Chapter 395: The Shadow of the Qiong Cage: The Greatest Tomb Raiding Activity in History (II)

I told her to continue and not to waste time. She took a sip of the sorghum wine and then went on with her story.

Jin Wantang's involvement in this "biggest deal in history" was due to his sharp eye. In that era, in Beijing's miscellaneous academia, he was famously known for his vicious eye and encyclopedic knowledge—from Hadamen cigarette packs to women's bellybands, there was nothing he wasn't an expert in. It was said that his father entered a pawnshop at six years old, became a chief appraiser at seventeen, and after liberation worked as a paper-mounter in a factory, living in poverty until his death without leaving Jin anything. But in daily life, through countless small moments from childhood to adulthood, his father deliberately transmitted to him the skills of appraising the eight major categories—calligraphy, painting, jade, stone, bronze, embroidery, wood, and ceramics—without him even realizing it. In his own words, he spent the first half of his life achieving a state of unity with antiques.

So, in the early 1960s, the moment he was pulled into Liulichang for a visit, he unexpectedly discovered that this old alley, so desolate that few visitors came, was actually full of treasures.

Thus, relying on his keen eyesight, he started from two yuan, Jin Wantang began with a few old books, turning two into three, three into five; within two years, no one expected that he could, in such a sluggish collectors' market, through one old book after another, build a fortune of ten thousand yuan. His skill in the category of ancient books and texts reached a state of perfection.

Of course, after he made money, the "Suppression Office"—the office for combating speculation and profiteering—also appeared. Fortunately, Jin Wantang inherited his father's extremely cautious character and stopped in time, so his fortune of ten thousand yuan was never discovered.

However, though he could no longer do business, his reputation spread among the people, and soon his fame was abroad. Foreigners sought him out, and large institutions, prominent families, and university research institutes began inviting him to do appraisals and evaluations, making him extremely prominent for a time. That big deal came at the peak of his life's success.

The lead was taken by the Huo family. At the time, the Huo family had already been cooperating with him for a while, so he didn't find anything unusual and readily agreed.

According to later recollections, he told Huo Xiuxiu that he estimated the total number of people involved in the entire "deal" exceeded two hundred; including those who were brought in but did not actually go underground, such as those gathering information and buying equipment, it would have been over a thousand. In those days, even getting decent Soviet equipment required countless connections.

However, none of this was enough to highlight the special nature of this deal. What made Jin Wantang think this deal was definitely very special was that the leaders of this deal were very unusual. It was not a single-door deal; many people participated, reportedly a total of nine.

When I heard this, my heart skipped a beat. Huo Xiuxiu, like a skilled storyteller, paused here and gave a look that said, "You guessed it, didn't you?"

I rubbed my face and said, "No way, right?"

Xiuxiu said, "I didn't believe it at first either, but the facts are clear."

Nine people—I naturally immediately thought of the Old Nine Gates. But the Old Nine Gates was not an organization; it was just a nickname given to them by others in the underworld. It was extremely loose, not planned by any marketing company, so the possibility of them doing something together was almost nil.

For example, the Buddha, the Jade Emperor, and Jesus Christ are called the three great religious leaders, but they have their own pantheons. It makes sense for the Buddha to rally Guanyin and the Eighteen Arhats to fight, but for the Buddha, Jade Emperor, and Jesus to fight together is impossible. The underworld lineages of the various factions in the Old Nine Gates are actually different; although the differences are not as obvious as between Jesus and the Buddha, in the underworld they are clearly delineated. A joint operation of the Nine Gates was in fact impossible.

But I could think of one extreme possibility. In that era, although this possibility was very small, it was absolutely possible. That is: a powerful outsider intervened in this matter.

It's like in a Hong Kong-Taiwan film where a warlord, having heard how formidable the Four Great Dan actors were, said, "Call them all for me." As a result, the four leading actors each had their own unique singing styles and all played female roles; the four dan actors sang messily on stage, giving the audience a headache. Perhaps there was also a person who said, "I heard the Old Nine Gates are very formidable, assemble them all for me."

However, the Old Nine Gates were scattered across various places back then, and some people were essentially wandering.

Huo Xiuxiu nodded: "I was very shocked when I heard this. Perhaps no one in the underworld ever had the chance to know that the illustrious but constantly feuding Changsha Nine Gates Governors could have such an unprecedented joint operation. I agree with your analysis; there must have been a force that named them, otherwise such a bizarre situation could not have occurred. However, the doubt you raised does not hold, because that force must have had a spokesperson within the Old Nine Gates, and that spokesperson carried out the work of convening the team. I just don't know who that person who convened the team could be, to make these local tyrants willing to become the convened ones and obediently sit down together to cooperate."

I thought to myself that it would definitely be impossible to verify now, but in the 1960s, there was indeed someone in the Old Nine Gates who had that kind of qualification. That was the head of the Nine Gates: Zhang the Great Buddha.

I don't know whether Zhang the Great Buddha was still alive at that time, because he was several generations apart from those below him. If not him in person, it might have been a descendant of Zhang the Great Buddha.

What I found a bit ominous was that Grandpa never told me about this matter, and similarly, there was no record of any of this in his notes. It seems that he completely didn't want anyone to know about this matter, and even he himself was unwilling to recall it. Could it be that this matter is the core of the whole thing?

However, due to generational differences, the Old Nine Gates were already very different from before liberation. The newer generation that became famous early, such as my grandfather and Granny Huo, were still in their prime. Because of the impact of liberation, everyone's circumstances were different. Gathering these people together must have cost a great deal of effort. At that time, Heibei Laoliu was already a beggar, and some were very old and unfit for long journeys, so they were replaced by the next generation. Thus, I could foresee that this team had uneven qualifications, experience, and physical strength, and disaster had already been sown from the very start.

It was at the turn of 1962 to 1963. A large caravan stealthily entered the mountains of Sichuan. Jin Wantang, trembling with fear, left Beijing and was also among the caravan. In the caravan there were old and young, all sorts of people mixed together, with the Old Nine Gates divided into cliques and clearly demarcated boundaries.