Midsummer Moon. In the east well, its emperor Yandi, its god Zhurong, its worship stove, sacrifice to the lungs. Eat mushrooms and chickens.

At this time in May, it is called Gaoyue, or Ruibin, it is the month of worshipping the god of the stove, the god of fire, Emperor Yan, the custom of eating zongzi during the Dragon Boat Festival has not yet appeared, and the sacrifice to the god of fire is the main activity at this time of the month.

From this point of view, Shi felt that those witches should be difficult to deal with.

Do not choose another month to worship the god of fire, which is in line with the moon order.

Originally, witch historians and doctors were not separated, and these witches had a very historical background and cultural level.

The first Zhu Rong in the legend is Chongli, this person was ordered by the emperor to do a big thing when he was an official of Zhu Rong - Jedi Tiantong. From then on, ****, only the king and the leader of the tribal alliance can worship heaven and earth and communicate with ghosts and gods through Zhu Rongguan. Zhu Rong is the only officially recognized person who communicates with ghosts and gods, so these people sacrifice to Zhu Rong.

Combining these legends and semi-historical facts, the objects and months of sacrifice selected by these witches are impeccable. To have culture, to have historical rhyme, to have rituals, to have allusions, these people to use this to make money is indeed a bit overkill.

A literate witch is a qualified witch.

Women are witches and men are coveted, and these men and women don't know how much higher they are when it comes to the traditional cultural heritage at this time.

As the saying goes, there is no China after Narujo, and there is no China after Makino, which is not wrong at all in the eyes of these people. Judging from the sacrifice alone, in ancient times, the head was used for sacrifice, Yin Shang actually used the liver, and Zhou actually used the lungs, which is simply a destruction of tradition.

Fortunately, there is still a group of people who are full of literary and historical background on the ink master's side, and they can fight with them.

On the fourth day of the fifth lunar month, the ink artist who had been dormant in Peidi for more than a month finally began to move.

The arrival of these ink makers brought a lot of shock to the nobles of the big clans in Peidi at first, but after they came, they didn't do anything except do some of "plucking the Maoli world" to sell salt and send salt at low prices in the village community, and the nobles of the big clans settled down.

Of the ink people who met this time, only more than 60 people from Peidi did not go to the village community.

He was wearing a red silk man's robe that Tianmo bought from Taoyi a few days ago, wearing a witch crown of Dongyi Huaiyi, and wearing a vermilion lacquer-colored leather glove in his right hand, and he was uncomfortable.

At this time, the quality of the silk fabric was already good, but the sleeve robe was too wide, and he wore short brown after crossing, which was really uncomfortable.

Seeing that he looked like he was covered in thorns, Gong Zaoye sneered: "The best silk clothes, why are you wearing them like there are wheat mangs in them?" Tomorrow won't do. ”

Mozi also smiled and said, "You are responsible for using Wu Zhu's means to deal with Wu Zhu, and if there is a debate, let others go." If you really fight, you don't need to do it. ”

Shi shrugged his shoulders and asked, "Tomorrow, if those people jump over the wall in a hurry and do it in public, we have to be careful." ”

Gong Zaoye laughed and said, "You can rest assured." Of the sixty ink people here, you are the most invincible, and I can kill twenty or thirty of you with a single sword. Mr. The art of defending the city has his own method of military formation. The city gates are close to each other, and the tunnels are narrow, and the ink is good at it. If you really want to fight, three hundred ordinary armorers will also be scattered by our sixty people, you don't have to worry, just do your thing. ”

Just as he was about to rest assured, he saw that the bird on the side didn't know what he was thinking, and his face seemed to be a little worried.

My heart tightened, and my heart said, Could it be that the bird slippery thought of something?

Hurriedly asked, not wanting to be slippery, and said blankly: "I didn't think about such a trivial matter in case of a fight." I'm thinking that the village community in Shangqiu should harvest wheat now, right? As soon as they leave, they don't know if those righteous deeds can still spread in the nearby villages......"

Shi looked at this group of ink people who didn't take life and death seriously, and patted their heads with their hands, making a gesture of admiration. He hasn't killed anyone yet, but apart from him, all of these ink artists have a lot of blood on their hands.

A dry ink man laughed one after another, and they all let him learn swordsmanship as soon as this matter was over, even if he didn't be an enemy of ten people, at least he had to argue with someone when the other party was angry and he could defend himself.

After everyone had laughed, Mozi stopped laughing at the inkers, sharpened his short sword, and prepared crossbow arrows, just in case.

"Tomorrow, if it can really be solved, if there is a conflict, then use the 'Prepare the City Gate to Counterattack Array', each of them will form a group and fight in formation."

This is just a preparation for prevention in advance, Mozi himself is the head of the Moji Preparation Department, and he must be responsible for the conquest.

I don't know what this counterattack array looks like at the city gate, but it seems that these ink masters are skilled.

There is a formation to break the formation, there is an organization to fight the unorganized, and it is not difficult to be ten with one, and he is no longer worried.

All sorts of twine, linen, liquor, and white phosphorus that were prepared were for his disposal.

The inkers who were familiar with the "Welcoming Enemy Temple" and "Worshipping Ghosts and Gods" also prepared an altar prepared by Mozi and several carpenters with mortise and tenon, which was disassembled at this time, and once it took a short time, it could be combined into a five-foot wooden platform.

The specific method has been rehearsed many times, and this time they have done a final inspection to confirm that everything is ready, and then they loaded these utensils on the carriage and went to the sacrificial place of Peinan for seventy miles.

…………

In the south of Peidi, there is a wasteland, which is not the Daze on the east and west sides, which has unique characteristics.

There is a lot of mud in the barren land, birds and beasts flourish, and there are many dead corpses.

Bubbles often bubble up from the mud, and occasionally a fire ignites when there is no thunder fire and no one ignites it. There will be a cold fire at night, like a ghost.

Near the barren plain, there is a dirt mountain, and there are many black stones on the mountain. In a certain fire, the black stones on the mountain burned for several days, accompanied by the sour smell of soot.

Originally, the locals just thought it was magical and quite puzzled.

Why do the bubbles in the silt burn?

Why does the silt land species have ghosts and blue fires?

There is no grass or trees on the mountain, only black stone, why does it burn for days without extinguishing?

There are many rumors in Yipeidi, saying that there are miracles of Zhurong in the south for seventy miles. The night is the fire, and the day is smoke.

After it reached Peidi, the witches said that this place was a miracle of Zhurong and needed to be sacrificed. Zhu Rong is no longer just a great Sima, but has been deified as a godhead, managing the light and the sun and the flames.

He also said that if he did not sacrifice, it could cause a drought.

is already alarmist, coupled with the burning black stones on the mountain, plus there was originally a habit of sacrificing Zhu Rong here, and they are all descendants of the legendary Zhu Rong after the feudal country, such a myth has a big market.

Uncle Ma said that the vast majority of myths use imagination and imagination to conquer natural forces, dominate natural forces, and visualize natural forces.

With the drought and famine of the previous year, the sacrifices here have become increasingly one of the most important things in the region.

People wanted to conquer nature, but they had no choice but to rely on myths and pray that the sacrifices would bring a good harvest, believing that the myths were true because they seemed to be the only possible way to protect against drought.

It is not close to the Yellow River, and there is also the Daze depression next to it, and before the Yellow River took Huai into the sea, there were no floods here, only droughts. Therefore, there is no market for worshipping the god of water, but worshipping the god of fire and the god of light can get tens of thousands of dollars every year.

The witches had dealings with the big clans and village elders, and although the clan society in the Spring and Autumn Period began to disintegrate, the remaining habits were still there.

Many of the nobles of the destroyed small country moved here with their clansmen, and they still had some connections, and they had their own agreements with Wuzhu, and they also needed to set an example for the common people.

Those who do not believe naturally do not believe, and those who believe give part of the money to make an appearance in order to attract more people to donate money for sacrifice.

After getting the money, the money of the village elders and the big clan will be returned, and the remaining money will be deducted from the cost of the sacrifice, and everyone will share it proportionally. Every year, I get a lot of money.

If you want to sacrifice, you must make a full appearance.

Not only in the matter of taking money, the township elders should set an example, and the maidservants and concubines who sacrificed to Zhurong also needed to set an example.

The big clan has its own slaves, and they can also spend money to buy them, and sacrifice three or two a year.

The rest were picked from civilian homes.

If it is beautiful, it will be trained by the male first, and after the training is completed, it will be poured with grass poison, and it will not die or rot within a few days, and it will be burned with fire when the sacrifice is carried out, so as to increase the sense of ceremony.

Some of the old small countries of ritual utensils, sacrificial utensils also spread out, many of which are difficult for civilians to see, so every sacrifice will make people indulge, feel very high, and believe that only in this way can there be no nine-day drought.

Within a few years, it had already taken shape and become a local practice, attracting many rural people. Most of these rural people have escaped from hidden households, which is the kind of people that Confucius lamented that the harsh government is fiercer than the tiger: they do not need to fulfill military obligations and labor obligations, but they live in a bad environment and therefore have very weak resistance to natural disasters, so they are the most convinced.

This is the meeting place of rice millet culture, and it is a suitable day for sacrifices when there is nothing to do for planting millet in May, and rice planting is not busy.

As early as a few days ago, many farmers came from hundreds of miles to worship the mountain that had been burning for days with some money that they had easily saved and corn or rice for eating on the road, so that there would be no drought this year.

Before dawn, more than 1,000 people had already gathered there. Some village communities also prepare their own sacrifices.

It was customary in the Zhou Dynasty that the lungs were of the highest grade as a sacrifice, and the lungs of the sacrifice were required.

In addition, there is a habit of using cherries as sacrifices in this month, and the cherry name at this time is called peach, which means to eat the yellow warbler.

Cherries dot the lungs of animals, or have the sound of slaughtering livestock. The unconscious girls lay in the haystacks, dressed up and motionless.

By noon, there were more and more people, and the sacrifice was ready to begin. The original burning dirt mountain is no longer burning, and the occasional silt bubble burning phenomenon is rare.

Witches and men dressed in various costumes and muttered strange words as they made the final preparations for the sacrifice.

Thousands of people knelt on the ground, silently praying that there would be a good year this year, that there would be no more major droughts, and that they would not anger the god of Zhurong Fire......

As the crowd bowed down and waited for the sacrifice to begin, several carriages and a group of men dressed in black came from afar.

Some of the people of Peiyi recognized these people at a glance as ink masters, because their carriage was very special.

Some people in remote villages also recognized them at a glance as ink men, carrying swords but wearing short brown, dressed exactly like those who helped them build houses, sell salt at cheap prices, teach them to dig toilets, pile manure, and grow strange crops.

But there are some differences.

The leader was very young, dressed in a scarlet garment and wearing a leather glove on his right hand on a hot day.

He was followed by seven people, also dressed in red, carrying all kinds of jars, and a dog in the back.

This strange dress makes people amazed, or they think that these people are also here to participate in the sacrifice and pray.

But he didn't want the young man wearing a red dress and leather gloves, but Shi Shiran walked in front of those witches.

The left hand gently took off the glove of the right hand, reached out and dipped it in the jar held by the person behind him, and then touched the right hand in the brazier beside him.

Nearly 100 people in front of him exclaimed, and this person's right hand actually burned with a light blue flame, as if this person was not afraid of fire at all, but there was a strong smell of wine.

Then the young man shook his hand, and the burning flames flew out and landed on the firewood and grass next to him, and immediately ignited the firewood and grass, and the smoke and dust billowed out.

The young man put leather gloves on his still burning hands, and there was no painful expression on his face, but he showed a look of arrogance, and asked with a wild laugh: "I have the blood of Zhurong in my body, and my hands are like the feet of a golden crow!" In the past, Zhurong Jedi Tiantong could not reach the heavens if he was not descendants, how could you witches communicate with heaven and earth? ”

"This sacrifice should be made by me, how can you be qualified?"

"Who is the presiding priest? Come out and talk! ”

He pointed to the stunned witches next to him, his face full of disdain.

The audience was shocked, and the witches had never seen the sacrifice come to smash the field in the middle of the sacrifice, and if you want to divide the money, you can talk about it in advance, how can there be such a thing?