Geographical anecdotes The mystery of the discovery of the Yellow River Big Iron Bull

　　Let's start with a strange thing that happened in the Pujin ferry of the Yellow River more than 100 years ago, in the Pujin ferry of Yongji City, Shanxi Province, the Pujin ferry of the top ten ferries of the Yellow River, that is the world famous, why? Because the business of salt merchants in Shanxi in the late Qing Dynasty was extremely extensive, salt was sent from here. And the strange thing we are talking about, ah, happened during that period, at that time, whenever the salt boats entered and exited the ferry in large numbers, there were always some boats, inexplicably there was a phenomenon of holes in the bottom of the boat leaking, the most serious one was sunk in the Yellow River, why was there such a situation?

　　It is said that there is only silt in the Yellow River, there are few reefs, it should not be, it is said that the salt merchants sent people to the water several times to inspect, but did not find a problem. It was not until a few years ago, that is, after more than 100 years, that this mystery case was finally solved, who cracked it? His name is Fan Wanglin, the director of the Yongji Museum, and it is also coincidental that he was at the yellow river ferry that day, and he overheard someone talking about the salt boat mystery case a hundred years ago. At that time, he was shocked, so he immediately thought of a thing in the legend, the Yellow River Iron Bull. He found that there is such a record in an ancient book called "Tang Shuzhi": It is said that Li Shimin of the Tang Dynasty once built a pontoon bridge with an iron bull pulling the iron cable here, not only in the Tang Shuzhi, but also in the local chronicle of the Qing Dynasty, the big iron bull was cast in the 12th year of Tang Kaiyuan, and it was destroyed in the early Yuan Dynasty.

　　As for where the big iron bull went, no one knows whether it is written in the history books, so some netizens suspect that this iron bull may have sunk into the Yellow River. And the salt merchants' salt boats, that is, they were broken by the horns of the iron bull. Of course, this is just speculation, and if the iron bull really sank into the Yellow River, it is not known where it will be, so can they still be found today? And you really don't have to say, Fan Wanglin inquired in the nearby village, there was an old man in the village who thought the same as him, which surprised him very much. So Fan Wanglin reported this matter to the Cultural Relics Bureau, and it was not long before the Cultural Relics Bureau sent someone to search for it with a metal detector nearby, and within two days, it was really found that there was a section of the Yellow River with a large amount of metal. It turned out that the Yellow River at the junction of Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, from north to south through a river valley, here the terrain is flat, the upstream of a large amount of sediment here silt up, the entire riverbed are lifted up, this is the cause of whenever the Yellow River flood season, here often flood the reason, the old people legend, under the continuous impact of the flood, the original position of the big iron bull changed. Later, after more than a month of salvage, a total of four iron cattle, four iron men, seven iron pillars, as well as two rockeries and iron piers, according to rough estimates, the Tang Dynasty built the Pujindu iron cable pontoon bridge with at least 1100 tons of iron, can be described as a huge project, in today's words, this should be a super project of the year, why is it said to be a super project?

　　　Because according to the New Book of Tang, during the tang xianzong yuan and years, the average annual output of iron in the country was ah, the output of iron was 2.07 million jin, and so much iron was used to cast a few iron cows, why not take these iron to cast weapons? The current big iron bull is actually the anchor on both sides of the pontoon bridge, that is, the anchor that fixes those iron locks, so why design this anchor as the image of the cow? This is because in ancient China, cattle have always been worshipped as the god beast of Zhenshui, according to legend, there was a place in the period of Dayu Zhishui, this flood was particularly serious, difficult to subdue, suddenly one day. A big green cow descended from the sky and flattened the whole wave. So later we Chinese to take the cow as the sacred beast town river, and then look at this as part of the anchor system, each iron cow has a shepherd on the outside, but if you look closely, you will find that the shape and clothing of the four iron men are different, the iron man in the northwest corner has a huge nose and a large nose bridge arched and wears a round pendant, and the small hat is wearing a robe, which belongs to the Uyghur costume; the iron man in the northeast corner, the body is strong, the tough and strong, the square face and thick eyebrows are dressed in knight costumes, belonging to the Mongolian costume; the iron man in the southwest corner has deep eyes. Wearing a Tibetan robe on the left arm, Na Xiu's right arm is revealed to be a Tibetan costume; while the iron man in the southeast corner has a dignified face, a quiet demeanor, wears a Xianggong hat, and wears a short-sleeved lapel Tang costume, which is like a Han decoration. Why is this design used? I believe that you also understand that this is the residence and living orientation of the four major ethnic groups in the Territory of the Tang Dynasty, and it is interesting to see what gender this Han iron man is? It turned out to be a woman, and looking at his clothes, the collar is still a suit collar, and the back of the clothes, but also a tuxedo, is it very modern?

　　　When the designer designed it this way, it is estimated that he wants to reflect the king mentality of datang that is open and inclusive and peaceful with all countries, looking at this huge iron bull, I believe you will have a question, that is, such a large iron cow, obviously, they are one-time pouring and pouring molding, right, but the ancient casting process is so high? How did the Tang Dynasty people do it? Don't hide from you that at the beginning, experts are also puzzled, but through research, they admire the wisdom of the ancients, how did the ancient craftsmen do it? Experts found that the whole process of the Yellow River iron cow is to first use the yellow wax to sculpt the shape of the iron cow, and then take the material on the spot, coat the outside of the wax mold with the soil on the bank of the Yellow River, and then dry the mud mold with a low flame, and then the yellow wax inside melts in the heat and is discharged from the hole below. After the discharge is completed, plug the discharge outlet, and then set up dozens of iron-making furnaces, and constantly pour hot iron solution, so is this enough? Tell you, it is not enough, through the iron scrap test of the iron cow shed, the expert found these iron cows. He was not pure iron, when casting iron cattle at that time, a large amount of tin was added to the iron solution, so that the entire iron solution formed an alloy, which greatly improved the plasticity and oxidation resistance of the entire iron solution.

　　It can be said that after more than 1,000 years of soaking in the Water of the Yellow River, the Yellow River Iron Bull is quite well preserved, which is our national treasure. These iron bulls are still preserved in the Shanxi Provincial Museum.