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

Chapter 44 The Sixth Wave of Tomb Raiders: Tomb Raiders in Modern Times (3)
In 1922, when Wu Peifu was in Luoyang, he strictly ordered the arrest of Sun Dianying, a drug dealer. Sun could not gain a foothold in Luoyang, so he fled to Shanzhou to escape.While trafficking in drugs, he got acquainted with the head of the First Mixed Regiment of the Henan Army and the official assistant of Ding Xiangling, the guard envoy in western Henan, so he got an adjutant post in the guard envoy, and was soon promoted to the commander of the machine gun company officer.Later, taking advantage of the opportunity of the army stationed in western Henan to go to the front line during the Second Zhifeng War, he led his troops to mutiny and recruited bandits and temple fair disciples from Jiaxian, Yuxian, Linru counties and other counties. In the spring of 1925, Sun Dianying and other bandit leaders were incorporated by Han Yuchun, and Sun served as the commander of the Fifth Mixed Brigade.Later, he joined Ye Quan, deputy commander of the Third National Army and commander of the Second Division, as brigade commander, and was promoted to division commander.After meeting with Sun Dianying, Zhang Zongchang, the Shandong military supervisor who was born as a bandit, appreciated him very much and appointed him as the commander of the Fifth Division.Under Zhang Zongchang's wings, Sun Dianying's department gradually developed into a small military group of rogues. In the spring of 1926, Zhang Zongchang and Li Jinglin jointly counterattacked the National Army. Sun Dianying led his troops to attack the Xu Yongchang Department of the Third Army of the National Army. 30 Fifth Division, and later expanded its establishment, with Sun as the commander.When the Zhi-Shandong Allied Forces retreated steadily, Sun Dianying, who was good at adapting to the wind, changed his flag and took refuge in Xu Yuanquan, who was then the commander-in-chief of the Sixth Corps of the National Revolutionary Army. banner.

On July 1928, 7, Sun Dianying held an emergency meeting at the military headquarters, announcing that the Mausoleum of the collapsed emperor was also a revolution, a "just" act of inheriting Mr. Sun Yat-sen's behest and contributing to the revolution, and Feng Yangtian announced the action plan.So far, a rare treasure robbery event has kicked off.

In 1928, it was a chaotic year when warlords were fighting, the country was impoverished, and the people were in dire straits. Sun Dianying, a miscellaneous army that did not belong to the regular army of the Kuomintang, was treated differently by Chiang Kai-shek and deducted the food and salaries of Sun Dianying's army.The officers and soldiers of Sun Dianying's army had not been paid for half a year, and the morale of the army fluctuated, and desertions often happened. Sun Dianying himself knew that if the government did not allocate food funds, there might be more desertions, and there was even a danger of mutiny.The grim situation in the army forced Sun Dianying to think hard about the "antidote".Suddenly, an evil idea sprouted in his mind: "Go to the tomb!" Sun Dianying was born as a bandit. Although he was a general, he didn't know a single word;At the time of the tomb robbery, he was the commander of the No. 12 Army of the Sixth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, so he was later ridiculed as "Tomb Raider General".

It turns out that since the establishment of the mausoleum, the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty has been guarded by a mausoleum protection agency. There are personnel in charge of the mausoleum, banner soldiers and green battalion soldiers stationed there to guard the mausoleum. .However, since the fall of the Qing Dynasty, these mausoleums have never been guarded by regular troops, and tomb robberies have occurred many times. In 1921, Cao Rui, the governor of Zhili Province, sent troops to search and confiscate all Tianfengyi's property in Dongling area under the pretext of investigating Tianfengyi's purchase of mausoleum trees, and established a reclamation bureau.So far, Dongling has completely fallen into the hands of the Beiyang warlords.

What's more, the ground buildings of Dongling Mausoleum were also stolen and demolished by warlords and local aborigines. First, all the copper decorations of the temples, such as copper nails and copper characters, were all stolen, and then the partitions, sill frames, and window lattices of each temple were stolen. Disassemble it empty. In 1927, Concubine Hui's mausoleum was stolen, all the funeral jewels were looted, and Concubine Hui's body was thrown out of the coffin. In June 1928, Ma Futian, who was born as a bandit, had always been restless. He had long coveted the treasures of the Eastern Qing Tomb, and when there were no guards near the Eastern Qing Tomb, he ransacked and ran away.

Sun Dianying sent his teacher Tan Wenjiang to the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty to do a detailed investigation, and decided to start the excavation from the tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi.In this way, the Dongling treasure robbery case that shocked China and the world was quietly prepared.Sun Dianying, who performed mediocrely in the military, shocked the whole world overnight.

However, the tomb robbery process was not as smooth as they expected. Sun Dianying's confidant Tan Wenjiang and brigade commander Han Dabao first went to Dongling.Although the soldiers wielded shovels, axes and other tools and worked hard, sweating profusely, they could only dig the fur of the tomb.After they dug a few meters deep, they couldn't go any further because it was full of hard rocks.In desperation, Tan Wenjiang had to order the soldiers to keep changing the digging locations.This was of no avail, after two full days and two nights of digging, the Dingdong Mausoleum was almost dug into a hornet's nest, and the entrance to the mausoleum could not be found.Sun Dianying was very anxious, so she sent someone to find the local policeman.Dibao was a small landlord in his 40s. Hearing that he was going to be a "consultant" for the robbery of the imperial tomb, his face was sallow and his legs trembled. Big, I don’t know the exact location of the tomb, so I’d better ask a few old bannermen nearby!” This reminded Sun Dianying, and he immediately sent for five or six old bannermen.But these old people didn't know the entrance to the underground palace. Sun Dianying thought they were unwilling to tell the secret, and at first they tried to coax them, but gradually lost patience, so they whipped them and burned them with a soldering iron.How could the old man stand up to this torment, two of them died in less than half a day, and one of them couldn't bear Sun Dianying's torture, so he said that there was a Subituo forest more than 10 kilometers away from here who had participated in the construction of the mausoleum. The location of the underground palace.

We all know that in order to prevent outsiders from knowing the entrance of the underground palace, the emperors of all dynasties built the last project of the imperial mausoleum: the craftsmen of the tunnel were often executed.So, how did this Subituo forest escape from the tiger's mouth and survive alone?There is a strange thing here.

It turned out that an accidental chance saved his life.When Empress Dowager Cixi was buried, 81 craftsmen were selected to stay and the tomb passage was finally closed, and the masons were told to go out from another tunnel dug in advance.The craftsmen knew very well that this was just a scam inherited from the past dynasties. Since they were left behind, they should not even try to get out alive.At that time, Subitolin was over 40 years old. A few days ago, he heard a letter from a villager saying that his wife had given birth to him a fat son, but he was overjoyed. It's not a good feeling to die at a glance.He was distracted while moving the stone, his foot slipped, a big stone hit him, and he passed out on the spot.The overseer, who was busy at the time, thought he was dead, so he was dragged out and thrown to a barren hillside for fear of soiling the gold certificate (that is, the bedroom).When Subitolin woke up, he found that he was not at the construction site of the mausoleum. He ran home desperately in surprise and joy, so that he had saved his life.

Sun Dianying learned the secret from the old bannerman, so she couldn't wait to find Su Bituolin.In the middle of the night, Subitolin was suddenly invited to Dongling by some soldiers, and he didn't know what happened in a daze.Sun Dianying said to him, please show me the entrance to the tomb passage into Cixi's bedroom and I will send you back.Subitolin immediately understood what was going on, and his calf cramps in fright, and he fell down on the chair.Subitolin thought, how could I do such a thing as betraying my ancestors?Sun Dianying used ingots and gold bars to seduce him, but Su Bituolin still didn't say a word.Sun Dianying was furious, and ordered his subordinates to bring in torture tools to prepare for torture. Then he thought, if Su Bituolin could not withstand the torture and died, where would I find the entrance to the tomb?So there was no sentence.But the old and cunning Sun Dianying immediately came up with a way to deal with Subitolin. He waved his hand and said, "Don't tell me, will you? Then don't blame me for being rude. Go, give his son to him." I caught it, and today I skinned his precious son in front of him!" This move was so effective, before Sun's subordinates left the house, Su Bituolin fell to his knees with a plop.

Under the guidance of the mason, the entrance to the tomb was found, but the entrance was tightly blocked by multiple layers of granite, and the stones were cemented with tung oil, glutinous rice and lime mortar. .The commander of the engineer battalion asked someone to bring two large buckets of nitrate and water, and tried to use erosion to break down the stone barrier, but it was of no avail.It was midnight, and the officers and soldiers digging the grave were so tired that they collapsed on the ground.Sun Dianying saw that he was in a hurry, so he simply asked his subordinates to bring explosives and lead the fuse.Just hearing a few deafening bangs of "boom, boom", a large hole was blasted into the tomb passage of Cixi's Mausoleum, and there was an instant "swoosh": a stream of bad air came out of the tomb, scaring the officers and soldiers back.So Sun Dianying ordered Tan Wenjiang to lead a row of soldiers to block the entrance of the tomb, and kill anyone who dared to escape.

Sun Dianying led the troops and quickly found the entrance of the underground palace according to what Subitolin said.I saw that the entrance was blocked by many layers of huge granite stones, but this has not troubled Sun Dianying at all.The war at this time has entered the era of hot weapons, and the wide application of gunpowder has also brought convenience to Sun Dianying's tomb robbery.

Sun Dianying called the engineer operation to bring explosives and lead the fuse. After a few loud bangs, the entrance of Cixi's Mausoleum was blasted into a big hole.Seeing that the mausoleum had been opened, the officers and soldiers rushed in.

These soldiers hadn't been paid for half a year, and when they saw so many valuable things in the mausoleum, they snatched them up.They rushed forward and snatched away all the sacrificial treasures on the altar.However, these did not satisfy them, because they knew that more and better treasures were not yet available.These treasures are in Cixi's coffin.The temptation of interests dispelled their fear of dead bodies, and they did not hesitate to hack Cixi's coffin with knives and axes.I saw that the coffin was resplendent and full of all kinds of rare treasures.The soldiers scrambled for each other, and plundered all the treasures in the coffin in a short while.

During their frenzied robbery, they had no regard for the fact that the corpse in front of them was the Empress Dowager Cixi who once made the entire Chinese people turn pale.They pulled Cixi's body out of the coffin, and because of the fierce competition for treasures, Cixi's body was torn to pieces, which was terrible.After they robbed the treasures in the coffin, they removed the coffin and looted all the treasures in the golden well under the coffin.

Qing emperor's tomb - the last swan song of Chinese feudal emperor's tomb, a treasure house of cultural relics, which could have avoided disaster, and was preserved intact for future generations, but was destroyed by a warrior.It can be seen from the newspapers in the period of the Republic of China that after the news of Sun Dianying's evil deeds, the whole country was shocked, and all walks of life strongly condemned him and demanded that he be held accountable.In order to escape the crime, Sun Dianying "spends money to eliminate disasters" and uses the stolen jewels to manage up and down - the Nine Dragons Sword stolen from Qianlong's tomb, the night pearl in Cixi's mouth, a batch of valuable antiques, calligraphy and paintings, etc. Chiang Kai-shek and Song Meiling; Cixi's pillow "gold and jade watermelon" was given to Song Ziwen; another sword was given to He Yingqin; Yan Xishan got 50 taels of gold.Key figures such as Kong Xiangxi and Dai Li also obtained the treasures bribed by Sun Dian.

Due to the corruption of the government, Sun Dianying, who gave bribes everywhere, finally got away with it, and the shocking case of the theft of the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty ended in this way.

Sun Dianying is a full-fledged soldier with no morals or scientific research.During the War of Resistance Against Japan, he speculated everywhere. Not only did he set up a guest house near the garrison to entertain the Japanese, but the most shameful thing was that in April 1943, after being surrounded by the Japanese army, Sun Dianying surrendered without a fight. Peaceful National Salvation Army", served as deputy commander of the puppet army.After Japan surrendered, he surrendered to Chiang Kai-shek, transformed himself into the "KMT advance army" and was appointed as the commander of the National Revolutionary Army.But Sun Dianying, who did many crimes, did not die well. During the War of Liberation in 4, Sun was captured by the People's Liberation Army on the battlefield of Tangyin, Henan, and died of illness in prison a year later.

Shiquan old man's tomb is not guaranteed

While the Tanwenjiang Department was excavating the Cixi Mausoleum, the Chai Yunsheng Department was also trying its best to find the entrance to the underground palace of Qianlong Yuling.Because the Ding Ting Department discovered water accumulation when excavating Emperor Kangxi's Jingling Mausoleum, Sun Dianying decided to abandon Jingling Mausoleum and asked Ding Ting to cooperate with Chai Yunsheng to excavate Yuling Mausoleum for a quick battle.After several twists and turns, the underground palace was finally opened, and the coffins of several emperors and empresses were chopped into pieces by a sharp axe. Countless Shang and Zhou bronze tripods, Hanyu pagodas, Song porcelain vases, golden Buddha statues, as well as large quantities of jade, ivory, and coral Sculpted cultural objects, antiques, famous post calligraphy and paintings, ancient books and paper fans... were all robbed and thrown away.What is especially deplorable is that the scrolls of rare famous posters, calligraphy and paintings collected by the 89-year-old emperor Qianlong throughout his life, as well as rare copies of secret books, were all thrown into the muddy water as waste paper.

Qianlong is the emperor who is widely praised in the history of our country.During his 60-year rule, he maintained the last flourishing age of the Chinese feudal dynasty.This period was the period when China's feudal politics, economy, and culture were integrated, and the degree of absolute monarchy reached its peak, both ideologically and institutionally.

However, after the middle of his reign, extravagance began to spread.Emperor Qianlong was very proud of his achievements in the first half of his life, and called himself "the perfect old man".With the change of mentality, he began to be overjoyed, and his vanity increased day by day.He likes people around him to praise him for his wisdom and greatness, and he prefers others to praise his wisdom and talent.Qianlong's great success and vanity are not only reflected in his many poems and brilliant cemetery, but also in his tomb.

Qianlong's father, Yongzheng, did not easily open up the Qing Dynasty's Xiling Mausoleum, but Qianlong didn't seem to buy into his father's account, and built his own Yuling Mausoleum in the Dongling Mausoleum. What is the reason for this?What about the scale of Yuling built during the heyday of the Qing Dynasty?
After Emperor Qianlong ascended the throne, he wanted to follow his father, so he also chose the auspicious place in Xiling to show his filial piety.After he selected a piece of auspicious land in Xiling, he also considered how future generations would inherit and arrange this matter.If the children and grandchildren follow his example and are nostalgic for the love of father and son, and are buried in Xiling one after another, then the incense in Dongling will be desolate and the garden will be barren.In order to take into account the relationship between the two tombs, he chose an auspicious place for ten thousand years in Shengshui Valley in Dongling, and built the mausoleum of his son Emperor Jiaqing in Xiling. The East and West Mausoleums of the Qing Dynasty will not be neglected.In his decree in the 61st year of Qianlong (actually the first year of Jiaqing), his plan clearly explained the formation of the East and West Mausoleums and the system of grave burials.

Emperor Qianlong inherited the prosperity of the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties. When the mausoleum was built at the time when the country was in its heyday and the treasury was abundant, he selected exquisite materials from all over the world.Its wood comes from primitive forests in Sichuan, Guangzhou, Yunnan, Guizhou and the Xing'an Mountains in the northeast. The stone is taken from the quarries in Fangshan, Beijing and Panshan, Jixian. The material is also "foreign soil" with suitable sand content selected from tens of miles away.Yuling covers an area of ​​46.2 square meters, and the project has been in progress for decades, consuming more than 200 million taels of silver.

The scale of Yuling Mausoleum is slightly smaller than that of Emperor Shunzhi's Xiaoling Mausoleum, but its magnificent architecture and exquisite workmanship are second to none among the tombs of the Qing Dynasty.In Yuling, there are Shinto, Divine Gong and Shengde Pavilion, Huabiao, Shenlu Bridge, Archway Gate, Shinto Stele Pavilion, Divine Kitchen, Court Room, Class Room, and Dismounting Stele.There are East Side Hall, West Side Hall, Long'en Hall, Silk Furnace, and Yudai Bridge built inside the Longen Gate.There are Erzhumen, Shiwugong, Fangcheng, Minglou, Baocheng, Baoding and underground palace inside the mausoleum gate.All these buildings are extraordinary, especially the underground palace and Longen hall, which are eye-opening and breathtaking.

Yuling is the most expensive and time-consuming mausoleum in the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty. It cost 3 taels of silver to carve Sanskrit and mantras inside the underground palace alone.It can be said to be extremely extravagant.Qianlong's mausoleum has many unique features both in terms of architectural scale and architectural art.

Yuling was built when the strength of the Qing Dynasty was at its strongest, and its degree of luxury was not comparable to that of the emperors of previous generations.At that time, China's economic aggregate accounted for half of the world's total, and its population accounted for one-third of the world's total population.Although it has begun to lag behind the West in science and technology, China was still the most prosperous and wealthy country in the world at that time.Therefore, the construction of Yuling and the burial in the underground palace are extremely luxurious.

According to current archaeological knowledge, Yuling’s underground palace is the most magnificent among the unearthed imperial tombs of the Qing Dynasty, with a depth of 54 meters and an area of ​​337 square meters. "Main" glyph.The coffin of Emperor Qianlong was placed in the Jintang on the innermost side, and there were coffins of the second queen and third concubine on both sides.The four walls and the top of the coupons in the underground palace are all carved with various Buddha statues, scriptures and decorative patterns. The carving knife is sharp and the lines are delicate and smooth. The four heavenly kings and the five Buddha statues on the top of the coupon are the most representative. sex.

When Sun Dianying led his troops to plunder Cixi's Dingdong Tomb, he did not forget Qianlong's Yuling Tomb.He sent his capable general, Chai Yunsheng, to steal and dig Yuling.After receiving this task, Chai Yunsheng was very excited and led his team to quickly advance towards Yuling.

Chai Yunsheng himself was born in the army, and he didn't have much ink in his stomach, and he lacked even more knowledge about the Qianlong Mausoleum.As soon as his troops entered the mausoleum, they ran around like a swarm of flies.Their excavations were incoherent, and in just one day the surface of the great emperor's tomb was beyond recognition.When Chai Yunsheng robbed Qingyu Mausoleum, he encountered the same problem as Sun Dianying robbed Dingdong Tomb, that is, he couldn't find the entrance to the mausoleum's underground palace no matter what.

Chai Yunsheng ordered his most proud brigade commander, Han Dabao, to lead his troops to excavate the very front of the mausoleum's roof, that is, the rear of Minglou. Open up the underground palace in a way of blooming on all sides.At the same time, he also ordered on the spot, "As long as a kiln brick in the ground is dug out, a Yuan Datou (silver dollar) will be rewarded."All the officers and soldiers heard that digging out a brick can be exchanged for a silver dollar, so they all scrambled to be the first, and everyone looked forward to the reward, and the picks and shovels danced wildly again.

(End of this chapter)