Seeing that the mass work could not be done, Bigan let the soldiers go out hunting. When they came back and slaughtered them, they left a part in the barracks canteen and distributed a part to the villagers, so that the villagers could improve their lives.

After eating the meat of the beast, the villagers felt that it was nothing. Moreover, it was not a matter of just receiving gifts, so he also learned from the example of the barracks, and organized a hunting party by young and strong men, and took them back to skin and eat meat after killing wild beasts.

Fighting too much, the beast skins were thrown in piles and piles, everywhere.

At this time, it was winter, and due to the underdevelopment of the work during this period, people's clothing was solved by hand-weaving cloth.

The land is saline, the cotton harvest is very poor, the patches that people wear are stacked with patches, the old sleeves are not cold, although they are old and thick, they are still frozen and hissed, and the snot is first-class and long.

Bigan thought to himself: the beast can survive the cold winter with its fur, which shows that the fur is very warm. If the skin of wild animals were made into clothes, wouldn't it solve the problem of people's clothing!

When Bigan said to the villagers, an old man hurriedly waved his hand and said, "No, we slaughter cattle and sheep every year, and we also wanted to make clothes from cowhide and sheepskin, but the result was so hard that we couldn't wear it at all." ”

Bigan did not give up, so he asked someone to make himself a wild goat coat.

Sure enough, as the old man said, as soon as the skin is dry, the skin is hard, and there is no bend at all, and when you walk, it will make a "bang, bang, bang" sound.

The most unacceptable thing is the oiliness and smell on the skin. No matter how you wash it or scrape it, you just can't clean it, and you smell a fishy smell from afar.

It's a good fur but can't be worn, and Bigan looks at the leather clothes and thinks about it.

Thinking about it, the upper and lower eyelids fight. In a daze, I saw an old man walking towards him.

When Bigan raised his eyes, he saw that the old man was wearing a Taoist robe, holding a dusty hand, wearing a golden crown on his head, and a fluttering silver beard on his chest. Although Bigan has never seen a fairy, he has seen a lot of portraits of immortals, which is clearly the arrival of Tai Bai Xing.

Than did he kneel down and kowtow.

Tai Bai Xing didn't say anything, walked straight towards the leather coat, and when he came to him, he actually shook the leather coat three times with the dust in his hand.

Every time he shook it, the leather coat made a "poof" sound, as if a stick had been hit into the water.

Tai Bai Xing shook off his leather coat, and then said to Bigan: "Man and beast are one, don't live up to the old man's expectations of you." After saying that, he disappeared.

Bigan kowtowed three more times to the air. got up and picked up the leather coat and looked at it, and couldn't help but be stunned:

The leather garment became soft like satin, smooth and delicate; The coat color is beautiful, as if there is a streamer on it. Although Bigan is a prince, he has never seen such beautiful clothes. couldn't help but feel overjoyed, and couldn't help but put the leather coat on his body, and suddenly felt a warm current surging all over his body.

"Wow, the skin is so warm!" Bigan said loudly.

I didn't want to say it, and I was startled and woke up.

It turned out to be a dream of Nanke.

When I opened my eyes, I saw that the leather coat was draped over my body.

It turned out that when a servant saw that Bigan was asleep sitting in the hall, he did not dare to call him, and he was afraid that he would catch a cold and suffer from the cold, but there was nothing else in the yamen to protect him from the cold, so he put a hard leather coat on his body.

Bigan recalls the scene in his dream, and he still remembers it vividly, as if he had experienced it himself.

Especially for the phrase "the unity of man and beast", I can't understand it. found his friend Jiang Ziya and asked him to interpret his dream.

Jiang Ziya calculated for a long time, but he couldn't understand it very much. Bigan said: "Do you remember the hexagram I calculated for you before you went out with the king of Xu? ”

Bigan: "Remember." You said that I have some kind of relationship with the Thornjin Prefecture, and you also said that my merits in this life may be here. I was in a hurry to leave, and I didn't ask in detail. Can you tell me now, what merit? Where should I go towards? ”

Jiang Ziya pouted: "You know, this is a matter of the future, and it is not as good as getting rid of monsters and catching monsters." Most of what I show in my hexagram is a hint in the dark, just a sign. If I could calculate it specifically, I wouldn't have sold meat and lost money by opening a restaurant. ”

Bigan smiled: "Then what do you say this unity of man and beast portends?" ”

Jiang Ziya: "The unity of man and beast is not about eating meat." Eating is the relationship between eating and being eaten, not together. This combination naturally refers to being together without violating each other. Human-animal unity...... Human-animal unity......"

Jiang Ziya took a few square steps in the room, and then asked, "You just said that Tai Bai Xing shook your hard leather clothes three times with a whisk, and the leather clothes became soft?" ”

Bigan nodded: "Yes." ”

Jiang Ziya's eyes suddenly lit up: "That's right, there is." This unity of man and beast must mean that man wears animal skin. When animal skins are worn on people, isn't it just that people and beasts are combined! He shook the leather coat three times, and turned the leather coat into a soft one that could be worn, which is the kind of hint. ”

Bigan nodded, then frowned again: "I thought about it when I woke up, but it's impossible." The hides are hard and fishy, dirty, and they can't be washed cleanly, so they can't be worn on their bodies at all. No, I just found you and asked you to crack it. I don't think you're thinking the same way. ”

Jiang Ziya: "It's not that I have this idea, but this dream foreshadows this." If you can turn hard dry skin into soft skin and let humans wear it to protect them from the cold, it will be the greatest contribution to mankind. This also corresponds to my previous hexagram: your merits are in the state of Jianjin, and it is also in terms of fur. ”

Bigan grinned and snorted: "You can tell me the story of Xuanmen!" It's simply not something that can be done. ”

Jiang Ziya smiled: "If everything is ready-made, then it will be your turn!" ”

Since then, Bigan has often thought of the soft leather coat in his dream, as well as the phrase "man and beast are one". I don't have a way to implement it, and I just think about it often.

Before you know it, spring has arrived.

Jianjin Prefecture is located in the Central Plains region and has a temperate continental monsoon climate. It is characterized by dry and windy springs, hot and rainy summers, and cold and dry winters. Therefore, there is a saying that "spring rain is as expensive as oil".

This year's spring rain came very early, and the light rain fell all day, and the next day was a howling northwest wind, followed by a bright sun.

The thirsty land was temporarily moistened, but the rainfall was too small, which also raised the salinity in the fields. The land was blown by the wind, the sun shone, and a layer of alkali gaba was formed, and from a distance, it was white.

In this endless saline-alkali land, nothing grows except for the saline-alkali tolerant red vitex, zapun tree, sour jujube, and wild willow.

Wild willows grow luxuriantly along the ditch, with small pink flowers, which is a little bit of life brought here in spring.

The saline-alkali land containing nitrate is fluffy, and Bigan and his entourage stepped on this fluffy saline-alkali land, walking in the direction of the Qingliang River, leaving deep footprints with every step......

There are still pools of stagnant water on the beach by the Qingliang River. Some puddles are soaked with leaves, and some puddles are soaked with rotten grass.

Bigan looked down for a long time and found a puddle soaked in a hare skin. It seems that the meat was eaten up by the eagle a long time ago, and it was soaked in the water for a long time. This spring rain washed away the dirt on it, revealing its true face.

The hare skin is white, and the fluffy coat color is particularly fresh and smooth. Bigan was a little surprised, bent down to pick it up, rubbed it with his hands, and felt that the board was quite soft, like satin. I sniffed it on my nose, although there was still a fishy smell, and I was much more timid.

Bigan suddenly remembered the soft leather coat in the dream, this feel, this luster, it turned out to be exactly the same as in the dream.

Than dry to come to the spirit, eyes wide, carefully look around.

The surroundings are no different from other places, except that the white alkali that is exposed to the sun is more and thicker than in other places. Bigan thought about it for a while, and asked the officials to scrape up some white alkali, put it in their pockets, and bring it back to the yamen.

After returning to the yamen, Bigan asked the soldiers to scrape some white alkali from other places, find dozens of hare skins, and put them in a large vat.

He also picked up a few loads of water from the Qingliang River and poured it into it, sprinkled it with white alkali from the scraping, and put it in the yard to let the sun dry.

In addition to approving official documents, Bigan went to the tank to take a look at the cylinder when he had time and flipped it through by hand.

The rabbit skin was soaked for seven days and seven nights, and Bigan looked at it three times a day.

On the eighth day, Bigan frowned: the rabbit skin bubbles in the tank were moldy, and the hair had fallen off, and one by one it had become a bare board, and there were holes, and the yard smelled unpleasant.

Bigan took one last look, and was ruthless, and asked the officials to get out and find a place to bury it.

Although it was buried, Bigan was not discouraged. He found a few old people in the village and told them all about what he saw by the Qingliang River and how he had soaked the rabbit skin, and asked them to come up with ideas and think of ways together.

The old people were very moved when they saw that Bigan was so enthusiastic, and they all stroked their beards and thought about it, and then told what they had encountered related to it. Your words, my words, a lot of information.

Eventually, Bigan made them stay in the yamen, and each of them gave them a large vat, each of which was filled with the same number of hides, each brewed with different ingredients.

And instructed them: "Don't be afraid of bubbles, but there must be data records until the soft and good skin is brewed." ”

Several old people did not take responsibility when they heard that the bubble was broken, and they all soaked it boldly with confidence.

It is said that each old man brewed it ninety-nine times, and it took three hundred and sixty days to brew it, and finally one old man brewed the skin of the animal with a smooth color and soft texture.

At first glance, it was fresher and softer than the one he saw on the beach of the Qingliang River, not only did it not smell fishy, but it also had a special fragrance.

Bigan happily didn't sleep well all night, and Tianming let the old people be masters and go to various villages to pass on their crafts.

The masters taught modestly, the people learned seriously, and in a short time, the people in the surrounding villages around Daying learned the techniques of soaking leather and making leather clothes.

When people saw that the animal skins were of such great use, they all picked up the discarded animal skins and cooked them into furs.