Starting My Treasure Hunting In England

As a subsidiary service area of ​​the Anthony Great Wall travel point, the entire service area is not large. Because compared with Hadrian's Wall further south, not only does this tourist area not have many tourists, but most of them are people who come to visit on the way.

The reason for this situation is very simple, because the city wall took 12 years to build and was used for only 20 years before being abandoned by the Romans. Then the Romans shrank the battle line back to Hadrian's Wall farther south.

Therefore, compared to Hadrian's Wall in the south, this Great Wall is not only less famous, but also has more serious damage because it was used for too short a time and was abandoned for too long.

For example, large areas of Hadrian's Wall in the south can still be seen on the ground, but the artificial traces of Antony's Wall have completely disappeared in most places, leaving only an open space that is not much different from the surrounding environment.

In this case, naturally not many people are willing to travel locally. But fortunately, the place where Liang En and the others are now is considered one of the most important scenic spots on the entire Anthony Great Wall, so the number of tourists is still enough to support several restaurants.

After searching on the Internet, the two people discovered that there was a restaurant with good ratings near the parking lot. At least the comments below agree that the various Scottish specialty foods cooked in this store are very authentic and can give people a taste of the local style.

When it comes to Scottish specialty food, the first thing many people think of is the legendary haggis. This dish is made from minced lamb offal and fat mixed with toasted oats, then stewed in the stomach of the lamb along with spices.

According to tradition, this dish is more suitable to be eaten with mashed potatoes, kohlrabi and whiskey, a local specialty of Scotland. It is best to have someone recite "To Haggis" by Robert Burns, the Scottish national poet.

But in fact, this dish is very niche in the UK. Few people in the entire country eat this dish regularly, and even most Scots don't like this local specialty very much.

And because this dish has a slightly complicated cooking method, relatively unpopular raw materials, and does not have a wide audience, ordinary restaurants will not prepare such a dish.

Of course, this is not bad news, although as a Chinese and a person of Chinese descent. Liang En and Fan Meng do not have Westerners' rejection of animal offal. But the cooking method of haggis is indeed not very suitable for their appetite.

Compared to Haggis, the Scottish fresh fish soup and Scottish pie on the menu of this store are the food that really suits their appetite. At least eating some hot meat pie and seafood soup after being blown by the cold wind outside can really satisfy their appetite. People warm up.

After having enough soup and rice, Liang En and the others spent a little tip to ask the waiter about the surrounding situation. Soon, they asked clearly about a series of specific information about the target.

"According to what the waiter just said, the hill we are looking for is located in a hill to the south-west of this place." After the waiter left with the tip, Fan Meng immediately took out the electronic map on his phone to compare.

"According to the information I just found, this place is located on the south side of the Antonine Wall. And I also found news about a place very close to this place."

After saying that, Fan Meng turned the phone over, and the screen displayed a local newspaper report from five years ago. The content above was about the excavation of an ancient Roman town.

What’s interesting is that the straight-line distance between this town and Liang En’s final goal is no more than 3km, which means there was probably some kind of connection between the two ruins.

However, when they finished their meal and rode their motorcycles along a simple road to the ruins of an ancient Roman town, they learned from a group of teachers and students from Durham University who were conducting archaeological work here that the ownership of land in the mountainous area was very confusing.

"Mr. Liang, if you want to dig, you'd better go to the nearby town to confirm the ownership of the land. Otherwise, it will be very easy to cause various disputes."

After learning that Liang En and the others wanted to excavate a possible ruin, the middle-aged professor named Brown seriously reminded Liang En.

As a professional who has been conducting archaeological work in the UK all year round, Professor Brown often encounters various problems due to land ownership issues in his work. Therefore, as soon as he heard Liang En's plan, he immediately reminded them.

After realizing that there were flaws in his previous plan, Liang En thanked the professor and went straight to the nearby town, and then checked the information about the land where his target was located.

The problem that arose this time was mainly because Liang En had too little experience in this area. After all, he had never faced the problem of private land archaeology before, so naturally he did not realize that this aspect was related to all his previous search work. difference.

"Found it." Because the town itself was not large, Liang En quickly found out from a few documents the ownership of the land where the target was located.

According to public information, this land belongs to a businessman who owns multiple tracts of land locally. At the same time, the other party has put this land on the market for two consecutive years in the hope of selling it.

For owners of private land in the UK, they need to bear expensive land tax after owning their own private land. Therefore, for some land that cannot be profitable for a long time, it is also a very good choice for landowners to resell the land.

For example, this is the case with the current owner of this land. After I drove more than an hour to Edinburgh and met with the businessman in the other party's office, the two parties immediately discussed the issue of excavation permission.

When the businessman learned of Liang En's request, he immediately said that Liang En and the others could either buy the land and dig as much as they wanted, or please leave.

Even though Liang En revealed his identity as an archaeologist and what benefits it would bring if the treasure was actually unearthed, the rancher still insisted on his demands and refused to change.

According to him, this was both the Antonine Wall and the ancient Roman town, but what was excavated was either earth, stones or scrap copper and iron. The occasional few copper plates and silver coins couldn't even fill the hole with workers' wages.

Therefore, the rancher felt that the treasure Liang En mentioned was as ethereal as a castle in the air. It's better to take this opportunity to let Liang En pay to buy this land.

Liang En felt that the category of pagan relics in the clue was too big. There was a high probability that it might just be a few wooden piles with cow skulls hanging on them or stones engraved with some kind of runes.

These things may have high historical value, but economically they are pure money-losing goods. Taking into account the British property tax, he would rather pay a sum of money to obtain the landowner's permission, then dig out the ruins and leave.

It is a pity that Liang En made a mistake in the negotiation today. He should not have shown his academic status. So much so that the other party thought he had enough money to buy the land.

After negotiating for more than two hours, Liang En finally reluctantly prepared to pay the bill. Because he found that the other party's attitude was clearly to sell the land and had no intention of compromising.

Fortunately, the other party just hopes that he can get rid of this unprofitable land and does not intend to take this opportunity to blackmail Liang En for money, so Liang En only needs to pay 23,000 pounds including tax to solve these problems. .

According to the contract, the other party sold the 9.2-hectare piece of land, including all resources on the land and underground, to Liang En for 23,000 pounds including tax, which naturally included underground ruins.

Because Liang En himself paid the money to buy the land in one lump sum, all the procedures were very simple. In the afternoon of the same day, both parties completed the formalities and completed the handover of the land.

Today is May 29, the 568th anniversary of the fall of Constantinople. Let’s commemorate it.