My name is Tang Tian. I studied archaeology during my college years. Later, through some family connections, I worked in an archaeological-related scientific research institution in Kyoto. I originally thought that I would spend my life mediocre but steadily, but I didn’t expect that a seemingly normal work experience changed my view of the world and made me wonder about the past that my elders always kept silent about.

The expatriation took place at the end of 2017. At the invitation of the Cultural Relics Department of Chuan County, the unit sent me as an expert to participate in the excavation of the Sinking Silver Site in the Jiangkou, Zhang Xianzhong. As for why the unit chose me, it may be because my ancestral home is Chuan County, my family and ancestors were engaged in cultural relics business before the founding of the People's Republic of China, and after the founding of the People's Republic of China, they became a scholar of cultural relics research. They had a great influence in the cultural and museum circles of Chuan County. And it happened that Lao Liu, the leader of the archaeological team responsible for excavating the Sinking Silver Site in Jiangkou, was an old friend of my father. Here, I was the only one who went there.

I was born in the Anhan Tang family on the Jialing River. The four words of Anhan Tang family are plaques for the identification of cultural relics in the entire Bashu area. As long as the things are identified by Anhan Tang family, they will not be suspicious. An ancient book called Jinshiyu Weilu has been circulating in the family for generations, which is said to be left by Le Zhengzichun during the Warring States Period. Le Zhengzichun was a famous cultural relics identification master in the Warring States Period. The famous "Green Ding" in the country of Lu was identified by Le Zhengzichun. Le Zheng was originally an official position in the palace for the music performance. Perhaps because of the long-term residence in the palace, Zichun had seen many rare treasures, so Zichun practiced a unique identification method. According to my grandfather, when the Tang family obtained the Jinshiyu Weilu in the early Qin Dynasty, it has continued from generation to generation, and has continuously supplemented the identification experience to this day, establishing the Anhan Tang family's first position in the cultural relics world.

Records of continuity are particularly important for identification, because cultural relics, like humans, develop with social development. For example, in the era of Le Zheng Zichun, bronze ware was a first-class heavy weapon. In the Wei and Jin Dynasties, a large number of celadons were produced in southern China, leading to the emergence of porcelain identification. The Xuande furnace began to appear during the Xuande period of the Ming Dynasty, and the expensive cloisonné enamel began to appear during the Jingtai period, which put forward new requirements for the identification of bronze ware. The Tang family's gold, stone and jade microrecords not only contain a large number of cultural relics identification methods, but also record many geosciences and strange things. For example, the family's ancestors recorded that a village child accidentally encountered a ghost and passed away. After hitting a ghost, he had a fever overnight but did not improve. He needed to take the black-bone chicken's chicken bones into powder and drink it, which could expel ghosts and enamels.

In fact, in my opinion, what really made the Tang family gain a foothold in the Bashu cultural relics industry was the cultural relics circulation channel it controlled. In the Qing Dynasty, due to the exploitation and plunder of Western powers, tomb robbery across the country was extremely rampant, and there was naturally a hot circulation of cultural relics. At that time, Chuanjun and Yudu were still the same area. Relying on their unique geographical location, the Bashu area became the central place for smuggling cultural relics to various ports in the West and the country. This is why many early overseas explorers started to land in China, in addition to Xinjiang, they were in Chuanjun. The most important section of the Yangtze River in Chuanjun, the Jialing River and Minjiang River, and the Tibet to Yunnan.

The ancient Tea-Horse Road was controlled by the Tang family, forming the five major voyages of the Tang family, namely Mumahang, Wuhouhang, Qingyanghang, Shuangliuhang and Longquanhang. This word is a slander in the tomb robbery industry in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China. The reason for its formation may be that the transportation of cultural relics is usually mainly waterways, and it also means a good harvest. Among the five major voyages of the Tang family, Wuhouhang and Qingyanghang, located at the core of the provincial government, mainly smuggling some small pieces of porcelain bottles, gold and jade, while Mumahang mainly smuggled some larger Tang and Song Buddha statues. During the warlords in Sichuan during the Republic of China, there was also a major turmoil in the Tang family, and many golden Buddhas were

The stone Buddhas are hidden in Muma Mountain near Muma Airlines, which is also the reason why real estate developers or archaeological teams opened in Muma Mountain in recent years have frequently discovered Buddha statues. Shuangliuhang is located near Qingbai River and is mainly responsible for exporting and accepting some rare ancient books, such as a large number of scriptures unearthed in the Shangjing Cave in Dunhuang. Although Longquan Airlines is also called Hang, it has little to do with water transportation. It is a navigation entrance based on the ancient Tea-Horse Road, which mainly transports some shameful cargo. I remember that during the Republic of China, the French once had a unique habit of transporting a group of female mummies from the Tang family from Longquan Airlines to bring back to France. Time flows

During the War of Resistance Against Japan, the five major airlines of the Tang family became underground sites serving the revolution and played an important role. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, many airlines had disappeared from the open, but secret transactions were still going on, either in a teahouse or in a restaurant. For example, Wuhouhang was near the Wuhou Temple today, Qingyanghang was next to the Qingyang Palace today, and Longquanhang became the current Longquan Post. By the way, the Tang family was not the dominant situation in Bashu, and there were still the remaining six major families who restricted each other, namely the Chen family, the Tan family, the Zhang family, the Pan family, the Zhou family and the Liu family. These families each had their own talents, but I won't talk about it here, let's talk about it slowly later.

Let’s go back to our expatriation this time, taking off from Dujing and coming to Rongdu soon. In less than three hours, we arrived at Rongdu’s International Airport. It is midsummer, and getting off the plane will make you feel a little breathless.

"Teacher Tang? Are you Teacher Tang from Kyoto?" As soon as you walked out of the airport, a young man wearing a khaki baseball cap and dark-skinned approached me with a card with my name written on it.

"Are you?" I hesitated. Uncle Liu didn't say to send anyone to pick me up before boarding the plane. I was still going to take the bus to Meishan by myself.

"Teacher Tang, I am a little horse from the County Archaeological Institute. Team Liu asked me to come and pick you up!" the young man said with a smile.

"Okay, let's go." I thought to myself, it's really convenient now, so I don't need to go back to the bus. Although Chuan County is my hometown and has many friends, I can't tell you when the expatriation ends, so I didn't contact them, so I didn't contact them, so I saved people from causing trouble.

"Xiaoma, how is your construction site progressing now?" I asked as soon as I got on the bus. (Archaeologists generally call the site being excavated a construction site)

"This..." Xiao Ma looked puzzled and looked hesitant.

"I will tell me what happens on the construction site first. Your Team Liu is my uncle. If I can help, I will definitely help as much as possible!" I said, thinking in my mind that they either had insufficient archaeological funds or had encountered technical difficulties in excavation.

"Hey, Teacher Tang, Team Liu came to pick you up tonight, but I didn't expect that. Just as I was about to leave, something happened on the construction site again."

"What?! What's the matter?" I couldn't help but be surprised when I saw Xiaoma sighing. The archaeological construction site has not been visited less for work in recent years. Everyone has more or less difficulties, but they have never seen such an expression, giving people a feeling of being dead at home.

"Teacher Tang, do you believe in ghosts?" Xiaoma did not answer my question immediately, but instead asked me back.

"This... the world is full of wonders, I don't reject it." Logically speaking, we are Marxist atheists in the field of archaeology and cannot believe these things. A colleague once lost his job because he was investigated for joking about archaeology at the dinner table. So I didn't dare to answer Xiaoma directly.

"Our construction site... there is a ghost!" Xiao Ma said while driving, and the headlights on the opposite side hit his face, looking extremely pale. Hearing this, and the air conditioner in the car was too low, I couldn't help but have a cold war.

"Impossible? How could there be ghosts? Have you dug up something strange?" I asked.

"Hey, I didn't believe it before. I didn't expect that it has been several days in the past, and I have seen it with my own eyes. But I said no matter how many Teacher Tang you may not believe it. I waited to arrive at the construction site and Team Liu told you, you can go see it yourself."

After Xiao Ma finished saying this, no matter how I cliched it, I stopped talking about the construction site. It seemed to be repelling something. With the fatigue of the journey, I simply stopped asking him and the car became quiet. Xiao Ma drove the car silently, like a mechanical puppet, revealing a hint of weirdness.
Chapter completed!