The World's Number One Sword

　　The discovery of the giant iron sword took place in the spring of 1988, when the Si River to the south of Yanzhou City was in a dry season with no flowing water. At that time, local residents were digging sand on the dried-up riverbed as usual. No one knows whose shovel struck something very hard. Normally, the riverbed is filled only with soft silt, so there shouldn’t be anything hard—could it be that a huge rock had sunk into the riverbed for some reason? While some were still puzzled, others had already brushed away the sand layer, revealing an iron lump underneath. The iron lump appeared to be very long, and curious people gathered around. Judging from its shape, someone exclaimed, “It’s a sword!” “Such a long sword!” Word quickly spread, and people gathered in groups, speculating with great interest about the origin and purpose of the sword. When cultural relics workers heard the news, they hurried excitedly to the site. Carefully, they transported the giant iron sword to the museum using a large truck. The cultural relics workers measured the sword: it was 7.5 meters long and weighed 1,539.8 kilograms. The iron sword was nearly as tall as a three-story building, so they had no choice but to lay it flat. Such a heavy iron sword is extremely rare. It is said that during the early years of the Republic of China, the famous martial artist Ma Yongzheng from Shanghai lifted a thousand-jin (approximately 500 kg) bronze tripod in front of the City God Temple and walked around the hall three times without changing expression, scaring off a Belgian strongman who had come to challenge him. If Ma Yongzheng could have seen this sword, would he have wanted to try lifting it too? This sword weighs two or three times more than that bronze tripod!

　　　　After the iron sword was moved into the museum, the story didn’t end there. At that time, journalists joined in spreading the news of the unearthed sword. Their sensational reports nearly set the entire city of Yanzhou ablaze. In every street and alley, people were talking about the magical giant iron sword. Since people couldn’t think of any other sword in their knowledge that could compare in size, they unanimously dubbed it the "World's Number One Sword." The mystery that had been puzzling everyone was soon unraveled by the knowledgeable cultural relics workers. On the hilt of the sword was engraved an inscription—the name “Jin Yifeng.” He was a native of Shaoxing, Zhejiang, and served as the magistrate of Yanzhou during the reign of Emperor Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty. During his tenure in Yanzhou, he achieved remarkable accomplishments: he built bridges, constructed city gate towers, dredged canals, and oversaw the compilation of the Yanzhou Prefecture Records, truly doing many good deeds for the local people. But why did Jin Yifeng cast such a long iron sword? Upon consulting the Ziyang County Annals, records related to this sword were found. It turned out that there was once a major bridge over the Si River outside Yanzhou City—it was the gateway to southern Shandong, originally built during the Wanli era of the Ming Dynasty. However, it was repeatedly destroyed by floods and had been rebuilt many times. In the summer of 1712, during the 51st year of Emperor Kangxi’s reign, the Si River flooded again, and the middle three arches of the southern bridge were destroyed once more. At that time, the magistrate of Yanzhou was Jin Yifeng. Given the bridge’s importance, it had to be repaired. But the local people were suffering from the flood, barely able to afford food, let alone money for bridge repairs. Jin Yifeng, being the compassionate local official that he was, generously donated his own funds to lead the effort in rebuilding the bridge. A few years later, the bridge was completed. To prevent future flooding and to subdue the water monsters that were said to often stir up trouble, Jin Yifeng had a massive iron sword, three zhang (approximately 10 meters) long, cast and erected beside the central arch of the southern bridge, hoping to protect the bridge from being washed away by floods again. However, as ruthless as the floods are, at some point, the towering iron sword was knocked down by the raging waters and buried under the riverbed for hundreds of years, unknown to anyone. This is the full story behind the giant iron sword of Yanzhou.