Chapter 43 Earth beats fire Earth gives birth to gold

In the literature records, the first animal that became extinct due to human activities was the golden bird   Around the 2nd century AD, the coughing golden bird was still very active in the southwest.This is how the history books describe this poor bird.It probably belongs to the finches, and its appearance is no different from other finches, except that it is slightly larger.Most of its feathers are bright yellow, with a little bit of metallic luster, but without the cold feeling of metal, it feels soft and dense.No one knows what the coughing goldenbird sounds like, and one theory is that it doesn't sing at all.Snuffing golden birds often fly aimlessly over the sea, so catching them has become a very difficult thing.But even so, there are still countless hunters who spread huge bird-catching nets between sea ships, because once they are successfully caught, they can get huge rewards.

 Because this is a bird with great wealth.On the first and fifteenth days of each month, if the weather is gloomy, the golden bird will feel upset and ooze fine gold flakes from the edge of its beak.These gold flakes are slightly heavier than real gold and have a more dazzling brilliance.The locals feel that these gold flakes come from a magical place, so they believe that jewelry made of this kind of gold flakes will bring special luck to the wearer.   "Wei Lue" said that when Emperor Ming Cao Rui ruled the empire, Kunming, nine thousand miles to the south, presented a golden bird to the emperor.The envoy told Emperor Ming that the southern countries had not caught a live golden bird for more than 70 years.Everyone believes that this is the only remnant of this species in the world.After decades of wars, China has finally returned to stability from strife. The southern countries believed that the appearance of this precious bird relic was a compliment from heaven for this situation, so they traveled across mountains and rivers to dedicate it to the Chinese emperor.

 Sima Yi, the wisest man in the Wei state, the great general, told the emperor that the last coughing golden bird was actually a special revelation from heaven to the emperor.Because the Liu family, who served as the emperor before the Cao family, occupied the position of "fire" in the pedigree of the five elements, while the Cao family occupied the position of "earth".According to the composition theory of the five elements, the earth element will replace the fire element and become the ruler of the empire.At the same time, this theory also says that the family of the "earth" system, the auspicious omen is something that can produce gold, that is, the so-called "earth-born gold".When Emperor Ming heard this, he was very happy, and he specially opened up a new garden for the golden bird, called "the Garden of Spiritual Birds".I heard that this kind of bird is particularly afraid of the cold, so the emperor also ordered to build a special small palace in the Garden of Spiritual Birds, and use polished crystal slices to form windows, so that even in the house, the coughing golden bird can still bask in the sun. .The emperor named the palace "Pihan Terrace".

 The well-informed general also explained to the emperor how to raise this precious bird.Coughing goldenbirds don't usually eat, he said.But if some rare food is provided, the gold shavings it spits out will have new magical effects.According to the general's instructions, the emperor ground the luminous pearls tributed from the South China Sea into powder, opened the skulls and took the brains of the turtles tributed from Yangzhou, and fed them to the coughing golden bird as food.Sure enough, the coughing golden bird spit out more gold flakes than usual.Moreover, the jewelry made of them will emit a faint reddish light in the dark night.

 Perhaps because of the tortoise brain, this coughing golden bird lived a particularly long time. According to "Supplements of Relics", this legendary bird lived until the dynasty changed.It is said that on the morning when the Sima family officially replaced the Cao family as emperor, the coughing golden bird sang softly, tilted its head and died.  When the new emperor heard the news, his expression was very calm.In fact, when he was young, he heard from his grandfather, the great general of the year, that when the bird died, the era of the Sima family began. 