Chapter 13 Chapter Twelve

The death of the emperor is called "collapse".According to legend, there was a foolish scholar who rebelled, followed by a group of peasants who were less literate than him. There were so many people that it became a small climate.A foolish scholar proclaims himself an emperor, and a widow calls himself an orphan. It has been an addiction for a while.But within a few days of the good times, the officers and soldiers who came to suppress the expedition quickly covered up, and they made three efforts to eliminate the chaos, drove out the accomplices, and had to question the mastermind.On the day when the sentence was confirmed and he was taken to the execution ground, the wife of the idiot scholar grabbed her clothes, stomped her feet and cried loudly in the road, but the idiot scholar calmly turned around and said to her: "Break up and ear off! Is there a dynasty in the world that is not easy for a thousand years? "This is really very bold.

Among the eight heroes of the south of the Yangtze River is Zhou Xun, whose courage is not comparable.As mentioned in the previous article: Among the heroes in the south of the Yangtze River, there are two skilled painters. Lu Minzhan is good at painting eagles.Another person who is good at painting is Zhou Xun.Zhou Xun is good at drawing dragons: "Painting Records" praised his dragons as "a masterpiece for three hundred years".His ancestors were carpenters, and I don't know if it was a genetic inheritance, or he came out of penance. This craft has a unique skill; that is, it can draw extremely cumbersome and complicated mechanical tools and even palaces and mansions on a piece of paper. On plain paper or plain silk.From the perspective of architectural professionals in future generations, this is just a very simple entry-level skill; however, for the skilled person who can be called a "painter" in this school: he can draw on paper the palace and houses that the owner needs and wants. , is an extremely clever business that is not easily spread.Zhou Xun—in the eyes of his fellow Zhou family members—is a boy who has neither talent nor intention, and is unlikely to inherit the mantle of this trip.Zhou Xun was a frivolous person by nature, and he was restless in his career since he was a child. He only wanted to try his hand. Under the coercion of his father and brother, he reluctantly learned the art of painting for several years, from drawing, writing to copying picture books, but he still didn't seem like a capable person. A person who makes a living in the trade of craftsmen.When he was sixteen or seventeen years old, Zhou Xun was suddenly expelled from the house for disobeying his clan relatives for a small reason, but he happened to meet an elder from a gang of beggars.The elder saw that his physique was extraordinary and his bones were strong, so he taught him a set of "dome palms" - the so-called "dome" means "hollow" - to cover beggars. body, hence the name "dome".This set of palm techniques has been passed on by the superficial people of the later generations, and it is called "The Dragon Subduing Palm Technique" or "The Eighteen Dragon Subduing Palms", which is really absurd.The "Vaulted Palm" has nothing to do with martial arts at all, it's just how desperate beggars use one palm to beg for people, while the other palm takes advantage of people's surprise and takes their goods.To put it bluntly: it's just a trick of stealing.

The elder of the beggar gang was also a pickpocket, and he only wanted to raise and train some pickpockets to be able to become teachers in the world in the future, and the second half of his life enshrining this as a teacher was just miserable eating and drinking; The elder knew about it, and had an idea for a higher level. The elder first found a corner behind the Zijin Nunnery in Maowu, Dongshan, Suzhou, and built a wooden shed. He asked Xiao Zhou Xun to go around the temple every day, and then went back to the shed to paint at his desk.In the Jufan Temple, there are gods, Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Arhats and Avalokitesvara, as well as dragons carved on the pillars and phoenixes flying on the corners of the eaves.Sure enough, good men and women from all over the world came to the shed to watch the painting, and everyone praised and appreciated it; non-disciples paid for the portrait to be enshrined at home, and there were many who gave money to the little painter on the spot.As for this elder, he is afraid that no one will come here, and he is not afraid that people will overwhelm his head; when there are too many people and the scene is chaotic, it will be easier for him to attack.Therefore, with the money Zhou Xun earned as a painter, plus the elder's "catch the white market" theft, he quickly became rich.

However, since the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, the children of the beggar gang wandered into the rivers and lakes, and it was difficult to rely on begging to maintain the administrative expenses of the gang, so there was a rule that individual beggars were not allowed to engage in pickpocketing activities; The old legal system that cannot be kept private has not been shaken.However, how to calculate the account of this business that the elder and Zhou Xun jointly cooperated with?At a young age, Zhou Xun's daily income from painting is several times that of the elder, but the elder insists on handing over both of their income to the Suzhou main hall of the beggar gang.After a long time, Zhou Xun was quite unhappy.In addition, this elder has a hot temper and is prone to punching and kicking.Zhou Xun finally had a day when he couldn't help himself.But one day at dusk, the crowd was about to disperse.Seeing that the time was running out, the elder secretly urged Zhou Xun to step up his writing skills and draw two more pictures, before walking into the crowd.Who would have thought that Zhou Xun was hungry, thirsty and furious, how could he resist his urging?Immediately, he turned his wrist, threw the pen on the drawing paper, and threw an ink smear on the paper that was about to be painted.The people who paid for the painting didn't know there was another reason for it, so of course they refused to give up, and immediately started arguing.Zhou Xun also became more and more angry, overturning the four treasures of the study with his hands and feet, pointing to the elder's back and yelling: "You old bastard who catches up with the white market! The young master will not serve you from today on!" Surprised, he saw the mystery, and immediately captured the elder.Seeing this situation, little Zhou Xun knew something was wrong, so he found a gap and escaped without a trace.But this elder is a figure in the field after all, even if he is taken into the official position, he has no stolen goods, no certificates, and no crime to question.He only slept in the yamen overnight, and taught the clerk to ask a few casual questions early the next morning, drew a monogram and released him.How can he let it go?So he immediately gathered a group of beggars, and sent an order to spread the "casual rumor"-ordering the children of beggars from all walks of life in the four towns and eight towns to report the information together, so that Zhou Xun will be taken back to the main hall in Suzhou for punishment, and there will be no leniency.

At that time, Zhou Xun was just a wandering young man, how could he know the hardships and dangers in the world?Before he ran thirty li, he was surrounded by a group of beggars.Everyone recognized him at a glance as the young man in the portrait of the Empress of Zijin Nunnery in Ximaowu, so they couldn't tell the difference, they took out the "leading rope" and tied him up.Speaking of it, Zhou Xun's fate was great, but at this critical moment, a yellow, round, dish-like object flew over from the side, which could break the few ropes and flew away again——Everyone Taking a closer look, it turned out to be a fat man wearing a cassock, holding a cymbal, and nine large ring scars burned on his head.Fat and old roared and said loudly, "Hey! Which bloody stinky beggar dares to hurt a single hair of my little brother, just like this—" When he said that, he flew his hands and circled in the air in the blink of an eye. It returned to his hand in a circle, but a willow tree with a diameter that could be surrounded by Zhang Xu behind the group of beggars had already fallen down.With such a skillful person showing his face, what do the beggars care about?With a whistle, they dispersed.

"Isn't my little brother the one who painted Buddhas and dragons at the back of the temple?" said the plump, over seven feet tall, with thick eyebrows and big eyes, and a purple beard in circles,! "Come, come! You gave Yin a picture. If the picture looks like it, it will be considered as a repayment for saving my life; if the picture is not like it, you can eat me for a cymbal!" Zhou Xun escaped from the wolf in front and the tiger in the back, and was complaining secretly, but he had nothing to do, so he could only beg, "I don't have paper and pen with me, how can I paint?"

Liao Yin and Sang laughed and said, "What's the problem?" After saying that, he slapped the half willow tree that had fallen over before, and saw him flick the sleeve of his cassock against the bark. Where the smoke and dust scattered, a large piece of bluish-white skinless naked stem was exposed.Na Hezhang took advantage of the situation and struck out a palm to the left, the palm of his palm was like a jet of flames, instantly burning the other half of the trunk, branches and leaves that fell on the ground to black. "Just use this charcoal branch to draw a Buddha on this tree!" Liao Yin and Shuang laughed again, and at the same time they became shorter, sat cross-legged, closed their eyes and adjusted their breath, just like a statue of an arhat.

In the folk tradition of the Eight Heroes of the South of the Yangtze River, the beginning and end of this section "Zhou Xun trapped an old beggar in Zijin Nunnery/Jiao Bailiu deceived a boy because of a book" is exactly the holiday when Yin met Zhou Xun for the first time.As a result, Zhou Xun's picture was quite satisfactory to Yin, and the two became friends who had forgotten their years, and they were also the first pair of allies to meet among the Eight Heroes.In the future, the Seven Heroes joined forces to attack and kill the cause of prostitution and violence, and Zhou Xun had no choice but to fulfill his righteousness and abandon his personal friendship.And in the following journey, Zhou Xun fell into a habit of drinking and getting drunk.Lv Siniang succeeded in assassinating Yongzheng, and the court and the central government sent out all kinds of detectives, casting a net to hunt down the heroes.All the heroes are in hiding, but this Zhou Xun, after teaching a beggar disciple the martial arts that he has acquired from the cause, goes to the streets every day and yells: "I am the number one conspirator in the martial arts today, Zhou Xun! "And where the footprints pass, they often draw dragon shapes on the walls. Because of the excellent painting skills, there are often no less than a hundred onlookers.After drawing a dragon, he went to the restaurant to have a wild feast.One day, he was caught in a rebellious journey for the arrest of a prisoner, and a great battle was inevitable; but because he could not bear the strength of alcohol, he was captured immediately and sentenced to beheaded.Before he died, Zhou Xun laughed loudly and said: "The one who draws the dragon is the dragon! I am the dragon among the people in the world. If I collapse, I will collapse my ears. What regrets?" Instead, a stream of blood gushing from the neck rushed into the air, flickering, and it turned out to be a dragon's head.Everyone doesn't know, but the mystery is revealed in the history of martial arts: it turned out that when Zhou Xun was forced to paint a portrait for him, Zhou Xun squinted and found that where Duan Liu was sitting cross-legged on the ground, what kind of peace is it?It is a curled dragon with purple beard and yellow scales; it is based on the picture.After seeing it, Yin was overjoyed, and said: "To be able to know the true nature of Hezhen, he is also a dragon among men." The title is "The Seven Heroes of the Black Pine Forest Oath of Alliance/Bai Taiguan Three Flying and Slaying Jiaolong".After Zhou Xun's death, the storyteller's hymn was written like this: "Doing nothing to learn the art of Zen / Begging for food and drawing the gods / Dare to follow the wild dragon dance / Why worry about being a patrol / A chivalrous man must fight for righteousness / Do you turn against your eyes? To repay the favor/drunk to the knife's head/to repay the lifesaver".This little law describes Zhou Xun's ups and downs and entanglements in his life; especially the two lines of the poem "A chivalrous man must be righteous/return against one's eyes and not repay kindness", and it also expresses the contradiction between justice and personal affection that people in the world are constantly hesitating and consternation.

Zhou Xun's deeds still have aftermath after his "collapse is collapse ear" fading away - that is a beggar boy he taught before his death.This beggar boy has no surname, and his net worth is unknown; I only know that he is also born with good hands and eyes, good at painting, and has the ability to "draw circles with his left hand and square with his right" and distracted acting skills; He often holds a pen with each of his limbs and toes on the street, and draws portraits of four people at the same time. All the people he paints are lifelike.Zhou Xun saw it as a treasure, so he taught him all his painting skills and martial arts.After the boy grew up, he made a living as a painter; the wonderful thing is that his livelihood is the family business that Zhou Xun escaped from when he was young: a painter who builds houses and houses.

In Renshen, the seventeenth year of Qianlong, there was a man named Qian Zai from Xiushui, who was named Jushi, and was selected as a Jinshi. Talking about knowledge and classics all night long, Chang Dadan can't sleep, and he still doesn't enjoy himself.The examination questions that Renshen won the Jinshi this year were exactly the same twenty years ago—that is, the year of Renzi in the tenth year of Yongzheng—the examination questions that Qian Jushi took in the provincial examination were exactly the same.In order to commemorate this coincidence of fame and fame, which seemed to be assisted by God's will, and to make it easier for him to chat with his peers and friends over wine and eloquence, he invited craftsmen to his home and built a small pavilion with one floor and one bottom.Downstairs is the place for feasting, upstairs is the study, the name of the pavilion is "Nian Pingle", the pronunciation of "Nian" is the pronunciation of "Nian", and the name of the stone is "Zai". It means to commemorate his 20 years of hard study and double success; "Pingle" is a reference to Cao Zhi's "Famous Capitals": "Returning Banquet Pingle/Wine Fighting Ten Thousands".It took three years from the completion of the "Nianpingle Pavilion", from the beginning to the completion of the project.Every brick, every piece of wood, every piece of stone and every piece of tile was handed by Qian Jushi, and it was this little beggar boy who drew the picture for him. To become a famous craftsman, everyone calls him "Qi'er", which is a homonym for "Qi'er", but Qi'er doesn't think it is disobedient at all.Three years after the completion of the pavilion, Qian Jushi established a deep friendship with Qi'er, so he took him in the mansion and specialized in the study of architectural drawings. people, build forests and gardens for them.Zhu Zhushi's "Diao Cang Tower" is based on Du Muzhi's "Travel and Accommodation": "The Cangjiang River is full of smoke and moon/the door is a fishing boat", and Wang Shizhen's "Chubi Tower" is based on Liu Zongyuan's "Xiju": "We never meet People/Long Song Chu Tianbi" and so on, all came from the hands of Qi Er.Qian Jushi even worked as a dove worker, and printed a volume of "Yage Tupu" for Qi'er, and wrote the preface himself.This atlas was written under Qi'er's name - so he had the same surname as Qian Jushi, and changed his name to Qian Ji, with the word Duzhi.The reason for adding three radicals of water may have something to do with the preface of "Yage Tupu" saying that it is "especially good at building pavilions on water, with waves reflecting one after another, and thousands of mirages, which can be reached by extraordinary masters and craftsmen."

Since then, Qian Duzhi has a family background, and it is precisely because of Qian Jushi's scholarly temperament that he has been with him day and night, that he must be born in Ketu to raise his children.Sure enough, in less than three generations, there were four juren from his school, and one of them passed the Jinshi examination and was awarded the official title of Hanlinyuan.In addition, regardless of whether they have fame or not, the painting skills passed down from generation to generation in this branch have never been interrupted. It is said that in his later years, Qian Duzhi himself met an old Taoist named Wu Yanran because he was watching a painting for a certain time. Is there a house?" Qian Duzhi was shocked when he heard the words, and has since entered another realm - but he heard that he spent a lot of money on a pool of small and medium pavilions, drawing day and night, often for several months.It often takes a year and a half to hire workers to build it immediately after the drawing is completed.Once the construction was completed, Qian Duzhi called relatives and friends to watch the newly built building.At this time, Qian Duzhi shouted loudly: "Just watch him build a tall building, but watch him entertain guests, but watch his building collapse." It was too late to say it, and then it was fast, and the beautiful-looking house responded. If it falls down, it will become broken tiles and bricks when it falls to the ground, and there is not a single material that can be reused.The construction craftsmen of later generations called it "the light-bellied craftsman built a rotten wooden building", referring to the incompetence of the craftsmen and the unreliable construction of the house. In fact, it was the story of Qian Duzhi's insanity in his later years. Qiandu's three characters are shallow belly, which is not the original.However, the ancient construction craftsmen knew that Qian Duzhi was not really crazy, but entered another level of craftsmanship."The History of Shanghai Small Knife Society and the Research on the Secret Texts of Hongmen" written by "Chen Xiumei" can be called the most magnificent master's thesis in modern times, with nearly a thousand pages of full text and annotations.This book was published in January 1967 with the financial support of a well-known cement company in Taiwan. The publisher was the Cultural and Educational Foundation with the same name as the company. Only 500 sets and 1,500 copies were printed.The reason why the system of this book is so huge is that it is not merely a textual research and argument for the background of the Shanghai Small Knife Society. It also touches on many industries, businesses, and low-level social life conditions that the Tiandihui, also known as the Hongmen, has reached.It is not too much to say: this book is actually an encyclopedia-style general record of the people's livelihood in central and southern China after the middle of the Qing Dynasty.Among them is the volume of "Architecture Gate", which has a very precise analysis of "Nian Qian Duzhi's approach to aging and madness.The author wrote: "Qian Duzhi realized the "impermanence" of buildings from Taoist Wu Yanran. This kind of understanding is not just the integration of Buddhism and Taoism's principle of "being born and dying" with Taoism's "absolute sage and abandoning wisdom", The thinking tradition of "forgetting the opportunity to go ingenious" also involves an extremely complex craftsmanship. In terms of craftsmanship: this kind of building that is extremely solid and strong when it is constructed can be damaged by a very light and small part. As for the collapse of the whole, it actually poses a double severe challenge to the art of craftsmanship. On the one hand, the designer of the building must construct the mechanism for destroying it from the beginning of the construction of the whole building, so that it can be easily touched. On the other hand, destroying the buildings carefully designed by the creators in time, and even the buildings constructed by their own hands, really tests and subverts the people's perception of objects, finished products, and artistic achievements. Psychological projection." Also in this voluminous book, the author also mentioned that in the future, the Xiaodao Congregation—in fact, the Hongmen bachelors of the Tiandihui system—used this kind of building to kill the enemy in order to launch a fatal blow to the old Cao Gang forces. means of terror. This happened during the Guangxu period. In order to show the rise of this new force to the Tiandihui members all over China, the Little Knife Society forcibly kidnapped Qian Duzhi's seventh grandson and ordered him to build a grandson in one month. In the small building, all craftsmen and craftsmen are supplied by the Small Knife Association.He also promised: after the small building is completed, Xiao Dao will not only release him immediately, but also remit a large amount of silver to the bank account that Qian's craftsmen usually communicate with, as a token of gratitude.But one of the conditions is: this small building actually hides a mechanism that "moves the whole body with one pull". Not long afterward, the head of the Little Knife Society signed dozens of invitations in person, and the invitees were all the leaders of the three churches in the old Cao Gang.A sealed letter was attached to the invitation to the old man, which made it very clear: In the past, the heroes of the Hong family, the predecessors of the Tiandihui, donated the "undersea" of the association to make friends with heroes from all over the north and south. China.During the period, although some disciples of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom used foreign and barbarian teachings to mix into the old chapters and expand their power, in the end it was because of confusion between the Chinese and the barbarians that the reform of the tripod failed, purely because of human conspiracy.Now Xiaodao gathers tens of thousands of righteousness, intends to rebuild the "seabed", unites the call, makes friends with people of lofty ideals, and jointly plans to promote the cause of Han Dynasty. The Laocao Gang has never openly expressed its ambition to oppose the Manchus and rejuvenate the Han among the various parties and sects, and there are different concerns in it.First of all, the Liangmi Gang, the predecessor of the Laocao Gang, was just an economic mutual aid group organized by poor and wandering sailors on board, and had no political intentions.Secondly, one of the old Cao Gang's cognition conventions is "every meeting is secret, but it cannot be met because of secrets", so it never thought that heaven and earth would propose the "undersea" secret book, so that various local fighting groups can share it. Action is a right means.Because it is not the original intention of the ancestral family to establish the gang by letting the people of the world respect themselves and expand and spread indiscriminately through the disclosure of a secret book that originally had its own unique historical sound room. It is also precisely because the purpose and method of expansion is different from the Tiandihui, relatively speaking, the old Cao Gang has never had any active attempts or practices against the gang forces of the "unified call" alliances, which makes the old Cao Gang appear incomparably Conservative and timid, there is another layer of doubts about this appointment-the so-called "there is no good banquet, no good meeting"-in other words: the other party may have other plans. There are also two views in the three halls of the old Cao Gang.Most of them think that they should not attend the meeting; however, there are also three helmsmen and the consuls of Zhengdaotang who think that they should go to the meeting.There are five to nine general banners under each of the three rudders, and seven or eight sub-banners under each general banner. The main hall and its sub-chapels within the organizational system of each sub-banner represent hundreds of Careful scrutiny: the opinions of these three helmsmen actually reflect the common thoughts of tens of thousands of people from Shanghai to Nanjing: they don't want to form a huge alliance with the The world of power will be the enemy.As for the Consul of Zhengdaotang, he has a different perspective: he believes that the system of the old Cao Gang has coincided with that of Tiandihui in the past 100 years—for example, the old man personally issued the "Sunyu" The "flag-raising" system of promoting the head of the hall with a large number of people under his command to be the banner owner was borrowed from the Tiandihui, and it was originally an inevitable means to expand the power of the population.I think there were many old-timers who did not agree with the revision of the system, but the facts have proved that: if you want to achieve a great cause, you have to be like the ocean, and you have to be able to adapt to the trend.The consul suggested: Open the Daxiang Hall, set up the "local sheds" and "Tianyuan tents", and invite the leaders of the inner three halls, that is, the leaders of the general banner master and the rudder master, to have a public discussion , and then it's up to the old man to decide: whether to be invited to the banquet?If the final decision is not to go, then everything will go on as usual, and there is no need to say anything; if it is to go, it is actually an attitude of echoing or agreeing with the proposal in the invitation letter of the Knives Society.Since this is the case, it is impossible to wait until the meeting to discuss the response method of "rebuilding the seabed and uniting the call". As a result, the Daxiangtang opened for three days and three nights.Later, more and more people agreed to form an alliance with the Tiandihui represented by the Xiaodaohui, for no other reason: the general banner owners of Shanghai, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Changzhou, Wuxi, Zhenjiang and other places—that is, the three rudders in central China. The local elders are well-dressed and well-dressed, and they seem to be gentry figures—because they seem to be doing a lot of business and their speech is sonorous and powerful, they are quite enviable by others.As for the Consul of the Zhengdaotang, he even put forward quite frightening remarks; he said: In this secret letter to the old man, the so-called "making friends with people of lofty ideals" is just a cliché; It is a great crime to punish the nine clans.Just think about it: when people talk about such a field, they obviously don't regard the old Cao Gang as an enemy base, so how can the old Cao Gang be timid and deterred? This question made the old man nod his head again and again, and he immediately ordered: "People treat me like a gentleman, and I will treat others like a gentleman—that's the deal." The old man of this great gentleman is surnamed Yu, surnamed Hangcheng, from Yujiapu, Wu County.This gentleman has a bad reputation all his life, and he is most afraid that people will look down on An Qing, a bachelor, who is out of business.Hearing the words of the Zhengdaotang Consul, he immediately became generous.So it was ordered that the Consul of Zunshitang arrange to deal with the etiquette, and the consul of Protecting the Dharma Hall planned to deal with it, and personally ordered all the people to attend the meeting. The banquet was held at a place called Huangnitang on the north bank of the Suzhou River, outside the American Concession.Before the first year of Tongzhi, this place was just a swamp, but after the 13th or 4th year of Guangxu, there were already shops.Now it is heard that even the Americans want to push the concession across the river. Lao Cao is meticulous in his actions.Half a month before the banquet was held, bachelors from various halls were dispatched to Huangnitang via different routes in turn, and the security and investigation along the way will not be described in detail; there were even special personnel to eat and drink in the restaurant where the banquet was held, and tasted every dish of it. If you leak, you can rest assured. This restaurant is also newly opened. It faces the Suzhou Creek. It is a structure with two floors and one floor. The buildings are all in the style of "Diaocang Tower". .On the left and right of the ground floor are places for ordinary customers to dine and drink. Opposite a row of windows, there is a hanging corridor facing the water. The corridor is deep and wide. There are box-style seats with vermilion lacquer railings. It is ready-made as a bookstore for singing Tanci and drumming. .On the upper floor, there are three halls on each side of the southeast, north, and west, serving a full banquet of food and wine, and the layout is very elegant and clean.The name of this building is "Yuan Dai", and I don't know if it comes from "Fei Yan Wai Zhuan": "(Fei Yan) has thin eyebrows, and its name is Yuan Shan Dai." A few shadows of peaks can be seen faintly, and it is indeed a look of lightly sweeping crescent eyebrows. All the bachelors from all parties were full of praise for Na Yuandailou.The old Cao gang is still not at ease; after all, this trip is to send this group of middle-aged and elders into the game of Tiandihui for nothing, and it is several miles away from the ancestor's house in Xiaodongmen to Huangnitang, so the road should not be too ostentatious , so as not to attract the attention of the officials and the people, naturally it is inconvenient to defend with great fanfare.How to break it up into parts, avoid people's eyes and ears, and go back and forth safely without losing dignity; it is really a difficult problem.In the end, Wan Ziqing, the Consul of the Guardian Hall, came up with an idea: since the opening time is at the end of the application and the beginning of the Youpai, and the sky is already quite dark, it is better to invite all the invited general flags as early as the afternoon sun The master, the rudder master, and the consuls of the three halls entered the old British Concession separately, or visited the old ones, or had fun. The head of Dailou gate.The same is true for the return journey - as long as they cross the Suzhou Creek, they will all disperse into the concession. However, no one would have guessed that Renjia Tiandihui had no intention of firing at all.Sixty-four people from the old Cao Gang's inner three halls, from the old man Yu Hangcheng down, all arrived, but all the bachelors of Jiantiandihui wore long gowns with sleeves and white robes, which meant that they didn't have weapons on them.And those bachelors meandered and stood in two rows, forming three lattices from the gate on the ground floor.Each bachelor spread his palm horizontally in front of his chest, and raised his other hand horizontally to the shoulder of the next bachelor. He also spread his palm horizontally, which was like a gesture of invitation. After the sixty-four members of the Laocao gang sat down in order, each of them realized that they had taken advantage of the large number of people—there were twelve rooms in all four directions on the third floor of Yuandai Building.Once the wall panels of the compartments were removed, an array of eleven Gonglu tables in the shape of a "mouth" was formed; each table had at least five veterans of the Cao Gang, and some tables even seated six people.And as soon as they were seated here, Hong Ying, who had been at the Heaven and Earth Society from the door to the building at the top of the building, immediately withdrew, which made everyone feel more at ease. There was such an extremely short blink of an eye between withdrawing hands over there and taking a seat in this room, and there was silence everywhere, as if everyone was at the bottom of an ancient well that was hundreds of feet deep.In the blink of an eye, the whistle of a steamer entering the port was heard from the distant Huangpu River—the steamer was very punctual, and every quarter past seven on the foreign clock, there would be a retrograde The train runs through South Dawan, Jiangxi, Huangpu.When the siren blew, everyone was startled, and then they looked at each other and smiled, but they couldn't laugh any longer—because when the whistle sounded, the whole building was like the skin on the drum and the spring on the sheng. It's also like dead branches facing the wind and duckweed meeting the waves, bumping up and down in all directions. The first thought that flashed through everyone was that the earth cow turned over and caused an earthquake, but looking around, there was not a single bachelor who knew the knives, the elder brother, and the heaven and earth society.By the time everyone understands, this Yuandai Building has already been smashed to pieces, bricks toppled and trees toppled.Under the kiss of the breeze blowing from the bank of Suzhou River to the north, the smoke and dust gradually dispersed. Where there were any buildings in place, there was only a large piece of thin sand scattered from the hollow walls on all sides. After being washed by the river, it returned to its original appearance as a yellow mud pond. If these sixty-four people were suddenly buried alive, there would be no old Cao Gang in the future.Therefore, in the section after the building collapsed and was razed to the ground, I have to explain a few things about the underground movement for the time being. If Guoer, the youngest son of the Qian family, followed the plan of the Small Knife Society and let the whistle of the steamer steamer activate the echo wall mechanism on the building, then the steamer would go in and out of the Huangpu River day and night, morning and evening. Why did it collapse at that moment?This mechanism is also explained in the "Building Gate" section of the book "The History of the Shanghai Small Knife Society and the Study of the Hongmen Secret Book" mentioned above: "Qian Duzhi's ingenuity is divided into two steps, that is, it is composed of two steps. Two independent mechanical devices are activated successively. Usually the second device is opened by sound wave vibration. Its key is often a thin paper called "buckle" by ancient builders. , the hourglass, slingshot, machine crossbow, and some powerful devices will be continuously buckled like dominoes, and finally the gravity of the earth's center will be the greatest source of force, destroying and burying everything. However, in the "bird Before the "tongue" breaks, another device needs to be designed that can protect the "tongue" and destroy it immediately when used. Ancient construction craftsmen called it "mantis arm"; it means "mantis arm to stop the car" However, the design and manufacture of the "mantis arm" are family secrets, which are not circulated to the outside world, so no one else knows about it. Qian Duzhi, a craftsman, developed his own "mantis arm" purely out of curiosity and ingenuity. ", and there are sixty-six thirty-six kinds of changes, and the functions of the diagrams are all written in the volume. However, he was afraid that unscrupulous people would use them in unrighteous ways, so he wrote them in the booklet "Thirty-six Tenons of Mantis Arms" There are eyes but no text, there are pictures but no explanation, and the descendants of the transmission are also word of mouth, without a single word." Kidnapped by the Knife Society for construction, this person knows that after the completion of this building, it will definitely lead to a catastrophe, but if he doesn't follow his instructions, he may be decapitated soon.So he thought of a way: he dug another winding and sloping passage under the foundation of Yuandai Building, and installed another "sparrow tongue" on top of the first "mantis arm".When all members of the Knife Society evacuated from the bottom of the building, the last person turned around and pulled out the threshold at the head of the door, urging the first "mantis arm" - but they did not expect that at the same moment, the pulled out A five-foot-long and one-foot-wide threshold not only activated the engine and broke the first "buzz", but also caused a small imbalance in the balance to pop another "buzz".This second "sparrow tongue" is the life talisman of the Laocao gang. Let's talk about the people falling and rolling, and after the tiles, bricks, floors, tables, chairs, bowls and chopsticks fell together, the people who were supposed to be buried alive suddenly tightened their bodies, and unexpectedly rolled up from the inside and rolled over again. A large net, connected by the net and the net, stretches out from the earth wall, and hangs back and forth in the air because of the weight of the human body.At this moment, everyone was in shock, only to find out that there were no serious problems except for a few chief bannermen and two helmsmen who had injured their arms and legs.Reconciled, but found that the last big net on the top has supported a large number of earth, stone and wooden pillars - but judging by the situation, it may not last for a while.But at this time, Wan Ziqing, the Consul of the Dharma Protector Hall, said: "It is clear that someone deliberately rescued them, otherwise it would not be so clever!" Everyone unanimously looked up and down in all directions, and they really discovered the ingenious thing Wan Ziqing said.It is said that these sixty-four people entered the urn and stepped on the machine, and were buried alive in the ground, but there is still a large space in the ground for turning around and turning their heels. , this one.The nets attached to the people on the ground are gradually being closed due to the people's struggle and strength. Those with the largest number of people are tightened slightly, and their shape is like a sea bowl;In general, nets that weigh more also hang lower.If it weren't for these nets, everyone would have smashed the bottom together with the cracked and disintegrated earth and rock materials, and it is unknown if their brains were broken.What's even better is that there is a huge net about ten feet high above everyone's heads, but the mesh is very thin, only the size of a copper coin, and it's not like the nets that are about a foot wide to hold everyone together. , the net buckle at the knot is also the size of a fist - it is the big net above that will hold up most of the things that finally fell, otherwise a blow to the head would cause unimaginable casualties, the third.But now the trouble is coming: the large mesh net on the top keeps vibrating, and quicksand keeps pouring down, how long can it last? Suddenly, everyone heard the voice of the old man Yu Hangcheng: "Wonderful!" At the same time Wan Ziqing also said: "The nets under our bodies are the same machine as the big net; as long as we fall here, we will fall into the net in a moment. The inner net will not collapse." Then, Wan Ziqing looked carefully at the place where the light shone through for a while, and seemed to understand it, and said: "The weight of the eight nets below is not even, and I ask all the brothers to spread them evenly. There are too many people. The nets with few people will move, and the fat and strong ones and the light and thin ones should also be adjusted to each other; make sure that the strength of each net is almost the same." Fortunately, these are the leaders of the old Cao Gang, not just martial arts Yes, when things happen, you can be quite calm.As soon as Wan Ziqing said this, he gestured to each other, each displaying their unique skills of maneuvering and climbing.In just a few blinks, the weight of the eight nets was adjusted to normal—strange to say, at this moment, the pockets of the eight nets tightened again, and they fell three feet down in a row. .Only then did everyone see more clearly: the place where the light was glowing before is now three feet lower. There is a groove on each side of the wall, and dozens of burning oil lamps are embedded in it—look at the oil-surfaced wick. The length is only about half a centimeter, in other words: I am afraid that it was ignited by a certain mechanism when the building collapsed.Also because of the bright lights, everyone could see clearly that a poem was inscribed on one of the four walls. Clever / There seems to be more things in the wall". Needless to say: Hong Mo is referring to the Tiandihui, and the person who left the poem is the one who designed the trap of this dangerous building.After understanding these two meanings, one also understands that the craftsman who designed the entire mechanism does not seem to have any intention of harming the old Cao Gang.It's just that how this person escaped the meeting of heaven and earth and left this confessional poem without being detected by the "Flood Devil" is an extremely obscure mystery; at this moment, everyone has no time to study it carefully.Then one of the chief bannermen shouted impatiently: "To put it decently, what about "sweeping the flood demons" and "the world is rich", in short, teach him to be trapped in this net—" This person hadn't finished speaking, but Yu Hangcheng said in surprise: "No! This poem has to be read horizontally, it is exactly the four characters "struggle against the wall of poetry"." The four characters "struggle against the wall of poetry" are exactly the four characters at the beginning of the quatrain, but everyone is in the net, they have no place to stand, and they are all tilted sideways, how can they work together to attack in the same direction?But at this moment, Wan Ziqing laughed. "Old man! People are trying to test whether we can work together to break this mechanism - in my opinion: it doesn't matter whether the martial arts are high or low, the strength is strong or weak, as long as we can unite as one and hit the wall of poetry, it will be natural." There is a way out." 于是网中之人遂各自抓紧绳扣，蓄足内力，打了个老漕帮中常使的知会口诀：“三光日月仍星”，五字脱口呼出，呼至“星”字时众人一同出力发劲，朝那题诗之壁上奋力撞去，端的是一个“击星破月”的口采。日后帮中异史氏有诗赞之曰：“英雄连袂赴鸿门/信步登楼傲至尊/举箸当胸拨玉瓦/横刀绝皆碎金樽/沉沙岂便埋麟凤/断箭还须射鲸鲲/脾睨洪英皆鼠目/敢窥我祖坐昆仑”。 且说众庵清元老虽然陷身网罟，却能齐心戮力朝那题诗之壁摆荡摧撞过去，但见八只分别兜住了七至九人不等的巨网活脱脱好似八个巨大的锤头一般，猛可是个流星赶月的势子，将那诗壁一击便击出个横宽丈许、直阔五尺有余的窟窿。妙的是这一击之力过大，正好崩断了系网的机栝，此际众人原先头顶上那张更大不知凡几的细眼巨网便再也撑托不住，登时也崩了下来。 这厢随网滚出的老漕帮众人则沿着个滚筒也似的斜坡滑出三五丈开外，好似下饺子一般噗幢叭嗵地全滚进了苏州河。所幸河水清浅，河面亦不甚宽，众人且泅且走，蹒跚而回。此后俞航澄如何引咎称退、扶保万子青登总舵主之位的一节，乃至老漕帮如何韬光养晦、伺机报复的详情，俱载于《七步惊雷》一书之中，此处暂且不表。倒是那姓钱的工匠从此算是给庵清光棍送了个绝大的恩情，他自己也早知道：示惠于彼则终必得罪于此。于是索性自票号领出银钱、携妻挈子，弃家北赴安徽，从此闭门课子，深居简出。即建即拆、旋生旋灭的这一门极富游戏兴味的建筑工技从此仅成家学，除了在《上海小刀会沿革及洪门旁行秘本之硏究》一书中有详尽的记载之外，另仅于《旧审笔记》、《奥略楼清话》以及《广天工开物杂钞》中亦曾述及。《旧庵笔记》且云：“间有自日本来者语余曰：“钱氏秘术已东渡扶桑，近闻伊贺忍士或有习之者。”未知确否。盖礼失而求诸野，何必曰楚？此正崩即崩耳之精义奥旨也。”