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

Chapter 54 Resurrection, reheating: major tomb robbery incidents since the new era (6)
But at this time, the wind was getting tighter, so they had to stay in hibernation for the time being.When six people, including Ji Shuiping, who blew up the hole first, were arrested, and when the bombed hole more than 100 meters northeast of the Changling Mausoleum was just filled up and restored by farmers, Zhang Suoyuan and others stayed overnight at that juncture. They dispatched out and dug frantically until 1 o'clock in the middle of the night before digging out the first funerary object guarding Liu Bang's tomb-painted pottery warrior figurines.Then came the second and third... Until the 107th one was dug out, Zhang Suoyuan and others filled the hole and repaired it to see that everything was back to normal, and then hurriedly fled in the starlight and moonlight before dawn go.

Skynet was restored, and the criminals who stole cultural relics could not escape the punishment of law after all. The 107 painted pottery warrior figurines buried with Liu Bang's tomb have been preserved intact by the cultural relics department of Xi'an.The terracotta warriors and horses of the Han Dynasty, composed of white infantry warriors, cavalry warriors and musicians, are exquisitely shaped and colorful.The mighty figurines of warriors are dressed in armor, and some have square quiver on their backs.The terracotta warriors who have been rediscovered watch Changling in another way.

The Story of the Stolen Ancient Tomb in Ji County

Ji County, known as Yuyang in ancient times, was called Wuzhongzi State in the Spring and Autumn Period, and Wuzhong City in the Warring States Period. It belonged to Youbeiping County in the Qin Dynasty, and Jizhou was established in the Tang Dynasty.After the founding of New China, it was a county under the jurisdiction of Hebei Province. In September 1973, it was placed under the jurisdiction of Tianjin City and has remained until now.Ji County is located in the northernmost part of Tianjin, in the heart of Beijing, Tianjin, Tang and Cheng.The theft of many ancient tombs in Ji County has a lot to do with He Shen, a corrupt official in the Qing Dynasty.Some people say that if He Shen lived to this day, he would definitely be able to obtain a Guinness World Record, that is, the most corrupt official.His greed is not only unmatched in the Qing Dynasty, but even in the thousands of years of our country's history, there are very few people who can be compared with him.The name Heshen seems to have become synonymous with corrupt officials.

Heshen (May 1750, 5-February 28, 1799, that is, the 2th year of Qianlong-the 22th day of the first month of the fourth year of Jiaqing), formerly known as Shanbao, with the word Zhizhai, Niuhulu family, Manzhouzhenghongqi Erjia La people.I live in Mutton Alley in Xizhimen, Beijing.He was reused by Qianlong at a young age, and at the age of 15 he served as the Minister of Military Aircraft and other important positions.Feng first-class Zhongxiang Gong, served as the chief academician, foreman military minister, and also in charge of the three treasuries of the Ministry of Officials, the Ministry of Households, the Ministry of Punishment, the Ministry of Lifan, and the Ministry of Households. Lead the minister of the bodyguard, the commander of the infantry and other important positions.In this regard, He Shen can be said to be very talented. He is not only handsome in appearance, but also very knowledgeable. He is also very good at observing words and demeanor, and knows how to please Qianlong.Before and after, He Shen has been favored for more than 28 years, and has become the most favored minister and the most powerful minister of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.During his years of official career, he relied on his power and scheming to accept bribes and collect money everywhere.His family property is even many times larger than the national treasury.However, he was eventually involved in a court power struggle, and that opponent was the later emperor Jiaqing.Therefore, his struggle is bound to fail.

On the third day of the first lunar month in the fourth year of Jiaqing (1799), the Supreme Emperor Hongli (Emperor Qianlong) died.The next day, Emperor Jiaqing ordered Heshen and Fu Chang'an, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, to guard the funeral hall in turn, and they were not allowed to enter or leave without authorization, and were placed under house arrest.Then a sudden imperial decree was issued, ordering to investigate and deal with those who were ineffective in encircling and suppressing the White Lotus Sect and those who were behind the scenes.On the same day, some ministers understood the emperor's intentions, so the memorials to impeach Heshen were continuously sent to Emperor Jiaqing.Emperor Jiaqing announced Heshen's twenty major crimes, and immediately ordered Heshen to be arrested and imprisoned.Emperor Jiaqing originally wanted to execute Heshen Lingchi, but due to the plea of ​​the imperial sister Gu Lun and Princess Xiao, who is also Heshen's daughter-in-law, and referring to the suggestions of ministers Dong Gao and Liu Yong, Heshen committed suicide in prison instead.In order to avoid turmoil in the political arena, Emperor Jiaqing announced that those who can abandon evil and do good and the remnants of the party will be exempted from prosecution.

After inspection, Heshen's family owned 80 mu of land, 2790 houses, 75 pawnshops, 42 silver banks, 13 antique shops, 2 jade warehouses, and dozens of other shops such as cloth village grain stores. One of them is worth 2.22 million taels of silver, and there are too many jade jewelry and Western oddities.During the Qianlong period, the annual income of the entire country was only 7000 million taels, and Heshen's property was equivalent to more than ten times the total national income.Therefore, the folk proverb says: "Heshen fell, Jiaqing was full".

Although Jiaqing confiscated Heshen's family property, he did not confiscate the family property of his son Fengshen Yinde.Because Fengshen Yinde's wife is Jiaqing's younger sister.As the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse.Since then, Hefu still lived a life of rich clothes and fine food.

Under normal circumstances, the emperor will build a mausoleum for himself immediately after he ascends the throne.In other words, the living prepare for their own afterlife.He Shen also followed the example of the emperor, choosing a geomantic land for himself to build his mausoleum before he died.This geomantic omen is located in what is now Ji County in Tianjin.According to historical records, Heshen attached great importance to the construction of the mausoleum.Therefore, the scale of the mausoleum is very grand, and its luxury can be compared with that of the royal tomb.During the Jiaqing period, the mausoleum had not yet been repaired.After He Shen died, he was not buried here as he wished.His son Fengshen Yinde didn't dare to bury his father who was bestowed by the emperor in such a luxurious tomb, so the tomb has been empty.Later, this mausoleum became the mausoleum of Fengshen Yinde.

There is a He Family Tomb in Ji County, Tianjin, which is said to be the mausoleum of the He Shen family.This mausoleum covers an area of ​​more than 50 mu and is composed of hundreds of ancient tombs, which is very large in scale.However, it is not known which one is the mausoleum of Fengshen Yinde.Because of the relationship with Shen, these ancient tombs have become the coveted objects of tomb robbers.The tomb robbers believed that since He Shen was a corrupt official, many of his property after death might have been placed in the mausoleum.In the successive excavations, some funerary objects such as agate and porcelain have been found.This increased the confidence of the tomb robbers, and they were determined to find the legendary tomb with countless treasures.

Finally, a large-scale theft of the He family cemetery occurred. In 2001, Zhao Songhai organized a group of people to rob and excavate eight ancient tombs, and a large number of funerary objects were missing.Zhao Songhai lost a lot of money and owed a large amount of debt due to poor business practices.In order to get out of the predicament, he put his hope on the tomb robbers.He did some tomb robbers in his early years, so he can be said to be a professional grave robber.Because of an accidental opportunity, he learned that there are many ancient tombs in Ji County, Tianjin, and that these ancient tombs are likely to be the tombs built by He Shen, a corrupt official of the Qing Dynasty, so he came here admiringly.After coming to Ji County, Zhao Songhai got acquainted with a local named Qi.Quite a coincidence, Qi is also a tomb robber and has a certain understanding of the local tombs.When these two tomb robbers meet together, one can imagine what will happen.Qi told Zhao Songhai that there may be a large ancient tomb in Donghouziyu in Guanzhuang Village through his long-term observation, which is very likely to be Heshen's cemetery, but the specific location of the tomb needs further investigation to determine.Zhao Songhai was very excited when he heard the news, and immediately made an appointment with Qi to inquire about the details of the search for the tomb.In the process of searching, they got acquainted with Lu, who is also a local.Lu soon joined their team of tomb robbers.In order to save time and detect the location of the tomb more accurately, the group of tomb robbers also used detectors.

After a period of investigation, Zhao Songhai and others were still unable to determine the specific location of the tomb.And it was not the best time to rob the grave.Because it was early autumn at that time, the location of the mausoleum happened to be in a crop field.Due to the obstruction of crops, tomb robbery is difficult to carry out.Therefore, they decided to make preparations first, and wait for the autumn crops to be harvested before robbing the tomb.

During this time, none of the three tomb robbers was idle.In order to rob the tomb as quickly as possible without being discovered, and at the same time ensure that the tomb can be stolen smoothly, Zhao Songhai specially invited professional tomb robbers such as Dachun and Xiaochun who are well-known in the tomb robbery circle from Inner Mongolia.Qi and Lu prepared many special tools for tomb robbery in Ji County, such as shovels, iron picks, probes, steel drills, axes, crowbars, and baskets.After all the preparations were completed, the crops where the mausoleum was located had also been harvested.Without the obstruction of the banker, they believe that the time is ripe for tomb robbery.So, under the leadership of several professional tomb robbers, this group of tomb robbers launched a new round of tomb search operations.However, despite the presence of many tomb experts, things did not go smoothly.Although these people ran around the fields every day, they found nothing about the tomb.

Among these people, Zhao Songhai was the one who didn't want to give up and gave up the most, because he not only spent the funds at hand in this tomb robbery, but also invested in the money he secretly saved in business.Seeing that the direct search was fruitless, he wanted to use other methods to obtain some information about the mausoleum from the outside.In the previous chapters, we mentioned that tomb robbers will chat with local villagers to find out and understand the situation.Of course, they will not blatantly state their purpose directly, but beat around the bush.Finally, Zhao Songhai got a piece of valuable information from a local old man.The old man said there was a barely marked group of burials in a field.The background of this tomb group may not be small, because people from Beijing once came to worship.Zhao Songhai was very excited when he heard the news. He thought that there would be a group of tombs, and people from Beijing would pay homage to them. Doesn't that mean that this group of tombs might have an important relationship with Heshen's tomb?

Zhao Songhai couldn't hide his excitement, so he took people to investigate the field that the old man said that night.They used steel drills and other tools to continuously test the ground, and they found the tomb group, and determined the detailed location of the tomb group, the size of the mausoleum and other specific conditions.

The tomb robbery by Zhao Songhai and others officially started in November 2001.They carried out a total of five raids.Zhao Songhai is a very cunning person. In order to ensure his own safety, he did not arrive at the scene of the first tomb robbery, but commanded the tomb robbery team remotely from a distance.In order not to attract too much attention from the surrounding people, the tomb robbers mostly started digging after 11 o'clock in the evening and left before dawn the next day.They used steel rods to detect the position of the inner and outer coffins in the ancient tomb, and measured the distance from the inner and outer coffins to the ground.After completing these tasks, all tomb robbers were called on to excavate from the side of the tomb, and dug directly to the location of the coffin.After digging into the coffins, they opened them with axes and other sharp blades and took away the funerary objects inside.Because of the advanced tools and professional tomb robbers as technical guidance, the tomb robbery progressed very quickly.In this tomb robbery, they stole two white-glazed sauce jars from the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, and one gold-clad hairpin, emerald bracelet, and emerald Buddha head from the Qing Dynasty.

After successfully robbing the tomb for the first time, Zhao Songhai could no longer restrain his inner excitement in the face of the rich burial objects, so he came to the scene of the tomb robbery in person and directly participated in the tomb robbery activities. One late night in November, Zhao Songhai went out in person and led the crowd to rob the tomb.The tomb robbery did not go well this time. They had just dug half of the two ancient tombs when they alarmed the local people and they reported the case.The police arrived quickly after receiving the report, and Zhao Songhai and others fled in a hurry.

However, the drive of interests did not make them take the deterrence of the police at heart.A few days later, Zhao Songhai and his gang started to rob the tomb again when they saw that the situation had calmed down.The third tomb robbery also took place in November. Zhao Songmei led some accomplices to rob two ancient tombs. 11 piece, 1 string of emerald amber court beads, 1 pieces of gemstones and some clothes

The fourth tomb robbery took place late one night in December. Zhao Songhai led the crowd to dig up two ancient tombs in the same way again, and stole one Qing Dynasty pine stone string and one emerald Buddha head.

In January 2002, five people including Zhao Songhai's subordinate Dong Fusheng came to rob the tomb again.When they were digging the ancient tomb, the police arrived, and Dong Fusheng fled the scene immediately upon seeing this.

This group of tomb robbers worked from October 2001 to January 10. They robbed eight ancient tombs and obtained a large number of funerary objects.

The ridiculous thing is that although this group of tomb robbers is doing business in the dead, they are very superstitious.In order to avoid evil and not be punished by the souls in the tomb, they dyed all the wooden handles of the tomb-robbing tools red, and even the stolen funerary objects were wrapped in bright red cloth to act as a deterrent.

After a successful tomb robbery, it is necessary to sell the stolen funeral objects.Zhao Songhai chose Tangshan as the location of his attack.Zhao Songhai's road to selling stolen goods was not smooth.When they first arrived in Tangshan, they were robbed by a group of people who took away all the funeral objects.Seeing that the treasure he had worked so hard to steal was taken away by others without any effort, Zhao Songhai was very unwilling.Through his friends in Tangshan, he quickly found out the details of the group and asked them for the treasure.At the same time, Zhao Songhai is also being hunted by the police.

Tomb robbers patronized this group of ancient tombs one after another, which aroused the attention of Jixian public security organs.The public security organ conducted an on-the-spot survey of the site and determined that the ancient tombs were Qing Dynasty tombs, and eight of them were stolen.The public security organ immediately filed a case for investigation and set up a task force.Through various efforts, the police officers arrested Lu and Qi.According to the situation explained by these two people, the police of the task force rushed to Tangshan City and arrested Zhao Songhai and several other tomb robbers.Jixian police determined the whereabouts of the tomb robbers in Inner Mongolia through the interrogation of Zhao and others, and went to Inner Mongolia to capture them.So far, this important theft of ancient tombs in Jixian County has come to an end.

After Zhao Songhai was arrested, he regretted his tomb robbery very much, and cooperated with the police to crack the robbery case and recovered 16 stolen cultural relics.Other cultural relics could not be found because they had been sold by them, which caused huge losses to the country.

These tomb robbers were severely punished by the law. In 2002, the Jixian Court pronounced a verdict on the "Jixian Ancient Tomb Theft Case".Zhao Songhai and other 10 thieves committed the crime of robbing ancient tombs and were sentenced to 1 to 11 years in prison and fines of varying degrees.

(End of this chapter)