In 2013, Song Mou, a villager whose home is on the edge of the Minjiang River, suddenly made a home, not only giving the newly built building at home, but also becoming extremely generous in daily sales.
The villagers were very surprised by this, so someone asked Song if he had encountered any good things? In response, Song mou only responded that he made some money doing business.
However, the villagers did not believe it in their hearts, because they knew that Song Had never done any business, so where did he earn money?
It wasn't until three years later, in 2016, when the local police came to Song's home to arrest him, that the villagers knew why Song had become so rich!
It turned out that he had actually made a huge profit of thirteen million by selling state cultural relics! So what's going on here? Where did Song steal this cultural relic? And has this artifact been recovered in the end?
Let's take a good look at this matter and explore the story behind the cultural relics sale case.
To learn about the case of trafficking in state cultural relics, we have to start in 2005, when Pengshan District prepared to build the Minjiang River according to the instructions of the higher government.
Historically, the control of floods has always been the first priority of the feudal regime, and after the founding of New China, the Party Central Committee and the State Council also attached great importance to the control of floods in various places.
Under the instructions and leadership of the central authorities, the flood problem in various localities was well contained, until the new century was entered, and the Sichuan Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government, after on-the-spot investigation, reported to the central authorities to request the reconstruction of the Minjiang River.
Immediately the central government approved this request and allocated funds, in 2005, the Minjiang River began to repair, but do not know, a repair is frightened.
It turned out that when repairing the river, the construction team excavated a large number of historical relics from the river channel around Jiangkou Town in Pengshan District!
The news was soon reported to the Sichuan provincial government, and it was not until 2010 that, under the guidance of the provincial government, the river was included in the third batch of municipal cultural relics protection units.
After being included in the protection list, the corresponding construction operations were also stopped, and archaeologists found that according to the cultural relics that had been excavated at that time, it should be related to the historical Zhang Xianzhong Shenyin incident, so this place was also named "Jiangkou Shenyin Site".
Similarly, in order to protect the cultural relics that still remain in the river, the local government launched excavation conservation work in 2016.
After the approval of the central government, the excavation of the Jiangkou Shenyin site was officially launched, but because the cultural relics were all buried under the rolling river, the excavation work was very difficult.
In order to determine the location of cultural relics as soon as possible, the relevant archaeologists and engineering experts, after consulting a large number of historical texts, roughly determined a scope of excavation.
However, although the excavation scope can be estimated, when it is really excavated in the field, the gushing river in front of everyone is a great problem!
At this time, an expert in engineering made a suggestion, that is, since the general scope has been determined, can we wait until the dry water period, build a cofferdam to surround the river section, and then empty the river water?
After repeated demonstrations by the expert group, this proposal was considered feasible, so during the dry period of the Minjiang River, the expert group identified a cofferdam area with an area of about 20,000 square meters.
The so-called cofferdam is to build a series of earthen walls when the river is dry, layer by layer, and finally enclose the places that need to be excavated.
The amount of engineering in this way is relatively small compared to direct underwater exploration, and it has a certain cost performance, so it will be adopted by the expert group.
Under the intensification of construction by the construction team, the predetermined cofferdam area was soon completed, which also brought great convenience to the excavation work.
The excavation of the cofferdam was also the first operation in the inland river field in China, and under the work of ten pressure-reinforced pumps, the river water in the cofferdam area was quickly emptied.
But just as the work was about to be completed, an accident occurred, and for some reason, the riverbed, which was about to be exposed, suddenly poured into a large amount of groundwater.
In order to prevent the preliminary work from falling short, the expert group again applied for more pumps and began to rotate day and night.
At the same time, on the other hand, the relevant archaeologists also took the risk and went down to the riverbed with tools such as metal detectors, and fixed all the reacting places with signs.
At the same time, the expert group also invited experts in the study of underground rivers to coordinate archaeology, and after more than five months of hard excavation, the expert group also achieved great results.
A total of more than 30,000 cultural relics have been excavated, most of which are gold and silver products created by Zhang Xianzhong, and many iron weapons have also been found.
The excavation confirmed a long-standing folk legend that Zhang Xianzhong, who once established himself as the "King of the Great West", did use a boat to transport treasure on the river and was subsequently sunk.
Not long after the end of the first excavation, the expert group requested the central government to carry out the second excavation work as soon as possible, hoping to do its best to excavate more cultural relics.
The central government also approved the request, and in November 2017, the second excavation work was officially launched, and until April 2018, the expert group excavated more than 12,000 cultural relics again.
Subsequently, the expert group carried out three underwater excavations in succession, and a total of more than 50,000 cultural relics were excavated from this site, which greatly filled the historical gap about Zhang Xianzhong.
Later, the local government also spent a billion yuan to build a Shenyin Museum, which was built in the delta area next to the Shenyin site at the mouth of the Minjiang River, and is expected to be completed in 2022.
So far, the site, which has been discovered since 2005, has finally been relatively completely protected, and some people may have a question here, that is, why was it not excavated in the first place?
We don't know why, but the reason for the excavation work in 2016 may be related to a cultural relics sale case.
In 2010, after the Jiangkou Shenyin site was included in the third batch of municipal cultural relics protection units, the news that there was a treasure in the Minjiang River was spread.
This also caused some people with ulterior motives to think a little, until one day in 2013, Song Mou, a villager who lived on the edge of the MinJiang River.
After he heard about the treasure in the river, he always had an idea in his heart, Song Mou grew up on the edge of the Min River since childhood, so the water is excellent.
So when that ulterior motive appeared in his heart, Song Mou decided to "dry the votes", and he decided to take advantage of the opportunity that the government did not pay much attention to now, go down to the river to try his luck and see if he could catch any treasures.
If you are lucky and really get a treasure for yourself, wouldn't you be able to eat and wear for a lifetime? Thinking of this, Song Mou's heart became fiery.
However, if you want to catch a baby, you can't rely on a momentary impulse, the first thing to do is to determine where there is a baby, after all, Minjiang is so big.
So Song Mou used the name of fishing to drive his own boat to constantly wander on the nearby river, in order to explore where the possibility of the baby appeared.
After several days of judgment, Song also finally determined a section of the river, which is relatively close to the site, and Song believes that there must be something here.
So after determining the location, one night, Song secretly rowed a small boat to the neighborhood, and then jumped into the rolling river.
A period of time passed, Song Mou floated up to breathe, and then plunged into the river water, I don't know how many times after changing the gas, Song Mou also began to be anxious in his heart.
He knew that after all, this place was too close to the site, in case someone inspected here, he was not easy to explain, so Song Mou began to retreat in his heart and prepare to leave.
But at this time, Song suddenly groped for a hard object at the bottom of the river, which felt like a yuan treasure, which made Song very happy.
So he quickly fished up this item, but to Song's surprise, this thing was even heavier than he imagined.
After Song picked up the things, before he could observe, Song left the place in a hurry because of his lack of heart.
Until he reached the shore, Song Mou looked at the items that had just been fished out through the moonlight, but there was still mud on it, and it was impossible to see clearly. So Song mou washed it with river water, and after cleaning it, Song mou was shocked by the items in front of him.
It turned out to be a tiger made of gold! Seeing this golden tiger, Song Moule was broken, and he kept chanting, which could make him rich.
Then Song carried the golden tiger on his body and carefully returned home all the way, after arriving home, Song did not tell his family about what had just happened, let alone reveal the existence of the golden tiger.
In order to prevent his family from messing around, Song also put the golden tiger in his room, and after several days like this, Song found that his actions were not noticed, so his courage also grew.
After that, Song secretly contacted a cultural relics dealer and asked him how much this golden tiger was worth? After careful observation, the dealer offered a high price of five million.
This price can surprise Song Mou, he actually picked up the treasure? However, Song Mou was not in a hurry to sell this golden tiger.
Because Song Mou believes that since this dealer can offer a high price of five million, it means that the actual price of the Golden Tiger in his hand must exceed five million! Otherwise he wouldn't have offered the price.
So Song decided to wait first, but during the period of waiting, Song's restless heart began to shake Song again, and then the next time.
Because of the success of the first time, Song Mou thought that there must be other treasures under that water, so he wanted to go to the next water to see if there could be new discoveries.
Thinking of this, Song Immediately took action, and that night, Song once again came to this river area, and then jumped into the river.
It can only be said that Song Mou's luck is indeed good, this time into the water, he actually gained something and touched a gold nugget!
After Song washed the mud on it, Song saw the words "Midwinter Auspicious Day Creation in the Late Aoi Year" and "Yongchang Grand Marshal Seal" on this gold nugget.
At the same time, Song also found that there were four small holes in this gold nugget, which made Song extremely confused, but immediately he thought of the golden tiger he had fished before.
Is this golden tiger and gold nugget a set? Thinking of this, Song immediately took out the golden tiger, and then put the golden tiger on the gold nugget.
What made Song Mou extremely happy was that he really did not guess that this golden tiger and gold nugget were indeed a set, and the composition was a golden seal!
Although Song Mou does not understand cultural relics, he still has some understanding of some basic common sense, such as complete sets of cultural relics, and the price of selling will be higher.
So a few days later, Song found the cultural relics dealer again, this time Song took out a set of gold seals to ask for the price, and the dealer also offered another high price again.
However, Song was still not satisfied in his heart, he thought that the gold seal should be worth more money, so Song secretly contacted several other dealers, and finally sold the gold seal for a sky-high price of thirteen million.
Since he had money, Song began to spend lavishly, and the family's living standards have also been improved, and the villagers are also very puzzled about why Song suddenly became rich.
So someone went to inquire, so there was a scene mentioned in the opening paragraph, but what Song did not expect was that such a good day did not last long.
In 2016, in an operation to crack down on the theft and trafficking of national cultural relics, a large number of trafficking gangs were arrested by the police, and a large number of cultural relics were also seized, including the gold seal sold by Song Mou!
Later, based on the interrogation of the arrested suspect, the police determined that the gold seal was sold by Song Mou, so the police immediately went to Song Mou's house to arrest him on the spot.
It was also at this time that the villagers learned that the reason why Song Mou suddenly became rich was because of the sale of state cultural relics.
The gold seal discovered by Song Mou was later identified by relevant experts and believed that it should be made by Zhang Xianzhong.
In the late Ming Dynasty, peasant uprisings occurred one after another, the largest of which was Li Zicheng, who was known as the "King of Chuang", but in the Sichuan area, the largest rebel army was Zhang Xianzhong, who later became the "King of the Great West".
After the uprising, Zhang Xianzhong's power expanded rapidly, occupying Hubei, Hunan and other places, while also sending troops to invade Guangdong and Guangxi.
Later, Zhang Xianzhong set his sights on Chengdu, a place with the reputation of "the country of heavenly capital", so he personally led an army to attack Sichuan.
At this time, it was also the stage when Zhang Xianzhong's power reached its peak, so Zhang Xianzhong called himself "Great General of Yongchang" and established his own feudal regime.
And this gold seal, relevant experts believe that it was in that period, Zhang Xianzhong in order to recognize his own forces to create.
Later, Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, and then established himself as the "King of the Great West", and all the way through the Manchu Qing attacked Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong was defeated and had to evacuate all the way.
Combined with the legend that Zhang Xianzhong used ships to transport treasures, it is basically certain that this gold seal should have been lost in the Minjiang River for some reason during transportation, and then it was fished up by Song.
Now this gold seal has been displayed at the Jiangkou Shenyin site, and in the future it will be transferred to the Jiangkou Museum for exhibition, while Song will be judged by law.