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Chapter 323: Does the Tomb Raider Exist?

Du Yu was well aware of the importance of capturing Xiling, so he sent a group of elite troops to launch a surprise attack on the place.

Zhang Zheng thought that Du Yu had just taken office and would not launch an attack immediately, so he did not strengthen his vigilance. However, he never expected that Du Yu would suddenly send troops to launch a surprise attack.

As a result, they were defeated without any preparation.

Du Yu did not attack again after the battle, but instead tried to figure out Zhang Zheng's intentions. He guessed that Zhang Zheng would not report the battle situation truthfully because he was afraid of being punished, and he could use this to kill someone with a borrowed knife.

He knew that Wu's ruler Sun Hao was suspicious by nature and did not trust many ministers. So he sent people to send the prisoners of war from Xiling to Jianye, the capital of Eastern Wu. As he expected, Sun Hao directly replaced Zhang Zheng with Liu Xian, and the replacement of generals and commanders further disturbed the morale of the Wu army.

Seeing that the opportunity had come, Du Yu immediately wrote to Sima Yan requesting to go to war. However, Sima Yan became indecisive because of some remarks made by the anti-war faction, and finally postponed the plan to destroy Wu until the next year.

When Du Yu saw Sima Yan change his mind, he wrote two letters to express his opinions. Finally, it was because of Zhang Hua's persuasion that Sima Yan agreed to go to war.

Afterwards, Du Yu, because of his good command and repeated ingenious strategies, first took Jiangling and then fought for Jingzhou. He also cooperated with the imperial troops from other regions to launch a siege on Jianye, the capital of Sun Wu.

The entire course of the war of destruction was completely in his expectation. In the end, the Western Jin Dynasty ended the state of division since the end of the Han Dynasty and the Three Kingdoms, and China was unified again. In this battle, Du Yu killed and captured 14 senior officials of the enemy and as many as 120 mid-level officials.

It is precisely because Du Yu's knowledge is like a weapon, combining literary strategy and intelligence in one person, that he is honored as "Du Yun". Therefore, he is listed in the two temples of civil and military affairs, and is even described by some modern people as a modern time traveler.

[Does the tomb-touching lieutenant really exist in history? Is Cao Cao really the ancestor of the tomb-touching lieutenant? Historical trivia and historical figures]

Did the tomb-robbing sects that appear in novels, such as Mojin Xiaowei, Faqiu Tianguan, and Banshan Daoren, really come from Cao Cao in history? Does the saying "people light candles, ghosts blow out the lights" really exist?

Is it really that weird? In this video, we will learn what the tomb-raiding lieutenants described by Tianxia Bachang were like in real history.

The story begins with the tomb of Liu Wu, King Xiao of Liang. Liu Wu was the grandson of Emperor Gaozu of Han, Liu Bang, and the younger brother of Emperor Jing of Han. He was named King of Liang in 168 BC.

Because Emperor Jing of Han took special care of Liu Wu and Empress Dowager Dou was particularly fond of him, and because he had once judged the Rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms, according to the records in "Records of the Grand Historian: The Family of King Xiao of Liang", Liu Wu possessed enormous wealth.

After his death, more than 40 kilograms of gold were hidden in the palace. Liu Wu had a prince named Meng, who never succeeded to the throne, but his mausoleum was as high as that of an imperial mausoleum, covering an area of ​​nearly 700 square meters, and contained countless treasures.

It was not until the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty that Yuan Shao, in order to have a legitimate reason to attack Cao Cao, asked Chen Lin, one of the Seven Sages of the Jian'an Period, to write an "Exhortation to Yuan Shao" on the eve of the Battle of Guandu.

The article enumerated Cao Cao's various crimes, meaning that in order to solve the problem of military pay, Cao Cao personally led his troops to dig up the tomb of King Xiao of Liang, not only destroying the coffin but also looting the burial objects in the tomb.

There were even special positions for tomb robbers, such as the Lieutenant General of the Faqiu Sect and the Lieutenant of the Mojin Sect, who were responsible for carrying out tomb robbery. The remains of the tomb owner would be exposed in any tomb they visited.

As we all know, the Han Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety. As a social moral concept, "filial piety" had a great influence on Han Dynasty society, including that after a person died, his family would try their best to arrange a lavish burial.

Therefore, under the tradition of "the dead are the greatest", digging up people's ancestral graves would certainly be condemned by the world. However, Cao Cao always regarded himself as supporting the Han Dynasty, and everything he did was in the name of the emperor, which shows how much he valued his reputation.

Cao Cao was such a treacherous hero in history that he never let others get their hands on him easily. In times of crisis, even if he wanted to touch someone else's grave, he would not set up a special position of tomb robber to blatantly carry out tomb robbery.

To put it another way, if Cao Cao really created the tomb-robbing lieutenant and the general of the tomb-robbing department, there would be more historical records of such a bad behavior. However, the record of Cao Cao's tomb-robbing only appears in Yuan Shao's historical records, so Yuan Shao is suspected of smearing Cao Cao.

In 1992, my country launched an archaeological excavation on the tomb of King Xiao of Liang and unearthed more than 2 precious cultural relics, including the famous Jade Clothes with Gold Threads.

This is enough to prove that the tomb of King Xiao of Liang was not robbed on a large scale. What Chen Lin said in "A Letter to Yuan Shao" was more like a political slander against Cao Cao. Regarding Cao Cao's tomb robbing, there is indeed only one side of the story from Yuan Shao.

Although the position of "Xiaowei" is recorded in official history, it was actually established by Liu Ziye, the deposed emperor of the Southern Song Dynasty. During his reign, Liu Ziye was extremely licentious and killed ministers. His character was so wild and unrighteous that he was killed after only two years in office.

According to records, Liu Ziye, influenced by Chen Lin's "Exhortation to Yuan Shao", actually established the two official positions of Mojin Xiaolie and Faqiu Zhonglang Jiang, and put Jin'an King Liu Xiuren and Shanyang King Liu Xiuyou in charge of them.

Apart from this, there is no historical record about the official positions of tomb robbers in the official history, let alone the idea of ​​any sects. At most, they can be divided into official tomb robbers and civilian tomb robbers.

In this case, is it true that the saying "people light candles and ghosts blow out the lights" was true for the tomb-raiding lieutenants set up by Liu Ziye? The novel describes it this way: When the tomb-raiding lieutenants were robbing tombs, they had to light a candle in the southeast corner of the tomb before robbing the tomb.

If the candle suddenly goes out, the valuables must be put back to their original places, and one must kowtow three times to the tomb owner before leaving empty-handed. This exudes a strange aura.

Tianxia Bachang once clarified this, saying that the saying "Don't touch gold when the lights are out" was completely made up by him and did not exist in history. In fact, the tomb-touching lieutenants were just ordinary troops, but with different purposes.

Of course, there are some people who understand Feng Shui. The fundamental reason for the existence of "people light candles, ghosts blow out the lights" is just a test of the lighting and air in the tomb.

If the candle suddenly goes out after being lit, it means that people will be at risk of hypoxia after entering. Therefore, the real tomb raider is not as mysterious as in the novel. It is just made more exciting by the author under the real historical framework.

[None of the 17 imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty was spared, and Li Shimin's remains were never turned over. Was he really the mastermind? Historical trivia and historical figures]

He was the biggest tomb robber in history. He robbed all 17 imperial tombs of the Tang Dynasty, and even the body of Emperor Taizong of Tang, Li Shimin, was not spared.

But is this eternal sinner the real mastermind of this operation? Is there a secret behind him? In this video, we will learn about Wen Tao, the biggest tomb robber in history.

Wen Tao's birth year is unknown. He was a native of Liang during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. His ancestral home was Jinzhou Huayuan, which is today's Yaozhou, Shaanxi.

The reason why this person appeared in the history books was not because he was proficient in literature or had made military achievements, but because of his notorious tomb-robbing behavior, which was especially hated by modern archaeologists.

The New History of the Five Dynasties has the following record about Wen Tao: He was a bandit when he was young, and later attached himself to Li Maozhen and became the commander of Huayuan Town. He assumed the surname Li and the name Yantao.

From this we can guess that when Wen Tao was young, he either made a living by stealing, or he often engaged in robbery and looting. More seriously, he may have engaged in tomb robbing when he was young.

Although history books do not clearly record the meaning of the word "thief" in his name, it is not difficult to draw the conclusion through the following events.

At that time, Li Maozhen was a warlord in the Five Dynasties period and had very strong power. Wen Tao therefore joined him and even changed his name to Li Yantao, and got the position of governor of Yaozhou.

It can be seen that he was quite good at flattering. However, Wen Tao was very good at changing his attitude according to the situation. In 901, Li Maozhen and the eunuch Han Quanhui met Emperor Zhaozong of Tang, and Zhu Wen, the founder of the Later Liang Dynasty, led his troops to besiege Li Maozhen in Fengxiang.

In order to save himself, Wen Tao surrendered to the Later Liang Dynasty on the condition of surrendering Yaozhou. But not long after, he betrayed the Later Liang Dynasty for unknown reasons and returned to Li Maozhen's army.

Li Maozhen not only did not blame him, but he reused him again and appointed him as Jiedushi.

After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the Later Liang Dynasty had entered the period of the last emperor Zhu Youzhen. Wen Tao once again betrayed Li Maozhen and defected to the Later Liang Dynasty. As before, Wen Tao was not punished for his previous rebellion and also became the governor of the Later Liang Dynasty.

You should know that the Jiedushi at that time had full authority to manage the military, civil and administrative affairs of a certain region, which shows how great his power was.

Here, we have a question: As a fickle and opportunistic villain, why was Wen Tao able to sit on such an important position as a Jiedushi after repeatedly betraying both forces?

This brings us back to the word "steal" mentioned earlier.

We speculate that the fundamental reason why Wen Tao was able to leap from a thief to a Jiedushi with enormous power was not because of his ability to flatter, but because he had mastered the skills of tomb robbing when he was young, which was what Li Maozhen and the people of Houliang valued.

If he was just an ordinary thief, with neither literary nor military skills, he would not even have the chance to meet Li Maozhen, let alone become a military governor. Therefore, the word "robber" in his name most likely refers to tomb robbery. The following events further prove this point.

When it comes to tomb digging, Dong Zhuo, the famous Han Dynasty thief, and Sun Dianying, the great thief of the Eastern Tomb, are each a leader in the tomb-robbing world, but they are nothing compared to Wen Tao.

There were 21 emperors in the Tang Dynasty from Emperor Gaozu Li Yuan to Emperor Ai Li Yu. Except Emperor Zhaozong Li Ye who was buried in Yanshi, Henan, and Emperor Ai Li Yu who was buried in Heze, Shandong, the remaining 19 emperors were buried in Guanzhong.

Since Wu Zetian and Emperor Gaozong of Tang were buried together, there are only 18 Tang tombs in Guanzhong, commonly known as the Tang Tombs. The largest of them is the Zhaoling Mausoleum where Li Shimin and Empress Wende were buried together. However, Wen Tao became the nightmare of the Tang Tombs.

The New History of the Five Dynasties records that during the seven years that Wen Tao served as Jiedushi, he visited 7 Tang tombs and took away all the gold, silver and jewelry.

Among them, Li Shimin's Zhaoling Mausoleum was the most solid. After his death, he left many precious authentic calligraphy and paintings by famous artists as burial objects. However, Wen Tao, who was illiterate, regarded these priceless works as waste. After taking away the silk on them, he tore up the rest, including Wang Xizhi's authentic "Lanting Preface", which disappeared.

Afterwards, Wen Tao mobilized 10,000 people to prepare to excavate the last part of Qianling Mausoleum in broad daylight. But just as they were about to start, a violent storm suddenly struck, and everyone was blown to the ground.

Wen Tao had no choice but to leave. Strangely, as soon as the people left, the sky cleared up instantly. Wen Tao organized another excavation, and heavy rain hit again. After this happened three times, Wen Tao was a little scared and dared not to dig anymore. Qianling Mausoleum thus escaped a disaster.

However, the matter did not end there. In addition to stealing gold, silver and jewelry and destroying original works, Wen Tao even dismembered Li Shimin's body.

It was not until the Northern Song Dynasty that Prime Minister Zhao Pu spent a lot of money to recover some of Li Shimin's relics and sent them to Zhaoling for burial. It stands to reason that Wen Tao had already stolen a lot of treasures, so why did he not even let go of a corpse?

This can only mean one thing: he was not the biggest beneficiary of the tomb robbery, he could only get a small part of the profit. That's why he sold Li Shimin's body.

In addition, Wen Tao also compiled a list of stolen treasures and made it public. Although the Five Dynasties was a very chaotic period, such blatant behavior would certainly be condemned by everyone.

Could he really be so stupid? Also, if Wen Tao could not get support and permission from the rear, it would be impossible for him to carry out such a large-scale tomb robbery alone.

So can we assume that in order to survive in troubled times, Wen Tao helped his masters to destroy the Tang family mausoleum and brought the infamy of being a tomb robber on his masters?

After the fall of the Later Liang in 923, Wen Tao defected to the Later Tang and bribed Empress Liu of the Later Tang, which resulted in him being reused again. Three years later, Li Siyuan, the Mingzong of the Later Tang, succeeded to the throne. He thought Wen Tao was cunning and had committed tomb robbery again, so he ordered his arrest and imprisonment.

Later, for unknown reasons, Li Siyuan pardoned Wen Tao and returned him to the countryside. But not long after, Wen Tao was stabbed to death, and the mass grave became his final resting place.