Early on the 18th day of the winter moon, the people in the village took fishing tools to go to the moon. Zixuan and the others naturally got up early. After some breakfast, they put on thick clothes and followed them. Jinghan wore a fur coat and a fox-skin scarf, a fur hat given by a fellow villager, and a deer-skin boot. They were fully armed and looked like a round ball of hair. Because she was standing by and watching, she could not work like the villagers, so she must be careful to keep warm.

When the winter catch began, the first thing was to perform a ceremony to sacrifice the lake to wake up the net. People living nearby believed that there is a lake god in the lake. The lake to wake up the net has two meanings. The first is to worship the heavenly father, earthly mother, and lake god through sacrifice to the lake, pray for the blessing of the gods, all living things and creatures continue to reproduce, and the people live a good life. The second is to awaken the sleeping winter net through sacrifice to ensure smooth and safe times when laying the net down the lake. The ceremony of sacrifice to wake up the lake shows people's lofty admiration for nature and their beautiful love for life.

The lake sacrifice ceremony is hosted by the fish handle head. Generally, the fish handle heads are very experienced and light and strong, usually no more than forty years old. The fish handle heads are placed on the ice surface and towards the direction of the sun. Nine fire sticks are placed in front of the altar, covered with firewood, and then all are lit. In front of each fire stick, a hole is cut on the ice surface to put sacrifices into the lake.

Before the altar, there was a man standing, wearing colorful clothes, holding some strange things in his hands, and chanting scriptures constantly. This man should be a wizard, responsible for communicating with gods, and the locals also called him a priest. Around the altar, there were villagers beating drums and music, and the young men and girls in the village were wearing brightly colored clothes and dancing unknown dances on the ice.

The fish held its head and recited the words for sacrifice to the lake with loud voices. The wind was strong on the ice surface, and the drums and music were sounds. Jinghan stood by the lake, and could only vaguely hear the intermittent sounds floating in the wind. "Ah, the heaven of immortality, the spirit of the ancestors; Ah, shelter all living beings, seek prosperity, and seek prosperity... Ah, thousands of miles of ice are filled with ice, and the lake surface is full of thousands of acres. Open the ice net to pull out the fish, and the head fish celebrates the prosperity at the banquet."

When the fish finished reciting the words for offering sacrifices to the lake, they took a bowl of wine from the priest and held the wine bowl in their hands. "The big net of winter fishing has been awake and started to sacrifice to the lake. One is to offer sacrifices to the heaven that will last forever, the second is to offer the earth that has given us life, and the third is to offer the lake gods who have all spirits. Bless us to catch peace and well in winter, to produce more fish, big fish, and good fish."

Amid the chanting of scriptures and drum music, the fish came to the altar and shouted loudly, "Bless the God of Lake." All the fishermen at the scene also shouted in unison, "Bless the God of Lake of Lake", and then everyone began to put sacrifices into the nine ice holes.

Next, the fish head and the fisherman will return to the front of the horse sledge. The horse sledgege is their tool for winter fishing. The fish head stands in front of the fisherman's team and shouts loudly, "Fry milk, stir-fry rice, and give us the filling of the net to enter the lake."

A group of girls in the village, holding trays in their hands, with dried milk and fried rice on them, came to the fishermen one by one. The fishermen brought a bowl of fishermen, and the fishermen started to eat it. Soon, the fishermen shouted again, "Give wine and drink Zhuangxing wine."

The girls used trays to bring empty bowls. Several other girls came to the fisherman and the fisherman head in front of them, pouring wine for them. The fisherman head shouted again, "Good wine helps us cook the fish and dry it." Everyone drank the wine in the bowl and put the bowl back into the tray the girls were holding.

The fish head shouted again, "Enter the lake, collect the red nets, sound the cannons, and set off." So, the fish head, together with sixty fishermen, drove the carriage and horses to the lake in the chanting of the priests, the cheerful drums and music, and the fierce firecrackers.

Jinghan was shocked by this spectacular scene. Everyone in the village was watching here, but no one made a sound. Everyone was watching the whole ceremony with a focused expression. It was not until these people started to go to the lake that everyone started to speak.

Beside Zixuan and Jinghan, there were village chiefs and several elders in the village. They introduced Zixuan to the process of winter catch. "Look at the horses, they were fed with the best fine materials more than half a month in advance, so that they could adapt to this kind of work. You must know that there must be fifty or sixty large nets, one by one, and sent to the ice surface. You must use a horse to pull the winch to drag it. The horse is very tired to do this day's work."

At this moment, the fish handle head has begun to determine its position on the ice surface. "This is called painting nest, which means that the fish handle head determines the position of the net. Look, the fish handle head determines the position based on the bottom of the lake and the depth of the water, and then carves the first ice eye. This is the mesh, and then walks two or three hundred steps forward from both sides of the mesh to determine the position of the wing flag. Seeing whether the big flag they carried, that is the wing flag. Determine the wing flag, and then walk two or three hundred steps directly forward from the wing flag to determine the position of the wing flag.

The Yuantan Banner. Starting from the two flag eyes of the Yuantan Banner, it meets together, and it is about two or three hundred steps away. When it comes together, it is the mesh, and you need to put the net flag in it. The range drawn by these big flags is the net nest. There is a lot of knowledge here. The size and shape of the net nest, the angle of the flag sent, etc. are all the experience accumulated by ancestors, and can only be done with the experience of many years of experience of fish heads." The village chief's brother was once a fish head and was very familiar with these.

The fishermen began to chisel ice on the ice surface. From the lower mesh to the wing flag, they would dig an ice hole every twenty steps. Then they penetrated the rod. The length of the rod was longer than the distance between the ice holes. Some people held a hook in their hands and pushed the rod from this ice hole to the next ice hole, and then went all the way to the mesh. A water wire rope was tied behind the rod. The rope was not too thick, and a large belt was accompanied by a large net at the back of the large belt. In this way, the water wire rope drove the large belt forward, and the net behind the large belt followed. But the net was very heavy, so they pulled the winch with a horse and drove the large belt forward.

Use a big hook to push the net into the water little by little, and pay attention to the weight of the net at any time. After the nets on both sides enter and exit the mesh, the entire large net has been completely put into the water.

This process takes a long time, and it will take about three or four hours just to get off the Internet. The village chief was afraid that Zixuan and the others would not be able to stand the cold weather here, so he said that before he left the Internet, someone would call them and ask Zixuan and the others to go back to the village to rest first, warm and warm. Zixuan was afraid that Jinghan could not stand the coldness, so he agreed and took everyone back to the village first.

I woke up early in the morning and just stood in the cold wind for a long time. Jinghan was also a little tired. After drinking some hot water, she returned to the house where she lived, leaning on the kang and didn't want to move.

Zixuan was worried about his wife, so after talking to Sun Jianye and the others for a while, he also went back to the house. "Madam, what's wrong with you? Why do I think you seem to be reluctant to move recently?" Zixuan took off his shoes and went to the kang, hugged Jinghan and said.

"I don't know, I'm just lazy and unwilling to move. Maybe it's because the weather is too cold and the wind is strong. I'm suffering from going out. I'm always holding it at home if I don't go out?" Jinghan didn't care. This is not a familiar place and always felt that she didn't want to go out. If it was on the mountain, even if it was cold, she would be willing to go out with her father to go hunting.

"Go back and find a doctor to show you. I'm really worried about your appearance." Zixuan reached out and touched Jinghan's forehead. There was nothing unusual.

"Just the doctor here? Can they see something? I'm still talking about whether they can catch up." Jinghan is not looking down on the doctor here, but in the entire county, there are only one or two doctors, and they are still half-baked. Jinghan is really worried about asking them to see the doctor.

"It's hard for you, come here with me. If you don't, just invite two doctors from another place to come. It's not okay." Zixuan always felt that Jinghan's condition was a bit abnormal and was a little worried. "It's really a bit harder here, otherwise I'll send you back. Having parents take care of you is much better than here."

Jinghan glared at him, "What are you doing? Send me back, what do you want to do? Could it be that I was optimistic about which girl from the family, so I wanted to get me away?"

"I feel sorry for you for being a little unconscience. You have arranged me to see how I deal with you." As he said that, Zixuan reached out to Jinghan's armpit.

Jinghan was most afraid of itchyness, and her body curled up in a ball, and she couldn't help laughing. "Honey, I don't dare anymore. Can't I do it if I don't dare?" She suddenly got aside.

Zixuan reached out and hugged Jinghan, resting his chin on the top of her head, "Madam, I won't mess with you anymore. After this winter capture, I will ask someone to invite a doctor for you and let us take good care of ourselves. You should also spend less time in the future. I will have everything, as long as you are good."

Jinghan's face turned red with a smile, and she was nestled in Zixuan's arms, feeling very satisfied, "Zixuan, I'm a little sleepy, I'll take a look for a while." As she said that, she closed her eyes and fell asleep shortly after a while.

Zixuan looked at Jinghan who was sleeping soundly and felt a little relieved. Jinghan rarely slept like this before, but in recent days, it seems that Jinghan is very sleepy and will sleep whenever he has the chance. "Jinghan, what's wrong with you? But don't have anything to do." Zixuan said softly.

Before the fish came out, Zixuan slept with Jinghan for a while. Some of the people in the village also came back, and they prepared the evening meal. Tonight was a celebration banquet, so naturally they had to prepare better. Some old women in the village were preparing meals and chatting.

"Look at the wife of the magistrate, she looks so beautiful. It's really rare for such a person to come to our poor place to suffer." A woman said.

"Our magistrate is pretty. These two people stand together, they are really golden boys and jade girls. They are made of heaven. You haven't seen that our magistrate loves his wife so much. These two people are really a perfect match." Another woman also said.

"By the way, do you see that you can see it? It seems that the lady has it, right? I look like her face." A somewhat old voice said.

Zixuan hadn't had enough sleep, but when he heard this, he suddenly became energetic.
Chapter completed!