Chapter 609: Zhang Xianzhong's Treasure (II)

"Xiaohe, we seem to have turned back." Master Pan seemed to sense something and said, "This Yongdao is very unusual, I'm afraid it's not that simple!" ”

He Qing nodded solemnly and said, "Yes, it's not simple. ”

As for the situation in this Yongdao, he naturally knows better than Master Pan and them, and knows the ins and outs.

"Where does this lead? Why are there soldiers' bones everywhere? What terrible things happened? Che Juan asked repeatedly.

He Qing shook his head and replied seriously: "I don't know, let's go ahead and take a look, you should be able to see the situation at that time." ”

"Well, we'll find out when we get to the tomb." Che Juan nodded in response, it's useless to be anxious now, everything is unknown, but it has been discovered, and along the way, a lot of ancient weapons and some broken silver coins can be found.

As they continued to grope their way forward, they found that the road was sloping downward, and the slope was getting bigger and bigger, making it difficult to walk.

"Listen!" Suddenly, He Qing stood in his footsteps and exclaimed in surprise, as if he had discovered something abnormal.

"What?" Master Pan and Che Juan stood together and looked at him in surprise.

He Qing raised his head, shone a flashlight on the top of the corridor, and said in a deep voice, "Did you hear that?" The sound of 'whooping' from above. ”

"Is there one?" Che Juan: They listened with pricked ears.

Soon, Master Pan heard it, and his face changed slightly: "There is indeed a sound, it seems to be the sound of running water." Koga. In other words, there is water flowing through it, so is this passage located under the riverbed? ”

He Qing nodded and said, "Yes, in fact, we can judge that the direction we are walking now is leading to the river, and we see that the distance has crossed the river boundary." ”

"Won't it?" Che Juan was surprised, "We are actually under the river?!" This is the 'underground palace under the river'?! ”

He Qing shook his head and said, "It's not a dungeon, it's just an underwater facility built up, like a huge pipe that isolates the water." But I can withstand that pressure. And it's not leaky at all, this project is not simple! ”

"It seems so." Master Pan nodded, "We are now in the aisle below the water, and the center of the ancient tomb should be at the center of the river in front." ”

"But how can an ancient tomb be set up under the river? I have never seen such a burial method. Che Juan wondered.

Master Pan said, "It's not impossible. People from Bashu's side. There is a very old way of burial. That's the ship burial. Most of the boat burials, like ordinary burials, were buried under dry soil, but a small number were buried directly under the cement. It's just that this is a very special ship burial. To be able to make such a big project, the owner of the tomb must have been a big man who was either rich or expensive during his lifetime! Xiaohe, maybe this is a large ancient tomb, and you have made a huge discovery! ”

"Perhaps." He Qing nodded and said, "But it's still a mystery now, and you need to go to the end to know." Master Pan, let's keep walking, but you have to be careful, this place is too steep, and the ground is wet and slippery, so it's easy to fall. ”

"Well, slow down." Master Pan nodded in agreement.

Then the group of them walked slowly down the slope, step by step.

It was a bit difficult to walk, but after walking for a while, the road gradually smoothed out and became much easier.

"Xiaohe, there are more bones of soldiers down here!" When he walked to the flat place, Master Pan exclaimed.

At this moment, not far in front of them, there was a large pile of bones, white and terrifying.

He Qing nodded and said, "Yes, it looks like we're getting close to the center point." ”

As he spoke, he walked towards the place where the bones had piled up in front of him, and Master Pan and Che Juan followed closely with anxiety.

Although Master Pan and the others are professional cultural relics investigators, they don't know how many ancient corpses they have seen, but now this is the first time they have seen this situation, how can it not be shocking.

"There's a lot of broken silver scattered here, and there's a big silver ingot!" He Qing was surprised, and in surprise, he subconsciously leaned down and picked up a white and black mass from a pile of bones.

He wears sanitary gloves on his hands, so he naturally doesn't worry about bacteria on his body, so he can pick and inspect cultural relics with his hands.

"Such a large piece of silver ingot, I'm afraid it's as much as fifty taels, right?!" At first sight, Master Pan was shocked.

He Qing weighed it for a while, nodded and said: "There should be, I estimate that the actual weight is not less than one and a half kilograms, that is, three kilograms, and one city kilogram in ancient times is equal to sixteen taels, so if you calculate it, this silver ingot is indeed fifty taels as much." ”

"It's the first time I've seen such a big silver ingot!" Che Juan was surprised, "It must be worth a lot of money, right?!" ”

He Qing said: "In addition to considering its own material value, there are many aspects of ingots collection, such as size, system, ornamentation, and historical research value and other special values. If I'm not mistaken, this is a typical piece of official silver from the Ming Dynasty. According to historical sources and extant antiquities, gold ingots are divided into one tael, two taels, ten taels, and twenty taels, while silver ingots are divided into half taels, one taels, ten taels, twenty taels, fifty taels, and even one hundred taels or three hundred taels, so it is not surprising that we find a silver ingot weighing fifty taels here. ”

Master Pan nodded and said: "Yes, although fifty taels of silver ingots is a large value of silver, it is more common in ancient times, it can be handed down, and there are not many found in the ancient tombs, this silver ingot is really good, put it in the antique market, it must be very collectible." ”

Che Juan couldn't help but ask, "How much is that worth?" Silver is not expensive at all, and its value is much worse than gold. ”

He Qing smiled faintly and said: "That's not what I said, if this is just a new imitation silver ingot, the collection value is indeed not very high, and the value of its own silver metal is almost the same, but this is an antique, with an extra layer of value, so the value is not easy to say, but I am sure that the minimum of this thing is not less than 100,000." In other words, this silver ingot is worth at least 100,000! ”

"Worth 100,000?! So valuable?! Che Juan's eyes widened.

"Xiao He, there is an inscription in that silver ingot, take a closer look at it and see what is written, maybe we can get relevant information from it, so as to determine when this ancient tomb is." Master Pan pointed to the silver ingot and said, as if he had made a discovery.

"Well, take a look." He Qing nodded in response, he naturally noticed this detail, and at that moment he picked up the silver ingot and looked at it carefully with a flashlight.

Soon, he read the inscription written on it clearly, and said: "What is written on it is, 'Chang, Shaxian ten years, Gui Lu silver fifty taels, Zhixian Yang Guan Jicha, mention Zhang Wenzhi', the text on this is clear and complete, it is rare to see." ”

"Yu Lu Yin?" Master Pan was surprised, "So, this is a tax ingot?" ”

He Qing said: "It looks like a tax ingot in the Ming Dynasty. This kind of silver is extremely rare in the market and is extremely precious. ”

The so-called "Ming Dynasty Lu Yin" is "rice to silver", which is to pay the official's money with rice.

After Chengzu ascended the throne, hundreds of officials and officials paid both rice and money, and the calculation and payment were very complicated.

At the beginning of Ming Chengzu's move to Beijing, due to the inconvenience of transportation, in addition to supplying rice to the army, the rest of the civil and military officials had to go to Nanjing to receive rice, from which they also had to be deducted by merchants, and there were many drawbacks.

According to the special situation of rice weight in the south of the Yangtze River, Zhou Chen changed the tax to four stones of rice and one tael of gold and silver, and Xie Jing was used to charge a hundred officials, so that the officials were guaranteed, and the taxes and grains paid by the people were also reduced accordingly.

Looking at the inscription on the silver ingot, after a pause, He Qing continued: "The 'Zhixian' on this is the name of the local official, and the 'cha' refers to Ticha, which is an errand who is specifically responsible for collecting taxes and grain money, but this is Luyin from Changsha County, how did he get here?" ”

"That's a big suspicion indeed." Master Pan said with a puzzled expression, "How did Lu Yin, the magistrate of Hu, Nanchang, Sha, and County get here, and still hide in this secret passage underwater?" But at least we know that this is something from the Ming Dynasty, indicating that this ancient tomb is also likely to be from the Ming Dynasty. ”

"There shouldn't be anything wrong with that." He Qing nodded solemnly and said, "Master Pan, take this silver ingot, this thing is very valuable, and it is of great significance to the study of the tax system of the Ming Dynasty." ”

As he spoke, he handed the silver ingot to Master Pan, who took it and nodded incessantly, "Yes, it's very precious!" ”

Just a silver ingot, he is not greedy, he does not want these ordinary things.

Such silver ingots are of great value to cultural relics researchers, but they are not of much value in the hands of ordinary collectors, and they are much more than a current ingot of sterling silver.

After that, they continued to explore.

On the way, they picked up some silver coins, among which there were also silver ingots, but most of them weighed only a few taels, which were small amounts of silver coins.

But it's also very good, so Master Pan and they are like treasures, and they are very happy.

After walking a few more steps, in addition to the silver ingots, there are also some copper coins scattered on the ground, most of which are "Chongzhen Tongbao".

Chongzhen is the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Ming Sizong Zhu Youzhen, from these copper coins, it seems that the cultural relics buried in it have a certain relationship with him.

"There are so many 'Chongzhen Tongbao' here, so it seems that this is an ancient tomb in the Ming Dynasty." Master Pan analyzed, "But who would build such an ancient tomb at the end of the Ming Dynasty? ”

Che Juan said: "This is like a place where treasures are buried, and it is related to the soldiers fighting, and it is under the river near Shudu, Teacher Pan, He Qing, could this be ...... Is it the legendary treasure of Zhang Xianzhong?! ”

"The treasure of Zhang Xianzhong, the king of Shu who established the Great West regime?!" Hearing this, Master Pan was shocked and nodded excitedly, "Yes, there is this possibility!" What we found is very likely to be the treasure buried by Zhang Xianzhong! (To be continued......)