Qin Official

Looking at the hand stretched out from the ground, Xing hesitated. It was clearly not from their group, but from the attackers.

The voice was a little impatient: "If you don't come up, I will seal the tomb and let you stay with the dead forever..."

As he said that, he was about to withdraw his hand.

"I'm going, I'm going!"

Xing glanced at the hand bones of the dead man that he had trampled on the ground, and made a decision. He didn't want to continue to accompany the corpse in the gloomy tomb. No matter what, they were still human beings.

He jumped up quickly, grabbed the man's hand, and then felt himself being pulled up by a huge force...

After Xing was pulled out of the coffin, before he could take a breath and feel lucky to have come out alive, he was stunned by the scene in front of him.

Under the moonlight, the ground was a mess.

The person who pulled him up was a black man wearing leather armor, a red turban, and holding a bloody sword. He was looking at him up and down.

In addition, there were two people, one was a young man looking for scattered arrows on the ground; the other was a thin soldier wearing armor and holding a spear, looking at several tomb robbers, always with a sullen face, as if someone owed him money.

There were five of Xing's accomplices. Except for one who was lying motionless on the ground with bleeding from his chest, the other four, including their heads with their heads open, were all tied up. And all of them were injured. Either they were hit by an arrow in the leg, or they were hit by a sword in the back...

Before he could figure out what was going on, he was immediately grabbed by someone's arm!

"It turned out to be a little thief. Hey, you scared Nai Gong just now."

The one who pushed him down was the "ghost" with flying sideburns just now. He was not wearing armor and had two halberds on his waist. He found a rope and tied Xingya up.

The black man on the side said: "It's just a little man, Leopard, don't hurt him."

"I know."

It turns out that the four people who suddenly attacked the tomb robbers were none other than Huyangting Heifu and others!

An hour ago, after they left the pavilion, they walked southwest according to the position described by Gongshi Quji.

Before arriving at Chaoyangli, they carefully extinguished their torches, and then quietly walked towards this wilderness. Fortunately, God is kind, and the moon in the middle of the twelfth lunar month will be full, shining in all directions, enough for them to distinguish the direction and identify the way forward.

Once you get to this area, it will be easier, because the torches held by the tomb robbers reveal their location from a distance.

After Heifu gave the order, everyone slowed down and quietly came over. It happened that the tomb thieves were busy carrying the objects in the tomb and were lax on their guard, so Heifu signaled Xiao Tao to draw an arrow and shoot an arrow at the sentry thief! The other three people also rushed forward!

The thieves reacted quickly and picked up the weapons on the ground to resist. Especially the red-faced thief wearing the dead man's dark clothes immediately picked up the crossbow in his hand and aimed at Heifu!

After the hanging knife clicked, the crossbow arrow shot through the air. Hei Fu felt that the wooden shield he was holding was hit by a huge force and almost broke...

"Fortunately, I'm wearing a shield."

After witnessing the power of the crossbow, Heifu was overjoyed. His arms were numb, so he simply abandoned his shield, stepped forward, raised his left hand, and stabbed open with a sword, preventing him from firing the crossbow again.

When Chang retreated and wanted to change weapons, Heifu kicked him to the ground again and put his sword at his throat.

Seeing the leader fall, the remaining people chose to escape after a little resistance.

But the man who ran the fastest was thrown by Dongmen Leopard with his halberd, hit in the middle of his vest, and fell to the ground directly to death...

The other three thieves were so frightened that they could only kneel down and beg for mercy after being stopped by Xiao Tao's bow and arrows and Li Xian's spear.

In this way, in less than half a moment, Heifu and the others captured all the tomb robbers with only Dongmen Leopard slightly injured.

"Except for the red-faced thief who is the leader, all of these people have not received much training, otherwise it would not be so easy."

Heifu breathed a sigh of relief, wiped off the blood on the sword, and put it into its sheath. After all, a tomb robber is a tomb robber. Their skills and specializations are different, and they are far less ferocious than the gangsters who kill people and steal goods.

In this way, they can be considered to have gained both the stolen goods and the harvest, and Heifu has already begun to count the number of thieves and look forward to the rewards he can get...

"It was because Heifu's command was good and allowed us to attack suddenly. That's why it was so easy to succeed."

Dongmen Leopard laughed, picked up the young man like a chicken, and threw him next to his accomplices. Then he excitedly walked to the pile of lacquerware and bronzeware and looked at them with a torch.

"This is the first time I've seen so many good things." He couldn't help but caress the exquisite lacquerware.

"Bao Bao, first of all, the stolen goods must be handed over to the government, so don't have any evil intentions."

Heifu warned Dongmen Leopard seriously and glanced at Li Xian.

The State of Qin had strict requirements on officials. Not only was it a serious crime to take bribes, but keeping stolen goods privately was an unforgivable crime.

If someone here is greedy and steals stolen goods, others will be guilty of the same crime if they don't report it.

In fact, if Li Xian was not here, it would be okay for the three best friends to hide secretly, but now Li Xian is watching from the sidelines. After the anonymous letter incident, although this person has sincerely accepted Hei Fu, Hei Fu does not completely trust him.

Li Xian didn't know Hei Fu's evil intentions. He asked Xiao Tao to look at the tomb robbers, and then he walked over, picked up the tripod with a round mouth, double ears, and many wrinkles on the outside, and frowned as he looked at it. .

The so-called tripod is a vessel used to cook large pieces of cold pork during the Spring and Autumn Period of the Western Zhou Dynasty. By the Warring States Period, ritual utensils had gradually become less common and were rarely used by common people. Only nobles would display them together with the rice gui when serving food or offering sacrifices to show their ancient lineage and noble status...

Generally speaking, according to the provisions of the Zhou Rites, the emperor has nine cauldrons and eight guis, the princes have seven cauldrons and six guis, the officials have five cauldrons and four guis, and the scholars have three cauldrons and two guis.

However, during the Warring States Period, rituals collapsed, and eventually even the Zhou family was wiped out by the Qin Dynasty. No one followed the ancient Zhou rituals. The kings of the Seven Heroes have long begun to use the emperor's chariot etiquette, and the princes of various countries also regard themselves as princes...

The tripod in front of me is a symbol of the noble status of the owner of this tomb.

Actually, from the perspective of people like Heifu, who have been common people in their past and present lives, aren't the so-called ritual utensils just pots and pans? The tripod is used to cook large white meat, and the Gui is used to put small rice. When placed in the homes of ordinary people, it is just an ordinary kitchen item, but when placed in the homes of princes and nobles, it becomes a high-end gadget?

Is the difference between the two determined by blood?

Heifu disagreed. As a modern man, he scorned the theory of blood.

However, people in this era, although they experienced the baptism of the Warring States Period that "prime ministers must be from the state and generals must be from the army", they still firmly believed in the theory of blood. The declining nobles held their heads high and looked down upon them. Anyone of low birth.

Even those civilian heroes, after becoming famous, have to rush to find an ancestor of noble blood for themselves. Or the uncles of princes who enfeoffed various places, or the officials of the Qing clan who were in decline. It seems that if they don't do this, it is not enough to justify their success.

But in fact, this is an era where ability is more important than blood. This is especially true in the Qin State where princes and grandsons cannot obtain fiefs or titles without meritorious service.

"Ask the thief, bring the torch over and light it..."

On the other side, Li Xian felt that he couldn't see the words clearly, so Dongmen Bao reluctantly walked over to help him with the lighting. He also took a peek and saw that the back of the tripod was densely engraved with bronze and seal characters, but it was different from the Qin Dynasty. The small seal script is quite different...

"Can you recognize these ghost paintings?" Dongmen Bao was so confused.

"I don't recognize them all, but I know a few. My family was a Chu doctor decades ago, so when we worship our ancestors, the ancestors' spiritual tablets also have these Chu characters..."

There was a hint of pride in Li Xian's words. He spat and wiped the dirt off the bronze tripod with his sleeves. After taking a closer look, his face changed greatly and he exclaimed!

"oops!"

"What's wrong?" Heifu couldn't help but walked over and asked.

"This tripod is a ritual vessel used by the owner of the tomb during his lifetime. The reason for its casting is engraved on it, as well as his family lineage and official position."

Li Xian excitedly pointed at the bronze tripod and said: "Pavilion Chief, if I guessed correctly, this is the tomb of the Ruo Ao family! I didn't expect that that legend was actually true!"

Li Xian held the bronze cauldron and sighed, but Hei Fu looked confused.

"Ruo Ao, what is that?"