Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

Return to the ruined temple.

Wang Hu and others found a place to rest, and soon they heard snoring.

Cui Hao and I took turns to keep watch.

If someone approaches, quickly wake everyone up and hide.

Robbing tombs is hard work.

Especially at that time, transportation was not convenient. If you encountered a large tomb that took several days to dig, you had to sleep in the open air and be careful not to be discovered.

Fortunately, this dilapidated temple is in a remote area, and apart from a few people passing by from a distance, no one approached it all day long.

In a blink of an eye, it was late at night again.

We set off again.

"Lu Bin, look at this spot on the map. Is it the place where we drilled the cave last night?"

I took out the picture I had drawn earlier.

In order to clarify the location more clearly, the surrounding villages and geographical locations with obvious characteristics are marked out.

Lu Bin stared at the map for a long while and then said, "This point is facing the ditch to the west. It should be a little further north from where we dug the exploratory cave."

"You lead the way."

"it is good."

He has been playing in this plateau since he was a child and is familiar with almost every piece of land, so leading the way is naturally a piece of cake for him.

We soon arrived at the spot. He pointed to the west and said, "Go ahead and see the ditch you see on the map. To the northeast is Jiangyuan Village. To the northwest is the ruins of the Hongmen Banquet."

"As long as the points on the map are not marked incorrectly, then the route I lead you will not be wrong."

I nodded.

I thought that the method of digging holes in a row that we used yesterday was too inefficient for tomb robbing, so I had to use scattered points.

I marked out several areas and asked them to spread out and dig holes on their own. I walked back and forth between them, constantly looking at the soil brought up by the iron bar.

More than two hours later, a discovery was finally made.

Liu Dongdong's iron bar brought out rammed earth.

After being hammered, the rammed earth has a denser texture than natural soil, and the feel when hitting the rammed earth is different from that of natural soil.

After making sure the rammed earth was brought out, I held the piercing rod and pierced it twice.

Based on the friction and vibration felt by the pole, it was confirmed to be a rammed earth layer.

"Call them over here. Using this point as the center, drill test holes every half a meter in the east, south, west, and north."

"okay!"

The discovery of rammed earth made everyone excited, and they all worked hard to pierce the soil.

Soon, traces of rammed earth were found at points on the east, west and north sides.

These exploration holes confirmed that there were ancient building ruins underneath.

The next step is to measure the edges and determine the area and orientation of the underground ruins.

The purpose of edge detection is to first find a corner of the underground building or tomb, and then follow this corner to find the positions of other corners to determine the shape of the underground building or tomb.

Usually, experienced tomb robbers can judge the characteristics of the tomb by the soil they bring out, and it will be very easy for them to locate the edge.

But this time we were looking for an underground palace, and we had no experience to draw on, so we could only dig more test holes and force our way in.

I asked them to plant the poles at intervals of 30 centimeters.

Densely packed exploration holes were drilled around the exploration holes where traces of rammed earth were found.

After more than half an hour, the edge of the underground building was determined.

The range is not large, more than three meters wide and more than eight meters long.

More than two meters away from the top on the north side is a downward slope made of rammed earth, and the remaining six meters is a brick roof.

The overall shape is that of a Chinese character "甲", facing south, facing Mount Li and backed by the Wei River. It is indeed a Feng Shui treasure land.

"Brother, is this an underground palace?" Cui Hao asked excitedly.

"If nothing goes wrong, we can dig a hole from the junction of the rammed earth and the brick roof, and we should be able to reach the entrance of the underground palace directly."

There were no heavy shovels at that time, so it was impossible to break through the brick wall and go in directly. The only way was to use the clumsy method of first getting to the entrance of the underground palace and then opening the door.

"What are you talking about? Hurry up and do it!"

Lu Bin rolled up his sleeves and prepared to get to work.

Wang Hu and others were also very excited.

"Yes, dig quickly!"

"I haven't dug into the underground palace yet. There should be a lot of good stuff in there, right?"

"Who knows? It's been buried underground for hundreds of years. I don't know if anyone has visited it before. Anyway, let's dig it up and see."

I looked at the time and it was less than three hours until dawn.

The entrance to the underground palace was not deep and the soil was relatively soft. If they worked together, they could dig out a hole in at most an hour.

But the difficulty lies in how to open the door to the underground palace.

If it is really built to the standards of a royal temple, there should be at least a bluestone door, which cannot be opened casually.

No, you can’t enter through the underground palace entrance.

You need to dig a hole at the back wall of the underground palace, break through the back wall and enter the underground palace directly, thus avoiding the obstruction of the bluestone door.

"I'll go back tonight and buy some wall-breaking tools tomorrow to start work."

"Also, this is a Buddhist underground palace. Taking anything from it might lead to karmic retribution, so I have three rules for you."

"First, each person can only take one item. Second, you cannot take any gold or silver items. Third, you cannot steal anything else, and you cannot reveal the location of the underground palace to anyone else."

Lu Bin and others frowned.

They all wanted to get rich and wanted to empty out everything in the house.

When I heard that I could only take one, I felt a little unwilling.

"Master Chen, can we take a little more?" Lu Bin said cautiously.

"Forgot how you begged me before?"

"You keep saying you're doing the hard work for me, but I'll just give you money for your hard work. I'm already being very kind by letting each of you take one thing."

"..."

They looked at each other, and finally Wang Hu took the lead in agreeing.

"I always listen to Master Chen. If Master Chen hadn't led us, we'd still be starving!"

"That's right, Master Chen is really kind to us, and I listen to him."

"Master Chen is right. If we take things from the Buddha, we will easily suffer retribution. We really shouldn't be greedy."

Everyone expressed their opinions, and Lu Bin was the last one to agree.

I also have a clearer evaluation of them in my mind.

I think Wang Hu can be kept and used, and it’s better to have less dealings with other people in the future.

Especially this Lu Bin.

Too greedy.

Tomb robbers are generally greedy, but only those who can control their greed can go further in this business.

If you are too greedy, you will often die quickly.

I packed up and returned to the ruined temple to rest.

I slept until early morning and asked Lu Bin to buy something to break the wall.

He is a local, so no one will suspect him if he brings back the things he buys.

At noon, Lu Bin came back with a bag of tools, and we waited for the night to come together.

Night is our time to party.

At midnight, Wang Hu and others used short-handled hoes and shovels to dig holes.

Soon digging into the ground exposed the brick wall.

With the brick wall exposed, the digging work came to an end.

The next step is to break through the wall.

This job requires strength. Liu Dongdong, the strongest one, swung the hammer and hit it about ten times.

Wow!

A 40-centimeter hole was smashed in the wall.

Looking inside through the hole, you can see objects made of bluestone that look like houses.

The object was one meter square, with flying eaves and brackets on top, and pictures carved with lines all around, making it look very imposing.

Further away are Tang Sancai, copper pots, copper incense burners and other objects.

It seems that the underground palace has never been visited by anyone before.

"Try harder and make the hole bigger!"