The king's procession came, and at the head of the procession were still a group of knights with various banners, but the momentum of these horses was obviously not as great as the previous ones, and their neat steps and graceful postures were actually more interesting in terms of ornamentation.
The horse is two tall and sturdy white horses, the horse's high halter is embedded with a layer of shining gold armor carved with dragon claw patterns, only the horse's two eyes and mouth are exposed outside, the halter head is decorated with a small copper bell on both sides, when the black horse with dozens of groups of four heads in parallel with the back of the forward, the crisp and melodious bell is sprinkled, it is very good, noisy but not noisy, the sound obviously overshadows the sound of the horse's hooves a lot.
Followed by dozens of long horns, the people holding the horn are all black big horns, Eguan Bo belt, when you want to blow up, two hands stretch out one hand to support the wide mouth in front as much as possible, one hand in the narrow part of the back of the grip, the dozens of rods of the loudspeaker together to make an earth-shattering sound enough to deaf your eardrums, even when the sound stops, your ears will buzz for a long time, and then the sound rises again.
People lowered their heads, occasionally using the corners of their eyes to inadvertently and deliberately glance at the dignity of the king in the high car.
Some women hold up the bamboo basket beside them, hold it with both hands, and drop the bottom of the bamboo basket on the top of their heads, so that her face will not be completely seen by the person on the tall horse, which is actually a little selfishness of the male owner of the family or the woman, and the daughters of large families with strict family rules will choose to avoid more attention from men in this way, and there are many small families that have not come out of the cabinet Jasper will choose another way to show themselves as much as possible.
They knelt down on the side of the street at the behest of their families, dressed up in bright clothes, and raised their heads slightly so that the men in the group could see clearly.
Thus, when the king's chariot had passed, many of the knights in thick armor would look to the left and right, and when they saw their favourite, they would stop at the horse's hooves and pull them on horseback, an ancient local custom called "sending off a horse."
When the annual local governor is held in the spring festival or a grand event like today, whose woman can be selected by the knights who parade the street and is sent to the high-headed horse, she will get more blessings and praises from the people, and the young girls who are selected will hold a collective wedding with these knights under the auspices of the local supreme governor, and the woman will get a semi-official title called "horse man", from then on the family will feel infinite glory and get more respect from the township, and the man will be promoted to a higher level. is more like today's king's enthronement ceremony, which may be an official promotion of two levels.
There are also two conditions for this custom, one is that the woman chosen by the knight can only be a wife, not a concubine, which means that the knight must be an unmarried man, and the other is that once you pull the woman on horseback, you must marry her and cannot go back.
Of course, the female knights with bamboo baskets on their heads will not pull, most of them are married or the daughters of large families, and they have already hinted that they are unwilling to get on the horse.
Therefore, the women who were dressed up and knelt high in the first row with fair faces were the objects of their special attention.
There is also a limit to the number of people in this custom of "sending horses", about twenty people a year, and these twenty knights, regardless of their rank, will tie two slender and long poplar branches wrapped in red cloth on the horse's halter, which is inserted on both sides of the horse's halter, and from a distance, it looks more like the horse has grown two red horns.
In the eyes of the locals, it is natural to use the branches of the poplar tree, which is immortal for a thousand years, immortal for a thousand years, and immortal for a thousand years, to make this love object, and it also means that their relationship will last for a long time, which is very appropriate.
The knights with two long red horns tied around the hives of the horses came slowly, the crowd was boiling, and the dressed women kneeling on either side could no longer maintain their reserved energy, the corners of their mouths were secretly upturned, and with the panicked longing for the unknown ideal life, they kept raising their eyes to look at the people on the horse.
At this time, relatives and friends crowded around her and began to heckle the people on the horses, hoping to attract their patronage.
Among them, there are many daughters of wealthy merchants in the Western Regions who have been doing business here for a long time, and they are proud of their children marrying Han women or Han men, and the coaxing language and actions are more open and exaggerated than those of the Han people, straightforward, without that twisted sense of reserve, while shouting at the people on the horse, while hurriedly stretching out their arms to make that exaggerated body movement.
"Come on, come on, that noble general on the horse, your beauty is here, hurry up and take her away, take her away, she will be the baby on your bed, she is only sixteen years old, she was born for you, you look at her fair skin, slender waist, which point is not the best, she will love you with all her heart!"
There was a commotion, and the first chosen woman was pushed onto the horse, surrounded by relatives and friends, and the knight smiled brightly, and his hands went around the woman, and he took the reins of the horse, and his legs clamped the horse's belly, and hurried forward.
Then there was another one on the other side, a fair-skinned, tall bearded woman, with a curly beard like her brother, who seemed to be in a hurry, lest the job be robbed or that the man on the horse would suddenly change his mind, and put the woman on his shoulder in a hurry, and quickly handed it to the knight on the horse, and the woman immediately stretched out her slender arm to accept the kiss of a group of children in the house.
After a commotion and chaos, the horses of the twenty knights were all loaded with girls with spring breezes.
They rode through the streets on tall horses, receiving the cheers and approvals of the people and the slightly jealous eyes of the girls who were still kneeling on the ground.
They enjoyed all the beauty of the moment, the beauty they had never experienced in their lives, and in this way, for a woman of ordinary origin in this bitter cold land of the north, it was perhaps the most glorious and proud moment they could ever experience in this life.
On the horse, with two long poplar branches tied to his head, carried a melancholy-looking knight, and the deep, cold expression on his face was very out of step with the joyous atmosphere of the place, and he looked calmly at the cheering crowd, without trying to change his tense face.
He slowed the horse's pace slightly, looking for something, as if his anxious eyes, who had seen too many smiling faces, could still clearly distinguish who he was looking for.
At last he dismounted from the famous downstairs, surrounded by a blue curtain, before the men and women who were still kneeling on the ground in front of it.
He discerned for a moment, and then his eyes fell on one of the kneeling crowds, it was a woman in a white skirt, kneeling straight, her eyes slightly closed, and her white hands were holding the bamboo basket that fell lightly above her head, as if she had not been affected by the lively people even the slightest bit of her calm mood.
At this time, she stood there quietly, more like a living Bodhisattva sculpture, beautiful but unapproachable.
The knight hobbled in front of her, and looked at her like this, and she didn't notice, maybe she really didn't, or didn't want to look up at the man who was quietly watching her.
The knight's crotch swayed its hooves from side to side, as if it was already a little impatient.
"Cier!"
The knight shouted, and the man's precious tears fell from his eyes.
Ciel didn't answer, still kneeling on the ground, but her body began to tremble slightly, maybe because she already knew the exact origin of this man, or maybe it was just that the cool wind in the early morning was blowing a little too violently.