The Ghost of Mercury River

By Carol Roberts

China's first emperor, Shi Huang Di, was a powerful ruler. In the 3rd century BC he unified China by defeating the six surrounding kingdoms. He also unified the writing, laws, currency, weights and measures, and much else. He tried to destroy the the influence of Confucius and built a major section of the Great Wall. He was very cruel. When he became emperor at the age of thirteen he immediately ordered construction of a great tomb palace on which 700,000 workers labored for thirty six years. It was filled with tens of thousands of treasures for his enjoyment in the afterlife. His high tomb mound was protected by 7000 terracotta soldiers. When the heavy tomb door was closed after the emperor's death the artisans who were setting up defensive devices to thwart tomb robbers were imprisoned with the dead emperor. One of the workers was Kong Hao, Master Artisan. He eventually died in the tomb and had been a ghost for over 2400 years. A young American, Ben Coggins, while climbing the hill above the tomb, trips over a hidden mechanism that opens the tomb for a very short time, falls into it, and meets the ghost of Kong Hao. The ghost's goal is to get his bones honorably buried so he can move on. Somehow the two escape and start a rambunctious 600 mile trip across China to get to Qufu, the home of Confucius and the ancestral home of Kong. When finally there they also help five other ghosts whose bodies had never been found so they were never honorably buried. In Qufu they meet a young teacher named Ailien, who believes their story and helps them. Together they get the ghosts on their way, all except Kong who decides he wants to stay around awhile. Everyone ends up where they want to be and Ben wins the hand of the beautiful Ailien.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1977213782
• ISBN13: 9781977213785
• Release Date: June 2019
• Publisher: Outskirts Press
• Length: 332 Pages
• Weight: 0.98 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"