When it comes to Fengqiu, we can't leave out the Yellow River, which flows through Fengqiu for about fifty to sixty kilometers, accounting for only one percent of the total length of the Yellow River, but this is one percent of the length of the Yellow River, but it has brought us extreme suffering. Chinese people affectionately call the Yellow River the Mother River, but this mother here is temperamental and violent. As far as I know from the pre-Qin Dynasty to the liberation of about three thousand years ago, the lower reaches of the Yellow River break flooding reached a staggering one thousand five hundred and ninety-three times, an average of three years, two breaks, the big diversion also has twenty-six times. Fengqiu is also often thrown by the mother sometimes in the south bank, sometimes in the north bank. Fengqiu earth is the whole of the Yellow River's riverbed, yellow vine river water with rolling sand and mud wantonly washed a large area of fields, washed down the house, washed away the grain, washed away the road in front of; and this rolling yellow water is brought by a seat of the sand hillock and a piece of saline land, and the boundless miasma and pestilence. But here people have never lost hope, the house washed down later and then rebuilt, food washed away the next year and then sowed, the road washed out immediately rebuilt. Day after day, year after year, the hard-working townspeople labored through destruction and reconstruction in this way. Although the sky is turned upside down, but the only constant is still the hope for tomorrow. After the liberation of the Yellow River has a new dike bound, the river can no longer swing north and south casually, so the hometown has never been the Yellow River breaks the intrusion. But because the Yellow River every year to carry a lot of sediment into the sea, in the lower reaches of the river about 400 million tons of sediment siltation channel, day after day to make the lower reaches of the river bed rises year by year, here and thus the formation of a world-famous on the ground, "Hanging River" spectacle, now the Yellow River downstream of the river bed, generally higher than the dyke outside of the ground three to five meters in the CaoGang in the FengQiu of Henan Province, which is my hometown, was even higher than the ground, the riverbed of the Yellow River, the riverbed of the Yellow River. Is my hometown, even higher than 10 meters, really become the Yellow River water in the sky. Since the Qianlong period of Qing Dynasty, this place has become a key project for the control of the Yellow River. The famous Cao Gang dangerous construction is located here. If the Yellow River breaks here, it is really like the water in the sky pouring into the well, my hometown has been circulating this folk proverb "the Yellow River a break, a day rushed to Beijing City." Although the Yellow River has brought great disaster to Fengqiu, but every Fengqiu people will be proud of the Yellow River. It is the Yellow River that gives us the courage to fight against difficulties, it is the Yellow River that gives us the power to fight against destiny, and it is the best proof that the people of Fengqiu are still alive after several vicissitudes of life.
The Yellow River once broke also brought a pearl to Fengqiu land - located in Caogang Qinglong Lake (that is, we locals commonly known as "pond exclusion" of a lake, the two words are dialect, specifically which two words I do not know, what does it mean I do not know, I just heard people have always said, "I'm not sure, but I'm not sure, I just heard people have always said that I'm not sure, I just heard people have always said that I'm not sure. I don't know, I just heard people have always been so called it). This is a young lake, it is only the remains of the Yellow River break in the twentieth year of Qianlong in Qing Dynasty. Qinglong Lake and the Yellow River is only separated by a dike and connected to the bottom of the water, it is the largest natural lake in the lower reaches of the Yellow River, and it has never dried up for more than two hundred years. More than one thousand acres of water surface is quiet and elegant, the water is deep and green, the north and south are long and narrow, so it is called Qinglong Lake. Here lotus leaves verdant, green grass, the surface of the lake waves, is my childhood immense yearning for paradise. The lake is surrounded by wild reeds and cattails, patchwork, sparse and dense, all kinds of fish swim in the lake happily, and occasionally there are waterfowl and ducks out of it. Chattering reeds singing, playing in the center of the water. For hundreds of years people have never disturbed its peace, to here, you will unconsciously quiet, in addition to the sound of the sky can no longer hear any sound, until now there is no how to develop, is really a let a person cultivate the nature of the fairyland.
After the Qinglong Lake and then traveling northeast two or three kilometers to the origin of one of the Yu opera Qinghe set. When the pear orchard in the world's famous XuMenKeBan was set up in this. The village of Qingheji is the birthplace of the Xiangfu tune of Yu opera. As early as in the Guangxu period, there were eight Xiangfu tunes mainly composed of Xu Men. Modern famous Yu opera actors such as Chang Xiangyu, Chen Sujin and Cui Lantian all learned the opera from Xu Men's class in Qingheji. Xu Men's class has a remarkable influence in the history of Yu opera development and once played an important role. Since modern times, there are many Yu opera actors of Fengqiu nationality who have made their mark on the opera stage and are widely sought after and loved by the masses. Like Yan Caiyun, Yan Lipin, Jin Buyei and other famous people to name a few. From the pre-liberation until now they have made indelible achievements for the cause of Henan opera, in the near future Henan opera broadcasting will be held a "into the Fengqiu" special program to commemorate and commend the many Fengqiu actors and actresses for the contribution made to the Yu opera.
The above said so much, the following then say my hometown history. Fengqiu County was established as a seat of governance during the reign of Liu Bang of the Western Han Dynasty. According to legend, during the Chu-Han War, Liu Bang was defeated by Xiang Yu and fled to the wilderness, passing through Yanxiang (the northwest corner of present-day Fengqiu County), where he met Zhai's mother and begged her for food, which she gave to him. After Liu Bang became the emperor, he did not forget the kindness of Zhai's mother and wanted to repay her, but by this time, Zhai's mother was already dead, so Liu Bang decided to set up the county of Fengqiu where Zhai's mother was buried. This is the origin of the name of our Fengqiu County.
If it is earlier, the recorded history of our hometown can be traced back to the Xia and Shang Dynasties, when Fengqiu was a small vassal state of the Xia Dynasty. Some historical records say that the descendant of Yan Di's grandson named Jui was the teacher of the Yellow Emperor, and during the Xia Dynasty, the descendant of Feng Jui was sealed in Fengfu (i.e., today's Fengqiu West), as a vassal state. The descendants used to call him Fengfu, which is actually the name of a person with the name of a place. During the Zhou Dynasty, the state of Fengfu was destroyed, and its people were divided into two surnames, one of which was the surname of Fengfu, and the other was the surname of Feng, which was called Feng, and was passed down from generation to generation. Therefore, Fengqiu is the origin of the Feng surname, and many people with the surname of Feng in modern times will come to Fengqiu to search for their ancestors.
The next time there was another war here - the Battle of Mingjiao. The Battle of Mingjiao was a turning point in China's Xia and Shang dynasties (around the 16th century B.C., or 17th century B.C.), when Shang Tang led an army to defeat Xia Jie at Mingjiao (east of present-day Fengqiu, Henan Province). From then on, Shang Tang created the foundation of the Yin and Shang dynasties for 500 years, and this war is also a classic battle in Chinese history through the comprehensive use of the stratagems of "cutting strategy, cutting communication, cutting troops, and using intermediaries" to achieve a quick victory in the war.
With the long river of history flowing here also continue to play a wonderful story. Let's focus on the Spring and Autumn period when the clouds rose up and the lords were fighting for supremacy. In 482 B.C., Lu Ai Gong, the lord of the state of Lu, and Jin Ding Gong, the lord of the state of Jin, made an appointment with Fu Zhai at Huangchi (southwest of present-day Fengqiu County, Henan Province) to prepare for the grand ceremony of the alliance. After receiving the notice, Fu Chai was extremely excited, because both Lu and Jin were old vassal states and were quite influential among the vassal states, and when he received the invitation from these two old vassal states to make an alliance, King Fu Chai of Wu was really overjoyed. Eager to improve the status of the state of Wu, Fu Chai mobilized all the available troops in the country and set off towards Huangchi with sharp armor. At this time, Wu's arch-enemy, King Goujian of Yue, after learning the news of Wu's weakness, secretly assembled 30,000 soldiers at the border of Wu and Yue, and took advantage of the fact that Wu's army was exhausted and there were only old and weak soldiers left in Gusu, and then attacked the capital city of Wu and occupied it in one swift and swift move. When King Fu-chai of Wu came back, he found that the prince had been killed and the capital was occupied, and he had no choice but to ask for peace with Yue, Yue saw that Wu still had considerable strength, and agreed to Fu-chai's request for peace, and from then on, the ratio of power between Wu and Yue changed, and in 473 B.C. Goujian finally defeated Wu, and Fu-chai committed suicide, and Yue thus wiped out Wu in one fell swoop. On December 24, 1995, the Ministry of Postal Affairs issued a set of stamps titled "The Art of War", the fifth of which has the theme of "The Alliance of the Yellow Ponds" and quotes the famous statement in "The Art of War" - "To subdue the enemy's army without a fight is the best of all good things. " On the day of the stamp's debut, I also ran to the Fengqiu County Post Office to stamp the postmark and make a "field cover".
In the Spring and Autumn period, Fengqiu this land is not only the battlefield of the various vassal states, and here there has been a touching, life and death love story. This is the story of the "Acacia Tree", which is widely spread in Chinese folklore. At that time, King Kang of Song Dynasty had a crush on the wife of his servant Han Zhi, Xi, so he forced Han Zhi to die and built the Qingling Terrace to coerce Xi to give in, but Xi refused to do so and then jumped to the Qingling Terrace to kill herself. Xi's wife had asked to be buried together with her husband after her death, but King Kang of Song not only refused, but also deliberately buried each other across the road. However, the two tombs soon grew two catalpa trees, the two trees intersected, people called the Acacia tree. King Kang of Song ordered to cut down the tree, and the mandarin ducks appeared on the tree, which instantly turned into butterflies again. The legend of romanticism has been passed down for a long time, which is also the source of China's classical myths and legends, its more than a thousand years earlier than the story of "Liang Zhu transforming into butterflies". How many writers and scholars throughout the ages have written praises for it? Wang Bo's poem "Spring Thoughts Fugue" reads, "Wandering silks empty silk Acacia branches, falling flowers wrap themselves around the Acacia tree." Li Shangyin's poem "Wing Qingling Terrace" says: "Do not allow Han Ping for nymphalid butterflies, waiting to fly on the other branches of the flower."
Next, we speed up the pace of history to the late Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms, which was characterized by constant wars and coups. In 960 A.D., a great drama in Chinese history was about to begin. Just after the Spring Festival of that year, both Zhenzhou (near present-day Zhengding, Hebei Province) and Dingzhou (present-day Ding County, Hebei Province) reported that the armies of the Northern Han and Liao kingdoms had joined forces and attacked the Later Zhou, making a great deal of noise and requesting the imperial court to send troops to assist them. The Later Zhou Dynasty then ordered Zhao Kuangyin to lead his troops northward to meet the war. Later, this border crisis was proved to be a false report of military intelligence, which was only a prelude to the mutiny that followed. on February 3, when the army arrived at Chenqiaoyi (Chenqiao Town, southeast of Fengqiu, Henan Province, at that time Chenqiao was still on the south bank of the Yellow River, less than twenty kilometers away from Kaifeng), Zhao Kuangyin mutinied, his soldiers gave him yellow robes, and all the generals crowned him as emperor. Zhao Kuangyin then immediately led his troops back to the capital, and then Emperor Gong of the latter Zhou Dynasty abdicated and Zhao Kuangyin took the throne. In this way, the Song Dynasty was quietly born without brutal killings and boundless bloodshed, and the establishment of a powerful dynasty without bloodshed is still rare in China's history. Zhao Kuangyin changed the name of the country for the Song Dynasty, the first year of the Yuan Jianlong, set the capital Kaifeng, created the foundation of the Song Dynasty for more than three hundred years, Zhao Kuangyin made China from chaos to rule, from division to unification. This is the history of the famous "Chenqiao mutiny". Chenqiao Mutiny happened in Fengqiu land, because of geographic location, Fengqiu County in the Northern Song Dynasty under the jurisdiction of Kaifeng Province, is the capital of the important land. At that time, the north gate of Kaifeng City was named after Fengqiu, called: Fengqiu Gate. Now the ruins of Chenqiaoyi still exist, within the yellow robe at a hall, the more than 1,000 years of "tie horse acacia" acacia tree a relics and other relics. "tie horse acacia" is rumored to be Zhao Kuangyin when the place to tie the horse, but unfortunately the tree has died in early years, leaving only the trunk and some branches. Nevertheless, when people see its thick trunk and strong branches, will still be its extraordinary temperament and heavy sense of vicissitudes impressed.
The history of the books in our page by page turn, it is like a silent flow of the river, although silent, but has been flowing forward, never stop. And so it flows into our world, into us. Maybe history will make people feel a little heavy and boring, we do not have to take history too seriously, as long as we remember to remember, to forget that we have thrown away, believe that tomorrow is still a new starting point in our lives will be enough.
The story is not over, I still have something to say about my hometown. Don't be impatient, this is one of the most concentrated writing I've done in a while, and I'm interested in finishing the story, saying what's in my heart, and if there's no one to listen, I'd like to say it to myself.
It is not clear what is the reason, Fengqiu since ancient times, barren land, war, dark officialdom, people's livelihood. The first time I saw this, I was in the middle of the night, and I was in the middle of the night, and I was in the middle of the night, and I was in the middle of the night, and I was in the middle of the night. Gao Shi, who always had the swan's ambition of "raising his head to look at the king's door and taking the secretary with his fingers", was only granted such a humble post as the lieutenant of Fengqiu after he got the first place in the imperial examination, and he was not able to make great achievements due to the fact that "the wind started to blow in the autumn a few days after he arrived at the official's office", and "the cloudy mountain road wanted to be exhausted", which prevented him from making great achievements. "He was disappointed that he could not realize his ambition. Soon, that is, three years after the appointment of Fengqiu Lieutenant, he was unbearable to endure the "worship and welcome the official", "whipping the people" and leave his post. In the meantime, he wrote poems such as "First Arrival at Fengqiu", "Fengqiu", "Feelings for Fengqiu", and "Ascending to the North Tower of the City". Gao Shi's poems have been loved by the world for thousands of years and are still widely circulated today. Since he was the director of public security of our county, I also love him and his poems. His popular "no worry about the road ahead without a friend, the world who do not know the gentleman" famous line, sung for thousands of years, after reading the exhilarating; and his "business should be required to South Mu field, the world of things are paid to the east flow of water" determination and generosity let a person suddenly feel the sense of sadness.
Gao Shi can hang up his seal and go, "official travel to the west", "wave walk in the Liang, between the Song". And I can not be as elegant as he "waved this to go", because I was born here, grew up in this, because my roots are still y rooted in this land. No matter how barren and closed she is, I will always be drinking her milk grew up children, no matter how far I go, eventually I still have to return to her embrace. This is probably the feelings of the traveler to his hometown!
Writing here I feel very heavy, because it seems that my hometown in the history of people do not feel uplifted and relaxed things to say, are so heavy and sad story in the continuous interpretation, so that people can not continue to calm look down. Then I change the angle, I say something else.
First of all, let's talk about the climate here. We here belong to the typical warm belt continental monsoon climate, four seasons, hot and cold. This climate also creates some unique hometown specialties. I would like to mention the honeysuckle, also known as "two flowers", which has the mark of origin. I won't say much about its role, it is a very good medicine. Because the climatic conditions of Fengqiu are particularly suitable for honeysuckle cultivation, so the quality of locally produced honeysuckle is quite good among similar products. And honeysuckle in Fengqiu has a long history of cultivation, and now the planting area is constantly expanding, so Fengqiu was awarded the honeysuckle township deserved. I did not expect the original used for wind and sand, improve the soil of the "two flowers" today has become a treasure of valuable specialties, it is really let a person sigh. I remember when I was a child, some people planted a large area of honeysuckle, to the picking season must be hired to pick. Our schoolchildren went in groups after school to help, each pick a pound of people will give five cents. Between the honeysuckle plants smelled the faint fragrance of honeysuckle, thinking that there will be money can be taken to pocket money, then not to mention how excited, we are like a happy butterfly enjoying everything here. Now that I've grown up, a lot of things have changed unpredictably, and good times like these are gone.
Speaking of specialties, I would also like to talk about the famous food of my hometown. One of the roast chicken, roll tip, powder, pomegranate, etc. has long been famous, widely loved, if you have the opportunity to go to my hometown, don't forget to taste these specialties ah, although they are not what is expensive, but they are the most common part of our lives, just like our days, no need for gorgeous decoration, only consume the plain walk and to.
Here I would like to say a good roast chicken, because it is both our hometown specialties and our family's ancestral craft. Our family's roasted chicken is actually Daokou roasted chicken, because listening to the elders said that my family is the original year from the slippery county moved into the Fengqiu, I counted at least two hundred years of history, because we have a family of Zhang family members to the present there are several hundred mouths. Daokou town was originally an important ferry on the canal, from which you can go up to Beijing and Tianjin along the Weihe River, and the northward movement of Huaiyan salt also started from here. It used to be a busy and prosperous place for merchants and traders. It is also the reason why Daokou roasted chicken is famous all over the world, and the statement spreads far and wide. Because of this craft, the descendants of the Zhang family went to various places to make a living, and now you can eat authentic Daokou roasted chicken in many places, such as Cangzhou in Hebei, Luoyang in Henan, and so on. To the liberation of the production process of roast chicken was published with the public, so will make more people, roast chicken is more on the people's dinner table, become the people's food, I think this is really the great fortune of the roast chicken. However, in my opinion, to eat delicious roast chicken or authentic good, claiming that the ancestral Daokou roast chicken, its producer must be surnamed Zhang, the other I can not guarantee that is authentic. Because the Zhang family name production of roast chicken for hundreds of years, from the production process of roast chicken, production techniques and cooking fire, etc. have a unique experience and methods, other people for a moment is very difficult to master. Due to the complexity of the chicken production process, the technical requirements are very high, but also need to spend a certain amount of time to cook people to eat a rich flavor, crispy and soft, salty and tasty, fat and not greasy roast chicken. My family's roast chicken, especially my grandfather's roast chicken, still makes me salivate when I think of it. I grew up with the production process of roast chicken, I now know how to do but the technology and experience are not yet able to do out of the flavor is not so good, so I have to talk to you about the process of its production. The production of roast chicken in the slaughter of the time is very pay attention to the skills, that is, its slaughter process is different, there are a lot of people now will not kill the chicken (oh, may not be necessary now, if someone wants to learn if we can communicate separately), but if you kill the chicken when you use such skills can make the chicken does not jump and not screaming, obediently obedient, in the neck of the cut a knife, only the chicken blood flow out of the chicken to do out of the roast chicken is tasty. The only way to make a good roasted chicken is to bleed out the blood. After the chicken is slaughtered is to remove the clean chicken hair, take out the internal organs, soaked in water, and then thoroughly clean the chicken to modeling, you notice, the shape of the roasted chicken is very beautiful, unlike other chickens is to kill the chicken is thrown into the pot to cook and then fish out of the not a little beauty to speak of. Roasted chicken shape also need certain tools, first of all, in its chest cavity with a knife to cut off a few of the chicken ribs, and then cross the chicken wings from the chicken mouth through the past, this time but also to choose a suitable sorghum stalks (I'm this is the most authentic and most original roasted chicken practice, you certainly have not heard of before) into the chicken chest cavity to play a supportive role, and finally also to the chicken thighs fixed in the chicken breast below, so that the beautiful prototype of roasted chicken, and then the chicken is not a good choice. In this way, the beautiful shape of the roasted chicken will come out. After the shape is done, we should put the chicken into the frying pan fried, fried before the chicken body should be coated with honey or sugar, in order to play the role of coloring and aroma. Of course, the process of deep-frying also requires certain skills, which is very different from our usual deep-fried food. The color of the fried chicken is golden and very beautiful, and the same shape of the chicken yards together, so that people can not help but go to bite a bite, don't worry, this time the chicken can not be eaten. The last step is to cook it in a soup pot. Of course, there are eight seasonings in the pot: Chenpi, cinnamon, cardamom, Angelica dahurica, cloves, grass nuts, sand nuts and ginger, which is called "eight spices" in our family. The soup is old, and the uniqueness of the roasted chicken lies in the soup, the secret of which is beyond words. What's even better is that if you use a wood-fired pot to cook the roast chicken, the flavor is even more mellow and rich. When my grandfather made roast chicken, he would boil the pot in the evening, put in the fried chicken, put the lid on the pot, boil the pot again, and then remove all the firewood from the stove, leaving only red charcoal, slowly heating and smothering the roast chicken in the pot. When you get up the next morning and lift the lid of the pot, wow, the flavor can't be described in words, you don't need to taste it, you just need to smell the flavor, I guarantee you that your mouth and mouth, mouth watering, unforgettable for the rest of your life. So every morning, this flavor filled my yard, but also overflowed the whole street. It was a great blessing to smell it every day as a child, not to mention to be able to taste it regularly. Until now I still think I am the happiest person in the world. However, I am very sad that my beloved grandfather passed away last year, and I am afraid that I will never be able to taste this most intimate and familiar flavor again, and maybe I will never have such a happy moment in my life.
So much is beside the point. However, my attachment to my hometown is also based on my immense love for it. I think everyone, like me, has a unique feeling deep down - for home, for home.
I hope you can also tell your own love and attachment to your hometown, I would like to share with you.
(All photos in the article are from the Internet)