Shadow of the Tomb Raider: A Complete Record of the History of Tomb Raiders in China

Chapter 40 The fifth wave of tomb robbery: the tragedy of tomb robbery in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (1)
Chen Feng's tomb robbery is the most daring
We all know that there are four royal cemeteries in the Ming Dynasty: Xuyi Ancestral Mausoleum where Zhu Yuanzhang’s grandparents are buried, Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum where Zhu Yuanzhang’s parents are buried, Nanjing Xiaoling Mausoleum where Zhu Yuanzhang is buried, and Beijing Ming Tombs where 13 emperors including Zhu Di are buried.In fact, there is another imperial tomb that is also very famous. Although the emperor was not buried in this imperial tomb, its status cannot be underestimated.This imperial mausoleum is Mingming Mausoleum located in Zhongxiang City, Hubei Province.It is obvious that the owner of the tomb is Zhu Youzhu (yuán). Although he did not sit on the emperor's seat during his lifetime, he enjoyed the emperor's treatment after his death.

Zhu Youzhao was the fourth son of Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen, the half-brother of Ming Xiaozong Zhu Youzhang (chēng), and the uncle of Ming Wuzong Zhu Houzhao.In the 23rd year of Chenghua, he was granted the title of Xingwang, and in the 14th year of Hongzhi, he took control of Huguang'an Luzhou (now Zhongxiang City).Zhengde passed away in 44 years at the age of [-].Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty Zhu Houzhao bestowed the posthumous posthumous title of "offering", and selected an auspicious place in Songlin Mountain, and built a cemetery for burial according to the prince's regulations.

Judging from Zhu Youtang's life, he has never been an emperor for a day, so how did he become Emperor Gong Ruixian?Since Ming Wuzong had no son, after his death, according to Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang's legacy of "brothers end up with younger brothers", the throne fell on the head of Zhu Houcong, who was closest to Ming Wuzong's blood relationship, that is, Ming Shizong.

After Emperor Shizong of the Ming Dynasty succeeded to the throne, regardless of the opposition of his courtiers, he honored his biological father Zhu Youzhao as Emperor Gongrui Xian.After Zhu Youtang was revered as emperor, the placement regulation of his mausoleum was also upgraded from the original prince level to the emperor level, and a large-scale reconstruction and expansion project began.Mingming Mausoleum was first built in the 14th year of Zhengde in the Ming Dynasty, and was officially completed in the 45th year of Jiajing. It took a total of 47 years, and the construction did not stop until Jiajing died.Mingming Mausoleum is the most distinctive imperial mausoleum in my country's thousands of years of history.

Obviously the theft of the mausoleum has a great relationship with Ming Shenzong.

Ming Shenzong Zhu Yijun, also known as Emperor Wanli, was born in August of the 42nd year of Jiajing (1563).In February of the second year of Longqing (1568), he was named the prince.In May of the sixth year of Longqing (1572), the emperor took the throne, and the next year was changed to Wanli.Died of illness in July of the 48th year of Wanli (1620) and was buried in Dingling.

Shenzong was only 9 years old when he came to the throne and reigned for 48 years, making him the longest reigning emperor in the Ming Dynasty.Although he has been in office for the longest time, he has not accomplished any major events in his life.He was so fatuous and incompetent that he set a record of not going to court for 30 years and neglecting the government.He was an emperor who was greedy for pleasure. Not only did he build a lot of palaces and temples during his lifetime, but he also never forgot his peace and happiness after death.When he was in power, he started to build his own mausoleum, and it took 6 years to build Dingling.Ming Shenzong's enjoyment was backed by a lot of money.However, socio-economic conditions at that time developed extremely slowly.In order to achieve the purpose of pleasure, he searched for money and was a famous mercenary emperor in history.During the Wanli period, several fires broke out in the palace, and there was an urgent need for large-scale construction to rebuild the palace.Coupled with the extravagance of the royal family and the increasing military expenditures caused by the tight borders, the situation of the treasury being unable to make ends meet became more and more serious.In order to accumulate as much money as possible, Emperor Wanli searched everywhere and borrowed eunuchs to "develop" many ways to make money, the most important of which was to send mine supervisors and tax envoys to various places.Ming Shenzong's incompetence and wealth-enhancing atrocities caused the people to live in dire straits, public resentment boiled over, and the society was in turmoil.It is said that even if the common people raise a chicken, they have to pay a certain amount of tax to the emperor.

Chen Feng was one of the officials sent by Ming Shenzong to search for people's fat and people's anointing.

Chen Feng, a native of Zhongxiang, Hubei, with unknown dates of birth and death, was born a rascal in the market, and his character was bad.Chen Feng was originally an imperial horse supervisor Fengyu, because he was well-rounded and good at flattering, he was quickly promoted to an important position and gained the trust of Ming Shenzong.He was one of the most arrogant mining tax envoys during the Shenzong period of the Ming Dynasty, and he was known together with Gao Huai and Chen Zeng.In the 27th year of Wanli (1599 A.D.), he was appointed as a tax envoy; he went to Huguang to collect shop taxes, and also mined cinnabar in Xingguozhou mines, and managed the drum casting of Qianchang.Chen Feng accepted these many tasks at once. He was very proud and did whatever he wanted. Every time he went to a place, he recruited local ruffians, accepted their bribes, and then organized them into servants to manage memorials, counseling, entry and exit, etc. separately.After arriving in Jingzhou, he opened the door to informers. Dozens of people including the land tiger Han Bing reported and searched everywhere every day, and the people in Shashi were in a commotion.At the beginning, Chen Feng was still a little afraid, and restrained himself a little, but a month later, the imperial decree came, ordering the arrest of the people in the leadership, and implicating He and Xiong Xiaolian. I dare not breathe.

Chen Feng appointed tax officials in various counties, and small towns also sent five to seven tax officials.These tax officials listed the list of local wealthy households to Chen Feng, and then blackmailed the wealthy households with various excuses, such as saying that there were gold mines under the rich households' cemeteries, houses, and fields, and they wanted to dig the ground for mining; The concealment of ancient cultural relics is not reported to the officials; it is said that wealthy households have illegally hidden prohibited imperial objects, etc., all of which are fabricated out of thin air.Some tax officials even blatantly confiscated the wealth of their enemies and dedicated it to Chen Feng.These wealthy households have nowhere to appeal, so they have to pay bribes and ask Chen Feng to be exonerated.Hawkers or farmers who came into town to sell chicken, meat, and vegetables were also robbed by tax officials.The tax officials went to the restaurants opened by the common people to eat, but the shopkeepers did not even dare to take money from them. As a result, there was a desolate and quiet scene in the whole city. People everywhere suffer from tax arrears.

Every time Chen Feng went on tour, he whipped local officials and robbed passing business travelers, which aroused widespread resentment among business people.When they took Chen Feng from Wuchang to Jingzhou, thousands of people gathered on the road to demonstrate against him and scramble to throw him with tiles and stones. Chen Feng fled in embarrassment.

After Chen Feng arrived in Jingzhou, relying on his detailed understanding of the local area, he quickly put his money-raising work on the right track.Chen Feng and his subordinates were very cruel. They not only expropriated local residents, but also raped women at will, disregarding human lives, and even cut open the stomachs of pregnant women with knives, and drowned children in the water.In this way, he accumulated a lot of money.

Even so, he was not satisfied with his greed, and still thought of some new ways to swindle money as much as possible, and he even laid his hands on the imperial mausoleum of this dynasty.Speaking of it, his idea of ​​tomb robbery also came from another tomb robbery incident.

One day, Chen Feng was thinking hard about some new money-making techniques in the mansion, when a secret report interrupted his thoughts.

"My lord, here is a secret report." A servant in Chen Feng's mansion reported.

"What's the matter? If you're not in a hurry, let's put it here first." Chen Feng was thinking about making money, and didn't want to separate his thoughts.

"It seems to be about a tomb robbery incident, and it seems to be related to a lot of gold and silver." The servant said vaguely.He also only heard a few words from the mouth of the messenger.

As soon as Chen Feng heard about the gold and silver, his eyes lit up immediately, and he took the secret report and read it.After reading it, a sinister smile appeared on his face.

It turned out that in order to better monitor the areas under his control, Chen Feng bought many people to act as his eyeliners.Once there is any trouble about money, it can't escape his eyes.This secret report was sent by an eyeliner in Jingzhou.The secret report said that Xu Nai, a villager, and others stole and dug the tomb of Li Linfu's original wife, Mrs. Yang.These tomb thieves dug up a large amount of jewelry, jade and other funerary objects from Yang's mausoleum, as well as more than ten thousand taels of gold.Li Linfu is a famous treacherous official in Chinese history, and the prime minister of Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, the husband of Yang Guifei Yang Yuhuan.The tomb of his original wife must also be very luxurious.Seeing Qian's eyes open, Chen Feng sent troops to snatch all the treasures stolen by Xu Nai and others with an order, and took them as his own.Unexpectedly, this matter was somehow known by Ming Shenzong, who loves money like his life.Ming Shenzong naturally didn't dare to risk the disapproval of the world to rob the tomb. He had been secretly delighted with this tomb robbery for a long time, and ordered Chen Feng to hand over all the treasures he got to the public.In doing so, Shenzong is beautiful, and Chen Feng is worried.How could Chen Feng be reconciled to the fact that the treasure he had worked so hard to obtain had not been obtained at all.

From this tomb robbery incident, Chen Feng saw another wonderful way of making money - tomb robbery.In short, I want to do anything, and I can do anything. "Show all the tombs in the territory", and countless treasures have been stolen.At that time, almost all the tombs within his scope of power, no matter how big or small, whether they were famous or not, were robbed by him.From these tombs, Chen Feng easily obtained countless rare treasures.Apart from himself, the beneficiary of Chen Feng's tomb robbery is Ming Shenzong.Chen Feng did not forget his duty, and gave half of the stolen treasure to the emperor.His tomb robbery caused an uproar in the court and aroused opposition from many loyal ministers.Yu Lixian, the imperial censor, once played a memorial, asking Ming Shenzong to make an order to stop Chen Feng's robbery.However, the emperor, who himself benefited from the tomb robbery, ignored him at all.Wu Zhongming, head of Nanjing's Ministry of Officials, and Shen Yiguan, a scholar, also played to expose Chen Feng's crimes, but Ming Shenzong ignored them all.Ming Shenzong's actions greatly fueled Chen Feng's evil ambitions, and also made Chen Feng further see the emperor's intentions, which eventually led to the occurrence of Chen Feng's robbery and excavation of Xianling.

With the emperor as his backer, Chen Feng was even more confident. In order to get more money and goods, Chen Feng tried his best to get more money. There must be astonishingly many.However, that is the ancestor of the emperor Lao Tzu after all, and blatantly digging the grave is tantamount to asking for a dead end.So Chen Feng used a deceptive method to obtain the property, how to do it?It is to mine the Zaoyang Mine not far from it.

(End of this chapter)