The next morning, O'Connor and his group came to the construction site at the foot of Mount Li. The place had been protected by the people Feng Yuxiang had sent. The British Council in Wuhan had sent someone to contact Feng Yuxiang. Previously, Yan Xiangwen had suddenly committed suicide not long after he became the Shaanxi Military Governor, so Feng Yuxiang, the commander of the 11th Division of the direct army, had taken over as the Shaanxi Military Governor.
Feng Yuxiang was the military chief of the Northern Ocean warlords in Shaanxi. When he received O'Connor and the others in the Shaanxi Military Governor's Office, he was dressed in a soldier's uniform. Due to the fact that he was a soldier, he always liked to put on a simple and hardworking look. However, he was also a devout Christian. When he received the foreign 'believers', he even wore a cross hanging on his chest, making him look neither fish nor fowl.
In fact, at this time, believing in Christianity had once become a trend in China. The warlords took pride in believing in Christianity. Deep down, it was nothing more than currying favor with the foreigners. In the mess of the warlords in China, the words of the foreigners were more effective than the president of the Northern Ocean.
Putting everything else aside, if the British were to loosen their grip and give Feng Yuxiang a discount on the interest on the arms and loans, it would be worth it for him to curry favor with them.
Feng Yuxiang entertained the foreign 'archaeologists' with great enthusiasm. He courteously invited O'Connor, Laura, and the others to pray in the small church at his home. In the name of discussing doctrines and the Bible, he became familiar with these foreigners.
Although the British had suffered a heavy blow at this time, firstly, Feng Yuxiang might not know about it. Secondly, even if Feng Yuxiang knew about it, the British Empire still had some assets. Even the French and the Germans did not dare to look down on the British who controlled the sea power, let alone the China warlords. Although the family business in England had failed, they were still nobler than the inferior Asians. O'Connor and the others all thought so.
From their point of view, only Europe had culture and civilization, and Christianity was a universal value. The British were first-class civilized people, the Europeans were second-class civilized people, the Americans were low-class civilized people, the Japanese were civilized barbarians, and the Chinese were at best a little better than the African natives. They were classified as half-civilized barbarians, and the religious Chinese were a completely civilized breed of civilized barbarians, a little nobler than the rest.
Therefore, when Feng Yuxiang revealed his identity as a disciple, they still had a good impression of him.
However, when the two sides began to discuss the specific division of interests, the good impression was immediately thrown to the back of their minds. The British deputy director who led the way had a cold expression and said with a hint of a command, "We request that the Northern Ocean come forward to protect our archaeological team and suppress the local bandits and rebels. They will facilitate our activities here as much as possible."
Feng Yuxiang laughed and said, "We must protect the legitimate interests of your country, but we can't betray the interests of China … right? Right now, the people on the streets are not giving you a good reputation for this archaeological activity! Qin First Emperor was a great emperor of China. His tomb was also an important property and treasure of the Chinese government. If your country forcibly takes over its archaeological activities, I'm afraid that public opinion will be unfavorable to the United Kingdom. You know, there's also the group of rebels in the south causing trouble. "
"If we, the Northern Ocean, give in to England! The group of rebels in the south will definitely besiege the Northern Ocean in public opinion. The cultural and educational circles will also strongly oppose this behavior of infringing on China's treasures and reselling China's cultural relics … "
The deputy director's eyes turned cold and he said lightly, "The Government of the United Kingdom has no intention of robbing China's cultural relics …" As soon as he said this, Feng Yuxiang cursed in his heart, "You're lying! The Dunhuang Scriptures from Gansu Province from more than ten years ago were not displayed in the British Museum. There are so many treasures in the China Pavilion. Were they given to you by the people of China? "
"… But with all due respect, the Chinese government does not have the conditions to excavate and preserve cultural relics. Your country has no archaeology at all. Your country's history and culture can only be recognized by the international academic community under the development and protection of the United Kingdom. If we hand it over to you, it will only cause these precious cultural relics to flow into the international cultural relics market, causing inevitable damage and loss."
"This archaeological operation is of great importance. My country hopes to have a battalion of embassy guards at the archaeological site to protect our country's archaeologists and work normally. At the same time, we also need General Feng to provide reasonable help, such as guides and excavators. For the sake of the friendship between our two countries, General Feng should carefully consider our proposal. "
In order to force Feng Yuxiang to agree in the shortest time possible, the deputy director had to violate the British diplomatic circle's usual method of stirring up sh * t. He used a stiff threat to make Feng Yuxiang relent. Sure enough, when the deputy director's tone contained a hidden threat, Feng Yuxiang agreed to all the requirements of the United Kingdom despite his ugly expression.
The deputy consul knew that the matter of bribing Feng Yuxiang later would be settled by them. The most important thing now was to let O'Connor and the others start working.
Arriving at the foot of Mount Li, Laura saw a well-organized excavation site. She was surprised to see a few people wearing hemp shoes and dressed as "grave robbers." They were currently inserting a semi-cylindrical shovel into the ground. The leader of the group was an old man with grizzled hair. He was still holding onto his whip. His braid was coiled up on his head as he carefully inspected the soil that had been brought up.
O'Connor walked behind Laura and asked in surprise, "What are these China people doing?"
"Shh!" Laura interrupted him and whispered, "I've heard from archaeologists who came to China that China's explorers and grave robbers used an archaeological tool called the 'Luoyang shovel' to bring out soil that was tens of feet deep for analysis and inspection. They would observe the color and smell of the soil to determine its age, geological characteristics, and the burial soil."
"Experienced China explorers could even use them to determine if someone had excavated this land on a large scale hundreds of years ago."
"That's amazing!" Laura exclaimed.
"The art of geomancy, the most important thing is to taste the water from the soil …" The old man with gray hair whispered to Chen Yulou who was beside him, "I've tasted 17 ancient wells around here and confirmed that the water here is soft and sweet. It's 30% gold water and 70% silver water. It can be said to be rich and long-lasting. It's also suitable for the soil and weighs eight taels. It's very auspicious. "
"Then why are you frowning?" Chen Yulou was puzzled.
"It's the soil brought out by the Luoyang shovel. It's very strange! I've already explored the upper layer of the tomb of the First Emperor, but if it's according to what I've found, the tomb of the Qin Emperor has soil marks for 12,000 steps back and 30,000 steps to the left and right. And the top layer of the soil is greenish-black, which is Yang Green Soil. Yang Green Soil often appears in the tombs of the Warring States Period. "
"But I've only seen this color of Yang Green Soil in the tomb of a noble of the Qin Dynasty. At that time, your father was the leader. He led us to the tomb at the foot of the jagged mountains. At that time, we noticed the strangeness of this copper-colored soil. Later, when we broke through the robber's hole in the soil, an unimaginable horror happened."
"Later, we learned that this copper-colored Yang Green Soil is also called 'Hibernating Dragon Soil.' This Yang Green Soil needs to be mixed with human blood and mashed together with the Yang Green Soil excavated from the ancient tomb. A soil ball has to weigh nine taels and nine parts. It's mixed with Gu insects and foreign insect eggs and poured on the outer layer of the tomb's soil. "
"There are eight kinds of Gu insect eggs mixed in the Hibernating Dragon Soil, plus the eggs of a foreign insect called Gu insect. The Gu insect hatches when it sees the wind. After the soil is covered, if it's more than three feet deep, with the nourishment of the underground Yin spring, then the Gu insect in the soil will slowly lay eggs and die. This kind of foreign insect has a very strange temperament. It needs to parasitize Gu insects to reproduce. The adult insects need to parasitize Gu insects to borrow the Gu insects to lay eggs. At that time, the eggs laid by the Gu insects will carry the Gu insect eggs and Gu insect eggs. The Gu insects hatched together with the Gu insects will parasitize the next generation of Gu insects in the shortest time. In order to let themselves parasitize Gu insects to reproduce, the Gu insects will secrete a kind of colloid like propolis before they die to protect the Gu insect eggs. After they reach adulthood, they need to face the wind to grow wings. "
"So after the first batch of hatched Gu insect eggs, the Gu insects that grow will die because they can't see the wind after protecting the Gu insect eggs in the soil. But the Gu insect eggs they parasitize can be maintained for thousands of years without losing vitality. Only when they see the wind, the secretion protecting the Gu insects will disappear, prompting the Gu insects to hatch. "
The old man sighed and said, "When we robbed the tomb of the Qin aristocrat, because we dug up the soil, the two-thousand-year-old Gu insect eggs inside were exposed to the wind and decayed into countless Gu insects as fine as dust. Unknowingly, they parasitized in our bodies." As he said this, the old man carefully crushed the bronze-colored soil that was lifted up by the Luoyang shovel for Chen Yulou to see.
Some large Gu insects the size of sesame seeds and small ones that could not be seen fell from the soil.
Chen Yulou's expression changed. He said in a low voice, "So there is this kind of soil under our feet? Then when we dig up a robber's hole, how much of the soil will the Gu insects in it revive? "
The old man thought for a moment, then raised his head and said, "As the wind blows in the robber's hole, it will probably alarm the Gu insects in the surrounding area."
"These Gu insects like Yin and hate Yang. Normally, they will not appear in areas where the sun shines, but very quickly, they will be everywhere in the robber's hole. When we dig into the robber's hole, it will be like entering a worm's hole. Starting from digging to the Hibernating Dragon Soil, it will only take three minutes for the Gu insects to revive and breed. The larger the area we dig, the more Gu insects will be alarmed."
"This is the first layer of defense of the First Emperor's tomb!" Chen Yulou sighed and said, "With the great talent of the First Emperor, who knows how much more danger he will face this time …"
O'Connor looked at the few people who were staring blankly at the Luoyang shovel under their feet and laughed coldly, "I think we don't have to look forward to that group of Chinese. They are ignorant and lazy uncivilized people … We don't have much time left. We have to quickly dig up the coffin of the Dragon Emperor and stop those Easterners from reviving him."
Laura objected, "I think we should listen to the opinions of the local explorers …"
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