"Want to dig it up?" Xiao Mao frowned, maybe he wanted to persuade me, but he didn't say what he said later, anyway, he was hired by us with money, and he only had the right to make suggestions, not decision-making.

Xiao Mao sighed and ran back to the camp to get tools. We didn't carry any tools to dig holes, just two small shovels. After Xiao Mao took the tools, Zhang Momo drove Lao Wang over, Lao Wang and I started digging, and the rest of the people cleaned up the camp and moved here with camels.

The shovel is too small to dig well, and I guess I'll have to waste a lot of time here. But I think the time wasted should pay off, and there is probably something else to be found under this layer of sand besides the caravan that has been swallowed by the wind and sand.

The excavation was going on and on, and everyone was taking turns to do the work to avoid too much physical exertion. The work was much heavier than digging water for the camels, and the whole sandy area was completely dry and devoid of any vegetation.

After digging deeper, the quicksand continues to flow into the newly dug pit, and it takes two people to cooperate tacitly to continue digging. Moreover, we can't just stick to one place and keep digging deeper, if there is nothing underneath, it will be in vain, so Xiao Mao let the excavation area be expanded.

After digging for three hours, it was dawn, Zhang Momo and Ning Kitten brought us food, and I muttered while eating, because these situations were all speculated by Xiao Mao based on rumors and some experiences, and it is unknown whether there is a submerged caravan or something else under this piece of sand.

The excavation lasted for a long time, from morning to noon, and from noon to afternoon, and Lao Wang became impatient, thinking that I was wasting my time doing useless work. I knew he was in this temper, so I ignored him, took his shovel, and continued to dig down.

This time, after a few digs, the shovel touched something in the sand. I immediately beckoned Xiao Mao to help, and the two of them worked together to pull the sand around the thing aside, and suddenly, a large mass of things with hair suddenly appeared in front of me.

The sudden sight of this thing makes people feel palpitations, but now that it is broad daylight and there are other people around me, my heart thumps a few times, and then returns to normal.

What we dug up was a camel's head. As soon as I dug up the camel's head, I was excited, which showed that Xiao Mao's judgment was correct, and we did not waste time in vain.

It is conceivable that the ancient caravan buried below was buried under the rolling yellow sand in an instant, and the camels and people were buried, not directly exposed to the sun, and the corpses were equivalent to dry in the shade. Today, the camel's skeleton is only covered with a layer of dry, hard, iron-like fur.

Immediately after that, we dug up another iron bell, which was very large and a little dull. This bell is usually hung on the male camel at the head of the camel procession, that is, this camel is at the very front of the caravan.

The approximate location is determined, and the excavation work behind has a goal, and as soon as Lao Wang saw the camel dug up, the dissatisfaction and muttering just now have become surprises and expectations.

"Mao'er." Lao Wang asked Xiao Mao warmly: "With your experience, is it possible to dig out valuable things down here?" ”

"Possibly." I glanced at Lao Wang and said, "Dig hard." ”

"What can you dig up?" As soon as Lao Wang heard that he could dig something, his expression became even hotter: "Is it very valuable?" ”

"You can dig out a lamp."

"Lights?"

"Yes, the lamp." As I worked, I said without raising my head: "There is a fat man living in the lamp, who can fulfill your three wishes." ”

"Don't tease me." Lao Wang was stunned for a moment, and then he realized that I was joking, he smashed his mouth, shook his head and said: "Don't say three wishes, one wish is enough, I asked him to give me a lot of money, the kind that can't be spent on lying down." ”

"Hey, Lao Wang, if you have so much money, shouldn't you do some charity?" Ning Xiaomei hurriedly ran to Lao Wang's side: "For example, I owe you seven hundred yuan, can I not pay it back?" ”

"Why don't you pay it back? That's not the same thing, my money is mine, what you owe is what you owe, and you have to pay it back. ”

"You can't spend all your money lying down, and you still want 700 yuan from me?"

"No one's money is blown by the wind, I don't want to ask you for interest, but you have to pay me back the principal, right?"

"You're too picky!"

The two of them quarreled over this matter, and the more noisy they became, the more lively they became, and they quarreled for twenty minutes before Lao Wang came back to his senses.

The scale of this caravan is not small, and for the next two days, we did nothing, just dug here. A total of seven camels were exhumed, as well as the carcasses of four people. The corpse was like a camel, like a tin man.

There was a lot of yellow quartz scattered in the sand, and some of the other goods were lost beyond recognition. It can be concluded that this was supposed to be a caravan from the interior to Western Asia. Judging by the size of the caravan, the owner of the caravan was probably rich.

I feel that if I continue to dig and dig up the whole caravan, then I will have to stay here for at least half a month. So, we paused for a moment and gathered together what we were digging up right now.

The caravan carried goods were all slag, but in the sand, we found two narrow wooden boxes. The wooden box is tied to the camel's belly and is difficult to find without looking carefully. The dry climate kept the wooden box in its original shape, but with a little force, the box shattered in half, revealing a knife contained in the box.

When I saw the knife in the box, I didn't care, at that time, the caravan passing through the Silk Road, most of the time had to trek in the Gobi Desert, and the prosperous business also attracted groups of bandits. So, it is normal for caravans to have weapons for self-defense.

I was sorting out other things, and Xiao Mao looked at the knife that fell out of the box. The knife was sharp, narrow and long, and I could even feel a faint chill when it was pulled out of its scabbard.

"Xiao Mao, there's nothing of value here, you give me a suggestion." After cleaning up the mess, I asked, "How many days will our supplies last, and if we continue to dig, will there be enough time?" ”

"No, there's something wrong with that." Xiao Mao held the knife, looked at it carefully for a while, and then looked up and said to me, "It's a little strange." ”

"What's wrong?"

"This is a Tang knife."

Compared with before, the smelting technology of the Tang Dynasty has had a breakthrough reform, and the forging knife technology before the Tang Dynasty did not have the concept of composite steel, that is, from the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, in order to cope with the gradual improvement and thickening of the armor on the battlefield, the composite steel knife appeared, in fact, it is the steel packaging process. The hardness and toughness of the war knife forged by the cladding steel process are very good, and the cutting edge is subjected to a segmented local quenching process, which is extremely sharp and can cut through heavy armor.

The Tang knife has advanced forging technology, and has a unique knife body shape, whether it is the previous Qin and Han dynasties, or the later generations of the Song and Yuan dynasties, only from the battle knife to distinguish, and the Tang knife has obvious differences. Xiao Mao probably likes these things, and with corresponding research, he can tell that the knife in this wooden box is the Tang knife.

"Even if it's a Tang knife, it's not strange, right?" I asked, "Wasn't the Silk Road still broken during the Tang Dynasty?" The caravan came from the Central Plains, with the weapons of the time to defend themselves, which is reasonable. ”

"You didn't understand what I meant." Xiao Mao brought the knife to me and pointed about two inches above the hilt: "This is a real war knife, equipped with the army, not a civilian knife, this mark on the knife is from Qianniuwei." ”

In all dynasties, the management of ordnance was very strict, and from the capital to the local administrative agencies at all levels, there were special arsenals for guarding and maintaining. The theft of ordnance by the common people is a very serious crime, and unless it is an era of rebellion, military weapons will not fall into the civilian population.

The caravans that traveled to and from the Silk Road were all people who did business and needed self-defense weapons, which could be purchased for money. A businessman would never break the law of the land by coveting the small amount of money he spent on buying weapons.

"This should be an army disguised as merchants." Xiao Mao pointed to the broken wooden box and said, "No wonder they hide their weapons in the wooden box, they don't want people to know their true identity." If you didn't understand some of the systems at the time, you probably wouldn't have felt that this was a strange thing. ”

At that time, many caravans came from the private sector, and the government would also organize commercial activities, but they were purely commercial activities and had nothing to do with the military. If an army does not have a clear and open mission, it will inevitably cause disputes if it enters the territory of another country by trade routes. The Tang Dynasty is strong, but it will not do nothing.

Therefore, if there is really any secret mission and soldiers must be sent across the border, then the identities of these soldiers must be hidden.

"It's hard for you to know so much." I looked at Xiao Mao and asked, "What about the Song Dynasty, if the army of the Song Dynasty leaves the border, it also needs to be disguised?" ”

"Then I don't know, I'm not an encyclopedia." Xiao Mao grinned, and restrained his smile again: "Anyway, this caravan is not very right." ”

"You just said that the mark on the knife is from Qianniuwei, which means that this knife is Qianniuwei's knife, and the person with the knife is also the person of Qianniuwei?"

"On the face of it, it should be."

Xiao Mao's words made me think deeply, if according to his description and analysis, then this army disguised as a merchant is very strange.

What's more, if we only accidentally found this caravan buried under the sand, then I can treat it as a historical mystery. But the mentally ill man named Lian Chengfeng specifically talked about this team, so I had to change my thinking and look at this matter.

We began rummaging again, not only in the midst of unrecognizable cargo, but also on several corpses, hoping to find some clues.