Eastern Tomb Expedition Chronicles

Chapter 4: Joining the Fray

"Heh, young man, what’s troubling you so much?" I was wiping my tears when I turned around and was taken aback—it was the old man from yesterday at Panjiayuan who had given me directions. It was he who told me that the stalls at Baoguo Temple were free. "Young man, I noticed you yesterday at Panjiayuan. Let me guess, were you robbed?" The old man wore casual clothes and his temples were tinged with white, but he looked energetic. Without thinking much, I nodded with tears in my eyes, admitting that my day’s earnings were stolen and I didn’t want to live anymore. He chuckled and shook his head, "How much did you lose?" When I told him it was over four thousand, he laughed and held up a finger. "Four thousand? You call that money? Work with me, and in no time, you’ll make twenty thousand."

Stunned, I stared at his finger and asked, "How long? A year?" He shook his head. "A month?" Again, he shook his head. "A week???" "Ha, just pulling your leg. A minute! If you pick it up fast, making a few thousand is a matter of minutes." I couldn’t believe it. I even thought he might be a human trafficker trying to sell my organs. I had heard that selling your kidneys meant you could never have children and that your wife would be unfaithful. He left me with those words and walked away. "Young man, if you want to make a name for yourself and drive a luxury car home, then come with me. If you want to die over a trivial amount of money, then don’t bother; it proves I misjudged you."

Yes, four thousand was a fortune for my poor family, but to him, it was nothing. This man, my future mentor, was involved in tomb raiding. "To seek a dragon, one must survey the entwined mountains; each twist represents a barrier, and a locked gate hints at nobility residing within." From the moment I followed him under the overpass, I was in the business. It wasn’t long before I realized he was right: a few thousand was trivial, indeed achievable in minutes.

Do you often hear about the four major tomb raiding sects? Touch Gold Captain, Move Mountain Hermit, Unload Ridge Hercules, and Excavate Hill General. The reality is different; these sects have long disappeared into history. Nowadays, tomb raiders mainly split into two factions: the Northern Faction and the Southern Faction, also jokingly called the bold and the cautious. The Northerners are fearless and aggressive, ready to dig anywhere with their Luoyang shovels but aren’t good at navigating water caves, especially in the southern provinces like Hunan, Guizhou, and Zhejiang. These caves could be dry for a thousand years, wet for ten thousand, or semi-moist for half a year. The water-filled caves are challenging, requiring the skills of a water monkey and sometimes professional diving equipment.

The Southerners, often family groups of fathers and sons or grandfathers and grandsons, rarely work with outsiders, thus earning them the label of the cautious faction. This of course, is to avoid betrayal among their ranks. The field is mixed with all sorts of people. The competent ones are truly formidable, capable of reciting burial scriptures and determining sites at a glance. Then there are the pretenders, wielding a hoe daring to dig up graves; these are the ones who die the fastest and are caught the most.

Let me explain a typical six-person tomb raiding gang. The one who earns the most is the 'eye,' responsible for locating and evaluating tombs—a skilled task indeed. Then there’s the 'rice seller,' who handles converting the unearthed items into cash; this role demands extensive connections. Following them are the diggers, valued for their experience with a Luoyang shovel to determine the age of the burial site. Next is the lookout, crucial for a successful operation, sometimes blending in with locals a year in advance under pretenses like running a supermarket to gain their trust. The logistics officer handles all equipment needs without entering the tomb to avoid exposure. Lastly, the 'soil scatterer,' the role I first took on—less risky, highly anonymous, perfect for a common face like mine. Who would suspect a teenager aimlessly walking a dog? If you’re too distinctive, you’re unfit for the role. You might not even finish scattering the soil from your pants before you're spotted. After the job, we quietly split the money, unnoticed by anyone.

The old man who introduced me to this line of work was called Wang Xiansheng, known in the trade as Wang Batou. It was said that he had explored over a thousand grand tombs throughout his lifetime, ranging from the eras of the Warring States and Han dynasty to those of the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Among these, two types of tombs were particularly coveted by tomb raiders: Han dynasty tombs and Western Zhou dynasty tombs. The reason was simple: the bronze artifacts and ancient jades found within these tombs were incredibly valuable. There's a saying that goes, "Out of ten Han tombs, nine are empty," which couldn’t be truer. Western Zhou tombs, on the other hand, were even more formidable. In an age where feudal lords were abundant and extravagant burials were the norm, stumbling upon a deep pit filled with bronze artifacts from a Western Zhou lord could set you and your descendants up for life without needing to work.

Similarly, Western Zhou tombs are among the deepest from any era, buried well before Emperor Qin Shi Huang unified the six states and established the trend of constructing massive burial mounds. These Western Zhou burial sites were typically deeper than fifteen meters underground and did not have visible mounds, making them hard to locate and even harder to excavate.

Officially, the sale of bronze artifacts is prohibited by authorities, but everyone in the trade knows the truth. Where do all the bronzes featured in TV appraisal shows come from? Inherited bronzes account for less than one percent of all such artifacts; could the rest have magically appeared? They all originate from our line of work.

When Wang Batou first took me away from Beijing, he advised me to avoid any contact with the outside world for the time being. My first job under him was in Shunde, working on a Western Zhou tomb. Due to a severe shortage of hands, Wang Batou had picked me specifically to handle the task of dispersing soil, making me the youngest member of our group.

Upon arriving in Shunde, Wang Batou handed me a thousand yuan as a traditional initiation bonus, telling me to spend it however I liked, even suggesting I could spend it on female companionship. Being barely older than a boy at the time, I didn’t dare consider such things. Instead, I spent the money on local delicacies like snake soup, four-cup chicken, pan-fried fish cakes, and steamed pork from Jun'an—all of which were delicious.

After hanging around Shunde for a couple of days, Wang Batou summoned me and said, "Yunfeng, tonight's the night we make our move. Are you ready? Have you remembered everything I taught you?" I nodded and recited, "Don't scatter soil at dawn, when there are vehicles around, near parks, or where people congregate." Wang Batou nodded in approval and asked, "So where do you plan to scatter?" After thinking it over, I replied, "Next to construction sites, in demolished houses, inside forests, and among gardens."

"Ha, not bad! I haven't even taught you those yet. You've got a sharp mind," he laughed. "Stay clever and keep working with us. I promise, within two years, you'll be the richest man in your village. Got it?" My face lit up, and I eagerly nodded in agreement.