Free Days in Siheyuan

Chapter 1157 The Origin of Rumors
Seeing his nephew's eager look, Xie Zhiying said seriously, "Don't even think about it. You can't enter Xishan."

Zhang Yu: “Why?”

Xie Zhiying explained: "According to the older generation, the West Mountain is full of obstacles, and there are also big snakes, big cats, and beasts like bears. In short, it is full of dangers, and people who enter it cannot get out.

To the people in the brigade, West Mountain was a forbidden area. Normally, people in the brigade were reluctant to go to West Mountain to chop firewood or dig wild vegetables. Even when they were about to starve to death, no one dared to say they wanted to go to West Mountain.

During those two years, some people could not bear the hunger anymore, and several young people ignored the advice of their elders and insisted on going to Xishan.

A total of six people went in, and only one came back alive.

The only young man who escaped back was not only in a disheveled state, but was also almost scared silly. He still cannot tell what happened to him in Xishan.

Even now, I have been recuperating for a long time, but I still suffer from hysteria from time to time.

Someone in the brigade said that on the night that a few young men entered the West Mountain, they heard the roar of wild beasts in the West Mountain. It is estimated that the few people who did not return were probably eaten by wild beasts. "

When he said this, a trace of sadness flashed across Xie Zhiying's face.

This incident happened less than two years ago. Even though those young people who went into the mountains were not our family's children, they grew up in everyone's care.

If any one of them is missing, I will feel sad.

That time there were five fewer!
Zhang Yu was completely confused. He could understand big cat and bear, and big cat should be referring to tiger, but what was a big snake?

He opened his mouth to ask, but when he saw the sadness that flashed across Uncle Xie's face, he quietly closed his mouth.

Forget it, why bother to open up my second uncle’s wounds again.

As if realizing that the topic he was talking about was too serious, Xie Zhiying took the initiative to change the subject: "If you want to hear about this kind of treasure hiding, I'll tell you a good way. Just go under the big locust tree in the village. The elders like to sit under the big locust tree and chat the most.

As long as someone starts it, within two days you can hear all the news about various treasures in the whole county."

"Is it true?" Zhang Yu suddenly became interested.

He didn't have any particular desire for treasure, he just wanted to hear some stories.

"Of course it's possible. Ask your grandfather to take you there tomorrow. With your status as a college student, as long as you open your mouth, the elders will definitely keep you talking all day."

Zhang Yu: "Then I'll go over and try it tomorrow."

Xie Zhiying smiled: "That's easy, just ask your grandpa to take you there."

After that, he talked about the treasure of Xishan again: "Our area was quite chaotic before liberation, because it was backed by a mountain and there were many bandits entrenched nearby.

Pingdingshan, the closest mountain to us, was home to hundreds of bandits back then.

Yes, that is Pingdingshan."

As he spoke, Xie Zhiying stretched out his hand and pointed to one of the peaks.

“The mountain is surrounded by cliffs on three sides, except for a small platform on the top, so it is called Pingding Mountain.

At that time, the bandits on Pingdingshan Mountain did a lot of harm to the people nearby. After the founding of China, the country launched a campaign to suppress bandits, and the situation improved a lot.

However, Pingdingshan is easy to defend but difficult to attack. It has cliffs on three sides and only the north side can be climbed. But those bandits have been operating on the mountain for several years and have basically turned it into a fortress. They also have a lot of weapons.”

As Xie Zhiying spoke, he used his hands to describe the terrain of the flat-topped mountain in Dawai.

Then he pointed to the north of Pingdingshan and said, "Although you can go up from the north, the road up is so narrow and rugged that heavy weapons, including cannons, cannot go up.

Those bandits built defensive works across the entire north, and relying on the terrain that was easy to defend but difficult to attack, the soldiers were really unable to do anything to them for a while.

The losses would be too great if they rushed forward, and the superiors were reluctant to lose their good soldiers here, so they stayed here for a while.

At first, the higher-ups were planning to surround them without attacking them, so as to cut off their food supply. However, they knew that the bandit leader was very cunning and had moved a lot of food to the mountain over the years, so they would not be cut off from food supply in a short period of time. "

Zhang Yu: "If it's really that difficult to travel, how do those bandits usually transport things up there?"

Xie Zhiying: "This is easy. They pulled it up directly from the bottom of the mountain using a hanging basket."

Speaking of this, Xie Zhiying couldn't help shaking his head. According to the older generation, the success or failure of those bandits was due to the terrain.

They thought that since there were cliffs on three sides, they could rest easy as long as they guarded the north side.

But someone came up with an idea and recruited a group of rock climbing experts to climb up the cliff.

While they were sleeping, all the bandits were caught in one fell swoop.

"The news of the treasure in Xishan was also spread at that time. It is said that an ambush was carried out at night and the bandit leader and the second in command were captured, but the son and the third in command of the bandit leader escaped.

The older generation said that they went down from another cliff. At the bottom of that cliff was a big river with fast-flowing water, and no one on the top thought that anyone would escape from there, so they ignored it for a while.

After chasing them all the way, the soldiers found the bamboo raft abandoned by the two men downstream of the river. They had no idea how the two men managed to escape safely on such a small bamboo raft in such a turbulent river.

However, they did not escape for long as they were discovered by fellow villagers soon after. They were chased and beaten all the way and finally captured the escaped son of the bandit boss and the third-in-command Junshen in Xishan.

However, the two men had nothing on them at the time, and the soldiers didn't think much of it at first. But later, somehow, word got out that the bandit leader's son took away a valuable treasure from the mountain when he fled the village, and he buried that treasure on the west mountain."

Speaking of this, Xie Zhiying still vaguely remembers something.

At that time, they had just moved in and witnessed the bandit suppression operation with their own eyes.

It was also at that time that the Xie family took advantage of the census to register as a local resident, thus completely taking root here.

After the news that there was a treasure in the West Mountain spread, people went to look for it one after another, but most people didn't dare to go into the mountains, so that was it.

As time went by, everyone just treated it as a rumor. After all, given the situation in Xishan, anyone who went in would die.

Besides, the two men slid directly off the cliff, and then relied on a small bamboo raft to escape from the turbulent river. In that situation, how much stuff could they carry? Could they run if they carried too much stuff?

You have to know that later on, those soldiers were chasing and fighting them all the way, following closely behind them. Even if they had brought something with them when they escaped, they would probably have to abandon it in order to save their lives.