After the Qin brothers and sisters and Gongsun Zhi left the tower, they went to the bamboo forest and caught a big black fish to make sashimi. It was so delicious that the brothers and sisters wanted to live here for ten days and a half, forgetting about the missing Jiang Jinjiu.
Fortunately, Gongsun Zhi kept thinking about it, and the three of them set out on the road after dinner.
As early as when Qin Zhaoyun was tracking, he had already discovered the stone road to Quemu Mountain.
The three of them walked forward quickly and soon arrived in front of Quemu Mountain.
At first glance, the steamed bun-shaped mountain is bare, with no soil layer on the surface and is completely covered with rocks. There are many semicircular openings in the mountain, presumably mines.
If the people here had survived for more than two thousand years and dug the mountain into such holes, there would probably be only a few kilograms of ore left in the mountain. Maybe Quemu Mountain would have become a barren mountain and no one would live in it.
The three of them climbed to the top of the mountain and had a good look. They vaguely saw several houses near the river at the foot of the mountain in the north. They had strange shapes and looked like conical towers from a distance. There is a windmill next to each house, and all the blades are missing and none of the blades are turning.
From this point of view, the house at the foot of the mountain is most likely deserted. The three of them did not intend to go there. However, when they looked at the peak that did not exist on the map, they found that the peak was surrounded by dense forests. There was only a stone road leading from the east side of the house into the unknown. in the mountains.
The three of them had no choice but to head towards the foot of the mountain, but the journey was not easy.
The rocks on the north side of the mountain have been washed smooth and round by the rain. The slopes in many places are very steep. If you accidentally slip, you will probably roll to the bottom.
There are only some wild grasses and flowers growing in the cracks between the rocks, and there is nothing to cling to, so you have to be careful every step you take.
Halfway up the mountain, the mountain seemed to have been bitten off, and a broad platform appeared. There is a mine inside with a huge entrance that allows two buses to enter parallel to each other. There were many carts and tools scattered in the cave, and it was bottomless. It was estimated that it would go deep into the mountain and hollow out the entire mountain.
There is a large turntable lying flat on each side of the platform, with calf-thick iron cables running through it, and then passing through iron hangers at intervals down the mountain to the large turntable at the foot of the mountain.
There are many iron hanging baskets with hooks placed near the turntable, which can seat four people. The three of them exclaimed, isn't this a manually operated high-altitude cable car?
Unfortunately, it takes about six or more people to turn it, so three people cannot use it and can only walk down the mountain.
There is a man-made serpentine road on the left side of the platform leading to the foot of the mountain. The end of the road is in a small square behind two rows of willow trees. Not far from the square is the conical tower seen on the top of the mountain. It turns out that there is still a part at the bottom, which is shaped like a semi-circular bread and the whole is a smelting furnace.
There are nine smelting furnaces, arranged in a row, with a distance of about five meters between each one.
There are casting rooms built next to the three furnaces closest to the square. They are now empty, without even a piece of raw material.
The furthest furnace is very close to the river, and a culvert has been built along the river with a gate. The three of them discovered that the culvert passed through the underground of nine smelting furnaces, and its mouth was in a large stone pool on the west side of the square.
The stone pond is also very close to the river. No one has cleaned it for a long time. It is overgrown with weeds and has accumulated sewage. If you don't clear the grass, you will not be able to see the mouth of the canal.
Gongsun Zhi praised that the designs of the ancients were really friendly to the people.
The underground channels under the nine smelting furnaces are more than 100 meters long. If the smelting furnaces are operated at the same time, even if the high temperature of hundreds of degrees is transmitted to the ground, it will only be 100 degrees Celsius. The river water flowing through it will be at least 40 degrees when it enters the stone pool, which is used for bathing just now. good.
But if only one mountain requires nine smelting furnaces, will it be so rich in minerals?
Gongsun Zhi was very puzzled by this. When he saw the six houses a hundred meters away to the west of the square, he was even more puzzled, "How can such a huge task be carried out if there are only these few households?"
In this case, I have to go and check the house, maybe I can find useful information.
As I got closer, I realized that the entire house was a stone structure, and the exterior was painted to look like it was made of trees. The house has only one floor, more than 200 square meters. The door is on the left side of the east wall, and there are two windows on the right side. There are four windows at the back of the room, and there are no windows on either side.
The triangular roof is covered with fish scale-shaped tiles. Although the surface is rough, it will flash a little light when reflected in the light. It must be cut from ore.
Each house is surrounded by a bamboo fence and is divided into a front yard, a back yard and a side yard. There are no signs of farming in the yard, but there are iron cages in the front yard, presumably for raising poultry. The backyard is paved with stone slabs and has an awning, which seems to be used to store items. In the right courtyard there is a stove, a bamboo table and six bamboo stools. There is a bamboo shed set up in the left yard, with several wooden barrels with lids placed inside. It is a latrine.
The three of them entered the first stone house. The decoration in the main hall was very simple and cleaner than expected.
There is a flower stand under the window on the east wall to the right of the door, and the plants in the flower pots have long since died. There are two wooden shelves next to the flower stand, which seem to be used to store clothes.
There are two wooden boxes placed on the south wall to the left of the door, containing various tools.
Even though the three of them were well-informed, they couldn't identify them all. Especially a long knife with six points, shaped like a cucumber with a hedgehog head, which is almost enough to be used as a weapon. There is also a piece of leather armor, which is made of tough material and has iron plates stuck on it for added protection. However, the leather armor that cuts off the breasts and stomach is about the size of a fist. Can this still protect people?
However, these objects were made of fine materials and were strong and corrosion-resistant, which the three of them were puzzled by.
There is a wooden couch beside the north wall and the west wall. There is a small table on the couch and a cloth cushion next to it.
There is a missing door at the end of the west wall, and a curtain made of bamboo sections is hung. There is a horizontal corridor inside, with four rooms side by side, all about the same size.
The three of them opened the door of the first room and saw a human skeleton lying on the ground!
Suddenly seeing human bones, the three of them took a deep breath.
This human skeleton was lying on its side on the ground, wrapped in a blue cloth skirt. It was not damaged, but had been severely faded. There is a knotted cloth belt on the beam above the human bones. The fracture is torn and has turned black after adsorbing some kind of liquid. It can be initially determined that the deceased was hanged.
Although the three of them had seen two human skeletons on the tower, there were at least signs inside the building. However, the appearance of a human skeleton in a quiet and peaceful residence with no signs of fighting shows that disputes are everywhere, which makes people feel uneasy.
The three of them went to check the human bones and found a lot of doubts. First of all, the room is relatively clean and has no peculiar smell.
A large amount of solution will flow out during the decomposition of the corpse, but there is no trace underneath the human bones. If the human bones were moved here from somewhere else, then the clothes would be too intact. If the cloth is stained with the solution, it will become tattered. There won't even be any holes like this, unless someone waits for her to turn into bones and puts on another piece of clothing.
However, the hair was scattered around the skull, and the ends of the hair were concentrated, and the ends of the hair were stuck to the ground by an oily solidified object.
Based on this, it is inferred that the person was left unattended after being hanged until the body rotted and the cloth belt rotted, and then fell to the ground. Because the hair has been hanging down on the back, the ends of the hair have absorbed the putrefactive liquid, which contains oil, so the ends of the hair stick to the ground after the person falls to the ground. This shows that the room is the first scene, unless the hair is not from this human skeleton.
Furthermore, the color of this human bone is very white, and the percussion sound sounds hollow.
Human bones that naturally decay in an indoor environment do not become papery white, but waxy yellow. Even if the bones are left for 180 years, they will not become hollow, but will have a honeycomb shape inside.
If it would have turned out like this, there is a high probability that this person had severe osteoporosis and was bled when he died. Otherwise... boil the person in wine...
However, does a simple death by hanging need to be so complicated? ?
Qinxuan also found that there were many white thorns stuck in the inner layer of the clothes of the deceased, which seemed to be the barbs on some kind of thorns, but they were much longer than the thorns. What's even weirder is that there are also some thin thorns inside the nose bones, the inside of the spine and ribs, and the gaps between the tibias, and they penetrate into the bones, but they are black in color.
Qin Xuan shuddered, "Senior Brother, do you think these thorns were inserted while the person was still alive?"
Gongsun Zhi said nothing and stood up to check the room.
There is a wardrobe in the corner to the left of the door, which contains neatly stacked shirts and long skirts, some women's items, and bedding.
There is a crib in the middle of the house. There is no dirt on the mattress inside, and there is a wooden-carved sheep at the head of the bed.
The cloth on the windows on the west wall was torn, but the dressing table under the window remained neat, and the standing bronze mirror was not blown down by the wind.
There are several hairpins, headdresses, and a comb in the makeup box. They are all made of silver and have a very simple and unsophisticated style. There are also two small boxes of rouge, one is white powder and the other is red grease, but now they have solidified into lumps.
The bed was on the right side of the dressing table, with only a small wooden stool on it. There is a low cabinet at the end of the bed, and on it is a copper kettle with a narrow mouth and a large belly. It should be filled with water on weekdays. Inside the cabinet were copper dishes, utensils, and a small cauldron.
Gongsun Zhi turned around and found nothing unusual.
However, it is only when there is no abnormality that it is abnormal. Otherwise, how could a human skeleton appear for no reason.
The three of them went to see the second room, but Qin Zhaoyun pushed the door down and knocked it down!
However, what comes into view is a patch of green, and the house is full of grass!
This was not surprising. Seeing that there was no foreign object inside, the three of them went to look at the next room.
The third room was bolted, so Qin Zhaoyun had no choice but to work hard and kick the wooden door in half.
The door panel kicked up a puff of dust and gave off a sour smell that made the three of them cover their mouths and noses and stay away from the door.
After the dust dispersed, the three of them came to the door and saw someone on the bed!
When I looked over, I saw two people, already reduced to bones.
The two of them sat opposite each other on the couch. Their tops were relatively ragged, and their hair was still hanging on their heads, so they looked like the same person.
The bed and the ground under the two people were covered with a completely dry solution, which was very dark in color. There were many mummies of flies and insects on it, indicating that the two people died here until they turned into white bones.
Although the process was the same, what was strange was the way the two died.
The two human skeletons had their heads on top of each other, their left hands resting on each other's shoulders, and each holding a short knife in their right hands and stabbed it from under the ribs until the tip of the knife was level with the collarbone.
That is to say, when the two of them were alive, they stabbed each other in the stomach with a knife, and then turned the tip of the knife up to pierce the heart. The key point is that the two people need to exert force at the same time to pierce each other's heart, causing them to die instantly and keep stabbing each other.
However, even if two people have agreed upon it, it will be difficult to complete it at the same time unless they both feel no pain.
Furthermore, looking at their clothes, they were a man and a woman, so the difference in strength and weakness was even more difficult to achieve. What was the situation that could make the two of them so ruthless? The three of them couldn't guess just based on the situation in the room.
There were no signs of fighting in the room, the furniture was not damaged, and the room was not messy. It seemed that the two of them did this on a whim.
At this moment, Qin Zhaoyun noticed that the short knife used by the two men was brown in color with some rust spots, but the blade still looked sharp.
He thought that if the dagger was made of copper, then the color should become darker and there would be more rust after being stained by the putrefactive liquid. If it is made of iron and has rotted early, I think the picture says there is gold in Quemu Mountain. Could it be that the short knife is plated with gold?
After thinking this, he became interested and took off a knife to watch. Unexpectedly, it is heavier than iron, and the sound is clear and solid when knocked, as if it were made of pure gold!
Qin Zhaoyun was shocked, "No way! Could these two be the Golden Swordsmen!" He quickly handed the sword to Gongsun Zhi for a test.
Sure enough, the dagger was made of pure gold.
No wonder the two were able to stab each other successfully. The pure gold dagger was extremely sharp and even a weak woman could use it easily.
But this made the three of them even more puzzled and couldn't figure out the reason.
Three words "why bother".
