613, Collapse (1/2)
Somewhere in a hidden corner of the river embankment.
Master Chilong led a group of disciples to hide in the forest.
From his current angle, he could see the scene where Su Wu's fierce exchange of words caused the people around him to kneel down to him in sincere submission.
"Do you see it?
Your master is extremely talented. If he rebels in the future, he will definitely be a big rebel! "Zhenren Chilong pointed at Su Wu, who stood tall and tall in purple robes in the center of the crowd, and spoke to Su Wu's disciples in a loud voice.
The four female crowns of the Xian generation looked at Su Wu with fiery eyes.
Xian Chun's eyes are full of longing.
“It’s really right to leave it to him to talk to people like this.
Arguing with someone with such a ferocious look will only scare others, but will not really convince them. "Master Chilong stroked his beard, looked at it for a while, and then turned to his five disciples and said, "Let's go, let's go, let's go to each village and see if the village elders are as promised to Dingyang. , began to count the number of pregnant women and missing persons in each village, and began to compile a list. "
"yes."
All the disciples responded one after another.
Following Master Chilong, we walked up the river embankment and headed towards the village under the river embankment.
…
Su Wu's face was as dark as water. He looked at the villagers who were kneeling around him and said: "For the current plan, I have two warnings for you. If you can listen to my words, you can protect your pregnancy." His wife's safety is temporarily in danger.
I wonder if you are listening or not? "
When many villagers heard that the method proposed by Su Wu could only keep their wives safe for a while, they unconsciously showed their disappointment.
Fortunately, they also understand the importance and understand that if the safety of their wives cannot be guaranteed at this moment, they will not be able to talk about the future.
So they all nodded like garlic.
They all said, "Listen, listen! I will listen to whatever the Taoist Master says!"
"As long as I can save my wife's life, I will do anything!"
"The fortune teller showed it to my wife. She is carrying a boy in her belly. My family has only three generations. The continuation of the bloodline depends on this child. There can be no mistakes!"
“If you can abide by these two warnings of mine, nothing will happen to your pregnant wives for a while.
The first of these two warnings is - do not ask your wives to worship in the Wutong temples set up in each village. If there is a Wutong shrine in your home, seal it up immediately. Do not Let the pregnant woman meet the God of Five Powers!
Secondly, you should take good care of your wives and do not let them go to the Minjiang River.
Twenty female corpses were all found in the Minjiang River. There is something strange hidden in the Minjiang River - until the evil is solved, your wives should stay away from the Minjiang River! "Su Wu looked serious and informed many villagers around him of the taboos.
His previous quarrels had already made the people watching gradually believe his words.
The two warnings given to him at this time were to leave no doubt about him.
After finishing speaking, Su Wu looked at the surrounding village elders and said: "Compile a list of pregnant women, count the number of missing people, and warn pregnant women and women of childbearing age in this village not to go to the Wutong Temple to worship, and not to interact with the Wutong God again. any connection arises,
As well as the strict order not to approach the Minjiang River,
I left it to a few village elders and Li Zheng.
If this matter is done well, the number of casualties in each village will be reduced, and all the people will be grateful for your kindness! "
"I'll naturally go all out."
"Everything is done as the real person says."
"I will send someone to the village to inform the villagers of these two points!"
Several village elders also solemnly agreed.
Even Zhang Zhuang Lizheng, who had argued with Su Wu a few times before, nodded, called several young men from the village from the crowd of onlookers, and ordered them to go to the village to do the things Su Wu had told them.
Su Wu looked pale and looked at the worried people around him, whispering to each other.
He knew clearly in his heart - he had planted a seed of 'doubt about the good and evil of the Wutong God' in the hearts of the villagers. From then on, cracks began to appear in the foundation of the villagers' belief in the Wutong God.
Everything going forward will go much smoother and there will be less obstruction from the villagers.
Inadvertently,
The villagers have regarded him as someone on the same side;
Next, if the Tianwei Taoist altar sends people to perform rituals, they will inevitably be closely watched and carefully scrutinized by the villagers. Once any mistakes are made, the trust of the people in the villages in the Tianwei Taoist altar will also collapse!
——It is extremely difficult to establish faith in people's hearts.
It requires the accumulation of time and the revelation of many events.
But destroying a certain belief in people's hearts is extremely simple most of the time.
"Real person!
The method you mentioned can only relieve our temporary difficulties!
My wife can't stay away from home all the time, right?
And even if you strictly abide by these two rules mentioned by the real person, there is no guarantee that other unexpected situations will not occur - is there no way to completely solve this matter? "
Among the crowd, some villagers bravely asked Su Wu.
When the villagers heard the sound, they all turned their attention to Su Wu.
Under their attentive gaze,
Su Wu sighed and said: "There is no way to completely solve this matter.
But you need to understand - sowing a cause leads to a result, this is the law of nature.
The main reason for this incident lies with Wutong God.
The Wutong God is inseparable from the Tianwei Taoist altar.
Even if I want to help you solve this matter, I must first ask the Tianwei Dao Temple - we must let them take action on this matter first and see what they say? How to solve this matter?
If they can't solve it, we can help you. "
When everyone heard this, they either sighed secretly or frowned slightly.
They also understood what Su Wu meant, but even though they understood, this matter was related to the safety of their families, wives and children, and they could not help but worry about it.
Anxiety and worry accumulated in the hearts of many villagers,
and gradually gave rise to some resentment towards the 'Tianwei Daotan'.
At Wutong Ferry,
more and more villagers came after hearing the news.
The village elders and the head of the village spoke to comfort the villagers and told everyone that a reliable boatman had been sent to Tianwei Daotan to pass on the news. The matter was of great importance, and Tianwei Daotan would definitely send a master as soon as possible to solve the matter.
Perhaps we can see the red-headed master sent by Tianwei Daotan this afternoon.
Such a big thing almost involved every household in the surrounding villages. The villagers had no mood to work today. Most of the men stayed at the ferry, waiting for the arrival of the red-headed master of Tianwei Daotan.
A morning passed.
Huang Liuzi moved in Several big pots and young men from the surrounding villages set up several sheds by the river.
Su Wu and Taoists Xianzheng and Xianyi cooked porridge and rice for the people who gathered here and provided them with lunch.
Although the food and vegetables were all provided by the villages, the purple-robed Taoist led his disciples to run around, which still made the people who gathered here feel a lot of goodwill - the red-headed masters of the Tianwei Taoist Temple were not as easy to talk to as this real person, willing to run around for their food.
The afternoon also passed gradually.
Real person Chilong led his disciples to meet Su Wu, and Su Wu learned about the situation of the surrounding villages from his master.
At dusk,
the village elders and headmen of each village had taken out the compiled list and gave Su Wu a copy to read.
Everyone gathered together and discussed aloud.
"In the past three months, there have been a total of 73 women who have run away from home in various villages because of quarrels and fights with their husbands, or because of discord with neighbors and unknown reasons. They are distributed in eight or nine villages around.
Fifteen of them were confirmed to have drowned in the Minjiang River.
Fifty-two of the remaining women were confirmed to be pregnant. Their husbands’ and mothers’ families had reported to the government, and even the local militia had organized to search everywhere, but there was no trace of these fifty-two women.
Because these people were distributed in several villages around, they did not disappear at the same time.
Everyone did not pay much attention to this matter, just treating it as an ordinary missing case and not further investigating it.
There were six other women who were reported to the clan for disobeying and beating their parents-in-law, committing adultery with others, being frivolous and dissolute, and seducing other people’s husbands. Later, because of some things, the Tianwei Taoist Temple performed rituals three times in the local area and sacrificed these six women to the Dragon King of the River to set an example. "
The village elders, Taoist priests such as Chilong Zhenren and Su Wu from Beilu Mountain gathered together to summarize the data of each village.
After listening to the summary of the data of each village,
Chillong Zhenren showed anger on his face: "In just three months, Tianwei Daoist Altar performed rituals three times in this place and took six living people as sacrifices?"
"Those who are unfaithful, unfilial, and unchaste should be drowned in the river!
They do such cruel things, can they still be considered human beings?" An elderly village elder sneered and said, not caring about it.
Su Wu frowned slightly and said: "Has there been no male missing in the surrounding villages in the past three months?"
"No."
The village elders and village heads all shook their heads in response.
"It seems that what Wutongshen is planning is exactly the same as what we guessed. "Su Wu looked at the Red Dragon Master.
The Red Dragon Master restrained his expression and looked up at the river.
The setting sun reflected the red river surface.
The boatmen who were sent to invite the Red Head Master of Tianwei Dao Temple had returned.
But on their respective boats,
there was no sign of the Red Head Master.
When the village elders saw the boatmen return, they also hurriedly sent people to inquire about the details.
Not long after,
someone came with the news: "The boatmen said that Tianwei Dao Temple has agreed to our request and will send people to perform rituals in the next few days to solve this matter!"
"Why didn't they come back with the boat?
This matter was caused by Wutong God. Now the safety of our villages cannot be guaranteed. They exposed the matter, but they can't solve it for us as soon as possible?" The village elder frowned and asked the person who brought the news.
The person who brought the news scratched his head and said: "The boatmen only dared to pass on the news, how could they have the courage to question Tianwei Dao Temple? "
Several village elders and village heads shook their heads and sighed.
The river bank was filled with noise.
All the curses and angry words against the Tianwei Dao Temple drifted away with the river.