Chapter 220
the engineer's shovel.It took some effort.The golden coffin lid finally came off, revealing the coffin inside.This coffin is entirely black. Thanks to the good sealing of the outer gold and silver cof...He wasn't lying, the terrain here is half semi-desert and half desert. The grass on the ground is light black, there isn't even a bird in the sky. After staying here for a while, you feel suffocated, stuffy, and oppressive, like a deathly silence.
Little Bean Sprout caught a cold last night and kept having a runny nose. He sneezed and said, "It feels like another world in here."
Ajji looked up at the dark, oppressive sky and said worriedly: "Legend has it that Harakhoto's Black General lives on this land. The Black General's soul curses Mongolian soldiers through the ages. The grass here, the sky here, the land here, and even the water sources have all been affected by the Black General's resentment and turned black."
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“Achoo!” Douzi sneezed, almost spraying his nose into his mouth. He wiped it and said, “I think this isn't the soul of a Black General at all. Here is simply black soil. It was probably a large oasis hundreds of years ago. After many trees died and decayed into the ground, it became black soil.”
Hey, I'm saying, when did you get smart, Yazai You've learned to analyze things now. I pointed around and said, "Now analyze this for me: why is the grass around here also black"
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"Well..."
"Douzi thought about it for a long time and said loudly, 'The grass that grows on black soil must be black grass. It's just like how black people and black women give birth to children—they can't possibly give birth to white ones, right' "
"Alright, alright, no need to be stingy," he said, looking at me. "Yunfeng, you try first. Hit the ground with the shovel and see what kind of soil structure we have here."
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I nodded and said yes, then turned to take out a telescopic spade from my bag.
There are four types of shovels in the Tomb Robber's Handbook. The Luoyang shovel is used to dig samples and determine the location of ancient tombs, while the whirlwind shovel is used to dig tunnels. The other two types of shovels are called short-handled shovels and crane-beak shovels.
The short-handled shovel has two heads. One head is a piece of iron over ten centimeters wide, and the other head is three-pronged, shaped like a trident, but the three prongs are flat.
The short-handled shovel is convenient to carry, and its main use is to pry open coffins.
The crane-bill shovel is used in the south but rarely in the north. This shovel has a long, pointed, and very narrow head, making it suitable for digging underwater holes. When using a crane-bill shovel underwater, it is unlikely to bring up mud and sand, allowing people to see clearly underwater, which is convenient for tomb robbing.
The most famous use of the crane-bill scoop was during the Jiangkou silver robbery from a sunken tomb years later. A group of people used the crane-bill scoop underwater to unearth a large quantity of treasures, including the Yongchang General Gold Seal.
When excavating in Xialoyang, there is a technique. The Northern School calls it one smash, three turns, and two pokes.
First, choose a general location. Pick up the Luoyang shovel and tap it on the ground. Tap it once to mark a spot to prevent later errors.
If you think it's suitable, place the Luo Yang shovel underground and use your hands to rub and turn it three times. This can test the soil hardness. If the hardness is also suitable, just do it. Lift the Luo Yang shovel and poke it down twice to retract it, just enough to bring up half a shovel of soil.
Thus, after repeated attempts, a well-constructed probe pit was soon ready.
At the beginning, the soil in Luoyang was just right for digging, not too soft or too hard. When my shovel went down about one and a half meters, I clearly felt the resistance decrease.
This is not a good phenomenon, indicating that there is a sand accumulation layer underground.
Seeing Luoyang's shovel brought up sand, he hesitated for a moment, frowned and said: "Since there is a quicksand layer, there is no need to dig any further. I am useless here. The shovel will bring up a little bit of sand which will be immediately covered by the quicksand, so we'll never be able to reach enough depth. Yunfeng, why don't we try building a four-legged array instead"
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I nodded in agreement, withdrew my Luoyang shovel and went to find the copper bowl used for setting up a four-legged formation.
The four-legged formation is a special technique used by tomb robbers. If lucky, the accuracy rate can reach over 60 percent.
This method was first invented by a man named Ma Liu in the Guangdong gang of the Southern faction.
In the early days, the grave-robbing gang in Malacca consisted of four people. These four stood at each corner and dug a pit on the ground. Then, they buried four bronze bowls at the corners. These bowls were specially made, divided into two layers, with water in the lower layer and soil in the upper layer. Their shape was similar to the kind of Kongming bowls used for tribute in the past. They looked large, but they would be full after holding just a little bit of something.eaded Guanyin statues, eight-armed protective deity statues, or horse-headed King Wisdom paintings.Xiao Ke thought these things were of average value, so he packed them up and sent them to the Royal G...