One evening, the sky was filled with dark clouds, and a heavy rain was imminent. Li Qiaobao, who worked at the Shalin Scenic Area, seeing this situation, hurriedly made his way down the mountain. However, just as he entered the valley, he suddenly heard a cacophony of sounds.
Staff: It was the sound of chains and iron objects clinking, "ding ding dang dang."
The scene in the previous short clip was not fictional; it truly exists. This is a strange natural phenomenon that occurs within the famous Shalin Scenic Area in Luliang County, Yunnan Province, China. Since the late 1980s, residents living near the scenic area, in a secluded valley, have often heard sounds similar to those in the clip, such as weapons clashing and war horses neighing. They refer to this strange phenomenon as "the Yin Army passing by." The occurrence of these strange sounds has been widely discussed among the locals. To this day, no one can clearly explain what these strange sounds are. Villagers associate them with a war that took place 1800 years ago.
At the end of the Three Kingdoms period, Zhuge Liang led his army southward to quell the rebellion of southern ethnic minorities, reaching Luliang. One day, the Shu army clashed with the Southern army at Zhanma Slope. Meng Huo, the king of the Southern Barbarians, specially invited Mulu Dawa, the master of magical arts from Bana Cave, to assist. Upon arriving at Zhanma Slope, Mulu Dawa ordered his soldiers to dig two paths less than forty meters long and less than one meter wide, and then lured the Shu army into them. After the eerie sound of horns blew, tigers, leopards, wolves, birds, and beasts emerged with the wind. The Shu army had no means to resist and retreated into the valley. At that moment, an accident occurred. The Shu army's horses were startled, causing riders to fall off, and the Southern army took the opportunity to attack fiercely, resulting in heavy casualties for the Shu army. Since then, the place has always been shrouded in dark clouds.
This valley, hidden deep in the forest, was dug by Mulu Dawa’s men back then, and people call it Jingma Trough. Nowadays, it is the only passage for villagers to go up and down the mountain.
Interview with a villager: Most people don’t dare to come here. If they come at night, they usually go in large groups talking all the way through, but individuals wouldn’t dare to come.
Interview with a tour guide: When people carry firewood, they bow and pray before entering, believing it will ensure their safe passage.
Before the strange sounds could be explained, another unusual phenomenon appeared at Jingma Trough.
Interview with a villager: When horses reach here, they get startled and refuse to cross. You can beat them, but they still won’t go through. They insist on going around.
Even the horses refused to enter Jingma Trough, increasing the villagers' fear. They worried that other incidents might happen next.
Interview with a tour guide: We can trigger the sound using a magnet, and you can hear the horse being startled.
Indeed, the strange sounds that were originally heard only in the evening or at midnight can now be heard during the day as well. Strange phenomena continued to emerge, making this ordinary mountain path increasingly mysterious. People began to spread rumors that there were ghosts haunting the Jingma Trough. This news quickly spread beyond the local area and caught the attention of some experts.
Xu Haoming is a researcher at the Institute of Geology of the China Earthquake Administration. Since the 1980s, he has been involved in earthquake prediction research. During this time, he noticed many fascinating phenomena in nature, including the "ghostly" events at Jingma Trough.
Interview with Xu Haoming from the Institute of Geology of the China Earthquake Administration: Wherever it happens, it doesn't occur just once; it continues under certain conditions. I judge that it originates from rocks or soil,
and cannot possibly last so long in the air.
From this perspective, the strange sounds heard by the villagers could very likely be the sounds of the war that took place 1800 years ago. Could it be that Jingma Trough has the function of recording sound?
Human beings achieved sound recording starting in 1877 with the invention of the phonograph by scientist Thomas Edison. This method of recording transforms sound into the vibrations of a metal needle, which then etches waveforms onto tin foil. When the metal needle moves along the recorded track again, the recorded sound can be replayed.