Hu Dachui and several of his accomplices are both blacksmiths, tall and strong, with extraordinary arms. They can't even push open the tomb door, so how can a boy open it?

Xue Yu observed it and began to grop over the tomb door. Unfortunately, due to his height limitation, he could not reach the door frame at all!

"Hu Dahui, lift me up and give me another little hammer!"

"Okay!"

Hu Dahui stretched his arms and raised Xue Yu easily, allowing him to ride on his neck. This height is just right and it is convenient to move. The person next to him handed a small hammer!

"Dong!Dong!"

Xue Yu held a small hammer in his hand and knocked on the blue bricks above the tomb door one by one. These blue bricks were extremely huge. They were mixed with glutinous rice juice, egg white and quicklime. The repair was very strong. Xue Yu couldn't knock on the force of this little bit!

But Xue Yu did not give up and still beat him seriously. When he hit the ninth blue brick, a different feeling came and it moved slightly!

"Dong!Dong!"

Xue Yu began to increase his strength, and the small hammer kept hitting, and the blue brick gradually sunk inward, and finally fell into the tomb with a rush, revealing a big hole!

He took out the small iron hook prepared in advance, four steel claws in front, and a long rope connected to the back, stuffed it into the tomb chamber from the hole, wandering back and forth...

Xue Yu's ears were pressed against the wall, and while listening to the movement, he contracted the rope. He quickly felt something hooked. He pulled it hard a few times, but it didn't pull it!

"You guys pull the rope slowly!"

"yes!"

"Plop!"

He called two soldiers and helped pull the rope hard. After a few tests, with a dull sound, something was pulled to the ground by an iron hook.

"Okay, push the door hard!"

"Okay!"

Hu Dachui and his three accomplices lined up in a row, pressed their eight arms against the stone gate, and pushed them with all their strength. With a raucous sound, the stone gate was really pushed open!

With the candlelight, you can see that there was a bluestone strip as thick as a bowl on the ground inside the stone gate, weighing at least 60 or 70 kilograms. It was before that it had pressed against the stone gate.

It turned out that the ancients were very smart. In order to prevent things in the burial room from being stolen, when repairing the stone door, they would install a slot inside and hang a feldstone strip above it!

A rope was tied to the stone strip, leaving a gap in the brick directly above the stone door, and pull the rope outside and pull it up with force.

After the stone door is closed, the person outside loosens the rope and the stone strip will fall into the slot, firmly pressing the stone door from the inside, making it difficult to open the door if external forces!

Finally, cut the rope and fill the gap with a blue brick, which looks like there is no flaw from the outside!

However, this blue brick was filled in later, and the gap with the surrounding blue bricks was relatively large, and the combination was not strong enough, so it was easily knocked open!

Xue Yu has read many tomb robbery novels and knows how to set up this mechanism, so he goes the other way, finds blue bricks, knocks on the hole, and then hooks off the bluestone strip with iron claws, and naturally pushes open the tomb door.

…………

The same order as before, after pushing open the stone gate, everyone did not rush in, but waited for the air to circulate and threw the big white goose into the road!

Hearing the white goose screaming happily, he threw a few handfuls of glutinous rice, and then walked in with confidence. Everyone's eyes couldn't help but lit up!

"Open it and see what good things are there!"

"Silver, a lot of money, haha, I'm getting rich now!"

...

With the candlelight, we can clearly see that the side tomb chamber is about a dozen square meters, with boxes of large and small piles on the ground. When we opened the first yellow rosewood box, everyone cheered and cheered. There were ten large silver ingots neatly placed inside, each weighing fifty taels, and it was the best golden flowers and silver!

The silver ingot is shaped like a small boat, and it is also engraved with the words "September 35 of Wanli-Henan-Kaifeng Prefecture-Salt Tax-50 taels!"

In the early Ming Dynasty, local taxes were mainly collected, but physical storage was difficult, and the transportation process was consumed greatly. There were many opportunities for corruption during the collection. As a result, the national treasury was empty and the people were exhausted, and all the corrupt officials in the middle were cheap.

In the ninth year of Wanli, Zhang Juzheng implemented the one-whip method, which combined the land tax, corvee and other miscellaneous levies in various provinces, prefectures, prefectures, and counties, and merged the collection of cash, greatly simplifying the collection procedures, which not only reduced the burden on the people, enriched the national treasury, and made it difficult for local officials to cheat. It can be said that it won three goals in one fell swoop!

However, the local collectors are all broken silver and miscellaneous silver, which need to be re-melted and cast into a unified official ingot before they can be handed over to the national treasury. According to the purity of the silver ingot, there are also golden flowers, green flowers and black flowers!

Among them, the quality of gold, flowers and silver is the best, with a purity of more than 95%. It is specially used to pay salaries to the royal relatives and civil and military officials in the capital, which is rarely seen in the local area!

Li Zhubu was not even a local official. At most, he was a minor official. He could not receive a salary of gold, flowers and silver, not to mention that he was as much as 500 taels or minted in the same batch!

Then there is only one explanation, this guy embezzled official silver!

Although the one-whip method is good, it also has loopholes, such as fire consumption!

During the melting and recasting process of silver, impurities must be removed and a certain amount of loss is generated. It is called "fire consumption". The fire consumption is the responsibility of the common people, but the amount is determined by the government!

Generally, the fire consumption of silver in prefectures and counties is as high as 200 cents per liang, or 400 cents per liang. Some people who lack great virtue can receive seven or eight cents or even more. The actual consumption is far less than this number. Is the difference in the middle naturally owned by the officials.

Five hundred taels of gold, flowers and silver, this is how it comes from.

Think deeper, a small county magistrate dares to embezzle so much. How much should the county magistrate, prefect, governor, etc. be corruption?

Officials are levying heavy taxes, and even if there is no disaster, the people will have a hard time. What's more, they are suffering from severe droughts and thousands of miles away!

Less gossip, and the book is back to the beginning, and everyone continues to open other boxes:

There are more than a dozen jade pendants in a mahogany box, all of which are beautiful Hotan jade!

A golden nanmu box contains more than a dozen pearls, all the size of broad beans!

...

The tomb room was originally quite dim, but now these gold, silver and jewelry reflect candlelight, which instantly made the tomb room much brighter and reflected everyone's eyes, and they were a little dazed!

"What are you doing when you are standing there? Move out quickly!"

"Okay!"

Xue Yu stopped shouting, and the others came to their senses and began to move things out. Monkey and Dahei responded outside!

All things you move out are covered with sacks. First, it is to prevent them from falling during transportation, and second, it is to avoid being seen by others after taking them back!

After moving the left tomb chamber, everyone rushed into the right tomb chamber and opened it in the same way. The things here became more messy, such as pillows, brocade quilts, mosquito nets, couches, mirrors, tableware... and more than a dozen boxes of clothes, which should have been used by the tomb owner before his lifetime, and were all brought to the ground.

These things are very valuable. If you take them outside, you will definitely sell them at a good price. Unfortunately, there are limited staff tonight and you can't take so many things, just choose them and it's expensive!

Found a colorful box full of jewelry, bracelets, hairpins, stairs, earrings, sachets... The material is either gold or silver, and some are inlaid with gems, pearls, agate, etc. Each piece is valuable!

There is also a set of catering utensils made of sterling silver and moved out together!

Also, in a large box containing clothes, I found another small box with a silver lock hanging on it!

After smashing it with one hammer, the things inside were amazing. They were dressed in a brand new official uniform, black gauze hat, red brocade robe, with cloud geese patches in the middle, a plain gold belt, and a pair of soap boots in the foundation. This was the costume of a fourth-rank civil servant in the Ming Dynasty!

There is also a set of clothes for the corresponding wife of the imperial decree next to it!

This is the grave of civilians, so how could there be official clothing for funeral objects?

"Ha ha!"

Xue Yu thought for a while and couldn't help but laugh.

The owner of the tomb - Li Qingbai must have been an official fan during his lifetime. Unfortunately, he was ignorant and had a lot of fools. He could not pass the imperial examination and was really unwilling to accept it, so he secretly wore an official uniform and was addicted to it!

After he died, he was taken to the tomb again. He probably wanted to fulfill his wish to become an official in another world, but he was worried that he would be discovered by others, so he locked it under the box!

He has become a ghost, he is still a coward, despises him!

He robbed two side tombs and got a large number of gold and silver utensils, antiques and jewelry, and Hu Dachui and others were still unsatisfied, so he set his sights on the two coffins in the main tomb!

According to the habit of burial, the things placed in the coffin are the favorite and most valuable things that the tomb owner had in his lifetime!

For example, the pearls in your mouth, the jade pendant that is close to you, the seals used during your lifetime, and the gold and silver treasures used for caulking are of great value!

"Brother Xue, let's pry these two coffins open, there must be good things inside!"

"Don't move the coffin!"

"Why is this?"

"Since ancient times, the dead are the most important. We steal money to save people. It is a bit too much to open the coffin and destroy the corpse. Moreover, there is not much time left, so we have to withdraw quickly, otherwise it will be dangerous until dawn!"

"Okay, let's take it away quickly!"

The proposal to open the coffin was rejected by Xue Yu. Respecting the deceased was only one of the reasons, and there were several other concerns that were not expressed:

First, after the human body dies, the body will quickly decay and breed a large number of bacteria and harmful gases. This is what is often called corpse poison!

This time, the tomb robbery was too hasty and there was no strict protective equipment. Once it was infected with corpse poison, the consequences would be unimaginable, and it would be possible to kill a few or even a dozen people!

Secondly, although the things in the coffin are precious, such as jade pendants, seals, etc., they are often unique and have marks!

Once you take it out, you may be recognized by someone. The stolen Li family’s ancestral tomb may not be concealed. Li Zhuzhu will inevitably take revenge wildly, and the government will also arrest tomb robbers!

Three rules: According to the law of the Ming Dynasty: Anyone who digs a tomb and sees a coffin, one hundred sticks will flow three thousand miles away; those who have already opened the coffin will be twisted!

Once the matter is exposed and captured by the government, if the coffin is not opened, there is still a way out. If the coffin is opened, you will definitely die!

After all, it was a three-gulf man who robbed the tomb together. His and his two friends' mouths could be tightly sealed, but it was hard to say about the other people's mouths.

Taking into account the above three points, Xue Yu stopped others from opening the coffin and struggling to survive in troubled times. It was like walking on a tightrope in a tall building, and you could not take a wrong step!

Next, everyone transported the gold, silver and jewelry out, and then filled the tomb soil back into the cave!

Filling soil is much easier than digging soil. It took only one meal to fill the hole in the ground!

However, there is still some residual soil near the entrance of the cave. Even if you sweep it carefully with a broom, it will not be cleaned. Once it is discovered, it will definitely cause suspicion. What should I do?
To be continued...