Chapter 189 - 189 Astonishment! A Mountain of Treasures! (3)

189 Astonishment! A Mountain of Treasures! (3)

Otherwise, who would leave such a precious sword behind in a tomb meant to exterminate an entire family line?

As for the dismemberment, there were historical records of it.

The desecration of Li’s ancestral tomb was well documented within official records.

Moreover, there was the unearthed copper plaque of Li’s “Heavenly Jade Emperor Decree.”

It could be confidently deduced that the skull within the tomb was someone Li Zicheng detested deeply.

And the only one who fit the bill was none other than Wang Qiaonian.

It could have been someone else Li Zicheng despised, but Wang Qiaonian was a far more credible candidate than all of his peers.

The defeated general inscribed at the bottom of the box suited Wang Qiaonian, who had been captured alive, aptly.

Back then, Wang Qiaonian was Li Zicheng’s sworn enemy. To boost his army’s morale and strike at the enemy, Wang Qiaonian took a dangerous gamble and ordered his men to dig up Li Zicheng’s ancestral tomb.

Upon hearing the news while away at war, Li Zicheng was infuriated, vowing not to rest until he had captured Wang alive and removed his kneecaps.

Of course, when Li’s rebel army finally breached the city, Wang Qiaonian saw that the situation was hopeless and tried to commit suicide because he knew that Li Zicheng had ordered his capture alive.

However, Wang Qiaonian failed even in his suicide attempt and was captured alive.

When Wang Qiaonian fell into Li Zicheng’s hands, Li was reminded of the desecration of his ancestral tomb, which made him furious. He ordered Wang to kneel, but Wang stubbornly refused to submit. Li Zicheng showed no mercy, removing Wang’s kneecaps, but Wang continued to curse at him.

Li Zicheng, wanting to torture him further, ordered his tongue to be cut off. When Wang could no longer curse, he pointed at Li Zicheng with his fingers. As one could imagine, his fingers were also removed.

By that point, Wang Qiaonian was only a step away from death. To exact his revenge, Li Zicheng ordered Wang, the Shaanxi tri-border governor, to be dismembered into five parts.

…

“Today’s livestream ends here, everyone! We will continue tomorrow!”

As for the treasure chests and the contents within them?

Well, after being kept in suspense for this long, Luo Feng saw no harm in making them wait another day.

Having dug for an entire day, he needed to rest.

Plus, taking account of the time needed to open up all the chests, Luo Feng thought that it was better to just resume the next day.

Of course, at this moment, the mountain was guarded by Huang Tianba, his father, and over a thousand villagers they had brought with them.

Due to this, Luo Feng could sleep soundly.

The next day, after waking up around 8 in the morning, Luo Feng had breakfast with the rich second generation heirs and called a helicopter from an aviation company to transport the treasures down the mountain.

After making the call, Luo Feng then started his livestream.

The audience had been kept in suspense for two days, and at long last, it was time to open the chests.

To further prove the point, Luo Feng had even changed his stream’s title to reflect the activity.

As a result of this long-anticipated event, Luo Feng’s livestream was jam-packed with viewers, reaching an astonishing 30 million concurrent viewers!

“Wow! Are they finally going to open the boxes?”

“They’ve kept us in suspense for days! It’s about damn time!”

“Hahaha, I’m just looking forward to the possibility that these boxes are empty.”

“Naïve! How could they be, considering how heavy they are when lifted?”

“What if they’re just a chests full of mud?”

“Uh, Luo Feng has never made a loss-making deal!”

Of course.

A total of 42 large boxes were lined up, all with the same dimensions.

Each of them was over a meter wide, and around 50 centimeters tall.

Luo Feng took a deep breath, walked to one of the boxes, and used his Swallowtail Hoe to forcefully break the rusted iron lock on its surface.

The surface layer of the chest was covered with soil.

After lifting the soil off, it became evident that this was a box full of silver.

The second box, and the third box, all contained silver.

These were the official ingots of the Ming dynasty.

Luo Feng quickly estimated that each box should contain around 1,000 taels of silver.

Each silver ingot weighed 50 taels.

50 taels in ancient times is hard to compare, but based on the standard of 10 taels per catty, each silver ingot weighed five catties.

Each box contained 100 catties of silver.

Of course, these official silver ingots were not produced in one era but spanned across many years.

Yet, they all belonged to the larger period of the Ming dynasty.

For example, the value of an ingot from an earlier era would be over 2 million when Luo Feng sold it previously.

Thus, if these silver boxes were sold based on the current silver price, they would not be considered valuable.

However, if they were appraised based on their value as antiques, identifying those rare official ingots from specific eras would significantly increase their overall value.

But such rare official ingots were bound to be scarce since their circulation was limited in both ancient and modern times. Rarity, after all, is what makes them precious.

Well-preserved ancient official ingots would be worth at least 150 thousand yuan each.

There were 20 ingots, some particularly valuable, and others with a minimum price of 150,000.

Thus, an average price of around 400,000 could be set for each ingot.

20 ingots amounted to a value of 8 to 10 million for one chest of antique silver.

If sold based solely on the price of the silver, 100 catties of silver at 4.18 yuan per gram would only fetch around 2 million.

The value of ancient official ingots and pure silver differed vastly.

After opening 8 boxes of silver ingots, Luo Feng’s subsequent chest had revealed a different treasure instead.

Brushing off the dust and soil covering it, Luo Feng saw countless copper coins.

He picked up one and exclaimed in surprise, “Is this a Yongchang Tongbao? Are these copper coins from Li Zicheng’s reign, from the Dashun Kingdom?”

“Li Zicheng’s own copper coins? What does that mean?”

“Wow, you don’t even know this? When you become an emperor, you mint your own copper coins!”

“Are these valuable?”

The audience was excited to see what other treasures awaited them in the remaining boxes.