The lid of the box slowly opened automatically, and there was only a space the size of a little thumb inside, which was cushioned by Bai Juan, and in the middle of Bai Juan, there was a bronze fish gilded.

The workmanship of this copper fish is very fine, each scale is polished with edges and corners, and on the eyebrows of the fish, there is a sea snake coiled on each side, which is vivid and lifelike.

I looked up and down this fish, and felt a little puzzled, antique gold is my specialty, but this fish, I have no concept at all, but the craft of this fish belongs to the middle and upper class, at that time should not be very valuable, in contrast, used to hold it in the purple gold box, much more valuable.

Historically, it has only happened that bargains are packed in expensive boxes under some special conditions, such as the special symbolic value of this fish.

But I can't think of what this thing is for. Talismans? It's impossible, it's too small, it's not imposing at all; Token? It is also impossible, there is no text on it, and it is too easy to fake. Looking at the shape and volume of this thing, the only reasonable use is to decorate musical instruments and weapons, but there are no punches or rope prints on it.

I was puzzled, remembering that the third uncle was also very obsessed with this kind of thing, and decided to ask him for advice. He may not know more than I do, but with his experience, he may be able to deduce something.

Make up your mind, I took the copper fish and knocked on the door of the third uncle's room, and the third uncle saw that I was sneaky, and let me in with a puzzled face.

After I sat down, I didn't talk nonsense, and just told me exactly how I happened to open the maze box just now.

The third uncle listened to me and looked at the copper fish in my hand carefully, and was surprised again and again. What exactly is it for?

The third uncle said: "You came to ask me, I really asked, there are no more than a hundred people in China who know this thing, and among these hundred, there are only about a dozen, which can be said to be an absolute rarity." ”

When I heard the third uncle say this, I was so excited, I said that I could really eat a gold ring from cow dung, and I didn't expect the things in the broken box to be so valuable, so I hurriedly asked him how much he could sell for it.

The third uncle shook his head and said to me: "Saying that this fish is a rare treasure does not mean that this fish is valuable, but that its archaeological value is very high, this fish is very similar to the cultural relics unearthed in an archaeological expedition twenty years ago, there may be some kind of connection, if it is handed over to the archaeological team at that time, it can almost be said to be a priceless treasure, but if you want to make a fortune from it, it is better to die this heart." ”

I said in my heart that this is not for nothing, we are not archaeology, what is the use of archaeological value, I can't take this thing to the cultural relics management office to sell.

I saw that the third uncle's face had changed, and I felt that there might be something hidden behind this, so I asked what happened back then, this thing was brought out of King Lu's palace, could it be that the things of that year had something to do with King Lu's palace?

The third uncle shook his head and refused to say, "I don't want to mention it again after so many years, in short, I tell you very responsibly that the appearance of this fish in King Lu's palace should be just a coincidence, and it has nothing to do with King Lu." At that time, the information had already been destroyed by a fire, and these were all destined. ”

I listened to it depressed, I came to ask you about the matter, you don't say it, forget it, and make such a bunch of seductive words, don't I want to know more? So he resorted to trickery, grinding hard and foaming, and he had to tell me.

The third uncle was annoyed by my questioning, so he had to reveal a little to me:

The third uncle was the leader of the archaeological team for a period of time in the early years, and he was an expert in field archaeology, and he was good at dealing with those strange ancient tombs that did not conform to the habits of tombs.

Tombs have been unique human activities since human beings realize death, and their history is equal to the history of human beings, and the tombs of various periods contain a large amount of information about human life at that time, including all aspects of clothing, food, housing and transportation.

However, not every dynasty will use the burial habits of their dynasty in the same way, there are many feudal ruling classes, their tombs are very special, it is completely impossible to use our daily experience to deduce, their tomb construction technology, is also the ultimate secret, for thousands of years only a very small number of royal craftsmen, qualified to learn.

Now we know, the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is an example, these tombs have quite a record of the world, but no one has ever cracked the structure inside, some people say that the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, 1,500 meters deep, the underground palace is hidden in Lishan, in fact, they all guess that the real structure of the mausoleum, if you don't go in person, even if you are given a floor plan, you can't understand, the third uncle's favorite in this life is to enter these ancient tombs that no one understands, but there are not many emperors in history who can build a lot of construction and specialize, This kind of grave is hard to come by, and even if he finds some information, he can't find the location of the grave, and he has never had the opportunity to show his talents.

Until 1984, archaeologists in the Xisha Islands, found a rare underwater tomb, the age and the identity of the tomb owner can not be verified, this tomb was accidentally discovered when the tomb robbers blew up the shipwreck, the surrounding seabed is a mess, there are more than a dozen blasting points, the sealing soil of the tomb is almost completely destroyed, the outer tomb wall has several collapses, but the tomb robbers have never found a way to enter this ancient tomb.

Judging from the huge stone blocks found around the cemetery, this tomb should have been built on a large ship first, and then chiseled through the bottom of the ship, sinking the ship tomb to the bottom of the sea together, such a burial method is unprecedented, to have such strength, the owner of the tomb should be a very prominent figure in those years, but because of the inability to enter the tomb, the specific person has never been able to verify, at that time the relationship with Vietnam was tense, can not be built there, the archaeological team had to look for a hidden entrance from other places.

The cleaning work has been carried out, the outer layer of the collapsed tomb wall has been cleaned up, the scene inside the tomb wall shows the special structure of this ancient tomb, archaeologists behind the collapsed tomb wall, found a second waterproof wall sealed with plaster, and the conclusion deduced from this shocked the world - the inside of this ancient tomb was sealed.

There was air in the ancient tomb, which no one thought in advance, even an expert like my grandfather, had never seen a hollow tomb isolated under water, all the work was forced to stop, everyone carefully entered the gap between the outer wall and the inner wall, and found that there was a one-foot-wide water entrance on the inner wall, just enough for a person to creep into, and he did not see the end when he entered more than ten meters deep, but found that there was a four-cornered lion head copper box lying in the corner of the tomb, and after opening it, there was a silk cloth wrapped in a thing, It is a snake eyebrow copper fish, the copper fish is gilded all over the body, and there are two coiled sea snakes on the eyebrows, the craftsmanship is meticulous and lifelike.

Experts from all over the archaeological team knew that this was a rare treasure and probably had a very important symbolic meaning, but how could this box appear in the tomb? Everyone is puzzled, and there are two possibilities for expert analysis, one is that they accidentally fell there when carrying the burial goods, and the other is that the tomb robbers with great powers have entered the ancient tomb and accidentally fell when they came out. Judging by the narrowness of the tunnel, the latter is highly likely.

In the four-cornered lion head copper box, a lot of important things were also found, among which there was a piece of white silk cloth used to wrap the copper fish, on which a line of the list book "xx inner house xx" was written, from which it was inferred that the age of the ancient tomb was Ming, and there was another piece of rice paper, folded into four squares, and when it could be taken out, it was made a mistake and turned into a ball of powder, which was deplorable.

At that time, the third uncle was the second batch of national experts to be convened, responsible for studying the method of entering the ancient tomb, but due to the general environment, there were many constructive opinions that were inconvenient to put forward, and the research was at an impasse for a long time.

This kind of "shipwreck burial submarine tomb" The third uncle has a little research, and the method of construction, he also knows the ** of the ten, but the scale is so huge, and there is still air in it, but it is a mess, according to the records of the people who entered, he can determine that the four-cornered lion head copper box is left by tomb robbers, and the tomb passage on the inner wall must be a key to entering the tomb.

This so-called shipwreck burial submarine tomb, if you want to enter the tomb, you must open the tomb wall, but once it is opened, the sea water will pour in and cause an unimaginable chain reaction.

In the process of research, someone proposed to dig a tunnel at the bottom of the tomb to enter (the third uncle thought that this person may be his peer), but digging to the bottom of the sea fifteen meters deep still did not find the bottom bricks, and how long to dig down, no one can estimate, after the exploration shovel positioning, the soil on the bottom of the sea here is not the original sand of Xisha, but the white plaster mud near the official kiln in Fujian, the entire range of sealed soil reaches more than 7,000 square meters, according to the proportion, want to go down to the bottom of the tomb, the technology at that time can not be done.

After more than a month of repeated deliberation and research, they never came up with a practical solution, and the international situation began to be tense, the archaeological team was forced to evacuate, the ancient tomb was re-sealed, and all the research materials and location data were handed over to the government, and this matter disappeared from history.

Later, the third uncle learned that several experts at that time secretly left some information and did some research in private for a long time, but it is unknown what the results were.

The third uncle said to me: "Your copper fish, at that time more than 60 experts have seen it, I don't know what it is for, and then after it was transferred to the central government, I heard that it was a study of some clues, we did not get the briefing at that time, I don't know whether these news were detained, or it was false, this matter passed like this, and no one asked, and then the information was sent to the National Archives, I heard that it was locked in the basement, I was going to open up the relationship when the time came, but I didn't expect a fire a few years ago all burned out, If you want to know what's going on, I'm afraid it's not that easy right now. ”

I asked the third uncle, "You just gave up on such a strange tomb?" With your temper, even if you can't go, I see that you can't help it in private, I see that you must know something, so don't sell it, I promise not to say it even if you kill your head. ”

The third uncle smiled meaningfully and said very resolutely: "No, I won't say the next thing even if I bring it to the grave." ”

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