The story begins a few days before Shi Le's death.
At that time, the tomb of Shizhou Hozhu had not yet been completed. Because the construction of this mausoleum was started after Shi Le became emperor, the construction period was not long. In May of the fourth year of Jianping, when Shi Le was seriously ill and bedridden, the main tomb in the tomb had just been built. The remaining two accompanying tombs only had the outline of the main body, and detailed structures such as the auricle, corridor, and corridors in the tomb were still being planned.
It is strange to say that usually at such an important point in the royal family's change, the Taoist Jianghua who was responsible for building the mausoleum should return to Beijing to ask for instructions on the next work arrangement. However, even though he knew that the emperor was seriously ill, he used the tight construction schedule as an excuse. As a result, I kept delaying my arrival in Beijing, and it was not until mid-July that I returned to Beijing alone.
The Jianghua Taoist priest who came back immediately stated his duties and gave a detailed report on the construction progress of the mausoleum. He said that the two accompanying tombs were under construction, and even the tombstone of the main tomb had not yet been inscribed. If he wanted to get everything done quickly, it would take at least three to five months. OK.
This memorial naturally came into the hands of Shi Hu. He was also very busy at this time. Externally, he had to guard against Qin King Shi Hong and Pengcheng King Shi Kan, who would raise troops at any time. Internally, he had to guard his uncle and a group of ministers who were about to die. After seeing the memorial, who still had the mood to worry about such nonsense, he directly ordered the mausoleum to stop work, and all the craftsmen who built the mausoleum were withdrawn. After thinking about it later, it seemed that I was still thinking about the old relationship between Zhou Huozhu and the Wang family, so I asked Jianghua Taoist priest to put the clothes and funerary objects into the main tomb according to the etiquette rules. The two funerary tombs were not built until they were completed. , all blocked.
The original plan of the Kanghwa Taoist priests was to have three underground palaces with one tomb and two tombs. The main tomb was specially built for Shi Zhou and Hezhu, and the accompanying tombs contained the clothes and crowns of his wife Wang and the young prince Shi Pi, which are also Shi Le's. elder brother. But in this way, after the tombs were sealed, the clothes and clothes of Wang and Shi Pi could only be buried with Shi Zhou and Zhu. Taoist Jianghua did not dare to disobey and followed the order and left the capital, but he later made it clear How it was done was obviously not known to the person who wrote the inscription, because after the Jianghua Taoist arrived in the mausoleum area to repatriate the craftsmen, he suddenly "disappeared".
The grim-faced Taoist priest could tell from the words on the stele that the person who wrote the inscription must be very close to the power center of Hou Zhao at that time. He was either a high-ranking official close to the emperor, or a personal follower of Shi Le or Shi Hu. In short, he treated the whole matter in the same way. Since the identity of a person who has experienced it is narrating, he will have some understanding of Jianghua Taoist. Why did such a court official suddenly "disappear and find no results"? If you read these eight words carefully, wouldn't it be like evaporating from the world?
The record of Ganghwa Taoist basically comes to an end here, and the inscription tells another story.
On the evening of Wuchen Day in the fourth year of Jianping, dark clouds rolled over the capital. As a thunderbolt fell, the sixty-year-old Shi Le stared to death, followed by a heavy rain, with the sound of rain and thunder one after another. , immediately covering up the panicked footsteps inside and outside the hall.
In such a tense and suffocating atmosphere, around the turn of the year and the day of the year, a carriage galloped out of the city in the rain and disappeared into the night after a short time. The author of the inscription happened to be on top of this carriage.
There were three people and one corpse in the carriage. It was the team sent by Shi Hu to transport spirits. Including the author of the inscription, these three people were usually Shi Hu's personal followers. At this time, they were ordered to find Shi Le's body in a barren mountain and deep valley to bury it. . But what Shi Hu didn't know was that the author of the inscription was actually Prince Shi Hong's spy, and he had been loyal to Shi Le's family from beginning to end. Now that he was seeing Shi Le's body being humiliated, how could he let it go and just stop doing anything and attack on a stormy night? The two companions then hijacked the carriage and drove away alone with Shi Le's body.
The author of the inscription did not mention his name, so let's call it "Gou Sheng". After Gou Sheng robbed Shi Le's coffin, he just wanted to find a place to bury Shi Le properly to show his last loyalty. After finishing all this, he fled to the south and no longer wanted to serve the thug Shi Hu.
Gou Sheng thought about a suitable place to bury Shi Le. He would definitely not dare to go to Gaoping Mausoleum. An ordinary place was not suitable for Shi Le's identity. At this time, he suddenly remembered the "Qing Le Mausoleum" that was praised by Jianghua Taoists. "If that place is really a "divine cave" as he said, wouldn't it be suitable for Shi Le's burial?
"Qingyue Mausoleum" is the tomb of Shi Zhou Huozhu. Gou Sheng's description of this passage does not mention words such as "Hebo Ning Palace" and "Chaos Dragon Cave", and he does not know that this place is not suitable for burial. , it can be seen that Taoist Jianghua may have lied and never told the court about the pros and cons of Chaos Dragon Cave. Most of the previous records on the corridor inscriptions were added by him later.
Why is it said that the inscription was added later by Taoist Jianghua? Because Gou Sheng had heard the memorial that day. Five or six days before Shi Le died, the stone tablet at Zhu Yiguan Tomb of Shi Zhouhe had not yet been engraved, but the grim-faced Taoist priests and others looked at it when they came. As for the text on the stone tablet, a large proportion of it is about the process of Jianghua Taoist building the mausoleum. It does not look like Shi Zhou's epitaph, but more like Jianghua Taoist showing off his excellent IQ and adaptability.
Gou Sheng's next words basically confirmed this conjecture. When he brought Shi Le's body to Qingle Mausoleum, the main tomb and the accompanying tomb were sealed, but he found a hidden place near one of the accompanying tombs. If you follow the secret passage, you will reach the front palace of the main tomb, which is the tomb room equipped with kitchen, bathroom, ice cellar, and secret bed mechanism.
Gou Sheng thought that someone had robbed the tomb, and quickly searched around the underground palace. However, there was no sign of the tomb robbers coming, and the burial objects were all in good condition. At this time, Gou Sheng walked to the room where the secret was hidden. Near the ear room of the bed mechanism, a figure suddenly flashed in the darkness, followed by a dull sound. When he rushed into the ear room, the stone bed had returned to its original position, and the figure disappeared in an instant.
Up to this point in the stele's record, it has taken up most of the area on the stele. The space behind it is limited, so the text is getting shorter and shorter. Gou Sheng only said that he found traces of Jianghua Taoist, and also said that "this guy" behaved very strangely. I am worried about the safety of the mausoleum, so I can only bury Shi Le's body first, and then go down to find Taoist Jianghua. I will be alone by then, and my loyalty will be considered whether I live or die. And if someone in the future generations accidentally sees the words on the monument, remember not to act recklessly. Turn on the power, because there seems to be something "down there" that ordinary people cannot predict.
After reading the inscription, the grim-faced Taoist priest raised his head solemnly and asked doubtfully: "Does the mechanism mentioned in the inscription refer to the one we entered?"
