Chapter 18 Section five

The uncle smoked his homemade earthen cigarette by the barbed wire fence, with a large number of villagers watching the excitement behind him. He watched Professor Li jumping up and down profusely in sweat and said "be careful", while humming a model play: "...Look at the wharf, it's so magnificent, the machinery is lined up by the river; the big crane is really powerful, tons of steel, It gets up with a light grip!" Xia Mingruo walked over and said: "You are very free." The uncle said: "You are also very free." Xia Mingruo showed him the shovel: "I'm always ready."

"Hey, nephew," the uncle motioned Xia Mingruo to come closer, "You can discuss with your teacher. When the tomb opens, take me in first." "Then I violated discipline," Xia Mingruo asked, "What do you want to go in for?" The uncle said: "Look, I promise not to take anything." "Who can find out if you want to take something!" Xia Mingruo shook his head, "Uncle, I don't have this authority." The uncle spread his hands and walked towards the grave: "Then I'll go and talk to Haiyang." "Haiyang probably won't agree." Xia Mingruo followed him.

There was a sudden commotion at the edge of the grave, and Captain Zhou shouted hoarsely: "Wait a minute—! Wait a minute and put it down—!" "Why wait?" Xia Mingruo and the uncle ran over. The crane stopped in time, and the driver half leaned out of the cab with a puzzled face. The boulder was suspended at a height of 1.5 meters above the ground with a large amount of mud. Chu Haiyang carefully drilled into the bottom of the boulder, scraped off some mud, looked at it, and then came out, nodding to Professor Li and the others. The old man hurriedly greeted people: "Hurry up, comrades, come and help, let the stone land on its side! Remember to expose the bottom!"

As soon as the archaeologists and soldiers rushed forward, Xia Mingruo squeezed to Chu Haiyang's side: "What's wrong?" "The old man has good eyesight," Chu Haiyang said, "just now a piece of mud peeled off, and he suddenly found a pattern on the bottom of the stone." Captain Zhou commanded from the side: "Comrade driver! Slow down! Slow down! Hey! Good! Good! Comrades push! Push in one direction! Good! Good! Hurry up! Comrades, give it a push! Hey! Good——!" The boulder fell to the ground with a bang, and the bottom covered with mud appeared in front of everyone.

The old man was the first to go forward to scrape the soil, and the rest of the people followed suit and helped. For a moment, everyone forgot that there were three stones blocking the entrance of the tomb. Even the crane driver stretched his neck and stared blankly. "Record, record!" the old man growled, "Take a picture, take a picture!" Then growled, "Draw a picture!" Xia Mingruo hurriedly followed and prepared. As soon as the result was cleared up, everyone was dumbfounded: It is true that it is a stone carving, but what kind of abstract pattern is this?

Chu Haiyang was stunned for a few seconds and said, "Continue to fetch stones!" "That's right!" The old man was taken aback, and the commander said, "Push this piece upside down, and put the rest side by side. Try not to change the order!" Everyone agreed to start working, and it took most of the night to roughly complete the project. By the time the stones were carefully scraped, it was already noon the next day. Everyone was exhausted, and the old man's normally bright head was dimmed.Xia Mingruo barely survived until one or two o'clock before stumbling back to sleep. After sleeping for less than half an hour, he was forced to get up again: "It's bad! It's going to rain heavily!"

When I went outside the house, I saw that the sky was covered with dark clouds, so I had no choice but to run to the construction site. The construction site was already in chaos. The archaeological team was busy covering the cemetery with plastic sheeting. The People's Liberation Army had only a few people left due to shift changes. The muffled thunder rumbled in the clouds, the air was full of humidity, and the heavy rain was ready to go, just waiting to pour down.Xia Mingruo was sweating profusely, the clothes clinging to his body were sticky and greasy, as if water could be wrung out.

He looked for the old man and Chu Haiyang among the crowd, and rushed to them. "Don't believe it!" Chu Haiyang was fixing the canopy stakes, "Come help!" Xia Mingruo ran over to support the stake, watching him swing the hammer in fear.Then I heard someone shouting: "Oh! It's not good! It's too late!" Bean-sized raindrops fell down and turned into a rain curtain in an instant, making people dizzy with a splash.Several people gritted their teeth and pulled the raincloth tightly, waiting for Chu Haiyang's last heavy hammer to nail the stake firmly into the ground before rushing into the canopy with Xia Mingruo.

Xia Mingruo squatted on the ground and said, "My God..." Chu Haiyang took off his shirt and twisted it: "Your world changes as it says, it really catches people off guard." The old man's expression was grave: "Hai Hai, remember to borrow the water pump from the village. The rain is not coming at the right time. I think the tomb will be flooded." Chu Haiyang agreed.The old man sighed. A heavy rain fell for an hour, and the construction site was covered with mud and water. When the sun came out after the rain, the old man said that to be on the safe side, it is better not to put away the awning and the plastic sheeting, and everyone dragged their tired bodies back to rest in batches, and suddenly they were all amazed when they passed the boulder.

It turned out that the rain was on the right side, and the soil on the stone was washed away, revealing clear scratches. It's just that the order of the two stones hasn't had time to be adjusted, so people gathered around discussing what kind of painting this put together? The uncle said: "A flower." Leopard pointed and said, "Master, you see, people have eyes." "That's Huabei with eyes." His master said. The old man narrowed his eyes, widened, closed his eyes, widened again: "..." It was Xia Mingruo who turned around a few times and said, "This isn't... a cat, is it...?"

"Ah?" Everyone gathered around to take a closer look. The old man patted his head and remembered something: "Uh! By the way, where is the picture you drew?" The person next to me replied that the painting was not finished yet. Chu Haiyang then jumped on the rocks to brush and draw sketches. He copied all the four rocks separately, adjusted the order, and put them together, and it turned out to be a cat with a very strange appearance. Showing it to the old man, the old man said in amazement, "This is a cat ghost!" Xia Mingruo said, "What?" "A curse that is said to be very vicious. It had a great influence during the Sui and Tang Dynasties. There is a record of 'the prison of cat ghosts' in old history." The old man said, "Emperor Yang used this evil spirit to eliminate political enemies, There was Wu Zetian, who was also very afraid of cat ghosts. When I was young, I saw a picture of cat ghosts in an old book, and it is not too different from this one." Chu Haiyang asked, "The cat's ghost?" "No," said the old man, "actually, they are cats raised by witches and Gu practitioners in ancient times. The folks believe that these cats are possessed by ghosts and can be driven by spells to harm people, so they are very afraid." "Then," Chu Haiyang made a downward movement and asked, "Isn't this cat ghost suppressing the owner of the tomb? It's too illegal." "Because the cat ghost was not put in when the owner of the tomb was buried, but someone dug up the tomb and put it in later." The uncle interjected slowly. Everyone looked at him with piercing eyes. The uncle was stunned for a moment, knowing that he had made a slip of the tongue, and hastened to make amends: "Uh, professor, and you guys also noticed it? This tomb has been dug up before." The old man shook his head: "I saw it, but I didn't tell them." He was silent for a while, clapped his hands and said, "Okay, the guards will stay, and the rest will go back to sleep. The guards will change every three hours, and they will start work tomorrow evening." After finishing speaking, he dragged Xia Mingruo to the village, and the archaeological team followed him, leaving Captain Zhou and others on duty.Chu Haiyang and the others intentionally walked last, keeping a long distance from the crowd. The uncle said angrily: "My stinky mouth!" Chu Haiyang said: "It doesn't matter, you will find out sooner or later. You don't have to worry. He worked with many former tomb robbers when he was young. Even after liberation, the archaeological team would often invite experienced old tomb robbers to help. Really engage in science Yes, there are often not so many worries." Leopard asked, "Are we all right?" "It's definitely fine." Chu Haiyang broke up with them in front of the dormitory: "Uncle, go to rest and wait until tomorrow." The uncle and the leopard nodded. Great progress was made the next day, and the entrance to the tomb was opened. The prince's tomb is a cave tomb.In cave tombs, the builders used the form of excavating earth holes, first making a long and inclined tomb passage, and then building tombs underground according to the living room at that time. This construction method was very popular from the Six Dynasties to the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Generally speaking, the burial chamber is rectangular, and the corridor and the tomb passage are similar to the shape of "A". Some cave tombs have a patio between the tomb chamber and the tomb passage, which symbolizes the courtyard. On the contrary, later generations discovered that digging the tomb passage or patio first is also the operation process, especially for the tomb with double-layer brick roof like the prince's tomb, most people would not be stupid enough to say that they should dig straight. Of course it’s just ordinary people. Leopard was walking on the road and suddenly laughed loudly and said, “Come on, what a ghost! Boom!” Xia Mingruo and his uncle jumped up and dragged the leopard behind the haystack for a good meal. The uncle struck the man's head from left to right: "Ghost Tingchou! Ghost Tingchou! Kill you ghost Tingchou! You are afraid that others will not know who we are. Who!" Xia Mingruo said: "Ah? What is Ghost Tingchou?" "The slang is to use dynamite to blow up the tomb," Leopard explained, rubbing his back. "Once you blow it up, even ghosts will be afraid." "Oh—" Xia Mingruo said, "I've learned a lot." The uncle was very curious: "Could it be that you didn't understand what he said?" Xia Mingruo waved his hand: "Actually, I didn't hear what he said, but I was keenly aware that uncle had the desire to beat someone." Leopard still patted his back: "... Then you came to beat me?" Xia Mingruo nodded seriously. Xia Mingruo looked at them in turn, and then ran away: "Hai Hai save me!" Chu Haiyang was looking for him, and hurriedly greeted him: "Why are you running around? Come here!" Xia Mingruo asked: "What's wrong?" Chu Haiyang said: "For a big project, tens of thousands of catties of charcoal may be piled up in the tomb passage." "Huh?" Xia Mingruo said, "No filling?" "Yes, but the rammed earth only accounts for a small half, and the rest is made up of charcoal and gravel. This shows that the owner of the tomb was buried hastily and hastily. But it's not a bad thing, it's easier to dig." Chu Haiyang dragged him to the construction site . Villagers stood outside the barbed wire as usual, and inside the barbed wire the excavation team also surrounded concentric circles, and the center of the circle was the tomb entrance. There is a winch at the entrance of the tomb, and the winch squeaks and turns, and the cable drags a small forklift to transport charcoal.Working in the tomb passage were a few archaeological team members and a dozen army soldiers. The old Captain Zhou was squatting beside him, wearing a ragged vest that looked like a chicken had been in his mouth, and shouted loudly: "Be careful!" Seeing Chu Haiyang, he said anxiously, "Oh, why are you here now! Get ready, let's go down together!" Chu Haiyang quickly undressed and rolled up his trousers. The soldier squad leader was sweating profusely pushing the winch, and when he saw it, he said, "Ah? There is still a shortage of people down here? Then..." He looked around: "Zhao Jiefang!" "arrive!" "And Wang Zhongguo! Go down!" "No, no, no," the old man waved his hand, "Actually, we have to dig the aisle between the courtyards. This kind of aisle is particularly prone to collapse, especially when it shakes when lifting stones. It is very dangerous. It must be supported first. Can we come. Squad leader, please remind the soldiers that once you find the aisle coupon bricks, return them immediately." The squad leader obviously didn't understand the aisle and the bricks, so he shouted as the old man said in a daze: "Dug out the bricks—! People come out—!" The people at the bottom started digging, and after a while they replied, "Bricks!——There are bricks!————" Chu Haiyang held up the wooden support that had just been tied up and said, "Okay, I'm going down." Xia Mingruo followed him.