Yenching Normal University.

Liu Zhenhe's office.

In front of a round table, more than a dozen people sat around.

Among these people are Chinese historians, scholars, archaeologists, cultural relics experts, and researchers at the Palace Museum.

Each of these people has a very great reputation and prestige in the corresponding circle, and has a very high degree of attainment in a certain aspect of research.

"Lao Liu, I saw the pictures of the bronze plate, bronze tripod, and bronze sword you sent to my mobile phone. In the past few days, I have also carefully studied the bronzes on the pictures and interpreted some of the inscriptions. These are the heavy weapons of the Xia Dynasty, very incredible things, what's going on. Wu Zheng picked up the teacup, took a sip of tea, and asked Liu Zhenhe.

Everyone looked at Liu Zhenhe.

"Just take a look at this paper." Liu Zhenhe sent a photocopied paper to everyone present and spoke.

Everyone took the paper and began to read it.

In this paper, the contributor argues the argument of 'whether the Xia Dynasty existed and whether the Xia Dynasty crossed the threshold of civilization', as well as the genealogical conclusion of the Xia Dynasty, which is very detailed, clear and organized, combined with hundreds of clear physical illustration pictures inserted in the paper, which is very credible.

Half an hour later, everyone finished reading the paper.

If you look at a paper of more than 100 pages, you will need to read it for at least a few days if you think about it carefully and study it.

However, Liu Zhenhe gathered everyone today, obviously not for them to come to see the papers, and there are very important things to discuss with you.

Everyone just took a cursory look at the paper. Got a general idea of what happened.

Even so, everyone was pleasantly surprised and shocked.

"The significance of these bronzes is no less than the oracle bone fragments of Yinxu." An old professor said with emotion.

"Lao Yang is right. The Shang Dynasty is widely recognized by the international academic community because of the excavation of oracle bone fragments in Yin Ruins. I believe that the birth of these bronzes is enough for the international academic community to redefine Chinese civilization and let the world re-understand Chinese civilization, which is of great significance. ”

For half a century, the search for evidence of the Xia dynasty has become the goal of Chinese scholars. They have always believed in the survival of Xia civilization. With the appearance of these bronzes, I think their efforts and hard work have not been in vain. ”

"Lao Liu. Where were these bronzes excavated? A professor opened his mouth and asked Liu Zhenhe.

"These bronzes were not excavated in China, but suddenly appeared overseas." Wu Zhenhe said.

"What, this batch of bronzes is lost overseas." Some scholars suddenly said bitterly.

This scholar was not the only one who was heartbroken, and more than a dozen people present all had this heart-wrenching feeling.

To talk about China's lost cultural relics overseas. That's an extremely large number, big enough to make the hearts of the people of the country tremble, enough to make the world jaw-dropping.

Major museums and libraries in the UK have collected a total of 130+ pieces of Chinese cultural relics.

Among them, there are many treasures and national treasures.

260+ million pieces in museums and libraries in France.

Japan, as many as 2 million.

United States, 2.3 million+ pieces.

Germany, 30+00,000 pieces

This is still a small number of documented cases in which most Chinese artifacts were secretly collected or kept in private collectors after they were lost overseas.

When it comes to China's lost cultural relics overseas, any Chinese who know about this situation will be distressed.

These Xia Dynasty bronzes were lost overseas. The likelihood of a recourse back is very small.

You must know that there are not a few national treasures that China has lost overseas, but very few can be recovered.

A simple example. Egypt, which suffered the same as China.

As one of the four major ancient civilizations in the world, Egypt has a large number of precious cultural relics, which have always been coveted by overseas antiquities collectors and smugglers, especially after frequent wars in the last century, many Egyptian national treasures were brought overseas by invaders.

There are no less than 100,000 Egyptian antiquities in the world's three major museums - the British Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Louvre Museum in France.

Egyptian antiquities are kept in other museums, in secret collections, or in private hands, dozens of times that number. Millions of pieces.

But over the past 50 years, only a few thousand antiquities have been recovered in Egypt. Among them, there are less than 100 large, important and cultural relics with high cultural value.

Millions of Egyptian antiquities have been lost overseas, but only a few thousand have been successfully recovered.

1000:1, a simple number jù comparison, can be imagined, the road to recover the lost cultural relics overseas.

There are two main obstacles to this difficulty.

First, there is a lack of legal basis.

Second, the resistance of the owners of cultural relics.

In 2002, for example, 18 museums around the world, including the Louvre Museum in France and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, issued statements openly opposing the return of lost cultural objects.

As you can imagine, these Xia Dynasty bronzes, which are of great significance to China, were lost overseas, and it is very likely that they will remain overseas forever and will never be recovered.

"There is a possibility of recourse." A scholar asked Liu Zhenhe.

Liu Zhenhe shook his head and said, "Almost nothing, these Xia Dynasty bronzes were salvaged from a British merchant ship called 'Gelsopa' that sank in the middle of the Atlantic.

From the logbook of the Gelsopa provided by the owner of the bronzes, as well as the list of items transported on board, as well as some information about the Gelsopa in the archives.

It is very clear that the British merchant ship 'Gelsopa' sailed from Guangzhou, China, to Liverpool on June 9, 1841, carrying a batch of Chinese bronzes and porcelain. ”

In other words, the bronzes were lost overseas in 1841, 174 years from now.

According to some provisions and principles of international law, it is almost impossible to successfully recover these bronzes.

Hearing Liu Zhenhe's answer, everyone was very disappointed, a little heartbroken, and sad and indignant.

"However," Liu Zhenhe said, "There is good news, the holder of this batch of bronzes is a Chinese, named Chen Rui, Chen Rui I think everyone knows a certain amount, he has a very big reputation in the world, and has dealings with the prime ministers, presidents, and kings of many countries, and has a very good reputation in the international community."

His main achievements are adventure and treasure hunting.

He had found a Spanish gold ship that had sunk during the colonial period on the seabed off the coast of Cuba. (To be continued)