long time ago, there was a deep and bottomless puddle on the cliff of the old canal in Jining. It looked like a lying cow, so people used to call it the Woniu Pit. Legend has it that it was formed naturally when Emperor Yang of Sui excavated the canal. There is also an interesting story about the Woniu Pit. At that time, after the North-South Canal was connected, the little-known town of Jining suddenly became lively: it can be said that on both sides of the canal, materials were piled up like mountains, shops were lined up, and merchants from the north and south gathered. It is said that there was an old merchant from Jiangsu and Zhejiang who often shuttled here. Whenever he came, he stayed in an inn not far from the Woniu Pit. One night, he accidentally found a cow covered with golden light lying in the pit, and he was secretly happy. He carefully observed and figured out that the cow was only a hundred days away from getting out of the pit, so he had to find a way to get it out. He returned to the store and speculated what kind of whip should be used to drive the cow out of the pit? Where can he find it? The old merchant was suddenly worried. He kept thinking about it and didn't sleep all night. He was in a daze until dawn. When it was light, the old merchant went to the direction he guessed and carefully looked for the thing that drove the cattle out of the pit. He didn't get anything for more than ten days. Later, he accidentally discovered that there was a farmyard behind the inn where he lived. The owner of the yard planted a loofah, two of which were more than two feet long. The old merchant was very curious. He walked up to it and saw that it really looked like two whips for driving cattle. He laughed "haha" with joy and said to himself, it can be said that "it's easy to find it after searching everywhere." So he found the old man who planted loofahs, first talked about family matters, then discussed with him about buying loofahs, and promised to pay 100 taels of silver to buy the two loofahs. The old man said in a tone of disbelief: "I can sell you these two loofahs for a hundred taels of silver? You are kidding!" To show his sincerity, the old merchant from the south took out fifty taels of silver from his arms, put it in front of the old man and said: "This fifty taels of silver is a deposit, I will buy the loofah! But you have to remember one thing: watering and fertilizing the loofah is the same as before, that is, don't touch it, I will pick it myself when the time comes." The old man promised to remember it. After that, the old merchant went back to the store to do his business as usual. From then on, he walked around the pit almost every day, carefully observing the movements and changes of the golden bull. When it was close to the hundredth day, the old merchant saw that the golden bull in the pit began to float up and down, as if it was going to leave the pit. He hurried to the old man's house to prepare to pick the loofah and drive the golden bull out of the pit. However, when he entered the door, he was shocked. The loofah was gone! He stood under the loofah rack in a daze at first, and when he came to his senses, he hurried into the house to find the old man and find out what happened. As soon as he entered the house, he saw that the loofahs were already on the table. Suddenly, the old merchant was very puzzled! ~ It turned out that the old man saw that the customer was paying such a high price for the loofahs. He thought that the weather was cold and he was afraid that the loofahs would freeze and ruin the deal, so he took them off the loofah rack in advance, thinking: wait for the old merchant to pay the remaining fifty taels of silver, and then take the loofahs away. The old merchant looked at the loofah and sighed: "Hey! I paid such a high price to buy your loofah, so it will be of great use! But you didn't listen to what I said in advance, and you picked it before it grew up. Isn't it a big mistake for me!" The old merchant was helpless and couldn't think of a good way to remedy the situation. He had to pick up the loofah and said: "It seems that I don't have the blessing of getting rich, and you don't have the fate of getting rich. I'll try it tonight!" After that, he left. At night, the old merchant came to the edge of the pit carefully, and saw that the golden bull had floated to the surface of the water and made a move to break free from the mud and get ashore immediately. It was said that it was late, and it was fast. The old merchant hurriedly raised his double "whips" and whipped the bull's back three times, and the golden bull roared! The tragic roar cut through the sky and echoed over the old canal. In the end, the golden bull still failed to get ashore, but watched it and slowly sank into the water again. Seeing this, the old merchant sat down on the edge of the pit, with beads of sweat dripping down his forehead. His dream of getting rich was shattered. From then on, this story was passed down from generation to generation, and the pit was called "Wo Niu Pit". (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.) (No pictures yet, welcome to provide.)