Chapter 46: The Great Eastern Mausoleum Plunderer

Chapter 46: The Plunderers of the Eastern Tombs

Qin Yuan and Li Shoumin’s family walked and chatted, strolling like tourists toward the bustling city gate, which was packed with countless carriages and horses.

Qin Yuan swept his gaze across the scene.

Every time there was a flight from the city, one could always encounter a large crowd of high-ranking officials and wealthy merchants.

The upper class had always been the most astute.

Qin Yuan was certain that every single one of them had family members operating businesses or holding properties in the south.

Should he take this opportunity to rob them of a fortune?

After a moment of thought, Qin Yuan abandoned the idea.

Ever since he obtained the eight million taels from Wei Ting, silver had become nothing more than a mere number to him.

Ah, isn't that Yang Huzhan?

Old Brother Huzhan truly is a man of our kind.

Qin Yuan did not walk over to greet him.

Just as he stepped outside the city gates, Qin Yuan spotted another acquaintance.

It was Lord Li’s daughter-in-law.

Back then—cough, cough—let’s not bring up the past.

They were both getting on in years.

However, the young maiden by her side was quite pretty.

Qin Yuan spared her a few extra glances.

Several days later.

The group finally arrived at Malanyu, Sun Laodian’s garrison.

Along with Li Shoumin and the Sun family, they were arranged to stay in a village.

The village was called Huangjia Village, a typical northern village surrounded by a moat, with only a single large bridge leading to the outside world.

At night, the entire Huangjia Village was pitch black.

Yet inside the grand courtyard of the wealthy landowner, Master Huang, it was brightly lit.

Sun Laodian, his face covered in pockmarks, was sitting in a grand Taishi chair and cursing incessantly.

"Damn it, if this keeps on going, it won't be long before we eat through all our provisions and sit idle."

Despite suffering a disastrous defeat, Sun Laodian still had over four thousand men under his command.

Among them were quite a few martial artists, whose appetites were many times greater than those of ordinary men.

The more Sun Laodian thought about it, the more his head ached.

He drove all the attending servants out of the room.

Noticing that one person still hadn't moved.

His gaze turned dangerous. "Brat, do you dare to disobey this general's orders?"

"This humble servant happens to have a solution,"

said Qin Yuan, who was disguised as Hu Wan, the leader of Master Huang's thugs, while bowing submissively.

Sun Laodian narrowed his eyes. "Let's hear it."

His rough hand rested upon the hilt of his saber.

If this brat couldn't give him a proper, concrete answer,

he would hack him down with a single stroke.

Qin Yuan stretched out a finger and pointed in the direction of the Eastern Tombs. "Inside the imperial tombs, there is no shortage of gold, silver, and jewels."

"Dig up the imperial tombs?"

Sun Laodian was taken aback.

Since ancient times, only rebel armies driven to the brink of starvation would ever resort to excavating imperial tombs.

"This method won't do, this method won't do..."

Sun Laodian shook his head like a rattle-drum.

Not to mention the backlash if word got out, which would ruin his reputation,

the Qi imperial clan and the remnants of the previous dynasty would never let him off easily.

"I heard from an old eunuch who guarded the tombs and died many years ago that the bottom of the Empress Dowager's coffin is covered with a layer of brocade mattress inlaid with gold thread and precious stones, adorned with twenty-five catties of small pearls, eighty-five red gemstones, and two hundred and three pieces of white jade; on top of the brocade mattress lies another silk mattress, paved with two thousand four hundred round pearls; and over the silk mattress is yet another thin beaded mattress, completely covered with thirteen hundred pearls."

"Gulp, gulp..."

Sun Laodian swallowed hard, his eyes bulging out of his head.

An unnatural flush spread across his face.

It looked as though he had fallen ill.

"The Empress Dowager was dressed in a colorful embroidered robe and jacket woven with gold thread containing five thousand nine hundred and twenty pearls and one thousand one hundred and thirty-five gemstones; upon her head she wore a phoenix coronet, entirely encrusted with pearls, topped with a single precious pearl weighing four liangs, as large as a chicken egg, valued at ten million taels of silver."

"Stop talking!"

Sun Laodian abruptly stood up, his eyes bloodshot, and breathed heavily as he declared, "I am definitely digging up this imperial tomb!"

Sun Laodian truly deserved his reputation as an ambitious warlord who had clawed his way up from the very bottom; his efficiency was astonishing.

Before dawn broke,

he led three thousand men carrying torches, marching aggressively and imposing toward the Eastern Tombs.

Upon seeing the shattered walls and ruined remnants scattered everywhere, Sun Laodian was dumbfounded.

Someone had beaten them to it.

Qin Yuan was also somewhat surprised.

What Qin Yuan did not know was that ever since the great battle years ago, treasures had been scattered all over the Eastern Tombs.

This had attracted an unknown number of thieves—villagers, refugees, beggars, bandits, gentry, traveling merchants, garrison troops...

Aside from the underground palaces, which were harder to crack, the treasures had basically already been looted by others.

Sun Laodian shot a murderous glare at Qin Yuan, who had sent him on a wild goose chase, and was just about to shout the command to retreat.

Qin Yuan said with absolute certainty, "The real treasures are hidden deep underground in the subterranean palaces."

"Manager Hu is right,"

chimed in an old veteran with a background in grave robbing.

Sun Laodian’s expression shifted like a chameleon as a smile returned to his face. He said to Qin Yuan, "Stop messing around in old Huang's household; follow this general, and I guarantee you'll be promoted and get rich."

"Thank you, Great General."

Qin Yuan put on an expression of extreme excitement.

"Great General?"

Sun Laodian was momentarily stunned, and the way he looked at Qin Yuan became even more favorable.

Then, Sun Laodian encountered a difficult problem.

The soldiers under his command did not dare to dig.

Although the Hun Dynasty had fallen, the sacred awe of imperial authority was still deeply rooted in everyone's minds.

Some even whispered about what they should do if the Qi family returned with the help of the Ancestral Ginseng.

Sun Laodian was no pushover either. First, he claimed that what he was doing was carrying out the unfulfilled will of Governor Wei, making everyone's actions a matter of righteousness.

Then, he dismissed the existence of the Ancestral Ginseng.

His reasoning was watertight: if such a thing truly existed, how could it have possibly stood by and watched the Hun Dynasty perish?

Finally, Sun Laodian repeated all the immense wealth that Qin Yuan had described.

It made everyone's hearts race with excitement.

So much treasure—they had never even heard of such a thing, let alone seen it.

Sun Laodian then patted his chest and promised that every single brother would receive at least five thousand taels worth of treasure.

A month's military pay was merely two taels of silver; how many years would it take to earn five thousand taels?

The roughnecks couldn't calculate the exact math, but they knew it was an astronomical sum.

"Let's do it!"

"Let's do it!"

Qin Yuan reminded him, "Keep the surrounding villagers under close watch first, so as not to leak the news."

Sun Laodian gave Qin Yuan an approving look and shouted loudly, "Monk Wei!"

"Here!"

"Take two hundred men and place the villagers of the surrounding few villages under guard. Make up any excuse you like."

"Yes!"

The two hundred men quickly departed.

Excavating an imperial tomb was not something that could be dragged out, so Sun Laodian wasted no time and immediately led his men to the entrance of the Empress Dowager’s underground palace.

Upon stepping inside,

whoosh, whoosh, whoosh... a volley of arrows rained down.

Several men were instantly killed.

"Be careful!"

Sun Laodian’s face was as dark as an iron pot; they hadn't even made it through the door, and several men were already dead.

The soldiers following closely behind were all extremely tense.

Not long after advancing, the group was blocked by a massive Vajra wall.

Just as Sun Laodian was preparing to dig through it by force, the veteran grave robber shouted loudly, "We don't need to go in through the entrance of the underground palace!"

Sun Laodian called the old veteran to his side, and upon asking, he learned that the earth piled over the tomb had been backfilled during construction.

It could be dug into directly.

Though the reason was unclear, digging straight down presented no problem at all.

"Then dig straight down from above! To work!"

Over two thousand men went into action simultaneously, a scene terrifying to behold.

A massive mound of earth began to sink at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Sun Laodian turned around, only to wonder—wait, where had Hu Wan, who had been following right behind him all this time, gone?

He scanned his surroundings, but Hu Wan was still nowhere to be seen.

"Has anyone seen Hu Wan?"

"He said he had a stomachache; he must be squatting somewhere taking a dump,"

someone replied.

Hearing this, Sun Laodian shifted his attention back to the underground palace.

On a hillside twenty li away,

"This distance is more than safe enough, and the view is very clear."

Qin Yuan sat cross-legged, closed his eyes, and waited for the outcome.