The eyewitness changed his voice and pretended to be the ancestor of the Wu clan...
"Given the scale of the ancient tomb, how much can be buried with it?" Zhou Han gestured. "At most, there can be two or three vehicles and about ten people?"
Although surveillance equipment such as cameras were not yet popular more than 20 years ago, if the number exceeds this, it will not only be inconvenient to dispatch, but also difficult to maintain confidentiality.
Assuming that all the core members of the archaeological team participate, and Destin brings a few confidants to serve as both assistants and surveillance, this may be the most reasonable way to form this tomb-robbing gang.
"About ten people," Han Zhao stroked his chin, thoughtfully. "How many people are there in the village? This isn't an ordinary village. The villagers can dig into the mountains and build tombs, and there's even a mute fool who can actually build traps."
"More than twenty years ago, there were only two or three hundred people in the village." Wen Zichuan came over and joined the conversation. "The Wu tribe not only lived in seclusion, but also avoided marrying close relatives. So the longer the period of unrest lasted, the smaller the population became."
When Wu Wen led the Wu tribe to migrate to Longji Mountain, there were only four or five hundred people left; when Wu Jing was the tribe leader, the population was the largest, nearly two thousand people; after several generations, when Lin Hanzhen came here, he judged through the tribe's sacrificial activities that there were only more than two hundred people in the Wu tribe at that time.
A dozen people against more than two hundred people, using cold weapons.
Zhou Han and Han Zhao fell silent almost at the same time. Others might not understand why, but as criminal police officers, they knew exactly what this meant.
Killing people with cold weapons is very difficult. If it is not a simple one-shot kill, but a fight with weapons, they need to use extremely cruel means, an extremely long time, and extremely strong physical strength to kill so many people in one night.
"Didn't the Wu Clan resist?" Wen Zichuan said with a pained expression, "With over 200 people, even if they were ambushed, it's impossible for all of them to..."
As they were talking, everyone turned their eyes to Xiao Liang. The Wu clan was gone, but Xiao Liang survived.
Xiao Liang was only five or six years old at the time. Did Destin let him go, or did he fail to find him?
Wen Zichuan didn't think that a foreign tomb-robbing gang would be so kind. If they could let the children go and follow humanitarian principles, they should also let the unarmed elderly, weak, women and children go.
But no, they had not seen any other members of the Wu tribe except Xiao Liang along the way.
"Officer Zhou, Officer Han, I want to... take Xiao Liang upstairs." Wen Zichuan said.
"What's that place up there?" Zhou Han asked.
"It's the main tomb chamber, where the ancestors of the Wu clan rest in peace." Wen Zichuan looked at Xiao Liang, his eyes full of compassion.
Since they wanted to go up, the Liu brothers built a human ladder and sent them into the hole.
Wen Zichuan and Cheng Sizhou walked in front, while Zhou Han and Han Zhao escorted Xiao Liang to the main tomb chamber.
When Xiao Liang saw two coffins after entering the room, he felt like he was electrocuted. His pupils widened and his whole body tensed up!
Regardless of the fact that he was tied up tightly, he suddenly shook off the clamps, then knelt on the stone steps with a "dong" and kowtowed again and again.
Although he couldn't speak, rough and fragmented words rolled out of his throat.
Wen Zichuan vaguely heard that it was the word "save".
When asking ancestors for help, the people to be saved are his parents and clansmen.
After a few hits, Xiao Liang's forehead was red and almost bleeding, so Zhou Han and Han Zhao held him down forcibly.
"It's traumatic stress." Wen Zichuan is no stranger to stress. "Something extremely terrifying must have happened at that time. When a person is under great stress, he may suffer from aphasia, amnesia, and even schizophrenia."
"Brother Zhou, Xiao Liang is the most direct witness of the ancient tomb robbery case. I think..." Cheng Sizhou said halfway and hesitated again.
"Do you want to cure him first and then let him state the facts of the case?" Zhou Han asked.
"But it's too cruel." Cheng Sizhou looked gloomy.
He has always believed that there is nothing wrong with the evidence and judgment at the judicial level. Its purpose is to give justice to the victims and compensate them for their losses.
But for the victims, the damage has already been done. The dead will not be resurrected, and the past cannot be repeated.
Just like now, they are all victims, but they can only tear open each other's scars and use the lines of pain to piece together a buried truth.
This method goes against his nature and original intention, but now that things have come to this, he has no choice but to do it.
But Xiao Liang's stress did not stop because of the restraints. He struggled continuously and frantically like a trapped beast.
He let out a sad and desperate roar, twisting his body desperately, his face flushed red with anxiety, and tears fell along the wrinkles of his face.
"I can't hold him down anymore. If this goes on, he will get hurt!" Zhou Han increased the strength of his hands.
"Then go out first! There must be other clues in the village!" Cheng Sizhou didn't want to continue. Xiao Liang's crying pushed him to the opposite side, as if he was also a greedy person who ignored others for what he wanted.
Zhou Han and Han Zhao looked at each other, set up a small bridge on both sides, and planned to go out first.
"Wait!" Wen Zichuan suddenly said, "Can you let him go first? I want to give it a try."
"No!" Cheng Sizhou objected immediately. Xiao Liang's mental condition was unstable. Everyone present had been plotted against by him. If he was released, there was no guarantee that he would not strike again.
"Brother Zhou, I want to give it a try." Wen Zichuan looked at him seriously, "You guys stay outside the door. If he tries to escape, stop him immediately."
There was nothing wrong with Zichuan's idea. He considered everyone's safety, but only ignored himself.
Cheng Sizhou hesitated for a moment, then changed his mind.
He signaled the two officers to let the man go, then squeezed the back of Wen Zichuan's hand: "We'll wait for you."
Wen Zichuan watched them untie Xiao Liang, and he was still a little scared.
When they were the only two left in the main tomb chamber, he slowly moved behind the huge coffin and hid himself.
After last night's dream, he imagined that Wu Wen's voice should be gentle and compassionate, but due to the burn in her throat and years of silence, it was also a little distant and hoarse.
He disguised himself as an ancestor of the Wu clan and softly called out to the person praying in front of the coffin: "Tianliang."
Xiao Liang was struck by lightning. He buried his face in his hands and fell to the ground. His back was arched and stiff, and he muttered incoherently and anxiously, "Please, please... help, help..."
"Someone is invading the Wu tribe, and you asked me to save your parents and your tribe, right?"
Xiao Liang suddenly looked up, nodded hard, and kowtowed hard.
"There are about a dozen of them, aren't there?"
Xiao Liang's expression was complicated and painful. He cried out and then nodded.
Cheng Sizhou was outside the stone gate. After being reminded by Zhou Han, he took out his mobile phone to record a video.
"You know some of them, don't you?"
When Xiao Liang heard this question, he was stunned for half a second, then hugged his head and breathed heavily.
He leaned against the sarcophagus. Although he was more robust than an average man, he curled himself up into a ball, feeling wronged, like a child who had done something wrong.
Wen Zichuan knew this feeling too well. The main tomb chamber was small, just like the wardrobe at his grandmother's house. When he was in a bad mood, he liked to hide in it alone.
"You are a good child, it's not your fault." Wen Zichuan's tone was gentle and full of compassion.
He could see that Xiao Liang was not simply mentally ill, but his memory and personality were stuck on the day when the witch clan was massacred.
Perhaps he regretted that as the son of the clan leader, he had not been able to protect his people; or perhaps the loneliness and longing accumulated over the years had already been cast into iron, piercing through his life.
But above parents and clansmen, there are ancestors.
Only if his ancestors forgive him can he get a moment of respite.
Xiao Liang suddenly burst into tears uncontrollably, and while crying he stretched out his hands, first making a frame, and then making a gesture for two people to walk together.
But these are too abstract. Wen Zichuan can guess some of them, but guesses are always guesses and cannot be used as evidence to file a lawsuit.
Xiao Liang's emotions were in an extremely excited state. Finally, he made a circle on the ground, pointed at the position of the circle with force, and then pressed his abdomen, rolling around while screaming in pain.
Perhaps Wen Zichuan was not that sensitive, but Zhou Han outside the door already understood what he meant.
More than 20 years ago, the Wu tribe would store water in round containers, whether they were digging wells or carrying water from the river for use.
A dozen or so people in the tomb-robbing gang have to compete with two or three hundred people, and they will not rush into a head-on confrontation.
If you want to reduce the opponent's strength as conveniently as possible, nothing is faster than poisoning.
To poison everyone, it would have to be poured into the drinking water in the settlement.
Han Zhao was more familiar with the local customs. He stroked his chin and said to himself, "No wonder there were so many wandering mentally ill people in Mutao Town in the early years. It turns out they escaped from here."
"Tianliang, don't be afraid. The bad guys have left." Wen Zichuan adjusted his voice to be high and sacred. "Go do what you want to do, okay?"
Xiao Liang nodded again, but seemed to remember something and turned to look at the person outside the door.
Wen Zichuan added: "They are not bad people and will not hurt you."
Xiao Liang stood up hesitantly, and his legs and feet were numb from kneeling for so long that he staggered a little.
Wen Zichuan shook his head and signaled Cheng Sizhou not to stop him. They followed him from a distance, wanting to see what Xiao Liang was going to do.
Xiao Liang walked out of the tomb, passed through the mural gallery, and passed the pit where Cheng Sizhou and Wen Zichuan fell, but he did not stop there, but continued to move forward.
After walking for about ten minutes, they seemed to have entered the other side of the mountain. A dark river appeared in front of them. They followed the direction of the water and finally walked out of the dark tomb passage.
But the scene before him was even more astonishing than the peculiarly shaped ancient tomb.
On the hillside that looks like terraced fields, hundreds of mounds are arranged in a very regular pattern, all of which are the tombs of the Wu people.
The land was burned black by sacrifices from successive generations, and the words on the stone tablet gradually became blurred due to the baptism of wind and rain.
It was not until Xiao Liang walked down the slope that Wen Zichuan saw that Wu Jing's tomb was right in the middle of the highest point.
Lin Hanzhen said that the Wu people did not shy away from talking about life and death. They would plan their own tombs in advance. Even if they left the village and went far away, they would come back here before they died.
It is unknown whether this concept of returning to one's roots was influenced by Wu Wen and Shi Cheng, but based on the remaining text on the stone tablet, they did retain similar customs and habits.
Looking around, the central axis of the cemetery is where the patriarchs of all generations are buried, and on both sides of the patriarchs, the witches of all generations are buried according to the ten surnames of the witch clan.
Tian Liang's mother, Wu Heng, was the last clan leader. If she died, she should be buried at the foot of the slope.
Could it be that Xiao Liang came back specifically to worship his mother?
The sunlight hid in the clouds, the sky turned overcast, and the sound of gurgling water made the surroundings even quieter.
Zhou Han and Han Zhao remained tense, following and observing Xiao Liang, trying their best not to cause him to panic.
But once they reached the bottom of the slope, they were immediately overcome by the overwhelming stench of foul smell. Although others were not familiar with that smell, they had seen it too many times before.
——There is a corpse next to Xiao Liang!
Han Zhao cursed inwardly, "Fuck!" The tomb robbery case hadn't been solved yet, and now there was a murder case out of nowhere.
Zhou Han pulled him down to squat, and watched Xiao Liang pick up a shovel and start digging.
His legs were already lame, and he hadn't eaten anything, so he had no strength and dug very slowly.
Zhou Han guessed that he planned to follow the arrangement of the cemetery, then dig another cave and bury the body.
But for the case, they still haven't figured out whose body it is, how the person died, and who the murderer is. If they bury it hastily, won't they have to dig it up later?
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