Tomb raiding: Carrying a coffin during a funeral procession, rewarded with the Dragon Elephant Prajn

Although Xiang Batou was not very old, he was extremely famous in the tomb raiding world in the north.

It is said that he could tell where there was a large tomb just by looking at it.

After finding the large tomb, they would place a stick on the ground and have their men dig a hole down into it, reaching the top of the coffin with unparalleled precision, never missing.

As a result, Xiang, the foreman, earned the reputation of having "divine eyes," and everyone in the industry admired him.

After listening to his subordinate Hu Zi's words, he narrowed his eyes slightly, pondered for a moment, and then said, "There is a special custom in the southwest called urn burial. It is when a child dies young, the body is placed in a large urn, and a hole is made in the bottom of the urn, symbolizing that the child can be reincarnated smoothly. If I'm not mistaken, the urn in this cave should be used for urn burial."

Hei Xiazi shook his head upon hearing this.

"As far as I know, there is indeed a custom of urn burial in the southwest region, but urn burial does not involve adding soil inside."

Seeing that someone was contradicting their boss, Xiang's men glared angrily at Hei Xiazi.

"You're blind, what do you know!"

"If they said the head was buried in an urn, then it was buried in an urn. Otherwise, where would the human head have come from?"

Faced with the rebuttal from Xiang's men, Hei Xiazi remained silent.

However, Xiang himself didn't seem to care. Instead, he spoke in a rather gentle tone, saying softly, "Brother Hei is also one of our colleagues from the North. Hu Zi and Xiao Long, don't be rude."

Hearing what Foreman Xiang said, his men finally quieted down and reluctantly restrained themselves.

"Brother Hei, please don't be offended. My brothers are all from the countryside and don't know any manners."

"You just said the large urn in the cave wasn't a burial urn; what are your thoughts on that?"

Hei Xiazi cupped his hands in a respectful gesture before beginning his explanation.

"Putting soil in an earthen urn and raising a corpse in the soil is not a funeral custom, but a form of punishment."

"penalty?!"

The group looked at each other, all seeing surprise in each other's eyes.

"good!"

Hei Xiazi continued eloquently, "I wonder if any of you have heard the story of Empress Lü and Consort Qi from the early Han Dynasty?"

Before Hei Xiazi could continue, Xiang Batou took over and gave everyone a brief explanation.

"Empress Lü was Empress Lü Zhi, the wife of Liu Bang, the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty. Consort Qi was Liu Bang's favorite concubine. During Liu Bang's lifetime, Lü Zhi and Consort Qi were at odds. After Liu Bang's death, Lü Zhi directly ordered people to gouge out Consort Qi's eyes, cut off her tongue, remove her ears, and sever her limbs, turning her into a human pig. She was then thrown into a latrine, where she was stained with excrement and urine, and finally buried in a jar and covered with soil."

"It is said that because of the imperial physician's treatment, Lady Qi did not die immediately, but wailed in the urn for three days and three nights before finally passing away."

These words sent chills down everyone's spines and made them feel uneasy.

To be honest, such a brutal punishment is something that ordinary people can't even imagine.

Tiger, one of Xiang's henchmen, couldn't help but mutter, "Women are even more ruthless when they fight women; they've come up with such a perverted form of torture."

Upon hearing this, Xiang, the foreman, laughed and nodded, saying, "Human pig is indeed the most cruel punishment in ancient times."

After speaking, he looked at Black Bear and nodded slightly.

"Brother Hei is right. The large urn in the cave might really have been used to bury human pigs. But who exactly made human pigs here, and what was their purpose?"

These questions were not only perplexing to Xiang Batou, but also to Hei Xiazi, Aning, and others.

However, the sight of human pigs and urn burials right from the start cast a shadow over everyone's hearts.

After a short rest of more than half an hour, the main force set off again.

The group crossed another mountain, and suddenly a rushing river appeared before them.

The river is located deep in the mountains, with steep canyons on both sides.

Further in, you'll find yourself deep within the Wushan Mountains, a place rarely visited by humans.

Director Zhang Wei wiped the sweat from his brow and pointed to the plank road on the cliff face of the canyon, explaining to everyone.

"Ahead lies the Five-Foot Path. These plank roads can be traced back to the Qin Dynasty. Successive dynasties have tried to build roads through Shu, but none have succeeded. At most, they have only built five-foot-wide plank roads that cling to the cliffs of the canyon."

The iron chain and the log hang alone on the cliff of the canyon, truly embodying the line from Li Bai's poem.

Forty-eight thousand years have passed since then, and it has not been connected to the Qin region by human habitation. To the west, there is a bird path leading to Mount Taibai, which can traverse the summit of Mount Emei...

In addition, the experience of looking at the cliffside walkway from afar is completely different from actually climbing the walkway yourself.

Beneath their feet were iron chains and wooden planks that had witnessed countless dynasties, while overhead came the cries of monkeys and birds.

Further down, there are also the mighty tributaries of the river, rushing forward with splashing waves.

Aning walked on the boardwalk without any fear. Instead, she remained calm and asked her guide, Zhang Wei, about the situation in the mining area.

"Before coming to Wushan, I checked satellite maps and photos you sent back from the mining area. But looking at photos is still like looking at flowers through a fog. Can you tell us about the specific situation in the mining area?"

"it is good."

Director Zhang Wei carefully considered his words before slowly beginning his narration.

"Actually, this mining area in Wushan is not a new discovery. As early as the Qing Dynasty, people were mining salt there."

Whether in modern or ancient times, salt has been primarily extracted and produced from seawater or inland salt lakes.

At most, with the advent of modern society, the processes and equipment have been improved, allowing for higher purity.

But besides salt lakes and seawater, there is another place that can produce salt: salt mines!

During the Qing Dynasty, the Wushan area was home to salt mines.

The mountains are dotted with countless salt mines of all sizes.

In ancient times, productivity was low and transportation capacity was even worse. Transporting salt from the coast thousands of miles away was naturally not as efficient as using local resources.

However, with the advancement of technology and transportation in the new century, the amount of salt painstakingly extracted from salt wells deep in the mountains was naturally less than that transported directly from the coast. Therefore, from the 1960s and 70s onwards, the salt mines in the Wushan Mountains were gradually abandoned.

Zhang Wei said, "At the end of the Qing Dynasty, there were many miners in the area, and over time, a town was formed called Qingxi Town. However, after the founding of the People's Republic of China, the salt mines were abandoned, and Qingxi Town was relocated from the mountains under the government's planning."

After hearing Zhang Wei's words, Li Changsheng's heart skipped a beat, and he quickly asked, "Are there many salt wells in the mountains now?"

Zhang Wei laughed and nodded, saying, "I was just about to remind you! There are no fewer than a thousand salt mines of all sizes in the mountains. When you enter the mountains, you must watch your step and be careful not to fall in. If it's a shallow salt well, it's okay, but if you encounter a large salt well that is tens of meters deep, you won't survive if you fall in."