The water in the pot boiled quickly, and the rich aroma of meat came out. After a few people drank the broth and ate a few large cakes, they washed themselves in the stream next to them and extinguished the fire. This Kunlun
Although there are very few tall trees in the mountains, if these bushes were burned, it would be enough to sentence everyone to several years.
After packing his things, Zhuang Rui took out his cell phone and looked at it. It was almost six o'clock. When he looked at the signal on his cell phone, there was no signal at all. He put the cell phone back into his trouser pocket and Zhuang Rui asked: "Dazhi."
, where are we going this time? Why didn’t we meet anyone along the way? "
The number of people traveling this time, plus the jade pickers we met at the transfer station, totaled more than 1,000 people. After they were diverted into the Kunlun Mountains, they were like stones falling into the sea. Not even a single wave was stirred up.
I walked all afternoon and didn't meet anyone.
Zhang Dazhi stuffed the cleaned steel pot into Mengzi's backpack and replied casually: "Haha, Brother Zhuang, the Kunlun Mountains are great. Most people go to the Yulong Kashgar River to dig for jade, but now they are using excavators to dig for jade.
, we won’t be able to grab it even if we go there, why not go to Yiniu Valley to have a try..."
"Bison Gully?"
"Yes, it is Ye Niugou. The white jade, pure white jade, and sapphire produced there are fine and smooth in texture, rich in variety, large in size, and are of the highest quality. They are basically the same as Hetian jade, and many of them can even reach the standard of mutton-fat white jade.
In particular, its emerald green, smoke gray, and gray purple varieties are extremely rare among Hetian jade..."
Tiezi on the side took over the words and decided to go to Yiniu Valley this time. It was also his suggestion. However, the terrain of Yiniu Valley is very complicated, with an altitude of more than 4,500 meters. For jade hunters, it is a place full of fatal temptations and unknown crises.
place.
Wang Fei also smiled and said: "The year before last, there was a man from Zhejiang who mined jade in Yiniugou and became rich overnight. I'm afraid his current net worth is hundreds of millions."
Wang Fei's words made Tie Zi and others' eyes sparkle. They didn't expect to encounter mineral veins, as long as they found some high-quality jade from the buffalo ditch, the price purchased by the Jade Prince was very reasonable. Every year
Many people make hundreds of thousands after going to the mountains, and then return to the mainland with the money to buy a house and get married. This is also the wish of Zhang Dazhi and others.
"Let's go. We still have two days to go to Buffalo Valley. We must go around Death Valley today..."
The group of five people started on the road again. The evening in Kunlun Mountain was not hot, and the slight cool breeze was very comfortable on the body. It was a good time to rush on. The last ray of sunset on the horizon reflected the entire mountain in red light.
At that time, everyone came to a valley.
"This...is this Death Valley?"
No one needed to remind him anymore. Zhuang Rui knew that he had reached what they called Death Valley just by what he saw in front of him.
With the last ray of light on the horizon, Zhuang Rui could clearly see that in the valley more than ten meters away from the entrance of the valley, there were dense weeds. The grass was covered with wolf fur, bear bones, and hunter's bones.
Steel guns and lonely graves on barren hills.
A head without a skeleton and a pair of empty holes seems to be telling its miserable experience. The goshawks chirping from time to time in the sky exaggerate to the world a gloomy and terrifying aura of death.
"Yes, this place is also known as the "Gate of Hell" in Kunlun Mountain. Over the past thousands of years, countless bones have been buried inside..."
Zhang Dazhi's voice was a little low. Looking at the numerous bones in the valley, a trace of fear flashed in his eyes.
"Brother Zhuang, let's go. This place is rich in pasture, but the shepherds living in the Kunlun Mountains would rather starve their cattle and sheep to death in the Gobi Desert because there is no fat grass to eat, than dare to enter this ancient and silent valley...
"
When Wang Fei was talking, he grabbed the hand of the gun and added a little more strength, as if there would be a devil coming out of this deep valley to devour them. Just then, the afterglow of the setting sun completely disappeared, and Wang Fei's voice echoed
In the valley, it is hollow and deep, which makes several people feel a little creepy.
"There is no scientific research team to conduct scientific research here?"
Zhuang Rui glanced at the mouth of the valley that looked like a monster's mouth, followed Wang Fei's footsteps, and climbed up from a path next to the mouth of the valley.
It was completely dark now. Tiezi, who was most familiar with the road conditions in the team, was walking at the front. He wore a miner's lamp on his head and held a scimitar that looked like a sickle in his hand, cutting the dead grass and grass in front of him.
Low tree branches are cut to break the road.
"There was a scientific examination, but I didn't fully understand the reason..."
After leaving the Valley of Death, Zhang Dazhi became more conversational and told Zhuang Rui what had happened in the Valley over the years.
In the 1980s, a group of pasture horses strayed into Death Valley because they were greedy for the fat grass in the valley. You know, for the herdsmen, these horses are their lifeblood. A herdsman ventured into the valley.
After several days of searching for horses, no one showed up, but the horses did.
Later, the body of the herdsman was found on a hill. His clothes were torn, his feet were bare, his eyes were wide open, his mouth was wide open, the shotgun was still in his hand, and he looked like he was still dead. What is puzzling is that what was on his body
No injuries or signs of attack were found.
Not long after this tragic accident occurred, the geological team working nearby was also attacked by Death Valley. It was also this month, when it was extremely hot outside, but there was a sudden snowstorm near Death Valley. A thunderous roar was accompanied by
A snowstorm came suddenly and the cook fainted on the spot.
Later, according to the cook's recollection, when he heard the thunder, he suddenly felt numb all over, his eyes turned black, and then lost consciousness. When the team members went out to work the next day, they were shocked to find that the original loess had turned into black soil.
Like ashes, all animals and plants have been "killed".
At that time, the geological team quickly organized an inspection of the valley. After the inspection, they found that the magnetic anomalies in the area were extremely obvious and distributed over a wide range. The deeper into the valley, the higher the magnetic anomalies. Under the action of electromagnetic effects, the charges in the clouds and the magnetic field in the valley
The electric charge discharges, making this place a minefield, and mines often attack running animals. This speculation is the best explanation for several consecutive incidents.
However, the geological team did not have a clear conclusion as to what caused the magnetic field value here to be so high. After these incidents, the nearby herdsmen no longer dared to take a step closer to the Valley of Death. Fortunately, today
There are no Uighurs in this team. Otherwise, even if they were killed, they would not dare to take a detour from the edge of the Valley of Death.
After listening to Zhang Dazhi's story, Zhuang Rui subconsciously looked back at the mouth of the valley that was no longer visible. Cold sweat broke out on his back. This was probably because it was so inaccessible. Otherwise, it would probably be as famous as places like Bermuda.
.
A few people took advantage of the darkness and climbed over two mountains before stopping. This place is thirty or forty miles away from the Valley of Death. It is also a grand canyon. Tiezi is very familiar with this place. With the miner's lamp on his head,
Find a very hidden cave directly near the rock wall.
"Brother Tiezi, you have such a good memory. It seems that we passed here the year before last and you still remember it."
Zhang Dazhi picked up a stone from the ground and threw it into the cave. He was afraid that there would be some animals hiding inside. You know, wild wolves and brown bears are very common in the Kunlun Mountains. Every year there are reports of herdsmen being attacked.
events come.
After waiting for a while, there was no sound from the cave, and a few people walked in. The cave was not deep, only about ten meters long, and was covered with dust. The few people who came all the way down were already exhausted and too lazy to do so.
Regardless of whether it was dirty or not, I sat down directly in a slightly damp place.
"Brother Zhuang, we are camping in the mountains. We need someone to keep watch at night. You should be the first in line. Call me at 12 o'clock. Mengzi is the third, Wang Fei is the fourth, and Brother Tiezi has a harder time. Today
I won’t arrange for you to stay on night watch.”
After Mengzi sat down, he opened his backpack, took out five folded sleeping bags, and handed them to everyone one by one, while Zhang Dazhi began to allocate everyone's night watch time.
Arranging Zhuang Rui to be the first one is actually taking care of him. If you stay until 12 o'clock, you can sleep until dawn. It is much better than getting up in the middle of the night for two or three hours and then sleeping again. As for Tie Zi, who is responsible for opening the road, it takes a lot of physical effort.
It's relatively big, so Zhang Dazhi doesn't arrange for him.
No one had any objection to Zhang Dazhi's arrangement. Wang Fei gave Zhuang Rui a brief explanation on how to use the shotgun in his hand, and then got into the sleeping bag. If you have more time to rest, you will be more energetic tomorrow.
Fortunately, except for a few wolf howls in the distance, nothing happened that night and we passed it safely.
The next day the weather was just polished and everyone started to hit the road. The temperature difference between morning and evening in Kunlun Mountain is relatively large. It is most comfortable to travel in the cool morning. When it is hot at noon, you can rest for a while.
At around ten o'clock in the morning on the third day, a group of five people arrived at Yiniu Valley, which was already at an altitude of 4,500 meters. Although everyone's face showed excitement, Zhang Dazhi
We still found a place to let everyone rest for half a day, and then go to the bottom of the ditch to look for jade in the afternoon.
"boom!"
Just as they sat down, there was a sudden explosion in the distance. Zhuang Rui felt the ground beneath his buttocks shaking. He quickly stood up and looked in the direction of the explosion.
"Brother Zhuang, don't look at it. It's a jade mine owned by Zhejiang people. They have been mining it for more than a year."
Zhang Dazhi has long been accustomed to such situations. In the Kunlun Mountains, wherever there are jade mines, explosions can be heard almost all day long.
But there were looks of envy on the faces of a few people. For them, as long as they could discover jade veins, they could make a fortune by selling the news, even if they had no money to mine it.
However, these veins are usually hidden deep underground, and without detection tools, it is almost impossible for them to discover them.
…
The bison ditch has penetrated deep into the Kunlun Mountains. It was named because of the large number of bison herds that grew there. Of course, that refers to decades ago, and now there are no traces of bison. Although it is called a ditch, it is actually as deep as
It is more than 20 kilometers long and has lush green grass, which is very suitable for animals to survive.
On both sides of the bison ditch, there are snow-capped mountains whose tops are covered with snow all year round. But every summer, after the snow water on the mountainside melts, it will rush into the bison ditch with rocks. Over thousands of years, in the
In the Bison Valley, a river is formed that is not very wide, but is filled with rocks on both sides.
The destination of Tiezi and others is this river. Since the altitude here is as high as more than 4,000 meters, it is difficult to transport large machinery in, and it is difficult for people with poor physical health to mine jade here.
This river has not been intercepted from the upper reaches like the Yulong Kashgar River and then extensively excavated, and it basically remains in its natural state.
However, many people were already keeping an eye on this place. Not long after Zhuang Rui and the others arrived at Yiniu Valley, a team of three met them. Although they were not familiar with each other, everyone still said hello.
Since the jades by the river are all washed down from the mountains, there are more relatively good jades at the entrance of the foot of the river. Zhuang Rui and the others arrived first, so those few people consciously walked downstream.
While everyone was resting, Tiezi told Zhuang Rui his jade-picking skills over the years. However, after classifying them, Zhuang Rui discovered that jade-picking was similar to stone gambling, that is, he wanted to pick good jade.
, that is largely due to good or bad luck.
Just at the beginning of this year, a big boss from Wenzhou hired dozens of excavating bulldozers and a large number of manpower to mine a seven-eight-kilometer-long section of the Yulong Kashgar River.
The use of modern machinery to find jade has been a major development in recent years. The bulldozer pushed the earth and rocks in the river aside, and migrant workers waiting on the side came up to use shovels to search for the jade in the soil.
However, after more than a month and a cost of tens of millions, a lot of jade was collected, but they were all ordinary jade materials, which could not offset his huge expenses. In desperation, the businessman could only end the business.
The first jade mining operation ended in a loss.
It's just that the Wenzhou businessman was unwilling to accept it. After finishing work, he ran to the mining site, only to see a local Uighur migrant worker standing up after smoking. He casually kicked a stone away from his feet and picked it up from underneath.
A piece of jade the size of a fist arrived. After identification, it was found to be top-grade mutton-fat jade, worth tens of millions. This made the Wenzhou businessman so angry that he almost vomited blood and left Xinjiang overnight.
This principle is the same as spending tens of millions to gamble on a piece of shitty jade. Money alone is not enough, but also luck. Obviously, the Wenzhou businessman's luck is not very good.
After resting for more than three hours, Zhuang Rui and others also started picking jade. Mengzi took out four flat baskets that were folded together from his backpack. They were woven with very tough silk threads. The folds were
It is made of alloy steel bars with a strap sewn on the back. After unfolding, you can carry it on your body and throw the jade you picked into it.
Several people carried such a basket and walked towards the dazzling river illuminated by the sun. The faces of Zhang Dazhi and others were full of hope. For them, a good piece of jade could change the world.
their lives.
The so-called jade mining involves finding jade among the tens of millions of large and small stones on both sides of the river. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is like washing the sand with big waves. In ancient China, jade mining involved pulling up large nets on both sides of the river.
I was sifting through the jade, but sometimes I couldn't find a single piece of jade at the end of the day.
After thousands of years of erosion by snowy mountains and rivers, the large and small stones on both sides of the river have become very smooth. Everyone simply took off their shoes and walked barefoot on the warm stones that were somewhat heated by the sun.
The sound of gurgling water has a different charm.
Although this place is located deep in the mountains, tens of thousands of jade collectors have come here for thousands of years. It is not that easy to pick up jade materials from the river. Several people walked out along the river.
After five hundred meters, nothing was found.
Zhuang Rui originally wanted to try to distinguish the stones by the river by himself, but within three to five minutes, the densely packed warm stones all along the river made Zhuang Rui feel dizzy.
From the surface, it is impossible to tell the difference between these stones. No matter the size, shape or color, they are almost exactly the same. If you don’t lean down and look carefully, it will be difficult to identify them. Maybe you just saw it.
If you pick up a piece, turn around and look again, you will no longer be able to find the stone you just looked at.
Looking up at Tiezi and the others, Zhuang Rui found that almost all of these people were squatting on the ground and moving forward step by step. Even men as tall as Mengzi were like this. Zhuang Rui tried to squat on the ground like them.
After a while, but not even ten minutes, the pain in his waist and legs became unbearable and he could only stand up.
Zhuang Rui is now standing on the river channel holding the hiking pole given by Uncle Tian, looking a bit out of place.
"Dazhi, do you think Prince Jade will lie to us? This man is standing there in a grand manner picking jade, can you identify him?" Tiezi and Zhang Dazhi were not far away, talking quietly, but it wasn't him.
If you don't believe what Uncle Tian said, it's just that Zhuang Rui's performance is really unreliable.
"Don't talk nonsense. When did the Jade Prince make a mistake? Brother Zhuang is not familiar with picking jade, but he can identify jade. It also saves us bringing some garbage back."
Dazhi took Zhuang Rui and Mr. Gu back from the airport. Knowing how much Lord Jade valued them, he naturally looked up to Zhuang Rui. In addition, Lord Jade gave him instructions and took great care of Zhuang Rui along the way.
.
Zhuang Rui was thirty or forty meters away from them, so naturally he couldn't hear the conversation of Dazhi and others. He was now sifting forward little by little with the aura in his eyes, like using a plow to hoe the ground.
Since the light was very bright during the day, and nearly half of the stones were in the water, the dazzling light was reflected everywhere. Zhuang Rui also encountered problems when using Reiki for the first time. He saw colors in the stones several times, but when using mountain climbing
After grabbing it with the stick, I found that it was just the reflection of the sun.
"Yes, I picked up a piece of jade, Brother Tiezi, come and help me take a look..."
Just when Zhuang Rui had a headache, Mengzi behind him shouted. Zhuang Rui looked back and saw that the boy threw himself into the river. All his clothes were soaked. He was holding a stone in his hands and heading towards the river.
Climbing.
June is when the ice on the snow-capped mountains gradually melts. Although the river is not very wide, the current is very fast. Even though Mengzi is holding a big stone, his body is still washed seven or eight meters downstream in the river. It's just right.
Rushed to a place not far from Zhuang Rui.
Zhuang Rui saw that Mengzi was still holding the stone tightly in his arms, and had no time to climb to the shore. He quickly said: "Mengzi, why did you fall into the water? Throw away the stone. Climb quickly."
Come up."
Mengzi didn't reply. He stood up straight in the water with great difficulty. He threw the stone on the river with both hands, and it landed right at Zhuang Rui's feet. Then he reached out and grabbed the hiking pole that Zhuang Rui stretched out, and climbed to the shore.
Zhuang Rui pulled Mengzi up. Although the weather was in June, due to the high altitude, the temperature difference between morning and night was huge. At night, the temperature would drop to about ten degrees. Although Mengzi was very strong,
You may get sick if you are not sure.
"Mengzi, take off your clothes and put them on the ground. Go and change into dry clothes..."
Zhang Dazhi, Tiezi and Wang Fei heard the sound and ran over. Seeing Mengzi's wet appearance, Zhang Dazhi frowned. If this big man was sick, no one could carry him.
"It's okay, Brother Tiezi, come and take a look. Is this stone made of jade?"
Mengzi grinned and didn't take it seriously at all. He pulled Tiezi down next to the stone he threw up.
"Mengzi, go change clothes first, I'll take a look..." Tiezi glared at Mengzi. He was an old jade picker and knew that it would be very troublesome to get sick in the mountains without medical treatment.
"Okay, I'll change it right away."
Mengzi took off all his clothes in a few seconds and threw them on the rocks by the river. Then he ran naked to the place where the backpack was placed, took out his clothes and put them on, and ran back impatiently.
This stone is flat in shape, about the size of a washbasin, and about twenty to thirty centimeters thick. The entire stone is light yellow, slightly whitish in color, and is a piece of sugar-coated mountain water.
Tiezi tried to hold it, and it was estimated to weigh forty or fifty kilograms. It was difficult for Mengzi to throw it ashore. On one side of the stone, a piece of milky white jade flesh as big as a palm was exposed. It can be concluded that this is a piece of jade.
, and the quality is not low.
"Brother Tiezi, how are you?" Mengzi, who usually seemed a bit dull, now turned red with excitement.
"Let Mr. Zhuang take a look at this piece of material first. I'm afraid I can't say it right."
When Tiezi saw this piece of jade, he had already guessed it. He was also very happy. After all, this harvest belonged to everyone. However, he also wanted to test Zhuang Rui to see if he really expected it or if it was just a false claim.
Zhuang Rui asked casually: "Mengzi, how did you discover this piece of material?"
This piece of jade was at Zhuang Rui's feet. He didn't give in. He squatted down and looked at it. Judging from the exposed jade flesh, it was a piece of white jade, and the quality was not low. It was just the size of a palm.
