That year, after the Eighth Army of the Kuomintang was defeated in Yunnan, Li Mi fled to Taiwan alone. For half a year, the 93rd Division lived in an unstable place and moved from place to place. On New Year's Eve in 1950, he finally escaped and entered Myanmar.
Territory, in the escape, the 93rd Division and another regiment, the remnants of a division, brought 7,000 soldiers and their families who were unwilling to surrender to a foreign land.
However, the Burmese government did not want to accept them, so the war began. Although the soldiers of the national army suffered repeated defeats in the civil war, they were still more than enough to deal with the Burmese government troops.
After falling into pieces, he finally established a firm foothold in the Golden Triangle.
As for Li Mi, who was in Taiwan, when he saw that his old subordinates had established a foothold in Myanmar, he immediately clamored to counterattack the mainland. He did counterattack, but the result was heavy casualties and he retreated back to Myanmar.
At this time, the Burmese army had reached an agreement with India, and it was decided that India would send troops to assist the Burmese army in driving away the remaining Kuomintang soldiers. This was a fierce battle. The national army won the final victory, but it was also a tragic victory. The remaining Kuomintang soldiers were less than ten thousand.
With their own strength, they defeated the Indian and Burmese coalition forces and completely established a foothold on the China-Myanmar border.
In the 1960s, the 93rd Division began to fight against the Burmese Communist Party again. Due to the loss of supplies from Taiwan, it suffered heavy casualties and the number of troops became smaller and smaller. In the border areas of Yunnan, Thailand, and Burma, large and small groups were formed.
Ten weapons.
Later, after years of war and no supplies, the National Army, the Communist Party of Myanmar and the soldiers of the Burmese detachment began to collectively plant opium in the Golden Triangle area, forming what is now the world's largest armed drug production and processing base: the Golden Triangle!
The Chinese who stay in Myanmar are nothing more than these two groups. That's why Zhuang Rui asked this question. No matter what the reason is, those who stayed are all descendants of Yan and Huang. They are also fighting for survival. Now China and Taiwan are about to
With three connections, Zhuang Rui naturally doesn't care about their identities.
After hearing what Zhuang Rui said, the stall owner was a little embarrassed and said: "My grandfather stayed in Myanmar during the expeditionary force. At that time, they were fighting guerrillas with the Japanese in the jungle, but later he followed the defeated troops of the Kuomintang and
The Burmese Communist Party is at war..."
Almost all of the people left behind by the expeditionary force in Burma were veterans of countless battles. After fighting the Japanese, they had already settled down in peace. However, the defeated Kuomintang troops later fled to Burma again, out of the same idea of joining forces.
, many veterans have taken up arms again. Of course, these people are now over sixty years old, and large-scale wars no longer exist.
"What do you call this big brother? How is your business here? What's the price of this ivory figure sculpture?"
Zhuang Rui knelt down. Since the other party was Chinese, he had to help him. It wouldn't cost much to buy some small things.
The stall owner glanced at the ivory carving in Zhuang Rui's hand and replied casually: "My surname is Li, and my name is Li Yunshan. The five-dollar one is five thousand kyats. It's a little cheaper to buy it in US dollars..."
In Myanmar, the U.S. dollar is a hard currency. One U.S. dollar can be exchanged for 800 Myanmar kyats. On the black market, the price is even higher.
Zhuang Rui did the math in his mind and found that it only cost more than forty yuan, which was still a good deal. More importantly, this ivory carving was still old ivory. It looked solid and dense, with a soft and smooth color. The whole thing was pure white with a slight hint of ivory.
It's a little yellowish, like something with age.
Although ivory is described as white gold, its color is mostly yellow. Ivory is divided into African ivory and Asian ivory. Both male and female elephants in Africa have tusks. The tusks are mostly light yellow, fine in texture, and shiny.
Well, it has high hardness. The color of Asian ivory is relatively white and will turn yellow over time. Therefore, you can usually tell the age of ivory carvings based on their color.
Some collectors also like the white color, so they soak it in bean dregs and then rub it to make it whiten naturally. After bleaching, it also has an oily and white luster, and feels moist and delicate. It is also considered top-grade. However, most of the fake bone imitations have been bleached.
After bleaching, they appear dry and rough to the touch, and the white color of plastic products is dull, unnatural, and dull.
Since the 1980s, out of concern for protecting elephant populations, the international trade in ivory has been banned, including in China. This has had a great impact on the domestic ivory carving market, which is completely dependent on imported ivory raw materials.
my country stopped direct imports of ivory from Africa on June 1, 1990. After a comprehensive ban on international trade in ivory and its products in 1991, any commercial import of ivory was not approved. The ban on ivory raw materials led to the development of ivory With the surge in collections, the value of ivory carvings has continued to increase amid the ban.
With the ban on the ivory trade and the shortage of raw materials for ivory products, the number of ivory carving handicrafts has also been reduced. With the consumption of the market, the surviving ivory carvings will become increasingly rare. Therefore, for a period of time, the price of ivory handicrafts has
It has skyrocketed by 100%, and the ivory carving art has been enthusiastically sought after by collectors.
Burma, Thailand, Laos and other places are considered the hometown of Asian elephants, so ivory products are still very common here.
"The business is not bad. I can make some money to eat. I heard that the country is developing well now. I still want to go back if I have the opportunity..."
Li Yunshan is very talkative. Although there are many Chinese tourists in Myanmar, he does not often use Chinese. He immediately started chatting with Zhuang Rui non-stop.
"Well, this... and these, I want them all. Brother Li, how much are they worth in total?"
Zhuang Rui picked out several ivory carved objects on the stall. These objects are now very sought after by domestic collectors and are worth more than a thousand yuan. If they are ivory miniature carvings and royal utensils from the Song and Ming Dynasties, they are worth even
It is worth tens to millions of yuan, which is a priceless treasure and extremely rare.
But Zhuang Rui didn't want to make this money. He mainly wanted to enrich his basement. Apart from a few pieces of porcelain and ancient paintings, there was nothing there, which was a bit shabby.
"This little brother, the total is one hundred and thirty-eight dollars. Just give me one hundred and thirty dollars, and I'll wrap it up for you..."
Zhuang Rui bought a lot of gadgets. There were more than a dozen of them in total, and the prices were also different. Li Yunshan took out more than a dozen small boxes from the big box behind him, and there was something for each one.
The corresponding tooth carvings were put in one by one.
"Brother Li, why don't you sell jade here? Doesn't Myanmar produce jade? I think other stalls sell it..."
While Peng Fei was paying, Yang Hao, who stood aside and watched for a long time, finally couldn't help it anymore. There were ruby ivory carvings and other items in this stall, but there was no jade, which made Yang Hao a little strange.
"Yeah..." After hearing what Yang Hao said, Zhuang Rui also realized that there was indeed no jade jewelry or anything like that in this stall, but there were more or less some in other stalls.
"Haha, is it the first time for these little brothers to come to Myanmar?" Li Yunshan asked with a smile.
"Yeah, what's wrong? Doesn't Myanmar allow the trading of jade?"
Even Zhuang Rui was a little surprised now. Even if they banned the export of woolen materials, it would be a bit too much if the Myanmar government also restricted the finished jadeite. Moreover, doing so would prevent their domestic jewelry companies from developing.
"It's not that buying and selling is prohibited, it's just that when you buy jewelry and jade, especially jade, you must go to regular stores, and don't buy jade raw materials, that is, raw stones that have not been processed and polished. These are all within the scope of export control by the state.
.
After purchasing, be sure to ask for a shopping voucher to prepare for customs inspection. Most of the jadeite sold by those people is fake. Even if it is genuine and there is no invoice, the purchase will be cleared through customs. I don’t want to deceive customers, so I simply
Don’t show off anymore…”
Li Yunshan was very disdainful of the behavior of the nearby stalls, with a disapproving expression on his face.
This is the first time Zhuang Rui and others have heard this statement. No wonder Myanmar is rich in jade, but there is no famous jade company. It is really restricted by the government, but if you think about it, it is normal. Myanmar's jade is probably like
Arab oil is the main source of foreign exchange, so it is naturally controlled by the government.
"Thank you. You are welcome to come back to China more often in the future..."
Zhuang Rui took the ivory carvings that were put in the packaging bag and stood up. Just when he was about to say goodbye to this foreign fellow, his eyes were suddenly attracted by an item in the box behind him.
, the foot that stepped forward took it back again.
"Brother Li, are the items in your box for sale?"
Since he was squatting just now, when he stood up, Zhuang Rui saw clearly that in the box next to the stall owner, there was an ivory Buddha statue about fifty centimeters high and as thick as a child's arm, and on its clothing and decorations,
All are hollowed out, elegant in shape, and extremely delicate in carving.
What surprised Zhuang Rui was not these, but the shape of the Buddha statue, which is the angry-eyed Vajra in Buddhism. As the saying goes: Bodhisattva lowers his eyebrows, Vajra has angry eyes. This Buddha statue has a ferocious face, holds a vajra, and the entire sculpture is made of materials.
It is so large that it is rare, and there is actually a ruby inlaid on its forehead, which is like a diamond eye, making the entire tooth sculpture even more powerful.
When Zhuang Rui first saw this object, he liked it from the bottom of his heart. This thing was placed in the living room of the courtyard. It looked so majestic. Speaking of which, in China, except for the exquisite large-scale ivory carving in the Chairman's Memorial Hall, such a large tooth carving was
Apart from ivory carvings of children playing with Buddha and ivory carvings of sailing boats, there are really not many private collections.
"this thing……"
There was a trace of hesitation on Li Yunshan's face. This object was captured by his grandfather from the Japanese and has been kept as his own trophy. However, the old man passed away a few years ago, so this thing was left to him.
Although he was planning to sell it, when Zhuang Rui asked about buying it, he was really reluctant to part with it.
