Major General Zhou Daxin of Dengzhou: Yellow wine in his hometown relieves homesickness...

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Zhou Daxin | Drink a glass of yellow wine to relieve homesickness

Zhou Daxin

When I was young, in my hometown of Dengzhou, Henan, when it comes to drinking, it is actually drinking yellow wine.

At that time, liquor was scarce and expensive, and the average person could not afford to drink it. Importantly, drinking yellow wine is a rule handed down from ancestors, so in my childhood memory, people say that drinking alcohol refers to drinking yellow wine.

Rice wine is made from rice, which is also known as sake grain. After the autumn harvest every year, the average family has to make a vat of wine and put it at home. I remember that at that time, my father always washed the rice with the help of my mother, then began to steam, after smelling the aroma of the rice being steamed, began to mix the koji in the rice, and then scooped it into the wine tank, covered the lid and body of the wine tank with cotton fabric, and then surrounded the wine tank with wheat grass and placed it in the corner of the room to ferment. After some days, the smell of wine began to drift all over the house. At this time, my father would open the lid of the cylinder, scoop out a bowl with a spoon, and mix it with boiling water for us to taste, usually a few bites by one person, and not let us drink more. At that time I had no interest in wine, nor did I feel that it was any good, just a little sweet. After tasting it, my father would seal the lid of the cylinder and save it for the Spring Festival to drink it to celebrate the most important festival. The wine tank is quite large, if you can't drink it during the Spring Festival, the remaining ones, the father will seal the rim of the tank with soft mud, and keep it until the middle of summer to drink.

Rice wine is very nutritious, people with weak bodies heat a bowl of yellow wine mixed with water, and play two poached eggs in the wine, which is a good anti-deficiency product. Some of our young women after childbirth also use this method to restore their bodies.

About because it is nutritious, the general people think that yellow wine is not intoxicating, it is just a nutritious drink, you can drink it with confidence. I often hear someone at the wine table persuade others to drink yellow wine: Drink it, can yellow wine still get you drunk? In fact, this is a misunderstanding. I have suffered the loss of this, I don't remember how old I am, but anyway, at a village wine banquet, someone grabbed me running around the wine table and jokingly asked me to drink yellow wine. Maybe I was thirsty, or maybe the rice wine that came to the table that day was sweeter, so I boldly drank it. Drinking yellow wine in the countryside is all big bowls, and I drank a large bowl of yellow wine in one breath without a breath, and I heard someone cheering and shouting: This little boy is going to be a drinking material in the future! Probably to be able to do it, and in order to hear the praise again, I took another bowl of wine from a neighbor's uncle on the table, grunted and drank a few more sips. After that, I walked away from the wine table to the cheers of the crowd, I just felt that my legs were weak, my body began to shake, maybe less than ten steps out, I involuntarily threw myself to the ground, in the last moment before falling to the ground, I heard my mother's exclamation, heard the footsteps of someone running towards me...

It was noon the next day when I woke up drunk.

I remember waking up a little confused and staring at my mother in a daze. At this time, my mother burst into tears, shook my arm and wiped the tears and said, "You're going to scare me to death!" How dare you drink so much wine? Are you a melon? They tell you to drink what you drink? I didn't understand my mother's anger a little, laughed wildly and climbed up. My mother pulled my ear and confessed: I am not allowed to drink alcohol in the future, remember? I nodded, and my mother said unassuredly: "Goodbye to you drink, I will break your legs!"

This drunken experience remained in my heart.

The discomfort of drunkenness was not remembered much, and the mother's worries and anger were always remembered clearly. Probably because of this, after that, I was very careful whenever I drank yellow wine, learning to push and shove with the adults, and warning myself in my heart not to get drunk. No matter who told me to drink rice wine, I usually only drank half a bowl. I am confident that half a bowl of yellow wine is not drunk, the last drunk was mainly drunk more than one bowl, the amount is too large. But once during the Spring Festival, I only drank half a bowl of yellow wine at a relative's house, and I actually just walked out of his courtyard door, and as soon as the wind blew my head, I sat on the ground with my legs soft. I was going to return home in the afternoon, so I had to postpone my return home until dinner. When I got home, I didn't dare to tell my mother the reason for the late return home, only that something was delayed. When I grew up, I learned that whether you are drunk or not is not how much you drink, but the wine you drink is not good, that is, the concentration is not high. If you drink all the wine juice, without mixing with a little water, even if you drink a small amount, only half a bowl, it can still get you drunk and make you fall down against the wind. Later, it was also known that if you use xiaoqu more when making wine, the concentration of wine will not be high, and the situation of drunk people is relatively small; if you use more big koji, the sweetness of the wine will be reduced, but the degree will increase, and people who can drink will feel that drinking is too addictive, but this wine is easy to take the head, causing the wind to fall.

These two drunkenness made me understand: drinking yellow wine can not be careless!

But I've been interested in drinking rice wine ever since.

When the soldiers arrived in the army, there was no opportunity to drink yellow wine, and all the wine feasts were served with liquor. This is far from my preference for rice wine since childhood, coupled with being a soldier in the field army, going out to train often eat cold rice and drink cold water, the digestion ability of the stomach is greatly reduced, the irritation of liquor is strong, and my interest in drinking liquor is getting less and less. Every time you sit on the wine table, you can lift the white wine glass and deal with a few scenes.

One year to a friend's home as a guest, friends probably know that I love to drink yellow wine, from the house took out a box of ancient Yue Longshan wine said: Yellow wine originated in the north, the light is greater than the south, the other day I went to Shaoxing, a friend sent me a box of eight years old, we do not drink Maotai today, just try this!

As soon as I heard that I was drinking yellow wine, I was in a hurry to open the bottle. Although I learned that Shaoxing wine is a famous product in yellow wine, which is greater than the influence of our Dengzhou yellow wine in the country, it was the first time that I really drank it that day.

Because of the addition of ginger shreds and plums, the wine has been added to the heat, so Shaoxing's rice wine is indeed very good in the mouth, almost without any irritation. This made me lose my vigilance, my heart began to relax, people began to get excited, words began to increase, hands began to dance, cup after cup with others to drink, and unconsciously, I drank about two bottles alone. By the time it was time to serve, I was already feeling dizzy, and the hand holding the chopsticks couldn't help but shake. I warned myself in my heart: You can't fall, today you are the main guest, there are ladies among the guests, if you fall, it will be too humiliating! I grabbed the bowl of noodles brought by the housewife, hoping to use the rice to suppress the wine that wanted to overturn me, but I felt that the situation was getting worse and worse, and the noodles I ate were churning in my stomach, looking like I wanted to rush out, and the important thing was that my eyes saw that things were also ghosted. I have to retreat right away! I pretended to look at my phone and said: I'm sorry, the message from home said something urgent, I have to go back to deal with it immediately, you continue to talk, I will say goodbye! As he spoke, he stood up, tried not to shake his legs, and after walking out of the door, he reluctantly turned back and held his fist to let the people who were sending them off stay. Insisting until I just got into the taxi, the car had not yet driven a hundred meters, I threw up, spit out a mess in the car, spit out the taxi driver angrily and complained loudly. Later, I gave the taxi driver 300 yuan to finish the job...

Since then, I have drunk less rice wine.

Spitting wine, too uncomfortable and too embarrassing!

However, when someone from my hometown in Henan comes to Beijing to bring yellow wine, I still can't help but drink a few sips, because as soon as I drink yellow wine, I will think of the old houses, fields, pigs and sheep, canals, and small bridges in my hometown, think of the willow branches, baogu and peppers hanging in front of the eaves, think of the long cow barking and the random dog barking, will solve my thoughts about my hometown, and my heart will be particularly comfortable and peaceful.

Just the amount, no more!