In his later years, Wu Zetian issued an edict to build a mausoleum in Bailuyuan, southeast of Chang'an. The empress ordered Li Chunfeng to be responsible for dividing the gold points, and ordered Li Longqi, the king of Zhongnan County, to supervise the project.

Li Longqi and Jiuse came to Bailuyuan. Millions of people gathered in the fields, recruited from all over Guanzhong, as well as forced peasants from Hedong, Central Plains, Bashu, and even as far away as Youyan. They created hundreds of burial chambers underground, like dense beehives and ant nests, connected by a labyrinth of intricate burial tunnels, and the painters added exquisite murals. The specifications of this mausoleum have long exceeded the tombs of previous emperors.

Li Chunfeng is not only good at feng shui, but also a great mausoleum designer. His face is long and his forehead is broad, his fairy wind is bonely, and his head is full of silver hair. Li Longqi apprenticed to him for three years and knew that he had the art of ghosts and gods. On this day, on the sky of Bailuyuan, two more crested ibises flew in, one female and one male, just like the Daming Palace where Li Longqi was born more than ten years ago. Li Chunfeng's eyes burst out, and he pointed directly at the crested ibis and shouted: "Beiyang is here!" ”

Two large birds fell out of thin air, like two white lightning bolts, and rushed straight into the golden well in the heart of the mausoleum......

In the end, it was a teenage boy, Li Longqi rushed over curiously, and jumped into the golden well with Jiuse.

After some heat, they went to the depths of the tomb and were surprised to find that the mechanical core driven by spirit stones could be called the ingenious work of Mozi and Gongyi's reincarnation. The craftsman who designed and built all this was actually a young man of the same age as the little prince - his name was Qin Muye, and he was also the descendant of the Qin family's tombsmith family, who had built mausoleums and tomb beasts for the royal family for generations.

Qin Muye is a craftsman who is proficient in all kinds of handicrafts. Although Li Longqi is a prince, he has the experience of growing up in the countryside and mountains. The two young men hit it off at first sight, and their appearance and temperament were very similar, as if they were natural brothers, talking eloquently under the tomb. Li Longqi was extremely curious about the construction of the mausoleum, and he was the project supervisor appointed by the empress, so he and Qin Muye got along day and night in the underground palace and were inseparable. Qin Muye carried an ancient book "Qin's Tomb Craftsman", which has many secret skills, and the most magical one is the tomb beast.

One day, Li Longqi found that there was also a pair of red antler birthmarks on the back of Qin Muye's neck. The two took out the bronze mirror and compared, and each other's birthmarks were almost the same, except that Qin Muye's color was darker and brighter, and Li Longqi's antler birthmark was slightly pink. Li Longqi remembered that his dead mother was also surnamed Qin, unlike his father's many concubines, the Qin family was born in the common people, so he was not titled. It turned out that more than ten years ago on the Qingming Festival, his father Li Dan went to Chang'an outside the city to mourn his brother Li Xian. Li Dan was in the peach blossom forest outside the cemetery and met the daughter of the Qin tombsmith clan. The spring breeze is peach and plum, the peach blossom on the human face, and a bad fate is born. Li Dan incorporated the Qin family into the Daming Palace in Chang'an and gave birth to Li Longqi.

Qin Muye's father is the elder brother of the Qin family and Li Longqi's maternal uncle. Li Longqi and Qin Muye are cousins, just like Li Longqi's father, Li Dan, is the cousin of Wu Sansi and Wu Chenghe.

Li Longqi also has the blood of the Qin clan's tombsmith clan flowing on his body - so there is a red antler birthmark of the tombsmith clan on the back of his neck.

The discovery of this secret deepened the brotherhood between Li Longqi and Qin Muye, and the two worked together intimately.

According to the empress's plan, the tomb was divided into three floors - the upper floor consisted of hundreds of burial chambers; The middle layer is under the golden well, where the spirit stones and mechanical devices are stored; The lowest level is the real underground palace, thousands of feet underground.

Li Longqi guessed Wu Zetian's mind - she did not want to be buried with Gaozong Li Zhi in Qianling, as the founding monarch of the Great Zhou Emperor, she must have an independent mausoleum, and Bailu Yuan was the thousand-year-old auspicious soil she chose for herself. Wu Zetian believed that his merit and power far surpassed that of all emperors in history, so he should enjoy the greatest mausoleum in ancient times, far better than the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

But this plan is likely to arouse opposition from the Li royal family, especially Di Renjie and other famous ministers. Wu Zetian decided to excavate the mausoleum first and announce it after it was completed, so as not to wait until a hundred years later, the mausoleum has not yet been completed. The empress was anxious to send Li Longqi as the overseer, asking him to quickly advance the project, and also paving the way for Li Longqi to inherit the throne in the future.

Driven by the Praetorian Guards, hundreds of people went underground, and some died of exhaustion and disease every day. One day there was a sudden landslide, Li Longqi and Qin Muye were buried in the ground, but fortunately, Jiuse used the antlers to dig a way out. Although they escaped, thousands of people became vain ghosts under the loess.

Li Longqi suspended the project, and he and Qin Muye personally excavated the dead people from the ground and buried them in the mass grave in Bailuyuan. It was the height of summer, and the corpses were highly decomposed, causing the epidemic to run rampant and tens of thousands of people died. Li Longqi invited monks from the major monasteries in Chang'an to recite scriptures, and the souls of the common people were overdue, and the last fire was burned to ashes, cutting off the seeds of the plague epidemic. The collective cremation on the Bailu Plain lasted for seven days and seven nights, and the entire Guanzhong Plain was shrouded in black haze. The residents of Chang'an City smelled a strong smell of corpses, and the noble lady would wash out two taels of ashes in her hair when she went out to walk for half a day.

In the face of such a tragic situation, Li Longqi was restless in his sleep and could not eat pleasantly. He read all the books of the sages of Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Taoism, but he watched the people displaced, their wives separated, and their families destroyed......

After learning from the pain, Li Longqi broke into Luoyang single-handedly, met with Empress Wu Zetian in the Ming Hall, and admonished on the spot-

Confucius said: Harsh government is fiercer than a tiger.

Mencius said: The people are precious, the community is secondary, and the monarch is light.

Wei Zheng, a famous minister of this dynasty, "Ten Thoughts of Emperor Taizong": The grievance is not big, but it is terrifying, and it is advisable to be cautious.

The people of Li have been suffering from building tombs for a long time! Li Longqi suggested that the work be stopped immediately, the Bailuyuan Tomb should be abandoned, and the empress's mausoleum should still be placed in the Qianling Tomb of the former emperor Gaozong.

Wu Zetian was furious, she had been arbitrary for decades, pinching the emperor, prince and ministers of the Tang Dynasty in the palm of her hand, how could she allow a stunned young man to criticize? Li Longqi actually moved out of Wei Zheng's theory of "carrying the boat and capsizing the boat". You must know that when Wu Zetian was in his youth, he was by the side of Tang Taizong, who was a hero in his twilight. Wei Zheng also advised the emperor not to indulge in women, meaning that martial talents are fox spirits, and even hinted that they would kill martial talents to prevent future troubles. Fortunately, Wei Zheng had passed away before the death of Tang Taizong, and if he lived to the time of Tang Gaozong, he would have died at the hands of Wu Zetian.

The empress ordered Li Longqi, the king of Zhongnan County, to be confined in the Luoyang Palace, and replaced Li Longji, the king of Linzi, to Bailuyuan to supervise the work, and the construction must be completed within one year, even if another 100,000 people and craftsmen die.

Overnight, Li Longqi went from being the first successor in Wu Zetian's heart to becoming a de facto prisoner.

The young Li Longqi was heartbroken, he didn't care whether he inherited the throne or not, but he lamented all night for the people who were suffering on the construction site of Bailuyuan.

A few days later, Nine Colors uses its antlers to dig tunnels, infiltrate the palace, puncture the door lock, and rescue the owner. Li Longqi and Jiuse escaped from Luoyang, traveled thousands of miles at night, flew across Guanshan, and came to Bailuyuan. They evaded the interrogation of the Praetorian Guards, mixed in the common people and went deep into the tomb, and finally met Qin Muye.

Unexpectedly, the project has made significant progress. Qin Muye used the ancestral underground drilling method to penetrate several layers of groundwater and rocks, and discovered the legendary Yin Cao Difu at a depth of thousands of zhang from the ground.