Ghost Blowing Lantern II - Chapter 19 A Letter from the Grassland (Part 1)

I have never heard of the legend of tomb robbers like the “Ni’er Hui”, and this is the first time I have heard of it when I have grown up. But Fatty and I have heard about the “Yi Guan Tao” she mentioned. The people in this sect want to Alchemy, specializing in cutting off boys’ genitals to make medicine, was suppressed after liberation and ceased to exist. I heard the fourth aunt said it in a serious way, and I knew she was not just telling it for fun.

In this deep mountain and old forest, all you can see are lonely mountains. Having the opportunity to listen to the old people talking about ancient times like the Three Emperors and the Five Emperors is definitely a major entertainment activity for us, not to mention that Fatty and I were at Wong Tai Sin Temple. In the underground cellar, I also saw with my own eyes the corpses dressed up in gangster attire similar to that of the “Ni’er Hui”, which added to my curiosity. I immediately begged my fourth aunt to tell me more about the “Ni’er Hui”. thing.

But the fourth aunt didn’t know much about the “Ni’er Hui”. She only picked up what she knew and told us some. Those were old things before liberation. At that time, the Northeast was in chaos, and there were so many bandits in the mountains, like ” Not to mention big gangsters like “Cover the Sky”, there are also many gangsters who are loose bandits, who work in groups of three and two to break up homes, and there are also those who kidnap fast tickets, who specialize in kidnapping those who pass through the door quickly. A girl who is about to get married cannot stay overnight after being tied up. Once she spends the night with her husband’s family, the marriage will definitely not be allowed. Therefore, the family members of the meat ticket must collect the money as soon as possible to redeem the person on the same day, so it is called “kidnapping fast ticket”. The counter used to be such a gangster who kidnapped fast tickets. Not only that, he also learned sorcery in a Taoist sect. It is said that he has the ability to escape from the ground. Even if he committed a crime, the official could not catch him at all. Maybe in fact He had only served as an engineer in the “Digging Army” and was good at digging tunnels. However, outsiders had no idea what he was doing. They were just guessing. Later, he discovered that digging ancient tombs could make a fortune, so he started doing it. The business of tormenting the dead.

He dug more graves, and his reputation grew day by day. He accepted many apprentices and formed a group of gangsters. He began to apply for a trade name, because all he did was digging soil and mud. He and his Most of the apprentices were poor mud boys who dug mud in rivers. They relied on their craftsmanship to do this job. For the sake of color, the word “hui” had to be highlighted, so the name was “Ni’erhui”.

The “Ni’erhui” emerged from the late Qing Dynasty. It is nominally a master-disciple sect. In fact, it has exactly the same organizational structure as the “four beams and eight pillars” among Hu bandit gangsters. It has always done evil and is ruthless, not to mention killing people. Even many people in the mountains have been harmed by them, but the government has repeatedly suppressed them to no avail. In the past few decades, many ancient tombs have been stolen, and later they became even more brazen, because there were many corpses in the old tombs, or the bodies of the tomb owners. It was filled with mercury for antisepsis. In order to get the pearls and jade contained in the mouth of the ancient corpse, they dragged the corpse of the tomb owner from the tomb with a hemp rope, hung the corpse upside down on the crooked neck tree to drain out the mercury, and then cut off the mouth and gouged out the intestines. , sometimes the ancient tombs are very close to the inhabited villages, and they still hold open fires, or do it in broad daylight, without hesitation, there is no one who does not make a fortune in this business, so this group of people all have real people in their hands, and there is no need to worry about it. No one dares to care about them.

They dug up the tombs and emptied the valuables inside, leaving behind broken coffins that were full of messy remains. When the common people saw it, they all sighed. Those ancient corpses must have been miserable for eight lifetimes, and they were tortured like this after death. , this situation is really cruel.

The “Ni’erhui” group is found in the deep mountains and old forests of the Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains. Among the three mountains and five ridges in this mountain, they will try their best to dig out any ancient tombs and tombs that can be found with remnants of monuments and earth. Stealing secret weapons from tombs. Since they have been doing this kind of business for many years, they have a guilty conscience, so there are many superstitious methods. They dress in black to reduce the yang energy in the living people when working. Ancient tombs are filled with yin that has accumulated for a long time. In obscure places, it has always been taboo to keep the yang energy of living people inside. In addition, it is also said to be evil. Hat thorns, socks, and belts are all made of bright red and dyed with pig blood.

Regarding their deeds, there are not many people who can talk about them now. After all, they were all decades ago. The reason why the fourth aunt knows so clearly is because before liberation, her brother was ” The bandits from the “Ni’erhui” captured her and worked as coolies. They sifted through the mud when digging graves, and finally escaped from the bandit’s lair with a narrow escape. They told her some of their experiences there.

According to the memory of the fourth aunt’s brother, the bandit leader of the “Ni’erhui” once led a whole group of bandits to dig many holes in the “Tuanshanzi” area, and finally dug out a temple of Huang Daxian’s son from behind Huangpizi’s grave. They wanted to find a treasure from a secret passage in the temple, but they ended up angering the Great Immortal and costing several lives. However, the “Ni’er Hui” was not a vegetarian either. Once their plan failed, they tried another plan, but they still succeeded. , from the secret passage under the temple, a box decorated with gold and inlaid with jade was dug out.

After the bandits of the “Ni’erhui” succeeded, the mountain people who were captured to help dig holes were dragged into the ravine and killed. The fourth aunt’s brother was shot, and the bullet hit him. He crawled out of the dead with his life. After returning to the village, the gunshot wound never recovered. In addition, he was extremely frightened. He died within a few years. As for “Ni’erhui” No one knows the whereabouts of the big box unearthed from Wong Tai Sin Temple and what treasures it contained. And since then, the “Ni’er Hui” has disappeared deep in the mountains and forests, and no one has seen it again. Such hairy people must have suffered retribution and died without a burial place.

The fat man and I listened with rapt attention. What on earth is hidden in Wong Tai Sin Temple that warrants the “Ni’er Hui” to do so at all costs? Where did they take that box? What will be the final fate of those gangsters from the “Ni’erhui”? We are very curious and want to get to the bottom of this matter, otherwise we will not be able to sleep well at night, but the fourth aunt only knows so much, and the authenticity of even this content cannot be guaranteed. He picked up the gun and crawled back to the village. He only had one breath left, and his words were all confusing. Who knows whether what he said was reliable.

Seeing that there was nothing more to inquire about, I had no choice but to go on cutting the tomb bricks with the fat man. At that time, it was advocated to change the customs and level the barren tombs to open up fertile farmland, because cremation was not realistic in many remote areas. Burial was still practiced, but it was different from the old society. They are also very different. The first is a thin burial, and the second is a deep burial with no grave. The burial is twenty feet deep, and the grave cannot be sealed with earth. Crops can still be planted on the grave.

However, in our deep mountains and old forests, there are few people, so we don’t have to worry about the area of ​​cemeteries and crop fields. We just flatten some ancient tombs and use tomb bricks instead of building materials. However, these tomb bricks are extremely difficult to peel, and these green bricks have been The stench of the corpses in the ancient tombs is so inaccessible that it does not dissipate despite the passage of time. After the tombs are cut and leveled, lime must be mixed with soju to remove the odor.