Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

Chapter 65: Piercing Pole, Luoyang Shovel

After they finished eating the luncheon meat and pickles with the steamed buns, I let them rest first.

Whether digging a cave or robbing a tomb, they had to do the work late at night when there was no one around, otherwise they would easily be discovered.

Cui Hao and I found a corner sheltered from the wind to rest.

When the moon is at its highest point in the sky at night, we will set out with our weapons on our backs.

Arriving at the selected location, Cui Hao opened the bag and took out the iron rod.

The iron rod was bought at the grocery store. It is the thing used to poke the stove. The handle was cut off and the bare pointed part at the front was used.

I took the iron bar and poked the field.

puff!

The iron chisel tip penetrated into the ground more than ten centimeters.

Lift the iron rod and then push it down hard. Repeat this several times until the entire iron rod is almost completely embedded in the soil.

Then I took a two-centimeter-wide rubber band and tied the iron rod tightly to the thin wooden stick.

The rubber belt was a bicycle inner tube bought from a repair shop, cut into long strips that were just right for use. The wooden stick was obtained by asking Lu Bin to get it after arriving at the ruined temple.

Each stick is as thick as a little finger and nearly two meters long.

After tying it up, I inserted the iron rod into the soil, held the wooden stick, lifted it up and continued to poke it into the soil.

Gradually, the wooden stick penetrated deeper into the ground. Every time it penetrated twenty to thirty centimeters into the soil, it would be completely lifted up to observe the soil brought out by the iron rod tip.

This is the ancestral method of digging holes in Tuoye's family. The iron drill head is called the earth-dividing sword, which is very similar to the later piercing rod.

The rod is also made of an iron chisel head. The connecting part evolves the wooden stick into a steel bar. There is a handle at the place where the force is applied, and a steel ball is welded at the top.

The most magical part is the engraved steel ball.

After drilling the exploration hole, just hold the steel ball at the tail end with your hand, lift the rod and then let go slightly, feel the friction and touch feedback when the iron rod penetrates the soil, and you can roughly judge the soil condition.

Usually, experienced people do not need to look at the soil. They can judge whether there is a tomb underneath simply by feeling it, avoiding the risk of being exposed by light when looking at the soil.

The notes also record another tool for digging holes - a steel shovel.

The steel shovel is similar in style to the iron shovel, but it is narrower and longer.

When ordinary people use a steel shovel to dig a hole, they cannot bring out any soil by going straight up and down. They have to lift the shovel at an angle to bring out a small amount of soil.

Later, the emergence of the Luoyang shovel completely replaced the steel shovel.

Now the handle of the Luoyang shovel has also evolved, becoming a steel pipe with a length of 50 cm. The steel pipe can be connected infinitely, making it more convenient to carry when going out.

The Luoyang shovel and the piercing pole each have their advantages and disadvantages.

If you need to dig a very deep hole, the Luoyang shovel is more suitable.

Because the shovel head is heavy, the deeper you dig, the less effort you will need.

The pole usually cannot be driven to about ten meters, and it becomes very difficult to drive any further.

I was not very skilled at using the pole at first, and it took me ten minutes to get the entire pole into the ground.

He connected another pole and hammered it down until it was more than three meters deep.

This is because the underground palace is not a tomb and cannot be too deep underground, so a three-meter exploration hole is sufficient.

Cui Hao, Lu Bin and others all stared at my operations with wide eyes, afraid of missing any details.

I drilled a few more exploratory holes and became basically familiar with the techniques of drilling holes, and then explained and taught them.

"When you hold the pole and apply force, be careful not to use brute force. Use subtle force to push downwards, and don't tense your whole body."

Cui Hao and his team each tied a pole and started digging a hole according to my instructions.

puff puff!

The rod made a slight muffled sound when it was inserted into the soil.

I observed their postures in using the pole and ranked their understanding in my mind.

Like a silly bear, Lu Bin took a horse stance, held the pole with both hands and thrust downwards with all his might, using every thrust as much as he could.

This is the most ineffective method. You will feel back pain after just a short while.

Wang Hu stood with his legs shoulder-width apart and his knees slightly bent. He held the pole and lifted and lowered it rhythmically. His posture was the most standard.

It can be seen that he studies very hard and has a strong ability to understand.

Liu Dongdong and others all had problems with their postures, but I didn't correct them.

It's not like they are a master and their apprentices. How much they can learn depends entirely on themselves. I won't take the initiative to give them any advice.

Cui Hao tried a few exploration holes but couldn't get any better. He covered his hands and said, "My hands are blistered. This thing is too difficult to use. It's hard to exert force and it hurts my hands."

"Hahaha."

Wang Hu and the others all laughed.

"Your hands are too tender, let us do this kind of work."

"We do a lot of farm work, so our hands are covered in calluses. Using this thing doesn't cause blisters at all."

Cui Hao blushed and raised his head, saying, "Who am I looking down on? It's just a callus. You'll get it if you work harder."

He picked up the bubble, held the pole and continued to explore the hole.

Soon, each of them dug their first exploratory hole in their life, and I used a flashlight to look at the soil they brought out.

It's all dead soil.

Dead soil is soil that shows no signs of human disturbance.

It also means that it is natural soil and there is nothing underneath.

If there are tombs, underground palaces or other man-made structures under the soil, there will inevitably be traces of disturbance of the natural soil layer.

For example, Wucai soil is a multi-colored soil formed by mixing different layers of soil together after human disturbance.

Bringing out the colorful soil does not necessarily mean that there is a tomb, but it at least means that there has been human disturbance.

Bang Chi Bang Chi.

They stood in a straight line, digging holes half a meter apart. After digging a three-meter-deep hole, they moved forward half a meter and dug again.

This is a bit like the posture of an archaeological team during a general exploration.

During general exploration, nets are spread all over the ground, and a row of people dig exploration holes with half a meter intervals. The exploration holes are arranged neatly in a well-shaped pattern and are called "well-shaped points."

Once a discovery is made during caving, holes will be drilled in the four directions of east, west, south and north half a meter away from the discovered cave. This is called a "plum blossom point."

Usually, when tomb robbers are looking for a tomb, only one or two people will dig a hole to explore.

When the tomb was not found, the exploration holes dug were scattered here and there and were called "star points".

Usually when digging a hole to find a tomb, people first use star points. If they think the hole they dug is suspicious, they use well points or plum blossom points to confirm it further.

Experienced tomb robbers can judge whether their colleagues have made any discoveries here by the density of the exploration holes.

As they dug more and more caves, their proficiency improved.

It takes about five or six minutes to drill a hole.

Later, we became more experienced and could drill a cave every two or three minutes on average. One person could drill more than a hundred caves in one night.

As dawn approached, the eastern sky began to turn faintly white.

When I was about to tell them to stop, Wang Hu suddenly said with surprise, "It's hard! It's a hard thing down there!"

"What the hell? Let me try."

Lu Bin immediately stepped forward, grabbed Wang Hu's pole and pushed down.

The rod didn't go in at all.

This is a phenomenon caused by being blocked by a hard object.

"Really? It's shaking my hands when I stab them. Could it be that we've really found something good?"

Wang Hu pushed Lu Bin away and looked at me happily.

"Master Chen, come and take a look."

I took the rod and tried pricking it.

The wooden pole felt a vibration when it hit a hard object, like hitting a hard brick or stone.

I lifted the pole to see the soil it brought out.