amaotonovel Chapter 367 The fish startled the person
Chapter 367 The fish startled the person
Chapter 367 The fish startled the person
A few large stars dotted the dim sky, standing tall and imposing like deities, silently watching over the mortal realm below. The surrounding poplar trees, straight as tree stumps, left these otherworldly stars with nowhere to rest or attach themselves, making them appear even more aloof and unapproachable.
Normally, in a bustling metropolis like Fuzhou, one shouldn't feel a sense of desolation, as if there were no predecessors or successors. However, seeing the countless withered, shell-like houses piled up in the vast night, with wild foxes and weeds swarming among them, Jiang Wen knew that the psychological problems of these soldiers, boatmen, servants, and maids were simply due to a lack of time.
The Prince of Jingnan's mansion had been relocated for over a year, and its scale in Fuzhou was far beyond what ordinary people imagined—just a few mansions and estates.
According to the "Brief Account of Central Fujian", the area of Gengwangzhuang extends from Taibaojing on the west side of Qiongdong River in the east to Andandada Tiedun in the west, from Lutong on the north side of Qiongdong River in the south to Shuimenqian on the north side of Yushan in the north. If Kuangwu east of Xiangqiao is also included, it would encompass Liuzhai, Hezhai and other villages, and include the fields of several villages.
When Geng Jimao moved his fiefdom, he never trusted the locals. The original residents were all driven away. As a result, only the seven thousand men he brought with him and more than ten thousand family members and servants lived in this area, naturally forming a concentric structure composed entirely of Geng's people, with the fiefdom guarding the center.
If we wait until the peak of Geng Jingzhong's rule, Gengwangzhuang alone would have housed more than 100,000 people, equivalent to the population of a county town in later times. However, in the seventeenth year of the Shunzhi reign, the population of the Geng vassal state was far from enough to fill these empty spaces, inevitably resulting in a large surplus. The empty and abandoned houses and residences that stretched across the fields and villages were more likely to arouse fear in those who happened to pass by.
The large number of empty houses and ruins cannot be entirely attributed to Geng Jimao or Geng Jingzhong, because even if they had been expanding their territory since taking office, it would have been impossible for them to control so many empty areas peacefully. This can be traced back to the "house-building" and "house-sharing" policies implemented after the Manchu army arrived.
According to the *Fuzhou Chronicles*, Kuangwu was a place where "all civilian residences were ordered to be moved to house soldiers, hence the name Kuangwu." In October of the twelfth year of the Shunzhi reign (1657), "Manchu troops arrived and were stationed outside the South Gate, Waterway Gate, and East Gate, causing many to flee. Upon their arrival, they moved into people's homes." In the fourteenth year of the Shunzhi reign (1658), the Qing court dispatched Commander Lang Mingsai with 3000 Han Banner troops to garrison Fuzhou, "stationing troops at the four gates of the city: East Gate, Tang Gate, Jinglou, and Waterway Gate. From the east side of Jinglou Gate Street to Fahai Temple," all local residents were driven away, and the Banner troops moved in; this was Kuangwu.
Therefore, before Geng Fan moved his post, a large area of residential buildings in Fuzhou were forcibly occupied by Qing soldiers, and the distribution area was very similar to that of Geng Wangzhuang later. It can be said that they almost "inherited" these houses and lands that were forcibly seized. Naturally, no one dared to come to the Jingnan Prince's Mansion to ask for their original houses and buildings after the Manchu soldiers left.
However, these were houses within the city. Geng Fan also occupied land in several villages south of Fuzhou City, and "Yun Cuo" was built to complement the "Kuang House".
The "Records of Fuzhou" states: "When people had nowhere to live, those in the city who had not yet moved were required to share their houses equally, which was called 'equal houses.' A family with three rooms would share one room with the family who had moved, or they would pay silver to cover the cost." This means that in Fuzhou, families who had not been relocated were required to provide housing for those who had been relocated and had nowhere to live, or to provide money or goods. In practice, this was not a benevolent policy to alleviate the surge in the number of displaced people in the city, but rather gave the Qing army an excuse to plunder and loot everywhere.
For example, in villages outside Fuzhou, the situation of "sharing houses" was extremely serious. In the eleventh year of the Shunzhi Emperor's reign, when the Qing army arrived in Fuzhou, on November 11th, the first 300 men and 500 horses arrived and were all stationed outside the East Gate. Along the way, they looted for thirty li, taking not only valuables such as clothes, valuables, and livestock, but also domesticated hens with eggs, broken pieces of ramie, and so on. They forced the hens to live in the homes of the villagers, providing them with wine and meat, and making the masters work for them, while also demolishing their houses.
Subsequently, the army pressed in, and the city was forcibly conscripted by the elite Eight Banners troops. The remaining people then created a "Yuncuo" area that stretched from Tengshan in the south to Zhuyu in the east and Qishan in the north, covering more than 200 li. The houses of ordinary people were demolished and they lived together in groups, with at most one courtyard of a large house and one room of a small house left for the owner to live in.
After such a wave of war, the people who were displaced were considered to have survived. Countless ordinary people lost their homes and families, and the remaining empty houses and dilapidated alleys were naturally filled with an inescapable evil aura. Even the servants of the Geng family would tremble when they got close to them.
Jiang Wen was walking alone in coarse linen clothes, hiding among the weeds and low trees. When he looked up, he saw that the clear sky was brightly lit by the moon. He could also see that there were many abandoned fields outside the Geng family's waterside pavilion that were no longer cultivated. Weeds grew in the fields and paths of the village. However, after his gaze wandered around for a moment, he fixed his eyes on the chaotic convoy of horses' hooves not far away.
That was the opera troupe that had just finished their performance. As soon as they finished, they were driving away mysteriously. And that "Night Terrace Dream" that came from an unknown source was something he had never heard of before.
Ghost plays have been common throughout history, but it was only when Peking Opera reached its peak that someone managed to find a unique and fascinating style amidst the dazzling array of performances. Such a distinctive style has never been seen before.
For example, the ghost plays popular in old Shanghai, such as "The Great Coffin Splitting" and "Spinning Cotton," not only featured Zhuang Zhou pretending to be a corpse and paper effigy standing stiffly with a white face, but also often had four "ghost" characters dressed in ghost clothes with ghost faces, jumping and tumbling on the stage. As soon as the drumbeat sounded, the four ghosts came on stage, doing somersaults and waving their water sleeves.
However, very few ghost plays deviate from the themes of the dead appearing in dreams, wandering spirits manifesting, or the living exploring the underworld. Dramas that so directly depict ghosts and monsters, at least in this era, seem somewhat unconventional and contrary to popular belief.
The carriage continued its journey for a while, but Jiang Wen heard no chatter whatsoever. The silence was so profound it was as if even breathing had been deliberately omitted. Only after crossing an unnamed bridge did the carriage, pulled by several slow-moving horses, gradually slow its pace, heading towards a secluded mansion with high walls. The gates were wide open, and there were no guards or sentries. Since there was nowhere to hide along the straight road, Jiang Wen could only temporarily conceal himself by the roadside to avoid being immediately recognized by the crowd.
In the dead of night like this, when there's no one around, he's harder to hide than a louse on a monk's head, and harder to explain than a piece of meat in a monk's mouth.
Several carriages drove in for a long time, but there was still no movement from inside the deep mansion. Jiang Wen became suspicious, so he used his leaping technique to rush over in a few steps and quickly pressed himself against the wall to look down.
Several figures dressed in black and wearing white hats emerged from the house and hurriedly took out water bottles and sprinkled them around the carriage, as if some extremely terrifying filth or demon was hiding inside. The way they were muttering incantations made one's skin crawl for some reason.
The actors slowly emerged from the carriage, their steps still somewhat unsteady. They had no time to remove the makeup from their faces. As water was splashed, several of them trembled violently, as if an invisible fishhook had pierced and pulled them from the top of their heads, leaving them frozen in place.
After a moment of deathly silence, their backs began to creak one after another, as if they were being pushed upwards, one vertebra at a time, slowly straightening in a manner contrary to common sense.
The black-robed figures who were chanting incantations looked tense, because the actors in front of them suddenly began to dance wildly. Every finger twisted in a different direction, as if they were using their hand bones to strike a rhythm that only they could hear. Their waists swayed wildly with inhuman flexibility, their heads shook wildly with the invisible drumbeats, and saliva mixed with foam flew out from the corners of their half-smiling mouths.
Jiang Wen caught a glimpse of the actors' faces from afar; those were expressions no normal person could make—
Their eyebrows were uneven, one eyelid was half-closed while the white of the other eye was bulging out. Their nostrils flared violently, and their lips would suddenly open to reveal their white teeth. Their tongues were long and their tips trembled at an extremely fast frequency, as if screaming.
On everyone's face, there seemed to be a mixture of ecstasy, rage, grief, and ferocity, as if countless emotions not belonging to humankind had simultaneously taken hold of them in an instant, and countless memories of unknown origin had been poured into their minds...
Then came the sounds. The actors finally released the sounds that had been suffocating within their bodies, as if they had echoed countless times within their bones and flesh, before slowly crawling out from the depths of their stomachs, from the bottom of their chests, after being squeezed, twisted, and crushed. It was like someone scraping with fingernails in a dry well, or like an infant crying under several feet of mud...
"They're here!"
The men in black robes fled in panic, for the liquid in their water bottles had long since run out, and the sacred scriptures were of no use to these filth. Suddenly, a sound of collapse and shattering came from the dark room, forcing them to retreat even faster. Now, it seemed that only the weak water stains around the carriage could restrain these mad actors.
Singing and dancing to worship gods is not only found in shamanistic rituals, but also has been witnessed and proven throughout history. In early Taoism, people would strike metal and break leather, singing and dancing to communicate with the gods. Later, this evolved into singing and dancing in fasting and ritual ceremonies, which became an important means of communicating with the gods.
"...Possessed by a spirit medium?"
Transpersonal psychology can interpret the above phenomenon as "telepathy," which belongs to extrasensory perception (ESP), and many such phenomena exist in reality.
Between mothers and children, twins, and some couples, when one experiences a major change, the other may have similar feelings from a distance. There are also many cases that focus on strangers. Therefore, many people believe that similar extrasensory phenomena may also occur between certain mysterious beings and ordinary people.
However, the Taoist classic "Taishang Tiantan Yuge" clearly states that "all the supreme immortals and gods do not possess the bodies of living people," suggesting that possession is mostly caused by evil spirits or low-level spirits impersonating deities.
Jiang Wen had never seen actors with painted faces suddenly transform into mediums of wandering spirits and ghosts, performing bizarre and self-harming acts as if they were about to break through the gates of hell and descend into the world at any moment. He didn't even know whether he should intervene to stop these people, because even if these actors and mediums ran around madly all night in the vast and empty Gengwang Village, they might not be able to disturb as many people as two hands.
Just then, voices suddenly came from outside the house in the distance. It seemed that a whole group of lurking people suddenly sprang up and rushed towards the deep mansion, their swiftness seemingly tearing the night apart.
Fully armored soldiers escorted a carriage as it arrived. The leader was none other than Ma Jiuyu, the commander of the Jingnan Prince's Mansion. However, he stood guard closely beside the carriage, which made Jiang Wen almost instantly guess the identity of the person riding in it.
The carriage curtain was slowly lifted, and a woman in fine clothes peeked out. Her brows were filled with an unyielding sorrow, but also a hint of barely concealed ferocity. Lying on her lap was a sickly boy, struggling to turn his head to look outside, but the woman covered his eyes with her hand and then forcefully turned his head back onto her lap.
"Alas, the people from the Sanshan Hall recommended by Governor Tong are actually useless and naturally unable to find the plague god and evil spirit. It seems that all their efforts have been in vain."
She immediately waved her hand, and the maid outside the carriage skillfully lowered the curtain. Admiral Ma Jiuyu also bowed solemnly and led a group of men to block the way.
Inside the courtyard, it seemed no one heard the bowstring twang. The first volley of arrows fell almost silently, with only a faint whistling sound as the arrow shafts brushed against the air, like someone whistling at the entrance of the courtyard.
The actor at the front suddenly stopped. His expression was still manic, but he looked down at the section of an arrow shaft that had appeared in his chest. He opened his mouth, but before he could speak, a second arrow pierced his left eye socket.
After that, no one was able to escape.
The ambush troops did not show themselves; they hid beside the pavilions on both sides, neither shouting battle cries nor beating drums, nor making any other noise. There were only the muffled sounds of bowstrings being repeatedly drawn and released, and the whooshing sound of arrows cutting through the air, as if another, denser and colder rain was brewing in the midst of a downpour.
The courtyard was filled with footsteps, screams, muffled thuds of heavy objects falling, and some maniacal laughter, but all the sounds seemed to be muffled by a thick veil, becoming indistinct by the time they reached his ears. The only sound Jiang Wen could make out was the rhythmic twang of a bowstring coming from not far away, the distinct, resonant beat like someone tapping a cold, metallic metronome.
The ground of the grand mansion was now soaked in blood. The carriage roof was riddled with arrows, like a hedgehog hiding its head. Old blood flowed from the entrance, trickling down the steps, only to be covered by fresh blood again, meandering along the stone path and finally flowing into the ditch outside the courtyard.
The water in the ditch, which was originally clear, has now turned completely dark red, like a skinned snake slowly writhing outside the courtyard.
"More than ten days have passed since my son fell into the water and fell ill, and his condition has not improved at all. What exactly was that huge, undulating creature that emerged from the water that day? Could it really be the Yellow Dragon of the True Residence of King Yanjun of Min from a thousand years ago?"
The voice of the woman in fine clothes came from the carriage, but the horse did not stop and continued to walk deeper into the palace. Ma Jiuyu hurriedly ordered his soldiers to clean the courtyard.
"Where exactly can we find someone to exorcise ghosts and spirits and summon wandering souls? Ma Jiuyu, you must quickly think of another way. The longer we delay, the more dangerous it will be for my son. The sorcerers from Gutian Prefecture haven't arrived yet. If all else fails, we can call those black-headed sorcerers who claim to know 'Luoyue Prefecture' to give them a try..."