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Zhang was running out of food to feed his soldiers, and he decided to abandon his capital city of Chengdu in the summer of 1646. Before he evacuated his forces from the city by way of the Jin River, Zhang ordered his men to load boats with gold, silver, and other treasure he had accumulated after years of plundering his enemies’ lands.
According to folklore, on a scorching day in July, Zhang’s fleet, carrying 100,000 troops, reached the town of Jiangkou, where the Jin and Min Rivers meet... Suddenly, arrows and cannonballs rained down on Zhang’s armada... The rest of his armada tried to escape, but the river was too densely packed with ships belonging to both sides... Most of his soldiers died in the battle—and his wealth sank to the bottom of the Min River.
Zhang’s fortune, which allegedly added up to the mythical amount of one hundred million silver taels—allegedly more than the value of the entire Ming royal treasury at the time—was not forgotten. From Qing officials to local fishers, generations of treasure-seekers hunted for Zhang’s lost riches at various points along the Min River, but their exact location remained unknown. A popular local riddle went “Where the stone dragon faces the stone tiger, there are millions of silver pieces. If someone could break into it, they could buy Chengdu.” Historical accounts suggest at least six possible locations for the treasure...
The researchers commissioned a series of dams, which allowed them to drain water from carefully selected areas of the river during the dry season. After removing sand and pebbles, they examined around 250 acres of riverbed. The team paid careful attention to deep grooves known as bedrock chutes, where they discovered that many objects lost during the battle had been trapped. By May 2023, they had retrieved more than 76,000 artifacts, most of which were fashioned from precious metals...
For much more about that, here is the link.
Features - China's River of Gold - Archaeology Magazine - November/December 2023
During this period there was trade with the Spanish. Some of the Chinese trade goods became cargo on the 1715 Fleet.
This article also provides a good reminder of what can lay at the bottom of rivers. The article also reminds how things get trapped in crevices. Diamonds are found in the gaps in the sidewalks of the New York diamond district and gold is found in the crevices at the bottom of gold bearing streams in California. Remember to check any such traps under the beaches or in the shallow water.
Coffer dams are also another method used by treasure hunters. We even saw that one on Oak Island.
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Speaking of Oak Island, a week or so ago, I saw an episode that ended the season. It seemed that some of the searchers were near tears when the bottom of the money pit yielded nothing. Among the many lessons you can learn from that show is the importance of keeping an open mind. On that show, they focus so much ono a single theory that virtually every find or observation was interpreted as confirmation. That often led to misinterpretations and neglect of much more likely theories that were never even considered.
Once you take the fork in the road, you don't have to put blinders on and follow that path to the end. Premature conclusions can be fatal if you are overcommitted and refuse to keep an open mind and consider new data. Regard mistakes as learning opportunities rather than dead ends.
Group think was very evident on the TV show too. People could get airtime by feeding the preferred narrative.
If you are really interested in solving the problem, seek people that can provide serious alternatives rather than simply confirming your biases.
The most valuable things you'll ever learn will change how you view yourself and the world. Too often people want to confirm what they already believe rather than being open to changing their mind and learning something.
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PENFIELD, Pa. (AP) — In the heart of Pennsylvania elk country, Eric McCarthy and his client, Don Reichel, got up before sunrise to scour the forest floor for so-called “brown gold” — a rack of freshly shed antlers to add to Reichel’s collection back home.One hill over, a team of FBI agents was also hunting for gold. The metallic yellow kind.
The FBI’s highly unusual search for buried Civil War-era treasure more than five years ago set in motion a dispute over what, if anything, the agency unearthed and an ongoing legal battle over key records. There’s so much intrigue that even a federal judge felt compelled to note in a ruling last week: “The FBI may have found the gold — or maybe not.”
Now, two witnesses have come forward to share with The Associated Press what they heard and saw in the woods that late-winter morning, raising questions about the FBI’s timeline and adding plot twists to a saga that blends elements of legend, fact and science – and a heavy dose of government secrecy...