Chapter 8: Three Neighbors
Although the face had been destroyed, Zhao Zimeng and Ling Hu Yunfei still captured some other information from the corpse.
The deceased's hands were very rough, with calluses on the palms, long nails, dirt between the nails, and a small section of the thumb on his left hand.
To be precise, it is a third of the first segment of the thumb that is missing, and the stump of the nail remains on it - this is perhaps a very important feature, and there are very few people in life who have this trait.
The deceased's toenails were also very long, and there was a thick layer of old skin on the soles and heels, and there were two one-centimeter-long cracks in the heels of his right foot.
They guessed that this person might be one of the perpetrators of the tomb robbery, and it was only after the hole was dug up, everyone entered the tomb, and the lid of the coffin was pried open, that this person encountered the murderer of his companions.
When the first deceased was autopsied, Zhao Zimeng's mood was a little heavy, and at this moment, when he saw the second corpse, his heart sank a lot.
Lin Di unzipped the body bag and placed it next to the body, while Ling Hu Yunfei and Xiang Daimo lifted the body and put it into the body bag.
The level of decomposition of corpse No. 2 was similar to that of corpse No. 1, and although everyone was protected by masks, they could still smell a very disgusting smell.
It is possible that Number One and Number Two were killed at the same time.
Xiang Daimo pulled the zipper, and Ling Hu Yunfei moved the body under the hole, Ma Jianping threw down a rope, Xiang Daimo tied one end of the rope to the body bag, and Ma Jianping, Xiao Luhan and Qin Dazhao pulled the body out of the hole.
At this time, the crowd of onlookers outside was accumulating more and more, and the crowd was boiling, and Director Zhang and his subordinates were trying their best to dissuade the crowd of onlookers from crossing the cordon.
The three men returned to the left chamber and the investigation continued.
The left chamber has a vaulted roof, and the bottom of the tomb is square, and there are reliefs on the top and walls, and the two of them noticed that the protagonist of all the reliefs is a woman, and the background is a pavilion and a bustling bazaar, and there are faint scenes of singing and dancing.
They speculated that this content might be a scene from the life of the owner of the tomb, and as for what the specific story of the relief depiction is, and what kind of relationship it has with the tomb and the owner of the tomb, the two professors have not been able to come up with any clear conclusions for a while.
Professor Nie took some photos and planned to study them well when he returned.
In the middle of the burial chamber - there is a sarcophagus against the north wall.
The sarcophagus is placed on a white marble platform carved with mysterious patterns - the height of the platform is about 50 centimeters, the sarcophagus is about 80 centimeters high, about 90 centimeters wide, and about 200 centimeters long.
The lid of the sarcophagus lies recliningly on the ground to the right of the sarcophagus, one corner of the sarcophagus lid has been broken, and the broken part is half in the silt and water, and half exposed to the murky air.
Professor Nie looked at the cross-section of the two parts of the fracture, both of which were blackened.
This shows that the lid of the sarcophagus was cracked a long time ago, and later due to the invasion of tomb robbers, they violently opened the coffin, causing the horn to fall into the sarcophagus.
Everyone walked up to the sarcophagus.
Zhao Zimeng and Ling Hu Yunfei held the lamp high. Everyone looked into the sarcophagus.
Hey? Inside the sarcophagus there is a wooden coffin!
"The outer sarcophagus and the inner wooden coffin are the highest specification and highest level of tomb form in the late Ming Dynasty, which is proved by historical records and many archaeological excavations." Professor Jin explained.
The wooden coffin had obviously begun to decay, and Professor Jin gently rubbed his hand on the edge of the wooden coffin a few times, and some powder fell from the wooden coffin.
Inside the coffin there is a pile of bones, in addition to the bones, there are some unformed lacquerware, but it is not difficult to see that these lacquerware are square, long, round and oval.
Unfortunately, you can only see the general outline and appearance, because these lacquerware are so rotten that the patterns on them are blurred, and the surface of the lacquerware has a raised skin.
In addition to lacquerware, there are also some broken silk fabrics, which have become fragments.
There was a small amount of silt and water at the bottom of the coffin, and all the objects were deep or shallow in the silt, and Zhao Zimeng thought to himself: Maybe this is the reason why there is black mud on the jade pendant and the night pearl.
Apparently, the grave robbers took all the burial goods with a storm and left only the bones, lacquerware, and fragments of clothing.
"This is the owner of the tomb." Professor Jin said.
Professor Jin and Professor Nie were on their own, carefully stitching together the bones of the deceased.
The height of the tomb owner is about 1.60 meters, and judging by the size characteristics of the bones, it should be a woman.
The group exited the left chamber and entered the right chamber.
The right chamber is the same size as the left chamber, and there is also a sarcophagus and a wooden coffin of the same size.
"Two professors, your initial judgment is very accurate, this is a husband and wife burial tomb, is that bronze mirror from the coffin in the left burial chamber?" Zhao Zimeng said.
"Very likely." Professor Nie affirmed Captain Zhao's point of view.
You can see that the relief carvings on the top and wall of the right chamber are the same as those on the left chamber, but the content is different.
The relief on the right chamber shows a man wearing a crown on his head, who seems to be on court, feasting, and hunting. After careful observation, the two professors realized that the reliefs of the two tombs reflected the ordinary life of the tomb owners, and may also be the imaginary future life scenes.
There were more than a dozen irregular flake slabs in the mud on the ground to the right of the coffin, and Professor Nie and Professor Jin squatted down to squat down and put several flake slabs together. It turned out that they were part of the lid of the sarcophagus, the lid of which had been torn apart a long time ago and fell into the coffin.
Tomb robbers must bring out the stone slabs that have fallen inside the coffin in order to get their hands on the burial goods inside the coffin.
There was much more mud and water in this coffin than in the coffin in the left burial chamber.
The wooden coffin inside had long since rotted into mud.
The mud of the sarcophagus contained nothing but a messy set of bones, scattered fragments of silk fabric, and fragments of a few wooden coffins.
The two professors were a little disappointed that they could not find a single burial object in the two coffins, and they even used small stones to turn the mud at the bottom of the coffins for a long time.
Professor Jin and Professor Nie searched for a long time on the ground, but they found nothing. However, they were already content, and it should be an unexpected gain to find a jade pendant and a night pearl in the looted tomb.
After that, everyone entered the right round gate and the left round gate.
"It's really different!" Ling Hu Yunfei couldn't help but let out a sound of admiration.
Inside the right round door is a courtyard twice as large as the front hall, and it is also a circular space, with four stone pillars in the middle of the courtyard, pavilions and pavilions, stone boats, and small bridges and flowing water.
However, all the buildings are compressed miniature versions, the flowing water is stagnant, and the flowing water under the stone bridge is still there, but it is already a pool of black water.
There is a Buddha hall in the left round door, the area is the same size as the courtyard on the right, there are also four stone pillars in the middle, there are more than 20 stone carved high platforms outside the stone pillars and the stone wall, the height is also about 50 centimeters, the length and width are about 60 centimeters, there are several stone Buddhas sitting or standing on the high platform.
The height of the standing Buddha is about one meter seven, the height of the sitting Buddha is about one meter, all of them are the same size as a real person, the stone Buddha in front of the stone pillar is a sitting Buddha, and the stone Buddha next to the stone wall is a standing Buddha.
"The feudal emperors enjoyed all the glory and wealth during their lifetimes, and they still expected to be the same after death as when they were alive, as can be seen from the structure and furnishings of their tombs." Professor Jin said.
"Yes, this is also very consistent with Professor Nie's ancient saying that death is like life." Zhao Zimeng nodded yes.
When they arrived here, the situation of the entire tomb was already clear to the group.
When the six of them crawled out of the thief hole, Captain Xiao and his men had already cleaned up all the bricks and tiles and other debris in the seven rooms.
As soon as Zhao Zimeng climbed out of the thief hole, Xiao Luhan, Director Zhang, Manager Feng, and Captain Xiao came over.
"Team Zhao, Captain Xiao, they have already cleaned up." Xiao Luhan said.
"Thank you, Director Zhang, Captain Xiao." Zhao Zimeng ripped off his mask and said with a smile.
"Team Zhao, you're polite, if there's anything we need to do, just ask." Director Zhang was busy and maintained order, and his voice was a little hoarse.
"Did you find anything?" Zhao Zimeng asked Xiao Luhan.
"Yes, workers have found them in the Westinghouse and in the kitchen." Xiao Luhan said.
Manager Feng and Captain Xiao led Zhao Zimeng and Ling Hu Yunfei into the West House.
There are four door panels on the floor of the Westinghouse.
"These four door panels are the door panels of the east wing and the west wing. This is what Uncle Cao, a neighbor of No. 117, said. Uncle Cao often goes to No. 117 Lao Hangmen. Lin Di said.
The house has almost been demolished, if it weren't for Uncle Cao, it would be really difficult to know that these four doors are the doors of the east and west wings of No. 117.
There were three cotton tires on the door panel, and two bedding with broken liners and faces.
In all likelihood, this was once the place where tomb robbers slept. The cotton tires are used for padding, and the two quilts are used to cover them, judging from the number of quilts and cotton tires, the tomb robbers are about six people, three people work, three people sleep, and two bedding should be enough.
It is now the National Day period, the weather in early autumn is not very cold, as for the door panels and quilts on the ground, they are afraid of the moisture and cold on the ground.
"Where's Uncle Cao?" Zhao Zimeng wanted to know something from Uncle Cao's mouth.
"Team Zhao, let's go, by the way, I found two other people just now, I'll let them come over." Qin Da summoned him.
Qin Dazhao walked to the cordon and waved to the crowd: "Uncle Cao and the other two neighbors just now, you also come over, our Zhao team is invited."
One policeman raised the cordon, and three people walked out of the crowd.
The old man who walked in the front was Uncle Cao, his age was about seventy-five years old, he was wearing a blue peaked cap on his head, wearing a gray overalls, the hair exposed outside the hat was all white, and Uncle Cao was a little hunchbacked.
Walking next to Uncle Cao was a woman about forty years old, with fashionable curly hair, wearing a red sweater on the top, a pair of jeans on the bottom, and a pair of red semi-high-heeled leather shoes on her feet.
In this era, this is a very fashionable dress.