"Come over quickly and take a look!"
Dou Sprout shouted for us to come over, as if he had made some great discovery.
I went over and took a look, and it turned out to be a mural.
This mural was painted on the wall of the corridor. It used mineral pigments from the past. Most of them have peeled off, especially the faces of the characters in the mural, which are all chapped.
What is this painting?
I panned the flashlight and looked over inch by inch.
The entire mural gives people the feeling of being mysterious, long-standing, old and dilapidated.
Draw dozens of characters with a uniform Mediterranean bald hairstyle, leaving only long braids on both sides of the temples.
They wore pleated coats made of animal skins and woolen waistcoats over their shoulders. These strange-looking people held swords in their hands and drove a carriage, acting as if they were traveling in winter.
I touched it lightly with my hand, and one of the people's face fell off. It was not because I used excessive force, but because of the humid environment.
He raised his head and murmured: "These people are Tang Wute who escaped from Xingqing Mansion. This mural shows that it was winter when they fled here."
"That's not right. Turn your head..."
I frowned and asked, "It is written in the history books that it was July when the Mongols besieged Zhongxing Mansion, and it was also July when Genghis Khan died. Could it be that Tang Wute walked for more than half a year before arriving in Sichuan?"
He thought for a moment, held up the flashlight and said, "There's nothing wrong. It's nearly two thousand kilometers from Ningxia to Kangding. So many people are fleeing. In ancient times, it was normal to walk for several months."
Xiaoxuan suddenly said: "Look at this man, his paintings are different from others!"
Xiaoxuan pointed her hand and I saw that there was indeed a special character on the painted mural.
This is a man wearing a felt hat. He lowers his head and cannot see his face clearly. This man is a little hunched over. There is a servant beside him to support him. Another thing is that this character is deliberately painted very large, larger than all the others. He looks a lot bigger.
This is definitely not a mistake by the artist, it should be what the artist wanted to express!
For example, I wanted to express the special status of the person wearing the hat, so I deliberately drew him one size larger.
"It can't be wrong...it can't be wrong..."
There was a hint of excitement in his calm tone. His fingers trembled slightly as he pointed at the man wearing a felt hat on the mural and said categorically: "He is the last emperor of the Western Xia Dynasty, Li Xian."
Dou Sprout scratched his head and said: "Hang your head, you can't do it? Fengzi, look at how this Xixia Emperor is dressed like a beggar."
I ignored Dou Sprout, held up the flashlight, and stared at this person.
At this sight, I was fascinated.
I felt like I had entered the mural, with the north wind blowing in my ears. Hundreds of Tangwut were rushing in the wind and snow. Their carriages were pulling boxes of treasures. Due to the heavy load, the wheels were rutted in the snow. Leave a deep mark.
In the heavy snow, a tall and thin young man wearing a felt hat slowly raised his head with the help of a servant.
He and I looked at each other.
This man's eyes seemed calm, but they seemed to contain too many complex emotions. The moment he looked at me, I felt like I wanted to kneel down. This was the aura of a king of a country.
"Yunfeng! Yunfeng!"
Douyazai patted me and said, "Why are you so stunned! You didn't even respond when we called you!"
Cold sweat broke out on my forehead, I rubbed my eyes and looked.
A mural is still a mural, there is nothing unusual about it.
"No...it's nothing, I was distracted just now."
If this painted mural is taken out, it will definitely sell for a lot of money!
We didn’t prepare anything, but I knew how to make it.
There is a tomb robber named Zhou in China, and his team specializes in uncovering murals and selling them. The specific method is to wipe off the floating dust and dry mud on the surface with clean water, then apply a layer of clear tung oil, dry it with fire, and then apply a layer of natural Peach gum.
Peach gum is the "super-grade gum vitriol" sold on Taobao. It is then spread with rice paper layer by layer and baked over fire. After the three layers of rice paper are dry, they are covered with wooden boards, hammered firmly with a hammer, and finally with a sharp Use a small knife to cut along the edge of the board, or you can use an electric saw.
After taking it off, sprinkle a layer of loose soil on the back, then clamp a piece of wood together, steal it out and leave it for a week, and then separate the boards after the peach gum inside is completely solidified.
Therefore, the ancient tomb murals we see in the museum are all regular rectangular shapes, because the wooden boards used at that time were rectangular.
The murals in the ancient tombs are all Grade 2 cultural relics at the lowest level. If caught, the consequences will be serious. Selling a bronze round tripod will lead to a maximum sentence of five or six years, while selling this one will lead to a jail term of ten years.
It’s a thankless job, so ordinary tomb robbers don’t uncover murals. If you don’t believe it, look at the large empty tombs. Most of what is left are murals and rotten bricks.
Dou Sprout held a crowbar on the mural wall and bang bang knocked it twice. The sound was solid.
Strange, where is the entrance to the tomb?
Or was it built like this back then?
I thought it was incredible, so they asked me to walk along the corridor to the end and go to the ear room to have a look.
The ear chamber is not big, about three meters high, with an overall area of more than ten square meters. It is very dusty and there are many funerary objects scattered on the ground.
There are a large number of daily necessities such as copper flat kettles, gourd-shaped charcoal stoves, oil-saving lamps, iron spoons, etc. Most of them are made of iron and are very rotten.
These are rags to me, and I don’t want them for free.
"Alas! Mineko, look! What is this??"
"Where did you pick up this good thing?"
"It was right under that rotten iron pot. I saw it as soon as I came in."
Dou Yazai was holding a two-headed bird sculpture, with only the head and neck, no body, and the whole body was painted with green color. I could tell at a glance that it was made by the Lingwu kiln in Ningxia, and it came from the same place as the Tearing Buddha.
This two-headed green bird is also a sacred bird in Buddhism, but it is not as high-grade as the Saraswati.
How can I sell a naked bird head for money? I asked Dou Sprout to quickly find the bird body. If he found it, he could stick it together and sell it when he got out.
"Body, body, where did the body go?"
"Damn! I have no body!"
I searched over and over but couldn't find it!
Dou Yazi angrily kicked away the rotten charcoal basin, and the iron charcoal basin fell to the wall in the corner! It fell again.
Um?
Wrong... the sound is wrong...
I quickly walked to the corner and knocked.
I hit it hard with the crowbar. Brother Yu and Boss heard the sound and ran over.
Dust and broken bricks kept falling.
A black hole suddenly appeared. I covered my nose, put my head in, and shined a flashlight before I came out.
"Head! It's the entrance to the tomb! It turns out that the main tomb chamber is hidden behind the ear chamber!"
We got in one after another.
The entire tomb passage was very dark, with almost no light. It was really hard to see without turning on a flashlight.
At the end of the tomb passage is a short stone door that looks extremely thick. On the left and right sides of the stone door are carved a pie-faced man.
"Pan-faced man" is a slang term in the industry, referring to ancient stone carvings of strong men, because they all have a pancake-shaped face with staring eyes.
In fact, these strongmen are all female. The one on the left door is called "Makui" and the one on the right door is called "Zhai Fu". Ancient people believed that these two women with cake faces were the daughters of dominatrixes who specialized in eating evil spirits.
"You guys give in, I'll push it down and give it a try."
Brother Yu put his hands on the stone door, pulled his legs back, bowed slightly, and took a deep breath.
Brother Yu groaned and began to exert force.
"What are you still doing? Help me!"
Dou Sprout Zai and I held up the stone door at the same time and pushed hard.
"no!"
Douyazai let go of his hand and said: "There's no fucking reaction at all! It must be locked inside!"
In ancient tombs, any stone door cannot be completely closed, and a gap may be left if it is wide or narrow. This is a limitation of ancient craftsmanship.
The gap between the stone doors was very narrow. I lay on the door and tried to look inside, but I vaguely saw something blocking it.
"Boss, I'm sorry, it seems like it's stuck with a tap stone."
"Are you sure?" He frowned slightly.
I nodded.
The three big men couldn't move even when they pushed. It must have been supported by the tap stone.
This is the most annoying thing, we are in trouble.
There are two ways to solve it, either use explosives or use a crutch needle.
The Guaizi Needle must first use a chisel to carve out a groove for the cow's nose on the stone door, and then put a rope on it to pull the stone aside. This is very time-consuming and may take two days.
After checking his head, he said: "Add explosives directly, use detonators, and control the amount."
The detonator boxes were all in Xiaoxuan's bag. They were left over from the last trip to Guizailing. Xiaoxuan carefully took them out, opened the wooden box, and asked me how many I needed.
I thought about it and said five.
The leader said: "Three sticks are enough. Five sticks are too powerful and may blow up the entire tomb passage."
I immediately said: "Then take three."
I was just guessing. I don't know how to calculate. Only professional gunners like Master Ji and Xiao Qinglong can calculate accurately. Master Ji used a nitroglycerin suit to crack the gold steel door, which was a powerful trick.
After fixing the detonator under the stone door, I handed the lighter to Douyazai and said, "Remember, the fuse can burn for four seconds. You can light it when we run away."
Dou Sprout stared and said, "You want me to order it?"
"Nonsense! Do you want me to order it? I'm not a gunner!"
"I'm not a gunner either!"
"Why are you two grown men working so hard?"
Ah Chun took the lighter from my hand and lit it without saying a word. She didn't even give any notice. She lit the fuse and turned away.
Bean sprouts and I looked at each other.
"run!"
As soon as I ran to the corner, very quickly, I heard a boom!
It felt like the entire tomb passage was shaking!
Dust spread everywhere, and a few pieces of gravel flew to my feet. Xiaoxuan was choked by the dust and kept coughing.
After waiting for a few minutes, I was the first to run over and take a look.
The stone door on the left was blown off in the middle, and the female Maguires originally carved on the stone door was also blown into two halves. You can imagine the power of this earthen detonator.
If I hadn't listened just now and used five sticks to blow up the door, the tomb passage would have been blown down, and we would all have been buried alive.
Next, I got in and used a flashlight to enter the main tomb chamber. Everyone was dumbfounded.
Has anyone seen a coffin hanging vertically from the roof?
In the dark tomb, there was only a large black lacquer coffin about four meters long, with the big head facing up and the small head pointing down. It was tightly tied with more than a dozen iron chains as thick as a child's arm and hung on the roof. superior!
When he saw the coffin, his face turned pale and he said anxiously: "How could it be! The suspension rope has fallen to the pivot! He will not fall to the ground! Burial with a hanging coffin! This can't be Li Xian's main tomb!"
Xiaoxuan shivered, tightened her clothes and said, "Look, it's suddenly so cold here."
I also felt cold, the temperature dropped.
"We're looking in the wrong place!"
"Not here!"
I asked anxiously: "Boss! What's going on!"
Turning pale, he looked up at the black coffin hanging on the roof and gasped: "When I was young, I always told you that bones were scattered everywhere and ants were crawling all over the ground. If you look up at the hanging coffin, people will die in the future. "
My face turned pale and I looked back and forth with my flashlight.
Because it was made of nanmu painted with black paint, the coffin was not rotten. Suddenly, I saw two golden words written on the bottom of the coffin.
"Bo general".
I didn’t know what it meant, and neither did I. Douyazai said: “Head! Even if the coffin is hung! But it’s just a coffin! What are we afraid of! Maybe there are valuable funerary objects in the coffin!”
"Look! What is that!"
Xiaoxuan suddenly said in horror: "Ants! So many ants!"
When I saw it, my scalp immediately went numb. I saw countless termites crawling around on the iron lock, as if they had made a nest in the coffin!
Dou Sprout couldn't help it anymore. He suddenly raised his shotgun, pointed it at the coffin and shot twice!
moment! Thick black liquid continued to flow downward from the hanging coffin, like black snot, thick and sticky, accompanied by a strange fragrance.
Seeing this, the boss showed a rare look of fear in his eyes.
He slowly turned his head and shouted to us: "Run!"
