Chapter eight hundred and eighty fourth Western Han Dynasty
The purity of various gold objects unearthed from the tomb of Marquis Haihun is over 99%, but the total weight is only over 100 kilograms.
Among them, the most precious ones include big horseshoe gold, lin toe gold, and gold cakes.
Especially the 24 gold plates, each weighing about one kilogram.
That was the largest number and most complete variety of gold artifacts discovered in Han Dynasty tomb archeology in my country so far.
Some experts estimate that if these gold objects were auctioned, their price would be over 1 billion yuan.
In addition, about 2 million five-baht coins weighing more than 10 tons were unearthed in the northern corridor of the tomb.
Such an emperor of the Western Han Dynasty who only reigned for 27 days ended up with such huge wealth after his death. The level of wealth in the Western Han Dynasty is simply unimaginable.
So, the question is, where did Liu He's huge wealth come from?
You know, this is a deposed emperor, and even he can get so much treasure to be buried with him, but what about the other princes? Where about the emperor? Where about the generals?
Looking at the gold in front of him, Chen Wenzhe was also very curious.
In fact, anyone who has studied the history of the Han Dynasty should not be surprised.
Because such things were really not uncommon in the Han Dynasty.
As long as you study the history of the Han Dynasty, you will find that gold in the Han Dynasty seems to be everywhere!
This issue is recorded in historical materials and can even be traced back to the era of Chu-Han struggle for supremacy.
In the winter of 205 BC, the struggle for supremacy between Chu and Han was in a stalemate.
Xiang Yu, the overlord of Chu, was anxious to win the war, but could not completely destroy Liu Bang for a while, so he constantly harassed the Han army's food routes in an attempt to destroy Liu Bang without a fight.
Since ancient times, there is no better way to plot poison than to run out of food. Xiang Yu's move was so powerful that Liu Bang was so worried that he could not sleep or eat all day long. At this moment, Chen Ping came up with a plan to alienate Liu Bang.
Speaking of this alienation plan, it was quite simple. Liu Bang gave 40,000 kilograms of gold and paid half of it to bribe the Chu army to spread rumors that Zhong Limei, one of the most important generals under Xiang Yu, intended to rebel against Chu and establish himself on his own.
After Xiang Yu heard the rumors, he gradually distrusted Zhong Limei, and the overlord lost his arm.
There were also tens of thousands of kilograms of gold, which Chen Ping gave to Xiang Yu's envoy and made a sumptuous banquet.
When Xiang Yu's envoy arrived, Chen Ping first ordered people to bring delicious food to the envoy's residence.
When entering the door, he pretended to say: "I thought it was the envoy sent by Yafu Fan Zeng!"
Immediately afterwards, the banquet was replaced with poor food.
What does this mean? It’s clear: In Liu Bang’s eyes, Fan Zeng, Xiang Yu’s other great counselor, has a higher status than the Overlord of Chu!
At this point, Xiang Yu became suspicious of Fan Zeng again.
What is the result of the Overlord’s arms being broken? I don’t think there is any need to continue talking about it.
Let’s not discuss historical stories such as being besieged on all sides, Farewell My Concubine, etc. Let’s just talk about these 40,000 kilograms of gold.
From a certain perspective, Liu Bang defeated Xiang Yu with 40,000 kilograms of gold. The powerful Han Dynasty was also founded by gold. As everyone knows, the gold reserves of the Han Dynasty were even more amazing.
According to the "History of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties", in the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, there were millions of kilograms of gold in its treasury, which is still 248 tons even if converted to today.
To give an inappropriate example, in 2020, our country has already become rich and powerful, and has advanced science and technology. At that time, the gold reserves were only 1,600 tons.
More than two thousand years ago, the King of Qin first conquered Liuhe, then built the Great Wall, built the Lishan Mausoleum, destroyed Qin, and fought for supremacy between Chu and Han.
Despite the continuous wars for years, the gold reserves of the Han Dynasty actually reached 248 tons. This cannot be explained by common sense.
In fact, these are not the only ones. The "Book of Han" records many cases in which the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty rewarded gold, and the rewards were often worth hundreds or thousands of pounds.
This is really surprising. Is it possible that gold in the Han Dynasty was as common and common as radish and cabbage?
Therefore, some experts now speculate that the gold in the Han Dynasty is not the gold of today. The gold at that time should refer to bronze.
It seems reasonable at first glance, but the piles of gold in the tomb of Haihunhou are there, and the bronze theory is almost self-defeating.
Many experts have looked at this from a historical perspective and have given relatively reasonable explanations.
First of all, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, there were many places rich in gold among the various princes, such as the "Ying Yuan" of Chu State found in archaeological discoveries.
After King Qin conquered Liuhe, the gold accumulated by various princes for hundreds of years was returned to the First Emperor.
After the Qin Dynasty was destroyed, Xiang Yu and Liu Bang were all restored.
Of course, Xiang Yu's gold eventually returned to Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty.
In this way, all the gold in the world belonged to the King of Han, which contributed to the Western Han Dynasty's gold reserves reaching an unprecedented, even unparalleled peak within a period of time.
Secondly, with the emergence of iron tools after Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the mining industry in the Western Han Dynasty developed rapidly, and gold production also continued to increase.
Again, gold has been a rare metal since ancient times. With the help of iron tools, the number of people participating in gold mining is also increasing.
Therefore, as more people mine gold, the number of gold mines will naturally increase exponentially.
Historical records record that people in the Western Han Dynasty even laid waste their fields in order to mine gold.
For this reason, Emperor Han Yuan even issued a special decree: No mining for pearls, jade, gold and silver!
To put it bluntly, there was a serious industrial surplus in the mining industry in the Han Dynasty, so much so that even the emperor thought there was too much gold.
In addition to these, there is a third reason for the wealth of gold in the Western Han Dynasty, and that is the Silk Road that has been passed down to this day.
There are definitely differences between the ancient Silk Road and today's Silk Road, but the essence is basically the same, both for trade;
I think there is no need to explain too much about the Silk Road, nor the shortage of silk and porcelain in China.
According to historical records, the gold exchanged for silk alone amounts to five tons per year.
In general, many modern experts use these three reasons to explain the abundance of gold in the Han Dynasty.
It seems reasonable if you think about it carefully, but it still caused quite a bit of controversy.
Some people have raised questions about whether the advanced science and technology and frequent trade in the Han Dynasty contributed to the wealth of gold.
What about the subsequent Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming, Qing and other dynasties?
It seems that any one of them, whether it is technology or trade, is much stronger than the Han Dynasty, but why is there no gold-rich phenomenon?
This brings us back to the domestic gold production areas. The more gold is mined, the less gold is available.
One of the facts proved is the great geographical discovery of America. After that, a large number of gold and silver mines were discovered in both North and South America.
So what now? Will there still be a gold rush in history?
If this explains the source of the abundance of gold in the Han Dynasty, then why is there a lack of gold in this land of China?
In fact, you can know it through several things. The first one is archaeological excavation.
The gold in front of you is a good proof, and the tomb of Haihunhou is another proof. There are also the tomb of King Liang, the tomb of King Chu, the Han tombs in Mancheng, etc., which can all prove it.
Extravagant burials became common in the Han Dynasty, which gave rise to Cao Cao's tomb robbing.
If he hadn't known that there were countless treasures in Han tombs, how could Cao Cao be a vassal king? How could he be so shameless as to dig graves?