Sima Yi's Three Kingdoms Collection Collection

Chapter 56 Pretending to be paralyzed and refusing to enter Cao's camp, plotting a big plan (1)
Sima's Big Secret

"Master, the ghost cave of Golden Knife Valley is in front of you!" Yamen servant Liu San stretched his finger forward, turned his head to the side, and said tremblingly to Zhang Wang, the county magistrate of Wen County who was sitting on horseback.Zhang Wang looked in the direction of his finger, only to see a dark hole under the side valley wall in front of him: it was hidden in the shade of green trees and weeds, as if a huge monster squatted there and opened its mouth. With a bloody mouth, it looks very scary and gloomy.

After Zhang Wang watched it, he couldn't help but strangled the mount under his crotch, and hovered on the spot.In the past six months, the villagers near Jindao Valley have come to report again and again: This mysterious cave seems to be haunted. One evening, farmer He Si, who was about to go home after cutting firewood from the valley, passed by the entrance of the cave. , unexpectedly heard the sound of tinkling metals coming from inside; many villagers who walked into the valley at night, hid in the grass, saw with their own eyes that many ghosts jumped out of the hole, and under the night You come and go, ghosts dance.Later, a few brave young men in the nearby villages heard that the cave was haunted, so they brought their knives, axes, bows and arrows and made an appointment to enter the cave to explore the secrets.As a result, two days later, except for a young man who was frightened and ran away, none of the other partners disappeared.The villagers went to question the young man who was frightened crazy, and he was also talking wildly all day long: "Ghost! Ghost! There are so many ghosts!..." As a last resort, the village elders and chiefs had to take this The situation of the ghost cave was reported to the county government, and I implore the county government to investigate clearly.

Zhang Wang, the county magistrate, was born as a literati who obeyed Confucianism. How could he believe in strange theories such as "strange powers and gods"?So, he called more than fifty servants from this yamen, armed with knives and guns, intending to go deep into the ghost cave of Golden Knife Valley to find out what happened.

When he was getting closer and closer to the entrance of the ghost cave, for some reason, Zhang Wang's heart was beating violently like a snare drum, and the calf with the horse's belly also trembled like a cramp!After all, there might indeed be something weird hidden in this ghost cave, which can scare people crazy, so it is naturally extremely dangerous.

Thinking of this, Zhang Wang picked up the wine bag hanging on his waist, gulped and drank a few mouthfuls, and then took advantage of the alcohol to build up his courage, jumped off the horse and picked 35 stronger yamen servants to follow him, and ordered the rest A dozen or so yamen servants were guarding the outside of the ghost cave: "If you hear that there is a slight change in the cave after we entered the cave, you will come in in time to respond!"

After the deployment was completed, Zhang Wang asked 35 yamen servants to beat the gong vigorously while holding torches, hugging him and rushing into the cave with great momentum!

Stepping on the slippery, wet, and puffy ground in the cave, Zhang Wang felt like he was stepping on the tongue of some huge monster.While carefully looking around, under the cover of the yamen servants, he mustered up the courage to go deeper and deeper inside.

At this moment, there was a strange croaking sound from the top of the cave ahead, followed by a fluttering noise—countless black shadows flew towards them like tiles!

The yamen servants panicked, scolding, beating, and driving away——Zhang Wang's heart was shocked: Those black shadows were all bats hiding on the top of the cave that jumped out after being disturbed.

After the false alarm, Zhang Wang continued to advance to the bottom of the cave together with the yamen servants—this cave is very large and deep, and the path inside is also winding and tortuous, making it more difficult to touch the deeper you go falsehood.I don't know how long it took, when the torches in the hands of the yamen servants were almost burned out, the crowd finally came to the entrance of a Sancha cave.

"Master, which hole should we enter through?" Liu San held a torch and ran to the front to explore for a while, then turned around and asked Zhang Wang, "Is it the hole on the left or the hole on the right?"

Zhang Wang raised his head and looked at the two openings on the left and right: the inside was dark and cold, and no matter how he looked, he couldn't see to the end.He hesitated for a moment, calmed down, and said firmly: "It was said that this cave is haunted by ghosts. Today we broke in and searched for nearly an hour, but we didn't see any ghosts. Let's go from the right side. Go inside the cave and have a look, if there is nothing unexpected, then get out." All the yamen servants heard this, and they all responded in unison, and they surrounded Zhang Wang and went into the cave on the right.

At this moment, they heard a sinister and strange howl coming from behind a large stalactite pillar next to it. It was shrill and piercing, and it sounded very terrifying——Zhang Wang and the others followed the sound and found that it was a bloody skull coming from The stalactite pillars stick out from behind, and the two big eye sockets are still shining with green fire!
"Ah! Ghost!" Liu San screamed, threw away the torch and ran away holding his head in his hands.All the government servants were frightened out of their wits, hugged Zhang Wang who hadn't recovered from the extreme fright, and ran away in a crowd!
Zhang Wang was surrounded by them and rushed out more than ten zhang away in a hurry, his mind gradually settled down, he stopped, grabbed a stringed bow suddenly, and shot three arrows in a row towards the depth of the cave behind!While shooting randomly, he was still muttering: "Whether he is a real ghost or a fake ghost, this county will shoot him! Shoot some of the filth in this hole!"

Encouraged by his actions, the yamen servants also bent their bows and shot arrows one after another, regardless of east, west, north, south, and shot randomly into the depths of the cave.

A burst of arrows shot past, and a cry of pain suddenly sounded from the depths of the cave, and it was gone in a flash!This voice was clearly heard by Zhang Wang: it was clearly the howl of pain from a living person who was injured by an arrow!
"Master, you see that this arrow has been shot enough, and the anger has been vented... Let's go out of the cave as soon as possible!" Liu San finally couldn't hold back and came up to persuade him.

"Don't be afraid! There is only one evil ghost in him, and we have more than 30 officials here!" Zhang Wang gritted his teeth and said fiercely, "Let's go in and check again!"

"Old...Master, the arrows we brought are almost exhausted," Liu San's voice trembled immediately, "Also... and this torch is almost exhausted... Let's go back quickly!"

Zhang Wang turned his head to look at the group of yamen servants under his command, and saw that their faces were all pale with fright, and their calves were trembling as if they were sifting chaff, they all crowded up and urged them to leave the cave.He knew that the yamen servants were almost terrified by the skull that popped up just now, and he could no longer command them to go deeper—if he pushed them into a hurry, these yamen servants would probably leave him alone. It might be possible to escape in this cave!
He sighed helplessly, waved his hands, and said sadly: "Forget it! Forget it! There must be something strange about the haunting in this cave—this county is not prepared enough at this moment, so I followed everyone's advice and made plans after leaving the cave." !"

He rushed back to the county government office in a hurry. As soon as Zhang Wang dismounted from his horse, he saw the guards rushing up to greet him, and said: "My lord, Sir Sima Fang of Wen County is here to visit—he is already waiting for you in the back hall of the government office!"

Hearing this, Zhang Wang ordered to the fifty terrified yamen servants behind him: "Going to the ghost cave of Golden Knife Valley today has shocked everyone—you go down and get a bucket of corn from Master Wu's place to go back so that you can rest. The yamen will reward everyone for what they have done today. We will deal with this matter after the county sorts out the clues."

Hearing Zhang Wang's words, all the yamen servants guessed that he wanted to investigate this ghost hole to find out the truth, so they all sighed, frowning, and scattered lazily.

Although Sima Fang has a family friendship with the Zhang family in Suyi, he is also on the same level as Zhang Wang—but because Sima Fang has achieved the honor of being a two-thousand-stone official in the imperial court, he personally visited the Zhang family in Suyi. The frequency is actually very small.Therefore, when Zhang Wang learned that he was coming to visit, even if it was urgent, he put it aside and went to entertain him first.

"Sima Gong actually condescends to come here for a visit. The little brother Shedi is really full of glory!" Zhang Wang stepped into the back hall, and then bowed to Sima Fang who was sitting quietly waiting on the guest table, "I don't know Sima Gong is here today, what is the main purpose?"

Sima Fang hurriedly stood up from the guest table, cupped his hands and saluted Zhang Wang, and said with a smile: "Mr. Zhang—I've been living in Xiaojing's house for several months now. I really miss all my neighbors and old friends." It's urgent, so I came to visit you. It's just that the complexion on your face doesn't look very good!"

"Alas! Mr. Sima doesn't know something. Mr. Zhang just led all the yamen servants to catch ghosts in a strange cave in the Golden Knife Valley on the border with your Wen County..." Zhang Wang stretched out his sleeve and wiped it. Sweat dripped from his forehead, "The situation here is really dangerous!"

Sima Fang heard this, stroked his long beard on his chest, and asked curiously: "Oh? The strange hole in the Golden Knife Valley is haunted? Why is that? - Mr. Zhang, have you ever caught anything ghostly? "

"Sima Gong, you and I are both Confucianists, how can you believe that there are ghosts and monsters in this world. Although the world is chaotic today, culture and education still exist, Zhang certainly doesn't believe in these monsters!" Zhang Wang Upon hearing the question, he told Sima Fang about all the encounters and circumstances that he brought the yamen servants into the strange cave in detail, and finally said, "Actually, when Zhang ordered his subordinates to shoot all the arrows, Once heard a howl of pain coming from the depths of the cave, Zhang concluded that the skull-headed evil spirit must be someone pretending to be. And the howl of pain must be the person pretending to be a ghost who lost his voice after being shot by our sharp arrow Shouting... At that time, Zhang was going to lead all the Yamen servants to go straight in to find out what happened-it's a pity that these subordinates were timid and cowering, and they didn't dare to fight any more, so Zhang had to return depressed..."

"So, there are no real ghosts in that strange cave, only fake ghosts?" Sima Fang remained calm and said with a smile, "Did Mr. Zhang really see clearly?"

"The ghost in the cave must be someone pretending to be. Zhang is sure of this." Zhang Wang nodded vigorously, and then showed a look of confusion, "It's just... Zhang really can't think of it." In the cave in the barren mountain and wild valley, what is someone pretending to be a ghost doing? There may be a huge mystery hidden here..."

"Since that's the case, how does Zhang Jun plan to deal with this strange incident?" Sima Fang seemed to be very interested in the haunting of this strange cave, and kept asking this question.

"This... with the power of a whole county government servant, I'm afraid it will be difficult to find out the truth about the haunting in this cave." Zhang Wang thought for a while, gritted his teeth, and then replied seriously, "This county has no choice but to reveal the truth about this mystery." Report the matter to Cao Ren, the prefect, and ask him to send troops and generals to investigate!"

"General Yuan is now confronting Cao Sikong in Guandu. I'm afraid that Governor Cao will focus on being in the fortress of Hanoi, and he doesn't have so much time to come here to investigate the haunting of the Golden Knife Valley Strange Cave." Sima Fang smiled. In every way.

(End of this chapter)