At this time, Master Xu shouted:
"Commissioner Lin, the sedan chair you requested is here."
Lin Sanqi was excited when he heard it, ran over quickly, and then was shocked.
Even though the Wangong sedan chair in front of him was also covered in dust, anyone with a clear eye could see that it was unique in its fine workmanship, huge scale, and majestic aura.
Why is the word "majestic" used to describe a sedan chair?
This is because the Wangong sedan chair is equivalent to a mobile palace, with auspicious patterns of dragons and phoenixes and exquisite carvings on it, which gives it a royal style at first glance.
Lin Sanqi circled around the Wangong sedan again and again, wanting to touch it but not daring to, for fear that the parts would fall apart in a while.
"Beautiful, so beautiful, damn, this dog emperor really knows how to enjoy himself."
Master Xu was very pleased with Lin Sanqi's exclamation. He liked to see others act like country bumpkins, so he proudly introduced:
"Commissioner Lin, this is the imperial sedan chair with red and gold lacquer and carved wood. Empress Longyu was carried into the palace from the Daqing Gate in this sedan chair. It is an original one.
The reason why it is called Wangongjiao is that one man-hour is equivalent to one day. If one person wants to make this sedan chair, it will take nearly 30 years, which is time-consuming, labor-intensive and expensive.
This sedan is not made of a single nail, but is composed of hundreds of movable wooden boards. Its true form is a red chair.
Which way will the bride come out from? Commissioner Lin can look here. There is a door in front. Two sedan-dismantlers are needed to open the door in front before the bride can come out. Ordinary people cannot open it.
Commissioner Lin, don't be fooled by its seemingly earthy color. In fact, this Wangong sedan chair was originally a colorful wooden sedan chair, painted in vermilion and gold. It was decorated with layers of vermilion and gold carvings all around, and then embellished with embroidery, pearls, tassels, lenses, and painted glass.
The entire sedan was magnificent and dazzling, like a crystal clear and exquisite golden shrine.
Commissioner Lin, look at the dragon and phoenix carved on the top of this sedan chair. Count them and see if the dragon claws have five. This alone tells you this is for the Emperor and Empress.
Our Wangong sedan chair is decorated with 36 five-clawed dragons and 18 phoenixes, which distinguishes it from common Wangong sedan chairs. It can be said that there are only two imperial Wangong sedan chairs in the country that are so well preserved.
Lin Sanqi asked with emotion:
"With so many decorations, how heavy must it be? How many people will it take to carry this sedan?"
Master Xu smiled and said:
"This sedan chair is no ordinary one. It requires 36 people to carry it. And because it is so heavy, there are 36 spare bearers. They will be replaced after each move."
Lin Sanqi was already fantasizing about Yin Lianyi sitting in the queen's sedan chair, carried by 36 people on the street, which would attract a lot of attention.
Just when he accidentally touched the sedan, a part fell off, which scared Lin Sanqi.
"Oh, what's going on? Is this sedan a scam? I just touched it lightly."
Dean Wu suppressed his laughter, bent down to pick up the wooden part, and began to talk nonsense:
"Commissioner Lin, you don't know that there are so many cultural relics in our Forbidden City that we simply cannot protect them all. One reason is that we don't have enough manpower, and the second main reason is that we don't have enough funds.
So you can see that these only two remaining sedan chairs for queens in the world are just sitting in a warehouse gathering dust. After a long time, they will probably be scrapped and have no cultural value at all.
What a pity, what a pity, ah..."
Lin Sanqi also felt it was such a pity. If a folk sedan chair could become the treasure of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum, then this queen's sedan chair must be the treasure of the Palace Museum, right?
However, the Palace Museum in 2016 never exhibited the Queen's sedan chair, so the most likely possibility is that the sedan chair was eventually destroyed and no longer exists.
"What a shame, what a shame, this is a national treasure."
Lin Sanqi shook his head and sighed, but at the same time he was a little disappointed:
"It's a pity that this Queen's sedan chair is too old, and I'm going to need it soon. It's too late to make a new one. What a pity, what a pity."
Upon hearing this, Dean Wu quickly advised:
"Commissioner Lin, if you really want to use this Queen's sedan chair, it can be completely repaired. There's still time, there's still time."
Lin Sanqi was a little puzzled. "Didn't you say that this sedan would take 10,000 man-hours to repair? It would take ages to fully repair it, right?"
Dean Wu pulled out a gray-haired old man:
"Commissioner Lin, this is Lu Jiaci, the Palace Museum's top restoration expert. Ask him, Old Lu, and explain."
Lu Jiaci had already received the hint from President Wu and tried every possible means to repair the sedan chair in the shortest possible time.
As long as it was repaired, it didn't have to be 100%. Lin Sanqi was an outsider anyway, so all he could think about was how to fool people.
When Lin Sanqi heard that he was a restoration expert, he thought he was a master of cultural relics, so he quickly greeted him:
"Hello, Master Lu!"
"Commissioner Lin, hello. If you want to repair this sedan chair, just give me a month, and we will have the entire Palace Museum fully operational. Also, I'll gather some fellow apprentices and we'll definitely be able to repair it."
Lin Sanqi was puzzled again: "How many people?"
Lu Jiaci replied, "If 200 people start working at the same time, one month will definitely be enough?"
Lin Sanqi looked back at the sedan chair and couldn't imagine the scene of more than 200 people surrounding it. How could they squeeze in?
Lu Jiaci further explained:
"Commissioner Lin, this is what's going on. This Queen's sedan chair can be disassembled. We can then break it down into its parts, repair it using traditional techniques, paint it, and finally reassemble it.
I'm not bragging, but only the Palace Museum dared to dismantle such a complex sedan chair, and even then, it could be reassembled."
Lin Sanqi nodded, knowing there was hope, and asked again:
"The whole restoration project must be very expensive, right?"
Dean Wu gently touched Master Lu's eyes, and Master Lu quickly smiled and said:
“It’s expensive, very expensive, because it requires a lot of gold, pearls, kingfisher feathers, agate, turquoise, ruby, and ivory, as well as filigree, kingfisher feather inlay, inlay, and threading techniques.
In addition, all the paints used in the entire sedan need to be extracted from minerals and plants. We do not use those industrial paints, which require a lot of costs. Fortunately, we in the Palace Museum have these raw materials in reserve.
So the 200 people I just mentioned are just a group of on-site staff. In addition, hundreds of other staff are needed to prepare materials and do a lot of preparatory work. Don’t underestimate this small sedan, the project is actually very large.
Besides, it wouldn't be nice to have just a sedan chair. We have the entire ceremonial set here, and we'll repair it when the time comes. If we use it for a wedding, it won't be unprecedented, but it will definitely be unparalleled."
Lin Sanqi was delighted when he heard this. There was also a full set of ceremonial objects. This was definitely a pleasant surprise. If he could get it from another time and space, wouldn’t it be majestic?
Although a month is a long time to repair, it is just a day in another time and space, so there is no problem with time at all.
As for money, this is the thing that Lin Baiyi has the most of.
But Lin Sanqi's appetite is not just for a queen's sedan chair. His eyes have already set on the large amount of royal furniture in the South Third House.
Even such a precious Wangong sedan chair was not preserved, which means that all the royal furniture in the Nansan warehouse will be destroyed and used as firewood.
Rather than letting it burn and disappear in the long river of history, it would be better for Lin Sanqi to get it for free.
"Ahem, Dean Wu, this is my first time in the capital, and I need not only this sedan chair for the queen, but also a large amount of Ming and Qing furniture.
I see this and this in your Nansanso, there are quite a lot of furniture like this, such as the sandalwood throne carved with lotus pattern, the huanghuali wood mirror table with five screens and phoenix patterns, and this is the black lacquer bed inlaid with mother-of-pearl and flower and bird patterns?
These are all good things, haha, Dean Wu, look..."
Dean Wu was a smart man. He immediately heard the hidden meaning and felt embarrassed.
The Palace Museum’s cultural relics are not for sale. This is an iron rule. Even damaged cultural relics will eventually be placed in the Jingshan warehouse.
Although some were sold secretly, they were all small items. No one would dare to take a complete set of royal furniture like this out of the Palace Museum.
So if Lin Sanqi wanted to buy it, it was not something that he, the dean, could decide on his own.
"Commissioner Lin, are you interested in the furniture in this room?"
Lin Sanqi nodded embarrassedly, his face flushed, one from shyness and the other from excitement.
Although he had obtained a lot of royal furniture made by the Imperial Household Department before, those were mostly from the princes' families, or were given away by the emperor and then circulated among the people.
For example, the furniture in the Lin family ancestral hall has four-clawed dragons, but the ones used in the prince's house do not have five-clawed dragons.
Furniture like this from the emperor's house comes in batches. Once it is auctioned, it will be absolutely priceless and a treasure among treasures.
Dean Wu asked tentatively:
"Commissioner Lin, what kind of furniture are you planning to buy? How much will it cost?" (End of this chapter)
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