Ghost Blowing Lantern II

Blind Chen had already made an idea in his mind. He had been strapped for money recently and was thinking about becoming a big player. However, he was not sure yet and refused to explain it to Mr. Luo in advance. However, when it came to this matter, he had no choice but to tell the truth. He quickly said: "We have heard that the Mengdong River Basin has deep forests and dense ridges. It is a place where barbarians and Han people are mixed. At that time, the Yuan soldiers went south and fought fiercely with the cave people for many years. Many nobles died, including some monks and The tombs of Yitongbing generals are the most abundant. Today, there are still many tombs of chieftains, cavemen and Yuan soldiers and Yuan generals hidden in Naping Mountain. However, the ancient tombs of the Yuan Dynasty were not sealed or planted, and the great treasures were always buried deep. In addition, those seedlings Cave barbarians often use poisonous poisons, and they often have strange and heresies about falling into caves and exorcising corpses. Our power cannot cover that area, so we are afraid of making mistakes if we go there rashly, so we are always hesitant to do something. Fan…”

Luo Laowai is a warlord who is addicted to tomb robbing. When he heard that there were so many large ancient tombs in "Pingshan", he couldn't help but be overjoyed. He had been slashed on the face before, leaving a huge scar that turned the corner of his mouth crooked. , that’s why I got the name Luo Laowai. At this moment, I felt a burst of ecstasy, and the corners of my already crooked mouth almost reached the back of my head.

He immediately jumped up from his chair. He was a bandit. He liked to draw a gun when talking. He pulled out an ivory-handled revolver and ordered the adjutant to go back immediately to assemble the pistol company and engineer battalion. Everyone in the engineer battalion brought a shovel. , shovels, hoes, picks, and prepare a large amount of explosives, and will lead troops into the mountains that day.

Chen Xiazi hurriedly stopped him. This matter needs to be discussed on a regular basis. The ancient tombs in Pingshan are not easy to steal. The underground palace and tomb passages cannot be found. No matter how many explosives there are, it will not help. Moreover, if the army moves, it will inevitably be alarmed. The situation in that area is complicated for the local people, and there may be complications. The only plan now is to take a few capable people and go into the mountains to find out what's going on.

Luo Laowai was addicted to tomb robbing and eager to make a fortune. He also planned to follow him into the mountains to collect plates, so he conspired with Blind Man Chen. The plan was decided. Blind Man Chen nodded and called someone over, gave instructions, and then brought a few capable men with him. , changed clothes, packed up, and prepared to go to Mengdong River to find the ancient tombs of the Yuan Dynasty hidden in Pingshan.

Chen Xiazi pretended to be a fortune teller. He also had three subordinates. One was the thin and scheming "Hua Maguai". This man had been the servant of the former Qing Yamen for generations. Poison, corpse insects and other things, but also a good person, he is the dog-headed strategist among the bandits in Xiling.

Another iron tower-like man, born with a sky-high ground and boundless strength, but unfortunately he was born mute and unable to speak, because his skin and flesh were like black carbon. He was also nicknamed "Kunlun Moleh", which means that he looked very similar to The "Kunlun Slave", a strange man from the late Tang and Five Dynasties, accidentally saved Chen Xiazi's life when he was robbing a tomb in Yandang Mountain. From then on, he followed Chen Xiuzi wholeheartedly and became a personal servant.

In addition, there was a young woman who was a prostitute in the world of martial arts. Her stage name was "Red Girl". She was good at all kinds of ancient tricks and acrobatics. She was spotted by a local powerful man who wanted to take her as his concubine and forced her to death. Father, Miss Hong has a fierce personality. In a fit of rage, she killed all the good and humble people in her family and fled to Hunan, where she became a bandit. With the skills of the Moon Gate, she joined the gang and became a bandit in Xiling.

Chen Xiazi and these three men, plus Luo Laowai, pretended to be merchants and salesmen respectively. Because the Mengdong River Basin in western Hunan has a complicated terrain and rugged and difficult mountains, it is known as "eight mountains, one water and one field", and has been sparsely populated since ancient times. , the government's ability to govern is weak, and banditry is serious, so guests with different livelihoods often travel together. It is not easy for people to suspect that the five of them disguised themselves and went on the road together.

These five people hid three long and two short instruments on their bodies. They looked at the Mengdong River and were silent all the way. Not long after entering the mountain, they saw the Miao border wall left in ancient times. Miao is also known as "Meng" means that the fast-flowing Mengdong River is Yidi where caves lived in ancient times. It is said that the primeval forests on both sides of the river are all ancient Miao caves, which have mutual influence with Wu and Chu culture, so they appear to the world in the eyes of the world. It is extremely mysterious, and the totem remains of the ancient "Xuanniao" can be seen everywhere here.

Chen Xiazi asked Luo Laowai to ambush the hundreds of men from his engineer digging battalion and pistol company in the dense forest near the ancient wall ruins, ready to be dispatched at any time. Then a group of five people waded through the river and climbed over the mountain. Ridge, heading straight to Pingshan Mountain, I saw "overlapping peaks and crisscrossing valleys" in this mountain. The mountains and fields are covered with the unique Ba Mao flowers in western Hunan, which is like a primitive scenery isolated from the world.

None of them had been to Pingshan before. They were worried about getting lost and encountering wild beasts, so they didn't dare to wander around. After asking some local mountain people who were passing by, they found out that the mountain range where Bamao flowers are blooming is called "Lao Xiong Ridge". After crossing the ridge, there is a wild and uninhabited land. "Pingshan" is located in the deep mountains of Laoxiong Ridge. There are several villages in front of the ridge, where there are many Yi and Han people. In addition to Han people, there are also Miao and Tujia people.

After Chen Xiazi inquired about it, he learned that there were two villages in the north and south in the mountains ahead, so he said to everyone: "The day before yesterday, I watched the sky at night and saw that the stars of the Big Dipper were dim. I thought that the South Dipper is for life and the Big Dipper is for death. This has been said since ancient times. I If you want to go into the mountains to look for ancient tombs at this moment, I’m afraid it’s a rare opportunity, so why not avoid the north and go south, and go to the southern village of Lao Xiong Ling first?”

The other four people had always looked up to Blind Man Chen like a god when it came to fighting, so they naturally agreed in unison. The salesman dressed as Huamaguai led the way and headed south on the mountain road. After a while, they saw a village. The village is located among strange peaks and green valleys, and the scenery is as beautiful as in a landscape painting.

There are about a hundred households in the village. Because the local climate is full of miasma, and the mountains are full of poisonous weeds and sand vipers, the locals, regardless of whether they are foreigners or Chinese, all live side by side on the same floor. They climb up on ladders, which are called "rails". All residential buildings are built against the mountains, facing north and south. In order to avoid venomous snakes and insects, the bottoms of the duplex wooden buildings are made of nine pillars, with cross-beams running through them, making the towers suspended. This kind of building is also called " Diaojiaolou", under each Diaojiaolou, there is also a wooden carving of a black bird, which is mysterious and a little weird.

The Xiling group of thieves saw this in their eyes and secretly remembered it in their hearts. When they came to the village, they set up a small gong to sell business. The local customs were simple, and the people liked to barter with each other. There was little money in circulation, and batik and ham were produced. , Three Snakes wine and other goods, although it is located in a remote place, it is not uncommon for outsiders to come. Almost every month, several salesmen come to exchange mountain goods. It is not surprising to see foreign merchants, each taking their own mountain goods. to exchange.

Huamaguai is in the grocery business, selling scraps of daily necessities such as needles, threads, and brains. The mute "Kunlun Moller" dresses up as a porter and carries salt for Luo Laowai, who is disguised as a smuggling merchant. Money in the mountains is useless, but rich people There was no place to spend money, so the mountain people and the vendors had always bartered. The customers who picked up the goods from the mountains exchanged the goods for the goods, and then went to the towns outside to make profits.

Due to the inconvenience of entry and exit in the deep mountains and old forests, the most valuable thing here is salt. Salt itself has been regarded as the hardest currency by the locals. The natives often have a saying: "Three pounds of rice and one pound of salt." It can be said that This is a locally recognized "exchange rate".

Blind Chen had planned carefully in advance. The things they brought were all urgently needed by the mountain people. Moreover, they did not care about petty profits like ordinary merchants. They were quite popular among the people. They did not have to spend much effort to complete the business. I also asked the locals for a few bowls of water, pretending to drink water and take a rest while also inquiring about the Pingshan Ancient Tombs.

Chen Xiazi and others, under the guise of looking for a ghost house through Feng Shui and inquiring about the path in the mountains, did not waste any effort in asking some clues from the mountain people. The Laoxiong Ridge by the Mengdong River is a large area of ​​​​thousands of feet above sea level. In ancient times, there were traces of bears in the mountains, but now they are rare. According to legend, the ancestor of the Miao people, King Chi You, was the incarnation of a giant bear, so the Old Bear Ridge got its name from this. It is a cave. The sacred mountain where humans originated, there are many ancient monuments left in the mountains and forests.

The ancient Yi people mostly lived in caves, so they were also called cave people. According to tribes, there were a total of seventy-two caves. There is a strange peak called Pingshan in Laoxiong Ridge. It is shaped like a bottle falling from the sky. It looks like a divine power, but it is not artificial. , there are many unknown exotic flowers and plants on the mountain. There are natural caves in Pingshan with unfathomable ravines inside. Western Hunan is rich in cinnabar, and lead is an indispensable raw material for alchemy. Therefore, from the Qin and Han Dynasties, Emperors of various dynasties continued to send sorcerers to Pingshan to refine the elixir of immortality, and built Taoist temples in the caves. They visited famous mountains, collected precious stones, and filled them with treasures from all directions to seek medicine from the immortals. It was like treating it as a Taoist cave. A paradise in the world.

After nearly a thousand years of management for many dynasties and generations, the caves in Pingshan were filled with palaces and palaces. The towers and pavilions were better than those in the human world. However, the elixir of immortality was not refined until the Yuan Dynasty destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty. The Yuan people were brutal and there were caves in the mountains. The people could not bear the tyranny and rebelled. The generals of the Fan army massacred the cave dwellers in Laoxiong Ridge. The killings were so brutal that the cave dwellers in each cave were almost massacred. The Yuan army was not adapted to the hot and humid environment in the mountains, and the plague spread among the army. It also suffered heavy losses, and all the generals who commanded the army died here. In order to suppress the cave people and prevent them from rebelling, the people of the Yuan Dynasty used the Pingshan Mountain as a tomb to bury the fallen soldiers and the rare things in the Taoist temple in the cave. They were all used as burial utensils, and the remaining cave dwellers were massacred and buried. The mountain was sealed with copper, molten iron, and huge rocks. A large treasure was buried deep in the tomb. Without sealing or trees, future generations would never be able to find the tomb passage and underground palace.

These legends have been passed down orally for hundreds of years among the mountain people in Laoxiong Mountain. Everyone knows that there is a huge ancient tomb in Pingshan, but it is limited to this. No one knows the detailed content. After all, back then Almost all the cave dwellers in each cave were exterminated. Blind Chen had heard about this for a long time. Now he went to the local area to investigate and further confirmed that the legend of the Pingshan Tomb was not groundless, and he also found out some little-known inside information.

When the locals saw these merchants, they seemed to be going to Pingshan. They did not expect that they were a group of tomb robbers, and they kindly advised them that the dense forests and steep mountains around Pingshan had attracted many poisonous insects and monsters in the early years. The ferocious place nearby is extremely dangerous. If a living person goes there, at least nine out of ten people will be killed.

Blind Chen quickly explained: "I'm just a foreigner passing by here. When I heard the strange name of Pingshan Mountain, I couldn't help but get curious, so I asked a few more questions. We are all ordinary people doing business in the world, how can we dare to go to ancient times? Walk around the tomb." After that, he discussed with the mountain people and wanted to stay in the village for one night.

The elders in the village told Chen Xiazi and others that there have always been rules here, and outsiders were never allowed to stay overnight in the village. This was because bandits and horse thieves had made too much noise in recent years. As the saying goes, "Thieves come like combs, and soldiers come like grizzards." "The thieves come like a razor." When the thieves arrive, it's a brutal bloodbath. Therefore, the village gate must be closed at night and no outside guests are allowed to prevent thieves from sneaking in to cooperate with others. Although it seems that you are all doing small business. He is an honest man and is by no means a thieves who kill people and steal goods, but I still can't break the rules for you. I advise you to get out of the mountain as soon as it's dawn.

Luo Laowai has a bad temper and is used to bossing around. When he saw that the people in the village refused to let them stay overnight, he had never seen such a cunning man dare not give him Marshal Luo face. He cursed "Fuck you" Grandma, she just wanted to pull out her gun and kill a few of them. Blind Chen knew that Luo Laowai could not hold his breath, and was afraid that he would reveal his secret and ruin the plan, so he hurriedly held his hand and carefully asked the natives around him. After a few roads, he hurriedly led everyone away from the village.

When we walked into the forest, the sun was setting in the west. Luo Laowai asked Blind Chen what he should do now. The leaders of the barren mountains didn't even have a place to stay, so it was better to go back overnight and directly raise troops into the mountains to conduct a so-called "military exercise" in Pingshan.

Blind Chen looked at the shadow of the sun, estimated the time, pondered for a moment, turned around and said, "Shuai Luo, don't be in a hurry. It gets dark early in the mountains, and I'm afraid I won't be able to get back tonight. I just learned from the mountain people that Lao There is a mortuary on Xiongling Mountain, why not go there for one night, and then go back to the mountains early tomorrow morning to watch the situation in Pingshan Mountain and see if the ancient tomb can be recovered."

Zanguan is the alias of Yizhuang. To put it simply, it means "the hotel of the dead." There are many Han Chinese in several villages nearby. They are either dodging military service or evading rent and taxes. There are also a small number of people who travel to and from the village. People doing business between villages, due to the different burial customs between Yi and Han, once these people die in the mountainous area, they are equivalent to dying in a foreign land. This kind of experience is very taboo in the old concept, and everyone hopes to bury their bones back to their hometown, but The mountain road is rugged and far away, making it extremely difficult to transport the body out of the mountain. Whether it is carrying the body or driving it away, it only happens once every six months. Before that, the dead bodies that had not been transported out of the mountains were all stored in "Yizhuang", which was called "Zuanji". Each village pooled money to hire full-time guards. Similar places were very common in the mountainous areas of western Hunan.

(To be continued. If you want to know what happened, please log in. There are more chapters. Support the author and genuine reading!)