It is said that during the Qing Dynasty, an official surnamed Huang was sent from Yunnan to Tibet to investigate the source of the river, but on the way to the west, he saw a series of mountains in the north and south vertically running in front of him, blocking the way, so he named Hengduan Mountain.

As we all know, many of China's major mountains are east-west or approximately east-west, such as the Qinling Mountains, Nanling Mountains, Yinshan Mountains, Tianshan Mountains, etc., so the Han people in the Central Plains regard the east-west mountains as normal, while the north-south mountains become "cross-sectional" in the eyes of the Han people.

The caravan has a big presence in this area. They took over our business, got through the work in the stockade, and sent a boat to pick us up, which made us very embarrassed.

The leader of the Ma Gang is a Kangba man, called Dunzhu, who is a good person and quite polite. The reason why there are many ethnic minorities in the Hengduan Mountains is mainly because the north-south trending mountain range is conducive to the deepening of the warm and humid air flow brought by the southwest monsoon of the Indian Ocean in summer, bringing abundant precipitation. For the high mountains, with the increase of altitude, the precipitation is first increased and then decreased, there are many dry and hot valleys in the southwest region, and the temperature has been decreasing with the increase of altitude, so the huge height difference of the terrain has led to the configuration and combination of water and heat at different altitudes are diverse, and also created different ecological environments, providing the possibility for the diversity of ethnic groups. At the same time, the transportation between the mountains is inconvenient, the regions are relatively closed, and there is a lack of cultural and economic exchanges, which is conducive to the formation of ethnic diversity.

"A few of them are outsiders, our mountain style is simple, and the hospitality is famous."

Although Ren Yonghai is a local, he lives in the city all the year round, has not had much contact with these mountain people, and has never seen such a lively water market, as if he has forgotten the purpose of this trip, and only cares about bargaining with the vendors of other boats, and buying a bunch of handicrafts that are not needed.

"It's the peak season of the evening market, our boat is too eye-catching, we can't drive it if we want to, let's have dinner first, and then rent a dinghy to dock." Dunzhu said.

"Brother, do you know what business we do?" I said to Dunzhu.

Dunzhu glanced at me and said with a smile: "Those who find our horse gang as intermediaries are all outsiders, but we have our rules, and we don't inquire about the privacy of customers...... It's better not to know. ”

What Dunzhu said was not leaky, and I didn't say anything more. He was going to arrange for us to have dinner in the stilted building, and by the way, he would inquire about the news. Now the boundary we are in, although it is already the area of Heiyun Village, but it is still far from the village where they gather, and the surrounding dozens of miles of water village are only the periphery of Heiyun Village.

There are still quite a lot of outsiders walking here, and there are even a lot of people who stay to do business, and the people in Heiyun Village don't mean to expel them, after all, they also need to communicate with the outside world.

The main reason why I am interested in Black Cloud Village is because of the ancient tomb. According to Dunzhu, the Heiyunzhai area is a very broad concept, divided into three layers inside and out, the outermost layer is the mountain forest area, which stretches for hundreds of miles and is a mountain forest, and the location of the ancient tomb is located here. The further you go, the flatter the terrain becomes, and rivers and beaches appear, which is the location of the current water village. Further from the water village, there is a dense jungle, and the legendary black cloud village is hidden in it.

A strange ancient tomb, a mysterious village, two mysterious things appear together in this geographical coordinate, it is difficult not to make a connection.

Dunzhu is very good at observing words and feelings, he saw that the four of us did not carry any goods at all, saying that we were here to do business, and almost no one replied, but we had a clear purpose, and we were going to find Heiyun Village, and he soon understood that we had another purpose for this trip.

The stilted building of Shuizhai is equivalent to our teahouse, gathering guests from all over the world, and it is the place where the news is most circulating. It is no exaggeration to say that as long as you dare to walk around from inside, the next day, even the tea and egg sellers will know how many acres of land you have in your hometown.

So it is the most convenient choice to go upstairs on stilts to inquire about the news. We ate the bacon roasted by Grandma on the water, and boiled a pot of Fenjiu in the small stove on the boat, and waited until the moon was on the top, and the stilted building was lit up with a big red lantern for business, and then we found a small awning boat to go ashore.

The road in the water village is narrower than the river, and most of the stilted buildings along the bank are half-standing in the water. The water vacated downstairs can be used to rest the boat or open a shop. Even in the southern region, which is known as a water town, it is rare to see such a scene.

Dunzhu said that the road we are taking now is the so-called South Street. Go further on, and turn around a stone staircase to East Street. South Street is a businessman, and East Street is inhabited, but most families are still used to living on the water.

"This Black Cloud Village card is really not small, there are so many people coming and going, it can be regarded as a market town." Ren Yonghai said.

"It's not that the cards of Heiyun Village are big, these people have nothing to do with Heiyun Village, they are just here to make a living, this is a radius of hundreds of miles, there is only one place where there is such a convenient water and land transportation, and villages in all directions need this place." Dunzhu explained.

"Then Heiyunzhai doesn't mind if someone makes a fuss at the door of his house?"

"Black Cloud Village is far away from here." Dunzhu said, "People here know the rules, they won't go in if they have nothing to do, and they will enter the mountains along this land and water, and all the way inside is the forbidden land of Heiyun Village, and it is safe outside." ”

"I see."

And the stilted building with the big red lanterns with bronzing tassels that we are about to enter is the largest liquor store in the area. There is no signboard in the liquor store, but as long as the word "stilted building" is mentioned in the local area, it must refer to this place.

I looked at the pedestrians along the way, most of them were dressed in black clothes and blue pants, and some of them were carrying mountain delicacies and wild products on their shoulders. There are also Han people who are like us, everyone is in a foreign land, even if they don't know each other from afar, they can't help but have a sense of intimacy, and they all smile from afar.

Dunzhu pulled me and Ren Yonghai and said: "Both, don't be too enthusiastic, this is a deep mountain, don't think that the people in the mountains are simple and honest people, here is called every day, called the place where the earth is not spiritual, there are many bad people who cheat, Heiyunzhai This place, the Han people who die every year, there are not hundreds, but also dozens." ”

I was shocked and asked him how this could be.

"Where there are people, there are contradictions. The emperor is far away here, and if there is one less person, who will care. Murder and robbery, or just to vent anger. Trick into the dark, wipe your neck, and throw it into the water, God knows. You tourists are the easiest targets to target. Later, when you go up on stilts, don't look around. ”

Ren Yonghai, a criminal policeman, was stunned at first when he heard such words, and then a sense of justice came up, and he asked righteously: "Is there any law here?" ”

Not only him, but Xu Yaxian couldn't believe it, probably didn't expect that such a pleasant place would actually have such a murderous business, and it would be regarded as an ordinary thing.

"What's the law, this is Black Cloud Village." Dunzhu smiled contemptuously and said no more.

I looked up at the big red lantern in front of the stilted building, and for some reason, I was nervous.

Dunzhu laughed, took a few of us to step on the bamboo ladder with a light car, listened to the sound of "crunching" under the feet, and looked at the constantly crowded people in the building, I suddenly had a premonition that this journey might be more difficult than I imagined.

This number one stilted building in the mouth of Dunzhu can't be seen from a distance, but if you really enter its door, you will understand what it means to be "number one". As soon as I entered the door, I was almost fainted by the crowd of people in the building, good guys, the 100-square-meter shop was full of red lacquer tables, and each table was full of guests.

In the mountains, there is no more politeness than those in the city, and everyone is so drunk that many of them are already naked, holding coarse porcelain bowls in their hands, and there is no difference between pouring wine and pouring white water.

For a moment, my eyes were full of people, and I didn't know where to look.

"With so many people, won't the building collapse?" Xu Yaxian asked.

Before Dunzhu could answer, a strong man who walked past us said: "Why won't it collapse, it has collapsed twice this year alone." Hahaha, they all fell into the water, I don't know how lively it is. ”

After saying that, he ran away with the wine jar.

I saw that there were a lot of drunken maniacs here, and I couldn't help but be skeptical about finding out the news. I looked inside and out of the crowd and didn't seem to find any useful information.

Dunzhu slapped the two of us: "What's the use of being stupid, you have to look at the problem deeply." With that, he led us into the crowd.

As soon as I entered the wall, I heard the voices of people inside, and from time to time there were cheers, and if I looked closely, it was a thin old man in a long shirt and a green shirt, who was sitting on the big red table and talking about small paragraphs.

He wore a straw hat on his head, he couldn't see his face clearly, he shook his head and talked so lively, and the onlookers applauded him from time to time. I listened for a long time and couldn't understand what was being said, only that what he was talking about was definitely not Mandarin.

Dunzhu was not surprised, and explained that the old man was from the water village, and he often walked around several nearby villages, and lived by telling stories and preaching. He spoke the local dialect, speaking about the monster fox that took place in the Hengduan Mountains, and it was not surprising that we could not understand it.

Although I didn't understand which legend the old man was telling, I saw that the listeners were in high spirits, and it seemed that the story must be twelve points wonderful, and I thought that since the old man had traveled all the year round, he must have seen and heard quite a lot, so I said to Dunzhu if I could ask him to ask some things on his behalf.

Ren Yonghai asked me what I wanted to inquire, he is now 120,000 vigilant against all the people here, basically everyone is a suspect in his eyes, so I asked for the news so rashly, he didn't think it was the best policy.

"Let's not ask about the tomb yet, let's start with the beast that attacked us last time. To be honest, I've seen a lot of strange monsters, but after this trip, I really have too many doubts. Not to mention anything else, just a cake face, only a big mouth, and no eyes and nose, it is a rare miracle in the world. I've heard that this old man is talking about ghosts, so I'd like to ask for advice to see if there is a solution. ”

Dunzhu had no intention of listening to our conversation, so he invited the waiter in the store to whisper, and then said to me: "Old man Guo's joke is the signature here, and now it is in a hot place, and it can't be stopped." Let's go upstairs in the private room and wait, he'll come up later. ”

The caravan was still easy to talk here, and the people in the shop were very polite to him, nodding their heads to comply. I hurriedly thanked them, called the others, and followed Dunzhu up to the second floor.