497: Chapter 497 Contradiction

"Those are all fabrications by later generations. The hundreds of thousands of prisoners responsible for building the underground palace were all sealed inside. Who truly understands the situation inside?" Old Qin shook his head.

"What exactly is it like in there?" Oriental Chen persisted, trying to find loopholes in his words.

"The underground palace has long since completely collapsed due to its age. The older generation of archaeologists, after 5 years of secret efforts, finally restored its original appearance. In reality, there's nothing mysterious about it; the entire underground tomb is a conical structure, narrower at the bottom and wider at the top. At the very bottom is the First Emperor's sarcophagus, with a passage leading to the outside. Above it are multiple tomb chambers connected by spiral passages, which should have had different functional divisions. Unfortunately, since all the burial objects were stolen, the specific purpose of those tomb chambers is no longer known," Old Qin briefly explained.

"Old Qin, don't lie to me. Seventy thousand people sealed in a passage—how wide would that passage have to be?" Oriental Chen countered.

The number seventy thousand comes from historical records.

"Why would I lie to you? Indeed, a massive collection of skeletons and a large number of arrows were found at the passage exit," Old Qin added.

"Old Qin, then tell me, what exactly were those Terracotta Warriors used for? Also, are there any more similar Terracotta Warriors inside the Qin Emperors Mausoleum?" Oriental Chen asked.

"What, you didn't learn this in school? Aren't those Terracotta Warriors burial objects for the First Emperor? All Chinese people know that! As I just said, there are indeed some broken terracotta figures in the imperial mausoleum, but not many. From their appearance, they are all inner officials and palace maids," Old Qin answered.

It sounded plausible.

"Old Qin, it's not that I don't believe you, but your words have too many loopholes."

"First, let's talk about these terracotta figures. Are they burial objects? I don't think so. The Records of the Grand Historian describe the process of Qin Emperor's burial, and there's no mention of these terracotta figures at all. If Qin Emperor used terracotta figures instead of human sacrifices, it would be a groundbreaking move—wouldn't it deserve a prominent mention in the Records of the Grand Historian?"

"Furthermore, you just admitted that hundreds of thousands of people were also buried in the imperial mausoleum. That's hundreds of thousands of people! Do you call this using terracotta figures instead of human sacrifices? Isn't that contradictory?"

"We all know that Sima Qian would rather suffer castration than fail to complete this epoch-making work, which shows his unwavering resolve and meticulous writing. The First Emperor's burial happened first, followed by Xiang Yu's grave robbery. For him, these were events from only a few decades prior. He wouldn't have known nothing, would he?"

"Besides, these people weren't his relatives, so there was no need for him to conceal anything for them! So what does this indicate?" Oriental Chen expressed his thoughts.

"Indicate what?" Old Qin glared at him.

"It indicates that these terracotta figures are not burial objects at all, and it's even very likely that they weren't buried at the same time," Oriental Chen stated his deduction.

"What baseless claims! Alright, I've said what I needed to say, you can leave now!" Old Qin didn't want to continue the discussion.

This was only because Oriental Chen was now effectively his own nation. If it were anyone else, Old Qin probably wouldn't have wasted so much breath.

"When the burial was completed, some said that the artisans knew the secrets of the machinery, and if the secrets were revealed, the treasures would be stolen. When the great work was finished and the burial completed, the middle passage was closed, the outer passage gates were lowered, and all the artisans who knew the secrets were sealed inside, none ever emerging again. Trees and plants were planted to resemble a mountain." Oriental Chen recited a passage from the Annals of the First Emperor.

"What are you saying?" Old Qin stared at him.

"Old Qin, these more than 700,000 artisans were sealed outside the underground palace, am I correct in understanding that?" Oriental Chen asked, seemingly out of nowhere.

"That's right," Old Qin nodded.

"Do you know how much space 700,000 people standing together would need? Let me calculate for you."

"Assuming one person occupies 0.25 square meters when standing, 700,000 people would fill 175,000 square meters of land. What does that concept mean?" Oriental Chen looked at him.

"What concept?" Old Qin still didn't understand what he meant.

"That's equivalent to a square with sides of 420 meters, while the main body of this imperial mausoleum is only a square with sides of 370 meters," Oriental Chen explained.

"And then?" Old Qin asked.

"Please tell me, Old Qin, how large an area did the collection of skeletons at the passage exit that you mentioned occupy?" Oriental Chen stared at him and asked.

"This... you can't calculate it that way; people can be stacked, so how could they occupy such a large area?" Old Qin retorted.

"I just said that these people were sealed inside, not killed and then put in, so naturally, they couldn't be stacked together," Oriental Chen shook his head, disagreeing with his view.