Momiji stared at the imperial gift on the spine of the knife and the strange flowers on the letterhead, comparing back and forth. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

She had clearly discovered something unscathed.

After a while, Xian Hongye handed me the kitchen knife and the letter paper painted with the flower of the goddess of Miaojiang, and said to me carefully: "You take a closer look at the pattern on the spine of the knife, is it the same as the pattern on the letterhead of your old squad leader?!" Are they all this kind of Miaojiang goddess flowers? ”

I hurriedly took the kitchen knife and compared the blurry pattern with the old squad leader's letterhead.

The small circular pattern was originally blurred by the erosion of time, but because of the detailed comparison of the patterns on the old squad leader's letterhead, I can still see that the two patterns are seven or eighty percent similar. In particular, the two deeply concave "eyes" on the skull flower are simply expressive.

Faced with such a similar pattern, I immediately realized that it seemed that the secret on the kitchen knife given by the Zhao family could be peeked into from this skull-like "Miao Jiang Goddess Flower".

I raised my head and asked Xian Hongye excitedly, "Do you know what the Miaojiang Goddess Flower is?" ”

Momiji nodded at me with a serious expression: "I know, because of this flower, I only majored in literature and history in college." Because of this flower, my grandfather's life and death are still unknown! ”

Subsequently, Hyun Momiji told me a story about her family's past, and because of that past, the fate of generations of the Momiji family has been distorted ever since.

Before telling the story, Momiji first pointed to the pattern drawn by my old squad leader with oil pen and told me: "This flower should be just a kind of 'totem', an abstract representation of a real object, just like a dragon." ”

Subsequently, she said that the scientific name of this flower is "Swallowing Fire and Eating Flowers", which is the "family crest" owned by an ancient king named "Su Wang" in the ancient country of Ailao 3,000 years ago.

Hongye said that the history of this ancient country of Ailao is very "weird", he was probably established in the Han Dynasty, from the east to the "Dianchi Lake" in the west, and once included the central and northern parts of Myanmar, northern Thailand and even parts of Laos into the territory, more than 3,300 miles from east to west, more than 4,500 miles from north to south, as if it was the largest power in the southwest of ancient East Asia.

Moreover, this country is completely different from the barbarian tribes in the surrounding areas when they were still in the "slash-and-burn" period, he has a very developed metal smelting technology, but also rich in cloth, at its peak, it was like the "second power" in Asia in ancient times, in terms of population rich, even far more than the Xiongnu and South Vietnam, which were the greatest threat to the Han Dynasty.

But it was such a powerful ancient kingdom, but it collapsed rapidly during the Eastern Han Dynasty.

According to history, the Ailao Kingdom began to collapse in the seventeenth year of the Eastern Han Dynasty, and the first batch of Ailao kings were paid to the Han Dynasty due to the war, and became puppets and officials appointed by the central government.

Since then, the Ailao Kingdom is like a huge domino, in the internal and external wars, it was quickly swallowed and disintegrated by the Han Empire, until the twelfth year of Yongping in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the last group of Ailao kings led their troops to surrender to the Han Court, the Ailao Kingdom was completely destroyed, and its land became the later Han Yongchang County.

In the short period of more than ten years from Yongping to Jianwu in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the history of Ailao as a country came to an end, and no one knew why he collapsed so quickly, and no one knew why they fled to the Han court one after another.

Seems...... They're hiding from something horrible about it.

The ancient Ailao people did not have their own writing, and because of their remote location, the history books of the Eastern Han Dynasty also recorded very little, and throughout the history of the country, there was no record of the specific internal reasons for his disappearance.

In short, the fate of this powerful country was like a soap bubble, when it was at its strongest...... Suddenly it collapsed.

…… Hearing this, I asked Momiji puzzled: "Wait, why did I listen so messy...... Shouldn't the king of the ancient kingdom of Ailao be called the King of Ailao? Then why is there another 'Su King'? How many kings are there in the country of Ailao? How to talk about batch calculation? Surrendered in groups? ”

Xian Hongye said: "This is the most special feature of this ancient political system, and the system he implements is called 'lifting the king system'. It is also because of this system that there are many 'kings' in the country of Ailao. And this is also likely to be one of the reasons for the collapse of the Ailao State. ”

Different from the advanced productive forces of the Ailao State, the politics of the Ailao State is very backward and loose, and it is basically still in the late stage of the tribal alliance, and the Ailao people call all the tribal leaders "kings", and the Ailao King is only the most powerful "alliance leader" among them.

In ancient times, the Central Plains Dynasty naturally couldn't distinguish these "Laoshzi" within the Ailao Kingdom, so as long as the leaders of the Ailao Kingdom surrendered, they were all recorded as "Ailao Kings", and they were only distinguished by their names and clans.

For example, the "Su King" mentioned by Momiji should be recorded in the official history as "Wailao King Su Clan......

…… Speaking of which, Hongye pointed to the "Miaojiang Goddess Flower" and said: The owner of this flower, "King Su", was one of the first ancient kings to surrender to the Han Court on the eve of the collapse of the Ailao Kingdom.

Legend has it that this Su Wang was originally a "little king" of the ancient country of Ailao, with a population of only more than 3,000 households, but his people were born with divine power, four dragons on their backs, and had the courage of ten thousand people, and he inherited the throne with bravery, with more than 3,000 people, all the way to the south and the north, and miraculously conquered many soil kings who were several times stronger than him.

More than ten years later, Su Wang created a "miracle".

With 3,000 soldiers, he commanded the "people of the six kings" and "100,000 people" of the ancient kingdom, and even made many foreign tribes in the north and south of Dianchi submit to his iron fist of force.

Since then, in order to consolidate his prestige, King Su carved the pattern of "swallowing fire and eating flowers" symbolizing himself among many mountains, rivers and ancient temples in the ancient Ailao country, and also left many legends and records about him.

And these records and legends, without exception, all link King Su with the flower that resembles a skeleton.

It is rumored that Su Wang's mother swallowed this "fire eating flower" by mistake before giving birth to him, and later became pregnant.

It is also said that the Su King did not have a mother at all, he was an egg born by the heavenly dragon, and the egg fell to the ground and became a "fire-swallowing flower" shaped like a skeleton, and when the flower was in full bloom, the Su King jumped out of it.

Hearing this, I couldn't help scratching my head and said, "...... It's a bit too! Still popping out of the flowers, do you think you are the Monkey King? ”

To be honest, I feel that the legend of King Su is nothing new, and there is no difference between the "Mandate of Heaven" of those emperors and generals of the Central Plains. It's all feudal superstition.

Momiji nodded and said, "In ancient times, people were superstitious and liked to be far-fetched and incomprehensible. But the connection between this Fire Devouring Flower and the King of Ailao is certain. ”

I nodded, and then asked Momiji, "Yezi, how do you know so much?" And also...... What does this flower have to do with your family? ”

After all, Hyun Hongye just told me that this "fire-swallowing flower" symbolizing the "Su King" was something from 2,000 years ago. No matter how interested Hyun Hongye is, it is impossible to study literature and history because of a flower.

And I heard Xian Hongye say just now, and because of this "flower", Xian Hongye's grandfather is still unknown.

Why?

Naturally, I would ask her about the connection with this flower.

Momiji sighed a little and told me about her grandfather's past.

She said that it was also because of that past that Momiji's family was inextricably linked to this skull flower that only existed in legends.

This flower is also a nightmare for her family.