Reborn as King of South America

Chapter 38 Discovering the treasure
ps: Thanks to Jiangbian Zhizhi for the 500 gold coins reward
It took some time for the cavalry regiment to assemble. When Li Mingyuan entered the cave, he saw Chen Sen and others gathered in front of the coffin.

"Didn't find the gold?" There was nothing in the opened large wooden box. It was obvious that they didn't find the gold.

"There is only one skeleton in this coffin in the cave. The wooden boxes are all empty."

Ten of the hundreds of large wooden boxes were opened. Li Mingyuan ordered the soldiers to open the rest of the boxes. As expected, just like the previous boxes, there was nothing inside.

Li Mingyuan felt a little discouraged. After coming out to look for treasure with such a big fanfare, was he going to return empty-handed?

"Sir, this cave is full of suspicious points. The wooden boxes on the ground were brought in from outside. Logically, the people who transported the wooden boxes would not only bring in empty boxes. These boxes must be filled with something."

"Where did the things in the box go? Were they discovered and taken away by someone else?" Li Mingyuan asked.

"Sir, look, there is a coffin here. The body and the gold ornaments buried with the dead are well preserved, which means that no one has ever entered this cave except us."

"You mean that the things in these boxes were transferred to other places by the original owners." Li Mingyuan understood a little bit what Chen Sen meant.

"Yes, I thought about it carefully for a while, and this is the only possibility that makes sense."

Chen Sen walked to the coffin and pointed at the bones in the coffin. "Please look, my lord. The owner of these bones has dislocated neck bones. He was obviously hanged to death. Judging from his clothes and the crown buried with him, he was an Indian king. The king was noble, and even if he was defeated by his rivals, he would not be hanged. Therefore, combined with the history of the Indians and the legend of the treasure, I believe that these bones are the last emperor of the Inca Empire who was hanged by the Spanish."

"After the death of the last emperor of the Inca Empire, the Incas transported his body to the cave. Because the emperor was incompetent and failed to defeat the Spanish invaders, the Incas hid the coffin in the cave and did not bury him." Li Mingyuan guessed after listening to Chen Sen's words.

"I think it's like this. There is only a crown that can prove the identity of the deceased and a few burial objects in the coffin. Compared with the rich burial objects of other Inca nobles, it is much simpler. The Incas may have resented him for not being able to protect the country, so they put the coffin in the cave." Chen Sen agreed.

"The things in the big box must be not far from the cave. Everyone, search carefully around the cave." After figuring out the key to the problem, Li Mingyuan immediately gave the order.

The soldiers of the cavalry regiment split up to look for the whereabouts of the treasure, while Li Mingyuan and Chen Sen stayed in the cave, staring at the murals on the wall in a trance.

"Chen Sen, do you think these murals are prepared for the bodies in the coffins?" Li Mingyuan asked, looking at the murals on both sides of the cave.

"I don't think it's possible. The figures in the murals are exquisite and there are so many of them. It's impossible to complete them in such a short time."

"Well, these murals are really beautiful. I think this cave might be the tomb of an Inca noble, and they temporarily used it as a place to bury the coffin of the last Inca emperor."

The Inca Empire had a glorious civilization. If they had not perished, these murals might have been protected by the state and become as well-known as the Mogao Grottoes in China.

Li Mingyuan walked into the mural, felt the veins of the mural on the wall, and accidentally knocked on the wall where the mural was.

Two muffled "dong dong" sounds were heard, completely different from the crisp sounds of the solid mountain.

Li Mingyuan noticed something unusual and knocked twice with more force, but the sound was still muffled.

"Chen Sen, there is nothing behind the cave wall."

When Li Mingyuan hit the cave wall hard, he took the opportunity when Sen Liu noticed his behavior, walked to the cave wall, and knocked for more than ten steps along the cave.

"Prince, there is a compartment behind the cave wall. The gold must have been hidden inside by the Incas." Chen Sen said excitedly.

Chen Sen's voice attracted more than thirty soldiers in the cave, and they all ran to both sides of the cave and knocked on the walls.

"Prince, there is an area of ​​about twenty steps on the left side of the cave wall that is empty, and an area of ​​sixteen steps on the right side that is empty." Chen Sen reported after the Chinese soldiers knocked on the cave.

"Look more carefully. There must be a starter device to open the darkroom."

"Yes." The soldiers in the cave immediately began to explore the cave again.

More than a hundred Chinese soldiers rushed into the cave, each responsible for a small area, and soon finished the search, finding twelve protrusions or depressions that could be used to open the secret room. When searching for the button to open the secret room, Li Mingyuan specifically warned not to activate anything like a button privately to avoid triggering a possible trap.

Therefore, after finding the button-like device, the Chinese soldiers did not move around, but immediately reported it to Li Mingyuan for a decision.

Faced with a possible trap, Li Mingyuan and other soldiers left the cave, leaving only twelve soldiers who were fully protected to twist twelve devices that might be buttons.

Li Mingyuan's worries were not unnecessary. After waiting outside for more than ten minutes, the moment the soldiers inside reported that the stone gate was opened, hundreds of sharp arrows shot out from the stone gate. Fortunately, the soldiers had put on thick iron armor and closed iron helmets in advance, so they were not shot into hedgehogs by the sharp arrows.

"Once the stone door is opened, you will be shot by sharp arrows. There may be other traps inside. Everyone must be careful when entering." Li Mingyuan warned again before entering the cave.

"Yes," everyone agreed in unison, suppressing the excitement in their hearts.

Because they were worried about Li Mingyuan's safety, the soldiers formed a circle and protected Li Mingyuan in the middle as they walked into the cave.

"I've already walked through the cave. There are no traps. You don't have to surround me." Walking in the cave, Li Mingyuan said with a smile to the soldiers who were protecting him.

"That won't do. The prince is the backbone of our Chinese army and cannot be put in any danger."

The soldier said stubbornly.

Seeing how loyal he was to his master, Li Mingyuan did not refuse his protection.

A group of people walked into the cave. The two secret rooms on both sides of the cave had been opened. A soldier in full body armor walked out of the secret room, holding two pieces of gold in his hands and excitedly said, "Prince, there is gold all over the secret room."

"Wait a minute, let's try to see if there is poison on the gold?" Li Mingyuan was ecstatic, but he tried hard to stay calm. When he was reading martial arts novels before, he saw a story about a man who got a treasure but was poisoned to death by the poison on the treasure, so Li Mingyuan was very cautious.

While searching for treasure, animals for testing poison had already been found, a total of more than one hundred rabbits. However, after staying in Lake Titicaca for seven or eight days, most of the rabbits were eaten by the soldiers, leaving only five rabbits.

The soldier took a rabbit, cut a small wound on the rabbit's leg with a dagger, smeared gold on the wound twice, and five minutes later the rabbit was safe and sound.

The gold was not poisonous, so Li Mingyuan put aside his worries and walked into the secret room with the soldiers around him.

The secret room was filled with gold, and both rooms on the left and right were filled with it. Li Mingyuan picked up a gold nugget and felt it in his hand. It weighed about ten kilograms.

"Prince, we are rich this time. The gold in the secret room is enough for all the Chinese Independence Army to spend a lifetime." Chen Sen had never seen so much gold and could hardly suppress his excitement.

Li Mingyuan was even happier than Chen Sen. No one knew the importance of this gold better than him. With this gold, the Chinese Independence Army's nation-building in South America would be more stable.

Now Li Mingyuan has 120,000 Chinese under his command, most of whom are young men. It is impossible for all Chinese to establish a country by men. When the time comes, Li Mingyuan will first have to solve the issue of his soldiers getting married. South America is a long way from China, and Li Mingyuan wants to find a wife for each of his soldiers, and the money he spends will be sky-high.

Now with this gold, not only is the issue of the soldiers getting married solved, but there is no need to worry about more Chinese immigrating from the mainland and Southeast Asia in the future.

The population base in South America determines the comprehensive strength of a country. As long as Li Mingyuan can expand the number of Chinese in South America in a short period of time, he does not have to worry about counterattacks and retaliation from Brazil and other countries.

Although he was happy, thinking that the Chinese Independence Army was still wandering around Peru and was still a long way from occupying southern Brazil, Li Mingyuan quickly calmed down and said, "This amount of gold is a lot, but we will need money more in the future. We can't slack off just because we got this amount of gold."

"I understand." Chen Sen also felt that he was happy too early. It was still too early for the Chinese Independence Army to establish a country. If the Chinese Independence Army could not defeat the enemy and obtain the land for establishing a country, a huge amount of gold would fall into the hands of other countries.

"I'm just reminding you in advance. It's enough for you to understand our situation. After all, finding this gold today is a happy event. Tell the brothers that everyone will receive a reward when they return." After reminding him, Li Mingyuan encouraged him again.

The amount of treasure in the cave was huge, and it was difficult for more than 900 people to transport it all at once. Li Mingyuan sent someone back to report and find more people to move it.

(End of this chapter)