As Professor Meng spoke, he stood up and looked at the orchard not far away, almost to himself, saying, "It really is that place. I wonder how much can still be left."
What did you say?
Zhuang Rui did not hear Professor Meng's words clearly.
"It's nothing, just go tell them they're done for the day..."
Professor Meng did not answer Zhuang Rui's question. He stomped on the clod of earth, broke it up, and turned to leave, leaving a bewildered Zhuang Rui standing there dumbfounded.
Chapter 247 Father Killing and Mother Murder
"This...isn't it said that there are tombs below the Five-Colored Soil? How did they leave?"
Zhuang Rui was somewhat puzzled by Professor Meng's actions. Weren't they here to excavate the imperial tomb? Judging from Professor Meng's appearance, he didn't seem to care much about the location of the tomb. Seeing Professor Meng walking away, Zhuang Rui had no choice but to follow.
Back at the excavation site, Professor Meng called out to everyone, packed up their tools, and headed back. The villagers were all happy; after all, they only got fifty yuan a day for their work, so who wouldn't be happy to do less work? They walked back to the village in groups of three or five.
"Xiao Fan, I found some mature soil in the cave I was exploring earlier, so why did Professor Meng call me back?"
Zhuang Rui had been keeping this question in mind, so he asked Fan Cuo, who was walking beside him.
"Perhaps the teacher has other ideas? Brother Zhuang, listening to the teacher is the right thing to do."
It's often said that graduate students are just their supervisors' employees. Fan Cuo and Ying Ning only need to work on their research projects with their professor; they don't need to worry about anything else. In any case, Professor Meng treats them well. They eat and live at his home and receive a few hundred yuan in living allowance every month. Compared to those students who are exploited by their supervisors and don't get a penny, they are much better off.
Zhuang Rui could only keep his questions to himself. More than an hour later, the group returned to the village. The county officials all had motorcycles and drove directly from the village back to the county. Professor Meng and the others also returned to the farmhouse they were renting. Zhuang Rui noticed that their place was not far from Lao San's house, only three or five households away.
Zhuang Rui inquired and found there were still vacant rooms available, so he simply went to Lao San, explained the situation, and moved in with Professor Meng and the others. He couldn't keep occupying Lao San's new house indefinitely. ...
"Woof...woof woof..."
"Don't call out, it's Big Foot Sister-in-law! You've brought back the food?"
When Old Yu heard the dogs barking in the yard, he quickly came out and tied up the two wolfhounds.
"Brother Yu, I ran all the way back to tell you that the archaeological team wanted to dig in your orchard, but I stopped them. You'd better think of a solution quickly, because the fruit will be ripe in two months."
As soon as Yu Laoda opened the courtyard gate, the old woman who had just delivered food to the archaeological team started gesturing excitedly at him, spitting all over his face.
"Hehe, Big Foot Sister-in-law, they're government officials, can we stop them? I really have to thank you for this today. By the way, my nephew got married the year before last, and I happened to be visiting relatives in Henan. Here, take this money, consider it my gift money."
A sinister glint flashed in Yu Laoda's eyes, but he quickly concealed it. He pulled a crumpled hundred-yuan bill from his pocket, feigned distress, and handed the money to Big Foot Sister-in-law.
"Oh dear, I can't accept that. Just give me thirty or fifty yuan. A hundred is too much..."
Big Foot Sister-in-law said she was sorry, but she had already taken the money. She pinched it between two fingers and shook it. After hearing the crisp sound, she put the money in her pocket with satisfaction, muttering, "I say, Yu brothers, go and find the secretary. We can't let those people do whatever they want. We've planted fruit trees for several years. If they're all cut down, what a huge loss that would be."
"Hey, Big Foot Sister-in-law, don't you know? I'm an honest person, and I'm not good with words. If the government really wants to do this, there's nothing I can do. The Party Secretary isn't even familiar with us, you see..."
Old Yu looked worried and rummaged around in his pocket for a while before finally finding a fifty-yuan note, which he insisted on giving to Big Foot Sister-in-law.
“This orchard was contracted to you by our village. We’ve been losing money for the past few years, as everyone can see. Don’t worry, Yu brothers, I’ll go to the Party Secretary’s house tonight. Your second uncle will definitely give me face.”
Big Foot Sister clutched the money in her hand and patted her chest, saying that she hadn't expected Boss Yu to be so generous. Just a few days ago, he had told her to be careful of the archaeological team when delivering food, so they wouldn't dig up her orchard. And he had already given her 150 yuan. She had to help out, otherwise, she would feel a bit uneasy about taking the money.
Old Master Yu rubbed his hands together, looked at the cold stove in the house, and said a little embarrassedly, "Then I really have to thank you, Sister-in-law Big Foot. Have a meal here before you leave. Look, my wife isn't home, I'll go buy some groceries."
"No need, brother, just wait and see. I'll go to my second uncle's place later and make sure they don't touch your orchard."
Looking at the family's impoverished state, Big Foot Sister secretly pursed her lips and walked out.
After thanking the old woman profusely and seeing her off, Yu Ku's face darkened. He looked around, turned back, closed the courtyard gate, and hurriedly went into the house.
It's no exaggeration to say that Old Master Yu's family was extremely poor. They had three single-story houses and a courtyard. Apart from a bed, a cabinet, and a dining table in the main house, there was hardly any other furniture. It wasn't always like this, but a few years ago, when Old Master Yu contracted that orchard, he sold off all his belongings, and the news spread throughout the town.
After returning to his room, Yu Ku closed the door tightly, plunging the room into darkness. Without turning on the light, Yu Ku grabbed a pair of scissors from the table, walked to the bedside, and knelt down. He tapped on a blue brick under the headboard, and after hearing the "knock-knock" echo, he inserted the scissors into the gap under the brick and pried it up.
The brick was hollow underneath, and Yu Ku reached inside to take out a small handbag before standing up.
Opening the handbag, besides a stack of hundred-yuan bills and a mobile phone, there was also a delicate handgun, only the size of a palm. If a gun enthusiast saw it, he would definitely recognize it at a glance as the Browning pistol known as the "Thunder in the Palm." Next to the pistol, there was a magazine full of bright orange bullets.
Instead of using his pistol, Boss Yu took out his cell phone, turned it on, and, seeing that there was a signal, made a call.
"Brother, what's the matter that requires a phone call?"
The phone rang with Lao Ba's somewhat deep voice.
"We'll make our move at 8 p.m. the day after tomorrow. Tell Xiao Si to come to our house at noon the day after tomorrow and bring the detonators and explosives. Also, have Xiao Qi prepare a car and meet us at the pillbox in Sanlitun, the village, that night."
Yu Ku gave a series of orders. If you turned on the light, you would see that his originally honest face had become somewhat distorted and ferocious.
"Brother, what's going on? Didn't we agree to start working after those archaeologists left?"
Lao Ba asked in confusion on the phone, "I just left Yu Ku's place this morning, I didn't expect you to change your mind this afternoon."
"There's no time. Those archaeological team members should have discovered that the royal tomb is under the orchard. If it weren't for Lao San stopping us today, they would have gone in. I can only stall for three to five days. Any later and it might be exposed. Have you forgotten what else is buried down there?"
Yu Laoda's voice was somewhat sinister, which made Lao Ba on the other end of the phone tremble. Of course, he knew what was buried in that forest. He had dug the pit himself when the five bodies were buried.
"Brother, let's withdraw now. The money we've earned over the years is enough for us to live on abroad for the rest of our lives."
Old Ba felt a chill run down his spine when he thought of the guy who had turned into fertilizer for the fruit trees.
Upon hearing Lao Ba's words, Yu Ku flew into a rage, a murderous glint in his eyes. He lowered his voice and cursed fiercely, "Bullshit! I've been plotting here for seven or eight years, how could I give up? If Lao Liu hadn't been caught, the stuff would have been taken long ago. Damn it, thank goodness Lao Liu is dead, otherwise we'd all be getting shot..."
Thinking of the people Yu Ku had personally strangled to death, Lao Ba dared not offend Boss Yu any longer and quickly replied, "I understand, brother, please put it down. I'll take care of everything..."
"Yes, if anything changes, don't make this call. Same as always, send a telegram to the village saying there's an emergency in Henan..."
After giving his instructions, Boss Yu hung up the phone, turned it off, changed the SIM card, put the phone back in his bag, and took out a small notebook from under the stack of hundred-yuan bills. He then flipped through it and looked at it.
It turned out that there were seven or eight passports hidden under the money, not only Yu Ku's own, but also those of several of his subordinates. They were all kept with him in case things went wrong one day, so they could escape abroad. However, some of those people are no longer alive.
By now, everyone should understand that Yu Ku's parents actually came from a family of tomb raiders in Luoyang, Henan. During the great upheavals that swept the country in the last century, the Yu family, who had been digging up graves before liberation, were also affected. Helpless, Yu's father, who had just gotten married, fled to Liujiazhuang with his wife.
The quiet life in Liujiazhuang made Yu's father forget his origins, and he lived there for more than 20 years. However, after the reform and opening up, Yu's father missed his family and took his eldest son back to Henan to visit relatives. When he returned, he found that his brothers, who were originally dirt poor, had all become wealthy.
Upon inquiring, Mr. Yu learned that during the great upheaval more than 20 years ago, one of his cousins had smuggled himself to Hong Kong. A few years ago, he returned to his hometown to visit relatives and encouraged his family to resume their old business. This cousin was specifically responsible for excavating in Hong Kong, which led to the discovery of several ancient tombs and a significant increase in the family's wealth.
After decades of quiet living, Yu's father had no desire to get involved anymore and wanted to take his son back to Liujiazhuang. However, Yu Ku, who was usually quiet and somewhat listless, refused to go back this time and insisted on venturing out into the world.
Unable to dissuade his son, Yu's father had no choice but to return to Liujiazhuang alone. Yu Ku, like a bird released from its cage, witnessed a new world he had never known before.
Following one of his cousins, Yu Ku displayed an unparalleled aptitude for tomb raiding. He learned things very quickly and seemed to have an innate understanding of feng shui and geomancy, which were difficult for ordinary people to comprehend. After raiding several ancient tombs with his cousin, Yu Ku was able to find tombs independently.
After about four or five years, Yu Ku, relying on his innate talent for tomb raiding and the skills he had learned from the martial arts masters of Liu Family Village since childhood, ousted his uncle from the position of head of the family and firmly grasped the tomb raiding gang.
After Yu Laoda took power, and with the domestic economy booming, his tomb-robbing gang became even more rampant. In the early 1990s, their footprints covered Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei, Shandong, Xinjiang and other places, and a large number of precious cultural relics flowed abroad through his hands.
No one would have guessed that the eldest son of the Yu family, who was a dull old man in Liujiazhuang and whose eyes would glaze over at the sight of young women, was actually a man who frequented luxury hotels, rode in high-end cars, and had been to Hong Kong and the United States several times. He even kept several college students as mistresses, putting on the airs of a successful man.
Despite his success outside, Boss Yu was not complacent. Like a cunning rabbit with three burrows, he used Liu Family Village as his safe haven. Every time he returned to Liu Family Village, he was dressed in rags, looking like he was doing very poorly, which even fooled his parents and younger brother.
In the mid-1990s, when Yu Laoda returned home, he overheard his father talking about the origin of Liujiazhuang while drinking with him. It turned out that it was originally the place where the guards of the imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty lived, and it gradually evolved into the Liujiazhuang we know today.
The presence of a guard army meant that this place was the location of an imperial tomb. Yu Laoda couldn't help but have an idea. In the following days, he ran to the mountain valley every day. With his knowledge over the past few years, he naturally recognized that auspicious place.
Yu's father also came from a family of tomb raiders and had lived here for decades. He had long since figured out where the imperial tomb was, but he did not want to disrupt their peaceful life. When he discovered his son's actions, he immediately understood what Yu Ku had been doing all these years.
After discovering Yu Ku's motives, Yu's father severely reprimanded his son, saying that if he dared to rob the imperial tombs, he would put aside his own family ties and report him to the police.
In fact, Yu's father only wanted to dissuade Yu Ku from his idea, but he did not expect that Yu Ku had committed heinous crimes over the years and had several lives on his hands. If any one of them were exposed, he would definitely be shot.
A cold-hearted person like Yu Laoda cannot tolerate the slightest threat. After being warned by his father twice, he finally decided to kill his parents. He found an opportunity to secretly poison their food, and then pretended to be a filial son and grandson, burying them with great grief.
For the sake of the imperial tomb in the mountain valley, Boss Yu settled down in Liu Family Village and waited for an opportunity to dig a tunnel at the place where Professor Meng was digging, but that was not where the imperial tomb was located.
Chapter 248 Full of Traps and Mechanisms
Due to the large number of imperial tombs in Shaanxi, it became a haven for tomb raiders in the 1980s. After entering the 1990s, the local authorities intensified their crackdown on tomb raiding and offered rewards for reporting such activities. In places like Liujiazhuang, patrol teams would frequently pass by.
Therefore, Boss Yu was very careful and it took him five or six years to find the exact location of the imperial tomb. So last year, Boss Yu used some means to sublet the orchard that was originally contracted by someone else at a high price.
With the orchard as cover, Boss Yu quickly located the underground palace. To his ecstatic surprise, this underground palace, which was very likely the mausoleum of Emperor Wenzong of Tang, had never been looted. This meant that a large number of precious cultural relics inside would belong to him.
The reason why Boss Yu came to this conclusion was because after they opened up the tomb passage, they discovered that it was a tomb carved into the mountain, consisting of three parts: the tomb passage, the burial pit, and the burial chamber. For tombs like this, one can only enter by finding the right direction and going through the tomb passage, and it is impossible to enter the burial chamber by digging a hole in the tomb wall.
More importantly, after entering the tomb passage, they found no tomb-raiding holes dug by others, nor any traces of outsiders having entered. In addition, they surprisingly found a series of trapdoors used for anti-theft in the passage.
Linked trapdoors are typically used in large tombs, usually set up in the tomb passage. Their width is roughly the same as the width of the tomb passage, and their length often exceeds one meter. Such dimensions make it difficult for unsuspecting tomb raiders to cross them, leaving them with no way to escape and ultimately causing them to fall into the trap.
The structure of the trapdoor trap is actually quite simple: wooden planks are laid over the trap pit, with heavy objects hanging on both sides of the planks. When a person steps on them and falls into the trap, the trapdoor will automatically return to its original state, quietly waiting for the next tomb raider to disturb the tomb.
Some of the multi-stage trapdoors are even more ingeniously designed, with an axle installed in the middle of the trapdoor. Once a person triggers the mechanism, their body is already suspended in mid-air and unable to move backward.
The traps under the series of trapdoors are usually dug quite deep to prevent tomb raiders who fall in from climbing back up. The bottom of the trap is usually covered with a dense array of sharp blades, such as knives, guns, and cones, with the tips pointing upwards. Anyone who falls from above will almost certainly be killed by these blades.
In their efforts to explore the tomb passage, Yu Laoda and his gang suffered heavy losses. At the time, there were two people walking in front of them: one was Lao Ba, and the other was a gang member surnamed Cui.
As mentioned earlier, the members of these tomb raiding gangs are basically family members, and the Yu family is no exception. However, a few years ago, when the demand for goods from Hong Kong was urgent, only three or four people in the family were engaged in this business, so they recruited a few more members from outside.
All five men were surnamed Cui and were from Luoyang, Henan. They were originally a small tomb-raiding gang, but later joined Boss Yu's gang. The man in front stepped on the trapdoor and was swallowed up before he could even react. Those above could only hear a bloodcurdling scream.
Old Eight reacted quickly. When he missed a step, he pushed the man surnamed Cui and used the momentum to flip his body backward, thus escaping with his life.
After the group carefully opened the flap, they shone their flashlights on the man below and saw that he had several sharp blades piercing his chest. He was already dead beyond any doubt, and his condition was gruesome.
After this incident, Boss Yu and the others did not dare to continue down and returned to the ground to discuss the matter.
Then another problem arose. The dead man was surnamed Cui, and before he died, he was pushed by Lao Ba. After that, the other men surnamed Cui glared at Lao Ba and almost started a fight. They were only calmed down after Yu Laoda intervened. However, everyone still harbored resentment.
Yu Laoba was Yu Ku's cousin and had always followed Yu Laoda wholeheartedly. In addition, he was exceptionally talented; although he was short, he had a unique advantage in tomb exploration and digging tunnels. He was always the one who went down into the tomb to retrieve burial objects. Therefore, Yu Laoda often showed favoritism towards Laoba in his words.
The Cui brothers were resentful, so they proposed to the eldest brother, Yu, that they should disband their gang, go their separate ways, and never set foot in Shaanxi again.
Upon hearing this, Yu Laoda was immediately filled with murderous intent. How could he possibly let these people leave alive? He had even eliminated his own parents for the sake of this imperial tomb, and he would never give these people a chance to leak the news.
However, given Boss Yu's shrewdness, he naturally wouldn't show it on his face. He immediately agreed with a smile, saying that since they were brothers, they should have some food and drinks that night to part on good terms.
That evening, Boss Yu set out food and wine in the orchard and ate and drank with everyone. The Cui brothers knew Boss Yu very well and were not without their guard. They wouldn't touch any dish that Boss Yu hadn't touched. The wine was fine, though, since Boss Yu was drinking from the same bottle.
Who knew that even with such precautions, they still fell into Boss Yu's trap. The wine was drugged, but Boss Yu and his men had taken the antidote beforehand. After drugging the Cui brothers, Boss Yu revealed his true colors and personally strangled them to death, then buried them under the fruit trees to be used as fertilizer.
After dealing with the Cui brothers, Yu Laoda and his men sneaked back into the tomb passage. Using long wooden poles, they located the interconnected trapdoors and ordered several foldable and extendable alloy ladders. By placing the ladders over the trapdoors, they were able to pass through.
After passing through a series of trapdoors, Boss Yu and his group still couldn't enter the tomb chamber because they encountered huge rocks blocking the entrance. This is a common tactic used in Han and Tang dynasty royal tombs. More than ten huge rocks, each weighing over a thousand kilograms, blocked Boss Yu and his group's way.
Seeing the huge rock blocking his way, Old Yu was not angry but happy. This meant that the imperial tomb had definitely not been visited by anyone before. He was quite patient. Under the pretext of guarding the orchard, he built a wooden house in the orchard and settled down there.
Each day, one person would stay upstairs to keep watch, while two others would go down into the tomb passage. Because there were so many huge stones, using explosives could very likely cause the tomb passage to collapse. The only option was to use a ground anchor drill to crack the boulders little by little, and then transport the rubble to the surface.