Daomu Biji

Chapter 2 WHO ARE YOU?

Uncle San followed the instructions of the local people and walked in the mountains for about four days along a trail opened by unknown ancestors. About one-third of this trail was dug into the waist of the cliff. According to reports, He estimated that it had been abandoned for hundreds of years. It might have been a plank road for marching, but now it was overgrown with moss and covered with vegetation. The farther you went in, the rougher the construction became.

The trail continues deep into the forest. The outer section is often used by mountain people. After passing the Guizizhai area, the inner road is almost untouched. It collapses and is covered with trees and vines, making it almost impossible to move forward. OK.

With his paranoid energy, the third uncle crossed this ancient road after many hardships and came to the other end of the cliff. He looked down from a high place. At this time, the valley recorded in the notes was right under him. After twenty years of Due to changes in wind and rain, the traces of Grandpa and the others when they came have long since disappeared under the extremely lush canopy of trees. But a naked red earthen bag in the middle of the valley was very abrupt and extremely conspicuous, telling him that this place was the legendary Biaozi Ridge.

At the same time, he also saw something strange standing under the tree crown on one side of the red soil. Because the color was similar to the tree crown, he couldn't tell what it was from his height.

He vaguely felt that something was wrong. This was an inaccessible valley, and no man-made structures or traces of activity should appear here, so he climbed a few steps higher and took out the telescope smuggled from Russia to check.

At first glance, he froze there. He saw a few military tents standing here and there under the canopy of trees beside the soil bag. The tents were painted in camouflage, so it was difficult to distinguish them from a distance. If Uncle San hadn't been very sensitive to small color differences and abnormalities in soil quality appraisal, he might have missed it at a glance just now.

At that time, the third uncle felt a few grunts in his heart, thinking: Why is there anyone in this ghost place? And a tent was set up. It shouldn’t be an Orion. Orions wouldn’t come to such a deep place, and they wouldn’t have such good equipment.

Just as he was wondering, one of the tents suddenly shook, and a person came out. The third uncle raised his telescope and took a look, and suddenly he became even more puzzled.

It turned out that the person who came out had white hair. His body was covered with gold threads, and he turned out to be a foreign devil.

At that time, the third uncle could not tell the difference between the Eastern and Western Nordic races, but at that time there was no reform and opening up, and there were not many foreigners coming to China. The most adventurous Americans were the most adventurous Americans, so he did not think about it and decided that this foreigner He's an American.

As soon as he thought about it, there was someone in this place who had a problem. Now there are not only people, but also foreign devils. What are they doing here? Could it be that the American emperor came to cause destruction? Or maybe - are you here for the Biaoziling underground tomb?

Although everyone knows that the foreign devils are good at antiques, they don't go out to dig them up themselves. They haven’t read the old man’s notes, so how do they know there are tombs underground here?

This is simply something that takes less than a moment to hit with eight sticks. The third uncle couldn't remember it at all, and felt extremely strange.

Questioning, he climbed down the cliff and put down his equipment. He walked lightly through the jungle below and sneaked near the tent. He found that the camp of these foreign devils was on the edge of the red soil bunker. There were about four tents. It was estimated that there would not be many people. On one side, there were several Chinese people who looked like local porters smoking and resting. At the same time, he also saw A large pit has been opened on the mound, covered with a bamboo frame.

Covered with green tarpaulin, because these things are to the north of his field of vision. So I didn’t see it when I was on the cliff just now.

The red soil bag on one side should be the sealed soil pile from that year. The soil should have been fried, and a kind of elixir was added to prevent it from growing plants. But now when I walk in, I can see that there are still a lot of miscellaneous things. The grass grew up. Apparently the ancients underestimated the adaptability of plants.

When the third uncle saw the big trumpet-shaped pit, he immediately understood that the purpose of these Americans was the same as his. They are digging ancient tombs.

The third uncle was not very old at that time. Seeing this situation, what came to my mind was this. This may be the Sino-US archaeological team that came here to do archaeological excavations. This seemed to be the only reasonable explanation at the time.

If you are a northern faction, you can only admit that you are unlucky at this time, because of their rules, they do not argue with officials privately. If you encounter an archaeological team, what can you do? You can't go up and kill them all. But the third uncle is different. He is not willing to do it. Being intercepted like this, looking at the location and intensity of the excavation by the Americans, he knew that these people did not have the experience of the native masters, and they must have followed their own methods of digging cemeteries abroad to deal with ancient tombs in China. Digging like this is definitely a step forward. If he can't get to the ancient tomb, he only needs to find the right place, go down into the robbery hole, and take out everything before they enter the ancient tomb without anyone noticing.

The third uncle returned to the place where he came down and got back his equipment. At this time, the sun was setting in the west. In the dusk, he used his own steps as a ruler to walk through the valley, measuring the area around the mound, looking for the best location. Suitable hole location.

The process was very complicated, and the third uncle did not explain in detail. He only told me that he was very confident in himself at that time, and the only thing he was worried about was the situation in the ancient tomb.

The robbery hole dug by grandpa at that time will not be preserved for a long time. It will definitely collapse after a few rainy seasons. I don’t know how far they have entered at that time, whether they have entered the interior of the tomb chamber. If so, the tomb chamber will There may have been rainwater accumulated in it, so apart from the contents of the coffin, other funerary objects may have been soaked. Whether the contents of the coffin will be damaged depends on the quality of the coffin and the degree of sealing at that time.

After nightfall, a bonfire was lit in the foreign camp. Uncle San waited quietly until they all fell asleep, then he carefully used his cat shovel to start digging.

The cat shovel is a special kind of shovel used by natives. It makes very little noise when digging. However, the sharpness and sound of the engineer shovel are now more advanced than the cat shovel, so the cat shovel has withdrawn from the stage of history. But at that time, the cat shovel was The quietest thing that Uncle San can use.

Even so, Uncle San was still very nervous when digging, because he could not use the Luoyang shovel to detect the underground situation (it started making noise every time he hit it, and for some reason, the sound of the Luoyang shovel entering the ground was particularly easy to scare wild birds away. ), so he was not confident that he could find the extension of the ancient tomb in one go.

After digging for about two hours, the thieves dug five holes, but they couldn't find the right place, but they gradually narrowed the scope. The sixth thieves hole dug was about 6 meters deep, and the third uncle's shovel finally hit something hard. , just when he leaned over and wanted to take a photo with his flashlight, he suddenly felt something was wrong. There was a slight squirming under the soil, and then the entire cave collapsed. He didn't have time to scream, and his mouth and nose It was covered with soil, and then he sank deep into the ground along with the soil around him.

Relying on instinct, the third uncle kept scratching the soil around him, trying to put his head out to breathe or grab something around him. However, this was in vain. It only took about two or three seconds for him to feel His body was empty and he slipped into some space. Then he felt a chill all over his body and fell into the water together with the mud that wrapped him.

The cold water washed away the mud on his face. He coughed and struggled to get up. He was surrounded by darkness. He didn't know where he fell. He could only feel that the area below his waist was full of water, and the surrounding area was full of water. There was a peculiar rancid smell.

The flashlight was still on, but now that it had fallen into the water, only a small amount of light was exposed. The third uncle possessed himself and touched the flashlight up. Because it was soaked in water, it went dark when he touched it. He shook it off After a few clicks, the flashlight turned on again, but the light was obviously a little dim.

He looked around with a flashlight and found that he had fallen into a brick room, surrounded by green walls. When he looked behind him, he saw a large hole that seemed to be artificially made in the green brick wall behind him. It was obvious that he had slipped in through this hole just now.

The third uncle looked around and understood what was going on. There was something wrong with the place he just dug. It seemed to be a hole covered with soil. His weight was on it, and there was no support below, so the entire hole below was The soil collapsed and rolled into the tomb below along with the mud.

Who opened the hole in the tomb wall? Could it be that he accidentally dug the same hole that the old man and the others used when they entered the tomb? Is it such a coincidence?

The third uncle thought for a while. I think it’s really possible that my skills were taught by the old man. The old man's skills were taught by the previous generation. Because tombs have begun to degrade since the Qing Dynasty, the tomb robbing technology has always been to rest on one's laurels. There is no further development in nature. Where and how to attack the thief hole are all rigid rules. They are apprentices taught by the same master. Almost 100% of the time the hole will be hit in the same location.

Don't think about it for now. He carefully observed his surroundings. The entrance behind was filled with pouring mud. He didn't know where the shovel was wrapped in the mud. It would be a little difficult to go back the same way, but he was not worried. He had explosives with him. ’ Well, I really can’t get out. Just open a skylight for him.

The tomb is a regular square shape with a vaulted ceiling. There are simple reliefs all around. The tomb is not big and not too high. The water in the tomb is up to his waist, so the burial objects should be underwater. But in a pool of black water, you can’t see what’s underneath.

On the left wall, there is a door, which seems to be the corridor of this ancient tomb.

It is impossible to judge the dynasty and the status of the owner of the ancient tomb based on these alone. But look at the height of the tomb. The owner of the tomb here is obviously not a prince-level figure.

Ordinary ancient tombs have burial chambers, and the specifications are not low, because in ancient times there were not many people who could afford to live in houses with brick structures. If bricks were used to build the tombs. The owner of the tomb must belong to the official class no matter what. However, even for the official class, most of the ancient tombs will not have the mechanisms of the Taixie Sect, because their abilities are limited and have been in the past dynasties. The top craftsmen, especially those who mastered the construction knowledge of the mausoleum, only served the emperor, and they could only serve once in their lifetime. A large number of top craftsmen died in the imperial mausoleum when it was closed. This is why The reason why so many things are lost in China.

The third uncle calmed down and waded into the dark corridor. The water was cold and the resistance was great. When walking, it carries these ripples and makes a very unpleasant sound.

The floor of the underwater tomb was not flat. He stepped on things several times and almost fell down. At this time, he could not think about what he had stepped on. If this was the ancient tomb recorded in his notes, then he would have stepped on something. Yes, in addition to the funerary objects here, there may also be the remains of the elders. This kind of thing is so exciting. The best solution is not to think about it.

The corridor was about twenty meters long, and we walked through it quickly. Behind the corridor was another larger tomb. There were no other corridors around it. The third uncle knew that this was already the apse. He took a few steps closer and saw that there was a coffin bed in the middle of the tomb, high above the water.

The third uncle's flashlight shone on it, and he couldn't help but swallowed, and his feet became a little weak.

He saw a stone coffin placed on top of the coffin bed. The lid of the coffin had been flipped to an unknown place. This was not uncommon, but what frightened him a little was that there were two other rotting bones leaning against it. On the lidless coffin, the clothes on the body were in tatters, the two corpses were completely rotted, and the skin and flesh were stuck to the sarcophagus. From a distance, it was not clear which dynasty they were from, but they were definitely not slaves who were buried.

The third uncle was stunned for a while, feeling cold all over and not daring to go over. He thought to himself, could these two bodies be his relatives who died in the ancient tomb at that time?

This is not the first time he has entered an ancient tomb. He has long been accustomed to ignore the corpses in the ancient tomb. To him, these corpses are just objects, but this time he may encounter the corpses of his own relatives. , there was an inexplicable fear in his heart, and his heart beat violently.

He slowly walked up to the stone platform in the middle of the tomb. Everyone was shaking and couldn't hold the flashlight steady. He looked at the sarcophagus first and saw a dried blood clot condensing on the bottom of the coffin. It seemed to be wrapped in silk, but there was no body. When he got closer to the two corpses, he saw that the corpses were completely decayed and the heads were already skeletons. It was impossible to tell whether they were his relatives, but the third uncle saw that one of the corpses was holding a box cannon with the words A few vague words - Wu Dagui, is my great-grandfather's name.

The third uncle's knees softened, he knelt down and kowtowed twice. The third uncle was not a person with very delicate emotions, so his behavior at this time should be an instinct.

After kowtowing, the third uncle looked at the cannon box and saw that it was no longer usable, so he threw it aside and looked at the contents of the sarcophagus. He put on his gloves and reached into the coffin, pressing the silk at the bottom of the coffin.

After the third uncle pressed it, he knew that the body was not under the rotting silk. Instead, he touched a ring-shaped thing under the mess of filth on the ground of the coffin. He reached in and touched it, and his heart skipped a beat. It turned out to be an iron ring, covering the bottom of the coffin.

He put the flashlight on the edge of the sarcophagus, then clasped the iron ring with both hands, and pulled hard. He heard a crack sound. Suddenly, the bottom of the coffin tilted to one side, and a secret door was exposed under the coffin.

The third uncle's head jumped. He didn't expect that there was more than one level of the tomb. He then took out a fire seal and was about to throw it into the secret door below to see what was underneath. Unexpectedly, as soon as his hand reached in, he was looking at the hidden door. A strange, wrinkled face poked out from the secret door.