Realizing this, Yue Guanchao and Song Siyuan nodded in agreement. The plants in these forests were probably what they had guessed.
"What are you looking at? Mysterious?"
Xu Xiake walked to the two of them and noticed the leaves in Song Siyuan's hand. After observing for a while, he found the oil on the leaves and suddenly realized: "No wonder the trees attract the human-faced stink bugs. It turns out to be these insect dew."
"Insect dew? You know what it is."
Song Siyuan motioned for him to continue explaining.
Xu Xiake was quite proud, nodded and continued to explain: "Drink the clear dew with your hands down, and it will flow out of the tung trees. Insect dew is not only food for flying insects, but also a fine wine. In the eyes of Taoists, insect dew has another name. Rootless dew is a kind of rootless dew that can ward off evil spirits and is also beneficial to spiritual practice.”
"This thing can be mixed with cinnabar and other pigments and used to write talisman and seal spells. It is a hundred times more effective than ordinary talisman seals. If it is used by Xuanmen people, it can also prolong life, purify cultivation, and make great progress in cultivation."
"So, when you're thirsty and drink dew, is this what you mean?"
Yue Guanchao recalled the Taoist priest's previous words and teased him casually.
Xu Xiake nodded: "Yes, this is the only thing that is of great benefit to practice. Other dews are not as good as rootless dew. I still know the difference clearly."
"Then what is this thing? Is it dew from the tree or something left by insects?"
Song Siyuan is more curious about this.
Xu Xiake nodded: "It's both. These rootless dews contain the saliva left by insects after preying on them, as well as the sap secreted by trees. The two are mixed to form these things similar to oil and dew."
When Yue Guanchao heard that it was insect saliva, his disgusting throat rolled up and down: "Half of it, these insect dew are insect saliva and tree sap. Can this thing be eaten? How strong does it taste?"
Xu Xiake shook his head and retorted: "It can't be said to have a strong taste. The saliva of insects is mixed with tree sap, which is a bit close to the taste of honey, but lighter than honey. It tastes similar to bamboo leaf water. It has a variety of herbs. Miscellaneous smell, this thing is actually the same as honey, it is the nectar left after flying insects collect pollen. There are not many types of insects, so the taste is of course all kinds of weird."
He paused and said, "The appearance of rootless dew is probably the nutrients left by flying insects on the leaves, which can be absorbed by plants. It is also a signal. As long as it comes at night, the tree will recognize living things and evaporate insect dew." The smell can attract flying insects and continue to spit out insect dew."
Song Siyuan listened to the Taoist priest and took out an empty water bottle: "I think there will be a lot of flying insects along the way. Let's collect some rootless dew first. It may be useful. This dew can attract flying insects, so it is still useful. .”
After finishing speaking, Song Siyuan and the others shook off the leaves and gathered all the dense dewdrops on them. They shook their wrists and slid them into the mouth of the bottle. There was a lot of moisture in the early morning, and they quickly filled half the bottle of rootless dew.
In this time, they ate and drank what they needed, packed their bags, and were ready to go down the mountain.
With everything ready, they walked to the higher courtyard again and looked towards the deep mountains behind Shennong Peak from the heights. Thousands of mountains were covered in dense fog, like thousands of green snails floating in the sea of clouds, which was daunting.
When a convoy of nearly ten horse-drawn carriages descended from Shennong Peak, they thought there was no road at all. Seeing the wild roads opened by the ancients leading into distant mountains, they gradually became suspicious.
"Isn't there very few people walking in the deep mountains? How can there be official roads?" Yue Guanchao was not only wary, but also doubtful. Even if there are roads in the deep mountains, they are all wild roads. Roads like this, which are completely free of weeds, are usually built by the government. official way.
Guifangzong explained: "These used to be official roads. Many people have entered the mountains over the past thousand years. In fact, they have degenerated into wild roads in the mountains. The closer you get to Shennong Peak, the more complete they are. Walking a little further will It has turned into a wild road in the mountains.”
Then, they drove the carriage forward. During this period, Yue Guanchao and the others stared outside carefully. The deeper they went, the more deserted the official road became. Halfway through, the rammed earth paving stones on the roadside had become sparse. It is sparse, with weeds overflowing from the gaps. If you don't look carefully, the road has merged with the shrubs.
"When were these official roads built?"
Yue Guanchao stared at the wild field and had this question just now.
Seeing the motorcade stop, Song Siyuan got out of the car and carefully observed the road on the ground: "It is probably the official road built during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It is estimated that these official roads were left by the army when the Beifu Cenotaph was built. After the Cenotaph was built, few people came to Shennongjia. , the official roads gradually became deserted and overgrown with weeds, becoming what we see now."
"In a thousand years, not many people have walked through it, and the grass has grown too sparsely."
Yue Guanchao found that even though there were thin weeds above the official road, they seemed to not grow very big. They could only grow to the ankles and legs, and the weeds outside the official road were already as high as the waist. , as if there were some invisible barrier between the official road and ordinary soil.
Song Siyuan put on her gloves and pulled up the weeds on the side of the road. Before she exerted much force, she saw the rhizomes of the weeds being pulled out. She stared at the roots carefully and found that the roots had withered, as if they had been burned by something. It's a state of rotten roots.
Seeing this, she seemed to understand the reason and explained: "It's because official roads are different from ordinary roads. The construction requirements of official roads are not a bit higher than those of civilian roads."
Song Siyuan mentioned this point and continued to explain: "I don't know much about the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Very few historical books from that time can be handed down. I only know about the Qin Dynasty."
After Qin Yingzheng unified the country, he began to unify weights and measures in order to eliminate the differences in weights among the countries. At the same time, the Qin Dynasty achieved the same goal of making the same track and writing the same text.
Let's not mention the book and the text for the moment, the "chariots on the same track" refers to the unification of the specifications of the chariots and horses, the size and width of the wheel hubs, and the official road when the chariots and horses walk.
When laying these official roads, the government will first mark the width of the road and clear away weeds and rocks. When only the soil is left, the craftsmen can follow the markings and dig down one meter deep for backup. .
The excavated soil needs to be sieved in advance to remove all stones and debris, and then the loose soil is fried in a large pot. The purpose of this step is to make all the nutrients in the soil completely ineffective. Even the insect eggs and grass seeds hidden in the soil no longer exist.
The fried soil will be mixed evenly with lime by craftsmen, and then backfilled to the excavated roadbed, and at the same time, it will be tamped and leveled with stones.
The road surface at this time does indeed look like a dirt road, but in fact it is two different things from an ordinary dirt road.
Ordinary dirt roads will suffer water and soil erosion due to wind and sun, and weeds will spread. Since the rammed dirt roads have been compacted and flattened, there is no air in the soil, and it is almost impossible for things like earthworm eggs to exist. At the same time, mixed in Lime also makes it difficult for plant seeds to germinate and survive. As a result, insect plants are completely eliminated from the rammed soil.
After the rammed earth was compacted, the empty soil layer was first paved with large stones, and finally the gaps were filled with stones. After it was flattened, the clay layer and the sand layer were laid in sequence, thus forming a formal official road.
Because the soil layer of this kind of official road has been treated in advance, no plants have been seen growing from the road surface after thousands of years, let alone underground insects damaging the roadbed. The service life is quite long. As long as the structure of the official road is not deliberately damaged, it can be used almost forever. Use it.
"The chi roads laid in the Qin Dynasty were still in use until the Han Dynasty. After hundreds of years, no weeds were produced. When later craftsmen laid official roads, they mostly used fried soil mixed with lime to prevent the official roads from paving. The long grass was destroyed, and this method did not gradually change to using green bricks to pave roads until the advent of brick-burning technology in the Tang and Song Dynasties.”
After Song Siyuan introduced the official roads of the Qin Dynasty, she explained: "This official road was laid during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, at least a thousand years ago. If it were an ordinary road over such a long time, it would have degraded into a mountain forest. It is difficult to preserve it for such a long time." It’s already considered a big deal to have weeds growing out.”
She pointed to the rotten grass roots in her hand: "I just looked at the grass roots. The roots of these weeds don't grow long. When they grow too big, they start to rot because they can't absorb nutrients. I guess these soil layers have accumulated over thousands of years." Weeds can only grow on the new soil layer. As long as their roots penetrate the new soil layer, they will encounter hydrated lime soil, and then the lime will burn the roots."
"As long as these weeds want to grow wildly, they have to put their roots downward and deep into the soil to absorb more nutrients. When they encounter the lime layer, they will stop growing. No matter what kind of weeds, they are destined to not grow big, which is why we see the short growth we see. Grass path.”
"Everyone, come down. I see there is a tidal flat in front of us. The horses are tired after walking half way. We must let them eat some weeds and drink water."
After Ghost Fangzong came down, the others got off the carriage one after another, loosened the pull ropes on the saddles, and allowed the horses to walk to the water's edge to drink and eat grass.
Yue Guanchao and the others were drinking horses and chewing grass, standing under the shade of trees and looking around. This is a large swamp tidal flat. It can be seen that the tidal flats divide the water surface, forming various mottled pools. Thousand-year-old trees grow wildly from the tidal flats. On a sheltered day, the vines spread across the water, swaying in the wind.
These horses had been running continuously for two or three hours, and were already very hungry. They were stirring up water plants at the water's edge, constantly pouring water into their mouths, and neighing with satisfaction.
Wow!
Suddenly there were ripples in the pond. Yue Guanchao saw the ripples expanding, his eyes became wary, and he quickly took out the dagger from his waist: "With such a big ripple, most of the things underneath are not there."
In less than a moment, the pond burst into water, and a buffalo bigger than a horse emerged from it.
If you look closely, you will see that this buffalo is much larger than an ordinary cow. It has a strong body, thick limbs, and a muscular back. It is covered with green moss. Its huge horns are like two steel forks, hanging from draining vines. From the water Stand up slowly and stare at the living creatures on the shore with your eyes open.
