Milk tea on the grassland

 　　A wanderer away from his hometown is prone to homesickness. Dreaming of even a wisp of cooking smoke in your hometown will make you feel moved and your eyes will be full of tears. The longer the parting time, the stronger the homesickness. It's like a mellow brew, you get drunk when you drink it.

　　My hometown is in the Inner Mongolia Plateau where Ma Ming Jingyue. The vast grassland on the Inner Mongolia Plateau has its unique character and scenery. The wind is refreshing and contains the qualities of snow. The clouds are white, with the epitome of sheep in between. The grass is emerald green and tender, exuding the scent of milk. The bark spreads high and far away. It feels like it is coming from the stars in the middle of the night. The sky is like a dome, covering all fields, which means that it is vast and vast. As far as the eye can see, the world is connected, and only the far-reaching shadow of water vapor can bring out its vast outline.

　　In childhood, people generally turn a blind eye to everything in their hometown, because they are close at hand and don't care much about it. However, once far away, there will be heart-piercing thoughts and recollections fluctuating in my heart.

　　For example-I have a fragrance of milk tea.

　　Milk tea is the tea of ​​life for people in the prairie, and it is inseparable from it for a while. For Mongolian women, the first thing to do in the morning is to put the calf to suck breast milk, and then start milking. After milking, the milk tea is brewed. The tea is old bricks, and the milk is fresh milk that has just been squeezed.

　　Laoqingzhuan belongs to black tea (also black tea) in the classification of tea, and it is also called frontier tea. It is made by fermenting older tea stalks and tea stalks, and is a poor product in tea. Because it has the effects of dispelling greasy and promoting digestion, it is more suitable for pastoral areas where meat is commonly used. Generally, blue brick milk tea is boiled in a pot: wrap the tea tightly with gauze, put it in the pot, and boil it. When the brown color turns black and red, remove the gauze bag and add salt and milk. Add fried rice and butter when drinking. In the meantime, the housewife used a small bowl with a big copper spoon to boil continuously, which took about five to ten minutes. The movements are rhythmic and beautiful. It's not light or heavy, and it doesn't splash out, just like a diver filed into the water. Until the tea and milk blend, a strong milk tea fragrance is released. That scent is very attractive, it is a very special one. Originally, water, rice, salt, tea, and butter each have their own fragrance. They are organically fused together, and what they emit is Qixiang or Tianxiang.

　　Milk tea is the shepherd's favorite. Therefore, there is a saying that "I would rather have no food for three days than a day without tea".

　　Those who want to come to the grassland to drink milk tea, I advise him to choose August. You can sit in a yurt, deep-fried fruit, milk tofu, and then put some pure milk skin in a tea bowl, or cut a few pieces of grilled meat and chew slowly. Like this, you are a real prairie man. While drinking milk tea, he looked past the door of the private room. Outside the door was an endless green grass field extending to the place where the heaven and the earth met. The cattle and sheep that are widely spread here and there are like moving patterns inlaid on a green felt carpet, which has a special meaning.

　　Under the long ropes of the little calf, there are all kinds of weeds and flowers, which makes the little calf moo with emotion. The huge shepherd dog (prairie mastiff), lying quietly beside the sheepfold, does not forget to watch vigilantly. It is the most trusted friend of the shepherd. It is commonplace for a shepherd dog to keep guarding the host for life without abandoning it. I have never heard of anyone who ran away from home and did not return. I have observed their behavior at night, and I am certain that none of them fell asleep and lost their defense. In other words, they lived through night after night in a state of half asleep and half awake. Only when she smelled the mistress's milk tea began to fragrant, did she fall asleep boldly. Like a guard with a knife in the starry night, he slept with the knife after the change of guard.

　　The fragrance of milk tea is an ordinary life content on the grassland, and no one takes it seriously. However, when you are far away from home and cannot smell the innate scent, you will feel panic in your heart. Then, I went to the scene in a daze, clicked on the most typical segment, and repeatedly projected it on the screen of the soul. This is called, sweet homesickness. Regarding the past of the fragrance of milk tea, I have two memories to tell you: The

　　first thing happened in the Durbert grassland on the border of Northland. At that time, the borders of Northland were not very peaceful, and incidents of wiping guns and accidents often occurred. I was sent to a border guard company to gather the wind, and because it was too late, I first moved into a shepherd's house. The old Eji at home, with white hair and a kind face, treats me like a faraway son. Smiling at me, there are always interjections of Huo Ruohe and Huo Ruohe (Mongolian, poor meaning) in the words. This is just a tone, which implies intimacy and compassion.

　　After riding a horse for a whole day, my bones fell apart, and I fell asleep as soon as I was palming the lamp. In the middle of the night, I was suddenly awakened by a strong aroma of milk tea. Thinking that the sky was bright, she turned over and sat up, opened her eyes and saw that the fire of Eji was burning, a pot of milk tea was boiling there, and she kept boiling with a copper spoon, focusing on nothing else. Gu. Under the dim light of the dim fire, I suddenly felt that she was a bodhisattva, with endless compassion and a little anxiety in her eyebrows.

　　I asked Eji softly, who was making tea in the middle of the night? She sighed and said, Huo Ruohe, the night is so cold and the snow is so big, where the children have gone? It's time to come back and warm yourself up with a sip of hot tea! Oh, the children she was talking about must be the border guards patrolling Xueye undoubtedly. I suddenly woke up. After a short while, she put down the copper spoon in her hand, stood up slowly with her kneecap, walked out of the door, and looked towards the north. Obviously, the anxiety between her eyebrows was constantly enlarged by the wind and snow.

　　Yes, she is the Bodhisattva on our grassland.

　　Later, I wrote a short poem "The Fragrance of Milk Tea" (November 1972), which was probably published in the Inner Mongolia Daily in 1973. The young painter Mr. Hu Jun has a picture: a yurt stands alone in the wind and snow, a blue smoke rises from the yurt (the skylight above the yurt), and the chrysanthemum yellow light from the door seems very faint. An old Eji wears a red sandalwood Mongolian robe with buttons on his left hand and a pergola on his right. A shepherd dog looked up at its owner. It seems to read the anxiety and expectation in the owner's heart.

　　Since then, words such as fragrant milk tea and frankincense will appear frequently. Friends teased that I was the first person to create the term "milk tea fragrance". I dare not claim this as unique. However, it is true that this poem has had a wider social impact.

　　The other happened in the early autumn of 1963. That year, together with Yun Shengwang, the director of the Office of the People’s Committee of our Banner, and my junior classmate Gegen Tuya, I was transferred to the Baiyinwula brigade of Honggeer Commune, Wangqi, Wangqi, to work for one year. This is a system for cadres to participate in labor training that was implemented at that time, and it is rotated every year.

　　The Baiyinhonggeer grassland is quiet as a dream, and the autumn breeze arrives as scheduled. The production team asked us to go to a winter camp, set up a plank to hit the wall, and create a sheepfold. It was an extremely heavy physical task. First, set up a two-foot-wide and three-meter-long wooden frame, then lift the soil to add to the gap, and then use a wooden hammer to tighten the half-dry and half-wet scattered soil. Yan tamping. Then, increase the height layer by layer until the sheep can't jump out.

　　After working for a day, we feel exhausted and fall asleep as soon as we lie down until the next morning. Even dreams can’t be done.

　　Only one old Eji, one of her cows and small calves, and one shepherd stayed behind in this winter camp. Everyone in the team called her Duguima Erji. I remember that on the first day of work, we worked until ten o'clock in the morning, already sweating, with dry mouth, lying on the grass to rest, and instantly fell asleep. Suddenly, someone was calling us softly: the children wake up, get up to drink milk tea, eat some milk food, Huo Ruohe, Huo Ruohe, are exhausted into sand onions in the cool sun.

　　When I opened my eyes, Eji brought us a copper jug ​​of milk tea that had just been brewed, as well as milk and noodles. She put the refined wooden bowls with silver rims in front of us one by one, and began to pour milk tea for us. The breeze whipped her long silver hair, reminding me of a white grass fluttering in the wind. A strong scent of milk tea rushes through our noses, rushes into the lungs, even into the bones and soul, so that our hearts can be comforted and moisturized in an instant. We drank one bowl after another without saying thank you. Eji sat across from us, smiling kindly and quietly, watching us sipping milk tea. The shepherd dog Niiga (meaning flying dog) next to her, with a long tongue, is also looking at us friendly. This situation and situation is like a "Picture of Compassion Bodhisattva Life-Saving", imprinted in my heart forever. The scent of milk tea always floats in my deep memory.

　　The autumn breeze blows the grass, and the moon shines on the plateau. This kind of compassionate drama is probably only suitable for staged on such a vast and tranquil green meadow, right? In the days to come, every morning and afternoon, the hot milk tea in Eji will fragrant on our construction site as scheduled. Floating until the end of construction, we left.

　　Today, nearly 60 years have passed away like smoke and water. But the fragrance of the pot of milk tea in Eji didn't drift away. In my indulgent memories and long-lasting dreams, I have been floating, floating...