1942, I lived on hunting

After dinner, Li Hao said goodbye and prepared to go see if there was any news from the old brigade commander. If everything was fine, he would go home.

When we arrived at the old brigade commander's home, he had not returned yet. Instead, he called home. After learning that Li Hao had been there, he asked his sister-in-law to tell Li Hao to come to Shanxi to find him. He said that there was a strange matter and asked him to refer to it. He did not explain what it was on the phone. He just said a few simple words and hung up.

Li Hao couldn't help but be curious. What could the old brigade commander want to talk to him about? Or something strange? With doubts, Li Hao said goodbye to his sister-in-law, took the old brigade commander's address in Shanxi, rushed to the train station and boarded the train to Shanxi.

He hurried to Shanxi and met the old brigade commander at a military base. As soon as they met, the old brigade commander asked Li Hao if he knew about the so-called strange things in the Yellow River.

Li Hao likes all kinds of strange stories and has some knowledge about many strange things circulating along the Yellow River. After the development of the Internet in later generations, there are more stories that are difficult to distinguish between true and false, but the most widely circulated ones are probably the three major strange stories of the crystal coffin, the iron monkey and the Yellow River Dragon King, as well as the strange legend of the Yellow River corpse catcher.

Throughout the dynasties, the management of the Yellow River has been related to the foundation of the country and even more to the normal life of the people on both sides of the Yellow River. However, managing the Yellow River is not an easy task. It was not until recent years that the concentrated construction of various water conservancy projects, reservoirs and hydropower stations completely solved the problem of Yellow River flooding.

In the early years when water conservancy projects were not yet perfect, the Yellow River needed to be desilted almost every year to prevent the river from being blocked. And every desilting would be accompanied by some strange things, but the most famous one among them is the Yellow River crystal coffin.

In the 80s, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River had to undergo dredging every year. Nearby residents (mainly farmers) had to work on the river, that is, each family had to provide a strong laborer. Of course, the elderly could also go to boil water and cook, etc. If they didn't want to work, they had to pay. In the winter of 1983, the Yellow River was in its dry season, with basically no water and a large area of ​​the riverbed exposed. The government department organized everyone to dig out the silt from the riverbed to reinforce the levee next to it.

One day, everyone was working, when suddenly a river worker who was digging mud started to howl in a miserable voice, and then all the people at the bottom of the river started to howl. The people cooking on the shore were very surprised, wondering why they were so crazy. Fortunately, after a while, everyone stopped for no reason and continued to work. When they were eating, they asked them about it, and no one knew that they had made such a sound.

The leaders were puzzled by this, so they invited a folklore expert to check and appease the people. The farmers could not wait for the folklore expert from the county, so they spontaneously organized some witches and old people to perform a Taoist-like appeasement ceremony. As a result, strange things still happened. On the afternoon of the day when the folklore expert arrived, news came from the river: a transparent coffin was dug up!

Transparent coffin? When the leaders and folklore experts rushed over, many people were already watching. This was a very strange coffin. The top cover had just been exposed, and the mud on it had been wiped off, revealing a transparent coffin body. The strange thing was that you could clearly see many small fish swimming around the body, but you couldn't see the body's appearance, only its general outline. It was wearing a double-layer shroud, which showed that the person was childless (local custom).

It is common sense that fish cannot survive in a sealed coffin for a long time. So the airtightness of this coffin must be poor, but if it were, the shroud would have rotted away long ago, and I am afraid that even the bones would hardly be left. And why didn't the water in the coffin flow out?

Leaders and folk experts had never heard of any circumstances in which a transparent coffin would be used for burial. Moreover, this was the old riverbed and it was not flooded after the Yellow River changed its course. The strange thing was that the coffin was not washed away by the river.

At this time, the crowd at the scene had split into two groups. Some elderly people, led by those who insisted on not digging any more and wanted to cover up the exposed upper part, fearing that it would harm their descendants. The young people did not believe in evil and insisted on seeing what was going on. Of course, they also had the idea that they might dig up some gold and silver treasures, which would make them rich, wouldn't it? The folklore experts also held a curious attitude and asked them to continue digging. So the elderly people burned incense and prayed beside them, saying things like "the children are young and ignorant, please forgive me" and so on. Some young men dug the mud around the coffin with shovels and carried it away.

It was a bit strange that the coffin was exposed until 1 meter above the ground, but the bottom of the coffin was still not visible. The coffin should be at most 1 meter high, so how could the bottom of the coffin not be visible? What was even more strange was that the coffin lid and the coffin seemed to be connected together, without any gap.

Since the top couldn't be opened, everyone placed their hopes on the bottom of the coffin being able to be opened. But which coffin could be opened from the bottom?

An inexplicable fear spread in everyone's heart, and everyone thought that perhaps it was right not to dig.

Some people are afraid while others are not. Some people who do not believe in evil are still digging, removing mud and water as they dig. In the river, a pit two meters deep and ten meters in diameter has appeared. The coffin has been exposed 1 meters from the bottom of the pit, but the bottom of the coffin has not been seen. Everyone has been wondering why the appearance of the corpse is not clear when the fish can see it so clearly and the clothes can be seen clearly? What is even more strange is that the corpse has been floating in the middle of the coffin. It was in the middle when it was 5 centimeters, and now it is meters high, and it is still floating in the middle. People at the scene are talking about it, and they are all guessing how high the coffin is and what it is made of.

The people digging the pit were tired, so they organized more than a dozen people to pull and tug at the coffin, but it still didn't budge. At this time, someone suggested that they use hammers and chisels to smash the coffin open. The leaders and folklore experts were not happy about this. You know, this rare coffin must be a cultural relic, and it's not the time to destroy the four olds, so how can it be smashed roughly?

As it was getting dark, they had no choice but to give up the excavation and plan to do it tomorrow. Unexpectedly, before the river workers had finished their dinner, the river suddenly flooded and submerged the coffin.

At dawn the next day, the river workers gathered on the levee. The river was roaring in front of them, so how could they see the coffin? The following winter, when the dry season came again, some people who were still determined came to dig, but they never saw the coffin again.

Li Hao told the old brigade commander the story of the crystal coffin, but the old brigade commander said it was not the case. It turned out that when the old brigade commander inspected the troops, the troops were helping the local government with flood prevention work, and they frequently encountered strange things in the river attacking the ships.