The boatman who punted the boat was named Wang Sanliu.
What does this name mean? It's very simple. He was born on the sixth day of March, so he was called Sanliu.
In those days, most children from poor families were given such names. Firstly, it was because the adults in their families had limited education, and secondly, they were not suitable for those particularly classy names. .
Think about it, for a fisherman whose family members are basically illiterate, if you give him a name like Zixuan or Zihan... Whether he can write is the next best thing. You might even be laughed at when you get older.
For another example, there was a wealthy family. The master was a low-key man. His surname was Yu, his last name was Qian, and he was also very humble. As a result, he had three servants named Long Aotian and One is called Zhao Ritian, and the other is named Dong Batian... How do you think this master feels?
On weekdays, when I greet them to do errands, I always say: "Ritian, make me a pot of tea." "Batian, give me a basin of water to wash my feet." "Aotian, today Has the dog been fed? "
How awkward do you think this man is?
In addition, there is also a relatively superstitious saying among the people, which is the so-called "children with cheap names are easy to make a living".
One theory is that children with strong energy but immature minds are easily targeted by ghosts, so giving a name that even scares ghosts can ward off evil spirits; another theory is that when the king of hell turned over the book of life and death, he saw too many Characteristic names will leave a deep impression on people, and they will be ticked if asked, but names like Zhang San, Li Si, Goudaner Mazi, etc. are easily ignored.
But in the final analysis, it was because the medical level at that time was too low, and the probability of children dying of illness or being disabled was a bit high, so this kind of statement has a market.
Wang Sanliu's family believed in that. When he was a child, he often heard his elders in the family...especially the old people talking about this.
Among the many stories he heard, there was one that impressed him deeply, and that was the legend about the "Lanruo Temple" on the island in the middle of the lake.
According to legend, more than a thousand years ago, the Shihe River was not called the Shihe River, but the "Corpse River". There was a big monster living under the river, known as the "Ancestor of the Corpse Corpse".
What is "die"? To die means to destroy or destroy.
Just hearing the name, this monster has a unique hobby...
At that time, countless people died on the Corpse River every year, and these people also Without exception, they all became the food of the corpse-killing ancestor. By torturing the bodies of these victims, the corpse-killing ancestor drew demonic power from the screams and resentments of the souls, until a person's three souls and seven souls were almost worn away. Only then would the corpse-killing ancestor devour the corpse and squeeze out the last bit of flesh and blood. It can be said to be a veritable "eating people without spitting out bones".
Needless to say, such a sinful thing will definitely not last long.
One day, an old man came and didn't talk nonsense. He jumped into the river and started fighting with the monster. The man and the monster fought for three days and three nights, until the sky was dark and the ghosts were crying and the gods were howling.
In the end, the old Taoist was slightly better and killed the corpse ancestor at the bottom of the river.
However, this monster’s body had accumulated too much flesh, blood and resentment from the souls of unjustly dead corpses. As soon as it died, those things poured out, mixed and transformed into thousands of The walking dead and evil spirits are about to crawl up from the bottom of the river to the shore.
As soon as the old Taoist saw that something was about to happen, he quickly took out his magic weapon and used up his last bit of power to summon a mountain from the horizon and place it in the middle of the river, suppressing all the evil spirits at the bottom of the mountain.
Since then, there has been an island in the middle of the lake at the mouth of the three forks of the Shihe River, and the "Corpse River" has also been renamed "Shihe River" in order not to get involved with the "corpse" words, lest the things below be called out.
In this way, hundreds of years passed in the blink of an eye, and it was the end of the previous dynasty.
The situation in that year was characterized by a fatuous king, traitorous ministers everywhere, natural disasters, and the people were in dire straits.
There is a saying that officials force the people to rebel. If you want to rebel, you will definitely have to fight.
At that time, Taizu Taizu personally led the rebel army to fight with a certain tribe of the former dynasty. The latter retreated steadily to the south bank of the Shihe River.
The former general who was chased by Taizu was named Yelu Baoqi. This guy was greedy for life and afraid of death, and committed many evil deeds. He also knew that even if he surrendered, 80% of the rebel army would not stay. own life. Therefore, seeing that he was forced into a desperate situation, Yelu Baoqi did something extremely shameless - he actually took advantage of the night, took a dozen of his confidants and guards, and took a few bamboo rafts. Escaped with the stolen fishing boat.
All the soldiers in the army were left by him to die by the river.
I don’t know if it was God’s will. That night, as soon as Yelu Baoqi arrived at the middle of the river, a monster wind blew up on the river, causing the waves to become turbulent and the water to flow quickly.
Yelubaoqi had no choice but to take refuge on the island in the middle of the lake with his men.
Unexpectedly, at this moment, the rebel army robbed the camp at night and launched a surprise attack on the camp by the river.
An army whose commander and generals were all missing was like a headless chicken. After being beaten like this, it naturally fell into chaos and was quickly killed to a rout.
In this way, Yelu Baoqi watched the fire from across the bank in the dark night, watching the soldiers who followed him being slaughtered on the other bank dozens of meters away from him, and clearly listened to the wailing and screaming. Scream.
But in his heart, he felt no guilt at all about this. Instead, he was glad that he ran in time.
Not long after, hundreds of lives disappeared, and their blood dyed the water of the Shihe River red.
The pain and resentment of being betrayed and abandoned connected their blood with another force pressing under the island in the middle of the lake...
At dawn the next day, the sun Zu led the rebel army to the island in the middle of the lake, preparing to capture Yelu Baoqi alive, but found that Yelu Baoqi and a dozen of his cronies were already dead.
The clothes and armor on the corpses were all intact, and there were no obvious injuries, but every corpse......There is no flesh, blood or internal organs. What is left is just a frame of bones, covered with a complete human skin that has not decayed at all.
This is so weird.
Even though the army was full of big men and it was daytime, everyone felt a chill down their spines after seeing the death of Yelu Baoqi and others.
However, they couldn't control this kind of thing even if they wanted to, so they could only let it go.
It was not until many years later that Taizu conquered the country and established Dashu.
One night, he had a dream. He dreamed that he was back at the Sancha River mouth of the Shi River, floating on a bamboo raft. Suddenly, the water around him suddenly emerged. Thousands of heads were harvested, and the face of each head was similar to that of Yelu Baoqi's death - bloodless and fleshless, with empty eyes, but the surface of the bones was covered with a piece of fresh human skin.
I woke up from a nightmare and my whole body was soaked in sweat.
This dream frightened Taizu so much that he sent a national master to interpret the dream for him overnight.
What kind of person is the National Preceptor?
Do you think he is just a royal fortune teller who can trick people?
No, yes, can.
This position has high requirements for literary attainments, knowledge of natural sciences, psychological abilities, knowledge of royal etiquette, and even appearance.
On weekdays, in addition to doing astronomy in Sitianjian, telling fortunes, interpreting dreams, and giving therapy to the emperor and ladies, etc., according to the requirements of different emperors, the imperial preceptor may also give sermons and lectures. Practicing medicine, treating diseases, driving away disasters, praying for rain, catching monsters...
The most important thing is that even if we put aside additional factors such as changes in dynasties and the death of emperors, there is still at least one "sacrifice to heaven" to be done every year.
Sacrifice to heaven was a big deal in the feudal dynasty.
What a big deal.
For the Imperial Master, hosting sacrifices to heaven every year is like overcoming a tribulation - today, even if you make a major mistake hosting the Spring Festival Gala, at most you will disappear from the TV screen next year; in ancient times, you If you mess up the idea of hosting a sacrifice to heaven, you will disappear from the earth next year.
So, those who can become a national teacher, and can be a reliable one, their IQ, their conversational skills, their psychological quality... are definitely not ordinary people.
The First Imperial Master of Dashu next to Taizu was undoubtedly such a person. As soon as he heard Taizu finish talking about the dream, he rolled his eyes and asked Taizu insinuatingly if he had ever dreamed about it before. Having been to that place, Taizu told him about his annihilation of Yelu Baoqi's troops.
The imperial master laughed after hearing this.
What are you laughing at? One is that he is happy and knows what to do, and the other is that smiling can show that he is confident.
After laughing, the imperial master told Taizu that the people who died in that place had great grievances, and they had something to do with you. In the past, you were still fighting for the country, and you had no effort and no ability. They don't blame you if you can control them, but now that you are the king of a country, they feel that you should save them, so they come to complain in dreams.
TooWhen Zu heard that it made sense, he asked again: "Then how can I help them?"
The imperial master said: "It's easy, just build a temple there."
As soon as this idea came up, the "project funds" for building the temple were obtained. How could the National Master not peel off the skin first? As for how the people below him will subcontract after he is done, that is another matter.
In short, the temple construction just started.
In addition, in order to build this temple, the engineering team also built a bridge on the south bank of the island in the middle of the lake (it was too time-consuming to transport building materials up by ship), and the cost suddenly increased a lot, so that Later, the imperial master took this matter to the emperor and appropriated a sum of money.
A few years later, when the temple was built, the imperial master named it "Lan Ruo", which means "a place of tranquility and no worries and troubles."
However, this temple has been an empty temple since the day it was built.
Originally, who would go to the temple built on the island in the middle of the lake? It would be nice if there was a building on the north shore of the island, connected to the other side of the river. Then people would come and go, but now it is a dead end. Where can the incense come from?
Furthermore, the island is so big that it is impossible to cultivate farmland to grow food. If someone stayed in the temple permanently, they would have to buy food and daily necessities from outside and send them to the island. ?
So, this Lanruo Temple is like many "face projects" created by bureaucracy. After spending a lot of money to build it, the actual meaning is just to show it to the leaders. By the way, it also Let some people line their own pockets.
A few years later, the bridge on the south bank of the island in the middle of the lake was also washed away by the current; of course, this is reasonable. When the temple was originally built, the cost was insufficient due to subcontracting. So when building this bridge, the contractor thought: This bridge can be built with a little bit of rubbish, as long as it can last until the temple is completed.
I have to say that he was quite successful. After the completion of Lanruo Temple, the bridge lasted several years before it collapsed.
Anyway, no one usually walks on this bridge at all, and a few years later, Taizu had long forgotten what happened here, so no one took it seriously when the bridge collapsed.
Time flies by again, and two hundred years have passed in the blink of an eye.
That’s it... thirty years ago.
That year, there were four sworn brothers in the world, known as the "Four Bandits of the Central Plains" -
The eldest brother, "The Gluttonous Thief" Han Li, could eat a lot of rice every day and lift a thousand pounds with his strength. , and the best food and wine. It is said that 90% of the property he stole was spent on eating and drinking.
The name of the second eldest "Longyang Pirate" Zhu Meng is totally different from his own impression. He does not look "fierce" at all, and he has a delicate appearance, like a woman, and his voice is soft and soft. This person is a "flower picker", or "grass picker", because he only picks men, and his taste is for tall and powerful men over thirty years old...
The third child" "Zhuge Pirates" Lan Shuoli, whose surname is Lan, not Zhuge, but he is called "Zhuge", which shows that this man is quick-thinking and resourceful.Unfortunately, his martial arts skills are a bit inferior to those of the other three brothers; in addition, Lan Shuoli's hobbies are quite special. He likes "ingenious things", which in today's terms are small inventions similar to magic props, such as some exquisitely designed... Mechanical traps, smoke screens that can be used as deceptions, flying needles and poison sacs used to plot against others, etc.
Finally, there is the fourth "Flying Thief" Li Yuan, who has reached the pinnacle of Qinggong. According to rumors, his Qinggong belongs to the level of "stepping on the left foot and spiraling to the sky with the right foot." It's impossible; Li Yuan's hobbies are considered the most normal. He just loves money and has no quirks.
These four people were very successful in the world in those few years and ran rampant for a while.
But after all, they are "thieves", and they are not "righteous thieves", so they did not have glory for long before they were hunted down by the enemies and bitter masters who gathered together.
That night, the four of them were chased into despair. After arriving at the bank of the Shihe River, they got on a small boat and escaped to the island in the middle of the lake.
The people who were chasing them did not give up. The twenty or so people in the world also went to get boats to cross the river and chased them all the way to Lanruo Temple.
However, after the Four Bandits of the Central Plains and their enemies entered the temple, they never came out again...
The fishermen who had borrowed their boats had to We wanted to come back, so later some people landed on the island to retrieve the boats; some of the boats were retrieved, while others had been washed away by the wind and waves and were missing, so we had no choice but to give up.
Among those who went to pick up the boat, there were also some brave ones who quietly went to the entrance of Lanruo Temple and looked in, but they couldn't even see a ghost, only a gloomy draft coming from inside. Jump out.
It was also a coincidence that the brothers who were blown by the wind fell ill when they came back, and they died when they got sick.
Since then, the legend of Lanruo Temple's "cannibalism" has spread nearby. Together with the two episodes from more than a thousand years ago and more than 200 years ago, it has been spread by the common people. He talked about it vividly and vividly everywhere. After listening to it outside, the adults' scalps went numb, and then they went home to scare the children.
Wang Sanliu heard this story under such circumstances.
He was ten years old when he heard it. Now he is forty-seven, and he still remembers it clearly, and he really believes it.
Of course, in this stormy storm, it was impossible for him to tell all the above words to the travelers on the boat. Even if he wanted to say it, they would not stand there. Listen in the rain.
So, he can only say something like "that temple is haunted and can eat people". How can people believe it?
Seeing that he could not convince the other party, Wang Sanliu gave up. Anyway, he was determined not to go near Lanruo Temple, even if he was soaked to death in the rain.
Seeing that the boatman was so stubborn, everyone had no choice but to leave him and go on their own.
In addition to Wang Sanliu, who is punting the boat, there are seven other people on this boat.
Everyone is already familiar with Sun Yixie, Huang Donglai and Lei BujiAs for the other four, they are: a scholar, a charlatan, a traveling businessman, and an unidentified tall man.