Chapter 196 Aoshan Lantern Festival
When Liu Qing returned to the bedroom, she noticed Ou Zanghua from the Thirty-Six-Character Stele of Ailao Mountain and asked in confusion, "I seem to hear a woman's voice. Does your husband have a mistress in his house?"

"I have Qingqing, why do I need another Jin Jiao?" Ou Zanghua picked up Liu Qing and walked towards the big bed.

He didn't know how effective the mountain tiger medicinal wine was in strengthening muscles and bones, but it was very effective in strengthening the waist and kidneys. At 9:00 p.m. the next day, she was still unable to get out of bed, but Ou Zanghua had already put on her clothes and sent last night's guests out of the house one by one.

When sending Zhu Shou off, Ou Zanghua stopped him and asked, "General Zhu, what happened to Tuotuo?"

"Tuotuo? Oh. She is a tribute from the Wulingha tribe. I think she is good at martial arts, so I reward her as your personal bodyguard!" Zhu Shou waved his hand nonchalantly and said happily: "My friend, I had a great time yesterday. Next time you get married, you must invite me! Let's go, don't see me off."

You will come next time! .
Eh. It seems like he will have a next time.
Ou Zanghua was speechless. This kind of cheating player was really unreasonable.

After seeing off all his friends, Ou Zanghua turned around and walked back. After taking two steps, he suddenly stopped and turned his head to look at the rockery beside him. Seeing something was wrong, he said, "Come out! I see you."

After a while, Tuotuo slowly appeared from the shadow of the rockery, half-knelt on the ground and said, "As expected of the master, you found Tuotuo so quickly."

Is there really someone?!
".Call me Master from now on!"

"Yes, sir."

"Yeah." Ou Zanghua responded, took two steps and looked back, but the girl was gone again.

With such skills, he is suitable to be a bodyguard or an assassin.

Shaking his head, he returned to the room where the boxes were stored, where there were still three treasure chests that had not been opened!
He rubbed his hands subconsciously, said "I'm blessed with luck", and opened the eighth and ninth boxes at the same time.

The eighth box contained two vests, one made of gold silk and the other of black silk. They were quite light. Ou Zanghua pulled them with all his strength, but with his internal energy, he was unable to cause any damage to the two vests. This showed how tough they were. I guess their defense should be pretty good.

The ninth box contained dozens of porcelain bottles. He picked up one of them and saw two pieces of paper stuck on it.

One said 'Tiger Gall Powder' and the other said 'For the treatment of childhood epilepsy, malnutrition, dysentery, injuries and other diseases'.

Picking up another bottle, it was Tiger Kidney Pill, which had the effect of "clearing the meridians, invigorating the body, and strengthening the kidneys".

I picked up another bottle, which was Tiger Eye Gold Pills, which had the effect of "calming down the nerves and improving the eyesight", and it was specially marked that it was suitable for two-year-old children.

Ou Zanghua couldn't help but look at the box in front of him. Emperor Zhengde was going to send a poisoned tiger instead of a live one!

"Could this be the Tiger brother who dominated the Qianqing Palace that day?"

"Brother Hu, I never expected that after all this detour, you would still come to the Ou Mansion."

Then, Ou Zanghua opened the tenth box, which turned out to contain many books.

Great Compassion Thousand Leaf Hand, One Clap Two Disperse Palm, Wudang Taiyi Mian Palm, Wandering Bagua Palm
Huh? There are also Korean Hwarangdo, Shadow Style Tachi, Shirajutsu, Fanlanquan, and Yogajutsu.
Korean Hwarangdo is the predecessor of Taekwondo, Kage-ryu Tachi is one of the earliest kendos, Shila-jutsu is the ancestor of later Malay martial arts, and Phan Ram is the origin of Muay Thai.

Ou Zanghua was a little surprised. Did Emperor Zhengde send the martial arts of the vassal state as well?
He moved all the books and paintings to the study, and began to look through these foreign martial arts to see how they were different from the Central Plains martial arts.

Liu Qing slept until three quarters past noon before waking up. Then, Li Shuyan and Li Huaiwei helped him wash up and come out.

When she came out, lunch was already on the table. Ou Zanghua was holding a book, reading while waiting for her.

"My dear husband, what are you looking at?" Liu Qing asked curiously after she sat down. "Korean Hwarangdo, a kind of leg technique, it gave me some inspiration." Ou Zanghua put down the secret book and looked at the radiant Liu Qing, his eyes lit up.

Liu Qing was startled and quickly changed the subject: "Mrs. Xia mentioned yesterday that there will be an Aoshan Lantern Festival in front of the Meridian Gate tonight. Should we go and see it?"

"Okay!" Ou Zanghua agreed with a smile.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Taizu decorated the Nanjing Tower with colorful decorations in order to attract wealthy businessmen from all over the world to strengthen the country, and watched lanterns for more than ten days during the Lantern Festival.

In the seventh year of Yongle, Emperor Taizong ordered that "starting from the eleventh day of the first lunar month, a ten-day holiday will be granted for the Lantern Festival. All officials are not allowed to report on state affairs when attending court. If there are urgent matters, they can submit a sealed report for punishment. The military and civilians are allowed to light lanterns and drink for fun, and the night ban on soldiers in the five cities will be relaxed."

On the Lantern Festival in the tenth year of Yongle, Emperor Taizong gave a banquet to his ministers and allowed his subjects to watch the Aoshan Lanterns outside the Meridian Gate for three days. From then on, this became a regular practice, with the intention of sharing the joy with the people.

However, Emperor Zhengde had already hosted a banquet for his ministers on the sixth day of the first lunar month, so this year's Lantern Festival he only hosted a banquet for royal relatives and noble families.

The so-called Aoshan comes from the ancient mythology of a giant tortoise wearing the mountain.

According to Liezi Tangwen, there is a bottomless valley called Guixu to the east of Bohai Sea, in which five fairy mountains, namely Daiyu, Yuanjiao, Fanghu, Yingzhou and Penglai, float.

The terraces and pavilions there are all made of gold and jade, the animals there are all pure white, the trees with pearls and jade grow in clusters, the flowers and fruits there are all delicious, and those who eat them will make one immortal. The people who live there are all of the race of immortals and saints, and the number of people flying back and forth in a day and a night is incalculable.

However, the foundations of these five fairy mountains were unstable, and they often drifted up and down with the waves. So the Emperor of Heaven ordered the northern water god Yuqiang to lead fifteen giant turtles to "lift up their heads and hold them up", that is, to lift up the five fairy mountains high up and firmly place them on the sea.

With Ou Zanghua's consent, Liu Qing was happy for the whole afternoon.

In the evening, after having lunch early, Ou Zanghua took Liu Qing, Qu Feiyan, and four female servants to form a team of ten and set off for a visit to the Meridian Gate.

Ou Zanghua originally thought that he was a worldly-wise man. He had grown up in such a big way, so what kind of lanterns and floats had he not seen?

But when he saw the Aoshan Lantern from the Ming Dynasty for the first time, he was still shocked.

This year's Aoshan Lantern Shed is tall and magnificent, consisting of four layers of stacked lights. The entire structure is covered with verdant branches of pine and cypress trees, and each layer is hung with various lanterns.

There are canopy lanterns, spherical lanterns, multi-faceted palace lanterns, etc., with images of various gods and figures painted on them, and lanterns are also hung on the central archway.

Among them, the fourth layer of the lantern shed from bottom to top is the "Eight Immortals Celebrating Birthday" landscape, which vividly displays the images of the Eight Immortals of Taoism and folk beliefs on Aoshan Mountain.

In front of the central archway of the lantern shed, people were holding flags and lighting lanterns, and artists from all over the country were performing acrobatics.

"Son!"

Qu Feiyan trotted over holding a jade rabbit lantern and said with a bright smile, "There's a lantern riddle contest over there, and I got this jade rabbit lantern."

"Riddles!"

Liu Qing's eyes lit up, and she said happily, "When I was in Hengyang, I was an expert at guessing riddles, and I would win two lanterns for Liu Qin every year! Husband, can I go and take a look?"

Ou Zanghua looked at Liu Qing's bright smile, nodded and said, "I'll go with you."

(End of this chapter)