What Li Zha-si said was also hearsay, not something he had personally witnessed, and on top of that, the story itself was full of flaws.
To be honest, I didn't believe that old Gao and Xiao Juan would have the perverted taste of wearing clothes from dead people.
Shining my flashlight on it, I noticed that the craftsmanship of the clothes was very similar to that of Tang Dynasty silk garments.
By all rights, while Tang Dynasty artifacts might appear during the Nanzhao Kingdom period, it wasn't as if the entire tomb would be filled with Tang Dynasty items, was it?
Furthermore, the King of Nanzhao was not Han Chinese.
"This isn't a Nanzhao Kingdom tomb, it should be a tomb from the Great Changhe period," Wang Yang offered his opinion.
"Great Changhe?"
"Have you heard of Zheng Maisi?"
I shook my head.
"This person was the emperor of Great Changhe," Wang Yang explained to me. "Nanzhao Kingdom generally did not practice burial. According to the 'Man Shu,' Nanzhao Kingdom practiced cremation. When I first entered this place, I was a bit puzzled, but now I understand. This place is most likely an ancient tomb from the Great Changhe period, and judging by the scale of this tomb, it should be a tomb for royal family members."
"How can you tell?" I asked.
"Look at the structure of this tomb chamber, it's very similar to Tang Dynasty tombs, and also these clothes," Wang Yang pointed inside the coffin.
"What's wrong with these clothes?"
"During the Tang Dynasty, people generally believed that green symbolized auspiciousness. Brides' clothes were basically green, and only the bride wore red..."
"Are you saying the ancient corpse in this coffin is a man?" I asked.
He shook his head. "Not necessarily. Although the Tang Dynasty favored 'red for men and green for women,' if the bride's status was higher than the groom's, the bride's clothes would also be red."
I wasn't very familiar with Nanzhao or the Great Changhe Wang Yang mentioned. I was completely ignorant of some more obscure historical periods.
Five thousand years of culture, countless dynasties and kingdoms have emerged, many of which were fleeting in the long river of history. It was impossible for me to know every single one.
However, what surprised me was how much this kid Wang Yang knew.
"You say this tomb is from the Great Changhe period, but how does it relate to the Tang Dynasty?" I asked.
Wang Yang said, "Zheng Maisi himself was Han Chinese. His grandfather was a county magistrate of Xilu County in the Tang Dynasty. Later, after being captured by the Nanzhao Kingdom, he was appointed Qingping Official, which is prime minister, and his descendants inherited this position. Therefore, Zheng Maisi naturally became the prime minister of the Nanzhao Kingdom."
"After Zheng Maisi became prime minister, he harbored ambitions to usurp the throne. So, he bribed ministers, killed the emperor of the Nanzhao Kingdom, and then launched a rebellion, slaughtering all members of the Nanzhao royal family. From then on, he declared himself emperor and established the Great Changhe."
Hearing this, I couldn't help but say, "This guy is also a ruthless person."
Wang Yang replied, "Indeed. Zheng Maisi was inherently brutal and capricious... However, there is also a legend about him."
"What legend?"
"It is said that Zheng Maisi's family fell into decline, and he was an orphan who lost his parents. He made a living weaving bamboo baskets every day. His weaving skills were exceptional, and the objects he wove were lifelike. He worked by a dragon pool every day. One day, a dragon suddenly emerged from the pool, and in its mouth was a five-colored dragon pearl. Seeing this, Zheng Maisi became greedy and wanted to possess the dragon pearl. So, he wove a fake dragon made of bamboo and controlled the fake dragon to play with the real dragon, using the fake dragon to swallow the dragon pearl. After obtaining the dragon pearl, he immediately rushed to present it to the King of Nanzhao. The king, delighted, appointed him prime minister."
After hearing this legend, I laughed, "Where did you hear this?"
"It's recorded in the 'Qing Kangxi Monhua Prefecture Gazetteer'," Wang Yang replied.
I wasn't very impressed with ancient legends, after all, ancient people tended to exaggerate things they didn't understand, and they would always attribute events to dragons, gods, and ghosts.
"You've read quite a lot of miscellaneous books," I commented.
Wang Yang smiled without replying.
According to him, this tomb might indeed be from the Great Changhe period.
About ten minutes passed, and Xiao Ding was still standing nearby as if nothing had happened. He seemed completely uninterested in the conversation between Wang Yang and me, acting like a robot.
After exploring the tomb chamber and finding no useful information, Wang Yang and I decided to find Zhou Yongxiang and the others.
Slipping into the passage, we hadn't walked for long before a larger tomb chamber appeared before us.
In the center of the tomb chamber were two coffins, both made of stone. Murals also appeared on the walls, and there were no burial objects in the corners. The entire tomb chamber, apart from the coffins, seemed rather empty.
Zhou Yongxiang and his group had clearly been here before, as the lids of the coffins were open.
Wang Yang and I went closer to take a look and found nothing but unrecognizable remains in the coffins, and no gold or silver treasures.
As for the murals, we got a general idea. They depicted the lives of the owners of the two coffins.
Because the murals were quite abstract, I could only grasp the general meaning.
It seemed to say that the two women in these coffins were fairies who descended to the mortal world, and they were incredibly beautiful.
On the mural, a woman was stepping on clouds, and then she arrived among a crowd. People in the crowd stared at her, some even kneeling on the ground in a dazed manner.
Seeing those murals, even I became curious about what these two coffin owners looked like when they were alive.
"Look over here," Wang Yang pointed to some text not far away.
The text was all written in regular script and introduced the origins and lives of these two women.
When I reached the end, I was stunned.
It stated that both of these women were imperial concubines.
I looked at Wang Yang, and he looked at me. I pursed my lips and said, "Could this be the tomb of the Great Changhe Emperor Zheng Maisi you mentioned?"
"Most likely," Wang Yang replied.
I never expected to enter an emperor's tomb this time, this was the first time in my life.
However, this tomb was completely incomparable to the Zhaoling Mausoleum of Tang.
It made sense, the Great Changhe was not a great nation, so it was quite good that they could build a tomb like this.
Moreover, there were only two tomb chambers, and who knew how large the interior was. What if there was something hidden within?
With that thought, we proceeded further into the passage. Not long after we walked, a staircase extending downwards appeared.
The structure of this tomb didn't seem simple, and it was a structure I hadn't seen before.
We walked down the stairs, expecting there not to be much further to go. However, who would have thought that we would walk for over an hour without reaching the bottom?
This left Wang Yang and me somewhat bewildered.
"How deep is it down there?" I asked.
Wang Yang shone his flashlight downwards, but the beam of light was swallowed by the darkness not far ahead.
"Should we continue down?" I asked, feeling an ominous premonition.
Wang Yang hesitated for a moment and said, "Why don't we go back to where we were and make a plan?"
"Okay."