Chapter 18 Report on the Robbery of Imperial Tombs in the Qing Dynasty

In the summer of 1974, the author went to Hong Kong for sightseeing. I bought several small newspapers from the newsstand in front of the Nathan Hotel in Kowloon where I was staying. The advertisement of the publishing house is the "Documentary of the Stolen Tomb of Qianlong Empress Dowager Cixi" written by Mr. Gao Boyu, introducing that this book is a record of Sun Dianying's excavation of Dongling in 1928. blotted copy.At the time when the Qing Mausoleum was stolen, Puyi was living in Zhangbiao Garden in Tianjin. He heard that the ancestral mausoleum had suffered a catastrophic robbery. In addition to plain clothes, meals, and remote sacrifices, he also asked the government to hunt down the thieves. Strictly deal with it, and sent five people, Baoxi (Ruichen), Qiling (Shoumin), Zaize, Puxin (Xuezhai), and Chen Yi (Yizhong) as members of the aftermath of the Qing Dynasty, to go to the mausoleum for re-burial and re-burial.Bao Ruichen is the host who personally dealt with the matter, and the diary manuscripts he wrote are first-hand information, which are naturally informative and credible, and are cherished.The author is new to Hong Kong and Kowloon, and the place is unfamiliar. Dahua Publishing House has no way of inquiring about it. Even the Guoguang Bookstore, which is the general distributor of this book, has asked several bookstores, but there is no clue.Later, he left Hong Kong in a hurry and just gave up.

In May of this year, "Yihai Magazine" published an article by Mr. Gao Boyu on the theft of the tomb of Empress Dowager Cixi in Qianlong, and attached the 21-day diary of Bao Ruichen's service in Dongling. Photocopied manuscripts are considered very valuable. This mausoleum robbery was the mastermind of Feng Yuxiang's former subordinate, Sun Dianying, who instructed two of his division commanders, Tan Wenjiang and Chai Yunsheng, to investigate and plan.Baoxi and other five people were ordered to set off on the fourth day of the seventh month of the lunar calendar. On the eighth day of the lunar month, they arrived at Yuling of Qianlong to visit. surveyed.At this time, it has been more than 50 days since the mausoleum was destroyed and the tomb was destroyed. After Sun led his troops to plunder, along with stragglers, gangsters and rascals, you came in and out, took whatever you wanted, and let them romp and plunder. up.Afterwards, although the Qing Dynasty repeatedly requested to arrest the culprit, it was like a stone sinking into the sea, and there was no trace to be found.Two years later, someone discovered that Sun's attendant, Zhang Mingqi, appeared in Qingdao and sold an exquisite emerald bracelet with Nine Dragons Pearls to O'Neill, a senior class of the British American Tobacco Company. As soon as the scouts arrived, Zhang Mingqi flew away, and was taken off by him.In the 22nd year of the Republic of China, it was discovered that someone was carrying a large amount of jewelry and staying at the Pacific Hotel in Hankou. He went to the Jiji Hydropower Company Club every day to compete with some wealthy businessmen for wine and food, and sold one or two pieces of precious jewelry when he took the opportunity.One day, Mrs. Lan (sister of Lan Tianwei), the wife of Ye Peng, the brigade commander of the Wuhan Security Banner, fell in love with a bracelet of 18 zirconia pearls. Not to mention the dazzling pearls, each piece is the same size, and is glamorous and round.In particular, the emerald Nine Sons Demon Mother Buddha's head is emerald green, and the engraving is even more exquisite. Because the asking price is too high, it has not yet been finalized. Jewelry is rare!So some people speculated that these jewels might have been obtained from Dongling, and it spread all over Wuhan. Under the police's follow-up and intensified investigation, although the principal culprit was taken off by rabbits, two criminals, one surnamed Ji, were finally arrested at Ouchikou. , one surnamed Wang, both of them are close friends of the Tan Department and the main cadres who participated in the work of stealing the tomb.The case was handed over to the Wuhan Appeasement Director's Office for trial. My friend Dai Shaolun (cousin of He Xuezhu, the appeasement chief) was a military judge at the time. Brother Dai attached great importance to the case and took notes during the trial, so he knew the ins and outs of the robbery very clearly. .He has no slack in his spare time, so he regards the robbery case as a chat material for waking up and sleeping.According to him: "Sun Dianying is illiterate and an out-and-out old man. He was originally affiliated with Feng Yuxiang's Department of the Northwest Army. In the area of ​​Huayi County. At that time, Fengjun Ma Futian's troops suddenly mutinied due to being squeezed out. Tan Chai and his troops led a flanking attack. They defeated Ma Futian at once and incorporated the remnants of Ma Futian. Therefore, Sun's department was called a brigade, but actually there were There are 70,000 to 80,000 people, which is only a lot more than the number of the first army, but with the salary and food of an independent brigade, how can it maintain the number of the first army! And Sun Dianying's troops are all miscellaneous teams. There will be no payment for three months, and if there is no mutiny, you will be deserted. Sun Dianying decided to steal the imperial tomb to make up for the source of salary. Huanchang Mountain in Zunhua County is called "Dongling", and one is in Taining Village, Yi County, Hebei Province, called "Xiling". The Xiaoling Mausoleum in Shunzhi is in the middle of the dragon vein in Ruichang Mountain. The Jingling Mausoleum in Kangxi is in Ruichang Mountain. At the left foot of Changshan Mountain. Yunyuling of Qianlong, a famous place named Shuiyu, is close to the east of Xiaoling Mausoleum. Dingling of Xianfeng, a place name of Pinganyu, is in the southwest of Yuling. Huiling of Tongzhi, a place name of Shuangshanyu, is in the southeast of Jingling After Xiaozhuang, Zhaoxi Mausoleum. After Xiaohui, Xiaohui Dongling Mausoleum. After Ci'an, the place name was Puxiangyu, Dingdongling Tomb. After Cixi, the place name was Putuoyu, Dingdongling Mausoleum.) Sun Dianying believed that there must be many treasures buried in the funeral of Emperor Kangxi and Cixi, and they were all buried in Dongling is all his own land, so Yuzu decided to start with Dongling first. First, he instructed the two division commanders, Tan Chai, to threaten the outside world. Due to the uneven distribution of mechanical ammunition, small-scale conflicts occurred with each other, and then intensified. The restricted area was filled with soldiers and horses, as if a war was about to break out. A large number of explosives and blasting equipment were transported to prevent people from prying. Martial law was declared, traffic was cut off, and people and horses were not allowed to pass through. The task of stealing the tomb was undertaken by Wang Dechang, the commander of the Tanbu Engineering Battalion. He also stated verbally that this task , It is related to the survival of the whole brigade, only success is not allowed, and things must be done neatly to prevent the relevant parties from pursuing them. The treasures in the mausoleum obtained are not allowed to be hidden. After Battalion Commander Wang was ordered, he led a team to approach the Dongling Tomb. He saw the mountains and ridges, and the grass was deep and loose. He planned to choose a mausoleum with the most treasures. He was hesitating, because Cixi's Dingdong Tomb was only two or three years old. Ten years later, the tomb road was leveled and the pines and catalpas were in order, so Dingdong Mausoleum in Putuo Valley was selected as the first target. On the early morning of the 17th day of the lunar calendar, Battalion Commander Wang led about 100 brothers from the engineering battalion and blasters. Gathered in front of the mausoleum. However, when entering the mausoleum of the local officials, the golden door was tightly closed and could not be opened, so they began to dig the stone square of the pheasant gate, but the shaft of the stone gate was embedded in the stone wall, and it was very difficult to excavate with overlapping strict walls. It was useless, so the blasters had to use explosives to bomb. In an instant, rocks flew randomly and smoke rose. One or two hundred catties of explosives were used, but it only blasted a cave that could only be passed by people.

"Everyone groped and snaked forward, and faced a tomb passage with more than 30 steps of white marble steps. The inside was suffocating and desolate, and it was terrifying. With a flashlight, there was another carved iron gate in front of it, which was solid and thick. Everyone knows that digging and prying is equally ineffective, but they piled up explosives again. Fortunately, the ground is vast, and the brothers were asked to retreat to a safe distance. As soon as an order was given, there was a loud noise like the sky falling, which caused everyone's eardrums to pierce. The pain was torn apart. One of the iron doors was blown up, and the other fell to the ground, and a terrible wind blew out from the door. Although everyone was fearless and not afraid of being a bunch of boys, but at this time, their legs were shaking If you are less courageous, you might even plan to run away, but there are machine gun supervisors behind you, so you have to bite the bullet and rush forward! The underground palace is bright, the flashlight is weak, and it can't go far. Repeatedly destroyed. Excavating graves was originally a matter of concealment, and the bombing of the emperor's mausoleum added another layer of fear. For a while, people were suspicious, and everyone pushed each other, hesitated, and planned to retreat. Wang De Seeing that the situation was not good, Chang filled an iron box containing explosives with clear oil, twisted rags into twists, and put them in the oil. Immediately, the light was shining brightly, and people's minds were calm. Battalion Commander Wang stepped forward, not counting. The first step is an open hall, with eight coffins lined up in a line. Everyone rushed forward, chiseled, drilled, sawed, hacked, pried, and hammered, and opened up all eight coffins. Although a lot of jewelry was produced, none of them were What rare treasures, the clothes are of course bright and bright, as for the grandeur, it doesn’t look like there is the body of Empress Dowager Cixi inside. So everyone in the hall, knocking east and west, finally found that the sound of the jade screen in the middle is different Sure enough, there is a secret door behind the stone screen, and the place where the golden door is opened is a sleeping palace that was heavy during the two summers. In the hall, the stone pillars of Danying, flying and emerald, are extremely magnificent, and a giant gourd head is parked in the middle (the front of the full-style coffin is full of There is a wooden gourd head) vermilion lacquered gold coffin, which is more than twice as tall as ordinary longevity materials. The vermilion coffin is placed on two horse stools painted with dragon patterns, which are only six or seven inches high from the ground. There is a square in the middle of the two stools. The ancient coins of emerald color and carved flowers, the size of the diameter and the size of the emerald green jade, the turbulence under the money, and the sound of the wind, probably refer to the Jinjingyu burial mentioned by geologists. Three jade foils are hung high in the Mingtang Yingqi Dingta Crystal Wannian Lamp, although it is called a lamp, its volume is several times larger than that of ordinary large water tanks, and each lamp bowl may contain thousands of lamp oils. Three lamps are connected together, and the candle is like a bean. First, although it cannot be illuminated for ten thousand years, it is no problem to light it for three to five hundred years. When everyone saw this kind of majestic and magnificent palace, they all agreed that it was Cixi's golden coffin. Huan's imposing manner made everyone a little timid. So Battalion Commander Wang took the lead in burning incense in front of the coffin to plead guilty, and then opened the golden coffin. The full text of the "Amitabha Sutra", "The Curse of Rebirth" and "The Curse of Unraveling the Tribulation" made of inlaid gold threads, with a concise epitaph below, which is the date of birth and death of the deceased. Listening to the scriptures is wonderful. When the catalpa cover was lifted, I suddenly felt the fragrance was strong, and the flying light was shining. I saw an old woman lying on her back in the coffin, elegant and gentle,The body is peaceful, as if sleeping soundly.The body was covered with a brocade quilt woven with stars and beads, and the quilt shattered into ashes after a little prying, and the whole body was buried in the jade and fruit pearls.There is an oval night pearl the size of a pigeon egg in Cixi's mouth, which is golden and brilliant.The gangsters reached out and grabbed it. Unexpectedly, although the cheek looked intact, it was already decayed. With a little effort, it immediately slipped into the bag. A rare and precious night pearl, I don't know which Kuaishou general has put it into his private pocket.The funeral jewels obtained from the robbing of the mausoleum, besides pearls, emeralds, emeralds and diamonds, the most precious is a nine-level exquisite pagoda carved from white jade, with engraved patterns and flowing smoke.It is said that this 2,000-year-old Hanyu pagoda was enshrined in the Yikun Palace by Empress Dowager Cixi, and buried in a coffin.The other one is the well-known emerald watermelon with sunspots, red flesh and green skin, which is delicious and lifelike.This is a rare one from the Tian family. It was collected from the Lishi Mountain in the Hutongjiang River in the northeast.This emerald melon is also listed as a rare treasure in Tianfu along with the Four Treasures of the Nine Dragon Cup, the Emerald Lion, the Jasper Eight Steeds, and the Red Gold Relic Pagoda of Kangxi.Everyone ransacked and searched, and even took Cixi's body out of the coffin and put it on the catalpa cover in order to collect the treasures at the bottom of the trough. The underground palace is damp and gloomy, and it is hot summer, and the corpse has been violent for nearly fifty days, no wonder there is such a phenomenon).The containers that everyone brought into the local officials couldn't hold it, so they withdrew one after another.This astonishing news of the robbery of the tomb, even though it was tightly sealed, spread within a few days.As the wind became more and more serious, Wang Dechang and his group had to hide temporarily.Before the aftermath committee members of the Qing Dynasty came to Dongling, a small group of bandits and hooligans looted Cixi's mausoleum in turn, turning the Cixi mausoleum upside down. I was stunned, I couldn't clean it up!

"At the same time that Cixi's Dingdong Mausoleum was stolen, Tan Wenjiang's other Battalion Commander Han Mou also started excavating the Qianlong Yuling Mausoleum in Shengshuiyu. Although it was bombed with gunpowder in the same way, because Yuling used the whole It is a large piece of marble, a steep wall, and multiple layers of grouting, which is more than a hundred times stronger than Ding Dongling. In addition, the heavy soldiers are not familiar with blasting, and the preparations in advance are not as thorough as the battalion commander Wang, which made the sound boom The surrounding fields were covered with sand and stones. The nearby villagers said that they thought it was an earthquake at first, but later found out that the imperial mausoleum was blown up. It took three days and two nights to blow up the stone door of the tomb passage. , the catastrophe suffered after death was even more tragic than that of Lafayette Lafayette. In the mausoleums of emperors in Qing Dynasty, according to the dragon veins, some concubines were buried together, and some concubines were buried separately. The structure of Yunyong Emperor's Palace and the long land veins, so five empresses and concubines were buried. According to the on-the-spot investigation by the aftermath committee of the Qing Dynasty, old and new bones were scattered inside and outside the tomb passage, hazy pearls and remnants of jade everywhere, some bones were scattered and shapeless, and several The golden coffin has been split into fragments. According to a local villager, two soldiers opened a coffin. The official costumes are towering, gorgeous and beautiful, as beautiful as life, with hairpins and pearl shoes, and nine-color spotted dragons. The two were going to carry it out of the coffin and take off the beaded emerald python robe, but as soon as the corpse left the coffin, it seemed as if they heard a groan, and their beautiful faces were slightly bright. , and can’t speak. Everyone is only interested in robbing treasures, and internal strife broke out, shooting at each other. The new dead bones in the mausoleum are the remains of those people. They were dragged out of the mausoleum only after they all retreated, and they were afraid of returning to the camp for medical treatment , leaked the news, had to put the two half-dead people in the people's house to raise them. Because at that time, one person supported the head, the other lifted the foot, one grasped the beaded crown and the sole of the flower pot, and it was from these broken brocade and fragments that we explored. It was revealed that the life-like Ganqing was Jiaqing's birth mother, Empress Xiaoyi, and the land veins she occupied were exactly the aura, so she would not be corrupted for a hundred years. Later, Chen Yizhong, a member of the aftermath of the Qing Dynasty, visited the villager's home twice. The news Only then did it spread in Jingdong.

"The 60th year of Emperor Qianlong was the heyday of the Qing Dynasty, and Shengshuiyu was the imperial mausoleum where emperors, empresses, and concubines were buried together. Therefore, the imperial treasures buried in the burial are far more tenacious than the Jingling Mausoleum of Xiaoling. After the catastrophe, the remains of the emperor and empress could no longer be identified, the tombs of robbers were mutilated, and the bones of the perishing palace could not be subdivided. The aftermath personnel sent by the Qing Dynasty had no choice but to conceive the rotting rat, and A coffin was buried, and the burial was hasty. I never imagined that a self-proclaimed perfect old man would not be able to rest in peace after a hundred years, and the world is changing, so I can't make people tremble." The above are what Brother Dai said intermittently during chatting.

During the Anti-Japanese War, there was a bandit named Cao Zhifu who was originally a green-skinned gangster in the eastern part of Hebei. He took Yin Rugeng from the remaining self-defense forces in the eastern part of Hebei, and collected a part of the Imperial Association Army who fled into the customs. , no salary, no food, no food, near water, so my brain also moved to the imperial mausoleum.Among the bandits, there happened to be two bandits who had participated in the robbery of the imperial mausoleum. After they added salt and vinegar to their descriptions, and the bandits studied it, they concluded that Kangxi was in power as Haiyan Heqing. Compared with Qianlong's Yuling, there should be only a lot more.So he decided to start on the night of December 14th, and first steal Jingling.Yanji is very cold, the ground is frozen and frosty, and it is difficult to pick ax. After several days of digging, the ground is full of springs.Borrowed two water pumps, pumped them day and night, and the accumulated water flowed everywhere. The royal road of the cemetery, the frost spring condensed, and formed a glacier.Although the water was drained, there was still no way to get in, but there were three walls surrounded by rocks.So by the hands of the blasters, holes of different sizes, large or small, and different depths were dug on the stone wall, filled with explosives, and the fuzes were connected, and the stone wall was blown to pieces with loud noises.After walking a few steps, there is another stone gate with towering cornices and heavy pillars. Everyone is hesitating whether to use explosives again. Suddenly, someone finds a stone trough between the window sills on the left side of the stone gate. The master key of Shimen.A few skillful bandits took it off and used a flat duckbill to flick it between the door frame and the ground axis. The stone ball on the top of the door came loose.Everyone pushed together, the stone ball returned to the groove, and the stone gate opened.Yumen Qionggou, a total of five ways, as before, one by one opened, and then entered the Yuqing Jinque Kangxi Palace-style ground officials.In the middle of the bedroom is a huge white marble bed. Kangxi’s golden coffin is on the left, and the rest of the concubines are arranged in order. There is no emperor in the middle, and the concubines are arranged on the left and right. There is a jade case, and the so-called Kangxi Four Treasures are displayed on the jade case. Everyone is busy opening the coffin. Those two robbers who have experience in tomb robbery have long spotted the treasures of the Tian family, and picked up the four treasures in advance. The good noodles are in the pocket.

In this tomb robbery, it is said that the gold items are weighed by the catty, and the jewels are distributed in units of incense burners. Afterwards, the four treasures were tracked down, and only an emerald lion was found in the home of a family surnamed Mu. He was shot for this crime, and the lion did not belong to him.As for where the other rare treasures go, no one knows!Cao bandits eat the marrow to know the taste, and the Dingling Tomb in Xianfeng and the Qingling Tomb in Tongzhi were also looted one by one.Only the Xiaoling Mausoleum in Shunzhi, according to legend, Shunzhi fled Zen and was ordained as a monk, sitting in Cuiwei.Therefore, in the mausoleum of the Five Emperors in Dongling, only the Xiaoling Mausoleum of Shunzhi was in the way of protecting the chief, and he did not suffer any disaster.

Before Zhang Jun left the mainland, Yuling and Dingdongling were open to sell tickets, and people were allowed to visit. After he saw it, he took notes one by one, so he said it in its original form, which made people listen and be fascinated by it. As for the robbery of Sun Dianying's mausoleum in the early years, although the arrests were third-rate and fourth-rate youngsters, his old friend Dai Shaolun hated those gangsters very much, and he studied Qing history, so when he interrogated the criminals, he took every detail into account. I made notes.After he came to Taiwan, we were busy with each other, so we seldom saw each other. He talked about the robbery case, and wanted to systematically write the cause and effect of the case, so that everyone can understand the truth.It's a pity that he died of overwork and illness soon, failing to fulfill his wish.Every time I think about it, I really want to write out every detail that my old friend told me, but I can't start writing because of the chaos.Because I saw Mr. Gao Boyu's article on Pirates of the Mausoleum, I mustered up the courage to write down what I heard and heard. After half a century, I wrote it all from memory, which can be regarded as fulfilling a wish for my old friend.However, due to old age and decline, there must be many omissions and mistakes. I still hope that sages from all walks of life will teach them.