Meng Yi opened his eyes wide and said: "Your Majesty, this is a courage exercise for a humble minister, but it requires certain skills to dig a grave, and I really don't know how to do it."
"No one asked you to dig graves yourself." Ying Zheng said with a wry smile, "You just need to carefully select some masters in this field, then set rules, and then classify the tombs you encounter and save them. Tian Yi and the craftsmen are doing the next work."
"Sounds good." Meng Yi finally had a smile on his face.
Ying Zheng nodded and said: "In name, Tian Yi is still the captain of this team, and you are the mastermind behind the scenes."
"Okay, no problem." Meng Yi said with a smile.
"However, you must learn the techniques of making tombs and the design of tombs." Ying Zheng said.
Meng Yi's smile froze on his face.
Ying Zheng lowered his voice and said: "Didn't I tell you before? I want to build a mausoleum similar to King Wu's Mausoleum, but the project is huge. Just relying on craftsmen alone may take too long, and I don't want to involve ordinary people. , so it is most appropriate to use the Meng family army to prepare the project."
Only then did Meng Yi understand Ying Zheng's intention: "So the king wants the minister to lead the Meng family army to build the royal tomb!?"
"Otherwise?" Ying Zheng asked, "Your father still needs to observe filial piety, and Xianyang cannot be separated from him, and Meng Tian has to be responsible for building the magic weapon."
In other words, you are the most leisurely person in your family.
"I understand." Meng Yi said, "Your Majesty wants me to learn from the process of robbing tombs first, and then build the royal tomb, right?"
Ying Zheng rolled his eyes at Meng Yi: "What about tomb robbing? It's so vulgar. That's called touching gold."
"Yes, yes, it's called touching gold." Meng Yi quickly changed his words.
"So, do you agree?" Ying Zheng asked.
"Although I'm not sure if I can do it." Meng Yi swallowed his saliva and said, "But Wei Chen is willing to give it a try."
"Haha, that's good." Ying Zheng said with a smile, "In that case, let's practice practicing first. The tomb in front of us is just an opportunity."
Meng Yi: "..."
"Why, are you scared again?" Ying Zheng asked, looking at Meng Yi's strange expression.
"No..." Meng Yi said with a grimace, "It's just that it's getting late now, so it's better to sneak into the ancient tomb to search for minerals early tomorrow morning."
Ying Zheng made a serious face and said: "Sneaking into the ancient tomb, what is the difference between day and night? Besides, only by entering in black day can you practice your courage."
Yes, no matter it is day or night, it is always dark inside the tomb.
Meng Yi gritted his teeth: "Just go."
"Okay." Ying Zheng said, "Let's set off after dinner."
After the whole army was organized and after dinner, Ying Zheng announced that he wanted to explore the ancient tomb at night.
Sima Hong did not object, because he had sent people to investigate before, and there was no danger. This ancient tomb had been stolen more than once, and the entrance was relatively obvious.
Sergeant Meng Tian ordered three more checkpoints to be set up, and he personally led people to guard the innermost checkpoints.
Ying Zheng took Sima Hong, Meng Yi and others to the entrance of the ancient tomb.
Tian Yi and Yang Yong, a craftsman from the Sima family, took the lead. They tied ropes around their waists and smeared some realgar on their bodies, then held torches and entered the entrance.
Not long after, I saw the two ropes stopped at the same time, and then started shaking.
This is a signal to continue diving in and have people follow up.
Five or six more craftsmen followed.
Ying Zheng tugged on Meng Yi's sleeve and said, "Let's go down and have a look."
Meng Yi hesitated for a moment before saying: "Okay..."
Ying Zheng tied a rope around Meng Yi's waist with his own hands, and then tied another one for himself.
Meng Yi raised the torch and braved the entrance.
Ying Zheng followed him in.
All the craftsmen knew that Ying Zheng was a "master" in tomb exploration, so no one came to stop him.
All the people who went to visit the tomb, including Sima Hong, got into the entrance one after another.
Although the entrance was small, the space below gradually became empty, and everyone came into a tomb chamber with a broken wall.
It seems that the entrance is not a normal entrance, but was dug by the previous tomb robbers.
No one rushed in and started to look around.
Perhaps it has been dusty for a long time. Although everyone has moved lightly, the dust on the ground is still floating in the air, which is a bit confusing.
After all, this is the outermost side room, and it has been visited many times, so it is impossible to find anything.
"Since there is no danger, let's go find the mine." Ying Zheng said.
Yang Yong held a torch and led the way, Tian Yi followed with the craftsmen, and Ying Zheng, Meng Yi, and Sima Hong stayed behind.
Anyway, we have already come down, and we are not afraid that Meng Yi will not move forward.
Yang Yong followed the pattern in his hand and searched forward, walking and stopping.
Finally, after walking around half a circle, I found a cellar-like space in another side room.
The cellar is indeed full of minerals similar to stone powder.
Tian Yi handed his torch to others, then pulled the rope and hoisted it into the cellar, then took out the sack and started to pack the stone powder.
In fact, it doesn’t take much, just some samples are enough.
Tian Yi packed a few handfuls of stone powder and was pulled back.
Tian Yi handed the sack in his hand to Ying Zheng: "Your Majesty, please take a look."
Ying Zheng took the sack and came to a place with a larger space.
After putting down the sack, Ying Zheng was about to grab it with his hands, but was stopped by Sima Hong.
"Let me do it." Yang Yong came over, pinched a handful of stone powder and looked at it carefully.
I saw Yang Yong taking a shovel, loading some stone powder, and then putting it on the torch to bake.
After a while, I saw that the powder was slightly yellowish, and a few drops of black water flowed out from the gaps.
"As stated in the records, these are the strange stone powder." Yang Yong said.
Ying Zheng looked at Li Si and asked, "Sir, what kind of ore is this?"
Li Si grabbed some yellowed stone powder with his hand, twisted it, and said, "We can't be sure yet. Let's take all the powder back to the big tent."
"Okay." Ying Zheng turned around and said to Sima Hong, "Where is the mine head?"
Sima Hong pointed to the wall behind and said: "According to Yang Yong's family records, it should be behind this wall, but I don't know whether these minerals are only those in the cellar, or there are other connections. Only by exploring We’ll make a decision after we understand.”
Ying Zheng looked at the sack containing the stone powder and said, "Leave a few people behind and dig through the stone wall overnight. We will explore the mine tomorrow and then make plans."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Everyone said in unison.
Five of the craftsmen brought by Sima Hong stayed, and five craftsmen from the Jingjia class brought by Tian Yi also stayed.
The remaining people followed Ying Zheng back to the military camp.
In the Chinese army tent, Meng Yi placed the sack containing stone powder on the ground, and then cleaned up the stone powder stuck to his clothes.
Meng Tian was also called back.
Although he brought back mineral samples, Sima Hong was still a little worried: "No one knows what kind of mineral this is, and they don't know whether it can be used to forge magic weapons."
"Yeah, I think it's not much different from sand." Meng Yi patted his clothes and said, "I guess it's about the same as building a house."
Ying Zheng glared at Meng Yi and said, "Stop talking nonsense now. Let's hear what you think, sir."
Li Si cupped his hands and said, "It's actually not difficult to find out what kind of mineral this is."
"Oh?" Ying Zheng said urgently: "Sir, please tell me what to do."
Li Si took a step forward and said, "Please, Your Majesty, take out the Black Iron Snail and use it."
Although Ying Zheng was doubtful, he still took out the compass box containing the black iron snail from the package he carried.
"Could this black iron snail provide any guidance?" Ying Zheng put down the black iron snail and asked Li Si.
Li Si replied: "Actually, this black iron snail has a third use."
"The third usage?" Ying Zheng asked in surprise.
"Not bad." Li Si opened the lid and transformed the black iron snail into a pointer state.
Ying Zheng watched Li Si's movements carefully.
Sima Hong and the Meng brothers also came over and squatted down around the compass.
I saw that Li Si did not put the black iron snail on the compass, but stabbed a position on the side of the compass with the black iron snail, and then pressed his finger on the outer edge of the compass.
Snapped……
There was only a slight sound, and layers of cracks appeared on the surface of the compass.
"This..." Ying Zheng was so shocked that he couldn't speak. He just used the black iron snail, but he didn't know that there would be such a change.
Others also opened their mouths and stared at this sudden change.
Then I saw Li Si pressing the outermost black iron ring with the index finger of his right hand and turning it clockwise. After turning half a circle, Li Si pressed the second black iron ring and turned it counterclockwise.
After turning the two layers of black iron rings one turn, Li Si turned the innermost black iron ring once again.
Gradually, words slowly appeared on the layers of black iron rings.
What is this operation?
It's so weird.
However, everyone present was accustomed to seeing strange things happening around Ying Zheng, and they were not so disbelieving as to what was happening in front of them.
But the text that appeared was in Chinese, and only Ying Zheng and Li Si recognized it.
Ying Zheng stared at the words on the compass and read them one by one for a long time.
"Your Majesty, it seems that this is not Qin Wen." Meng Tian said.
"It is indeed not Qin script." Ying Zheng said, "This is Chinese script, the orthodox script of the Chinese nation."
"Is this Chinese?" Meng Yi said curiously, "Some of them seem to be understandable."
Sima Hong also stared at the compass and said: "Our Qin script is gradually derived from the Chinese script. At the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty, all the people in the world used the Chinese script. However, after hundreds of years of disputes among the countries, different countries formed different Text."
"So, Chinese literature is the foundation of our ancestors." Ying Zheng said, "I have decided to fully implement Chinese literature in Da Qin to return to orthodoxy."
Several people nodded in agreement.
"Your Majesty, what is written on this?" Meng Yi asked.
"Most of the words on it are the names of some minerals." Ying Zheng said.
"Yes." Li Si finally explained, "What is written on it is actually a list of natural elements. This compass can also tell us what minerals these stone powders are."
So magical?
Li Si grabbed a handful of stone powder, sprinkled some on the ground, and then lifted the compass to cover the powder on the ground.
Then he sprinkled the rest on the black iron ring in the center of the compass.
Li Si picked up a glass of water and slowly poured it on the small pile of stone powder in the middle.
After letting it sit for a while, Li Si placed the black iron snail on the compass, then held the pointer with his fingers, and then gently lifted it up, and one end of the pointer tilted upward.
Li Si pushed the black iron pointer gently again.
The pointer started to rotate clockwise again, like a millstone grinding the stone powder in the middle.
But this time the pointer rotated slower, completely lacking the speed that Ying Zheng used to guide the way.
Everyone didn't dare to relax, they still stared at the compass and pointer and didn't dare to relax.
As time passed, the stone powder gradually became less and less, as if the compass was really grinding the stone powder.
It took about a quarter of an hour for the stone powder to be ground clean, and then the black iron snail also stopped.
The tip of the pointer immediately fell, pointing to a word on the compass.
titanium!
Li Si breathed a long sigh of relief and said, "Your Majesty, the identification is complete. This mineral is titanium ore."
Ying Zheng stared at the word pointed by the pointer and said in surprise: "I remember, titanium is indeed a kind of 'my weapon'."
"And it's a very important one." Li Si added.
Everyone was surprised and happy when they heard this.
"Not only that." Li Si added, "From now on, whenever there is titanium ore nearby, the king can use black iron snails to search for it."
Is there such a good thing?
Ying Zheng clenched his fists and grinned from ear to ear with joy.
