The first thousand two hundred and ninety-two chapters open the coffin
Jiang is still old and spicy, but Professor Wang has much more practical experience than Han Peacock. He found a piece of No. 8 wire more than one meter long, tied a rope to one end of the wire, and asked the carpenter to prepare five or six long wires.
A bamboo board about one meter and five or six centimeters wide.
Under the command of Professor Wang, Han Peacock bent the iron wire into a semicircle, fed it through the crack of the stone door while standing, then turned it around, wrapped it around the waist of the top door stone, and then bent the excess wire outside the door with his hands.
Delivered on the edge.
In this way, the head of the iron wire ring slowly turned back to form a complete iron wire ring. Then the carpenter used small pliers to twist it to make a strong "turning nail key" that covered the waist of the top door stone.
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After everything was ready, everyone worked together to open the door.
One team member pulls the rope tied to one end of the iron wire ring, and the other team members use bamboo boards to extend from the crack of the door into the upper end of the stone door, pushing the stone door while pushing, pushing the door upward, so that the door crack becomes wider and wider.
When it was nearly a foot wide, a team member leaned sideways and got in from the bottom.
There are no hidden arrows or traps inside, only a row of spiky stone sculptures on the wall above the door, which look scary at first glance. They look like flying knives.
After the team member entered, he hugged the door stone with both hands and held it upright.
When the door crack opened to a width of more than two feet, several more team members entered. After entering, they lifted the top door stone.
At this time, the stone door was pushed open without much effort, making a heavy "buzzing" sound.
Afterwards, everyone analyzed the structure of the stone gate and marveled that our ancestors had such advanced technology more than 600 years ago.
The cross section of the large stone door is trapezoidal, thin at the front and thick at the back (that is, the closing part), with a ratio of nearly 2:1, so that the weight of the stone door is concentrated on the door axis.
The upper and lower door shafts of the stone door are both spherical, which reduces the friction of the door shaft and the weight of the door. It saves effort in pushing and pulling.
This design is very scientific. It not only lifts the door with ease when closing the door, but also makes the stone door stronger due to the reasonable distribution of weight. No wonder this stone door weighing 14 tons can be opened without much effort.
Only when you enter this door can you truly enter the underground palace.
There are no legendary mechanisms or hidden weapons here, but the smelly gas is very strong. Fortunately, everyone is wearing gas masks.
This is the first stone gate of the underground palace. Inside the stone gate is the front hall of the underground palace. It is a rectangular stone room with a roof, 26 meters long from east to west, 6 meters wide from north to south, and 72 meters high.
The ground was paved with square mortar bricks fired in Jiangsu and Suzhou at that time (the famous bricks at that time were called "gold bricks"). The mortar bricks used in the construction of palaces in the Ming Dynasty were the best materials at that time. Generally, the outer city walls
The traditional bricks are mortar bricks, which are larger than ordinary ones, 48 cm long, 24 cm wide, 12 cm thick, and each block weighs 24 kg.
For example, 12 million mortar bricks were used to build the walls of the Forbidden City in the Ming Dynasty.
Bricks are used on the floors of the palaces in the Forbidden City. There is another type of brick, called gold brick. This kind of brick is fine in texture, slightly golden, has a resounding sound when knocked, is extremely light and crisp, and the workmanship is naturally much more complicated.
The paving here is all made of this kind of gold bricks with complicated workmanship. This batch of gold bricks alone is worth a lot of money. Today, the jade kiln factory in Suzhou still maintains this process. The picture of the processing process is called
"Gold Brick" fine material square brick.
The Hall of Supreme Harmony in the Forbidden City is now paved with this kind of bricks, and it is also named Jinluan Hall because of the bricks.
It is impossible to verify when this kind of brick became the exclusive use of the imperial palace. As for why it is called gold brick, one theory is that this kind of brick makes the sound of gold and stone when knocked, so it is called "gold brick".
There is another saying that is said to come from the mouth of a craftsman. He did a rough research and found that the cost of this brick from soil acquisition, firing, transportation, processing and even paving is about equivalent to one tael of gold, so it is called "gold brick"
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At this time, there was a layer of decayed yellow pine boards on top of these gold bricks. Like the tunnel floor, there were wheel marks on the board. Later analysis was that it was installed to protect the brick surface during burial.
The two walls are made of bluestone, and the top is built with stone strips. There are no furnishings in the hall. There is a door at the back (west end) of the front hall, which is also made of stone and is similar in size to the first door.
The team members used the "turning nail key" to open the door.
After entering this door is the middle hall of the underground palace. This hall is the same height and width as the front hall, but is 6 meters longer. It is also made of stone.
The front of the hall is still paved with a layer of wooden boards, and there are three sets of white marble thrones at the back. They should be thrones belonging to an emperor and two queens. At this time, it is not clear who they are prepared for, but such a throne is also
Only emperors and empresses are qualified to do it. If anyone else does it, they are seeking death.
In front of the throne are five offerings of yellow colored glaze, namely an incense burner, two candlesticks, and two vases.
In front of each of the five offerings, there is a large porcelain vat with blue and white clouds and dragons. The vat is filled with sesame oil, copper ladles and wicks. This was what was called the "everlasting lamp" at that time, also known as the "ten thousand year lamp".
The ever-burning lamp was a fantasy of the feudal rulers. Even though the large porcelain jar with a height and diameter of 70 centimeters was filled with lamp oil, once the tomb was closed and there was no oxygen, the lamp naturally went out. How could it remain bright?
The excavators saw that there was still a lot of lamp oil in the jar, which had solidified over time.
There is a corridor on the north and south walls of the central hall that leads to the left and right side halls, and the excavators followed the corridors to enter the side halls.
The stone door of the side hall is smaller than the door of the front and central hall, and is not closed; the two side halls are symmetrical, 26 meters long from east to west, 6 meters wide from north to south, and 71 meters high at the top; there is a door in the west of each side hall, and the door opens inward.
What is puzzling is that these two side halls have coffin beds but no coffins.
Everyone's heart couldn't help but feel cold to the end. It seemed that this archeology was not smooth from the beginning. At first, the place could not be found, but when it was found, a lot of things were found. Then it was discovered that it was a suspected tomb, and now, it has been found.
A larger and higher-standard imperial mausoleum, but there is no coffin in it?
"Has the underground palace been stolen? Why is there a coffin bed but no coffin..."
"Is this underground palace fake? The emperor and queen in this tomb were not buried here but were buried elsewhere?..."
"You said it was stolen before, but there is no trace of being stolen..."
Doubts are swirling in everyone's mind. What does it mean that such a large underground palace is empty?
Wouldn’t it be in vain to work so hard?
Fortunately, the last hall of this underground palace, the apse, has not yet been opened, and everyone is placing their hope on it.
The door of the apse is located at the back end of the nave. It is the same size as the front and nave, and the entry method for the team members is also the same as the previous one.
After the door opened, everyone rushed into the door impatiently, regardless of the poisonous gas coming from secret arrows. In fact, the smell of this hall was even worse and stronger than the previous halls.
A miracle happened! In the mist, three red lacquered coffins stood side by side on three coffin beds in the west part of the central hall!
"Found it! Finally found it!" The archaeological team members hugged each other excitedly, with tears of excitement in their eyes.
This arduous excavation has finally come to a successful conclusion. It can really be said that there is a bright future in another village. It is not difficult to understand everyone's mood at this time.
The apse is the main part of the underground palace. It is taller than the front nave, with a length of 301 meters from north to south, a width of 91 meters from east to west, and a height of 95 meters from the ground to the top.
The ground is paved with piebald stone, which is fine and smooth, better than today's terrazzo.
The entire underground palace, including the tunnel, is 8,734 meters long, 4,728 meters across from left to right, and has a total area of 1,195 square meters. Compared with the tombs of the same period, in addition to its huge scale and excellent construction materials, this underground palace is structurally different.
There is nothing very special about it.
The structure consisting of front, middle, back halls and five side halls on the left and right is similar to the shape of a palace. The front, middle and back halls are equivalent to the three-entry buildings on the ground, and the left and right side halls are equivalent to the left and right wing rooms.
It is worth noting that there is a door in the west of the side hall, which opens inwards, which is not found in ordinary tombs.
However, after opening the coffin, the scene inside was once again jaw-dropping.
"These are two men and one woman?" Han Peacock was also a little surprised. Although the people in these three coffins were rotten and could not tell whether they were male or female, they could immediately tell who was male and who was female from their clothes.
There were obviously coffins for two men and one woman. This was the first time he had heard of such an imperial mausoleum.
"Look, is this a man? Although he has hair, it is obvious that these hairs did not fall off from his head, right?" Although Professor Wang was surprised, his voice was full of surprise, because they all knew what this meant.
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"This is correct. This person should be Emperor Jianwen. Legend has it that he became a monk." Han Kongque also said very happily. He did not expect that their identities could be determined so easily.
He was an emperor, had a shave, and hid himself here. In addition, two men and one woman were buried together. In such a situation, it is difficult for any emperor in the past to be as unlucky as Zhu Yunwen.
According to historical records, in the fourth year of Jianwen of the Ming Dynasty (AD 1402), Emperor Zhu Yunwen was usurped from the throne by his uncle Zhu Di. The final whereabouts of this young emperor have become an eternal mystery.
According to legend, when the Yan army broke into the city, Zhu Yunwen wanted to commit suicide with his sword.
The young eunuch Wang Yue stopped him and told him that when Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was about to die, he left an iron box for Zhu Yunwen and asked Wang Yue to store it secretly in the Fengxian Hall and deliver it to Zhu Yunwen when the disaster struck.
The ministers hurriedly brought the box and opened it. There were three certificates, which are monks' ID cards. The names of Emperor Jianwen and three other people were written on them. There were also three monk robes, a razor, and platinum.
Ten ingots and a suicide note.
The book states: "Emperor Jianwen came out of the Ghost Gate, and the others walked through Shuiguan Yugou, and gathered in the Shenwang West Room in the evening."
So, Emperor Jianwen shaved his head, put on monk's clothes, and escaped from the palace with nine people. After that, Emperor Jianwen changed his name and changed his clothes and traveled around the world. His final destination after death is unknown.
Of course, you can think that the above legend is nonsense, because it seems that Zhu Yuanzhang is too great and upright. How smart does he have to be like this?
He can actually control the fate of his grandson after his death? Is such a person still a human being? He must be a god. (To be continued...)