Tomb Raiders

Shen Liaobai was stunned, it was a coincidence that the jade pendant he found in a daze was actually Chu Zhong's, "Don't make a mistake."

Chu Yuyang frowned and said, "Light the fire."

Everyone immediately got up to find some dry firewood. There are many branches here, but most of them are damp. After working for a long time, they barely managed to light a fire in front of the river. They took off their clothes soaked in the river and dried them in front of the fire. speechless.

"Brother Shen," Song Qiancheng probably couldn't bear the dull atmosphere, so he found a topic and said, "I think you are gentle, but you can also get tattoos."

Shen Liaobai touched the tattoo on his back, but he couldn't see the specific appearance. According to the old family's appearance, if you really want to explain why, it looks like a flower bud, "It was tattooed by my parents when I was young, and they said it would protect me. It's safe." He said and laughed twice, obviously not very convinced.

The firewood was still crackling, and everyone obviously lacked interest. They took out the dry food they brought and ate it. Although it was soaked in water and the taste changed a bit, it was still barely enough to fill their stomachs.

Shen Liaobai looked at Chu Qianyang, seeing his expression, the jade pendant was undoubtedly his father's.It's just that the jade pendant fell here, which doesn't explain anything, maybe it fell during running.The night in the valley was very cold, and he put the dried single clothes on his body, and suddenly he had a flash of inspiration, "Is it possible that your father also got up from the river like us, sat here to warm up, and accidentally dropped the jade pendant?" Where did it fall?"

Chu Yuyang's eyes moved, "If this is the case, they will definitely leave traces."

It's easy to say, but if it really left traces, it would be hard to find after half a month in the vast mountain depression.Even so, everyone still looked for them honestly with torches, instead of sitting and waiting for death, it is better to take the initiative to attack.

"It is mentioned in the clues left by Yingqing that their burglary is very special, and it is set in a hollow tree." Shen Liaobai said: "That tree must be special, but I didn't elaborate on how special it is. .”

Hanzhang sighed and said: "The most indispensable thing in this mountain depression is the big tree, every tree is quite special."

"Wait," Song Qiancheng stopped and said, "Could it be that tree?"

Perhaps because it was far away from the waterfall, the fog in this place was not very dense. Through the light of the fire, Shen Liaobai saw the tree Song Qiancheng mentioned. Its strong branches stretched out and entwined around other trunks. What's more special is that its leaves are all withered and yellow, and it looks like a dead tree, which is rare in the mountain valley that contains vitality.

The group of people looked at each other for a long time before Hanzhang said, "Xiucai, you blind cat, why do you always run into dead mice?"

After everyone came to the tree, they saw that the trunk of the tree had been hollowed out, and the hole was inside the tree.

The robbery cave slopes down, and the inside is so dark that it is hard to see clearly. It is big enough for a grown man to crawl through on his knees. The soil of this generation is soft, but the cave walls are treated tightly, and there is no soil to the touch.

"Xie Wu's craftsmanship is really good." Song Qiancheng's praise came from his heart, "It is said that when a senior went to the ground with Xie Wu, there was an earthquake, and several tombs collapsed. They thought they were going to be trapped in it, but they returned home. In front of Xie Wu’s robbery hole, the hole didn’t even drop a single piece of mud.”

He said all this was just to enliven the atmosphere, but except for Shen Liaobai who smiled politely, everyone else was silently preparing to go down the cave as if they hadn't heard.

Chu Yuyang threw a torch into the cave, and the flame flickered twice before it became silent.

"Go in." Chu Qianyang said.

Chu Yuyang climbed in first, followed by Hanzhang.

The burrow was not long, and it quickly crawled out from the other end, and there was a musty smell in the air.Shen Liaobai held up the torches to observe the surroundings. At this moment, the small tomb room was fully visible under the illumination of several torches.The passage leading to the main tomb was at most fifty steps long, ending in a heavy stone door.There are two side chambers at both ends of the main tomb, and a little closer to them, there is an ear chamber at the left and right ends.

"It's too small." Song Qiancheng pouted, quite indifferent.

"Don't you have a map?" Chu Yuyang glanced at Shen Liaobai lightly.

When he said this, Shen Liaobai finally remembered that in the book he took from Xie Wu's house, there was a map left by Shen Yingqing. The map was engraved on kraft paper, and it was the size of a palm. It's more like a stick figure than a map. With a few strokes, it outlines a roughly visible outline. In some places, there are ink dots. I don't know whether it was done on purpose or accidentally.

After moving the torch to take a closer look, Chu Yuyang immediately noticed something was wrong, "There are at least six ear chambers on the map, but now there are only four?"

Hanzhang snorted coldly and said, "Could it be used to fool us?"

Shen Liaobai raised his slender eyebrows, and said dissatisfiedly: "Treat me with sincerity, I will not deceive you, but the map is undoubtedly left by Yingqing, you don't believe it yourself, but don't blame me I lied to you, since we came together, don't be suspicious of each other, I don't think anyone wants to be with the enemy."

"I trust him," Chu Yuyang glanced at Hanzhang, and said, "At the beginning, I only asked him to promise me one thing, and nothing else. He has no reason to fool us. Alright, divide into two groups, check Take a look at the situation."

After that, he went to check the stone door of the main tomb by himself, while Shen Liaobai took the initiative to check the ear room on the right with Song Qiancheng.

"You have good eyesight. You can see that I'm the best person to get along with here." Song Qiancheng laughed. He took a wooden stick and poked it back and forth on the ground, saying it was to test whether there was a mechanism.

If he didn't even have this vision, he, Shen Liaobai, wouldn't have gone to the field with them fearlessly.Chu Guiyang was indifferent, and Hanzhang had a trace of hostility hidden in his eyebrows and eyes. Although Wen Hao was polite on the face, he was not a simple person after seeing the skill he had shown.In addition, Chu Yuyang made him deal with Song Qiancheng as a condition, so he should also take some action.

But when it comes to the temper of this group of people, it is true that Song Qiancheng, who looks like a child, is more compatible with him.

Shen Liaobai smiled back and said, "Brother Song, please give me some pointers."

"Pull it down, this is not to bring you down to visit and preach, I need to give you some pointers." Song Qiancheng withdrew the stick in his hand, "Go ahead without worry, it's really strange that there is no mechanism in this tomb."

Strange to say, it stands to reason that the corridor is the main way to the tombs, but there was no noise along the way just now, either because of the age, those wooden organs have decayed or Yingqing and the others had been destroyed when they came in, Shen Liao Bai prefers the former, because the ground is so clean that it doesn't look like anyone has been there before.

It only took two sentences to reach the right ear chamber.The ear room was at most the size of a firewood room, and there were funerary utensils scattered around. Some bronze utensils had already been rusted, not to mention those utensils fired from clay, which were already incomplete, so broken that the soil had only melted into one.

Shen Liaobai squatted in front of the pile of broken earthen jars, flipping through them carefully, but found nothing.And these funerary objects were placed neatly, without any trace of being tampered with, excluding the possibility that the valuables had already been taken away, that is to say, when Shen Yingqing and his gang came down, they didn't take anything?

"Let's go," Song Qiancheng shrugged and said, "There is nothing of value."

Shen Liaobai went out after him, and the other three had joined up and were discussing something softly.

"Did you find anything?" asked Hao.

Shen Liaobai shook his head.

As if his answer was expected, Wen Hao was not overly surprised, "I checked the left ear chamber just now, and there was nothing but some rotten weapons, and even in the burial pit, there were only some animal bones. "

This is too abnormal. Although the Taiping Army was at the end of its rope when Zhang Jue died, but with Zhang Jiao's status and the wealth accumulated in his early years, he would not be buried in such a simple tomb after his death.Of course, there is another possibility, this is just a virtual tomb.In ancient times, especially in the war years, tomb robbery was particularly rampant. Even if the punishment stipulated that the tomb robbers would be sentenced to death, it could not resist the reckless desire of some people, so some dignitaries would set up several empty tombs for themselves to deceive others. .

The tomb robbery was rampant. On the one hand, due to the war at that time, they either starved to death or were wanted by the government. They all died anyway, and the latter at least had the possibility of surviving. On the other hand, many powerful people also participated in the tomb robbery. , Searching for treasures in the tomb everywhere to make money.Zhang Jiao was also one of them. Most members of the Taiping Army were farmers. So where did the huge military expenses come from?He naturally made a fortune from the dead, and used the money for the expenses of the uprising.

Just like now, when the emperor is fatuous and rebels are rising up everywhere, even King Ding takes advantage of this time to have a crooked mind.

"Qianyang, did you find anything?" Shen Liaobai asked, and finally felt that the relationship between the two of them was not close enough to be called by their names, which was a bit abrupt, but Chu Jianyang didn't seem to care.

During their conversation just now, Chu Yuyang just listened quietly. Compared with other people, he is too calm. Although he has always been indifferent, Shen Liaobai can keenly capture the nuances of his expression .

"There are two possibilities," Chu Yuyang said slowly, "One is that the map does not match the actual situation, and we went to the wrong tomb, and the other is that there is another mystery hidden in this tomb."

Chu Yuyang walked to the door of the main tomb and kicked a place under the stone door.The color of that place is obviously different from the overall color of the stone gate. If you read it correctly, it should be newly built earth and stone.

"I've never seen someone who robs a tomb and repairs the broken things." Song Qiancheng joked.

The newly built soil and rocks were not tightly pressed, and they were very unstable. Hanzhang kicked a big hole and climbed in first. Thanks to the predecessors, otherwise they would have to spend a lot of money to enter this door. Many twists and turns.

Shen Liaobai followed closely behind, but the situation in the main tomb was even more shocking. The main tomb was even simpler than the side chamber, and there were no funerary objects. There was only a coffin in the middle. The paint has peeled off, and the patterns drawn on it can no longer be seen clearly.

Everything indicated that this was not the tomb they were looking for.

Chu Yuyang slapped the coffin board with his palm and said, "Open the coffin."

Hanzhang had been waiting for his words for a long time, and hurriedly called Wenhao and Shen Liaobai to help, although it was not in line with the etiquette, Shen Liaobai had no choice but to apologize in his heart and help them push the coffin.After pushing it a few times, but not pushing it away, it turned out that the iron nails were deeply embedded in the head and tail of the coffin.

"Song Xiucai," Hanzhang shouted, "lend me your big sword."

No echo.

Shen Liaobai was startled, and looked around, but found no trace of Song Qiancheng.

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