The Omniscient

Chapter 65: The Ruins of Zhuhong

At dawn, a middle-aged farmer hummed a tune as he walked along the ridges of his fields.

When he passed by his plot of land, he casually glanced over—and froze in shock. His body tilted, his foot caught on something, and he tumbled to the ground.

“Who’s the b*****d that dug up my field?!”

Lying there, he saw a massive pit had been dug in the middle of his farmland!

This was outrageous—there were crops growing in that field!

The farmer got up, cursing loudly as he looked around in frustration, stomping his feet in anger.

It wasn’t just his plot; the nearby fields had also been destroyed. The displaced dirt had crushed the crops, leaving an ugly mess behind. The farmer wandered through the surrounding area, muttering angrily, and quickly discovered several slanting dirt tunnels in addition to the massive pit.n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

Unlike the big pit, these tunnels were only about four or five meters deep, as if someone had been testing the ground from various angles.

The farmer wasn’t completely clueless. Even though he’d never done it himself, he had heard of grave robbing before. His first instinct was to crawl into one of the tunnels to see what he could find.

Covered in dirt and dust, he came up empty-handed.

Unwilling to give up, he tried another tunnel—and still found nothing. Frustrated but stubborn, he finally jumped into the largest pit to search there. Again, there was nothing.

“This area’s been farmland for generations. How could there be a tomb here?” the farmer muttered, laughing at himself as he clambered out of the pit. Without wasting time, he went straight to report the incident to the Village Head.

Before long, the entire village had gathered, buzzing with curiosity and discussing whether anyone had seen strangers in the area recently.

The Village Head climbed down into the pit, and immediately noticed something unusual—the surrounding soil didn’t look normal. It resembled kiln-fired clay.

He had someone fetch a shovel and dug a bit deeper, eventually uncovering a piece of jade partially embedded in a patch of dried black mud.

“There’s something here!” a sharp-eyed villager exclaimed from above, his shout drawing the crowd to the pit’s edge.

Everyone watched as the Village Head carefully cleaned the soil away, revealing a palm-sized jade tablet.

Of course, none of them knew it was a jade gui. They just saw an ancient-looking jade object with a sharp upper edge, a flat bottom, and distinct raindrop patterns engraved on its surface.

“Is it an antique?” someone called from above.

The Village Head continued digging with his hands, uncovering a surprising number of artifacts—pottery, stone tools, jade objects, and even bronze items began to emerge from the soil.

Seeing how many there were, he quickly stopped digging and had someone pull him out of the pit.

“Why did you stop? Keep going and see what else is down there!” someone urged.

“No one is allowed to go down there!” the Village Head barked. “Old Li, it’s your field. Call the Cultural Relics Bureau.”

Worried that the village troublemakers might try something sneaky, the Village Head personally stayed behind to guard the site.

The farmer, Old Li, threw down his hoe and bolted toward his house, eager to make the call.

Seeing him run off happily, a few villagers began to feel envious. If the land was confirmed to hold a treasure trove of artifacts, the government would undoubtedly reclaim the area, and Old Li would receive a hefty compensation for the loss of his farmland.

“Didn’t some professor come here to survey the land 20 years ago? How did they miss this? And now the grave robbers got to it first.”

“My field isn’t far from here. Do you think there might be something there too?”

Unable to act rashly under the Village Head’s watchful eye, the villagers dispersed and returned to their own fields. Many decided to take a gamble—pulling up their crops and digging around with shovels to see if they’d strike it rich.

By the time the Cultural Relics Bureau staff arrived, the fields within several kilometers had been dotted with over twenty deep pits, each revealing fragments of artifacts dug up by the villagers.

The experts quickly realized this wasn’t an ordinary burial site. It was an expansive archaeological site. They immediately called in reinforcements and ordered the villagers to stop digging.

The situation escalated throughout the day. By the afternoon, with more staff arriving to secure the area, the true scope of the discovery began to emerge.

“What? You’re saying the pits were already here before the farmer found the site?” one of the officials asked.

It was now clear that the farmer wasn’t the first to uncover the ruins. Someone else had been there during the night, digging several tunnels before leaving at dawn.

This raised serious concerns. The grave robbers might already have a clear understanding of the distribution of artifacts underground.

The authorities decided to hire local villagers to guard the site, as it was too large for their staff alone to monitor effectively.

“Preliminary analysis suggests this is the site of an ancient city,” said a bespectacled professor after examining the pits.

“What? A city? I get it now!” exclaimed another expert above the pit. “The grave robbers must have discovered this site before us. Since it was on someone else’s farmland, they dug under the cover of night. But once they realized it wasn’t a tomb, they withdrew.”

Professor Fang climbed out of the pit and added, “Grave robbers can’t excavate an entire city. All they could do was take what they could in a hurry. Judging by the large number of valuable artifacts we’ve found, it’s safe to assume they made off with quite a bit as well. However, some of their tunnels didn’t even reach the artifact layer. They probably ran out of time.”

“Clearly, these grave robbers were highly skilled. This area has such waterlogged soil, and yet they were able to pinpoint the ruins below,” another expert remarked.

Professor Fang chuckled. “What were the conditions like 20 years ago? Back then, we didn’t have the technology we do now, and the Luo Yang shovel isn’t foolproof. Still, you have to admit these grave robbers are impressive.”

Everyone laughed, acknowledging that cases like this—where grave robbers inadvertently spurred archaeological discoveries—had been quite common decades ago.

Discoveries at archaeological sites generally occurred through one of three methods: state-mandated excavation projects, accidental finds during construction or farming, or the work of skilled grave robbers who "survey" the site first.

While they were discussing this, a young researcher ran over in a hurry, holding a corroded, lump-like object in his hands.

Professor Fang took it and froze. “Old Chen, this isn’t a Neolithic site, is it?”

Professor Chen furrowed his brows and leaned in for a closer look. He had just arrived at the site and spent time speaking with the local villagers, hearing reports of numerous stone and jade artifacts. Based on this information, he had initially concluded that the site was likely from the Neolithic period. However, he hadn’t yet examined the unearthed artifacts in detail.

Now, as he looked at the corroded bronze object in the doctoral student’s hands, he knew immediately something was off. Though heavily rusted, parts of the object were free of patina, revealing intricate patterns beneath the surface. Even from this small glimpse, it was clear that the artifact had been finely crafted in its original state.

This suggested that the site was not from the Neolithic period but a late pre-Shang site where both stone and bronze tools coexisted—no later than the Xia Dynasty.

“Professor, we’ve recovered all the artifacts the villagers found. There’s a large collection of jade and bronze objects,” the young doctoral student reported.

The two hurried over to examine the artifacts and found over a hundred scattered objects on the ground, including jade pendants, jade discs, jade spades, bronze tripods, bronze cauldrons, bronze daggers, bronze bells, and bronze ornaments.

The jade pieces were particularly exquisite, their artistic style distinct from both the Longshan and Erlitou cultures of the region. The decorative patterns were completely different.

“Get an emergency excavation permit immediately. We need to conduct a rescue excavation as soon as possible,” Professor Chen said urgently as he called the director of the bureau.

The director, slightly puzzled, asked, “Old Chen, what’s the rush?”

Professor Chen replied, “We’ve found bronze artifacts! How can I not be urgent? Judging by the extent of the corrosion, the site was submerged in water for a long time. Coupled with the fact that grave robbers have already targeted it, there’s no reason to delay.”

“I understand. The permit will be approved shortly,” the director said, recognizing the importance of the site.

That night, to prevent grave robbers from digging additional tunnels, staff remained at the site to guard it, and local villagers were hired to patrol the area. The night passed without incident, and by early the next morning, the provincial archaeological institute arrived to begin preliminary surveys of the site.

Three days later, land use rights had been transferred, the excavation permit had been granted, and the site had been cleared of unauthorized activity. A professional archaeological team from the province began the first phase of the rescue excavation.

Over four days of continuous work, the pit expanded significantly, revealing more and more artifacts. Each day, enormous quantities of jade, pottery, and bronze items were unearthed.

The sheer volume of pottery was astonishing—over 200,000 pieces had been excavated in just a short period! Bronze artifacts came second, with over 16,000 pieces discovered, the majority of which were weapons.

Unfortunately, most of the bronze items were severely damaged—not by human activity but by water erosion. Geological evidence indicated that the site had been rapidly buried under sediment during a catastrophic flood.

However, there was a silver lining. Because the city was engulfed in mud and sand so suddenly, the architectural structures were remarkably well-preserved. The entire city had been buried intact, making it possible to reconstruct its original appearance through careful excavation.

As the excavation progressed, the team became increasingly puzzled. The site revealed extensive clusters of smelting and pottery workshops, covering an area of 200,000 square meters—a scale rarely seen.

The unprecedented size of the industrial zone led some archaeologists to question whether this was truly an ancient city. If it was, why did it consist almost entirely of smelting and production facilities?

“This could very well be a city dedicated to forging and manufacturing. It’s definitely not the capital of any particular culture,” one expert speculated.

“Could it be the industrial center of the Xia Dynasty?” another suggested.

“It might also be a military hub. We can’t determine the exact period yet, but culturally, it doesn’t belong to Erlitou or Longshan. This might be a peripheral culture in the Central Plains…”

“Peripheral? That’s a weak hypothesis. This is New Zheng, the heart of the Central Plains! Based on the jade artifacts, it closely resembles Longshan culture. It must be a transitional culture between the Yu and Xia periods.”

“A transitional culture between Yu and Xia? That doesn’t exist. From the scale of its bronze production capabilities, this culture likely existed concurrently with the Xia Dynasty,” another archaeologist argued.

The debate continued until someone unearthed a bronze sacred tree from the site.

“What? No way! This resembles the style of the Sanxingdui culture!”

“This is a major discovery! Sanxingdui is no longer an isolated culture—it has branches!”

“Despite the distance between the Central Plains and the Sichuan Basin, there must have been significant exchanges between them. The people of this city may have simultaneously belonged to both the Yangtze River and Yellow River cultures, explaining these similarities.”

“So… could this city be tied to Zhuanxu?”

The suggestion immediately caught everyone’s attention. According to historical records, Zhuanxu’s ancestors had been granted lands in the Sichuan region, and after several generations, Zhuanxu became a ruler of the Central Plains.

Thus, the period of closest interaction between the Central Plains and the Sichuan Basin in the pre-Shang era was likely during Zhuanxu’s time.

“Could this be Zhuanxu’s capital, the legendary Diyu? If so, this would push the origins of bronze technology back by at least 500 years.”

“I’ve told you, it can’t be a capital city. Based on what’s been excavated so far, this massive industrial zone would have required corresponding residential areas for the workers, which would span at least 300,000 to 400,000 square meters. This clearly isn’t a political center. The actual capital of this culture hasn’t been discovered yet. What we’ve found is merely a city focused on metallurgy.”

“A culture with an undiscovered capital, and in addition, a massive centralized city dedicated to metallurgy… Does this mean Zhuanxu’s era was technologically more advanced than the time of Yao? Could the Yao and Shun eras represent a regression in technology?”

The archaeologists were stunned. They had speculated that the Taosi site was the capital of Yao, and while bronze items were present there, its production capabilities were far inferior to those of this city.

If this city truly belonged to Zhuanxu’s era, it would imply that after Zhuanxu’s death, his culture suffered a disruption, and its advanced bronze technology was lost.

“In the time of Tang Yao and Yu Shun, they lost the advanced bronze techniques from Zhuanxu’s period,” one expert lamented.

“Wait a minute—I think I know what this place is… It’s the Ruins of Zhuhong! Right? According to ancient records, the Ruins of Zhuhong were located in New Zheng.”

“Yes, yes! The Ruins of Zhuhong! The name itself suggests it had already been abandoned. Judging from the site, it must have been destroyed by a flood, with the entire city buried in sediment. That’s why the Zhuhong Kingdom became the Ruins of Zhuhong.”

“Gonggong was in charge of water management, and Zhuhong oversaw ‘fireworks’—that is, smelting and manufacturing!”

“Not only that, but Zhuhong was also a military commander. The Zhuhong Kingdom was essentially the ancient equivalent of a Ministry of Defense!”

“This site specialized in producing massive quantities of military equipment. It was also the industrial hub of the Central Plains.”

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