- what are you most afraid of bumping into this pigeon that is kept at home? ”

Seeing that Xiang Youbao had already stood up, the nine monkeys drank the remaining tea in the tea bowl in one gulp, and stood up busily: "Senior brother, are you still taking the school entrance examination for me in this matter?" This pigeon kept in the head pigeon building at home is just afraid of cats, rats, and dragons! There are few small dragons in Sijiu City, but there are many cats and mice. Especially the rat brother, the movement on the pigeon whistle you said was used to scare cats and mice, wasn't it? ”

Without answering the question of the nine monkeys, Xiang Youbao put his hands into his sleeves, walked out of the teahouse with a procrastinating foot, and led the nine monkeys with his hands together for a long time along the street, and then stopped at the mouth of a small alley with an incense burner pattern drawn with carbon strips, and went straight into the deep and narrow alley.

Against the small north wind raging through the streets and alleys, there were leopards and nine monkeys who walked out of the alley less than two miles away, and their noses already smelled the smell of meat oil wafting from the wind. Although when they went out in the morning, Xiangyoubao and the nine monkeys had all eaten breakfast, and they chewed on the two fires in the teahouse, but as soon as they smelled the smell of meat oil at the end of their noses, Xiangyou Leopard and the nine monkeys felt that the gluttonous insects in their stomachs were making a fuss again.

Snorting vigorously, the nine monkeys looked at Xiang Youbao walking beside him very strangely: "Senior brother, I almost know the boundary of food in this Sijiu City, and I also have it in my heart in the alleys near the left, but I remember that there is no food in this area, right?" Where did this smell come from? ”

Towards the boundary at the corner of the alley in front of him, Xiang Youbao looked at the food picker under a big tree, and whispered in a low voice: "The shop merchants who sit on the ground to sell food in Sijiu City, Master Nine Monkeys, you know it in your heart, but you don't know that this stall with a pot and stove is hiding from selling food, right?" ”

Nodding a little ignorantly, the nine monkeys asked Xiang Youbao in surprise: "Senior brother, if you want to talk about it in detail, I can be regarded as a sitting tiger in this Sijiu City, but how can I not understand the things in this Sijiu City as well as you, a person from outside?" ”

Hehe chuckled, Xiang Youbao pulled his hand out of his sleeve, and took out more than a dozen eldest sons from his arms and handed them to Jiu Monkey: "Forgot that we have a living yellow calendar in Sijiu City in our hall?" In the future, if you have to have spare time, you will have to ask diligently and listen with your ears when you pick up the bits and pieces, then you will have everything! Go, go to that stall and ask for two bowls of white soup. But remember, if you don't want anything on the side, you just want two bowls of white soup! (To be continued......)