Cao Cao called me to rob a tomb

Chapter 403 Ancient Mine (4000)

"This is?!"

Wu Liang had only seen this kind of scene in the tomb of King Liang Xiao. Those poor soldiers completed the corruption process in a short period of time after being peeed by "Ji", and they completely became Mummy.

But the transformation speed and process of the corpse in front of him are obviously different.

In the blink of an eye, Wu Liang discovered that the surface skin of this corpse had directly turned into powdery debris.

In the blink of an eye, the entire corpse has turned into a piece of powder that still barely maintains the outline of a human being, and is piled up in the coffin. It seems that even the hardest bones in the corpse should no longer exist.

This powder is very light and dry.

Even the slightest movement of air would blow these fine powders, and now there are some fine powders floating in the coffin, which can be clearly seen under the bright sunlight...

Wu Liang wasn't sure what was going on.

However, he knows that some things have been placed in a closed environment for a long time, and once they come into contact with the air again, they will quickly oxidize. The murals that have been buried underground for thousands of years, the pigments used in the murals will be quickly oxidized and damaged when the tomb is opened, and even a void image similar to a mirage will appear due to the rapid oxidation phenomenon.

Therefore, he had reason to suspect that something similar might have happened to this corpse.

of course.

Other unknown possibilities cannot be ruled out. After all, this mountain rising from the bottom of the lake and those "creatures" cannot be explained scientifically, and the things hidden in it naturally cannot be completely examined with scientific eyes.

"How could this be?"

The backbone of the Huan army also saw this scene, with expressions of surprise on their faces.

"Don't touch these powders just yet!"

Before he figured out the situation, Wu Liang naturally had to continue to be cautious, then he raised his eyes to look at the remaining coffins of the same figures, and finally said, "Don't touch these coffins, Yang Wanli, Zhuge Liang, you two first The two big roosters were tied up and driven into different caves to see if we could go in and investigate, maybe the answer we want is inside."

He has carefully observed the situation in the coffin.

It's a pity that apart from this male corpse that quickly turned into powder, there was not even a single funeral object in the coffin, and there were no inscriptions engraved on the inside of the coffin. Even the approximate time of death of the dead body cannot be deduced due to the social environment.

"promise!"

The two immediately picked up the chicken coop and walked up the mountain.

at the same time.

"Report!"

Two soldiers from the Tuan army came rushing down the mountain and bowed in front of Wu Liang before saying, "My lord, we will continue to investigate along the road down the mountain according to your wishes, and we will continue to investigate at a distance of about two hundred zhang. Several larger pits were found, and around these pits, we also found many large stone tools!"

"Oh? Have you found out what's going on in the pit?"

Wu Liang lifted his spirits and asked quickly.

"The two of us didn't investigate deeply, but we found this kind of colorful stone on the edge of the pit, please take a look."

While one of them was talking, he brought up a fist-sized stone with a very rough surface.

This is indeed a very colorful stone, with a layer of mottled blue and purple gradients on the surface, which looks a bit similar to the color of peacock feathers, and can even reflect light.

"This rock is so beautiful."

Bai Jingjing couldn't help sighing.

"My lord, isn't this some kind of priceless gem?"

Yu Ji also leaned over and asked with sparkling eyes.

"This is copper ore."

Wu Liang observed carefully, but gave a disappointing answer, "If I'm not mistaken, this should be a relatively rare bornite ore, and red copper can be extracted through ancient refining methods."

at the same time.

Wu Liang has already begun to speculate on the time frame of human civilization here.

Copper mines were used long ago in the ancient Chinese dynasty, but at the very beginning, they used naturally formed copper nuggets. Only in the Shang Dynasty, the fire method was used to extract ore in batches to refine bronze, and then it became popular rapidly and lasted until the Warring States period. For more than a year, bronze ware was the mainstream metal in China.

Although the earliest ironware appeared in the Shang Dynasty, it was not until the Warring States Period that it became popular and gradually replaced bronze as the mainstream metal.

Now the soldiers report that in addition to several larger pits ahead, there are also some huge stone tools...

Combined with this bornite ore and the previously discovered pit that may have stored a large number of bronze weapons, it can be concluded that this human civilization should have mastered the technology of refining copper ore.

Therefore, Wu Liang speculates that there is a high probability that this human civilization was in a certain period between the Shang Dynasty and the Warring States Period, that is, between 400 and 2000 years ago.

Also.

If combined with Yu Ji's previous description of the "dead dragon", even if a "strong dragon" is cut off, it will still take thousands of years to become a "dead dragon".

Then the time frame of human civilization can be further shortened.

At least it should have been sometime between 1000 and 2000 years ago...

"Lead the way ahead."

Thinking so, Wu Liang immediately said to the two Tuan army soldiers.

He had to conduct on-site surveys before he could determine the functions of the pits and the huge stone tools discovered by the two soldiers, so as to further confirm his speculation.

……

Sure enough, as Wu Liang guessed, this is a well-formed bronze refining base.

The huge stone implements mentioned by the soldiers are shaft furnaces used to smelt copper ore. After removing the silt inside and at the bottom of the shaft furnace, you can see the relatively pure bronze remaining in the furnace during the refining process.

As we all know, bronze is an alloy made of red copper, tin and lead.

In other words, at this point, the process of alloying has been completed, which means that this human civilization has also mastered the technology of distinguishing and refining tin ore and lead ore.

This did not surprise Wu Liang.

Because the earliest bronze ware found in the archaeological world of later generations is a bronze knife about 4800 years ago, which was made of tin bronze, which is actually about 1000 years farther than the Shang Dynasty when bronze was popular. .

And the place of discovery... is Gansu!
Yuanquan, where Wu Liang is now, is also within the territory of Gansu, so the upper limit of the time range Wu Liang inferred before may be extended by another 1000 years.

Besides.

Wu Liang also discovered many special stone and pottery models at the site. The so-called "stone models" and "pottery models" are actually molds made of rocks and clay. Bronze wares, such as various weapons, various furnaces, various masks, various portraits, various tableware, and so on.

After careful observation, Wu Liang found that most of these molds were weapon molds, with a small amount of tableware and animal molds mixed in.

And wait for Wu Liang to check these things.

The soldiers of the Tuan army who followed also cleaned up the three larger pits nearby. Two of the three pits stored the bornite ore that Wu Liang had seen.

As far as Wu Liang knows, this kind of ore with a distinctive shape is mainly sulfide minerals, that is to say...

Wu Liang subconsciously looked at the mountain with many caves behind him.

Could it be that this hill was originally a mine?
And those caves are the mines dug out of the mine?
This possibility is indeed very high.

Because Wu Liang had previously speculated that this mountain mausoleum is most likely to be an active volcano, and sulfide minerals are the most likely to be formed on an active volcano, and there is such a bronze refining base here, it is easy to teach people to use these Bornite ore, which can be used as a raw material, is associated with this active volcano.

After all, there was no large-scale machinery in ancient times, and it was time-consuming and labor-intensive to transport ore. Therefore, under normal circumstances, the ore refining base would be built near the mine.

As for the remaining pit, there is a black-gray crystal-like rock.

Wu Liang is not a geologist, and it is naturally impossible to know all the rocks, but he suspects that this is the tin mine mixed with red copper to refine bronze.

Because as far as he knows, tin ore usually exists in nature in the form of crystals.

"..."

By now, Wu Liang finally had some new guesses about this mountain mausoleum.

A lot of bronze weapons, a bronze refining base with simple but complete tools, a large amount of bornite ore, an active volcano that may still be moving...

This hill is most likely a mine thousands of years ago.

A bronze mine dedicated to refining weapons and bronzes for a certain race, such as the "Goki people".

But if it's just an ordinary bronze mine, why is this mine hidden at the bottom of the lake, and it didn't see the light of day until Wu Liang put in the magic weapon "Hu Zhuo" used to clean up the "creatures"?

and also.

According to Awang's description, the "creatures" in Ming Ze only appeared suddenly in the last few months, and the "fox confusion" between him and the local tribe only appeared in the last few months.

In other words, there must have been some unknown changes in Mingze or this bronze mine recently.

That's why the "spirit" leaked out to harm the people who came to Mingze.

So where did those "creatures" leak out, or to put it another way, how did those "creatures" come about?

Also.

If this is a mine, what about the weird coffins that fell out of those caves?

Judging from the situation at the scene, the mine obviously did not stop production when it sank into the Ming Ze.

Coffins have already been buried in the mines that have not stopped production, and the number seems to be quite a lot, which seems very unreasonable.

After all, apart from the tomb guards guarding the royal tomb, the Chinese dynasty has always clearly divided the male and female residences. At least Wu Liang has never heard of any place, era, or nationality in the ancient Chinese dynasty where the living and the dead shared the same place. tradition of……

……

The day passed like this, and many questions in Wu Liang's mind had not been answered.

Although the excavation work of the Tuan Army went smoothly, they did not find anything of value, so Wu Liang decided to go into those caves to explore.

It's just that this matter can't be rushed.

When night fell, he immediately ordered the Liren army to cross the river again and return to the ancient Great Wall to rest.

In this way, he waited until the early morning of the next day before he led the Tuan army to cross the river again, and instructed the soldiers to continue to investigate at the foot of the mountain, looking for things that had not been found before.

And himself.

Then, together with the backbone of the Huan army, they came to the cave where Yang Wanli and Zhuge Liang released the big rooster yesterday.

The grand duke is still safe and sound.

Because when the sun had just risen, Bai Jingjing had already expressed that she heard the crowing sound of the big rooster, but the crowing sound was relatively dull, and it sounded like it was still inside the cave.

Now in front of the cave, the thin hemp rope tied with one leg of the big rooster is still extending in the dark cave.

Yang Wanli immediately stepped forward to pull the rope, and after only two pulls the rope was exhausted, and the crowing of the big rooster came from the cave again.

This is good news for Wu Liang.

At least it can prove that the current air condition in the cave is not bad, and they should not be suffocated or poisoned after entering it. This will undoubtedly provide favorable conditions for Wu Liang's next investigation.

After a moment.

The big cock had already appeared in front of Wu Liang and others.

Except for some dust on the feathers, they still looked alive and energetic, and Wu Liang felt more at ease in his heart.

However, Wu Liang did not enter the cave in a hurry, but turned back to Bai Jingjing and asked, "Jingjing, from yesterday to now, have those strange whispers you heard reappeared?"

"It didn't show up."

Bai Jingjing replied seriously.

"In this case, we have no choice but to go in and explore."

Wu Liang nodded slightly, and then he told everyone emphatically, "After entering the cave, everyone must wear the gas mask well, and it is not allowed to take it off without special circumstances. In addition, Jingjing, if you hear that strange crooning or For other voices, try to identify the source of the voice as much as possible, and report to me in time."

"promise!"

The crowd responded in unison.

At this moment, Wu Liangcai finally took out the Suihou Pearl, and a group of people filed into the dark cave.

After entering the cave for about ten meters, they saw the weird coffin that resembled a "portrait".

Except for a few of these coffins that fell in the middle of the road in the cave, the rest were erected in a groove on the rock wall on both sides of the cave that fit the outline of the coffin very well.

This kind of groove is only about [-] centimeters deep. Although it can play a certain role in fixing these coffins, the effect is actually very limited, otherwise no coffin would fall down.

However, the distance between each groove is very uniform.

Not only are the two facing each other, but they are also separated by about one meter, which seems to have been measured deliberately.

"Brother talented, what do you think is that?"

Wu Liang and the others were inspecting these grooves and coffins, but suddenly they heard Zhuge Liang pointing at the top of their heads and saying.

(End of this chapter)