In the Zhongsha Islands, sixty-four nautical miles east of the "Yongwu Shoal", a large-scale underwater archaeological project organized by the Institute of Archeology and local cultural co-organizers is in full swing. There are seven or eight divers, some holding "sand suction tubes" "While working underwater, some took photos of cultural relics exposed on the seabed and then carefully fished them out of the water.
On a relatively large fishing boat not far away, Professor Yu, who is over 60 years old at the institute, was wearing a white two-strand vest and gray pants, a Hainan iconic bamboo hat on his head, and a Wearing a dirty sweat towel, he didn't look like a scholar at all, but more like an old farmer working in the fields.
At this moment, Professor Yu was squinting at a small blue and white porcelain bowl full of salt in his hand, and said to the students beside him: "Have you seen the shape of this vessel? It has the standard characteristics of the mid-Ming Dynasty. Although it was only produced in folk kilns, it The workmanship is already very fine.”
The students on the side asked in surprise: "The No. 1 site is from the Song Dynasty, the No. 2 site is from the Tang Dynasty, and this time the No. 3 site is from the Ming Dynasty. Several shipwrecks are so close. Could it be that this place used to be a maritime site?" Is it a trade route? Didn’t it enter Jiaozhi (ancient Vietnam) from Xisha?”
"You asked a very good question. These dynasties were the most frequent periods of trade with the outside world in history. It cannot be ruled out that this trade route went to Luzon, Java and other Southeast Asian regions. There is not much about these ruins. No. 4 The ship at the ruins is relatively well-preserved and has obvious characteristics of the Yuan Dynasty ship. What a precious discovery it is. I can imagine that the cultural relics after being released from the water will definitely cause a sensation in the archaeological community." Professor Yu sounded excited. All eight degrees higher.
"Professor! Something happened!" A rubber boat came quickly from a distance, and a dark-skinned young man wearing a diving suit shouted from a distance. Everyone's heart skipped a beat. The thing they were most worried about was still happened.
The location of the shipwreck at Site No. 4 is very special. It is a submarine slope with a slope of fifty degrees and a depth of more than thirty meters from the water. This is almost the limit depth of underwater archeology. The key is around the shipwreck. The seabed has loose sediment, and if you are not careful during the archaeological work, the sunken ship may slide downward.
Below the slope is a sea basin, and the sonar shows that the average depth is about three hundred meters, which has exceeded the deep diving limit of divers. If the sunken ship slides down, it basically means that it will never see the light of day again.
"Sure enough, did it slip?" The professor's voice was trembling, and the diver climbed onto the deck wet, panting heavily and nodding remorsefully.
Professor Yu almost fainted and stammered: "Why are you so careless!"
What can be said now? Even strangling the diver to death would be of no avail. Professor Yu is worthy of being a senior expert who organizes field archaeological work all year round. He has rich experience in dealing with emergencies. Although he felt distressed, he did not lose his composure. He hurriedly said to the students on the side: "Sail the boat. Let's get on board and use it." Use sonar to find the current location of the sunken ship, and then use the underwater photography robot to see the condition of the sunken ship."
The atmosphere of the archaeological team suddenly changed from excitement and enthusiasm to frustration and anxiety. Sonar showed that the sunken ship had slipped to a very deep place, more than 250 meters.
The archaeological team's underwater photography robot is very advanced and can dive to this depth without any problem, but at first glance, everyone's heart dropped.
The sunken ship had turned upside down because of the steep slope. The hull, which had been corroded by the sea water, was shattered and disintegrated when it capsized. The cargo in the ship was scattered everywhere.
"What...what evil has this done!" Professor Yu clapped his thighs and felt so sad that he was about to cry.
"Hey! What is this, shiny?" The student operating the underwater photography robot suddenly shouted, causing Professor Yu's sad cry to stop abruptly.
He took out a handkerchief and wiped away the tears and sweat on his face, put his glasses on the bridge of his nose, and suddenly leaned in front of the computer screen. His eyes gradually lit up. I saw a two-inch-long reddish-yellow metal object with a small sharp point exposed in the sand on the seabed. It was also studded with large pearls. At a glance, I knew it was definitely a treasure.
Professor Yu patted the student on the shoulder and said, "Be careful. Control the camera robot and use its propeller blades to blow away some floating sand to see what it is."
The student looked excited and moved the joystick gently. After a while, the blown sand and dust settled, and part of a half-foot-long red-yellow metal tower appeared on the computer screen, with various inlays on it. Pearls, agates, clams and other precious stones are extremely luxurious.
"This is the Relic Pagoda!" A group of people shouted almost in unison.
"Is this made of wind-milled copper?" the student asked, looking at the color of the small tower.
Professor Yu rolled his eyes at him and said, "Are you playing with your mobile phone in class again? This is gold. In ancient times, due to problems with refining technology, gold was not pure enough, so whether it was unearthed or found in the sea, there would be an oxide layer. That's it. The red color is unlikely to be all pure gold, otherwise the weight would be heavier and it would definitely be submerged in the sand. I estimate that 80% of it is gilded, and this cultural relic should be called the 'Seven Treasures Gilded Relic Pagoda'."
He took a deep breath and said to the diver on the side: "This is a priceless treasure. Both its artistic value and archaeological research value are immeasurable. No matter what method you use, you must fish out this relic tower." Come up."
The diver's face turned green and he smiled bitterly: "Professor, the depth of this thing is already more than 250 meters. You may not know much about it. For ordinary divers, the water depth of 60 meters is already the limit. Now this There’s no depth, we can’t do it.”
"Then who can do it?"
"The construction unit of the deepwater project is either the military." The diver said.
Professor Yu is not a person who gives up easily. In order for this sunken ship to be seen again, he plans to go out of his way to ask for help.
The first thing that came to mind was naturally the military. Professor Yu made reports everywhere and lobbied in many ways. All relevant departments also paid more attention to it. After contacting many parties, he finally met a vice admiral of the navy at the Lingzhou Naval Base. The latter already knew Professor Yu's intention and was very enthusiastic and willing to help. He also took the professor to meet the deep-diving team on the fleet's submarine rescue ship.
These divers did not attract Professor Yu's attention, but the team's deep diving equipment scared him. The diving bell is so huge that it is not much smaller than a small house. It is equipped with a mechanical arm and a mechanical crane. The manipulator has drills, circular saws, welding guns, etc., like a Swiss army knife, but they all look like they are used for violent demolition. Yes, but archeology is a delicate job. Those cultural relics that have gone through countless years must be handled very lightly. If you are not careful, you may cause irreversible damage. With this steel manipulator... Professor Yu seems to have heard There was a soft cracking sound.
"Can't divers operate it directly with their hands? Those cultural relics are very fragile, and I'm afraid the consequences would be disastrous if a manipulator were to use them." Professor Yu explained his concerns to the Lieutenant General.
The lieutenant general explained with a look of embarrassment: "Professor, it's like this. There are several types of diving methods according to depth. In shallow water, using only a swimming goggle, a breathing tube and a pair of fins is called snorkeling. The depth It is only about ten meters at most; there is also a kind of "free diving", which is a diving activity carried out by strictly trained diving enthusiasts without using scuba breathing systems. Generally, it is only within forty meters. Although this aspect has been Some people have reached a record of 170 meters, but it is still far away from your water depth requirements, and without scuba diving, it is naturally impossible to stay underwater for a long time, and it is impossible to do any detailed work; scuba diving Although the world record has reached 332 meters, it is a world record. Let me tell you this, there are only one pair of top divers in the world who can reach a depth of 250 meters with scuba. The number. Generally, deep diving operations used in engineering and military operations are carried out using pressurized chambers, diving bells, and heavy-duty dry metal diving suits. The professional term is called 'saturation diving'. You know, Under water, every ten meters of depth increases one atmosphere of pressure. At 250 meters of water, the water pressure is twenty-five atmospheres, and one atmosphere of pressure is ten kilograms. That is to say, the diver needs to operate at the depth you require. The water pressure it bears is two and a half tons. Even if we let the diver wear a heavy-duty diving suit to work outside the cabin, his gloves are still made of metal, and in that kind of pressure environment, it is difficult to control the strength of the hands, and it is too delicate for activities. Well..." The lieutenant general smiled bitterly, obviously this task was beyond their capabilities.
The situation in the military was like this, and the underwater construction unit was even more in trouble. No matter how much money they were given, they couldn't do the job. For a while, Professor Yu was helpless.
But as the saying goes, there is always a way, and about a month later, the leader of the Academy of Sciences got a business card from somewhere and gave it to the Institute of Archeology, saying that this person might be able to solve Professor Yu's problem.
Professor Yu frowned as he looked at this business card. He had never seen this kind of business card before. The material was "brushed silver palladium alloy" and there were laser hollow carvings on it. In terms of material alone, the cost of this business card was very high. It costs no less than a thousand yuan. This kind of silver-white alloy is not as ostentatious as the golden color, but the sense of luxury and class is still shocking enough.
Not to mention, this business card does not have the usual names of units and titles, nor does it have a LOGO, address, or website. There is not even a phone number. The only laser-engraved handwriting is the name of a person named Li Liang. and an email address, weird and mysterious.
Who is this? As a rigorous scholar, I have a natural distrust of this kind of people. However, the professor is now desperate and can treat a dead horse as a living horse doctor, so he writes a detailed letter about his situation with the mentality of giving it a try. The email was sent to the other party. Unexpectedly, I actually received a reply from the other party the next day. It was nothing more than a mobile phone number.
Professor Yu felt as if he was engaged in some shady business, and complained in his heart, but still made the call. There was a rich man's voice over there. His Mandarin was very standard, and whether it was the tone or the wording, it was clear at first glance that he was a highly educated and well-educated person. This made Professor Yu feel a little calmer.
Li Liang said in a calm tone: "Professor Yu, I have basically understood the situation on your side. Deep-water archeology is indeed a very challenging matter. There is no precedent for this in my country's diving service industry. However, I can introduce you to a company that can take over your matter. The name is 'Nautilus Diving Service Company', and the person in charge is Ling Hao. In our country, at this depth, he is your only choice. Even if you look around the world, you can There will be no more than five teams to handle your matter."
