【Chapter 38】The Zhu family treasure collection appears in a surprise

When Chen Guoqiang left like this, Zhu Mingyang became particularly depressed, but his mentality quickly adjusted. He wanted to do something, but for a moment he could not think of doing something, so he came to the old Zhu family house alone on a whim.

The old Zhu family's house is similar to the Jiangnan Water Town House, but the most peculiar thing is that the old house is built with a small hill on its back. From the overall perspective, it is impossible to see the reason at all. However, if an expert can see at a glance, the part behind this old house is a bit strange! Because according to this courtyard design, it should be the model of Jiangnan Water Town, which is three in and three out, but this old house only has two and a half in and one in and one in and one in the mountains behind...

Zhu Mingyang had been to the old house the last time and saw something different, but he never found anything special. Looking at the objects his mother used before his death, his eyes were wet, and tears flowed down involuntarily. His mother died of depression and was unwilling to tell him who his biological father was until her death. This also buried deep hatred in Zhu Mingyang's heart. He had vowed in his previous life and now that he had vowed to find the unfaithful person. No matter where he was, and no matter who he was, he must make his mother's grave apologize...

It took him a long time to control his fluctuating emotions and walked towards the last courtyard, which was his favorite place to play as a child...

His hands stroked the stones, walls, trees that he had played with his uncle when he was young...

He couldn't help but sigh heavily: In this life, we must seize the opportunity... Hey! What's going on! At this time, his hand couldn't help but knock on the stone wall he was touching, and the sound made was a little strange. He was slightly stunned and immediately knocked on the other stone walls. His heart suddenly shook: It seems that the old house must have an unknown secret!

Thinking of this, Zhu Mingyang began to search carefully, and time passed by minute by minute. An hour passed. Finally, he found a difference on a pillar half buried on the wall. Next to this pillar was a gate, inside which was the ancestral hall of the old house...

He only came here three times - full moon, one year old, ten years old, and sacrificed to his ancestors.

In the inner part of the pillar half buried in the wall, there was a slightly concave place that was not noticed. Zhu Mingyang thought for a moment, and a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth. He reached out and pressed it gently, and then a slight voice came from the ancestral hall...

Zhu Mingyang pushed open the gate of the ancestral hall and went in. The scene in his impression was different. He looked at a dark one-meter-square hole on the ground in the center of the hall!

Zhu Mingyang did not hesitate at all. Before coming to the entrance of the cave, with his super vision, he saw a stone ladder leading to the ground. He walked in. After just two steps, another slight sound came out. The entrance of the cave was quickly covered, and then a faint gloss flashed!

He didn't care about this, and walked along the ladder with the faint luster of disaster. Intuition told him that he was walking down the ground. When he walked thirty steps of the stone stairs, it was a straight road. After passing a straight road of more than thirty meters, there was a stone door emitting a faint luster in front of him.

Although the cave exudes a faint gloss and the ground and walls of the cave are all made of stones, such a cave has been at least two hundred years old for at least two hundred years. It seems that it is in the deep mountains, but it does not feel damp. Obviously, there is a unique ventilation device in the cave.

The stone door opened, and the light inside was much brighter. The hole was at least 100 square meters, surrounded by two tall rows of wooden shelves, and there were more than a dozen large wooden boxes inlaid with copper nails inlaid in the middle.

Although he didn't know what was in the wooden box, the antiques on the shelves all exuded a rich luster, all of which were priceless treasures. There were nine small gold-cast incense burners left by unknown dynasty here...

Zhu Mingyang was surprised. He did not expect that there was such a treasure in his old house. Anything that was taken out would cause a huge sensation. The value of these treasures was no longer measured by money. Even in his previous life, no uncle said it. This place was protected by the government as provincial cultural relics in later generations. I have never heard of these treasures. It seems that the things here must have been left over from the old Zhu family.

Just as Zhu Ming was thinking, the entire cave gradually became brighter, just like during the day. He looked around and realized that there was a huge glass mirror around the cave. This was the principle of reflection that made the cave so bright. The frame was carved with dragon and phoenix patterns, which was obviously an old antique. Such things were simply impossible for the folk. In the feudal dynasty, the dragon was a totem for the emperor, and the phoenix was also for the queen. No folk had such a frame. At this time, a history about the glass mirror appeared in his mind.

According to the records in the book "The Tenth Year of Yongzheng: The Stories of the Swedish Ship" published by the National Social Sciences Press: During the Yongzheng period, Guangzhou's foreign trade became increasingly prosperous. Every summer and autumn, nearly 20 or 30 large ships from Western countries came to trade, namely from Britain, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Sweden and other countries. These large ships came to buy Chinese tea, porcelain, silk, etc. The ship came with the products of some Western countries, such as wool velvet, clocks, etc., and one of the more special products was glass; the Guangzhou trade in Western merchant ships that year was undertaken by Guangzhou.

The foreign merchants are basically experienced merchants from Fujian. They are wealthy families and are built in the southwest corner of Guangzhou. The scale is very huge. There are shops outside the merchants, huge warehouses, cargo yards, and special docks near the riverside. Next to the foreign merchants, a special courtyard has been specially built, which has independent portals to the foreign merchants and can directly lead to the foreign merchants. There is at least a two-story Western-style building in the courtyard, which is incompatible with the residential buildings at that time. It is specially used for Western merchant ships to rent, as a place for Western merchants to shop when trading in Guangzhou.

Since it is a temporary residence for Westerners, the architectural style is still quite Western. Foreign goods merchants are built on the river and are all leaning against the river. They usually have a large balcony and two-story building, which is also a unique and novel building inside and outside Guangzhou city. Foreign goods merchants are also the first to import glass, which is roughly used to build a barbarian restaurant. After the windows on the second floor are equipped with glass, it looks even more extraordinary and fashionable. The construction of this barbarian restaurant is quite perfect, and of course it is also very worth it. At that time, Western merchant ships rented such a courtyard, and in a trade season, it cost 1,000 taels of silver.

After using glass, people naturally became jealous. However, merchants were all Bai Dings who had no fame and fortune, and the other was all locals from Fujian. In the early years of the Yongzheng Dynasty, the government and the local gentry in Guangzhou basically looked down on them. In the words of modern people, those Fujian people who deal with foreigners naturally also included those merchants, translators, compradors, and were all outside the mainstream society. Although glass appeared, although it was imported in the early years of Yongzheng, it had great limitations when used.

In the seventh year of Yongzheng, in 17 AD, Emperor Yongzheng appointed Zu Binggui, the former governor of Guangxi who was dismissed, and Zu Binggui, a robber slave of the Manchurian Shangsanqi, to serve as the customs supervisor at that time. Before Zu Binggui, the position of customs supervisor was always the governor of Guangdong. Since Zu Binggui, he served alone, and his name was an official sent by the Ministry of Revenue. In fact, he directly obeyed the orders of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Zu Binggui was even the second-rank official and also served as the supervisor and censor. He also had the power to go directly to the emperor. Whether it was power or status, he was higher than that of the governor of Guangdong.

Zu Binggui's style of work is very different from his former Guangdong Customs Supervisor and Guangdong Governor Yang Wengan. One is to concentrate on collecting rare treasures for the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and the other is that because he wants to do a good job and his greed has increased, he has fought very enthusiastically with these wealthy local Fujian men. Especially with Chen Shouguan, the largest foreign merchant at that time, the merchant of Guangshun Commercial Bank, the merchant, was particularly good. It can be said that he is so good that he is a brother. In this way, Zu Binggui is naturally very familiar with the good things in the merchant. After a while, this glass has become a good thing for Zu Binggui to invest.

According to archives published by the Qing Palace, in the ninth year of Yongzheng, Zu Binggui sent him to the palace "a large piece of glass, five feet long and three feet four inches wide, with a white cashmere cover wooden box". Such a large piece of glass came from Europe thousands of miles away, and then transported it carefully to the capital by land. It was really a rare thing, and the emperor was even more happy. During the Yongzheng period, this imported foreign glass began to be used in the palace, which ended the history of thousands of windows in Chinese history. In this way, Zu Binggui It is quite a contribution; the road is so difficult and there is a special person to escort a large piece of flat glass to Beijing. After all, it is a big thing that only the emperor can afford. Zu Binggui's three uncles and four aunts have always taken great care of him among the royal relatives of Beijing. Now with a beautiful job like customs supervision, he naturally wants to serve some particularly fun things. In this way, the imported flat glass finally transformed into a toy for the wealthy family in Beijing, called the glass screen.

The so-called glass screen is actually to hire famous carpenters in Guangdong to make a wooden shelf using high-quality hardwood, such as rosewood, etc., and then inlaid imported glass sheets, which become a screen. Then, a skilled painter is invited to paint landscape characters on the glass, which is lifelike. Such a screen is sent to Beijing, and all the princes and nobles like it. Whether the production of this screen was first made by Zu Bing. Gui's idea is unknown, but the glass screens that Zu Binggui paid tribute several times were not made in large quantities, and were distributed to the three old men and four aunts in Beijing. For example, in April of the ninth year of Yongzheng, two glass screens were sent to the emperor, with twenty-four fans. The emperor thought he liked them very much, so he issued a special order to hand them over to the General Manager of the Office of the Internal Affairs. In a short time, the glass screens became the most prominent decoration in the families of the princes and nobles in Beijing.

This method of making imported Western glass is very unique. In the future, many famous carpenters appeared in Guangzhou, and even entered the palace office and became a famous craftsman. Here, the glass paintings in Guangzhou were actually quite grand, especially imitating Western brushwork and depicting portraits of characters on glass, which made great achievements. For example, Pan Zhencheng, a famous business in Guangzhou during the Qianlong period, gave the glass portraits to the Swedish East India Company in the middle of Qianlong. They are still hanging in the History Museum in Gothenburg, Sweden. The paintings are very exquisite and the characters are lifelike. The achievements of wood making and glass paintings should also have a considerable relationship with the large-scale production of glass screens.

Although those historical materials do not record the era when glass mirrors came from, and some people believe that glass was found in the Ming Dynasty, the glass mirrors used in large quantities were probably also in the Qing Dynasty. The reason is that with glass, would there still be no mirrors?

Zhu Mingyang looked at these priceless treasures. If it were placed in the past, he would definitely have taken out one or two pieces of his own funds, but now he doesn't need these. These are treasures left by his ancestors and must not be sold. If he really encounters poor capital turnover, he can still take out one or two pieces of not very valuable things to the auction house for auction. This way, he can also get funds and make friends with many celebrities from all over the world. Now let's take a look at what's in those big wooden boxes!

Thinking of this, he opened a wooden box casually, and a shiny luster suddenly pricked his eyes! Oh my god! Night Pearl!

Zhu Mingyang was shocked. The wooden boxes he opened were all night pearls of all sizes. The small ones were as big as sparrow eggs, and the largest ones were as big as ostrich eggs. From his perspective, he immediately recognized that these night pearls were definitely formed naturally without any trace of manual polishing...

In addition to this night pearl, there are pearls. Zhu Mingyang looked at these things again, thought for a moment, took three night pearls the size of eggs, four pearls of the same size, carefully put them away, took a deep breath before coming out of the cave, and carefully cleaned up all the traces, confirming that nothing was revealed, then stood in front of the old house, took a deep look, and murmured to himself: "It seems that the things in the cave cannot be kept here for a long time. If there is a little bitch one day, it will be troublesome! You must find a way to transfer all these things out!"
Chapter completed!