One night eight years ago, Lao Zhao and Master had just dug a thief hole in the night. Lao Zhao's master is called Zhang Jide, who is a well-known dragon hunting master in the industry, and has high attainments in feng shui.

Lao Zhao said that he also learned some things from the master in feng shui, but at most he learned a few scratches. This time, they were eyeing the tomb of a Ming Dynasty prince. After digging the hole, Lao Zhao took the lead and went into the hole, and at this time, Lao Zhao was not as timid as he was when he first entered the industry. The space at the end of the cave is slightly larger, and in front of it is a blue brick wall.

Lao Zhao inserted the crowbar into the brick joint, and as soon as he used skill, he pried off a brick. Then he broke off a few bricks with his bare hands, and a black hole appeared in front of him.

Lao Zhao turned back to the master and signaled to the master, both of them were wearing simple gas masks, so they couldn't speak, and could only communicate by gestures. Crawling in from the brick hole, Lao Zhao stood up, shone the surroundings with a flashlight, and found that the tomb was relatively well preserved, and there was no sign of collapse.

The vault is supported by four large stone pillars. The roots of the tree squeezed in through the cracks in the bricks and hung from the dome, looking very eerie. There is no coffin in this burial chamber that enters, and there are no extra burial goods, only a stone tablet stands in the middle, which should be an epitaph.

There is a burial passage behind the stele that leads to the Backrooms. Being able to build such a luxurious mausoleum shows that the identity of the owner of the tomb is very prominent, and the burial goods will naturally be very rich. Zhang Jide lit a candle and lit up the space around him for a meter or two. The burial chamber has been deprived of air circulation for a long time, and although it has been connected to the outside, the oxygen content is still very small, and the flame of the candle flickered. If the flame of the candle goes out suddenly, it means that there is not enough oxygen and you need to leave the burial chamber immediately and wait for better air circulation. Old man Zhang held a candle and motioned for Lao Zhao to enter the tomb and go to the back room.

The two men walked one after the other, and walked to the back room. Tomb robbers do not believe in evil, but in order to prevent theft, the tomb owner has arranged a lot of mechanisms in the tomb, but it can easily kill the tomb robbers.

Lao Zhao and Master were half-squatting, ready to exert their strength at any time. Lao Zhao walked in front with a probe in his hand, gently tapping the tomb bricks on the ground, and advancing like a blind man. A skilled person can strike a tomb brick and tell if there is a mechanism below it by the echo of the tomb brick. If the echo is crisp, it is grounded and you can step on it safely, but if the echo is dull, there must be a trap or trap activation device underneath.

Knocking on the tomb bricks all the way to the back room, Lao Zhao put away the probe in his hand. The probe rod used by the tomb robbers is made of stainless steel, folded or extended by the live buckle on the rod, and the rod head also has a wedge, if necessary, two probe rods can be joined together, its length can be up to five meters, and it can be put away in the bag when not in use, which is very convenient to carry.

The probability of the existence of a mechanism in the Backrooms is much smaller, after all, the tomb is so large, and the probability of stepping on the mechanism is about the same as eating rice grains in noodles. The scale of the back room is much larger than the front room, there are nearly 100 square meters, there is not a single pillar in the entire tomb, I really don't know why such a large tomb will not collapse after so many years, it really makes people feel that the ancients were skillful.

There is an ear chamber on the left, right and back of the burial chamber, which is used to store funerary goods. The coffin comes out of the center of the burial chamber, and the coffin bed made of a single piece of white marble is very heavy. There is only a coffin on the coffin bed, and there is no coffin. Diagonally opposite the coffin bed, there are four stone beasts. Lao Zhao took a few steps forward, only to find that it was four stone sheep. The stone sheep's buttocks are facing the coffin bed, the head is facing outward, and the large horns on the head are curved all the way to the back of the head. Shi Yang's mouth opened slightly, as if he was laughing. This made Lao Zhao feel cold behind him, the shape of this sheep was too weird.

When Lao Zhao said this, he was interrupted by the pit, and the pit said, "What is this sheep for?" Could it be the pleasant goat, the beautiful goat, the lazy sheep and the boiling sheep of the green grassland, guarding the tomb of the village chief slow sheep. ”

Lao Zhao listened, opened his mouth and didn't know what to say, I laughed wildly in my heart, and I didn't know what I was thinking about every day in the head of the pit, this head was simply a pit. I asked Lao Zhao to ignore the pit and continue to talk.

Lao Zhao also encountered this kind of decoration for the first time, and it is indeed rare to have sheep in the tomb. Old man Zhang explained to him that the sheep is a kind of ancient mythical beast, and there is a story of saving the suffering in the legend, and the sound and shape of the "sheep" are "auspicious", and the stone sheep placed in the tomb also has the meaning of praying for the auspicious wishes of the tomb owner on the way to life.

The two of them ignored these stone statues and coffins for the time being, but went to the ear chamber on the right along the wall of the tomb chamber, and there were some daily necessities in the ear chamber, probably the things used by the tomb owner during his lifetime, and a few large wooden boxes, the wooden boxes had already decayed, Lao Zhao gently opened a mouthful, and found that it was full of silk and satin. Hundreds of years later, these things can still be preserved. There are two ever-bright lamps on the wall of the ear room, and Lao Zhao holds them and twists them lightly to find that they don't move, which means that the lights are not connected to the mechanism, and they are not the secret room switches.

Lao Zhao twisted the wick and lit it, the lamp was extinguished soon after the tomb door was closed, and most of the lamp oil was left, but the wick had been burned to slag. Coming out of the right ear chamber and going around to the rear ear chamber. In the rear chamber are placed weapons, some armor, marching tents, shields, etc., which shows that the tomb owner lived a life on horseback. In the middle of the ear chamber was a table against the wall, and on each side of the table stood a pottery maid, with a sword in his eyes, lifelike. On the table was a sandalwood frame dragging a sword, which should have been the sword used by the tomb owner during his lifetime. Lao Zhao wanted to pull it out and take a look, but he gave up the idea as soon as he thought it would be prudent.

The two lamps were also lit, and the two men moved from the back ear chamber to the left ear chamber. In the left transept were two wooden chests, the openings of which were not closed, filled with gold and silver jewels, as well as gold and silver utensils. Lao Zhao picked up a gold bottle and looked at the bottom of the bottle, which had the model of Yongle Year of the Ming Dynasty on the bottom. In addition to the chests, there were dozens of potters in the ear chamber, all dressed as maids and domestic slaves. There are big and small pottery maids, the big ones are like real people, and the small ones are only twenty or thirty centimeters. Lao Zhao bypassed these potters and lit the ever-bright lamps on the wall behind them, and where the lights shone, there was nothing but these terracotta figurines.

Obviously, these things were not what Lao Zhao and the others wanted, and the two of them returned to the main burial chamber again. The only thing I haven't looked at now is the inside of the coffin. In fact, the most important funerary goods are often placed in the coffin with the owner of the tomb. Especially for things like jade, high-grade jade is used as a plaything for dignitaries and nobles, and they are worn with them during their lifetimes, and they enter the coffin with the corpse after death. Ancient people believed that jade had an antiseptic effect on the corpse and could preserve the corpse for a long time. An example of this is Liu Sheng's golden-threaded jade clothes unearthed in Mancheng, Hebei.

In fact, the jade clothes are not only gold threads, but also silver threads and copper threads, which are mourning clothes for the prince and important ministers. However, these jade clothes did not play a role in protecting the corpse, but attracted a large number of tomb robbers. Therefore, after the Han Dynasty, jade clothes were rarely used, and then gradually became extinct. There are also people who have jade beads in their mouths after death, and they are also believed to have an antiseptic effect on the corpse. and the use of jade to make various shapes to plug the orifices of corpses in order to prevent the "qi" from escaping from these places.

Lao Zhao and Master returned to the coffin bed and exchanged glances with each other. Old man Zhang took out three pillars of incense from his bag and lit them, held the incense and bowed respectfully to the coffin bed three times, and then inserted the incense into the brick crack in front of the coffin. Although tomb robbers steal the treasures inside the tomb, they will never be disrespectful to the tomb owner, and will try to avoid destroying the tomb owner's body unless it is a last resort or out of revenge.

After inserting the incense, the two people put the gas mask half-buckled on their heads for the convenience of communication, so that they could also get a better vision. The two stepped onto the coffin bed one after the other. When I walked in, I saw that this was a good golden silk nan wooden coffin, although it had gone through hundreds of years, there was no sign of **. The two of them circled around the wooden coffin, and no traces of mechanism or splicing were found, and the whole coffin was like a complete piece of Nanmu naturally generated. Lao Zhao clasped his hand and knocked on the coffin, but no echo was heard, which showed the thickness of the coffin. Nanmu is hard, and it is impossible to penetrate it from the outside, so you can only pry open the lid of the coffin. Lao Zhao turned over on the top of the coffin and reached out to take the crowbar handed over by Old Man Zhang. The cat walked cautiously forward on the lid of the coffin. The coffin lid is a zone with many organs, and it is possible to return to the west if you step on a flap without paying attention, so Lao Zhao walked on it with extra care. After confirming that the lid of the coffin was normal, a hanging heart was put down. The next question is how to remove the lid. The density of the golden silk nanmu is very large, and it is wishful thinking to move with the strength of two people.

In fact, tomb robbers will encounter this kind of problem, tomb robbers are not dozens of people shouting and working together, even if there are dozens of people, they can't be used in the catacombs. Therefore, tomb robbers have a set of unique skills to move mountains. The so-called moving mountains is to move away the stone doors, stone coffins, and sealing stones in those tombs. This is not the same thing as stealing stone statues, which are purely based on the strategy of being overnumbered, or simply using machines. This is also why people who steal stone statues are not considered to be popular by serious tomb robbers.

Lao Zhao took out the rope from the backpack, pulled a loophole and put it on one end of the coffin lid, and then stretched the rope until the other end hung down. The opening of the coffin relies on ingenuity, and ingenuity must have a focus point, and then it is completed with the help of simple tools. After tying it, Old Man Zhang nodded at Lao Zhao, Lao Zhao took out the kettle, drank it himself, and then poured the rest of the water on the rope. Soggy rope, better toughness. After getting these, Lao Zhao jumped down from the coffin lid, and the two people held a crowbar, stirred the two ropes together, and then kept twisting, and the two ropes were tighter and tighter, and in the end, the two people were almost exhausted, only to hear a creak, and the coffin lid was covered with one end of the rope, and finally warped. Lao Zhao saw the stitches, stuffed one end of the crowbar into the crack that had just opened, and with the force of both hands, the gap between the coffin lid opened was even bigger. Lao Zhao exerted force from one end, and Old Man Zhang held a crowbar to start from both sides. No nails were added to the lid of the coffin, but wooden wedges were made on the lid and body. This kind of wooden wedge is similar to the current expansion screw, and once it is driven in, it is almost impossible to pull it out.

With the cooperation of the two people, it took more than ten minutes to pry the coffin lid completely up. The two of them worked together to push the coffin lid aside, and Old Man Zhang turned over and jumped on it, stepping on the edge of the coffin and looking down. I saw a corpse lying flat in the coffin, the corpse was wearing armor, it should be a male corpse. Because the corpse was covered in armor, all that could be seen was the face. After a long period of confinement, the corpse's face was suddenly exposed to the air, and the corpse's face was drying up at a rate visible to the naked eye, making it look even more terrifying. Old man Zhang took out the probe rod, gently knocked on the bottom of the coffin, and after confirming that there was no abnormality, he jumped into the coffin and took off a jade pendant from the waist of the corpse. The jade pendant is turquoise, and the shape is a double dragon playing with pearls. As the main body of the jade pendant, the two dragons are intertwined and coiled, and the dragons are against each other, holding out a dragon ball. This kind of jade pendant is not a rare thing, but for some reason it was also brought into the coffin by the tomb owner, thinking that it was a beloved thing during his lifetime. Old man Zhang threw the jade pendant to Lao Zhao, touched the body of the corpse a few times, and found that there was no longer anything. Then greeted Lao Zhao: Pick up the corpse. Lifting is the removal of the body from the coffin, or the sitting of the body on its back so that the burial goods on the back of the body can be viewed.

Old man Zhang is now asking Lao Zhao to raise the corpse, so as to check the mouth of the deceased. Because he noticed that although the corpse's face was oxidized and shriveled, the cheeks were still bulging, indicating that there was something in the corpse's mouth. Lao Zhao moved behind his master and pulled out two ropes from his hands. One section of the rope was grasped in Lao Zhao's hands, and the other end was tied with two flying tiger claws. The Flying Tiger Claw is a three-toothed grappling hook made of stainless steel, which is tied to a rope to grasp heavy objects, assist in climbing, and can also be used to lift corpses. Old man Zhang took the flying tiger claw, hooked the corpse's pipa bone, and shouted: Get up! Lao Zhao used his hands hard, retracted it backwards, and with the sound of creaking bones, the corpse started in response, facing Old Man Zhang, and the whole scene was full of weirdness. The next question is how to break the mouth of a dead man.

Breaking the mouth of a dead person is different from breaking the mouth of a living person, as long as you do what you like in the living, pat his ass, and give two generous gifts, your mouth will naturally open. The dead have no desires, and wearing a top hat becomes a. Old man Zhang took out a pair of rubber gloves from his pocket and put them on to avoid contact with the corpse's skin. Holding the top of the head with his left hand and dragging the lower jaw bone of the corpse with his right hand, the chin of the corpse drooped down, and the entire mouth was revealed. Old man Zhang reached out and took out a jade seal from the corpse's mouth, picked it up and was about to take a closer look. Suddenly, there was a gurgling sound in the front room, and the two of them now turned their backs to the corridor, and together they turned their heads to look at the corridor leading to the front room, knowing that something was wrong. Old man Zhang and Lao Zhao exchanged glances, ready to retreat, and as soon as they turned around, a puff of black smoke from the mouth of the corpse opposite sprayed on Old Man Zhang's face. Old man Zhang secretly screamed badly, and hurriedly covered his mouth and nose with his hands, but it was too late, and some of the poisonous gas was still inhaled.

It turned out that behind the seal he had just taken out, there was a mechanism hidden in the throat of the corpse, and when the seal was removed, it would trigger the mechanism to release poison gas. Lao Zhao let go of the rope and let go of the corpse, but found that the corpse was not lying flat, but still sitting up slightly. Looking back, the corpse's hair was tied to the stone pillow behind it, and the corpse lay flat on the stone pillow just to keep the mechanism closed, and once the corpse was moved, there was no weight on the stone pillow, and it would bounce up to open the mechanism. The two of them were careless, they didn't see the mechanism all the way, and they didn't take precautions, and the tomb owner actually ruthlessly designed the mechanism into the coffin, so that his body also became a part of the mechanism, which shows that he also wants to protect the burial goods at all costs.

The two didn't have time to delay, and one turned over and jumped out of the Nanmu coffin. As soon as he landed on the coffin bed, he heard the sound of arrows in his ears and remembered it. I saw that the four stone sheep that were originally facing the coffin bed had now turned their heads to the coffin bed, and from the mouth of the stone sheep, crossbow arrows were being fired. The crossbow bolt was fired from the mouth of the stone sheep, and the four stone sheep happened to surround this place into a shooting range. If it were an ordinary person, they would definitely be beaten into a sieve in an instant, but these two people were not in a hurry, jumped on the edge of the coffin again, stepped on the edge of the coffin, turned 360 degrees in the air, and landed smoothly on the ground a few feet away.

was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but Old Man Zhang fell to the ground with a thud. It turned out that he had just dodged the crossbow arrows in the mouth of the stone sheep, but unexpectedly, in the beast head carved in the coffin bed, the crossbow arrows were also being fired outward. The direction of the arrow is exactly the opposite, with the stone sheep firing inwards and the beast head firing outwards. The crossbow arrows fired by the beast's head are extremely hidden, and the arrows fly close to the underside, specializing in the next three paths. Lao Zhao scolded his mother in his heart, and threw a backpack on his body to the coffin bed. The backpack was just the right size, covering the beast's head tightly, and only listening to the crossbow arrows hitting the backpack and making a popping sound.

Picking up the old man Zhang, Lao Zhao found that the arrow was hitting the master's heel, fortunately there were shoes to block it, the arrow was not deep, if it entered directly from the heel, I am afraid it would pierce the foot bone. With Old Man Zhang's skills, it shouldn't be a problem to dodge this arrow, but the sudden sluggishness of the reaction may be related to the puff of black smoke just now. Pulling out the arrow on his foot, Lao Zhao helped the old man Zhang limp to the front room, intending to return the same way, but before entering the front room, under the illumination of the flashlight, Lao Zhao found that the original epitaph stele was slowly turning, and black smoke was coming out under the stele, and the bricks on the dome began to fall down, smashing into the ground one by one. It turned out that the location of the thief hole had long been buried by bricks.

The speed at which the black smoke filled the air was very fast, and it only took a moment to spread towards the corridor. It was impossible to go back the way they came, and the two men hurriedly turned around and ran back to the back room. There are only three ear chambers in the back room, and there is no time to hesitate, Lao Zhao helped Old Man Zhang to run to the farthest back ear chamber, the back ear chamber is the farthest away from the corridor, and the time when the black smoke can reach is the latest.

After entering the ear room, Lao Zhao put down the old man Zhang, picked up the battle axe on the weapon rack, cut a brick hole in the wall with a few axes, threw down the axe, took out the steel shovel from the remaining backpack, and quickly began to dig the hole. Old man Zhang was not idle, he moved the figure at the table to the door, took the shield in the corner of the wall, and covered the already tattered tent to block the door, hoping to delay the entry of black smoke. As the black smoke became thicker and thicker, the old man found that the lantern in the tomb was gradually extinguished, and it seemed that the main function of this smoke was to consume the air in the tomb, so that even if the tomb robbers were not killed by crossbow arrows, they would suffocate to death in the tomb due to lack of oxygen.

Old man Zhang told Lao Zhao his thoughts, and when Lao Zhao thought of the tragic image of being suffocated, the shovel in his hand picked up faster, and after a while, a hole appeared on the wall, and at this time, black smoke had begun to seep into the ear chamber, and the two of them already felt difficult to breathe. Lao Zhao beckoned to Old Man Zhang, and the two of them drilled into the robbery hole they had just fought back, blocked the hole with soil, and dug all the way to the ground. After about ten minutes, the two men finally returned to the surface, burrowed out of the hole, and lay on the ground, breathing in the air.

After returning from the tomb of King Ming, Old Man Zhang fell seriously ill and was almost on the verge of death. Later, he finally picked up a life, but he was too deeply affected by the corpse poison, his body was very weak, and his foot shot by a crossbow arrow gradually became incapacitated, so he never went out again.

However, Old Man Zhang was not idle at home, and kept studying the seal he brought out of the tomb, which was the one that Lao Zhao showed me yesterday. Helplessly, there was a serious lack of information, and finally Old Man Zhang discovered the secret in the seal, but he didn't know how to decipher it.

Three years ago, Old Man Zhang died with regret, and before he died, he left the seal to Lao Zhao, and told him to solve the mystery of the jade seal.