The voice of the burly man next to the dragon throne drew everyone's attention. I also perked up my ears when I heard there was something wrong with the statue.
The burly man shone his flashlight on the statue's rear end and said to the others, "Look at the bottom of this statue. It doesn't seem to be welded to the dragon throne; it can be lifted up."
The Tianjin youth was speechless: "What's the use of being able to lift it? Such a huge statue must weigh at least several hundred kilograms, if not a ton, and it might not even be made of pure gold. You think you can just move it?"
The burly man cleverly replied, "What I'm after is its weight! This thing is so heavy, if we can knock it over, we might just be able to snap its neck and take its head with us!"
The young man poured cold water on his idea: "What are you thinking? Gold is such a soft metal, it would definitely deform if it hit the ground!"
The burly man said greedily, "Five minutes isn't even enough time to take its head off. Even if it's deformed, it's better than leaving empty-handed, right? Come on, guys, lend a hand. Once I take this golden head out, I'll split the profits with you half!"
Upon hearing this, the others also put down what they were doing and came over to help.
"One! Two..."
The men shouted in unison as they began to lift the golden statue of Hu Shahu. Before they could even put all their strength into it, one of the men behind them suddenly shouted, "Wait! Something's wrong!"
The others, who were about to exert their strength, almost strained their backs: "What happened? Is something wrong?"
The man replied, "I just saw something under this statue, and there are holes in the dragon throne, as if a rope is connected to the bottom of the chair!"
The burly man who was about to take the head looked at the young man from Tianjin: "What's going on here?"
The young man from Tianjin scratched his head and said vaguely, "Could it be that there's a hidden compartment for treasure here, and this statue is the mechanism? Once we activate it, the dragon throne or this table will open, revealing the treasure inside?"
When I heard that, I almost fainted.
Although this young man claimed to be a descendant of Longhu Mountain, if I'm not mistaken, he hadn't spent more than half a year with his master. He not only had a superficial understanding of Taoist divination and trigrams, but was also completely ignorant of the Yellow Springs Feng Shui.
His deduction clearly comes from watching too many treasure hunt movies, assuming that tombs are full of treasures.
In fact, the layout of the Ze King's tomb is not that complicated at all.
Most tombs of high-ranking officials and nobles are divided into multiple burial chambers, which is similar to the principle of modern houses. Some are smaller with one bedroom and one living room, while others are three bedrooms and two living rooms. The tombs of kings and nobles can be understood as large single-level apartments, while the mausoleums of emperors are like villas.
Ultimately, a tomb is the place where the deceased dies. The place where the coffin is placed is equivalent to a bedroom, and the other places are a study, kitchen, living room, dining room, storeroom, and so on.
Although Hu Shahu built an imperial mausoleum, he was hampered by limited resources and the result was a mismatched and incongruous structure, but the general direction was correct.
The area we walked through before, the tomb passage, was his family's courtyard, and this island is the house in that courtyard.
The place where the concubines were buried and where the couple were interred was their bedroom. This main hall was their living room. According to metaphysical theory, it was where he lived and went out to wander around or take walks every day.
The feng shui master's original intention in building this place was to create a peaceful resting place for the deceased. According to Hu Shahu's last wishes, he could continue to manage state affairs and receive the worship of his ministers here every day after his death.
Who would leave large amounts of gold, silver, jewelry, and cash all in their living room?
So in the end, no matter how magnificent the construction here is, it is only the front chamber of this tomb. Given that Hu Shahu's tomb has a side chamber for storing burial objects, it is impossible for anything else to be hidden here.
Based on this deduction, there is only one possibility for the existence of the line under the statue: it is a mechanism!
Just as I was feeling annoyed by the young man's nonsense, the burly man who wanted to take the gold head spoke up again: "Since there's a hidden compartment here, what are we waiting for? Let's all work together and push it open!"
The others were eager to try: "Let's do it!"
Seeing them trigger the mechanism even after discovering it, I really couldn't take it anymore. After all, we hadn't found Monkey and Song Laosan yet, and I didn't want to die with these lunatics. I quickly appeared from behind the pillar and shouted, "Stop!"
I underestimated these people's passion for wealth, and even though there were interventions at crucial moments, it was still too late.
"Gulp!"
With the help of several people, the golden statue of Hu Shahu was removed from the dragon throne and smashed on the ground.
Hearing my shout, those men all pointed their guns at me: "Who goes there?"
Seeing that I had failed to stop them, and fearing that they would open fire, I quickly hid behind a pillar again, shouting angrily, "What you just opened wasn't a hidden compartment at all, but a mechanism!"
"I'll trigger your grandpa!"
Upon hearing my reply, one of the men shouted to his companions, "I recognize his voice! This bastard is the guy who left us behind the courtyard! He knows feng shui, grab him and make him lead the way!"
"Da da da!"
As soon as the shouts were given, someone fired a shot, bullets hitting the door of the main hall and sparks flying.
Although these people don't understand feng shui or mechanisms, their combat skills are undeniable. By doing this, they are clearly telling me that the palace gate is within their field of fire, and if I try to run out, the bullets will pierce me like a string of candied hawthorns without hesitation.
"brush!"
Just as the gunshot rang out, I suddenly saw a bright light shine into the room through the crack in the door, as if someone had fired a flare.
Seeing the firelight, Jiang Man raised her voice: "Has Duan Jinyan and the others appeared? Let's go out and check!"
At that moment, through the crack in the door, I could just see the scene outside.
A giant dragon radiating golden light was swimming on the top of the cave, appearing as if it were soaring through the heavens.
That fleeting glimpse nearly made me wet my pants, and I yelled in a trembling voice, "There's a fire dragon set up here!"
Fires in ancient tombs are not uncommon. In the 1980s, during the excavation of the Mawangdui Han Tomb in Changsha, Hunan, a fire broke out in the tomb chamber because one of the excavation team members was smoking, which ignited the marsh gas in the tomb chamber. Fortunately, there were no casualties.
Fire Dragon Peak, also known as Dragon Fire Peak, was a common anti-theft device in some noble tombs during the Northern Song Dynasty. When the archaeological team excavated the Baoshan Tomb in Jingmen, Hubei in 1986, they encountered this mechanism, and the explorers even had their eyebrows burned by flames that rose from the ground.
This device first constructs a tile frame at the top of the tomb chamber using a supporting structure, then adds special fuel, and continues to build. It is said that it can seal up to five layers, and if one tile is removed, the entire structure will collapse like dominoes.
Many ancient tombs of the Jin people from the late Northern Song Dynasty used this popular anti-theft technology, and the material between these tiles was white phosphorus.
This was a "suicidal" anti-theft device. Due to its high cost, it was gradually abandoned after other anti-theft technologies emerged. However, this later period does not include the Song and Jin dynasties.
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