After listening to Yue Guanchao's words, Yue Qingshan let go of his worries slightly: "As long as everything is fine, try to solve the problems when you are young, but don't be like your second uncle, who has been dragging him for most of his life, and will still have to drag him when he is old. The bones of the body are reborn."
These words made Sun Daqiao dumbfounded for a while: "Everything is fate, and no one can control it at all. Since the Golden Rat Club is the fault of our three brothers, even if there is no big curse, it should be solved by us. If this kind of thing is dragged underground, it will be done by us. It has become the merit book in the hands of the Lord of Hell, and there is no single word of evil that can be written in one stroke."
"Second uncle, how can we check?"
After Song Siyuan finished speaking, Old Yuetou noticed the meaning of her words, and immediately gave Yue Guanchao a meaningful look: "Daughter, your uncle and I spent the night together. Since we are all villagers near Longjun Temple, we should go and see it in person. what is going on."
"This matter is too eye-catching to investigate. We are both old men from the Golden Rat Society. We were afraid of being watched in the dark, so we asked Sun Daqiao to pick up his fortune-telling and elephant-telling skills and go to the nearby area first to find out the truth. Son, we can just pretend to be ordinary people shopping nearby, so as not to be discovered."
"Okay, let's go see it together tomorrow."
…
Dongting Lake, Junshan Island, Dragon King Temple
The smoke is vast and sparkling like glass. After the Qingming awakening, the fertile paddy fields on both sides of Dongting Lake have completely sprouted and grown wildly, like waves of green velvet wheat rippling on the lakeside. The weeds and forests further away have already covered the sky like a canopy, as if welcoming The momentum of midsummer.
On the Junshan Peninsula on the north shore of Dongting Lake, you can see a towering white brick tower with a spire like a jade bamboo shoot, with white jade tattooing the sky. The tower is surrounded by a relief sculpture of a green dragon with vivid scales and beards. Under the tower, there is The exquisite, majestic and sacred Dragon King Temple has lacquer carvings and paintings everywhere, and golden owl on the eaves. In the endless lakeside mist, the green dragon seems to be swallowing clouds and spitting out mist, moving clouds and releasing rain, which is quite strange.
Speaking of which, there is some explanation for the location of Longjun Temple.
Three years ago, dark clouds came over the city along the Dongting Lake, and it rained heavily for three days and nights. When the clouds stopped and the rain stopped, the water area of Dongting Lake expanded by half, and the villages along the coast were in ruins, with nine out of ten households suffering from disasters. Even Yueyang City, which had a slightly higher terrain, was directly submerged for most of the city, and even the White Fish Tower was lost.
After a major disaster, there must be a great plague. Because there were too many corpses and there was no time to burn them, the villagers had to wash the corpses into Dongting Lake. Since the water was full of filth washed down from the nearby inland river, the corpses accumulated for several days, and finally caused a plague, which also affected Yueyang City. Patients began to bleed all over their bodies, cough and vomit, causing many casualties. For a time, people were panicked, and the end was approaching.
When there are natural and man-made disasters, people are in panic, so some people take advantage of this to spread rumors. First, a beggar claimed that the Dragon King was angry, and then some people began to add fuel to the fire, saying that Dongting Lake used to be peaceful, but since the opening of the port, the lake has been filled with huge foreign ships, which frightened the people. The Dongting Aquatic Tribe in the lake must be because the Dragon King is dissatisfied with the foreigners.
Some people also say that now the people along the coast are obsessed with money and fish continuously during the day and night. These aquatic tribes are all the sons and grandsons of the Dragon King of Dongting. Seeing the aquatic tribes withered, the Dragon King sent people to punish them.
What's more, it is rumored that Dongting Lake, which is 800 miles away, was originally as deep as the sea, but now there is not even a decent Dragon King temple. The Dragon King feels aggrieved. The rain and thunder are because the Dragon King is crying for his own suffering... All these things are mysterious.
Countless beggars, goddesses, and Taoist priests made these rumors even more bizarre. Later, there were jugglers and walking doctors selling anti-epidemic herbs on the streets. They all said that their medicine was very effective and that they had received the true message from the Dragon King. As long as they took their medicine, they would I got the blessing of the Dragon King.
For a time, everyone was competing to buy this so-called magical herb. At that time, the governor of Hunan Province did not believe that there was really an angry dragon king, but people were not afraid of ghosts worrying about them, but they were afraid of ghosts whispering. These magic sticks and witches were so miraculous that anyone could buy them. I dare not believe it.
The provincial capital had no choice but to invite a Taoist priest to pray for peace. After the ritual was over, waves suddenly appeared in the lake, and a huge coffin with chains floated out of the lake.
It was a bad omen to see a coffin in the river, and the surrounding people were in danger. In order to stabilize the people's hearts, the gentry and politicians stepped up patrols in Yueyang City, and at the same time paid heavily to the salvagemen crossing the river to fish out the jade coffin of the Corpse King's camel.
After the coffin landed, it was seen that there was a long-haired corpse with rigor mortis and dry flesh wrapped around the bottom of the coffin. This corpse had golden hair all over and a mouth with teeth. It looked like a giant mouse, carrying the coffin in a piggy-back posture, as if it were carrying a coffin. Sneak in the water.
After that, this coffin was named the Corpse King Camel Jade Coffin by Taoists in Jianghu. Because the mummy looked like a mouse, it was also called the Golden Rat Camel Jade Coffin.
It is already unlucky to find a corpse in the river, and adding a coffin is even more unlucky and evil. However, it is not an option to have such a large coffin floating randomly in the lake. The Yueyang Political Yuan had no choice but to send water ghosts to catch the coffin and fish it ashore.
After the Taoist priests delivered salvation and the monks recited sutras, the water ghosts pushed the jade coffin out of the coffin. What was inside was a pair of middle-aged men and women wearing rich clothes. Not long after they were exposed to the air, they suddenly changed. They turned into two green-scaled dragons wearing human clothes, and the aquatic smell even wafted from the faucet heads.
The Taoist took out a pair of gold tablets from the jade coffin, on which were engraved the words of the Dragon Lord of Dongting and the Dragon Lord's Empress. When the people saw this scene, they all said clearly that it was the appearance of the Dragon Lord.
With the leading dragon in front of him, who would dare to question whether the Dragon Prince's anger was a rumor? The Provincial City Government wanted to get rid of the superstitious legend and held a lake sacrificial ceremony with great fanfare, but unexpectedly it was self-defeating and instead helped the rumor. After that, there were people in Dongting Lake. The news about Lord Long spread like wildfire, and nothing could be stopped.
People should not fight with ghosts and gods. If you win, it will be disrespectful. If you lose, you will be punished by God. The Provincial City Government is determined to break the superstition, but it also has to take into account the hearts and minds of the people. It has no choice but to change its direction and start to follow the people's hearts to raise funds for the Dragon King. The matter of building a temple.
Since ancient times, building temples and monuments has been a great meritorious deed. Perhaps the common people only need to give a shout to show their dedication. The squires and sages cannot give away a dime due to their affection and reputation in the village. Under the leadership of the Provincial City Government Yuan, the wealthy gentry donated money. After paying for the incense, the people contributed their efforts and decided to build a temple for Lord Long.
There is a place to build a temple, but the Dongting Lake basin is a vast land, so you can't build it in the water. Since you can't find a place, you can only continue to ask Taoist Master Jin for help.
After some divination by the old Taoist priest, he took a fancy to Junshan Mountain on the northwest bank of Dongting Lake. This place faces south and faces the north. The terrain is relatively high, like an emperor's seat hugging the river and lake, and it is surrounded by nearby mountains. Damn, it’s really easy to build a temple.
However, there is a problem. Most of Junshan is submerged underwater. If a temple is built at this time, it will have to fill in the water to create land, so that the water near Junshan can leak out first.
This was indeed quite difficult. Half a year later, the lake water receded to the foot of the mountain, and Yueyang City began to recruit people to build fields near Junshan, drain the river water and fill the silt fields for miles around the lake with dry soil. , then high ground was piled at the foot of Junshan, and the rammed earth was leveled for the construction of the Dragon King Temple.
In the next six months, the construction of Longjun Temple started and was not completed until the end of the year. People filled the jade coffin into the temple and brought the jade coffin with them to worship.
After everything was done, Taoist Jin also warned the people around him that the Longjun Temple would need to be served by officials for three years before it could be accepted by the people. At the same time, a no-fishing zone in Dongting Lake would need to be designated during these three years to allow the aquatic tribes near the Longjun Temple to recuperate. , fishing and hunting are not allowed.
The official feast is different from the civilian feast. The civilian feast is to absorb the incense of hundreds of families, while the official feast is to absorb the merits of the main family. For the next three years, the government will invite monks and Taoists every year to hold the Bainuo Dragon King Festival in Junshan near Longjun Temple.
On this day, all kinds of officials and commissioners from the provincial capital and Yueyang City would go to Longjun Temple to buy some sticks of incense and supply melons and fruits, hoping that Yueyang City and Dongting Lake would have good weather.
During this period, although people were prohibited from offering incense and fruit offerings, they were not prohibited from participating. Many people came here in admiration and brought their own paper boats and treasures to burn outside the temple, hoping that the Dragon King would accept it and bless their families and people with abundant fishing and hunting. install.
In places with a large number of people, there are temple fairs, stalls, and department stores, and the Longjun Temple has become more lively every year in the past three years. As for this year, the official feast has ended, and from this year onwards, people’s feasts can be accepted. The Nuo Dragon King Festival has not even started yet, but many department stores and sideshows have already gathered, making the area near the Dragon King Temple full of traffic and chaos.
At this time, Yue Guanchao and the others were wearing rustic clothes, carrying burdens and disguises, and mixed in with the various religions and nine groups who came to attend the temple fair.
Walking near the Longjun Temple, you can see that the Dragon King Temple stands at the foot of Junshan Island. The white pagoda in the backyard just corresponds to the top of Junshan Mountain. Junshan is lush and surrounded by mountains, which makes it feel like a paradise in a cave.
As mentioned earlier, Longjun Temple was created by filling a lake with land. This temple only occupies half of the area at the foot of the mountain. The remaining half is completely lake silt. The convex land connects the islands and extends into the boundless sea and lake.
Along the land, you can see the traces left by the dams surrounding the lake. At this time, most of the dams have been demolished, and a variety of trees on the dams have strengthened the river banks. If there are still real cofferdams, they must be used for drainage on the island.
Most temple fairs are concentrated around the cofferdam wide square between the Dragon King Temple and the lake. The wide square is packed with people from all walks of life, jugglers, and Baihang Department Store.
Yue Guanchao saw at a glance that Sun Daqiao, who was sitting near the cofferdam embankment, had already prepared his outfit. He was wearing a gray robe and gown, a melon hat on his head, and a pair of one-eyed sunglasses. The table was filled with pens, ink, paper and inkstones. The cover is sewn like a hundred-year-old garment, with several large characters on it: "The divine fortune teller covers the eyes of the sky."
In front of him, there was a tall and thick man sitting on a stool with his sleeves rolled up, waiting for him to read his palm.
Yue Guanchao and the others understood this and found a cold noodle stall nearby. They pretended to be diners and sat in the shed, leaning against the window to observe Sun Daqiao.
"How many of you are here to attend the temple fair?"
Some people died, but not completely...
