Beipai Tomb Raiders Notes

When I finished talking to Chaosheng on the phone and returned to the house, my brother had already found me something to wear.

"I don't have any good clothes, so you can just wear what you have now. It's better than what you have now."

The sound of our talking woke up the sleeping child. The child did not cry or make a fuss. He curled up in the quilt with half of his head sticking out, looking at me curiously.

"Thank you, big brother. I really don't know what to say. I was just hiding from the rain and didn't mean to disturb your rest."

I quickly took off my dirty clothes and put them on. The other person pointed at my forehead and said, "Your injury here is serious. You'd better put two band-aids on it. I don't have any at home."

"It's okay, just minor injuries."

He looked me up and down again, then smiled and said, "Your clothes seem a little small. There are tea plantations on the hills around here, so it shouldn't be easy to get lost. How did you get separated from your friend?"

I told a lie and the other party didn't suspect anything.

"Excuse me, big brother, do you have anything to eat? I haven't eaten in three days."

"Yes! Wait, sit for a while."

I moved a stool and sat down, then glanced at the bed.

The child covered his head and pretended to be asleep. He seemed very afraid of strangers.

After eating a bowl of hot noodles, I felt a lot better, at least I wasn’t cold anymore. The rain outside was also gradually subsiding.

"Brother, I've already contacted a friend. I have something else to do, so I'll leave first. I won't take your clothes and your meal for free. I'll have someone send you 20,000 yuan later."

He was stunned for a moment, then quickly waved his hands and said, "Don't joke, little brother. Ragged clothes can't make money. I can't make 20,000 yuan in five years."

I'm not joking, I'm serious. It's not just the clothes and the meal, but you lending me your phone to make a call is like saving my life.

He waved his hand again, obviously not taking what I said to heart.

At daybreak, I said goodbye to the family and went to the place where I had agreed to meet Chaosheng.

.....

Around seven o'clock, we arrived at Fat Sister's restaurant.

The restaurant was still locked, so I walked to the railing and looked out at the endless blue water.

Jiang Zhaoxue said that sixty years ago, when Qiandao Lake was first formed, countless people died and there was a lot of negative energy. But now there is no negative energy in Qiandao Lake, especially in the early morning after the rain in summer. The scenery is beautiful, the air is fresh, and everywhere is clean and spotless.

I imagined what the "treasures" looked like.

Judging from the figures revealed by Jiang Zhaoxue, that's equivalent to twenty years of tax revenue from the late Northern Song Dynasty. It's truly a "mountain of gold." How many carts would it take to transport it all? This treasure trove could be as much as the total amount of silver sunken at Jiangkou.

And I think this data is credible.

At that time, the six continents and fifty-two counties in the south of the Yangtze River were the richest places in the world, especially Jiande and Hangzhou, which accounted for two of the four major mints in the south. In order to maintain the huge military expenditure, the rebels must have plundered and looted on a large scale. The appearance of Yongle's iron coins is one of the ironclad evidences. The rebels even ordered the minting of coins, which is enough to prove that they had complete control over these wealthy areas.

Fang La's campaign lasted only a year from the time he launched his rebellion to his defeat, and he certainly didn't spend all the vast wealth he plundered. Three years after the rebellion's defeat, the Jingkang Incident occurred, leading to the fall of the Northern Song Dynasty. Historical records indicate that Emperor Huizong, in order to collect compensation, looted Kaifeng to the point where not a single copper coin could be found. If Huizong had obtained the treasure after suppressing the rebellion three years earlier, how could he have ended up with not a single copper coin in the entire city?

What happened in the south affected the north, and it spread like a butterfly effect. Even after hundreds of years, there are still some clues to prove this.

For example, the straight-line distance from Kaifeng, the capital of the Northern Song Dynasty, to Luoyang is only 200 kilometers. At least several thousand hidden money jars have been unearthed in Zhongmu, Gongyi, and Xingyang. Except for Faku in the northeast, this line is the most popular place to explore.

They looked at old maps to find the old trade routes, and then followed them to find the old residential areas or caves in the mountains. They found many hidden treasures in the caves. Those money jars were buried by the people who fled Kaifeng. If they hadn't been buried, they would have been looted by the court as compensation. The money in those jars usually only lasted until the Xuande and Jingkang periods of the Southern Song Dynasty, but not until the Jianyan period of the Southern Song Dynasty, which is what people in the industry call the Huizong Pit.

I was lost in thought when I suddenly heard footsteps.

Looking back, it was Chao Sheng.

He was wearing a baseball cap, a blue jacket and jeans.

After Chaosheng sat down, he looked at the endless Thousand Island Lake in front of him and said, "You don't look well. I'm here, tell me."

"It's the Jiang family."

"Jiang family??"

"Yes, it's a huge family hidden behind the Xia family. The Jiang family is from Jiang Village. Those mysterious murals in Qiandao Lake are some kind of marks left by the people of Jiang Village many years ago when they were communicating with each other. The treasure was found and divided up by the people of Jiang Village at that time. Over the years, countless people have come to Qiandao Lake to hunt for treasure, including our team. What we have found can only be said to be the remnants of that treasure, all leftovers. That's why those things are scattered and not concentrated."

I spent ten minutes telling the story of Mao Xigua and Zukengyuan.

Chaosheng listened very carefully.

He pondered for a moment, then continued, "No wonder, that hairy watermelon looks a lot like the Pantou Granny I met in Shuidongzi, Guizhou years ago, but she's nowhere near as threatening as Pantou Granny. So there's a story behind this. What's the ultimate goal of this Jiang family?"

I frowned and said, "I'm not sure yet. Judging from the clues we have so far, it's definitely not about money. They have no shortage of money. I don't know how many times the value of that treasure has increased since the Republic of China. The money of the Jiangcun people has not been spent for several generations. In the 1950s, Jiangcun established a commune and they adopted a dividend system. Their descendants have basically left the village and even moved abroad. The predecessor of the current Li XX Association is the Jiangcun Commune of Lishang Township. The family that is behind the scenes against us is the descendant of the Jiangcun village chief."

Chaosheng touched his chin and said, "So that's what happened. In fact, many people from the Southern School have come to Qiandao Lake over the years. Some of them are confirmed dead, and some are missing. It seems... this Jiang family is behind this."

I recalled the two words carved in the cave. Those two words were not "jump quickly" but "run away quickly".

I nodded. "Whether they were from the South or the North, those missing people had already conveyed the message to us, but we realized it too late."

"Do you have any cigarettes?"

Chaosheng threw me half a box.

I quickly lit it and took a deep breath.

"I almost died in the mountains last night. The person who caused the car accident and kidnapped me is called Jiang Zhaoxue. She's blind, but her IQ is incredibly high. The Jiang family believes in feng shui. They must have been behind Old Zhou's attempt to harm us with the winning technique a few months ago. They were the ones who set up the Zukengyuan area, and they were also the ones who set up the feng shui formation in the Xia family's basement."

"Chaosheng, I can't guess what that woman will do next. I don't know if I'm still under their control. I'm afraid they'll use me to deal with the leader, so I don't dare to meet the leader rashly. You must help me convey this information! I paid with my life for this information. Only by understanding this information can the leader come up with a strategy to deal with the enemy."

Chaosheng also lowered his head and lit a cigarette. He nodded and said, "There should be quite a few people in a village. For all these years, not a single word has leaked out. This family's confidentiality work is truly done to the extreme."

"Of course! Who would make such a fortune and announce it to the public? They would definitely keep it quiet! They would even wish their neighbors would never see each other again!"

"What's more, so many years have passed, and many of the villagers who participated back then have died of old age! Their descendants have no contact at all, and they don't even know where their families got so much money."

Chaosheng had dark circles under his eyes, and his expression was extremely dejected. He stared at me for a few seconds and said, "Brother Yunfeng, how could you be so smart and not even notice that you were being manipulated and used?"

"Don't even mention it. If you walk by the river often, you'll get your feet wet. I'm in the open, and the enemy is in the dark. They were targeting me from the beginning! I can't do anything about it. It's impossible to defend against it."

"Oh right! What was your great-grandfather's name?"

"Jie Yuanting."

"Yes! According to my research, he was built into a brick wall by the Jiang family back then, most likely as a talisman!"

Chaosheng, with a cigarette in his mouth, frowned instantly.