Chapter 1124 – Bombardment

“Teacher, according to the analysis of the notes left behind by Taoist Wang, there should be nearly 20,000 Dunhuang documents inside these two statues, so tell them to be careful when breaking them open.”

Zhuang Rui looked at the hammers and chisels in the hands of a few soldiers, he couldn’t help but speak out and remind Prof. Meng, if the artifacts inside were accidentally damaged, it would be an incalculable loss.

“Right, right, all of you be careful, inside these clay Buddha statues are most likely green brick structures, scrape off the surface first.”

Prof. Meng nodded his head repeatedly as he listened, commanding the current staff, but then his face revealed doubt, turning his face to look at Zhuang Rui, asking, “Daoist Wang once kept notes? Where was it? There are none inside those documents that were previously sent out!”

In the Dunhuang Museum, there are indeed some handwritten notes of Wang Daoshi, but these notes have long been rummaged through and studied, and Prof. Meng clearly remembers that there is absolutely no news of these Dunhuang documents that are not known to the world in those notes, which is why Prof. Meng thought that it was Wang Daoshi who had left the notes in the statue of the Buddha, and that it was Zhuang Rui who had discovered it!

“Hm? Teacher, Senior Brother Ren didn’t tell you?”

Zhuang Rui froze for a seat at his words, pointing to Nakagawa who was sitting unattended in the corner of the main hall, “Teacher, that Japanese is the descendant of the Japanese explorer Yoshikawa back then, he came to Dunhuang when he was sorting out the relics of his ancestor and found the notes and pictures left behind by Daoshi Wang, Elder Brother knows about this as well!”

“Uh, I haven’t had time to ask.”

Professor Meng smiled a bit awkwardly as he smiled, at that time, after seeing the Dunhuang documents that Dr. Ren and Peng Fei had brought out from the desert, and especially seeing the handwritten scriptures of the Grass Sage Zhang Zhi, all of his attention was immediately focused on that.

Later, once the helicopter arrived and he was busy rushing here, Prof. Meng didn’t communicate much with his students, and naturally he didn’t know the role Zhongchuan played in this archaeology.

Zhuang Rui shook his head with a smile and told Prof. Meng about Nakagawa, of course, he promised Nakagawa that he could send someone to participate in the Dunhuang research, but as to whether or not the teacher agreed, it was none of Zhuang Rui’s business.

“That’s the way it is, huh?”

After hearing this, Professor Meng pondered for a while and said, “Dunhuang culture has been developing for decades, and there are specialized scholars researching it in western countries and Japan, and its influence is spread all over the world, rather than only in China. Let’s do it this way! This matter in principle I agree, but also to declare to the higher authorities, and the Japanese side if you want to join the research, to use the name of official cultural exchanges, but also to take out their sincerity.”

Prof. Meng said the sincerity, naturally, is to take out the Japanese side of the more than 10,000 books from China to get the Dunhuang literature, these materials for the study of the domestic Dunhuang culture, there should be a considerable complementary, in this way, it can not be said that who suffered and who took advantage of it.

What’s more, Prof. Meng is open-minded, he for the early last century, Japanese explorers from China to buy national treasures on the cheap, but not very much on the heart, Yoshikawa people do not have too much bad feelings.

Because if a different environment and position, is Professor Meng himself to see such a cheap, but also absolutely will take advantage of, imagine if you have the opportunity not to break the law and not criminal, through proper means to buy a number of valuable cultural relics at a low price, you will not go to do it?

Plus then the country is weak, and in the chaotic times, as the saying goes, the world of antiques in the chaotic gold, these ancient books of good pressure is not the Qing court and the warlords at the time to pay attention to, and no wonder the foreign explorers will take it out of China.

Some friends may not support this point of view, but this is indeed the nature of man, mainly many friends see the loss of Chinese cultural relics out of the psychological can not accept it, just, if replaced by the Chinese people looting foreign antiques, it is estimated that we can find the balance of the psyche.

“Thank you, old sir, I will take out all the Dunhuang documents in my family to study, and can convince others to do the same.”

Nakagawa, who was on the side, was overjoyed after hearing Yan Xiaowei’s words translated over to him, and stepped forward to bow deeply to Professor Meng, at this moment, his mind of monopolizing these artifacts had long since disappeared, and he was content to have a piece of the pie.

Prof. Meng waved his hand and said, “Well, these things will be relevant departments will deal with you at that time, do not thank me, art does not distinguish between borders, culture should also be exchanged.”

“How come the British Museum does not come to an exchange and interoperability with us to return things over ah!” Zhuang Rui muttered in his heart.

“Opened the green brick, there is something inside.”

Buddha statue on the pedestal of the archaeological staff suddenly sent out a surprise cry, Professor Meng also do not care about Zhuang Rui, immediately rushed over, that stretching hand is not at all like nearly seventy years old.

“Slowly, don’t water, it’s okay to have dust.”

“Good, go in two people, you in the pedestal this pad two boards.”

“Be careful, how do you work? Put your gloves on and two men lift and put it on the cart.”

When the cave entrance was opened wide enough, Professor Meng commanded in a loud voice, seeing those Dunhuang documents neatly wrapped in oil paper, the old professor’s face was filled with excitement and excitement.

The equipment brought from the helicopter was much better than the facilities carried by Zhuang Rui and the others, and soon the two alloy plates were set up on the pedestal, and the two carts carried back and forth the scrolls inside the belly of the Buddha statue.

Although the manpower is much more abundant than before, but more than 20,000 Dunhuang documents, still let the crowd busy all day, until darkness fell down, only cleaned up.

After carrying the scrolls to the helicopter, Prof. Meng led the men to carefully clean the inside of the statue, leaving not even a scrap of paper behind.

Due to the fact that it was getting late, and the fact that this ancient temple was also necessary for further research, a group of people rested in the ancient temple that day.

Of course, beside the three helicopters, there were soldiers with loaded guns guarding the precious Dunhuang documents, it is not too much to compare the value of the city, the loss of a book will be a major loss.

The next day Zhuang Rui and Dr. Ren accompanied Professor Meng and his team of experts, will be the thousand-year-old temple inspection, but as Zhuang Rui and others before the survey, all the valuable things in the temple have been moved, only these ancient buildings, there is a little research value.

After determining that there is no more Dunhuang literature in the ancient temple, the people boarded a helicopter and flew in the direction of the town, and when they arrived at the town the helicopter just put Erdan and the others down, and did not stop, and did not even go back to Dunhuang, but instead went directly to the huge barracks of the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Base.

“Teacher, this is a bit too much, isn’t it? How did you manage to live in the army?”

Originally the helicopter landed in the barracks, Zhuang Rui also thought that the other party would then send a car to send their own party to the hotel, who knows that directly placed in the army’s guesthouse, which makes Zhuang Rui a little puzzled.

“Tomorrow there will be a special airplane to send us back to Beijing, so stay here for the night today!”

Professor Meng saw Zhuang Rui’s puzzled face, although he had the intention to check the batch of Dunhuang documents first, but he was still patient and said, “Your archaeological action this time, and I don’t know how it was spread out, now in the streets of Dunhuang, in addition to tourists, I’m afraid it’s the cultural relics smuggling traffickers, and it’s just a little bit safer to stay here.”

Since entering the 2000s, the world investment goods market is hot, but also drove the boom of Chinese antiques, coupled with some behind-the-scenes speculation, these were originally in the seventies and eighties three or five dollars can buy things, the price upward thousands of times.

However, the folk circulation of antiques is after all limited, so many people will focus on those tombs, a time when the Chinese land of ten tombs nine empty, bold grave robbers, and even dared to tiger’s mouth, in front of some national archaeological team around.

Like this Dunhuang documents unearthed news, it attracted a large number of domestic cultural relics dealers and grave robbers, was prompted by the relevant departments, in order to this batch of cultural relics of the safety, Professor Meng only chose the military camp as a temporary shelter.

After a short stay of one day, the day after Prof. Meng returned to Beijing, the news of Dunhuang archaeological breakthroughs spread around the world through television, radio, newspapers and the Internet, making the world scientific research community until the shock.

A hundred years ago, in the era of underdeveloped communication, the Dunhuang documents, have stirred up the whole world, and now the unearthed Dunhuang documents, in terms of quantity as well as quality, are not inferior to that year, the sensation caused by the natural more big.

For a while, the Dunhuang cultural research institutions of various countries have applied to the relevant domestic departments, requesting cultural exchanges in the form of participation in the scientific research, and put forward a lot of cooperation and exchange programs.

In this case, the World Dunhuang Cultural Symposium, also scheduled to be held next month in Beijing, from the Western countries and Southeast Asia, including Japan and other Dunhuang cultural research institutions and scholars, have to the General Assembly to apply for participation.

The name of Zhuang Rui and others was also known by the world scientific research community overnight, and a core leader in charge of culture, science and education in the country also sent a congratulatory message to Zhuang Rui, Ren Chunqiang as the head of the archaeological team for recognition.

Dunhuang document time, just the time of the annual college entrance examination, I do not know how many students because of this incident, resolutely enrolled in the more remote archaeology profession, in previous years, even a class is not enough to recruit the Department of Archaeology, actually appeared in short supply situation, can not be said to be and this incident has a necessary connection.

CCTV is broadcast in a few years before the lukewarm large-scale scientific and educational film: into Dunhuang, so that the land of China has arisen a piece of archaeological fever, of course, from a certain point of view, but also to strengthen the ranks of the profession of grave robbers.