The Taoist Priest with a grimace looked at the many pottery figurines in front of him, and questions popped up in his mind one after another. If the solid brick city walls in the mausoleum area were built just to highlight Zhao Xiang's status, then why were there so many pottery figurines placed on the city walls? However, these pottery figurines are different from ordinary human-shaped burial figurines. They are neither guard figurines holding weapons, nor dancing music figurines playing pianos. Their costumes are even more messy. The Taoist priest with a grimace even saw two Taoist priest-looking pottery figurines. Figurines, this was simply beyond the scope of his knowledge. Although he had not toured the tombs of the pre-Qin period, he was fairly familiar with the burial culture. The burial system of such figurines was actually made of wood, pottery, stone or metal. , the system that replaced human sacrifice began to rise in the middle of the Zhou Dynasty and became most popular in the Qin and Han Dynasties. However, the images of human-shaped burial figurines were nothing more than slaves, dancers, and soldiers from the beginning to the end. The Taoist burial figurines in front of us were really unheard of. , the Taoist priest with a grimace only felt that this Huiwang Mausoleum was full of weirdness from the moment he entered: the incomprehensible acrostic poem on the stone tablet, the huge city wall under his feet, the pottery figurines in different postures but all standing in front of him, This is also the most puzzling thing for the grim-faced Taoist priest, because most of the stone statues on both sides of the outer shrine have fallen over, but why are the pottery figurines on the city wall standing well? Could it be that the earthquake happened along the moat? Isn't this too outrageous?
Thinking of this grim-faced Taoist priest, he planned to bend down and see if there was any mystery under the feet of the pottery figurines that fixed them. At this time, the sound of rain in his ears became more and more urgent, and the big raindrops sprinkled down like the Milky Way beads. In the blink of an eye, The surrounding area was already covered by a curtain of rain. Before the grim-faced Taoist priest could take a closer look, the torch in his hand was extinguished by the sudden rain. He Siniang said anxiously from behind: "Taoist Master, don't pay attention to the pottery figurines. Take shelter from the rain first." .”
Hearing this, Luo Laoqi hurriedly shrunk his neck, protected the torch on his chest, and ran to the nearby tower. When he got there, he kicked the gate. The aconite door of the tower was not locked or unlocked, so Luo Laoqi kicked it half open. Fan, he shouted, "Taoist Master Siniang, come quickly!" Then he entered the tower in a flash.
He Siniang and Taoist Ghostface also followed. When Taoist Ghostface passed by a pottery figurine, his heart suddenly moved. He seemed to have thought of something in his mind, but it disappeared before he could catch it. Taoist Ghostface grinned. Grinning, he could only quickly enter the city tower first, but as soon as he entered the gate, he saw Luo Laoqi and He Siniang standing in front of the door, and in front of them, the main hall of the city tower was full of people. There were no less than a hundred pottery figurines crammed into it, but what shocked the Taoist priest the most was that the faces of these pottery figurines were all facing towards the door, as if a room full of people were plotting something, and suddenly three people broke in and looked at them all. Coming over, even a heartless person like Luo Laoqi couldn't help but be shocked on the spot. He still refused to accept it and said in a trembling voice: "Look... look at the chicken feathers."
Luo Laoqi's courageous words didn't impress him much, but He Siniang burst into laughter. The Taoist priest with a grimace said helplessly from behind: "You are the first person to quarrel with pottery figurines." After that, he stepped forward, He lit his torch on Luo Laoqi's fire source, then held the torch and looked around the hall.
Judging from the height of this city tower, it should be divided into two floors. In addition to the pottery figurines, the lower hall is also filled with countless weapons, most of which are crossbows, bows and arrows, thunder stones, rolling logs and other city defense weapons. The grim-faced Taoist priest saw The piles of neatly stacked arrows were really like entering the weapons depot under the archery tower of the city wall. He couldn't help but say in surprise: "Zhao Buxiang really built his mausoleum area into an impregnable city? Is this him? One battle is enough, mother.”
He Siniang analyzed from the side: "Could it be that Zhao Jiuxiang had an obsession because of his lifelong military career. Even after his death, he thought about preparing troops and taming horses to continue fighting in the underworld."
"Who are you going to fight against when you are already dead?" Luo Laoqi interjected: "It seems that the Yisa family must have buried too many treasures in the tomb, so they used these fake things to scare people, otherwise they would have the ability to take them. Do you want to shoot someone with a bow?" As he said that he thought the pottery figurine in front of him was in the way, he slapped it with his hand. The Taoist priest with a grimace couldn't stop him. Looking at the pottery figurine that had fallen to the ground, he was about to scold Luo Laoqi for being reckless, but suddenly something happened in his mind. It reminded me of my previous doubts: those pottery figurines outside have been placed for thousands of years, and they have been exposed to countless amounts of sun and rain during this period. There is no reason for the white paint on the face to be so intact, and there are not even many signs of weathering overall. The Taoist priest with a grimace thought of this Suddenly I felt something was wrong, and hurriedly stepped forward to the pottery figurine that Luo Laoqi knocked down. Then he took out the Longming knife with his right hand, held up the torch, and cut on the cheekbones of the pottery figurine's face. The sharp Longming knife scratched it. There was no touch of clay on the face of the pottery figurine, but the feeling of being cut on cow leather. After cutting the incision, the grimace Taoist turned the knife over and found that the blade was actually a layer of leather, and underneath the leather, a dense piece of skin was exposed. of bones.
The three grim-faced Taoist priests immediately realized something after seeing the white bones under the hard skin. He Siniang was a woman after all. They couldn't help taking a breath and said in surprise: "Taoist Master, this... this Tao Are the figurines made by humans?”
The Taoist priest with a grimace nodded, took out the Longming knife and knocked it on the figurine. Sure enough, after the clay outside shattered, the pale flesh inside was exposed. The Taoist priest with a grimace picked up the Longming knife and sniffed the white powder on the knife. , then ran to another human figurine to check it, and after a while he murmured: "I understand."
"What did the Taoist Master understand?" He Siniang asked anxiously from the side.
"Pindao understands how these human figurines are made." The grim-faced Taoist priest pointed at the human figurines on the ground and said: "We thought these human figurines were made of clay at first, but we didn't expect that there were mummies wrapped in the clay. The pale paint on the faces of the figurines is not for decoration, it is actually a layer of lime."
"lime?"
"It's lime. These mummies were choked to death by lime." The grim-faced Taoist priest thought for a moment and continued: "I heard that during the Xia and Shang Dynasties, there was a cruel burial system in which slaves were choked with lime. After death, they were made into mummies to guard the tombs of princes and nobles for generations. Why use lime? It is said that after a living slave inhales lime, it can ensure that his internal organs are basically dissolved by the lime, so that it is less likely to decay. I am afraid these human figurines are Made by this method, you can see that each of them looks either frightened or angry, with their hands covering their chests. Isn't this the state before death? It's just that these people were made into mummies and then rolled in the clay. It was covered with a layer of clay, so at first glance we thought it was made of clay, but the pale face we saw was the white lime exposed after the clay outside was broken."
"This..." He Siniang was horrified when she heard this. When she looked at the human figurines in the main hall, she suddenly felt horrified and said, "This is too shocking. Isn't it possible to bury only the pottery figurines? We have to create something Are these cruel methods used to turn living people into burial figurines?"
"Slaves are not human beings in the eyes of the powerful, they are just two-legged animals, and the pottery figurines are fake. Only by burying people alive can the ruling class continue to enslave them after they go to another world. I don't even dare to think about it now. If these towers on the city wall were filled with human figurines, how many people would have to be killed to be buried by Zhao Jiuxiang."
"Alas!" He Siniang sighed and couldn't help but feel sorry for these people. After hearing this, Luo Laoqi said: "Siniang, please stop sighing. We are not living a good life ourselves. You still have time to pity them." .”
"What Lao Qi said is right, you can't do this job if you are soft-hearted." The grim-faced Taoist priest echoed from the side: "If you think about it from another position, most of these people who were buried should be Zhao Buxiang's prisoners during the war, and they may also be the craftsmen who built the mausoleum. In the end, they were all made into human figurines. For them, living is really not as happy as dying. It is better to have a sideways knife than to suffer a lifetime of sin." Speaking of this grim-faced Taoist priest, he suddenly remembered the two Taoist priest-looking figurines he had seen earlier. , it is not the turn of Taoist priests to be buried, because Taoism had a very high social status in the pre-Qin Dynasty. At that time, there were three religions and nine streams. This is used to describe the three religions and nine schools of thought that flourished in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The three religions are The nine schools of "Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism" including Taoism are: Mohism, Confucianism, Legalism, Taoism, Farmers, Miscellaneous Schools, Famous Schools, Politicians, and Yin-Yang Schools. Among them, the status of the three religions is second only to the royal power, and even It is used by many ruling classes as a tool to consolidate royal power, so it is unreasonable to use Taoist priests for burial.
The Taoist priest with a grimace said what he was thinking. Unexpectedly, He Siniang looked happy after hearing this and asked, "Are there really Taoist priest-like burial figurines?"
"Why is Si Niang so excited? Why does she suddenly feel happy when she hears that a Taoist priest was buried..."
"Oh, what are you thinking about?" He Siniang said, "Has Taoist Priest forgotten that Qingyao said that before Zhao Jiuxiang built the mausoleum, there was a royal alchemy field here."
"Fairy Cave!" The grim-faced Taoist suddenly remembered. He was so focused on the treasure in the tomb that he forgot about He Siniang's business. He hurriedly said: "What Siniang means is, those Taoist-looking human figurines In fact, he is the fortune-telling official who makes alchemy in the Immortal Cave?"
"It must be." He Siniang was slightly excited: "This proves that the alchemy field does exist. It seems that my butterfly Gu can be saved."
The Taoist Priest with a grimace thought for a while and felt that the alchemists had been made into figurines. It was hard to say whether there would be any elixirs, but he could not attack He Siniang with words, so he could only say: "If there is a sign, there will be a rush. It's raining too much." Let’s take shelter first and wait for the rain to lighten up, then we’ll immediately set off to find the underground palace.”
