From the strange “stones” found inside the log, experts have unearthed a treasure with tens of thousands of treasures, worth more than 11,000 billion VND.
On April 20, 2005, a water pipeline project of Jiangkou town, Pengshan district, Sichuan, China, was carried out at Lao Hu wharf in the Min River . At this time, workers are using excavators to dredging the riverbed. Accidentally, the worker operating the excavator hit something. When he ran to the place, he discovered it was a log about 1m long that was soaked in water, sand and mud at a depth of 2.5m.
After turning it over with a shovel, the worker noticed a hole underneath the log. A few oddly shaped rocks fell out. They also glow in the sunlight. So the worker immediately took them to a place where there was clean water. Unexpectedly, these stones are actually silver coins. One of them can still be seen the inscription above: “The 10th year of Sung Trinh, the direction of the five and twenty two, silversmith Khuong Quoc Khanh” . There are 10 silver coins in total.
Some of the silver coins were found inside the log. (Photo: Sohu).
Immediately, he informed the manager and this person contacted the cultural relics management agency of Pengshan district. Through preliminary assessment, experts believe that this is a mandarin bank of the Ming Dynasty . Information about the irrigation construction team salvaging silver spread throughout the town. Many people defied the danger of diving to the bottom of the river to find treasure. The Sichuan provincial government had to send police to guard 24 hours at the area where the artifact was found.
According to Mr. Ngo Thien Van, Director of Banh Son Cultural Relics Management Department, the log found was Thanh Cuong Thang . In many historical records, Thanh Cuong is a tool to hide treasures of Truong Hien Trung – the leader of the peasant uprising movement at the end of the Ming Dynasty. This tool is a hollowed-out log, both ends are sealed with iron, in the middle is used to insert silver ingots. Thus, these dynasties and silver coins are all precious cultural relics of the late Ming and early Qing dynasties.
This piece of wood is the bridle bar – a hidden treasure of Truong Hien Trung. (Photo: Sohu).
In fact, in the 1980s, when the Wuhan Institute of Geological Exploration conducted a survey of Jiangkou town and the Min River area, they discovered that there were many metals scattered on the bottom of the river. However, partly because of financial and technical limitations, the experts were unable to carry out the excavation. Until the gamblers were accidentally found, archaeologists had clues to find Truong Hien Trung’s treasure.
Truong Hien Trung was the leader of the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty. He once proclaimed himself the Great Western King after capturing Wuchang. According to the book “Shuqiu Giam” , in 1644, Zhang Xianzhong led his army into Sichuan to kill all the rich merchants here and take their property. The amount of money he stole from them amounted to tens of thousands of taels of gold. Truong Hien Trung also held a Bao Bao Festival in Chengdu to show off his wealth. According to many historical records, he had 24 rooms filled with gold bars and silver bars. Experts estimate that Truong Hien Trung’s assets are up to 3 billion yuan. In 1646, Truong Hien Trung was killed by the Qing army on Phoenix Mountain. Since then, news of his huge treasure disappeared.
Two stones in the shape of a dragon and a tiger are mentioned in the rhyme about the treasure of Truong Hien Trung. (Photo: Sohu)
“Mei History” once recorded that before leaving Chengdu, Truong Hien Trung hired a team of workers to do many strange things. He asked them to build an embankment on the Man River, drain the water and dig many holes up to 3 feet deep, then put all their treasures in it and then cover it with soil and release water to cover the eyes of the people. But there is also a record that Truong Hien Trung was intercepted by the Qing army by land, so he had to go by water when escaping from Chengdu. However, they were at the mouth of the river when they were ambushed by the Qing army, so the ships carrying gold and silver were submerged under water.
Folk legend also spread a rhyme about Truong Hien Trung’s treasure. The content of the folk song is: “ Dragon stone against tiger stone, the amount of money is ten thousand five. Want to know that, buy all the Chengdu government” . These sentences mean that someone who wants to find this treasure needs to find the river with the dragon-shaped stone block against the tiger-shaped stone block.
Based on the rhyme, the archaeological team of the Sichuan Cultural Relics Bureau divided into two groups, one was to survey the topography of the Min River, the other to investigate the river’s vicinity. Suddenly, the second group found a stone tiger and a stone dragon in the area near the river. After assembling the details, they believe that the Man River area really has the treasure of Truong Hien Trung.
Throughout the years, archaeologists from the Sichuan Cultural Relics Bureau have organized many excavations. In 2011, they found tens of thousands of artifacts, in which a gold book and many gold and silver plates were rated as the most valuable. By 2017, more than 20,000 artifacts were found, they were mainly utensils and weapons. However, the archaeological team said that the remaining relics are even piling up on the river bottom. In January 2020, the archaeological team announced another 10,000 artifacts. This time, an extremely rare pure gold seal was found.
Other cultural relics were found during excavations by the archaeological team. (Photo: Sohu)
This seal weighs up to 8kg and is made of 95% pure gold. The seal is meticulously engraved with the size of 10 x 10cm, the handle is pure gold, has the shape of a turtle with the words “Treasure of the King of Thuc” , unfortunately it has been split into 4 pieces. To date, more than 52,000 artifacts have been unearthed. According to estimates by archaeologists, the value of the collected cultural relics has now reached 500 million USD (equivalent to more than 11,000 billion VND).