Chapter Nine: Traveling through the Seven Provinces, Swinging Qi Ileum
Deng Zhixin
thirty-three
Tang Bohu slowly walked out of Suzhou, out of the hustle and bustle of the city, through the strange, over the pond, the spring cold material is steep, the cool breeze whistles, looking at the lake and mountains, watching the pastoral scenery, his bitter heart is gradually cheerful. Although I don't know where today and night, the world is big, and there is always a place to stay. The sun was about to set in the west, and the sky was gradually darkening, and Tang Bohu had to stop. Looking ahead, as if it were a small market town, he quickened his pace to the town, found a hotel with the lowest revenue, and then ate a meal and returned to the hotel room. In the guest room, the table and chair oil lamp, the cold pillow thin, naturally can not be compared with the home, but do not come out to make a living, how to survive? Tang Bohu poured a cup of boiling water and drank it slowly. He thought back to the bittersweet and sadness of the past few months, thinking that home was warm and happy, and in the face of the harsh reality, even this last bit of hope disappeared. The reality in front of us is to make a living, how to make a living? He thought about it and wrote a poem of "Yanzhi" with five "no" words in a row. The poem reads as follows:
No alchemy, no sitting meditation, no cultivation for the merchants.
Idle to write and sell it in the mountains, and do not make the world make evil money.
After writing this poem, what should I do next? Tang Bohu tossed and turned, and finally decided that since he had come out, he simply went farther, through Wuxi, Zhenjiang, yangzhou, Zhejiang, Anhui, and then to Xiang'e, Fujian, and Gansu to take a tour, to see the famous mountains and rivers in the south, the customs and customs, not to come to the world in vain, not only to distract and make a living, but also to find some materials for future painting creation. When he touched the silver on his body, it was really difficult to continue, and he might have to cut off the cooking in a few days, and for the sake of the present, he had to walk while selling calligraphy and paintings, believing that he could support himself.
After breakfast the next day, Tang Bohu picked up his bags and continued to move forward, probably walking for more than ten miles, passing through a small town, and in the distance he saw a group of people on the street watching what? He squeezed in to see that it turned out to be two rich children fighting cocks, only to see two big red and white roosters fighting hot, which caused everyone to applaud. Tang Bohu also applauded: "Good, good! Good fight! He shouted this, not wanting to be recognized by a scholar-like person in the crowd, saying that Tang Bohu, a great talent today, had also come. The two rich children didn't fight anymore, they all gathered around and set their sights on Tang Bohu. People in the rivers and lakes spread the legend of how Tang Bohu was high in eight buckets and could write and draw, and when he saw it today, he couldn't see anything except that he looked like a person, and a rich man pointed to his red-crowned, blue-legged big white rooster and said, "Mr. Tang, if you can paint my chicken, how about I reward you with ten pieces of silver?" ”
Tang Bohu said, "How difficult is this?" You go find a table, I have a ready-made paper brush on me, and I'll draw it for you when I find it. When the man heard this, he was overjoyed and quickly called for someone to find a table and put it on the floor. Tang Bohu took out the drawing paper and spread it on the table, dipped the paint brush in paint, looked at the chicken a few times, and after a while of kung fu, the red-crowned blue-legged big white rooster was vividly painted on the paper, if it was not seen with his own eyes, he thought it was his big rooster that flew to the table! The rich man was so happy that he hurried to take out the painting with his silver. Tang Bohu said, "Wait a minute! Even if I paint it, I still have to write a poem on it, write my name on the end, and stamp it with my seal, so that a painting can be considered complete. You asked someone to frame it and hang it on the wall, and later when others looked at it, they would know that this painting was painted by Tang Yin. When the boy heard this, he said, "Good! Makes sense, just ask Mr. to write a poem! Tang Bohu immediately thought about it, and inscribed a poem in the upper left corner of the picture:
The red crown on the head does not need to be cut, and the snow white will go to the future.
In his lifetime, he did not dare to speak lightly, and told thousands of doors to open.
The fallen paragraph reads: Gusu Tangyin, the rich man, added two or two more silver when he took the painting, and said: "It is fortunate to be able to invite Mr. Tangyin to paint, and it is a blessing to write poems and seals, and it is also worth adding more silver, which is much more interesting than cockfighting." Tang Bohu was strapped for money and did not accept it politely. Later, Tang Bohu stayed in this town for three more days, and many people who liked calligraphy and painting asked Tang Bohu to write and paint, although he did not ask the man who painted chicken to be generous, he could give one or two or two, so that Tang Bohu's economic pressure was greatly alleviated. Three days later, Tang Bohu left according to his set goal. In a town about ten miles from Wuxi, Tang Bohu borrowed a table from the hotel and sold calligraphy and paintings on the street, attracting many enthusiasts to watch, of course, some people were willing to pay for it, and the scene was quite hot.
Because Tang Bohu had just entered the business industry, had no experience, and did not hang up a signboard, the onlookers did not know what this person's name was, what it was, and they all thought that it was just a poor acid selling calligraphy and paintings, so there was also a person who made trouble and made a fool of himself, adding some trouble to Tang Bohu. What made Tang Bohu even more angry was that there were also officials who came to buy and sell strongly; since Tang Bohu was frustrated in rushing to the examination in the capital, the ones he hated and hated the most were those officials who were bullying people, and he didn't want to sell them if he had paintings.
On this day, Tang Bohu was painting a buyer, and an official car fell not far from his painting table, and what came down from the car was probably the county grand master, with a few fox fake tiger Wei messengers left and right. The official old man walked over to Tang Bohu's desk and watched for a while, saying, "Hey! You boy is not bad at drawing! Grasp the painting, I keep this painting. After Tang Bohu stopped his pen and looked at the county grand master, he pointed to the scholar standing on the side and said, "He plans to order this painting for ten silver." The county master said unhappily, "What? There is ben lord here, who dares to order! Well, I'll double the silver for you, hurry up and draw it for me! ”
Tang Bohu bowed his head and continued to paint without saying a word. When those messengers saw that Tang Bohu did not reply, they roared: "Did your boy hear it?" Deaf ears? My grandfather talked to you, why don't you answer? Looking for death? The scholar standing on the side dared to compete with the county grandfather for a purchase, and when he saw this momentum, he said, "Since the adults want this painting, the small ones will not buy it." Tang Bohu raised his eyes and looked at the student next to him, scolding him in his heart for being spineless. In the face of these wolf-like servants and unreasonable officials, Tang Bohu could only continue to remain silent, slowly painting while thinking about countermeasures. In short, the painting will never be sold to him, and the hard resistance will suffer losses. After a while, the servants shouted again, and two of them rolled up their sleeves and raised their fists to prepare to fight. At this time, Tang Bohu said to them slowly and logically: "Painting should be brushstroke by stroke, and it is impossible to distract, do you know?" He said and looked down and slowly drew. After waiting for a while, the servants became impatient. He said, "I see that your boy is under-beaten, because he is deliberately delaying time and playing with my family's master." When one of the servants angrily scolded and was about to raise his hand to start fighting, Tang Bohu also thought of a way. Only to see him dip the paintbrush thickly, and leave the paper and hold it high in mid-air, suddenly the hand that raised the brush trembled, and then he bounced the paintbrush out, just in the face of the servant who was swinging his fist to hit someone, and then rolled to the ground. At the same time, Tang Bohu suddenly covered his chest with his hands, his facial muscles twitched, his mouth and eyes were crooked, the corners of his mouth were flowing, his white eyes were turned up, and he fell to the ground along the edge of the table, and even the painting was dragged down the table and covered on his body, and this series of actions was almost seamless. At this time, many people gathered around and said that they were going to die because they bought paintings! When the county grandfather saw that the big thing was not good, he turned around and scolded his servants: "Dog slave, stupid!" Can't you talk quietly to people? You see people are scared, I'm afraid that the heart attack is going to happen, hurry up and go home! The sedan lifted the old man and ran straight, and several errand boys chased after the farts behind him.
After waiting for a while, Tang Bohu heard that the people had gone far, and only then did he take a long breath, slowly open his eyes to see that there was no one around, and quickly get up to collect the paper and pencil, fortunately, the painting was still intact. Thinking that this place should not be stayed for a long time, he lifted the table and stool back to the hotel. After returning to the hotel, the more Tang Bohu thought about it, the more angry he became, the good business was disturbed, and next time he must change his strategy, because those who do not want to sell paintings to officials cannot always pretend to be sick? Therefore, Tang Bohu decided to take a boat tomorrow and take the water route directly to Yangzhou. Take stock of the silver on your body, these days have also earned more than twenty two, the original plan to come out of the house only a short turn is enough, this plan to travel to seven provinces is not enough. Therefore, in addition to watching in Yangzhou, you must also sell calligraphy and paintings. This Jiangnan talent arrived in Yangzhou by boat, what story will be staged?