Chapter 193 [Preparing Tributes for the Mountain Lord]

  Looking around, beside the two mountain villages, there are six or seven small temples, lingering with traces of incense.

   One of them is the largest, with two large wooden doors open, and the angle is just right with Fang Chang's side. Through the door, you can see a lot of mud-body wood sculptures painted in colorful colors.

  But in these temples, there is no local deity of good fortune, and the names are messed up.

  Looking at the momentum above it, it is not neutral and peaceful, and it is not even recognized by the world.

  This kind of three-no temple **** statue is the so-called "prostitution worship".

  Those who eat the power of incense and vows do not know good and evil, let alone benefit the people, and are often entrusted by treacherous people to deceive foolish men and women. Therefore, for the herdsmen officials of the imperial court, the elimination of local prostitutes has always been a commendable achievement.

   Unexpectedly, these two mountain villages have accumulated so much because they seem to be located in a remote place where royal power is difficult to come by.

  But in these small temples, I didn’t see the location of the “mountain owner” heard in the previous conversation. Thinking about the conversation just heard, it should be located in the place where these villagers need to go.

  The little girl ran into the village just now, and she ran into other children and asked her, "Xiangyu Xiangyu, why don't you go dancing? Didn't you say that dancing on the snowdrift is very warm?"

   "Go back, if you jump down again, you should be hungry."

  In the surrounding houses, the conversations of the villagers also involved this family a lot.

   To put it simply, the youngest Yang has been dead for many years, and this kind of thing is not uncommon in mountain villages where the premature death rate has always been high.

  Without the mainstay of the family, Yang Laosan's wife also remarried and ran away, leaving only two daughters in foster care with Yang Laosan's brothers.

  As for the mountain owner, he asked the two villages to pay tribute to a girl every year. Otherwise, it would bring disasters to the village, otherwise, he would bless the place with good weather.

  The villagers who have always had superstitious customs, after the mountain lord showed some magic power, they naturally believed in it and followed it.

  Every time, the poorest, loneliest, and most helpless girl in the village is selected. This year's tribute is this little girl.

   In order to pay tribute to the "mountain owner", Shangshan Village and Xiashan Village agreed after discussion that each year the two villages would take turns sending people out, and this year it was Xiashan Village's turn.

  The cooking smoke in the two villages at this time is that the villagers are preparing dry food for the tribute team that is about to travel. You can't take less firewood, after all, it's snowing outside, and it's impossible to cut firewood on the road. And the mountain owner asked that he should go to the ground early tomorrow morning, and spend the night in the mountain in winter. If there is not enough fuel, people will die.

  Clothing to keep out the cold is also indispensable, including this tribute must be kept warm, enough clothes can also be used as bedding at night.

  Fang Chang silently started the state of "why meet each other before", and walked towards the village.

  The girl named Yang Xiangyu is returning home.

   "Uncle, I'm back."

   "Well, it's time, we're ready to go."

"I see."

"Xiangyu, it's no wonder the uncles have happened this time. After my brother is gone, I originally wanted to raise you and betroth you to another family to make some money, but since it's our village's turn, after much deliberation, it's your last choice." Appropriate. Bind her."

  Fang Chang walked gently into the family's house.

  But saw that the girl had already been tied to the ground by Wuhuada, but as a tribute, she did not receive more harsh treatment.

  The villagers, on the other hand, began to go out and gather, ready to go. People who knew each other gathered together in twos and threes, with dry food and firewood on their backs, and some spirits hung on their waists if possible. Another person walked out of the village, and he was sent to Shangshan Village to contact them and inform them to act together.

  For a while, the originally quiet village became noisy.

  The tribute has a long journey and requires high physical strength. Only adult men can enter this team, women, children, children and the elderly are not allowed. They are telling their young people to pay attention to safety along the way, go early and return early, and don't delay the time to make the Mountain Lord angry.

  The scale of the two mountain villages is not small, and there are quite a lot of people in the team this time.

   Someone also carried the sliding pole, and then walked into the Yang brothers' house together, took out the tribute this time, and tied it on the sliding pole chair.

  Because the mountain master begged the girl for food, the villagers would not give the tribute a few days in advance, but just feed her some sugar water to ensure "better taste".

  The team gradually walked out of the village, arranged in a messy manner, and then walked towards the distant mountains.

  There was also a team coming out of the upper mountain village on the opposite side, and the two teams gradually merged together. The familiar people naturally gathered together and chatted while walking, talking about the harvest, talking about trivial matters, and talking about the tribute this time, which was relaxed and happy.

  Fang Chang touched the scabbard behind his back, and followed quietly.

  There are also older villagers in the team, and they said to the young people who participated in this routine activity for the first time:

   "The road is far away. Don't walk too fast on this road, save your energy. The location you want to go to is in the deepest part of the mountains. The mountain owner lives in a cave."

   "Today we will go to Fengtoupo, where the leeward is safe and the place is spacious enough to accommodate us. Rest for the night, get up early tomorrow morning, and then we can reach the place after a short journey."

  The young man asked curiously:

   "Uncle Nine, have you ever seen the mountain master?"

"Then how dare you look at it!" said the veteran villager, "Besides, the cave master doesn't come out to meet each other. Every time we shout at the entrance of the cave, ask and answer a few sentences, and then throw the tribute into the cave entrance. Don't give extra tribute, and don't embarrass us."

  Looking forward with some confusion and longing, the young man sighed:

   "Sounds really good, I'll see it this time."

  The mountain road is narrow and the passage is not fast. The team quickly becomes slender and winds through the mountains.

  Fengtoupo is a good place to rest. When the evening approached, the team of mountain people came here, and then counted the number of people.

  Actually, there is a word of mouth story about this place, which tells about the origin of Fengtoupo’s name. Often the elders in the team would tell the younger generation over the campfire, but Fang Chang didn’t care about it.

  The mountain people will calculate the consumption, light a large number of bonfires here, and camp on the ground. The blazing flames will use the terrain to resist the cold night wind. This time, more than half of the firewood they carried will be burned, and the rest will not continue to be carried, but will be piled up here, ready to be used when they return here at noon tomorrow.

Seeing that the villagers had already taken out their dry food, warmed it up on the fire, melted snow in a container to boil water, and ate it with pickled vegetables and garlic, Fang Chang also got up, walked up to the next high hill, and found a place at the peak Sit down, here you can overlook the crowd below.

  The girl who served as a tribute was placed in the warmest position together with the sliding pole, and someone fed her with sugar brought by soaking in hot water.

  The mountain wind is as cold as a knife.

  Fang Chang untied the gourd around his waist, leaned on the top of the snow-covered hill, put the Lingquan sword across his lap, and took two sips of sorghum wine from time to time.

   Thank you Alloy Niu Niu for your reward.

  

  

  (end of this chapter)