"Yayi, have you heard of the story of the snow leopard stele?" Zhang Tianyuan planned to deify the snow leopard in Yayi's mind more deeply, so he specially prepared a rhetoric: "This is what I saw from the teachings of the Eagle Sect. ”

"Snow Leopard Stele?" Yayi was stunned for a moment, shook his head and said, "I haven't heard of it, what is it?"

Zhang Tianyuan gently patted Yayi's shoulder and said, "The reason why Venerable Snow Leopard chose the snow leopard as his mount and pet is not for nothing. In the high mountains and valleys of the Hengduan Mountains, in the jungles and grasses of the Yunnan, Sichuan and Tibet 'Great Triangle' areas, there is a mysterious ancient road, which is the 'Ancient Tea Horse Road', one of the world's highest ancient roads for the transmission of civilization and culture......"

"Wait a minute, what is the Ancient Tea Horse Road?" asked Yaichi suspiciously.

"The Ancient Tea Horse Road originated from the 'Tea and Horse Market' in the Tang and Song dynasties. Because Kang and Tibet belong to the alpine region, the altitude is more than three or four thousand meters, tsamba, milk, ghee, beef and mutton are the staple food of the Tibetan people. In the alpine region, it is necessary to consume high calorie fat, but there is no vegetable, tsamba is hot and dry, too much fat is not easy to decompose in the human body, and tea can not only decompose fat, but also prevent dryness and heat, so the Tibetans have created a plateau living habit of drinking butter tea in their long-term life, but Tibet does not produce tea. In the interior, a large number of mules and horses are needed for civil servants and military conquests, but the supply exceeds demand, while Tibetan areas and the border areas of Sichuan and Yunnan produce good horses. As a result, the complementary trade of tea and horses, known as the 'tea and horse market', came into being. In this way, mules, horses, furs, and medicinal herbs produced in Tibetan areas and the border areas of Sichuan and Yunnan, as well as tea, cloth, salt, and daily utensils produced in Sichuan, Yunnan, and the interior, flow endlessly from south to north through the high mountains and deep valleys of the Hengduan Mountains. And with the development of social economy, it has become more and more prosperous, forming a 'Ancient Tea Horse Road' that continues to this day. ”

Seeing Yayi, he was still a little stunned. Zhang Tianyuan continued: "And one of the caravans that walked on this ancient tea horse road was from the Eagle Sect. ”

The other Yayi may not care. But as soon as he mentioned the Eagle Sect, he was obviously a little anxious, and hurriedly urged Zhang Tianyuan to go down.

Liu Ruohan was speechless in his heart - alas, another poor child is about to be fooled.

"The protagonist of this thousand-year-old road, in addition to driving horses and horses, there is also an animal, that is, their guard dogs, in addition to the continuous rain and fog, treacherous mountains and mountains, there are jackals, tigers and leopards and bandits harassment from time to time. In a caravan of up to hundreds of mules and horses. The dogs were responsible for dispersing the wild beasts along the way, and kept watch for their masters at night when the caravan camped. Dogs are their brothers to the caravan. Of course, this is only for most caravans, our Eagle Sect's caravans are followers of the Snow Leopard Venerable, so their guardians are those snow leopards, although the climate outside is a little hotter than on the snow field, but after running around for a long time, the snow leopards are gradually adapting. ”

Zhang Tianyuan was very calmly talking about things that were not mentioned in the doctrine. But Yayi didn't know, Yayi's eyes widened nervously when he heard this.

In fact, it's not just him, like all the people in Snow Eagle Village. I was very interested in this story, and I really wanted to hear it.

"It's on this Ancient Tea Horse Road, here. There was once a special monument. This is what the followers of the Eagle Cult who walk on this vast ancient road set up for the snow leopard whom they regard as their 'brothers'. This stone stele, known as the 'Monument of Loyalty', is located in a dense forest in Bolie Village, Enle Town, Yi Hani and Lahu Autonomous County, Zhenyuan County, Yunzhou Province. ”

"Monument of loyalty, but I've heard that the outside world is the reason for the monument. Is that because people are dead or animals are dead? That's what Professor Li told me, and there's nothing wrong with that. Could it be that a snow leopard is dead?" asked Yaichi nervously.

Zhang Tianyuan sighed, as if he had been immersed in this story.

"The brother commemorated in the Monument of Loyalty is, of course, a snow leopard, belonging to a gang of horses from the Snow Eagle Cult. About a thousand years ago, a group of Eagle Sect Tea Horse Gang from the distant Snow Plain marched to the territory of Zhenyuan County, and slept in the mountains and forests around Huojiayakou in Enle Town at night, following the horse gang all the way through the mountains and rivers, and a snow leopard raised by the horse gang leader, in the jungle near the Polle River, Ma Guotou, well, that is, the horse gang leader drank too much at night, and still had a hangover when he went on the road the next morning. When he camped again that night, Ma Guotou found that one of the money bags where he had stored gold and silver was missing, and remembered that he had been drunk last night and had accidentally lost the money bag in the jungle by the Boreh River. However, it was no longer possible to turn back and look for the huge caravanserais. ”

When I set off again the next morning, the snow leopard guardian beast, which had been inseparable from Ma Guotou after walking thousands of mountains and rivers, also mysteriously disappeared. Ma Guotou sent people to look around in the nearby mountains and forests, but there was no shadow of a snow leopard. The horse team had no choice but to continue on its journey. More than ten days later, when the caravan returned from Pu'er with tea leaves and crossed the jungle on the banks of the Boreh River again, Ma Guotou saw the snow leopard, which was regarded as a brother by the Eagle Sect and the caravan—under the big tree where he used to drink, the body of the Tibetan mastiff was stiff, and under the corpse was the money bag that the owner had lost here. ”

"At this moment, Ma Guotou understood: although food could be found in the nearby mountains and forests, the snow leopard found its owner's lost property and guarded it every inch until he starved to death!"

"Ahh Yayi was very unhappy with that horse pot head in his heart, but he couldn't say it, after all, it was the predecessor of the Eagle Sect, and the people of the Eagle Sect were already in a not very safe environment at that time, in order to survive, they had to go out to do business and make money, which was really too difficult for him, but the death of this snow leopard was a pity.

"The snow leopard's righteous act touched all the horse riders in the caravan. Under the leadership of Ma Guotou, dozens of horsemen stood with their heads bowed neatly, and hundreds of horses lined up in a neat square to look up to the sky and neigh—for the loyalty of a snow leopard. “

After the tragic funeral, the caravan erected a stone monument for the loyal snow leopard here, which will be remembered forever. In the future, whenever the Arima Gang passed by this place, they would come to the monument to stop and pay respects, and leave a rich meat dish for the starving snow leopard. ”

"Alas, it's true that animals can be loyal to such an extent, and people are sometimes really inferior to these animals. Liu Ruohan originally listened to it as a joke, but when she listened to it, she was suddenly moved, although she knew that Zhang Tianyuan's story was made up, but even so, she was still moved.

"In fact, when it comes to the snow leopard, once the animal is identified as its owner, its loyalty may not be worse than that of the Tibetan mastiff. Songzan Depu finally found a chance to speak at this time, he knew that Zhang Tianyuan wanted to express the loyalty of the snow leopard, so naturally he wanted to help a little.

"That happened in the seventies of the last century, in order to complete the national defense mapping task, a certain survey and mapping team stationed in a certain place was ordered to go to the snowfield area. At that time, the uninhabited area of the snowfield was inaccessible, and wolves, bears and other wild beasts were infested, and the troops were scattered in the field operation area within a radius of several hundred miles according to the small detachment formation, and lived in the temporary tents set up for half a year in spring and summer. ”

"At first, apart from the guns and guns, the troops were almost bare-handed, and the vigilance was high during the day, and the wild beasts had no chance to attack; but after sleeping peacefully at night, the wild beasts often came to the camp to raid the camp when they saw the empty spots, which was difficult to guard, and casualties occurred from time to time, and the officers and men were very troubled by this. ”

For the sake of the lives of the officers and soldiers, the troops had no choice but to lift the ban and allow the teams stationed abroad to adopt the snow leopard cubs. As a result, working in the field, sleeping peacefully late at night, day after day, accompanied and cared for by the Tibetan mastiff, the troops no longer had casualties caused by wild beasts. ”

Half a year has passed in a blink of an eye, and the snow leopard cubs brought in in the spring have grown into mighty adult leopards. The weather is gradually getting cooler, and winter on the plateau is just around the corner, and while the heavy snow has not yet closed the road, the troops have to withdraw to the interior for repairs. At that time, the road back to the interior was long and distant, but what should be done about these snow leopards? Although there was no such thing as protecting animals at that time, leopards were different from dogs, so they could not be taken back to the interior casually; for this reason, the officers and men of the unit were very troubled and returned to the original Tibetans, but the problem was that the snow leopards no longer pleaded with their old masters; how could the snow leopards be brought back to the interior in the special era when they were brought back to their temporary station? Therefore, the head of the unit ruthlessly ordered the whole regiment to march to Lhasa, and the Tibetan mastiffs were all abandoned in their original places. ”

"More than 3,000 miles from the no-man's land to Syracuse, the liberation truck walked from one military station to another for several weeks. On the first day, the snow leopards ran and ran with the trucks, and each military station was separated by two or three hundred miles, and dozens of snow leopards ran to the military station at night, and at night many of them followed the trucks to the military station...... A week passed, and not a single snow leopard was seen in the back of the troops' truck. ”

"No, that's a little too cruel. When Liu Ruohan heard this, he said with some complaints.

"Then what's the way, you can't take it away, and you can't go back, so you can only let it go. At that time, if you couldn't help but bring it back, it is estimated that you will be killed and eat meat, and you children like you don't understand in that special era. Songzan Depu said.

"Who said I didn't understand. Liu Ruohan said unconvinced.

"Okay, Mr. Yayi, you have heard it, the snow leopard is not a ferocious beast, they can also be a good companion of humans, the snow leopard Venerable probably saw this at the beginning, so he chose the snow leopard as his mount and pet. Zhang Tianyuan actually knew very well that the protagonist in Songzan Depu's story was originally a Tibetan mastiff, but in order to help him, he directly chose to transfer flowers and trees and turned the Tibetan mastiff into a snow leopard.

He had heard the story before, and it was true, but it was difficult for Songzan Depu to be sorry, after all, his senior brother was not as "like" to lie as he was. (To be continued......)