The old man's path became more and more remote, and the road became more and more rugged∵ more than five miles, and he climbed two mountains, and he finally slowed down, and it seemed that he was about to reach his destination.

The bamboo slipper ran back and forth between the old man and the father, on the one hand, he had to follow the old man and the female ghost, and on the other hand, he had to keep his father from getting lost. Therefore, the distance between Grandpa and the old man fighting ghosts is very far, and it is difficult for him to see Grandpa's trace. Bamboo Slip uses its keen sense of smell to track the scent left by the old man, so even if the old man turns and disappears suddenly, it can still trace his footprints.

Descending from the second mountain, there is an extremely deep valley. The road was so steep that you could roll down with your feet weak. Daddy could only hold on to the branches on the side of the road and go down.

Because the last section of the road down to the valley is narrow and straight, it is easy to be spotted by the old man who fights ghosts if you follow closer. Grandpa had to wait for the old man to reach the bottom of the valley before he began to continue walking.

By the time Daddy went down to the bottom, the old man was gone. Zhu Yuzi was also at a loss, and ran around the circular valley of more than ten acres of land, but could not find any trace of the old man who fought ghosts. There was only one way down to the valley, and there were no roads at all else, and there were no signs of weeds tripping.

Grandpa walked around and soon found a hidden cave. Three words are engraved on the top of the cave: "Arsenal".

Grandpa was taken aback, it turned out that there was an arsenal hidden here!

Since the invasion of China by foreign powers, some officials have realized the disparity in weapons between their own troops and foreign forces, and many of them have secretly built arsenals to make their own weapons. Before Yuan Xiangcheng seized the throne, he had established a huge arsenal in Gongxian County, Henan Province with the help of the Germans, which is said to cover an area of more than 2,000 acres and invested tens of millions of silver dollars. These are all what Zesheng said to his father.

In 1890, before Yuan Xiangcheng, Zhang Zhidong, the governor of Huguang, founded the Hanyang Arsenal in Wuhan and began to develop his own weapons. Later, "Hanyang-made" became famous in military circles.

Hanyang is only separated from Hunan by Dongting Lake, so it's not surprising that someone secretly set up a hidden arsenal here.

What made Grandpa feel strange was why this old man who fought ghosts came here. Could it be that he has connections with people in the military circles?

Countless vines hang down from the top of the cave, covering the entrance like a waterfall, making it difficult to see from a distance.

Daddy carefully brushed aside the vines and used the cat's foot kung fu to walk into the cave. As soon as you enter the cave, a strong smell of rust hits your face. Daddy immediately understood that this was an abandoned arsenal, and this should be the secret gathering place of their ghost fighters. Due to the smell of rust, the bamboo slipper failed to smell the breath left by the old man who fought ghosts.

Directly opposite is a passage with railroad tracks on the ground. The rails were rusty and rotting into pieces of iron, like pine bark. The passage is relatively long, and there is a dim light ahead.

Grandpa walked along the railroad tracks, and the rusty iron pieces like pine bark would turn into powder when touched. The ground was very damp.

Bamboo Yooko hurriedly ran in front of her grandfather, ran all the way to the end of the passage, and then turned back. After returning to his father's feet, he followed his father forward. It was to see what was at the end of the passage, lest Grandpa be ambushed.

After reaching the end of the passage, Grandpa was taken aback again.

If the dry well just now was terrifying enough, it was almost nothing compared to everything in front of me now. It's a dry well made of steel! And there is not only one female corpse in this steel dry well, there are countless female corpses here! Every female corpse was hung upside down with her head down!

This is an underground arsenal. It is shaped like a dry well, but the mouth of this dry well is covered, and the wall of the well is wrapped in iron sheets. At Daddy's feet, there was a whirling staircase leading to the bottom of the well. In the center of the well is a circular platform with iron sheets, like a ring, surrounded by huge machines of all kinds to make weapons. Since the machines were rusted, they looked as scary as the beetles at the bottom of the well. On the right-hand side of the spiral staircase, that is, against the wall of the well, there are a number of new openings, which contain rooms, probably where the workers of the arsenal used to live. On the left-hand side of the swing staircase is an iron railing to prevent falling. Some parts of the railing have rusted and broken. Many of the non-rusted railings have a wire rope under them, and a female corpse hangs from under the rope.

At a cursory glance, there are hundreds of female corpses hanging under the railing of the wall of this well. The female corpses were decomposed to varying degrees, some had their bones exposed, and some were still as if they had just died.

The female corpse wears red and green, which at first glance seems to be an ornament of this steel dry well, but there is a strange festive atmosphere.

There are tables, candles, and people in the gaps of the big beetles at the bottom of the well. There are no more, no less, about a hundred.

Grandpa saw the old man standing in the crowd at a glance. He was talking to a well-dressed man. Most of the people below were dressed in tatters, but a very few of them were very different from each other. Grandpa guessed that the people who were dressed in tatters should be ghost fighters, and the brightly dressed people should be big dealers.

It's like in a casino. I didn't see how well dressed a few people at the gambling table were, but I saw the gambling hall owner brocade.

The female ghost next to the old man is gone.

Grandpa walked up the spiral staircase to the bottom of the well. The bamboo slipper ran faster than his father, and disappeared all at once.

When I got to the bottom of the well, no one came up to interrogate me. When I got below, my father found that all the female ghosts were locked in an iron cage behind the central platform. It's the same as keeping them in a cage before fighting dogs, cocks, and crickets. However, there is no fence inside the iron cage. Perhaps in the eyes of the ghost fighters, there is no difference between these female ghosts and beasts, the only difference is that they will not bite each other before the ghost fights begin, this is the only bit of humanity left.

The ghost fighters are all in groups of three or five, each chatting about their own. The voices were not too loud, and occasionally one or two people laughed and immediately whispered. Grandpa stood not far from the old man, paying attention to his every move, occasionally surrounding others, pretending to chat with them.

Grandpa was worried that the female ghost in the iron cage would recognize him, so he tried to stay away from the iron cage as much as possible.

While he was hiding, a man patted his grandfather on the shoulder from behind.

"You're new here, aren't you?" The man said, his voice very gentle.

Grandpa turned around and found that this person was the brightly dressed man who had just chatted with the old man who was fighting ghosts. As you can tell from the way he dresses, he is very wealthy. The jade ring on his finger is the size of a pigeon's egg, and the jade on the ring comes in three colors: red, green, and purple. My father knew a lot about jadeite, and when my father was alive, he bought a lot of jade for the family. Grandpa knows that these are three rare colors, especially if these three colors are properly distributed, they are the best products. Of course, it also depends on the shade and vividness of these three colors. The jadeite on his fingers is not only properly distributed in red, green and purple, but also very bright, such jadeite can be said to be a priceless treasure that is difficult to find in the world. This superb jadeite ring is known as the Fu Lu Shou Ring.

Of course, his cane, glasses, and exposed pocket watch chain were all extremely expensive. But he paled in front of the ring.

Since he asked, Grandpa pushed the boat along the way.

"Hmm. I'm new to the industry. Daddy replied.

"Will you fight red or black tonight?" He asked.

"What is Douhong? What is Douhei? ”

He said, "It seems that you have not yet reached the level of fighting ghosts. Dou Hong is to fight female ghosts, and Dou Hei is to fight male ghosts. ”

Grandpa said: "Indeed, I haven't fought ghosts yet. ”

The man nodded "oh" and asked, "Then have you raised ghosts now?" ”

Grandpa shook his head and said, "Not yet." ”

"Did you find the seeds?" The man asked.

"Seeds?" Daddy didn't know what he meant.

The man laughed, "It seems that you just decided to enter the industry, right?" Seed is also jargon, which means female corpse in the grave. With seeds, you can cultivate female ghosts! ”

"Oh." Grandpa suddenly realized.

"I see that you are not dressed as a poor person, why do you want to fight ghosts?" He had already looked his grandfather up and down, "If it's not that you can't get by, I suggest you don't enter this industry." This ghost fight is different from other dog fights, you may be poor and lonely for the rest of your life. Now that you haven't even looked for seeds, you have to think about it. ”

Grandpa was surprised: "You are a dealer, you should hope that the more people who participate in the ghost fight, the better." Why did you persuade me not to fight ghosts? "In a typical gambling house, the dealer wants a lot of people to participate. The more people there are, the greater the hope of earning. If there are few people, a little capital is rummaged around, and there is no temptation. The same should be true of fighting ghosts.

The man smiled slightly, and said with some pride: "I am different from other dealers. ”

"Oh?" Daddy was stunned.

The man introduced himself: "I am from the Murcha clan, and I am a former Qing Red Flag person. After the fall of the Qing Dynasty, many of our clansmen had to change their surnames in order to avoid some troubles, some changed their surnames to Mu, and some changed their surnames to Tie. My surname is Tie, and I am the biggest dealer here, you can call me Tie Dealer. To tell you the truth, I bought this ghost fighting territory. Because it's all discarded ironware, my friends joked that I was a scrap iron dealer or scrap iron. There are more than fifty ghost fighting arenas all over the country, and half of them are mine. In my ghost arena, I want them to have fun and not be forced to be helpless. ”

"I really don't know Tarzan!" Daddy hurriedly said.

The scrap iron dealer hugged his fists and said: "With Mount Tai in front of me, how dare I call myself Mount Tai!" ”

"Why did the big dealer say this?" Grandpa was shocked.

"Why do I have to say it?" The scrap iron dealer smiled meaningfully at his father.