Legends of White Horse Mountain, chapter 19, ‘Golden Saddle Fortress’ (excerpt)
Rachel Woo and Johan Hausen
白天，他们在山上敲诈四方香客的钱财，夜晚，他们欺男霸女，杀害无辜。一时间，白马山的五仙庙路断人稀，很快断了香火。
During the daytime, they extorted money on the mountain from the worshippers from the four directions, while at night they oppressed the people, killing and harming the innocent. In a short period, the path to the Five Immortals Temple on White Horse Mountain became deserted and sparsely populated, and very soon the incense fires were stopped.
土匪们只好经常下山，把有钱人家的人抓上山来，称为“烤票子”。人被抓上来后，就捆在庙内的两棵柏树上，旁边燃烧着一堆熊熊大火，用火烤人，啥时候家里人拿钱来，就啥时候放人，拿不出钱来，“票子”只有被活活烤死在树上。
The bandits had no choice but to frequently go down the mountain to abduct members of rich families up the mountain. This was called ‘Roasting the Banknotes’. After the people were caught and brought up, they were tied up inside the temple on two juniper trees. Besides them, a pile of raging flames was ignited and they were roasted by the fire. Whenever the family members had brought the money, they would release the person. If they did not come with the money, ‘the banknote’ could only be roasted alive to death on the tree.
如今，这两棵同时栽下的柏树，一大一小，小的那棵就是因经常烤人而影响了生长，半边竟没有了树皮，这就是当时土匪“烤票子”的见证。
Nowadays, of these two trees which were planted simultaneously [back in the day], one is large and one small. That small tree had been affected [negatively] in its growth due to the frequent roasting of people on it. Therefore, one side actually does not have any bark. This serves as evidence of the bandits ‘roasting banknotes’ at the time.
Image: Two infamous juniper trees in the centre courtyard of @fiveimmortalstemple
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