People on both sides of Supa River in Longling, Yunnan, frantically dug up Huang Longyu at a price of 11,111 yuan per kilogram

Yunnan Information News reporter Yuan Xiaobing, reporter of Guo Min Southern Metropolis Daily

The country has not yet made a scientific name and issued an appraisal standard for Huang Longyu, but it is far away from Taobao users. They only know that in this crazy place, you can make a lot of money by selling flashlights and diesel engines casually; They are looking for value in the drizzle and the harsh sound of the wind drilling rig.

It's raining harder and harder. Yue Wanyong, a treasure hunter, hurried home. Just now, his wife called and said that there was a buyer from other places. Although the drought lasted for more than 8 months, people living on both sides of Supa River in Longling County, Yunnan Province are not happy with the rain, which will fill the riverbed and their treasure digging must stop. At this time, the entertainment places in the town and county will be crowded with people, and hundreds of blue tents built in the valley 41 kilometers from the Eggplant Mountain Reservoir to the Sanjiangkou will be empty.

Sixty-six years ago, it was the forefront of China War Zone in World War II, and the famous Songshan Battle took place here. Now, the enthusiasm of national mobilization has been ignited by another battle: six years ago, a stone named Huang Longyu was discovered here. After the media propaganda and the support of merchants, in just a few years, the price of a tractor has changed from a few yuan at first to tens of thousands of yuan a kilogram now. People sold their own mountains, dug their own paddy fields and began to "gold rush" crazily.

A few minutes later, Yue Wanyong ran home from the mountain. He shook his head at the buyer from Kunming and said, "121 thousand yuan was yesterday's price, and now it's going to sell for 151 thousand yuan."

treasure-digging tent

Mo Zengxiao looked at the clock hanging on the post. It was raining outside at 2 pm on June 11, and there were still 1 hours before leaving work. He woke up two people sleeping on the bed board, and got up to play "fighting landlords". "Let's play with the bottom of 2 yuan and the top of 11 yuan." One of the young people pointed to another tent outside. "They dug up treasures and played with thousands of them."

Mo Zengxiao, a 21-year-old from Xiangda Township, Longling County, has a heavy eyebrows and big eyes. He dropped out of high school to do tea business with his father. Now his plan to make a fortune is to dig stones.

Mo Zengxiao wore a pair of flip-flops, with the toenails of his thumb curled up and an earphone stuck in his left ear. This tent has 11 owners, except him, the other 11 people live here every night, so all the rice, oil and salt are ready. Only there is no TV, and the only activity in the evening is playing cards. During the day, they dug in an acre of farmland to a depth of 3 meters or 5 meters, and it was possible to find the gem-Huang Longyu. Mo Zengxiao is the captain of this 11-person Taobao team.

a moment later, two middle-aged men came in, one of whom was wearing a small red vest. "I heard that we should dig them together and have a look." Mo Zengxiao took a stone from the cupboard behind him, yellow and oval, weighing about 3 kilograms. The newcomer took out a flashlight, and the top of it slid close to the surface of the stone. Under the strong light, the light yellow was visible from the stone. "How much is it?" The young man scratched his head. "8111 yuan."

The middle-aged man wearing a vest is called Kuang Jiaqing, and his home is on the hillside behind this tent. Mo said that Kuang's family had several fields, all of which were sold and earned almost millions of yuan.

This is the bottom of Supa River, and the flat part of the valley is paddy fields. These two days are the season for transplanting rice seedlings.

Supa River, a river from north to south in south-central Longling County, flows into Nujiang River from west to east-it is this river that stopped the Japanese army from attacking the southwest of China during World War II. Xiaoheishan, the birthplace of Supa River, is a provincial nature reserve in Yunnan, and also a water conservation area in the upper reaches of two international rivers, salween (Nujiang) and Irrawaddy River (Dulongjiang), surrounded by Supa River and more than 11 tributaries in its upper reaches. Due to geological changes, most of the primary veins of Shi Ying/chalcedony are concentrated in Xiaoheishan and its surrounding areas, so this area has become the most important producing area in Huang Longyu, Yunnan.

"At the beginning of 2116, there was no place to stay in Longling County every afternoon, and all the hotels and restaurants were occupied by merchants from other places who came to buy Huang Longyu wool," said Hou Desheng, secretary of Longling County Tourism Bureau and director of Huang Longyu Development and Coordination Office. "Every day, 3,111 to 4,111 people mined Huang Longyu in Xiaoheishan, with 218 sheds and as many as 118 mining holes."

In order to fight against the government's control of "closing mountains to protect mines", local farmers will take local dogs into Xiaoheishan, let them fight with government police dogs, and they will steal stones from the mountains.

In September p>2116, after the government introduced large companies to exploit Xiaoheishan in an orderly way, Supa River became an adventure paradise for local people.

At 3 pm, Mo Zengxiao started work on time, and all the 11 people were dispatched. Their activity range was about 1 mu from the river to the tent, which was called "Tangzi". Three months ago, they bought it from the last landlord for 261 thousand yuan, while the price six months ago was 121 thousand yuan. "This landlord is very clever, and he bought such three pieces at once." Mo Zengxiao pointed to the scope above his own pond. "Now he has sold it to three houses, and he has left a small piece for himself. Three ponds sold for more than 561,111 yuan."

Similar to real estate speculators in cities, villagers with a keen sense of smell in Longling County began to collect land on a large scale in the second half of 2119. They bought it at a price of less than RMB 1,111 per mu, and sold it one after another in the first half of this year, and the price has doubled. Another piece of land separated from Mo Zengxiao's Tangzi by a river is less than an acre, and the price has been fried to 1 million.

The mining period of all ponds is until all the precious stones are dug up. Mo Zengxiao's pond had been dug 3 meters deep by the previous landlord and then backfilled. Now they must clean up this 3-meter floating soil, and then dig down. The digging tools are primitive, including hoes, bamboo baskets, pneumatic drills, diesel engines and steel drills. However, huge stones are often encountered below 3 meters. In order to prevent the riverbed from being destroyed on a large scale and prevent soil erosion, the local government forbids them to use large excavators and blasting methods. A young man carried a pneumatic drill, stuck the drill tightly on the stone with his feet wearing plastic slippers, pressed the button, and the drill began to run at high speed. After several slips on the surface of the stone, he drilled into the stone.

After the whole drill bit is submerged, it is taken out. Mo Zengxiao inserts two pieces of steel drill into the hole, then drives in a piece of steel nail, and throws it with a hammer. After several times, the stone breaks into several pieces and can be removed. The young man stood on a huge stone, and below it was a pond with several meters of water. His trousers have been torn to the crotch, and when the wind blows, glistening flesh is exposed, which he said was destroyed by the drill bit of a pneumatic drill. He is only 19 years old and thinks it's a risky thing.

The whole assignment is as detailed as an archaeologist's archaeology. All the eluvial soil is dug up with a hoe, and then picked up with two small bamboo baskets, and the stones are broken into small pieces. During this period, any "suspicious" stones will be picked up and carefully identified by them. These stones, which have been preliminarily selected, are piled up in a small pile next to them, and some villagers will come and choose them. If they agree, they will buy them at a price of tens of yuan. The next day, they will appear on the stalls along the road from Longxin Township in Longling County to Supa River in Xiangda Township, and some of them will be preliminarily polished.

collective "game"

Longling county is a national key poverty alleviation county, and the original funds for buying out a pond are often several hundred thousand yuan, which is rarely taken down by one household alone. The local villagers' way of "panning for gold" is-joint venture.

This pond, which Mo Zengxiao partnered with 11 villagers, has earned 61,111 yuan since it was excavated for more than 41 days. This is not very high. In a tent next to it, more than 811,111 yuan of stones have been dug up, and one person can get 51,111 to 61,111 yuan.

where the river bank is steep and there are no fields by the river, the local villagers will take the center of the river as the boundary, and delimit the area of their fields on the hillside from the top of the slope to the river bank as their own scope. You can mine it yourself or contract it to others. The so-called contract refers to the collective labor of some villagers without pay. Once the gems are dug up, the mountain owner (that is, the field owner) draws 31%, and the rest is distributed according to the head after deducting the cost (still including the mountain owner).

the advantage of joint venture is that those farmers who have no land by the river can also participate in the distribution of wealth.

This kind of "gold rush" is almost zero risk. "No one is losing money", Mo Zengxiao pointed to his own pond. "We haven't dug into the riverbed yet, and there are more treasures under the riverbed". Of course, because he met the boulder, he now wants to sell the pond for 711 thousand. On the nearby mountain, he bought two mountains for 61 thousand and 81 thousand respectively, waiting for mining. Gems dug from the mountains are called mountain reinforcement stones (or mountain materials); What is dug out of the river is called washed stone (or seed material).

With this "mentoring" method, countless blue tents have been set up in the Supa River Valley, about 41 kilometers from the Eggplant Mountain Reservoir to the Sanjiangkou. Like Mo Zengxiao, they all came from the surrounding villages, and 11-15 people lived in each tent. This is the most upstream market in Huang Longyu, and it also belongs to the local people.

Every year from October to February, when winter comes, Supa River emerges from the riverbed, which is the busiest time for villagers. Almost every family goes out, and the old people and children are active at the bottom of the river.

But this "Taobao" game was invented by Guangxi people. A well-known saying is that around 2111, a Guangxi man surnamed Li was building a hydropower station here, and accidentally found the yellow wax stone sold in Hezhou market in Guangxi from the bottom of the river, but the quality was better than the local one, so he bought a car (15 tons) of yellow wax stone and trafficked it to Hezhou for sale at a low price of several yuan per kilogram, earning 21,111 yuan. At that time, the yellow wax stone was sold as an ornamental stone, and the buying and selling price was not high. In 2114, a jade merchant in Dehong Prefecture selected a "jade yellow wax stone" which was not more than a foot long, not as thick as an inch and not as heavy as three pounds from a batch of yellow wax stones to be shipped by Hezhou stone merchants, bought it from 31 yuan, and processed it into a "Huanglong jade bracelet" for decoration. At that time, it was sold to 611 yuan (later it was resold for 6,111 yuan).

Thus, people discovered the other characteristics of the yellow wax stone. Previously, the yellow wax stone as an ornamental stone was mainly produced in Chaozhou, Guangdong, Hezhou, Guangxi and other places, but since 2114, this stone has been named "Huang Longyu" by Yunnan Ornamental Stone Association. Among them, "yellow" is the color, "dragon" is the origin of Longling, and "jade" is the beautiful stone. In various publicity materials, the concept of yellow wax stone and Huang Longyu is divided, saying that "Huang Longyu is the best jade species discovered after Hetian jade in Xinjiang and Myanmar jade".

Since then, in just six years, the value of this kind of stone named jade has risen from the initial few yuan a kilogram to ten thousand yuan a kilogram. Some experts said, "The rapid price increase has created a miracle in the history of jade."

skyrocketing and getting rich

Longling is remembered by the world for the battle of Songshan that wiped out the Japanese army 66 years ago. In this former scorched earth, now it is a myth of getting rich overnight that is more stirring than war.

"There is a cave in Chuntouping Village. In May, the goods of more than 6 million yuan were sold. Now the cave has to be changed hands. Someone offered 5 million yuan for the owner not to sell it, but 21 million yuan." Jia Zhimin, a middleman, whispered to us in a beef restaurant in Chaoyang village on the Supa River. He bought a pond in the lower reaches of Supa River for 61,111 yuan in partnership with several people, and sold it for 81,111 yuan two days ago. Compared with digging stones, he thinks that he earns more by engaging in the second business, that is, buying wool from villagers, and then processing it himself or reselling it. To this end, he rides a motorcycle with his wife every day and shuttles between villages and ponds.

prices soared at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Jia Zhimin said that in March and April this year, the road from Longxinxiang to Chaoyang Village became a huge parking lot, and even motorcycles could not be driven in. The beef restaurant kills a cow every day, and the teachers in Chaoyang Village School take time off to dig for treasures. Some villagers have already made billions by selling Huang Longyu.

What the villagers didn't know was that during that time, the price of Huanglongyu in Yiwu jewelry market in Zhejiang Province soared by 31% in three months, and the average transaction price reached about 21,111 yuan per kilogram.

Jia Zhimin's "master of 21 million caves" is called Yue Wanyong. Yue's cave is in his own field. He worked with five villagers to mine it. Until May this year, he found nothing, but in May, he dug up more than 311,111 yuan of goods, large and small. "I let the buyer come to the cave to bid, and whoever bids high will sell it to him." This is a method invented by Yue Wanyong, which was later followed by many people.

However, about 6 million and 21 million, both proved to be extremely exaggerated. Yue said that his cave would not be resold, and he had dismissed his partner, ready to mine it himself after the busy farming.

Yue Wanyong's family still has a piece of washed stone hidden in it, which was dug up from his farmland by the river. Two Kunming people came to buy it, and the asking price was 1.2 million. He said that it was yesterday's price, and it will be sold for 1.5 million today.

His 5-year-old son, holding a strong military flashlight, gesticulated on a stone; The old mother in her 61 s sat quietly at the door watching her son bargain with the buyer. Yue Wanyong said that at the busiest time, children and the elderly have to go to Tangzi to help. "Heavy work can't be done, but it's ok to help lift the soil."

Like Yue Wanyong, the stories of wealth circulating in Longling were magnified dozens of times until we met Zhuang Jiaxiang.

In Supa River Valley, Zhuang Jiaxiang is well known and is called "Boss Zhuang". His yard is 5 mu in size. In front of it is a wooden bridge in the Qing Dynasty, which spans the Supa River. There is a reception room and a shop at the concierge. There is a monkey at the entrance of the yard. There are fish ponds, hot spring baths, guest rooms, beehives and tea factories in the yard.

Boss Zhuang is dressed as a countryman, and his hair is gray. Only by speaking Mandarin slowly can people understand him. He sells tea, runs an inn, manages restaurants and, of course, buys and sells Huang Longyu.

The legend about him is that he is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and only buys goods of more than one million yuan. "A tangzi has been shipped, and everyone is bidding. Boss Zhuang came and took the goods at a price."

He led us into a room with iron gates. The glass counter in front of us was filled with publicly sold Huanglong jade ornaments, and the ground and wooden shelves were covered with stones. He took out his key and opened the iron cabinet against the wall. He held out some stones in plastic bags and showed them to us. The surface of the stone is coated with a layer of Volkswagen brand white oil, which is a cosmetic and can make the skin moist and elastic. Now, if it is coated on the stone, it will make the stone with poor color look more moist, but in Boss Zhuang's case, it is to protect the stone surface from being scratched by a flashlight.

The front end of the flashlight he used has been ground to white, which is a sign of a veteran player. Under the strong light, almost every stone has a faint light inside. "Look at whether the roll is round, see if there are cracks and impurities in it." But some things are absolutely invisible with this flashlight. The protolith in Huang Longyu is mainly composed of fine aphanitic Shi Ying-chalcedony, and the particles of Shi Ying are very small, each with a diameter of only 1.111 mm, which needs a high-power microscope to see.

On July 1, 2119, Yunnan Province began to implement the local standard "Huang Longyu Classification", and the "Huang Longyu Classification" formulated the corresponding classification method according to the color, transparency, cleanliness, texture, technology and quality of Huang Longyu. This seems to have a very strict standard.