Tomb raiding: Intercepting Yin Xinyue and building a family of immortals

Gulan County.

In years of great disaster, the land was scorched and barren for thousands of miles.

Refugees were everywhere, and corpses of the starved littered the fields.

In a village, most of the people were emaciated from hunger. It hadn't rained for nearly a year, and most of the villagers had left, leaving less than a hundred people.

They also wanted to go out, but these days, even becoming a refugee doesn't guarantee a way to survive.

After much deliberation, the group set their sights on an ancient tomb behind the mountain village. They had heard that the tomb contained many treasures, and some of the more ambitious individuals decided to rob it.

Most tomb raiders start doing so because they can't survive.

However, they had not learned the skills of tomb raiding, nor did they know how to preserve the antiques in the tombs.

Calling these people "disorganized rabble" is no exaggeration.

In the land of Shaanxi, countless kings, generals, and nobles are buried on the loess soil.

Therefore, tomb raiders were rampant in history, most of them working as farmers during the day and wandering around at night.

They had no systematic mentorship, no one to guide them, and relied solely on their own boldness.

When going into a tomb, there are no rules; it's all based on personal preference, and human life becomes unimportant.

Su Chen and his group took a train to Longcheng in Shanxi Province. Their plan was to resupply in Longcheng before crossing the Yellow River to the northern part of Qin.

This will shorten the journey.

Otherwise, traveling from the provincial capital of Qin would be a long and difficult journey, with poor road conditions.

After a two-day, two-night train journey, everyone was exhausted.

This place was ruled by a warlord surnamed Yan, whom everyone called Old Man Yan.

This was a legitimate warlord, commanding one or two hundred thousand elite troops who firmly controlled the Jin region.

In addition, Shanxi was a prosperous region, and the name of Shanxi merchants resounded throughout the land for nearly three hundred years.

In order to consolidate his position, Yan Xishan took many measures in Shanxi, such as making the trains in Shanxi different in width from those in other cities, with the tracks in Shanxi being narrower.

Therefore, on their way to Jin, the group had to transfer to another train.

And so, after some trouble, Su Chen finally arrived in Longcheng, the provincial capital of Shanxi.

This place is even more bustling than Changsha City, with several times more cars on the streets, making it one of the top cities in the north.

Rumor has it that not far from Longcheng, there is a gathering place for wealthy people from Shanxi. The whole street is clean and bright, and the houses cover an area of ​​several thousand or even tens of thousands of square meters.

The number of hired servants and maids must be at least a hundred.

By this time, the glory days of Shanxi merchants had come to an end, but those people were still incredibly wealthy.

Unfortunately, Su Chen missed the chance to see it and had to hurry on his way to the northern part of Qin.

The accents spoken in northern Qin are similar to those in Jin. This entire area falls within the Jin language family. Only locals can analyze the differences in accents, but in the eyes of Su Chen and others, the accents are actually quite similar, with a strong emphasis on nasal consonants.

"What are you doing? You're just after goods!"

"That Langde, doesn't he know he has any skills?"

"You want to sell a tattered embroidered shoe for ten silver dollars? I wouldn't even consider one dollar too much."

A burst of angry curses echoed from the street.

Su Chen looked closely and saw an old farmer carrying a package under his arm.

He cautiously approached an antique stall, showed the owner the items in the package, and then inquired about the price.

The owner of this antique stall is clearly an amateur; how could he shout out such a transaction?

Even if you disagree with the other party's price, you should still make the deal quietly or in your sleeve.

As for the dark-skinned old farmer, Su Chen could smell the strong earthy smell on him even before he got close.

They should be the scattered soldiers Su Chen remembered. They caused the most damage to the ancient tomb and were unaware of the value of the treasures inside.

"Sir, let me take a look!"

Su Chen walked over and took the embroidered shoe.

He thought to himself, this thing is definitely a funerary object. If it's intact, it should be worth thirty silver dollars.

If you find a collector who likes to collect these things, selling them for fifty silver dollars wouldn't be a problem.

If Su Chen were to buy them, the complete shoes could cost a maximum of twenty silver dollars, since antique shops also need to make a profit.

A single one is worthless, at most it can fetch five silver dollars.

The vendor wasn't wrong; the embroidered shoe wasn't worth much, it was a funerary object, and its price was significantly reduced.

But Su Chen wasn't interested in the embroidered shoes themselves, but rather in the other treasures behind them.

"Five silver dollars, I'll take it!"

Su Chen stood in front of the old farmer and spoke to himself.

"He doesn't even understand how to ask for money, yet he spent five silver dollars on a pair of tattered embroidered shoes."

The amateur antique stall owner muttered something under his breath.

The old farmer, however, was very excited, exclaiming, "Just five yuan, I'll sell it!"

He cheerfully handed the embroidered shoes to Su Chen, then his eyes darted around, "I have some other things here, I wonder if the boss could take a look."

He took Su Chen to an inn in Longcheng.

On the way, Su Chen chatted with the old farmer.

Upon further inquiry, it was learned that the old farmer was from northern Qin, surnamed Li, and named Fugui.

So he's from Gulan County!

As the saying goes, when you are surrounded by mountains and rivers and think there is no way out, you will find another village when you look up.

I never expected to run into you here.

According to Li Fugui, his original intention was to find a few knowledgeable people.

If there were no knowledgeable people in Longcheng, he would take the embroidered shoes to Beijing, where there were many knowledgeable people and quite a few foreigners.

I heard those foreigners are generous with money.

The old farmer is right. Those foreigners are rich, and after coming to Kyushu, they like to collect items with a sense of history.

This also resulted in a large number of treasures from the Kyushu region being lost overseas.

There's nothing we can do; those foreign devils are just too rich!

However, the loss of so many treasures is also heartbreaking.

Therefore, Su Chen's antique shop almost never trades with foreigners, which is to some extent a way of avoiding this issue.

Inside the inn, there were five or six fierce-looking men.

The leader was surnamed Ma, and everyone around him called him Boss Ma.

This Boss Ma is no pushover either; Su Chen guessed he had a few lives on his hands.

In front of Boss Ma, he opened a wooden box.

It contained a large quantity of valuable treasures.

The other embroidered shoe was also in the box.

According to Su Chen's estimate, this box of antiques should fetch at least three thousand silver dollars, and if resold, it could probably sell for around five thousand silver dollars.

You can earn two thousand dollars by doing this repeatedly.

This business is still worth doing.

However, Su Chen glanced at Lao Ma and Li Fugui and knew that this group of people were probably not good people.

They probably have other ulterior motives in mind.

"Five thousand silver dollars. Pick up the goods tomorrow morning at the big locust tree in the western suburbs of Longcheng!" Su Chen said.