The weakening of the fire indicates that the air pressure inside the tomb is decreasing, and the principle is the same as that of the biogas digester widely used in rural areas, and the air pressure inside the tomb that has been closed for a long time is much greater than that outside. Changsha Mawangdui No. 1 tomb is one of the more famous fire pit tombs, the pressure of the combustible gas spewed out at that time is very large, the water poured into it can splash out, the flames that erupt after ignition are as high as more than half a meter, the flames spewed out of the No. 1 tomb of Mawangdui have been burning for three days and three nights, and the flames of the tomb of Song Huizong burned for ten days before weakening, which shows the scale of the underground mausoleum here.

Zhang Keming, of course, knew what it meant for the fire to weaken, and he immediately said into the walkie-talkie: "We'll be there right away." After that, he said to Liu Yue and Tang Feng, "Go and have a look." ”

Three people came to the deep pit located at the outer edge of the trapezoidal excavation face, through Zhang Keming's introduction, Tang Feng roughly understood the process of discovering this robbery hole, on the third day of the excavation, the archaeologists found a deep well facing straight down, this well is very deep, and it has not been dug for a long time, so the archaeologists transferred large machinery, and the digging went down to a depth of 150 meters, which formed the big pit in front of Tang Feng's eyes.

Tang Feng said affirmatively after looking at the diameter of the primitive horizontal pit: "This should be a large-scale, organized official robbery after the Republic of China, and the excavation tools and methods used are not ancient methods, and ordinary people and thieves cannot be so blatant." ”

This excavation method is different from the traditional excavation method of robbery holes, which is to dig vertically and deeply, and then excavate horizontally. During the horizontal excavation, in order to prevent landslides, the tomb robbers borrowed the method of supporting the wooden squares when the coal miners dug the coal, and this method also had the advantage of preventing the accumulation of sand tombs.

The sand tomb, commonly known as the quicksand tomb, is also the type of tomb that robbers are most worried about. When the sand is buried to a certain position and thickness, it is then covered with soil and rammed around. Quicksand tombs are very lethal to tomb robbers, and once they are dug up, the fine sand will pour into the robbers like water, causing them to suffocate to death. To deal with quicksand tombs, tomb robbers will use bamboo planks to shield the quicksand on top while using wooden supports.

On an earthen wall facing the imperial mausoleum at the bottom of the pit, several faint blue and smokeless flames are spewing outward, Liu Yue said: "Don't look at the current flames are very short, they look soft and weak, at the beginning, the flames that erupted outward were more than two meters long. ”

Zhang Keming said: "For the sake of safety, we decided to burn out the combustible gas first. ”

Tang Feng asked Zhang Keming: "Since the imperial tomb of Song Huizong has been dug up before, the combustible gas should have been released, why are there so many now?"

Zhang Keming said: "I estimate that the tomb robbers at that time had an accident in the process of robbing the tomb, which led to a small area of collapse of the entire robbery hole, and it is unknown why others did not continue to excavate, it may be because of a major change in the situation." ”

Tang Feng felt that Zhang Keming's inference was very reasonable, this excavation became a large well with a depth of 150 meters and a diameter of 3 meters, such a large-scale excavation project requires a large number of manpower, once an accident occurs, the consequences will be very serious, and someone will die for sure. After losing a large number of men, the tomb robbers actually buried the wellhead at will and walked away, and there must have been some major change in this.

Zhang Keming continued: "After the accident, the tomb robbers did not give up the tomb robbery, but buried the wellhead, indicating that they were ready to continue in the future, but as a result, they did not come back. ”

Tang Feng smiled and said, "How do I think this is a tomb robbery carried out by the Kuomintang army? It is estimated that I went directly to Taiwan later, and I had no chance to come back." ”

Zhang Keming said: "Only this understanding is that when this horizontal robbery hole was dug here, there was a large-scale collapse, and then there was a combustible gas overflow, indicating that the collapse of this robbery hole was not very serious, and it was empty." ”

Tang Feng said: "Professor Zhang, do you think it is possible that the tomb robbers used open flame lighting when they were excavating, and after the tomb was opened, there was a small-scale explosion, because the collapse caused by the explosion blocked the hole, and the combustible gas was not completely released." ”

"It's possible. Zhang Keming said: "No matter what, it's a good thing that it hasn't been stolen, and it's really true to say that archaeology comes from tomb robbing." It's ridiculous to think about it, I've been following in the footsteps of tomb robbers since the day I started archaeology, and I've never come across a tomb without a cave in all these years. ”

Whether it is an archaeologist or a tomb robber, the most frustrating thing for them is that they have worked hard for a long time, and when they open the tomb, they have already been patronized. Tang Feng remembered a past story that the old man of their family had said, when his grandfather's grandfather opened a tomb, the belongings inside had been looted, and only a copper axe was left on the ground, and the chicken ribs were also meat, so he took the copper axe home. A few years later, he met another tomb robber from another family of tomb robbers, and as soon as he saw the bronze axe, he said it was theirs. Of course, Grandpa Tang Feng's grandfather didn't believe it, but as a result, the people made it clear that the mark on the axe was theirs. Tang Feng asked Zhang Keming, "Professor Zhang, how many tombs have you encountered with the most robbed caves?"

Zhang Keming said with a smile: "That's not an ordinary lot, there is one thing I will never forget, it is a tomb where ancient and modern Chinese and foreign tomb robbers and tomb builders competed." Zhang Keming then recounted what he had seen and heard: in May 2005, an ancient tomb of the Spring and Autumn Period was discovered in Guozhuang, Shangcai County, Zhumadian City, Henan Province, and the archaeological department immediately carried out a large-scale archaeological excavation on it. I don't know if I don't know it, I was shocked when I saw it, and there were as many as 17 large and small robbery holes found at the scene. Among them, the earliest robbery hole was dug in the Warring States Period, and when it reached 3 meters outside the north entrance of the tomb, the tomb robbers encountered quicksand and were forced to stop excavation. Another 7 robbery holes were excavated in the Eastern Han Dynasty, the most powerful one of the Eastern Han Dynasty robbery holes seriously damaged the tomb structure, the tomb robbers adopted a large opening of the top robbery method to the eastern part of the tomb, the robbery hole penetrated the thick curtain wall, and went directly to the vicinity of the coffin. When the tomb robber was almost about to become a ***, the tomb robber accidentally touched the rolling stone mechanism, which caused the stone to collapse, and the tomb robber himself was buried in it. At the same time, this tomb also has 9 modern robbery holes, not to mention that modern people are smart, they all use directional blasting, first dig deep and then dig laterally, the longest one is 27 meters, they entered the tomb after using the way to erect bamboo and wood roadways to steal and excavate, in the end, they robbed the tomb into ***, however, they stole not the real coffin but the fake coffin designed by the tomb builder, completely mistaken the direction, because the fake coffin was touched, the quicksand up to ten meters thick poured in, they had to retreat and leave.

Zhang Keming said: "Don't talk about tomb robbers, we were almost fooled when we went in." The builder not only added a fake coffin to the side of the main coffin, but also made a fake coffin directly above the main coffin. If I'm not mistaken, this person must have been very famous at the time, and the anti-theft tricks of the entire tomb were one ring after another, and if it weren't for us, God knows when this almost 3,000-year-old tomb would have been left. ”

Liu Yue said: "Although the process is very difficult, the result is still good, and he can withstand 17 tomb robberies in the past 3,000 years, and this tomb builder can be regarded as the first master builder in ancient and modern times." ”

Tang Feng smiled and said, "Why do I think this was built by Lu Ban?"

Zhang Keming shook his head with a smile, he said: "It shouldn't be, there are still many capable people among the ancients, and their architectural concepts are often epoch-making, otherwise there would not be a 'strong bridge' that is still standing after three blasts." Hey, let's not talk about that, Mr. Tang, do you have any thoughts now?"

Tang Feng said: "Now you can only use a stupid method, wait for the combustible gas to burn out before excavating, and look at the internal structure of the robbery hole, to ensure the integrity of the tomb, you can only open the tomb door from the inside." By the way, Professor Zhang, I would like to ask you one more question. ”

Zhang Keming said: "You ask directly, it's okay. ”

"Is there any other reason why you didn't enter the tomb through the main entrance?" Tang Feng looked at the busy staff around him and asked Zhang Keming: "This archaeological excavation is unprecedented in terms of scale, personnel and scientific and technological equipment, and I always feel that you have made it too formal." ”

Zhang Keming said with a smile: "I'm sorry, my answer just now was too fast, I can only tell you one thing now, this tomb is very referential, and our goal is more than that." ”

Tang Feng nodded and said, "I understand." ”

Zhang Keming said to Liu Yue: "I didn't say anything. ”

Liu Yue smiled and said, "I didn't hear anything either. ”

Although Zhang Keming did not say it explicitly, Tang Feng already knew in his heart that the country was finally going to do it, and the time to excavate the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang would not be too far away.

Time passed quickly, three days passed in the blink of an eye, and the combustible gas of the tomb of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty finally burned out, and the large-scale excavation along the robbery cave soon began. As Tang Feng expected, there was indeed a small-scale collapse of the robbery cave, and there were traces of explosions. After three days of large-scale excavation, Liu Yue ran into Tang Feng's temporary residence, and she said to Tang Feng: "A few highly decomposed corpses were dug up just now, which should be the tomb robbers at that time. ”

High output also means high risk, tomb robbing is really a dangerous business, Tang Feng asked Liu Yue: "So, you have already dug up the tomb wall?"

Liu Yue nodded and said: "Yes, it is an irregular round hole with a diameter of almost half a meter, it is eerie and terrifying, Professor Zhang said that there must be a deadly mechanism inside." ”

Organs, explosions, landslides, several corpses, all of a sudden, the tomb of Emperor Huizong of the Song Dynasty became confusing and dangerous, Tang Feng said: "Let's go, let's go and see." ”

"Tang Feng. Liu Yue bit her lip and whispered to Tang Feng: "If I regret it now, is it too late?"