A doctor who travels through two eras

Lintong County, Xinfeng Commune.

When Lin Sanqi climbed to the top of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum mound, he was completely soaked in sweat.

Lin Sanqi was the only one climbing the mountain in the sweltering summer heat. Oh, and there were also dozens of cadres at all levels accompanying Lin Sanqi to search for the Terracotta Warriors, as well as staff from the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Team.

Standing atop the earthen mound, Lin Sanqi felt it was just an ordinary small hill, so he asked curiously:

"Director Liu, approximately how deep is the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum?"

Director Liu replied, using his straw hat as a fan:
"The mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang is right under the mound of earth beneath our feet. How about that? Doesn't it feel amazing? Haha."

The underground palace is 35 meters below ground level, 170 meters long from east to west, and 145 meters wide from north to south. Both the main structure and the burial chamber are rectangular. The burial chamber, located in the center of the underground palace, is 15 meters high and roughly the size of a standard football field.

Lin Sanqi was taken aback. He had been to the Ming Dingling Mausoleum before, and the underground palace there didn't seem to be that big.

"Wow, the underground palace is so big! How many treasures must be stored inside?"

Director Liu then pointed to the area around the earthen mound and said:
"Last year, our cultural relics bureau conducted the first comprehensive archaeological survey of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum and drew up the first plan of the mausoleum. According to the survey, the mausoleum covers an area of ​​56.25 square kilometers, which is equivalent to nearly 78 Forbidden Cities."

Lin Sanqi picked up the binoculars and looked around, focusing on the northeast corner.

"Director Liu, I don't think your Shaanxi Province is doing a very good job of protecting the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum. Look, it's all surrounded by rural areas, with no walls or toll booths. It's completely abandoned."

Director Liu gave an awkward smile:

"We can't protect them all. There are too many imperial tombs in Shaanxi Province. For example, the imperial tombs of the Han and Tang dynasties are almost all in this area. If we were to protect them all, the finances simply couldn't support it."

Lin Sanqi thought to himself that he actually knew the truth about a few imperial tombs.

For example, Emperor Wen's mausoleum is not actually located at Phoenix Mouth, but at the Jiangcun Tomb not far away. Because Emperor Wen's mausoleum was neither sealed nor planted with trees, it remained unknown to the public.

In addition, he also knew where the entrance to the underground palace of the Zhaoling Mausoleum of the Tang Dynasty was, which was actually at the "navel of the Buddha," far from the entrance previously speculated by the archaeological team, which was too unreliable.

But Lin Sanqi wasn't here to be a tomb raider this time, so he didn't plan to say anything.

We need to give future archaeological teams something to do; we can't let him do everything himself, otherwise how will they get funding?

"By the way, Director Liu, do you think the underground palace of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum has been looted? You just conducted a full survey, so you should have a good idea of ​​the situation, right?"

Director Liu waved his hand:
"It's certain it was robbed. Look at this tomb, it's right in the wilderness. There was nobody around in ancient times, and dynasties have changed. You could dig it up however you wanted without any consequences. Even the Han and Tang dynasty tombs were robbed, so how could Qin Shi Huang's tomb possibly escape unscathed?"

Lin Sanqi was shocked, thinking that there was indeed a conspiracy, and that someone had covered up this shocking secret decades later.

Who knew that Director Liu would then say:
"However, according to our comprehensive exploration, although we have discovered many tomb raiding holes, one of them has even been dug to a depth of 26 meters in that direction."

Fortunately, none of the tomb raiders dug into the underground palace, so we believe that the underground palace of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum was not looted.

Historical records say that later, a shepherd lost a sheep, which entered his burial chamber. The shepherd held a torch to search for the sheep, but the torch caught fire and burned the burial chamber. These are probably just legends.

Even if, most likely, Xiang Yu burned down Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum, based on our analysis, he would have burned the above-ground structures or some burial pits, not the underground palace.

Lin Sanqi clicked her tongue after hearing this, feeling a little disappointed.

It's estimated that he won't live to see the day when the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum's underground palace is opened. That guy who "looks like a dog from afar" really went too far with what happened at the Ming Dingling Mausoleum.

At this point, Chief Qi grew somewhat impatient and looked at the pomegranate tree planted on the mound, asking:

"Old Liu, is this pomegranate safe to eat?"

"Not yet, it's not ripe enough."

Upon hearing this, Lin Sanqi thought to himself, even if the fruit ripened, he wouldn't eat it. Decades later, there would be research showing that the mercury content in the soil of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum was seriously excessive, and the fruit grown from it would be poisonous.

Upon hearing that it couldn't be eaten, Chief Qi took out his binoculars and looked around:
"Xiaolin, where are the Terracotta Army pits you mentioned? I can't see anything there."

"Oh oh oh!"

Lin Sanqi then came to his senses. He hadn't come for tourism; he was there to find the Terracotta Army. So he quickly pulled out a 1960s map of Lintong County that he had printed out. At the same time, he called over a local commune cadre.

"Hello, could you please tell me which one you mean, Xiyang Village or Maojia Village?"

The local official looked at the map in Lin Sanqi's hand and pointed at it with his finger, saying:
"Sir, this is Xiyang Village over there, and that's Maojia Village, in the direction I'm pointing. You can see them quite clearly now."

Following the commune cadre's finger, everyone looked towards the northeast corner of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum:
“There’s a factory under construction to the east of this mound. Once it’s finished, the Shanghai Sewing Machine Factory will move here. To the east of the sewing machine factory is Maojia Village, and to the north is Xiyang Village.”

Several cadres quickly picked up their binoculars and began to look.

The two villages mentioned by the commune cadres are very close, with a straight-line distance of no more than 3 kilometers.

Lin Sanqi compared the two villages and then set his sights on a piece of farmland in the middle, where a small river happened to flow to the west.

Although at this time there was no indication of what the Terracotta Army Museum would look like decades later, Lin Sanqi was already very certain that this was the place.

Because it corresponds perfectly to the location of the Terracotta Army Museum on a map decades later, except for the village, which is probably due to demolition.

"Director Liu, let's go, take some people, and search the farmland between Xiyang Village and Maojia Village."

Chief Qi and Director Liu exchanged a glance; in truth, neither of them really believed Lin Sanqi's words.

If there really were terracotta warriors under the farmland, it would have been impossible for them not to be discovered after farmers had been cultivating the land for two thousand years.

Unless the terracotta warriors are buried very deep, like tens of meters deep.

But Director Liu was an expert and knew that the burial pits of other imperial tombs were actually buried very shallowly, not very deep, which is why almost all of the burial pits had been looted.

So the two of them just treated it as "accompanying the prince in his studies," following this Commissioner Lin to fool around a bit.

A group of people, some in jeeps and some in trucks, arrived at Xiyang Village under the scorching sun of over 30 degrees Celsius.

When Lin Sanqi got out of the car, he looked back at the tall Qin Mausoleum mound one last time to confirm the distance.

These days, cars are a rare sight in Northwest China. Hearing the sound of a car, many farmers working in the fields gathered around.

Don't ask why we're still farming in this sweltering heat. The answer is that we only get work points by working in the fields, regardless of whether it's a sunny day or a freezing day.

Yang Azhang, the village chief of Xiyang Village, was already waiting, and they introduced themselves to each other.

Lin Sanqi was overjoyed as he looked at the farmland in front of him, because a tremendous opportunity lay hidden beneath it, and he would be the first person in history to discover it.

Thinking of this, the cheerful Lin Sanqi asked the local village chief:

"Village Chief Yang, how many years has your village been established here?"

With a broad smile, Village Chief Yang replied, "Reporting to the leaders, our ancestors have lived here for generations. Just listen to our village name, Xiyang Village, and you'll know it. It's been around for at least 200 years."

Lin Sanqi asked again:

"So you've lived and farmed here for hundreds of years, and you've never dug up anything strange?"

Village Chief Yang was clever; after glancing at the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum in the distance, he replied:

"There are definitely things there, but they're all bottles and jars, like earthenware, not worth much. Things like gold, jade, and silver dollars have never been dug up."

The villagers nodded repeatedly, thinking that even if something was dug up, they wouldn't admit it.

As soon as Lin Sanqi heard that pottery had been unearthed, he knew what was going on. It wasn't that the Terracotta Army had never been unearthed before, but rather that the common people didn't recognize them.

"Village Chief Yang, can you find any of these pottery shards now?"

Village Chief Yang looked around, then personally ran to the edge of a field, dug out several shards of pottery from underneath, and brought them over:

"Boss, look, these are all like this. These aren't tiles, they're not jars; we locals call them 'earthen pots.' Some say they're formed from broken ancient clay Buddha statues." (End of Chapter)