The land of China is vast, and the sons and daughters of China have created a steady stream of wealth, which has also left many "mysterious" treasures in history; speaking of this, some friends may think of the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, which has not been excavated so far, and it is said that the gold and silver treasures in the underground palace are rich and invincible. Of course, these are only legends, whether there is treasure in the underground palace, how much treasure, until the archaeological excavation can be concluded; however, in addition to the mausoleum of Qin Shi Huang, there is also a mysterious treasure in Sichuan, the difference is that it is not an ancient tomb, but hidden in the water.
Speaking of this, some friends have already guessed that Sichuan's "water treasure" refers to Zhang Xianzhong's "Jiangkou Shenyin" more than 300 years ago; to this day, the Legend of "Stone Dragon to Stone Tiger (Stone Bull to Stone Drum), Gold is 10,000; Whoever can see it and buy all the Chengdu Province" is still circulating on the Sichuan Plain. Of course, more than 300 years have passed, and this legend has long since become a joke; until the early 1990s, when a farmer surnamed Song went down to the river to swim, the legend of "Jiangkou Shenyin" was once again pushed to the forefront.
To put it simply, the peasant surnamed Song in Pengshan County went down to the river to swim after doing farm work, and accidentally found a piece of "golden tiger" at the bottom of the water; it was also greedy, and three days later the peasant actually drove a boat into the water to "catch treasure", and actually had a harvest, this time it was a "golden seal", and there were also the words "Grand Marshal of Yongchang" on it. Or because of greed, the person did not report the situation to the relevant departments, but sold the two cultural relics fished out of the water without authorization; perhaps even he himself did not expect that it was not long before the police came to the door, and the matter behind it was not detailed.
Speaking of this, some friends may ask, "If the legend of 'Jiangkou Shenyin' is true, then there must be more than two pieces of golden tiger and golden seal in the water, how many treasures are hidden under the water of the Jinjiang River in Pengshan County?" This question is really difficult to answer, according to historical records, "Zhang Xianzhong" was attached to Li Zicheng, and then the two split, Li Zicheng led an army to attack the Yellow River Valley, and "Zhang Xianzhong" led an army to attack the Yangtze River Valley; in short, "Zhang Xianzhong" claimed to be emperor after capturing Wuchang in 1643, and also killed the King of Chu in the Ming Dynasty.
In 1644, also the year that the Qing army entered the customs, Zhang Xianzhong led the troops into Sichuan. In Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong killed and plundered, did no evil, and saved up huge wealth, according to historical records, Zhang Xianzhong once held a "treasure fighting conference" in Chengdu to show off his wealth; according to records, Zhang Xianzhong was filled with rare treasures, gold and silver ingots in 24 rooms, which was dazzling and jaw-dropping. If according to historical records, later experts speculate that Zhang Xianzhong's wealth is at least 10 million taels of silver, and if it is converted according to the specifications of "one or two silver exchanged for 300 yuan", his total wealth exceeds 3 billion.
Of course, this conversion is not accurate, but if it is roughly converted according to the purchasing power of silver at that time, its wealth even exceeds that of the emperor at the end of the Ming Dynasty; Zhang Xianzhong committed crimes because of his wealth, and after all, it cannot be long-term, and this is indeed the case. Two years later, Prince Qingsu and Wu Sangui led an army from southern Shaanxi into Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong died in Phoenix Mountain (present-day northern Nanxi County, Sichuan), and surprisingly, his huge wealth disappeared with him; of course, the so-called "disappearance" was not without any trace, the "History of Ming" records that before Zhang Xianzhong withdrew from Chengdu, he ordered his subordinates to build an embankment in the upper reaches of the Jinjiang River, drain the river water, and then dig a large pit several meters deep at the bottom of the river downstream of the embankment, dump the looted treasure into it, and then break the embankment to release water, and flush and submerge the pit. And leave a trail of markings for future generations to dig up again.
Such historical materials are probably the origin of the legend of "stone cattle to stone tigers, gold is fifteen thousand; who knows it, buy all the Chengdu Province", but friends who have studied history and archaeology may see the problems here at a glance. The construction of embankments in the upper reaches of the Jinjiang River to block water, and the excavation of large pits several inches deep at the bottom of the river, not to mention the technical impracticality, that is, the huge amount of engineering was difficult to complete under the embarrassing circumstances at that time; therefore, some people think that Zhang Xianzhong's "Jiangkou Sinking Silver" is not realistic, and there are also different theories in the local chronicles.
According to the "Chronicle of Pengshan County", at that time, Zhang Xianzhong withdrew from Chengdu, because the dry road was blocked by the Qing army, he had to divert the route to the river by water, but when the fleet reached the territory of Pengshan County's Jiangkou, it was attacked by the local armed Yang Zhan troops; Zhang Xianzhong had to retreat to Chengdu, and many wooden boats full of gold and silver sank on the Jinjiang River. In the "Book of Wastes" in the Qing Kangxi period, there are different records that "Yang Zhan pioneer saw thieves burning boats", to put it bluntly, it was Zhang Xianzhong himself who burned the ships carrying treasures; of course, there are more versions of folk legends, which will not be elaborated here.
In short, the "Jiangkou Shenyin" is still mysterious after hundreds of years, but the search for this batch of treasures has been ongoing; for example, the "Pengshan County Chronicle" records that in the fifty-ninth year of Qianlong (1794), a fisherman fished a sword sheath in the Jinjiang River, and the news reached the ear of the governor Sun Shiyi, who immediately sent people to Jiangkou to salvage 10,000 taels of silver and a large amount of jewelry and jade in a few days. At the end of the Qing Dynasty, the imperial court was seriously short of internal and external troubles, and the overstretched Xianfeng Emperor ordered the Chengdu general Yu Rui to "visit carefully, try to dig up, and prepare as appropriate", but in the end there was nothing.
In the Republic of China, Yang Bailu, who had been the secretary general of the Sichuan Provincial Government, set up a gold panning company in 1937 to specialize in recovering treasures; after nearly a year of busy work, he actually dug out a big stone cow and a big stone drum, which seems to be in line with the legendary "stone cow and stone drum". Yang Bailu and the others quickly used a metal detector to look for it nearby, and the detector actually sent a signal; as a result, the workers worked hard but only dug out three baskets of copper coins. Of course, these are only written records, and there may be more without records, and the treasure hunting activities of "Jiangkou Shenyin" have always been active; even in modern times, there are still news that some people have found treasures in the Jinjiang River, and the Jinjiang section of Pengshan County has also become a key archaeological protection area.
Up to now, the number of various cultural relics that have been identified by archaeology and finally determined as "Zhang XianzhongJiangkou Shenyin" has reached tens of thousands, and how many treasures there are in the Jinjiang River, there are still no experts to make an accurate assessment; but it can be determined that the "Jiangkou Shenyin" has been excavated again and again in the past hundred years, and the historical truth is not far away.