"There is no way for the big dream of the East not to wake up. The sound of artillery silenced the roar of tigers in the wild forests of Malay and India. Half-awake people, rubbing their eyes, praying to their ancestors and gods; In a short time, they lost their land, freedom and sovereignty. Outside the door stood people of different colors, muzzles still hot. What is the use of their spears and poisonous crossbows, and their thick shields with colorful snakes? Even the ancestors and the gods that they believed in are gone! The China of the Dragon Banner is no longer mysterious, with the train, and the feng shui is destroyed through the tomb. The jujube red and multi-spike flag, the steel knife with the green shark skin sheath, the mouth horse ringing the bell, the wisdom and black words on the rivers and lakes, the righteousness and fame, even the sand dragon, his martial arts and career, are all dreamed of last night. Today it's trains, guns, trade and terror. I heard that someone is going to kill the emperor's head! ”

- Lao She, "Soul Breaker Gun"

On the day of the death of the last owner of the Forbidden City, Aixin Jueluo Puyi, the red palace walls had been turned upside down, and the red sea swept through the "all-fighting" Tokyo and the "May Storm" Paris. The plaque of "Palace Museum" inscribed by Li Yuying of the Republic of China was replaced with the nondescript "Palace of Blood and Tears", and the couplet of the noon gate "smash the emperors of the old world and step on each other's feet, and create a new world of 700 million Shenzhou Shunyao", and criticized "rebellion is reasonable". The Fengxian Palace, which enshrines the portrait tablets of the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, was transformed into a clay sculpture exhibition of the "Rent Collection Courtyard" in Dayi, Sichuan, by the Red Guards of the Beijing Academy of Arts. Some people suggested that two large placards should be built in the Taihedian Square, and the hall must be more than 38 meters high to crush the "royal spirit"; The emperor's throne should be sealed, and a statue of a peasant holding a gun should be molded......

The situation was pressing, and Premier Zhou ordered the Forbidden City to be closed, and he escaped by luck.

Two years later, all the "rebels" and "royalists" in the Palace Museum were sent to the "Wuqi Cadre School" in Xianning County, Hubei Province, to receive re-education from the poor and middle peasants. Wang Luosheng, an archaeological researcher at the Forbidden City, said goodbye to his wife and children, took a two-day and night-boring tank train, and began his career in the cowshed. Every day's learning is to farm, pick dung, herd cattle, dig wells, ask for instructions in the morning, report in the evening, and sing quotations and songs. Wang Luosheng is in his thirties, born in field archaeology, loves to play basketball, is tall and healthy, and is not like a weak scholar. It's only been two months, and he has a rickety back, and he has early hair.

In the middle of the night, Wang Luosheng was taken out of bed for a meeting. In the land temple transformed into a cowshed, there are more than a dozen old men, including calligraphy and painting research masters, Shang and Zhou bronze scholars, and top porcelain experts, each of whom is famous.

The so-called ideological summary meeting is criticism and self-criticism, "punishing the former and the latter, treating the sick and saving people". Fortunately, they are all pretentious intellectuals, and although the literati are inferior to each other, no one will fire at each other on such occasions, so they can only criticize themselves. Some people say that the most unfortunate thing in this life was to dig the tomb of Emperor Wanli in 1956......

On the beam of the broken temple, a big mouse snorted and jumped by. The barn was silent, as if it were bound by something, tying a dead knot in everyone's hands, feet, and mouths. In the middle of the night, near freezing, light snow fell sparsely outside the paper-paste window. The smell of cow dung temporarily resisted the cold that penetrated into the bone marrow.

Only an old man cowered in the corner, closed his eyes and recuperated, unmoved. This person is neither a scholar nor an expert, Wang Luosheng doesn't even remember his name, everyone just calls him "old carpenter".

It was Wang Luosheng's turn to explain his thoughts: "Comrade team leader, my grandfather is Wang Jiawei, a professor at Peking University. In the year of the 918 Incident, my father excavated the ancient tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty in Luoyang, and my mother gave birth to me at the archaeological site and named me Wang Luosheng. After graduating from university, I was assigned to the Institute of Archaeology. ”

He told three grave-digging stories in a row, all of which took place in the Tang Dynasty tomb in Shaanxi......

"Qianling - the joint tomb of Tang Gaozong Li Zhi and Empress Wu Zetian, the only joint tomb of two emperors in China. In the turmoil at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Wen Tao, the envoy of Yaozhou Jiedu, dug up the eighteen Tang Tombs in Guanzhong, but did not open the Qianling Tombs. The ancient book says, 'Qianling cannot be approached, and there will be wind and rain when it is near'. Comrade Guo Moruo believes that if the Qianling Tomb can be opened, it will be worth a hundred times that of the Dingling Tomb of the Wanli Emperor. 100 volumes of "Vertical Arch Collection", 10 volumes of "Golden Wheel Collection", Wu Zetian's real portrait, and Shangguan Wan'er's handwriting will surely see the light of day. Guo Lao once wrote a poem, 'There is no word, the monument is still there, and sixty kings are standing in the open air. The crown Li Tang cultural relics are sheng, and the empress is intelligent. Huangchaogou is unharmed in the mausoleum, and the remnants of the Shude Ji are not passed on. Wait until the reopening day of the Hidden Palace, and the case will be renewed. ’”

"You intellectuals, your memory is amazingly good!" The head of the inspection team spat on it.

"Guo Lao wants to dig up the Qianling Tomb because he wants to touch the big secret of Chinese history and overturn the case for Empress Wu Zetian. In 1960, the Qianling Excavation Committee submitted a plan to the State Council. But Dingling dug up so many moths, Premier Zhou instructed: This matter is left for posterity to complete. Having said that, the Qianling Excavation Committee still seconded elite soldiers from all over the country, such as me. There are two princes buried around the Qianling Tomb, three kings, four princesses, and eight ministers to accompany the burial. Considering that I have experience in digging graves, the excavation committee asked me to take the lead in digging the tomb of Princess Yongtai next door. ”

"This Princess Yongtai is named Li Xianhui, the granddaughter of Wu Zetian, the seventh daughter of Li Xian of Tang Zhongzong, and Queen Wei. She is married to Wu Yanji, the son of Wu Chenghei. And Wu Chenghei is Wu Zetian's nephew, and this marriage is a kiss. Shortly after the seventeen-year-old newlywed, Wu Yanji offended Wu Zetian's male favorite Zhang Yizhi, and the "New Tang Book" said that the young couple was ordered to be hanged. The old shameless bitch killed her own granddaughter and nephew for the sake of face. ”

The Tang history expert in the cowshed interjected, and the inspection team leader was stunned when he heard it, as if he had witnessed blood and tears in the deep palace.

"I found a man from prison – a grave robber. The man was young and had a severed finger on his left hand, but he was very experienced in robbing tombs. We asked him to survey the scene and found the grave. This is a slope earthen cave brick chamber tomb, I was the first to drill into the tomb road, and saw the murals on both sides of the green dragon, white tiger, the Tang Dynasty warrior honor guard and weapon racks with bright armor, and lifelike pictures of ladies. I found a thief hole, and a skeleton, buried upright in the earth. Tufuzi estimated that this was a tomb robber who divided the spoils unevenly, and hacked one to death in infighting, but he could also die from ......"

"What did you die of?"

Wang Luosheng swallowed his saliva, his eyes hit the "old carpenter" in the corner, his eyes seemed to be pricked by a needle, and he could only swallow the three words that had reached his mouth: "I opened Princess Yongtai's palace-style stone coffin with my own hands, but unfortunately it was swept by tomb robbers, and the treasure was gone." I dug up the skull and mandible, as well as eleven pelvic fragments. After restoration, combined with the epitaph, it was found that the princess did not hang herself, but died of childbirth due to a small pelvis. A seventeen-year-old girl, the pelvis is not fully developed. On the night the coffin was opened, I dreamed of Princess Yongtai. She was wearing the clothes in the mural, her body was plump, it was estimated that she was pregnant with a fetus in her womb, and her face was still a young girl, as beautiful as a peach and plum. She didn't resent me, but let out a silver bell-like laugh and took me by the hand and walked out of the tomb. At that time, I had just turned 30 and was unmarried, and I couldn't help but fall in love with her. I still smell of her skeleton between my fingers. She took off her shirt and wrapped her arms around my back, dragging me into the Ecstasy Sano tent......"

The more Wang Luosheng talked, the more he entered the play, and Bai Juyi's "cloud sideburns and flowers shook in golden steps, and the hibiscus tent was warm for the Spring Festival". A room full of experts and scholars, the equally thirsty inspection team leader, listened attentively, his mouth was dry, and he kept swallowing, completely forgetting that this was a spring dream of an erotic story.

"Oops." He slapped himself, "I'm spreading feudal superstition." The ancients said that this is a dream, and a woman who dies of pregnancy for the first time always has a grudge to give birth to a child, so she will break into a young man's dream in the hope of having another son. It is estimated that in the Netherworld Mansion, Princess Yongtai has given birth to this child. ”

"Death to beauty, you boy! I a seventeen-year-old princess in my dream, you better go to the underworld to be a concubine! ”

Wang Luosheng let the inspection team leader scold him, and said to himself: "After digging the tomb of Princess Yongtai, I aimed at Bailuyuan in the southeast of the suburbs of Xi'an, and buried a little prince - the cousin of Princess Yongtai, who is also the grandson of Wu Zetian. ”

"Others are experts in calligraphy and painting, jade, and porcelain, but you are a veritable gravedigger expert!" The inspection team leader sneered again, "Well, I like to hear it." To deal with these feudal landlord classes, do not be polite, not only dig their ancestral graves, but also whip and burn their corpses, so as to avenge the ancient working people! Wang Luosheng, you have to go down! ”

"Tufuzi advised me not to excavate, there are ancient tombs of the Han and Tang dynasties under Bailuyuan, so it is better to change the planer. I'm angry, are we really grave robbers? Or a burrowing vole? The purpose of digging the tomb of the king of Runan County was to dig up the tomb of his grandmother Wu Zetian. Tufuzi also said that this tomb is a ghost gate, and since ancient times, many heroes and heroes have been buried in it, and it is said that it is the Waterloo and Stalingrad of the tomb robbery world - I summarized it myself. The night before the grave was dug up, Tufuzi fled to the nearby Zhongnan Mountain, as if there was really some fairyland on that mountain. We continue to dig graves......"

"Comrade, it's my turn!"

A neutral voice rang out from the corner of the cowshed.

The old carpenter, who hadn't spoken all night, stood up and interrupted Wang Luosheng. All eyes looked at it in unison - the "old carpenter" was slightly taller than Wang Luosheng, with a high nose and bright eyes. He was wearing a gray cotton jacket, long past his retirement age, his hair was not bald, half black and half white, and he had a beard. When it comes to the May Seven cadre school, anyone has to be unkempt.

In addition to first-class experts and scholars, the Palace Museum has also raised hundreds of skilled craftsmen, some of whom were originally descendants of craftsmen used by the royal family. The palace of more than 500 years, even if the emperor and eunuchs do not live, they are still indispensable for these people to maintain, otherwise it would have been ruined. The craftsmen of the Forbidden City are divided into woodware, clocks, lacquerware, bronzeware, and ceramics. Only this "old carpenter" sword goes off the rails, not only the carpenter works, there is nothing in the Forbidden City that he can't repair - the bronze lion of the Taihe Gate, the crane and the turtle of the Taihe Palace, the dougong of the main hall, the emperor's throne, the spine beast and the owl kiss on the roof, and even all kinds of strange tricks and tricks paid by foreigners, such as the copper gilded elephant chariot music clock, the wooden frame of the glass plate, the Swiss music box......

"Then you say, old carpenter, don't let everyone wait until dawn and delay tomorrow's construction period." I've heard a few meat jokes from archaeologists tonight, and the team leader is not taboo, "Did you steal Emperor Guangxu's treasure, or did you tease Concubine Zhen's ghost?" ”

The old carpenter, who had been shrinking up, stretched out the soles of his feet and said, "I thought you weren't interested in these old stories. Oops, wait for the old man to stretch his feet. ”

On a snowy night in December 1969, Wuqi Cadre School in Xianning, Hubei Province. The elite of Chinese history and archaeology, trapped in a ruined temple to confess their thoughts, turned the night into Zhang Dai's night boat. A man named the old carpenter, squinting his eyes, saw the world spinning rapidly, in the dark depths of history, the antlers were snow-white, and the flames were churning......

"Tonight, what I want to tell the big guy is the story of the tomb beast in this town, talking about the year of Gengzi sixty-nine years ago......"