The Great Qin Empire---Qin Li

Chapter 67: Chapter 67 Walking on the Moon



When he walked out of Huyang Pavilion, Heifu felt that he must look exactly like the "infantry terracotta warriors" in the Terracotta Warriors and Horses of the Qin Shihuang Mausoleum in later generations.

The pavilion is a basic security unit, so it has weapons and stores five weapons.

In the small storehouse in the front yard of Huyang Pavilion, two sets of armor were prepared. Considering that Gongshi Quji said that those tomb robbers all had weapons, there were at least four of them, and they might even have bows and arrows, Heifu decided to be safe and wear armor.

When he put on the leather armor with the help of Dongmen Bao and Li Xian, Heifu finally understood why this thing was so expensive.

The set of armor in Heifu's pavilion was just the most rudimentary front body armor, worth at most a few hundred coins, and could only protect the chest and abdomen. It had to be hung on the shoulders and waist with ties, just like hanging a waistband for cooking in the previous life.

He looked down and found that the armor was made by cutting the whole piece of cowhide into large and small armor plates, each of which had a small hole drilled in it, and connected by strong and thin silk ropes, and there were nails in some places... Although the defense was limited, it was not very heavy and did not affect the movement.

As for Heifu's weapon, it also changed from the nine-inch short sword that accompanied him for a few months to a two-foot sword. Pu Zhang said that this was left by the previous pavilion chief and now belonged to Heifu. The wooden hilt was wrapped with copper wire to prevent slipping, and the bronze blade had a small gap, but it was harmless and was completely enough to pierce the human body.

The thief Dongmen Bao picked two hand halberds, one and a half feet long. He liked to fight with people in close combat, and he also liked to throw a halberd at a few steps away to hurt people's lives-although he had never killed anyone, he always liked to practice against tree stumps on weekdays, and tonight was the time to show his skills.

As for the remaining armor, Dongmen Bao refused it. He muttered, "A real man should get hurt and leave scars." He pushed the armor to Li Xian with a look of disgust.

Li Xian was very cautious. He put on the armor carefully and picked a spear about nine feet long. He felt that when catching thieves, not all of them should use short weapons, but should use a combination of long and short weapons.

Xiao Tao, needless to say, carried a small bow with a force of only about eight buckets, and a quiver with seven or eight arrows on his back...

Hei Fu put the sword on his back and asked, "Will the bow and arrow work well at night?"

Xiao Tao responded that those people dug the grave at night and must have lit torches. As long as there was a light spot, he could still shoot at night within twenty steps!

"Okay, with both long and short weapons and bows and arrows at the back, we are well prepared."

Heifu picked up a small wooden shield covered with leather and led everyone out of Huyang Pavilion. He asked Pu Zhang to take good care of the pavilion, and then looked at the completely dark night sky, pointed to the southwest and said: "Let's go!"

In the cold wind, Heifu seemed to have returned to his internship in his previous life, when he followed his predecessors on duty at night...

But this time, he was no longer a rookie who had just graduated from the police academy, but the head of a pavilion.

In the distance, the undulating hills beside Yunmeng Lake looked like the back of a crocodile. The leaves of the trees in the mountains and forests had long fallen, and the bare branches trembled in the wind. In the large rice fields, the snow had melted a lot, and there was no one, not even a wild animal. The road in front of him was also empty, without a single figure.

Only the four people from Huyang Pavilion came with armor and sharp weapons.

Heifu walked in the front, and the wind blew the hat on his head fluttering in the wind.

Xiao Tao was at the end, holding a bow and lowering his head, worried that with this wind speed, his arrows would be useless and he would not be able to help the pavilion chief.

This place was still far from the tomb robbery site. Dongmen Bao and Li Xian were in the middle, one on the left and one on the right, each lighting a piece of firewood as a torch, which was particularly dazzling in the dark night sky.

From a distance, the pair of torches looked like a pair of night-bright eyes of a ferocious beast, swaying leisurely...

The four of them walked quickly, as if the heavenly dog, who hated evil, smelled the breath of the thieves, let out a long howl at the bright moon in the sky, and then stepped on the moonlight and ran to the southwest...

...

The period from 23:00 to 1:00 was called "Ren Ding" in the twelve hours of Qin. As the name suggests, almost everyone at this time had fallen asleep and was unaware of the outside world.

But ten miles southwest of Huyang Pavilion, in a wasteland between Xiaoqingli and Chaoyangli, a few torches were lit at a certain time...

Under the light of the fire, there were six people in the dark. The group was of different ages. The oldest looked to be fifty years old, with gray hair. The youngest was only thirteen or fourteen, with skinny arms.

In this cold weather, they all wrapped themselves in thick and good clothes to cover their ragged clothes. However, these clothes were covered with mud, and it was obvious that they were probably dug out from the ground...

Only the youngest boy was afraid of things worn by the dead, so he would rather wear short clothes with sleeves tied up, shivering in the cold wind.

The leader of these six people was the man who had just met with the prison gate in Chaoyangli, the red-faced and short-bearded "Chang".

Chang was still wearing the long coat he had dug out of the tomb. Although hundreds of years had passed and the clothes had shrunk a lot, they could still be worn to keep warm. He stuck the three iron hoes into the ground and said with a smile:

"I have eaten and drunk, and I have prepared all the tools. Ersanzi, it's time to work!"

As a habitual tomb robber, Chang looked down on the timidity of the prison guard in Chaoyangli, but he knew in his heart that the prison guard's warning was not false. He didn't have much time left. The tomb under the mound must be dug up tonight! And take out the burial objects overnight.

He looked up at the cloudless night sky and judged the position of the moon.

"It's just past the time of Ren Ding. When the cockcrows (1 to 3 o'clock), the coffin chamber of this tomb must be dug up. At dawn (3 to 5 o'clock), the burial objects must be moved out! Take as many as you can!"

He and the prison guard of Chaoyangli agreed that at dawn, the prison guard would drive his own ox cart to meet and help move the stolen goods...

Under Chang's order, the other five people picked up tools, either iron hoes to shovel soil, or copper plows to dig deep into the soil in the ground to test the depth of the coffin.

Chang himself unscrewed the expensive wine in his arms, took a sip, and looked after everyone's weapons.

In fact, those weapons were also burial objects dug out from various tombs, but some of the bronze swords and bronze spears had been dead for hundreds of years, but the blades and spears were still as good as new after wiping off the copper green on them.

That's not all. Chang actually held a crossbow in his hand! This was also bought from the State of Chu at a high price with the money he had earned from selling stolen goods, because in the State of Qin, crossbows were not allowed to circulate in the market at all...

Time passed little by little, and after a few days of exploration, they had already found the location of the tomb.

The tombs of these Chu nobles all have something in common, that is, there will be high mounds on the tombs, which are called burial mounds, and the locals call them "big mounds" in colloquial language.

According to the different status of the nobles, the higher the burial mound, the higher the level. But because of the passage of time, many tombs are covered with dead grass and trees, and they look no different from naturally formed mounds.

Only the tomb robbers who have mastered the tomb-reading skills in the "Daily Book" can judge whether it is a tomb by relying on their understanding of the location and testing the soil.

Chang is a person with this ability. As for the big tomb in front of him, he estimated that the burial mound is the highest among the noble tombs he has seen in Anlu! The length and width are dozens of steps, and this specification is at least a county lord of Chu!

This month, they first dug the small tombs that were easy to dig, and got a lot of clothes and weapons, but not many of the most valuable bronzes.

But Chang knew that there must be better things in this big tomb.

However, the higher the level of the tomb, the farther the coffin is from the surface. It took many days and two iron hoes to dig the entire mound of earth. After Chang found the opening of the tomb, everyone began to slowly dig a hole on the exposed surface. After the hole was finally opened, when the steps of the tomb were exposed, it snowed heavily, so they had to stop temporarily.

The compacted soil was originally difficult to dig, but tonight the snow had melted most of the time, and the soil became more moist and loose. Every shovel could bring out some water. Gradually, the steps of the tomb were exposed one by one. Chang went over with a torch and counted carefully. There were actually fifteen layers!

"I have dug the largest county cemetery in Xinshi County, and it only has twelve steps..."

Chang heard that there is a tomb of the King of Chu on the Yi Road in Nanjun, with twenty steps, eighteen steps for the Lingyin level, and twelve steps for the county lord level.

He was stunned for a moment. The tomb in front of him was lower than the Lingyin, but higher than the county lord and the feudal lord. Who could it be?

Before Chang could figure it out, the people who were digging suddenly cried out! They threw away their tools and retreated.

At the end of the stairs, a stone statue with two dragon-shaped heads and double deer horns on its head was crouching at the entrance of the tomb, bulging its eyes and baring its teeth, staring at the tomb robbers with a fierce look on its face!

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