Chapter 3 Supernumerary Members

Since I was a child, I have always had the same dream: in the dim cave, there lived a group of primitive people, and I was among them. Those primitive people, some are firing pottery, some are cutting animal skins, some are carving on the cave walls, and all the paintings are large and small tigers.

Suddenly, the tigers came alive and walked down from the cave wall, and the primitive people fled in all directions, but my legs were so weak that I couldn't run, thinking that now I would become food for the tigers.

But the strange thing is that the tigers not only did not eat me, but frolicked and played with me, especially the two little tigers somersaulted in front of me, and rolled around with me, as if they were also incarnated into tigers.

The tiger in the lead of them actually stood up, looked at me with strange eyes, and suddenly became a tall chieftain, but his face looked a little like his father, and I tried to get closer to see it better, but the chief suddenly disappeared, and then all the tigers disappeared as well......

This dream gradually faded as I grew up, and disappeared completely by the time I was in college, but recently it has come back to my dreams, and it is clearer and more vivid than before.

I don't know what this dream symbolizes, but it seems to give me some hint that I, a tiger with a name like Little Tiger, probably has some kind of mysterious connection to the tiger.

Just after the summer vacation, Donggua called and said that he had opened the "Winter Melon Restaurant" in Xinglong Town, and he wanted to go to the party. In addition, a Sino-French joint expedition team came to inspect near the cracks in the sinkhole, and the leader of the team was Secretary Zhao of the Tourism Bureau, who asked me if I would like to join, and he could think of a way.

Naturally, I didn't let go of this rare opportunity, so I rushed back to Kuicheng as quickly as possible, and under the arrangement of winter melon, I entered the expedition team as a supernumerary member.

I have long been fascinated by the sinkholes, which have the largest sinkholes in the world and the longest crevices, and around them, there are many mysterious huge karst caves, some of which are said to lead to Shaanxi and Hubei, and the main task of this French expedition is also to explore karst caves in the region, which is exactly what I like.

Although my major is folk, I am particularly interested in historical geography and cultural relics and archaeology, and recently I have been fascinated by Pakistani culture, and I am very interested in the sudden demise and disappearance of Pakistan.

It is said that the ancient Ba people had built the capital in Kuicheng, and I was a native of Kuicheng, Mr. Dong asked me to pay more attention to the historical relics and folklore of Pakistan in my hometown of Kuicheng, and it is best to do more fieldwork, the records of the early Ba history in ancient documents are very confusing, so I hope I can make achievements in this regard.

Mr. Dong also told me that the entire eastern part of Greater Chongqing, including the vast area of western Hubei, was an important Ba people in the past, and this Lijun Barbarian was the most powerful of the Ba people, who used the mountains and rivers valleys as their base to conquer the surrounding small countries and tribes, plundered their wealth and women, and once established a very powerful Ba state.

Later, for unknown reasons, they split up, rapidly declined and fell apart, and suddenly and mysteriously disappeared around the middle of the 4th century BC, and the area around Kuicheng, which was once the center of their activities, was also one of the key suspicious areas where they finally mysteriously disappeared.

It is said that after the death of the first tribe chief of the Ba people, the soul turned into a white tiger, so the local Tujia people have the custom of worshipping and sacrificing the tiger. Therefore, it is also known as the "White Tiger Ba", but how they finally perished and where the large number of treasures they plundered went are impossible to investigate, and have become one of the important mysteries in the history of Ba.

However, unfortunately, because of the persecution suffered during the Cultural Revolution and suffered from a variety of diseases, Mr. Dong drove west a few months ago, which brought my research on Ba Shi to a halt, and Mr. Dong gave me a note and map before parting.

"Winter melon"

Lunch is arranged in the winter melon restaurant, speaking of this "winter melon", and we have a lot of origins, is my primary school junior high school classmates.

The surname of "winter melon" is Feng Dongguo, and the homonym becomes Feng winter melon, referred to as "winter melon". seems to know that he will definitely be associated with cooking in the future, and "Winter Melon Restaurant" has become a brand in Kuicheng because of its delicious taste and low price, and this branch in Xinglong Town has just opened.

It's a little hard to believe that winter melon is a well-known naughty egg in the class, and I am a class cadre with "excellent character and learning", but for some reason, we have become the best friends. If you have to find something in common, it's a sense of adventure that both people share.

Donggua's parents both work in the county theater troupe, and the family also lives in the courtyard of the movie theater, so when I was a child, I didn't need to buy a ticket to watch a movie, as long as I waited at his house before the screening.

For a while, I was particularly obsessed with painting, but at that time brushes and paints were considered "luxury" to us, so winter melon volunteered to take on the task of solving these materials.

We targeted the company's warehouse, one by one, and the other was drilled, but fortunately, one wall of the warehouse was separated by asbestos board, so it didn't take much time to make holes. After a while, the winter melon triumphantly dragged out a cardboard box, and when I opened it, it was full of red pigment, and there were 12 bottles. I said that if I don't have so many colors, I will take it back and change it to some other colors.

So Brother Winter Melon went through the hole again, but did not bring the box back. After a while, it came out in disgrace, this time dragging not one box but two, the boxes were of all colors, but the three boxes of paint did not dare to be blatantly dragged out of the compound anyway, so we hid it in the scenery outside the warehouse, and spent a few days smuggling it under the bed in my house with a schoolbag.

Later, I became the backbone of the school's art interest group, all thanks to these boxes of paint.

I haven't seen it for more than half a year, the winter melon seems to have gained a lot of weight, the body is round and round, although the height is far less than mine, the weight is much larger, more like a veritable "winter melon".

The suit and leather shoes are a bit of the boss's style, but the gestures are missing the filling, and it is still a greasy and slippery, funny and cute "winter melon".

The expedition team consisted of 13 people, six from the Chinese side, three of whom I know, one is Zhao Linsen, secretary of the party committee of the county tourism bureau, who is considered an old acquaintance, and the two who carry the camera are Li Kui, a cameraman from Wanzhou TV station, and Zhao Dong from Kuicheng TV station. Another man and a woman were introduced to Wan Xiangbei, a professor at Chengdu University of Technology, and the woman was her graduate student.

The names of the French were difficult to remember for a while, but the seven people who came to China this time consisted of four men and three women, including two couples. They included geologists, biologists, historians, teachers and doctors, and were a purely self-organized, self-financed expedition of the people.

More than 10 of us sat around a large table made of two square tables, and Professor Wan introduced the Chinese and French sides to each other: the captain in his fifties with a full face and beard was called Ipps, who was well-known in the French caving community, and the other bald in the middle and two sideburns with a silver beard was Shaq, like a thief, so I paid special attention to him, and I gave him the nickname "Ouyang Feng".

The two middle-aged men in the couple are a pair of brothers, the elder brother is named Philip and the younger brother is called Hawke, and we will call them Pharaoh the Great and Pharaoh the Second. Pharaoh's wife's name is Kaia, very young and beautiful, a bit like the French movie superstar Sophie Marceau, except that her hair is blonde, so I just called her "Love Marceau", and later I learned that she was a mother of two, which shocked me. The second pharaoh's wife seemed so mature that she looked like his sister or mother, which was odd to look at. However, she has a nice name called "Sophia". The last middle-aged woman was tall and tall, with long arms, big hands and big fingertips, and her long, curly hair draped unkemptly over her head, and I called her "Mei Chaofeng".

After lunch, Winter Melon asked me to go around town, saying that the lunch was too ordinary, and that he would get some game to entertain me in the evening. I asked him what they were, and he said, "There are so many game, there are baby fish, muntjac, wild boar, wild sheep, hares, golden pheasants, and of course another game." After saying that, he smiled slyly.

I don't know what he means by another "game," but from his smile I don't think it's good. I then told him: baby fish is a national second-class protected animal, don't get into trouble, wild boar, wild mutton is too old, the smell is heavy, can also be avoided, and then there is muntjac meat, I remember a few years ago in Hongchiba to eat, quite fragrant, if you can get the natural good, as for the golden chicken, but I have not tasted, but I am most interested in its feathers, I have long wanted to get a decoration room.

Today is not the day to rush to the market, the streets are relatively deserted, and I didn't find anything I needed after a few turns. The weather was too hot to bear, but the winter melon still did not give up, insisted on getting something special to entertain the old friend, and led me towards the field path.

After a while, I came to a farmer's house. The winter melon is obviously quite familiar with them, and goes straight to the point without entering the door. The farmer said that his second child went to Shenzhen with a few friends, and there was no one at home to hunt, but there seemed to be a piece of muntjac meat. We went into the house with him, and saw a few black things hanging on the beams of the house, and the fellow forked a piece with a bamboo pole and wrapped it in newspaper and handed it to the winter melon, who weighed it in his hand: "Count five catties, and get some fresh game in three days and pay the bill with the store." I hurriedly added: "If you hit a beautiful golden chicken, don't hurt the fur." ”

I heard that I was interested in the golden chicken, the owner took me to another farmer's house, after explaining the intention, the farmer's aunt took out a black and white hemp spotted golden pheasant fur from the house, I didn't like it, I told her that she wanted that kind of colorful golden chicken, the aunt understood, it turned out that I was talking about the golden chicken, Longqiao area is more, after a few days she asked someone to send me a few live come.

After dinner, I was about to visit Professor Wan, when I saw Donggua come to me in a short outfit and sandals, followed by a "Qiu'er", holding two flashlights in his hand and carrying a fish basket with a lid. Not only was I a little confused, but I asked him what the hell he was thinking, could he go out fishing at night? "Chubby?" Seeing my bewildered look, the winter melon said, "It's the big frog." ”

After walking through the field path for a long time, I came to a small stream, and heard the cry of the baby "quack" and "bang", which must be the "crab" mentioned by the winter melon. Winter melon took the flashlight from the guy and handed me one.

Follow the fellow down into the ditch. At this time, it was already dark, and although the moon on the plateau was bright, it was still difficult to see the situation in the ditch. The three of them were bare-handed, and the frogs were still difficult to deal with during the day, let alone at night, they couldn't help muttering in their hearts.

I saw the winter melon holding a flashlight in the stream and ditch in all directions, and the probe was really like a devil entering the village, I wanted to laugh but saw that his flashlight suddenly froze. Looking along the beam, a black thing puffed out a pair of green eyes and looked at us blankly, only to see Qiu'er unhurriedly walked around the back of the guy, the two hands were so close, "quack", the guy was in line.

Take a closer look, good guy, there are more than a pound of fat. The so-called "crab" is not the bullfrog that is commonly referred to?

I followed the example of the winter melon and took the flashlight and shot aimlessly, but I didn't find anything suspicious, and the winter melon and Qiu'er have cooperated to capture several, I was a little anxious, the winter melon said to calm down, the flashlight should not shoot blindly, and pay special attention to the edge of the ravine, the stone crevice and the place where the water flow is gentle.

I did what he did, hey, it was really smart, and soon I found a big guy, staring at the light of the flashlight, which made me a little scared, but Qiu'er easily arrested it, but I didn't expect it to be the biggest one tonight.

While I was proud, I regretted that I didn't bring a camera to take a few shots of the crab fight.

Returning to the hotel with a basket full of loot, most of the team members had gone to bed peacefully, but Secretary Zhao hadn't slept yet, and was worried about me. I caught a crab from the basket and showed it to Secretary Zhao, and it was the first time he had seen such a big frog. So Professor Wan and Shaq were called to observe together, and the two speculated that it might be a spiny-breasted frog, and as for the locals called it "Crab", it may be related to its call. This guy is so big, could it be that the glass fish is its larvae?

Late at night, we had another beautiful supper - boiled crabs and loofahs, and the spicy Shaq drank three bottles of Coke.

After eating too much and not being able to sleep right away, I took out Mr. Dong's notebook and flipped through it, only to see that Mr. Dong's notebook was marked with a lot of question marks, and any place where his ideas and views were contrary to the general recognition of the academic community would be marked with a red question mark at the back.

The first part of the note is about the origin of the Ba people and the establishment of the capital, on this issue, there are many theories in the academic circles, some advocate the origin of the Qingjiang Lijun, some advocate the origin of the Jialing River in Qianshui, some advocate the source of the Diqiang migration, and some advocate the source of the migration of the Han River. Mr. Dong was inclined to the doctrine advocated by Mr. Deng Shaoqin and Mr. Tong Enzheng, but at the same time put forward some supplementary views.

There are also different theories about the capital of Pakistan, but the more recognized one is the "Jiangzhou Shuo" (now Chongqing). However, some people have also suggested that the Ba people also established capitals in Yiling, Yuyong, Xu, and Tong.

Regarding this problem, Mr. Dong understands it in this way: the early Ba people did not originate from the Ba branch of the Emperor of Liao, but at most more than three powerful tribes, which merged with each other in the mutual conquest, and finally formed a powerful and independent combination of Ba countries, and each Ba people have their own central area of activity, which is the origin of the historical data Shangba people have many capitals.

There is also a question about the totem worship of the Ba people, and the academic community also has different views, some believe that the totem of the Ba people is a tiger, and some people think that the totem of the Ba people should be a big snake.

From the word "Ba" alone, scholars generally believe that it should refer to the snake, that is, the big snake described in the "Classic of Mountains and Seas: The Classic of the South of the Sea": "The Ba snake eats elephants, and comes out of its bones at the age of three".

In this way, the Ba people should worship snakes, according to legend, the ancestors of Ba are the descendants of the mating of Fuxi and Nuwa with the body of a human head and a snake, and a large number of archaeological unearthed materials also prove this, the Ba people do have a universal snake worship, and the Ba people who live in the Jialing River basin are proud of shooting tigers, which contradicts the Ba people who worship tigers.

In the end, do the Ba people worship the tiger or the big snake? Or both? Or do some Ba people worship snakes? Some Ba people worship tigers?

It seems that there is also a lot of confusion in the academic world about the various problems of the early Ba people, but this confusion has a benefit for us amateurs, that is, there is a lot of space to explore, and we can express our opinions casually, anyway, there is no conclusion, which is also an important reason why Mr. Dong is willing to accept me as an apprentice.