The history of Gulan can be traced back to the Yin Shang period, and the city wall that has been preserved to this day is the remains of the Ming Dynasty, although this place has a long history, but it is not very famous, and the scale of the county town is also small, and there are few outsiders.

I and the big gold tooth, the fat man three like three soup chickens, looking for someone to inquire about the path, found a nearby guest house, when I went to it was a coincidence, this guest house only provides an hour of hot showers every day, this work still has half an hour left.

After taking a hot shower, the three of them could be regarded as returning to the yang, and asked the waiter at the guest house if there was anything to eat. The waiter said that there were only noodles, so we asked for a few bowls of noodles and more chili peppers, and we sweated profusely after eating.

While I was halfway through eating, the old man in charge of cooking noodles in the canteen of the guest house came to talk to me and asked if we were from Beijing.

As soon as I heard the old man's accent, it didn't look like a northwesterner, so I talked to him casually. This old man's surname is Liu, his hometown is Tong County, Beijing, and he has lived in Gulan for decades.

Lao Liu asked us how we made this wolf bèi look, as if we had just fished it out of the pot.

I told you what happened to us in the Yellow River, what was in the river, why it was so powerful, whether it was a fish or a turtle, or it was some other animal, I had never heard of such a big thing in the Yellow River. Thanks to the sturdiness of this little boat, if it were a wooden boat, we would probably have fallen into the water and poured yellow soup with it.

Lao Liu Tou said: "I have also seen this, and the person who ran the boat said that this is the river god." Isn't it a big year for the water, and when the water rises, there are many strange things in the river. I have lived on the banks of the Yellow River for half my life, and I was not yet fifteen years old before liberation, and someone once caught me alive, and I saw this thing with my own eyes at that time. If you really want to see it, I will tell you a place, and you can go and see it when you have a chance. ”

My mind moved, the three of us had just arrived, and 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 Gulan for decades, and he knows the local situation well after listening to his words, so why not let him tell us more about local things, 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 buy 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 pouring down, and everyone closed the door in the room, and sat down together to drink with the bed as a table. Lao Liu Tou talked a lot, and after these two glasses of white wine, his nose turned red, and he couldn't close the conversation box when he opened it.

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? ”

Old 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, but many people in the local area have seen it, and they call this fish the Iron Head Dragon King. The people who run the boat are superstitious, saying that it is a river god change, and they usually don't see it, and only come out when there is a big flood. ”

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

Old Liu Tou said: "How big?" Let me tell you this, I saw it once by the river in the past, and the water came and went quickly that year, and the shallow channel of this ancient blue river stranded a half-sized iron-headed dragon king. At that time, it was not liberated, and many superstitious people wanted to send the dragon lord back to the river, but before he could do it, the iron-headed dragon king returned to the west. People are burning incense and praying by the river, it is really crowded, the grand occasion is unprecedented, 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 later, this iron-headed dragon king was buried, or did he eat it?

Lao Liu Tou smiled: "It's not a whale, but such a big fish is very rare, usually there is no one at all, and I don't necessarily see it once every few decades, it's almost fine, and some superstitions say that it is the dragon king, or how to give it such a name?" I heard that even if you catch it, you have to release it, and the meat is hard and old, who would dare to eat it. At that time, the iron-headed dragon king died on the shore, and those days were catching up with the heat, like a fire, and within a day it began to rot, and the stench was so stinking that you could smell it for many miles. This situation could easily cause the people in the vicinity to get the plague, so as soon as the people discussed, they cut off the flesh of the fish and burned it on fire, leaving a skeleton of fish on the riverbank. ”

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." ”

Old Liu Tou said: "Isn't it, but no one had the courage at that time, for fear that the Dragon Lord 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? Still on the riverbank? ”

Old Liu Tou said: "That's right, but it's not on the riverbank, 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 they were discussing how to deal with this pair of fish bones." At this time, a person from other provinces came, this person was a businessman, and this businessman was also a very superstitious person, and he gave some money to build a fishbone temple in Longling, which is not far from us. ”

The Great Golden Tooth asked, "Fishbone Temple?" This has also happened on the ground in Tianjin, is it to use fish bones as beams and fish heads as doors to worship the river god? ”

Lao Liu Tou said: "Tianjin also has it? I haven't heard of that. But it is indeed similar to what you said, the merchant from other provinces claimed that he often went to sea to cross the river, and inevitably often took boats, so he paid for the construction of such a fishbone temple. The scale of this temple is not large, there is not even a courtyard, it is no different from the ordinary dragon king temple, take the fish bone as the house shelf, the skull of the big fish is the temple gate, just a temple, for the clay statue of the dragon king. When it was first repaired, some people got sick or caught up with a drought, so they went to the fishbone temple to offer incense and make wishes. It's funny to say, it's really evil enough, it hasn't worked once, if you go to the fishbone temple to ask for rain, it's not good to ask for it, the more you ask for it, the more you dries, so it didn't take long for the incense to be cut off. The merchant who funded the temple was never seen again. ”

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

Old Liu nodded and said, "Yes, but it has been abandoned for a long time, and the mud statue of the Dragon King collapsed in less than two years." Some people say that the merchant who paid for the temple repair was not sincere, or had done something lacking great virtue, and the dragon prince was unwilling to accept his incense. In addition, the fishbone temple was built in the recess of Longling Mountain, and the road was difficult, and no one went to the fishbone temple anymore, and many people even forgot about it. During the Cultural Revolution, even the Red Guards didn't think of smashing the fishbone temple, but even if they did, 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 his tongue was a little big, but after drinking, he spit out the truth and really spit out some local secrets.

Gu Lan was washed out of several ancient tombs by the 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, 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 iron monkey body carved patterns are beautiful and smooth, the outside is gilded, so far it seems that there is no research out what these iron monkeys are 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 discovery of the three iron-cast monkeys in the mud, many people dreamed of three white-bearded old men and cried and begged to let them go. This matter became more and more mysterious, and many people said that these three old men were the iron monkey spirits in the river.

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, and the Yellow River iron ox displayed in the Hedong Museum is used by the town. At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, it was also said that a one-eyed stone man was caught in the Yellow River, when there was a peasant uprising, there was a nursery rhyme saying that what Mo Dao stone man had one eye, instigating the Yellow River to rebel in the world. That incident is just a legend and not enough to believe, but you can still witness the ancient mystery of the Yellow River, and I don't know how many secrets are covered in the mud of the Yellow River.

However, we were not interested in any such thing as iron monkeys, iron oxen, stone men, 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 been collected almost, 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 a series of tomb robberies near Gulan, 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 when you walked, 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 it, you will listen to it. I once heard a local old man say that there is an ancient tomb of the Tang Dynasty in Longling, which is said to be very large, and many tomb robbers have wanted to find it in the past two years, but no one has been able to find it. After all, this kind of thing is left over by word of mouth many years ago, and 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.