The road from Yamanashi Prefecture to Niigata Prefecture was quite difficult, and it took almost seven or eight days to get close to Niigata Prefecture.
"Why do you feel like there are so few people on this road?" Brother Shanbei asked curiously.
You must know that when we went to Yamanashi Prefecture earlier, although the people seemed relatively poor, at least they could still see people.
But when we got closer to Niigata Prefecture, we saw very few people.
Even when passing by a village, I found that it was completely empty. There was no one in the whole village.
"You just discovered it!" Tang Ping pointed to the farmland outside: "The crops in the field have been confiscated, but the people are gone. It seems like something happened here."
"What's the matter?" Shanbei's eldest brother Wang asked.
"How do I know? You can ask a villager later."
Tang Ping didn't care much about this. To put it bluntly, he was not a citizen of the Tang Dynasty, so whatever happened would have little to do with him.
He came to Sado Kaneyama in Niigata Prefecture.
The gold resources here are extremely rich, and they are two major targets alongside Iwami Ginzan.
After walking for a while, Shanbei Brother Wang found an old woman sitting by the river. She had told Tang Ping her whole life that she planned to go there and ask what happened here.
As a result, before he could approach the old woman, the old woman suddenly struggled to stand up and then fell into the river.
"Hey!" Shanbei's elder brother Wang first wanted to catch the old woman, but it was still a step too late.
He was the only one who hesitated, but actually jumped down, which shocked Tang Ping and the others.
Tang Ping and the others ran to the river in a few steps and found that the eldest brother Wang from the back of the mountain was swept downstream by the river, dragging the old woman in his hands.
"Holy shit, can't this idiot know how to swim?" Tang Ping was a little dumbfounded as he saw the big brother Wang's head moving up and down.
Yamabacko's elder brother came out of Nara by pretending to be dead, and they couldn't really let him die.
Lao Cui and Lao Du whipped his horse twice with his whip, sprinted about 20 meters downstream, then jumped into the water and fished out Shanbei Brother Wang and the old woman he was holding. .
"Cough, cough, cough!" Lao Cui directly put Shanbei's elder brother Wang on his shoulders, pressed his shoulder against his abdomen with a slight force, and he coughed up a lot of the water he just drank.
"Do you really want to die?" Tang Ping asked with some confusion.
"I... forgot just now." Shanbei's elder brother Wang was also a little confused: "It seems that he has read too many stories and regarded himself as the omnipotent protagonist."
Then he reacted and looked at the old woman: "How is she?"
"It's okay!" Lu Yi said after finishing the examination: "The breathing and heartbeat are still normal. He must have been frightened and will wake up soon."
"Go to that village?" Tang Ping looked at a village not far away, pointed over there and said, "Find someone to borrow a place and make a fire to dry the clothes."
"Did she jump into the river by herself just now?" Brother Shanbei asked with some uncertainty.
"Yes, it looks like he is going to commit suicide by drowning himself in the river." Lao Cui replied.
"Why...why?"
"have no idea!"
A few people packed up and headed towards the village not far away. As soon as they arrived at the entrance of the village, a girl wearing patched clothes ran out.
"Excuse me, did you see an old man in gray clothes?"
"Hui Yi?" Tang Ping asked someone to open the carriage curtain: "Is this you?"
"Grandma!" When the girl saw the sleeping old woman, she staggered towards her and said, "Grandma, grandma, what's wrong with you? Don't scare me!"
"She fell into the water just now, and it was this guy who saved her!"
Tang Ping pointed to the eldest brother Wang on the back of the mountain.
The girl knew from their costumes and carriages that they must not be commoners, so she knelt down and kowtowed in thanks, "Thank you so much, sirs."
Although Shanbei's eldest brother Wang has been knelt down by many people, it seems to be the first time for him to be thanked like this, so he is a little shy.
"We want to take a rest in this village. Is there a place?"
"Yes, please invite some adults to come to my house!" The girl pointed to a small, dilapidated yard at the entrance of the village.
As soon as Tang Ping and the others stopped the carriage, they heard a few slight coughs and the old woman woke up.
"Am I in hell? Meiko? Why are you here too?"
"My miserable beauty, I have already planned to dedicate myself to the River God. Why are you here too!"
The girl named Meiko cried and shook the old woman's hand: "Grandma, what are you talking about? What are you dedicating to..."
After saying this, she seemed to react and looked at the old woman in horror.
"Ah, oh, oh..."
Grandfather and grandson held each other's arms and cried. Shanbei's eldest brother, Wang, who was on one side, could not get off the car or stay.
"The old lady may have caught a cold when she fell into the water just now. It would be better to change into clean clothes and drink some hot water." Tang Ping's voice came and the two of them were separated.
Meiko asked Tang Ping and the others to take the old woman back to her room, and she changed into dry clothes and came out. She felt a little embarrassed when she saw Shanbei brother Wang and Lao Cui Lao Du who were still wet.
"There is nothing at home, just... I can only ask you to drink some hot water first." A broken but clean pottery bowl was held in her hand.
"It's okay, it's okay." Shanbei's eldest brother Wang took the pottery bowl, drank all the water in it, and then asked: "What about the river god you just talked about?"
"Could it be that the old lady did it because of the River God..."
Hearing Shanbei's eldest brother Wang ask this, Meiko's tears fell again, and it took a long time to explain the whole story clearly.
It turns out that half a month ago, several nearby villages received a message from a wizard, saying that the River God had recently been disturbed by several of their villages, and that several villages had to worship a girl every month to appease the anger.
At first, people in several villages didn't take it seriously, and then strange things began to happen in each village.
In some villages, people who went up to the mountains to hunt were bitten by wild beasts and only half of them were left, and they were thrown back to the entrance of the village.
In some cases, fires broke out at home for no apparent reason.
Some fishing boats on the river suddenly leaked water and sank to the bottom of the river.
The wizard said that this was the consequence of not worshiping the river god, and people in several villages became panicked.
Then some villages had no choice but to sacrifice their young girls, while in some villages the entire village fled.
So when Tang Ping and the others walked all the way here, they found that there were so few people here.
There are only a few families left in Meiko's village, and most of them have elderly people who cannot leave.
In order to avoid disaster, the people in the village asked Meiko to sacrifice.
Although Meiko's grandmother wanted to take her away, but her legs and feet were not flexible, where could she go?
That’s why I thought of jumping into the river!
"This story sounds so familiar!" Tang Ping muttered after hearing it.
