130: Chapter 130 The First Emperor's Underground Palace

If Zhao Fusu were to build the hot air balloons himself, he wouldn't be able to do anything else.

After all, he was only one person.

If Great Qin wanted to develop, it would require the combined efforts of millions of its people to build their home together.

Zhao Fusu had always believed that compared to modern people, the ancients were not inferior in intelligence. In terms of theory, they were also not inferior to modern people.

The ancients were only inferior to modern people in terms of technology.

If the ancients had the opportunity to learn modern technology, they would not lose to modern people.

The Gongshu Family excelled in mechanical manufacturing. By giving the detailed information on manufacturing hot air balloons to the Gongshu Family for research, Zhao Fusu believed that as long as the Gongshu Family studied it diligently, they would surely be able to create them.

He would just be responsible for providing the funding.

Zhao Fusu still had a large number of matters to attend to; for instance, there was only one week left until the date of the First Emperor's funeral.

He had to understand the construction progress at the First Emperor's tomb.

The First Emperor's body had been lying in state for a long time. If the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang still couldn't meet the burial conditions, was the First Emperor's great golden coffin supposed to remain in the Xianyang Palace forever?

Zhao Fusu shook his head; one does not keep a coffin at home indefinitely.

Therefore, Zhao Fusu decided to go to Mount Li to see the current situation of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

After handing over the hot air balloon project to the Gongshu Family, Zhao Fusu boarded his steel carriage drawn by six prized horses and headed toward Mount Li.

The scale of Qin Shi Huang's tomb was immense, equivalent to the size of seventy-eight Forbidden Cities.

At its peak, the number of people building the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang reached seven hundred and twenty thousand!

Even now, the number of laborers at the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was as high as three hundred thousand!

The construction of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang had been ongoing for thirty-five years.

Construction had already begun when Qin Shi Huang first ascended the throne.

Over all these years, the number of people building the tomb had remained above three hundred thousand year-round.

One could imagine what a massive engineering project this was.

The Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was built modeled after the layout of Xianyang, roughly in the shape of the character ' times'.

The entire mausoleum park could be divided into four levels: the underground palace, the Inner City, the Outer City, and the area beyond the Outer City.

The underground palace was the core part of the mausoleum park, located beneath the sealed earth in the southern half of the Inner City.

The Inner City could be called the key construction area of the mausoleum park, containing side halls and auxiliary buildings, burial pits for the harem, pits for rare birds and exotic beasts, hundred-battle terracotta warriors, the food official palace complex, the park temple officials' quarters, and garden pits.

The status of the Outer City was slightly lower compared to the Inner City, containing the park temple officials' quarters and so on.

Beyond the Outer City were the world-renowned Terracotta Army pits, stable pits, the convict graveyard, stone processing plants, pottery kilns for making terracotta warriors, bronze waterfowl burial pits, and animal pits, which held the most peripheral status in the mausoleum area.

The total area of the entire Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang from the inside out was 56.25 square kilometers!

Zhao Fusu sat in the carriage, looking at the surrounding building complexes and the laborers who were working intensely against the clock.

He had already traveled a long distance within the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

Without navigation, he didn't even know exactly where he was within the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

He could only look at Mount Li to the south of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang and see the two rivers flowing down from Mount Li—one being the Hot Spring River and the other being the Fish Pond Water.

These two rivers surrounded the entire Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

To the north of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was also the Wei River.

The entire Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang was surrounded by water on three sides and backed by Mount Li to the south.

This perfectly matched the Feng Shui characteristics described by the ancients as 'leaning against the mountains and surrounded by water'.

For Zhao Fusu, the place that attracted him most was the underground palace of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

This was the core of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang.

Seven hundred and twenty thousand people had once dug tunnels and built the underground palace here.

One could imagine how deep this underground palace had been dug.

Xiang Yu had once led an army of three hundred thousand, wanting to dig open the underground palace, but he did not succeed.

The reason was that if you wanted to dig open the underground palace, it would take at least a dozen years.

Xiang Yu entered Xianyang in 207 BC and committed suicide at the Wu River in 202 BC; he simply didn't have enough time to dig open the First Emperor's underground palace.

Time gradually passed.

Zhao Fusu finally arrived at the entrance of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang's underground palace.

In his past life, Zhao Fusu had visited the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang as a tourist.

At that time, what he saw was a massive burial mound.

The height was about fifty-five meters.

At this moment, what was before Zhao Fusu's eyes was not some burial mound.

It was a massive nine-story corridor building.

Each story of the corridor building was built upon a massive rammed earth mound.

In order to better understand the First Emperor's tomb, Zhao Fusu had specifically called Cui Wenzi over to act as his guide.

Cui Wenzi said, "This is the observation deck for His Majesty the First Emperor's soul to wander."

"Oh, I see!"

Zhao Fusu nodded.

"His Majesty the Head of State, do you wish to enter the underground palace?"

Cui Wenzi inquired.

"Sure."

Zhao Fusu said.

If one were to name the most mysterious place in the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, it would be the underground palace.

Now that he had the chance, he naturally wanted to go and take a look.

After entering the underground palace and walking forward for about a dozen meters, the light gradually faded.

The soldiers began to light torches for illumination.

This corridor was arched, about three meters high and five meters wide.

Walking inside, Zhao Fusu was still somewhat afraid of whether it might collapse.

Zhao Fusu looked around; the surroundings were built with bluestone and Qin Bricks.

After walking for roughly a hundred meters, there was a long flight of stairs leading downward.

Zhao Fusu followed the stairs down, and after walking about ten meters, he reached another platform, then walked forward for dozens more meters before continuing down the stairs.

The path ahead was pitch black, and in this enclosed space, Zhao Fusu's heart inevitably beat faster.

Not just him, the soldiers who came with him were all the same.

In the deep underground burial corridor, besides their footsteps, they could also hear their own heartbeats and breathing, as well as the crackling sound from the burning torches.

Zhao Fusu was also very impressed by the construction techniques of the ancients. He had walked for so long that he estimated they were twenty meters deep underground.

But he saw that the surrounding structure was still very sturdy, with no signs of collapse.

To avoid feelings of fear in the claustrophobic space, Zhao Fusu asked the chief design engineer of the Mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang project, Cui Wenzi, how this underground palace was built.

"During the excavation of the underground palace, we pierced through Three Springs."

"Three Springs?"

Zhao Fusu was curious.

"Correct."

Cui Wenzi nodded.

He had been involved in the construction of the First Emperor's underground palace since he was a young man, and now he had become an old man.

It could be said that he had exhausted his life's blood to build the First Emperor's underground palace.

"Could you explain in detail?"

Zhao Fusu inquired.

"As you command."

Cui Wenzi began to introduce the construction process of the First Emperor's underground palace to Zhao Fusu.