"Second brother, third brother, these are thugs sent by Huihetang to protect us. You don't have to worry about this." As soon as these words came out, Luo Shiniang obviously didn't want to tell the truth. Yue Qingshan originally wanted to tell her the truth, but at this moment There was actually some hesitation. No matter whether the foreigners were here to protect them or to monitor them, they would inevitably be tipped off as long as they were around.
Luo Shiniang asked: "Brother Yue, according to what you mean, this place has never even been excavated. It is completely an ordinary area. Then why are there thousand-year-old locust trees here? I have heard Chen Duozi and others mention it before. , they indeed buried the official silver on Yugou Island."
"What do you think is going on in this situation?" Yue Qingshan wiped the sweat on his face: "If official silver is indeed buried on Yugou Island and Mr. Zhu has not touched it, then it must be us I misunderstood the meaning.”
"Go to the moon, go to the left ten miles, and go under the thousand-year-old locust tree. With just these ten words, what else is there to misunderstand?" Luo Shiniang was quite puzzled by this.
"Could it be that it means the complete opposite, that it means to go to the lower right corner of the moon, ten miles to the right, and under the thousand-year-old locust tree?" Before Yue Qingshan finished speaking, he saw Luo Shiniang shaking his head: "I have also thought about this. Yue Login, ten miles to the right, you have probably reached the lake. There are no thousand-year-old locust trees there, and it is impossible to find Guanyin."
"Then, this is strange!" While they were talking, Song Siyuan stood by the window, watching countless water flows into the pit along the terrain. Her originally chaotic mind became clear for a moment, and her eyes lit up and she said, "Yes It can’t be that the place has not changed, but this Yugou Island has changed!” Before Song Siyuan finished speaking, Yue Guanchao also felt that this was the case: “You mean, this Yugou Island will also change?”
"The change I'm talking about is not a real change, but an increase or decrease in the water level." She looked at Luo Shiniang: "Senior, give me a copper basin and bowl, and I will demonstrate it to you." Luo Shiniang asked for official silver. Eager and unwilling to let go of any possibility, she motioned to the gang to give her the copper basin and porcelain bowl used for camping.
Song Siyuan got these things and put the porcelain bowl upside down in the middle of the copper basin. Then, she picked up the teapot on the table and poured water into the copper basin. As the water level in the copper basin continued to rise, most of the porcelain bowl was submerged in the water. Down.
She motioned for everyone around her to gather around and slowly explained: "According to local records, some islands in Dongting Lake are exposed above the water when the water is dry. When the water is high, most of the islands will sink below the water. And we already know that Broken Island was once in the Southern Song Dynasty. It is a huge Xuanwu Island, and it was human transformation that turned them into this."
"The same goes for this island!" She stared at everyone: "When the water is low, most of the broken island is exposed. When the water is high, most of the island is submerged underwater. This shows that the land area of the island is equivalent to a long The time is not fixed at all. If we use a fixed address to seek the truth, it is like carving a boat to seek a sword, and we will definitely get the wrong address."
"Think about it!" She paused and her tone became mysterious: "Three years ago, there was a flood in Yueyang City. If even Yueyang Tower was washed away, it means there was a lot of flood. Even though three years have passed, the flood may not be complete. If you want to determine the location of Guanyin, you need to determine the boundary of the island based on the current water level, and then continue to search along that distance, so that you can find it." Yue Guanchao said slightly discouraged: "Then how can we find it, Zhu It was more than 40 years ago that the old man buried the official silver. There is no way we can find the water level 40 years ago!" Song Siyuan shook her head and retorted: "It is not necessarily the exact water level. As long as we know the approximate water level at that time, we can To infer whether the water level today is rising or falling, when I was looking for information, I saw the hydrological data of Dongting Lake."
"Dongting Lake is a large lake in the southwest. The ups and downs of drought and floods affect the surrounding tributaries. In order to investigate public opinion on hydrology, the government often needs to know the drought and flood conditions of Dongting Lake. Although the ancients did not have hydrological measuring instruments, they could pass the scale of the water-suppressing stone beast. To distinguish the rise and fall of the water level, to determine whether there will be drought or flood in the coming year." What is the water-controlling stone beast?
The ancients would carve stone animals standing in larger rivers and lakes, whether they were cattle, sheep, dragons or tigers. At the same time, they would also carve scales on the backs of the animals. After the water level rose, they would mark the year with red paint on the scales. to record drought and flood water levels.
"Senior Luo, where are the stone beasts in Dongting Lake?" Luo Shiniang looked at the Yueyang Tower dozens of miles away: "In the Guanshui Pavilion under the Yueyang Tower, in front of the pavilion is a stone statue with a dragon head and a turtle body. It was built from Dongting Lake. Starting from the Yueyang Tower, this stone statue stood in front of the Guanshui Pavilion and probably stood there for thousands of years." That would be great! "Song Siyuan picked up the red pen from her backpack and drew a red line directly on the water level. Then, she continued to fill the copper basin with water until there was only an inch left at the bottom of the bowl, then she stopped and drew a second red line.
Later, she explained what she did: "As you can see, the first red line represents the red line when Guanyin was buried forty years ago, and the second is the red line after the flood. As long as two lines can be calculated, By the ratio between them, we can calculate how much the water has risen. According to the proportional increase or decrease, we can completely deduce the starting position of the year.
"Okay, when the rain stops later, I will take you to Guanshui Pavilion." Around midnight, the rain gradually stopped, and Luo Shiniang took Yue Qingshan, Yue Guanchao, and Song Siyuan to the Guanshui Pavilion by boat.
Approaching the Yueyang Tower, the outline of the Guanshui Pavilion gradually became clearer. This small pavilion is not too big. It is located on the lakeshore under the Yueyang Tower city wall. A tall stone beast can be seen, standing on all fours from the water, looking up at the lake and roaring.
Judging from the shape, it is similar to the dragon turtle described by Zhu Fushun. The turtle shell is tall and bulging, the limbs are supported on the water, and the tail is curled directly into the water. The dragon head is hideous and terrifying. It raises its head to look at the lake. From the head, there are two chains passing through the back. The back is directly fixed on the stone tablet of Guanshui Pavilion, and the dragon's ao is like a donkey and horse pulling a cart pulling the pavilion.
They rowed close to the limbs of Long Ao, and sure enough they saw scales engraved on the front two legs, and they could also see the water level mark marked with red paint.
Song Siyuan picked up the flashlight, carefully observed the scale, and said to them: "The latest red mark is this year's water level. The water level 40 years ago was probably submerged underwater."
"I'll go down and take a look first, while you guys stare on the shore." Yue Guanchao took off his clothes and plunged into the lake. After getting used to the chaos in the water, he finally saw the logo from forty years ago three meters underwater. .
After he finished counting the red scales drawn in the past forty years, he emerged from the water with a splash, touched the water on his face and said: "Forty years ago, the water level scale of Dongting Lake showed a water depth of twelve meters." He got on the boat. After that, Song Siyuan carefully looked at the current water level. The scale mark happened to be fifteen meters. She looked at Luo Shiniang and explained: "Senior Luo, forty years ago, the water level of Dongting Lake was twelve meters deep. Now, the water depth is ten meters." Five meters, over the past forty years there have been ups and downs, droughts and floods, and the total depth has now increased by three meters."
