Chapter Seventy-Six: The Last Toast

"The craftsmanship of the bronze mask is unique to the Miao people." Wen Ru smiled meaningfully, put the mask on the coffee table, and looked at Liao Kai. "Where did Mr. Liao get this mask?"

"Mr. Wen is sure that the mask belongs to the Miao people?" Liao Kai picked up the teacup and asked casually.

Wen Ru nodded with certainty, and said calmly to us, the Miao people believe in animism, worship nature, worship ancestors, the pattern on the bronze mask is a kind of sacrificial pattern of the ancient Miao people, the Miao people worship ghosts and gods, and witchcraft prevails.

In the long history of Miao Jiang, witchcraft occupies an extremely important position, and the Miao people believe in witchcraft, mainly yin, divination, divine judgment, ghost sacrifice and now smell the color of the Gu arts.

In the belief of the Miao people, witchcraft is actually the most devout belief in ghosts and gods, and those who master witchcraft are called priests, and have an extremely high status in Miao Xinjiang.

In addition to being familiar with the methods of sacrifice, most of these priests can also tell the genealogy of their own clan, the major historical events and the routes of the migration sources, and are familiar with various myths and legends, ancient songs and folk tales.

"Therefore, the priest is an important inheritor of Miao Xinjiang culture, and the pattern on this mask is a kind of sacrificial totem in the early Miao people, and its value is unlimited." Wen Ru talked eloquently.

"See, this is called heritage and professionalism." Ye Zhiqiu was triumphant beside him. "Oh, I forgot to tell you that Elder Wen is the leading authority on the study of Miao history."

"Didn't you say that it was lost, and since it was lost, how did you know about it?" Tian Ji asked disappreciatively.

"When I participated in an archaeological excavation in Jiangxi, I found a similar pattern, the birthplace of the ancestors of the Miao people is in the Sishui Basin of present-day Sichuan, during the first great migration, a part of the Miao ancestors settled down in Jiangxi, and the ancient ruins of the Miao people I found in Jiangxi at that time were a long ago Miao tribe, and I also found the same pattern as the bronze mask in the unearthed cultural relics." Wen Ru calmly pointed to the mask on the table and said. "But inferred from the time of the unearthed cultural relics, there is no such bronze mask as long, I speculate that this Miao tribe should be the same branch as the Miao people of the bronze mask, and still retain the most primitive and ancient religious culture, this is the highest standard of the early Miao ancestors of the ghost and god totem, and the person who can wear this mask has an extremely high status in the Miao people."

I don't despise Wen Ru's ability to visit the tomb, but these theoretical knowledge is indeed much richer than ours, and I believe he still has some ability to get to his current status.

Liao Kai's heartfelt applause came from the side, and looking at Liao Kai's expression and reaction, he knew that Wen Ru's explanation of the origin of the bronze mask was correct.

"Mr. Wen is only a high eight buckets, it is really extraordinary, to be honest, I have been searching for the origin of this mask for a long time, and Mr. Wen is the first to tell the origin of the mask." Liao Kai got up and politely poured us tea.

"I heard Zhiqiu say that Mr. Liao is Taiwanese, and although the ancestors of the Miao nationality have experienced several major migrations, as far as I know, they have not set foot in Taiwan." Wen Ru seemed to be very concerned about the origin of the bronze mask. "I don't know where Mr. Liao got the bronze mask?"

Liao Kai sat back on the sofa, took a sip of the teacup, and was silent for a moment with a solemn expression: "Yes, this bronze mask belongs to the Miao people, and I am not Taiwanese, I am also a Miao people, I only went to Taiwan before liberation, I lived in Yunnan before, and the origin of this mask should start with my grandfather......

It can be seen that Liao Kai hesitated for a long time before he planned to tell us the origin of the mask, we all looked at him, and waited for Liao Kai to put down the teacup and take a deep breath and tell us slowly.

"I was born in a family of Miao Tusi in Yunnan, and I witnessed and experienced the final glory and decline of Yunnan Liao's Tusi."

We were stunned, how did we not expect this elegant middle-aged man around him, the identity is so special, the status of Tusi in ancient times is a product of the feudal officials, the Yuan Dynasty was placed, used to confer the northwest and southwest minority tribal leaders, and can be hereditary, refers to the world has its land, the world governs its people, the world unification of its soldiers, the hereditary position, the world governs its place, the world enters its stream, and the world receives its title.

Liao Kai said that his grandfather Liao Gaogu, is the famous Baiyan Tusi, Baiyan is the name of the place, located in the current Yunnan Province Lancang River, Liao Gaogu's jurisdiction is in Lancang, is the third generation of Baiyan Tusi, Liao Gaogu is full of children and grandchildren, Liao Kai is the youngest of the male grandchildren, Liao Kai said that when his grandfather was beautiful, he was still in infancy.

Liao Kai said that the Han people were not allowed to grow opium at that time, but next to Baiyan was the Wa people, very fierce, no one dared to care about them, Liao Kai recalled that he later heard his mother's general, saying that Tang Jiyao, the governor of Yunnan at that time, had sent a battalion, wearing Japanese-style rifles and well-equipped to encircle and suppress the Wa people, but the whole army was wiped out, and the Wa people would no longer be in charge of the Wa people in the future.

Liao Gaogu and the Wa people are good friends, accounting for a lot of benefits, even if it is later changed to the land, which means that the Tusi system is changed to the flow of the official system, the official position of the Tusi is no longer hereditary, but appointed by the national government, most of the Tusi in Yunnan are slowly sinicized in the end, but the Liao family and the Wa people are together, the national government can't control it, and it doesn't want to interfere too much.

Therefore, the Liao family almost monopolized the opium cultivation in the entire region, and a large area of land in Baiyan was used to grow poppies, and the quality of opium produced was the best in the whole of Yunnan, which made the Liao family earn unimaginable wealth.

In addition to opium, there is also a large gold mine in the territory of Baiyan Tusi, and the output belongs to the Liao family, at that time it can be said that the Liao family of Baiyan Tusi has accumulated unimaginable wealth, even if it is not an exaggeration to call it a rich country.

Although Liao Gaogu's territory is not large, there are more than 30,000 subjects, Liao Gaogu is like the emperor of the soil in Baiyan, all the people obey it, but Liao Gaogu is not insatiable and tyrannical, he is extremely tolerant and kind to the people, so he is deeply supported and loved.

Liao Kai said that the Liao family was prosperous under the leadership of Liao Gaogu, before the liberation, the Liao family's high-rise buildings were like a palace, and the strength was second to none at that time, and there was a special arsenal at home, and there were two or three hundred machine guns alone, Liao Kai still remembered that there were mountain cannons on the watchtower, which were exchanged for opium.

It's a pity that the Liao family and the Wa people became bad later, and after losing this backer, the Liao family gradually declined, and at that time, the people were in turmoil every year, and the Liao family was not as good as before the liberation.

"Yunnan Chairman Lu Han surrendered without a fight, my grandfather Liao Gaogu knew that the general trend had gone, and he judged the situation and immediately asked the whole family to gather all their wealth together...... "Liao Kai said this, his eyes were shining, as if remembering the glory of the year." I was too young to know what the whole clan was carrying, except for the piles of gold bars, silver ingots, and antiques that I couldn't remember. ”

Liao Kai used his hand to compare the width of the coffee table in front of us, and told us that at that time, the Liao family melted all the gold bars into such wide gold nuggets, and the silver ingots were also melted into large silver nuggets, because they were easy to carry, these gold and silver nuggets were full of four or five hundred mules and horses, and until now Liao Kai could not calculate the value of that batch of gold and silver.

"After the gold and silver nuggets were melted, my grandfather selected the direct descendants of the clan and some trustworthy subjects, a total of hundreds of people, and transported this batch of gold overnight to a place that only he knew to hide, and my father Liao Haiqing was among them at that time." Liao Kai's face was gloomy. "Grandpa wants to keep this priceless treasure and wait and see what happens."

"How long has it been, forty years younger, then why don't you dig it out, how much is so much gold and silver nuggets worth?" Tian Ji asked.

"No one knows where that treasure is."

"Why? Didn't your grandfather hide it, didn't he tell future generations where the treasure was hidden? I asked, confused.

Liao Kai silently shook his head and said, a total of 100 people went to bury the gold nuggets that night, and drove four or five hundred mules and horses into the mountains with torches, he watched those torches disappear from sight, no one knew where they went, but after waiting for many days, no one came back from the mountains.