Twenty-two years ago, the driver of a brick factory in Xi'an drove a forklift and dug out hundreds of gold cakes, which were robbed by villagers. What was the result?

Ai Qing once said: "Separation of selfishness and greed will hatch many poisonous snakes that harm others." The moment when greed breeds, many people's brains are blank, and they can only see the immediate interests, complete Forgetting what human nature, morality and legality are, you can only fall into the boundless paradise in the end.

In 1999, such a test of human nature happened in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province. The driver of a brick factory found hundreds of gold cakes. Villagers who learned the news rushed to grab them. Although the final value was 20 All the 100 million gold cakes were recovered, but the scene of red-faced people scrambling for the gold cakes is still unforgettable to many people. Gold is always called a priceless treasure by people. Every inch of land and every inch of time are gold to describe the preciousness of gold. In modern times as we know it, gold is more often used as decorations or collectibles. Although it is priceless and no one goes shopping with gold, it was different in ancient times. In ancient times, gold was indeed the currency, so the treasuries of powerful people always had a lot of gold.

It is difficult to get some gold coins with collection significance nowadays, but there were a few such things in Xi'an many years ago. This does not live up to Xi'an's long history as the ancient capital of thirteen dynasties. and reputation.

In November 1999, a brick factory worker in Weiyang District, Xi'an was working at his construction site. He was doing a good job and suddenly felt that his forklift seemed to be stuck by something, which made him feel sad. I'm a little bit aggrieved. If something large is stuck in the car, it will probably take a long time.

The forklift driver walked to the front of the forklift and saw something that seemed to be golden stuck. Anyone with some common sense would be surprised because of the chance of digging ancient tombs and treasures in Xi'an. It was surprisingly big. Sure enough, the driver further pushed aside the soil layer and saw that it was golden. There was enough weight of gold here, and it was not thin. It was thick pancake-shaped. For a moment, the driver seemed to be frightened. He neither reported it to the country nor dared to take it. At that moment, he was full of tangles in his heart.

As the saying goes, "Good things don't go out, bad things spread thousands of miles." The news of the discovery of gold cakes in the brick factory was quickly spread. If an ancient tomb was discovered normally, people would report it to the relevant authorities as soon as possible. Department, but in the past, things like bronzes and murals were different from gold, so people's true nature was exposed the moment they saw gold.

The nearby villagers came to grab the gold one after another. Those who felt a little embarrassed would sneak away at night when no one was around to get a few away. Those with tough personalities would directly run to follow him. Others snatch a few pieces of gold, and may even take action at that moment. At that moment, people's greed is like the dark clouds covering the sun, dark but common. After all, everyone wants a piece of the pie and everyone has the same purpose. It doesn't matter who is more noble.

It is impossible to say that everyone does not know that it is illegal to hide or steal national cultural relics. In Xi'an, such education should be relatively advanced, so people are still motivated by interests and greed. The crooked scheming also had luck in mind, and the desire to have it as one's own was once greater than anything else.

It is impossible for such a large-scale incident to be completely airtight, so the relevant departments soon learned about it, and archaeologists immediately realized the great value of these gold cakes, so Police personnel were dispatched to the scene to carry out the rescue work of cultural relics. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived, none of the gold cakes were left and all had been taken away. Since the archaeologists did not know the number of missing gold cakes, after repeated discussions, they had to decide to go door to door. Probing.

At the beginning, most people maintained a wait-and-see attitude towards such investigations. After all, it is a crime to take national cultural relics home and hide them privately. If you are discovered, you will definitely be jailed.

However, the police and archaeologists patiently persuaded each household one by one, explaining that as long as they handed it over in time, they would not be punished. At this time, some villagers began to hand over the things, while others Analyzing some gossip with the police was really fruitful after a period of time.

Originally, these gold cakes have extremely high cultural relic value. It is very dishonorable and immoral to steal them. On the other hand, if you want to use these things, I am afraid it will also make people suspicious. Instead of stealing them every day It is better to live on tenterhooks than to hand it in honestly.

In the end, the police and archaeologists recovered a total of 219 gold cakes in one day. According to the current value, it is estimated to exceed 2 billion. It is unbelievable what would happen if so many gold cakes were really lost. Big loss, but fortunately people's rationality defeated greed in the end.

Looking at the gold cakes that have gone through the baptism of time but still emit light is really tempting. However, archaeological experts have doubts when looking at these gold cakes. In the past, people mostly used gold coins, like A gold cake of this weight is definitely not for daily circulation.

Based on the beautiful patterns on the gold cakes, we can probably guess that they were used for tribute. However, it was discovered that the center of the gold cakes was not a royal tomb or a wealthy mansion. This area was a famous mass burial site in ancient times. Therefore, this kind of unreasonableness requires a large amount of historical data and literature reference to restore the truth.

Later, after repeated comparisons and verifications by experts, they came to the conclusion that this batch of gold cakes may have come from Wang Mang. During the Han Dynasty, Wang Mang still did many practical things that were beneficial to the people. He was considered to be in great power. It seems that these gold cakes were paid tribute to Wang Mang by the vassal states near the Han Dynasty at that time. They were also different from the gold coins commonly used at that time. Then some people would ask whether they should be placed in Wang Mang's treasury. Why are they scattered everywhere?

In fact, throughout the thousands of years of Chinese history, it is very common for dynasties and periods to change. Wang Mang only reigned for 15 years. Originally, Wang Mang wanted to implement restructuring and restore the uniforms of the Zhou Dynasty, so that The people lived a better life, but unexpectedly it backfired in the end. Such restructuring caused social unrest, and rebel forces took advantage of such opportunities to attack the city from time to time.

People also know that when fleeing for their lives, they either need to bring some money or grab some supplies. These priceless gold cakes may have been taken out of the city at that time. Unfortunately, at that time, there were enemy troops everywhere to intercept them. It is possible that those people were thrown into the mass grave together because they did not escape.

Cultural relics are often like this. They have not only their own value, but also historical value. Now these gold cakes are kept in the Shaanxi Museum. Whenever we go to appreciate it, we will follow its patterns. Following, it seems that the majestic talents and surging momentum of the past can be revealed. These gold cakes come to people through time, narrating the true historical existence of that period.