The White Lotus Sect used to mine here, and judging from the scale of the legacy, this mine was definitely not small at that time.

A considerable amount of manpower and material resources were invested, and even rudimentary human-powered minecarts were built, and "tracks" were drilled for them to travel in a complex cavern environment.

This shows that this mine is by no means simple for the White Lotus Sect, and should be a very important asset.

And as for what exactly are the mineral deposits here......

In a pit, the light of the lamp reflects the crystalline colors at its bottom, which are some ancient sediments.

Li Heng half-squatted and reached down and touched these shiny silver-white powders, some of which were crushed into his fingertips, and Li Heng put them in front of his nose and sniffed them.

"Nitrate ......"

He stood up and held up the lamp to amplify the power, illuminating the surrounding environment, one by one earthen stoves, stone Yazi appeared in front of his eyes, like tombs in the dark, quietly exuding an ancient atmosphere.

"This is a nitrate mine!"

And not only excavated soil nitrate ore, but also included nitrate refining furnaces, sedimentation tanks and flues, and a series of soil nitrate refining facilities, and even farther away, Li Heng also found some stone grinding platforms that had been piled up with sulfur that had long been damp and darkened.

This means that this is a complete "production line", which is likely to be made into gunpowder after saltpeter is smelted on the spot, which is a gunpowder arsenal of the White Lotus Sect.

"There are many mineral deposits in the Qinling Mountains, but I didn't expect that there are even very scarce nitrate mines in China."

If nothing else, the White Lotus Sect entrenched here must have been a big problem for the Qing court back then.

The continuous production of gunpowder from here became an important fire support to support the rebellion in various places, and also pry over a base of the Qing Dynasty for a hundred years.

However, these are still not Li Heng's concerns, although this white lotus site is amazing, it has nothing to do with what he is looking for.

Walking through the smelting field composed of more than ten earthen furnaces from more than a hundred years ago, Li Heng went further into this deep and dark space.

In such a depressive and dreary environment, ordinary people are likely to suffer from mental illnesses such as claustrophobia or dark phobia.

It wasn't until he came across some artificial presence again that a cloister carved out of a crack in the stone appeared at his feet.

On both sides are simply polished stone pillars, engraved with some sectarian verses and worship of the White Lotus Sect gods and Buddhas, it can be seen that although the craftsmanship is rough, but it is indeed attentive.

"Is there a place to live behind the arsenal?"

This is really a bit unusual, normally no one would put their sleeping and living place in a place where they are refining gunpowder from morning to night, right?

Not to mention a "construction accident" one day, the whole family goes to the sky with a hole, even if it is the smoke and dust that come out of the furnace every day, it is not pleasant.

It can only be said that these White Lotus sect members in the past would rather eat ashes and smoke in the mountain nest than raise troops to revolt, and they were still very determined, and the side also reflected how much the common people under the rule of the Qing court at that time wanted to love the heavenly kings of the Xinjue Luo family.

As the exploration and excavation continued to deepen, Li Heng became more and more surprised in his heart, these residences were probably not simple sect settlements, I am afraid that some people with high status in the White Lotus Sect were also here.

Because he saw the shrine in the depths of the cave!

There is a clear hierarchy within the White Lotus Sect, from the sect leader, the deputy sect leader, the elders at all levels, the altar masters of each branch, the Dharma protector, and the ordinary disciples...... The pomp and circumstance of each level is also different.

Two roller shutters shop the door table, and the white lotus flower opens the golden steps.

The stone room in front of Li Heng was covered with two moss curtains embroidered with Buddha moire patterns, as well as lotus steps made of brass simulating gold, but the brass had been covered with patina for a long time.

All of this is a sign that this is not a place for ordinary people to live.

At least this kind of god house is only qualified to be owned by the master of the altar, and even the person at the level of the sect leader.

And in the hanging stone plaque above the Shentai House, there are four big characters engraved - anti-Qing and Ming!

This slogan can be said to be familiar to everyone in the world, and there is more or less this sentence in countless martial arts dramas with the background of the Qing Dynasty, such as the invincible Chen Jinnan, the helmsman who fell down after shouting this slogan.

As a professional organization that has been rebelling for a long time, although it also rebelled in the Ming Dynasty, this did not prevent it from pulling the banner of "opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty" to attract popularity after the Qing Dynasty.

Anyway, it's just a slogan, and you don't need to use it in vain.

However, the sentence that Li Heng saw in front of him didn't seem to be so simple.

The White Lotus Sect itself is a vast sect, and there are many branches within it, each of which is a faction.

For example, the Qingshui Sect, which arose east of Taihang, and the Tianli Sect, which crisscrossed the Central Plains, and other sects, although they all belonged to the White Lotus Sect, each sect had its own philosophy.

And most of the Shentai houses in front of Li Heng belong to a branch called [Mingshenjiao].

In addition to inheriting the main tenets of the White Lotus Sect, this branch had its main "guiding principle" of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty.

Unlike other branches, which are just slogans, this branch is really based on the revival of the Ming Dynasty as a program of action.

Including but not limited to collecting the remains of the so-called "former prince" among the people, and recommending various folk people suspected of having Zhu Ming's blood as protectors and altar masters, and then the congregation only accepts Han people, and the banners are all under the banner of "reviving the Han family, reshaping orthodoxy, reopening the sun and the moon, and illuminating Kyushu"

It belongs to the die-hard fans of the Han family and the Ming Dynasty.

In that chaotic era when national consciousness was not even formed, it was a strange flower.

Squeak –

Pushing open the ancient stone door that had been closed for a hundred years, the accumulated dust flew in the darkness, reflected in the light of the lanterns like a heavy snowfall.

"Whew-"

Li Heng exhaled violently to blow away the large cloud of dust, making way for him to lead.

In fact, there is nothing remarkable in the Shentai house, it is said to be called the Shentai, but the things on display are still used by mortals.

Except for one thing.

Or at least not something for living people.

The lamp swept over the Shentai House, and several huge shadows emerged from the darkness and hung above Li Heng's head.

The coffins, all of which were made of swarthy metal made of pig iron, were locked by thick chains and hung from stone beams on the roof of the shrine.

There are a total of eight coffins hanging on it, and I don't know how many years they have been hanging, but now Li Heng, an uninvited guest, suddenly arrived and opened the closed stone door of this shrine.

The difference in air pressure between the shrine and the outside created a stream of air, causing a small whirlwind to occur in the enclosed air.

Squeak - squeak - squeak -

The iron coffins that had been hanging for a hundred years had to sway slightly one after another under the action of the air current, making a series of tooth-aching friction sounds.

The darkness of the underground, the dead silence of the shrine, the shaking coffin, the cacophony of sounds, and ...... Li Heng who strides into a meteor!

Boom!

In the stone room, he violently exerted his legs and jumped straight into the air in the form of a standing high jump, climbed the corner of one of the iron coffins with one hand, and then turned over and stood on it with a force of his wrist.

"Daisen...... Zhang Mingwu...... The ...... of the position"

He looked down at the coffin at his feet and read the words engraved on it.

(End of chapter)