Chapter 0889 – The Tip of the Iceberg (II)

Professor Meng is extremely familiar with the distribution of tombs in the North Mangshan Mountain, in passing through some of the monuments, often stop to explain to Zhuang Rui and others whose tomb this is, walking three or five kilometers, Zhuang Rui ears have been filled with many Ding Ding’s name.

Many tombs have now been protected, in the surrounding walls and barbed wire, but these things actually have much effect, it is difficult to say, at least Zhuang Rui hand a support a lift the leg can cross over.

Listening to Professor Meng’s explanation, walking in the silent mountains, as walking in the long river of history, one by one, like a thunderous character, inhabited here.

The famous calligrapher Yan Zhenqing of the Tang Dynasty, the poet Du Fu, and the powerful Qin Prime Minister Lu Buwei, who wrote “When is the Spring Flower, Autumn Moon and Autumn Moon Over, and how much do we know about the past”, are all buried in the mountains.

“Teacher, isn’t the tomb of Liu Xiu, the founding emperor of the Eastern Han Dynasty, in the mountains?”

Bei Mang Mountain is since the Eastern Han Dynasty rise tomb winds come, and the initiator is the Eastern Han Dynasty’s founding emperor Liu Xiu.

Modern people talk about the two Han, said the most is the Western Han Liu Bang or Han Wu Di Liu Che, as for the Eastern Han, is to the Three Kingdoms, is Zhuang Rui on Liu Xiu this emperor is a little curious.

As long as it is the founding monarch, all are war heroes, and Liu Xiu’s person in history is extremely low-key and mysterious, Zhuang Rui would like to see, after his death, whether the mausoleum is also like him that person in general, not for the public to understand.

“Liu Xiu’s tomb is in Mang Mountain, but it is not on the mountain.”

Professor Meng leaned on his walking stick and gently touched Da Niu, who was walking in front of him, with it and asked, “Da Niu, how far away is the place you are talking about?”

Da Niu stopped walking, pointed to a mountain peak in front of him, and said, “It’s just ahead, do you see that mountain? The highest one, that’s where it is.”

“Well, that terrain is good, although it’s a peak, but it’s a place where the wind can’t blow and can gather life, and it corresponds to the Yellow River from a distance, it’s an ideal place to camp a grave by the mountain and the water, hiding the wind and gathering the qi.”

Professor Meng looked at the peak, and carefully observed the surrounding terrain, his face could not help but show a look of surprise, such a feng shui treasure buried, is bound to be a prominent status of the emperor.

To know, Mangshan North has 6 generations of 24 emperors sleep here, the distribution of the dense, the number of the continuation of the age of the longest, can be called China’s largest.

In this mausoleum more than “a few lying cattle place”, the person’s mausoleum can occupy such a prominent place, it must be a great source.

However, the ancient imperial tombs were the most secretive things, even if there were records in the historical materials, they were still ambiguous, so Prof. Meng was unable to conclude whose tomb this was.

“Right, Xiao Zhuang, didn’t you ask about Liu Xiu’s tomb? You’ll be able to see it when you go up that mountain peak.”

Being close to today’s destination, Prof. Meng was a bit excited and quickened his pace towards that mountain.

Zhuang Rui was a little uncertain about Prof. Meng’s, Liu Xiu’s tomb seems to have been discovered and protected long ago, how come it seems like the teacher said that Liu Xiu’s tomb is on the mountain ah?

With doubts, Zhuang Rui carried dozens of kilograms of heavy tools and climbed towards the mountain, the primitive ecology of this place is well protected, the mountain is mostly more than a hundred years old trees, and the ground is full of flowers and grasses whose names are not known.

“Elder brother, this mountain seems to have been noticed as well, how come that tomb hasn’t been discovered?”

On the ground spaced by some trees in the mountain wood, from time to time, one can see the lumps of soil brought out by the Luoyang shovel, indicating that this place, too, has been paid attention to by grave robbers, only that Zhuang Rui doesn’t know why those people didn’t manage to find out the ancient tomb in the belly of the mountain?

“Zhuang Rui, Han Dynasty tombs are divided into brick tombs and cliff tombs, brick tombs are mostly tombs for poor people and court ministers, which can be found with a Luoyang shovel. But imperial tombs were mostly built in mountains, like the Lion Mountain Han Tomb in Pengcheng, which was built as a king’s tomb by hollowing out the entire belly of the mountain, so the Luoyang Shovel probes down and tends to touch the rocky wall, and isn’t really suitable for exploring Han Dynasty tombs.”

After Dr. Ren heard Zhuang Rui’s words, he spoke up and gave him an answer that those Luoyang shovels, even if they were good enough to be used, would not be able to traverse the rocky walls of the mountain and discover these imperial tombs that were deep in the mountain’s belly.

Professor Meng, after hearing Ren Chunqiang’s words in front of him, turned around and said, “Well, Professor Wang, who unearthed the Lion Mountain Han Tomb, is also an old friend of mine, and he is a very respectable archaeologist.”

The Lion Mountain Han Tomb mentioned by Dr. Ren is located in Zhuang Rui’s hometown, it is the mausoleum of the third generation Chu King – Liu Wu, who was partitioned in Pengcheng in the early Western Han Dynasty, the whole mausoleum was chiseled into a stone chamber and pierced through the mountain for hiding, the chamber was embedded in the belly of the mountain up to more than a hundred meters deep.

To say that the discovery of the lion mountain king’s tomb, can not be mentioned Professor Wang, he and Professor Meng is the same alumni of Beijing University, initially it is in the city of Luo work. Later, Prof. Wang worked in the city and presided over the excavation of seven large tombs of the Chu kings in the Han Dynasty over a period of more than twenty years, and his name was included in the Who’s Who of the World’s Intellectuals in Cambridge, England.

The Lion Rock Han Tomb excavated at that time was a typical cliff tomb, a mausoleum with a total of 12 chambers, and the floor space of the chamber alone was as high as more than 850 square meters, almost emptying out a Lion Rock.

But that imperial tomb had already been visited by grave robbers, and many precious artifacts had been lost, but even so, more than 2,000 valuable international-level artifacts had been unearthed from within.

As the mountain became higher, the traveling speed of the crowd slowed down, although Professor Meng’s body was good, but in the end, he was almost sixty years old, every time he walked for a while, he needed to sit down and rest.

The sunlight leaking down from the tall tree canopy, speckled on the mountain trail, sometimes there are squirrels probing in the cracks of the trees, “fluttering” sound attracted people from time to time to look up, a woodpecker fluttering up, yellow and white stripes of the wing feathers instantly disappeared in the forest. The gust of wind sent the fragrance of forsythia (?) into Zhuangrui. The fragrance of the forsythia (?) was sent to the tip of Zhuang Rui’s nose, and the birdsong from far and near set off a rare quietness.

Perhaps the reason is the state of mind, Zhuang Rui and others walking in the ancient trees, grass, flowers built up space, everyone felt the full ancient style and charm. So it is not false to say that buried in Mangshan, these earthly emperors are born to enjoy all the glory and riches, after death, also want to rely on the mountains, occupying all the feng shui treasure land.

Walking in front of the big ox from time to time to introduce some herbs to the crowd, he and the second ox is in the mountain picking herbs, inadvertently found on the other side of the mountain wall, there is a very hidden hole, which found this tomb.

“Alright, take a break!”

Going up to the top of the mountain was already more than an hour later, besides Zhuang Rui, even Hao Long was tired and panting, after all, he was also carrying more than thirty kilograms of heavy equipment on his back.

“Teacher, what about Liu Xiu’s tomb you said?”

Zhuang Rui still had this in mind, Professor Meng just said that he could see it when he went up to the top of the mountain, so Zhuang Rui spoke up and asked.

Prof. Meng drank a mouthful of water, stood up and walked to the edge of the rock wall, pointed in the distance, and said, “Here, there it is, near the Yellow River.”

“That …… is not Mang Mountain, right?”

Zhuang Rui looked in the direction of Professor Meng’s finger, but it was extremely far away, there is a lush and green place full of trees, but the terrain there is gentle, like it is already out of Mangshan’s boundaries.

“Sort of Mang Mountain, that is the north of Mangling, Liu Xiu this person has established the merit, in fact, far above the Han Wu Di, it is he swept away all over the cut-off forces, completed the third great unification of China’s history.”

Prof. Meng spoke with great esteem for Liu Xiu’s person, and after introducing some of Liu Xiu’s feats, he then said, “Xiao Zhuang, do you see anything wrong with that place?”

Standing on this peak, the place where Liu Xiu’s tomb is located is in full view, see very clearly, after Zhuang Rui observed for a while, said: “That lot is backed by Mangshan, facing the Yellow River, but it is ‘pillow river stirrups the mountain’ feng shui bureau, this is a dangerous place ah!”

Zhuang Rui does not know much about feng shui, but after more than two years of schooling, under the influence of the ear, he was able to say something.

Tomb feng shui is concerned about the “pillow mountain stirrup river” tomb must be built in the high place, so that you can avoid flooding, but Liu Xiu’s tomb is the opposite, is a “pillow river stirrup mountain” dangerous place.

Prof. Meng smiled and said, “Xiao Zhuang, you are right, this feng shui bureau is indeed the general emperor would not choose, if the Yellow River rises, the tomb will be flooded for sure.”

Professor Meng paused for a moment and then said, “But Liu Xiu was a smart man! Do you know that Liu Xiu’s tomb is known all over the world here, but from ancient times to the present, his tomb has not been stolen once.”

“Teacher, why is that?”

Zhuang Rui was a bit puzzled, tomb robbers in ancient times were far more vicious than now, and would definitely not let Liu Xiu’s tomb go just because he was a good emperor.

“Oh, for one thing, Liu Xiu was frugal in his life, and before he died, he once explained that he would not bury any gold, silver or jade objects with him, and all of them would be made of tiles, and these objects were not worth much, so the tomb robbers were not interested. Secondly, Liu Xiu’s tomb is located in the Yellow River beach, a few meters below the ground is water, also can’t be robbed and dug, so this seems to be a dangerous place of the tomb, but retained for more than two thousand years.”

After Prof. Meng finished speaking, he pondered for a while and then said, “However, I suspect that that tomb is a fake emperor’s grave, as a founding emperor, even if Liu Xiu himself is not willing to be buried thickly, I’m afraid that his descendants will not agree.”

In ancient times, after death, in order to fear that the tomb was stolen, there are many suspicious graves, the most famous will be the number of Cao Cao’s tomb. When Cao Cao was alive, in order to collect military expenses, he formed the Gold Mappers, and almost stole all the tombs of the emperors and kings in the world, and after his death, for fear of retribution, he built a total of seventy-two suspicious mounds, and so far he has not yet been able to locate the real Cao Cao’s Tomb.

“No more, this is just my personal speculation, alright, if we’re all rested, let’s start preparing!”

Professor Meng waved his hand, stopping his own mouth, as an academic expert, to speculate on something without empirical evidence, spreading the word would set off a big storm.