Chapter 0883 – Yuman
“Boss, there are still a few things inside this, do you still want to see it?”
Zhang Da Niu saw Zhuang Rui did not speak, the heart can not help but some drums, he also knows that excavation of ancient tombs is against the law, if caught, at least to be fined three or five thousand, their family can not be so much money.
“And? Look, to see.”
Zhuang Rui heard the words of Zhang Daniu, immediately sobered up, as the saying goes, the chaos of the world of gold in the world of antiques, now antiques are so popular, those cultural relics dealers have their eyes on the countryside. And these rural people have the unique conditions, coupled with the generally low cultural level, simply do not understand their private excavation behavior, what kind of damage to these historical heritage treasures.
However, Zhuang Rui some puzzled, the country on the crime of excavation and trafficking in cultural relics, has been the fight is very strong, why some places can still be so blatant excavation of ancient tombs, is it that those local governments are eating dry rice?
In fact, Zhuang Rui do not know, in the boundaries of Henan, especially around Mangshan, just a Meng County (not specifically signed, the last chapter will be changed, the province was cross-provincial) of the tomb robbers, no less than 5,000 people, as the saying goes, the law is not responsible for the public security, with the a few in the program, simply can not be caught over.
And even those government personnel’s family, there may be counting on this meal, so even if caught in flagrante delicto, but also just a little fine, if you really want to be sentenced, it is estimated that the next day the police station can be surrounded by a group of old men and women, which is not something that has not happened.
These local grave robbers, are the lowest level of this industry, in the beginning, they worked hard to dig out the Mingqi, the integrity of the quality of the sale of a few hundred dollars, the general even dozens of dollars on the sale of the money.
And after the rise of antique fever, these people also feel that they have suffered a loss, and gradually began by the family workshop type of grave robbing behavior, turned into a gang behavior.
Several families with good relations, combined together, a clear division of labor, someone is responsible for grave robbing, someone is responsible for looking out, specializing in squatting in front of the police station, often the police just went out, that side got the news, which also makes the work of the police difficult.
Even if some big cases alarmed the senior management, the police force to arrest, but also let them a little convergence, after the wind to the night as usual continue to dig, the task force can not be resident there, right?
So such a family workshop type of grave robbing gangs, is unable to ban, will continue to exist, like the ground rats in general, will be a precious ancient tombs to the excavation and destruction.
“This …… is a pottery figurine, right? How come it’s so heavy? Could it be solid?”
Monkey was helping Zhang Daniu unravel another parcel, and when he carried an object out of it, he almost didn’t drop it on the ground, apparently Monkey didn’t manage to estimate the weight of that thing.
“I don’t know, this thing is old and heavy, if it wasn’t for my brother’s strength, he wouldn’t have been able to carry it to Beijing!”
Zhang Da Niu was not very interested in these things, in his opinion, these objects can’t be eaten or drunk, although he knew that they could be exchanged for money, he didn’t understand what these people had collected the things for? So after digging up these things, Zhang Dainiu and his brother all hid the things in the cellar and never organized them, and this time when he came to Beijing, he just picked some random things from the cellar and brought them here.
“Monkey, what is it?”
The two men’s conversation attracted Zhuang Rui’s attention, walking over to see, monkey is straining to hold a thirty to forty centimeter high humanoid ceramic figurine, covered with yellow clay, unable to see the appearance and the gender of the figure.
“I don’t know, solid ceramic figurines are rare! This thing is so heavy.”
Monkey replied to Zhuang Rui’s words and put the thing back on the table, panting with exhaustion.
“Hmm, it’s really not light.”
Zhuang Rui reached out and weighed it, this not very big object actually weighed sixty to seventy pounds, and a stone block of the same size was about the same, which made him a little stunned.
Due to the solid fired terracotta figurines are very easy to crack, so since the Qin Dynasty, terracotta figurines in addition to the neck for the solid casting of the outside, the body head is generally hollow, like in the Xi’an area unearthed in the Qin Terracotta Warriors, although it looks tall, in fact, is not very heavy.
Of course, there are also solid terracotta figurines unearthed in history, but those are segmented firing and then spliced together, extremely easy to break when moving, not like this terracotta figurine to give people a sense of unity.
“Huh? It’s not right.”
After Zhuang Rui used his aura to roam around this humanoid object, he suddenly froze for a moment, because the aura he found inside this thing was actually the faint, cool aura of jade.
“Could it be a jade person?”
Zhuang Rui twisted his head and said to the monkey, “Go and find a face basin, in addition to getting a row brush, this thing is a bit odd, not quite like a terracotta figurine.”
After four or five minutes, the monkey did not know where to find a large plastic basin, received half a basin of water and brought in, holding a pig bristle brush.
Zhuang Rui’s strength is far from the monkey can compare, one hand grabbed the object, directly placed in the basin, the basin of water stained the object on the soil, immediately became cloudy.
Zhuang Rui took the brush, dipped in water from the head of the brush, a few will be on top of a layer of yellow mud to clean off, did not wait for him to look at, standing aside the monkey exclaimed: “This …… thing is not a terracotta figurine, is the jade people ah!”
“Jade?”
The side of the ZhangDaNiu also froze for a moment, and then full of joy, opened his mouth and said, “or boss powerful, we really do not know this thing is jade it, move up dead heavy dead heavy.”
After hearing that this thing is jade, Zhang Daniu excited straight rubbing hands, rural people even if no longer see knowledge, but also know that jade is worth money, Daniu has been in the heart of the estimate up, this thing at least to sell 1000 …… not, at least to 2000 to become.
Zhuang Rui did not pay attention to the two, with the jade man gradually be cleaned up, his face also became heavy up, from the table took the ruler measured, this jade man is forty-eight centimeters high.
Jade man is carved from a block of white jade, due to the age, in the jade man body seeped into a lot of soil seepage color, after scrubbing clean body yellowish, its shape is a woman holding a piano in her arms.
To be precise, the jade figure is holding a lute, and the head of the lute, including the string grooves, the string shafts, the mountain passes, and other details, are carved in minute detail, extremely delicate, and judging from the lute that the jade figure is holding in her arms, she is supposed to be a luthier.
Jade man itself is also very good carving, the whole jade man body covered with fine as a hairline ornamentation, this should be the piano teacher woman with a smile, jaw slightly raised, wearing a long-sleeved robe, seemingly lifelike.
In Zhuang Rui’s eyes, this two thousand years ago carving, now as well as it is difficult for someone to reach, even with the use of machine carving, I’m afraid that can not do this kind of effect, this is definitely the peak of the Han Dynasty jade carving!
“Damn, whose lair did these two guys dig up in the end?”
Zhuang Rui marveled in his heart, the unearthing of this jade man showed that the identity of the tomb owner was much higher than what he had imagined.
To know, the ancient burial is concerned about the etiquette, especially the court officials, what identity accompanied what things are concerned, even if you are rich, no identity also dare not accompany the burial of too many objects that violate the system, otherwise not only the grave to be stripped, even the children and grandchildren will also suffer.
And jade in ancient times, especially the Qin and Han dynasties, is extremely important rituals for heaven, the general courtiers are not likely to have such a large piece of jade to carve burial objects, so the owner of this jade man, may be a bit of the existence of the emperor.
“Boss, how much do you think this thing can be worth, is 5000 dollars worth it?”
While Zhuang Rui was sizing up the jade man, Zhang Daniu couldn’t hold his breath and walked up to Zhuang Rui and asked out loud.
“5000 dollars?”
Zhuang Rui smiled bitterly, in his heart, he felt a little sad for the ancient emperors, the tombs and burial goods they had poured all their national efforts into building at that time, in Zhang Daniu’s mouth, they were only worth 5,000 dollars?
“Da Niu, let me ask you the truth, tell me honestly, did you guys find anything inside the coffin of that tomb?”
General Han Dynasty emperor’s tomb, it is highly likely that there will be gold or silver stranded jade clothes unearthed, Zhuang Rui can see from this jade man, this emperor’s scale, I’m afraid that it is not less than the Manchurian Han Tomb that once unearthed gold stranded jade clothes.
“Coffin? That big sarcophagus?”
ZhangDaNiu see ZhuangRui asked cautiously, after thinking for a while, said: “inside is a big sarcophagus, two cattle with axe chopped a few times did not cut open, I’m afraid that the things inside the fraud, did not let the two cattle open, what is inside, I really do not know.”
Rural people are superstitious, and Da Niu brothers are not professional grave robbers, for the ghosts and gods still believe, so in the eerie tomb, ultimately did not dare to open the coffin.
Just Zhang Da Niu does not know, ancient people’s tombs, the museum of the treasure is the most, but also the best to carry and the most valuable, generally experienced grave robbers, go down after the first is to clean up the coffin, even the bones of those blocking the nine orifices of the jade plugs will not let go.
Zhuang Rui was relieved to hear that, if this coffin had been moved by Zhang Da Niu and his duo, the loss would really be irreparable, with the duo’s temperament, they would surely cut the gold threads on the jade cloak and throw the corpse for the cloak.
“Da Niu, let me give you a word, don’t be happy or afraid yet.”
Zhuang Rui thought for a moment, the things involved in this big tomb are really too amazing, with public and private, he did not dare to hide it, and then went on to say, “Do you want to know how much a jade man is worth in the end?”
“I want to!” Zhang Daniu nodded repeatedly.
Zhuang Rui nodded and said, “Good, then I’ll tell you, it’s worth at least five million dollars, selling abroad, that is, ten million people also want.”
“Five million …… million?”
Zhang Daniu did not react, stretching out his right hand five fingers to see, and then stretched out his left hand, after half a day, only very difficult to spit out from the mouth of the word “ten thousand”.