Wanderer of the whirling world

Chapter 40 The Treasure of the Alchemist
This historical anecdote, told by Bao Gong, was very mysterious and interesting, and everyone present listened with great interest.

These people are not historians, and Fang Warlock has always acted secretly and low-key, leaving almost no traces in the history books. If there were no university scholars like Bao Zheng, Ouyang Xiu, and Fan Zhen to trace the source and research in detail, they would not have known it at all. Knowing that there are so many secrets in the period from pre-Qin to early Han.

It was not until then that everyone knew the origin of the treasure.

This treasure house, which is kept secret by all the big figures, was actually built by warlocks in the pre-Qin period, and it is also the tomb of the famous Lord Xinling.

Even though everyone here is well-informed, they can't help but be amazed.

Xin Ziqiu asked curiously:

"Lord Bao, since that Zhang Er is also a magician, doesn't he know the whereabouts of Lord Xinling's tomb? Why does Liu Bang need to keep sending people to Daliang to search for it?"

Bao Zheng shook his head and replied:

"As I said before, Fang Warlocks were divided into two factions at the time, and Zhang Er was only one of the leaders of the Zhishi faction. According to his manuscript, it was the hermit Fang Warlocks who worked in the dark to build the treasure house. These people are on the way of immortality, mastering extraordinary power and mysterious divination techniques, and they often do things unexpectedly. As for why they built the treasure house and why they were so hidden, Zhang Er didn't seem to know. He tried to make some It is conjectured, but the words are vague, maybe the second volume of the missing manuscript will have the answer, but we don’t know.”

"However, this note presented by Daxiangguo Temple just happened to solve this mystery..."

When he said this, he paused, as if he was thinking about how to word it, and he continued after a while:

"I don't know who wrote this note, but since it was written on Buddhist scriptures in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, it is not too long ago. But the content of it coincides with Zhang Er's manuscript nearly a thousand years ago, which shows that it is by no means a random fabrication. We can't help but not believe it."

"According to the notes, after Mr. Xinling reached an agreement with Warlock Fang, he handed over all his family wealth to them as a subsidy for the subsequent series of subversive actions. And he himself spent every day, spending money like water, building his own His mausoleum looks extravagant and dissolute, but in fact, under the guidance of a few powerful alchemists, he turned his tomb into a treasure house, hiding many secrets of the alchemists in it."

"Among them, there are even the supreme mysteries of immortality and immortality."

"After Qin Shihuang unified the world, he did not know where he learned the secrets of Fang Warlocks. On the one hand, he arrested Fang Warlocks who knew the world, including Zhang Er and others, in order to prevent them from carrying out subversive activities. On the other hand, he everywhere Looking for the alchemists of the hermit school, refining the elixir for him, and promising them a lot of money, asking them about the treasure and the secret of ascending to immortality, but they still failed to achieve what they wanted, and were severely deceived by the alchemists several times."

"In the end, Emperor Qin became so angry that he launched the famous 'burning books and burying scholars', killing a large number of alchemists. In the Han Dynasty, Emperor Gaozu and Emperor Wu also tried their best to inquire about the secrets of the alchemists' treasury, but to no avail. And then, after that, alchemists mysteriously disappeared, replaced by the prosperity of Buddhism and Taoism.”

Jiang Ping, who was born in the green forest, knew very well the tricks of charlatan warlocks, so he sneered at these things, and said with a cold snort:
"Hmph, the emperor doesn't govern the country well, and he thinks about how to live forever. If these alchemists really had such abilities, how could they be driven to death by Qin Shihuang..."

Bao Zheng coughed lightly, signaling to Jiang Ping not to say any more, so as not to scold the current day with his words.

But Bao Gong didn't say much. In fact, he also hated the theory of gods and ghosts from the bottom of his heart, and he even disliked the magicians of the quack for bewitching sentient beings.

Especially when he was young, he had witnessed Emperor Zhenzong's absurd "Book of Heaven" incident, which led to the practice of Taoism in the entire Song Dynasty, which was extremely crazy and made people miserable.

Since then, he has firmly opposed the emperor's appointment of Taoist priests in the court, and often speaks out to persuade him.

At this point he went on to say:

"As for the reason for Fang Warlock's disappearance, this note does not describe it, but it records the specific location of the alchemist's treasury, which is the tomb of Lord Xinling."

"The eminent monk at Daxiangguo Temple didn't dare to hide the notes after discovering them, so he reported them to Kaifeng Mansion. After I read the notes, I gave them to Scholar Ouyang to read. Who knew that he and Scholar Fan had just discovered Zhang Er's manuscript, after being verified by both sides, it was found that the records in it were indeed well-documented and not all fabricated. After some research, Scholar Ouyang reported the matter to the officials."

When he said this, his expression was serious, and he seemed unwilling.

Bao Zheng is not rigid, he can call brothers and sisters with people in the world, chat and laugh happily.However, he is also a very principled scholar. Once anything touches his bottom line, he will never give up half a point, otherwise there will be no allusions of "sit upside down in Nanya".

According to his original intention, he wanted to suppress the notes and not dedicate them to the emperor, so as not to confuse the emperor's heart and cause the officials to neglect the government.Fan Zhen had a good relationship with him, and he nodded in agreement, but Ouyang Xiu refused to hide it from the officials, thinking it was a crime of deceiving the emperor, and insisted on reporting it.

As a result, the three important court officials had a big quarrel and broke up unhappy.

In the end, Ouyang Xiu dedicated the notes to Emperor Renzong.Bao Zheng was so angry that he was half dead, but there was nothing he could do.

Ouyang Xiu already knew that he couldn't strangle the majestic court official to death.

Bao Zheng put down the golden slip, drank the remaining half cup of tea in one go, then sighed, tapped his fingers on the table and said:

"The official got the notes, and listened to the analysis of Ouyang Scholar. Long Yan was very happy, so he ordered the official to investigate the matter and make sure to find the treasure house left by the alchemist. But even with the notes to guide, the tomb of Lord Xinling is very difficult to excavate , mainly because Bianliang City was built on top of the ruins of the former dynasty, and there are more than one ancient city of the former dynasty underground. However, I don’t know when this note was written, and the language is unclear. It is difficult to use the location and address given in it to determine The location of the mausoleum."

"However, after several excavations, with the help of some masters who are well versed in civil engineering and Fengshui, our government finally dug the site of the mausoleum in the back garden of Daxiangguo Temple, and even found the entrance. Alas, more than 100 people spent a lot of time It took nearly three months, and the project was huge, costing people and money, which really made me sad, but as a subject, I had to do my best to serve the officials."

Xin Ziqiu listened on the sidelines, deeply convinced that, just for the emperor's unrealistic fantasy, he went to war like this, which really made him, a young man from the new society, slander him endlessly.

And Zhao Zhen was considered a relatively thrifty emperor in history, so one can imagine how absurd those famous foolish emperors could be.

Bao Zheng paused, then said:
"Since the entrance was found, the government sent some skilled craftsmen who knew how to use mechanisms to bring people into the investigation, hoping to open the tomb and obtain the secrets inside. But after passing through the gate, only these two pieces of gold tablets were found, and they were The first checkpoint inside is blocked, according to the words engraved on the gold tablet, only after solving the calculation problem can the checkpoint be opened and continue to move forward."

"In order to understand the calculation problem and find out the secrets, I have the cheek to invite Mr. Jia to come out of the mountain and come to the capital to help out. Unexpectedly, I also met the righteous man Xiaoqiu by accident. I heard that you are also proficient in the art of arithmetic Xue, you are truly a hero. What's your opinion on this calculation problem?"

……

(End of this chapter)