The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 408 Liu Zhaosun Returns

"Your Majesty, when can we go out? The guards will go crazy if we wait any longer! Also, we'll have to catch rats when the food runs out."

Emperor Wu Ding believed that he was not the reincarnation of Bear or De Ye (although he had extremely strong vitality), nor could he swallow a bamboo rat in one gulp like someone else. So, he said to Zhang Mazi:
"Remember not to eat rats. There might still be plague out there. Mazi, have you forgotten how Prime Minister Yang died?"

If Yang Hao, the chief minister of the Great Qi Cabinet, had not contracted the plague on the eve of the city's fall, he would probably be hiding in this sunless imperial mausoleum passage with Liu Zhaosun Zhang Mazi and others, barely surviving underground five or six feet below the ground.

After Yang Hao contracted the plague, in order not to implicate others, he finally chose to stay alone in the Guang'anmen City Wall, and turned into a black dot in the explosion.

Emperor Wu Ding originally asked Master Lei to build the tunnel so that he could enter the mausoleum more easily and mourn his deceased wife.

Unexpectedly, at the last moment, the secret passage actually served as an escape route. Perhaps everything is destined.

The mausoleum is located in Jundu Mountain in the suburbs of Beijing. This mountain winds from the southwest. The east and west mountains on both sides are Qinglong Sand and Baihu Sand, the peaks behind them are mountain protection sand, and the east mountain mouth is water mouth sand. It has all the dragon, cave, sand and water in Feng Shui.

The mausoleum was the work of Ke Zhen'e, the best Feng Shui master in the Great Qi Dynasty, and was built by the workshop's master craftsman Lei.

The imperial mausoleum took three full years to build, and when Zhu Youxiao was exiled to Jeju Island by Emperor Wu Ding (then still the Protector of the State), it was still halfway completed. After Zhang Yan was poisoned to death, Emperor Wu Ding insisted on burying his beloved woman here despite the opposition of his ministers.

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Perhaps his father-in-law's choice was right, Liu Zhaosun thought. Yang Hao died in the explosion peacefully without any pain.

And he has to live underground without seeing the sun, neither human nor ghost.

At the last moment, Emperor Wu Ding drank three bowls of "Dayuan Drink" prepared by Imperial Physician Wu, and then walked down the tomb passage.

The shock wave caused by the explosion rushed along the tomb passage into the tomb chamber.

Liu Zhaosun walked at the end. When he closed the stone door, a huge energy hit him from behind and knocked him over like a hammer.

Emperor Wu Ding fell into a coma on the spot.

He was in a coma for three days and three nights.

The world outside is undergoing tremendous changes.

The plague swept across North China, almost wiping out Li Xianzhong and his army of over 100,000 bandits. The Tang regime existed in name only. The Qi Dynasty, founded by Liu Zhaosun, was on the verge of collapse. The remnants of the Qi army fled to Liaodong or moved towards Linqing. Those who did not escape were killed by the bandits. Du Du of Liaodong allied with Korea in a rebellion, aiming to wipe out the Kaiyuan army. Meanwhile, the small Hongguang court in the south began to stir, preparing to launch a northern expedition that was destined to go down in history...
Liu Zhaosun woke up from the severe pain, surrounded by a large group of guards. The twelve guards were the last to follow the emperor. Before the emperor had time to feel too sad, he realized that his current situation was very bad:

The huge explosion caused the tomb chamber to collapse, and the bluestone slabs blocked the exit of the tomb, cutting off the way to the ground. There was only a tiny ventilation hole on the top of the tomb, more than ten meters above the ground. People standing under the tomb passage could only see the sky above their heads.

Fortunately, the food, fruits and vegetables stored in the imperial mausoleum were enough for them to eat.

Thanks to Emperor Wu Ding's deep love for his imperial concubine (Zhang Yan), the emperor often sneaked into the secret passage. A considerable amount of food and fresh water was stored in the mausoleum. In addition, before entering the tomb passage, the chef Tan Er took two guards to the imperial kitchen and brought some more food...

Liu Zhaosun was worried that he would be exposed to nuclear radiation - if the explosion was really caused by a nuclear bomb.

However, this worry did not last long, because he soon discovered that some terrible changes had occurred in himself.

His skeletal muscles were stronger and his pain sensitivity was reduced. When the tomb passage collapsed and a stone hit his arm, he didn't feel any pain. Instead, he easily pushed the boulder away!
Liu Zhaosun thought about it for seven days and seven nights, but he couldn't figure out why he was still alive and living a better life!
Finally, reason told me that the only reasonable explanation was:

The decoction prepared by Wu Youke and the radiation from the Big Bang occurred at the same time, causing some kind of quantum mechanical reaction in him, causing his body to mutate...
In short, after waking up, Emperor Wuding became more powerful and had a stronger ability to withstand blows. The old injuries on his ribs from the bloody battle of Hunhe were also healed without treatment.

The exhilarating feeling was like swallowing a bottle of King Kong Powder passed down from Kang Jianjun's ancestors in one gulp, of course, excluding some unspeakable physiological reactions.

The author's words are not enough, but later generations have poems to prove it:

The Imperial Mausoleum of Conscience Refuge, the Light of Humanity Old Popsicle.

Liu Zhaosun was devoted to the people and was a brave and skilled fighter in the Kaiyuan Army.

Taizu started with only one gun, and had to rely on robbing for equipment and supplies.

The queen searches for her husband Bai Yueguang, and the prince flees to another place after ascending the throne.

Of course, the only side effect was that Liaodong Wu Yanzu's originally black and shiny hair turned a little gray. As time went by, the number of white hairs on his head became more and more, just like the lice on his subordinates. The Legend of the White-Haired Witch?
Fortunately, Emperor Wuding always wore a crown, and the light in the tomb was dim, so no one noticed the changes in the emperor.

"Of course I know about the plague, but if I don't get out now, my brothers will really go crazy."

Liu Zhaosun patted Zhang Dong's shoulder. In the dim candlelight, he found that the pockmarks on Ma Zi's face had become more numerous, obviously due to skin disease caused by the humid air.

"Don't worry, Zhang Mazi, I will definitely cure your pockmarked face when we get out."

Through the gaps in the glazed tile vents, Liu Zhaosun saw that it was late in the evening. The sky was overcast with dark clouds floating around. The moon appeared and disappeared among the dark clouds. The night wind blew the dead branches and leaves in the woods, like the howling of ghosts and wolves.

"Once the tomb door is opened, I will take you out. No matter what is outside, I will take you out..."

After Emperor Wuding finished speaking, he left Zhang Dong behind and walked silently into the depths of the tomb.

Walking through a dark and gloomy tomb passage, the air was filled with a disgusting stench of decay. Thirteen grown men had been eating and drinking in this imperial mausoleum for more than a month. Although the mausoleum was spacious enough, the hot and humid weather in the capital during May and June made the ground a battlefield. Thousands of corpses were rotting, and all kinds of strange smells mixed together.

Liu Zhaosun covered his nose and quickly passed the arched tomb passage under the ventilation duct, passed the two locked large stone doors, and walked past the brackets engraved with brick carvings of phoenix tail patterns. Finally, he came to the main tomb chamber.

Under the illumination of the whale oil lamp, a gold-painted coffin with the words "Empress Xiaozhen Chunqinren Duansu Bitianzuosheng" written on the lid suddenly appeared in front of the eyes. Under the gold-painted outer coffin, there was a nanmu coffin with golden threads. Zhang Yan, who had been dead for more than half a year, was now lying quietly in this expensive nanmu coffin.

Liu Zhaosun came to the coffin, lifted up his sleeves to wipe the mud off his hands, and stroked his wife's coffin. His bones creaked all over his body, like a beast about to explode.

"Zhang Yan, I'll be leaving once the tomb passage is opened. From now on, you'll be the only one staying here. Don't worry, I'll take good care of Kan'er..."

He left Zhang Yan's tomb and returned the same way to the front-line construction site. A group of guards who looked like dead wood were wielding pickaxes and shovels, digging stones like crazy.

Liu Zhaosun looked at this group of loyal subordinates and couldn't help but shed tears of emotion.

The guards were soaked in sweat and were still waving their pickaxes. When they saw the emperor coming, they turned around and saluted.

Liu Zhaosun waved his hand to let everyone sit down and asked his subordinates to save energy. He took the pickaxe from a guard and smashed it hard at the pile of rocks that had formed a mountain. Under the emperor's huge force, sparks flew from the pickaxe in his hand, and the surrounding rocks retreated at a speed visible to the naked eye.

~~~
Liu Zhaosun had no idea what the outside world was like, but one thing was certain: the capital city after the nuclear radiation was definitely not a habitable place for humans.

More than a month of underground life without seeing the sun has made these most elite guards listless and unrecognizable.

Liu Zhaosun dug for a long time, but could not see the end.

He had already made up his mind that it would be better to get out than to go crazy in the tomb. Nuclear radiation is not as scary as imagined. It is said that the day after the atomic bomb exploded in Hiroshima, some people went to get off work normally.
"I wonder what happened to Jin Yuji and Kan'er, I wonder if Li Xianzhong is dead, I wonder what happened to the Shaanxi Army..."

These days, countless questions have been lingering in the emperor's mind.

He became more and more eager to escape from this gloomy and cold tomb, return to the ground, return to his empire, and start the great journey of conquering the world.

Suddenly, a strange sound came from the pile of rocks.

"stop!"

The time traveler who was mutated by nuclear radiation shouted at the guards to retreat.

Amid the panic-stricken eyes of the crowd, Liu Zhaosun put his ear to the pile of rocks and listened like a mole.

After waking up, in addition to his muscles and bones, his hearing and vision were also strengthened to a certain extent.

Perhaps these were God's compensation for the time traveler's ill-fated fate. Sometimes, he would console himself in this way.

The sound of gunpowder explosions was clear to the ears.

"Get your weapons, the thief is outside!"

(End of this chapter)