Chapter 1 Hearing About the Past

After listening to Little Liang's introduction, I learned that the ancestors of Huaxia had close exchanges with the world as early as four thousand years ago. They traded with foreign merchants, exchanging goods for boxes of ivory and seashells from the Indian Ocean, which could definitely be called "international trade."

As we were talking, I suddenly heard the sound of gurgling water coming from the end of the tunnel ahead, and the air gradually became humid.

I asked Huang Mao Xiaoming, "What's this? Is there an underground river down here?"

Xiaoming immediately nodded and said, "Yes, there is an underground river. Don't think that we are underground, but the terrain here is actually higher than the nearby Ma Mu River, so there is an underground river passing through the ancient tomb, and it seems to be connected to the Ma Mu River."

As soon as Little Liang heard this, he immediately whispered to me, "It seems that the underground river connected to the Dead Man's Pit and the Dragon Locking Well is this one."

I nodded slowly, and the corpse that had been rolled up from the Dragon Locking Well couldn't help but flash through my mind. Although I still didn't know where the iron chains in the Dragon Locking Well were connected to, or how the corpse was rolled up, at least it was certain that the Dragon Locking Well was connected to this underground river.

At this time, Xiaoming added, "By the way, the tomb owner's coffin should also be in front. I came with Zhiguo (nickname for a person) earlier and seemed to have seen a main coffin."

Jiang Yongguang immediately asked, "Which tomb owner are you talking about? The tomb owner of the Ming Dynasty tomb, or the tomb owner of the ancient Shu tomb?"

After all, this tomb had been through two tomb owners, so Jiang Yongguang asked this question.

Xiaoming thought for a while and replied, "It should be the tomb owner of the Ming Dynasty. I think the coffin seems to be made of nanmu (Phoebe zhennan) and lacquered in vermilion, and it hasn't rotted, so it's probably from the Ming Dynasty. If it was an old coffin from more than four thousand years ago, it would have rotted away by now."

"That's true..." Jiang Yongguang squinted his eyes and nodded, then suddenly perked up and asked, "Wait, you said the coffin is made of nanmu and lacquered in vermilion? What shape is it roughly? Is there a brocade mingjing (tomb banner) on it?"

Xiaoming asked in confusion, "What's a brocade mingjing?"

Jiang Yongguang patiently replied, "It's a kind of black and red silk fabric, which may have patterns like dragon patterns and cloud patterns on it. In short, it's a kind of ornament that makes the whole coffin look very stylish."

Xiaoming recalled for a moment, then nodded and said, "Now that you mention it, it seems like there is, and the design of this coffin is also very grand, like a boat, with both ends raised, very wide, and a little narrow in the middle."

As soon as Jiang Yongguang heard this, he couldn't help but exclaim, "This is the coffin of the Ming Dynasty royal family! This is really a royal tomb! This is really a royal tomb!"

"Really a royal tomb?" Old Wei asked in shock, "But in history, I haven't heard of any Ming Dynasty royal family being buried by the Ma Mu River? Besides, there is no fiefdom of the Ming Dynasty in this area."

Little Liang also tilted his head and questioned, "I don't understand either. The appearance of a Ming Dynasty royal tomb here doesn't conform to history."

I didn't know much about history at the time, and I didn't understand why they were so surprised, but from the current point of view, the owner of this Ming tomb was neither Liu Bowen nor Yao Guangxiao, but a royal family member surnamed Zhu.

At this time, Uncle Mei pointed to the tomb chamber in front and said, "What's the use of you guys standing here discussing? Wouldn't the truth be revealed if you go into the tomb chamber and take a look? Let's go, I also want to see who this Ming tomb was built for, and which shameless Zhu family descendant is occupying the magpie's nest."

When everyone heard this, they thought that Uncle Mei was right, so they went to the main tomb chamber together.

Arriving at the main tomb chamber, they saw that the original tomb chamber of the ancient Shu Kingdom had been completely renovated, or rather, transformed.

The arch of the tomb chamber was built with blue bricks from the Ming Dynasty, and a layer of blue brick floor was laid below. After passing through the arch, they came to a spacious underground space.

This underground space was about seven or eight meters high and had an area about the size of a basketball court. The walls on both sides had collapsed and been damaged, and an underground river ran through the middle.

This underground river should have repeatedly changed its course in the past few years, and the last change of course directly passed through the main tomb chamber, resulting in the walls of the main tomb chamber being penetrated, fortunately without causing the overall collapse of the tomb chamber.

After arriving at the main tomb chamber, I looked around and saw a pile of broken copper and scrap iron scattered on the ground by the riverbank in the center of the tomb chamber.

Although these fragments had collapsed for a long time and were even partially buried by the soil by the river, I could still vaguely recognize that these fragments should be the remnants of the "Guardian Dragon."

It was the kind of lifelike dragon bones cast in bronze that I had seen in the Tuo River Tomb and the Yazi River Tomb.

It was a pity that this dragon skeleton failed to stand the test of time and collapsed in the long river of history.

Next to the dragon bone fragments was a withered, gradually petrified old tree. Although this old tree was not as tall as the old tree under the Yazi River, it was still tall enough.

Although the old tree had withered, it was covered with lush vines. These vines seemed to be able to survive without sunlight, otherwise they would not have survived underground for so long.

The coffin that Huang Mao Xiaoming mentioned was placed squarely directly below the old tree. If the Guardian Dragon entrenched on the tree had not been damaged, then its dragon claws would have been guarding the coffin.

When Jiang Yongguang saw the coffin, he quickly walked over to examine it carefully, muttering to himself:

"A nanmu coffin, wide at the front and narrow at the back, high at the front and low at the back, all six sides are made of whole boards, spliced together with mortise and tenon structure, and nailed with iron nails. The outer layer is polished and lubricated, then coated with vermilion lacquer, carved with dragon patterns, and covered with a brocade mingjing... there's no doubt about it, this is definitely a royal coffin, and what's inside is at least a prince of the Ming Dynasty!"

As he spoke, he walked up to observe the preservation of the coffin.

I was also curious and went forward to take a closer look.

At this time, I saw that the right side of the coffin had obvious damage, as if it had been pried open by someone, the iron nails had been pried up, and the wooden board had obvious damage.

Jiang Yongguang quickly discovered this scene, and he turned his head and asked Huang Mao Xiaoming with a serious expression, "Did you pry open the coffin? Did you damage this coffin board?"

Xiaoming quickly waved his hand to shirk responsibility and shook his head, "I don't know! I really don't know! Anyway, I didn't touch this coffin, and I didn't see my Zhiguo touch it..."

Jiang Yongguang carefully examined the gap in the coffin and concluded, "Looking at this gap, it should have been damaged not long ago, the cuts are all brand new, I guess it was done by Yang Guo and his gang."

Just as he was speaking, I couldn't help but lean over and look into the coffin through this gap. I really wanted to see who was buried in this coffin.

However, I only took one look, and I immediately gasped!

I didn't expect that in the coffin, I actually saw a golden glow!