Now even the name of the old city of Beihu has gradually been forgotten by people, and it is now affectionately called the old turtle pit in the north of the village by the nearby villagers. It is said that this old turtle pit, like the White Horse Ancient Spring, has hardly dried up completely over the years. Moreover, the depths of this big puddle are full of black silt, and there is a kind of wild soft-shelled turtle commonly known as the black turtle in it, so it is called the old turtle pit. Sometimes, during the rainy season, nearby villagers are lucky enough to catch a few to make soup.

But there seems to be an unwritten rule among the villagers in this vicinity, that is, no one is allowed to catch the larger turtles in it, otherwise they will be punished with a certain amount of heavenly retribution. Even if you stumble upon them, send them back respectfully.

Not to mention artificially drugging it or fishing with electric fishing tools, as long as such a person is caught, there is no need for the police station to come forward, just the nearby villagers can beat him half to death. Because according to the old people in the village, in the early years of several major droughts, it was this black old turtle pit that never dried up the water that saved the people in the nearby villages again and again.

Therefore, the old people in the nearby village regarded the large black turtles in this pit as an inviolable spiritual object.

In addition, it is said that just above this old turtle pit, there were several strange mirages in the early years. One of them, which appeared in the 70s of the last century, was once photographed from a distance by someone who was lucky, which caused quite a stir at the time. It was also the strange mirage phenomenon that made people pay attention to this old turtle pit again, which is very likely to be the original Xiaobeihu site.

Today, fortunately, among the seven people, there are two older mutes and Xiao Qingfeng, who is familiar with the local chronicles, otherwise they really can't figure out that this black old turtle pit in the reeds is the Xiaobei Lake with excellent water quality back then.

After drilling through a large area of reeds that were higher than the top of a person, everyone finally reached the edge of this old turtle pit. In addition, on the north side of the old turtle pit, there is a slightly higher sand and gravel pile that rises abruptly from the flat ground, with a height of about seven or eight meters.

It's just that the old turtle pit about one and a half acres in size in front of everyone today is very similar to the deep pool of the phoenix butt gate in front of it and the white horse ancient spring. There was basically no standing water in it, only a black mud pool of about 100 square meters at the bottom.

The doll looked at the slightly fishy black quagmire, shrugged her shoulders and made a naughty emoji, and said with a wry smile: "I said brothers and sisters, what does that old man Zhang just now mean by letting us get here......?

Mengshan Turtle said: "You crazy girl, you know all day nonsense, that old Mr. Zhang is a hidden celebrity in our area." How could a person like someone who is nearly half an immortal be joking with us juniors. I have a feeling that since he asked us to come here, he must have something to say. ”

The doll seemed to want to improvise and make fun of Mengshan Turtle, but was quietly lowered behind her and said, "Don't talk nonsense yet, I feel that Master Hou seems to have discovered something." ”

When the doll heard this, she saw Xiao Qingfeng quietly climbing to the top of the abrupt pile of sand, standing there and looking around with a telescope. Then he crouched on the ground again, and played with the compass he had carried with him for a while, as if he was reasoning about something. It took about fifteen or sixteen minutes before Xiao Qingfeng jumped down from above.

The doll stepped forward two steps and asked eagerly in an expectant tone, "What, is there anything special you have discovered?"

Xiao Qingfeng said: "As Ah Gu said, that old Mr. Zhang is indeed a master, it seems that his old man should have already understood the reason for the drying up of the White Horse Ancient Spring, and even the mystery of the Phoenix Ass Gate has long been known to him." ”

Mengshan Turtle said: "Why, could it be that there is still any inevitable connection between the current old turtle pit and the deep pool of the White Horse Ancient Spring and the Phoenix Ass Gate." ”

Xiao Qingfeng said: "Yes, let's go all the way to the east, and on this almost horizontal distance of more than 30 kilometers, there are exactly the deep pools of the Phoenix Ass Gate, the White Horse Shuangquan, and the Old Turtle Pit. I just looked at it with a telescope and did the math a few times with a compass. Based on the approximate time when these three places dried up one after another, I can basically come to this conclusion. ”

The little Taoist priest said, "What conclusion?"

Xiao Qingfeng said: "That is, these three places are on the same branch of the groundwater, which means that they have always been three relatively independent individuals who are closely related. In layman's terms, the three of them are like a natural connector, and it is the underground water vein that connects them. And they are only three of the many independent individuals on this subterranean branch, and there should be many more independent individuals similar to them in the direction of their east-west extension. Now I can surmise that similar independent individuals elsewhere should be in much the same situation. ”

Jing Xin said: "I basically understand what you say, but what is the situation that causes this kind of rapid depletion of the groundwater branch?"

Xiao Qingfeng said: "I guess the reason for this situation is nothing more than these two points: first, it is a natural geological problem such as earthquakes, which has caused some major changes in the groundwater branch, resulting in the disappearance of groundwater; ”

Laughing Maitreya suddenly slapped his thigh and shouted loudly: "I know the reason for this!"

He screamed so coldly, but the people on the side were startled, and the doll pointed to his nose and scolded: "You dead fat man, who do you want to scare to death, you have a fart to let go, if you can't tell you why, look at the young lady, I won't push you into this black quagmire, let you go to see your ancestors!"

Laughing Maitreya smiled, touched his big belly, and said embarrassedly: "I really didn't mean it, I scared everyone, hehehe......"

Mengshan Turtle said: "Okay, you can quickly tell what reason you know." ”

Laughing Maitreya said: "I suddenly remembered something just now, just the afternoon before yesterday, a group of people went to our place for dinner. At that time, the kitchen was not busy, and they were eating in the lobby, and I was chatting with a few waiters in the hall, and I happened to overhear their conversation. When they heard it, they had an accent from the southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, and they spoke Mandarin with a string of flavors, but fortunately, they could roughly understand it. It's just that their chatting voice seems to be deliberately low, as if they don't want others to hear what they are talking about, and if it weren't for my good ear, I really wouldn't be able to hear what they're saying. In addition, they were dressed casually, all of them were ordinary, and none of them wore the work clothes of the geological exploration team. ”

The doll said: "I said fat brother, let's not force those idle articles at the beginning, hurry up and talk about it." ”

Laughing Maitreya said: "It's easy to say, it's easy to say, then I'll briefly talk about the content of their chat." Their chat is roughly divided into the following three aspects: First, they are the professional water conservancy exploration team invited by our YZ Municipal Water Conservancy Bureau from the south in the form of bidding. The main task is to explore the abundant groundwater resources here on the spot and find the theoretically large underground water-rich area. Second, they have been to our YZ city for more than a year, and they have traveled to seven or eight places for research and exploration. Just half a year ago, I came to Xiyun Village, six kilometers east of Gucheng Village, where we are now. Third, they finally explored the huge underground water-rich area in the north of Xiyun Village, and conducted substantial sampling and research on it. Moreover, several large-diameter deep machine wells have been drilled in a row, with a depth of three or four hundred meters, and it is said that the water below is very abundant, and several high-power motors cannot be drained. ”

Doll said: "I know, it can't be when they dig those deeper wells of large caliber, one or several of them just happened to penetrate the groundwater branch that connects these three places." In this way, according to the principle of the communicator, the extremely deep machine well they drilled leaked the water in the underground water branch at once. ”

Xiao Qingfeng said: "That's right, this time our doll's little brain turned very fast, and it was on time all of a sudden." In this way, as long as we find the geological exploration team that Xiao Maitreya said, everything will be revealed. ”

Doll said: "Since this geological exploration team has been near us for half a year, why is it the first time that everyone has heard of their existence, so they are also a little sneaky." It stands to reason that they are a serious geological exploration team, so they don't need to be so mysterious. ”

Jing Xin said: "Actually, that's right, exploration work in an underground water-rich area like this has a certain level of secrecy according to convention. Because, this kind of underground water-rich area with huge reserves will generally be used as a reserve drinking water in the future after exploration and positioning. In other words, this little deep groundwater may be a valuable water resource in our area and beyond for many years. If it is sabotaged by some lawbreakers with other intentions, the consequences will be quite serious. Of course, these preliminary exploration work will inevitably be carried out under certain confidentiality measures, and even they will carry out a certain degree of civilian camouflage, which is very normal. ”

Xiao Qingfeng said: "Okay, we have figured out the general situation, now let's go to that Xiyun Village to go around." But I declare in advance that we are just going to see the neighborhood, and we must not approach other people's construction sites at will, let alone talk about anything. ”

After that, the seven of them quickly left the old turtle pit and rode directly to the exploration camp in the north of Xiyun Village that Xiao Maitreya said.

Nearby, among a low, barren mountain, everyone saw a sparse list of six or seven military tents, and five or six drill supports still working. In addition, there is a large amount of slightly muddy and cold groundwater flowing in the surrounding small ditch, and at first glance it is clear that it is well washing water that has just been dug out from under a deep well. And this cold groundwater flows through these small ditches into a medium-sized reservoir below.

Xiao Qingfeng and his party did not stop here, but rode directly to a higher hill next to them. Looking west from here, sure enough, this place is roughly on the same level as the deep pool of the old turtle pit, the white horse ancient spring, and the phoenix butt gate.