"These wooden coffins and ancient corpses..." Chen Tao walked suspiciously to an ancient corpse wrapped in a pile of vine branches, holding up a flashlight to shine on the armor on the ancient corpse.
The corpse's skin was dark, and its whole body was covered with black roots, as if it had become one with these vines. The clothes of the ancient corpse were in tatters, and basically only the rusty metal armor remained.
After careful identification for a long time, he said: "These are from the same era as the one outside. The one outside is not a general. These... are a well-equipped Qin army!"
"Army? How is this possible... Could it be that he fell from power?"
"Official failure" here is a slang term in the industry. In some dialects, buying or selling things or doing something is summed up by the word "Taiteng". Therefore, in some places, tomb robbing is also called inverted bucket, inverted shell, or inverted box. The bucket here refers to the tomb, and the shell and box refer to the coffin.
The so-called official downfall means that a certain military force or ruler blatantly searches for ancient tombs and unearths treasures, usually large-scale excavations by the military. During the Three Kingdoms period, Cao Cao set up the Mojin Xiaowei, who specialized in excavating tombs and stealing property to pay for the army. In layman's terms, he was the director of the National Tomb Robbery Office. This is the earliest origin of the term "official downfall".
However, throughout the past dynasties, there are many people who robbed tombs and dug up tombs. Liu Ziye, the deposed emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty, followed Cao Cao's example and established the post of Faqiu Zhonglang General, which was held by King Xiuren of Jian'an. The famous Red Eyebrow Army and Yellow Turban Army in history also sent people to excavate the tombs of emperors for military pay, food and other reasons.
The great warlord Sun Dianying led his troops to rob the Cixi Tomb at night. In addition, Emperor Kangxi's Jingling Tomb and Emperor Qianlong's Yuling Mausoleum were also damaged to varying degrees. It can be called the largest official downfall in modern times.
"How is this possible? Could it be that..." Uncle Long and Uncle Wang looked at each other and frowned.
Uncle Wang shook his head and said nothing. Chen Tao looked at the riddle-like exchange between the two and had no idea what they were talking about. Although he really wanted to ask Uncle Long about the family and the secrets hidden behind it, but then he thought: "Since Uncle Long doesn't want to talk, of course he has his reasons..."
"No, it's not just the army!" Yan pointed his flashlight at an open wooden coffin and said, "There is another group of people inside these wooden coffins. Although they are all ancient corpses, they are dressed in completely different clothes."
Several people walked to the wooden coffin. The corpse inside was the same as the one outside, entangled with black vines. Inside the coffin was a male corpse, with his hair vaguely tied up and wearing tattered cloth clothes. The mountain ghost stretched out his hand and pulled a piece away, barely using any strength, and just pulled it down gently.
"If these ancient corpses are really from the Qin Dynasty or a little further back, they are at least two thousand years old. How on earth were these preserved? In such an exposed environment, it is simply impossible!"
"What I'm even more curious about is who these two groups of people are. Based on the analysis of what I've seen so far, there must be a tomb group under the crack, where these people in civilian clothes are buried. And these officers and soldiers are either Those who were buried as martyrs were either officials who died below and were brought up by the Japanese," Yan said.
"But what is certain is that this tomb definitely does not belong to these officers and soldiers. Maybe, those in the coffin are the real owners."
"Then...how should we explain those modern people? Could it be that someone has come in before us? Oh, if that's the case, the treasure below will be in danger..." Boss Zhang He pointed at the corpses of modern humans.
Look at the way those people dress, that's how they look in recent years. The black corpse was also entangled with vines, and its body was covered with black roots. Uncle Long touched one of the people and took out a rusty lighter, dagger, scrapped walkie-talkie and flashlight. He also found a rusty pistol on the other person.
"These people have not been dead for many years. How did they get in? Is there another entrance here?"
"The Man-Eating Valley is so big, it's not impossible to come in from other directions. Maybe we are not the only ones who have discovered and been here..." Uncle Long frowned.
"Did they climb up from below?" Chen Tao asked, looking at the big crack not far away.
The mountain ghost is still digging in the wooden coffin on the other side. Although the ancient corpse is covered with black roots, it does not seem to be in any danger.
The mountain ghost's hand went all the way down the corpse, and then stopped at its waist, seeming to be groping for something.
"Hey, there's something!"
After saying that, he took his hand out from under the waist of the corpse and brought up a ball of black mud.
"It's really evil...the coffin is already rotting, but the body inside is actually intact!"
Simply wipe off the mud stain with the torn off piece of rag, and a dark waistband appeared in the hands of the mountain ghost.
When he saw the waist badge, Chen Tao's eyes straightened. Boss Zhang and others may not be familiar with each other, but he and Long Shushan Gui Haozi are not strangers at all.
This waist plate should be carved from the black jade ore found in the mountain. Except for the different color, the size, shape, and font style on it are all exactly the same as the jade plaque taken back from Li Guangsheng.
The mountain ghost turned the black jade card over to the other side. Sure enough, surrounded by numerous tree branch patterns, a small man with a head simplified into a circle was engraved on it.
Seeing that pattern, Chen Tao's mind buzzed. If anyone told him that the bronze man was just an ordinary bronze vessel, he would not believe it even to death.
When he first saw the pattern of the jade plaque in the hotel in Blackwater Town, he just thought it was a little strange. However, after experiencing many things until now, and all kinds of weird and difficult puzzles along the way, he was 110% sure that the bronze man was not that simple.
Looking at the jade token in the mountain ghost's hand and the corpses wrapped in vines, and thinking of all that happened along the way, Chen Tao felt that there seemed to be fragments placed in front of him, and the thing connecting these fragments was the bronze man.
"What's the secret behind that bronze man, or this pattern..." Chen Tao frowned and thought, but couldn't find any clues.
Also shocked were Uncle Long and Shangui.
"Sure enough, the place Li Guangsheng mentioned is here!" Uncle Long's voice was a little excited.
"This should be the identity tag of this corpse. Come on, college students, and take a look at what's written on it!" Boss Zhang shouted to Chen Tao, who was a little stunned.
Chen Tao took the jade token from Shangui and examined it carefully. He was not very proficient in ancient characters. The characters on the jade plaque were Chu characters, and the strokes were very complicated. After looking at them for a long time, he said with some uncertainty:
"This... seems to be..."
After making gestures with his hands for a long time, Chen Tao was not sure what character it was. After all, writing was not his specialty, and there was no reference book for reference.
"Hongde, is that person's name."
Yang Lixuan's voice came from behind the crowd. Chen Tao looked at him. He didn't know if it was because of his inherent personality or because he was thinking too much. It seemed that Yang Lixuan didn't feel anything about everything here.
"you know?"
"I've had some contact with it before, but I don't know much about it. I happen to have seen these two words before."
Yang Lixuan looked at the black jade plaque in Chen Tao's hand, and then at the ancient corpse in the coffin. An imperceptible complex look flashed in his eyes.
"Every corpse in the wooden coffin should have a waist tag like this. These coffins were not opened by humans, and the contents inside should still be there."
The wooden coffins were held open by those black vines, and some of the wooden coffins were broken, with large and small rotten wooden boards scattered around. If you hadn't seen it with your own eyes, it would be hard to imagine that these vines have such great abilities.
Everyone searched through the wooden coffins beside them, and sure enough, as Yang Lixuan said, those ancient cloth-clad corpses had a black jade plaque on them. Each one had the same style, and the only difference was the words on it.
Looking at these jade tablets, Yan touched his chest unconsciously, frowned and whispered: "How is this possible?"
"Is this a family? An organization? Or a sect?" Haozi looked at the jade tablet in his hand and said, "These people are in the same group."
"Perhaps, the answer lies below..."
Uncle Long held up his flashlight and shined it at the big crack in the center.
