On April 16th, Tunzhou, Daode County, the day before the opening of the monument festival, before the sun rose in the morning, the entire Daode County was already boiling.
Daode County is actually not called Daode County, before 687 years of the Black Iron Calendar, Daode County actually has another name, called Anping County, but after 687 years of the Black Iron Calendar, slowly, Anping County became Daode County, because on April 17, 687 years of the Black Iron Calendar, there was an earthquake in Anping County, and the Hongyu landslide in the county, in the collapsed mountains, the Taigu Daode Monument was born, shocking the world. 15 years after the birth of the Taigu Daode Monument, in Anping County, there was a boy named Meng Shidao who was born on the same day as the Taigu Daode Monument for three years of enlightenment and cultivation under the Taigu Daode Monument, and was promoted to the Black Iron Knight at the age of 18, and the Taigu Daode Monument became a divine object in the mouth of many people in Anping County, and then 30 years, when the young man who was enlightened under the Taigu Daode Monument became middle-aged, and advanced to the earth knight again, the influence of the Taigu Daode Monument expanded to the entire Tunzhou, so that the world was eyed by it, and Anping County slowly became Daode County, and then, Meng Shidao began to write books and said, popular all over the world, the so-called swallowing party, and gradually took shape, Meng Shidao naturally became the leader of the swallowing hall.
In the following two hundred years, as Meng Shidao's cultivation became stronger and stronger, and his contributions became greater and greater, Meng Shidao from Tunzhou was famous all over the world, and finally became the prince's teacher, and became one of the three princes Just like the people of Youzhou regard Zhang Tie as the pride of Youzhou, in Tunzhou, Meng Shidao is also regarded as the pride of Tunzhou by the people of Tunzhou, from the birth of the Tunzhou Party to the present, in Tunzhou, the Moral Society has spread all over the place, thousands, in every city in Tunzhou, there are dozens of Moral Society, even in the towns and villages outside the city, the Moral Society is everywhere, all the Moral Societies are twisted into a share, controlled by the backbone of the Swallowing Party, at the beginning, joining the Moral Society is still voluntary, and later, with more and more Moral Society, The power of the Moral Society is getting bigger and bigger, and those who do not join the Moral Society will gradually be rejected and suppressed by the Moral Society, as an alternative, no matter what they do, there are many resistances, all kinds of shackles, in this environment, those who are unwilling to join the Moral Society, and finally have to leave Swallow State, go away to another country, and find another place to live.
For more than 200 years, as Meng Shidao has risen step by step, the entire Tunzhou, from the wealthy officials to the peddlers and pawns, has not joined the Daode Society and can still gain a foothold in Tunzhou, there are very few, almost extinct.
On April 16th, the day before the opening of the monument festival, many capable people in Tunzhou came to Daode County early with the mentality of pilgrimage, taking airboats or airships and other tools, and the whole Daode County was full of people neighing on their horses, the streets were overcrowded, all the restaurants and inns were full, and the people who rushed to Daode County from the surrounding cities and counties of Daode County were rubbing shoulders one after another, filling all the official roads.
In the early morning of April 17, just after the ugly hour, Zhu Laosan, who opened a tofu shop on Zhujiaji East Street outside Huangyan City in Daode County, got up, lit an oil lamp, and woke up his thirteen-year-old son, who was sleeping in the same room with him.
"Mitsugu, wake up" The eleven-year-old child slept soundly when he was ugly, Zhu Laosan called twice, and finally pushed his son to wake him up.
"Ah, Dad, what are you doing" Zhu Laosan's son opened his eyes, but his eyes were still sleepy, and he didn't react at once.
"You forgot that your father told you, today is the opening of the monument festival, we are going to "touch the monument", we have to rush to Hongyu Mountain before dawn, hurry up and wash up, and put on the new clothes prepared for you" Zhu Laosan's tone suddenly became stern, and his son, who had been strictly disciplined by him for a long time, didn't dare to say anything more, rubbed his eyes, quickly got up from the bed, and began to prepare.
Zhu Laosan is a widower, since his wife gave birth to a son for him and died, he has not continued to continue, alone with the child, relying on the ancestral tofu making skills, living in Zhujiaji.
Zhu Laosan actually didn't fall asleep last night, although he was also lying on the bed with his eyes closed, but the excitement in his heart made him in a huge excitement the day before the arrival of the Monument Festival, and the whole person was like taking medicine, and it was difficult to sleep.
Since seven days ago, the president of Zhu Jiaji's moral society, who is also the pavilion chief of Zhu Jiaji, handed him a large gift card and told him that he could take his son to "touch the monument" during this year's monument festival, Zhu Laosan has begun to lose sleep.
For this day, he waited for ten years, in this ten years, he donated almost half of the money he earned from selling tofu every year to the Zhu family's centralized moral society, in order to one day, he could get a big gift card, and then he could take his son to do a "touch the monument" ceremony on the day of the opening of the monument, see with his own eyes, and touch the ancient moral monument.
Perhaps for some people, the "touch the monument" ceremony is pious and sacred, but for Zhu Laosan, he lives at the bottom of the society but he is not so religious, he joined the moral society, because the entire Zhu family set of people joined, if he does not join, he will not survive in Zhu Jiaji, even if he is doing a small business selling tofu, it is possible to lose money, and there will be a lot of trouble, and the reason why he insists on completing a "touch the monument" ceremony, is a very philistine and realistic idea in his heart, He wanted to take his son to crash into the opportunity and give his son Bo a chance to glorify his ancestors, instead of staying in Zhujiaji to make tofu for the rest of his life.
Zhu Laosan didn't dare to hope that his son could be favored by the Taoist master, although there are seven or eight children who are favored by the Taoist master every year in the opening of the monument, but compared to the children who come from all over Taixia to do the "touch the monument" ceremony every year, the number of these seven or eight may not even have a chance of one in ten thousand, and in addition to the Taoist master, the heads of the moral societies in various cities in Taixia will basically come on this day, and will also select some children worth cultivating to bring back.
Zhu Laosan just hopes that his son can be favored by the heads of other big cities, or after coming back, he can find a backer in the moral society in Huangyan City with the qualifications of having done the "touch the monument" ceremony at this age, and he will be satisfied if he can have a noble person to support him, for Zhu Laosan, who has only had the ability to make tofu since he was a child, this is the way he wants to break his head and use all his strength to find a way for his son to get ahead.
In less than a stick of incense, the father and son were ready, each dressed up, and ate a little bit of what was prepared last night at home, and then Zhu Laosan carried dry food and a kettle, carried a fluorite lamp in one hand, and held his son in the other, and went out.
When I went out, it was the middle of the night, the moon and stars were scarce, and there was a sound of frogs in the lotus pond next to the door of Zhu Laosan's house, and the grass was full of crickets.
When Zhu Laosan went out with his son, the Zhu family also had many families supporting the old and the young at this time and preparing to go out.
Many people saw Zhu Laosan and his son, and they all greeted Zhu Laosan, and looked at Zhu Laosan with envious eyes.
In the envious eyes and warm greetings of everyone in Zhu Jiaji, Zhu Laosan felt even more encouraged, pinched the gift card he had collected closely, pulled his son, and walked out of Zhu Jiaji with his head held high.
Fortunately, the weather is good today, even if there is no fluorite lamp, you can recognize the road by the moonlight, Zhu Laosan, father and son, walked out of Zhujiaji after a while, and came to the hillside road connected to the official road outside Zhujiaji.
Looking down from the hillside, although it is the middle of the night, but the whole official road below has been brightly lit, more lively than the most lively night market, countless people, there are men and women, old and young, carrying simple bags, holding lanterns or fluorite lamps in their hands, walking on the official road, some young people, not even bringing anything, just walking happily on the road in groups, everyone, moving in the same direction.
Zhu Laosan also dragged his son into the huge flow of people, and hurried with the flow of people.
Zhu Jiaji is more than fifty miles away from Hongyu Mountain, as long as the feet do not stop, before dawn, you can almost reach Hongyu Mountain.
In order to show piety, when approaching Hongyu Mountain for a hundred miles, no one takes chariots, horses and any means of transportation anymore, and everyone walks to Hongyu Mountain with their feet.
"Dad, my feet hurt" After walking twenty miles, Zhu Laosan's son couldn't walk.
"If your feet hurt, then take a break, drink some water, and then go" Zhu Laosan untied the kettle he was carrying and handed it to his son.
A few minutes later, although his son hadn't rested enough, Zhu Laosan continued to lead his son forward, and when his son really couldn't walk, Zhu Laosan had a cold face and dragged his son along.
Along the way, Zhu Laosan was tired and thirsty, but he still relied on his own foot strength and persistence, and rushed to the edge of Hongyu Mountain before dawn.
Among the crowds that came along the way, more than half of the people stopped when they arrived at the edge of Hongyu Mountain, and then automatically gathered on the dozens of huge squares around Hongyu Mountain, those squares, each square is comparable to a large airship take-off and landing base, can gather hundreds of thousands of people, connecting the road leading to Hongyu Mountain from all directions, in normal times, there will not be so many people in these squares, and on the day of the opening of the monument festival, all the squares around Hongyu Mountain will be overcrowded.
Because of the big gift card, Zhu Laosan and his son Zhu Guangsi were in the envious eyes of countless people, after two checks, along the repaired road, into Hongyu Mountain, in the end after walking a few more miles, in front of Zhu Laosan, there was a long line that stretched for more than ten miles like a winding long snake, the tail of the team was in front of him, and the head of the team turned to the back of a ridge.
Everyone was waiting, and Zhu Laosan had to stop.
The people who come here are here to do the "touch the stele" ceremony, and the "touch the stele" ceremony of the opening stele festival has to wait for the first rays of the sun to shine on the ancient moral monument in the morning before it begins, and now there is still a period of time before dawn, so everyone is waiting quietly: