Ling Junsheng looked at the cricket jar, as if he suddenly remembered something, and said helplessly: "Is it really fate?"

With a curious expression, everyone explained: "I know an expert in fighting insects, I was obsessed with fighting insects when I met him fifty years ago, and now it is more than sixty years!"

"Could it be the sixth master of insects?" Zhang Lao said in surprise: "You are talking about the famous sixth master of playing insects?"

Ling Junsheng waved his hand, and said with a smile: "What is the sixth master not the sixth master!" He himself has always said that he is a disciple of the Eight Banners, what is the white flag on the ancestor, and the whole body is a child's style, all day long is just one word, play!"

The old man stood up, looked at Wen Yiming and said, "I guess it's fate, I didn't plan to meet that old guy, but since you met the cricket can, let's meet that bug idiot in the afternoon!"

Sending the old man away, Zhang Lao said excitedly: "The sixth master of the worm is not a mortal, as long as the capital is playing with insects, there is no one who does not pick a thumbs up! Sixty years of professional insect playing, no matter what kind of worm, sweep it with your eyes, and the soldiers will take nine of the ten kings!"

"Crickets are still graded?"

Wen Yiming asked curiously, I had never heard that fighting insects were also divided into ranks, Zhang Lao introduced: "There are clear rank standards among players, and the same as the army, there are ensigns, majors, colonels, and generals. Insects are also divided into four levels: pawn, soldier, general, and king according to their different combat achievements and experience. Every time you win five games of the same level, you can level up, and only by becoming a soldier can you be considered a real fighting worm. ”

He picked up the melon skin jar again and played: "Don't underestimate the fighting insects, although they are small, there are many doorways." From catching insects, raising insects, training insects, practicing fighting, going into battle, and recuperating injuries, everything is knowledge! Their food, tanks, water, and environment must be the most suitable in order to raise a truly good general, and they cannot be sloppy in the slightest. ”

"Take this melon skin jar as an example, you can't find it now just a layer of old pulp on the surface! The jargon is called boiling black cans, it is a craft, the new jar has just come out of the kiln, and the fire is big, and the insects can't be raised, just like putting people in a high-temperature house, and they will get sick if they don't live for a few days, so they have to go to the fire first. ”

"Generally, it is soaked in water for half a year, but the time is too long, and the effect is not good. A true connoisseur will boil it with a potion that he has prepared. Not to mention that the fire can be removed a few times, it can also make the jar produce natural slurry, making the worm feel more natural and comfortable. ”

Zhang Lao lifted the jar and showed it to Wen Yiming under the light, and there was indeed a layer of warm and oily shine on it, which was a bit similar to wood pulp.

"Crickets are born and raised, and they are a contention all their lives! foraging, protecting their territory, courting, laying eggs, and not resting until they die. Small in size, but big in ambition. ”

"What insect fighters like is this spirit, fighting with the sky and fighting with people. Connoisseurs have their own various secret recipes, whether it is the treatment of utensils, or insect food and drinking water, insect fighting training, combat tactics, without more than ten years of exploration and research, even the door can not enter. ”

"And each insect has its own temperament, eating, drinking, and Lazar are different, and it is a master to be able to tailor food, clothing, shelter and transportation for each insect to keep them in the best condition!"

Wen Yiming's words made Wen Yiming more and more curious, he didn't expect that he had so much knowledge about fighting insects, and he was very curious about this legendary sixth insect master.

After eating, the three of them came to a courtyard in the city, the courtyard was very large, and a towering tree was planted in the courtyard, which was lush and lush.

"To have a courtyard house in the capital?

Wen Yiming nodded secretly, and as Ling Junsheng walked into the courtyard, all kinds of insect chirps suddenly sounded in his ears, undulating and staggered, as if welcoming guests.

"Old man Ling, are you still alive?"

I saw an old man lying on the rocking chair under the tree, with a childish face, a ruddy face, holding a purple clay pot, leisurely, seeing everyone enter the door, he didn't get up, and pointed to the bench in front of him.

"Hmph, the sixth master is such a big shelf!"

Ling Junsheng walked up to the other party and said condescendingly: "Thank you old Hongfu, you haven't left yet, I dare to go first?"

"Hahaha......"

Both sides laughed, and the sixth master stood up and quipped: "I haven't seen you for thirty years, you are still old-fashioned, come, please sit!"

Ling Tiancheng and Wen Yiming hurriedly came up to say hello, the four of them sat down to chat, and the sixth master asked curiously: "I haven't seen you for so many years, do you think of me today?"

Ling Junsheng took out the melon skin jar and said with a smile: "How dare you come to disturb the sixth master without a greeting gift?" ”

"Huh, good stuff!"

When the sixth master saw the cricket jar, his eyes lit up, he stood up suddenly, picked it up and said: "Ziyu melon skin is green, good, it's a treasure with bare pulp!"

grabbed the jar and approached the tip of his nose, sniffed it, and said, "Well, the jar is good, and he is a master!"

"Insect tea, bait tea, pomegranate skin, silkworm sand. ”

Wen Yiming whispered the secret recipe, and the sixth master looked at the young man curiously, and said in surprise: "You raised it?"

Knowing that the other party just picked up the leak, he said with some interest: "After boiling the jar, the three are easy to find, but the insect tea is difficult to get, and the old players have grabbed this thing in recent years, and the market is in short supply." The insect brown color is mainly black, the main bright, and the traditional Chinese medicine is cool, and it is the first choice to treat the jar with this thing. ”

"First boil these raw materials in a large pot, then filter them with gauze, put the filtered pure soup in the pot and boil it with an appropriate amount of water, then put it on the dry jar, boil for two hours, take the pot down, stuff for a day, take out the jar, and let it dry. I ask for a shiny in the dark. ”

"I can't do it again and again, and what comes out at the end is absolutely amazing. The pots that have been treated in this way are not only good-looking, but also special pots, and the insects look very tender when they get home, and there is no oil and gas. ”

After speaking, the sixth master stood up, picked up a few jars, put them in front of everyone, and displayed: "I have seven or eight jars of Ziyu in my hands, which are not the best, if you want to say that the people of the Ming Dynasty are exquisite, especially the cricket jars of Emperor Xuande, that is a rare treasure!"

Ling Tiancheng pouted secretly: "You still need to say this, everyone knows!"

Among the cricket jars of the past dynasties, the blue and white cricket jars fired by the Jingdezhen Imperial Kiln Factory during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty are the most prestigious. Emperor Xuande likes to fight crickets, and those who are good will be very bad at the bottom, so the wind of playing insects between the court and the opposition is flourishing.

In order to meet the needs of the court to raise crickets, Emperor Xuande ordered the imperial kiln factory to burn a large number of cricket cans. During the Xuande period, the porcelain industry in Jingdezhen developed unprecedentedly, and the cricket jars fired by the Imperial Kiln Factory were excellent in craftsmanship and novel and diverse in ornamentation, so they became a generation of famous products.

Among the 1,174 pieces of porcelain from the Xuande official kiln in the old collection of the Qing Palace, most of them are handed down from the Xuande Dynasty, but cricket jars are rare. The Treasure Island Palace Museum is the most authoritative collection today, there is no cricket jar, and the Beijing Forbidden City only has a Ming Xuande year imitation Ru glazed cricket jar, which can be described as a rare treasure.

Ling Tiancheng interjected: "According to scholars' research, there are only three Xuande cricket cans that have been handed down to the world, the sit-on lid blue and white melon leaf pattern cricket jar auctioned by Sufubi in 1989, the flat-lid entwined peony pattern cricket jar of the Jiangnan Museum, which is still lacking a lid, and the flat-lid Tianma pattern cricket jar in the collection of the Toli Art Museum in the island country, with a lid that is also equipped with a back. ”

Speaking of this, the sixth master laughed, stood up and returned to the house, took out the brocade box, carefully placed it in front of everyone, and displayed: "I have the one you said in my hand, in order to take pictures of this treasure back then, I sold a courtyard!"

"Sit-on-lid yellow ground blue and white melon leaf pattern cricket can!"

Everyone looked at the rare treasure in front of them, but they didn't expect that in the hands of the sixth master, they deserved to be a top player, and this alone was already outstanding, and no one could match.