Reborn As Super Heiress

Chapter 1393: Chapter 1378: Opening the Floodgates

Huo Sining couldn’t explain too much to Su Qingqing, as the matter hadn’t yet been concluded, and she didn’t want to speak recklessly.

However, thinking back on what she had just seen underwater, Huo Sining felt that there seemed to be many mysteries hidden in this reservoir’s ancient tomb.

Previously, Huo Sining had seen underwater ancient tombs before. In fact, Emperor Kaiyuan of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, had set an ancestral tomb underwater.

The Ming Ancestral Tomb is located on the west bank of Lake Hongze, Jiang Province, and is the burial site for Emperor Taizu of Ming’s great-grandfather, great-granduncle, and grandfather’s tomb as well as his grandfather’s actual burial site.

This ancient tomb has been hidden underwater for hundreds of years, and to this day, the underwater tomb remains intact, preserving its original appearance.

However, Zhou Shitao had once commented that the location of the Ming Ancestral Tomb was not ideal.

It wasn’t located beside a high mountain or great ridge but in a hillock area known as “Nine Ridges and Eighteen Hollows.”

In theory, with the geomancy master Liu Ji at his side, Zhu Yuanzhang must have known that the site of the Ming Ancestral Tomb wasn’t a perfect eternal auspicious land, yet he still buried the ancestral tomb at Lake Hongze.

The definition of ancient geomancy states that the terrain, topography, and landscape of a feng shui site should have a bright hall in front of the key point and also consider the three wonders and four responses.

The so-called three wonders refer to mountains, water, and a bench; the four responses refer to front, back, left, and right.

The left and right should have protective sand, “sand” referring to earthen or rocky hills; there should be a Luo Cheng, formed of mountains or water, surrounding all sides; far away, there should be a facing mountain, nearby a bench mountain, forming a Luo Cheng with mountains, forming the four formations of left Azure Dragon, right White Tiger, front Vermilion Bird, and back Xuanwu for the best configuration; if there are no mountains around, a flat plain should utilize the water flow to form a dragon (water dragon), with a wetlands encirclement as superior.

From this, it’s determined that besides a watery land around the Ming Ancestral Tomb, there isn’t much notable merit.

However, the tomb in this reservoir is completely different from the Ming Ancestral Tomb; surrounded by mountains and water and even accompanied by court officials in burial, this specification is evidently a notch higher than that of the Ming Ancestral Tomb.

Thus, Huo Sining couldn’t help but speculate, could this tomb be the hidden burial of some Emperor from the Ming Dynasty?

About the owner of this tomb, the first person Huo Sining speculated was Zhu Yuanzhang.

The initial capital of the Ming Dynasty was Nanjing, and historical records indicate that after Zhu Yuanzhang’s death, he was interred just a few days later. The exact time of Zhu Yuanzhang’s death is also recorded quite vaguely in the historical books.

After Zhu Yuanzhang’s death, it was his eldest grandson Zhu Yunwen who hosted the funeral for him, and Zhu Yunwen’s chosen burial time was criticized by both official and folk history for being “too hasty, with things not entirely reasonable,” suspected to be for obfuscation, intentionally misleading.

If based on The Record of the Great Governance of the Ming Emperor and other historical records, could a founding monarch be buried just a few days after his death be considered normal? So, upon hearing that his nephew hastily buried his father, Zhu Di was quite angry, and this provided him with the first reason to usurp and seize power shortly thereafter.

Regarding Zhu Yuanzhang’s death time, official and unofficial histories all have different accounts, saying it’s either the 9th, the 5th, or the 17th of the intercalary May in the Hongwu 31st year.

Why is it that the death time of a monarch lacks a definite conclusion and has so many different accounts? Logically, the death of an Emperor should be clearly and accurately recorded by the historians; why is the historical record written so ambiguously?

Huo Sining thought it was very likely a ruse set by Zhu Yuanzhang himself to create an illusion and befuddle the world, making it challenging for others to find his tomb and thus evade tomb Raiders’ excavation and theft.

The greatest underground constructions in Huaxia history have always been imperial tombs.

From ancient times, tombs have been known to hide treasures, though many Emperors couldn’t have predicted that their desire for resting in peace with abundant wealth in the afterlife would have led to grave-robbery centuries later, with even their corpses disturbed.

Zhu Yuanzhang, being originally from humble beginnings, having been a refugee, bandit, and even a shaved monk, had lived through many hardships and likely witnessed first hand the looting of an imperial tomb or a distinguished official’s burial by tomb robbers, thus he became vigilant and deliberately set a befuddling array to obscure his true location after death.

Though most historical books speculated that Zhu Yuanzhang’s tomb was hidden in the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum, Huo Sining disagreed.

Given Zhu Yuanzhang’s cunning and sly nature, it wouldn’t make sense for him to obviously bury himself in a place likely to be visited by tomb robbers at any time, even though the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum was meticulously designed with a Big Dipper “spoon head,” “spoon body,” and “spoon handle” layout, the whole royal mausoleum being complex and myriad, yet Huo Sining still felt that the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum might not be Zhu Yuanzhang’s true resting place at all.

Because to this day, experts in charge of surveying the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum’s layout haven’t been able to pinpoint the burial spot of Zhu Yuanzhang or even locate the main burial chamber.

A vast mausoleum, with no tomb Raider “visits” certainly seems improbable, that Zhu Yuanzhang’s burial spot being compromised is likewise not impossible, but in recent years, archaeologists using precision detection technology discovered that the underground layout of the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum is intact without any traces, meaning Zhu Yuanzhang himself “hid away,” without being discovered.

Of course, whether this underwater mausoleum is indeed Zhu Yuanzhang’s or belongs to someone else entirely, these are merely Huo Sining’s speculations.

When Xie Daoyuan led the main team to the suburbs, Huo Sining told Xie Daoyuan everything she knew. Upon learning there could be a large ancient tomb complex under the water, Xie Daoyuan immediately frowned.

After several Cultural Relics Bureau officers consulted with the reservoir’s contractors, Xie Daoyuan’s proposal of flood discharge and water removal to empty the reservoir was finally approved, and soon, water from this large reservoir was drained through open floodgates.

Over two consecutive days, the reservoir’s water storage was thoroughly emptied, and soon, the ancient tomb complex that had been asleep at the reservoir’s bottom reemerged into daylight.

Archaeological work carefully commenced, with Huo Sining assigned as Xie Daoyuan’s assistant, along with Su Qingqing; the two of them participated in the ancient tomb excavation work.

On the afternoon of the second day, when the reservoir’s water was completely emptied and preparations for all aspects were ready, and the archaeologists were about to step in, Huo Sining unexpectedly received a phone call from He Chaoying.

Huo Sining felt puzzled; since the last time at gambling on the high seas, she hadn’t kept in touch with the He sisters. Although He Chaoying and Ouyang Jun were currently in a passionate romance, Huo Sining always felt that people like the He sisters had little connection to her life, so she never thought of having further contact with them.