An unusual year befell the White Deer Plain. Famine is caused by drought. It is not surprising that drought has been the most common and common disaster in the plains since ancient times, and it is not surprising that it occurs almost every year, whether mild or severe. The usual drought mostly occurs in May, June, July and three months, and generally ends in August and autumn rains, mainly in drought, for the barley, lentils, peas, and wheat harvested in late autumn and early summer, and the wheat is not harmful. This year's drought came early, in fact, from the late spring and early summer, after the wheat was put on the field, it was still day after day and month after month to blow red weather; In the wheat stubble field where the wheat had been cut, the land was blown open by the fierce sun, and the millet was wrapped in black beans and red beans that could not be planted. Some people have a fluke mentality to sow grain seeds in the dry loess, sooner or later a rain, the grain seedlings will emerge, early rice late grain, millet and drought tolerance; However, their bet on the old treasure failed, and they opened the furrow, picked up the grains, and twisted them in the palms of their hands, and they all became crispy gray powder. The fields were full of stubble that had been shiny from the sun, and the ploughshares could not penetrate the iron-plated ground, and the steel-bladed shovels could not be pierced. The drought continued, and the continuous heat made people sweat day and night, and it was difficult to breathe. All that was left of the village's waterlogged pond was a dark green puddle of stinky water, and the children were still washing in muddy water, and within a few days it was completely dry. The drought elephant was in a stalemate until the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15. This is the season for sowing winter wheat. People have no intention of admiring the moon and eating reunion cakes, and they are all in a panic. On the official road of Bailuyuan, the fire hammer of the god of cutting down water frequently sounded, and the flow of people wearing wicker rain hats in robes and wicker rain hats rushed through. The villagers of Bailu Village shouted one after another, and Bai Jiaxuan was also anxious, and asked his second son Xiaowu to ring a gong in the village alley: Cutting down the gods to get water, one liter per household.

There is a Guan Di Temple at the west end of Bailu Village, commonly known as the Lao Ye Temple, which worships Guan Gong Relations Master. After Guan Yu ascended to heaven, he took the initiative to ask the master to manage the wind and rain in the world to bless the people, and a Guandi temple was built in every village, no matter how big or small; Since ancient times, the original has complied with the west wind and rain, so the Guandi Temple is located in the west of the village. The old man's temple in Bailu Village is a tall and spacious hall with five wide rooms, and the east and west walls are painted with several glorious chapters in Guan Yurong's bright and upright life: Taoyuan Yiyi went to the meeting with a single knife to scrape the bones and cure the poison, and cut six generals out of five passes; And the sculpture of Master Guan, who is in charge of the wind and rain, sitting on the main hall, has a ruddy face, black hair like lacquer, bright eyes, bright teeth, and a serene and charitable demeanor like a Buddha. The temple is surrounded by an empty garden of three or four acres of land, and the thick cypress trees mark the history of the temple. The locust tree in front of the temple is the historical symbol of the village, and after the measurement of countless people's arms, no matter the length of the arm, the result is seven arms, eight pinching and three fingers. The locust tree has long been hollow, and it can hide three pedestrians at the same time to hide from the rainstorm; The branches and leaves are still lush, the thick strands stretch out dozens of steps away, and the thick shade of the huge canopy shrouds the entire roof of the temple, forming a cohesive fairy charm.

Bai Jiaxuan knelt under the locust tree, in front of him was the bluestone mill that had been abandoned under the locust tree all the year round, the big red candle with a thick fist on the wax rack jumped up to a half-foot-high flame, the purple incense in the incense burner was as thick as a grain seedling, and the person who was in charge of burning paper threw the golden yellow table paper into the clay pot one after another, and the choking smell of the burning of the incense wax paper table permeated the hot temple field; Behind him, kneeling down all the men from the twelve-year-old in Bailu Village, some wearing wicker rain hats and robes, and some of them were wearing their arms, kneeling motionless under the sun like wood carving clay sculptures. On one side of the mill was a square table, on the other side was a makeshift stove, and three sturdy young men, wearing only a pair of shorts, took turns pulling a half-man-high king-size bellows, the flames were like thousands of dancing elves in the sun, and the stove was burning three iron ploughshares and a few steel drills. The gongs and drums were beating in the hall. A young man from Jama Point leaped out of the temple gate and jumped over the table. The gong and drum team also followed, and continued to beat vigorously around the square table. The man guarding the stove took a golden iron plough with iron tongs and sent it to the square table, and the young man at Varma Horn brought a piece of yellow table paper lined in the palm of his hand to catch the iron plough, and the yellow table paper turned into gray paper ash at a moment's notice, and the young man screamed and fell off the square table, and was helped away by the person who answered him. The second horn ran from the temple to the locust tree, and as soon as one foot stepped over the edge of the table, he fell on his back. The third horn was exactly the same as the first, and as soon as he grabbed the iron ploughshare, he fell off the square table. The horse horn that the gong and drum team sent to the altar from the temple for the fourth time was Lu Zilin, who twisted his whole body when he jumped on the table, twisted his arms and danced, and blew out a loud wave of air; He grabbed the iron ploughshare handed to his face, and the yellow sheet paper in his palm was intact; When he went to pick up a steel drill the thickness of chopsticks, he fell off the table and jumped off. Bai Jiaxuan Huo got up from the ground with a bang, and walked into the gate of the old man's temple with two lumps of loess on his knees.

Bai Xiaowu was guarding the main hall when he saw his father walking in and tried to persuade him to go out. Bai Jiaxuan shook his hand and walked to the statue of Guan Gong, lit three sticks of incense and inserted them into the incense burner, and after making a long bow, he knelt down and remained motionless. A large number of men fell to their knees around him, waiting for the gods to convey themselves. The gongs and drums burst out even more vigorously, buzzing in the temple, and the smell of the wax paper table was suffocating. Bai Jiaxuan felt that the nasal membranes were astringent and painful at first, and then became fragrant, and then he couldn't smell any smell; The noise of the gongs and drums was deaf, and the drummers and gongs waved their arms vigorously, but there was not a single sound, and the hall became unusually quiet; He felt that his hands, feet and body were gradually becoming as light as a piece of yellow paper, and his mind was blank, but there was still mortal turbidity in his chest, and he needed to open his mouth wide and exhale it continuously; At that moment, it seemed to be the last breath of dirty chest breath to spit out, and he gently bounced up from the brick floor in front of Guan Gong's statue and popped out of the temple door. People saw that when the patriarch with his waist bent rushed out of the gate of the main hall, he was like a dog chasing a rabbit; He ran to the locust tree, pressed his palms on the table, jumped onto the square table, and shouted: "I am the black black tree of the West Sea!" He picked up a piece of yellow table paper, grabbed the light yellow and translucent iron plough that had just been baked, held it tightly in the palm of his hand, danced three turns from left to right on the top of his head, and then danced three turns from right to left, and threw it to the ground, and the yellow table paper was burned into powder ash at a moment's notice. He caught a bright red steel chisel with his left hand, and roared "ah", and with a thud, it pierced from his left cheek to his right cheek, and a puff of black smoke from his skin and flesh scorched, and the end of his dog-like waist stood upright. On the temple field under the locust tree, the gongs and drums were beating loudly, and the nine-pole gunpowder gun (September) exploded one after another, and the men kneeling on the temple ground danced and twisted together, shouting like crazy repeatedly: "Master Guan, Bodhisattva heart; The black black, the real body, the breeze and drizzle to save Li Min...... "The person who was waiting to guard the horse's horn hurriedly took out a belt with small rings tied at both ends, and put the two small rings around the steel chisel that penetrated the cheeks, and hung them on the top of his head, just like the chewing iron in the mouth of a mule and horse. Bai Jiaxuan was helped up by everyone, and eight people carried him, and the yellow silk around his head fluttered. The fire gun leads, and after the gongs and drums, it rushes towards the mountains in the southwest. In the villages they passed, the cannons were fired, and the gongs and drums were beaten to make a strong sound, raising a mighty and tragic momentum.

Walking into the Qinling Valley, walking around the mountain beam along a mountain road that is getting narrower and narrower, the grass on the side of the road is trampled to the ground by an endless stream of people and horses fetching water, widening the road. When it was dark, Bai Jiaxuan and his clansmen and villagers finally walked to the Black Dragon Pond. The pond is about a zhang square, unfathomable, the blue and secluded pond is quiet and quiet, there is no water on the top, there is no discharge under the stream, the black dragon pond is a sea eye that connects the East China Sea, the West Sea, the South China Sea, and the North Sea from the underground, and the dragon king of the four seas comes to the mountain through this passage every year. The four sides of the pond are all the bluestone of the cliff, on the stone cliff that protrudes from the front on the west side, there is a single temple of iron casting squatting steadily, the iron top and iron wall are all integrated, no one can explain that this iron temple is cast on the spot on the cliff, or it is cast on the plain and then lifted to the top of the cliff. The gongs and drums were beating around the edge of the pool, and the gunpowder guns rang out nine times in a row, and people knelt on the spot, all facing the iron temple. Bai Jiaxuan had already come down from the lifting frame and walked to the edge of the pool, chewed the rope that shook off the top, stepped on the recess on the stone wall and climbed up the cliff, bowed one by one, and knocked his head one by one, until he knocked into the iron temple, lit wax and burned incense. There are four dragons cast on the iron wall on all sides, and Bai Jiaxuan bows to the ground facing the iron wall in the west: "Disciple Hei Wushao asks for water." He knocked his head three times, untied a thin-necked porcelain jar from his waist, bypassed the three turns in the burning wax paper table, withdrew from the iron temple, and hoisted it into the pool with a thin rope. Bai Jiaxuan turned his back to the Iron Temple, and the rest of the people also changed their kneeling direction and turned their backs to the waterhole. The gongs and drums also ended, not allowed to speak, not to cough, not to fart, a solemn atmosphere of holding their breath, waiting for the Dragon King of the West Sea to give the precious water of the Black Black Tip of the West Sea. After the stars, after the middle of the night, there was a roar in the mountains and forests, and the people kneeling on the ground were all shivering and trembling with their teeth, and suddenly they heard a "bang" sound of water in the pool. Bai Jiaxuan recited aloud: "Dragon Lord Ende, Ende, Ende!" The people who knelt on the ground jumped up together, discarded the wicker rain hat and lily coat on their heads, and stripped off all the clothes, pants, shoes and socks on their bodies, indicating that they were all water tribes in the sea and were the soldiers of the dragon king, and jumped up and sang around the dragon pool: "Dragon king, bodhisattva heart; Give up the water and save the people of Li ......" shook the silent valley, the iron-cast temple made a buzzing echo, and the gongs and drums struck again. Bai Jiaxuan twitched the rope to lift the porcelain jar from the pool, held it in his arms, and everyone threw the offerings placed in the iron temple, various fruits made of fine noodles and fried twist dumplings into the pool.

When the people who fetched the water returned to Bailu Village, it was already breakfast time the next day. Bai Jiaxuan walked into the Guan Di Temple, presented the porcelain jar full of clear water to the feet of Master Guan with both hands, and just after bowing and kneeling down one leg, he fell to the ground unconscious. Everyone hurriedly pulled the steel drill from his cheeks, plugged the two holes with incense ash and yellow table ash, and carried them back to the courtyard. After scrubbing the palms of his hands and feet, his palms and his back with the well water that had just been hoisted, and pouring a bowl of cool well water, Bai Jiaxuan opened his eyes and looked at the family and clansmen gathered around the kang strangely, as if he had just returned from the Dragon King of the West Sea and did not know what had happened in the world. Bai Jiaxuan suddenly saw Lu San standing behind him: "Third brother! Have you fed the animals?"

Until the pool of water in the thin-necked porcelain jar retrieved was completely dried up under Master Guan's feet, but the rain still did not fall. Unable to bear the anxiety of waiting, the people scattered the wheat into the dry ground with the last hope, and the ploughshare turned up the cracked soil and raised puffs of yellow dust. The wheat grains were pulverized faster than the grains, and the spectacle of one acre and one seedling really appeared, and that rare wheat seedling was accidentally unearthed in cow urine. The drought continued until the month of Layue, and a heavy snowfall that had not been seen for many years froze to death the persimmon trees on the Bailu Plain, and almost all the old and new trees were spared. The persimmons on the original slope and in the crop yard, some are as big as a saucer, some are protruding from the four edges, and there are even the famous fire crystal persimmons that have been paid tribute to the emperor for a long time, and now they are all killed and planted in one winter. Heavy snowfall was followed by a continuous winter drought and extreme cold, and the snow gradually dried out without melting. When spring comes, the field is red, there is no wheat grass or grass, and the eyes are full of dead persimmon branches, and if you want to plant some radishes, you can't get seeds. Persimmon can be eaten, radish can also be life-saving, God does not even have a chance to survive to the villagers on the White Deer Plain. The drought stalemate lasted after spring and summer, and when a rainy day fell that was not seen every other year, people no longer cared much or did not care about the sowing of the Akita seeds, the seeds were gone, and the cattle were gone. The protracted and unprecedented drought caused an unheard of protracted year, and the wild vegetables and weeds were dug up and cooked by the people as soon as they broke out of the ground, and the leaves were also removed from the pot as soon as they bloomed, first the willow and poplar trees, then the elm trees and the Tsubaki trees, and then all the leaves were boiled and cleaned, and a stubble was made. Elm leaves are the best of all tree families, and when you pick up the leaves and the bark, remove the coarse bark and leave the inner pulp, chop it into fine powder and boil it in water, and it becomes a sticky and thick excellent paste. The elm tree in the White Deer Plain is another family that became extinct after the persimmon tree. Dying of starvation no longer causes panic and surprise, first the old man and then the child, and the old man and the child seem to be even more unable to withstand hunger. The elderly who starve to death will not only not be sad, but will be glad that they can save a meal and extend the lives of more useful people. Only inexplicable rumors will arouse weak interest, a daughter-in-law who has been out of the door for a year is so hungry that she wakes up in the middle of the night, can no longer sleep, touches her husband and her husband is no longer visible, suspects that her husband and grandma are behind her back to eat, so she tiptoes to the grandmother's window root to eavesdrop on the wall, and hears her grandparents and husband discussing to kill her to cook. Ah Gong said: "You can rest assured that your father will marry you another room after the New Year, or our grandfathers will starve to death, not to mention the daughter-in-law, even the incense will be cut off!" The new daughter-in-law was so frightened that she was paralyzed and fled back to her parents' house overnight to inform her parents. I was comforted by my mother to sleep, and I woke up from my dream, and I heard my father and mother talking: "Rather than let people kill them, it's better for us to kill and eat!" The woman was so frightened that she jumped off the kang and went crazy...... Alarmist gossip is as creepy as the crow of a crow.