Anecdote of the Yellow River

Chapter 4 Ancient Tombs of the Eastern Han Dynasty (2)
I took a sip of coffee, put on sterile gloves, picked up a Gui-shaped stone tablet wrapped in loess and placed it on the tablecloth.My job is to clean up these stone tablets, and Gu Meidi's job is to reassemble the broken stone tablets, and then rub the ancient characters on the stone tablets for further research.

I took a small brush and carefully brushed off the soil on the stone plaque. When I encountered hard soil that could not be brushed off, I dripped a few drops of special chemical potion, and then scraped it off bit by bit with a knife.The reason why Professor Ye thinks highly of me is that he appreciates my work attitude. I am very serious in doing things, and I can be said to be meticulous.

After spending about two hours, a blue-gray stone tablet about half a meter long appeared in front of me. To my delight, this Gui-shaped stone tablet was well preserved.I moved the desk lamp over, carefully observed the words on the stone tablet, and read it softly, "The big halberd that King Wu of Wei often used."

and many more!

A flash of lightning flashed through my mind, and the hands holding the stone tablet trembled uncontrollably.

King Wei Wu? !

This stone tablet says King Wu of Wei!
Could it be... Could this ancient tomb be the legendary tomb of King Wu of Wei? !
King Wu of Wei is the well-known Cao Cao in Chinese history, the founder and main founder of the Wei State in the Three Kingdoms era. After his son Cao Pi became emperor, he was honored as Emperor Wu of Wei.

Regarding Cao Cao's tomb, there have been different opinions for thousands of years. The widely circulated version is that Cao Cao set up 72 suspicious tombs before his death. The real Cao Cao's tomb is buried in a very secret place, and no one will ever know.Could this ancient tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty be just one of the suspected tombs set up by Cao Cao?
The original drowsiness disappeared with the appearance of this stone tablet. I stared at my red eyes and excitedly said to Gu Meidi: "Quick! Call Professor Ye in!"

The news that this ancient tomb of the Eastern Han Dynasty is likely to be the tomb of Cao Cao excited all the archaeologists present.

Professor Ye said: "Temporarily block this news from the outside world. After the coffin is opened, we will conduct further investigation and evidence collection!"

The science of archaeology is somewhat similar to criminal investigation. It cannot be guessed out of thin air, everything must be based on evidence, and all conclusions must be well-founded, and conclusions cannot be hastily drawn.

The next day, the three bronze coffins were carried out of the ancient tomb. The police requisitioned a nearby private house, cleaned it up briefly, and used it as a place for exhumation and autopsy.Policemen with live ammunition stood at the door of the houses, and they had to show their work certificates to enter. The atmosphere at the scene was very serious.

On the third day, authorities in the medical field were invited to the excavation site. They brought the most advanced medical instruments and prepared to open the coffin for autopsy.

Gu Meidi and I followed Professor Ye into the private house, along with Li Qiang, the captain of the provincial archaeological team, and his assistant Xiao Wang.In addition, there are two civilian police and five medical experts.

The surrounding fluorescent lights turned on, and the three bronze coffins were quietly placed in the center of the room, glowing with a faint blue light.The dust on the surface of the coffin has been cleaned up. Due to the erosion of the earth's atmosphere for thousands of years, the surface of the coffin is covered with mottled copper rust, which looks like decayed blue flowers.

Professor Ye turned to Li Qiang and said, "Captain Li, open the coffin!"

Captain Li nodded, put on sterile gloves, greeted his assistant Xiao Wang, and each walked up with a shovel.The two stood at the front and back ends of the coffin in the middle, raised the shovel, and inserted the shovel into the gap between the coffin lid and the coffin body.

Because wooden coffins are easy to rot and are easily bitten by insects and ants, many high-ranking officials and nobles would put a coffin outside the coffin to protect the coffin when they were buried.

boom!
The heavy bronze coffin lid fell to the ground, and dust was everywhere.

Captain Li found a few iron hooks and asked the two policemen present to help, and the four of them worked together to lift the mahogany coffin out of the inner coffin.

Captain Li wiped off his sweat, and snapped open the lid of the mahogany coffin.Almost at the same moment, several eyes shot into the coffin in unison.

Inside the coffin lay a skeleton wrapped in a golden robe.

I licked my dry lips, and my heart was pounding non-stop. Could this skeleton in the coffin be Wei Wu Wang Cao Cao?

Two medical experts operated an X-ray fluoroscopy machine, starting from the head of the skeleton, and made a full-body perspective scan of the skeleton.As a result, we found on the screen image that there are many shadows of different sizes on the skeleton.

Professor Ye pointed to those shadows and said excitedly: "These shadows are likely to be priceless funeral objects. Everyone, be careful when touching treasures, and don't damage those treasures!"

Generally speaking, when the ancients were buried, they would put some funerary objects in the coffin.When archaeologists open the coffin for autopsy, they will first carefully take out these funerary objects one by one. This process is called "touching treasures".

Before touching the treasure, we need to peel off the golden robe that wraps the skeleton.Due to the adhesion of corpse fluid and carrion, coupled with the age, the robe has been tightly adhered to the skeleton, and it is very difficult to peel it off completely.

I splashed some chemical liquid on the robe, and after the chemical liquid soaked the robe, it was easier to peel off.After an hour of hard work by Captain Li and I, the golden robe wrapped around the skeleton was finally successfully peeled off.

To our surprise, a majestic flying dragon was embroidered with gold silk and jade beads on the golden yellow robe. This robe turned out to be a genuine dragon robe!There is no doubt that in ancient times only feudal emperors could wear dragon robes.

Captain Li said: "From this point of view, this ancient tomb may not be the tomb of Cao Cao. Cao Cao was never an emperor during his lifetime."

Gu Meidi turned the pen in his hand and said: "That's not necessarily true! Cao Cao did not become emperor during his lifetime, but Cao Cao coerced the emperor to make the princes, not the emperor, but better than the emperor. The reason why he did not blatantly usurp the Han Dynasty is because He was afraid of being scolded by the world and being accused of being a traitor. But in Cao Cao's heart, he always wanted to be emperor, so it is reasonable and not surprising that he would wear a dragon robe after his death."

Professor Ye nodded, "As for whether the skeleton in the coffin is Cao Cao himself, we still need to do more detailed research, including research on historical materials, unearthed cultural relics, and advanced DNA testing technology."

Next, we spent more than an hour to touch out the funerary objects in the coffin one by one. Those funerary objects are of various types and exquisite workmanship, and they are all priceless royal treasures.There are necklaces made of jasper, finger rings made of agate, and pure gold waist plaques engraved with ancient seal characters of "King Wei Wu".The most interesting thing is a white jade toad the size of a ping-pong ball.What's even more strange is that this white jade toad was found in the mouth of the skeleton, that is to say, when the owner of the tomb was buried, this white jade toad was contained in his mouth, and its function is unknown.

Gu Meidi held a notebook and recorded these unearthed cultural relics in detail.

Professor Ye looked at the white jade toad, and said with a sneer: "It seems that those tomb robbers are very bad. They only took away the funerary objects on the surface of the bones, but did not find the funerary objects hidden in the dragon robe. These are the real gems!"

Next, we opened the other two coffins, and found some ancient women's accessories from the coffins. It is speculated that the two left and right coffins contained the bones of two women, probably the concubines buried with them.

Medical experts removed the three skulls, ready to go back for further DNA identification.

When I walked out of the private house, it was already sunset, and the crimson sunset glow was dancing in the sky like silk.

As soon as I returned to the lounge, a member of the archaeological team found me, "Comrade Tuoba Gu, you are back! Your cell phone rang for a day, and I answered it for you. It was your grandpa. He Said to find you something important, and told you to call him back as soon as you come back."

I picked up the phone in some confusion. Grandpa knew that I was busy with work, so he rarely called me. Today he suddenly called me and said he had something important to call me. What could be the important thing?There is a faint feeling of uneasiness in my heart.

After a long beep, Grandpa's slightly hoarse voice came from the other end of the phone, "Hello."

I said, "Grandpa, it's me. I just came back from the studio. You are so anxious to find me. What's the matter?"

Grandpa pondered for a while, "Xiaogu, can you take some time to go home?"

I said: "Grandpa, I've been quite busy these days. If you have anything to do, can you tell me first?"

After a while, Grandpa slowly said on the phone: "I caught a weird object in the Yellow River two days ago."

I was slightly taken aback, "Evil object? What is it?"

Grandpa suddenly said, "Xiaogu, have you seen a coffin?"

I was a little amused, "Grandpa, aren't you kidding me? I'm a student of archaeology, and I've seen more coffins than women!"

Grandpa lowered his voice and said, "Then have you ever seen a coffin hidden in a turtle shell?"

"What?" I didn't understand for a while, "A coffin hidden in a turtle shell?!"

"Yes! A coffin hidden in a turtle shell. I have been running on the ancient Yellow River road for most of my life, and I have never seen such an object. I think this thing is very evil, and it may be unusual. I am thinking that you are a student of archaeology. , so I want to ask you to come back and have a look!"

To be honest, I have indeed seen many coffins in the past few years, made of various materials and shapes, and there are countless. I have seen white jade coffins, stone coffins, octagonal coffins, and human-shaped coffins; those buried in the soil, I have seen coffins buried in water, even coffins hidden in the heart of trees, but I have never heard of coffins hidden in turtle shells.Hearing what Grandpa said, I also felt that this matter was a bit strange.

I asked Grandpa, "Did you open the coffin?"

Grandpa said: "No, I thought this is not an ordinary object, so I didn't dare to open it easily."

"Well!" I told my grandfather, "Don't touch it yet, wait until I come back to have a look and then make a plan."

After hanging up the phone, Professor Ye came to me, "What's wrong?"

I said: "Something happened at home, I might have to go back!"

Professor Ye patted me on the shoulder, "Being able to ask for leave and go home at such a time must be something big. Can you tell me what happened?"

My relationship with Professor Ye is both a teacher and a friend. In front of him, I hardly concealed it. I told him truthfully, "My grandfather found a very strange coffin in the Yellow River. He wants me to go back and have a look." .”

Professor Ye frowned, "A weird coffin?"

I nodded and said, "Yes! It's a very weird coffin, maybe even you have never seen it before. According to my grandfather, that coffin is hidden inside a turtle shell."

"Oh?" Professor Ye showed a look of surprise on his face, "A coffin hidden in a turtle shell? I haven't seen it. I think it may be difficult for you alone. How about it, I'll let Gu Mei Die will go with you."

I declined Professor Ye's kindness, "Don't bother, I can handle it alone. The work here is already busy enough, Gu Meidi will stay and help you!"

Professor Ye said: "Don't worry about it. I can rest assured that Gu Meidi is with you. There are not too many things here. Captain Li and the others will help to deal with it." Meidi called to her side, "Gu Meidi, I have a mission for you, to go back to my hometown with Tuoba Gu."

"Ah!" Gu Meidi looked at me puzzled, and then at Professor Ye, "Why should I go back to my hometown with him?"

Professor Ye smiled slightly: "Go back to my hometown with Tuoba Gu for archaeology!"

Professor Ye has talked all the way to this point, so I can't continue to refuse.After I packed my luggage briefly, Professor Ye called an off-road vehicle from the provincial archaeological team and asked the driver to take Gu Meidi and me to Anyang Railway Station.

Looking at the wheat fields passing by outside the window, Gu Meidi stretched his waist, and said with a bright mood: "Oh, I'm exhausted these days, it's good to go out and let the wind go!"

(End of this chapter)