Chapter 18 1
When he saw the faint light at the entrance of the passage, Mu Linfeng understood that the cave under the mountain was like a building, with upper and lower layers, and this man-made passage connected the upper and lower caves.
The three people walked out of the passage quickly and were immediately attracted by the scene in front of them. What appeared in front of them was a long and wide cave. The space of the cave was slightly smaller than the one above, but the area was also more than several hundred square meters.
The whole cave is like the back garden of a palace, with three connected houses on one side. Unlike the palace above, these three buildings are close to the stone wall behind. They are all palace-shaped, all covered with glazed tiles, and look magnificent. The palace in the middle is tall and majestic, while the ones on the sides are much smaller.
In front of the sleeping hall is a garden with pavilions, rockery, bridges and other buildings. There are also many life-size stone statues scattered everywhere.
After looking for a while, Mu Linfeng pointed at the building in the middle and said to the two people: "This should be the underworld palace of King Heng. If my guess is correct, this building is King Heng's bedroom. King Heng's coffin must be inside, and the two sides are the underworld palaces of the princess."
Gao Hongjin and Wen Yinqiu were both attracted by this underground palace. When they heard Mu Linfeng say that there was the coffin of King Heng in the building, Gao Hongjin hurriedly said, "Let's go in and take a look..."
The three men quickly climbed the steps to the bedroom. The door of the bedroom was completely open. Before entering the hall, they saw a huge coffin placed in the middle. However, the lid of the coffin had been opened and thrown aside. It was obvious that the place had been robbed.
Mu Linfeng stepped into the hall and saw a white marble pedestal in the middle of the hall, on top of which was a huge coffin. On one side of the coffin was a very eye-catching shroud. It was a silk brocade with eight-treasure patterns and a python lining with Buddhist characters. From the shroud, it could be known that the deceased in the coffin was King Heng.
Scattered around the base are various utensils and gadgets carved from jade, agate, coral, crystal, etc. Some are already broken. One can imagine the crazy scene when the Japanese were snatching the burial objects.
In addition, there is a palace sedan chair placed on one side of the hall. It is said that this sedan chair was a reward from Emperor Ming to King Heng. King Heng never sat on it, and it was placed here as a burial object after his death.
Gao Hongjin pointed at the open coffin lid and said, "It must have been done by the Japanese. Lin Feng, these Japanese were brought in by your great-grandfather..."
Seeing Mu Linfeng's livid face, Wen Yinqiu hurriedly signaled Gao Hongjin to stop talking. Gao Hongjin didn't buy it at all. He pointed at the damaged jade on the ground and said loudly: "Why don't you let me talk? Look at these damaged treasures. His great-grandfather brought the Japanese devils in to destroy them, but I can't take something?"
Mu Linfeng had a gloomy face and said nothing. Every word Gao Hongjin said was like a steel needle piercing his heart, and he could not refute it. These Japanese soldiers were indeed brought in by his great-grandfather. Although his great-grandfather's idea at the time was to suffocate the Japanese devils to death here, he certainly did not expect that the Japanese devils would wreak havoc here...
The opened coffin lid was right at Mu Linfeng's feet. He wanted to cover the coffin lid for King Heng again so that the deceased could rest in peace. So he bent down and put his hands under the curved coffin lid, trying to lift it up. Unexpectedly, the black coffin lid was extremely heavy and it was difficult for him to lift it up by himself. Mu Linfeng knew that the three of them could not lift the coffin lid up, not to mention that there was a lid for a bigger coffin there, so he had to give up.
Mu Linfeng couldn't bear to get close to the coffin to see King Heng's body inside. He turned around and walked out of the Underworld Palace without saying a word. After pondering for a moment, he turned and walked towards the smaller building next to it.
Just as Mu Linfeng had guessed, this was indeed the princess's underworld palace. A smaller coffin was placed in the middle of the palace. The lid of the coffin was also opened and thrown on the ground, and there was a brocade quilt wrapped around the body on the lid.
The noble status of the deceased can also be seen from the brocade quilt embroidered with dark patterns. In the middle of the brocade quilt is the word "Buddha" embroidered with gold thread, with lotus patterns at the bottom and a phoenix embroidered on each side. Other parts are dotted with eight auspicious patterns, including wheels, conches, umbrellas, covers, flowers, pots, fish, and plates. These eight auspicious patterns are also called the "Eight Treasures of Buddha".
There are also some funerary objects scattered on the ground. The most eye-catching one is a bronze mirror decorated with the twelve Chinese zodiac animals, inlaid with turquoise, which is definitely a finely crafted art treasure. The bronze mirror buried with the dead also shows how much women pay attention to their appearance, and they never forget to bring mirrors with them to the other world.
Wen Yinqiu and Gao Hongjin followed Mu Linfeng silently. They could feel the pain in his heart from his expression. A "spiritual keeper" from a "lump" family, seeing the irreparable damage caused by the mistakes of his ancestors, the pain can be imagined. It should be said that the Hengwang Mausoleum has a very deep connection with the Mu family, because only the ancestors of the Mu family know the secrets of the Hengwang Mausoleum, so the Mu family has an unshirkable responsibility for the destruction of the Hengwang Mausoleum.
Wen Yinqiu, who was following Mu Linfeng, suddenly asked him softly, "Lin Feng, why didn't you find any trace of Heng Wangqin?"
Mu Linfeng pondered for a moment, then turned to look at Wen Yinqiu and asked, "The Heng King is a hereditary king. There are a total of six generations and seven Heng Kings. Do you know which generation of Heng King the Heng King Qin your mother mentioned was made for?"
Wen Yinqiu groaned for a moment, shook his head and said, "This... I'm really not sure about this..."
Mu Linfeng turned around and walked out of the princess's underworld palace. He stood at the entrance of the palace, looking at the garden in front and said, "From the looks of it, this should be the underworld palace of the first generation of King Heng. From the 'Grave Mapping Notes' left by my ancestors, I can see that several other King Hengs are also buried here. Let's look for it. There must be passages leading to other underworld palaces. Maybe King Heng's Qin will be in other underworld palaces..."
"Then let's find it quickly." Wen Yinqiu urged.
Mu Linfeng raised his finger and pointed to the cave on the right: "Let's go over there first." After that, he walked down the stairs and walked towards the other side of the cave.
They came from the passage on the left side of the Hades Palace. There was no other light source in the cave except the eternal lamp in front of the Hades Palace, so many parts were hidden in the darkness and could not be seen clearly.
The three people walked forward a short distance and suddenly stopped. Under the illumination of the miner's lamps on their heads, an exquisite pavilion appeared in front of the three people.
What surprised the three people was that there was a round stone table in the middle of the pavilion, on which was a guqin, and on the ground next to the pavilion were two people lying, or to be more precise, two mummies.
One of the mummies had torn clothes and a clear knife wound on his chest, which showed that he had died from a knife wound. The other mummies had a naked upper body and held a Japanese sword in both hands, with the blade still stuck in his abdomen. He was wearing yellow military pants and long riding boots. On the ground next to him was a neatly folded shirt with the rank of colonel. It seemed that this person was Pu Jianyilang, who guarded Qingzhou City.
After seeing the whole scene, Mu Linfeng seemed to have understood everything that happened here. He walked to the side of the mummy with a knife wound on the chest, squatted down and examined it carefully, then said in a low voice: "This person must be my great-grandfather Mu Dingwu..."
Gao Hongjin looked at the Japanese officer, then at Mu Linfeng's great-grandfather, and said in surprise: "This little devil must have killed your great-grandfather and then committed suicide by disembowelment!"
Mu Linfeng looked solemn. He nodded gently and said, "This Japanese officer must be the colonel named Pu Jianyilang. This guy knew that he had fallen into my great-grandfather's trap and could not escape from here, so he hacked my great-grandfather to death and then committed suicide by cutting his stomach open..."
Before Mu Linfeng finished speaking, he heard Wen Yinqiu shouting in surprise: "Wow, the Hengwang Qin! The real Hengwang Qin..."
It turned out that when Wen Yinqiu saw the guqin placed on the stone round table, she didn't care about the two mummies on the ground, and didn't care what Mu Linfeng and Gao Hongjin were doing, and hurried into the pavilion. She focused the beam of the miner's lamp on the guqin, and after just one look, Wen Yinqiu concluded that this was the Hengwang guqin she had dreamed of.
I saw that this zither was of the "Flying Waterfall and Pearls" style, and there were rows of fine "cracks" scattered on the surface of the zither. This is a very important basis for identifying guqin, because only the lacquer surface of guqin that is more than two hundred years old can produce such "cracks".
The formation of the "cracks" on the surface of the qin is related to the production of the qin, which is not available in modern production processes. Cracks are also called lacquer ash cracks. The qin is made of tung wood or tung wood with a fir base. After the qin is formed, the back and sides of the qin are first wrapped with linen from bottom to top, and then pure deer antler ash is applied, which is called the qin ash base. Finally, the surface paint is applied. The paint color is generally black and chestnut. After hundreds of years of history, the paint surface will naturally crack and form cracks. A very important procedure in the qin making process is the "qin ash base" mentioned above. The qin ash base in the Tang and Song dynasties was mainly deer antler ash, and eight-treasure ash was also used. The qins made in the Ming Dynasty not only used deer antler ash and eight-treasure ash, but also tile ash. In addition, the thickness of the ash increased, so there were more cracks on the qin surface. Different qins produced different cracks, including snake belly, flowing water, ice pattern, cow hair, dragon scales, tortoise pattern, etc., and the cracks produced by qins with different production processes were also different.
Hearing Wen Yinqiu's surprised and happy cry, Mu Linfeng and Gao Hongjin turned and walked into the small pavilion. Gao Hongjin hurriedly asked her: "Xiao Wen, can you be sure that this is the Hengwang Qin you are looking for?"
Wen Yinqiu nodded excitedly and said, "Look at the body of this zither. It is 120 centimeters long and the head is about 20 centimeters wide. It has a paulownia top and a fir base. The cavity is hollow and narrow, and the sound is loud and clear. The top is inlaid with gold emblems and is round and arched. The gray base is a little brittle and thin, and the cracks are like flowing water and cow hair. If my guess is correct, there should be two square seals engraved on the back of this zither, 'Heng Fan Ya Zhi' and 'Cun Cheng Yang De'."
As he spoke, Wen Yinqiu gently picked up the zither with both hands and carefully turned it over. He saw two seals, "Heng Fan Ya Zhi" and "Cun Cheng Yang De", engraved on the back.
"Lin Feng, these are indeed the two seals that Xiaowen mentioned." Gao Hongjin said to Mu Linfeng in surprise.
Wen Yinqiu suddenly seemed to have become a different person. His quiet and elegant image disappeared. He said ecstatically: "This is a genuine Hengwang zither handed down from generation to generation. It should be said that there is only one in the world. It is definitely the only Hengwang piece..."
Mu Linfeng was in a heavy mood because he had just discovered the remains of his great-grandfather. Seeing Wen Yinqiu chattering non-stop, he interrupted her coldly: "Do you remember what you promised me? You can only play and appreciate the Hengwang Qin here."
Wen Yinqiu didn't seem to notice Mu Linfeng's indifference, and still said happily: "I know, you guys go and do your work, let me study the Hengwangqin here alone."
Gao Hongjin knew why Mu Linfeng was unhappy. He waved at Mu Linfeng and said softly, "Let Xiaowen study the Hengwangqin here alone. Let's go and sort out the old man's remains..."
The two returned to Mu Dingwu's body. Gao Hongjin looked at the remains on the ground and asked, "Lin Feng, do you plan to take your great-grandfather's remains out or bury them here?"
"Since I have found it, I must take my great-grandfather's remains out and bury them with my great-grandmother. I cannot leave them here. Otherwise, how can I face my ancestors in a hundred years?"
As he spoke, Mu Linfeng took off his coat and wrapped his great-grandfather's shriveled upper body with his clothes.
Watching Mu Linfeng carefully sorting out the remains of his great-grandfather, Gao Hongjin suddenly said, "Linfeng, don't worry about what I have to say. How can you be sure that this person is your great-grandfather?"
Mu Linfeng pointed at his great-grandfather's bare chest and said, "Look here. A male in our Mu family will have a bat tattooed on his chest a hundred days after he is born. This is the symbol of our family."
Following the direction of Mu Linfeng's finger, Gao Hongjin saw a vague mark on Mu Dingwu's shriveled skin. Although the mark was split in half by the knife, it could still be seen as a bat.
"Lin Feng, why do you in the Mu family tattoo bats on your chest? If you want to tattoo something, you should tattoo something auspicious." Gao Hongjin asked curiously.
"This has something to do with the fact that we have been making 'lumps' for generations. Our Mu family deals with the dead, and bats only come out at night, so the people who made lumps used bats as their symbol."
"So you have a bat on your chest too. No wonder you don't like to take a shower with others. Are you afraid that people will see the mark on your chest?"
Mu Linfeng ignored Gao Hongjin and wrapped his great-grandfather's remains with his own clothes. Then he stood up and said to Gao Hongjin, "Now that we are here, we can't miss this opportunity. I want to explore the entire Hengwang Mausoleum carefully. I guess this underworld palace is only a small part of the Hengwang Mausoleum."
"Well, I'll go with you..."
Gao Hongjin then said to Wen Yinqiu who was sitting in the pavilion: "Xiao Wen, you study the Hengwang Qin carefully here. Lin Feng and I will go to other places to have a look."
Wen Yinqiu waved at the two people and said loudly, "Don't worry about me, just go ahead."
Looking at Wen Yinqiu's nonchalant expression, Mu Linfeng suddenly felt that this girl was really extraordinary. This was in an underground tomb, most people would be afraid of such a place, let alone a girl, but Wen Yinqiu did not show any fear.
Mu Linfeng shook his head with a self-deprecating expression, said nothing, and walked towards the depths of the cave with Gao Hongjin...
Mu Linfeng and Gao Hongjin walked forward for a short distance along the narrow cave. When they were almost at the end, they suddenly found a huge hole on the ground. The diameter of the hole was more than 30 meters. The dark hole looked like a sinkhole sunken from the ground, which was daunting.
Mu Linfeng stood at the entrance of the cave and looked down. The cave was vertically downward like a huge mine shaft with no bottom. It was pitch black in the shaft and nothing could be seen. He just felt a cold air coming up from below. Mu Linfeng couldn't help but take two steps back. He took off the miner's lamp on his head and prepared to use it to check the situation in the shaft.
At this moment, Gao Hongjin, who was standing at the edge of the cave, suddenly discovered that countless blue flames appeared in the vertical shaft. He shouted in surprise: "Lin Feng, look down, there are ghost lights..."
Mu Linfeng hurriedly turned back to look down the well, and saw that countless blue flames like those emitted by fireflies suddenly appeared in this huge vertical shaft, like stars in the night sky in the pitch-black vertical shaft. These flames seemed to be rising slowly, and in the process of rising, some of the flames gradually gathered together, slowly growing larger to form a fireball, as if it was a Kongming lantern floating in the air...
"It's phosphorescence." Mu Linfeng said affirmatively while looking at the fireball in the shaft.
Gao Hongjin asked in confusion: "If it was phosphorescent fire, how could it gather together and become a ball of fire?"
To be honest, Mu Linfeng couldn't answer this question. His eyes were fixed on the fireballs that were growing bigger and brighter.
At this time, the countless sparks in the shaft gradually formed dozens of fireballs like round lanterns. The blue flames turned red, and the flames gradually illuminated the gloomy and terrifying shaft.
Through the light emitted by the fireball, Mu Linfeng and Gao Hongjin could also see clearly the interior of this huge vertical shaft.
This natural shaft is even more magnificent and imposing than they imagined. It is more than 200 meters deep. Looking down, there is a huge hole at different distances. There are at least more than ten such holes from top to bottom. This mausoleum is hidden underground and unknown to the world. If it could be seen by the world, it would definitely feel more shocking than the pyramids.
What was shocking was that there was a circular passage on the wall of the well, just like the ancient plank road on the cliff, connecting the various holes in the vertical shaft. The starting point of this plank road was at the edge of the well not far from the two people. Just now, both of them focused their attention on this huge vertical shaft and did not find the starting point of the plank road.
Seeing this, Mu Linfeng had a general understanding of the entire structure of the Hengwang Mausoleum. This underground mausoleum was built by utilizing a natural underground lava cave and then undergoing transformation. He did not expect that the underground structure of the Hengwang Mausoleum would be so large and complex.
Mu Linfeng pointed to the cave below the shaft and said, "These caves below should be the underground palaces of the various Heng kings. I have always wondered why there is only one Heng king's tomb among the five generations of Heng kings. Now it seems that this tomb is more grand and magnificent than the other ten tombs..."
Gao Hongjin said with some fear: "Lin Feng, why do I feel like it's hell down there? Do these floating will-o'-the-wisp fires look like ghosts?"
At this time, some fireballs had already floated out of the wellhead. Each fireball was as big as a basketball. After hitting the top of the cave, the fireballs exploded like gorgeous fireworks. The flames spread out and instantly illuminated the surroundings like daylight.
Mu Linfeng turned to Gao Hongjin and said, "I want to go to the cave below to take a look. Do you want to go?"
