"
Yunfeng
, find a good spot to pile it up first, don’t be stupid and dump it in someone else’s field."
"
Second Brother
, don’t worry, I know."
The amount of the
blue and white soil
wasn’t much. I took out seven or eight small bags from my backpack and carefully packed the soil, stacking them together.
"
Huh?
"
At this moment,
Second Brother
was in the pit, and his
whirlwind shovel
suddenly stopped.
"
Second Brother
, what’s wrong?"
Old Head Wang
asked from above.
"
Old Head
, take a look," he grabbed a handful of soil, "The deeper I go, the wetter it gets. This isn’t a good sign. There might be accumulated water below."
Old Head Wang
furrowed his brows and said, "Water pit? It can’t be that bad, try digging another 20 centimeters."
Second Brother
nodded and continued digging.
"
Second Brother
, don’t dig any deeper! It’s the tomb passage down there, there’s definitely water!"
Third Brother
shouted in panic.
"The tomb passage has water. Even if we dig down, once the tomb hole gets soaked, it won’t stand up anymore!"
Old Head Wang
couldn’t help but curse, "Damn it, didn’t anticipate this.
Second Brother
,
Third Brother
, come up first. We don’t have enough time to mess with a water pit."
The
Sun brothers
tossed the
whirlwind shovel
up first, then stretched their legs and climbed out of the tomb hole.
"
Old Head
, I bet you anything, if we dig another meter and a half, we’ll definitely hit the ceiling!"
Hitting the ceiling refers to the stone top of the tomb. During the
Ming and Qing dynasties
, tombs with brick ceilings were referred to as "arch ceilings."
Second Brother
lit a cigarette, staring at the tomb hole he had dug, squinting and saying, "
Old Head
, we’ve come this far, should we take a gamble?"
"
Second Brother
, what do you mean?"
He flicked the ash from his cigarette and said coldly, "Have
Yike Zhi
bring the water pump and the small generator over."
Old Head Wang
immediately shook his head, "Pumping water? That’s too risky. If it doesn’t rain in this season, with the temperature around
Shunde
, the pit definitely won’t freeze. If we can’t pump out the water in two hours, by the time the sun rises, we’re all done for. It’ll be a failure!"
"
Second Brother
, I agree with
Old Head’s
opinion. It’s certain there’s water in the tomb passage. If there’s too much water, a single pump won’t get the job done."
Third Brother
frowned and shared his thoughts.
"So what the hell should we do? We’ve got a whole pot of fat meat, but can’t even touch it!"
Old Head Wang
stroked his chin, thinking for a moment, before suddenly turning to me and asking, "
Yunfeng
, what do you think? Should we back off and go down the mountain or keep going?"
Both brothers turned their heads and looked at me.
"
Huh?
"
I was squatting on the ground, dividing the soil, when I didn’t expect him to suddenly ask me.
After thinking for a moment, I just said one sentence.
"
Old Head
, I want to make money."
"
Insightful!
"
Second Brother
laughed heartily, "Only the bold survive and the timid starve.
Old Head
, this little guy isn’t scared, so what are we afraid of!"
The
radio
light blinked red, and
Old Head Wang
immediately said, "Contact
Yike Zhi
, tell her to get the equipment here within an hour. If it’s late by even a minute, she’ll lose a point of the earnings."
Speed is of the essence in this business.
This was the first time I saw the organizational skills of the logistics team. In less than an hour, a water pump and a small generator were sent to us, right on time.
As soon as the water pump arrived,
Second Brother
rolled up his pants and directly jumped back into the tomb hole with a shovel. Soon, soil started being thrown up from below, and the soil became wetter and wetter.
A few dozen minutes later, we heard
Second Brother
shouting from the bottom of the hole.
"
Damn!
It’s flooding!"
He had just come up, and the accumulated water underground had already flooded more than half of the tomb hole.
Once the generator and hoses were set up,
Old Head Wang
immediately tossed the water pump into the tomb hole.
The water started bubbling up from the hole below, while the pump above was continuously sucking out the water.
At that moment, we were lucky. After the pump was turned on for a while, the water level started to go down, and the tomb hole didn’t collapse, which was a relief.
After
Old Head Wang
pulled up the water pump, he said, "
Second Brother
, use the drill. Break through the ceiling!"
The "
drill
" is a specially made sharp tool used in tomb robbery, with a diamond tip, designed to break through the tomb ceiling. It’s extremely powerful.
Soon, we could hear the sound of chiseling coming from below.
Then
Second Brother's
voice came up, "
Old Head
, it’s open!"
Old Head Wang
immediately smiled, checking the time and saying, "The water delay cost us some time,
Yunfeng
, you go down too. The more hands, the faster we can get this done. Grab whatever you can."
I froze for a moment and asked, "
Old Head
, aren’t we worried about the air down there? What if there’s no air left?"
Old Head Wang
chuckled, "Haha,
Yunfeng
, think about it. If the tomb was sealed so well, how could so much water have gotten in?"
"Don’t worry, the air circulation down there is fine."
Then, with a headlamp on, I descended into the tomb hole for the first time in my life.
The ceiling was broken open by
Second Brother
, and I stretched my legs across the sides of the hole, slowly lowering myself down.
The ceiling was still about two to three meters above the tomb passage. When I saw how high it was, I got a little scared and hesitated to jump down.
The tomb passage still had some accumulated water, enough to submerge up to the calves. The two
Sun brothers
were standing in the water.
"Jump,
Yunfeng
, it's not that high! We'll pull you up later!"
Second Brother
shouted up to me, his headlamp shining.
Without thinking much, I silently prayed for luck and jumped down. However, I didn't land properly and ended up falling flat, face-first into the tomb water, swallowing a mouthful of it.
"
Yunfeng
, you need to practice! Look at your skinny arms and legs, you okay?"
Second Brother
laughed as he helped me up.
The tomb passage was shaped like a cross. We were in the center, with turns ahead leading to the east and west chambers. Going straight ahead would bring us to the main burial chamber.
Second Brother
grinned, "We're lucky, the tomb passage hasn’t collapsed. Judging by the style, it's from the early to mid-Western Zhou period. This kind of tomb definitely has a sealing stone at the main chamber entrance. If it collapsed, we wouldn't be wasting time here. Even if the sealing stone is still there,
Third Brother
knows how to deal with it."
"Right,
Third Brother
?"
"
Second Brother
, you’re exaggerating,"
Third Brother
said, staring into the darkness ahead, "Sealing stones under three tons are no problem. As long as there's no natural stone ceiling inside, I can open it."
Our plan was to check the main burial chamber first, then move to the east and west chambers.
We waded through the water, moving forward.
Just then, a red object floated over the water.
"What’s this?"
Third Brother
fished the object out of the water.
He unfolded it, and to our shock, it was a
pink towel
, the kind modern people use, and it even had a brand logo printed on it.
Upon seeing the towel, the faces of the
Sun brothers
turned dark.
Third Brother
raised his head, and his headlamp illuminated the tomb ceiling.
It was clear now that in the northwest corner of the ceiling, there was a small hole that had been drilled through. The stones around the hole were cracked in a dense pattern.
"
Damn it!
"
Second Brother
threw the towel aside in anger.
He glared at the small hole in the ceiling and said, "This damn hole was drilled with an impact drill. They must have placed explosives inside! These bastards didn’t have the diamond needles, so they tried to blast the ceiling open! This towel was probably stuffed into the hole to muffle the explosion noise!"
"This
Western Zhou tomb
has already been touched!"
"It must have been those guys from the south! We’ve wasted all this effort!"
"
What a wasted effort!
"
[--------------------------------------------]
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