Text/Feng Xuanyi
Speaking of Zhang Xianzhong, the great name of the leader of the peasant rebel army in the late Ming Dynasty can be said to be deeply rooted in the hearts of the people. He was born humble and came from a poor family. Later, he became a catcher, which is equivalent to today's grass-roots police. In those turbulent years, when famine was raging and displaced people were everywhere, in order to survive and live better, Zhang Xianzhong pulled up the banner and organized a rebel army, and then, this "rebellion cause" became bigger and bigger, he led his brothers, winning consecutive battles, and after conquering Wuchang, he called himself the King of The Great West. Later, he led troops to attack Sichuan and established the Daxi regime in Chengdu, with the era name Dashun.
Later, the Great Western regime collapsed under the encirclement and suppression of the Southern Ming and Qing armies. Zhang Xianzhong was also shot to death by Hauge, prince of Heshuosu of the Qing Dynasty.
Zhang Xianzhong was murderous and had no fear, and behind him, he left many legendary stories. It is still talked about today. However, people are probably most interested in the huge treasure he left behind when he was defeated!
There is such a non-stop nursery rhyme, which is about Zhang Xianzhong's shenbao
Stone cattle to stone drums, silver is fifteen thousand.
Some people recognized it and bought all the Chengdu Province.
For years, this nursery rhyme has stirred the hearts of treasure hunters, who look forward to finding these treasures one day and then getting rich overnight.
Did Zhang Xianzhong have a treasure in the end, and how much treasure was there?
The "Biography of Zhang Xianzhong" of the Qing Dynasty official Xiu said: "(Zhang Xianzhong) also used the method to move the Jinjiang River, dried up and quezhi, counted the depths of several zhang, buried hundreds of millions of gold treasures, and then broke the embankment and released it, named 'Shui Zang', that is, 'there are no descendants who have nothing to do'. ”
From this brief record, it can be seen that Zhang Xianzhong blocked the river water and then buried hundreds of millions of gold and silver treasures at the bottom of the river to hide the eyes and ears of the people and not let future generations know.
According to the "Shu Difficult Chronicle", when Zhang Xianzhong's troops came out of the river from the waterway, because there was too much silver, the wooden boat could not carry it, so Zhang Xianzhong ordered the craftsmen to make many wooden slots, put the silver ingots inside, and let them drift down. However, after being blocked, the river boat blocked the river channel, so most of the silver two sank into the river. The book says that the number of treasures "accumulates hundreds of millions of ships and carries a hundred ships."
The Shu Bi also records that "(Zhang) Xianzhongwen (Yang) zhan was very strong and fearful, led 100,000 troops, loaded thousands of golden treasures, and went down the river to the east to fight a decisive battle with Zhan. But Zhang Xianzhong's army was defeated, the fleet of treasure ships was burned down, and thousands of ships of gold and silver also sank to the bottom of the river in the battle.
Through these records, people have sorted out the approximate location of Zhang Xianzhong's Sinking Silver, one is the Pengshan River Mouth, called Jiangkou Shenyin, and the other is the Jinjiang Shenyin.
Over the years, many people have tried their best to find these treasures, some of them are archaeologists, but more are tomb robbers, and of course, there is no shortage of ordinary people who want to try their luck.
In recent years, there have been reports of silver being dug up in the Jiangkou area. Archaeologists have also stepped up the pace of excavations.
Starting in 2019, the third phase of the archaeological excavation project at the Jiangkou Shenyin Site was launched. By the end of April 2020, the archaeology ended, according to the news report, the excavation unearthed more than 10,000 pieces of cultural relics, 2,000 important cultural relics, mainly gold and silverware, including gold, silver coins, gold, silver ingots, gold, silver food utensils, gold, silver jewelry and gold, silver clothing, etc., the most important of which is the discovery of a "Shu Shizi Treasure" gold seal weighing more than 10 kilograms of Shu Wang Shizi, which can be called the most significant archaeological discovery in 2020.
This "Shu ShiziBao" gold seal is a square printing table, a turtle-shaped printing button, and the printing surface is cast with the words "Shu Shizibao". The edge of the printing table is about 10 cm long and about 3 cm thick, and the gold content is as high as 95%. The word "Shu" proves that this golden seal was originally a thing of the Ming Dynasty Shu King's Palace, and "Shizi" was the eldest son of the prince. It can be seen from this that this gold and silver is the seal of the Shu King Shizi of the Ming Dynasty, which is not only the identity symbol of the Shu Shizi, but also the treasure of the Shu Dynasty's successive generations. According to this, it can be inferred that after Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan that year, he carried out a large-scale plunder of the Shu king's palace, and the gold and silver treasures in the palace were looted.
For the importance of this excavation, historian Liu Zhiyan said: "This year, a large number of precious cultural relics have been rescued and protected, especially the discovery of the golden seal of the 'Shu ShiziBao', which is a major archaeological discovery. We have made an important breakthrough in the understanding of the site itself, especially the distribution law of cultural relics, which is of great significance for the future protection and utilization. For those treasure hunters, the significance of this excavation is equally significant, it proves that the nursery rhyme of "silver is 10,000 and 50," is true, and the temptation of "someone can see through and buy all the Chengdu Province" will definitely make these people speed up the pace of treasure hunting, after all, Jinjiang Shenbao has not yet heard. How many treasures are still buried at the bottom of the river, we can only wait and see.