Chapter 317: Sanhe Soil (Three-in-One Soil)

"Left Zhaomu, right Mu..."

"Water, Metal, Fire, Earth..."

"Ren-Bing, Gui-Ding, Chou-Wei, Zi-Wu..."

Lin Sicheng looked left, then right, occasionally observing the mountain terrain and water flow, and then turning his Compass.

His right hand fingers were constantly calculating, and he was muttering words under his breath.

The group of people found it increasingly strange: if he were wearing a yellow apricot robe and a crown, wouldn't he be a living, breathing Fengshui Daoist?

Looking at the crowd surrounding him: Captains, Institute Directors, Department Heads, Division Chiefs, and even Department Heads. Several of them were even wearing party badges.

He Cong'an felt that this scene was indescribably comical.

After roughly calculating, Lin Sicheng had Fang Jin take out paper and a pen to draw a Big Dipper Star Chart, then kept pointing at the surroundings, and after pointing, he labeled them one by one: Lone Luan, Yellow Spring, Seven Stars Falling to Earth, Golden Plate Shaking Pearl...

No need to guess; anyone who was literate knew these were Fengshui terms.

After watching for a good while, Deputy Bureau Chief He really couldn't hold back: "Department Head Wu, Division Chief Sun, what is this for?"

Wu Hui was straightforward: "Finding tombs!"

He was stunned for a moment: What the hell?

"Bureau Chief He, let me put it simply..." Wu Hui pointed at the long, square, large, and small farmland outside the mausoleum area, "Underneath this, there should be attendant tombs of the Mu Mausoleum. What we are investigating this time is exactly these..."

He Cong'an was left speechless, not knowing what to say.

The accompanying personnel from the city, county, and mausoleum-level archaeology units were all stunned, their dozen pairs of eyes staring straight at those cornfields.

After all this time, is this what you came for?

Of course they knew there were attendant tombs underneath, and the number might not be small. But the problem is, how many years ago was that?

Crops have been planted on this land for more than thirty years, and now you come here and say: Illegal land use!

Isn't this just looking for trouble?

Roughly guessing what they were thinking, Wu Hui smiled again: "So, this is just a routine inspection, no big deal!"

The problem is indeed not big: this is a historical legacy issue, and even if it is verified that there is a large tomb underneath, no one can be blamed.

But He Cong'an always felt that there was something fishy about this: who would be so bored to report this?

Even if someone reported it, it wouldn't warrant the Ministry making a special trip from Beijing.

Knowing that Wu Hui was lying through his teeth, He Cong'an didn't expose him. He looked at the disorganized cornfields and then at Lin Sicheng, who looked like he was fortune-telling: "Department Head Wu, Division Chief Sun, is this method reliable?"

If it were in the past, both would definitely shake their heads without the slightest hesitation: if RTK and Remote Sensing Satellite can't find it, can you find it by relying on superstition?

But after witnessing in Yuncheng how Lin Sicheng found the five ancient porcelain kilns, the two finally understood: even if it is superstition, there is a scientific way to explain it. Sometimes, it is even more effective than science.

In a flash, the two nodded in unison: "It's useful!"

A flash of strangeness crossed He Cong'an's eyes: Fine, since the leaders say it's useful, then let's treat it as useful.

But to be honest, although he came from an administrative background, he had seen enough to know how things worked.

He only knew that this set of methods was used in feudal society for selecting tomb sites, pointing out dragon veins, and burials. He had also heard that grave-robbers used this set of methods to find tombs and judge whether there were valuable Cultural Relics worth stealing, but he had never heard of any archaeology unit or law enforcement unit using this set of methods.

He wasn't the only one thinking this, including a bunch of Police, and even a bunch of cadres from the Cultural Relics Bureau. It even included the management personnel of the city and county mausoleum areas.

It wasn't that they didn't believe it; although Fengshui is considered superstition in modern times, it was an authoritative theory in ancient times. Selecting mausoleums, building mausoleums, and burying the dead were all based on this set of methods.

They just felt it wasn't very useful: nearly two hundred years had passed, and things had changed. Although the place was still the same place, mountains had been leveled and fields had been created, so the situation was no longer the same.

The group just treated it as watching a show, watching Lin Sicheng fiddle around.

Calculating, then drawing, after nearly an hour, Lin Sicheng finally put away the Compass.

And in Fang Jin's hands, there was already a thick stack of photos and sketches.

Taking them and flipping through, Lin Sicheng pulled out three sheets: "Division Chief Sun, just probe along these."

Everyone leaned forward: What is this, the Dragon Vein Map and Fengshui Map of the Mu Mausoleum?

But it was useless; few understood it, and they all looked at it in vain.

Sun Jiamu originally couldn't understand it either, but when Lin Sicheng found the kiln site in Hejin, he incidentally excavated a Jin Dynasty tomb that had already been robbed, which made him think of him as a god.

The era, gender, occupation, burial specifications, size, location of the Tomb Tunnel, how long it had been robbed, and how many Cultural Relics were left inside were exactly the same as what Lin Sicheng predicted.

Out of curiosity, he followed and learned a little; he didn't learn anything too profound, but at least he could understand these three maps.

The first map was the Western Mausoleum Ancestral Pulse, the second was the Mu Mausoleum Branch Pulse, and the third was the flow of the Qi pulse and the auspicious burial sites within the Mu Mausoleum.

To put it simply: from surface to point, from large to small. Especially the third map; if there were attendant tombs outside the mausoleum, they would only be between the "Treasury", "Gauze Hat", and "Water Cloud" in the map.

Combined with the Mu Mausoleum floor plan, it was roughly the area on the right side outside the mausoleum park.

The map also marked it very clearly: there were twelve auspicious sites in this area, so just look for these twelve points. Whichever one had a tomb underground and happened to have been robbed recently, that should be the one.

Sun Jiamu looked up and scanned: no surprise, that area was all farmland.

He called over the Archaeology Team leader and the Institute Director and gave detailed instructions. The others listened quietly, and the more they listened, the stranger they felt.

It is not strange that there are attendant tombs outside the imperial mausoleum: all four imperial mausoleums of the Qing Xiling have them in the surrounding area.

It is not very strange to be able to narrow it down to a specific area: the place is only so big, and there are so many attendant tombs; if they aren't buried here, they must be buried there.

What is strange is that all twelve of these are concubine tombs. And Lin Sicheng marked the status, rank, whether they had offspring, whether they were posthumously honored, and even their life destiny of the tomb owners clearly.

But in this way, they felt even stranger: the person buried at this point is a Noble Lady, that point became a Changzai, the one on the side was buried as a Daying, the one next to that became a Concubine, and the one next to that became an Official Woman?

Many people here don't understand Fengshui, but they understand history: the so-called Official Woman is a palace maid, the only difference being: a palace maid who had been favored by the Emperor.

Most of them were demoted because the concubines made mistakes, and when necessary, they still had to move flowers, weed, and wash clothes.

To put it bluntly, one is in heaven and one is on earth; they did not share the same seat in life, and they would not be buried in the same mausoleum in death; it is impossible to be buried with a Concubine.

Not to mention it was so messy: twelve points represent twelve tombs, from Concubine to Pin, then to Noble Lady, Changzai, Daying, and Official Woman; every rank is there.

Even the wives and concubines of ordinary families have to be ranked in order, let alone an imperial mausoleum?

While they were pondering, the Archaeology Team moved.

It was also all high-tech: Ground Penetrating Radar, which can detect deep tomb chambers of more than five meters and simultaneously analyze the structure of the tomb chamber.

Electromagnetic cross-hole, 3D imaging, can detect pores larger than three centimeters in real-time; never mind a tomb tunnel, even a mouse hole underground can be detected clearly.

There are also aperture radar, ground laser, and quantum magnetism. The two teams were divided into three groups to survey the twelve points marked by Lin Sicheng.

The key is that the speed is faster than usual; the instruments hadn't been running for ten minutes before they found the first one.

A crowd of people looked at each other: a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse, just a coincidence, right?

While they were pondering, Lin Sicheng pinched his walkie-talkie and walked over unhurriedly.

Wu Hui followed behind, and He Cong'an hesitated for a moment before following as well.

Yan Wenjing was even faster, his hands hovering near Lin Sicheng, fearing he might trip.

Once these few moved, the others followed in a swarm.

It wasn't far, just outside the Mu Mausoleum wall, right at the edge of the imperial mausoleum's tree plot. On one side was a cluster of pines and cypresses, and on the other was a cornfield.

Nearby, a couple dressed as farmers were arguing loudly, while the mausoleum management personnel and township staff were explaining: the trampled corn and dug-up field ridges would all be compensated at the quoted price.

As for whether it was illegal land occupation, that would have to be determined after an investigation.

At the edge of the field ridge, Sun Jiamu was personally using a probe rod to drill downwards, while on one side, the ground penetrating radar displayed an image.

It was very clear, looking exactly like a hospital color ultrasound: a square tomb five meters long and wide, with a black spot on the left and right of the burial chamber.

One spot was dark in color, the other light; the dark one indicated the tomb tunnel had reached the bottom, the light one indicated it hadn't broken through.

Having the team members hold the radar and circle the tomb pit, Lin Sicheng looked again at the soil layers Sun Jiamu had probed.

After a glance, Lin Sicheng shook his head, Sun Jiamu also shook his head, and they arranged for the team members to survey the next location.

A group of police officers were left confused, while a group of archaeologists were lost in thought.

They were all experts; looking at the soil layers in the probe tube, they knew: the modern cultural layer was nearly a meter deep, below that was half a meter of virgin soil, and below that, it became disturbed soil again.

This meant the tunnel had existed since before the seventies; nine times out of ten, this tomb had been emptied during the Republic of China period.

Therefore, this wasn't about checking for illegal land occupation at all; this was clearly an investigation into a grave-robbing case.

While they were suspicious, the team members found the second one; this one was relatively small, about ten square meters, and also relatively intact, with no signs of being disturbed by grave-robbing.

Then came the third, fourth, fifth... more and more tombs were detected; there were more that hadn't been robbed than those that had, and they were basically concentrated in the Republic of China period.

Only two had been robbed since the founding of the People's Republic, but looking at the soil layers inside the tomb tunnels, they knew it had been at least ten years.

The more they found, the more disappointed Sun Jiamu became, and even Wu Hui began to mutter to himself, wondering if Lin Sicheng hadn't calculated the location correctly.

But the group of onlookers found it more and more shocking the more they watched.

The group of police officers were fine, as they didn't understand much anyway, and besides, they had already witnessed how miraculous Lin Sicheng was. Surprise was surprise, but the feeling wasn't that deep.

At the very least, they had learned how Lin Sicheng found the Zhang Anshi Tomb: that area was huge, tens of square kilometers, occupying almost half of Xijing.

How many mu was this?

But the group of archaeologists were all dumbfounded: precisely because they understood, and precisely because they understood so much, they knew how incredible this was.

Twelve tombs, nine had already been found; every single one, where the point was drawn on the map, the tomb was right there.

Even the team members didn't need to survey a large area; by combining the three maps and comparing them with the mausoleum's floor plan, Sun Jiamu could narrow the coordinate range to within ten meters.

Standing within the circle, one scan of the radar, and it was clear at a glance whether there was a tomb or not.

One could be called luck, a blind cat bumping into a dead mouse, but nine?

Never mind whether the people buried inside were nobles, attendants, or even concubines, just look at this accuracy.

Looking up again, the surroundings were either trees or fields, and underfoot was either crops or grass; there wasn't even a reference point.

It gave people the feeling as if this child had watched them being buried with his own eyes back then.

Seeing the group of people stunned, Wang Qi Zhi watched coldly: back in Yuncheng, the range was even larger, an entire county, five or six hundred square kilometers, wasn't it also one hit after another?

The key was, those weren't even tombs, but ancient porcelain kilns...

While he was secretly thinking, the team members finished surveying the tenth one. Unfortunately, never mind a tomb tunnel, there wasn't even a mouse hole.

Continuing forward, passing through a poplar forest, they reached the last two points marked on the map, and the group of team members paused.

Two courtyards, one on the left and one on the right, with a dirt road about five meters wide left in the middle.

The coordinates weren't in the courtyards, but behind the backyards. The problem was: one was outside a cattle pen, and one was on a threshing floor.

At the one outside the cattle pen, cow dung was piled up like a mountain; at the one on the threshing floor, corn was spread out to dry.

He who travels one hundred miles covers ninety as half the journey; with only these two left, they definitely had to survey them. Whether it was cow dung or corn, they just had to move it; it was nothing more than paying some money.

The archaeology team's movements were not small, and it was the busy farming season, so there were many people in the village, most of whom had come out to watch the excitement.

The Person in Charge of the mausoleum management office and the township staff went to communicate with the owners, the team members took the opportunity to rest, and the leaders gathered together to chat.

He Cong'an glanced over and gestured with his chin toward Lin Sicheng: "Department Head Wu, which Expert is this?"

"Cultural Relics Research Institute!"

"So young, looks like he's only in his early twenties?"

Wu Hui looked at him meaningfully: "Director He, that's not what you want to ask, is it?"

He Cong'an nodded and lowered his voice: "Department Head Wu, has the Mu Mausoleum been robbed?"

By this point, even a fool could see it.

Wu Hui didn't speak, but his silence represented an admission.

He Cong'an looked left and right, then sighed: "Leader, even if the imperial mausoleum has been robbed, it shouldn't require this kind of formation, right?"

Before, he had been busy trying to figure out Wu Hui's purpose and hadn't paid much attention. It wasn't until they were halfway through surveying the tombs that he accidentally crossed paths with Li Zhijie and felt a sense of familiarity.

After recalling, he remembered: this was the Office Director of the Provincial Department.

What was strange was that Li Zhijie had been following behind two men with slight Beijing accents, step by step, respectfully.

Associating this with Li Zhijie's position and rank, and associating it with the Beijing accent, the answer was obvious: these two were police from Beijing.

Whether they were from the Ministry, he didn't know, but their rank was definitely much higher than Li Zhijie's.

Thinking deeper, he immediately gasped: for the National Cultural Heritage Administration to be dispatched and for Beijing police to be needed to assist in the investigation, how big must this case be?

But even if it were as big as the sky, at most it's just an imperial tomb being robbed; why go to the extent of investigating it like a spy case?

Wu Hui shook his head.

To tell the truth, he didn't know much either: he only knew it was related to the group that wounded Lin Sicheng; as for the specific nature of the case and what it had to do with Qing Xiling, he wasn't very clear on that either.

Handing over a cigarette, Wu Hui thought for a moment: "He Zhuguan, you might not believe it, but actually, I'm not very clear on it either!"

He Cong'an paused, and did not press further.

The two of them smoked head-to-head, and the staff called over the heads of the two households: two women, who were sisters-in-law.

Hearing that they had to move the cow dung and corn, the two women were not very willing: they said their husbands were away working, and the children were still small. Plus, it was the busy farming season, and it was hard to hire people; moving it was easy enough, but what about after?

The Person in Charge of the Xie promised that they would move it back exactly how they moved it, and finally promised an extra five hundred yuan per household, only then did the two women agree.

Two loaders were brought in from the town, and the speed was very fast; in less than half an hour, the entire field of corn was pushed into a pile.

The Archaeology Team entered the site, turning around several times from front to back and back to front.

There was indeed a tomb, and it was quite large, but there were no traces of it being disturbed by grave robbers.

Subsequently, the two loaders shoveled the cow dung. There was quite a lot of cow dung, and it was heavy, so this time it was slower, taking about an hour.

The Archaeology Team entered the site again, and after circling twice, several team members looked at each other in dismay.

Found it?

Yan Wenjing's spirits lifted, and he ran over like a flash, staring at the imaging device.

But it was useless; he couldn't understand it.

Sun Jiamu and Wu Hui arrived right after, took a glance, and the two looked at each other, then looked at Lin Sicheng who had just walked over.

Staring at the screen flickering with static, Lin Sicheng frowned slightly.

Yan Wenjing's heart skipped a beat: "Teacher Lin, how is it?"

Lin Sicheng paused and shook his head: "No tomb!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment.

Of the twelve points on the map, eleven tombs had already been found; this was the only one where an accident had occurred.

Wang Qi Zhi held his chin: "Could it be that when the mausoleum was originally selected, the Feng Shui master didn't discover this place?"

Lin Sicheng shook his head: It was possible elsewhere, but absolutely impossible here.

At first glance, this place was the furthest from the Dao Guang Treasure City (mausoleum mound), but here, there was a branch vein descending from the Ancestral Mountain of Mu Mausoleum.

Sitting west and facing east, Ren Mountain Bing Direction, the main peak stood like a screen, and the Case Mountain resembled a mirror stand. Surrounded by small hills like a makeup box, the water outlet had hanging springs falling down, resembling a flowing waterfall.

A natural peak forest, yet it looked like a woman's dressing scene, yin-soft and gathering Qi, the mirror water collecting wealth: Jade Maiden Dressing Table.

It couldn't compare to the Mu Mausoleum of Dao Guang, nor could it compare to the Mu East Mausoleum specifically for concubines, but among the companion tombs outside the Mu Mausoleum, this place had the best Feng Shui layout.

Especially right underfoot, which was this pile of cow dung, Ren Mountain Bing Direction; this was the Hair-Bun Peak point of the dressing table, the most noble among the noble.

The spot next to it was Zi Mountain Wu Direction, known in Feng Shui as the Hair-Bun Corner point, the second most noble.

It made no sense that people were buried over there, and the tombs were so large, yet this place was empty?

After calculating it again and confirming there were no errors, Lin Sicheng tossed the Compass to Fang Jin and began circling the cow pen.

After one circle, he stopped his steps: "Is the old village chief here?"

The village chief was there, but he wasn't old, a young man of about thirty.

After a few polite words, Lin Sicheng pointed to the two courtyards: "Village Chief, may I ask, when we build houses here, do we all have to raise the foundation?"

"Yes, it's too close to the mountain and there's too much water; we must pull in dry sand and gravel to build the foundation, otherwise the dampness is too great!"

"Do the cow pen and grain yard also need to be raised?"

"Yes!" The village chief nodded, "Being close to the mountain, there is a lot of rain, and it gets waterlogged as soon as it rains. If we don't raise it, either the grain gets soaked or the livestock gets drowned!"

"How much do you raise it?"

"The house foundation is at least 1.5 meters or more, and the backyard and grain yard are at least 1 meter!"

Listening to the conversation between the two, Yan Wenjing's eyes lit up: Because the foundation was raised, it caused the tomb to be buried deeper, so the radar didn't detect it?

However, he frowned again: The problem now wasn't whether there was a tomb underneath, but whether there were traces of grave robbing.

If it hadn't been robbed, what was the point of just finding the tomb?

Sighing inwardly, Lin Sicheng said thank you and began circling the cow pen again.

There weren't many cows, four in total, big and small. The pen wasn't big either, about ten meters east to west and four meters north to south.

The back wall had a small window left for removing dung, roughly meaning it was thrown out from the hole with a shovel, and then transported again toward the back.

Having just been turned over, the decomposed layer was flipped to the very top, smelling worse than a dry toilet that hadn't been dug for ten years. It was also extremely dirty, with puddles here and there, yellow water soaking the thin slurry, flowing everywhere.

Picking the dry and hard spots, Lin Sicheng walked a bit closer, first looking at the dung pile, then glancing at the base of the cow pen wall.

The bottom was a stone foundation, and the top was adobe; the traces of alkalization and decay were not heavy, indicating that the previous dung pile was not stacked against the wall like it was now. Instead, after being flipped out from the window, it would be flipped again toward the back.

But the wall was very damp, indicating it hadn't been turned for at least half a year and had been stacked against the wall the whole time.

The dung pile was very soft, mostly brownish-yellow, but one layer in the base was extremely black, like silt from a pond.

At first glance, it was normal; this was feces decomposed into organic carbon. What wasn't normal was that to decompose to this extent, it had to be stacked for at least five years.

But in a farmer's home, it's applied as it's piled, with a one-year cycle; whose cow dung could be piled for five years?

Unless, the bottom of the pen was dug through?

Thinking of this, Lin Sicheng's eyelids twitched: "Fang Jin, find a shovel."

What is this for?

But regardless of what it was for, it shouldn't be for Lin Sicheng to do it himself. Not to mention his status, he had just been stabbed, and whether he could even dig was a question.

Yan Wenjing was quick-handed and snatched the shovel from Fang Jin's hand: "Teacher Lin, where should I dig?"

"Right here, this pile of black dung; dig slowly, flatten it first, then spread it out!"

Yan Wenjing followed orders and called over two of his subordinate police officers.

The three people each held a shovel, one digging, one patting, and one spreading.

After digging for only a few shovelfuls, Lin Sicheng reached out to stop them and squatted down.

Within the spread-out cow dung, a few white granular fragments were revealed.

Lin Sicheng did not mind the filth; he picked up a few pieces and rubbed them carefully.

They were very hard and also very dense.

He placed them under his nose to sniff, then let out a "Ha!"

Yan Wenjing did not understand the reason; he looked at the white soil particles in his hand, then peered at the ground beneath his feet, and also picked up two pieces.

Just as he picked them up, he was stunned: What is this, lime?

Yan Wenjing pondered for a moment: "Teacher Lin, lime can disinfect and kill insects; spreading lime in a cow pen seems quite normal, right?"

Lin Sicheng was taken aback: Normal my foot; you've never farmed or raised cows, have you?

No, that's right, he really hadn't.

But it is impossible to spread lime in a cow pen: first, this stuff is corrosive; it burns the cows' hooves during the day and their bellies at night.

Second, if lime is spread, how can this manure still be applied to the fields? Even iron-forged crops would be burned to death.

Furthermore, this is not pure lime at all.

Lin Sicheng threw away the soil particles and clapped his hands: "Captain Yan, look closely!"

Look at what?

No matter how he looked, it was still lime... wait, no.

Lime isn't this hard... this is Ancient Three-in-one Soil mixed with Glutinous Rice Juice, porcelain clay, and Fine Sandpaper.

But where would Ancient Three-in-one Soil come from in a cow pen?

Yan Wenjing stood agape, his eyelids twitching uncontrollably: This damn thing is Vault Soil from a tomb roof...

(End of chapter)