Chapter Twenty-Five: Digging Up the Ancestral Tomb

  He had been to the Zhou Mansion several times in search of secrets, but not only did he gain nothing, he even lost a few lives of his subordinates. He was extremely vexed. The Zhou Mansion was heavily guarded and often haunted by ghosts, making him dare not venture deeper into the mansion again. Where was the precious book left behind by his master? This question was driving him crazy. Did the old man take it with him when he died? It was possible. No way, he had to try.

  He then decided to dig up his master Zhou Rentian's grave.

  Zhou Rentian knew the location of his tomb, because he was present when the old man passed away. But thinking about it, wasn't there also a mechanism in the old man's tomb, since Master himself was an expert at setting up mechanisms for tombs? Ah, might as well give it a try then.

  On a dark night, Leng Jiangbo personally led his men to the grave of his master. First, he performed a ritual sacrifice, burning incense and kneeling in front of his master's tombstone, muttering: "Master, your disciple is unfilial, today I have come to disturb your rest. But I had no choice, you favored your son during your lifetime and did not pass on the art of grave robbery to me, this was also your fault. Moreover, the precious book you wrote with great effort, at least half of it should be passed down to your disciple, but you left nothing for me. Rather than letting it accompany you in death, why not leave it to your disciple? That way, your unique skills can be passed down through the ages. Today, I will disturb you first, and later I will burn more paper money to comfort your spirit in heaven. Forgive my audacity!" He said even more after that. After finishing his words, he felt a sense of relief in his heart, turned around and told his men: "Begin!"

  Several men attached iron shovels to wooden handles and began digging in front of the tombstone. Their movements were very skilled, and before long, they had dug a pit three feet square and over one person deep. At this time, the newly excavated soil had nowhere to be piled up, so the people above had to pass down bags for them to fill with soil, which were then passed back up to the people at the top of the pit to dump out... After about two hours of busy work, the people above heard the sound of iron shovels hitting wood. The people below lit candles and called out to those above to throw down steel chisels, saws, and axes. Only after several men had climbed down into the pit did they discover that it extended downward for over two people's height before turning into a "T" shape towards the tomb, allowing them to approach the coffin lid. Zhou Rentian's coffin was made of nanmu wood, very thick and hard, but it couldn't withstand the experienced Cold Jiangbo and his men. Several men grasped axes in their right hands and chiseled a small hole at the top of the coffin lid, then used sharp saws to cut back and forth vertically, and before long, they had sawed open a seam on the left side. Next, they repeated the process on the right side, and finally, with one swing of an axe, the lid opened, revealing the inside of the coffin...

  Several people holding candles approached the coffin, and when they looked inside, they were shocked to find that it was not a corpse, but a wooden dummy. The men quickly removed the wooden dummy and placed it aside, then hurriedly searched for burial goods. However, there were only a few ordinary pots and pans among the burial goods, nothing of greater value. After searching other parts of the tomb carefully, they still did not find anything valuable, nor did they find the precious book that Leng Jiangbo had been dreaming of obtaining. One of the men came up to report to Leng Jiangbo, telling him what was found in the tomb. Leng Jiangbo was also shocked and asked his men to take off their clothes so he could search them. The men quickly stripped down, and after searching each one, Leng Jiangbo finally confirmed that there were no valuable items on them either.

  Leng Jiangbo suddenly realized that the master had made a fake grave. He was extremely angry, this old man even wanted to trick him after his death, he must find out where he really lived. Returning to Jiangyue Manor, he called over his subordinates and instructed them to closely monitor the movements of the Zhou family from now on.

  The next morning, a servant came to report: "It's bad news, sir. The ancestral tomb of the Zhou family at Dongshan Mountain has been dug up..."

  "What?" Zhou Shiming didn't dare to believe his ears, he hastily led people to go and check. As expected, although the entrance of the cave was buried with soil, everywhere was wet soil, and if you stepped on it with your foot, you could sink in half a foot. It was clear that the grave robbers had left in a hurry and hadn't carefully covered it up.

  The grave was dug up, that's a big deal. In ancient times, Feng Shui and tombs were always connected. In the past, after death, people would invite Feng Shui masters to choose a burial site. If buried in a good Feng Shui location, it could ensure prosperity and success for descendants, as well as a smooth official career and eternal glory. If buried in a true dragon's lair, it was even more extraordinary, and an emperor might emerge. Although Feng Shui is considered superstitious, ancient people believed in it. Therefore, they were most afraid of their ancestors' graves being dug up, which would be a serious taboo. Moreover, ancient people took the protection of their ancestors' graves very seriously, with new graves requiring three years of mourning. From today's perspective, this was a demonstration of filial piety and respect for elders. However, ancient people believed that this matter concerned family fortunes and Feng Shui, and could not be taken lightly. Every blade of grass and every tree on the grave had to be left undisturbed. In China's historical tradition, digging up an ancestor's grave is a serious issue, representing a bottom line that individuals and families cannot tolerate. This is because if someone digs up another family's ancestral grave, it means completely denying that family's history and value, and also means treating the entire family as enemies. Throughout Chinese history, although one dynasty might overthrow another, or even an ethnic minority dynasty might overthrow a Han Chinese dynasty, there was a rule: later rulers would not dig up their opponents' graves, but rather protect them. Emperors knew that if they dug up someone else's ancestral grave, when they themselves fell from power, others would also dig up their own ancestral graves. This also meant losing the hearts of many people. The reason why Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum has been preserved for over two thousand years is closely related to this Chinese tradition.

  What was Zhou Shiming's mood when he saw his own ancestral tomb being dug up? He was so angry that he almost fainted, and he quickly knelt down in front of his father's grave, bursting into tears... Although he knew it was a fake grave, but even a fake one wouldn't do, this is also a great disrespect to the deceased ancestors, and it also ruined the Feng Shui of his family. He asked someone to go back and buy good offerings, and then made another sacrifice to comfort the spirits of the dead.

  After finishing the worship, he came to his father's real grave again, carefully observed it, and with his eyesight, he could tell that everything was fine. He took out the offerings he had bought and performed another round of worship before leaving...

  This was exactly what Leng Jiangbo had planned. His scouts saw it with their own eyes and went back to report to Leng Jiangbo, who deduced the true location of his master's tomb from this. He decided to dig up the grave again.

  That night, Leng Jiangbo led his men to sneak into the grave of their master, measured the position, and began to dig. This tomb was not as smooth as the previous one. Six or seven thieves dug for two hours, finally seeing something hard, which was the outer wall of the tomb. It's not just a three-foot square entrance, even if it's sixty feet square, you can't get in. What's going on? It turned out that Zhou Rentian's tomb was surrounded by large stone slabs, each six feet long and two feet wide and high, with rice paste filling the gaps between the stones, making the entire stone slab a single piece. The Luoyang shovel and iron hoe were useless...

  Leng Jiangbo took a look and ordered: dig deeper and wider, but it was still a solid iron plate, impossible to open. Leng Jiangbo was so anxious that his clothes were all soaked with sweat, but there was no progress at all. He had to admit that his master and senior brother were more skilled than him. This was just the outer layer, if they entered the inner layer, who knows how many mechanisms there would be. The sky was already getting light, but the tomb remained unchanged, it seemed that even digging in broad daylight might not succeed. There was no other way, Leng Jiangbo had to give up.

  Mantis catches cicada, yellow sparrow in the rear. At this time, hiding in a dark place is another group of people closely watching Leng Jiangbo's actions, wanting to use Leng Jiangbo's hands to open the tomb and benefit from it. Who is it? It's Wan Houliang, the boss of Ying Tian Tea House, and Song Zhihao, the shopkeeper. They took a look at Leng Jiangbo, who couldn't even open Zhou Rentian's grave, waved his hand, "Withdraw!", and they left first... After Leng Jiangbo was defeated, he finally realized that his own tomb-raiding skills were far inferior to those of his master and senior brother, which increased the urgency for him to obtain the secret.

  Zhou Shiming was furious and ashamed that his parents' graves had been robbed. He gathered a group of black-clad men in the ancestral hall and lectured them: "If our ancestors' resting place cannot be at peace, how can we talk about protecting other tombs? I feel deeply ashamed. We train day and night to protect the spirits underground and the national treasures that belong to us. Obviously, we have not fulfilled our responsibilities. From now on, those who go out to observe the situation must do their duty, detect all the tomb robbers around them, and disrupt their illegal activities. At the same time, we must also make every effort to disrupt the trade in antiques and never let them achieve their goals."

  The crowd shouted: "Yes!" It turned out that in the garden of Zhou's residence, there was a team of dozens of people in black clothes training every day...