Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

"Don't be nervous, we are all in the same industry."

"Come over and share your experiences."

I began to explain.

The middle-aged man turned and looked at the old man.

It was obvious that the old man was the leader.

The old man squinted his eyes and stared at us for a moment, then said slowly, "You two are not from here, right?"

"Chang'an County." I said casually.

Wang Hu is from Chang'an County, so I'm not lying.

"Jin Zhouzhi is in Yinhu County, and murder and arson are in Chang'an County." The old man said the rhyme while shaking his head.

This is a jingle that has been circulating for decades.

This refers to the fact that Zhouzhi and Huxian are wealthy, while Chang'an County has many murderers and arsonists.

However, some people say that the meaning of murder and arson in Chang'an County is that there were many progressive people in Chang'an County in the previous dynasty who often fought against the old forces and committed many murders and arson.

"You ladies in Chang'an County have so many tombs, why are you coming to our remote village?"

The old man's accent is mixed with Guanzhong dialect.

It's not the local accent of Shangluo.

"Uncle, you're not from Shangluo either."

"Hey, did you hear that?"

The old man laughed twice and took two puffs from the pipe.

"I'm from Lantian County. I've been settled in Shangluo for over 30 years. My accent hasn't changed, but my hair has turned gray."

"Lantian, uncle, you are not the Lantian Scoop Guest, are you?"

Shaoshaoke was the name for cooks in the past.

Lantian County is rich in chefs.

Many people from Lantian who learned cooking skills would leave home with a wok on their backs and go out to explore the world, so they were called "Shao Shao Ke".

"Young man, you know a lot. Back then, I left home with a wok on my back and came to Shangluo to be a chef. I never went back."

"Mengzi, you guys keep working. Let me chat with these two guys."

"Oh, it's been ages since I've spoken my hometown dialect properly. You two should chat with me tonight."

The middle-aged man named Mengzi looked at me, turned around and continued to dig the soil with the iron rod with the two young men.

The old man told us a lot about his past.

Finally, let’s talk about tomb robbing.

"I learned grave digging from my wife's father. He used to be a gravedigger's assistant, so he learned the basics."

"Someone came to collect old stuff recently, so I got the idea to bring my children and grandchildren to dig some up and make some money to supplement the family income."

I originally thought that only Boss Dong and the antique shop collected old items, but now it seems that is not the case.

In fact, there were already second-hand people at that time.

Some smart scoundrels and junk collectors have discovered business opportunities in old items and are very careful when buying them.

Whenever I receive something old, I will show it to people like Boss Dong.

Most of the first batch of antique dealers in China rose to prominence in this way.

In the mid-to-late 1990s, a large number of second-hand dealers went from street to street and deep into the countryside to collect old items, which was called "dipi".

Later, treasure appraisal on television became popular.

Many people know that antiques are valuable, so the job of digging the ground is becoming increasingly difficult.

On the contrary, the national treasure gang that deceives people into selling counterfeit goods is becoming increasingly prosperous.

I talked to the old man about how to find the grave.

His knowledge was very superficial. He didn't even know the difference between living soil and dead soil. He could only poke with an iron rod.

"To find a tomb, you just use an iron rod to poke around. If you hit something hard, poke it a few more times, back and forth and left and right. If everything is hard, then there must be something underneath."

I was stunned by what I heard.

You can't say he's wrong, because that way the grave can indeed be found.

Note, I said grave.

In the tomb-robbing business, tombs from the Ming and Qing dynasties are called tombs because they are not old enough.

Only those from the Yuan Dynasty onwards can be considered tombs.

Moreover, the soil layer of Ming and Qing tombs is generally not deep.

An iron bar more than one meter long can almost reach the grave of an ordinary wealthy family.

But the things found in this kind of grave are not valuable.

After working hard all night, the money earned is not enough to make a living.

"Uncle, you won't make a fortune this way."

"You have to find a big tomb. Digging the graves of ordinary wealthy people will only make a few pennies."

The old man took two puffs of his pipe.

He laughed and said, "I can only make a small fortune to supplement my family income. The water in the big tomb is too deep. I am afraid that my whole family will be buried in it."

Wang Hu took the opportunity to ask, "Uncle, do you know where there is a big tomb?"

"Shangluo is a poor place, and it has never produced any great figures. There are really no great tombs. There is only the tomb of Li Mi in Luonan County."

"The grave looks big, but it's been dug up many times. There's nothing inside."

"I have to give you a piece of advice: young people, don't be too ambitious and just think about getting rich. You need to keep your feet on the ground."

I smiled and nodded: "Uncle, you are right."

Boom!

There was a dull sound in the soil.

It was obvious that the iron rod had pierced something.

Mengzi turned his head to look at the old man, excitement flashing in his eyes.

"Dad, there's something down there!"

"Don't worry, Lou'er, Sheng'er, both of you go get a shot over there."

The old man didn't have time to chat with us.

He trotted over and began to direct his children and grandchildren.

Several more exploration holes were drilled next to the exploration hole where the situation was discovered.

There were a series of loud bangs.

Apparently, it really hit something.

It's just that they did their work too roughly.

He had no idea how to locate the area, so after poking a few times to make sure there was something, he picked up a hoe and shovel and started digging.

They didn't even determine which direction the tomb door faced.

"Huzi, did you work like this before?"

Wang Hu shook his head vigorously.

"If we don't do that, we'll just find a grave mound and dig it directly."

"..."

Well, Wang Hu and his men used to do it more roughly.

I got into this business without knowing anything.

Mengzi and his two companions dug hard and soon dug a hole more than one meter deep, revealing the blue brick vaulted roof buried underground.

When ordinary people are buried, they just dig a hole, put the coffin in, and bury it.

However, high-ranking officials and wealthy families would build tombs, paving the walls and ceilings with blue bricks, and the more elaborate ones would even have murals painted on them.

The top of this tomb chamber is usually an arched or semicircular protruding structure with good load-bearing effect, and is called a vaulted top.

The vaulted structure appeared in the Warring States Period.

It began to be widely used in Han Dynasty tombs and has been passed down to this day.

According to the construction method, the vault top is divided into longitudinal vault, parallel vault, single-layer vault, multi-layer vault, etc.

In a multi-story vaulted structure, the flat bricks and stones between each layer are called "Fu".

For example, the royal tombs of the Ming Dynasty have a three-arch and three-vault structure, that is, three layers of arch bricks and three layers of vault bricks.

"Dad, why are there only bricks here?" Mengzi asked with a dark face.

In the past, he would dig out the coffin directly from the graves he dug.

This is the first time I have encountered this kind of blue brick tomb.

The old man was a little excited: "In the past, wealthy families all built tombs. This is the tomb. It must be the tomb of a big landlord!"

The things found in landlords' tombs are better than those found in ordinary people's tombs.

But no matter what, the burial objects were just slightly better civilian products, and their prices were far lower than those of official objects.

clang clang.

Mengzi used an iron chisel to knock on the blue bricks, making bursts of noise.

"I don't have the right tools, and this thing doesn't look easy to open."

In the 1990s, tomb-robbing tools saw great development, and heavy shovels specifically designed for opening brick roofs appeared. As long as one had enough strength, breaking through ordinary arch roofs was a piece of cake.

But at that time, there were no such easy-to-use tools, so it was difficult to open the top of the voucher.

Generally, you enter through the main entrance.

That is to say, open the tomb door sealed with blue bricks.

The old man stared at the blue brick vaulted ceiling and scratched his head.

Obviously he also found it difficult.

After thinking for a moment, the old man suddenly looked at me.

"Hey boy, do you have any good ideas?"

"If you can help me get in, I'll split the stuff in half."