"Xiao He, we seem to have turned back." Master Pan seemed to have noticed something and said, "This corridor is very unusual. I'm afraid it's not that simple!"
He Qing nodded solemnly and said: "Yes, it's not simple."
As for the situation in this corridor, he naturally knows better than Master Pan and others, and knows the ins and outs of it.
"Where does this lead to? Why are there soldiers' bones everywhere here? What terrible thing happened?" Che Juan asked repeatedly.
He Qing shook his head and replied seriously: "I don't know. Let's go ahead and take a look. You should be able to see the situation by then."
"Well, we'll find out when we get to the ancient tomb." Che Juan nodded and replied. There's no point in worrying now. Everything is unknown, but something has been discovered. Along the way, many ancient weapons were found.
and some scattered silver coins.
As they continued to move forward slowly, they found that the corridor kept sloping downwards, and the slope became increasingly steep, making it very difficult to walk.
"Listen!" Suddenly, He Qing stopped and exclaimed, as if he had discovered something unusual.
"What?" Master Pan and Che Juan stopped and looked at him in surprise.
He Qing raised his head, shined the flashlight at the top of the corridor, and said in a deep voice: "Did you hear the 'squeaking' sound from above?"
"Is there any?" Che Juan and the others listened attentively.
Soon, Master Pan heard it, and his expression changed slightly: "There is indeed a sound, it seems to be the sound of running water. Xiao He. In other words, there is water flowing up here. Is this tunnel located under the river bed?"
He Qing nodded and said: "Yes, in fact, we can tell that the direction we are walking now leads to the river. It seems that the distance has already crossed the river boundary."
"No way?" Che Juan said in surprise, "We are actually under the river?! This is the 'underground palace under the river'?!"
He Qing shook his head and said: "It's not an underground palace, it's just an underwater facility built like a huge pipe to isolate the water. But it can withstand such pressure. And it doesn't leak at all. This project
It’s not easy!”
"It seems like this." Master Pan nodded and said, "We are now in the passage under the water. The center of the ancient tomb should be at the center of the river in front."
"But how could the ancient tomb be located under the river? I have never seen such a burial method." Che Juan asked doubtfully.
Master Pan said: "It's not impossible. People here in Bashu have a very ancient way of burial. That is boat burial. Most boat burials are the same as ordinary burials, they are buried under dry soil.
But there are also a small number of people buried directly under the cement. But these are very special ship burials. To be able to carry out such a large project, the owner of the tomb must have been a big shot who was either rich or noble during his lifetime! Xiaohe, maybe this is a large-scale ship burial
The ancient tomb, you have made another huge discovery!"
"Maybe." He Qing nodded and said, "But it's still a mystery now. We need to go to the end to know. Master Pan, let's continue walking, but you have to be careful. This place is too steep and the ground is wet and slippery.
, it’s easy to fall.”
"Well, walk slowly." Master Pan nodded and agreed.
Then they walked slowly down the slope step by step.
It was a bit difficult to walk, but after walking for a while, the road gradually became smoother and it was much easier to walk.
"Xiao He, there are more skeletons of soldiers down here!" Master Pan exclaimed when they reached the flat area.
At this moment, there were piles of skeletons piled up not far in front of them. They were all white and looked eerie.
He Qing nodded and said: "Yes, it looks like we are almost close to the center point."
As he said that, he walked towards the place where the bones were piled up in front, followed by Master Pan and Che Juan uneasily.
Although Master Pan and the others are professional cultural relic investigators and have seen countless ancient corpses, this is the first time they have seen it in this situation, so it is not surprising.
"There are a lot of broken silver scattered here. Hey, there is also a big silver ingot here!" He Qing said in surprise. In surprise, he subconsciously leaned down and picked up a white and black object from a pile of bones.
.
Wearing sanitary gloves on his hands, he naturally doesn't have to worry about germs getting on his body, so he can pick and inspect the cultural relics at will.
"Such a big piece of silver ingot, I'm afraid it's fifty taels, right?!" Master Pan was shocked when he saw it.
He Qing weighed it and nodded: "There should be. I estimate that the actual weight is no less than 1.5 kilograms, which is three kilograms. In ancient times, one kilogram was equal to sixteen taels. After calculation, this silver ingot does weigh five kilograms.
That’s a lot of twelve taels.”
"This is the first time I have seen such a big silver ingot with my own eyes!" Che Juan said in surprise, "It must be very valuable, right?!"
He Qing said: "In addition to considering its material value, Yuanbao collection also has many aspects, such as size, format, decoration, and historical research value. If I guessed correctly, this is a typical piece of Ming Dynasty.
Official silver. According to historical data and existing antiquities, gold ingots can be divided into one tael, two taels, ten taels, and twenty taels, while silver ingots can be divided into half a tael, one tael, ten taels, twenty taels, fifty taels, or even one hundred taels.
Two or three hundred taels, so it’s not surprising that we find a silver ingot here weighing fifty taels.”
Master Pan nodded and said: "Yes, although fifty taels of silver ingots are very valuable silver coins, they were relatively common in ancient times and have been passed down. There are not many found in ancient tombs. This silver ingot is really good.
If you put it on the antique market, it will definitely be very valuable for collection."
Che Juan couldn't help but ask: "How much is it worth? Silver is not expensive at all, its value is much worse than gold."
He Qing smiled faintly and said: "That's not what you said. If this is just a newly imitated silver ingot, its collection value is indeed not very high. It is almost equal to the value of its own silver metal. But this is an antique, and it has one more value.
It’s worth at least 100,000 yuan, so it’s hard to say in terms of value, but I’m sure that this thing is worth at least 100,000 yuan. In other words, this silver ingot is worth at least 100,000 yuan!”
"It's worth one hundred thousand?! It's so valuable?!" Che Juan said with wide eyes.
"Xiao He, there is an inscription inside that silver ingot. Look carefully to see what is written on it. Maybe we can get relevant information from it and determine when this ancient tomb is." Master Pan pointed at the silver ingot and said.
, like a great discovery.
"Well, take a look." He Qing nodded and responded. He naturally noticed this detail. He picked up the silver ingot and looked at it carefully with a flashlight.
Soon, he saw clearly the inscription written on it and said: "It says, 'Chang, ten years in Shaxian County, fifty taels of Guilu silver, magistrate Yang Guanjicha, Ti Zhang Wenzhi', the writing on it is clear
Complete, rare to see."
"Salary silver?" Master Pan said in surprise, "So, this is a tax ingot?"
He Qing said: "The shape looks very similar to the tax ingots of the Ming Dynasty. This kind of silver is extremely rare in the market and is extremely precious."
The so-called "Ming Dynasty Luyin" means "salary rice converted into silver", which means officials' salaries were paid in rice.
After Chengzu ascended the throne, official salaries were paid in both rice and cash, making calculations and payments very complicated.
As the banknote law deteriorated and depreciation intensified, the salaries of officials began to be reduced to silver. When Emperor Chengzu of the Ming Dynasty moved the capital to Beijing, due to the inconvenience of water transportation, in addition to supplying rice to the army, all other civil and military officials had to go to Nanjing to receive their salaries.
, it also suffers from deductions from businessmen, which has many disadvantages.
According to the special situation of rice in the south of the Yangtze River, Zhou Chen changed the tax rate to one tael of gold flowers and silver for four stones of rice, and moved to Beijing to replenish the official salary. In this way, the official salary was guaranteed, and the taxes and grain paid by the people were also reduced accordingly.
.
Looking at the inscription on the silver ingot, He Qing paused and continued: "The 'magistrate' here is the name of the local official, and 'cha' refers to the messenger, who is responsible for collecting tax and grain money, but this
It's Lu Yin from Changsha County, how come you are here?"
"This is indeed a big doubt." Master Pan said with a confused face, "How did Lu Yin, the magistrate of Hu, Nanchang, Sha, County, get here and hide in this underwater secret passage? But at least we know,
This is something from the Ming Dynasty, which means that this ancient tomb is very likely to come from the Ming Dynasty."
"There should be nothing wrong." He Qing nodded solemnly and said, "Master Pan, please take this silver ingot. This thing is very valuable and is of great significance to the study of the tax system of the Ming Dynasty."
As he said that, he handed the silver ingot to Master Pan. Master Pan took it and kept nodding: "Yes, it's very precious!"
He is not greedy for a mere silver ingot, what he wants is not these ordinary things.
Such silver ingots are of great value to cultural relic researchers, but they do not have much value in the hands of ordinary collectors. They are no more valuable than an ingot of pure silver today.
Afterwards they continued to explore.
On the way, they picked up some more silver coins, including silver ingots, but most of them only weighed a few taels and were small amounts of silver coins.
But it was pretty good, and Master Pan and the others were very happy as if they had found a treasure.
After walking a few more steps, in addition to the silver ingots, there were also some copper coins scattered on the ground, most of which were "Chongzhen Tongbao".
Chongzhen was the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Sizong Zhu Youjian. Judging from these copper coins, the cultural relics buried here have a certain relationship with him.
"There are so many 'Chongzhen Tongbao' here, so it seems that this is an ancient tomb from the Ming Dynasty." Master Pan analyzed, "But who would build such an ancient tomb in the late Ming Dynasty?"
Che Juan said: "This seems to be a place where treasures are buried, and it is related to soldiers fighting. It is also under the river near the capital of Shu. Teacher Pan, He Qing, could this be... the legendary Zhang Xianzhong's treasure?"
!”
"The treasures of Zhang Xianzhong, the king of Shu who established the Daxi regime?!" Hearing this, Master Pan was shocked and nodded excitedly, "Yes, it is possible! What we discovered is very likely the treasures buried by Zhang Xianzhong!" (
To be continued, please search Piao Tian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!