Legend has it that there is a small river next to Lao Suntou's village, which is very small, and it is a bit inappropriate to say that the river is a little inappropriate, it should be a ditch, and every year the Yellow River water fills the small river, which is used for irrigation of farmland and replenishment of groundwater.

It is said that a young man was drowned in that ditch, and we don't remember exactly what happened, but we know that there was such a thing.

One morning, an old man from the same village got up for a walk and exercise, and happened to walk beside the ditch, where the Yellow River had been flooded once not long ago, and there was still a lot of water yesterday.

When he got up this morning, the old man actually found that the water in the ditch had gone down, and only some low-lying places still had some water, small fish, shrimp, loaches and other things, but they were all small, and few, and had no value to eat.

The old man was moving on a nearby bridge, and was about to continue walking to see his crops, when suddenly he heard a sound of water under the bridge, and the movement was not small, and the old man immediately turned to look under the bridge.

I saw that there was a low-lying ground under the bridge, there was a pool of water, probably less than three buckets of water, and there was a big red carp jumping in the water.

Now the old man was very happy, you know, in that era, many families couldn't eat a few meals of meat all year round, and this big red fish weighed four or five pounds, to say the least, enough for his family to eat a big meal.

Because there was not much water, the old man didn't even take off his shoes, he rolled up his arms and sleeves and went down, in his opinion, isn't it just a big carp? Isn't it hand-to-hand yet? However, strange things happened.

When the big red fish saw the old man bow his head and come under the bridge, and squatted down to catch it, his eyes showed a hint of fierce cunning, and his tail twitched on the old man's temple.

Everyone knows that the power of a carp weighing four or five catties is very great, especially in the water, a two-pound fish can knock people out, not to mention a big red fish weighing four or five catties? The power is even greater.

In just a moment, the old man was knocked unconscious, and when he was later discovered, he was lying in the puddle under the bridge, and his body was still dry, except for his face buried in the water, and his nose and mouth were full of mud, and he had died.

Later, it was said that the big red fish was changed by the young man who drowned, in order to lure the greedy people to come and catch it, and then press the man's head into the mud and suffocate to death.

The folk saying is that he choked to death, but in fact, he didn't drink much water, but choked directly into his lungs and hung up with a mouthful of water.

"This Haizi evil sect is very, just a few years ago there was a strange thing, it is said that there is a huge thousand-year-old turtle spirit in this Haizi, can change Chengren, like to join in the fun and listen to the play......"

An old man near the old county town began to tell the old village head about some strange things that had happened in this sea, the most bizarre was the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China, when the population was far less than now, and some large families still retained some customs of the former Qing Dynasty, for example, people with status still have to sit in a sedan chair when they go out.

The old county town has been there since the Ming Dynasty, this history is unreliable, some people say that there was such an old county town in the Han and Tang dynasties, and some people even say that before the pre-Qin period, this county seat existed in the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

If it is calculated according to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, then this Haizi has existed for almost more than 4,000 years, and it seems reasonable to have a thousand-year-old turtle spirit.

It was a temple fair at the end of May, because the old county town has a long history and is very famous, this temple fair is quite grand, and businessmen from hundreds of miles nearby like to do business here.

The temple fair generally lasts for a month, every day is full, business is not good, although the weather is very hot at that time, but every day there are still many people who come to brave the heat to listen to the drama and listen to books, buy and sell things or something.

At that time, there were no people living in the vicinity of Haizi, but there was a wide section of reeds.

At noon, a big black man came out of the reeds, nearly two meters tall, black and dark, and he looked extremely vicious, and he didn't look like a good person at first glance.

This man did not go on the road after leaving the reeds, but walked along the reeds and then went in, at this time, several peasants in the distance saw this scene, and said in their hearts, how could this big black man enter the reeds?

The reeds swing into the sea, there is no road at all, and there will be no fun place, what is the identity of this person? These peasants were interested, because it was twelve o'clock at noon, and there was no one nearby at all, so they all went home for dinner.

Soon after the big black man squeezed in, there was a sound of rustling, the reeds were separated, and four sedan chairmen in red clothes came out of it, carrying a small azure sedan chair, swaying out, and soon got on the official road and walked towards the county seat.

The peasants stopped farming, and told one of them to bring home their tools, and they came after them to see what kind of figure sat in the sedan chair, which had been lifted out of the reeds.

The county town is still very lively, although because of the hot weather, many businesses are sluggish, but there are still some storytellers and cross talk chattering under the pergola, or three or five, or a dozen people around to listen.

At that time, it was not easy for artists and businessmen, artists had real skills, commonly known as picking cakes on the ground, taking thieves on the opposite side, not to mention making money, starving or not dying was a fluke.

Especially the golden code of fortune telling, it is all lip service, first tie people up with a horse pile, and then you can see whose money can be earned, whose money can't be earned, cross talk and storytelling are more difficult, at that time it was not like now, the programs recorded on TV, there was not even a theater at that time, basically everyone was open-air.

After the small sedan chair entered the county seat, he soon came to the opera garden, stopped the sedan chair, and walked down from it a fat old man with a kind face of dough, who was more than one meter six points tall, wearing a silk dress, and walked towards the opera garden with figure-eight steps.

Many people greeted him when they saw this old man, obviously he was not the first time he came, everyone was only familiar with him, and a few people who followed him saw his small sedan chair carried out of the reeds, obviously this is not a person, maybe it is a spirit, but they have seen this old man before, but they don't know what it is called.

One of them said: "I remember that many people seem to call him the eighth master, but the daimyo really doesn't know, he has already entered the opera garden, should we follow up?" ”

"Follow up? You are crazy? How much does a ticket cost? Besides, we still have to work in the afternoon, who has the heart to listen to a play? In this way, we will tell him that he came from the reeds, and see how he ends up. ”

Soon, they said that the eighth master, who looked like a rich man, had come out of the moat, and he might be some kind of goblin.

Rumors often spread relatively quickly, in just an hour, almost everyone knows that the old man who treats people kindly and laughs when he sees people is not a person, only a goblin, and there is a ** water monster.

The opera garden in the county town is very large, and because the weather is too hot, the play generally starts at two or three o'clock, so the old man wanders around the theater, buys some wine and meat, and drinks and chats with the strings and drums in the theater.

Until the beginning of the play, he sat on the stage and chatted with those who sang the play in the background while watching the play, however, the rumors soon reached his ears, and the old man's face changed greatly.

Without saying a word, he walked out of the opera garden, and did not listen to the play, and directly ordered the sedan chair man to go back, at this time, almost many people knew that he was not a person, but a thing that became a essence, and they all wanted to see what his body was, so many people followed the sedan chair.

After leaving the tall gate of the county seat, a gust of wind suddenly blew, blowing dusty, and I couldn't open my eyes at all.

People originally thought that this matter was over, but there was just one less funny, knowledgeable and approachable old man, and at this time everyone regretted it a little, why did they expose other people's old bottoms if they had nothing to do?

Besides, he didn't hurt anyone, he just got along with everyone on an equal footing like ordinary people, bought and sold fairly, and often invited everyone to drink and listen to dramas when he had nothing to do, and sometimes he would help poor people who couldn't survive, it was simply a male version of the White Snake Biography, if he wasn't exposed, he might always get along with everyone.

However, things often turn out unexpectedly, and early the next morning, someone found a large catfish nearly three meters long floating in the moat, with a beard longer than a human arm, but already dead.

Later, it was said that the dead big catfish had come ashore to see if there were any sharp scouts, but he was careless and did not see a few peasants working in the fields in the distance, causing the old man to be seen when he appeared.

In this way, the old man could not appear in front of everyone, because they already knew that he was not a human being, but something in the water that had become a sperm.

Later, this matter had a very perfect ending, it is said that the county magistrate had a dream one night, and dreamed of this eighth master, it is said that in the dream, the county master saw the true body of the eighth master, an old turtle as big as a house.

No wonder it's called the eighth master, the eighth king, if you don't call the eighth master, you can still call the seventh master?

The eighth master said to the county order that he had no intention of harming people, because there were many unjustly killed water ghosts in the moat, and these water ghosts wanted to find a substitute very much, so almost every year people drowned in the moat.

And he took over these water ghosts and did not allow them to harm people again, but these water ghosts also need to be supported, and they will go ashore several times a year, in fact, they just want to purchase some tributes and incense candles, so that the water ghosts will not be too resentful, which is conducive to reincarnation.

Now that he has been recognized, then he can no longer go ashore, those water ghosts will definitely make trouble without offerings, let the county commander be careful, and try to restrain the people under his rule not to go to the moat to bathe.

The county magistrate didn't expect such a thing to happen, so he said that a temple would be built for him, and every year he would sing a special play for him to pray for him to bless the people of Hecheng from being harmed by water ghosts.

I have to say that this county order is still very good, no matter how well this official does, people still have the people under their rule in their hearts, not those corrupt officials who only care about making money for themselves and don't care about the people's livelihood and suffering.