Pick up treasure

After resting for more than an hour, several people boarded the helicopter again. They only drank some water and didn't dare to eat, otherwise they would spit out what they ate during the bumps.

The flight lasted nearly two hours. From the helicopter, people could be vaguely seen on the ground. When it was close to five o’clock, the helicopter also landed in a military camp in Myitkyina, in Myanmar, outside the city. Basically, there are troops stationed there.

"Both professors, brother Wang and brother Qian, I will welcome you tomorrow, and take a good rest today."

"Ok."

After getting off the helicopter, Wu Gang looked at the pale faces of these people and knew that they would not be able to eat at night, so he took them to the most luxurious hotel in Myitkyina with the car he was waiting in the military camp.

Wang Ding looked from the car, the city of Myitkyina is far behind Yangon and Mandalay, at least in those two cities, there are still some modern buildings, but here, the sight of All I saw were low wooden houses, and reinforced concrete buildings were rare.

And the so-called luxury hotel is just a five-story building, except for a 21-inch bulky color TV and an old yellowed air conditioner, there is no electrical appliance, and there is no water heater for boiling water. And the waiter has to bring it over.Wang Ding and the others were really tired. After entering the room to take a shower, they all went to bed and fell asleep.

Although Wu Gang also has a house in Myitkyina, the foundation of the Wu family in Myanmar is in Pagan. Today he also lived in the hotel with Wang Ding and others.In the morning of the next day, two imported off-road vehicles stopped at the door of the hotel.

This is Wu Gang's personal car. If he took a car provided by the military, it would probably be an old Yanjing Jeep 212 made in China. At a certain time, China once supported a batch of jeeps like this one in Myanmar.

The tires of these two off-road vehicles are very large, setting off the car's deer and discs very high, it seems that they have been modified with guide doors.

When he came here by helicopter yesterday, Wang Ding had seen the roads around here, which were basically mountain roads. If it was Wu Gang's previous RV, he would definitely lie down if he couldn't walk two miles away.

Wang Ding, Qian Le and Wu Gang sat in the same car, and there was also a Burmese soldier who followed from Mandalay, and the other two soldiers sat in the same car with two professors, Ma Liang.

Although along the way, the three Burmese soldiers did not speak much and kept calm all the time, but Wang Ding still felt that they were paying attention to every move of him and others, that is, monitoring his behavior, and Their waists were undisguisedly hung in pistol holsters, Wang Ding did not suspect that there were no real guys there.

This made Wang Ding a little uncomfortable, because the purpose of his visit this time was not to inspect the emerald mine, but to find treasures in the forest. If he followed these soldiers, would he find a treasure and give it to the Burmese government?

Wang Ding is not so noble. If the island country robbed the things, my buddies took them back to China to build the Hope Primary School, which is better than the Burmese warlords who are cheaper. .

After getting into the car, the car Wang Ding was sitting in drove ahead and slowly drove out of the city. Even though Myitkyina is relatively poor, it has a large population. The narrow streets are full of naked children running around , so the car couldn't speed up at all, and it took nearly half an hour to drive for just a few kilometers.

Thinking about the family planning that China started in the late 70s, it is still very necessary. Otherwise, after decades, I am afraid that the population will not be [-] billion by now, and it is very possible to double it again. Thinking about that situation, Wang Ding shuddered in fear.

At first, he thought that the speed of the car would be faster when he was outside the city, but Wang Ding couldn't help but smiled wryly when he saw the road paved with small stones. This kind of road is not fast at all, otherwise the tires probably won't be able to support Pagan.

Myitkyina is actually the capital of Kachin State, and the road conditions are so bad, presumably those warlords only care about divination and occupying territory, and no one cares about these things.

As far as Kachin State is concerned, it is actually the Jingpo ethnic group in our country, but the Jingpo people are much happier than them. At least they will not roll in the mud when they go out on rainy days.

After walking through a section of gravel road, Wang Ding realized that he still thought about the journey to Hpakant oversimplified. The road in front of him was completely dirt road, one high and one low. The ups and downs of dancing, if it weren't for the steep mountains here, Wang Ding would rather take the helicopter again.

The turbulence was tolerable, but thinking of those plastic bombs and grenades in the purse, Wang Ding was a little restless, and now Wang Ding felt as if he was sitting on a bag of explosives.

Wang Ding is not a military fan. He didn't know that plastic bombs would not explode even if they were set on fire without special detonation.

Seeing the low wooden houses on both sides of the road, with children running everywhere, I couldn't help but think of a saying I often see in rural areas in China: "If you want to be rich, have fewer children and build more roads."

This sentence is very suitable for Myanmar. Myanmar has no gold, silver, copper and many gemstone mines. The people's living standard is almost as poor as that of war-torn African countries. The root cause of this is the political axe.

The Wu Gang family has been rooted in Myanmar for hundreds of years. It can be said that they are the best witnesses and bystanders who have witnessed the ups and downs of the past century in Myanmar.

At the beginning of the last century, Myanmar has always been a British colony. Later, the British Empire lost its prestige and was driven out of Myanmar by the island country. Then, with the help of China, after Myanmar rebuilt its regime, it also broke away from British rule. .

It’s just that Myanmar has a large number of ethnic groups. Apart from the political ax army, every place basically has its own local army. In addition to the KMT’s defeated soldiers in the Golden Triangle, Myanmar has always been ruled by warlords, with constant wars and chaos. of.

In the late 80s, the value of emerald mines gradually became prominent, and the Myitkyina region became the focus of competition between the political ax army and local forces. This kind of dispute has not been completely subsided until now.

Although what Wang Ding and others see now are singing and dancing, and everyone is happy under the control of the government, but in fact, in the emerald mining area of ​​more than 150 kilometers in Myitkyina, various relationships are extremely complicated, and some outbreaks often occur. Small-scale wars, of course, these things should not be announced to the outside world.

Wu Gang and the people in Wu Gang's family belong to local forces. The mine guard team trained by their family can turn into an army at a certain period of time and compete with the political ax army. The result of the compromise of the other forces.

Under such circumstances, including Wu Gang's family, no force is willing to invest in infrastructure construction, because this site is yours today, and if you build it, it may be snatched away by others tomorrow. Who wants to do such a thankless thing.

Even if Wu Gang knew about the weapons carried by Wang Ding and Qian Le, he would not care about them. Compared with his family's arsenal, those things were inconspicuous at all. The security guards patrolling the perimeter of his house The personnel are all carrying the AK submachine guns of the former Soviet Union on their backs.

In this area, people who have no background do not dare to go deep at all, otherwise they may be tied up by someone. If you are lucky, you may be able to redeem it. If you are not lucky, then give it to someone in the jungle. Flowers and trees are used as fertilizer.

The car was really bumpy, and Wang Ding was in no mood to speak. He held the assistant above the door tightly with his hands, and looked around the car boredly, but he found some differences.

Wang Ding took a closer look. The doors of the car he was sitting in were all reinforced with copper plates, and the window glass looked a little different from that of peace, maybe it was the legendary bulletproof glass.

On the glass of the car in front of Wang Ding, there is a very conspicuous pass. According to their translation, it means "state guest". Their convoy gives way.

On the road from Myitkyina to Pagan, basically every [-] to [-] kilometers, there will be a checkpoint. Although it is just a vehicle blocking tool made of a few pieces of wood, it is very practical.

Every time he was far away from the checkpoint, Wu Gang would poke his head out and greet him in Burmese. These soldiers with real guns and live ammunition seemed to know Wu Gang, and they moved the wooden shelf without even taking a look inside the car. Let the car pass.

After bumping for more than three hours, Wang Ding and others came to Menggong, which is an important place for Myitkyina to go to Pagan, and it is also the place where the Chinese Expeditionary Force launched the Menggong Valley Battle.

After Wu Gang got out of the car to go through some formalities and rested for more than half an hour, the two cars continued to drive to Pagan.

After passing Menggong, the road became more and more difficult to walk. There was no road surface at all, and the off-road vehicle just followed the roadbed that was pressed out by the big truck that transported the rough stone, and moved forward with difficulty.

According to Wu Gang, decades ago, the jade pickers who lacked machinery were just like the jade pickers in Xinjiang. They relied on shoulder-to-shoulder resistance to transport jade out of the deep mountains. They were just their tools. The donkeys from Xinjiang were replaced by elephants from Myanmar.

On both sides of this overgrown road, there are tall trees that cannot be seen from the top of the tree. These trees are distributed on the mountain range, which looks a bit gloomy. In addition, Wu Gang said that there are various dangers hidden in it. creatures, and every evening and morning, miasma will be produced "Many people strayed into the forest, few survived.

What Wu Gang said made Wang Ding's hair stand on end. He was reflecting on his treasure hunting journey. It seemed that it was not as simple as he thought. The forest where even the light from the sky could not penetrate was like a monster's shouting, swallowing in darkness. All people and creatures that enter.

Under such an environment, if you want to hunt for treasure and find it, it is really a bit of a moth to the flame.

"There are a lot of black bears in Myanmar. You don't know about the bear bile, but it's called liquid gold. But now the number is very rare. If you are interested, ask them to accompany you to hunt with two dozen."

"hunt?"

It's not that Wang Ding is not interested, it's just that Wang Ding hasn't seen a black bear before, so if he wants to make bear bile, forget it.Hunting in Myanmar is a very normal behavior. He would go to the mountains to shoot a few shots if he had nothing to do, and buy some pheasants to improve his food.

The Pagan area is the earliest place where jadeite was mined in Myanmar. From the [-]th and [-]th centuries, there have been records of mining jadeite.

It is said that around the 13th century, a packman in Yunbian, China was on his way back from Myanmar to Chongteng. In order to balance the weight of the horse’s load on both sides, he picked up roadside stones and put them on the horse’s pack in the area of ​​Pakant Menggong, Myanmar today. .

The packer went home and took a closer look. The stone he picked up on the way seemed to be green and could be used as jade. After being polished, it turned out to be green and lovely, even better than nephrite.Later, people went to the Pagan Menggong area to mine this kind of gemstone. Since then, Myanmar has been the main producer of high-quality jadeite in the world. At least so far, no jadeite has been found in another place in the world. of.

There are about 16 people living here now, of which 6 are Burmese locals, and the other 10 are jade mining workers from major companies in Myanmar.

There are many Burmese Chinese living in Hpakant, all of whom have lived here for hundreds of years. It is implicitly headed by the Wu family. Wu Gang once set up a Chinese school a few years ago, and now there are six to seven hundred Chinese students studying in it. .

After a long journey of nearly 3 hours, the two vehicles finally entered the birthplace of Burmese emeralds: the Hpakant region.

After entering the realm of Pagan, the road has become more and more difficult to walk, because if the horse staggers well, a gap will be blown inexplicably. detour.

And the excavators that Wu Gang called "weird hands" can be seen everywhere. They don't know the pass with the word "VIP" written on the off-road vehicles, and they often get stuck on the side of the road for more than half an hour.

After more than two hours, the car drove into the city of Pagan. Wang Ding looked at his watch and tossed and tossed on the road for nearly 10 hours.

The two professors regretted coming here at this time.Their appearance was really embarrassing. Yesterday they turned pale, but today they turned sallow and sallow, and they vomited several times on the way. When they got off the bus, they were helped down by the two soldiers, but the two The soldier's complexion is not very good-looking.

It seems that soldiers can't bear it physically in this kind of place.

Wu Gang was also a little embarrassed when he saw the appearance of these two professors. After he settled them in the only hotel in Pagan, he ran back and forth and arranged for the hotel kitchen to cook porridge for them. He didn't even bother to greet Wang Ding and Qian Le.

"Oh, brother, I'm sorry to both of you, let's go, go home..."

After nearly an hour, Wu Gang waited until the two professors Ma and Liang fell asleep before he had time to greet Wang Ding. Wang Ding and the soldiers were sitting at the front desk of this guest house-like hotel.

Before Wang Ding could answer, a Burmese soldier suddenly stood up and said a few words to Wu Gang in Burmese.

When Wu Gang heard this, displeasure immediately appeared on his face. He pointed to the top, and the words he said revealed a stern tone. Those soldiers dared not look Wu Gang squarely and nodded repeatedly.

It turned out that the two soldiers wanted to monitor Wang Ding and Qian Le because they were foreigners, but Wu Gang reprimanded them that your task is to accompany and protect the two professors, don't you not know who your duties are.

If the Burmese government still has some control over Mandela, then the influence of the government will be almost zero after the Pakant is sealed off. The forces here are intricate. Even if Wu Gang sends people to kill them, the government will There is also no way.

After repeated explanations from those soldiers, Wu Gang's complexion gradually improved, and he said a few more words. Those people nodded like shrimps, and they didn't dare to say anything about accompanying them anymore.

"Let's go, brother, I see that you are quite energetic. I will welcome you tonight, and let us have a good drink."

Wu Gang greeted Wang Ding, and the three of them got out of the hotel and got into an off-road vehicle, followed by those soldiers who sent them out. When the car started, they saluted in a very standard manner. Wu Gang was startled.

Wu Gang's family lived in the north of Pagan City. After driving for more than half an hour, Wang Ding saw a building complex from a distance.

The reason why it is called a building complex is because the building Wang Ding saw had a high wall in front of it, like a city within a city. The gate was built like a watchtower, and there were people standing guard with guns on the top and underground. And in the middle of the watchtower, there seemed to be a firepower point.

The person standing guard at the gate saluted Wu Gang immediately after seeing Wu Gang. His posture and movements were more formal than those of the soldiers just now.

The area of ​​this city within a city is not small. In the middle is a main street, which is paved with cement, which is better than the asphalt road in Pagan City.

The houses in the city are neatly planned, all of them are bungalows, and some children are playing around at the door of each house. What Wang Ding hears are all in Chinese, which makes him feel as if he has come to a small town somewhere in China. .

"It used to be a small place. It was built in the 70s, and now there are nearly 2 Chinese living in it, most of whom are family members of employees in our company..."

Wu Gang introduced his home to Wang Ding with a proud expression on his face.

This city-in-the-city was built from Wu Gang's grandfather until his three generations. Now, the Chinese city has become the largest force in Pagan. Among other things, those miners can be armed immediately after taking weapons. An army of thousands of people was raised.

It took nearly 5 minutes to drive from the gate to Wu Gang's residence. At the gate of a big house, there were already five or six people waiting there.

This welcoming dinner opened Wang Ding's horizons, and the dishes on the table were full of delicacies from mountains and seas.

There was a dish that Wang Ding couldn't name, but upon asking, it turned out to be an elephant trunk, braised pangolin meat in braised sauce, and some dishes made from animals he had never even heard of, let alone the taste. It's absolutely amazing. (To be continued.)