For these simple jade pickers, a salary of more than 100 yuan a month is a kind of benevolence, alas, it is really bitter enough.

Zhang Tianyuan wanted to go to the shore of the mine to have a look, and several jade miners readily agreed, saying that the friend of Master Kurban, that is, everyone's friend, it seems that Kurban is really good at being a man.

Several mine holes look like chicken nests, and there are several piles of green and white jade in a piece of stone ballast. The jade pickers told Zhang Tianyuan that they had just picked up a jade belt they had just found, and were going to carry it to the foot of the mountain in the next few days.

Zhang Tianyuan lay down at the entrance of the cave and looked down, the cave was pitch black, and he couldn't see anything. The miners said that they could take him down to the cave to have a look, and he wanted to readily agree, but looking at the dark cave, he still asked more: "You just go down like this?"

"What are security precautions, we've always done that. ”

The words of the jade picker made Zhang Tianyuan understand that as One-Eye said, there was no safety guarantee here, but he still had the courage to go into the cave with the jade picker to take a look, anyway, he had the earth's qi to protect himself, and he was not afraid of the danger to his life.

The height and width of this mine are only more than one meter, and Zhang Tianyuan and the others can only crawl into the cave inch by inch. Before entering the cave, Zhang Tianyuan imagined that the jade mines must be connected, and the cave must be surrounded by jade, and the light can be seen, but he climbed to the bottom of the cave and did not see a trace of jade.

Climbing out of the cave, Zhang Tianyuan asked the jade miner to point out a photo of a virgin jade vein he had taken with his mobile phone. Looking at the 100-meter-high mining face, the jade miner, known as Lao Wang, shook his head silently with his left hand, which had been "gnawed" off by the stone, with his little thumb off.

"This mine has been dug for a long time, but there has been no harvest. We almost gave up, but Master Kurban told us to keep digging. If we keep blowing it, we'll keep it. ”

"Is it so difficult for you to find and mine?" asked Zhang Tianyuan.

"Alas. Fellow, don't you know, jade mining is not like digging coal, and you can mine a mine for a few years, or even decades. But jade mines are different, sometimes it's a matter of luck. There are many jade ore belts in this mountain, and sometimes several holes are blown up with explosives, and it is hard for several days in vain, but often not even a jade belt can be found. It's hard, it's nothing. But after hard work, there is nothing to gain, which is too annoying. Lao Wang sighed and said.

Before coming to the jade mine, Zhang Tianyuan always thought that jade mining might be the same as mining marble, mining a large area, and only then did he realize how ignorant and ridiculous his imagination was.

First of all, the jade mine is not like other ores, but is intermittently hidden in the stone core, and the veins are really like the clouds and fog and fluctuating as the ancient poems. The occasional exposed veins are wrapped in thick layers of rock, and each piece of jade must remove a large amount of hard rock wrapped around the jade.

This determines that jade miners not only have to pay very hard labor, but at the same time. It is also necessary to have a pair of discerning eyes to recognize the difference between jade and stone. The rock connected to the jade is called the jade root, and it seems that it looks like jade but it is a stone, and it is the most difficult to distinguish. It is not good to obtain. The jade is broken, and all the previous efforts are wasted.

Legend has it that the gods of Kunlun Mountain planted Kunlun jade in the nursery, and they could secrete a drop of jade paste after a thousand years of care, but jade is very difficult to grow. Often when it looks like it is about to become a paste, it is suddenly ruined, and hundreds of years of hard work are instantly wiped out.

In Zhang Tianyuan's opinion. The jade miners in Kunlun Mountain are even more difficult than those immortals who grow jade. Gold has a priceless price, and only to see with your own eyes the vastness of the work, the extremely difficult working environment, and the little rewards they have so far. Only then did I know how difficult and difficult it was to get a piece of precious jade.

In the Shihezigou mine, Lao Wang and dozens of people have been mining day and night for more than a year, I heard that Kurban has also invested tens of millions of yuan in this area, and the lives of several jade mining workers have been left here forever, but so far no jade material with better texture has been found, even those found now, in fact, there are not many.

Zhang Tianyuan thought, could it be that there is really a supernatural force in charge of destiny in the dark? Seeing Lao Wang's helpless eyes and the dark cave, Zhang Tianyuan finally understood the cruelty and thrilling nature of "gambling on jade."

He came to look for ore this time, if he didn't have the six-character true formula, then would he also directly lose tens of millions of dollars? That is absolutely possible, Kurban's vision is better, at least he also found a jade belt here, although it is not much, and the texture is not excellent, but it is not a complete loss, but what about him, if there is no six-character true formula, how can he find jade ore here?

"The openings of these mines are so small, what if there is danger?" Zhang Tianyuan said, pointing to the entrance of the cave that could only accommodate one person.

Lao Wang replied: "That's it, it is extremely hard to find a jade belt, a person goes into the hole, digs a hole and looks around, and judges whether there is a jade belt according to the color of the stone." Jade has the characteristics of 'dry, wet, warm'. The jade belt here is generally about 70 centimeters wide, the structure is mostly linear, and some are also ring-shaped, if a layer of black stone appears during mining, the jade belt will be broken, and then mined, there will be no jade. ”

"It's not easy to do anything. Zhang Tianyuan said with emotion.

"Yes, it is not easy to find the jade ore belt, and it is even more dangerous to take jade. When taking jade, it should not be bombarded violently, but should be used with an expansion agent, and silent blasting should be taken, and no strong prying should be taken to avoid artificial cracks. To tell you the truth, we once picked a piece of green and white jade weighing 110 kilograms here.

However, taking jade is really a dangerous job, and stones often fall on the roof of the cave and hurt people. Once, a pair of brothers were mining jade in the cave, and the entrance of the cave suddenly collapsed, and the two were buried in the cave. It took more than 5 hours for the workers to rescue the people, but fortunately, the two were not in danger of life. When Lao Wang talked about this, his eyes were sometimes excited, and sometimes they were sad.

When the miners returned to the camp with the jade on their backs, Zhang Tianyuan also went back.

Descending the hill to the miners' quarters, a nest in the ground, which was both their dormitory and a dormitory. Horse lamps and candles are used for lighting, and the draft has to be carried back to the Xueshui River in the distance, and the plastic pot is used to carry it back.

Zhang Tianyuan saw several 5-kilogram plastic pots in the room, which were filled with loose wine. The cook said that the steamed buns here are not cooked. The rice is sandwiched, and everyone is tired. There is nowhere else to go, and I drink to pass the time in my free time. On average, one person has to drink half a catty of loose wine every day.

After drinking like this for a long time on Kunlun Mountain, after coming down the mountain, the workers will definitely have heart problems, and Zhang Tianyuan is really worried and sad for these jade pickers.

He thought in his heart that in the future, he must bring the monkey wine brewed from his distillery here, so that these people can drink the wine without harming their bodies, which is also a little bit of a small thing he can do.

Since ancient times, jade has been worshipped as a sacred object. It can be auspicious and avoid evil, it can turn evil into good fortune, it can be eaten into immortals, and it can be wrapped in corpses without decay, which may be related to the mysterious color and beautiful legend of Kunlun jade.

Kunlun Mountain is also the cradle of Chinese myths and legends, and it is spread in the world as "the capital of the emperor and the place of the gods". It is rich in a beautiful stone, which the ancients called Kunlun jade. According to the "Historical Records: The Biography of Dawan", Kunlun Mountain "has many jade mountains. ”

"The Biography of Mu Tianzi" records. King Mu of Zhou marched westward, to Kunlun Mountain, "attack its jade, take the jade version of the three times, and carry ten thousand jades." "Although most of the myths, folklore. It makes your mind wander when you read it. However, it was found from the remains of Xinglongwa that human beings polished jade axes and jade ornaments for the first time. But it was on a sunset afternoon, more than 8,200 years ago.

Since the middle and late Neolithic periods four or five thousand years ago. Successive leaders, magnates, and emperors all loved jade. Since the Shang Dynasty, the emperors have used and ceremonies. The dignitaries played, mostly Hetian jade. In the society at that time, jade was not only a medium of communication between man and God, but also a symbol of status.

Since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the ancients used Peiyu to regulate their words and deeds and demonstrate the virtue of a benevolent gentleman. Especially when Hetian jade flowed into the Central Plains, Confucian scholars used jade to reflect the idea of etiquette. "The Book of Rites: Yuzao" says: "The ancient gentleman must admire jade...... The gentleman has no reason, the jade does not go to the body, and the gentleman is more than the jade. Xu Shen of the Eastern Han Dynasty said in "Shuo Wen Jie Zi": "Jade, the beauty of stone, and the five virtues." ”

This actually personifies the five characteristics of jade: color, texture, texture, hardness and toughness. For many years, Confucianism has always respected and honored jade. Since then, jade has stepped out of the barrier of authority, stepped down from the spiritual altar of gods, and has become the embodiment of the virtue and ethics of ancient Chinese gentlemen, and has become a symbol of traditional morality in China.

To tell the truth, Zhang Tianyuan entered the mountain this time with the reverence for the national culture and national spirit, and with the awe of the reckless and majestic jade Kunlun, he traveled thousands of kilometers with One-Eye and others, and embarked on a journey to explore jade in Hotan without distraction.

However, when he really arrived here, he saw more desolation, pathos, and the hardships and dangers of jade pickers. This can't help but be emotional.

Although the jade is beautiful, there is blood in the jade!

For them, although this work is hard, it must be done, because it is related to their livelihood, take Lao Wang, he still has three children waiting for tuition, he can't help but work hard here.

……

Zhang Tianyuan and others set up their tents in the camp, and then after a few people rested for a while, they also went out, they also had to go looking for mines, and Sima Yi and Kun Zhou also hoped to pick up a few good pieces of jade, and it was not in vain.

Hetian jade has been very famous since ancient times. According to historical records, the earliest use of jade by human beings has been more than 12,000 years ago. There is a saying among the people of Hetian: Kunlun Mountain is a gift from God to the earth, and jade is a gift from Kunlun Mountain to human beings.

There are two ways for Hetian jade to come to the world, one is to find jade mines in the Kunlun Mountains, mine jade, and call jade mining, which is what Lao Wang and them do.

The other is to go to the river to fish for jade. These jades were washed down from the Kunlun Mountains during the flood season, collided and polished in the riverbed for thousands of kilometers, and when they arrived in Hotan, they were ground into small pieces of smooth and white jade, which was the "jade jade" mentioned before.

People looking for jade believe that there is a saying of "jade edge".

When he was on the way, One-Eyed told Zhang Tianyuan a very interesting thing.

It is said that when Kurban was not a master, but just a jade miner, he once went up to the mountain to mine jade, and there was a large mining team that went into the mountain with him, which was a big businessman from Shangpu, who took a fancy to the veins of Yeniugou and felt that good jade could be produced there.

Master Kurban is just a person, he has no supplies, so basically he has to go home once every half a month, but the mining team in Shangpu does not need it, their supply conditions are very good, and they stay in the mountains for many months until the snow covers the mountains. (To be continued......)