How did the grave robbers find the ancient tomb?

On the one hand, stealing ancient tombs depends on people's skills and experience; On the one hand, it is operated by tools. In the old society, the tools of poaching were shovels, picks, shovels, axes, torches and candles.

Tomb-robbing techniques can be summarized into four words: looking, smelling, asking and cutting.

"Look" means looking at Feng Shui. Old grave robbers are experienced and good at geomantic omen, so wherever they go, they should first look at the terrain and see where the ancient tombs that were destroyed on the ground are. As long as it is a real treasure trove of geomantic omen, it is usually a big tomb with many treasures in it.

"Smell" means smell. Grave robbers with this magical skill specialize in the olfactory function of the nose. Before digging, he turned over the surface soil of the tomb, took a pinch of tomb soil and put it under his nose to smell it fiercely, so as to distinguish whether the tomb was stolen from the smell of the soil and judge the age according to the color of the soil.

"Asking" means stepping on the spot. People who are good at this way often dress up as Mr. Feng Shui or fortune teller, travel around the world, pay special attention to beautiful places and places they have been to, and pretend to be high officials. They are generally eloquent and good at chatting with old people. Wherever I went, I visited the local old people as a fortune teller or feng shui master, and got the information and location of the ancient tomb from the conversation.

"Qie" means feeling the pulse. It refers to how to find the direction of digging a hole and enter the coffin in the shortest distance after the discovery of an ancient tomb. This kind of kung fu requires not only rich experience in robbing tombs, but also a keen sense of observing things.

People who are good at this method often locate the coffin accurately according to the terrain direction, such as taking people's pulse, and then making a hole in the tomb from the slope to the head and tail of the coffin to steal the funerary objects. Zeng Guofan's tomb was stolen in this way a few years ago.

Extended data:

The routine of grave robbers robbing graves:

First, look at the terrain.

"Look at the terrain" is very mysterious. People who don't know can't see it when they walk by the grave. People who know the trick can see it a few kilometers away. Some grave robbers "like" to go out for a stroll in snowy days, especially like the snow with "fine snow particles". The reason is related to "soil".

Soil is divided into "ripe soil", "living soil" (also called "flower soil") and "dead soil". Experienced grave robbers can tell at a glance whether there is an ancient tomb here, or even at a glance what era it is.

Second, dig a hole

After exploring the location, the next thing to do is to dig a hole.

Grave robbers will seal the hole when they finish their work. Some holes are only as big as manhole covers. Look down when you open it, go straight for more than ten meters, and there is no end in sight in the dark winter.

Third, enter the grave.

Generally speaking, the arrangement of tombs and artifacts in any dynasty has its own rules. If you look at the tombs of the Han Dynasty, the Eastern Han Dynasty or the Western Han Dynasty, you will know where the coffin should be, where the pottery is buried, where the metal utensils are, what will be in the ear chambers on both sides, and so on.

When you really go down, go straight there and dig in the past (Han tombs are generally collapsed, and they are full of soil, which is actually soil, moving forward in the soil and everything is in the soil). Generally, expensive funerary objects will be placed in the coffin of the tomb owner, with the left shoulder and right foot.

References:

Baidu encyclopedia-tomb robbery