Chapter 081 Coincidentally with a mallet

The man said that his name is Erzhu. They are all from a small mountain village called Baishigang at the foot of Changbai Mountain. The village is located in the mountains, far from the highway, and there are dozens of families in total.

The villagers there basically don't grow much crops and almost rely on mountains for a living. This is a craft handed down from their ancestors, and not many people understand it now.

Every spring, summer and autumn, the old men will organize people to release mountains, but in recent years, there are fewer and fewer forests in Jilin, so they have no choice but to start entering the Greater Khingan Mountains.

The matter of releasing the mountain seems very simple. In fact, there are many rules that can't be completed by one person. Every time you enter the mountain leader (that is, the leader), you will choose strong and obedient villagers together. First, kill pigs and sheep to worship the mountain gods and ginseng ancestors, and then bring food and tools to enter the mountain. .

There are many rules in the process of finding wild ginseng. The first thing to do is to tighten the legs of the trousers, which is to prevent insects and snakes from entering. Secondly, each person holds a strong stick to open the weeds and knock on the trees. The end of the stick is tied with a copper coin with a red rope, which means to move forward and enter the money.

When they officially walked on the mountain, everyone lined up and walked forward horizontally. Except for encountering wild ginseng (local people call it a mallet), no one is allowed to talk nonsense.

For example, if you see a snake, you can't shout snakes. If you want to shout 'money string', you can't shout when you meet other animals and plants. If you shout, you must find a way to take them away. If you shout mushrooms, no matter how many mushrooms you encounter along the way, you must pick them down and carry them.

Because of the dense trees, there are many times when people can't see each other and can't talk nonsense. They can only communicate by tapping the big tree with the stick in their hands. Knocking means that they greet each other and check the distance. Two times means that someone has fallen behind and keeps following up quickly. If someone keeps knocking, it proves that it may be injured or encountering some danger. Then everyone will move closer to him and rescue him.

Although you can't say anything else, if you encounter a mallet and make sure that you are not mistaken, you must shout: "The mallet..." This is called shouting mountain.

At this time, the person who heard it will immediately ask, "How many leaves?"

General mallet is divided into two, three, four and five grades, and there are also six-grade leaves, but they are rare.

If you meet a second grade leaf, but can't answer the second grade, you have to shout 'open the mountain key' for good luck. If you meet more than the third grade, just shout back.

When the mountain is finished, everyone will quickly surround them and first tie a red line to the mallet. It is said that the mallet is spiritual. If you don't do so, you may run away at any time.

After the red rope is tied, everyone will first worship the mountain god and the ginseng ancestors, and then greet a few experienced people to start the goods. Others will set up tents and collect firewood to cook.

Why is it like this? It takes several hours for an ordinary mallet to be dug out. If it is a big product, it may take a few days.

Some people may think it's too exaggerated. In fact, this is well-founded, because only a complete mallet can be sold at a good price. When digging, you need to dig a small shovel made of horns little by little. If you accidentally break a mallet on the way, its value will plummet.

Each time they enter the mountain, it will be ten days and a half months, or a month or two. They have a strong ability to survive in the wild, and they have some hunting skills. Under normal circumstances, they don't need to worry about food.

The so-called seven taels are called ginseng and eight taels are treasures. In this era, if you can encounter more than one or two mallet on the way to the mountain, it will be enough to spend half a year for the whole village, but now there are fewer and fewer rods, and it is really difficult to dig a decent one...

......

After listening to Erzhu's lecture, we all felt very incredible. Everyone knew that wild ginseng was valuable, but we didn't expect that the excavation process would be so complicated. Although the people in front of us were ordinary farmers and few of them were literate, they were definitely experts about the matter of releasing mountains.

After the story was told, the breakfast was finished, so Erzhu asked us where we were going next, and they would continue to go to the mountain.

I didn't know the destination of this trip, so I found Professor Li. Professor Li asked the old man, "Sir, have you been to this area before? Do you know where there is a deep valley?

After listening to this, the old man scratched his head. After thinking about it for a while, he said, "When I came to release the mountain in the first few years, I met such a valley. The valley was very strange. There were basically no trees in it. It was all made of rocks."

Professor Li's eyes lit up and continued to ask, "Have you always been in?"

"Isn't it? We put the mountain, and we have to find a place with lush vegetation. I saw that there were no trees in the valley, so I took a few glances and walked away."

"Well, can the old gentleman give us directions? How long do you think it will take to get there?" Professor Li looked extremely excited.

The old man looked around at our team and shook his head gently: "You city people, it's not easy to hike there. Anyway, we don't have a clear purpose this time. We'll take you there. That place is secluded. Maybe there may be goods."

When I heard that the old man was going to take us there, Professor Li was simply very happy, and the archaeologists were even more exaggerated, all excited, jumping and screaming.

The car could not get in the front, so Professor Li asked someone to rearrange the equipment, a mountaineering bag for each person, mainly containing tents, food and necessary tools.

Liangzi and I have experience, mainly equipped with ropes and lighting tools, while Xu Xin carries his own canvas bag, and a mahogany sword wrapped in cloth is exposed outside.

The old man said that there would be basically no mallet in this area, so there was no need to walk the mountain formally, so a group of 18 people got into the jungle.

The old man, Erzhu, Liang Zi and I opened the way in front, and everyone else followed at will, while Xu Xin and the old man looked down on each other, so he walked at the end of the line.

The trees in the Greater Khingan Mountains are very thick, and the small trees are not easy to survive, so although the sunlight is blocked by the leaves, it is relatively smooth to walk in the forest, but it is a little uncomfortable to step on the soft deciduous layer.

Erzhu and other men are very simple. From time to time, they pick some wild fruits for us to eat. Everyone chatted with each other and moved forward. The atmosphere was very harmonious.

These people are the hegemons in the mountains. There is no difference between walking in such a forest and walking on a flat road. I guess they walk so slowly to take care of us, otherwise they would have been gone long ago.

The old man didn't seem to be in a hurry. When everyone was tired of walking, he asked him to rest, had lunch, and then continued to walk in the afternoon.

It may be because there were many people. I basically didn't meet any animals along the way. When the sun went down, the old man chose an open space with fewer trees and a small river ditch to spend the night.

Our tents are all modern, but the two pillars are temporary residences built with branches. The weather is still relatively hot, and there is no need to shelter from the wind. It is enough to avoid the rain.

After the camp was built, Erzhu took their people out for a walk, easily grabbed a few hares and pheasants, and stewed two pots with their pots to eat together.

I guess these people are used to eating this game, and one person only eats a little bit, but people in our city can't eat such things at all. Now they are drooling one by one, and they don't care about any image problems. It won't take long before they eat up two pots of meat and soup. This is simply delicious in the world. !

The old man said that they were all strong men. They didn't need us to watch the night. After arranging it, it was already dark. After all, everyone walked the mountain road for a day. After rested, they didn't want to move anymore. They all got into the tent early to sleep.

......

I was speechless all night. The next day, after breakfast, everyone continued to move forward. The more I walked, the thicker the trees became, and the denser they began to become dense. I guess they have now completely entered the no man's land.

I just walked for more than two hours, and I felt like I wanted to poop. I ate too much last night and haven't excreted today.

In order not to leave me, the team had to rest in place. Because Li Ruier was present, I ran out far away and squatted down with a small tree...

After being comfortable, I got up and picked up my trousers and was about to leave. Suddenly, I saw a very beautiful plant on the ground beside me, which was completely different from other weeds, which looked particularly noble and annoying.

I walked over and squatted down and looked carefully. I saw that the plant had a long pole with five branches on it, each with five leaves, surrounded by a circle like petals.

And a relatively thin single pole extends between the five branches, with a pinch of unblooming stamens on the pole,

This plant is dark green. I was stunned for a moment and wanted to reach out to pick it.

When my hand just pasted, my head suddenly buzzed, recalling the appearance of the wild ginseng described to us by the two pillars, and said to myself: Won't you be so lucky, can I... have met a mallet?

I quickly withdrew my hand and stared at it. The more I looked at it, the more I felt. I was so excited that I didn't know what to do. I had an idea and remembered that I needed to shout the mountain after meeting the mallet. I felt that even if I made a mistake, I would be laughed at most by them. If I went back to call someone, it would be a pity if the mallet ran away.

After making up my mind, I held my breath, raised my neck to the direction of the team rest, and shouted, "The mallet...the mallet..."

At an interval of up to two seconds, I immediately heard a loud voice reply: "A few leaves..."

Ah, how many leaves? For a moment, I forgot to squat down and check again. After confirming, I got up again and shouted, "Wupin... It's a Wupin leaf..."

As soon as I finished speaking, I heard a noise in the distance. With the crackling footsteps, a group of figures quickly ran in my direction.

Erzhu was the first one to run over. I quickly pointed to the plant and showed it to him. After seeing it clearly, Erzhu shook his whole body and shouted behind him with trembling voice, "Take... the head, it's a five-grade big product."

The old man probably ran too fast and was helped over by covering his stomach. When he also saw the mallet clearly, he suddenly became old and tearful.

Without saying anything, he knelt directly towards the mallet, took out a red thin cloth from the bag and gently tied it to the straight mallet pole.

When the other men saw that he had been tied up, they immediately knelt down around the mallet, and heard the old man raise his head and shout loudly, "Grandpa Mountain God... the ancestor of ginseng... kowtow to you..."