After Ouyang Lei left, Vice Minister Yu couldn't sit still. He said hello to Zhuang Rui and Professor Meng and left in a hurry. He must have gone back to the ministry to discuss how to solve the salvage incident.
"Teacher, what do you think about this incident? Are students participating or not?"
To be honest, Zhuang Rui is not very interested in cooperating with relevant national departments. If he has the time, he might as well go to the Atlantic Ocean for a few laps. All the objects salvaged there belong to Zhuang Rui.
And if he participates in this domestic salvage, it is obvious that if the gold, platinum and 150,000 carats of rough diamonds are salvaged and designated as owned by the state, he will receive some kind of commendation at most.
However, Professor Meng was a witness who participated in the salvage of the Awa Maru. Zhuang Rui wanted to hear the old man's opinion. He also had a question in his mind and wanted to ask the teacher for advice.
"The greater the ability, the greater the responsibility, Xiaozhuang, although many departments in the country have many shortcomings, as long as you do it according to your heart, you can be worthy of the more than one billion people..."
Professor Meng is a pure scholar, and he is not very accustomed to the bureaucracy. Today's incident makes him especially uncomfortable, because when he didn't know about it before he came, Dean Liu told him that the previous few
A scientific research fund of two million yuan that I applied for last month has been approved.
Professor Meng was originally very happy when he heard the news, but after he came here, he realized that the leader of Qingqing approved the funds because he was afraid that he had been imprisoned for the "Awa Maru" salvage incident more than 30 years ago.
There is a shadow and unwillingness to participate in the compensation for this salvage.
Art, science and history cannot be compensated with money. What Dean Liu did made the old professor feel as sick as if he had eaten a fly. This guy was among the people who made matters worse back then.
"But we can discuss how to cooperate. Xiaozhuang, you don't lack those gold, silver, diamonds and other objects, so just give them to them. It's just that your museum doesn't seem to have a lot of stuff, right?"
Professor Meng winked at Zhuang Rui while speaking, with a smile on his face.
"Haha, teacher, can they agree?"
Zhuang Rui understood what Professor Meng meant. Since it was a cooperative salvage operation, he would naturally benefit from it. If the money was given to the country, he could use his brain to find the cultural relics lost on the ship.
However, according to previous records and some of the objects salvaged last time, those lost cultural relics are most likely the cultural relics lost from Manchukuo at that time, which Puyi brought out from the Forbidden City. These are all national-level
For precious cultural relics, the state may not necessarily be able to comply with its requests.
"Don't agree? Should I keep it for those bureaucrats to waste? Should I keep it to rot in the Forbidden City?"
Hearing Zhuang Rui raise this question, Professor Meng's voice suddenly raised a few degrees, with a look of indignation on his face.
"Teacher? What's wrong?" Zhuang Rui was a little confused. He didn't know which of his words made the teacher unhappy?
"This matter has nothing to do with you. For research purposes some time ago, I wanted to retrieve from the Forbidden City a human clay pot unearthed from Liu Xiu's tomb some time ago, but... I didn't expect that the thing was actually destroyed..."
The more Professor Meng talked about it, the angrier he became. The pottery pot could still be regarded as a national second-level protected cultural relic. However, after it was damaged, it was not reported and repaired. Instead, it was concealed inside the Forbidden City.
If Professor Meng had not accidentally discovered the damage of the clay pot due to his research needs, I am afraid that this matter would never have been known to the world, and even people in the industry would not have known about it.
Professor Meng really couldn't bear this kind of bureaucracy, so he didn't want to see if any precious cultural relics really appeared on the "Awa Maru", they would be ruined by the bureaucrats of the Forbidden City.
"Okay, teacher, I will definitely insist on the cultural relics..."
After Zhuang Rui heard about this incident, he was also very angry. As a cultural relics supervision department, it could not properly preserve the precious historical relics left by the ancestors, and even passed the blame to each other after they were damaged. Such a department really cannot
Let Zhuang Rui rest assured.
"Damn it, I will never exchange exhibits with the Forbidden City again. It's too unreliable..."
After listening to Professor Meng's story, Zhuang Rui was still a little scared. The last time he agreed to exchange exhibits with Fatty Jin and the Forbidden City Museum, luckily there was no accident. Otherwise, if his precious baby bumps were damaged or lost, then he would
Aren’t you heartbroken to death?
Professor Meng's expression softened, and he pointed at Zhuang Rui and said, "Well, some people want political achievements and don't pay much attention to things that cannot be eaten or drank. It should be possible to negotiate, but it will give you an advantage..."
"Teacher, you participated in the first salvage. What cultural relics are on the Awa Maru? Can you tell your students? I heard that the "Peking Man Skull" was on the Awa Maru. This
In the end... is it true or false?"
Ever since he heard the name "Awa Maru" from the deputy minister's mouth just now, Zhuang Rui has been having this question in his mind and has been holding it in for most of the day.
"You kid, I knew you would ask this question..."
Professor Meng laughed when he heard this. After thinking for a while, he said, "Xiao Zhuang, how much do you know about the Peking Man skull?"
Professor Meng did not want to test Zhuang Rui, but the skull of the Peking Man involved a very complicated history. If one did not understand the situation at that time, it would be impossible to make inferences.
"Teacher, everything I know is from what I read in textbooks. There are also some gossips that I can't be sure of..."
Zhuang Rui scratched his head in embarrassment. The "Peking Man Skull" meant more to anthropologists and historians than to archaeologists, so when he saw relevant reports at the time, he only read it as a story.
However, due to his professional sensitivity, Zhuang Rui still remembered the ins and outs of this matter. As early as the 1920s, Chinese scientists discovered two teeth belonging to early humans in Zhoukoudian. In October of the same year, Beijing Science
When the world reported this important discovery, it immediately caused a sensation at home and abroad.
Later, the China Geological Survey and Union Medical College jointly conducted large-scale excavations at the Zhoukoudian Peking Man site. One day in early winter, during the excavation process, Pei Wenzhong, a young paleontologist, suddenly saw a small hole.
The crack is so narrow that only one person can enter and exit.
In order to find out the truth, Fei Wenzhong entered the cave alone and unexpectedly found many animal fossils in the cave. After a day of excavation, an archaeological discovery that shocked the world finally appeared.
It was already dark at that time, but Fei Wenzhong, who kept digging with the lights on, discovered an ape-man skull. At that time, half of the skull was still in the soil. After careful and meticulous excavation, the first Peking Man skull was finally unearthed.
At that time, Pei Wenzhong personally took a car, wrapped the rare treasure in his own two quilts, mattresses, and felts and escorted it to the city.
In 1936, Jia Lanpo discovered three skull fossils of "Peking Man" in Yuanman Cave. A total of 6 skulls, 12 skull fragments, 15 mandibles, 157 teeth and broken femurs and fishy bones were unearthed.
etc., belonging to more than 40 individuals of men, women, old and young.
The discovery of Peking Man sites and fossils is a major event in the history of paleoanthropology research in the world. So far, no ancient human site has so many ancient humans, ancient cultures, ancient animal fossils and other materials as the Zhoukoudian Peking Man site.
.
The Peking Man fossil has thus become a rare treasure that has attracted much attention from the world's scientific community. Although it is not the earliest human being, as a representative of the intermediate link from ape to human, it has been called "the most meaningful and moving discovery in the entire history of ancient humans."
, Therefore, one can imagine the preciousness of the "Peking Man Skull".
However, precisely because of this, it has also become the object of covetousness by some speculators and imperialists. The five Peking Man skulls and a batch of fossils unearthed by Pei Wenzhong were strangely "missing" during the Anti-Japanese War.
In 1941, the relationship between Japan and the United States became increasingly tense. In Peiping, which was occupied by the Japanese army at the time, the Japanese army began to occupy some neutral American institutions in Peiping.
Although the Peking Union Medical College Hospital that stores and preserves the Peking Man skull fossils is owned by the United States, it was not immune at the time. Under such circumstances, the Cenozoic Research Laboratory decided to find a safer storage location for the Peking Man fossils.
Due to the contract signed between China and the United States during the cooperative excavation of fossils, all fossils excavated in Zhoukoudian were the property of China and were prohibited from being transported out of the country. Therefore, people at the US Embassy refused to accept them.
After coordination by the Nationalist Government and the approval and authorization of the U.S. Ambassador to China in Chongqing, the U.S. Embassy in Peiping received these precious ancient human fossils and prepared to transport them safely to the United States for preservation.
In the early morning of December 5, 1941, a U.S. Marine Corps special train left Peiping. After the train arrived in Qinhuangdao as planned, the fossils were transported to the ship "President Harrison" and then shipped to the United States.
Unfortunately, just as the Marine Corps was preparing to return to the United States, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the Pacific War broke out. The Japanese army quickly occupied the U.S. institutions in China, and the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Qinhuangdao.
It was also occupied by the Japanese army, and no trace of the Pekingese skulls was found.
This incident became a theft that shocked the world. For more than half a century, people continued to search for it.
In 1998, Jia Lanpo, the father of Beijingers, teamed up with more than a dozen other academicians to launch the "Great Search for the End of the Century", but in the end no valuable clues were found, and there is still no result.
