My mind moved, the three of us were new to Chadao, we were not familiar with the place, and it was not easy to collect some antiques near this county. This old Liu Tou has lived in Gutian for decades, and he knows the local situation well after listening to his words, so why not let him tell us more about the local area, such as what ancient tombs and antiques have been unearthed, this information is very useful to us.

So I didn't let Lao Liu Tou continue to speak, saying that it was still early, let the fat man go out to sell a few bottles of wine, and get some snacks, and invite Lao Liu Tou to our room to drink and chat, and talk about the local customs.

Lao Liu Tou is a person who loves to drink as much as his life, and he likes to have a good time, and when he heard that there was wine, he immediately obeyed his fate as respectful.

The fat man was very reluctant to run errands again, but he was also hungry for wine, so he changed into a set of clean clothes, and went to the small shop outside to buy two bottles of liquor and some canned food.

The rain outside was sparse and dripping, and the rain did not stop, everyone closed the door in the room, took the bed as a table, and sat together to drink.

The big golden tooth asked Lao Liu: "Master Liu, just now you said that you have seen what we encountered in the Yellow River, what is it?" Is it Wang Bachengjing? ”

Lao Liu Tou shook his head and said: "It's not Wang Bajing, it's actually a big fish, I don't know what the scientific name of this fish is, there are many people in the local area who have seen it, call this fish the Iron Head Dragon King, and the people who run the boat are superstitious, saying that it is the river god who changed, and I don't usually see it, and it only comes out when there is a big flood." ”

The fat man said: "What you said is really suspenseful, how big is this fish?" ”

Old Liu Tou said: "How big?" Let me tell you this, I saw it once by the river that year, the water came and went fast that year, and the river was shallow in this ancient field, and a half-sized iron-headed dragon king was stranded, at that time it was not liberated, many superstitious people wanted to send the dragon lord back to the river, and before he could do it, the iron-headed dragon king returned to the west with his life, and people were burning incense and praying by the river, it was really a sea of people, the grand occasion was unprecedented, and I just followed the excitement to see it. ”

I asked, "Master Liu, what do you tell me about this fish?" ”

Lao Liu Tou said: "This big fish, there are seven layers of green scales on the body, the head of the fish is black, harder than the iron plate, and the head of the fish alone is as big as the front of the liberation truck." ”

The fat man and I were surprised by the others, it was not similar to a small whale, how could there be such a big fish in the river? There are really all kinds of strange things in this world. Then he asked what happened? Is this iron-headed dragon king buried? Or eaten?

Lao Liu Tou smiled: "It's not a whale, but such a big fish is very rare, usually not at all, and I don't necessarily see it once every few decades, it's almost fine, there are superstitions that it is the dragon king's change, or how to give such a name, I heard that even if you catch it, you have to release it, the meat is hard and old, who dares to eat it." At that time, the iron-headed dragon king died on the shore, those days were catching up with the heat, like a fire, and it began to rot in a day, and the stench was stinking, and the smell could be smelled from many miles, and this situation could easily make the people nearby get the plague, and as a result, as soon as everyone discussed, they cut off the fish flesh and burned it with fire, leaving a pair of fish skeletons to be thrown on the river bank. ”

When the big gold tooth heard this, he sighed: "Alas, it's a pity, if the bones of this strange fish can be brought to the museum and made into specimens, many people will visit them." ”

Lao Liu Tou said: "Don't you say it, but no one had the courage at that time, I was afraid that the dragon prince would be condemned, and it would inevitably be another big flood." ”

I asked, "Master Liu, you just told us that there is a place where you can see the iron-headed dragon kingfish, do you mean this one?" Could it be that after all these years, the skeleton of this fish is still preserved? What about the riverbank? ”

Old Liu Tou said: "That's right, but not on the river bank, at that time, in order to prevent the plague, the people nearby burned the fish meat and internal organs to sacrifice to the river god, and then was about to discuss how to deal with this pair of fish bones, at this time a provincial person came, this person is a businessman, this businessman is also a very superstitious person, he gave some money, in Longling, not far from us, built a fish bone temple. ”

The Great Golden Tooth asked, "Fishbone Temple?" This has also happened on the ground in Tianjin, is it used as a beam with a fish bone and a fish head as a door, and is used to worship the river god? ”

Lao Liu Tou said: "Tianjin also has it? I haven't heard of it, but it's really similar to what you said, the businessman from other provinces claims to be often out to sea and cross the river, inevitably often by boat, so he paid for the repair of such a fishbone temple, the temple is not large, not even a yard, and the ordinary dragon temple is no different, take the fishbone as a shelf, the skull of the big fish is the temple gate, just a temple, pay tribute to the clay statue of the dragon king, when it was just repaired, some people got sick or caught up with the drought, they all went to the fishbone temple to make incense and make wishes, it is funny to say, it is really evil, It didn't work once, if you go to the fishbone temple to ask for rain, it's not good, the more you ask for it, the more you drought, so it didn't take long for the incense to be cut off, and the businessman who funded the temple has never appeared again. ”

I asked, "Is the Fishbone Temple still there?" ”

Lao Liu nodded and said: "Yes, but it has been abandoned for a long time, the mud statue of the dragon lord collapsed in less than two years, some people say that the merchant who paid to repair the temple was not sincere, or did something lacking in virtue, the dragon lord was unwilling to accept his incense, plus the fishbone temple was built in the recess of Longling Mountain, the road was difficult, no one went to the fishbone temple anymore, many people even forgot about it, the Cultural Revolution, even the Red Guards did not think of smashing the fishbone temple, in fact, even if they smashed, there was nothing to smash. But the layout and bones of this temple are still there, and you can go and see it when you have a chance. ”

The fat man scolded with a smile: "What the hell is so good-looking, today we all almost became fish food, so don't look at it." ”

The big golden tooth had other plans, he discussed it with me, and decided to rest the day after tomorrow and go to Longling to see the fishbone temple, maybe such a big fishbone can be sold for money, at least it can be sold to the Natural History Museum, and we will be reimbursed for the cost of the road.

We persuaded Lao Liu again and again to drink, and asked him if there were any antique tombs unearthed in the vicinity.

Lao Liu Tou was drunk and hazy, and his tongue was a little big, but after drinking, he spit out the truth and really spit out some local secrets.

Gutian was washed out of several ancient tombs by water some time ago, all of them were from the Song Dynasty, but they were not aristocratic tombs, except for a few bones that were about to rot, only some broken bottles and jars.

The most precious thing unearthed here is that there is a year of drought, this section of the Yellow River is about to bottom out, when dredging, dig out three big iron monkeys from the mud, each of them weighs hundreds of catties, remove the rust on the top, find that the carved patterns on the iron monkey are beautiful and smooth, the outside is all gold, so far it seems that there is no research, what are these iron monkeys for.

Some people say that it was the Tang Dynasty demon suppression, and some people say that it was sacrificed to the river, and it is unknown which museum it was pulled to later, or it was melted by the great steel smelting.

The most evil thing is that before the three iron-cast monkeys were found in the mud, many people dreamed of three white-bearded old men, crying and begging to let them go.

During the Spring Festival that year, there were monkey people in the family, all wearing red pants and red belts, for fear of being retaliated by the three iron monkey spirits, but in the end, there was nothing major in this vicinity, of course, there were a few people who were unlucky, but they also asked for it.

There are a lot of strange things in the Yellow River, we have all heard of these things, the Yellow River iron ox displayed in the Hedong Museum is used to shake the river, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it is also said that a one-eyed stone man was fished in the Yellow River, at that time there was a peasant uprising, there is a nursery rhyme that what is the Mo Dao stone man one eye, instigating the Yellow River to rebel in the world, that incident is just a legend, and it is not enough to believe, but you can still witness the ancient mystery of the Yellow River, the sparse river mud, I don't know how many secrets are covered.

However, we were not interested in any such thing as iron waiting, iron oxen, stone man, etc., so we repeatedly asked where there were ancient tombs and ruins nearby, and who had antiques in their hands and wanted to sell them.

Lao Liu Tou thought about it and said, it turns out that you are pouring antiques, if you were a few years ago, you can have a great harvest, and now you have already collected almost a lot, not only the folk antique dealers to collect, the government also collects, more than ten times a year, no matter how many things can not stand such a collection.

A few years ago, there were tomb robberies one after another near Gutian, many locals also participated, and when the wind blew in autumn, you just looked, the ground was full of robbery holes, and it was easy to fall into it if you didn't care, and the places where the ancient tombs outside the city were concentrated were about to be dug into a sieve.

Lao Liu Tou said, let's talk about it here, I suddenly remembered that I heard someone say, I will say, you will listen, I have heard a local old man say, there is an ancient tomb of the Tang Dynasty in Longling, according to legend, the scale is very large, in the past two years, many tomb robbers want to find, no one has been able to find, the mountain range of Longling is too dense, and the ancient tomb is very deep, and even whether there is two to say, after all, this kind of thing is left by word of mouth many years ago, it may not be true.

The legend of this kind of ancient tomb is very much in our local area, and it is almost a person's statement, there is no fixed one, some people say that Longling is the tomb of the Tang Dynasty, and some say that it is from other dynasties. Anyway, it's all a legend, and no one has ever seen it.