"Why are you here? Didn't the phone call say you can arrive in the morning?"
"Haha, brother, it will definitely take time to find someone now."
"Let me introduce you to my best buddy, Lao Huang, who is nicknamed Soy Sauce Huang on the road. When we were selling goods together in Liulichang and sharing a bowl of rice, I can definitely trust him! And he has done this before and has experience.
"
After listening to the fat black man's introduction, I looked at the person he brought.
He is in his fifties, about 1.75 meters tall, with oily and messy hair, heavy dark circles under his eyes, and a slight squint in one eye.
After shaking hands with each other, the man grinned and said, "I have heard of my brother's name, the famous Northern School Divine Eye Peak, but I didn't expect him to be so young."
The three of them found a roadside restaurant, ordered a few dishes, and sat down to discuss the specific plan.
I called this man Huang Ge, but the other person asked me to just call him Lao Huang. He said I was senior.
This is indeed a fact. My master is Yinhu and my grandmaster is Wang Pingling. They are the first echelon figures of the Northern School in the past hundred years. This is based on seniority in the world, so don’t look at me in my twenties. Just focus on seniority in the industry.
Tian Sanjiu has to call me Brother Xiang.
I asked him: "Old Huang, the fat man said that you have done work before. Was it all wild work or regular work?"
"It's mainly wild work. I'm unlucky and haven't made much money."
"Then why did you stop?" I asked.
I trust Fatty, but you have to ask when you need to, and you have to feel when you need to know.
He sighed: "Sigh... In the early years, I went into the pit and encountered gangsters and gangsters. I almost died in the pit, but later I quit."
"Huh? Lao Huang, you never told me about this. Didn't you say that your wife won't let you do it?" said the fat man.
The man ate a piece of meat, chewed his cheek and said, "My wife is nothing, how can she control me? Mainly because of what happened that time. Since Brother Xiang asked, it doesn't matter if he says it now. We all talk to each other."
Only when you know the basics can you dare to cooperate.”
After saying that, he looked at me sideways.
I smiled and said, "What happened in the past is in the past. Nowadays, everything is about money. Let's cooperate well and each of us can get paid afterwards."
He put down his chopsticks with a smile and said, "What Brother Xiang said is absolutely true."
The impression this man made on me immediately deepened.
Note that he just said: "I was tricked into the pit before, and I almost died in it."
This sentence should be understood in reverse... It should be: "I have encountered gangsters and gangsters before, and I have killed people, so I have taken a break in the past few years."
If you dare to say this in person, you are showing your loyalty to me.
Fatty Hei is also a veteran, and he came to his senses after thinking about it for a while. He patted Old Huang on the shoulder, looked at me and said: "You two are the practical school, and I am the theoretical school, I will only deal with this matter this time.
Before you start working, tell me your plan first."
"No plans, just do it tonight."
I looked out the window and saw that the sun was going down.
"Tonight!? You don't need to explore the pit first? You don't need to prepare tools? You don't need to take the two of me to explore some places first?" the fat man asked with a glare.
I shook my head: "I've taken care of those things. Fatty, you are responsible for showing off and shipping the goods afterward, because local goods are not sold to locals. I want to use your relationship to sell them to other places. Lao Huang and I will work as earthworkers. This is Shanxi, where wolves are more meaty."
Sir, if we find out first, we need to do it quickly. Soldiers need to be quick, and something may change even if it's a day late."
Lao Huang nodded: "Yes, Tangkeng is famous for its fat. The three of us are eating fat in the dark. We have to eat it quickly, but I still want to ask a few questions. Is it an iron pot this time?
Copper pot? Is it mushroom soup or broth in the pot? Are our three spoons enough?"
After thinking about it, I whispered: "Based on my experience and preliminary exploration of the place, there is a high probability that there is a copper pot underground, and the pot must be broth. As long as you use the three spoons well, there will be no problem."
I continued: "There is another big pit a few hundred meters west of this pit. I have visited the exploration point and it has been touched by people."
"There has always been a legend here in Shuozhou that the tomb of King Feng is on the mountain. If the big pit that was stolen long ago is the tomb of Prince Feng, then this one we built may be a burial pit."
"Oh? Why do we meet brothers?" the fat black man asked doubtfully.
I explained: "Because these two pits are not far apart and have something in common. They are both from the Tang Dynasty, and they are also hidden in a hidden position with no earth exposed on the surface. I guess this was intentional. They were built to prevent theft.
"
After listening to my analysis, the fat black man took a puff of cigarette, frowned and expressed his opinion: "Brother, I understand what you mean, but if it is the burial pit of the prince's tomb, there are no Shinto, no stone statues, and civil servants around.
Yong, isn’t this a little too shabby? It’s completely inconsistent with the specifications of imperial tombs in the Tang Dynasty.”
The fat man's perspective on the problem was correct. This was indeed inconsistent with the imperial tomb system at that time, but he was an antique dealer and still lacked practical experience.
Whether it is an imperial mausoleum or a common people's tomb, the specifications and system for burial after death must be based on the actual historical background of the time.
I checked a lot of information at the Internet cafe that night. The owner of the Black Tuoshan Tomb was "Li Qi", the third son of Emperor Zhaozong of the Tang Dynasty. There are very few records about this person. It only records that he died in the border battle in his prime and was buried in a hurry.
The princes of the Tang Dynasty did not have actual fiefdoms, and generally had "virtual fiefdoms". They were relatively poor outside Yanmen Pass. In addition, Li Qi died suddenly, so the money for his burial should have been allocated by the palace.
What was the situation in the palace at that time?
It was basically the last period of the Tang Dynasty, with internal and external troubles, weakened national power, and an empty treasury. Zhu Wen forced Tang Zhaozong to move the capital to Luoyang and the Baimayi Disaster happened one after another. The Tang Dynasty fell in the next two years.
In this context, it is reasonable for King Feng to keep everything simple when he was buried. This also explains what the fat man said about why there are no supporting Shinto and stone statues on the surface of the earth.
In addition, this analysis of mine is contrary to the local saying that Boss Xing told me, "The water scraping the tomb of King Feng will bring prosperity to the eighteen counties of Jiuzhou".
This depends on the final shipment result. I think the local legend in Shuozhou may be exaggerated. The last prince of the Tang Dynasty died suddenly and was buried in a place like Yanmen Pass. What could he have done?
Rich? Only people like Qiandaohu Fangla who actually raised troops to kill officials and rebelled, and looted Hangzhou in the south of the Yangtze River, could have astonishing wealth.
I told my analysis, and both Fatty Hei and Huang felt it made sense. At this time, a waitress from the hotel came to clear the neighboring table, and the three of us shut up at the same time and only drank tea.
After the waiter left, I pushed a plate of dishes aside, dipped my hand in white wine and wrote and drew on the table, and whispered:
"You see...the back tomb chamber, the front tomb chamber, the side chamber, the corridor, the stone door, the patio, and the niche cave. My only worry is that the door between the corridor and the tomb chamber has a tapstone or diamond wall."
"We don't have needles or explosives on hand now. There are many patios in the tomb. The patios lead to holes and cannot be fooled. Our best solution is to hit the top of the back chamber with a shovel and then put a rope down from the top of the tomb.
."
The fat black man took a puff of his cigarette and said nothing. Old Huang squinted and said, "The structure of the Tang tomb is complex. If there are more than three patios, brother, you want to reach the top of the main tomb with a shovel..."
I’m afraid it will be very difficult.”
"It's okay, I have a trick."
"Oh? Brother, what's your special trick? Can you see things from afar?"
"This...it's not convenient to say at the moment."
I can tell you about other things, but this kind of thing is a secret inherited by the Northern School and cannot be told casually.
The fat black man said: "I think there is something in the patio. Even if I dig it, it will be fine."
Lao Huang shook his head: "It's not a big deal, but it wastes time. Some of the patios in the tomb are dead patios, and they will be filled in when the construction is completed. In our industry, time is money."
"That's right, I'm just afraid of wasting time."
I turned a chopstick sideways, picked five cucumber strips from the cold dish plate, and placed them evenly on top of the chopsticks.
"These chopsticks represent the tomb passage. The five cucumber strips are the five patios. They are directly above the top of the tomb. Inexperienced people can easily get confused. The patios are also divided into dead patios and living patios. The living patios were used for convenience at that time.
Built with soil, the dead pit is purely a pit dug for tomb robbers. There may be some mechanism hidden underneath, and people can't get up if they get down."
"Fat man, there are only two ways to put things in the living patio you mentioned. One is to place things in the surrounding wall niches, and the other is to make a fake tomb and deliberately place coffins or other burial objects to make tomb robbers think that this is the main tomb."
I'm not busy doing science popularization for Fatty Hei. I want him to understand the basic structure of the Tang tomb in Heituo Mountain, because only three people understand it and the work can be done quickly.
I was talking when suddenly Lao Huang kicked my leg under the table.
Only then did I notice that there was a foot retracted at the corner of the hall.
The fat man went over immediately, and I followed him.
It was the hotel waitress who had just packed up her things, and she was holding a big teapot in her hand.
"Say, girl, why are you sneaking around here?" the fat black man asked, looking at the other person up and down.
The waitress explained: "No, boss, the water is boiling. I think your tea is getting cold, so I want to add some hot water."
I looked her up and down.
She also looked at me, with basically no expression on her face.