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

Chapter 75
The Queen's Tomb is the most difficult to dig
According to literature records, during the Five Dynasties, when Wen Tao was the envoy of Yaozhou in the Later Liang Dynasty, "Those tombs of the Tang Dynasty in its territory were excavated, and the treasures hidden there were excavated. . , Huang Chao's momentum is huge.Due to the lack of military resources, he used 40 soldiers to steal the Qianling Mausoleum. He dug a ditch more than 40 meters deep, but failed to find the entrance to the tomb.Up to now, there is still a deep ditch called "Huangchao Ditch" on the west side of the main peak of Liangshan.In the early years of the Republic of China, warlords fought in melee, and robbery and excavation of ancient tombs became common.Under the guise of protecting Qianling, Sun Lianzhong, the Kuomintang general, led his subordinates to station in Qianling, and used real guns and real artillery exercises to cover a division's troops from stealing Qianling.The soldiers blew up many places with explosives, but failed to find the entrance to the tomb.Later, when the soldiers were digging blindly, there was a sudden thunderstorm, which lasted for several days. There were rumors in the army that Wu Zetian had appeared.

Based on this, we can confirm that Wu Zetian's "Wannian Shouyu" - Qianling Mausoleum is the most difficult emperor's tomb to dig in the world.The mausoleum was hacked by swords in the cold weapon age, and bombarded by machine guns and cannons in the hot weapon age. In more than 1300 years, there were as many as 17 robbers with names and surnames.However, to this day, Qianling still does not abandon or give up. Like Xu Sanduo, he is dedicated to protecting the remains of his master Wu Zetian and her husband Li Zhi.We can't help asking, Emperor Wu Zetian's Maoling Mausoleum was evacuated, Emperor Taizong's Zhaoling Mausoleum was swept away, and Emperor Kangxi couldn't even get his bones together. Why can Wu Zetian's Qianling Mausoleum alone be spared?
This has to start with the construction of the Qianling Mausoleum.Qianling Mausoleum is located on Liangshan Mountain, 6 kilometers north of Qianxian County, Shaanxi Province, and 76 kilometers away from the ancient city of Xi'an. It was built in 684 AD, and it took 23 years for the project to be basically completed.

Liangshan is a naturally formed limestone mountain. There are three towering peaks. The north peak is the highest with an altitude of 1047.3 meters. The south two peaks are lower.Looking west from the east side of Qianling Mausoleum, Liangshan looks like a woman's body lying on the ground, with the north peak as the head and the south two peaks as the chest. People often say that it is a wonderful symbol of Empress Wu Zetian.

Gemologists (Mr. Fengshui) in the Tang Dynasty believed that Liangshan was beneficial to the heroine.Therefore, Empress Wu Zetian chose Liangshan as her husband Tang Gaozong and her "Wannian Shouyu" a hundred years later. (In the previous chapters, we explained the site selection and construction of the Qianling Mausoleum. Here we only focus on the experience of the Qianling Mausoleum being stolen and excavated.)
The Qianling Mausoleum of Emperor Gaozong and Wu Zetian of Tang Dynasty developed and improved the shape of Zhaoling Mausoleum. The mausoleum was built after the pattern of Chang'an City, the capital of Tang Dynasty.As for the treasure inside, after years of exploration and investigation, a cultural relic worker estimated that there are at least 4.9 tons!On both sides of the front and back passages, there are four stone caves, which are filled with the most valuable treasures in the heyday of Tang Dynasty.On both sides of the nearly 500-meter aisle leading to the Vajra Wall, there are all kinds of gold and silver sacrificial vessels.And what interests the world the most is the top-level national treasure - "Orchid Pavilion Preface".In the folk rumors around the Qianling Mausoleum, there has long been a saying in the "Lanting Preface" that Wu Zetian was buried with Wu Zetian.

Such rich treasures made Qianling attract professional tomb robbers, frontier officials, bandits, warlords, and even peasant rebels, who came to dig a few times with shovels and hoes.From the moment Wu Zetian lay down in Qianling, Liangshan has never stopped.The first person to visit Qianling was Huang Chao, the leader of the rebel army at the end of Tang Dynasty.After the salt dealer led an army of 60 to attack Chang'an, he first burned, killed and looted happily, and when the bandits were addicted, he suddenly found that he had nothing to do.

At this time, someone told him that there were a lot of gravel buried under the loess on the west side of Liangshan.This news is to imply that Huang Chao, the entrance of Qianling, the richest of the Tang tombs, is probably on the west side of Liangshan.Overjoyed, Huang Chao immediately called out 40 soldiers and ran to the west side of Liangshan to start digging.

These people were all farmers, and they were very skilled in using shovels and shovels. Before long, half of Liangshan was leveled, leaving a 40-meter-deep "Huangchaogou".However, Qianling seems to have no entrance at all.Later, the army of the Tang Dynasty assembled to launch a counterattack against Chang'an, and Huang Chao fled empty-handed unwillingly.Huang Chao, who claimed to be a scholar, was extremely stupid. He had no idea that Qianling was facing south.The emperor of the Tang Dynasty deliberately buried the gravel produced by the construction more than 300 meters away from the entrance of the tomb.In other words, he dug in the wrong direction.

The second person who extended his evil hand to Qianling, as we mentioned earlier, is Wen Tao, the envoy of Yaozhou Jiedu in the Five Dynasties.The result of Wen Tao's robbery of Qianling, like Huang Chao's, was to return in vain.

The most dangerous thing was the third time. This time, instead of a 40 army, a modern reorganization division was dispatched. The tools used to rob graves were no longer hoes and shovels, but machine guns and cannons that cut mountains and rocks like vegetables.The mastermind was Sun Lianzhong, a Kuomintang general during the Republic of China.

Sun Lianzhong (February 1893, 2-August 3, 1990), born in Xiongxian County, Hebei Province, China.National Revolutionary Army second-level general, famous general of the Anti-Japanese War.One of Feng Yuxiang's Thirteen Taibao, famous at home and abroad for sticking to Taierzhuang during the Anti-Japanese War.

Sun Lianzhong led his men, imitating Sun Dianying's bombing of the tombs of Cixi and Qianlong, and buried pots and rice on Liangshan to set up a camp. Using military exercises as a cover, black explosives exploded the three-story vertical stone strips of the tomb passage. When he was about to enter, suddenly There was a puff of thick smoke, which circled upwards and turned into a tornado. Suddenly, the sky was dark and the ground was covered with rocks and sand. Seven soldiers from Shaanxi were the first to bear the brunt and immediately vomited blood. In this way, Qianling finally escaped the last catastrophe.

After the founding of the People's Republic of China, by chance, several farmers discovered the tomb passage of Qianling Mausoleum. In 1960, Shaanxi Province established the Qianling Mausoleum Excavation Committee, and began excavating the Qianling Mausoleum's tomb passage on April 4.The excavation shows that the tomb passage of the Qianling Mausoleum is located in the middle of the southeast of the main peak of Liangshan, and consists of two parts: a trench and a stone cave.The trench is 3 meters deep, all filled with stone strips 17 meters long and 1.25-0.4 meters wide.The tomb passage is slope-shaped, with a total length of 0.6 meters, wide in the south and narrow in the north, with an average width of 63.1 meters.The stone strips are stacked and buckled along the slope from south to north, with a total of 3.9 floors, 39 pieces are exposed on the plane, and about 410 stone strips are used on the 39th floor.The stone strips are tightened with dovetail-shaped thin-waisted iron bolts, and holes are drilled between the upper and lower sides with iron rods, poured with molten tin and iron juice, and melted into one with the stone strips.The excavation situation is the same as the record in "Old Tang Book Yan Shansi Biography" that "the gate of Qianling Xuanque was blocked by stones, and the gaps in the stones were fixed by cast iron".In addition, archaeologists found no traces of robbery or disturbance around the mausoleum, which proves that Qianling is the only tomb of Tang Dynasty emperors that has not been robbed.where is the mausoleum of the great khan
The Secret Burial of the Yuan Dynasty Without a Trace

Genghis Khan, the hero of a generation, led the Mongolians to fight everywhere, and he was a conqueror with great ambitions.Leader Mao Zedong also praised him as "the pride of a generation".However, such a great conqueror left many unsolved mysteries to future generations after his death, which has tantalized the appetite of countless people.

Since Genghis Khan, the Mongolian Great Khan (that is, the emperor) has determined a special burial place. The Chinese name of this place is called Chariot Valley in the documents of the Yuan Dynasty.According to the textual research of scholars of modern Mongolian history, the term "Qirian Valley" is an elegant translation of the Mongolian "Gulian Legu", and Gulian Legu is in the south of Burkhan Khaldun Mountain, and its exact location is East longitude 109 degrees, north latitude 48 degrees, which is the area of ​​Zenkirmandale, Kent Province, Mongolia.Taking the records of "Historical Collection" to further pursue, why did Genghis Khan choose this place as his burial place?It turned out that Genghis Khan proclaimed Khan for the first time and established his own tooth tent - Orduo, which was in the Gulianlegu (Qiren Valley) area.Because of this, the Valley of Chariots is a sacred and commemorative place.

In the 13th century A.D., Genghis Khan led the Mongolian iron cavalry to sweep across the Eurasian continent, and his power shocked the world. People called him "the pride of a generation".

Genghis Khan's life is full of legends.About how the hell did he die?Opinions vary.

In 1226 AD, Genghis Khan personally led an army of 1227 to attack Xixia.In the first month of [-] AD, the Mongolian army surrounded Zhongxing Mansion, the capital of Xixia.In June of the same year, Genghis Khan went to Liupan Mountain to escape the summer heat.A strong earthquake occurred in Zhongxing Mansion, the capital of Xixia, the houses collapsed, the plague was prevalent and there was no food. The Xixia Kingdom had to surrender to Genghis Khan.However, after Xixia surrendered, Genghis Khan died suddenly in Liupan Mountain.

According to the "Yuan History" revised by Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang after he proclaimed himself emperor: "Autumn July Ren (1227 A.D.) Noon, no hesitation. I was ugly and collapsed in the palace of the old man in Surrey." However, these words look It seems to be concise, but in fact it is vague, so later generations have never known how Genghis Khan died, so the world has speculated.Regarding the cause of Genghis Khan's death, later generations have about five theories, most of which are related to Xixia.

One is the "falling horse theory".This statement is recorded in "Yuan Shi", and it is the most orthodox among several statements, and it is also known to most people. In the autumn of 1226, Genghis Khan and his wife also went to conquer the Xixia Kingdom.In winter, I hunted in a place called A'er Buge.The red sand horse, who didn't want to ride, was startled by a wild horse, causing the unsuspecting Genghis Khan to fall off the horse and get injured. He developed a high fever that night.So he asked the generals who followed him what to do. Some people suggested that since the Xixia cities were all there, they would not be able to escape for a while.But Genghis Khan was very strong, afraid of being laughed at by the Xixia people.In addition, it happened that the minister of Xixia called Asha dare not to ridicule him. After hearing this, Genghis Khan was even more unwilling to retreat, so he marched into Helan Mountain, and Asha dared not be destroyed.But since then, Genghis Khan's injuries have not recovered, but worsened, and he died of illness on the 1227th day of the seventh lunar month in [-].

The second is "poisoning theory".This statement comes from "Marco Polo's Travels".Marco Polo was an Italian businessman in the 1275th century. He arrived in China in 17 and had [-] years of contacts with the Yuan Dynasty.In his travel diary, it is described as follows: When Genghis Khan besieged Taijin (Jizhou, an ancient fortress) when attacking Xixia, his knee was unfortunately hit by a poisonous arrow shot by Xixia soldiers.The result can be imagined, the poisonous arrow hit the heart, the injury became more and more serious, and he couldn't afford to get sick.But the folks have another theory about "poisoning": Genghis Khan let the captured Western Xia princess Gulbelejin Guowohatun poisoned to death while accompanying him.

The third is "assassination theory".This statement is related to the captured Xixia princess above.It is said that the princess stabbed Genghis Khan to death while she was sleeping with her.This statement originated from "The Origin of Mongolia" written in the first year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty.This book is a gift from Chenggun Zhabujin, Prince of Khalkha tribe of Mongolia, to Emperor Qianlong.Qianlong ordered people to translate it into Manchu and Chinese texts, and titled the book "Yin Ding Mongolian Origin and Development", and included it in "Siku Quanshu".It should be said that this statement is also highly credible.

The fourth is "the theory of being bitten off the genitals".This kind of statement has neither been seen in official history nor related records in unofficial history, but it has been circulated among the Outer Mongolians.This romantic incident is also related to Princess Xixia.It is said that although the concubine surrendered to Genghis Khan on the surface, she never forgot the hatred of the country and the family and was unwilling to be humiliated.On the night of accompanying him, taking advantage of the room, he bit off Genghis Khan's penis.A 67-year-old man couldn't stand such a toss, shame and hatred mixed, and he became seriously ill.Because this was an unspeakable scandal that happened to the emperor, it was concealed, and it was only said that the sweat was seriously ill due to the injury caused by falling off the horse.

Although this statement is absurd, it still makes sense after careful analysis.If Genghis Khan really died at the hands of the Xixia princess, then assassination and poisoning are not eligible. He was naked when he was with him. Where did he hide the murder weapon and poison?Even with weapons and poison, as a captured person, you have to search your body.In this case, the deadliest act of violence of the empty-handed princess is naturally to bite off the vitals of the man.

The last one is "Lightning Strike".The envoy of the Holy See to Mongolia, John Plano Garbini, revealed in his article that Genghis Khan may have been struck by lightning and died. "There were fierce lightning strikes and lightning, and many people died." For this reason, the Mongols were very afraid of thunder and lightning."Black Tartar Stories" written by Peng Daya in the Southern Song Dynasty records that "every time the Tartars hear thunder, they will cover their ears and bow to the ground, as if avoiding it." But there is no direct evidence for this statement, and it is more outrageous than the above ones.

So, Genghis Khan died in the army of Xixia Lingzhou, but why is the mausoleum placed on the Ordos grassland?There is a saying that it was to satisfy his wish during his lifetime. More than 700 years ago, Genghis Khan led his army to the west and passed by the Ordos grassland. He saw the beautiful water and grass here, the birds singing and the deer running. But Genghis Khan said: "This is the place where a powerful dynasty exists, where trees and flowers are lush. Put your saddle here! No matter where you go, follow the direction of the whip, and I will be buried here after death."

Unfortunately, at the critical moment when Genghis Khan was about to capture the capital of Xixia, in order not to shake the morale of the army and trick Xixia into surrendering as soon as possible, he left an order in his will to "keep the funeral secret", and a few cronies secretly transported the coffin to the legendary place where Genghis Khan secretly transported the coffin. Buried where praised.In order not to let the outside world know the news of his death, the cronies saw people kill people and animals on the long journey, and they did not know how many lives were killed for this.After arriving at the place, the coffin was buried deeply, the tomb was filled up, the grass was still covered on it, and the original appearance was restored, and the horses were allowed to trample on the cemetery at will. When the grass grows in the next year, we can see it again with the vast prairie. When there is no difference, all the troops will be withdrawn.In order to make their relatives want to find a burial place when offering sacrifices to him, they brought a camel lamb, killed the lamb in front of the female camel, and sprinkled the blood on the cemetery.Camels have the instinct to identify their own blood relatives. When offering sacrifices, people bring the female camel, and the place where she wanders and whines is the location of the mausoleum.

According to the records of the Persian Zhifei Ni, there were no gold, silver and horses buried in the tomb, and more than 40 beautiful women in costumes were buried with them.It is also reported that Genghis Khan's cemetery later became a large forest, and even the old forest guards there could not find the exact burial place.

At the same time, here is the "Great Forbidden Land" highly respected by the Mongols (called "Ye Ke Huluhei" in Mongolian), which is patrolled and guarded by 1000 guard cavalry. There are countless arrow shafts on the periphery of the "Great Forbidden Land". It is strictly forbidden for anyone to approach the low wall inserted into it, and offenders will be severely punished.

After Genghis Khan, Okuotai Khan, Guiyou Khan, Mengge Khan and Tuolei were also buried in Qichari Valley one after another.

Due to the implementation of secret burials, no tombs of Mongolian emperors or nobles have been found in the archaeological circle so far, which is an extremely rare phenomenon.

It can be said that since the death of Genghis Khan 780 years ago, the search for Genghis Khan's mausoleum has never been interrupted.Many people looking for the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan came for the legendary or speculated treasure.Especially in the past ten years, more than a dozen countries including Hungary, Poland, the United States, Japan, Italy, Germany, France, Canada, Russia, Turkey, and South Korea have invested a lot of manpower and material resources in competing to find the Mausoleum of Genghis Khan. It is this mysterious treasure that has never been seen before.

In fact, whether there are treasures hidden in the mausoleum is not recorded in the literature.Is there really no treasure in the mausoleum, or did the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty not leave any records in the literature so that the spirits of their ancestors would not be disturbed?There is no relevant record in the history books, so how could there be such rumors? It is said that it is related to two things. One is that a Persian wrote a book called "History of World Conquerors", in which he mentioned After the death of Genghis Khan, Wo Kuotai came to the throne, and his first order was to distribute food for Genghis Khan's heroic spirits for three days according to the custom, and to select 40 beauties from the clan and family, and they wore expensive clothes decorated with gold and gemstones , together with some steeds as sacrifices.Another thing is that when a person in the West saw Kublai Khan's younger brother died, he buried a lot of jewelry and gold with him.Based on this, Western archaeologists and explorers speculated that more treasures and gold must have been buried in Genghis Khan's tomb.Whether there are little-known treasures in Genghis Khan's mausoleum, and what are the priceless rare treasures, it seems that only God knows.

Whether there are a large number of rare treasures in the tomb of Genghis Khan, although it seems that this is just a rumor, it is enough to tickle those who care about it, because Genghis Khan swept across the Eurasian countries, and most of the treasures plundered have disappeared. It is believed that a great deal of treasure lies within the mausoleum of Genghis Khan.Therefore, repeated inspections without success did not affect the interest of the delegations from various countries in the tomb of Genghis Khan, and the delegations from various countries continued to go to the grassland one after another.Among the many expeditions, the most worth mentioning is the expedition team of American rich man Murray Kravitz.

In August 2000, an American explorer and billionaire led his archaeological expedition team composed of scientists, archeology professors and translators, and confidently came to Ulaanbaatar to search for Genghis Khan's tomb. On August 8, 2001, the expedition team announced to the outside world that "the tomb of Genghis Khan had been found." The tomb was located in a forest more than 8 kilometers northeast of Ulaanbaatar, but it turned out to be the tomb of the Huns. In April 16, the archaeological team discovered a cemetery surrounded by city walls in Baslit Town (transliteration), Kent Province, 300 kilometers northeast of the Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar.This ancient tomb is called "very likely to be the mausoleum of Genghis Khan".

(End of this chapter)