While Sun Daqiao was talking, Sun Tianqi had already started to move, descending from the port to the turtle shell. The turtle shell was indeed floating as he moved, and it was not sunk by being stepped on. The unevenness on the turtle shell actually made people stand firm on it.
Song Siyuan looked at the rope bridge. Sun Tianqi was walking back and forth, and there was indeed no problem. She continued to ask: "But, are these dragon turtles immortal? How can this rope bridge guarantee that there will always be dragon turtles biting the pearls?"
Sun Tianqi stood on the dragon turtle and slowly explained: "It is a law for livestock to grow old, sick and die, but it is also a law for biological reproduction. As long as this is a geomantic treasure land, there will always be dragon turtles who will regard this place as their nest. It is the nature of the water tribe, as long as the pearl is still there Here, new dragon turtles are constantly biting the hook."
The few people stopped talking and let the Taoist who was holding the urn and other heavy objects go first. They continued along the Dragon Turtle Cable Bridge on the underground river, crossed the underground river and climbed to the entrance of the Shuique Port.
Here, they were already in the middle of the underground river. The vast land was flat and open, with dense bodhi trees on the outside. Only after they stepped onto the land did they feel a sense of security.
"How could there just be an island here? Isn't it also made of driftwood?"
Xu Xiake jumped up and stepped on it a few times. No movement was seen on the ground, which showed that it was indeed very solid.
Song Siyuan looked over and explained: "This kind of place is full of caves. It's not surprising that this kind of landform appears. This underground river is probably connected to the outside. If you want to calculate it carefully, the place where we stand is probably washed away. It’s gone, leaving only a part of the water to form land. Anyway, it has reached the water barrier, it depends on what is inside.”
They walked through the dozens of meters long Bodhi forest and came to the tomb. The four characters "Emperor's Garden Mausoleum" were written on the plaque. Thousands of years of water vapor had covered it, producing a yellow-green mottled patina, which looked very ancient and mysterious.
In front of the door, there are Qilin beasts guarding the left and right. The Qilin beast here is much larger than in front of the tomb door. It is about the same size as an elephant. Standing in front of the palace door, it is bigger than a human.
This unicorn mythical beast has a lion's mane, a dragon's horns, a leopard's body and a fish's tail. Its whole body is covered with scales, its limbs and claws are splayed out, and its eyes are wide open with anger. It is standing on both sides in an attacking posture. It has been corroded by thousands of years, just like the plaque. They are all mottled with patina, and they make a clanging sound when struck.
After bypassing the mythical beast, we can see that the red lacquer palace gate is tightly closed and the copper buttons are lined up in a phalanx, which is particularly majestic.
According to the old rules, in order to prevent hidden weapons when opening the door, they all stood close to the Qilin beast. After Yue Guanchao and the others opened the door, they first opened a gap and threw it into the soil to test the hidden weapons. After a while, they saw that no mechanism was touched. Then he slowly opened the door.
Stepping inside, the courtyard is spacious and flat, completely covered with gray stone slabs. There are inevitably weeds growing in the gaps, but it is not too complicated. Only sporadic green smoke can be seen, shrouded in the stone slabs, and the verandahs on both sides are hugged along the walls. In the palace, the golden roofs of the left and right towers stand like stacks in the corners, and red, green and colorful paper-shaped figures can be seen everywhere.
According to the rules of the imperial concubine's life after death, the most indispensable thing in this palace is the palace slaves who serve, mainly maids, eunuchs, guards, bearers, cooks, and servants. There will definitely be no shortage of all kinds of people.
Now, when they walked into the verandah of the front yard, they could already see countless slaves wearing palace skirts made from the Song Dynasty.
The tops of these palace maids are light green patterned shirts with cross-collars, and the lower body is a blue-green glossy waist-length skirt. The belt is knotted with red palace silk to form a belt, which hangs down to near the feet. There is also a strip of the same color as the skirt between the arms. The silk shawl hangs directly to the ground. His hands are staggered up and down, holding a beige round fan with a long handle, and his body is slightly tilted. 33
Looking at the faces of the palace maids, they are basically no different from ordinary paper figures. Their faces are as white as painted faces, and their eyebrows, eyes, mouth and nose are very conformable, but there is red rouge on both sides, which makes them look a bit scary. Staring into their eyes, they are completely The white-less eyes seemed to be staring straight at a living person.
Most of the hair of these palace ladies is tied up in a side bun, decorated with only a few velvet flowers. They are light and elegant, gentle and demure. If you don't look at their faces, you can really tell that they look like palace ladies.
All the palace maids mostly gathered in the courtyard outside the corridor, imitating their previous lives. They were washing clothes, lighting charcoal fires, pounding clothes, ironing cloth, delivering fruits, with different postures. As for the eunuchs, they mostly stood in the corridor. The lower position is as motionless as a pillar, wearing the court robe of the Song Dynasty, which is extremely neat.
Looking towards the palace from the corridor, one can already see guards wearing armor and swords, protecting the palace from the porch. On both sides of the palace leading to the apse, one can already see servants wearing half-length skirts and trousers, each carrying a charcoal fire. Go to the apse.
As for the remaining bearers, cooks and busboys, they did not see them, but they could speculate that they were probably in the kitchen and utility room in the backyard.
Sun Daqiao stood in the courtyard and said excitedly: "As I expected, the furnishings in this tomb palace are the furnishings of the Northern Song Dynasty palace. Even the clothes of the slaves are in the style of the Northern Song Dynasty."
"But, there seems to be a layer of sticky stuff on these clothes?"
Yue Guanchao picked up the torch and shined his light on these paper figures. Although the paper figures were vividly decorated, their surface always seemed to be covered with a layer of lard, making it look shiny and greasy. When you poked the things on it with a stick, you could still see slight drawings. , it can be seen that something was wiped.
"Is it possible that some animal's saliva is stuck on it?" Song Siyuan asked as she picked up the flashlight to look.
"What can smear saliva so evenly? I think these paper figures are all covered with this kind of stuff. Could it be some kind of poison?"
Yue Guanchao illuminated the other paper figures with the torch. Most of the paper figures were shiny and sticky. When he looked carefully, he inevitably had to bring the torch closer. The torch was close to the paper skin, and the drawing was suddenly ignited. The flames also spread from the point to the surface, and suddenly spread from the burned place to the paper. whole body.
But within a breath, a thin layer of blue flames appeared on the surface of the paper figure. As soon as the paper surface was burned and dried, the paper figure instantly lost color and cracked like a piece of paper being roasted. After the originally vivid face lost its color, Like ghosts in purgatory, they have become so terrifying that just looking at them can give you goosebumps. They are blown by the hot wind and then float in all directions, unable to gather into a human form.
Wherever these fly ashes go, they cause a chain reaction. As long as pieces of paper fall on the paper figures, tiny flames will definitely ignite, destroying and burning them from their positions. In less than a moment, all the paper figures in the courtyard will be burned. The ripples turned into ashes flying all over the sky, and the gorgeous shadow just now was no longer visible.
"What's going on? I only set this paper figurine on fire. Why did these paper figurines spontaneously ignite without fire?"
In front of the tomb palace, before they even entered the palace, they saw the paper man's face changing like a ghost. No matter how calm he was, he began to murmur in his heart.
"Could it be that will-o'-the-wisps ignited these paper figures?"
Sun Daqiao became mysterious in his words.
"Just now, the paper man lost his oil and became dry, and then turned into fly ash. There must be something in the oil on the paper man's body."
songs After baking, the flames covered the paper figure's body, forming the spectacle we see now."
Then, she picked up the paper figurine that had not been affected, tore off a piece and rubbed it against the ground. Sure enough, the paper could be seen burning with flames.
"Even friction can burn. This shows that the ignition point of this oil is very low. I suspect it is white phosphorus."
After Song Siyuan finished speaking, she looked at the crowd: "White phosphorus is flammable. Although it is insoluble in water, it can burn as long as the temperature exceeds 40 degrees. It can even spontaneously ignite when it comes into contact with air. Pure white phosphorus is highly toxic and will cause mild burns after smelling it." The internal organs will be damaged, and in severe cases, death will occur directly.”
"ah?"
When Yue Erpao saw her mention this, he immediately covered his nose. Song Siyuan continued to wave her hands and said: "We burned so many paper figures. If it were poisonous, we would have been poisoned long ago. I only said that white phosphorus is poisonous, but I did not say that it is pure. of white phosphorus.”
Song Siyuan continued to explain: "How could the ancient people have the opportunity to refine white phosphorus? They did not have the technology to refine white phosphorus at all. The white phosphorus that the ancients called was actually a stone that can ignite fire. It has a very low ignition point and is used to make fire folds. Of course. , there is also a small amount of bone phosphorus in the bones of animals, and the toxicity of this stuff is almost negligible. If they want to use it, they either use flint or bone phosphorus."
"Now that all the paper figures have been burned, we are still fine. There is probably no poisonous gas, just ordinary bone phosphorus. These phosphorus often need to be soaked in oil to isolate all smells, so that they can be stored conveniently. As long as the bone phosphorus is exposed to the oil surface, it will Spontaneous combustion in dry atmosphere.”
After hearing Song Siyuan's words, Sun Daqiao immediately felt relieved and said slowly: "If you want to guess like this, then this thing is indeed bone phosphorus, then isn't it just like an ever-burning lamp?"
When mentioning this point, Sun Daqiao lowered his voice: "After most of the native masters opened the tomb, the oil lamps in the tomb would suddenly light up. Many people thought it was ghosts causing trouble and ran away immediately in fright. Some were even frightened. I lost my courage and became crazy from then on.”
"Looking at it now, it seems that the bone phosphorus was soaked in lamp oil. As long as they sealed the tomb and waited for the air to be exhausted, the phosphorus was preserved. Until the Tufuzi opened the tomb and let the air in again, the bone phosphorus and the air Contact can cause spontaneous combustion. People who don't know the truth think it's ghosts, but in fact, it's just bone phosphorus coming into contact with air again."
Song Siyuan nodded towards them: "It can be understood this way. I think these paper figures are actually made of light linen cloth, which is soaked in oil. The bone phosphorus is probably attached to some unexpected places. After the tomb enters the air, it passes through The high temperature of the torch caused the tung oil to ignite immediately."
Before they finished speaking, the fly ash around them was still hovering, until the fly ash floated to the top of their heads, and the originally dark tomb seemed to be illuminated all of a sudden. Colorful clouds and mist appeared above them at some point, illuminating the surroundings with colorful lights and dazzling neon lights.
Some people died, but not completely...
