As A Trash Collector, I Collected A Imperial Jade Seal

197 Astonishing! A Tiger-Headed Gilt Military Token! (4)

“Shall I keep you guys in suspense again this time?”

After changing into his clean set of clothes, Luo Feng brought his attention to the treasure chests still wet with water stains, and teased with a cheeky grin.

“Ugh, if you keep us in suspense, I’ll unsubscribe you!”

“Well, with over 10 million followers, Old Luo doesn’t really need you!”

“What’s the point of dilly-dallying? Just have a couple of dozen rich heirs open the chests together! Can we get a big thrill all at once?”

“Don’t expect too much! TV dramas don’t reveal all the exciting moments at once, either, do they?”

Since no digging was involved this time, Luo Feng had managed to save quite a bit of time. With ample daylight left, Luo Feng decided to take his time opening the chests one by one.

A chest of silver.

A chest of silver.

A chest of gold.

Luo Feng opened 8 chests in succession, all of them filled with Ming dynasty official silver and gold ingots. As he had suspected, most of what Old Li had buried were indeed these dull items.

However, when he opened the next chest, Luo Feng discovered something different. Although more than half of its contents were silver, there were two miniature wooden boxes sitting on top of the silver.

Despite being submerged in water, and despite weathering over 100 years of environmental erosions, the two wooden boxes showed no signs of decay, indicating the wood was of excellent quality.

Luo Feng forcefully opened one of the boxes, revealing a glittering golden plaque resting quietly inside.

“What is this?”

“Who cares as long as it’s not silver! I’m sick of gold and silver!”

“It seems to be made of gold! But is it just a plaque?”

“It would be great if it were from the palace; it certainly wouldn’t be cheap.”

Luo Feng carefully examined the patterns on the golden plaque, which appeared to have engraved characters.

“Could this be a tiger talisman?”

“No, it’s a tiger plaque? The top of the plaque seems to have a tiger’s head on it?”

The more Luo Feng inspected it, the more his eyes widened in surprise. This was a valuable item indeed.

“What? A tiger plaque? That’s impressive! Weren’t these used in various dynasties for mobilizing troops, similar to the status of a tiger talisman?”

“This item must be precious!”

“Its value depends on the dynasty its from; some tiger plaques from certain dynasties aren’t that remarkable!”

Luo Feng spoke up, “This was buried by Old Li, so you should know that it’s most likely a Ming dynasty tiger plaque. However, having just the tiger plaque isn’t enough to mobilize troops back in the Ming dynasty; it had to be accompanied by a seal as well! If my guess is correct, this should be a gilded tiger-head troop-mobilization token used by the Ming dynasty’s imperial guards! But this is only half of it…”

Luo Feng handed the tiger plaque to Brother An for safekeeping and picked up the other wooden box. The first box was rectangular and shallow, resembling a whetstone, whereas the second box looked like an enlarged Rubik’s cube.

Upon opening it, Luo Feng found a square jade seal inside.

“Wow! A jade seal!”

“Wait, is this the imperial jade seal?”

“A national treasure! Incredible! This is definitely a national treasure!”

“The rebel king really does live up to his name! He actually managed to obtain the imperial jade seal?”

Luo Feng stared in astonishment at the square jade seal, noticing that it had suffered considerable damage. He turned the seal over to reveal four characters on the bottom: “Treasure of the Imperial Mandate.”

“This should be a genuine jade seal, but calling it the imperial jade seal is an exaggeration. That seal has been missing for many years! Even the Ming dynasty’s Zhu Yuanzhang might not have had it, let alone the rebel king! Of course, I’m talking about the one from Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s time!”

Luo Feng found it quite amusing that as soon as everyone saw the jade seal, they assumed it was the imperial jade seal. How could such a thing be found so easily? Moreover, if it were really discovered, wouldn’t the officials in the capital be restless by now?

Everyone should know that from ancient times to the present, the jade seal represented the emperor’s authority and symbolized the Son of Heaven.

“Whose jade seal is this?”

“It looks like it belonged to a high-ranking official, perhaps a prime minister?”

“You’re kidding, right? Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming dynasty has never appointed a prime minister throughout his reign, and he had effectively retained the emperor’s power and influence in his own hands.”

Upon hearing everyone mentioning the imperial jade seal, Luo Feng shook his head and said, “Do not get the term imperial ‘jade seal’ wrong. In ancient times, only the emperor’s seal was called a ‘jade seal.’ All others were simply referred to as seals! After all, the emperor’s jade seal was also used for stamping! A prince’s seal was called a ‘princely seal,’ and a minister’s was called an ‘official seal.’”

“So, does that mean this is not the emperor’s jade seal?” Zhang Shunyong asked with a hint of disappointment.

“No, what I just shared was general knowledge. The one in my hand is indeed the emperor’s jade seal. You can tell by the four characters on the bottom, ‘Treasure of the Imperial Mandate.’” As Luo Feng spoke, he flipped the seal to reveal its bottom, providing a close-up for the livestream viewers.