"Brother Ma, have a sip of tea first. I have a magazine brought by a friend from Hong Kong. Do you want to read it?"
Nie Tianbao placed the jade pendant on the coffee table. After pouring a cup of tea for "Ma Zibian", he opened the safe in the store and took out a few magazines from it.
"Hey, it's a dragon, tiger and leopard? Old Nie, you can actually bring it out? What I brought last time was checked by the customs."
When "Ma Zibian" saw those magazines, his eyes suddenly lit up. He grabbed the magazines in his hand and said, "Old Nie, you have to give these to me later. Take your time to look at the jadeite!"
"
"No problem, as long as Brother Ma likes it." Nie Tianbao laughed when he heard this. He finally found something about this boy's temperament. Now he won't clamor to leave, right?
"Old Zhao, come and take a look at this."
After playing with it for a while, Nie Tianbao handed it to Shopkeeper Zhao, who had been waiting for him for a long time, and whispered: "I think this thing is the legendary imperial green, right?"
Nie Tianbao has not been in contact with jade for a long time. He heard the idea of imperial green from his colleagues along the coast and in Yunnan Province. However, even those colleagues have rarely seen imperial green jade. He is also a little unsure about it.
True or false.
"Yes, it is indeed jade. The sun-green and transparent seed water is the same as the earrings, and both can reach imperial green. Moreover, the two seem to come from the same material."
Shopkeeper Zhao took a high-power magnifying glass, put the Maitreya pendant under the strong light and looked at it for a long time, then lowered his voice and said: "There are no bubbles in this thing. It should be real. Boss, I think you can buy it!"
"
"What's the price?" Nie Tianbao glanced at "Mazibian" who was looking at the dragon, tiger and leopard, and said, "This guy is a young boy and doesn't know much. Let's be tougher."
"Boss, if this really belongs to the Empress Dowager Cixi, then... the price would be outrageous. It could be worth at least 10 million or more!"
Shopkeeper Zhao's voice trembled. Although he was not a jade player, Cixi loved jade all his life. Anyone in the collecting world knows this.
Among Cixi's collections, the most famous one is naturally the jade cabbage.
However, shopkeeper Zhao knew that in those days, in order to please Cixi, officials from various places sent a lot of top-quality jadeite as tribute to the court almost every year. Cixi's jadeite collection was numerous.
Some of Cixi's collections were buried with her, like the jade cabbage, which eventually fell into the hands of the "Donngling Bandit" warlord Sun Dianying.
There was also a part of the jade collection that was given to the palace guards and maids by the then Emperor Puyi. In addition, the palace was in chaos at the time, and the guards often stole things from it, and in the end they were all lost.
Judging from the carving work of the Maitreya Buddha pendant and the pair of earrings, they are definitely made by masters, and the thick patina has a sense of ancient history. It should undoubtedly be from the Cixi collection.
"Ten million?"
Hearing what shopkeeper Zhao said, Nie Tianbao quickly glanced at "Mazibian" and found that he was watching the dragon, tiger and leopard with great interest. Then he felt relieved and whispered: "Old Zhao, are you sure?"
Shopkeeper Zhao nodded and said: "Boss, this imperial green material is made by someone who specializes in the jade business. You may have never seen it in your life. Plus, considering that it was used by Empress Dowager Cixi, I think ten million is still a small amount."
Although the current market price of jade is not very high, it is aimed at ordinary jade jewelry, such as imperial green jade, which is already the best among gemstones.
According to Shopkeeper Zhao, even if the pair of earrings and Buddha pendants cannot be sold in China, if they are brought to Hong Kong Island and other places, someone will definitely buy them!
"Ten million, damn, how about hacking him?"
A stern look flashed in Nie Tianbao's eyes. Although he was rumored to be worth hundreds of millions, in fact Nie Tianbao only had thirty or forty million. The other money was all invested by various parties and was only in his name.
.
And even if these 30 to 40 million are mostly fixed assets, part of the millions that Nie Tianbao took with him to Myanmar some time ago was borrowed from banks.
So after hearing the price of this thing, Nie Tianbao was really murderous. He killed this brat and threw it into a new store, so that no one would find it.
"Boss, this is not okay..."
Although shopkeeper Zhao was also a profiteer, he was not as ruthless as Nie Tianbao. He was startled after hearing his words and said, "I think the string of beads on his hand should be made of high-grade sandalwood."
, and the patina is quite thick, and it is at least fifty years old. It is not something that ordinary people can afford to wear. I am afraid he is really a yellow belt!"
"Old Zhao, what are yellow belts?" I just heard three yellow belts from "Ma Zibian", but Nie Tianbao didn't quite understand what yellow belts were.
"He was a member of the royal family of the Qing Dynasty in the past. I think this guy is a well-connected person. I also know the Minxue incident he mentioned..." Nie Tianbao was a monk in the antique shop, but Shopkeeper Zhao was different. His allusions to the Qing Dynasty were
Know it like the back of your hand.
The so-called yellow belt is actually another name for the Qing clan. In the first year of Chongde reign of Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty, it was stipulated that all clan members below the prince should wear a golden belt to show their identity, so it was called yellow belt.
The Yellow Belt was the backbone of the Manchu Dynasty. From Hachi's unification of the Jurchen tribes to Huang Taiji's founding of the Qing Dynasty, and Dorgon's protection of his widowed sister-in-law and nephew's entry into the Central Plains, the Yellow Belt played a vital role.
Therefore, the yellow belt in the early Qing Dynasty could be called the four beams and eight pillars of the Qing Dynasty. They enjoyed a variety of political privileges and generous treatment. Taking the prince as an example, in addition to receiving an annual salary of ten thousand taels of silver and five thousand kilograms of rice, he also received a manor.
There are 50,000 to 60,000 acres of farmland and 250 households.
When the Manchus first entered the country, there were only a few hundred Huangdaizi. However, after several dynasties such as Shunzhi, Kangxi, Yongzheng, and Qianlong, the number of Huangdaizi reached tens of thousands during the Jiaqing period.
As the saying goes, people who have idle time to worry about nothing will cause trouble. If these idle people are just ordinary people and are governed by the law, they won't cause any big trouble. But the ones who have too much time to worry are the yellow belts with royal blood flowing on them. This trouble can be serious.
That's big.
During that period, these idle yellow belts could often be seen on the streets. They either held bird cages in their hands, or had a sinister vulture lying on their shoulders. They were followed by a group of servants who looked like wolves and tigers, shouting and shouting on the streets.
, rampage.
The Qing court stipulated that killing yellow belts would not be punished with life, and those who broke the law could only be dealt with by the Zongren Mansion, the yamen of the royal palace. There were tens of thousands of lawless yellow belts, plus many fake yellow belts who took advantage of the situation.
Both true and false, both demons and monsters, the stable was filled with smoke and ghosts were crying and wolves were howling.
As for the "Minxue Incident", it happened during the Jiaqing period.
In the thirteenth year of Jiaqing, a yellow belt man named Minxue drank some wine and came out of the barber shop after shaving his head. As he was walking, he suddenly saw a roasted sweet potato seller on the street.
He raised his head and looked at the scorching sun, wondering in his heart, why is there anyone selling roasted sweet potatoes on such a hot day? Nine times out of ten, it's fake, this is the stable floor, this matter needs to be taken care of!
So, Minxue walked to the sweet potato oven and asked, "Are your sweet potatoes real or fake?" The person roasting sweet potatoes looked up and said angrily, "How can sweet potatoes be fake?" Minxue said, "I see.
Your sweet potatoes are fake, take one and let me take a look."
The sweet potato roaster glanced at Minxue and handed over a roasted sweet potato.
Min Xue took the sweet potato and took a bite. It was indeed a sweet potato. He threw the sweet potato on the ground and said, "It's really not a good product! It smells like pickled radish and is unpalatable." After saying that, he turned around and left.
The roasted sweet potato seller quit his job, grabbed Min Xue's arm, and said, "You have nothing to find fault with, but you have to pay for my sweet potatoes!"
Minxue was used to being domineering, so when he came out for a haircut, he only brought one servant with him. The master and the servant grabbed the roasted sweet potato seller and beat him hard until the roasted sweet potato seller's head and face were covered with blood, and he knelt down.
There were many pleas for mercy on the ground.
As soon as Minxue started to take action, someone went to report to the police. Soldiers from the infantry commander's office came, restrained Minxue and put handcuffs on him. Minxue was so angry that he drank alcohol and forgot about himself.
He didn't wear the yellow belt, so he thought it was the infantry commander's yamen who wanted to make him look bad, so he cursed loudly.
Minxue was pushed and pushed to the Duipiao House (equivalent to today's public security police station). Seeing that something was not going well, the servants ran back to the house to call for help. Not long after, a dozen servants arrived with knives and sticks.
The dormitory where Minxue was detained.
When Minxue saw someone coming, he jumped up and ordered his servants to beat the soldiers in the warehouse. He also smashed the windows of the warehouse and knocked down the weapon racks.
This incident happened in a downtown area, and there were many onlookers. The infantry commander's office was angry and felt very shameless, so he reported Minxue directly to Emperor Jiaqing with a piece of paper.
After Emperor Jiaqing accepted the petition, Long Yan was furious. Since he succeeded to the throne, he has continuously received reports of yellow belts gathering to cause trouble, killing people and wounding others, and being lawless.
Emperor Jiaqing decided to take action on Minxue. After a moment's notice of the unhealthy tendencies that had affected the state, he issued a stern decree to expel Minxue from the clan. He also slapped 40 bans outside the palace gate and sent him to Shengjing.
He was restrained and never allowed to return to Beijing.
Subsequently, Emperor Jiaqing ordered the clan officials to report the yellow belts that had misbehavior. Counting Min Xue, there were a total of seventy households, and they were sent to Shengjing, thousands of miles away.
"Damn it, is this kid's unreasonableness inherited from our ancestors?"
After listening to shopkeeper Zhao's words, Nie Tianbao couldn't laugh or cry. He originally thought that "Ma Zibian" was already quite unruly, but he didn't expect that his ancestors were even more lawless.
