Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

The Tomb of the Living Dead is in Chengdao Palace, north of Chongyang Palace.

Chongyang Palace reached its peak during the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, with more than 5,000 houses and 10,000 Taoist priests. At that time, Chengdao Palace was also located within Chongyang Palace.

Later, Chongyang Palace declined and its area gradually shrank. Finally, it only had three halls and was no longer able to serve as the Tomb of the Living Dead.

That's why the Taoist priest filled up the entrance to the Tomb of the Living Dead.

During the reign of Emperor Guangxu of the Qing Dynasty, nearby villagers spontaneously built a Taoist temple and enclosed the Tomb of the Living Dead.

This resulted in Wang Chongyang's tomb being in Chongyang Palace and the Tomb of the Living Dead being in Chengdao Palace.

Later, Jin Yong's martial arts novels became widely circulated, and because of Xiaolongnu's Ancient Tomb Sect, the Tomb of the Living Dead became famous.

Cui Hao and I were dazed for a while and left Menhulu's house in the early hours of the morning.

Walk along the farmland towards Chengdao Palace in the north.

The night is hazy and the moon is hazy too.

It was a perfect night for tomb raiding.

We climbed over the dilapidated brick wall and entered the Chengdao Palace.

Because the monks and Taoists returned to their hometowns to engage in production in recent years, the Chengdao Palace was empty.

With the brick wall blocking the view, it is extremely convenient to do the work.

When I arrived at the backyard, I saw a stone tablet engraved with the words "Tomb of the Living Dead".

The base of the stone tablet is a big turtle.

In fact, it was not a turtle, but a Bixi.

Bixi is the sixth son of the dragon, also known as Baxia and Guifu.

It looks like a turtle and is good at carrying heavy objects, so in ancient times, the bases of most stone tablets were carved with Bixi.

"Is this the Tomb of the Living Dead?"

Cui Hao asked while shining his flashlight at the mound next to him.

The mound is not big and looks no different from an ordinary grave.

If there wasn't a tombstone next to it, I wouldn't have thought this was the Tomb of the Living Dead.

"It looks like an ordinary grave, nothing special."

"Brother, do you think this could be a suspicious grave?"

Cui Hao has also learned something recently.

Everyone knows to use their brains to think whether it is a suspicious tomb.

"It can't be a suspicious tomb. Take out your weapons and poke a few rods to test the situation."

"Do we need to dig it? Can't we just dig it directly?" Cui Hao asked in confusion.

The grave mounds are right in front of us, and the Tomb of the Living Dead is not a real tomb, it is just the place where Wang Chongyang once practiced.

No matter how you look at it, there is no need to go through the trouble of stabbing the pole.

If an ordinary person came here, they might just dig it out.

But I think it’s better to be safe than sorry.

By digging a pole to find out the situation, you can have a better idea of ​​the situation.

I glared at him, and Cui Hao immediately took out some iron rods and tied them into rods.

We each took a pole and started tying it in front of the grave mound.

puff puff!

The rod was driven down quickly to a depth of three meters, but the soil brought out was all dead soil.

The original soil layer that has not been disturbed is called dead soil, of course this is what tomb robbers call it.

Archaeological teams generally call it raw soil, which is the abbreviation of the original soil layer.

The soil layer that has been disturbed by humans is called active soil. The characteristic of active soil is that the soil from different layers will be mixed together, showing characteristics such as three-color soil and five-color soil.

An experienced tomb robber can tell the difference between living soil and dead soil at a glance.

Nothing will come out from under the dead soil.

Only when living soil appears can something be produced.

"Strange, why is it dead soil?"

"Brother, it seems that what I hit is also dead soil."

I looked at the soil that Cui Hao picked up with a piercing rod, and it was indeed dead soil.

"Try a few more and see."

We dug more than a dozen holes in the front, back, left and right of the grave mound, and all that came out was dead soil.

This proves that the grave mound is fake!

It is used to deceive people!

"His tombstone is wet! Who built this grave? It's a deliberate attempt to fool people!"

Cui Hao was so angry that he started cursing.

Fake grave mounds are really disgusting.

But I didn't have the heart to curse. I closed my eyes and wondered where the real Tomb of the Living Dead was.

The book records that the Tomb of the Living Dead is in Chengdao Palace, which should be correct.

It could only be that someone deliberately erected a fake grave mound to prevent thieves.

I looked around.

Chengdao Palace is not very large.

The only place that can accommodate the entrance to the Tomb of the Living Dead is the area in the backyard.

Wait, this tomb is not on the central axis of Chengdao Palace!

When building places such as imperial palaces, government offices, temples, and palaces, great importance was attached to the central axis.

It must be symmetrical around the central axis.

According to historical records, Chengdao Palace was built to protect the Tomb of the Living Dead.

That would inevitably be centered around Tomb of the Living Dead.

My mind was opened up.

According to the left and right width of Chengdao Palace, estimate the position of the central axis and then put down the pole.

A few bangs.

The pole has a different feel.

When piercing the dead soil, the recoil force transmitted by the piercing rod into the soil is relatively loose because the dead soil layer is relatively soft.

However, when it penetrates the loose soil, it often feels too tight or too loose.

If you feel a tighter texture, it usually means you've encountered rammed earth, which has been artificially compacted to increase the density of the soil layer.

Whether you use a jackhammer or a Luoyang shovel, you have to hit the rammed earth with more force.

The vibration feedback on the rod will also feel more powerful.

If it feels too loose, it has basically hit the backfill soil.

Because the backfill is all excavated soil, as long as it is not tamped after backfilling, the density will inevitably be looser than dead soil.

Many ordinary tomb robbers don't know this trick.

"It seems the tomb passage is underneath."

"Mouse, make a few more holes along this line."

We continued to work.

More than 30 exploratory holes were drilled along the central axis, and the situation below was basically understood.

"The deepest part is six meters underground, the shallowest part is two meters underground, and the rest of the area is outside the wall and cannot be explored."

"I guess what we discovered is the passage into the Tomb of the Living Dead. The shallowest part is the buried entrance."

"Just dig a hole from the shallowest point and then go down along the original passage."

I decided where to dig the hole.

He and Cui Hao used short-handled hoes and short-handled shovels to dig holes.

Ordinary hoes and shovels cannot be used in holes. Short-handled hoes and shovels have short handles, which make them more convenient to use in holes.

It can be considered a tool specially improved for tomb robbing.

We took turns digging the hole.

Since the soil was relatively soft, digging the hole was not too difficult.

Boom!

Cui Hao hit a brick with his hoe.

"Brother, see the bricks."

"It sounds like a single brick wall. I'll see if I can break it open."

Cui Hao swung the hoe and smashed it down.

With a loud bang, a hole was smashed in the brick roof.

"How is it?" I asked at the entrance of the cave.

"Open a hole so we can see there's a passage below. If we widen the hole a bit, we can go down."

Cui Hao continued to smash bricks.

Soon a hole was smashed out that was large enough for one person to enter and exit.

"Brother, let go of the rope. I'll go down and take a look first."

"Don't worry, come up first."

I called Cui Hao up, and he asked, somewhat puzzled, "Come up and do it? Are we going to do it all at once?"

"Let it go first, and come back to work tomorrow night."

I'm worried about the bad air down there.

Many tombs have been closed for a long time, resulting in a lack of oxygen and even the production of toxic gases.

Some tomb robbers died from inhaling toxic gases in the tomb.

According to Tuoye's family notes, when encountering an ancient tomb, two things are usually done first.

One is to put the oil lamp down and see if it will go out.

The second method is to put a living thing in there to see if it will be poisoned.

"Come again tomorrow night? Don't be afraid of long nights and many dreams..."

"Huh? Brother, do you smell anything?"

"It seems to be the smell coming from the cave!"