"Because in the mining of rough stones here, skill is more important than strength."
"And having to risk your life on luck."
"Captain Wu, when I came in, I saw a topographic map of northern Myanmar hanging on the wall of the wooden house. Can you bring that over?"
Captain Wu pointed to the team members on the side: "Bring out a map."
As a border special operations team member, you can enter the deep mountains and old forests of northern Myanmar at any time to crack down on smuggling traffickers. A map that you carry with you is a must-have.
The team member immediately took out a map from his inner bag, unfolded it several times and placed it on the table. Several people gathered around it. Meng Yan's fingertips followed the border river Yijiang all the way up, and finally stopped in northern Myanmar.
some corner of.
"This is the place." Meng Yan said.
"The entrance to the Yijiang Jade Field is about 20 kilometers away from our place. However, in the deep mountains and valleys in northern Myanmar, there is no road access. Normal supplies are transported by human and animal power."
"If explosives are used to open river channels again to search for ore veins in this place, the flow direction of the downstream river will be extremely susceptible. This should be the reason for the sudden surge in water volume in the tributary above our heads."
"The entrance to the field? Isn't this in the middle of the Yijiang River? Is it possible that there are jadeite stones sinking in the river?" Old Wu frowned and asked.
Meng Yan nodded: "Yes, this is the only site in the world where raw jade stones are hidden under the river bed. It requires people who know water to dive down and retrieve the raw stones from the river bottom."
"Furthermore, this place is a canyon. The water flow is inherently faster than other places, and there are countless undercurrents hidden underwater."
Several people suddenly understood what Meng Yan said just now, "You must risk your life for luck."
In addition to the jadeite stones underground in the riverbed, there are definitely more ordinary stones. Under the riverbed with surging undercurrents, how easy is it to open your eyes and identify the jadeite stones and bring them up?
"These quarry workers are risking their lives to make money," Lao Wu said.
"But why? Logically speaking, men should have greater lung capacity than women and can hold their breath longer underwater. Why are there only female workers in this place?" Zhou Yaoyao asked from the side.
"Half of this is due to tradition." Meng Yan explained.
"In ancient Burma, men's labor force was naturally plowing the fields. Even if they were engaged in jade mining, they had to work in the mines. The entrance of the Yijiang quarry is the only place where there is not much difference between men and women's work.
.”
"Save labor!" Zhou Yaoyao replied.
Meng Yan nodded: "That's what it means. Over time, the tradition of this field has been formed. And because of the rapid river, the people who work here began to believe in the goddess Ijiang. They believed that it would be disrespectful to the goddess if men were used to quarry stones.
Get retribution."
Yang Baifeng on the side gave a thumbs up: "Meng Xiaoyou, that's awesome! We locals don't know much about the ins and outs of this tradition, not to mention you are from the Xia country, so you must have a very extensive research on rough stones."
"With such a profound knowledge of jade at such a young age, my family must be a jadeite family. May I ask where Meng Xiaoyou's family is?" Yang Baifeng asked.
Meng Yan quickly waved his hand: "Don't dare!"
"It's just that someone in my ancestors did some rough stone trading and had some knowledge. Plus, I also like to delve into this stuff, so I got a little involved. It's not a jadeite family. Mr. Yang is too famous."
Meng Yan was not wrong. Their ancestors were indeed engaged in the business of rough stone. As for how big the business was and how long the inheritance lasted, that was another matter.
Hearing Meng Yan's excuse, Yang Baifeng, as an old fox over fifty years old, naturally knew that it was not convenient for Meng Yan to say it, so he left it at that.
"Meng Yan." Old Wu's voice sounded, and he asked with a frown.
"Listen to what you said, digging for rough stones at the bottom of the river at Ijiangchangkou is indeed a very dangerous job, but more than ten thousand quarrying women died for it. What do you mean?"
In the Xia Kingdom, as long as a life is lost in a mine, everyone from the boss to the person in charge must enter. Although the Burmese country is in chaos, it is definitely not as strict as the Xia Kingdom, but it should not be necessary to bring in tens of thousands of women for this purpose.
life, right?
What is the concept of tens of thousands of women? They jump into the Yijiang River one by one, and they can block the channel of the Yijiang River.
"Captain Wu doesn't know something. I'm an elder in the caravan, so I know some things." Yang Baifeng sounded a little regretful.
"The entrance to the stone field in Yijiang is now under the control of Li Mianhuang, the king of northern Myanmar. The mountains are high and the roads are far away. Our caravan has some contacts with them. At the beginning, we assisted them in transporting explosives. Later, we mobilized local caravan members to transport supplies for a long time.
"
"According to the news from the caravan branch there, they basically transport hundreds of women into the mountains every month."
"At the beginning, we thought that only a small part of these were supplementary quarrying women, and the rest were women provided by the field to his men. After all, since the public sale in northern Myanmar was postponed, these important rough stones
He stationed troops at the entrance to the venue."
"But now that I think about it, he only sent about 3,000 people to guard the Yijiang Stone Field. Why do we need so many women? And they still send them in every month."
"Mr. Yang, what do you mean..." A group of people in the room were silent. At this point, they all knew what Yang Baifeng meant.
Meng Yan on the side sighed: "Crazy man, that Li Mianhuang probably brought out the previous rules again."
"That must be the case, otherwise it would be impossible to send in so many quarrying girls every month!" Yang Baifeng said angrily.
"You can't surface the water for ventilation without seeing the original stone. This requirement was abolished by our jade industry more than a hundred years ago, and Li Mianhuang actually brought it back!"
"The Yijiang Stone is originally a mine that is about to be mined. Even if he uses explosives to dig up the river, how much material can he dig out? This is forcing the quarrying girl to die!"
Meng Yan stretched out his hand to interrupt Yang Baifeng: "Mr. Yang, there is no need to make a conclusion now. After all, none of us here have actually been to the entrance of Yijiang to see it. Maybe the women who were sent in were left behind for other reasons.
Inside, for example, due to confidentiality considerations regarding the re-mining of the site."
Yang Baifeng slowly closed his eyes and said in a heavy tone: "I hope so."
"I will write this matter into a report and report it to the top." Old Wu stood up and said to several people present.
"But we need the exact location of Ijiangkou. I think the eldest lady can help us investigate it."