Ghost Blowing Lantern II - Chapter 26 Gadfly (Part 2)

Ding Sitian had already led three horses out. When she heard what Lao Ni said, she said to him: “You are too worried. The cattle will not run into the desert. At most, they will circle on the grassland, and no matter how they run, they will There are not many wolves in the Barenzuo Banner, and the few prairie wolves dare not take advantage of them. There should be no other surprises. We will definitely be able to complete the task and recover the cattle one by one.”

I saw that she was leading three horses, so I asked Ding Sitian why you want to go west with us to chase the cattle? It’s said to be very dangerous there, so you’d better not go there. Ding Sitian said stubbornly: “Although you claim to dare to go up to the sky to grasp the moon and to swim across the five oceans to catch turtles, you have never even ridden a horse. How can you chase a cow if you don’t know how to ride a horse? Besides, I am an educated youth who jumped in the queue in this pastoral area. , I am responsible for anything that happens in the pastoral area, so of course I have to go.” After that, she went to bring in a few more saddles and stirrups. Fatty and I didn’t know how to ride a horse, so we had to agree and let her lead.

At this time, “Old Sheepskin” came over hesitantly. Even three educated youths were able to risk approaching “Baiyan Cave” for the sake of pastoral areas. At this time, what else could this old man not do? And the most important thing is that if not only the cattle are not recovered, but the educated youth has another accident, it will be even more difficult to explain. He finally made up his mind to let his son and daughter-in-law find other groups of runaway cattle, and then leave them behind. After coming down to take good care of “Chief Ni” and repair the cattle and sheep pens, he himself and the three of us went to the direction of “Baiyan Cave” to chase cattle.

We didn’t dare to neglect, so we found some emergency supplies and carried them in another yurt that had not been trampled by the cattle. We all hurriedly set off separately. Riding horses for novices does require a familiar process, but the fat man and I We are naturally adaptable to this kind of thing, and with the guidance of Ding Sitian and “Lao Yangpi”, we have basically mastered the essentials within a few miles.

The key to riding a horse is not to compete with the horse. When the horse is walking or running fast, clamp the horse with your calves, knees and inner thighs, lean forward, maintain a feeling of touching but not touching the ground with the saddle, and follow the rhythm of the horse’s running. , Don’t let your body become stiff. The four of us drove the horses to gallop on the grassland, as if they were gliding in the wind on the sea of ​​grass. The fat man and I were very happy, thinking that this time we were really addicted to horses. Just for this reason, chasing the cattle is not in vain.

The herds of cattle that had blown up the herd would not stop running, and after a delay just now, they could not catch up for a while. Fortunately, the traces along the way were obvious, so there was no need to worry about losing them. “Old Sheepskin” was worried that I had played with the fat man. We had our heads turned upside down, and we were not wearing riding boots. Once we fell off the horse, falling from the stirrups was no joke. We only allowed our horses to run for a distance, and then gradually slowed down.

I took this opportunity to ask “Lao Yangpi”, the place name of “Baiyan Cave” is very strange, but why did it get its name? “Old Sheeppi” said that he didn’t know much about it. He only heard that there were many holes in the grassland nearby. The holes were surprisingly big and filled with dry water eyes. The holes were one after another. Maybe it was because there were so many holes that they were called “Hundred Eyes Cave”, because so many people and animals have disappeared there, no one has been close to it for many years. It is not clear whether this is really the case.

“Lao Yangpi” has always been afraid of the black dragon that appears near the “Hundred Eyes Cave”. I think it was probably because of the disappearance of his brother that year that it cast a shadow in his heart. There is an unsolvable knot in his heart. I don’t Knowing how to persuade him, I had to comfort him that there was no such creature as a “dragon” in the world, it was just a totem created by the ancients.

Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered the broken book “The Sixteen-Character Yin-Yang Feng Shui Secret Technique” passed down from my family. There seemed to be many chapters mentioning “dragons” in it. This broken book is the only one left in my family. I always carry my property with me, but I didn’t look at it carefully at that time, so I took it out and flipped through it on horseback. Sure enough, there is a “Searching for Dragons”, which says: “When mountains and rivers stop and rise, they become dragons. The terrain stretches and condenses into a dragon.” It seems that the dragon is also a symbol of the mountain, but the book does not say that the dragon is alive.

The fat man had always disliked my crappy book. When he saw that I was making trouble with it again, he immediately mocked me and said, “Why haven’t you thrown away this Four Old Readings yet? This kind of nonsense book is poisonous.” Yes, my comrade, you are going to be poisoned in the long run, and you actually dare to show it to others, trying to instill vulgar taste into poor and lower-middle peasants and revolutionary comrades?”

I retorted: “You know what you are, you are justified in talking nonsense, and you are not guilty of vulgar taste. Besides, I always look at it with a critical eye…” As he was speaking, “Old Sheepskin” suddenly reined in the horse, He told our three educated youths that at the end of Caodianzi was the Baiyan Cave. He dared to swear to the Heaven of Immortality that he was the demon dragon he saw there. The terrifying scene would never be forgotten until his death.

At that time, the red sun was in the sky. We were riding on horses, setting up a pergola and looking to the west. We saw the silent prairie with yellow grass stretching to the sky, a vast expanse. At the end of the undulating sea of ​​grass, there was a piece of raised hills, which looked like a few hills on the sea of ​​grass. An isolated island is the Baiyan Cave that made “Old Sheepskin” talk about it. It seems that the cattle are rushing over there. If they don’t find the cattle, everyone can’t explain it when they go back. It seems that no matter it is the dragon pool or the tiger’s den, they have to go and explore it. Check it out.

“Lao Yangpi” brought out a Mongolian sword. It was a true Kangxi sword. It was given to a Mongolian prince by the emperor. Later, when the Four Olds were destroyed, the prince’s descendants asked Lao Yangpi to help secretly steal the knife. He threw it away. Lao Yangpi knew that the knife was a treasure. At that time, he didn’t realize it. He thought it would be a pity to throw it away, so he hid it in his home. The quality of his home was low and no one paid attention to him at all, so he kept it. Come down.

He felt that Kangxi’s sword could ward off evil spirits and exorcise demons, so he took it with him. Maybe he didn’t intend to go back alive this time, which seemed very tragic. At this time, he was about to approach the “Hundred Eyes Cave”, “Lao Sheepskin” ” He drew his sword out of its sheath with a screeching sound, and roared Qin Opera to embolden himself and the educated youths. He shouted while urging his horse to move forward, and his broken gong-like voice roared as he sang: “Hey Zhao Zilong…” This A line from Qin Opera blurted out, and the roar was high-pitched and passionate, with indescribable grief and anger.

Our scalps were numb because of “Lao Yangpi”‘s earth-shattering voice. Although we have never heard the real Qin Opera, we all felt that his broken voice was so authentic. At this time, we really The courageous Zhao Zilong who needs to be sung encouraged everyone. Just when he was about to cheer him, he suddenly stopped shouting and stared at the traces of cattle trampling on the ground. It turned out that the cattle had run here. After that, the running angle deviated slightly and was no longer pointing directly in the direction of the “Baiyan Cave”. “Old Sheeppi” was immediately overjoyed and thanked Changshengtian that these cattle ancestors did not enter the “Baiyan Cave”. But we were not happy for too long. We followed the trail all the way. After a few miles, the footprints of more than a hundred cows on the grassland disappeared out of thin air. The chaotic cow hoof prints stopped in one place. Could it be that All this large herd of cattle evaporated on the grassland? Everyone was stunned. Could it have been blown away by a tornado? But there was no sign of wind at all. What happened where the cattle disappeared?