Chapter 0887 – Touching the Heart

Mang Mountain, also known as North Mang Mountain, is located in the north of Luo City, Yu Province, is a remnant of the Qinling Mountains, the main peak of the Cuiyun Peak, the peak of the trees on the lush, verdant as clouds, the scenery is extremely beautiful.

North Mangshan mountain majestic, deep water and soil, Yi, Luo water from the west and east through the city of Luo and through the mountains and water, in line with the ancients “pillows stirrups the river,” the feng shui said.

And in the north of Mangshan surface below 5-15 meters of soil, seepage rate is low, good adhesive properties, soil hard and dense, so Mangshan since ancient times has been regarded as a burial mound of feng shui treasure.

Since the Later Han Dynasty, when King Liu Zhi of Chengyang was buried at Mang Mountain in the eleventh year of the Jianwu period, many kings and princes have chosen to be buried here, and even the king of Baekje on the Korean Peninsula also chose Mang Mountain as the place for his own burial after he died in a foreign land.

As the saying goes: “Born in Suzhou and Hangzhou, buried in Mangshan”. It all stems from the fact that Mangshan Mountain has been the burial place of Luoyang people since the Eastern Han Dynasty, and has been the tomb of famous people such as the Qin Prime Minister Lu Buwei, the Queen of the Southern Chen Dynasty, the Queen of the Southern Tang Dynasty Li Houzhu, the Western Jin Dynasty Sima Clan, the original mausoleum of the Han Dynasty Guangwu Emperor Liu Xiu, the poet Du Fu of the Tang Dynasty, the great calligrapher Yan Zhenqing and other famous people of the past dynasties.

Since Mangshan Mountain has been the treasure place of yin house since ancient times, many myths and stories have been set into it, and there are many novels in which the so-called Mangshan Ghost King refers to this Mangshan Mountain.

Of course, Mangshan is also the most serious disaster suffered by a place, the Three Kingdoms of Cao Cao’s gold miners, the later generations of warlords to collect military spending, all hit the idea of Mangshan under the rich tombs of the body of the burial goods.

So over the past thousand years, the entire North Mang Mountain is not known how many times by grave robbers patronized, also do not know how many emperors and generals of the bones were thrown into the wild, I do not know the ancient feng shui masters in the geomancy of the graves, whether it will think of the remains of emperors and kings of today’s bleak?

Zhang Daniu’s family is in a small village at the foot of Mt. Mang in the north, due to the drought and little rain, it is difficult to feed a family just by farming, so most of the village’s young and strong people go out to work, and those who stay in the village are all hitting the idea of the north Mang Mountain.

Thousands of tombs of emperors and generals, even if the ancients excavated them cleanly, there were still leaks, and although the Bei Mang Tomb Protection Group had been established now, there were still quite a few night workers when it came to the dead of night.

“Xiao Zhuang, stop the car on the slope in front.”

After going over that small hill in front of him and driving forward for another seven or eight minutes, he would be able to arrive at Zhang Daniu’s house, but Zhuang Rui received a call from Prof. Meng, telling him to stop the car on the hill.

“Teacher, what’s wrong?”

After Zhuang Rui told Hao Long to stop the car, he walked down himself and met Professor Meng who came out of the Chinese bus.

“Touching!”

Professor Meng’s face was a bit unsightly, waving his hand and walking straight towards a slope, looking at a faulted earth surface filled with finger-thick holes for a long time.

Professor Meng pointed to a hole within that fault that looked to be only thirty to forty centimeters in diameter, and said to Zhuang Rui, “There was once a tomb here, but it has long been emptied of robbers, this is the robber’s hole, and this robber’s hole has to be at least 100 years old or more.”

Professor Meng paused for a moment, beckoned to Zhuang Rui and called out to him to climb onto a somewhat sloping mound, and through the afterglow of the setting sun, he looked at the empty crop fields in the distance in front of him, and a trace of sadness appeared on his face.

“After a few more decades, there may be no more ancient tombs in Mangshan.”

Professor Meng suddenly squatted down and picked up a round piece of soil that was about ten centimeters long and about six or seven centimeters in diameter, saying, “Xiao Zhuang, look at what this is.”

“This?”

Zhuang Rui didn’t know what Professor Meng meant by showing him this, and after holding the dirt block for a while, when he was about to say that he didn’t know, he suddenly remembered the appearance of the Luoyang shovel, and remembered that the dirt that he used to bring up with the Luoyang shovel was in this shape.

“Teacher, is this what was left behind by the grave robbers exploring the tomb?”

Zhuang Rui asked tentatively, the earth in his hand didn’t know how long it had existed, it had long been hard and abnormal, even if it fell on the ground, I’m afraid it wouldn’t fall apart.

Professor Meng nodded and pointed his finger in all directions, saying, “Yes, look around again, how many of these things are on the ground.”

Zhuang Rui followed his teacher’s words and looked towards the ground, this look didn’t matter, he instantly understood the meaning of what Professor Meng had just said in his mouth about touching the ground.

Originally, on this hillside, almost every five or six meters away, there were many such piles of probing soil on the ground, circular columns easily recognizable.

That is to say, just themselves in this a bit like a mound of sealing soil on the hillside, it is almost sifted by the fence in general, the Qin Dynasty tombs, mostly in the tombs above the building of the palace, building sealing soil, so this hillside is also highly regarded by the attention of the grave robbers.

Hearing about it is one thing, but the scene to see this scene, that kind of shock is unspeakable, Zhuang Rui muttered, “This …… this also no one tube?”

“Alas, the local government has also spent a lot of effort to rectify, but simply can not manage to come, during the day people can not be seen, are only out at night, the police are also people, can not guard this mountain 24 hours a day, right?”

Prof. Meng knows the situation here extremely well, his comments are still relatively objective, as the saying goes, there are only a thousand days to be a thief, how can there be a thousand days to prevent a thief? Tigers still have a snooze time it, not to mention these locals who take advantage of the time, place and people, Bei Mangshan east and west across hundreds of miles, is to throw three or five hundred police in, it is estimated that it can not play a role.

Money moves people’s hearts, in order to eradicate the phenomenon of grave robbing, there is only one possibility, that is, antiques are not worth money, naturally, there will be no one to go to raid the ancient tombs. Of course, in view of the present society of peace and prosperity, this possibility is unlikely.

Professor Meng pointed to the mountains bathed in the setting sun and said to Zhuang Rui, “Right in that direction, there are the tombs of more than a dozen emperors of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Cao Wei Dynasty, Western Jin Dynasty, and Northern Wei Dynasty as well as the accompanying tombs of royalty and ministers, totaling more than a thousand, but sadly, from ancient times to the present day, the ones that have been preserved intact are already a handful.”

“Teacher, with the popularization of education on the rule of law, I believe people will raise awareness in the future.”

Zhuang Rui comforted Prof. Meng, in fact, this is something that he himself does not believe, the more educated to understand the law, that acts more and more secretive, like Yu Boss’s grave robbing gang, tracked more than a dozen provinces spanning nearly ten years, in order for them to be brought to justice.

“Let’s go! Let’s do our best to protect a little is a little.” Prof. Meng was a bit depressed and turned back to walk down the hill.

For this expert who had devoted his whole life to the protection and research of Chinese scientific examinations and ancient tombs, the reality was undoubtedly cruel, just like a ceramic expert who watched his beloved ancient porcelain being broken little by little.

Zhang Da Niu family lives in the place, strictly speaking is not a village, his family chartered a mountain orchard, built a house at the bottom of the mountain, there is nothing around the households.

The good thing is that although the mountain road is difficult to walk on, it’s always spacious, after Zhuang Rui’s car’s chassis hit the bumps on the rocks for I don’t know how many times, it came to a few houses built with green stones and bricks next to each other.

“Dad, we’re back, everything’s been sold.”

The car just stabilized in front of Zhang Daniu’s house, Zhang Erniu jumped out of the car and shouted out words that almost made Zhuang Rui bite his tongue, what kind of person is this? Dare to think that those antiques are sold now?

“You this child, how many times have I told you guys, those dead things are unlucky, just don’t listen.”

With the sound of the words, an old man in his early fifties walked out from the yard, and suddenly saw two cars parked in front of the house, and froze for a moment.

“Dad, we didn’t sell those things, donated them to the state, they are all people from the state, came to inspect the ancient tombs.”

There is still a person who understands, after Zhang Da Niu kicked his brother, he explained it to his old man, Er Niu didn’t care at all, and directly drilled towards a house with smoke, this stupid brother was hungry again.

“Quickly, quickly please come in, there is nothing to entertain in our house, this big brother, you don’t mind, wife, burn a little more rice in the evening, and kill the black fish that I touched yesterday for the stew.”

Although Old Zhang was a rural man, he was very discerning, and at a glance, he could tell that Professor Meng was the leader, and let his party into the house.

“Older brother, I’m a few years older, so I’ll call you Old Zhang! You mustn’t be polite, we’re going to stay in your house for a while, eat whatever we have, don’t make us look like outsiders.”

Professor Meng and rural people dealing with the experience is very rich, a few words on the old Zhang head heart warm, people is to be a mutual respect, the king and beggars from the personality, are completely equal.

But now some people just like pig’s nose in the onion – pretend to be an elephant, come to the countryside on the show of force, do not think of their own ancestors more than eight generations is what?

When Professor Meng said to the old Zhang accommodation and food expenses, the old man immediately waved his hand, said: “Older brother, you are looking down on us country people, the family rice and noodles are not money, a few more people to eat for fear of what mile? My family’s simple old man eats more than three or four people.”

“Uncle Zhang, don’t be polite, we usually need to eat some meat for our work, don’t we still have to trouble you to go to the town to cut it? That’s all.”

Finally, under the persuasion of Zhuang Rui and others, the old Zhang head accepted two thousand dollars, hands were shaking, he contracted this orchard is not very good, the first few years of fruit are not much, otherwise the two sons would not have gone out to work.

In the evening, we ate the green vegetables that Lao Zhang’s family had grown themselves, and then Da Niu’s mom killed the rooster that the family used to crow.

You know, the rural crowing rooster is very popular, this is the hospitality of the most honored guests, as well as thick white tender blackfish soup, eaten by several staff members who came with Prof. Meng straight to the good.

Can not go up the mountain at night, Zhuang Rui and others together hands, the vacant and put food in a few rooms are packed out, is considered to have landed.