Chapter 635: What Kind of Underhanded Trick Don't I Know?

Zhao Xiuneng stared at the map Lin Sicheng had drawn, his eyes gleaming: "Junior Brother, is the treasure of the Liao Emperor hidden here?"

"Senior Brother, how could it be that easy?" Lin Sicheng couldn't help but laugh, "I only tried to draw a map of the actual appearance based on the cartographic habits of the Song people."

"The mountains might not be this high, nor this long, and the rivers might not be this wide; the tributaries branched off might not be this numerous—"

"Furthermore, nearly a thousand years have passed; flash floods, earthquakes, and even weathering and erosion would have changed the landscape. Even if what I drew is one hundred percent correct, the world has changed—"

That may be so, but having something is better than having nothing.

Just as Zhao Xiuneng was about to say something, Lin Sicheng waved his hand: "Teacher, Senior Brother, having a map alone is useless. Because we don't know who drew this map, nor who made that pot."

If we can't clarify this point, no matter how we deduce it, it is all pure imagination. It is not even certain whether these mountains and rivers in this map exist at all.

The two men were silent: if even the mountains might not exist, let alone the treasure?

They understood what Lin Sicheng meant: if this was the treasure map of Emperor Tianzuo, what kind of mentality would he have to dare to tuck this map into this pot and hand it over to the Song Dynasty's Directorate for Imperial Manufactories to produce?

It is roughly equivalent to him personally handing his final retreat to his enemy; how big must his heart be, and how much water must be in his brain?

?

Secondly, the timeline doesn't match: if the production era is inferred based on the craftsmanship, the Birch Bark Pot should have been made at the beginning of Emperor Tianzuo's reign. At that time, it was still more than ten years before Emperor Tianzuo suffered repeated defeats and fled repeatedly.

The Liao Dynasty was still powerful then, at least on the surface, so during those ten-plus years, Emperor Tianzuo favored sycophants,

ignored state affairs, was licentious and lawless, and lived in a drunken stupor. He was too busy indulging in pleasure; what kind of consideration would he have to leave such a retreat for himself?

There are too many contradictions; it doesn't make sense logically.

Zhao Xiuneng frowned: "Then what should we do now?"

"Investigate!" Lin Sicheng said decisively, "As long as we can find one piece of corroborating evidence related to it, proving the possibility that this map existed in history, it is worth us giving it a try."

Conversely, it would be like daydreaming or wishful thinking, and we should go do some real work sooner rather than later.

Lin Sicheng paused: "Of course, even if we can find corroborating evidence, it might not necessarily point to treasure. Because no one can guarantee whether this was a tactic used by Emperor Tianzuo when he was driven to a dead end to confuse the Jin Dynasty—"

You want to capture me, don't you? You want to destroy my country, don't you? Fine, I'll set up a target for you: I will definitely flee here in the end; don't you have to prepare in advance and investigate?

I'll make a fake map for you, go ahead and investigate slowly—

If we calculate the time and combine it with the historical background: in the first year of Chonghe (1118), the Song court sent the envoy Ma Zheng across the sea to the Jin to discuss an alliance: Jin would attack the Liao's Zhongjing, Song would take the Liao's Nanjing (Yanjing), and Song would pay the Annual Tribute originally given to the Liao to the Jin, with the two sides using Gubeikou and Yuguan as the border.

History calls this the Alliance on the Sea.

But it wasn't until two years later that the two sides reached an agreement, and the Song court continued to pay the Annual Tribute to the Liao Dynasty for two years.

Perhaps it was Emperor Tianzuo who knew that the two sides were about to form an alliance and used a strategy of sowing discord while pretending to go along with it, or perhaps he was feeding false information to the Song and Jin.

Therefore, we must investigate first—

Not daring to call too many people, they only notified Li Zhen and Fang Jin, as well as Zhao Da and Zhao Er.

Lin Sicheng also called Tian Rulong and Sheng Guoan to borrow their accounts for the National Library and the Palace Museum databases. He also asked these two to help contact friends at Shoubo, the Shanghai Museum, the Liaoning Provincial Museum, the Inner Mongolia Museum, and the Institute of History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

They borrowed an account from each institution to look up information.

Then, Lin Sicheng listed a table: *Remaining Fragments of the Complete Liao Literature*, *History of Jin*, *History of Song*, *Compilation of Documents on the Northern Alliance of the Three Dynasties*, *Draft of the Song Huiyao*, *Annals of the Khitan State*, *Record of Missions to the Liao*, *Illustrated Record of Missions to the Barbarians*, *Customs of the Khitan*,

*Remaining Archives of the Yanjing Garrison*, *Longkan Shoujing*, *Fenjiao Lu*, *Continued Meaning of All Sutras*, *Supplement to the Liao History's Tables of Diplomatic Exchanges*, *Draft Tables of Song-Liao Diplomatic Envoys*, *Study of Song-Liao Diplomatic Exchanges*—

Among them were both ancient documents and academic works compiled by modern scholars based on various inscriptions and epitaphs, as well as notebook histories compiled by historians of the two Song periods. In total, there were hundreds of books, filling two whole sheets of paper.

Zhao Xiuneng felt his scalp tingle: with only seven people, how long would this take to check?

Wang Qi Zhi sighed secretly: just looking at the book titles on this list, he hadn't even heard of one-fifth of them. As for the content, he didn't even know what was written inside.

But Lin Sicheng didn't open a computer or flip through a book, yet he could clearly remember which documents were in which materials and which library they were hidden in.

One can imagine how many books he had read. One can also imagine what he usually did when he had nothing to do.

Amidst his reflections, Lin Sicheng assigned tasks: "First, check the records of mutual envoys and diplomatic exchanges—focus on checking the contents of the New Year's greeting envoys, birthday greeting envoys, mourning envoys, and condolence envoys around the time of Emperor Tianzuo's succession. Including the time, location, number of envoys, and mutual gifts—"

"Especially the latter two points: see if there is a Birch Bark Pot in the exchange lists; if not, then check for birch bark, Gemstones, and gold and silver Silver Ornaments. At the same time, check if there were any officials from the Directorate for Imperial Manufactories of the two countries, or even Craftsman, among the envoy groups—"

Wang Qi Zhi was stunned: "Bring Craftsman on a diplomatic mission?"

"Yes, Craftsman!"

Lin Sicheng explained, "Teacher, the workmanship of that pot is very special; it requires peeling fresh, tender inner birch bark—and in the Song territory at that time, only the high mountains in the northern parts of Hedong Circuit and Qinfeng Circuit (Shanxi, Shaanxi) had birch trees."

"But these places only had red birch and Erman's birch; the bark is thin and the patches are fragmented, at most suitable for making knife handle linings, and cannot be peeled into the large pieces needed to make a pot. So those two pieces of bark should have been taken from the white birch in areas such as north of the Yanshan Mountains in the Liao territory, western Liao, and the southern foothills of the Greater Khingan Range—"

"If you want to keep it fresh, this is not difficult: saw the fresh birch wood into sections, seal both ends with wax, and keep sprinkling water on it along the way. Or even plant the fresh birch wood segments with bark into water buckets and transport them to Kaifeng; the bark will not only not wither, but will even sprout tender buds—"

"The difficult part is the process after peeling: peeling layer by layer, steam-moistening, and steaming until soft—the Song Dynasty Craftsman wouldn't know how to do this; it must have been completed by Liao Dynasty Craftsman—"

If the Liao Dynasty sent Craftsman to the Song Dynasty, there must have been officials from the Liao Directorate for Imperial Manufactories accompanying them to liaise with the Song court's Directorate for Imperial Manufactories. And for ministers of this rank to exchange visits, there must be official records.

Even if it is not in the Liao Dynasty's records, it must be in the Song Dynasty's records.

They started investigating immediately; all seven people sprang into action, with seven laptops arranged in two rows, each person responsible for one library.

Only after starting did they realize how convenient and time-saving the list provided by Lin Sicheng was: because it is not more than ten years later, all major libraries have built large-scale digital databases and ancient book resource libraries, and can even achieve sharing; if that fails, one can still check CNKI.

For example: more than ten years later, if you type "diplomatic exchange" in the search bar on the homepage of a library's electronic database, all relevant data entries in the library will be listed for you in at most half a minute. Further inputting keywords, such as Song-Liao, or Huizong, Emperor Tianzuo, will filter out all data belonging to this time period and the reigns of these two emperors.

Then, by inputting index words like Directorate for Imperial Manufactories or "Craftsman," you can find the information you want.

But in this stage of 2009, paperless office work had only just begun to be piloted, and only a few major libraries had started building digital databases, with many procedures being imperfect.

You must first select the dynasty, then the country, and then specify which book, before you can start searching. Before that, any search command entered is invalid.

And the point is: you have to know which book the information you want to check is in, and what the book title is.

Now it is extremely convenient: open the library collection homepage, log in to the account, enter the name of the book you need to query, and then search for keywords; whether there is relevant information inside is clear at a glance.

One person per library, keyboards clattering away.

After about an hour, the seven people finished their queries one after another; Lin Sicheng was responsible for the National Library, which had the most catalogs to search, yet his speed was the fastest.

The slowest was Zhao Xiuneng; after all, he was getting on in years, his memory was not as good as before, and he was not very proficient with computers.

The seven people compiled the information they found, and Lin Sicheng read through it item by item.

National Library, none—

Palace Museum, none—

The Institute of History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, likewise, had nothing—

Looking again at Shoubo, the Shanghai Museum, the Liaoning Provincial Museum, and the Inner Mongolia Museum, still nothing—

Wang Qi Zhi rested his chin on his hand: "Could it be in other museums, or perhaps in some more obscure materials? Or worse, maybe we didn't search carefully enough and missed it?"

It wasn't impossible, but Lin Sicheng was not prepared to search through it all again.

These people all had proper work to do, especially him; he had a mountain of important matters, and which one of those wasn't more important than this ethereal Treasure Map that might only exist in their imaginations?

Trying was fine, but one couldn't get hung up on a dead end.

Lin Sicheng thought for a moment: "How about this, let's search in reverse: focus on the periods of Emperor Huizong and Emperor Tianzuo, and see if the Song Dynasty ever sent Craftsman and officials from the Directorate of Palace Manufactures to the Liao Dynasty—"

"Junior Brother, do you mean: that pot was made in the Shangjing (capital) of the Liao Dynasty, rather than by the Directorate of Palace Manufactures in the Song Dynasty's Kaifeng Prefecture?"

"Correct, the Liao Dynasty could send Craftsman to the Song Dynasty, so the Song Dynasty could certainly send them to the Liao Dynasty. Of course, it's just a hypothesis; they might not have sent any—"

Whether they sent any or not, we'll check first and then talk.

Looking at it the other way: that Treasure Map, and the treasure of the Liao Emperor, aren't they all hypotheses?

Whether it is or isn't, one must at least try; what if it exists?

The few of them started moving again, following the same previous workflow and methods, using the same previous institutions, though Lin Sicheng added a portion of data entries.

Practice makes perfect; this time the speed was much faster, and they searched for less than an hour.

Just as they were halfway through, Li Zhen let out a low cry: "Teacher Lin, look—"

Lin Sicheng put down the mouse and walked over.

Regarding data, Li Zhen was relatively more professional, so Lin Sicheng had let her be responsible for the account of the Institute of History at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and she had indeed found one entry:

Tuotuo's *History of Liao*, Zhonghua Book Company punctuated edition, Volume 86, "Biography of Yelü Nali": Sent to the Song to offer New Year's greetings, he sketched the Song ruler's countenance to bring back. During the Qingning era, he was sent to the Song again. The Song ruler hosted a banquet; flowers in a vase blocked his face, and he could not get a true likeness. When taking leave, he took only one look, and upon reaching the border, he showed the portrait to those seeing him off, who were shocked by its divine precision—

Lin Sicheng read it twice, recalled it for a moment, and then shook his head.

It was indeed somewhat related, but strictly speaking, it was not the same thing as the data they were searching for: Yelü Nali was a minister during the eras of Emperor Xingzong of Liao and Emperor Daozong of Liao; these two were, respectively, the grandfather and father of Emperor Tianzuo, so the timeline didn't match up to begin with.

The literature also wrote very clearly: Yelü Nali was the chief envoy, not a painter. And he himself was a famous painter of the Liao Dynasty, specializing in portraits of emperors. Because he privately killed a maidservant, he was sentenced to death, and only by painting a portrait for Emperor Daozong was he able to have his sentence reduced to exile.

His two diplomatic missions to the Northern Song were, in fact, under the secret orders of Emperor Xingzong of Liao and Emperor Daozong of Liao to secretly sketch portraits of Emperor Renzong of Song and Emperor Shenzong of Song.

It had nothing to do with the "pot-making Craftsman" Lin Sicheng wanted to find.

Lin Sicheng explained it, and Li Zhen continued to search.

He had just walked over and hadn't even sat down when Wang Qi Zhi called him again: "Lin Sicheng, come look at this, I have one here too—"

Lin Sicheng hurriedly walked over.

Also from the *History of Liao*, later introduced in Li Tao's *Long Draft of the Continued Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance*, Volume 100:

In the third year of Huangyou (1051), the Khitan sent Liu Liufulu to tell the reception envoy Wang Zhu: Yelü Fang is skilled at painting; he once went to the Southern Dynasty and sketched the Holy Countenance to bring back, and wishes to go to the embassy again to redraw it. Zhu said: This is not a place for worship, and refused him.

This entry was much the same as the previous one: also under the orders of the Liao Emperor to paint portraits of the Song Emperor.

It was only because Yelü Fang's rank was too low that he could not serve as a chief envoy and could not see the Emperor himself. He could only have the chief envoy Liu Liufulu apply through official channels, but he was rejected by the Song Dynasty's reception envoy Wang Zhu.

It could be considered somewhat related to what they wanted to search for, but the connection was not very strong—

The two were whispering to each other when Fang Jin also found an entry over there. This entry came from the notes-style history *Later Records of Waving the Whisk* by Wang Mingqing, a historian and member of a family of historical book collectors from the Song Dynasty, a Southern Song note-style historian.

It recorded: In the first year of Chonghe, the Painting Academy official Chen Yaochen was sent, accompanied by two painting students, posing as Ministry officials to go on a mission to the Liao Dynasty. He mapped the portrait of Emperor Tianzuo and also drew the mountains, rivers, and terrain of the Liao to bring back.

This time it was the Song Dynasty's turn: The Song Emperor sent officials from the Hanlin Painting Academy to infiltrate the diplomatic mission, and brought two students along. He not only secretly painted a portrait of Emperor Tianzuo but also mapped the mountains and terrain of the Liao territory.

Although they were still painters, it was a step further: at least it had reached the years of Emperor Tianzuo.

Subsequently, Zhao Xiuneng also found an entry, *History of Song: Biography of Shen Kuo*: Kuo then returned; on the road, he mapped the mountains and rivers, their dangers and ease, their twists and turns, the purity or complexity of the customs, and the sentiments of the people, and presented the *Illustrated Copy of the Mission to the Khitan*.

This time it was Shen Kuo's turn; he didn't paint portraits of emperors, but specialized in drawing military maps and investigating social customs.

At the same time, Zhao Da also found an entry: *Long Draft of the Continued Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance*, Volume 64, third year of Jingde (1006): From now on, when the Imperial Court sends envoys, they should be accompanied by medical officials, and they (the Liao) will surely send doctors as well.

From this time on, the Song and Liao Dynasties had begun to send medical officials to each other.

Painters were indeed sent often, as the entries above could prove, but they mostly acted in the role of spies. Apart from this, no other relevant Information was found.

But Lin Sicheng remembered very clearly: besides painters and medical officials, the Song and Liao Dynasties had sent other Craftsman.

It was a pity that he had only glanced at it in passing at the time and had not specifically searched for it, let alone gained a deep understanding, so he did not know exactly which year it started or which specific types of Craftsman had been sent.

He had even become vague about which book it was recorded in.

But since he had an impression of it, it must exist.

Lin Sicheng told the others to rest first, and he searched personally.

First, he searched the official histories of the dynasties, *Complete Liao Prose*, *History of Song*, and *History of Jin*.

Then he searched the chronicles, *Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance*, *Long Draft of the Continued Comprehensive Mirror in Aid of Governance*, and *History of the Khitan State*.

Then he searched the *Records of Missions to Liao/Song* and *Travel Records*, and finally searched miscellaneous histories, compilations, and note-style histories.

The others knew they couldn't help much, so they could only worry anxiously.

There was no need for everyone to stay up; Lin Sicheng arranged for Fang Jin to stay, and the others to return to the dormitory to sleep.

After they left, Lin Sicheng chased Fang Jin out as well, telling him to rest in the outer room.

Because staying here was just watching.

Fang Jin brewed hot tea for him, poured it into a thermos, and prepared two pieces of cake.

Just like that, Lin Sicheng searched until dawn.

The first to arrive was Zhao Xiuneng, who entered the door just at six o'clock. His face was covered in stubble, his eyes were bloodshot, and one look showed he hadn't slept

well.

When he went in, Lin Sicheng was eating cake, and his complexion looked alright.

Lin Sicheng handed him a piece, but Zhao Xiuneng shook his head and looked at the papers filled with writing in front of him: "Junior Brother, for an entire night, you didn't sleep at all?"

"I'm used to pulling all-nighters!" Lin Sicheng shook his head, "How long did Senior Brother sleep?"

Zhao Xiuneng was stunned: How could he have slept?

Just as I was getting sleepy and feeling drowsy, that Treasure Map suddenly popped into my mind. Then, the sleepiness vanished instantly.

I struggled to force myself not to think about it, but in a half-dreaming, half-waking state, I dreamed again that they had found the treasure and were in the middle of splitting the loot.

I was so happy for a moment that I woke up while laughing—but once I opened my eyes and looked, what was the point of sleeping anymore?

The two were just talking when Li Zhen also entered the door, carrying a serving of tofu pudding and a few steamer baskets of soup dumplings in her hands.

"General Manager Zhao, would you like to eat a little together?"

"Forget it, I can't eat!"

"I'll brew some tea for you!"

"No need, I'll do it myself. You take good care of Junior Brother!"

He got up to boil water, and Li Zhen scalded a hot Towel and handed it to Lin Sicheng.

Zhao Xiuneng glanced at Fang Jin, who was snoring in the outer room, and sighed inwardly: To be honest, with Lin Sicheng's personality of working day and night once he gets started, eating only two meals in three days, having Li Zhen as his Assistant is the most suitable arrangement.

She is attentive, considerate, and even more perceptive.

The only bad thing is that this girl is too headstrong, and she is still single even now————

Just as he was feeling sentimental, there was a commotion at the door, and Wang Qi Zhi, Zhao Da, and Zhao Er entered together.

They were all carrying breakfast, and there were two portions for each.

Looking at Lin Sicheng, who was drinking tofu pudding, the few of them didn't know what to say.

It was only a little past six; thinking everyone was still asleep, they hadn't called them.

They had only bought two portions of breakfast: one for themselves and one for Lin Sicheng. But who could have guessed that Lin Sicheng had already started eating?

They woke up Fang Jin and had him take the extras downstairs to distribute to the staff on duty, then the few of them sat around the long table in the outer room to eat breakfast.

Wang Qi Zhi took a bite of a fried dough stick: "How is it?"

Lin Sicheng swallowed a dumpling: "I found a little!"

The information does exist, but it is not recorded in a single historical source; rather, it is documented across multiple related texts and articles. It requires piecing together scattered clauses and synthesizing and analyzing various historical materials.

Especially the most critical part, which is scattered across multiple imperial edicts and memorials. To find these fragmented pieces of information and piece them together, Lin Sicheng's brain was almost drained.

He wiped his hands and opened the Folder: "The first part comes from *Classified Essentials of the Court and Countryside* (a notebook-style history compiled by Zhao Sheng of the Southern Song Dynasty), Volume 1, Section 3: Personnel. Old precedents for missions to the Liao Dynasty, 'Regulations for Envoys to the Khitan': The three-tier personnel accompanying the mission are either dispatched by the Imperial Court or recruited by the office itself————"

"Three-tier personnel: When an envoy is sent, there are upper, middle, and lower tiers. The upper tier consists of the Ambassador's staff, such as medical officials, document officers, and gift officers; the middle tier consists of staff members and personal attendants; the lower tier consists of various types of Craftsman, soldiers, and miscellaneous servants————among them are 'various types of Craftsman'————"

"The second part comes from *Drafts of the Song Official Documents: Official Posts 36*, Office of Diplomatic Correspondence: Official Posts 36. This part records the total number of personnel in the mission, the dispatch process for the three-tier personnel, and the temporary transfer of personnel from various government offices to the Office of Diplomatic Correspondence————"

"This section does not explicitly mention it; I pieced it together from hundreds of drafts. I speculate that among the personnel drawn from various offices for the so-called three-tier personnel, there should be Craftsman from the Wensi Institute————"

"The key is that it is difficult to check: it only exists in this version of *Drafts of the Song Official Documents: Official Posts 36* edited by Xu Song from the *Yongle Encyclopedia*; it is completely absent from other library collections and publisher versions————"

"The third part, which is also the most critical part because it explicitly mentions Craftsman, comes from *Jingkang Unofficial History*, *Record of the Journey to the Jin Dynasty as an Envoy in the Yi-Si Year of Xuanhe*:

The three-tier personnel accompanying the mission total eighty people of various types————at the end of this entry is a sentence: two from the Court of Imperial Sacrifices, two from the Directorate of Palace Buildings, and five Craftsman from the Rear Court Workshop————among which the Directorate of Palace Buildings and Craftsman are explicitly mentioned, totaling seven people————"

This entry is the most detailed and the hardest to find, the reason being the book *Jingkang Unofficial History*: This is a notebook-style history from the Southern Song Dynasty, rumored to have been first compiled by Que'an of the Southern Song as *Records of Shared Indignation*, and re-edited and supplemented by Nai'an at the end of the Song. This Nai'an is nine times out of ten Shi Nai'an.

However, during the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties, no printed copies of this book circulated in the country. It wasn't until the 18th year of the Guangxu reign of the late Qing Dynasty (1892) that Xie Jiafu (a late Qing philanthropist) obtained a manuscript transmitted from overseas and brought it back to the country. It was not included and printed in the *Jimao Collection* until the 28th year of the Republic of China.

To put it bluntly: the list Lin Sicheng previously drew up did not include this book, and the historical and archaeological circles have never included this book in the bibliography of materials for verifying Song and Liao history.

Lin Sicheng really couldn't find any useful information, so he stumbled upon it while browsing the National Library. He opened it and looked: what a surprise—"all the searching was in vain, yet it was found without any effort"————

Zhao Xiuneng put down his chopsticks, his spirits lifted: "Does that mean you found it?"

Lin Sicheng put down the Folder, picked up a dumpling again, and then shook his head: "Strictly speaking, no!"

"The middle part, which is the personnel drawn from various offices for the three-tier personnel, is my speculation regarding the Wensi Institute Craftsman."

"As for the last part, the one that explicitly records two from the Directorate of Palace Buildings and five Craftsman from the Rear Court Workshop, that was already the seventh year of Xuanhe, which is 1125: this mission was to congratulate the Jin Emperor Taizong on his ascension to the throne. It has nothing to do with the Liao Dynasty or the Emperor Tianzuo————"

"There was no precedent for sending Craftsman before that?"

"No!" Lin Sicheng shook his head again, "Based on the information found so far, there isn't a single one————"

Not a single one?

Visibly, the grayness on Zhao Xiuneng's face deepened, and a look of disappointment and hesitation appeared on his face.

Wang Qi Zhi looked strange: "General Manager Zhao, it's just the beginning, and you're already discouraged? Get this straight, this is treasure; if it were that easy to find, it would have been dug up by someone else long ago. Could it still be here now?"

"Professor Wang, I'm not discouraged; I'm just feeling sentimental: Junior Brother is so professional to this extent, knowing how to find clues, how to check materials, and even more so, where to check and how to check."

"But just checking the information for a relevant clue is already this difficult. If it were someone else, how much energy and time would they have to spend just to get a hint of a lead?"

Zhao Xiuneng sighed, "For example, without Junior Brother, and without you, just me, the eldest, and the second, just the three of us, we would have to check these materials until our next life————"

Wang Qi Zhi was stunned for a moment: it wasn't just General Manager Zhao, and Zhao Da and Zhao Er; he had to be included too.

If they were left to check, they would only know they should check the materials of the Song and Liao dynasties. But they wouldn't know which specific book or article among the more than 6,800 types and 220,000 historical documents they wanted to check was in.

If they flipped through them one by one, Wang Qi Zhi's beard would probably turn white before he found it.

Lin Sicheng, on the contrary, was very carefree: "Good things take time. If it were General Manager He, he certainly wouldn't be anxious. Conversely, let's say: it's hard for us to check, isn't it also hard for him to check?"

At the very least, he would have to pay a cost several or even dozens of times higher than Lin Sicheng.

Lin Sicheng did not believe that He Youhan could find an Expert with a memory comparable to a computer, who has lived two lifetimes, with a breadth of knowledge so terrifying that it is professional enough not to lose to authoritative scholars.

It's not that Lin Sicheng is boasting: if it comes to identifying antiques, there are many who are better than him. But if it comes to identifying Liao Dynasty Cultural Relics, or researching Liao history and verifying related documents and historical materials, those better than him now can be counted on one hand.

Because so far, the documents and materials available for researching Liao history are pitifully few. To research Liao history, one can only rely on the *History of Liao* compiled during the Yuan Dynasty.

But this historical material has many inherent flaws; most of it is hearsay. It is the most problematic book among the Twenty-Four Histories, bar none.

The most critical thing is that the Khitan Script is a dead language; no one could decipher it by the Ming Dynasty, let alone in modern times.

It wasn't until the year after next that large numbers of Khitan noble tombs were unearthed in ALKEQQ, Fuxin in Liaoning, and other places, and the world's first Chinese-Khitan translation material was unearthed, that research institutions related to Liao history began to emerge in large numbers————

Hearing this, Zhao Xiuneng perked up again: That's right, if I can't beat others, can't I at least beat He Youhan?

As long as I am one step faster than him, that's enough.

If we really can't find it, we'll set off a smoke bomb: General Manager He, we have found such and such; how much longer do you guess it will take for us to find that batch of treasure?

It would be best to force him to negotiate with Lin Sicheng and turn a blind eye to the technical projects. Even if the negotiation fails, it can still distract him and make him cause less trouble for Lin Sicheng.

Or to put it more bluntly: who doesn't know how to trip someone up? If you can do it, why wouldn't I be able to?

I, Old Zhao, have spent my whole life in the pugilistic world; what kind of underhanded, dark, dirty, or poisonous tricks don't I know?

I'll scheme you to death—

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