"Second brother, third brother, this is the thugs of the Huihe sect to protect us, you don't have to worry about this." As soon as these words came out, Luo Shi Niang obviously didn't want to tell the truth, Yue Qingshan wanted to tell her the truth, but he was a little hesitant at this moment, no matter whether the foreigners came to protect them or to monitor them, with them, it was inevitable that they would be reported.

Luo Shi Niang asked: "Second Brother Yue, according to your meaning, this place has never even been excavated, it is completely an ordinary area, so why is there a thousand-year-old locust tree here, I have heard Chen Duozi and them mention it before, they did bury the official silver in Yugou Island." ”

"What do you think is going on in this situation?" Yue Qingshan wiped the beads of sweat from his face: "If the official silver is indeed buried on Yugou Island, and Old Man Zhu has not touched it, then it must be that we have misunderstood." ”

"Go to the hook moon, go to the left ten miles, and under the thousand-year-old Huai, just these dozen words, what else is wrong with the understanding?" Luo Shi Niang was quite puzzled by this.

"Could it be that it means the exact opposite, is it to hook the moon, go to the right ten miles, and go to the thousand-year-old Huaixia?" Before Yue Qingshan's words fell, he had already seen Luo Shi Niang shake his head: "I have also thought about this, if you log in from the lower hook month, ten miles to the right, you will probably have reached the lake, there is no thousand-year-old locust tree there at all, and you can't talk about being able to find official silver." ”

"Well, that's weird!" When they spoke, Song Siyuan stood by the window, watching countless streams of water pour into the pit along the terrain drop, and her originally chaotic mind became clear for a moment, and her eyes lit up and said: "Could it be that the place has not changed, this Jade Hook Island has changed!" Song Siyuan's voice did not fall, and Yue Guanchao also felt that this was the case: "You mean, this Jade Hook Island will change?" ”

"The change I'm talking about is not really the change, but the increase or decrease of the water level." She looked at Luo Shi Niang: "Senior, you give me a copper basin and bowl, and I'll show you it." Luo Shi Niang begged the official and was unwilling to let go of any possibility, so she motioned to help the people give her the copper basin and porcelain bowl for camping.

Song Siyuan got these things, put the porcelain bowl upside down in the middle of the copper basin, and then, picked up the teapot on the table next to him, and kept pouring water into the copper basin, as the water level of the copper basin continued to rise, most of the porcelain bowls were submerged under water.

She motioned for everyone around her to come around, and slowly explained: "According to the records of Fang Zhi, when Dongting Lake is dry, some islands are exposed to the water, and when the water is full, the islands will mostly sink below the surface of the water, and we already know that Broken Island was once a huge Xuanwu Island in the Southern Song Dynasty, and it was the manpower transformation that made them like this. ”

"It's the same with this island!" She stared at everyone: "When the water is dry, most of the broken islands are exposed, and when the water is abundant, most of the islands are submerged underwater, which shows that the land area of the islands is not fixed at all for a long time, and if we take a fixed address to seek the truth, it is like carving a boat to ask for a sword, and we must get the wrong address." ”

"Think about it!" She paused, and her tone became mysterious: "Three years ago, it was the flood in Yueyang City, if even Yueyang Tower was washed away, it means that there were many floods, although three years have passed, the flood may not have completely receded, if you want to determine the location of Guanyin, you must determine the boundary of the island with the water level of the year, and then continue to search along that distance, so that it is possible to find it." Yue Guanchao said slightly deflated: "Then how can I find this, Old Man Zhu buried the official silver more than forty years ago, how can we not find the water level forty years ago!" Song Siyuan shook her head and retorted: "It is not necessarily the exact water level, as long as you know the approximate water level at that time, you can infer whether the water level is rising or falling today. ”

"Dongting Lake is a large lake in the southwest, the ups and downs of drought and flood affect the surrounding large and small tributaries, the government in order to investigate the hydrological public opinion, often to grasp the drought and flood situation of Dongting Lake, although the ancients did not have hydrological measuring instruments before, but can distinguish the rise and fall of the water level through the scale of the stone beast in the town, so as to determine whether the next year is drought and flood." What is the Stone Beast?

The ancients would stand and carve stone beasts in larger rivers and lakes, or cattle and sheep or dragons and tigers, and at the same time, the back of the animal would also be carved with a scale, and after the water level rose and fell, the year would be marked with red lacquer on the scale, so as to record the drought and flood water level.

"Senior Luo, where is the stone beast of Dongting Lake?" Luo Shi Niang looked at Yueyang Tower, which was dozens of miles away: "In the Water Viewing Pavilion under Yueyang Tower, there is a stone statue of a dragon head turtle body in front of the pavilion, starting from the construction of Yueyang Tower in Dongting Lake, this stone statue is in front of the Water Viewing Pavilion, and it has probably stood for thousands of years." "That's great!" Song Siyuan picked up the red pen from her backpack and drew a red line directly at the water level, and then continued to pour water into the copper basin until there was only one inch left at the bottom of the bowl, and then stopped and drew the second red line.

Later, she explained her actions: "As you can see, the first red line represents the red line when the official bank entered the soil forty years ago, and the second red line is the red line after the flood.

"Okay, when the rain stops, I'll take you to the Water Viewing Pavilion." Around the time of the day, the rain gradually stopped, and Luo Shi Niang took Yue Qingshan, Yue Guanchao, and Song Siyuan to the Water Viewing Pavilion by boat.

Approaching Yueyang Tower, the outline of the water pavilion gradually became clear, this small pavilion is not big, it is located on the shore of the lake under the city wall of Yueyang Tower, you can see a tall stone beast, standing on all fours from the water, looking up at the lake with its head roaring.

Look at the shape, it is similar to the dragon ao described by Zhu Fushun, the turtle shell is tall and bulging, the limbs are supported on the water surface, the tail curls directly into the water, the dragon head is hideous and terrifying, raising its head to look at the lake, from the head there are two chains through the back, directly fixed on the stone tablet of the water viewing pavilion, the dragon is like a donkey and horse pulling a cart to pull the pavilion.

They rowed close to the limbs of Long Ao, and sure enough, they saw that the front two legs were engraved with scales, and they could also see the water level marked by red paint.

Song Siyuan picked up the flashlight, carefully observed the scale, and said to them: "The latest red painting is this year's water level, and the water level forty years ago was probably sunk underwater. ”

"I'll go down and take a look, and you'll be watching from the shore." Yue Guan lost his clothes, and a fierce man plunged into the lake, and when he got used to the chaos in the water, he finally saw the sign of forty years ago at a position three meters underwater.

After he finished counting the red scales of the past forty years, he drilled out of the water with a bang, touched the water on his face and said: "Forty years ago, the water level scale of Dongting Lake, the water depth showed twelve meters. After he got on the boat, Song Siyuan carefully looked at the current water level, the scale mark was just fifteen meters, she looked at Luo Shi Niang and explained: "Luo senior, forty years ago, the water depth of Dongting Lake was twelve meters, and now, the water depth is fifteen meters. ”