Guanzhong Tomb Robbery Notes

Chapter 124 Dome, Technical Work

"After you finish speaking, I'll talk again. Let's exchange technical experiences."

Since he wants to cheat me, I will play along with him.

Let’s try to defeat him first.

Old Li's eyes rolled around: "Hey, that's it!"

"If you ask me, it smells thick and rich with earth, and a pervasive, stale aroma. If you take a closer look, there's even the aroma of blue brick fire."

This set of words sounds quite plausible.

If the method of sniffing the earth was not recorded in Tuoye's family notes, I might have been deceived by him.

But I can now conclude that Lao Li is just talking nonsense.

"Brother Li, what does the old taste mean?" I asked with a smile.

"This old taste, it is, well, it is..."

Old Li frowned and tried to come up with words.

But no matter how hard I racked my brains, I couldn't think of the right words.

"Oh, it's hard to describe in words. You'll understand after you smell it more."

"What's that smell of fire?" I continued to ask.

Old Li scratched his head, his face wrinkled into a ball.

"Newly fired bricks have a fire smell. Go to a brick factory and smell it and you'll know."

"Hahaha."

I couldn't hold back my laughter any longer.

"Brother, you're really funny. The bricks have been buried for at least a hundred years, and there's still the smell of fire mixed in with the soil?"

"This isn't the Taishang Laojun's alchemy furnace, how could it be so fiery?"

Old Li rolled his eyes vigorously.

He knew that I had seen through his little plan.

But he was thick-skinned and didn't show any embarrassment on his face.

"You don't understand. You'll understand when you see more."

"There's a secret to smelling soil. Tell me what you smelled."

I casually said, "It smells moldy. I guess it's quite damp down there, so the musty smell is strong."

"Huh!" Old Li said in disgust.

"I thought you could smell something different, but this is all you get?"

"It's the same as what Mu said."

"It seems you really don't know how to smell dirt, so I won't bother explaining it to you."

Old Li patted his butt and walked over to supervise his two apprentices at work.

The boundaries of the tomb chamber and the location of the tomb passage were quickly discovered.

The tomb chamber is indeed facing south as we guessed.

"It really does face south, and the tomb chamber is in the shape of a convex character. It's six meters deep, and its maximum length and width are both four and a half meters. However..."

Old Li paused and pointed to the center of the tomb chamber.

"But looking at the cave from the center point outward, the center is convex upwards, and the surrounding areas gradually go down."

"It should be a semi-spherical dome."

Dome roofs are often used in large tombs after the Han Dynasty.

Compared with the vault, the dome is an outward-convex semi-spherical shape, while the vault is an outward-convex semi-cylindrical shape.

The disadvantage of the vaulted roof is that it is prone to collapse once the width of the tomb chamber is too large.

Therefore, vaulted roofs are mostly used in narrow single tomb chambers, and are more commonly used in the tombs of ordinary wealthy families.

The burial areas of princes and nobles are very large.

Dome-roofed tombs are usually used.

According to the different forms of vaults, vaulted tomb chambers are divided into "four-corner vaulted type" and "four-side vaulted type".

The four-corner vaulted style is to build arches upward from the four corners of the top of the tomb chamber to form a dome.

The four-sided arch style is to build arches upward from the four walls of the tomb chamber.

The appearance of the dome indicates that the tomb is of high standard, which is consistent with the identity of Guard Jiang.

"This tomb is not small."

"Do you think we should go in through the tomb door, or..." Old Li asked in a low voice.

I don’t know if Lao Li is still testing me.

But in the tomb-robbing business, they usually go through the door of a small tomb, and try to go directly into the tomb chamber of a large tomb.

Because large tombs require more consideration for anti-theft measures.

The main gate is blocked by means of sealing such as tapping stones.

Even if there is a crooked key to crack it, it is too tiring to go through all the trouble.

It would be better to find a way to dig a hole into the tomb.

Later, I visited tombs that can be visited, such as the tomb of Prince Yide. I found that any tomb that had been robbed had holes in its main chamber.

The appearance of tomb robbery holes in the corridor is most likely due to the discovery that a predecessor had entered the tomb.

It was guessed that the tomb had been robbed, so the next best thing was to go into the corridor and take the funerary objects from the niches on both sides.

"It's not too troublesome to enter through the tomb door. Just dig a hole in the center and open it from the top of the dome."

This is also recorded in Tuoye’s family notes.

If you encounter a tomb with a dome roof, the best option is to remove the bricks from the top of the tomb to enter.

Later, when the archaeological team encountered small dome-shaped tombs, they mostly chose to remove the bricks from the top of the tomb.

Old Li smiled and gave a thumbs up.

"That's not bad. I'll do as you say."

"Daquan, use the big shovel to dig the hole. You and Ershuan can take turns."

"middle!"

Daquan changed to a large Luoyang shovel as thick as a bowl and drilled a hole at the center of the excavated tomb chamber.

puff puff!

Luoyang shovel hits very fast.

A small mound soon appeared on the ground.

I looked at the time and it was 2:30 in the morning.

If we can get into the tomb at four o'clock, we can finish it before dawn.

If we were slower, we wouldn't have enough time to enter the tomb.

Then we have to find a way to disperse the soil that has been dug out.

Otherwise, people would be suspicious if they saw you during the day.

"Brother Li, do you need some loose soil?"

"I'm also hesitant about whether to spread the soil. Time is somewhat tight."

"Wait and see. If we can't catch up, we'll load the dirt onto the donkey cart and take it back for disposal."

This made me understand more about the wonderful uses of donkey carts.

No wonder Lao Li wants to get a donkey cart.

It is not only convenient for transportation, but also for transporting bulk soil.

In those days, it was considered the most powerful auxiliary tool for tomb raiding.

By the 1990s, tomb robbers liked to use vans as an auxiliary.

It can carry people and goods without being conspicuous.

Daquan and Ershuan worked hard for more than an hour and finally dug a small hole that was big enough for one person to enter and exit.

"Master, it's finally here."

"How do we open the brick roof?" Ershuan shouted from inside the cave.

Old Li looked at me with a smile and said, "Brother Chen, my apprentice has finished the hard work. Is it your turn to do the technical work?"

"No problem, but you need to lend me a tool."

"That's easy. As long as you have the tools, you can use them any way you want."

Looked at the tools on the donkey cart.

I ended up choosing a chisel.

It is not difficult to open the dome roof, just be careful not to cause collapse.

So when you open the first brick, you need to use force but not brute force.

"Brother, how about I go down and do it?" Cui Hao wanted to do it for me.

"Just help me pull the rope from up there. I don't trust anyone else to pull the rope."

I tied the rope tightly around my waist and crawled into the tunnel headfirst.

This is the disadvantage of small theft holes.

It is too narrow, making it difficult to enter and exit, and it is also difficult to work properly inside.

Soon we reached the end of the tunnel.

The flashlight beam shone on the brick dome.

The green bricks gather here to form a small square.

I chiseled in the crack between one of the bricks.

Bang bang.

After some effort, I finally loosened the brick.

Then he pried the brick out with a chisel.

The next thing is easy. Just pry open the adjacent bricks and create a hole big enough for one person to enter and exit.

After prying off five bricks in succession, a hole as big as a head appeared on the dome.

I shone the flashlight into the hole.

I want to see what's inside the tomb.

When I saw this, I was so shocked that all the hairs on my body stood up!