Everything was prepared for the altar. It used bamboo poles as the skeleton, tree branches as horns, tied with straw ropes, and filled with wheat straw. A total of thirty "Nian beasts" were prepared at one time.

If you put them in groups of two, you can burn thirty of them until the evening.

In front of the altar, there are seats made of torn bags, wheat straw or tree branches. The seats are neatly arranged in front, back, left and right. There are more than 400 people in total, which can satisfy more than 400 people at the same time.

After all this was done, I originally wanted the soldiers to hold flags and surround the altar to increase the momentum, but after searching around, most of the more beautiful flags I could find were Han-style military flags, with a huge "Han" on the flags.

The words are extremely conspicuous.

Now that we have decided to go against the Han Dynasty, we should reduce the use of Han military flags as much as possible. This is a political consideration.

Li Mengxi also looked for other flags that were not the Han flag, but after searching around, there were many flags with the word "Liu" in the army, but most of them were very rough, just a piece of linen cloth with words randomly written on it and tied with a stick.

Sorry, such a simple flag does not match the gorgeous altar.

Therefore, either it should be more beautiful and use the Han military flag, or it should consider the political impact and use an ugly rag flag, but neither is suitable.

Therefore, after comprehensive consideration, the flag item was discarded.

Finally, we found some soldiers who were responsible for maintaining order, and then we found a person who was familiar with rituals from among the teachers as the etiquette officer, and everything was complete.

——

This day is the first day of the New Year. After the slaughter of animals that lasted all day yesterday, today's meal has a lot of meat. The meat is the blood of cows, mules, horses, etc. obtained from the slaughter of animals, divided into two scoops for each group, and then the blood

Mixed with grains and cooked together.

Because it was a special day, the army specially distributed more salt and sprinkled it in large quantities. The porridge cooked was fishy and salty. According to Li Mengxi's evaluation, the salty beef blood porridge was difficult to swallow, but for the civilians

For us and the soldiers, the porridge was much thicker and saltier than usual, and it was much better than what we usually eat.

When the civilians had just enough to eat and drink, a military order was issued to the entire army, ordering all the 1,200 teams of the 120th Battalion of the Twelve Zodiac Banners to assemble and stand by.

The whole army left the camp and moved together from each camp. The flow of people and flags converged towards the road like countless small streams, and then lined up along the road from front to back according to their formation.

After the team was assembled, he ordered the cavalry to report. Li Mengxi estimated the time and found that the assembly took more than half an hour. There were hundreds of thousands of people. It took more than half an hour to assemble the entire team, which was considered fast.

The whole army can be assembled in half an hour, and if there is a war, hundreds of thousands of people can be assembled in half an hour.

The rebel army at this time was no match for elite soldiers, but it was far superior to ordinary refugee teams and had reached the basic level of the army.

When the order was sent, the cavalry led the team to the altar and finished lining up. Hundreds of thousands of people were surrounded by darkness, and there were endless silhouettes.

In front of a sea of ​​people, Li Mengxi wanted to say a few words, but when he saw that there were too many people and there was no loudspeaker, even if Zhang Fei with a loud voice came over and Zhang Fei roared, the people in front could hear it, and the people behind him were determined to hear it.

not see.

In desperation, they could only resort to the old method of using artificial trumpets and asking the messenger cavalry to circle around and shout.

After receiving the order, the cavalrymen ran around in the queue, shouting loudly as they ran, "Today is the day of the military festival, and each team can go to worship in turn!"

"Today is the day of the military's grand ceremony. Each team can go to worship in turn!"

…

The cavalrymen were running and shouting, and in the queue, the peasants were whispering.

"What did you shout?"

"They said it's today, and they asked us to offer sacrifices to heaven."

"Oh, I saw it! Isn't that right? Isn't that the stage in front?"

The peasants craned their necks and looked forward, and saw the extremely gorgeous altar covered with silk. Seeing that the altar was tall and luxurious, the peasants were excited and couldn't wait.

Li Mengxi looked up and saw that it was almost noon. He ordered the ceremony to begin.

Immediately, under the leadership of the soldiers, the first wave, the 1st to 8th teams of the 1st Battalion of the Twelve Zodiac Banner, a large group of about 400 men and women, old and young, left the team.

The first wave of people who came out were a little nervous and excited and followed the soldiers forward. The people in the back who didn't have their turn stretched their necks and squeezed hard to get to the front. If it hadn't been arranged earlier, there would be soldiers restraining them everywhere.

, it is estimated that people who want to join in the fun will immediately cause a big mess.

The four hundred men, women, and children in the first group of worshipers arrived at a large seat. The soldier centurion ordered everyone to go forward and find a seat.

There was a slight problem at this time. Those who came forward to worship were arranged according to the army's formation. When the army's formation was originally formed, there was no strict distinction between men, women, old and young, so the civilians were asked to go forward individually and in the order of the formation.

As we walked forward, the result was that some women moved to the front of the queue, and some half-year-olds also moved to the front, while some elderly people moved to the back.

There are more than 100,000 people in the army, all of them are Yellow Turbans in terms of their origins, and they are all refugees. There are no relatives or friends among the team, and there are many strangers everywhere. But at this time, hundreds of strangers came to worship.

At that time, he spontaneously started talking about etiquette.

Regardless of whether they knew each other or not, the villagers began to push each other to show humility. A group of people spontaneously selected the eldest elderly person in the crowd and warmly invited the elderly person to come forward. However, often, the elderly person felt very embarrassed to be treated so politely by a group of strangers.

, I was embarrassed to come forward and refused again and again.

Such a scene of mutual courtesy can be regarded as a good thing, because only when you have enough food and clothing can you know etiquette. When the pressure of survival is gone, the common people will be humble to each other before offering sacrifices. And if these common people are still refugees, and they are just as numb and cold, it will be completely

I don't know how to talk about etiquette, and I don't know how to be humble between the old and the young.

Guan Yu and Li Mengxi stood far away and looked at the scene in front of the altar. They both saw the lively and harmonious scene, Guan Yu looked at it with a smile, and Li Mengxi looked at it with a frown.

Li Mengxi frowned and called the ordering soldier. He told the ordering soldier a few words, and the ordering soldier ran over.

This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The messenger ran to the altar and said to a group of civilians who were still asking for humility, "The military advisor has an order! No matter how big or small the sacrifice is, the front and back are meaningless.

, hurry up and stand still, don't waste time."

As soon as the military order came, the civilians couldn't hold on any longer and quickly found a place, whether it was a torn linen mat or a wheat straw mat, they just found a place to stand.

The civilians took their respective positions, and then some soldiers carried the two "Nian beasts" to the altar and placed one on each side of the altar.

When the people saw the Nian beast, which looked like a deer, a tiger and a horse, their reaction was exactly the same as that of the craftsmen at that time. The people raised their heads and looked sideways, and they all felt that the Nian beast made of bamboo and wood was magical.

Afterwards, an upright old man walked up from the altar. This man was a ceremony officer selected from among the teachers to preside over the sacrificial affairs.

The ceremony officer walked between the altar and the people, glanced around, then turned around and bowed to the earthen tablet of the Emperor and the Empress on the high sacrificial platform.

The ceremony officer started to bow, and the people behind him saw mixed results. Some imitated and bowed, some did not respond in time, and some just looked on indifferently.

After the ceremony officer bowed three times, Kang enthusiastically recited a sacrificial text in honor of the Emperor and the Empress. The general content of the sacrificial text was to pray for blessings and avoid disasters.

After the ceremony, the ceremony officer shouted angrily to the fire-wielding men on the left and right of the Nian beast, "Fire-burning! Burn the Nian beast!"

The soldiers who were well prepared immediately put the torch under the Nian beast and ignited it.

The movements of the Burning Year Beast attracted a lot of attention.

"Rise up and kowtow~" the ceremony official shouted loudly, turned around, faced the high altar, and knelt down solemnly.

Most of the people's eyes were attracted by the Nian beast. When the official said to kneel down and kowtow, the people reacted hastily and hurriedly followed the official to kneel down on a seat made of wheat straw or linen. Then they knelt down with their heads touching the ground.

As soon as he finished kneeling, the ceremony official shouted again, "Kowtow again~"

Kneel down again.

"Kowtow three times~"

After three kowtows, Li Mengxi, who was watching from the side, felt that when the people knelt down to worship, they were all uneven, one was higher than the other, and the other was a mess.

"The ceremony is over! Everyone, please leave!" the ceremony officer stood up and shouted to all the people.

The peasants looked left and right, walking back sparsely, looking back from time to time.

The peasants were just about to leave. At this time, the Nian beast, which had been burning for a while, was completely burned, and the bamboo joints began to crackle.

Li Mengxi felt that this first wave of sacrifices was not very good.

The first problem is that it is not uniform. It would be spectacular and solemn if hundreds of people kowtow and kneel together, but kneeling in such a messy manner does not make sense.

After thinking about it, Li Mengxi remembered the method of training the queue. The training team can be used as a standard demonstration for the queue training. In the same way, the teaching team can also be called over now to lead the civilian workers to kneel down.

As for the second question during the worship ceremony, Li Mengxi felt that the time was too short, so he knelt down three times. He had not even seen the altar clearly and was about to go down before he understood what was going on. How could such a sacrifice be possible?

What's the use?

Li Mengxi called the ordering troops to divide into two groups. One person went to find the teaching team, and the other person went to call the etiquette officer.

The teaching team was far away, so the etiquette officer was called over first.

Li Mengxi asked the ceremonial officer, "When performing sacrifices, how many times do you have to kneel down and pray?"

The etiquette officer replied, "It's enough to follow the etiquette three times."

Li Mengxi said, "Three times seems a bit hasty. If it is changed to nine times, is it in line with etiquette?"

The courtesy officer replied again, "Nine times is fine."

Li Mengxi nodded and said, "That's it. Go down and kowtow nine times. Moreover, every time you kneel down and kowtow, you might as well go slower and wait longer so that you don't feel like you are rushing. The more solemn the better."

The ceremony officer received the order, bowed his hand to Li Mengxi, and then left again.

At the same time, the first wave of civil servants who participated in the worship had returned to the team.

As soon as the first wave of people returned, they were immediately crowded over by people nearby asking questions.

The first wave of people who participated in the sacrifice talked about what they saw during the sacrifice with excitement.

"That table is not cloth, it's silk! I'm sitting in the first row. I can see clearly that the top is covered with silk. It's very gorgeous!"

…

As soon as it was his turn to offer sacrifices, the old man asked the old man who had gone to offer sacrifices, "What are you putting on the altar?"
To be continued...