Part II Chapter 5 Section 3 The gongs and drums are noisy and alarming

In China's people, especially in the vast countryside, people often choose to ring the gong to transmit alarm messages. Because the sound of the gong is loud and far away, it is easy to be received by people, causing people to be alert. Day and night, as long as the village sounded a series of rapid gongs, people would invariably move.

There are three main situations for ringing the gong to alarm:

First, there is a fire. When people hear the sound of a tight gong and see billowing smoke or a raging fire, it is most likely that a certain family accidentally walked the water. At this time, the whole village, men, women and children will spontaneously carry buckets of water, hold washbasins and other utensils containing water, and rush to the scene of the fire. The crowd poured water on fire, rescued people, and carried items. After the fire is extinguished, everyone must clean up the fire site and settle the victims' homes.

The second is to capture the hair thief. If you hear the sound of gongs and drums accompanied by shouts, and you don't see the smoke and fire, then most of the people in the village are thieves. Young adults in the village would go after the thieves with flat shoulders, sticks and ropes. After capturing the hair thief, he tied him up and escorted him to the government to listen to the fall.

The third is emergency risk avoidance. If bandits attack or foreign invaders, the sound of the gong will gather everyone to discuss, or organize forces to resist, or organize the evacuation of personnel. In the event of flash floods, landslides and other natural disasters, the gong will promptly notify everyone to do a good job of prevention.

The sound of the gong was once the warning voice of the people and the bridge and link for the people's information communication.