China has countless good things since ancient times, but the damage during the war was devastating. The fate of this archway was changed because of a smuggling transaction.
Without such a deal, the archway is likely to be blown up by artillery fire, or it may be demolished and built fortifications, but it is more likely to leave traces of the war, and then slowly grow old and eventually die in the following years. .
The most terrifying thing is the change of things and people. The old stonemason was right. This archway has been very intact from the early Ming Dynasty to the present. That is because the clan in this village is still there, even if only one family is left. By passing the story on, future generations will remember and protect it.
The Manchu and Qing civil war sweeping across the Great Plains of Zhili has left Shipai Village completely deserted. According to Guiziliu's method of forcing the people to join the bandits from thousands of miles away, those who survived had to become rebels.
Once the village is no longer protected by people from the past, people in the future will not know the inheritance of the object, let alone its preciousness.
Without anyone to protect it, this cultural relic will fall apart sooner or later!
The price levels of the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty were different. This was due to the different market circulation of silver in China in different historical periods. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, there was not a large inflow of silver, so the silver price of this type of archway might be only Just one to twenty thousand taels.
But the Ming Dynasty was the craziest and bloody era of European colonization of South America. Massive amounts of silver were imported to the world, a large part of which was transported to China through trade.
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, including the entire two hundred years of the Qing Dynasty, silver continued to flow in and out again!
According to the current market price, such an archway cannot be purchased without 150,000 silver. These exquisite carvings alone account for half of the cost!
Ronglu's eyes suddenly shone when he heard that this archway was so valuable, "Tear it down! I'll tear it down properly... I've already sold this archway, haha, don't even think about bargaining for 150,000 yuan..." …”
"If you are short of manpower, I will allocate manpower to you. If you are short of tools, I will find you tools. It only takes one day. Tomorrow evening, this stone archway must be dismantled into pieces and then packed onto the train!"
"If you waste time, you will all die under this archway... Hehehe, Shimazu-san, as long as you make this business with me, you will get as many good things as you want in the future!"
"I'll grab it for you...Fangshan, Liangxiang, Gu'an, Xianghe, Wuqing, Anxin, Xiongxian...these surrounding counties are all in my pocket!"
"Two million dollars for a county town is not too much, right? My men will share half of it and I will keep the other half. After this battle is over, if there are not ten million taels of silver in the foreigner's account, my life will be in vain!"
"Damn, all the good things in the past were sold cheaply, and they were all deceived by profiteers from Shanxi and Jiangnan..."
Ronglu's plan to sell off the stolen goods was officially launched, and these experienced stonemasons from Quyang began to dismantle the stone archway in full swing. No one could care about the sadness of the people who returned to the countryside after the war was over. Survival was the most important thing at this moment.
But Ronglu didn't know that among the direct descendants he brought, there had already been a spy sent by Zai Cheng, and late at night there was a spy who reported the matter of 150,000 silver to Zai Cheng.
When Cheng Beile heard this, he lifted the blanket on his body and sat up, "What? A broken stone archway can be sold for 150,000 silver? Are the Chinese people really going to give it? Are they really not afraid of being taken advantage of?"
"Go back to Mr. Beile... That's really what he said. Ronglu himself said that he would ask Shimazu-san for 150,000 yuan, not even a penny less, and he strictly ordered that he be loaded onto the train tonight!"
"Okay... go and inquire again, be sure to keep an eye on the whole process. If the settlement is really 150,000... haha, this is really a good deal!"
"You should search carefully to see if there are any ancient tombs, ancient temples, Taoist temples, etc. around... Don't let those people from Liulichang look at valuable antiques!"
"Those bastards in Liulichang are all businessmen from Shanxi and profiteers from Jiangnan. They are all very evil... They may have secretly sold many good things to the Chinese over the years!"
"It's too cruel to eat the difference..."
What Zaicheng said is indeed true. The Chinese are currently using their abundant funds to purchase China's top cultural relics and antiques. They will not suffer a loss if the price is higher, and they will protect these cultural relics from being damaged by war.
Allowing cultural relics to be preserved in museums for a long time is a matter of great merit!
Lose money? If it doesn't exist, the losses in the east will be made up in the west... What's the profit for the Chinese from casting a cannon? In the mid-19th century, the most profitable commodity for mankind was not opium, but heavy industrial products!
What is the crown jewel of the heavy industry economy? Of course it’s the arms trade!
Foreign guns and cannons are basic products. In the future, high profits will have to come from airships and battleships, especially steel battleships. This is the huge profit among huge profits!
The night gradually became quiet, and the rebels of Guiziliu also gradually became quiet. There were rebels sleeping in the open air everywhere on the wild ground, huddled together with a little straw covering their bodies, and the flames of the bonfire were dimmed and almost extinguished.
Only Shimazu Dairo's crematorium was still busy. Since there was a possibility of cooperation with the rebels, Rong Lu opened the door and secretly sent hundreds more disaster victims to Shimazu Dairo.
Nowadays, there are 2,500 and a half-year-olds working in the crematorium. They work all night long. Anyone who feels sleepy will go to sleep for an hour, and then wake up and continue working immediately!
Continuously, the first batch of ashes were loaded into the empty carriages of the train and slowly drove north!
The exciting drama on the Zhuozhou battlefield came to an end for the time being, and the capital was completely dumbfounded at this time. The people were still sleeping peacefully in the middle of the night, but all the well-connected official families received this shocking news.
"What? Prince Dun returned in defeat? Lord Fuqing vomited blood and fainted? Now the defeated army has withdrawn to both sides of Marco Polo Bridge?"
The capital was in a state of shock. The whole night was full of conspiratorial voices, and the capital suddenly fell into a state of extreme fear.
On the morning of April 13th, the gunfire in the Battle of Zhuozhou finally stopped. Li Tuo and the generals began to lead the troops to retreat bit by bit. However, the news was blocked, and people in that era were still very closed-minded.
That afternoon was the negotiation between Shimazu Dalang and Prince Gong, and then the victims were selected to start disaster relief. It was already the early morning of April 14th when Ronglu demolished the stone archway.
And these well-connected official families in the capital received the shocking news at three or four o'clock in the morning on April 14th!
And what about Emperor Tongzhi in the Forbidden City? At this time, he locked himself in the Ancestral Temple and never came out!
At four o'clock in the morning on April 14th, the Imperial Ancestral Temple was in darkness. The door of the main hall where ancestors' tablets were enshrined was closed tightly. People could only see a little light through the crack in the door!
