Chapter 74

t this moment, Zhao Xuanyan was sitting far away on a stool, filing her nails. I pulled her over and said, "She's small and won't attract attention. We can let her learn to help with logistics like th...When people encounter unknown phenomena, they subconsciously seek solace and protection.

Yao Yumen's amulet, which she gave me, served as this role.

After spending half a day, I and Hongjie finally reached the end.

There is still a cave entrance on this slope.

From this lofty vantage point, the scenery is breathtaking, like a hidden paradise.

The stone walls of the cave still retain some stone carvings. One carving, though damaged, can faintly be seen to depict several steeds.

Hong Jie pointed to this mural and told me that this should be the Eight Horses of King Mu.

It is rumored that the eight horses in the Eight Horses Painting all had names when they were alive, just like the Six Divine Horses in Li Shiming's tomb at Zhaoling. However, time has passed too long. Although the Spring and Autumn Annals mentioned Mu Wang's Eight Horses, their names have not been passed down, and no one knows them.

This fresco embedded in the recessed stone wall is about two meters long and one and a half meters wide. Hong Jie sighed, saying that it was a pity. If she could take it away, this thing would definitely fetch a sky-high price on the black market.

"Sister Hong, these are all broken. The stone carvings are so impressive, look at how half the heads of these two horses are missing."

I pointed at the fallen horse's head and said.

Hong Jie shook her head, "Yun Feng, you're new to this business and don't understand some things. These stone carvings with special meanings, even if they are broken into a hundred pieces, people will still scramble to put them back together, especially the red-haired big noses. They are very fond of our ancient stone carvings.

">

"Do you know the six divine steeds of Zhaoling"

I nodded. "Two of the Six Famous Horses of Zhaoling, Quanmao and Hailing Zi, were stolen by Lu Qinzhai in the 1940s and sold to a man with a big nose. We still have four pieces here, respectively: Shavachi, Qingjiao, Teluerpiao, and Bai Tiewu."

">

Red Sister probably didn't expect me to be able to name them accurately. She praised me and said, "Not bad, you got it all right. It was Lu Qincai who stole two of them back then. Now let me ask you, do you know how much he sold them for to the Americans"

“

"I don't know that," I tentatively guessed, "eight thousand"

In the 1940s, this amount of money was astronomical. Ordinary people couldn't save up that much money in several lifetimes. This was big money, and I feel like I'm even exaggerating the price.

Hong Jie shook her head and denied, saying directly: "Not eight thousand, two pieces. One was sold to Philadelphia, and the other to Pittsburgh. The total price is 125,000 US dollars.

"So many!" I was startled.

You know, back then, a whole courtyard house on the Second Ring Road in Beijing cost only a few hundred yuan. 125,000 yuan! That's a lot of money. Even if a courtyard house cost 800 yuan, that amount would be enough to buy 153 courtyard houses!

Hong Jie continued to tell me, "This is just one incident. Back then, there was also Yue Bin from Beijing's琉璃廠 (Glass Factory). He stole a giant stone carving of the Emperor and Empress Paying Respects to Buddha from the Longmen Grottoes. To transport it out, Yue Bin smashed the statue into over sixty pieces, putting them in nine boxes. After leaving, he found someone to piece it back together. He eventually sold it for 60,000 big yuan to a man named Pu Airen, a big-nosed foreigner.

"

" Let me know if you have any other text you'd like me to translate!

Red Sister's words once again refreshed my understanding. I always thought bronze and ancient jade were the most valuable, but I didn't expect that stone carvings could be worth so much money.

Hong Jie also said, "In this world, tomb robbers are universally reviled. But compared to what Lu Yue did, these people are just amateurs."

"

I am looking at the Mo Wang Bajun statue carved in stone inside the cave right now, and it seems to have become even heavier.

I swallowed hard and asked, "Red Sister, this... we probably shouldn't take it, right"

"Don't even think about it. This requires professional tools to break apart and take out. And once it appears on the market, our chances of being tracked down by the relevant authorities will increase dramatically."

"Are you after money or your life"

I sighed with regret. To take this out, we don't meet several conditions, but I've seen it, and my eyes have been opened.

"Huh That's not right, Red Sister. This is Zhou Mu Wang's Eight Horses, how could it end up in the tomb of a Southern Warlord What's going on"

Don't ask me, I don't know either now.

>

Red Sister looked around the cave and frowned: "We've already found things like Yue's advanced artifacts, and now we've discovered this stone carving. Whatever this is, its status must surpass even that of feudal lords."

"The tomb was excavated into a mountain, with many northern Qingstone used to cover the roof and Huangchang inscribed calligraphy. Living people were sacrificed for burial, and a vast garden with a variety of rare plants and a solitary, independent sacrificial pit."

and so on.

">

Hong Jie let out a sigh.

This is the most frightening necropolis I've ever seen in my career.

“

Though the tomb owner was not the Zhou king.

">

But, it is no weaker than the Zhou King.d attention, I only dare to buy a small amount of bottled water and canned food each time. Aren’t you going deep into the desert to find some tribe Take me with you, I believe I can be of some help.”"...