PS: Chapter 2, ask for a recommendation ticket, ask for a monthly pass!

The spring and autumn era is the germ of civilization, many places are still a bush, believing in the gods that have been handed down from the clan era, what mountain ghosts, water and the like emerge in endlessly, a new official wants to be recognized by the locals, the most convenient thing is to care for the elderly, followed by the worship of the local gods.

The residents along the Zhanghe River believe in the Zhangshui "Hebo".

Due to the huge gap in the upper reaches of the Zhanghe River and the poor drainage of the lower reaches, the coast is often affected by floods, and disasters have been frequent, and the people along the coast have suffered greatly. Therefore, he was afraid of this natural phenomenon that happened every year, which could easily take his life and destroy his fields and houses, and turned to worship it, and gave rise to many legends that he did not know whether it was true or false.

There is a local saying in Yecheng: "If you don't marry a wife for Hebo, the water will float and drown its people"!

"Therefore, at the beginning of September every year, a gathering to worship Hebo will be held, and the three elders and city rulers living in Yecheng will collect taxes and collect money from the people along the river every year to marry Hebo."

After Cheng Jian finished speaking, Zhao Wuxian had a strong sense of déjà vu about this matter, that's right, Ximen Leopard's rule of Ye is something that every primary school student knows, and the story of Hebo's wife is deeply engraved in his mind, but he didn't expect that this kind of thing has already happened in this spring and autumn world.

He was not in a hurry, but asked Cheng to bring together the people's livelihood and hardships caused by "Hebo marrying a wife".

"The grain money collected by the city ruler and the three elders is worth hundreds of thousands of stones, and they only use a small part of it to marry Hebo, and share the rest of the money and grain with Wu Zhu, so the locals have to pay an extra amount of money and grain every year. This is also a harm. ”

"When it was time to marry Hebo, the witch made a tour of the city. When he saw a beautiful woman in the common people's house, he said, 'This woman is fit to be the wife of the river.'" The three old city rulers immediately went to give a dowry for Hebo. Let the chosen woman bathe and change her clothes. He made her new silk garments, and built a fasting house by the river, and hung up a red and red silk tent for the woman to live in. ”

Xiang Lu asked curiously: "Then, Hebo is a fictional god, how to get this chosen woman to marry him?" Could it be that he was raised in the ancestral hall like the witch of Qi and never married? ”

Cheng Yan shook his head: "It's much crueler than the customs of the Qi country. They let the woman live on the shore for ten days, that is, at the beginning of September, and they all paid for the construction of a small glue boat, which was richly decorated. There are necessary beds and pillows for marrying women. Let the woman sit on it, and then float it into the river, float for dozens of miles to gelatinize, and the boat sank, and the woman naturally had to sink to the bottom of the water and bury herself in the belly of the fish. But the witch said that the woman did not drown, but went down to the river and became the wife of the river uncle, and shared the wealth with him. Only then did the people sacrifice the cow wine and food on the shore to end the ceremony. And if he is satisfied, he will not be flooded along the shore next year, and if he is not satisfied, the flood will continue to be monstrous next year......"

Xiang Lu was shocked: "What kind of wife is this?" It's a human sacrifice! ”

Under Zhao Wuxian's strict orders, the state of Lu had banned the sacrifice of living people and the burial of living people, and the conservative old nobles had many complaints about this. But the enlightened men applauded. Accustomed to the more civilized environment of Lu State, Xiang Lu heard the truth about Hebo's wife. Quite shocked.

Cheng Yan continued: "Who wants to send their daughter into the water to drown? Those who have beautiful women are worried that Wu Zhu will take it forcibly in the name of Hebo. Therefore, most of them fled far away with their daughters, either to Zhongmu or to Handan. Because of this, the city is becoming more and more empty, so that it is even more impoverished, which is the second evil! ”

Zhao Wuxian pondered for a moment, then got up and said: "With the help of Hebo's name, the fame and power of the local witch are getting bigger and bigger, the local bureaucrats were invited to the banquet before, but the wizard was not there, and the other three elders and the like did not dare to arrive first, this is the ...... of the three evils."

……

Xiang Lu expected that his own sovereign might have to do something, and couldn't help but ask excitedly, "What is the general going to do?" ”

Wuxian said slowly: "I think of a similar thing, not only Zhangshui has Hebo, but also in the big river, responsible for managing the northern rivers. In that year, there was a great drought in Qi State, and the Marquis of Qi summoned the ministers and inquired that there was no rain for a long time, the crops were dry and dead, and the people were hungry. The widow asked Wu Zhu to divinate the hexagram, and Wu Zhu said that the ghost was hidden in the water. The widow is going to levy another tax to sacrifice to Hebo, but what? ”

Xiang Lu and Cheng shook their heads and said, "It is indeed very similar to the situation in Yedi. ”

Wu Xian continued: "At that time, no one from the ministers answered, only Yan Zi stood up and said that he couldn't do this. The river god takes water as his country and fish and turtles as his subjects, and if it doesn't rain for a long time, the spring water will be cut off, and the rivers will dry up, and then his country will perish, and the subjects of fish and turtles will also die, so he doesn't want rain? This shows that the river god can't control the rain at all, so what's the use of sacrificing it? It's better to dig ditches and help the people tide over the difficulties......"

He said coldly: "I admire Yan Zi's insight, maintaining a certain amount of sacrifice in various places, so that the people are afraid, it is good not to be a traitor, but in the name of sacrificing to the gods, it is something I can never tolerate!" The army will soon send troops to the north, and I can't stay in Yedi for a few days, so it is better to catch up with the grand occasion of 'Hebo marrying a wife', and by the way, the three evils that lead to people's livelihood and suffering will be eliminated! ”

That night, the local three elders and Wu Zhu received the news: Zhao Wuxian said that when it was time to marry Hebo, he would also go to this grand event.

The three elders of Yedi and Wu Zhu were overjoyed, and they were kind to each other, and the people who were sent to the local area by the Handan clan in the past may have frowned at this custom at first, but after a long time, they still have to follow the meaning of the head snake in the land, after all, the belief in Hebo is deep-rooted, and no one dares to guarantee that there will be no big water next year.

Now seeing that the prince of the Zhao family, who has an army of 20,000 as the backing and has a noble status, will also visit Hebo first, the local witch Zhu and the three elders suddenly became proud, but they probably haven't heard of Zhao Wuxian's abolition of the funeral and the burning of a male witch outside the city of Suju......

……

The third day of Zhao's army entering Yecheng was precisely the day of Uncle He's wife.

On this day, the three elders of Yedi, officials, rich and powerful people, and local fathers and elders all gathered here early, and there were two or three thousand people who came to see the excitement.

After waiting for a long time, Zhao Wuxian also came over with more than a thousand soldiers, Zhao Bingge spears were like a forest, armor was on his body, and he looked very majestic, which made the three elders and officials who thought they had seen a lot of the world fearful.

"I've seen the son." Everyone bowed down one after another, but the witch boasted that she had the privilege of communicating with Hebo today, so she didn't worship.

Zhao Wuxian glanced at it, and saw that the witch was an old woman, her face was full of wrinkles and goosebumps, she was sixty or seventy years old, and her mouth had a thick Ye accent and a stench full of death. She was accompanied by a group of female disciples, about a dozen or so, most of the people on the shore were dressed in old brown clothes, and some even had no clothes to cover their bodies, but these witches were all dressed in silk clothes, all wearing heavy makeup, and stood proudly behind the witches.

As long as you see these people, you will know where all the wealth of Yedi has gone.

Although Zhao Wuxian also allowed Nanzi to recruit disciples among the Song Dynasty and rule the Song Kingdom in the name of witches and ghosts, he did not let her do such cruel things to the people, but instead co-opted local gods, standardized rituals, and abolished cruel customs such as human sacrifice.

He stood by the river for a moment, and then asked the witch, "Have you really seen Hebo?" ”

The witch replied proudly, "Naturally, I have seen it when I was young, and when I was young, I was invited by Hebo to go to his water mansion to meet, and Hebo was driven by two dragons, and a chariot with lotus leaves as a curtain floated up to meet me. The fish scales cover the roof in the water house, the dragon is painted on the hall, the purple shell builds the city, and the vermilion is painted all over the room palace. I drank and dined in the water house, and when I left, Hebo saw me off in a big white turtle carp, and the fish on both sides lined up in a row......"

Zhao Wuxian scolded in his heart, this person can speak well, he really brags and doesn't make drafts, "What does Zhangshui Hebo look like?" “

The witch shook her head as if she was reciting, and said, "Hebo is a fishtail man, his hair is silvery-white, and his eyes and scales are shining glass. Although he is a man, he is unusually handsome, with a faint fragrance of water, and he looks less than twenty years old, which is also the reason why Yedi women are vying to marry him, if he is forty years younger, cough cough ......"

Zhao Wuxian was disgusted and interrupted her: "Is that really the case?" ”

"How dare you deceive the world?"

"Okay, then I'll believe you."

He paced outside the curtain of fasting and said, "Let the woman who is going to marry Hebo come out and take a look, I will see if she is beautiful and whether she can please Hebo." ”

The witch and the third elder looked at each other, and wanted to refuse, but they looked at the armor brought by Zhao Wuxian, and couldn't help but be a little afraid of this powerful young general in Jizhou, so they could only obey.

The whitewashed curtain was opened, and the witch's disciples came out with a woman in her arms, dressed as a bride and combing the hair of the bride-to-be, looking very festive, and indeed very thoughtful. But only tears flowed down his face, his eyes were red from crying, and when he came out, he was still sobbing and trembling, and he walked tremblingly.

Zhao Wuxian looked at it for a moment, and couldn't help but think of the concubine Bo Mi who gave birth to his eldest son, she was almost killed as a burial slave girl in the past, and he sighed in his heart: "Linqi Cave, I am worried...... I didn't expect to see this tragic scene again after a few years. ”

When he first arrived in Chengyi, he broke his bad habits, and now he will not be polite at all!

So Wuxian waved his hand to let the poor woman stand back, and turned back to the three elders, Wu Zhu, and the fathers, and said, "This girl is not beautiful, I'm afraid she is not worthy of Hebo!" ”

Everyone was shocked, could it be that this General Zhao wanted to make today's ceremony extraneous? The witch argued that she had personally chosen the person, and that she was the most beautiful virgin among the dozens of surrounding lilu, and that Hebo would definitely be satisfied.

But Zhao Wuxian shook his head again and again: "I said no, it just doesn't work, I want to find a beautiful woman for Hebo again, and I'll send it a few days later!" ”

"This ...... The auspicious day has come, how can we delay it......"

Looking at the bewildered witch, Zhao Wuxian said with a smile: "What's the matter? Isn't the witch concubine claimed to be able to enter the water mansion at the bottom of the river, and she is extremely skilled with Hebo? Then please go into the water for me! Two or three sons! Send her into the river! (To be continued.) )