The train left at two o'clock the next day. We were so excited that we didn't sleep all night. I asked the fat man how much money we had left in total. The fat man counted and said that we had one hundred and fifty left. This little money was enough to pay for the return trip and food.

fee.

When I thought about it, this wouldn't work. We haven't been back for more than ten years. It would be inappropriate to go see the folks with nothing. I had to find a way to get some money to buy some gifts for the folks.

The fat man said that he might as well sell my piece of jade and exchange it for one thousand eight hundred yuan.

I say you should keep it. Don't worry about the little things your father left for you. If you sell them, you won't be able to get them back. Don't regret it when the time comes.

Finally, I found something valuable. We have a Yingge brand mechanical watch with us. My father bought it for me when I was a company commander. It is a limited edition and is limited in supply. Even if you have money, you may not be able to buy it.

It was worth more than 200 yuan on the market at that time. I went to Panjiayuan and sold the watch to Da Jinya. This grandson accepted everything. When he heard that we were going to Inner Mongolia to start a business, he sponsored us for 100 yuan and

It was agreed that when we find something, he will contact the buyer.

In the 1980s, three hundred yuan was enough for an ordinary family to live a luxurious life for two to three months. It was a considerable amount of money. With more than three hundred yuan, I bought a lot of food, including candied toffee.

Canned chocolate tea and the like were not available in the mountains, so the remaining money was exchanged for national food stamps on the black market.

The journey of two days and two nights seemed a bit long in the mood of anticipation. After arriving at the station, I had to ride a tractor for a day, and then go into the mountains and walk on the mountain road for a day and night.

After the two of us entered the mountain, we walked for less than a day before we could no longer walk. The things we carried were too heavy. Each of us had to carry more than 100 kilograms. I gritted my teeth and persisted. The fat man was really in trouble. Sitting there

He was breathing heavily under the big tree and couldn't even speak.

Fortunately, we met an accountant who came out from the village to do business. He was still a half-year-old child who jumped in line when we were in line. He played with us all day long and called us brother every time.

When the accountant saw how much luggage we had, he quickly ran back to the village and asked a few people to come pick us up with donkeys. We all knew these elderly people, and there were two girls in their twenties or thirteen years old who came after I left.

I was just born, and they all called me, not to mention that I was weird.

I asked the accountant: Why are there no young men in the village?

The accountant replied: All the laborers in the village have gone to work with the archaeological team. Isn’t that the Tangshan earthquake in 1976? Although they are thousands of miles away from us, they belong to the same family.

In the earthquake zone, this earthquake completely shattered Niuxin Mountain in Lamagou. There was a large tomb inside that looked like a palace. Many brave people in our village went in to move things. That guy, the good things were gone.

, the result was unknown, and the county government was alerted, and the archaeological team followed. They said this was the tomb of Empress Dowager Xiao of the Liao Dynasty, and they even took away all the good things in everyone's house, leaving nothing behind. Then

The archaeological team is not the same as those in Niuxin Mountain. It seems that there are many good things to be dug under the mountain. They hired all the laborers in the village to work, and one laborer was responsible for food and drink for a day.

Give me three yuan. This has been going on for several years, and it’s not easy to do. Many people are still working there.

The fat man and I almost vomited blood when we heard this. We dared to burn incense with our two brothers. Even the Lord Buddha fell off his buttocks.

But there is nothing we can do. We can't compete with the archaeological team and the Cultural Relics Bureau for the public domain. Now that we are here, let's play for a few days and then think of ways to find other places. Anyway, the only large ancient tomb is the Niuxin Mountain one.

When we were about to enter the village, the villagers who had received the news were waiting at the door. They all crowded over and asked questions. Yanzi led his daughter and cried to us: Oh, Fatty Lao Hu, you really want us to die.

How come we haven’t heard from each other for so many years? Yanzi’s father hugged both of us tightly: You two little bastards will disappear as soon as you leave. If you don’t stay here for two or three years, no one is allowed to leave.

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Fatty and I both cried. Fatty has lived here for six or seven years, and I have only lived here for one year. But the people in the mountains are simple. If you have lived here, they will always treat you like a relative. This place is still the same as before, a little bit.

Nothing has changed, there is no electricity, no roads, and many people here have never seen an electric light in their lives. The more I think about it, the sadder I feel. I think that when we have money, we must build a road for the villagers, but when can we get it?

Where's the money?

At this time, the old party secretary in the village was helped by someone and came over. Before he arrived, he said loudly: Chairman's children are back again, Chairman, is he okay now? How is the Cultural Revolution going?

I was puzzled when I heard that, Chairman, how can I know if the old man is doing well now? I rushed to the front and held the old branch secretary’s arm and said: He is well, he lies in the memorial hall every day, who of you miss him, buy it.

With just a ticket, you can go in and see his old man. The Cultural Revolution has ended long ago, and now Comrade Xiaoping is leading us to carry out reform and opening up.

The old branch secretary didn’t seem to hear what I said. He pulled his neck and asked loudly: What did Comrade Ming do?

Yanzi told me next to him: Don't listen to him anymore. I don't know how to fix it. He became deaf in 1973, can't hear anything clearly, and is always confused.

Only then did I realize what was going on. I said loudly in the ear of the old party secretary: Party secretary, I have brought you a lot of delicious food. I will deliver it to you in a while. You can eat it slowly.

Everyone walked into the village while talking. The old party secretary was still shouting from behind: Children, you go back and report to his old man that we firmly support the proletarian cultural revolution and should be rectified.

In the evening, the Kang table at Yanzi's house was filled with fried pheasant slices and smoked venison legs. In the middle was a large clay pot with pickled cabbage powder and braised white meat. Yanzi's husband was also very familiar with us before. He went to work in Niuxin Mountain and did not come back.

Can't see it yet.

Yanzi's father was drinking and talking with us, and I talked about the ancient tomb in Niuxin Mountain, and by the way asked him if there were any tombs of ancient nobles in this mountain.

Since ancient times, mountain people have always believed that tomb robbing is a side job to generate income, and there is no moral problem. This is the case in the north. In the south of Xiangxi, robbery and murder are used as a side job. The mountain people work as farmers during the day and as bandits at night, hiding in the woods.

They specialize in killing foreign merchants who pass by and never leave anyone alive. This is forced by the living environment for thousands of years. If you rely on mountains and rivers, you will eat ancient tombs and living people passing by. As long as there are ancient tombs nearby, you can eat them.

Someone will dig it. In remote areas, the mountains are high and the emperor is far away, and the king's laws cannot control it. Although no one can explain this legally, the fact is that these are normal in deep mountains and old forests. The ancient tombs nearby

Most of them have been around for so long and have gone through so many changes that they have no obvious signs, or else they would have been dug up by the mountain people.

Yanzi's father said that a long time ago, before liberation, there were several young amateur tomb robbers in this village. At that time, they didn't know that there were tombs in Niuxin Mountain. They went to a legendary place to dig tombs and dig for gold, but they found nothing.

Whatever happened, they all went away, and Yanzi's second uncle was one of them. Yanzi's father knew the approximate location of that legendary place, but he had never dared to go there.

Speaking of the past, the old man fell into memories. He lit up Yabuli's old cigarette pipe and took a few puffs. After thinking for a long time, he said: If you want to find ancient tombs, there are none nearby except Niuxin Mountain.

Well, according to old legend, there is a barbarian ditch at the Heifengkou on the border of China and Mongolia, which is a five-day journey from here to the north via Tuanshanzi. Legend has it that the area is full of tombs of the princes and nobles of the Jin Dynasty. However, the place is inaccessible and is still sparsely populated.

There are savages out there, do you have the guts to go?

I had heard of the name Yerengou before, but I had never heard that there were ancient tombs there. What exactly had killed the previous group of tomb robbers? Not to mention that I didn’t know, Yanzi’s father didn’t know, and everyone in the entire village didn’t know.

No one knows either.

There are too many dangerous things in the mountains and forests. All kinds of wild beasts, and even changes in weather and natural environment can kill people. If you encounter a big smoke bubble and get covered in it, even the great gods will not be able to escape.

come out.

We were determined to go, and Yan Zi’s father couldn’t stop us. No one in the village had actually been to Heifengkou Yerengou, they only knew the approximate direction. Because it was close to the border and there were no people around, even if the people in the village went into the mountains to hunt.

Or they can't go that far to pick mountain goods. In addition, Yanzi's father is old and suffers from cold legs and can no longer go into the mountains. Yanzi was pregnant with her second child at the time and couldn't travel far. In the village

All the young and middle-aged people are working in Lamagou and will not come back soon.

Yanzi's father said: I don't feel at ease if I don't take you there myself. In fact, the danger in Yerengou is not from the barbarians. The key is that the terrain is complicated. When winter comes, the white-haired wind blows, so it is easy to get lost. But it is early autumn, so it is easy to get lost.

Don’t worry about it for the first time. If you go, be sure to bring more dogs with you and find a good guide. Our village has raised several mastiff dogs in the past few years, and we will bring them all with you this time.

Mastiff does not just refer to Tibetan Mastiff. In the Northeast, huge bulldogs are called Mastiffs, which are not exactly the same as Tibetan Mastiffs.

The hunters and herdsmen living in the northern grassland forests were threatened by wild beasts such as wolves and black bears, and it was difficult to deal with them with ordinary hunting dogs, so they adopted the method of raising mastiffs learned from Tibet to raise mastiffs. As the saying goes, nine dogs and one mastiff

, this sentence does not mean that one mastiff can be born out of nine dogs. It must be a female dog with good pedigree. Nine puppies are born in a litter at the same time. These nine puppies are born and locked in a cellar.

They were deprived of food and drink and allowed to kill each other, and the only one that survived was the mastiff. Mastiffs are extremely ferocious by nature, and three mastiff dogs can tear a full-grown human bear into pieces alive.

There are three mastiffs in the village, plus five of the best hounds, all of which were given to us. Yanzi's father recommended a guide to us, Yingzi.

Yingzi is just nineteen years old. She is a rare Oroqen ethnic group. In this village, among the younger generation of hunters, no one is better than Yingzi. She is a famous sharpshooter in the mountains. Despite her young age, she has been following her since she was a child.

Her father was hunting in the woods, and she didn't know anything about the old woods. Two of the three mastiffs in the village were raised by her herself.

Before leaving, I asked Yanzi to help prepare some things, including bird cages, glutinous rice, black donkey hooves, crowbars, a large bucket of vinegar, and soju.

After everything was packed up, Yanzi's father gave many warnings, don't force yourself if you can't find her, and go back quickly. He didn't go back until he sent us to Tuanshanzi.

I am quite confident about finding ancient tombs. As long as I can get to Yerengou, it doesn't matter if there are no ancient tombs. If there is one, I will definitely be able to find it. Regarding tomb robbing, I learned part of it from books, and most of it.

I heard it from my grandfather before. My grandfather Hu Guohua served as an officer in the old warlord army. Some of his soldiers were once subordinates of Sun Dianying, the Dongling robber. They participated in many large-scale tomb-robbing operations and were rich in experience. All of my grandfather's

You know what you hear mostly by listening to what they say.

Historically, tomb robbers have been divided into two types: civilians and officials. Official robbers are all open-fire robbers who specialize in the imperial mausoleums. Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu in the late Qin Dynasty, should be the ancestor of official robbers. As for the digger army during the Three Kingdoms period, such as Xiaowei and others

It just systematizes official robbers and forms an assembly line operation. There are also amateurs and professionals among the people. Amateurs dig whatever they want, while professionals look for the tombs of nobles and princes. The younger ones look down on them.

The key to tomb robbing is to find ancient tombs, which is a very profound knowledge. Over the thousands of years in China, dynasties have changed, and the construction and location selection of emperors' tombs have been different. In the Qin and Han Dynasties, what went up and followed down was mostly the same.

Overturned bucket-style tombs. The overturned bucket is the shape of the mound of earth. It looks like a meter bucket turned over to cover it. There are lines on the four sides and a small square platform at the top. Some of them look like Egyptian pagodas.

, except that the Chinese one has an extra side, but it is surprisingly similar to the pyramids of the Mayan civilization, a lost civilization found in South America. No one can guess the connection between them.

In the Tang Dynasty, mountains were built into mausoleums, and the projects were huge and majestic. This was also related to the national power of the Tang Dynasty at that time. The royal tombs of the Tang Dynasty were full of the splendor of the most powerful empire in the world.

From the Southern Song Dynasty to the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, military disasters occurred one after another. Several of the largest natural disasters in ancient Chinese history also occurred during this period. China's national power was weak, and the scale of the mausoleums of princes and nobles was not as luxurious as before.

Later, in the Qing Dynasty, during the Kangxi and Qianlong periods, the country's economy and productivity were greatly restored. The architectural style of the mausoleums changed, paying more attention to the ground-level buildings, combining them with the ancestral temple gardens for worship, and absorbing the influence of the previous dynasties.

Based on our experience in preventing theft, the structures of underground palace tombs in the Qing Dynasty were extremely strong, making them most difficult to attack.

In the final analysis, no matter which dynasty or generation, the tomb forms in China for thousands of years are all derived from the Five Elements Feng Shui layout derived from the Sixty-Four Hexagrams of Fu Xi.

Eight words: Within nature, heaven and man are one.

This kind of tomb culture is the essence of Chinese civilization. The Mongolian Uighurs, Tubos, Jinte, Wusun, Xianbei, She people, Jurchens, Dangxiang and other ethnic minorities have been greatly influenced, and the layout of their tombs has imitated that of the Central Plains.

Forms, but most of them only scratch the surface. It can be said that as long as you know how to look at the direction of mountains and rivers in the world, you can easily find ancient tombs no matter how deeply hidden they are.

Going further forward is the endless virgin forest. Yingzi led eight big dogs to clear the way in front. Fatty led a pony to carry tents and other supplies and equipment. I walked behind carrying a shotgun, and the group entered Zhongmongolia.

Among the high mountains on the border.

As the fat man walked, he asked Yingzi in front: Sister, what is going on with the savages in Yerengou? What are the savages? Have you ever seen them?

Yingzi turned around and said: I don't know what a savage is. My father said that many people have seen it over the years, but no one has caught a living one, and no corpse has been seen of a dead one. Those who have seen it can't tell what they are.

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To be continued...