"Ximen Leopard Zhiyi" is a story recorded in the "Chronicle of History and Funny Column", the story occurred in the early Warring States period, when Wei Wenhou appointed Ximen Leopard as the Commander of Yi County, in the face of the local situation that the people were not happy because of "Hebo marrying his wife", in order to save the local people, Ximen Leopard adopted the strategy of "treating his body in the way of a man", and executed the witch who presided over the matter and the three disciples and three queens, and finally broke the superstition.
In the early warring states period, Wei Wenhou appointed Ximen Leopard as the commander of Yi County, and after arriving in Yi County, Ximen Leopard gathered local people of high moral standing and wanted to understand the local situation, and only then did he know that the local people had been disturbed by the matter of "Hebo marrying his wife".
Originally, there was a local river in Yixian County, called Zhangshui. So there were people who knew witchcraft and local officials and squires united to trick the people into saying that the river lived in the river, and in order to ensure that the local wind and rain were smooth, a woman had to be offered to the river every year, otherwise the river would be angry and cause floods.
Under the pretext of "Hebo marrying his wife", the three elders and Tinghuan of Yixian County snatched a large amount of money from the local people every year, amounting to millions, but they only used two or three hundred thousand of them to marry Hebo's wife, and the rest of the money was divided among witches and officials and squires.
Whenever the river boy marries his wife, the witch will select a beautiful woman from those small households, and then hold a series of ceremonies, and then put the woman on the pillow and push it into the river, so that the woman finally sinks into the water, which is considered to be the completion of the "river boy's wife" ceremony.
Under the wanton exploitation of witches and officials, the local people were miserable, causing trouble for their lives, and the people fled, while the people with daughters in their families were even more frightened, and in order to save their daughters, they had to move their families elsewhere.
When Ximen Leopard learned of this, he immediately thought of a solution, and his solution was to "treat his body in the way of a man", so he invited the local three elders, Wu Zhu, and father to go to the river to deliver the bride when they arrived.
On the day of "Hebo marrying his wife", Ximen Leopard came to the river as promised, and the local three elders, officials, rich and powerful people, and local fathers and elders would also gather here, and there were also two or three thousand people who came to see the liveliness. The witch who presided over the matter was an old woman, more than seventy years old, followed by more than a dozen female disciples, all dressed in silk.
Ximen Leopard saw that the people were almost coming, so he said to the people, "Tell The daughter-in-law of Hebo to come over and let me see if the long drift is not beautiful." ”
So someone helped this woman out of the tent and came to Ximen Leopard, who looked at the woman and turned back to the three elders, the witches, and the people, and said, "This woman is not beautiful enough, and the troublesome witch goes to report to Hebo, and she needs to find a more beautiful woman again and send her back in a few days." ”
The witch naturally did not want to go, so Ximen Leopard ordered the messengers to pick up the great witch and throw her into the river. After waiting for a while, when he didn't see the witch return, Ximen Leopard said to the crowd with some strangeness, "Why didn't the witch come after she went so long, and asked her disciples to urge her." ”
Therefore, Ximen Leopard ordered someone to throw one of the witch's disciples into the river, and after a while, Ximen Leopard said, "Why has this disciple not returned for so long, and then send another person to urge them!" So he ordered a disciple to be thrown into the river.
After throwing the three disciples into the river in a row, Ximen Leopard said, "The witch and the disciple are both women, and I am afraid that I will not be able to explain things clearly, so please ask the third elder to explain the situation for me in detail." So he threw the three elders into the river.
Ximen Leopard led everyone to wait by the river, while the elders who accompanied them, Ting Tuan, and others were already terrified, and after a while Ximen Leopard said, "The witch and the three elders are not coming back, what should I do?" Saying this, he looked at the elders and Tinghuan with his eyes, and they were frightened and prostrated on the ground, and they broke their heads.
When Ximen Leopard saw this, he led everyone to wait for a while before he said, "It seems that Hebo is hospitable, and the witch and the three elders are afraid that they will stay for a long time, and everyone will disperse." From then on, the officials and ordinary people of Ye County were very frightened, and no one dared to mention the matter of "Hebo marrying his wife" anymore.
Later, Ximen Leopard requisitioned the local people to dig twelve channels to divert water to irrigate the farmland. Under his careful management, Yixian county changed its original appearance, and the people's families were sufficient and their lives were rich.