1 Grave Robbers’ Chronicles: The Mystic Nine Written by: Xu Lei Translated by: Tiffany X and Merebear Edited by: Merebear 2 Summary: During the Republic Era, the town of Changsha was guarded by nine families known as the “Old Nine Gates” (or the “Mystic Nine”). They were incredibly powerful families who wielded supreme power over everything in Changsha. In 1933, a mysterious train pulled into Changsha station. The leader of the Nine Gates, Zhang Qishan, was also the army commander of Changsha station and started to investigate with Qi Tiezui. They discovered a highly suspicious mine just outside of Changsha. 3 The Mystic Nine Vol. 1 4 Introduction: About the Mystic Nine The Mystic Nine refers to the nine tomb-robbing families in old Changsha, which are often mentioned in the tomb-robbing notes. They consist of the upper three clans, middle three clans, and lower three clans respectively. Upper Three Clans: 1. Zhang Da Fo Ye (Zhang Qishan)—unknown 2. Er Yuehong—has three sons and taught Chen Pi Ah Si and Xiao Hua 3. Banjie Li—Li Sidi (guess) Middle Three Clans: 4. Chen Pi Ah Si—Chen Wen-Jin 5. Old Dog Wu, Fifth Master Dog—Wu Yiqiong, Wu Erbai, Wu Sanxing— Wu Xie 6. Black Back the Sixth—the only one in the Nine Gates without any offspring Lower Three Clans: 7. Huo Xiangu, Madam Seven—Huo Ling—Huo Xiuxiu 8. Qimen Fortune Teller Qi Tiezui the Eighth—Qi Yu (guess) 9. Xiao Xiejiu—Xie Lianhuan (Xiao Hua’s uncle) and Xiao Hua’s father— Xie Yuchen/Xie Yuhua (aka, Xiao Hua) Those who participated in the archaeological activity in Xisha were Zhang Qiling, Li Sidi, Chen Wen-Jin, Wu Sanxing, Huo Ling, Qi Yu, and Xie Lianhuan, whose surnames are “Zhang, Li, Chen, Wu, Huo, Qi, and Xie”. These are completely consistent with the Mystic Nine’s surnames, which shows this wasn’t merely a coincidence… 5 Chapter 1 Ghost Car In 1903, a Japanese named Ōtani Kōzui(1) entered China’s hinterland in the name of religious investigation to carry out intelligence work on geographical exploration. When he passed through Changsha, China, the expedition branch he led—under the leadership of Japanese businessman Miyuki Hatoyama—stayed in a mountain town 160 kilometers north of Changsha for nearly three months. When he left, there were only six people left in the expedition team. A week later, Miyuki Hatoyama submitted a sixteen-page report to the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Nissin Trade Research Institute that became known as the “Hatoyama Report”. The report stated that there were “things” buried under the mountain town. ** On August 4, 1949, Cheng Qian—director of the Kuomintang Changsha Appeasement Office and chairman of the Hunan provincial government— and Chen Mingren—commander of the First Corps—staged a revolt in Changsha and peacefully liberated it. The next day, the Fourth Field Army entered Changsha. As head of Changsha Department’s Central Special Branch, I urgently summoned an old man that night and talked with him for three hours. The old man’s name was Gu Qingfeng, and he had been a watchman at Changsha’s old railway station since he was twenty-three years old. I asked him about a strange thing that had happened at the railway station more than ten years ago. As I listened to the old man’s account, I gradually saw the beginning of a strange and mysterious event that spread widely at the time. (1) He was the 22nd Abbot of the Nishi Honganji sub-sect of Jōdo Shinshū Buddhism in Kyoto, Japan. He is known for expeditions to Buddhist sites in Central Asia. British and Russian intelligence both suspected that his archaeological expeditions were little more than covers for espionage activities. More info here 6 ** According to the old man’s recollection, that was Changsha’s first day of winter, and it was already very cold. The iron hoofs of the Japanese oppressors had already hit Changsha, and the city was very bleak. People with relatives in the southwest went there to seek shelter, but their transportation capacity was limited. After winter began, there were landslides in the southwest, and many people who had left were trapped there. Gu Qingfeng was a middle-aged man at the time who was in charge of the ticket office. When the black 076 pulled into the station that night, he happened to be the one on duty. It should have been impossible for a train to be pulling into the station at that time, and he hadn’t received any prior notice. In that era, it was normal for many troops and supplies to arrive suddenly because of combat readiness, but prior notice was often given. Moreover, the troops were generally under the control of the army, so the whole platform should have already been full of alert soldiers ready to receive the goods. But he saw that no one was on the platform even though the train had just pulled in. If it weren’t for such a monstrosity making so much noise, he wouldn’t have even noticed it. Gu Qingfeng lit the lantern, put on his military coat, and walked onto the platform. Under the dim light, the black train was like a dragon lying on one side of the platform. It was covered in dry mud and rust spots and looked like rotting dragon scales that had been dug up. He pinched a handful of the dry mud, very confused. “Where did this train come from?” He wrapped his coat tightly around himself and walked closer to the train. He was surprised to find that all the train carriages— including the one up front—were all welded with iron sheets. The ugly welding gaps were thick 7 and full of bubbles, indicating that the temperature of the welding process had been very high. He wiped off the mud covering the car with his elbow, saw the painted 076 on the locomotive, and realized that this was a Japanese military train. This kind of military train was built in the northeast during the Japanese invasion of China. It once drove to Northwest China and later seized a lot of it, but now it was under the jurisdiction of the National Government and had been repainted. This train, however, still had the faded Japanese military flag printed on both sides of the front of the car. There were a lot of rust and dry mud spots all over the body of each car, almost as if the train had been buried underground and only recently dug up. The railway leading to the northeast had been blown up for a long time, so now there were only a few tracks southwest of Changsha that had been requisitioned by the army. But based on the direction the front car was facing, it really came from the northeast. How did this lump of iron get over the blown-up railway bridge? “Damn son, what kind of bastards are in this car?” Gu Qingfeng knocked on the train and shouted: “Don’t just stop here, there’s another train coming. You’ll get hit. There’s a railroad track in front, so drive forward.” There was no sound on the train, and he couldn’t see anyone getting on or off. He went to the locomotive and climbed up, surprised to find that the door had been welded shut, and the steam chimney was still hot. The temperature difference between this part of the train and the outside air meant that dew had formed. The body of the train car was very wet, and the red rust water looked like oozing blood. Gu Qingfeng was a little scared. After working as a watchman for so many years, he had rarely seen such a strange thing. He had also recently heard from people in the northwest that some empty cars were coming into railway stations in the middle of the night. All the cars had been blown up by the Japanese, but no one was in them. It was said that the ghost cars were carrying people who had been killed and sending them back to their 8 hometown before driving to the underworld. In the morning, the cars had disappeared as if they were never there. Many cars had been buried in the mountains because of landslides, so it was no wonder there was so much soil. He yelled a few times to wake up the guard and suddenly heard a fluttering sound come from the locomotive. The window was covered in mud, so he scrubbed it hard and lifted the lantern. He immediately saw something covering the muddy glass that looked like a pale pigskin. It was pressed tightly against the glass and completely covered it. There was a thin seam on the pigskin that was about as wide as a palm, so Gu Qingfeng tried to get close and peer through the gap to see what was inside. The lantern kept hitting the glass and dry soil, and the rust and mud were making him sick. He noticed that there was something strange in the gap. He narrowed his eyes and looked closely. The “skin” was probably loosened by the lantern hitting the glass and fell down. He immediately saw a person in the locomotive floating in the air. When he looked again, however, he realized that it was a hanged man. The man was wearing ordinary labor clothes and hanging from the top of the train. He was looking at Gu Qingfeng coldly, and in those two muddy eyes, the pupils were as tiny as soybeans, while the rest of the eyes were completely white.