The Mysterious Encounter in the Corridor

"Gao Xianzhi? Is he famous?" Zhang Jinya asked me naively, "Why do you seem so surprised when you mention this person?"

Not just Zhang Jinya, but Rosa and Qingyi also looked puzzled.

Somewhat speechlessly, I said, "Fatty, you explain to them!"

"You do it," Fatty replied, scratching his head awkwardly and chuckling, "I only went to school for a few years. After graduating from junior high, I hung around in society for two years before joining the army. When I returned from the military, I started tomb raiding. Asking me about historical matters is just looking for trouble, isn't it?"

These illiterates...

I shook my head with a wry smile. How could they not know such a famous person? I dare say, if we go out and claim to have found Gao Xianzhi's tomb, it would immediately attract a large number of archaeologists here to excavate!

The reason is simple: Gao Xianzhi was definitely one of the most outstanding generals during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, Li Longji. Along with Li Sisheng, they were known as the empire's twin pillars. His boldness in using troops, the unpredictability of his marches, and the ferocity of his combat were incomparable to ordinary generals, on par with Huo Qubing from the Western Han period. During his time, several wars of Tang Dynasty's external expansion were fought by him, defeating Tubo to capture Little Bolu, conquering Samarkand and Tashkent, flattening the Western Region's Stone Country, and solidifying the Tang Dynasty's absolute hegemony in Central Asia. Although the Battle of Talas was a failure, it was not due to his command errors. In fact, that battle would have been difficult for anyone to win. The Tang army had traveled thousands of miles and was not large in number. They unexpectedly encountered the army of the Arab Empire. Although it is still unclear how many troops the Abbasid Caliphate of the Arab Empire deployed at the time, judging by their expansion, it was probably several times the size of the Tang forces. Plus, during the battle, the vassal army, which was the army of the Tang Empire's subject nations in the Western Regions, defected on the battlefield. The disparity in that battle was simply too great, and Gao Xianzhi's defeat was understandable!

In fact, although he was defeated, he also frightened the Arabs. After that, the Abbasid Caliphate did not dare to lead troops eastward to invade the Tang Empire until its demise. Otherwise, the Tang Empire would not have been able to calmly suppress the An Lushan Rebellion later on.

However, this man was not very fortunate. During the An Lushan Rebellion, because he did not bribe the supervising army Bian Lingcheng, he was hated by many and was framed for cowardice in battle, leading to his execution by an imperial edict.

If he had not died, the Tang army would not have suffered a defeat at Tong Pass during the suppression of the An Lushan Rebellion, and the Tang Dynasty would not have begun its decline due to the rebellion. The subsequent period of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms might not have occurred, the establishment of the Song Dynasty would be questionable, the decline of Han civilization might not have happened, and whether the Mongol and Qing armies could have breached the Great Wall is also debatable!

Honestly, entering the tomb of such a person truly surprised me. This man had a significant impact on the entire history of China. Not to mention anything else, just this mural depicting Gao Xianzhi's life would be enough to make many archaeologists ecstatic!

Although I was somewhat frustrated with the cultural level of my teammates, I still explained Gao Xianzhi's story in full. After all, we were in his tomb, and knowing more about this person could only be beneficial.

After I finished speaking, Qingyi's expression turned ugly, "You mean to say, this man was deeply loved by his soldiers, and many soldiers even lost their will to fight after his death?"

"Yes, Gao Xianzhi was one of the most outstanding generals during the Tianbao era. Isn't it normal to have such a phenomenon?" I nodded and, seeing Qingyi's troubled expression, couldn't help asking, "Is there a problem?"

"The problem is significant..." Qingyi shook her head with a cold expression, "The tombs of famous generals from ancient times are often dangerous after their death. Do you know why? Because they were deeply loved by their soldiers in life, so after their death, many soldiers would be buried with them. Generally, if too many people are buried in one place, it's bound to cause trouble!"

Is that so?

Hearing this, my heart skipped a beat. When Gao Xianzhi was wrongfully executed, his soldiers nearly rebelled against the Tang Dynasty. The most important thing in ancient times was loyalty, and in the virtues of loyalty, filial piety, propriety, and righteousness, loyalty was the foremost. Given the circumstances at the time, there were probably many who were willing to be buried with Gao Xianzhi after his death!

Although human sacrifice had been abolished in ancient China since Shang Yang's reforms during the Qin Dynasty, and subsequent dynasties continued this practice to cultivate the population and strengthen national power, even incorporating it into national laws, it was never completely eradicated because many of the sacrifices were voluntary, willing to be buried with the person they served loyally!

If ordinary generals had soldiers buried with them, how could Gao Xianzhi lack such a following?

I had overlooked this point, but now that Qingyi mentioned it, I felt a chill. The Ten Extremely Dangerous Tombs in the Qinling Mountains were located on a cursed dragon land, a breeding ground for filthy things. With so many ancient soldiers buried with Gao Xianzhi, how could it be good?

This tomb is extremely dangerous!

"Let's forget about that and act now?" Zhang Jinya clamored, "Don't forget our mission this time. We must enter the main tomb of the Ten Extremely Dangerous Tombs to understand the situation there. Otherwise, having such a tomb here is really worrisome. According to the previous situation, eight of the tombs here have been destroyed. That means if we want to enter the main tomb, we must destroy the remaining two, and Gao Xianzhi's tomb is one of them. We have to take the risk. Instead of discussing these meaningless things now, we might as well take it one step at a time. When soldiers come, we block them; when water comes, we cover it with earth!"

Mission?

Hearing this, my heart stirred, and I couldn't help but take another look at Zhang Jinya and Qingyi. They knew the dangers of the Ten Extremely Dangerous Tombs, yet they still ventured in without hesitation. Could it be just for that mission? What kind of organization was this "Heaven" they belonged to?

While I was full of doubts, Wu Fatty spoke up, "I think Lao Zhang is right. To enter the main tomb, we must secure Gao Xianzhi's tomb. Let's first explore his main chamber! It's just a pity, Gao Xianzhi was a loyal and good general. According to the rules of our tomb raiding code, we can't take anything from the tombs of loyal and good generals, otherwise, we could have taken some nice items!"

With the two of them saying this, we thought about it and indeed had no better solution at the moment, so we nodded in agreement and pushed open the stone door of the side chamber to leave.

Outside the side chamber was a long corridor leading in three directions.

"Let's take the middle path!" Fatty said, "The middle path leads to the main chamber, and the left and right paths should lead to the ear chambers. If there are soldiers or concubines and maids buried with Gao Xianzhi, they should be in the ear chambers. So let's not touch the left and right ear chambers; it's easy to cause trouble. We'll go to the main chamber to explore the situation, find the feng shui eye to suppress the evil energy, and that's it. Then we'll deal with the last tomb, and the main tomb of the Ten Extremely Dangerous Tombs will reveal itself!"

Fatty said this, and we had no objections. However, Fatty, who seemed careless, was actually very cautious. He didn't enter the corridor directly but first threw his backpack forward. After seeing no movement around, he finally took a step, picked up the backpack, and threw it out again, only moving forward after seeing no issues.

I knew Fatty was probing the path. The corridors in ancient tombs are the most likely places for traps. Once pressure is applied, they are immediately triggered, and both poison and flying arrows are particularly deadly.

However, no such traps appeared in Gao Xianzhi's tomb. Fatty probed the way ahead, and we followed behind without incident, walking more than a hundred meters past the intersections leading to the left and right ear chambers.

"Woof! Woof woof!"

At this moment, Heizi, who had been quiet, suddenly barked furiously, turning around and snarling at me with a terrifying frenzy.

I knew Heizi, and this was a sign of its attack!

Heizi would definitely not attack me, nor would it roar at me, so this meant...

Suddenly, my heart sank. Could it be something behind me...

At that moment, all the hairs on my body stood on end. Instinctively, I gripped the handle of my broadsword, but before I could draw it, I felt a strong force from behind pushing me forward, causing me to fall onto Heizi, pinning down the dog that was about to leap out. It felt as if... someone had pushed me!!!