As an emperor of thousands of years, Qin Shi Huang's talent is not only reflected in the military unification of the six kingdoms, the southern conquest of Baiyue, and the northern war against the Xiongnu. In terms of construction fortifications, no emperor can match, build the Great Wall to resist foreign enemies, and build a spiritual canal to connect the Yangtze River and the Pearl River system. Qin Shi Huang had many legends in his life, including his mausoleum, which also left many mysteries for future generations.
In 247 BC, Qin Shi Huang, who was only 13 years old at the time, ordered the chancellor Li Si to start building an imperial tomb for himself. The mausoleum was located at the top of Mount Li in Shaanxi Province, and the project, which shared 720,000 manpower before and after, was not completed until two years after the death of Qin Shi Huang, that is, in 210 BC, which took a total of 39 years.
The excavation of the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin has actually been carried out all along, and its scale is huge, covering an area of about 80,000 mu and a large number of funerary items. The Terracotta Warriors and Horses Burial Pit alone became the "Eighth Wonder of the World", not to mention his main tomb.
There is also a legend about the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang - there is a large amount of mercury in the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, like a million rivers and rivers. In addition to the rumors of the wild history and the people, even the "History" has relevant descriptions. However, because there is no accurate data record, it is difficult to say how much exaggeration there was in the language of the ancients.
However, some experts have inferred that first of all, the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang must have stored mercury weighed by tons. It is recorded in the texts we can find that during the qin shi huang period, there was a widow named Qing in Bashu, whose name was BaQing. She was the richest woman in the Qin Dynasty, and even Qin Shi Huang called her "big sister". Her wealth was mainly based on the dansha produced in the land of Bashu, which was the main mineral source for refining mercury in ancient times.
According to historical records, Guang Baqing alone provided more than 100 tons of mercury to the Tomb of the Qin Emperor. Because no one else has recorded how much mercury was provided to the Qin Emperor's mausoleum, experts estimate that the mercury in the mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor is at least 100 tons.
In addition, if it is rumored that there is real mercury, this liquid metal at room temperature is bound to penetrate into the soil and volatilize into the air. Experts tested the fruit trees and soil on the mountain.
It turned out that both the soil and the fruit trees had ultra-high mercury levels. Although the pomegranate tree that grows on the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang can grow normally and blossom and bear fruit, it is not unusual, but it is never dare to eat.
So since experts have a lot of speculation, painstakingly consulting the classics, observing the mountains, stones, grass and trees, why not dig up the mausoleum early to find out? It turned out that a painful thing had happened in the history of Chinese archaeology. In 1956, Guo Moruo proposed to excavate the Ming Tombs, and the leaders readily agreed. However, at that time, both archaeologists and literati were not very familiar with the tombs of Chinese emperors. As a result, after the mausoleum was excavated, the cultural relics were lost significantly.
After 300 years of unsealing of Dingling, after entering the fresh air, the calligraphy, paintings, and satin inside quickly decayed, and some even turned into air after a glance. And because after the completion of the archaeology, it was not sealed well, resulting in the invasion of the Dingling Tomb by tomb thieves, and the bones of the emperor and queen inside did not exist.
In this incident, everyone learned a bitter lesson, and the leader ordered that the excavation of imperial tombs be prohibited. Therefore, even if the Mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin is a fragrant feast, and there are countless people who want to find out, as long as the technology is not mature enough to preserve the precious cultural relics in the imperial tombs in the mausoleum, Chinese archaeologists will not take a shot at the destruction of the heavenly objects.
The way the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was built, whether the mercury in it was as much as the experts said, and what kind of treasures were contained in it, after all, left people with endless thoughts.