Chapter 390 The Road Meets Grandma Zhang Xiangdong
When Lao Tan returned to the provincial capital from his hometown, he did not take the expressway, but took the national highway.
He was not in a hurry, he just wanted to get home after dark, and when the weather was nice, he could enjoy the scenery along the way and relax.
Western Liaoning is very mountainous, and the roads go up and down among the mountains.
The trees on both sides of the road have turned green, and the grass on the hillside is green. Since it hasn't rained yet, the farmers' fields have not been planted, and the patches of depressions are still yellow in ridges.
When crossing the border of Montenegro, Lao Tan stopped the car at the site of the Battle of Montenegro.
The hilltops that were flattened by artillery fire are now covered with green pine trees, as are the hillsides. At the flat foot of the hill is the Martyrs Cemetery, with densely packed tombs neatly arranged, and the entrance to the cemetery is a solemn monument.
I heard from the old man that in the past, when farming on the mountain, the plow could always plow out bullet tubes, artillery shell casings, and broken human bones. Later, the farmland was returned to forests and planted with pine trees, which can be regarded as a sign of respect and comfort to the martyrs.
There are five scattered families at the bottom of the mountain. Old Tan remembers that there used to be eight families, all of which were adobe houses. Now the five families are all Beijing bungalows, surrounded by spacious courtyard walls made of hollow bricks, and the gate towers are neatly built.
The black iron doors are open to each other.
Looking from a distance, there are stacks of firewood piled in front of the house, cars parked in the yard, the pear trees in the garden have snow-white flowers, and one or two dogs bark and roosters crow faintly.
Lao Tan sat on a stone by the roadside and smoked. The sun was lazy and warm, the wind was not strong, and it felt comfortable on his body.
He thought to himself that these five families must be safe. They were protected by the People's Liberation Army halfway up the hillside. No one dared to mess with them. As the saying goes, Yin cannot suppress Yang, let alone a soldier who is a righteous soldier.
Looking up at the surrounding mountains, we can see that any place that can act as a blocker is a traffic fortress, and this place is no exception. Across the mountains to the north is Yi County, and to the south is Jinzhou. When the People's Liberation Army attacked Jinzhou, they laid siege to the city. This is where the defense line was set up to block the Kuomintang.
Support the army in Jinzhou.
The battle was brutal, with countless casualties and the entire mountaintop flattened. It was a bit like the later Battle of Shangganling on the Korean battlefield, but not as large-scale.
After the liberation of Jinzhou, the troops went south, and many wounded were treated on the spot. Some returned to the army after recovering from their injuries, while some were disabled and could no longer go to the battlefield and were taken over by the local government.
Lao Tan's village only accepted one, Zhang, who taught Lao Tan bartending in primary school.
The second eldest brother, Zhang, was from Shandong and was injured in the leg. He had a strange temperament, behaved erratically, and had a bad temper. He dared to scold the township mayor and party secretary, but they had to be obedient and smile at each other.
The second eldest brother Zhang lives in two five-guarantee houses built by the government at the head of the village. Lao Tan knew this old man with a long beard and a gay accent when he was writing down stories. His father was ill and could not go out to work in the mountains, so he was at home all year round. The second eldest brother Zhang was five years old.
The policyholder is in charge of the village and does not go out of the mountain.
The second eldest son, Zhang, had a chess game. When his father was in good spirits, he would play chess with him. His father was the only person he could talk to in the village.
The second elder, Zhang, was good at wine and knew how to mix wine. When Lao Tan was in elementary school, he would pick apricot blossoms, pear blossoms, and mountain peach blossoms for him every time during this season.
Brewing wine requires special knowledge and medical knowledge. The main ingredients and various auxiliary medicinal materials must be mixed according to their own characteristics, and no carelessness is allowed. Otherwise, Ah Qiao's health wine will not be so delicious and popular with customers.
When the second elder Zhang was teaching Lao Tan how to make drinks, he often told him about the Battle of Montenegro. Since he had personal experience, the story was natural and vivid. At that time, Lao Tan wanted to visit Montenegro one day to see what it was like.
The green mountains and pines roar for thousands of miles, and the rivers and mountains are dominated by heroic spirits.
That’s it!
The car drove forward, over the top of the mountain, downhill, and was not far from the Qingyan Temple where the crooked neck mother lived.
Qingyan Temple in Beizhen is a famous Buddhist holy place in Northeast China. It is divided into upper and lower courtyards. The upper courtyard is located in a horizontal fractured stone crevice in the middle of the northern mountain peak. The stone crevice is more than fifty meters long, nine meters wide and less than one meter narrow.
There is a cave cut in the middle of the stone seam, in which Guanshiyin of the South China Sea is worshiped, with eighteen Arhats beside it. It is said that in the early years, the monks in the temple asked craftsmen to mold a statue of Guanshiyin. After the statue was finished, the monks carried it into the cave. When they arrived at the entrance of the cave, they found that the statue was too high and could not be entered.
A monk said that if Guanyin tilted his head, he would go in. Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, the statue of Guanyin appeared and tilted its head. The monks were overjoyed, kowtowed in thanks, and then successfully carried the statue into the cave and placed it.
Maybe the monks were so happy that they forgot to ask the Guanyin statue to turn its head right after arranging it, so it became a crooked-necked statue, known as the Crooked Mother.
The legend is not trustworthy, but people worship the great benevolent and compassionate Guanshiyin Bodhisattva, and the incense continues, but it is also prosperous.
It must be one day twenty years ago, during a temple fair, the crooked-neck old mother appeared again, and the dharma body appeared in the sky above the temple, with kind eyebrows and kind eyes, lingering for a long time. When people saw the old mother appearing, they knelt down and worshiped, and the incense became more and more popular from then on.
No one knows whether this incident is a rumor or a mirage. Good men and women are sincere and sincere, and people are more willing to believe that Guanyin appears.
Lao Tan wanted to pay homage to his crooked-necked mother, so he drove down the road to Qingyan Temple.
Today is not a temple fair. There are not many people burning incense, but not many.
Lao Tan burned incense and kowtowed to his mother. It was already noon when he came out of the cave. He came out early in the morning and didn't eat much. He was a little hungry and wanted to find a restaurant to have a meal. Unexpectedly, the prices of several restaurants he visited were shocking and their attitudes were arrogant.
The good mood after burning the incense was gone, and I felt full before I had any food.
He came out of the "Kong Yuan Noodle House" angrily, and two diners came out with him, one old and one young. The older one was a mother-in-law in her seventies, and the younger one was a young man in his twenties.
"Don't eat here, eat in the town ahead." Old Tan said angrily.
He went into the noodle shop and wanted to eat a bowl of noodles with soybean paste. The chubby boss said that a bowl was thirty-five dollars and it had to be served with a side dish, otherwise he wouldn't make it.
"What's going on? Forced buying and selling?" Lao Tan asked.
"I can't open a fire just because you eat a bowl of noodles at noon. Do you know how much coal you pay these days? How much food you pay? Water costs nothing. I can't pay for just a bowl of noodles." The boss said plausibly, and he was quite reasonable.
Lao Tan choked so much that he saw the sky-high price of noodles in front of the legendary Buddhist scenic spot, which was a bit like the sky-high price of food in front of a famous ancient temple in the country that was uploaded on the Internet.
After the boss finished speaking, he ignored Lao Tan and turned to ask the old man and the young man, "Have you decided whether to eat or not? If you don't eat out, I'm still entertaining others."
"What are you talking about?" The young man was anxious.
"Why, I still have to sing and talk?" The boss raised his voice.
"Hold on, don't be angry, let's go." The mother-in-law grabbed the young man and walked out.
An old man and a young man walked out, and the boss asked Lao Tan with a nose that was not his nose and a face that was not his face: "How are you doing? Can you eat?"
"Don't eat!"
Then there was a scene of three people walking out of the noodle shop angrily.
Lao Tan walked to the car and was about to get in. The young man saw that Lao Tan's car had a provincial city license plate and asked Lao Tan if he was from the provincial city. Lao Tan said yes. The young man said that he was also from the provincial city and asked his grandma to burn incense.
Lao Tan said: "I'm just going back to the provincial capital. Let's go together. I know there is a town ahead and a restaurant that makes good noodles. Let's finish eating and leave."
Lao Tan drove the car and led the way. Twenty minutes later, he arrived on the street in front of the town and stopped in front of a restaurant. The three of them got out of the car and walked in.
Three bowls of noodles and two side dishes for three people, all cost fifty.
"Your accent doesn't sound like someone from a provincial capital." the young man's grandmother asked Lao Tan.
"My hometown is Beipiao, and I live in the provincial capital." Lao Tan said with a smile.
"Oh, no wonder." The old lady said relieved.
"What does eldest brother do?" the young man asked.
"Cook, works in the restaurant." Lao Tan said.
The young man asked: "Did you drive it yourself?"
"No, I work for others."
"My cousin owns a restaurant, New Year's Day Dumpling House, a chain store, do you know?"
Old Tan was shocked. He didn't expect to meet Zhang Xiangdong's cousin here. Needless to say, the old lady was Zhang Xiangdong's grandmother.
Chapter 390 Meeting Grandma Zhang Xiangdong on the Road