Song Siyuan finished narrating the county records she saw and looked at everyone: "From the records in the county records, not all Luohua Cave girls are very beautiful, and some of them are even ordinary. However, one thing can be confirmed. , that is, they are both gentle and reserved women."
Since the defeat of the Taiping Kingdom until today, a total of fifty-five Luohuadong girls have been born in Huayuan County, respectively in Yaqiao, Jili, Longtan, Maoer, Changle, Youqiu, Baipi, Paikong, Wolong, Gushao, Yun Pan, Woye, Tudong, Fengtou, Funiu and other villages.
These places are distributed in the wild mountains near Huahuan County. Although their geographical locations are different, they are all places with dense concentrations of sacred caves. The people live closest to them. Some of the sacred caves are even directly next to the entrance of the village, which can be said to be closely related to the villagers!
"Then, is there any cave girl who was ransomed and survived like me?"
Ren Kongque was more concerned about this, and Song Siyuan shook her head in disappointment: "No, from the first cave girl Ma Chunxiu to last year's cave girl Sun Lizi, it spanned fifty-four years, except for you, no one has been redeemed. , the final outcome was either that he was sent to fall into a cave by his family, or that he was forcibly sent into the sacred cave by the villagers, in order to ask the cave god to protect the village."
As soon as these words came out, everyone gradually fell silent. In Huahuan County alone, there have been more than 50 women who have been burrowed in the past half century. There are more than 10 counties in western Hunan. This also means that there are probably nearly thousands of women who have been burrowed. female.
What is even more horrifying is that the county annals record only a few sentences, and it is true that each cave girl had a tragic and lonely life.
When a grain of sand of the times falls on the heads of the people, it becomes a mountain. This naked reality is bloody and cruel.
"These cave girls have all undergone redemption rituals, but in the end the cave gods did not let them go. Once they fell into the cave, their families could not keep them even if they wanted to. Whether it was due to myths, legends or pressure from the villagers, their fate had actually been It’s doomed.”
When Song Siyuan said this, she became more and more curious about the cause of the Luohua Cave Girl. At the same time, she also knew that Gao Azheng's situation was probably related to marriage, so she decided to continue searching the county records.
This time she set her sights on another folk custom in western Hunan, choosing Qingshen.
Half an hour later, Song Siyuan sifted through the county annals again and found all the records about the selection of Qingshen. After reading the information, her eyes clearly lit up. She was about to tell everyone the truth she had discovered, when the old gatekeeper walked in. He yelled, "I said, you haven't finished it yet? The clerk from the county government will come to deliver the files later. Can you hurry up?"
After careful calculation, they had already stayed in Jia Ge Ku for two or three hours, and it was unreasonable to stay any longer. They had to leave Jia Ge Ku and find a teahouse near the county government office. They waited for them to sit down by the window facing the river. Only then did he have the opportunity to speak.
Song Siyuan drank tea and explained to them: "I just checked the folk activities of choosing the Qing God, and I found that the activity of choosing the Qing God happened at the same time as the Luohua Cave Girl, that is to say, before the Taiping Rebellion. , there is no so-called Qingshen beauty contest, only records of the Qingshen beauty contest are mentioned in the mythology of western Hunan."
"But!" Song Siyuan changed the topic and her tone became mysterious: "Ever since the rebellion of the common people, the selection of Qingshen has been started. The selections of Qingshen for each session are the most beautiful women. However, a problem arises. , even if the woman chosen as Qingshen is already the most beautiful in the whole town, it is still difficult for her to get married."
"Difficult to get married?"
"yes!"
Song Siyuan continued to analyze the county records she saw: "In legend, Qingshen was the wife of the village owner and the mistress of the village. However, today's Qingshen has long lost her original status and has completely transformed into a beauty pageant. It's strange. What’s strange is that very few of these young gods can successfully marry after being selected, and most of them either end up alone or become sisters-in-law.”
"Choosing Qingshen is actually a way for villagers to choose a son-in-law for marriage, but Qingshen cannot marry. If we treat them on this premise, then there is already a big problem."
"What's the problem? Sister, don't make me anxious."
Song Siyuan looked at the eager eyes of everyone, paused, and said decisively: "The women in western Hunan seem to have encountered the most serious marriage difficulties!"
"Think about it, Qingshen is already the most beautiful young woman, but she is still at a disadvantage in marriage. Other women who are not as good as Qingshen, guess what their status is in choosing a son-in-law during marriage?"
These words woke up the dreamer, and the confused eyes of the peacock gradually became clear, like waking up from a dream: "There are more women than men, so a large number of women must not be able to get married. In addition, it is difficult to travel in Shiwanda Mountain. They There is no hope of even getting out of the mountains, and the most likely outcome is actually to die alone."
Song Siyuan cast an approving look at Ren Peacock: "Yes, it is precisely because of the difficulties in women's marriage that the Qingshen Selection Ceremony became popular in the countryside. The purpose is just to give older boys and girls more opportunities to come into contact and get together. Yes, it’s better to be a couple than to have them die alone.”
"And the cause of all this, I'm afraid, still belongs to the Taiping Civilian Chaos."
Then, she sighed and explained the connection!
After the Taiping Civilian Rebellion, almost all the young people in Hunan died in the war. The remaining good young people were so tortured by the government's purge forces that they either fell into the trap of becoming bandits, or they directly joined the official army to practice with real swords and guns, and they were rewarded. The group kept warm and resisted the bandits, but only ten of the men left behind survived.
Most young and middle-aged people have become bandits. This is also the reason why the ancient roads in western Hunan have disappeared and people are addicted. The impact of this result is far more than just bad folk customs. It can be said that it has penetrated into the countryside, villages and households. Constantly affecting social relations in Xiangdi.
The most relevant thing for these boys and girls is marriage!
In the past, a young man from Xiangxi would definitely be able to find a husband when he reached his age. Even if he was not satisfied for a while, he would be able to choose a son-in-law again. However, after the common people were in chaos, the men would either become bandits or rebel, or follow the officials. The army conducted regiment training.
In troubled times, when bandits fight and the army suppresses bandits, no matter where the men in Hunan are, they live a precarious life of fighting in front of others, and the mortality rate must be very high.
Things are rare and valuable, and the number of men is small, making them popular in the countryside. When there are a large number of women at the same time, they will inevitably become very picky when choosing wives for marriage, and choose Qingshen. The ceremony allows men from ten miles and eight villages to participate in order for them to choose a suitable partner for marriage.
Even if marriages are arranged in this way, with the number of men decreasing, only a small number of women can get married successfully. A large number of women will be excluded from the corners of village marriages for various reasons. They will either accept the arbitrary instructions of their parents. Marry, marry a decent person, or stay unmarried until you find the right man you really like.
After all, wishes are wishes. In reality, it has become the norm for men to be out of stock. They have waited for many years, and all they get in return is an increase in age. Even if they really meet a man in the wilderness, will they be a good husband? ?
I'm afraid that's not necessarily the case. Most men in Xiangdi fall into bandits. Judging from the probability, most of the men they meet may be bandits, or are about to become bandits. If they are robbed to become the wife of a village, their lives will be More bad luck than good.
From this point of view, it is difficult for the women in Xiangxi not to change their mentality as they wait:
With fewer men in their prime, marriages are bound to be unsatisfactory, which means they cannot find a husband as they wish. People’s customs are bad, so people’s hearts are not good. Frequent incidents of robberies and robberies mean their safety cannot be guaranteed. In addition, the mountains and rivers in Hunan are steep and high. The dense forest means that they cannot get out of the mountain, which means that the body is trapped in the mire.
Due to the intertwining of many factors, the accumulated depression in the hearts of unmarried women in Hunan must be unable to be vented. They are searching for love to no avail, lonely and desperate. In this kind of unresolved depression, it is easy to pin their hearts on the illusory gods. On the body.
As mentioned earlier, when people are lonely and helpless, they will turn to gods for help.
In western Hunan, wild fairies are everywhere, the mountains and rivers are spiritual, and humans and gods coexist. Naturally, they have the habit of getting close to the gods. These young and reserved women will definitely imagine the appearance of a wishful husband in their hearts, and even imagine that gods will protect them. By myself.
Over time, people became depressed, confused, and loved to dress up. The people in the countryside were ignorant and mistakenly believed that the cave god had chosen the god's wife. Only then did the legend of the Luohua Cave Girl arise among the people, just like the first Ma Chunxiu, a woman who fell into a trap, lost consciousness after her fiancé died. She was lonely and desperate, and was in a trance. The villagers rumored that she had fallen into a trap, which was reasonable.
"Something's wrong. Is it possible that every Luohua Cave girl has killed a man, and that's why she behaves like this?"
Yue Guanchao was quite skeptical about this. After all, thousands of people fell into the cave, and it was not as simple as one or two deaths.
"Yes, the first Luohua Cave Girl was rumored to have fallen into a cave out of loneliness and despair. As for the subsequent Luohua Cave Girl, she died more from rural rumors and psychological suggestions."
Song Siyuan put down the tea cup and explained the speculation: "In criminology, there is a concept of copycat criminals, which means that after certain bad criminal activities are exposed, other people will be curious and imitate previous cases. This concept It’s similar to the Girl from the Luohua Cave.”
Afterwards, the people, under the hint of the legend of the Luohua Cave Girl, would distinguish the people around them. If the goddess' wife appeared, she would have fallen into the cave. Some young women would also be attracted by this legend when passing by the cave entrance. Affected, whenever depression, anguish, and yearning for spring flood your heart, you will think about whether the cave god chose her and secretly asked her to fall into the cave to be his wife.
Over time, under the strong psychological suggestion of the Luohua Cave Girl, new Luohua Cave Girl was born. This kind of thing spread from ten to ten, and the more women who fell into the cave, the more it proved that the Cave God was real. Two The two prove each other, constantly killing those gentle women and leading them to the point of no return.
So far, the Luohua Cave Girl has become a disaster, and the cave god who has disappeared for thousands of years has once again come to Xiangxi, threatening the people in the mountains and rivers.
But, is this Luohua Cave girl really chosen by God?
Song Siyuan felt that this was not necessarily the case. It was probably a man-made disaster caused by social chaos in a specific historical period.
Some people died, but not completely...
