Chapter 358 - 358: One Hundred Boxes of Gold! Tributes from Japan! A Pile of Tricolor Tang Pottery! (2)
“I would guess that this is pepper from the Tang Dynasty!” Luo Feng said.
“The Tang Dynasty? What evidence do you have for that?” Gu Santong questioned. After all, without evidence, any guess would be mere speculation. But with evidence, the guess could become a credible one.
“This item was a burial good from the tomb of Yuan Zai, which was moved here by the tomb’s owner!” Luo Feng explained. ‘When Yuan Zai’s home was ransacked, historical records mention that numerous foreign treasures were discovered in his possession, countless in number. The most surprising thing was that 800 stones of pepper, equivalent to a whopping 65 tons, were seized from Yuan Zai’s house!”
“Wow! That much?” someone exclaimed.
“Why would anyone hoard so much pepper? Were they planning to start a restaurant?”
“Back then, pepper was an imported good from Southeast Asia. They probably stockpiled it to make a profit!” another person suggested.
Luo Feng did not comment any further and opened another case. It was also full of pepper. Several consecutive cases were the same.
On the fifth one… He discovered what seemed to be Ming Dynasty blue and white porcelain?
“Blue and white porcelain?” Gu Santong’s eyes lit up as he walked over for a closer look. “It’s a jar! It should be an official kiln porcelain piece!”
After picking up the jar, Luo Feng noticed there was something inside it. He shone a flashlight in and saw a solid substance.
“Heh, it’s ambergris. This jar was used to store ambergris!”
Following that, Luo Feng proceeded to open the rest of the cases one by one. There was a wide variety of items, countless in number, including jade and pottery. Most were foreign goods, and some were meant to be transported and sold abroad.
“This is… This is Tricolor Tang Pottery!” Luo Feng’s eyes sparkled upon seeing the items.
These were valuable artifacts. Moreover, there were four large cabinets filled with Tang tri-color pottery, featuring horses, camels, lions, human figurines, and bodhisattvas, among others. The collection was vast. “Goodness, are these all Tang tri-color pottery pieces?”
“Looking at this, could this be a Tang Dynasty tomb?”
“As I said before, if items from later periods are present, it can only be a tomb from a later period! It’s not possible for them to have traveled to the future to fetch them, right?”
“Heh, by your logic, if we find an iPhone 14 later on, does that mean the tomb was just recently excavated?”
“His point is, couldn’t the presence of items from later periods imply that tomb raiders have put them there?”
“Are tomb robbers idiots? Why would they put so many Ming Dynasty silver pieces and gold in there?”
“Maybe descendants frequently entered the ancient tomb to worship?”
“Enough, if you want to split hairs, there’s no end to it!”
Everyone was incredibly excited to see the Tang tricolor pottery. Luo Feng was also thrilled, as were museum staff from various organizations. However, Luo Feng intended to keep these items for his own museum to attract more visitors.
“Let’s keep going!” he said. Since they had already discovered the items, they could just leave them there and continue exploring.
With a click, the door opened. Inside the room stood a huge piece of wood that was extremely eye-catching. Besides the wood, there were several folding screens with exquisite carvings, a writing desk, a gold sprinkled hand -case, a gold-decorated powder box, and a gold-ornamented pen case.
“What the hell is this place? Why is there a piece of wood here?” someone asked.
“There are so many gold items; I feel like I’ve entered a golden house!”
Luo Feng approached the wood and said, “This should be agarwood!”
Looking around the room, he continued, “These items seem to be tributes!”
Gu Santong pointed at the gold-sprinkled writing desk and said, “I’ve seen some of these items in imperial tombs. They are indeed tributes. This particular piece should have been a tribute from the Sakura Country!”
“I think this whole area is filled with tributes from the Sakura Country, and those on the other side are from Korea. Of course, back then, Korea was a
unified region, not divided into North and South,” Luo Feng added.
“Goodness, are all these items tributes?”
“Haha, our great country is truly amazing, isn’t it? Other nations had to send tributes to us!”
“In ancient times, it truly was a golden age!”
“How impressive was the tomb’s owner to get their hands on so many tributes?”
While these tributes might not be highly valuable, their historical significance was crucial.
Luo Feng opened the door to the next room and saw more familiar cases. He had almost lost interest in opening them. Couldn’t there be something different? An authentic Nine Zhou Ding, perhaps?
“Are these… books?” Gu Santong opened one of the cases.
There were dozens of books in that case. But when he saw the title on the cover…
Gu Santong’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. He stuttered, “Luo Feng… This is… This is a Yongle Encyclopedia!”
On the cover of the stack of ancient books were the words ‘Yongle
Encyclopedia.’ “What the hell?”
“The Yongle Encyclopedia?”
“Since this item has appeared, this tomb must be from the Ming or Qing Dynasty!”
“Why? Can’t it be a Tang Dynasty tomb, and someone actually traveled through time to the Ming Dynasty and brought it back?”
“Give me a break!”
“Remember the last auction of the Yongle Encyclopedia? My God! The livestreamer is getting rich again!”
Everyone seemed to have gone mad. The genuine Yongle Encyclopedia had once stirred up the entire country. The information recorded in those books was extremely important.
“Yes, indeed, it’s the Yongle Encyclopedia!”