Chapter 7 The Temple of the City God

Going to the deep mountains and old forests to find medicine and treasure is not to walk the street, not to visit the supermarket, that is a technology, is a knowledge. Mo said that Luo Sanpao, a group of half-sized people who had not dried up their milk, even those experienced and well-equipped old hunters did not dare to enter the mountain alone, let alone this devil who was full of evil nature? In addition, the conditions of the baby army were not at all like now, and there were no tactical spotlights, mountaineering picks, compressed biscuits, and other mountain-prospecting equipment and materials. The only equipment and supplies that the Wazi Army could provide were a few stick noodles, a few torn cotton jackets, a few fruits and an axe for chopping wood, which was found by the Wazi Army on the corpse of a woodcutter, and the corpse had already been gnawed beyond recognition by wild beasts.

But as the saying goes, born calves are not afraid of tigers, Luo Sanpao relied on his experience in running rivers and lakes in his early years and the skills he learned, plus half of the secret book he memorized in his chest. And Hu Biaozi, since he was a child, he is bold, big, full of fire, a stick of beggars fights, he is the blackest, usually eating is holding a piece of steamed buns in one hand, biting a piece in his mouth, and still stuck in his throat, although he is only fourteen or fifteen years old at this time, but two or three adults together may not be cheap. And the dog baby, although short in stature, but light and agile, in the early years of the pickpocket, very alert, good at improvisation, once a green head some money, unfortunately was caught a current, Leng is alone from the crowd escaped, the baby army counted his relationship with Hu Biaozi is the most iron, this exploration of the mountain involves everyone's life and death, the dog baby volunteered to explore the mountain with Luo Hu and the two.

Early the next morning, Hu Biaozi gathered the rest of the baby army together, instructed how to distribute the remaining grain in the next two weeks, and agreed with everyone that if they did not come back within two weeks, everyone would rush down the mountain to find a way to survive before the heavy snow closed the mountain. After the instructions, he embarked on the road of exploring the mountain with the three guns and the dog baby in the drizzle. The baby soldiers were reluctant to say goodbye in tears.

The mouth of the devil is full of fog all the year round, and there are many poisonous insects and beasts, so no outsiders dare to break in rashly all year round, but at this time, it happens to be the cold season of early winter, the cold current in Siberia is moving to the east of the earth, the temperature plummets, and the cold air makes the fog miasma in the mountain converge a lot, which makes the trip of the three guns have a little advantage in the sky. After the three of them resigned from the Wazi Army, they followed the weeds in the direction of due north to the deep mountains, and after walking for a while, they took a few stones and put them together as road signs, so as not to get lost when they came back. It took less than twenty minutes to follow the usual road to explore the mountain, and they came to the fog miasma at the mouth of the devil, and the three of them looked back at the cave where the baby army lived again, and then plunged into the fog miasma.

As the saying goes, "the avenue is traceless and true, and the mountain is explored to find the veins to show the dragon's body". Not long after Luo Sanpao entered the fog, he found that the mountain at the mouth of the devil was much larger than he had predicted. The so-called mountain posture refers to the momentum and shape of a mountain. The great poet Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty said that the mountain of Mount Tai said: "How is Dai Zongfu, Qi Lu Qingwei, the creation of a kind of divine show, yin and yang cut dusk." "The mountain shape of the devil's mouth looks like a coiling dragon from a distance, but up close, it does look like a big python with a big mouth. At this time, although Luo Sanpao had just entered the mouth of the devil, with many years of experience in traveling south and north, he could already feel the majesty of this mountain, and he couldn't help but be careful in his heart. In fact, most of Luo Sanpao's psychological induction comes from the fear of the unknown, but some of it is indeed related to his experience and experience in walking on the rivers and lakes for many years.

The road was full of waist-length weeds, and Hu Biaozi walked in the front, using an axe to cut through thorns and thorns to open the way. Luo Sanpao and Gou Wazi walked next to and behind Biaozi respectively, observing whether there were valuable herbs or poisons around them. There are few people in and out of this devil's mouth mountain all year round, except for the occasional bird chirping in the mountain, there is only the sound of three people walking, which can be described as surprisingly quiet. The dog baby is not a lonely person, and after walking a mountain road, he began to let go of his voice and shouted about the mountain. The so-called shouting mountain is a way for the ancient working people to revere the mountain god, and pray to the mountain god for peace and good weather by shouting songs. Legend has it that in the deep mountains and old forests, there are often ghosts hitting the wall, that is, many people will go back and forth in the same place on the mountain, in this case, you can crack it by shouting the mountain, and the louder the shouting, the dirtier the words, the better the effect. Later, this set of skills was learned by many people who ate mountains and explored the mountains, and it became a method of self-protection. And the mountain song sung by the dog baby is not a serious learning, in the early years he used to have a meal in the casino area, and after a long time, he learned so much.

"Today's God of Wealth is in the world, all the gods gather in one, the world's money and food are my family, I come to take my family wealth today, please Taishang Laojun Commander Liu, please come to the Buddha Zhao Kuangyin on the right, you play money to make me rich, the top is a jack, the bottom is a lantern leg, I am wearing a 10,000-year-old tortoise shell, stepping on the Yin and Yang five watch boots, and the gold digger who takes the wealth and divides the money, I am the fairy in the Qianqiu dice, I sleep on the kang head and you are frozen, I gnaw the bones and you drink soup, I eat steamed buns and you eat the northwest wind, you send money to me to play money。。。。。。 Although the dog baby's body is thin, his voice is low, vigorous and powerful, and he sings loudly, and there is a smell of Qin dialect between the tunes.

The dog baby showed her bared teeth and said, "What kind of demons and monsters, listen to my voice, you have to extinguish me." I think that when I lived in the market, I begged for **** food, and drank water. Singing a few treasures in the morning, sleeping in a thousand graves at night, there was a strange thing that happened once, if it weren't for my voice, I'm afraid I would have to kill and injure countless people. . . . ”

It is said that once, the dog baby and his brother Little Clam went to the outside of the largest silver hook gambling house in the county at night, and found a cat in the horn, ready to try their luck to play a double reed to steal a ticket. There are many forms of so-called double reeds in the Tao, but most of them refer to the fact that one person is responsible for attracting the attraction of the person who is stolen, and the other person is responsible for stealing. For example, a person from the south went to the master to shave his head, put a package next to the head shaver, and when he was halfway through the shave, a person from the north walked behind the man and winked at the head shaver, indicating that he was a friend of the man and was going to play a prank on him, and then he took the package away. The shaving master thought it was true, and did not stop it, and waited to see the jokes of the guests, and when the shaving head was finished, the guests saw that the package was gone, and the shaving craftsman held back a bad laugh and told him that the package was taken by his friend, and the guest who played the double reed must shake his head and say that he did not know that person, and he wanted to chase the person who took the bag with the shaver. When the head shaving master comes back, the guests are gone, and the guy who eats by himself is also lost, which is singing double reeds. Although the age of the dog baby and the little clam is young, they have also sung a double reed many times, of course, there are also performances when the time comes, but most of the gambling houses are located in the Qinglou smoke house, nine bends and eighteen bends, there are many people and many eyes, once they are discovered, the two children can run far away with their legs, and ordinary people will not care about children. Speaking of that time, the dog baby and the little clam waited outside the gambling house for a long time, and saw a fat man with a big belly from the gambling house was respectfully sent out by a few young men, the person's face looked very blurred from a distance, but a few handful of whiskers were snow-white and dazzling, very eye-catching, although a little hunchbacked, but the shot was very generous, and when he went out, he touched a handful of broken silver from his sleeve and gave it to a few small guys. Shaking his hand, he staggered to the door alone.

As soon as the dog baby and the little clam looked like a fat ticket, they were all interested, ready to find the fat man. The two quietly followed the fat man, ready to find a place where no one was around. The reason why the two chose to play the double reed in the middle of the night was actually to pretend to be a ghost and scary, and then wait for the opportunity to get their property by half-stealing and half-robbing. At this moment, seeing that the direction of the white fat man's walk was the City God Temple, the dog baby frowned. According to the time, it was almost half past ten in the evening, which was considered curfew time, there was no one on the street at all, and there were no residents living in the City God Temple. The two of them didn't say anything all the way, and followed cautiously. The white fat man was strange to say, with a big belly, and although he walked swaying, unhurried, he didn't make any sound!

When the dog baby saw that the fat man had really gone to the City God Temple, he couldn't help but get nervous. In the past, when he was begging for food under the overpass, he had heard the old people tell many legends in the City God Temple, one of which was that he did not enter the temple at midnight and entered the temple to see the judge. The reason is that the City God Temple has been regarded as the office of the City God Lord since ancient times, and the City God is said to be the magistrate of the underworld, and the county order of the Netherworld. The dog baby was hiding in the corner and hesitated, just when he hesitated, the little clam next to him made a move, and saw that the white fat man was about to walk into the City God Temple, so he "swished", left the hidden corner, and walked towards the white fat man in small steps, ready to scare him and steal money while he was in chaos. The dog baby saw that the little clam was so bold, and he was still here with fear, a little ashamed, and just wanted to move away to cooperate with the little clam, but saw that the little clam that was approaching the white fat man at the moment suddenly did not move. The time has come.

The little clam was only a foot away from the white fat man at the moment, but his whole body was burned to the ground as if it had been filled with lead, and he couldn't move. The white fat man turned around slightly at this time, and a bloodless face appeared in front of the little clam without expression, only to see that the big face had extremely smooth skin, but the face was as pale as a dead man, only a pair of small eyes flashed with a green light. But in the time of turning around, the face seemed to change again, the big face slowly sunken down, the smooth skin became wrinkled, and slowly, the chin began to lengthen and sharpen, and the expressionless face seemed to smile slightly at himself, and then the little clam lost consciousness and stood there.

And these were all seen by the dog hiding in the corner, although from his point of view, the white fat man was still the white fat man, but after turning around, his companion Little Clam was there, not moving. The dog baby, the heart barks badly, and he wants to snatch the little clam back at the moment. But at this moment, dozens of people dressed in black rough cloth came out of the City God Temple, and everyone lifted the little clams together and hurriedly carried them into the City God Temple, and the white fat man looked around again. , then turn around and enter the temple as well.

Enough baby, at a glance, the heart is so tight, knowing that something abnormal must have a demon, hurriedly followed, the temple gate did not dare to enter, so along the temple wall quietly touched under the paper window. Although the dog baby is short in stature, he usually likes to steal chickens and touch dogs, and over time, he has also developed the ability to climb houses and walls, and he is just using it at this moment. The dog baby pierced the paper window with his fingers, and secretly looked inside by the candlelight of the candle dedicated to the city god in the city god temple. It doesn't matter if you look at it, it really scares the dog baby in a cold sweat.

At this time, I saw a big cauldron in the middle of the temple in the city god temple, a few firewood were burning under the iron pot, and there seemed to be some liquid boiling in the ditch. A black-clad servant or retinue was stirring the liquid in the pot with a shovel. The little clam was already completely unconscious at this time, tied to a wooden shelf, and several black-clothed men stood on its left and right. Above the lobby, the most conspicuous thing is that a person wearing court clothes and official boots on his feet, who looks like a county magistrate is sitting in the main hall. There were more than a dozen black house slaves of different fat and thin standing in the lobby, and the white fat man was kneeling in the center of the main hall at this time, reporting something to the county lord. It is said that the old man of the city god often sends the yin to lock up the guilty people, and then correct the law, including digging out the heart, digging out the liver, getting into the oil pot, and going to the knife mountain. I thought it was just absurd nonsense, but I didn't expect to be met by him today.

At this time, the oil pot had been boiled, and there was a stinging sound from the iron pot from time to time, emitting a smell of green smoke. The two housekeepers pressed the little clam to its knees in the hall. I saw that the county magistrate, with a stroke of his pen, drew a circle on a large piece of white paper and threw it on the ground. Then the family picked up the little clam and slowly dragged it to the oil pot. At this time, the dog baby saw that the life of the little clam was in an instant, and if he didn't make a move, he would have to see his brother being blown up alive. In the early years, I heard a person who worked as a corpse chaser in Xiangxi say that if you encounter a ghost in the middle of the night, you can use a rooster to break it. At that moment, the dog baby didn't care about the danger he was in, so he had enough strength to shout the sound of a rooster crow. This sound was vigorous and powerful, majestic and piercing, like a thunderbolt across the sky.

It's strange to say, just after the rooster crow, the county magistrate, the white fat man and the black family in the lobby all disappeared. There was only a big cat, a big white mouse, and dozens of black mice skewering around in the lobby, and the white paper painted on the lobby was gone, only a large fish skin and a few cat paw prints were left on it.