In the third month of the first year of Song Zhiping in 1064, it was the spring season.
Thirty miles outside the north gate of Chengdu, there is a small village called Zhangjiawan, with about thirty households. It was a sunny day, with warblers flying and grass growing; there was no fog on the distant mountains, and no smoke in the nearby city. In the village, the roads were connected, chickens and dogs could be heard; there were flowers and wild grass, and butterflies were flying. It was a beautiful spring scene.
There was a small courtyard with bamboo fences and tile houses on the west side of the village, which was the private school in the village.
In the courtyard, peach blossoms were in full bloom.
"It is clear below, and it is illustrious above. It is difficult for heaven to be loyal to this, and it is not easy to maintain the king. The throne of heaven is suitable, so that it does not dominate the four directions."
A middle-aged scholar in the private school was teaching aloud. The scholar's surname was Zhao and his name was Youfei. He had a slight beard and his eyes were bright and energetic. He was the teacher of the private school in the village. After Mr. Zhao finished reciting this passage, he said, "These few sentences just now say that King Wen has a wise and virtuous character, and his reputation is prominent between heaven and earth; the mandate of heaven is unpredictable, and only a king with a virtuous character can occupy it; God also appointed King Zhou of Shang as king, but soon made him lose the world."
After a pause, Mr. Zhao asked, "Everyone, do you know why King Zhou of Shang lost the world?"
Seven or eight students were sitting neatly in the private school. The youngest was about eight or nine years old, still a child; the oldest was seventeen or eighteen years old, about to come of age.
Jiang Yifeng stood up and crossed his arms. He is about five feet nine inches tall, dressed in white homespun clothes, with a small wooden crown on his head, sword-shaped eyebrows and starry eyes. He is quite handsome. However, his skin color is darker than other students, and he does not look as weak as other students.
"Back to Master," Jiang Yifeng pondered for a moment and said, "Master once said: Everything has Yin and Yang, and the same is true for the King of Qin: Unifying the world, books and chariots running in the same track are its Yang; burning books, humiliating Confucian scholars, and building large-scale construction projects are the yin of the common people. "
Mr. Zhao said slowly: "Having said that, you still don't know whether King Qin is right or wrong. If one day," he stared at Jiang Yifeng closely, "you are like King Qin and you are in the world, but you don't know how to make decisions when things happen. , what should you do?"
Jiang Yifeng was shocked. How could he have thought of this problem in his life? He crossed his hands and replied: "Students are just ordinary people, how dare they talk nonsense about world affairs."
Mr. Zhao smiled slightly and said: "It's just a case-by-case discussion. It's okay for you to talk about it."
Jiang Yifeng had no choice but to ponder for a while and replied: "Since the master said this, the student said a few nonsense. According to the student, if you are in trouble and don't know how to make a decision, you should put the world's common people first."
After school, Jiang Yifeng walked outside the courtyard, took out the backpack, bamboo chops, and hatchets stored in the corner, and went to the woods three miles east of the village to chop firewood as usual.
There is a large forest three miles east of the village, covering an area of three to five hundred acres; pines, cypresses, locust trees and eucalyptus stand majestically, and peaches, plums, and cherry trees are dotted among them. There are also patches of bamboo groves mixed in. It is a good place for villagers to cut firewood, and it is also a good place for children to cut firewood. A treasure trove for them to play and play. At the end of the day, the sun shines down slantingly, cut into little stars by the branches and leaves. The woods are dark and the sound is rising and falling.
Jiang Yifeng walked into the forest along his usual path. He looked around and saw that most of the nearby trees that could be chopped down had been cut down, so he continued walking in.
After walking for about two miles, the woods gradually deepened, fewer people came, and the chill became stronger. But I heard the birds chirping in the sky.
As Jiang Yifeng was walking, he suddenly glanced and saw a red light flashing on a locust tree on the left. When he looked carefully again, he saw only the whirling leaves, but no trace of red light?
Jiang Yifeng felt slightly strange. He had practiced bow and arrow at home since he was a child and his eyesight was very good. He didn't believe that he could make mistakes. He walked under the locust tree and saw that the locust tree was about two feet in diameter and more than several feet high. The crown of the tree was dense with branches and leaves, and the pavilions were like a canopy.
He placed his backpack and other items under the tree, tied his clothes, and climbed up the tree with both hands.
When I climbed about three feet below the tree crown, I suddenly heard someone calling from under the tree, "Brother Yifeng."
When he looked down, he saw a little girl standing under the tree, about fifteen or sixteen years old, wearing a white dress and a red skirt, with a small bun on her head, decorated with a circle of tiny pearls and a silver hairpin in the middle. It was Mr. Zhao's daughter, Zhao Yuanyue. It is said that she was born on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, so she was named Yuanyue. Jiang Yifeng had known her since he was a child in a private school. The two of them had been classmates for more than ten years. Zhao Yuanyue was looking up at him at this moment. A ray of sunlight passed through the forest and shone on her face, but she saw a little sweat on the tip of her nose and red cheeks. She must have walked here quickly. She saw Jiang Yifeng looking down at her and smiled slightly. Jiang Yifeng was stunned. "Sister Yuanyue, what are you doing here? This place is not like the outside of the forest. There are often wild beasts. You have to be more careful." Jiang Yifeng said. "You said, today..." Zhao Yuanyue was about to continue, but her face suddenly changed, pointing directly at Jiang Yifeng's head, shouting: "Be careful!"
Jiang Yifeng turned his head and saw a small red snake jumping down from the tree canopy and rushing towards him. The small snake was about three feet long and had a triangular head.
He didn't have time to think about it, so he let go of the tree with one hand and hugged the trunk with the other hand, and turned his body to the side, barely letting the snake pass.
The red snake missed the attack and didn't want to fight, so it hurried down the tree.
Jiang Yifeng turned around and hugged the trunk, and hurriedly shouted to Zhao Yuanyue: "Yuanyue sister, be careful!"
Zhao Yuanyue jumped away a few steps, turned around and stared at the red snake nervously.
The snake did not come to Zhao Yuanyue, but fled in the opposite direction to the center of the woods.
Jiang Yifeng was nearly bitten by it, and he was furious. He quickly slid down the tree and chased after it. He chased after it without turning back and said, "Sister Yuanyue, wait for me here, don't run around." Zhao Yuanyue stamped her feet, thought for a moment, and also chased after Jiang Yifeng.
The red snake was so fast that even though Jiang Yifeng was light and fast, he couldn't catch up for a while; fortunately, he had good eyesight and the snake was red, which was particularly eye-catching on the grass, so he didn't lose track.
After chasing for about a mile, the red snake suddenly disappeared.
Jiang Yifeng ran closer and found that this was a large open space in the forest. The open space was surrounded by trees, but there were no trees on this piece of land with a radius of three meters; not only were there no trees, but even the grass was very scarce.
Jiang Yifeng saw that the red snake suddenly disappeared in this open space, and he was unwilling to go back. He searched carefully along the open space. After a while, Zhao Yuanyue also ran over.
"Brother Yifeng, why didn't you wait for me!" Zhao Yuanyue was sweating on his forehead, but his breath was not disordered, and he complained.
"I was afraid you were in danger." As Jiang Yifeng was talking, he found a very small hole on the ground, about an inch long. He thought about the red snake, and it was about the same size as the hole. He looked around and saw no other holes.
He took a knife from his leg and dug along the hole, while being alert for the red snake to jump out and hurt people.
When the ground was dug about a foot square and two feet deep, the tip of the knife suddenly fell, and the soil fell straight down. When Jiang Yifeng looked closely, he found that there seemed to be a hole below. He was very surprised and used the knife to dig the hole. Suddenly, his feet were empty, and he fell straight down with the mud.
Jiang Yifeng felt his eyes go black and there was a whistling wind in his ears. He heard Zhao Yuanyue screaming above his head. Before Jiang Yifeng could think about it, his feet stopped and he had already reached the bottom. He fell down without stopping, and sat on the ground.
Jiang Yifeng calmed down, stood up and looked up first. He saw that the hole was about three feet square and about 15 feet from the bottom of the hole. A face popped out of the cave entrance. Zhao Yuanyue was so anxious that she shouted, "Brother Yifeng! Brother Yifeng!" It turned out that she was at the top of the cave. It was bright outside but dark inside, so she couldn't see clearly in such a hurry. Jiang Yifeng smiled and said, "Don't worry, I'm fine." Zhao Yuanyue was relieved to hear that he was fine.
Jiang Yifeng gradually adapted to the surrounding environment. When he looked around, he found that this was a square pit, about two feet long and about ten feet wide. The walls of the pit were all mud, which was nothing special, but some places were black, as if they had been burned by fire. He was always worried that the red snake was hiding in the dark and waiting for an opportunity to hurt people, so he carefully checked the bottom of the cave.
The bottom of the cave was uneven, and there were many long strips lying on the ground. Jiang Yifeng brushed away the fallen mud and picked up a long strip to see that it was ivory. This ivory was about four feet long and four inches in diameter. It was very big, but the color was black, as if it had been burned. When he picked up another one to see, it was also ivory; after a rough count, there were actually forty or fifty ivory tusks of various sizes at the bottom of the cave.
Jiang Yifeng was secretly amazed. Although he had seen ivory before, it was only once or twice. He had never seen such a big one, let alone so many ivory piled up in one place. There were no elephants in Shu at that time, and ivory was a rare thing. Why were there so many in this cave?
He picked up the ivory and piled it aside. He saw several large and small objects exposed under the pit where the ivory was removed. Some were broken or flattened, and all were out of shape. Jiang Yifeng picked up one at random. It was very heavy in his hand. The object was covered with a thick layer of patina. He carefully removed the patina with a knife to reveal the body inside. After careful identification, it was bronze.
This should be a relic from the ancient dynasty, Jiang Yifeng thought. It's a pity that it is so broken that it is out of shape, and I don't know what it was before.
He bent down to look for it again, and found that there seemed to be a small object in the corner that was not pressed. When he picked it up, he found that it was a bronze statue of only an inch in size. The statue has a human head and a bird body, and the eyebrows and eyes are carved lifelike, and the wings are majestic. It is very exquisite. Jiang Yifeng held the statue in his hand, and suddenly felt a buzzing sound, and a picture flashed in his mind.
A huge, empty riverside square, with a three-story square platform in the middle, each floor about ten feet high; the bottom floor of the platform is about thirty feet wide, the second floor is about twenty feet wide, and the top floor is about ten feet wide. The first floor is surrounded by people, no less than ten thousand. Everyone is dressed in cloth, with their hair tied up and wrapped in scarves, kneeling facing the platform. The first and second floors are also full of people kneeling, all wearing silk clothes and flat crowns, some of them have long braids behind their heads, and each person is three feet apart. A tall bronze frame is erected in the middle of the third floor, and a huge bronze human face is hung in the middle. The human face is square, and the eyes are protruding like pillars, which is very strange. Next to the bronze statue is an object that is as shiny as jade and shaped like a celestial sphere, which is slowly moving. There is another person, wearing feather clothes and a high crown, standing facing the bronze statue, holding a flag in his hand. The flag has a strange pattern embroidered on it, which looks like a snake but not a snake, and like a dragon but not a dragon. At each corner of the third-tier platform, there stood a tall bronze sacred tree, about ten feet high, with twisting branches and many small objects hanging on it, like dragons and tigers, all made of bronze.
At this moment, there was silence, and the flag bearer kept staring at the thing that looked like a celestial sphere, which was slowly turning. After a moment, the flag bearer suddenly turned to the bronze human-faced statue and shouted loudly; the crowd around him immediately shouted in unison, like a tsunami, kneeling and worshiping. The sound was definitely the language of Shu, but Jiang Yifeng could not understand the content at all.
Just as Jiang Yifeng was surprised, he suddenly saw a person on the second-level platform slowly turning his head to look at him. His eyebrows and eyes were very similar to the human-headed bird-body statue he had just picked up.
Jiang Yifeng was startled, and a ray of gold flashed in his pupils, but he didn't know it.
Suddenly, someone called "Brother Yifeng!" Jiang Yifeng heard the call, and the picture in his mind suddenly disappeared, and the ray of gold in his pupils quickly faded and returned to its original color. He raised his head and saw Zhao Yuanyue hanging a rope from the top of the cave, and asked nervously: "What's wrong with you? Did you get bit by a snake?"
Snake? Jiang Yifeng then remembered the little red snake. He looked around carefully again, but there was no trace of the red snake. He thought it had gone somewhere at the bottom of the cave.
Jiang Yifeng calmed down and looked at the human-headed bird-body statue in his hand. It was quite exquisite, and he couldn't bear to throw it away, so he put it in his arms; then he picked up a few flattened bronze objects and tied them to the rope together. Before he left, he looked around and saw a small jade cong in the corner. When he picked it up, he found that it was about five inches high and divided into ten sections. It was very exquisite, so he put it in his arms and climbed up the rope. At the entrance of the cave, Zhao Yuanyue was waiting for him anxiously.
"Where did you find the rope?" Jiang Yifeng smiled at her, looked around, and asked.
"I wanted to borrow it from Zhang Erhu's house, which was the nearest outside the woods. Not far away, I saw a roll of rope under a tree. I think it was accidentally dropped by a villager." Zhao Yuanyue looked him up and down and asked, "Brother Yifeng, are you okay? What's down there?"
"It's okay." Jiang Yifeng said, "It's just a big pit. There are a lot of ivory and broken bronzes down there. But if someone accidentally falls in, it's not easy to get up."
He looked around, found a big stone, and rolled it over to block the entrance of the cave. After thinking about it again, he thought that the remaining broken bronzes might be useful to his father, so he covered the stone with mud. Jiang Yifeng looked around and found it was no different from the nearby grass, so he stood up and clapped his hands, and asked Zhao Yuanyue, "You came here to see me?" Zhao Yuanyue blushed, took out a pair of gloves from her bosom and handed them to Jiang Yifeng, saying, "I saw you cut your hand a few days ago. Be careful." Jiang Yifeng thought about it and thought it was probably accidentally cut when chopping wood a few days ago, and it had already scabbed. When he took it and looked at it, it was a pair of cloth gloves, with several layers of sewing inside and outside, and a small moon embroidered on the left wrist, and an orchid below. Jiang Yifeng was quite moved, he looked at Zhao Yuanyue and smiled, but didn't say anything.
He put the gloves into his arms, and his fingertips touched an object. He suddenly remembered something, so he took out the human-headed bird-bodied statue and said to Zhao Yuanyue: "I found this at the bottom of the cave, it's quite exquisite. Sister Yuanyue, take it back and remove the copper green on it, it should look very nice when worn." Zhao Yuanyue hummed, took it carefully, looked at it, put it in her arms, and said happily: "Let's go." Jiang Yifeng picked up the bronze, and the two walked out of the woods together. Somewhere in the woods, a carrier pigeon fluttered up and flew straight to the northeast. There was an exquisite small cylinder tied to the pigeon's feet, with a note inside, which read: On March 16, Feng found a number of gold objects in the cave, nothing else.