The Western Han River Basin in Lixian County, Gansu Province is called "Tian Jia Di Fu" and has a heavy historical accumulation. A large number of cultural relics in the 107 cultural relics site and collection, which were filed by the census, fully demonstrated its glorious past. As a result, some lawless people turned their greedy eyes to this ancient and mysterious land, and set off a frenzy of excavating ancient tombs that spread to 56 villages in the county 18 towns, and wrote a shocking elegy of ancient tombs with blood and tears.
Died in yangjiangping
On the afternoon of March 18 this year, in front of the tomb on Yangjiang Ping in Shiling Village, Yanhe Township, there was a heartbreaking cry for help: "Help, help!"
Villagers in Siling and Bapo heard the news and saw an ancient tomb as big as five bungalows collapse. At the entrance of the gloomy tomb, a young woman was dying, and most of her body was buried in the thick loess layer. Several grave robbers around were covered in blood and mud, some screamed in panic, and some gave a desperate cry, which made people unbearable.
According to the insider's emergency report: "There are still five people trapped in the ancient tomb. Now life and death are uncertain and must be rescued quickly. "
More than 30 strong laborers in the village dragged five bodies out of the dangerous ancient tombs. The deceased were all farmers in Shiling village. The oldest is 43 years old and the youngest is only 20 years old.
The tomb is full of blood and tears, full of blood and tears.
Yang Jiangping, who experienced vicissitudes in the past and now has beautiful scenery, suddenly became a gloomy, horrible and dead place. Children are afraid to go out, and adults pass by their date.
According to legend, this is a General Cemetery in the early Han Dynasty and the late Qin Dynasty, which contains many precious sacrifices. Therefore, it has long been the goal and destiny of grave robbers in ancient and modern times.
On the eve of the Spring Festival, a group of greedy people took advantage of the dark and windy moon to touch Yang Jiangping to rob the ancient tomb. Unexpectedly, as soon as two thieves entered the tomb, the top of the tomb collapsed in a large area. Seeing a genial smile, several grave robbers standing at the mouth of the cave came to anoint oil with their feet-and ran away.
Due to the temptation of money, another group of grave robbers, driven by evil desires, robbed dozens of treasures in the tomb regardless of their lives and quietly left. The five farmers who were crushed to death this time just dug some charcoal in the graves robbed by others, but they didn't expect disaster to befall them. Thus, the scene at the beginning of this article appeared.
Although this scene was only a moment, it easily ended the lives of five people, and the family that was originally full of warm atmosphere was suddenly filled with sad cries.
Where did the craze begin?
With the rapid development of commodity economy, the status of money in some people's minds has suddenly improved, and they are looking for opportunities to make a fortune everywhere. 1987 In the autumn, the jingle "If you want to get rich, dig an ancient tomb and have millions of households overnight" began to spread among young farmers in Mahe Village, Yacheng Town. Is this statement half true and half false, or is it a pure lie? It's hard to be sure now. The news spread like wildfire and soon reached the ears of several respected elders in the village. The old people stood on the earthen platform at the entrance of the village with crutches and shouted, "I don't think any unscrupulous son dares to make a bad idea on the grave of our ancestors." Aren't you afraid to cut off the geomantic omen that hurts the whole Zhuang people in Long Mai? "
However, once the greedy desire of the younger generation is ignited, it cannot be stopped. They found more than 30 reliable associates and formed a "commando team" that didn't sleep during the day and went out at night. They came to Shuangyan Mountain, full of mountains and deep springs, and began to dig a brick tomb. After several nights of continuous work, they finally unearthed a gold-plated octagonal bottle weighing about 7 kilograms, as well as a dozen bronzes and gold-plated copper ornaments. Some of them sold to local cultural relics dealers for 24,000 yuan, and some sold to cultural relics smugglers in Shanxi for 78,000 yuan, becoming famous nouveau riche.
After making a windfall, these people were ecstatic and extravagant, which made their neighbors sit up and take notice and greatly stimulated the growth of bad activities such as stealing ancient tombs. However, these guys are not satisfied with this small fight. Instead, they look forward to the future, their arrogance is getting stronger and stronger, and they begin to brew greater actions. Faced with this reality, some people never believe in it, some people turn from opposition to acquiescence, and more people turn from talking to direct participation. Even a few people in a family started the business of stealing ancient tombs. They packed their bedrolls, brought dry food, ate and lived in the wilderness, and became professional households who robbed ancient tombs. As night fell, men, women and children went out, lanterns and torches were everywhere, carts shuttled back and forth, people dragging buckets lined up to carry earth, went all out to dig ancient tombs and desperately search for treasures, making the ghosts buried underground fidgety.
Words are a gust of wind. Some farmers in Hejiazhuang and Goumen villages tried their best to invigorate the economy and get rid of poverty as soon as possible, but they were struggling to get rich. They heard that Mahe Village was booming and were afraid of missing the opportunity to get rich. They followed Mahe Village people like possessed and began to dig the ancient tombs that had been sleeping for thousands of years under Jiuquan. Followed by Suhe, Yali, Rancheng, Liu Wang, Zhaoping, Pingquan and He Na villages in Yongping Township, and affected Xinzhongchuan, Zhaoping and Longhuai villages in Yongxing Township in the upper reaches of the Western Han River to varying degrees. Then it spread to Shiling Village and Dongtai Village in Yanhe Township, Gu Quan Village and Gaosi Village in Shiqiao Township, and gradually spread to more than 60 kilometers from the ancient battlefield around Qishan to Tielongshan and Lower Fiona Fang.
Located in Zhaojiaping site near Guxian County, Long Island, the human landscape is intoxicating. The Western Zhou bronzes unearthed here have red spots and green rust; The jades in Han dynasty are exquisite; The tri-color plates in the Tang Dynasty have balanced colors and vivid bird patterns. Blue vases of Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties are elegant and simple, with different shapes. In particular, the bronze weapons such as Ge during the Warring States period were collected by the Palace Museum in Beijing. Humanoid gray pottery pots participated in the "Dunhuang Xixia National Exhibition" held by the state, and were exhibited in Japan, Hong Kong and Macao, which attracted great attention from the archaeological community. The Gaositou site in Shiqiao Township is located on the river bank of the river valley. It has a long history, dating back to the Paleolithic and Neolithic Age. After 5000 years of vicissitudes, it is endless and has rich cultural connotations. There are cultural relics from Yangshao, Qijia, Xiwa, Zhou Dynasty, Qin and Han Dynasties, which belong to provincial cultural relics protection units. However, Yang Jiangping's bad luck can't escape here. The ancient ruins have been dug up and the inherent features no longer exist.
How much damage?
Due to the lack of control, the increasingly rampant grave robbery activities have intensified, and they have begun to develop into open, collectivized and professional villages, and the scale of crimes has been expanding. Various types of high-end cars and luxury motorcycles are coming to quiet mountain villages, disrupting the social order in rural areas and seriously affecting production.
Man-made destruction is shocking, and natural revenge is equally cruel. According to statistics, since 1987, 22 lives in this county have been "compensated" into ancient tombs.
The most serious activity of excavating ancient tombs is Yongxing Township. The southwest mountain stretches for 7 miles, and it is said to be the royal cemetery of Miao Zhuang king in the western region. This means that there are rare treasures and unpredictable mysteries buried underground. Farmers living in this area want to get the moon first by getting close to the water. They started excavating ancient tombs in the second half of 199 1, and the number of participants increased day by day. Last summer, a large-scale collective action was gradually formed, with as many as 300 people dispatched at a time, accounting for about 60% of the village's strong labor force. Some lawless elements also brought their own mobile phones, walkie-talkies, guns, daggers and sticks, threatening rural cadres who came to persuade them, and their arrogance was very arrogant.
Several pedestrians along the Long Island River pointed to the dark grave robbers on the opposite mountain and complained to reporters that all brick tombs and charcoal tombs in shallow mountainous areas were not spared. The wheat seedlings at jointing stage were trampled badly, and the primary school was devastated and could not be planted. Some illegally dig under the walls of farmers, threatening the safety of living and causing many disputes. Some people dig new graves where the bones are not cold, leading to fights, fighting for survival and family breakdown.
Cultural relics are the glorious and long-standing historical witness of our country, the first-hand information of historical research, the important reference and source of scientific invention and literary creation, and the common wealth of the people of the motherland. Its special value is that it can't be created again, and once it is lost, it can't be recovered. The greedy grave robbers only care about vested interests, and the destructive behavior has developed to the point of committing all kinds of crimes.
In March last year, dozens of people from Yongxing Township teamed up to dig out 13 "painted pottery pot with tadpole pattern" near the site of Guxian County, Changdao, Western Han Dynasty. In the transaction with the dealer of cultural relics, all the cultural relics were smashed because the price was too low to divide the stolen goods. Six farmers in Yali Village, Yongping Township dug up 300 pottery sheep in an ancient tomb in the village. They have both form and spirit and different postures, which provide valuable information for studying the development of animal husbandry in Qin and Han dynasties and have high historical research value. However, it is a pity that the grave robbers broke more than 200 pottery sheep into pieces when they saw that they had not dug up the treasure. Cultural relics workers identified from the inscription of garlic pot fragments left by farmers in Cuicheng Village, Yongping Township that almost all the murals and a large number of pottery of a vassal's tomb more than 3,200 years ago were destroyed, and pottery pieces and brick carvings of various patterns were scattered all over the floor, which was shocking.
The pursuit of money makes some people lose their senses and drown their conscience. There is a young farmer in Yongping Hetao. He teamed up with several buddies in the village to dig the ancient tomb, but he didn't expect to dig grandma's ancestral grave. Therefore, the villagers look askance, passers-by talk, relatives scold, and friends despise. A young farmer accidentally dug up his ancestors in Beishan, Yongxing Township. Seeing that there was no treasure in the tomb, he smashed the skull of a remains with a hoe in a rage. He also cursed: "Shit, this poor guy is as poor as me." This incident angered the family who believed that "rabbits don't eat grass near their nests", and their uncles and sisters joined forces to beat the unscrupulous thief black and blue, almost killing him.
There are three idle people in a township who call themselves "Mr. Feng Shui". It is said that we can explore the exact location of the ancient tomb and identify the value of cultural relics. The authenticity of cultural relics, which dynasty was produced, can be estimated simply by wiping off the dust and playing with it in your hands. On one occasion, three "gentlemen" were invited by several people eager to get rich to explore several hills in Shiqiao Township. They poked at each other with steel bars. Suddenly they heard a clear sound and thought they had found something valuable, so they dug happily. After a few minutes, their excitement turned into fear, and what suddenly appeared on the ground was not jewelry, but a gray skeleton. ...
The unhealthy trend of excavating ancient tombs spread like an epidemic, and rural cadres intervened with anxiety and indignation. People from far and near have also talked about it: "The wind of grave robbery is endless, and the consequences are unimaginable."
The legal system shows its strength.
Not long ago, Yang Huaixiao, vice governor, gave instructions after receiving a tip-off letter from the people of Lixian County: "In view of the rampant criminal activities of stealing ancient tombs in Lixian County, public security organs and cultural relics protection units should work closely together to resolutely destroy grave robbery gangs that are seriously damaged and extremely harmful, and crack down severely according to law."
In order to effectively punish the criminal activities of robbing ancient tombs, deter criminals, educate farmers and formulate practical preventive measures, Longnan prefectural party committee conducted a special study on the protection of ancient tombs and ancient sites, and made the minutes of the meeting. Taking this as an opportunity, the county party committee and government of Lixian county have formulated a series of local laws and regulations while conscientiously implementing the Law on the Protection of Cultural Relics. Security organizations at all levels held continuous meetings, and everyone from the elderly to students, from women to children mobilized, forming a good social atmosphere of "protecting cultural relics is everyone's responsibility".
Under the strong political offensive and the pressure of public opinion, the unhealthy trend of excavating ancient tombs has been curbed. The cunning criminals have been hiding in their nests and dare not move. Dozens of policemen in Dai Yue have been waiting for them in ambush for more than ten days, but there is no sign of them. However, criminals who are greedy for money will never abandon the dark and turn to the light. They will take risks.
In the dim light, at the entrance of a village outside the south gate, the red brick roof is neat and orderly, and there are many TV antennas on the roof. Under the big pagoda tree, a group of girls with red scarves floating around their necks are jumping monkey rubber bands, and from time to time they give out silvery laughter. In contrast to this peaceful atmosphere, there are several "ghosts" shaking in the ancient tomb on the north slope of the village.
According to the arrangement, the 13 police and the disguised cultural relics protection personnel who were "tied" in the village grasped the conclusive evidence of criminals in advance and laid a secret encirclement outside the ancient tomb:
"Who got into the grave? Come out!"
A few loud drinks, powerful and dignified, shocked the grave robbers' dream of making money by "digging ten thousand households in one night" They climbed out of the grave in a panic and were about to turn back to resist when a pair of shiny handcuffs were locked on their wrists. At the same time, the police car carrying out the arrest mission also arrived at the village entrance, and the harsh siren pierced the quiet night sky. In a dilapidated courtyard in the west of the village, grave robbers and cultural relics dealers who are ready to drink for a large number of "business" transactions invariably stop the bottles close to their mouths in mid-air. They heard the siren that frightened them, and they were caught before they escaped.
Over the past few days, the public security organs have concentrated their efforts on quickly detecting and investigating 57 dens selling cultural relics and foreign pawn shops according to law. 568 cultural relics from the Neolithic Age to the Ming and Qing Dynasties were recovered from 96 grave robbers and 187 coerced criminals who voluntarily surrendered themselves, and more than 220,000 yuan of illegal income was seized, including 2 luxury cars and Beijing Jeep 1 car. Seven cultural relics thieves and cultural relics smugglers were severely sentenced, which formed a momentum in society and stopped the once rampant theft of ancient tombs.
Recently, the reporter found in the investigation that in those villages where grave robbery activities were serious in the past, people have lived and worked in peace and contentment, and are busy with production, showing a new atmosphere of peace.