In the midsummer evening, when the familiar night gradually falls, the lights along the Chongyang River are lit up one after another, like flowing paint. The Chong'an Bridge in the distance spans the river, carrying the endless stream of colorful lights along the bridge.
It also lays out a unique scenery among the vast mountains.
In the milk tea shop downstairs of Yintai Garden on Huandao East Road, a man who looked like a student was holding up two cups of jasmine-scented milky green and waving to the tall girl standing alone across the street.
During the gap, he successfully came to the girl's side and thrust the milk tea and straw into her hand without any explanation.
"Come on, tell me what's wrong with asking me to come out in the dark."
Girls seem to deliberately maintain a friendship distance, even if boys' behavior can be called ambiguous.
The boy chuckled, grabbed his hair and looked at the other person. Most of his face was cunning, but a small amount of foresight and luck were mixed in. He pointed to a path next to him and said.
"Of course I have something important to do when I call you out alone - do you want to see something good that no one else has seen?"
The girl looked at the other person with an unfriendly expression and dodged back slightly.
Although the two belong to the same history department, they are not in the same class. Even if they take overlapping courses on weekdays, they rarely have any intersections. Only during the summer vacation of their junior year, this school's special summer course, did the two bump into each other by chance.
Those who have signed up for this summer course will work in groups of three or four, and each group will be responsible for a village or brigade to collect valuable materials in the area. Of course, since the materials in each place include many kinds, such as inscriptions, etc.
Temples, such as genealogy, so some people have to copy monuments, some have to interview people, and some have to go to villagers' homes to shamelessly borrow genealogy books.
Now, the group the two of them are in is responsible for copying monuments.
Today during the day, their team braved the temperature of 37 to 8 degrees and traveled over the mountains and ridges to find a three-meter-high water conservancy monument from the Jiajing period that the villagers said. When the monument was discovered, it had been smashed into four or five pieces.
The road was paved in a quagmire. Although the writing on it was crude, it related to the local floods and droughts in those years and was of great collection value. Considering that all traces of the writings were lost, the teacher who led the team happily asked everyone to copy the stele quickly.
.
The so-called copying of stele is probably to paste flour on the surface of the stele. If the inscriptions that were originally unclear can be wiped with flour, the blurred traces will emerge, and everyone can rely on the traces to deduce and restore the original engraved content.
But with the advancement of technology, it is often enough to just take a picture with a mobile phone or camera. The content must be of considerable historical value to be worthy of their use of flour.
When the team members saw the teacher leading the team being so excited, they naturally understood that they had encountered an ancient monument that had slipped through the net before. You must know that most of the monuments in the province had been checked out by the seniors and seniors of their school.
It is extremely difficult to find new discoveries these days.
This time, their team's luck fell into this muddy field. If they could submit a complete thesis report, the results of this course would surely be the best among the others.
But just when everyone was gearing up for a big fight, the boy in front of him took out a bag of rice noodles from his backpack, handed it to the teacher with great anticipation, and asked him how he was going to paste the monument...
So, after returning home, they had a hot pot meal, during which they didn't forget to rinse the bag of rice noodles. Then they went back to the hotel to rest. However, due to an oversight, they would have to go back over the mountains and ridges tomorrow to get some food.
Mountain mosquitoes are used as food.
Seeing that the girl's eyes were becoming increasingly unkind, the boy quickly raised the milk tea in his hand and signaled her not to mention this embarrassing matter for the sake of apology, and then said to the girl confidently.
"Don't worry, don't worry! I'm a local in Nanping. Why don't you ask Ji Yuqunxian about what ancient stone tablets you want to find? Why do you have to struggle with that broken stone in the mire?"
The tall girl looked at him sideways and took a sip of milk tea.
"I really don't know where you get your confidence? Our seniors said that they were so desperate for this class last year that they ended up going to the mountains to copy tombstones. Don't you think so too..."
At this point, she trembled all over, remembering some scenes from old Hong Kong movies, and quickly shook her head to express her refusal, "Then I definitely won't go. Maybe you are all locals, so it would be better for you to discuss it yourself.
.”
"Of course not! Who would go and copy tombstones in the middle of the night?"
The boy quickly retorted by proving his innocence, and then explained with a smile: "You follow me this way first, and I will tell you this slowly."
The boy said that he had grown up in this area since he was a child. In fact, he chose this course to be closer to home. Not far away at night are the Tobacco Monopoly Bureau, Wuyishan People's Court, Transportation Bureau and other government departments.
At the end of the line of sight is the Yuqing Primary School where he studied. Naturally, his classmates are also the children of local residents.
When he was very young, he heard the primary school janitor mention that the land beneath their feet had been the scene of a tragic war a long time ago. The battle was so bloody that it even destroyed Chongyang.
The scales of the river fish in the stream were all covered with a layer of reddish brown, which gradually faded away after decades.
But for some reason, those familiar with the matter seem to be keeping a secret about the bloody battle, and there is no record of it in the county annals. They can only rely on the verbal records of local residents to pass it down to this day.
When the old doorman mentioned this, it was to prevent students from staying in school after school, so he threatened that at night, there would be headless corpses running around on the playground, and if they were caught, they would be dragged into the playground.
Deep in the spring.
"Did you know? Because of this old man's threats, I didn't dare to stay in school for too long throughout my entire elementary school career. In the end, I didn't even dare to attend the graduation party for fear of being dragged away by a headless corpse and disappearing."
The girl looked at him puzzled: "Oh? I never thought you were so timid when you were a child?"
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! The boy quickly blushed and retorted: "That's not the point, what I'm talking about is behind this matter! And did you know that in the third grade of elementary school there was often a group of classmates?
We played football after school, and eventually a child actually disappeared. His parents thought he had been abducted by human traffickers, so they ran out and frantically called the police to look for him for four or five years."
"But the classmates who played football with us that day secretly told us that they actually saw the child running to the corner to pick up the ball, and then he disappeared without warning by a pair of big hands! And that wall was
Behind the bulletin walls of each class is the experimental kindergarten next door. It is impossible to hide the figure of the trafficker. Unless the person's head is chopped off, he can hide under such a low wall and reach out to arrest people!"
The more the girl listened, the more horrified she became. She quickly stopped following her and replied in a stern tone: "If you continue to scare people with such nonsense, I will go back to the hotel immediately!"
The boy stopped talking quickly, waved his hands and said, "No, no, our elementary school is not here, it's several streets away. Besides, the police also filed this case as a trafficking case. This is just the children's jealousy.
.”
At this time, they had arrived at the small road separated from the Chongyang River. Next to it was the Tiezhu wood products store and the consignment shop. The signboards were already a bit mottled and old. If they hadn't looked up and saw the Chong'an Bridge that stretched outside the building, they would not have seen it.
It was more like wandering into the eye of a typhoon that was calm due to the remaining time.
"To be honest, my interest in history may be related to this. Every time I heard the guard talk about the war a long time ago, I covered my ears with fear, but at the same time I was so excited that I was shaking all over. In the end, I also
I don’t know if it’s fear or excitement, it seems that history itself carries a strange power, like a dead and peaceful corpse, and I am a tomb robber. Just to see half a claw of Yunlong is enough to make me risk my life.
Exploring, I can almost never forget all kinds of historical events about the Ming and Qing Dynasties!"
Girls have also heard about this. This boy is a seriously biased type. He has no research on the analysis and argumentation of modern history, but is full of interest in the textual research of various historical events. His head is like a movie
Precise machines, equipped with inventory data collected from all kinds of nooks and crannies, were already in his third year of college when a professor who studied the economic history of the Ming and Qing Dynasties had already interviewed him, and he was very willing to train him.
"It's a bit far from the topic. You are rambling so much. Does it have any necessary connection with what we are going to see now?"
The tall girl pointed out his problem to the point - contrary to boys, what girls are good at is analyzing and deconstructing all kinds of historical details. She strongly believes that there is a methodology in the world that can solve all kinds of historical problems in an overall manner, and this method, nowadays,
It is being constructed and grown in her brain.
The boy quickly pulled away from his memories and told the girl very confidently: "It's like this. During the early summer vacation, I rethought the visit and collected local historical materials in Chong'an, trying to restore the appearance of local legends.
"
"The old man said that this war actually happened in the year of the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty. Many people of the subjugated Song Dynasty wanted to flee to hide in the Wuyi Mountains, but they were chased and killed by Yuan soldiers. These subjugated people finally disappeared by the Chongyang River.
, leaving only a memory that frightens the locals.”
The girl also replied very confidently: "Impossible, this statement is too old. The collective memory of folklore has always been fabricated and copied. According to current research results, a story has been circulated for no more than a hundred years.
It will become unrecognizable.”
The boy chuckled and said: "I seem to have read about the research results you mentioned. It should be used to study the spread of modern urban legends. It is used to study cat-faced old ladies, supernatural buses and so on. It is okay, but it has nothing to do with history.
Doesn’t it matter if you study?”
The tall girl said displeasedly: "In short, the credibility of this story is very low, and it is just a waste of time to study it."
The boy nodded and continued: "That's right, so I also overturned these collected opinions, but I still summarized some more characteristic descriptions from them, such as the people who were massacred did not speak the local language, and gathered in crowds.
unknown……"
"By the way, the old people often mentioned that the historical node of this killing was in the second month of the lunar calendar. I found the record in "Wuyi Mountain Chronicles": With Chengguan as the center, on the sixth day of the second lunar month every year, bamboo poles and firewood were gathered.
Farm tools and all daily necessities were sold in the city, hence the name 'Chai Tou Hui'."
The girl finally nodded: "These descriptions are very consistent with the feudal society's xenophobia and fear of foreigners, and they tend to demonize those factors that disrupt their peaceful lives. Opportunities for exchanges and exchanges in markets like this are inherently closed.
The most common population movement in the era naturally increases the probability of unrest - but in this story, it is not the outsiders who are killing people, but the people who are being massacred?"
The boy finally showed a smile, raised his head and looked at the tall girl, and moved forward more and more briskly.
"That's right! We have already obtained the meaningful part of the history of the story model, so what we need to do next is no longer to be guided by their over-exaggeration and description, but from the vast historical process.
Look for special events that fit these characteristics and are not too far back in time!”
The girl understood that this was the area where the boy was best at. Once historical events and data became tangible in his eyes, the rest of the matter would be as simple as tailoring the suit, so she decided to wait for the other party to reveal the answer to the mystery.
As they walked, they came to a fork in the road. A dim street lamp stood on the corner of the street. Under the lampshade was a thick layer of mosquito corpses, showing an uneasy dark brown disc shadow.
"The road to our right is Xingyi Road, and the road behind us is called Nanmen Street. A long time ago, there should have been a water entrance called Jixian Gate near here for ships to enter and exit, but now there is no trace of it. It is said that it was the liberation
In the past few years in Chong'an, the old city wall was demolished along with it and put into city appearance improvement projects."
The boy introduced it in detail, then suddenly raised his hand and pointed at an inconspicuous traditional building on the southwest side. This building was blended into a group of slightly older houses, with only rough oyster shell exterior walls.
It is enough to show that they were built in a very long time.
The girl looked along the direction of his finger and saw an eclipsed cross embossed on the dimly lit wall. It seemed to be an old and closed church, hiding alone in a small corner forgotten by the modern city.
middle.
"This is...a Catholic church? But why does it look more like a temple?"
The girl's thoughts, which had already decided to wait for answers, were suddenly ignited by this discovery.
If it were a modern trading port city like Xiamen or Fuzhou, it would be unusual for such an old church to appear. For example, the main building of the Fanchuanpu Church in Fuzhou can easily be traced back to those turbulent times.
But in this county that was originally isolated by mountains, the appearance of buildings of this era seems a bit weird. Could it be that in that era there were extremely pious priests and priests who traveled thousands of miles to come here to preach and go deep into the country.
Does the human heart continue to this day?
As the major events on the timeline emerged, the tall girl frowned, seeming a little confused, but her thoughts were extremely restless at this moment, and she suddenly jumped forward for a while without obeying her orders.
It happened to fall on a very reasonable and appropriate piece of the puzzle, just like an anchorage that could no longer be moved.
"Catholicism at that time... No, it doesn't have to be Catholic... It should be people with similar or similar beliefs who have arrived here... The beliefs they left behind were inherited by others... It's also wrong, their beliefs should not be left behind.
Next, it’s just that there should be relics that have been excavated... Yes, that makes sense. These excavated traces were regarded as divine revelation, so unique churches stood up..."
The jumping and meticulous thinking and reasoning turned into messy and broken words and blurted out, and the boy also showed a natural smile, showing the information he had collected and mastered without explanation.
"According to the "Fang Family Genealogy" in Xiamei Ancient Town, on March 17, the seventh year of Xianfeng, the bandits suddenly came. Three hundred Guan soldiers were killed by them, and they went straight to Da'an. At dawn on the 17th, they attacked
At that time, the residents of Chongcheng regarded them as fugitives, closed the city gates, and fired gunshots at them. The battle turned out to be like a sea of blood, so that corpses filled the road, including those without heads, those without heads, those with beheaded feet, and those stabbed in the heart.
The death of a prostitute is in an extraordinary situation, and it is shocking to see this..."
A flash of understanding flashed in the tall girl's eyes, and then she said.
"I understand what you found..."
Of course girls understand, because this incident left a profound mark in the history of the late Qing Dynasty. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom once attacked Fujian four times, but always only stayed briefly. However, it could not stand in this indisputable place, and even the territorial map was changed.
Jumping from Jiangxi to Zhejiang, it appears to be distributed around Fujian.
If the boy really finds the cultural relics or relics left by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in Fujian, and the impact can even last for hundreds of years, then the paper written on this discovery alone is enough to be an important discovery!
The tall girl excitedly wanted to walk towards the Catholic Church, but the boy held out his hand to stop her and led her around in a circle with her back to the Catholic Church, facing an old-fashioned and crowded community.
"In 1987, the former Chong'an County Agricultural Bureau applied to the former Chong'an County People's Government to allocate land for the construction of employee dormitories. It was approved two months later. A large area of open space behind the Catholic Church was occupied, so what we were looking for had already been
Not in the Catholic Church, but hidden in this old Agricultural Bureau dormitory that was built later..."
"Huh? Tell me, what did you see when you were a child?"
The tall girl was very sure that the various strange signs of the boy in front of her were not revealed through textual analysis, but that he had seen such things a long time ago, and now he was just following the path of memory again.
Just "discovery".
The boy pushed up his glasses, reflecting a light of unknown meaning.
"The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom is said to call the officials and the people monsters. They dig out every house and damage everything, but the most important thing is to smash old things and leave behind new things that belong to their savior!"
The boy slowly raised his head, and the tall girl felt that the old and faded old Agricultural Bureau dormitory behind her was like a forest rising from the ground. Although it was only a few decades old, it was like a place in Fujian that stretches from Kuaiji to Jiaozhi.
His various incarnations, like the flying pavilions on the plank roads and the hanging coffins and immortal burials in the Wuyi Mountains, are all incomprehensible to people.
"I think it will be a monument, a monument carved by the last remnants of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom when they were defeated and died. It is used to praise Heavenly Father and Brother Heavenly Brother, and carries the last resentment before death. Only in this way can we see this monument later.
People who have created this monument should treat it as a holy relic inspired by the gods and build a temple for it in a place that is precious and precious..."