"Ritsu ......."

The carriage drove to the entrance of the village, and Xiao Shuangyi pulled the stiff rope and stopped the carriage.

The blacksmith's workshop was crowded with people at this time, as if it was going to celebrate a certain festival, but the heart-rending cry from the furnace was in stark contrast to the atmosphere of this festival, and there was a taste of joy and sorrow of a few families.

Xiaoshuang saw Liu Qingqing in the crowd, at this time he was wearing a golden black crown on his head, wearing embroidered gold clothes, and wearing bracelets around his neck, hands and feet, and the ankle rings added up to dozens of catties.

It was the first time for Xiaoshuang to see her wear such a grand outfit, and there was a refreshing feeling. Liu Huai followed behind her, beckoning a large group of people gathered around.

These people are dressed in a variety of colors, and they should be people from various villages in the Yue country.

Seeing this, Xiaoshuang and Wu Poison got out of the carriage, and Liu Qingqing led someone to greet them.

"Just wait for the two of you, the furnace has been completed, and after sacrificing to the god of fire, you can open the furnace to make iron."

I see, no wonder it's so grand, it's really fast.

"Then let's go to the furnace first and prepare for it, so that we can sacrifice and open the furnace."

Wu Poison said.

As soon as he spoke, the crowd of onlookers behind him immediately gave way to a way, and Wu Poison walked over to the refining furnace first, with Liu Qingqing and Xiaoshuang following behind him.

At this time, Xiaoshuang saw that the source of the cry was next to the refining furnace.

Beside the furnace, two women were crying with a five or six-year-old boy in their arms, and it was obvious that it was a boy and a girl.

The crying voice was already a little hoarse, obviously she had been crying for a long time, but she still couldn't stop the reluctance and emotion that the child's mother wanted to express.

Behind the two women stood two depressed men, with sad faces and a sad face.

There was a group of Liuzhai people in the back, probably their relatives or something, some were persuading something, and some were just standing like this, with a sad face.

When the high priest approached them, the mother of the two children began to weep in a hoarse voice, as if she was about to die.

The two children seemed to be unaware, and they were looking around with two pairs of big dripping eyes, seeing how lively it was today.

"What's going on?" Xiaoshuang pointed to the pair of crying women and asked Liu Qingqing.

"This pair of children was chosen to sacrifice to the god of fire, this is a rule handed down from generations of furnace sacrifices, and there is no way to do it."

The use of living sacrifices and burials of living people seems to be part of the ancient wizard culture, which has been deeply rooted in the hearts of these villagers, and they will feel unlucky to sacrifice to immortal people.

But as a modern person, how can you allow such a unconscionable thing to happen? But he can't be the enemy of everyone, what should he do? What to do? Xiaoshuang scratched his head and thought.

Dressed in a fiery red costume, with oil paint on his face and feathers on his head, he was dressed like a bird, dancing an unknown dance around the furnace, shaking a copper bell and chanting an ancient incantation in his mouth.

Suddenly, the black poison stopped beating, knelt down and kowtowed to the furnace mouth repeatedly, and said: "Light the fire, open the furnace, and send sacrifices." ”

Liu Qingqing walked over and stuffed the torch that had been prepared for her into the furnace, a flame mixed with thick smoke rushed into the sky, and the four guards rushed up, ready to push away the child's mother, take the child, throw it into the furnace, and complete the sacrifice.

"It's ...... My child, it's my ...... Child! No one of you, you beasts, can take him away from me! No one! Like two octopuses, the mother of the two children wrapped the children from head to toe, and in the face of the tearing of the guards, she did not back down, and made a final struggle to denounce their sins with all her might.

This made Xiaoshuang think of his mother, although he usually scolded, but the heart of the son would definitely not be worse than the two in front of him.

He has to save them, save them, or he will not be at peace.

What can be done, remember that Liu Qingshan sacrificed in modern society, and burned paper people and paper horses. But now it's too late to do it.

Let me think about it again, in the 5,000-year history of China, what can replace the use of human sacrifice.

When the two guards saw that they couldn't pull away, one of them raised a palm and hit the back of the neck, and the woman's eyes immediately lost their luster and she fainted.

The other hastily stripped the child out of the woman's hand, and the woman, deprived of the child's support, fell to the ground, her hair scattered all over the ground.

The other two guards did the same, peeled the other child out, and walked towards the furnace.

At this time, the two children knew that they were afraid, kicked their calves, and cried "wow".

But it was too late, and the four guards were already gathering their strength backwards, ready to throw them into the furnace.

"Slow."

A loud roar resounded through the crowd, scaring everyone, and the four guards also stopped their hands and looked over to the place where the sound was made, to see who had the courage to dare to stop the sacrifice, which would be the target of the public, the public enemy of the whole village.

"You can't stop sacrificing what you do, but if you offend the gods, you will bring calamity." Wu Poison said to Xiaoshuang very seriously.

"That is, that is, if you offend the gods, can you afford it? Some villagers chimed in.

"If you make a mistake in your sacrifice, don't you offend the gods?

As soon as everyone heard this, they immediately judged that something was wrong and became skeptical.

"I've always been so sacrificial, how could I be wrong?" Wu Poison insisted on his opinion, and immediately someone echoed him.

"Okay, then let me ask you, was the copper furnace or the iron furnace you used to sacrifice for?

"Copper furnace." Wu Wei replied.

In other words, you have never sacrificed to the iron furnace, so you do not know that the sacrifice of the iron furnace is not a virgin boy or a girl, but human hair, which is called the hair of the body and the parents of the body. It contains the essence of people, it is the best sacrifice to the god of fire, if you use this method to sacrifice the copper furnace, the effect will be better, believe it or not, but try it now. ”

Everyone at the scene knew that this stove was made according to the drawings he had drawn, and the authority of his brick family could not be questioned.

"In that case, let those two children go and cut my hair!" Liu Qingqing spoke.

Since there is a substitute, she is not willing to kill more, after all, it is two lives, and this head must also be taken by her.

Everyone gathered firewood and the flame was high, and soon they collected a lot of hair and threw it in, and the stove emitted a burnt smell like roasted pig hair.

Then two men came over with a sickle, an axe, and at most a pot, but they didn't see a decent piece of iron.

The two servants threw the iron tools into it, and after a while, the temperature of the charcoal fire reached the extreme point of the furnace under the urging of the bellows, and the iron tools flowed out.

Xiaoshuang also breathed a sigh of relief, if the iron-making was not successful this time, these villagers might take their anger out on him, and it was not necessary to throw him in and sacrifice him, and it would be better to do less of such a good thing next time.

The man standing behind the two women picked up the child, and after throwing a grateful look at Xiaoshuang, he looked viciously behind Liu Qingqing.

Xiaoshuang turned around, but found that it was Liu Huai, and found that he was like a child who had been wronged, bowing his head, not daring to look at people, and it was estimated that he must have made the matter of choosing sacrifices.

"It's all pot iron."

Xiaoshuang asked Liu Qingqing, which reminded him of the saying that you have to break the pot with pig iron.

"The Great Xuanguo implements a monopoly on salt and iron, iron is a control material, only the people's materials are still good to get, such as pots, axes, sickles and the like, Fang Meng can get these, and he has exhausted all his strength."

Seeing the red, high-temperature molten iron flowing out of the furnace, the black poison seemed to be enchanted, shaking his head and walking around in front of the furnace, muttering in his mouth.

"That's okay, that's okay, why didn't I think of it? ……”。

Apparently blaming himself, it was human life that was thrown into the furnace.

Xiaoshuang didn't dare to tell him that if he didn't put sacrifices, he could still smelt iron by burning it like this.

But that is against the common sense of these villagers, he will not do anything that is angry with the public, and he does not want to end up as a "Copernicus" comrade, which is a tragic fact.

Xiaoshuang asked Liu Qingqing again, why are there so many people, it turned out to be a notification to the people who came to learn agricultural technology, no wonder he heard something in the crowd just now, his mouth is hairless, he is not sure, he has eaten more salt than he has walked on the bridge, etc., it seems that he has to go back to the brick house again.

The good thing is that everything is in progress.