Chapter Ninety-Eight: Into the Mountains to Pick Sticks

This mountain temple is dedicated to the old leader Sun Liang, and legend has it that the first mountain man in the east of the Guandong is Sun Liang, a native of Laiyang, Shandong. He was originally a poor long-term worker, and when he heard that there was a plant called a mallet in Changbai Mountain, which was more valuable than gold, he and his fellow villager Zhang Lu waded through mountains and rivers to Changbai Mountain, and went over the mountains to dig ginseng. The two of them worked for three years, dug up a lot of ginseng, and agreed to work separately for three more days, and then pack up and go back to their hometown in Shandong. Who knows, once Zhang Lu left, he never returned. Sun Liang was anxious, and searched everywhere, but he couldn't find it after seven days and seven nights. The dry food had already been eaten, and he was tired and hungry, and fainted beside the river of crickets. I don't know how long later, he woke up, took a few sips of river water and drank it, and saw a cricket at the bottom of the water, grabbed it and chewed it alive and swallowed it alive. With a little strength in his body, he grabbed a sharp stone, and carved on a big stone that his family lived in Laiyang, surnamed Sun, across the mountains and seas to dig ginseng, and ate a cricket in 3 days, you said that you are sad or not sad, someone in the family came to me, and looked up along the cricket river. After Sun Liang's death, he became a mountain god who took care of the growth of ginseng and protected the ginseng pickers from accidents. Ginseng pickers enter the mountain to sacrifice to the old leader, and when they pick ginseng, they must make a vow to the old leader.

At this time, the king put his head and said with a serious face: "From today you, we worship the mountain god, you are the people who drive the mountain and release the mountain, the rules in the mountain are like cow hair, everything has to listen to me, after we go to the mountain, every place to live, first of all, we must pay homage to the mountain god, kowtow to the mountain god, this rule we must abide by, because the mountain god will bless us to come back smoothly, pick a big stick, in the mountain only say to take, not to say." Eating is called taking rice, sleeping is called taking a house, resting and smoking is called taking a fire, cooking is called serving a pot, and digging ginseng is called lifting ginseng. What I'm talking about, you can possibly do? ”

I said, "Don't worry, we can do all of this." ”

The king turned his head and said, "Well, we will now worship the god of the mountain, and then drink the blood wine." ”

After finishing speaking, the old man knelt down first, and we also knelt down, and the old man poured the wine into the bowl, picked up the bowl and sprinkled the wine on the ground, and said loudly: "Grandpa the mountain god, the old leader, the father-in-law of the mallet, and the grandmother of the mallet, today our boy with the mallet of Sanhuling has opened the mountain, and I will say to the old man here, I hope that the old man will bless us to take the big goods early and go down the mountain safely." ”

The king turned his head with a serious face, took out a hunting knife, took off the head of the chicken, and dripped the blood of the chicken into those wine glasses, and then poured wine, and the blood of the chicken stained the wine glasses red, and the king put his head and let each of us pick up a cup of chicken blood, and knelt down again and said: "The sky has eyes and mountain gods, and there is no conscience and no greed, dig more sticks and mallets and take large goods, and go up the mountain and go down the mountain together." ”

The king swore there, he said a word, we followed a word, after reading it, we sprinkled some chicken blood wine on the ground, this is to respect the gods of heaven and earth, at that time was very particular about this rule, after the salute was drunk.

The king stood up with his head on his back and cried out, "The mountain god is gracious, and he has gone into the mountain to get a mallet." ”

After finishing speaking, we turned around and walked in front, we also carried the basket on our backs, and carried the rope stick, to say goodbye to Zhong Dabiao and the three female heads, we had millet seeds, pots and spoons, matches, salt, pickles, clothes, shoes, hats, roe deer skins and tools for digging ginseng in the mountains. The tool for digging ginseng is a deer bone chisel, and the sharp and smooth soil made of deer bone does not hurt the ginseng fibrous roots. Our back basket is quite heavy, because my junior brother and I are afraid that Qinglian and Luo Xihan will not be able to carry it, so we have divided some into our back basket, so our back basket is very heavy.

When saying goodbye, Zhong Dabiao and the three masters gave another order, and we entered the mountain and walked on the road, with the king walking in the front, and we followed behind, holding rope sticks, lined up. On the road, the king put the head of this person, just walking, while telling us the rules of ginseng picking, we went to the place this time is Lao Shen Gou, Lao Shen Gou is in the depths of Changbai Mountain, is a mysterious place, where people are sparsely populated, wolves, insects, tigers and leopards are rampant, so go there to pick ginseng nine deaths, it is precisely because of this that there will be ginseng.

Because Sanhuling is a mountain, we went out of the cottage of Sanhuling into the mountain, walked in the mountain for two days, you can often see all kinds of magical birds and beasts in the mountains and forests, but we did not see tigers and wolves and the like. In fact, these things are also afraid of people, every time they go to a mountain forest, the king uses an ash rod to knock on the birch tree, and shouts the mountain there, which can be regarded as knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger, so that those tigers, wolves and beasts can hide far away.

The mountains and forests are tall trees, in the afternoon, the woods are dark, we are roughly the estimated time, there is a camping camp is also the old leader to choose a place, to the next afternoon we found a place to camp, this time we camped there is a road, the roadside is some miscellaneous woods, and the pine forest is different, the tree species are messy, relatively sparse, we arrived at the forest turned out to be bright, but even if it is bright and there is no dark sky, we can not go, it is very dangerous to walk in the woods at night. The king made us cut down some branches and put up a hut, and the trees were full of leaves, very loose, and we stepped on them as if we were stepping on a soft bed. We built a room for Mao Qinglian and Luo Xihan, and then laid the tiger skin mattress for them, although the conditions were simple, but because the tiger skin mattress was soft, warm and moisture-proof, it was very comfortable to sleep on.

We got the shack of the Qinglian, we also got the shack, spread the roe deer skin in the shack, the fur of the roe deer is relatively rough, compared to the tiger skin is not a star and a half, generally not used to make leather clothes, the main thing is to make mattresses and boots, to be honest, to be honest to make a mattress is also good, live in the old forest in the northeast, the ground is very damp, spread a roe deer skin, sleep at night and the bed is not much different, the effect of the tide is very good.

After we had done this, we gathered wood in the woods, and spent the night in the woods, and there had to be a fire all night, because the white beasts were afraid of fire, and if there was a fire, the wild beasts would not dare to come near. When we were collecting firewood, we smelled a stench wafting in the woods, and the smell was like the smell of rotting corpses, and it was normal for the woods to smell of corpses, because the woods were full of wild beasts, and a dead animal, just as it rotted, it was the smell.

Luo Xihan said to me: "Second brother, you smell it, why is it so stinky in this woods?" ”

I said, "yes, I smell it too, it must be some dead animal, rotting in the woods, for this smell." ”

At this time, Mao Qinglian said: "This is the smell of dead people rotting, I think there must be dead people around here." ”

When I heard this, I said, "It's normal to have dead people in this chaos, don't think about it so much." ”

Mao Qinglian and Luo Xihan nodded, we picked up the branches, Tianning dragged a dead tree back, after lighting the fire, Wang turned his head and Tianning to find water together, at this time Luo Xihan said that there was something wrong, to go over there, women's affairs, but not I can ask a man, but I must be vigilant, Zhong Dabiao said, the old forest is full of crises, we must always be vigilant, I picked up the rifle, watched Mao Qinglian and Luo Xihan walk towards the distance, when they were walking, suddenly the bodies of the two people slid down, It disappeared right in front of my eyes.

As soon as I saw that things were not good, something must have happened, and sure enough, my thoughts were confirmed, and then there were four gunshots, and I quickly got up and ran towards it. At this time, there was the voice of Mao Qinglian and Luo Xihan shouting my name for help, listening to the sound as if something very terrible had happened, I couldn't care about anything, grabbed the gun in my hand, used all my strength, and ran towards the place where they had an accident.

At this time, I was anxious, a little panicked, I could only run in the direction of general memory, and there were wild grasses without calves and stomachs everywhere in front of me, and I was running, and suddenly my feet slipped, and then my body fell down, as if I had arrived at a cave, and there was darkness in front of me, and then my eyes lit up, and I got out of the cave and fell to the ground. When I looked at it, I realized that it was an earthen cliff, and there was a hole in the earthen cliff that led to the bottom, and I fell directly from the hole.

As soon as I fell, a foul smell hit, and Mao Qinglian and Luo Xihan shouted loudly for me to pay attention, I heard their words, and knew that there must be something here, so I looked around, my obedient, it doesn't matter if I look at it, I directly saw an extremely terrible scene.