Chapter 124 - 124 Yongle Era Dragon Patterned Porcelain! (2)
“Man, how inhumane can one person be? The workers worked so hard to build the tomb for you, and you repay them by trapping them inside your tomb? That’s too much!”
“Haha, why are you debating human nature with the ancient people? If you had money, you’d probably do the same!”
“Their thinking is different. There’s nothing much to say!”
Luo Feng continued to walk forward, until…
There was no longer any path to proceed onwards.
What the hell?
“This is it? We’ve reached the end?”
“Where’s the grave of the big shot?”
Soon, Luo Feng located a stone gate. After knocking on it and getting a hollow sound in response, Luo Feng was able to confirm that there was another path beyond the gate.
“A tomb passage without any murals, yet they went through the trouble of installing a stone gate. They really are particular about appearances,” Luo Feng said speechlessly.
It was like building a large villa in the countryside and insisting on digging a swimming pool. It was really absurd.
“I have a feeling that the main burial chamber might be inside the stone gate. This kind of gate is probably meant to deter tomb raiders,” Luo Feng said.
“It’s a simple and crude method, just use tons of weight to prevent theft!”
“After all, a stone gate like this weighs several tons at least. In ancient times, without advanced technology, it would be impossible to push it open!”
As he spoke, Luo Feng looked at the stone gate and realized that it was much more difficult to handle than he had imagined. After all, in the past, they would simply dig their way in, but now, he had to take caution as to not damage anything.
“So, what should we do? You can’t push open a stone gate that weighs several tons, can you, host?”
“Exactly!”
“If it were up to me, I’ll just break it open! I stayed up late until now just to get to the exciting moment, and then I get c*ckblocked by something like this?”
“Just use your head to bang it open!”
“Hahaha!”
Seeing this, Luo Feng could only shake his head speechlessly and ignore them. He should first dig out the treasures contained within the corridor before thinking about anything else.
After all… there were also a few dots scattered throughout the corridor.
Luo Feng immediately started digging towards one of the dots without putting up his usual acts.
Though it would seem suspicious to be able to randomly locate treasures outdoors, the same did not apply when one was in a ruin as such locations are usually filled with antiques.
After digging for more than 20 minutes, the true face of the dot slowly appeared beneath the soil.
It turned out to be a large blue-and-white porcelain piece.
As soon as it came out, although it was covered with a layer of dust, it was incredibly gorgeous after the dust was blown away.
“Wow! A big dish! Is it really a blue-and-white porcelain dish? The host is rich this time!”
“It should be worth 1 million, right?”
“Brother, be bold and add another zero!”
“Wow! 10 million?”
“Be bolder and add another zero!”
“What the hell, what are you guys talking about? How can it possibly be worth another zero?”
At this moment, Luo Feng blew the mud off the surface of the blue-and-white porcelain and said, “Based on its appearance, I’m guessing that the main material used in the crafting of this blue-and-white porcelain, should be smalt. In terms of its style, it probably belongs to the Yongle era or the Xuande era!”
“You can tell just by looking at it?”
Despite inspecting the dish at the same time as Luo Feng, she was unable to come to a conclusion, and yet, it seemed that it had only taken an instant for Luo Feng to discern what the object was.
It was amazing, to say the least.
“It’s really from the Yongle period! There’s a reign mark on the base!”
Although Qin Rubing could likely figure out the time period of the piece with further analysis, the fact that it had its year of creation indicated at its base had made things much easier.
Plus, there was little to no risk of counterfeit relics within tombs.
“Wow! It’s really from the Yongle era? The host has a great eye for detail!”
“This is nothing, kid, don’t make a big deal out of it!”
“You’re new here, right? You haven’t seen much of the host’s abilities yet!”
Everyone could now see it clearly.
This blue and white porcelain plate is about 3.1cm high, with a diameter of 19.4cm and a foot diameter of 11.7cm.
The plate had a flared mouth, curved walls, and a circular base. The intersection between the inner wall and the inner bottom was marked with a hidden chord pattern. The inner bottom is marked with three hidden cloud patterns arranged in a triangular-like shape. Its inner walls were embossed cloud dragon pattern; and its outer walls were decorated with blue and white painted dragon chasing pearl patterns. The base of the plate was applied with white glaze.
The plate had a thin and light body, with beautiful shapes, bright blue and white colors, and finely detailed and vivid dragon patterns. The printed and patterned flowers on the plate follow the practices of porcelain-making from the Yuan dynasty to the Ming dynasty during the Hongwu period, reflecting the continuity of Jingdezhen kiln porcelain from the Yuan period to the Yongle period of the Ming dynasty.
“What’s the situation with the owner of this tomb? It clearly isn’t an emperor’s tomb, and yet, he’s bold enough to put such a powerful dragon on a plate meant for food?”
“Perhaps the owner of this tomb is a relative of the royal family? Or perhaps he stole it from the palace?”
As for these two opinions, Luofeng preferred to believe that it was stolen.
“I didn’t even notice it before. There’s a dragon inside this plate, and it’s a five-clawed golden dragon!”
“There were many rules in ancient times. You couldn’t just put a five-clawed golden dragon on anything, right?”
“It must be a tomb for nobles and aristocrats!”
“You’re thinking too much. The tomb passage is so poor. It’s impossible, absolutely impossible!”
“It’s a pity that the big stone gate is blocking it now, and we can’t get into the main tomb!”
Luo Feng did not continue inspecting the blue and white porcelain plate.
He would leave inspections for after he had gotten out of the tomb.
Plus, it was safer to leave it in the tomb than to store it outside.
As long as the tomb raiders’ entrance to the tomb was guarded, Luo Feng doubted that anyone would be able to steal the treasures contained within. As such, he found that it was more convenient to collect it on his way out.
There were only two spots of note at the particular corridor he was in. One of them was the corpse, and the other was the blue-and-white porcelain plate that was shallowly buried.
Luo Feng even suspected that the deceased tomb worker buried it.
It could be considered a decent burial item before his death.
Soon, Luo Feng walked towards a separate “hall” at the end of the tomb corridor. There was a pile of soil there.