Ouyang Zhenwu took the microphone to his side. How come this group of experts, who were originally quite composed, all became like novice beginners after seeing this golden coffin?
“Uncle…Minister Ouyang, this won’t do. The underground environment is complex, the air is polluted, and the entrance is ten meters below the lake. The teachers are all getting old, what if…”
"There's no such thing as 'what if,' Zhuang Rui. This is the last time your teacher will lead an excavation. Even if I were to collapse here, I would still be happy..."
Before Zhuang Rui could finish speaking, Professor Meng interrupted him. He had dedicated his life to archaeology, but in his last chance, he lost the opportunity to excavate with his own hands. It felt like a peerless swordsman encountering a rare and famous sword, but could only admire it from afar and could not handle it.
"teacher……"
Upon hearing Professor Meng's words, Zhuang Rui fell silent. He could imagine Professor Meng's feelings at that moment. "Minister Ouyang, please let the professor come down. But the other professors can stay; Professor Meng alone is enough to preside over this..."
Zhuang Rui's voice echoed in the command center, and the elderly men, whose age and experience were similar to Professor Meng's, fell silent. They knew in their hearts that their bodies might really not be able to hold on any longer.
"Alright, Ms. Meng, you can go and get ready..."
Ouyang Zhenwu could also see that Professor Meng was determined to go down, and since the group of old men had stopped jeering, he could only nod in agreement. ...
"Teacher, are you alright? Don't take off your oxygen mask, the air in here isn't very good..."
Guided by an officer familiar with swimming, Professor Meng entered the underground secret passage without incident. Zhuang Rui, who had already come out of the tomb and arrived at the waterway entrance, hurriedly went to meet him.
"It's alright, it's alright, let's go, to where the tomb is located..."
Professor Meng shook his head vigorously. Although he was wearing an oxygen mask, the pressure from the water more than ten meters deep still made him feel short of breath and his chest tighten.
However, Professor Meng could endure all of this, because this on-site archaeological excavation might be the pinnacle of his career, and it would also be the last on-site archaeological excavation before he bid farewell to the archaeological community.
Even at the cost of his life, the old man was willing to let his life end in what is arguably the largest archaeological excavation in human history.
"Teacher, please slow down..."
While Professor Meng was still not fully conscious, Zhuang Rui silently sent a wisp of spiritual energy into the old man's body. This stuff was indeed more effective than opium. Professor Meng, who originally needed help to stand, immediately became full of energy.
"Teacher, are you alright?"
"Professor Meng, please take your time..."
About an hour later, Professor Meng arrived at the location of the mausoleum, where Dr. Ren and others who were guarding the area gathered around him.
"It's alright, sorry to have kept everyone waiting, let's begin..."
On his way here, Professor Meng took off his oxygen mask to try to breathe the underground air, but he almost choked on the murky air and passed out. So he knew he couldn't stay underground for long, and he started working as soon as he arrived at his destination.
"Old Meng is alright, isn't he? Sigh, I should have gone down with him just now..."
"Yeah, we've all been fooled by Old Meng. That old guy has always been like this..."
"Sigh, we're all getting old. Alright, let's not say anymore. Just consider Old Meng as representing us..."
Upon seeing Professor Meng's image appear on the screen, the veteran experts in the command center immediately stirred, all filled with regret.
However, it's too late to go down now. Professor Meng went down after the tomb door was already open and had been waiting for more than two hours, which would inevitably have some impact on the artifacts in the tomb.
"This...it's simply a masterpiece of nature! Xiao Wang, you must record every single moment. This is an even greater discovery than the Egyptian pyramids..."
Upon entering the tomb and seeing the enormous golden coffin, Professor Meng became excited. He rushed forward several steps, stroking the exquisite images on the golden coffin with both hands, and exclaiming in amazement from time to time.
"Professor Meng, have the photographer point the lens at the image on the coffin, yes, that side..."
Suddenly, Director Guo's voice came from the ground command post. He had also studied an early period of Mongolian history in depth. When he saw the patterns on the screen, he immediately realized that perhaps information about the tomb's occupant could be gleaned from these war scenes.
"Huh? This scene looks like it's depicting a battle?"
Upon hearing Director Guo's words, everyone in the tomb focused their attention on the patterns carved on the surface of the golden coffin.
The enormous coffin, including its base, is almost two meters high. The relief-like image on the surface of the golden coffin depicts a grand siege battle.
"Quickly, check if there are any similar war-related patterns?"
Director Guo's voice rang out in everyone's earpieces.
Although there are not many written records left by the Yuan Dynasty, there are many stone carvings and paintings depicting war scenes. There are many similar scenes in the Secret History of the Mongols.
Chapter 1186 Genghis Khan Mausoleum
This temporary command post is arguably the place in China with the most complete collection of historical materials about Mongolia. Even the stone carvings and murals related to Mongolia in the Alzhai Grottoes have been copied as reference materials.
The process of archaeological excavation is actually like solving a case; often, a small clue can lead to a shocking answer.
At this moment, Director Guo gave an order, and several interns who remained at the command post began searching through the vast sea of books.
"This scene... looks somewhat familiar..."
Inside the mausoleum, Zhuang Rui was frowning as he examined the patterns on the golden coffin. When he used his spiritual energy to observe the coffin before, he only noticed the exquisite images on its surface but did not examine them closely. Now, upon closer inspection, he felt a sense of familiarity, as if he had seen it somewhere before.
This is a siege scene from the era of cold weapons. Countless soldiers are attacking a giant city with their weapons, but the city gates are tightly closed, arrows are raining down from the city walls, and the shadows of large stones appear in the air from time to time. The attackers are suffering heavy casualties.
These were all ordinary siege scenes, nothing special, but a scene not far from the city gate caught Zhuang Rui's attention.
Not far from the city gate, there were two very tall trees. Between the trees, many ropes were tied, and many people kept pulling back on the ropes connecting the two trees, stretching them into an arc shape.
The next scene shows a huge, thick log in the middle of the ropes. The two trees are about eight meters apart, forming a giant slingshot. The log in the middle is the huge "arrow." Judging from the degree of bending of the two trees, as soon as the people behind let go, the "arrow" will be shot towards the city with tremendous force. The direction of the "arrow" is the city gate that has been under attack for a long time.
"Why does this scene look so familiar?"
Professor Meng, standing next to Zhuang Rui, looked puzzled and tried to scratch his head, but found that the oxygen mask blocked his view. He chuckled self-deprecatingly and said to Zhuang Rui, "I'm getting old, and my memory isn't what it used to be. Zhuang, you've put a lot of effort into studying Mongolian history these past two years. Do you remember if there's any record of this painting?"
Professor Meng was certain that he had seen a similar or identical scene, but he couldn't recall which period of Mongolia it had occurred in.
"This is...this seems to be..."
Zhuang Rui, through the oxygen mask, was also patting his head. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration struck him, and he finally remembered what scene it was.
"I remember now, this is the Western Xia siege war!" Zhuang Rui exclaimed, then slapped his forehead in frustration. He had spent a whole night racking his brains to find out the identity of the tomb owner from the golden arrow in the coffin. If he had noticed the relief on the coffin earlier, he wouldn't have ended up like this.
Zhuang Rui had seen this scene not long ago. It was recorded on many Mongolian stone carvings in the Alzhai Grottoes, and it was also mentioned in the Secret History of the Mongols, described as a great victory of Genghis Khan.
That happened when Genghis Khan was conquering the Western Xia. He encountered a very strong city, which he could not conquer for a long time and suffered heavy casualties. Just when Genghis Khan was at his wit's end, he suddenly discovered that there were three big trees growing side by side not far from the city gate.
Genghis Khan had a sudden inspiration. He ordered his men to cut down one of the three trees and tie strong rubber bands to the other two. Then, he had the strongmen in his army pull the rubber bands, using the three trees as siege weapons.
Sure enough, right after the "arrows" were fired, the city gates were forced open, and the city, which was extremely important to the Western Xia, was successfully captured. Later historians have judged that this battle was the most important battle in Genghis Khan's conquest of the Western Xia.
This battle, which became the war that destroyed the Western Xia Dynasty, was also one of Genghis Khan's most successful campaigns in his life. As a result, images of the battle have been preserved in many places to publicize Genghis Khan's brilliant military achievements.
"The Western Xia siege? Then...then this...isn't this...Genghis Khan?"
Although Professor Meng was old and frail, his mind was not as bad as he claimed. As soon as Zhuang Rui finished speaking, his own words came out at the same time.
"The Western Xia siege?"
Equally shocked was Director Guo on the ground, for right in front of him lay a stone rubbing that was remarkably similar to the image on the golden coffin, especially the two trees, which were so prominently displayed in the image.
"Could it really be Genghis Khan's mausoleum?"
Director Guo muttered to himself, looking incredulous. The relief painting on the coffin had suddenly tilted the scales in his mind regarding the identity of the tomb's occupant.
It should be understood that such narrative scenes carved on coffins or tomb walls must be praising the great achievements of the tomb owner's life. Even their descendants would not dare to overstep the achievements of their ancestors.
"There are relief paintings on the walls..."
Just then, Dr. Ren's voice came through the headset. After signing the confidentiality agreement, they were also qualified to enter the second golden tomb chamber at the same time as Zhuang Rui.
Following Dr. Ren's words, the camera focused on the walls that reflected dazzling golden light. Sure enough, various war scenes were engraved on the walls of the main burial chamber, with delicate brushstrokes, as if painted on paper.
"Director Yun, these... these gold engravings must not be damaged..."
Upon seeing those images, Zhuang Rui's first reaction was to grab Director Yun from the security department. If the previous "forced demolition team" were to do that again, it would be the greatest tragedy in the history of Chinese archaeology and cultural relics.
"Yes, yes, these images are different from the previous golden walls. They have immense research value. Minister Ouyang, you need to give us a definite answer now: we absolutely cannot allow them to be damaged in any way..."
Upon hearing Zhuang Rui's words, Professor Meng also realized what was happening. Instead of looking for Director Yun beside him, he spoke directly with Ouyang Zhenwu from the ground command center.
"Professor Meng, rest assured, the country has always attached great importance to the protection of cultural relics. I can assure you that not only all the gold artifacts in this tomb, but also the gold from before will be preserved in its original state and will not suffer any damage..."
The voice in Ouyang Zhenwu's earpiece paused for a moment, then continued, "Moreover, at the appropriate time, the country will announce this major archaeological discovery to the world, and these burial objects will one day appear in people's sight..."
What Ouyang Zhenwu said was not an exaggeration. Although the gold reserves were huge, the country would not be in any great danger even without them. The economy still developed before they were discovered.
National leaders aren't fools. Once these gold pieces are imbued with artistic life, their value transcends mere gold. If they were truly willing to sell them, their value would likely be multiplied tenfold or a hundredfold, attracting numerous wealthy collectors from around the world.
Moreover, if these gold items are exhibited to the world at the appropriate time, the sensational effect will far exceed any archaeological expedition or excavation in the history of the world. This will not only enhance the national image, but also indirectly demonstrate China's strong gold reserves to the world.
"Genghis Khan's Mausoleum, it's Genghis Khan's Mausoleum! I never imagined... it would be here..."
"Haha, I never thought that the old man, who is about to be buried, would still be able to participate in this grand event in the archaeological world?"
"That's right, this archaeological excavation will rewrite the history of world archaeology. I suggest we hold a grand press conference immediately to announce this news to the world..."
After the pattern on the golden coffin was confirmed, cheers erupted in the command center. The mystery that had puzzled everyone for more than a month was finally revealed at this moment.
Although only this image has been discovered and there is no more conclusive evidence yet, everyone believes that no emperor would inscribe the achievements of others on his own coffin.
"How...how come it's Genghis Khan's Mausoleum?"
Perhaps the one with the most bitter smile in the command center right now is Director Guo. Although he was excited to discover Genghis Khan's mausoleum, he couldn't be happy at all when he thought about the bet with Zhuang Rui.
"Xiao Guo, what's wrong? This is a groundbreaking discovery that will revolutionize archaeological history, so why are you looking so worried?"
Minister Ouyang, who was pondering how to announce this major archaeological discovery to the world, turned his head and saw Director Guo's unpleasant expression. He couldn't help but feel a little strange. All the cultural relics in this tomb were under his jurisdiction, so why was he making such a bitter face?
"Minister Ouyang, I...I once made a bet with Zhuang Rui that if this imperial mausoleum is Genghis Khan's mausoleum, I will..."
When Director Guo heard Ouyang Zhenwu's question, he was at his wit's end. However, he couldn't avoid the matter, so he stammered out the story of the bet between him and Zhuang Rui.
"This child, he's just fooling around..."
After hearing this, Ouyang Zhenwu chuckled and scolded Zhuang Rui, but then added, "Xiao Guo, our government can't go back on its word. We have to keep our promises. But we must be careful when lending things out, and make sure no cultural relics are lost..."
With Ouyang Zhenwu's status, he wasn't afraid of what others might say about him abusing his power for personal gain. Since Zhuang Rui and Director Guo had made such a bet, he didn't mind helping his nephew out.
Moreover, Ouyang Zhenwu was already racking his brains about how to reward Zhuang Rui for discovering Genghis Khan's tomb, so he might as well use this incident to even things out.
Chapter 1187 The Sheepskin Scroll
The images on the golden coffin led everyone to believe that this tomb was Genghis Khan's mausoleum. Even Director Guo, who had made a bet with Zhuang Rui, had to admit that he had lost this time.
However, after the museum opened, the scene inside the golden coffins shocked everyone, because neither of the two golden coffins in the tomb contained Genghis Khan's body.
As mentioned earlier, archaeology is a very broad field. It requires not only a thorough understanding of the history of various dynasties, but also the study of disciplines such as chemistry, biology, and human anatomy. When the golden coffin was opened, several people present immediately recognized that the skeleton inside was definitely not a man's.