Chapter 5 Old Bear Ridge Village
Chen blind man in his heart has advocated that he recently tight hands, is thinking of doing back to the big, just not sure, not to advance to Luo old crooked words, but the words to this point, had to put it all together, and hurriedly said: “I have heard that the Mangdong River Basin forests are deep and dense, is a piece of razor and the Han mixed in the unregulated places, when the Yuan soldiers south, and the hole people fighting for many years, the deaths of some of the fancier Nobles, among them, there are some monks and a unified army generals of the tomb of the most abundant martyrdom, now that bottle mountain, still hides a lot of the Tusi, hole people and Yuan soldiers and generals of the graves, but the Yuan dynasty tombs do not seal not tree, always buried deep hidden, plus those Miao hole barbarians will be put compulsion poison, but also often fall into the hole, catching corpses of a kind of strange and evil, our forces do not cover that side, venturing over there for fear of a mistake, so always hesitating to go to hook some of Go to hook some ……”
Luo Lao crooked is a tomb raiding addicted warlords, heard that “bottle mountain” actually have so many large ancient tombs, can not help but be overjoyed, before he was cut in the face, fell a big scar, the corner of the mouth with a crooked, so got the Luo Lao crooked such a name, at this time a bout of ecstasy, the corner of the mouth is crooked is about to grin to the back of the head.
He immediately jumped up from the chair, this person is a bandit habits, usually talk like to pull out the gun, pull out the ivory handle of the revolver, ordered the adjutant immediately went back to the collection of pistol company and engineer battalion, engineer battalion, each person with a spade, shovel, hoe, pickaxe, and prepare a large number of explosives, the same day, we will lead the troops into the mountains.
Chen blind man hastened to stop him, this matter needs to be discussed from time to time, bottle mountain tomb is not to say that you can steal, not find the underground palace and tomb passage, there are more explosives will not help, and the army moved, it is inevitable that we must startle the local natives, the situation in that area is complex, it may be a branch of the festival, today’s plan, only to bring a few competent and capable people, advanced to go to the mountains to explore it a in the end.
Luo Lao crooked tomb raiding addiction eager to get rich, also intends to follow into the mountains to pick the plate, so and Chen blind conspiracy, the plan has been finalized, Chen blind pointing hand called over the people, instructed to account for a number of, and then took a few competent men, change the attire, pack up and make a point of preparing to go to the Mangdong River, to look for hidden in the bottle in the ancient tomb of the Yuan Dynasty.
Chen blind man himself pretending to play divination Mr., he has three other men, one is a yellow skinny scheming “flower horse abduction”, this person’s ancestors have been the former Qing dynasty Yamen mouth to listen to the pestle and mortar, know the corpse wax, corpse poison, corpse insects, etc., but also for the good people, is the head of the group of Shiding robbers of the dog mastermind.
Another tower-like man, born in the sky, grounded, strength, but unfortunately born a mute can not speak, only because the body flesh are like black carbon, there is a nickname called “Kunlun Mole”, which is to say that he looks like the late Tang Five Dynasties of the strange “Kunlun Slave”, the Chen blind man that year in Yandangshan Mountain, the pestle and pestle, know the corpse wax, corpse poison, corpse bugs and other things, and also for the good people, is the head master in the Shiling group of thieves. Chen blind man that year in Yandang Mountain tomb raiding, inadvertently saved his life, from that time onwards, he was dead heartedly follow Chen blind man, do a personal servant.
In addition, there is a young woman, is a jianghu buy art origin, the name of the art called “red girl”, will make all kinds of ancient color magic acrobatics, was a powerful local nobleman, to take her as a concubine, forcing the death of her father, red girl character fierce, in a fit of rage, killed the enemy full of good and lowly, fled to Hunan to fall into the grass as an invader, with a full-bodied Moon door With a full moon door skills, into the gang to do the unloading of the ridge pirates.
Chen blind man and the three men, plus Luo old crooked, respectively, dressed as merchants and goods, because the western Hunan Mangdong River Basin terrain is complex, rugged and difficult mountains, known as the “eight mountains, one water, one field,” known since ancient times, sparsely populated, the government’s ability to rule the weak, serious banditry, so a variety of different business guests, often partnering with a partner, they are Five people disguised together on the road, it is not easy to make people suspicious.
These five people, the three long and two short instruments, Ming plug dark satchel, are hidden in the body, looking at the Mangdong River line, all the way without words, into the mountains soon, is left in the ancient Miao border wall, Miao also known as “fierce”, fast-flowing Mangdong River, is to the ancient hole in the barbarians, the legend of the river on both sides of the primitive forests are, all are the ancient Miao caves with the WU Chu culture has an impact on each other, so in the eyes of the world appears to be mysterious, here everywhere in ancient times “Xuan bird” totem remains.
Chen blind man let Luo old crooked, his men that the engineers dug sub-battalion and pistol company’s hundreds of people, are ambushed in the dense forest near the ancient wall site, ready to wait for the deployment, and then a line of five wading through the water, drilling over the mountains, straight to the bottle mountain, only to see this mountain side “overlapping peaks and forests, streams and valleys,” and the hills are full of the unique Xiangxi The mountains are covered with the unique flowers of western Hunan, and there is an isolated and primitive scenery.
The people had never been to Bottle Mountain before, and they were worried about losing the road and running into fierce animals, so they didn’t dare to walk around freely, and they found the local mountain people who passed by and asked about it, and then they realized that the mountain range where the Barmao flowers bloomed everywhere was called the “Old Bear Ridge”, and after the Ridge, it was the barbaric land where people didn’t go, and the Bottle Mountain was located in the Old Bear Ridge, which was a place where people didn’t go to. “on the old bear ridge in the mountains, that ridge before a few cottages, razor and Han mixed, in addition to the Han people, there are Miao and Tujia people.
Chen blind man after probing to understand, know the front of the mountains have two cottages in the north and south, they said to the crowd: “the day before yesterday I night watch the sky, look at the Big Dipper starlight dim, think that the South Dipper note life, the North Dipper note death, since ancient times have said that we have to enter the mountains at this moment to look for the tomb, I am afraid that hard to get the time of the day, how about avoiding the north to take the south, the first to the old Bear Ridge, the south cottage in how to walk up a time? ”
The remaining four people in the bucket on the hook, traditionally blind Chen look up to as God, naturally agreed in unison, by the flower horse abduction pretending to be the goods in the front of the road, cast the mountain road southward, not long, really see a village, which is situated in the village in the strange peaks and valleys, the scenery is as beautiful as in the landscape paintings.
Walled about more than a hundred families, because the local soil more miasma, mountain poisonous grass and sand stinging vipers, so the locals do not distinguish between barbarians and hans, all and building and living, stirrups ladder and up, known as the “pole bar”, all the residential housing, all built on the mountain, to take the north-south direction, in order to avoid venomous snakes and poisonous insects, the bottom of the wooden building of the duplex structure are using Nine columns to the ground, horizontal sorghum through, so that the platform is suspended, such a building is also known as the “footlocker”, under each footlocker, and for a bird of the woods, mysterious through a little weird.
Unloading Ling group of thieves to see in the eyes, secretly remembered in the heart, turned to the walled village will play a small gong selling business, the local people are simple, the people like to barter, very little money in circulation, the production of wax dyed and ham, three snakes wine, etc., although it is located in the middle of nowhere, but outsiders are not rare, almost every month, there are a few cargo Lang to exchange mountain goods, to see foreign merchants and not strange, each take their own mountain goods to exchange for cash.
Flower ant crutch is doing the grocery business, are needles and thread brain a kind of piecemeal daily necessities, mute “Kunlun Mole” dressed as a footman, dressed up as a private trader Luo Lao crooked picking the salt, the mountain money is useless, there is no place to spend the money, the mountain people and the goods trader, has always been a barter, picking up the mountain to go to the mountain guests for the mountain, and then go outside to make a profit. The mountain people and traders have always bartered with each other.
Due to the inconvenience of deep forests in and out, the most valuable thing here is salt, salt itself has been regarded by the locals as one of the most hard currency, the natives often have a phrase: “three quintals of rice a catty of salt,” it can be said that this is a locally recognized “exchange rate”.
Chen blind man planned well in advance, they brought these things, are the mountain people are in urgent need of things, and not like ordinary goods business as much as the small profits, quite popular favor, not much effort, will do just business, and look for the local natives to discuss a few bowls of water, pretending to drink and rest, and by the way, to explore the news of the Bottle Mountain Tomb.
Chen blind man and others, under the guise of feng shui looking for a shady house, as well as listening to the name of the path in the mountains, and indeed no waste of effort from the mouth of the mountain people asked out some clues, this fierce hole in the river by the old Bear Ridge, is a large area of elevation of thousands of feet of the mountains, in the mountains in the olden days there are indeed bear traces of infestation, and now has been uncommon, it is rumored that the ancestors of the Miao people Miao King “Chi You”! is a giant bear incarnation, so this old Bear Ridge is also named, is the origin of the cave people of the sacred mountain, the forest left many monuments.
Ancient Yi people live in caves, so also known as the hole people, according to tribal distinction, a total of seventy-two holes, the old Bear Ridge there is a place called the Bottle Mountain peaks, shaped like a bottle of the sky fell to the ground, seems to be the power of God, not like artificial, that the mountain is more than a lot of unknown exotic flowers and grasses, Bottle Mountain, there is a natural cavern, inside the cave gullies, unfathomable depths, Xiangxi and the abundance of vermilion sand, lead Kung is the alchemy of the indispensable raw materials, so from the time of the Qin and Han, the various dynasties So from the time of Qin and Han, the emperors of various dynasties have been sending magicians to Bottle Mountain to make immortality elixir, and build Taoist temples in the cave, wading through the famous mountains, picking Jia Shi, will be filled with all kinds of treasures, in order to seek medicines from the immortals, just like a Taoist cave in a fairyland.
After how many dynasties how many generations nearly a thousand years of operation, the bottle mountain cave room has been the temple heavy, buildings and pavilions than on earth, but that immortality elixir has not been refined, until the Yuan destroyed the Southern Song Dynasty, the Yuan brutality, the mountain there are holes in the people can not stand to tolerate the tyranny of the people, the mob revolt, Fan soldiers and generals in the old Bear Ridge in a large number of extermination of holes in the people, killings are tragic exceptionally, the holes in the holes of the people almost slaughtered extinction, and the Yuan army due to the heat and humidity of the environment is not adapted to the mountains, the spread of plague in the army, but also folded, the army is not adapted to the hot and wet. The army due to the hot and humid environment, the spread of plague, but also a heavy loss, the generals of the army died here, the Yuan people in order to suppress the cave people, so that they will never rebel, the bottle mountain as a tomb, burying the fallen generals, caves in the Taoist temple in the rare things, are filled with the accompanying burial of the artifacts, but also the remnants of the cave people massacred and martyred, with the copper juice, iron, water and boulders to seal the mountain, the tomb is buried deep in the large Tibetan, not sealing the tree, so that the descendants will never be hair to find the tomb and the dungeon.
These legends, in the old Bear Ridge mountain people, passed on by word of mouth for hundreds of years, know that there is a huge tomb in the Bottle Mountain, but also limited to this, and then the details of the content of no one knows, after all, when the hole of the cave people are almost all decimated, Chen Blind man has heard about this, and now to the local to probe, further confirming the legend of the Bottle Mountain Tomb is not an empty cave, and then set out a number of little-known inside information! The local people to see these merchants, like a businessman.
Locals see these merchants, like to go to Bottle Mountain, where to think that this is a group of grave robbers, kindly advised, Bottle Mountain around the dense forests and steep mountains, because in the early years there are many alchemy of the precious stone, so attracted a lot of venomous insects and monsters gathered in the vicinity of that piece of fierce and evil to go, there are a million perilous, if the living people in the past, at least nine of the ten to be sent off.
Chen blind man hurriedly explained: “just foreign pass by this place, listen to this bottle mountain name is strange, can not help but curiosity, only asked a few more sentences, we are running business to make a living of this generation, how dare to go to the tomb near the walk.” Said and discussed with the mountain people, want to borrow a night in the village.
Walled elders told Chen Xiaoxia and others, here have always had rules, from refusing to stay outsiders in the walled city for the night, only because these years the mountain thieves ringing too fierce, as the saying goes, “thieves like comb, soldiers like castor, bandits like shaving,” ringing horse is a tragic bloodbath, so the night to close the door of the walled city, do not stay half of the guests from the outside world, in order to prevent a Though you are all honest people doing small business, never a murderer of goods, but still can not make an exception for you to break the rules, advise you to take advantage of the dawn, hurry out of the mountain as is.
Luo old crooked temperament is not good, usually pointing to make gas used to, a look at the people in the village refused to stay them overnight, have not seen dare not give him face Luo Marshal unruly people, scolded your grandmother, want to pull out a gun to collapse a few, Chen Blind man knew that the Luo old crooked temperament, for fear of leaking his line of hiding the bad plan, hastily pressed his hand, and carefully asked to the natives around the several roads, and hurriedly took the crowd away from the village! He was in a hurry to take the people away from the fortress.
Walked to the mountains, the sun has slanted west, Luo old crooked asked Chen blind man now how to be good? Deserted mountain wild collar even a lodging head are not, not as good as going back to the night directly into the mountains, to the bottle mountain to the so-called “military exercises”.
Chen blind man put his head looked at the sun, estimated the time, pondered for a moment, turned and said: “Luo Shuai do not have to rush for a moment, this mountain darkness early, this night for fear of rushing back, just learned from the mouth of the mountain people, the old Bear Ridge has a place to stop the body of the savings hall, why not go there to deal with a night, tomorrow morning and then to the mountains, to watch the situation of the Bottle Mountain, look at the tomb in the end! I’ll see if the tomb can be found or not.”
Saving Museum is the alias of Yi Zhuang, simple explanation is “dead people’s hotel”, this neighborhood of several cottages in many Han people, they are not to avoid military service, is to escape the rent owed to run over, there are a small portion of the people are going back and forth between the cottage to do business, due to the Yi and Han burial customs are different, once these people died in the mountains, it is the death of a foreign country, this kind of Encounter in the old concept is very taboo, are hoping to bury the bones back to the hometown, but the mountain road is rugged and remote, want to transport the body out of the mountains is exceptionally difficult, whether it is carrying the body or catching up with the body, are only once every six months. Before that, the dead bodies that have not been transported out of the mountains are concentrated in the “Yi Zhuang”, called “Zuangui”, by the various villages to raise money to hire a full-time guard, similar places in the western Hunan mountains are very common.