The expressions of Gu Tong and Qian Mingyuan also changed, and Gu Tong said: "It should be a wolf..."
Qian Mingyuan also said: "The wolves have plenty of food this season, so there shouldn't be much danger."
"Okay, let's collect some dry branches and take turns keeping watch tonight." Han Peacock made a decision.
Several people nodded at the same time. They were too careless a few days ago. Now that they have discovered the danger, they naturally have to be vigilant.
After collecting a lot of dry firewood, Han Peacock stood by the tent and looked into the distance. He could only vaguely see the dark outline of the woods on the edge of the mountain, as if a lurking giant beast was opening its mouth, waiting to kill him. They devour.
Huangshan on the other side became more and more worried as he looked at it, and also raised his vigilance.
Han Peacock frowned, and the frowning atmosphere was indeed wrong. He thought for a while and released the two ghost-faced Tibetan mastiffs from the space.
The Black Lion and the Lion King looked around warily, sniffed the air around them, roared twice, and then lay down quietly at the entrance of the tent.
Not far away, Gu Tong and Qian Mingyuan were still looking for dry firewood, but they often slowed down when they approached the edge of the woods.
Although Wei Changqing who was following behind was a person with super powers, he was somewhat scared. He had known for a long time that there were wild wolves in the mountains, but he didn't expect to actually encounter them today.
Changqing can still deal with one or two Wei Changqing, but he can't handle three or five. Even evil tigers are afraid of pack wolves, and wolves' pack hunting skills are quite superb.
After nightfall, everyone gathered in a tent and had a meal, but no one said they were going to bed.
Although it had been a tiring day, no one felt sleepy at this time.
There was a bonfire outside, lights inside, and the tent was filled with rocks. Seven people were squeezed together, so no one was afraid.
Since no one wants to sleep, it is natural to study those stones. Whenever a rough stone is found that does not perform well, it will be cut into pieces tomorrow, so as not to take back a stubborn stone.
In Qian Mingyuan's opinion, the price of Hetian jade has risen a bit crazy this year. He pointed at a piece of material and asked Wei Changqing: "Xiao Wei, what do you think of this material?"
The piece of material in front of Wei Changqing was very white, but the texture seemed not as moist as other Hetian jade, but Wei Changqing couldn't see any difference.
Qian Mingyuan smiled and said: "This is mountain material, so there must be jade deposits near where this mountain material is found."
"Mountain material?" Han Peacock curiously took the piece of jade and looked at it carefully. If it is really mountain material, it means that the rough stone fell into the river not long ago. In other words, this jade mine is not far away from them. Not far.
Qian Mingyuan said: "This kind of jade material is very similar to the 95 material. The 95 material was not a good jade material in the past, but in recent years, it has been very popular. So, even if a 95 material jade mine is discovered, it is A huge gain.”
"95 material?" Wei Changqing and others have never heard of this kind of jade material.
"This kind of material is called 95 material. It only appeared in the past year or two. People didn't recognize it before. Large jade processing companies like the Capital Jade Factory never buy this material. However, in recent years, 95 material has become popular because of its color. He was so hyped because of his high standards." Qian Mingyuan explained.
After Qian Mingyuan explained, Han Kongque learned that in 1995, Yu from Hotan County, Tian County Qijia pit produced a batch of high-quality Hotan Yushan materials. The jade quality was good, called 95 materials.
When it came to 95 materials, not only Qian Mingyuan sighed. Gu Tong and Wei Changqing also sighed at the same time.
The increased turnover rate and hoarding of jade materials are also the main reasons for the skyrocketing price of Hetian jade.
Because the people who dig jade are basically Uyghurs, jade is first traded in the hands of Uyghurs, and usually passes through several hands before it reaches the hands of Han jade dealers, and then is sold to jade shops or inland.
The more people trade jade, the more it changes hands, and the higher the price goes up.
Nowadays, many companies blindly pursue first-hand materials, thinking that they can save a lot of money by getting materials directly from the Uyghurs, without intermediary merchants.
This is also an important reason for the current surge in market prices. In fact, the final victims are the major jewelry companies themselves.
At present, there are many Uyghurs who are not very willing to trade with people in the industry. If they have something, they have to "hang" it first, and wait for the "rookie" to come, charge an outrageous price, and "kill" one after another. The price of jade has soared to a certain extent. The above is also related to this.
"Mr. Qian, since you are so knowledgeable, why didn't you develop in Hotan?" Wei Changqing sighed when he saw Qian Mingyuan talking about Hotan jade every time, and finally couldn't help asking this time.
Qian Mingyuan sighed again and said: "It's getting harder and harder to get along over there. The government's supervision is very strict now. Even locals who are born and raised here can't quarry jade at will."
In fact, Qian Mingyuan didn't make it clear that it's not that everyone can't dig jade, but that people who don't have connections can't dig.
Now the jade mining there has turned into construction, the Hotan jade is gone, and the wind and sand are coming.
Hotan jade has indeed brought wealth to the people of Hotan. Today, in Hotan City, in addition to jade diggers, there are also jade sellers. In some towns, 70% of the people are engaged in jobs related to Hotan jade.
On the streets of Hotan City, you can often see luxury cars and high-end off-road vehicles, but who would have thought that a few years ago, this was a poor area relying on state relief?
But all these changes are not without cost.
Nowadays, Hotan City is home to people from all over the country, including tourists, collectors, real estate businessmen, and even clothing sellers and fruit sellers.
These people are all attracted by one thing, and that is Hetian jade.
However, while bringing wealth, Hetian jade also brings sandstorms and water depletion.
Hotan jade is distributed on the northern slope of the Kunlun Mountains stretching for 1,500 kilometers in Xinjiang's Sha/Che-Kashgar/Ergan, Hotan-Yu/Khotan, and Qi/mo counties, with a total of 9 origins.
Such a large area cannot withstand people's crazy excavations. Even if Han Peacock had not personally visited Hotan, he could imagine how the local ecological environment would be damaged.
"If the discovery of jade here is exposed, no matter how bad the natural conditions here are, this place will become lively." Gu Tong said while looking at the mountains outside.
"There's nothing we can do about it, but the natural conditions here are restricting it. It's almost impossible to dig like crazy like over there in Hotan," Qian Mingyuan said.
"I hope this place won't be like Hotan!" Wei Changqing said.
Although he said this, he himself did not have much confidence. In recent years, as the price of jade has risen, more and more people are digging for jade, and the way of digging has also changed.
On the Yulong Kashgar River, a total of 3,000 excavators roared simultaneously on the banks of more than 20 kilometers.
There are already millions of people digging for jade. They repeat the same action on the river dam, rummaging through the stones just dug by the excavator.
These people include locals from Hotan, as well as people from Kurla, Yecheng, Kashgar or Akesu. They all came to the Yulong Kashgar River with the dream of getting rich overnight.
The initial rise in jade prices stimulated the rapid expansion of mining, and predatory mining further stimulated the nerves of collectors. The price of jade further soared, and jade digging fell into further craziness.
The river bed of nearly 100 kilometers upstream of the Yulong Kashgar River is covered with criss-crossing tunnels left by large excavators.
In each construction section, the excavation depth reaches directly to the bottom of the river bed. The pebble layer with a thickness of about 3 to 10 meters accumulated over thousands of years is turned over. After careful screening, not only the seeds as small as peanuts are not
They will let it go, and even the strange rocks with slight characteristics will be put away. The entire river bed is like a vast infrastructure construction site.
This kind of indiscriminate mining and excavation has left the Yulong Kashgar River, which is rich in Hetian jade, riddled with holes, and the ecological vegetation has been seriously damaged.
If this kind of resource-depleting predatory mining is not banned, the Hetian jade that has been deposited on the riverbed for hundreds of millions of years will be exhausted.
The indiscriminate digging of trenches on both sides of the Yulong Kashgar River not only destroyed the original ecological vegetation, but also caused a large amount of water and soil erosion.
Han Kongque changed the subject and said, "Mr. Gu, you know a lot about this place. How widespread do you think the jade mines here can be?"
Gu Tong thought for a while and said: "Hetian jade is found in mountain rocks at an altitude of 3,500 to 5,000 meters. After long-term decomposition and peeling, it is broken into fragments of different sizes, collapses on the hillside, and then flows into the river after being washed by rain.
If the same is true here, there may be jade deposits distributed in the surrounding peaks, so we still have a lot of work to do if we want to find the veins."
Everyone looked at the surrounding mountains. There were quite a few peaks where gravel could be seen rolling down the rivers. If they wanted to find jade deposits in these mountains, they might as well pick up ready-made ones in the rivers!
"Today we found many varieties of jade, including red jade, black jade, jasper, and white jade. Needless to say, this situation is enough to show that there must be more than one jade deposit around. In this way, this
There may be jade veins distributed on the surrounding peaks." Qian Mingyuan said.
The economic value of jade is evaluated based on color and texture purity. Its main varieties are: white jade, mutton-fat white jade, Qingtian jade, sapphire, topaz, sugar jade, black jade and jasper.
The jade collection here has a history of 7,000 years, and the ancient jade mining method has been passed down for thousands of years.
The mountain materials are all collected in Kunlun, which is over 4,000 meters above sea level. The raw materials are all collected from the river bed. In ancient times, jade farmers picked jade on the river bank, fished for jade in the river, and turned the ground with their hands. The ground was only half a meter deep at most, and they repeatedly
Forte searched dozens of kilometers of rivers, while Hotan has been collecting for thousands of years.
People envy the beauty of flowers, but they don’t know how much hardship it has to go through in order to bloom at that moment.”
We only know how to appreciate the beauty and brilliance of jade, but we don’t see the hardships of the people who pick it, and we don’t know the thrilling legendary story behind it.
Only by immersing myself in the personal experience of a jade collector can I realize that every piece of jade is hard-won. (To be continued, please search Piaotian Literature, the novel will be better and updated faster!