Collection of Gods

Chapter 910 Overturning Speculations
Tang Yuan and Dong Wenhui stood in front of the wooden box, looking at the dazzling array of precious jade artifacts piled together in such a disorderly manner, and both of them felt a little emotional.

"Director Dong, now I am very sure."

Tang Yuan casually picked up a jade ring and said with emotion: "This group of people must have looted the Qing Imperial Palace, otherwise they would never have been able to loot so many imperial treasures."

"No wonder they buried these things here. If they bring them back to their country, they will probably be divided up by the princes and nobles in their country."

The two men walked and stopped, checking the rare treasures in each wooden box one by one. However, just as they walked to the fifth wooden box, a scream suddenly came from a distance.

"Director Dong!"

"Dr. Tang!"

"Come and see!"

The sudden exclamation made Tang Yuan and Dong Wenhui pause for a moment. Then they looked at each other and hurriedly walked towards the direction where the exclamation came from.

During this period, more and more exclamations were heard from there. When Tang Yuan and Dong Wenhui arrived there, the scene was already crowded with many experts from the National Museum.

At first, Tang Yuan and Dong Wenhui were a little curious about what could have caused the knowledgeable experts from the National Museum to lose their composure like this. It was not until they saw what was in front of them that they realized that the reactions of the experts were not exaggerated.

What was stored in the wooden box in front of them was the snake head, sheep head, chicken head and dog head among the twelve animal heads of the Old Summer Palace, whose whereabouts had never been known. They were well preserved, lying quietly in the wooden box, and finally saw the light of day again after a hundred years.

"Oh my God!"

“It’s actually the four beast heads!”

"No wonder we searched all over the world but couldn't find them. We thought they had been destroyed in the war, but we never thought they were hidden here. Now, all the twelve animal heads from the Old Summer Palace have been revealed!"

Dong Wenhui was also extremely excited after seeing the four animal heads of the Old Summer Palace. Although the twelve animal heads of the Old Summer Palace do not have very high value in terms of cultural and artistic value, the historical value they carry is very heavy and immeasurable.

There are innumerable rare treasures in the Old Summer Palace. If we rank these treasures by seniority, the Twelve Animal Heads of the Old Summer Palace would not even be among the top 100, because after all they are just a faucet. However, the Twelve Animal Heads of the Old Summer Palace are the most famous throughout the world.

Why?

Because since the British and French allied forces burned down the Old Summer Palace in 1860, the twelve animal heads of the Old Summer Palace have become a microcosm of the loss of Chinese cultural relics. What they represent is not only the loss of cultural relics, but also the loss of Chinese national culture.

Whenever they appear on foreign auction tables, the sounds of bidding are like whips lashing the faces of the Chinese people, constantly reminding us that if we fall behind we will be beaten. In recent years, these animal heads have returned to China one after another, which not only symbolizes the restoration of national dignity, but also is a concrete manifestation of cultural confidence and international influence.

Because of this, every time the twelve animal heads of the Old Summer Palace return, it will attract great attention from all walks of life at home and abroad. Now, as time goes by, reuniting the twelve animal heads of the Old Summer Palace has become an obsession in the minds of many Chinese people. Tang Yuan silently reached out his hand and took out the snake head from the wooden box. He wore white gloves and gently wiped the dust off the snake head, so that its original copper light bloomed again, and it still looked so dazzling in the sun.

"Director Dong, I feel that there is something wrong with the way we speculated last night."

Suddenly, Tang Yuan whispered to Dong Wenhui.

"Indeed, our thinking last night was wrong. We were all misled by the skeleton we encountered when we got here. We calculated his time of death through the decay rate detected by carbon 14, so we subconsciously regarded him as the treasure hunter."

"But from the current perspective, he may not be a treasure hider, but more likely a treasure hunter, because the 1860 animal heads of the Old Summer Palace were lost during the Second Opium War in . If this batch of treasures was a relic of the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China, then it is impossible for the animal heads of the Old Summer Palace to appear in this batch of treasures."

Dong Wenhui nodded slightly. He also realized the problem. The twelve animal heads of the Old Summer Palace that suddenly appeared before him could not possibly be a relic from the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China, because as early as forty years ago, the Old Summer Palace was burned down by the British and French forces, and the twelve animal heads of the Old Summer Palace also disappeared during that period.

"Director Dong, we have indeed fallen into a misunderstanding."

Tang Yuan looked at Dong Wenhui and said softly, "Who said that the imperial treasures we found these two days can only appear in the imperial palace of the Qing Dynasty? They may also appear in the Old Summer Palace."

"Yes, the Old Summer Palace is the most famous royal garden of the Qing Dynasty. The Qing royal family would come here every summer to govern the country. Even after Emperor Yongzheng ascended the throne, he added the Zhengda Guangming Hall, the Qinzheng Hall, the Cabinet, the Six Ministries and the Grand Council to the Old Summer Palace. Therefore, the Old Summer Palace was also called the Summer Palace before it was destroyed."

"Under this circumstance, the Old Summer Palace has experienced more than a hundred years of sedimentation and has been managed by successive emperors. Before the British and French allied forces invaded the Old Summer Palace, it was already filled with countless rare treasures. It is also reasonable that the palace secret books we discovered yesterday appeared in the Old Summer Palace."

Dong Wenhui had extensive knowledge of history and directly overturned the two people's speculation yesterday, pushing the burial time of the treasure forward by a full forty years.

"Compared with the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China in 1900 and the Second Opium War between Britain and France in 1860, although the latter did not plunder as many cultural relics as the former, the cultural relics they looted were all the best of the best."

"From bronze ritual vessels from the pre-Qin period to calligraphy and paintings by famous people and rare treasures from the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, everything that can be collected in the Old Summer Palace is a treasure."

Speaking of this, Dong Wenhui's words were filled with emotion.

"No wonder none of the treasures we have obtained since yesterday are ordinary items. I was a little puzzled at first. Even if these things were from the imperial court of the Qing Dynasty, their quality would not be so high. After all, by 1900, the Qing Dynasty had been weak for a long time, and its national strength had been greatly reduced. It no longer had the capital to continue squandering."

Tang Yuan nodded slightly and responded in agreement.

"Mr. Tang, if all of this treasure comes from the Old Summer Palace, then I have a feeling we will probably find something incredible next time."

Dong Wenhui's eyes flickered, and he suddenly looked forward to the next excavation. Tang Yuan didn't say much, put the snake head back into the wooden box, and then told everyone not to watch and continue working as usual...

(End of this chapter)