Portable space

After answering the phone, Wang Laoqiang said anxiously: "Marshal, hurry up and take a look, something happened."

Zhang Taiping sat up straight and asked, "What happened?"

"I can't tell you clearly on the phone, so you should hurry over and have a look."

"where is it?"

"It's right here at the newly dug foundation." During this period of time, the village was quite famous, and there was an endless stream of people coming to soak in the hot springs. The original hot springs were no longer enough, and now the ground was broken to build another one.

"Well, I'll be right over." Zhang Taiping hung up the phone and got up.

Cai Yazhi asked, "What's wrong?"

"Something may have happened to the newly dug foundation, I'll go over and have a look." Zhang Taiping didn't delay, and hurried out of the yard.Wang Laoqiang is not a person without measure, and it must be a big thing to make him so anxious.

When Zhang Taiping got there, there were already many people surrounded and noisy.

Seeing Zhang Taiping approaching, the onlookers gave way one after another to let him in.The bathhouse is not a very tall building. The two-, three-, three-, and four-story buildings can be built by the villagers themselves without hiring a construction team, so the people who are busy here are the villagers and the bricklayers of the nearby villages.

The old village head, Wang Laoqiang, Wang Gui and others are all here, except for Wang Gui, they are all serious.

Seeing Zhang Taiping approaching, the old village head nodded, and shouted to the people around him, "What are you doing here, go and do what you need to do quickly."

Seeing the old village chief's bad tone, the surrounding villagers were obviously in a bad mood. No one dared to make trouble at the moment, and they all left.There are only those city people and a few around here.

"Everyone, let's go, something happened here, there's nothing to see." Wang Laoqiang also said to several people in the city.

Zhang Taiping frowned and asked the old village chief after all the onlookers had left, "Old man, what happened?"

The old village chief pointed to the foundation at the corner not far away and said, "Look for yourself." There was a white cloth covering it.

Zhang Taiping's heart skipped a beat, this kind of scene can only be seen when a person is dead, he frowned and asked, "An accident?"

"No." The old village chief shook his head.

Zhang Taiping didn't ask any more questions, and went over to check.Looking at the appearance covered by the white cloth, it seems that there is a person lying down. Since the person died in an accident, how could it be something?

After uncovering the white cloth, his eyes shrank suddenly. Although the white cloth was not a dead person, it was more terrifying than a dead person.The first thing that catches the eye is a head with two holes in the eye sockets. It seems that only the skin is still wrapped on the head, and there is no flesh and blood inside. It looks extremely hideous, even more terrifying than the zombies in horror movies. Not to mention children, even less timid adults would not dare to leave the house when they saw it at night.

Zhang Taiping completely uncovered the white cloth, revealing the scene below.This is a mummy, and there are traces left by a rotten coffin beside it. Obviously, even the coffin has rotted for a long time, but what is surprising and horrifying is that this corpse has not completely rotted into bones.

And what surprised Zhang Taiping the most was that such a mummy didn't have any smell coming from it, even if he looked carefully, he couldn't find anything unusual.Immediately covered with a white cloth out of the foundation road.

Wang Laoqiang asked: "Marshal, how do you look at things?"

Zhang Taiping said: "Judging from the traces of decay in the coffin, it should have been buried here a long time ago. This ruled out the possibility of murder and burial in the near future. Don't worry about any cases that will be drawn. As long as it is not related to murder Things, digging out a mummy is nothing, digging out the foundation to dig out bones and skeletons is a common thing, just set it on fire, it’s not a big deal.” After a pause, he smiled and said, “Look at what you just called me. The phone was in such a hurry that I thought it was someone's life, and I was shocked."

Wang Laoqiang said: "I also feel that this matter is not a big deal. It's fine if there is less. At most, it's enough to invite the mage to come here to do a ritual."

"Wang Gui, what do you think?" Zhang Taiping turned to Wang Gui and asked.

Wang Gui said: "Judging from the clothes on the mummy, it should be at least from the Qing Dynasty, or even earlier. I think the same, just burn it." Wang Gui is definitely an expert in identifying antiques. There was probably nothing wrong with what he said.

Zhang Taiping looked at the old village chief squatting there without saying a word, just smoking his pipe, his face shrouded in light blue smoke was not relaxed.Asked: "What else is there to worry about, old man?"

The old village chief took the cigarette holder out of his mouth and said in a deep voice, "You don't understand, this is a drought!" When he said this, his whole body trembled slightly, and he didn't know whether it was because of emotion or fear.

In Zhang Taiping's opinion, "Hanba" was just a noun that appeared in fairy tales.

my country has a vast territory, and natural disasters such as droughts and floods have occurred frequently since ancient times.In ancient times, people attributed many natural phenomena to the domination of ghosts and gods, such as drought, they thought it was caused by "drought demons".

The legend of Hanba originated very early. For example, there is a poem in "The Book of Songs" that "Dryba is cruel, like burning."The ancient myth "Shan Hai Jing Da Huang Bei Jing" said: When the Yellow Emperor fought against Chi You, Chi You invited Feng Bo Yushi to make a violent storm.The Yellow Emperor invited Nv Ba to stop the wind and rain, defeat Chi You, and kill Chi You.Later, the female demon could not return to the sky, so she stayed on the ground.Where she lives, there is no rain all year round.This female Ba is a Hanba.

During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the concept of using zombies as drought demons was very popular, and from this came the customs of praying for rain such as "drought bone piles" and "burning drought demons". The folklore recorded in "History of the Ming Dynasty" said that whenever there was a drought, people would excavate newly buried tombs, drag the corpses out, and mutilate their limbs, which are called "drought bone piles".Although the Ming Dynasty ordered the prohibition of this wind, it was still very popular among the people until the Qing Dynasty, and it developed from "drying bone piles" to burning corpses.

This custom is also seen in foreign countries. For example, farmers in some areas of Russia, once encountering drought, often dig up the corpses of the drunken dead, sink them into the nearest swamp or lake, and even mutilate their limbs. This is for rain.

This kind of saying is also circulating now, but most of it is spread in mountain villages with underdeveloped information and conservative thinking.On weekdays, the village chief seems to be quite open-minded, but he didn't expect the old village chief to still have such thoughts.

In fact, with the development of modern society, most young people have completely believed in science, but the older generation still has awe of ghosts and gods in their hearts, and sometimes they still attribute some unexplainable things to ghosts and gods.

Zhang Taiping said with a smile: "Hanba is nothing, as long as it is burned, it will be fine."

The old village head shook his head and said: "As long as the drought demon appears, there will be drought, even if it is burned now, the drought is inevitable."

Wang Gui said: "Anyway, let's incinerate it first, so it's not a problem to put it here, maybe some germs will spread out."

The old village head nodded and said solemnly: "Then burn it, and bring some kerosene."

Wang Laoqiang said: "There is no kerosene, but I have a barrel of gasoline for the car at home."

"Gasoline is fine too."

"I'll go over and get it." Wang Laoqiang turned around and went back to fetch gasoline.

He didn't move any place, just poured gasoline on the white cloth and soaked it, a cigarette butt was thrown over and a raging fire ignited.

The mummy had long since lost its moisture, and it was no different from dry firewood when burned, and it burned quickly.After the burning, Wang Gui took a stick and poked among the pile of ashes, and soon found a bead.Said: "Sure enough." He used an empty cigarette box to put the burnt black beads on it.

Wang Laoqiang asked: "What is this?"

"This is a bead that can keep the corpse from decomposing." Wang Gui said and handed over the cigarette case.

Wang Laoqiang took it over and looked at it. It had been burned completely black, and now he couldn't see any difference: "Is this what keeps this mummy from decomposing?"

"It should be." Wang Gui said, "There are always some things that have this effect, but this one has been burnt out and is useless."

The old village head is still thinking about Hanba, and said: "Try not to spread the news today."

"It may be a bit difficult." Zhang Taiping said, "There were quite a few people watching before."

"Do your best." The old village chief sighed. "It's fine if the weather is good, but if there is a drought, it will become a panic."

Zhang Taiping also understands this truth. If a mummified corpse appears here and then there is a drought, people will naturally connect this matter. Once the drought is mentioned, it will become the mainstream speech, and panic will arise immediately.