Faced with Jin An's questioning.
The old Taoist priest pulled Jin An into the main hall of the Taoist temple in a somewhat mysterious manner, as if he was afraid that the walls had ears and would be heard.
The main hall of the Five Zang Taoist Temple.
There are several statues enshrined in total. In addition to the Sanqing saints, there is also the founder of the Five Zang Taoism sect.
Under the gaze of four statues of gods.
The old Taoist priest then said mysteriously: "Little brother, there are some hidden things in this."
"Those soldiers died not easily."
"Donor Ma's dead son is named Ma San. He is the third eldest son in the family and has been working as a local yong in the Yong Camp in Fucheng."
"This Ma San is very impressive. Because he has been able to eat since he was a child and is stronger than ordinary people. In addition, he went to private school for several years and knows some words, so he became a senior leader in the Yongying camp."
"Shi Chang can be regarded as a moderate official. He is in charge of ten local warriors."
"This time, more than half of the soldiers and warriors who went down to Qiankudong died. However, the official publicity was that the river suddenly surged and the people who went down to Qiankudong had no time to escape, so half of them were drowned..."
"Actually, that's not the case. There's something else hidden in it."
The robe of an old Taoist priest is indeed very suitable for activities among the people, because it is easy to gain the psychological kindness of ordinary people.
Therefore, the old Taoist priest just went out for a tour and actually got a lot of secret information from Mr. Ma's family.
"Just now, when I was comforting donor Ma and his family, I accidentally learned the truth... Those people did drown in the Thousand Cave Cave, but it was different from ordinary drowning."
"According to the remaining people who escaped, more than a thousand people set up camp at the beginning, rested for a night, and recharged their energy. The morning fog of the next morning had not yet cleared, and they started descending into Qianku Cave."
"It went smoothly at the beginning. There was nothing abnormal. These more than a thousand people were scattered in the Thousand Cave Cave. Although they could not explore all the caves, they had the advantage of numbers and continued to explore deeper and steadily, and they would eventually be able to find the end."
"And along the way, many floating corpses were also found."
"Those floating corpses, I heard described by those who escaped, had skin that was soaked and turned white, but there were no obvious signs of decay. In short, they were very evil."
"But when it comes to the most evil sect, it has to be the Thousand Cave Cave."
"There is a different cave inside, and the caves are connected. The more these more than a thousand people walked in, the more they discovered that this underwater cave is so big that it extends in all directions. No matter how you walk, you can't reach the end. It's just like an enchanted cave. What do you think, little brother?
Is the evil door evil? That's more than a thousand people entering the cave together, not a hundred or so people, more than a thousand people are not a small number, tsk tsk."
"As we walked further in, we encountered more and more corpses. I don't know when a layer of mist began to float in the cave."
"This layer of mist is not corpse miasma, and no one has been poisoned. There is nothing unusual about it. The officer leading the team thought it was the mist caused by the heavy cold and humidity in the cave, so he didn't take it seriously at first."
"Later, the officer leading the team calculated the time and realized that it was going to be dark outside soon, so it was not appropriate to stay in the cave overnight, so he planned to order people to retreat first, but something went wrong during the retreat."
"There is a unique cave under this thousand caves, which seems to be able to confuse people's five senses. The officer calculated that it should still be daytime outside, but he didn't know that it was already dark outside. When more than a thousand people withdrew half of them, the flow was cut off.
The river water suddenly surged without warning and poured into the dry river bed, drowning the remaining half of the people who had not had time to evacuate under the cave."
"I heard from those who escaped that the scene was so horrific that many people had no time to escape. They didn't even scream, and were swept back to the depths of the cave by the influx of river water."
According to what the old Taoist priest said next, with such heavy casualties this time, no one among the dozen or so mounted guards, including the deputy commander, escaped the disaster.
The officers who led the troops were at the front when they were advancing, so when they retreated and turned around to go in the opposite direction, they were at the back and responsible for cutting off the rear.
As a result, before he had time to evacuate the cave, he was drowned in the cave by the backflow of the river, and no one escaped.
This incident had a great impact on morale.
The remaining half of the people who escaped in embarrassment finally fled back to Fucheng in embarrassment.
Later, in order to stabilize people's hearts, the government concealed the matter and was not allowed to mention it to the people.
Only the relatives of the victims were notified.
Even the relatives of the victims did not know about the series of strange things that happened under the cave. They only said that the river flowed back and they drowned.
Later, there was a neighbor next door who was also a Xiangyong. He saw that Mr. Ma not only sent the white-haired man to the black-haired man, but also could not see his son and his body for the last time. He couldn't bear it, so he secretly told Mr. Ma the truth about Ma San's death.
family.
Those people were all drowned on the same day they went down to Qiancao Cave, but the remaining people fled back to the capital, and then sent out cavalry guards to investigate and confirm, and then the officials compiled the roster, which took some time.
, so it was not until today, two days later, that the news of the death was notified door to door.
Then, Mr. Ma and his family approached the old Taoist priest.
Tell the truth.
They begged the old Taoist priest to summon Ma San's soul so that they could see Ma San one last time.
But even the old Taoist priests can't do anything about it.
Because Ma San died underwater, water is a black evil that can suppress evil spirits and arrest the soul. People who drown will be trapped underwater forever and will never be able to get to the shore.
Unless a scapegoat is found, this underwater water ghost cannot come ashore.
Therefore, even if the old Taoist priest wanted to summon the soul, he could not summon Ma San's soul.
This time, the Yinyi River mysteriously stopped flowing overnight and then mysteriously resumed flowing again overnight, swallowing up hundreds of people. It can be said that Fucheng suffered heavy losses.
How many families have experienced life and death, losing their husbands, sons, and fathers. Jin An and the old Taoist priests all sighed.
Mr. Ma's whole family cried for a whole day, which clearly shows the grief of the white-haired man sending the black-haired man away.
…
It's night, and it's late at night.
After nightfall, there is another high-rise courtyard in Fucheng. This is Hefu, one of the three major herbal medicine merchants in Fucheng.
The style of He Mansion is as majestic as the two stone lions in front of the door, which are about ten feet high. They have high walls with green tiles, loops around the world, and carved beams and painted buildings.
The He Mansion occupies a large area and is one of the best even in the city. It has rockeries, bridge railings, flowing water, flower gardens, and exotic flowers and trees. It is as prosperous as a small palace.
Zhen'e is a servant in He Mansion. Because her family was poor, she was sold by her parents to be a servant in He Mansion since she was a child. When she was a child, her family was poor and the food rations were not enough. She could only eat well if she entered a wealthy family and became a servant.
, there is a way to survive.
But Zhen'e never blamed her parents.
On the contrary, I feel that it is quite good to serve the servants in the He Mansion. At least I can have enough to eat, and the Master and Mrs. He Mansion are not unkind to their servants.
I can go home to visit my relatives for one day every month. After working for ten years, I can still get wages every month.
So Zhen'e is really contented.
In He Mansion, the servants lived in the lower chambers in the lower courtyard. There were several lower chambers in one lower courtyard.
There were a total of six people living in the lower room where Zhen'e was.
The six of them were servants in He Mansion's laundry room who were responsible for starching clothes and sheets. But for some reason, after nightfall, Zhen'e lay on the bed and tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep.
On the contrary, the other five people in the same lower room were all sleeping soundly.
Just when Zhen'e couldn't sleep, snap, snap...
There were footsteps outside the lower room.
Zhen'e quickly covered her head with the quilt, thinking to herself that the only person who was still awake so late was the old woman.
I heard that it had been more than 40 years since Old Mammy was sold to the He Mansion. The housekeeper of He Mansion saw that Old Mammy was old and could not do heavy work, so he asked Old Mammy to take charge of their lower house.
As the old ladies get older, they tend to suffer from insomnia, so they often wake up at night to check on who is up and chatting, which delays their getting up early the next morning to serve the house.
The old nanny is very strict with them, so the sisters in this lower courtyard are all afraid of the old nanny.
Zhen'e covered herself in the quilt and listened for a while. When she felt that the old woman's footsteps were far away, she immediately took the quilt away.
After being covered in the quilt for such a while, the person was already so hot that he was sweating profusely.
She gasped for air, almost suffocating herself to death under the quilt just now.
But who knew, pata, pata...
Just as she got her head out of the quilt, the sound of footsteps walking away in the yard was heard again. She was so frightened that Zhen'e covered her head in the quilt again, her heart was beating loudly, and she was extremely nervous.
It seemed that the old nanny saw that there was no movement in the lower room. After the footsteps lingered at the door for a while, she turned and left again.
Zhen'e hid under the quilt and secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
But the quilt was too stuffy.
My head was always covered with the quilt, making me feel hot and suffocated.
To be continued...