Shadow of the Tomb Raider: A Complete Record of the History of Tomb Raiders in China

Chapter 30 The second wave of tomb robbery: the upsurge of tomb robbery in the Three Kingdoms, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties (3)
Chen Lin enumerated Cao Cao's atrocities in "Discuss Cao Calligraphy".The proclamation pointed out that Cao Cao's moral character is the most shameless, digging people's tombs.No wonder someone said: "Cao Cao has no way. He set up dozens of members of Faqiu Zhonglang and Mojin Xiaowei. The tombs of the world are old and new. When the bones were excavated, the bones were rampant in the grass, and everyone was sad. It was so cruel and cruel!" Maybe Cao Cao He has personally witnessed the scene of many tombs being robbed with corpses strewn with bones and things in disarray, and he does not want to repeat the same mistakes, so he has repeatedly asked for thin burials.

Group tomb robbery is the craziest
The Wei and Jin era is a special troubled time in Chinese history. Wei refers to Cao Wei, and Jin refers to the two Jins.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it can be said that there was chaos, the court was corrupt, the regime changed, wars continued, and famine and plague were always accompanied by this eventful autumn.At that time, the people were famine and desolate, and it was just that "there was nothing to see when they went out, and the plain was covered by bones", coupled with social unrest, economic depression, and even the phenomenon of cannibalism.

During the Wei and Jin Dynasties, it can be said that there was chaos, the court was corrupt, the regime changed, wars continued, and famine and plague were always accompanied by this eventful autumn.At that time, the people were hungry and desolate, and it was because "there was nothing to see when they went out, and the plain was covered with bones", coupled with social turmoil, economic depression, and even the phenomenon of cannibalism.The so-called "clarity and granary know the etiquette", living such a life of starvation and precarity, facing the environment full of sores and diseases, many people took risks and joined the ranks of grave robbers.When tomb robbery became another popular behavior, people were not ashamed, and thieves could go to temples openly.Wei Wendi Cao Pi was heartbroken by this, and believed that "since ancient times to the present, there has been no country that will not perish, and there is no tomb that cannot be dug." His wife, Empress Wen Deguo, also said that "since the funeral, all tombs have been unearthed", which shows the tomb robbery activities at that time How rampant.

As a special era in the history of tomb robbers, the biggest feature of tomb robbers in the Wei and Jin Dynasties is that there are many princes and generals among the tomb robbers.The Wei and Jin Dynasties was an era of warlords and powerful separatists. In order to compete for power and territory, wars continued between warlords, the number of troops was huge, and the military expenditures required suddenly increased.However, due to wars, famines, and plagues, people could not work with peace of mind, social production was severely damaged, and warlords lacked financial revenue.As a result, tomb robbery, an ancient method of earning money without cost and quick results, was adopted by various warlords.

In this way, many royal and noble tomb robbery groups appeared during the Wei and Jin Dynasties.These people carried out crazily excavating the mausoleums of princes, and even made heinous acts.

Liu Yao, the former king of Zhao during the Sixteen Kingdoms period of the Western Jin Dynasty, was originally a fellow clan of the Han king Liu Yuan. Later, in a series of battles, his power became stronger day by day.In 319 AD, he established the capital of Chang'an and established the State of Zhao.After proclaiming himself emperor, although he employed some educated people as officials, and opened a school in Chang'an to teach scholars of Confucian classics, he never had a set of political measures to govern the country and stabilize the people.When Liu Yao first entered Guanzhong, he could still listen to the advice of his subordinates. For example, when he ordered Lingxiaotai to be erected and Shouling Mausoleum was built in the southwest of Baling, his servants Qiao Yu and He Baoshangshu came to advise him. Liu Yao was overjoyed and said: "Among the two servants, there are ancient people who are sincere and strong, and they can be called the ministers of the country."Then stop its project.But not long after the Badi rebellion was put down, he began to refuse to listen to the ministers' advice.Before the chaos of Chen'an was settled, Liu Yao built Yongyuan Mausoleum and Xianping Mausoleum for his parents, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The wanderer came forward to stop the construction, but he didn't listen.Later, construction was carried out, and 600 million migrant workers were sent to build mausoleums for their father and his wife. "Book of Wei" and "Book of Jin" recorded that "there are three springs in the lower cave, and a hundred feet in the upper reaches, with stones as the foundation, two miles around, and ancient tombs excavated Counting by thousands", the result is "the air clogs the earth, the wilderness is destroyed, and the sound of instruments is full of channels".Due to the excavation of a large number of ancient tombs and the abandonment of the corpses in the wilderness, the plague was prevalent in Taiyuan, and countless people died.This atrocity naturally aroused the resentment of the common people.

In the second year of Taining in the Eastern Jin Dynasty (AD 325), later Zhao Shisheng attacked Yin Ping, the former Zhao Henan prefect, in Xin'an (now Xin'an, Henan). Yin Ping was defeated and beheaded, and Shi Sheng returned 5000 people.In the third year of Taining (326 A.D.), the former Zhao Liu Yao joined hands with Li Ju, the governor of Sizhou in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and Guo Mo, the prefect of Yingchuan, to attack Shisheng. Will attack Shisheng, the former Zhao coalition army quickly conquered Shiliang (now east of Luoyang City, Henan Province) and Mengjin (now Mengjin, Henan Province).Shihu led 15000 cavalry from Chenggao (now northwest of Xingyang, Henan) and Liu Yue fought in Luoxi, and Zhao's army was defeated.In June, Shihu recovered Shiliang, captured Liu Yue and more than [-] generals, and more than [-] people from Di and Qiang, all of whom were sent to Xiangguo (now southwest of Xingtai, Hebei).Liu Yao was defeated and returned to Chang'an, Guo Mo went south to be healthy, and Li Ju's subordinates led two thousand troops to surrender to Zhao.Since then, Si, Yu, Xu, Yan and other states have all been owned by Hou Zhao.

In the third year of Xianhe (328 A.D.), Zhao Shihu led 200 troops from Zhiguan (northwest of Jiyuan, Henan Province) to Puban (now Yongji County, Shanxi Province) in the west. Gaohou (now in Wenxi County, Shanxi).Shihu was defeated, and his corpse lay for more than [-] miles, and he ran south to Chaoge (now Qi County, Henan).Liu Yao came from Dayang (now southwest of Pinglu, Shanxi), took advantage of the victory and marched.In November of the same year, Shi Le sent troops to attack Liu Yao from three directions. In December, after Shi Le, Zhao Zhujun gathered in Chenggao. Liu Yao's defense was not seen, and the army quickly moved to Luohe.Liu Yao was busy sending [-] troops to Luoxi, so Shi Le ordered Shi Hu to lead his troops from the north of Luoyang City to the west to attack Liu Yao's middle army, and ordered Shi Kan to lead his troops from the west to the north of the city. Liu Yao, the former Zhao army was defeated.When Liu Yao was retreating, his horse fell into a stone canal and fell on the ice. He was wounded in more than ten places on his body and was captured by Shi Kansheng.

Shi Le won a complete victory, beheading more than [-] people.Shi Le asked Liu Yao to write a letter ordering his son Liu Xi to surrender.In Liu Yao's letter to Liu Xi, he ordered Xi to "do not change your mind with the minister Kuang Wei Sheji." Shi Le then killed Liu Yao.

Shortly after Shi Le killed Liu Yao, he fell ill and died.His nephew Shi Hu took the opportunity to kill Shi Le's son and became emperor himself.This stone tiger has the nature of a wild beast and is very cruel. After he came to the throne, he built a large palace, licentious day and night, extravagant and extravagant.In addition, he is also a tomb robber. "Book of Jin Shi Jilong Zai Ji" said that "the tombs of the emperors and sages of the past were not excavated, but their treasures were taken." This is not an exaggeration at all.

In addition, during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, Yao Chang, the ruler of the former Qin Dynasty, and Murong Chui, the ruler of the later Yan Dynasty, were all master robbers of tombs.After these people's wanton excavation, most of the tombs of the previous generations were destroyed.

What is even more outrageous is Chen Shuling, the king of Shixing.Chen Shuling (?~AD 581), courtesy name Zisong, the second son of Emperor Chen Xuan and Chen Xu, mother Peng Guiren, was born in Jiangling and was granted the title of King Shixing.He once accompanied his father to the Western Wei Dynasty as a hostage, and returned to the Chen Dynasty with his brother Chen Shubao in the third year of Tianjia (562 A.D.).

"Southern History · The Biography of the Kings of the Chen Clan" records: "I like to travel among the tombs. When I meet someone whose name is known, I will order them to be excavated. I will take their stone records, stone tools, bones, elbows and shin, and hold them for teasing. The house of Tibet." What is even more unbelievable is that in order to bury his mother, Chen Shuling even sent someone to "deliver the old tomb of the old Taifu Xie An, and abandon the coffin to bury his mother".What absurdity!

On the surface, this person appeared to be gentle and gentle. When he entered the court, he always read books in the carriages and horses, and even recited aloud. He looked like a scholar, but secretly he was very cruel and licentious.Not only did he disregard human life and kill innocent people indiscriminately, but he was also lustful, "those who have a little lust will be forced to accept."He also recruited the wives and daughters of his entourage in private, and committed adultery with him.Not only that, but this lecherous person also has a hobby of wandering in the tombs and admiring the bones of the dead as collectibles.

Whenever he was traveling in the wild, if he came across some more luxurious tombstones or celebrity tombstones, he would dismount and stop to read them carefully, and then he would order his men to dig up the tomb and remove the tombstones from the tomb. Go through everything one by one and take what you like.Chen Shuling often returned home triumphantly after looting all the treasures in the tomb, and sometimes even brought back the bones from the robbed tomb to hang up as spoils of war.

Among the many ancient tombs excavated by Chen Shuling, many are the tombs of celebrities, and even the tomb of Xie An, the Grand Tutor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, failed to escape his murderous hands.

In that chaotic era, there were many documents about tomb robbery, and "soldiers looting" and "excavating tombs" also became the most common words in history books at that time. This is the tragedy of troubled times.

Curious Tomb Raider Falls off a Horse

In the previous chapters, we have said that the purpose of grave robbers is different: some people rob tombs to make money, some people rob tombs for revenge, and some people rob tombs for curiosity.However, people who rob graves out of curiosity are really rare.Wen Fangzhi, the governor of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was one of these rare people.This extremely curious person finally took his life into it.

Wen Fangzhi was a native of Taiyuan in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and he was an official to the Huangmen servant.Wen Qiao, the most famous hero in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, was his father.Wen Qiao was named General of Jin and Duke of Shi'an County because of his military achievements.In the early years of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wen Qiao, Wang Dao, Yu Liang, Ruan Fang, and Huan Yi were called "Zhongxing Celebrities" and were important historical figures.He has made outstanding achievements in stabilizing the Jin Dynasty and quelling the chaos of Wang Dun and Su Jun, which shines in the annals of history.After Wen Qiao died, Wen Fangzhi inherited his title.Like Wen Qiao, Wen Fangzhi also made great contributions to the stability of the Eastern Jin Dynasty.Three years after Emperor Mu of the Jin Dynasty ascended to peace, a rebellion broke out in Linyi State, which is now in Vietnam.Many soldiers sent by Emperor Jinmu failed to quell the rebellion.Therefore, Wen Fangzhi was sent as the last trump card, and Emperor Mu of Jin asked him to conquer.Relying on his outstanding commanding skills, Wen Fangzhi quickly put down the rebellion in Vietnam.Although Wen Qiao held a high official position, he was a clean official, so his family was relatively poor.Wen Fangzhi once asked to be sent to a local government to become an official because of his family's poverty, so as to earn more money to ease his family's situation.Emperor Mu of Jin thought highly of him, so he appointed him as governor of Jiaozhou.

Wen Fangzhi is not only able to lead the army to fight, but also has a very good artistic talent, especially in calligraphy and painting.In the volume of "Shu Shu Fu" written by Dou Xun (jì) of the Tang Dynasty, it is said: "If you let it go, you will be strong and strong. Don't forget to keep it, which shows the principle. It's like a piece of brocade, and it's tricky." Chen Sisuo, a native of the Song Dynasty His book "Small History of Books" is also known as Wen Fangzhi's "good cursive script".Ordinarily, such a person with outstanding achievements in art and political achievements should be cheerful and open-minded.But this is not the case. Wen Fangzhi's character is extremely aloof, paranoid, extremely curious, and he doesn't listen to others' persuasion.

One day, Wen Fangzhi was sitting at home reading a book.Because there is no official business, it is very leisurely.But after being idle for a long time, he began to feel bored again.After reading a few pages of the book, he couldn't read it anymore.So Wen Fangzhi stood up and decided to go for a walk in the garden to relax.

Wen Fang's garden was trimmed very beautifully because of this.He is a very particular about life.There are flowers blooming in the garden all year round.At this time, it is spring, and the garden is naturally prosperous and full of flowers.Looking at these beautiful flowers, Wen Fangzhi's mood gradually improved.He continued walking along the veranda, ready to go to the lake to see the spring scenery by the lake.As soon as I turned around the rockery, I saw several servants gathering together to rest under the big willow tree and discussing something.

Under normal circumstances, Wen Fangzhi is not very interested in such discussions.Because he claimed to be a literati and refined scholar, he simply dismissed the comments of these servants.But that day was different, I don't know what kind of evil he had fallen into, but he really wanted to hear what they were talking about.So, he quietly approached these servants.A servant was concentrating on talking, and the others were also listening intently, not noticing Wen Fangzhi's arrival at all.

It turned out that what they were talking about was about the tomb of a man named Wang Shixie.According to the servant, some supernatural things often happened in Wang Shixie's tomb.The mausoleum is surrounded by a mysterious and thick fog all the year round, and some people often see the shadow of a person coming and going there.

Wen Fangzhi was also very surprised when he heard the news.But he was born a person who did not believe in ghosts and gods. After hearing this, he made up his mind to figure it out.

Who is Wang Shixie?He was originally from the last years of the Han Dynasty, but there are many strange legends about his tomb.After hundreds of years from the Han Dynasty to the Eastern Jin Dynasty, many people tried to attack Wang Shixie's tomb in an attempt to steal the funerary objects inside.But these tomb robbers all failed due to some weird things.By the time of Wenfang in the Eastern Jin Dynasty, Wang Shixie's tomb was still well preserved.

Legend has it that a group of tomb robbers did not believe in evil, and took advantage of the dark night and high wind to sneak to Wang Shixie's tomb with tools such as axes and shovels.They had heard many rumors about this tomb, and although this was not the first time they had robbed a tomb, they were still a little scared.When Chu first saw the tomb, they were relieved.Because this tomb is nothing special compared to other tombs, it is just more luxurious than ordinary tombs.Seeing this, these people were ready to dig the grave.

However, they had only dug a few times before something horrific happened.Suddenly, a very deep and terrifying voice came from behind them.

"What are you doing, aren't you afraid of death?" As the voice came out, a cold wind blew out from nowhere.

The tomb robbers looked up at the tree, and the leaves on the tree didn't move at all, but they could clearly feel the sinister wind blowing across their faces.This cloudy wind seemed to have some magical power, and it filled them with chills in their bones.The tomb robbers were all petrified, and they didn't dare to look back to see where the sound was coming from.

After a stalemate like this for a long time, the leader of the tomb robbers was a little bolder and glanced back slightly.This glance almost frightened him to death.His legs gave way and he fell to the ground.It turned out that when he turned his head, he saw a man with a pale face and his feet off the ground standing behind him.That cloudy wind actually came from him.

"You...you...are you a human or a ghost?" the boss asked stammeringly.

"Hmph, what do you think? You are here to rob my tomb, right?"

"We don't dare anymore, never again." The group of tomb robbers hurriedly fell to their knees and begged.

"I don't want to embarrass you. Since you are the first offender, I will forgive you for the time being. If you dare to come again next time, you will definitely die."

"Don't dare again, don't dare again." The group of tomb robbers couldn't say anything else except this sentence.

"Let's go." Following these words, the soul just now disappeared, and the cloudy wind also stopped.

But these tomb robbers were so frightened that their feet were limp and their legs were numb, and they couldn't walk anymore, so they had to run away.

Wen Fangzhi also heard this legend from nowhere.The more this happened, the more interested he was in Wang Shixie's tomb.He couldn't wait to take the soldiers to Wang Shixie's tomb.Wen Fangzhi has been through the battlefield for a long time, fighting north and south, and he no longer fears death.The soldiers under him have also fought with him for many years, and all of them have no fear of death.Since Wen Fangzhi returned from the Vietnam War, the army has not fought for a long time.The sergeants were itching to be idle.When they heard that they were going to do such an interesting thing, they were all eager to try it.

The weather was fine, the sun was shining brightly, and there were no clouds in the sky. Although it was only mid-spring, it was already showing the appearance of summer.The mighty team rushed to Wang Shixie's tomb with high spirits.When the common people heard that they were going to dig Wang Shixie's tomb, driven by curiosity, they all flocked to follow.Although these common people were terrified in their hearts, they were so numerous after all, and their curiosity overcame their fear of ghosts.

Arriving at Wang Shixie's tomb, Wen Fang got off his horse and went around the tomb to inspect it carefully.He saw that although the tomb had gone through hundreds of years of war, it was still very well preserved.Not only did the tombstone not show any signs of damage, but even the words on it were still very clear.

Wen Fangzhi was eager to know what is so magical about this tomb, so he immediately ordered the soldiers to dig the tomb.

With an order, the soldiers flocked to dig Wang Shixie's tomb.As soon as the soldiers dug out the tombstone, strange things happened.

(End of this chapter)