This story was told to us by an old man in the village when we were young.
The old man is a late Qing Dynasty talent, in addition to teaching us children to read and write, is to tell us stories, all kinds of strange folk stories, what gods and ghosts, foxes, talents, myths and legends, emperors and generals, loyal and heroic, everything, do not know how many stories are loaded in his stomach, always can not finish, when the child is fine, always like to surround him, begging him to tell us stories, the old show is basically responsive, told us countless stories.
He didn't know how many times he told us the story I wrote today, of course, the plot of this story that Lao Xiucai said every time was slightly different, but the main line was basically the same, and the result was basically the same, so it left the deepest impression on me.
The story takes place around the time of The Xianfeng period of the Qing Dynasty.
At that time, because of the wars, famines and plagues in the Central Plains, farmers in Shandong, Hebei, Henan and other regions began to invade the Guandong in large numbers and come to the northeast to seek a way to survive.
There is a person in this group of people who break into the Kanto, only know that the name is Chen Qi, the real name is unknown, the ancestral home of Dengzhou Capital, Shandong, is a hunter, the ability to hunt in the hundred miles of the first, because good at hunting dogs and bears, people give the nickname Bear King.
The bear king kills many bears every year, and every time he kills the bear, he peels off the bear skin, then eats the bear bile raw, and then cuts off the four bear paws and takes them away, leaving the rest of the bear meat for the villagers to eat.
Because he has been eating bear bile and stewing bear paws for many years, his body has become stronger and stronger, and it is said that every time he goes hunting in the mountains, the bear immediately disappears without a trace as soon as he smells his breath.
The bear king originally had a daughter-in-law, the daughter-in-law gave birth to a pair of dragon and phoenix fetuses, but he was not at home for many years, the daughter-in-law was afraid, afraid that the bear king killed too many dogs and bears, the bears would come to seek revenge, so they took the child away, and when the bear king returned to find out, it was already many days later, the bear king searched for many years, and did not find their traces.
Since then, the spirit of the Bear King has been stimulated a little, and he has become more taciturn, and all his attention has been on hunting.
Villagers often see that the bear king catches live bears, wild boars, foxes and wolves and other prey, and beats them alive with sticks, and the prey makes various ghost crying wolf howls in the process of being beaten, which is far away, and the villagers do not dare to come close, but can only watch from a distance.
Although the villagers felt that the bear king's various strange behaviors were terrible, and usually did not dare to approach him, the bear king was particularly kind to the children, often taking the money exchanged for hunting and buying candy for the children.
For a long time, the children in the village are not afraid of him, often go to the home of the bear king to play, the bear king will take out all kinds of delicious things to entertain the children, and then take a small stool, sit there, watch the children play, as if watching their own children.
One autumn, there was a group of children in the mountains to collect mountain goods, picking, everyone scattered, and when the leading child gathered everyone together, they found that there was one less little girl, everyone shouted for half a day and did not hear back, and then divided into several waves to look for her, looking for half a day and could not find her, everyone discussed, the little girl must be lost, seeing that the sun was about to set, the children were anxious to cry, quickly ran back to the village, and informed the adults in the village.
The adults in the village went to the village chief to discuss countermeasures, and the village chief divided the adults in the village into several groups, and everyone went to find the little girl separately.
Seeing that the sky was about to get dark, everyone held torches and searched over and over again in the place where the little girl might have gone, and everyone's voice was hoarse, and there was no trace of the little girl.
Everyone got together, and someone said that there was still a place that had not been, and everyone asked in unison, what other place has not been? The man said that there were still bears blind ditches that had not gone.
As soon as everyone listened, everyone's expression became very solemn, because everyone knew that there was a big dog bear in the blind ditch of the bear, which was a dog bear essence, and the dog bear essence stood up and was as tall as a room, the whole body was black and shiny, the claws of the dog bear essence were as big as a fan, the head of the dog bear essence was as big as a washbasin, the dog bear essence opened its mouth and roared, and the whole valley shook the mountains, flew sand and stones, and there was no day.
Of course, no one has seen these legends with their own eyes, they all listened to the bear king, and the people in the village think that the bear king has a problem with his brain, and they will believe his statement, but no one dares to go near the bear blind ditch.
A few years ago, some bold offspring formed a team to try to find out the bear blind ditch, just to the edge of the bear blind ditch, they heard the sound of the dog bear spirit calling through the valley, everyone was frightened and fled, and after that, no one dared to approach the bear blind ditch again.
That dog bear had been in the bear's blind ditch for hundreds of years, eating a virgin girl on the first day of each month, and eating a virgin boy on the fifteenth to ensure that his mana would not disappear.
Some people in the village have personally seen the dog bear essence hit the big rock in the valley with its own bear paw, and it didn't take a few clicks for the rock to crack, and finally under the continuous blows of the dog bear essence, it turned into powder.
When it got dark, the adults in the village said that no one had gone into the bear blind ditch for many years, and they didn't know what the situation was inside, and they couldn't rush in today, or go back to the village to discuss countermeasures.
The adults returned to the village, immediately gathered together for a meeting, discussed countermeasures, how to rescue the little girl, discussed for a night did not come up with any countermeasures, saw the east exposed the fish belly white, everyone has been sleepy, yawning for days, some people really can't hold on, lying on the table and falling asleep.
Just when everyone was at a loss, suddenly a person slapped the table and said loudly, how did we forget the bear king, call him to give advice, after all, he has experience in dealing with bears.
After this person's reminder, the sleeping people also woke up, and everyone said, yes, how to forget him, so the village chief sent someone over and invited the bear king over.
As soon as the Bear King arrived, everyone explained the situation to him clearly, and the Bear King listened to everyone's introduction, did not speak, and sat there thinking for an hour, that is, about two hours.
Everyone had no choice but to pin their hopes on the Bear King, and when they saw the Bear King sitting there without a word, they didn't dare to ask, nor did they dare to disturb, they were all silently looking at him to see what he noticed.
An hour passed, and the bear king stood up, returned home, took out a bear skin and draped it on his body, and then took his own bow and arrow, asked the village chief for three strong offspring, let each person hold a gong in his hand, and set out for the bear blind ditch.
Several people, led by the Bear King, soon approached the Bear Blind Ditch. The village chief led the men of the whole village to follow them far behind.
The bear blind ditch was very strange, and from the outside all that could be seen was the dense forest, which was so smokey that even on a sunny day, it was impossible to see what was inside.
The bear king opened the way in front and took the three descendants to go inside, although it was daylight, but the inside of the ditch was covered by thick trees, and inside was gloomy, and there were thick leaves under his feet, and there was a rotten black water oozing out of it.
The three descendants followed behind the Bear King, a little frightened, so they asked the Bear King, how far is it to get to the hole of the Bear Essence, the Bear King said to them, it is not far away, and there is another time for the incense to arrive, and instructed the three descendants to go to the outside of the mouth of the Bear Essence, as soon as I gestured, you will knock the gong in your hand, and keep knocking, without my order, you do not stop.
A descendant asked, didn't the bear spirit wake up as soon as he heard the gong, the bear king said, the bear spirit rested during the day, and only came out at night to do evil, looking for virgin boys and girls, it is now daytime, we use the gong to wake it up, confuse its mind, I look for another opportunity to subdue it.
When the descendants heard the Bear King say this, they understood, so they knocked the gong up, and for a moment the gong sounded throughout the valley, and everyone followed the Bear King forward while knocking the gong, and there were white bones constantly appearing on both sides of the road.
While walking in front, the bear king picked up the white bones from time to time to check, and the descendants who followed behind were very afraid, and when they were afraid in their hearts, the frequency of the gong hammer in their hands accelerated, and the bold descendants asked the bear king what bones were the bones of the white bones on the side of the road, and the bear king said that all of them were the bones of virgin boys and girls, and they were all evidence that the dog and bear spirits mutilated the surrounding villagers.
Some later generations asked if the little girl lost in our village would be eaten by the dog bear essence, and the bear king said that it is reasonable to say that the little girl should still be alive, because the dog bear essence should eat the virgin at the beginning of each month, and tomorrow is the first day of the first month, so the little girl will not die.
The sound of the gongs of the descendants woke up the dog bear essence, and the mood was very irritable, thinking who dared to provoke me, and had to give him a slap to chop it up.
The bear spirit came to the mouth of the cave, and saw the bear king and the three descendants in the distance, it was very angry, and roared loudly at the people who came, and the low voice shook through the valley, and the echo continued.
The three descendants heard the roar of the dog bear spirit, frightened, the gong in their hands did not knock, opened their eyes in horror, looked at the bear king in front of them, the bear king signaled them not to be afraid, and knocked the gong in their hands a little louder.
For a moment, the crisp and loud sound of gongs in the valley and the low roar of the bears were mixed together, frightening a group of people led by the village chief who followed behind to lie on the ground and did not dare to move.
The bear roared for a while, and saw that the bear king was not afraid, but kept walking forward, getting closer and closer to it, so he stretched out its fan-like bear paw and hit the rock next to the cave entrance hard, "snapping" a few times, the rock cracked, and the large and small stones and stone debris flew all over the sky.
The Bear King beckoned the three descendants to hide behind a large tree to prevent the stones from splashing over, and instructed the three people to speed up the frequency of the gong, and the dog bear spirit heard the gong sound become denser, more agitated, and ran to the side of the Bear King.
When the bear spirit was about a stone's throw away from the bear king, the bear king pulled the bow and arrow, "whizzed" out an arrow, an arrow hit the shoulder of the bear spirit, the dog bear spirit as if nothing happened, pulled out the arrow, broke his hands, threw it aside, and continued to run towards the bear king.
The sound of the dog bear spirit 'bang bang bang' running sound shook the mountain, shaking the trees in the valley from side to side, the fruits and leaves on the trees fell one after another, and the dead branches and dead leaves on the ground also flew up, and for a time, the valley was filled with all kinds of leaves and fruits, constantly hitting the face and body of the bear king and the three offspring, tearing the heart and lungs.
The bear essence ran closer and closer, the bear king kept shooting arrows, although the bear essence stretched out two bear paws to block the arrows left and right, but the whole body was still shot by many arrows, from a distance, the dog bear essence was like a hedgehog, but even so, it did not stop it.
Seeing that the dog bear spirit had come to the side, the three descendants hiding behind the bear king had already been frightened and unincorporated, and threw the gong aside, and their bodies were trembling one by one, and they couldn't say anything.
The Bear King was very calm at this time, took out the bear skin he had brought from home, draped it on his body, took a copper gong that the descendants had thrown on the ground, and knocked it violently.
The villagers brought by the village chief looked up to watch, and a magical scene appeared, only to see that after the bear king put on the bear skin, he was covered in golden light, shaking people's eyes open, and the dog bear spirit was also fixed in place, unable to move forward half a step.
The bear king approached the dog bear essence while banging the gong, and the bear essence opened its blood basin and mouth, but it could no longer roar, and its whole body seemed to be tied up by something, and it could not move at all.
At this time, the bear king came to the side of the dog bear essence, and changed the way of banging the gong, three long and two short, "bells", "bells", just knocked a few times, not a few minutes, only to see the dog bear essence slowly become smaller, smaller, and finally became a weasel.
Everyone was stunned and rushed forward, only to see an arrow in the weasel's eyebrow, and the brain plasma flowed out along the arrow shaft, and it was already dead.
The bear king put away the bear skin on his body, said to the surprised neighbors, hurry to the bear cave to see, how is the little girl, everyone reacted when they heard it, almost forgot the purpose of our trip, entered the cave, and soon found the little girl, the little girl was still intact, but she was scared enough, her whole body shrunk into a ball, and she couldn't say a word.
After rescuing the little girl, everyone was very happy, so they surrounded the bear king back to the village, and the bear king brought back the dead weasel with his hand.
The people of the village were very curious, so they asked the bear king what spell he had cast to subdue and kill the bear spirit.
The bear king explained to everyone that the secret was all on the bear skin he carried with him, a few years ago, the bear king was hunting in the mountains, met a traveling monk, the monk was hungry and dying, but he could not eat the meat that the bear king carried with him, because it violated the rules and precepts, so the bear king carried the monk home, got some vegetarian fasts for the monk to eat, and after the monk ate, he gradually eased up.
In this way, the monk stayed in the bear king's house for two days, and his body was well recovered, so he was going to continue the long journey, and before leaving, he said to the bear king, The old man traveled all over the country, and he would not see each other again, in order to repay your salvation grace, you took out one thing, I will give you mana, and it will definitely help you in the future.
The bear king took out the bear skin, and the monk then cast a spell on the bear skin, and it was this bear skin that helped the bear king subdue the bear spirit.
Another curious person asked the bear king, why is the dog bear spirit a weasel? The bear king said that this is also easy to understand, because the dog bear is big, the strength is greater, the mana is greater, it is easy to catch the boy and the girl, and the weasel can only catch the chicken.
Everyone happily returned to the village, and from then on, the people of the village no longer had to live in fear.
The deeds of King Xiong spread farther and farther, and finally reached his daughter-in-law who ran away from home, and the daughter-in-law returned with two children, the two reconciled, and the family was reunited and lived happily.
The bear king made a specimen of the weasel that had been brought back, hung it in the most conspicuous place at the entrance of the village, and wrote three large words "Dog Bear Essence" next to it.