One day in the middle of the summer of 1963, in Dashiqiao Hutong, Xicheng District, Beijing, a "Jim" brand car slowly drove by and stopped in front of an old house. After the car stopped, a middle-aged man and two young men stepped down. The identity of this middle-aged man is not simple, his name is Liao Chengzhi, he is the director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China, and he is the president of the China-Japan Friendship Association, and he has in-depth research and understanding of Japan, and the purpose of his visit is precisely related to the "Zhao Inheritance Public Case" that has intensified in Japan.
Beijing Courtyard
Liao Chengzhi gently knocked on the door of this old mansion, and not long after, an old lady who was skinny and trembling opened the door and asked, "Are you?" ”
Liao Chengzhi replied, "You are Madam Zhao Biyan, right?" We are from the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China, and this visit is to ask you about some information. ”
Liao Chengzhi's words made the old lady suddenly become vigilant, since the death of her husband, she changed her name to Geng Biyan, and the name Zhao Biyan has long been sealed in her memory. Despite this, in the past movements, she still suffered a lot, her only son Zhao Zongyang is still in prison, in order to maintain her livelihood, she had to sweep the street to earn a little living expenses, life is very difficult. This time when government personnel came to the door, she couldn't help but feel a little frightened.
Perhaps seeing the old lady's nervous mood, Liao Chengzhi slowed down his tone and said with a smile: "You don't need to be nervous, we are here to help you recover the real estate purchased in Japan, which is currently estimated to be more than 3 billion yuan, and we have the right and obligation to recover overseas property for Chinese citizens." ”
3 billion yuan! The old lady sweeps the street, can only earn a few dollars a month, this 3 billion she sweeps the street for several lifetimes can not earn. However, in addition to the excitement, the old lady also had doubts in her heart, decades have passed, can this money really be recovered? She searched hard for memories, trying to restore the origin of this huge amount of money.
Zhao Biyan in his youth
A marriage to a traitor
Geng Biyan, formerly known as Geng Weifu, was once known as Zhao Biyan, born into a merchant family and had a good family. In 1921, her classmate Zhao Huimin found her and said that her brother Zhao Xinbo returned to China after being widowed and wanted to find a beautiful person in China to spend the rest of his life together. Zhao Huimin saw that Geng Weifu was born beautiful and the family conditions were good, so she was ready to match the two and achieve a good marriage.
Zhao Xinbo is not an ordinary person, he was born in 1890, in his youth as a Guard of the Qing Court Janissaries, after the collapse of the Qing Court, he entered Tianjin Beiyang University to study, accepted new ideas in the school, met a group of young people who tried to promote the progress of the times, and joined the Kuomintang as desired, looking like a patriotic youth.
In 1913, Zhao Xinbo participated in the second revolution, after the defeat of the revolution, in order not to be implicated, he hid in a troupe in Beijing as a Danjiao actor, although the life is not salty, but at least to ensure his own safety.
During a performance, Zhao Xinbo became acquainted with a prince's concubine, Wang Biyan. Wang Biyan was born in the Qinglou, full of charm, and fell in love with the heroic Zhao Xinbo at first sight, and the two fell in love regardless of the world's eyes. At that time, although the Qing court was destroyed, the prince still had some power, and in order to ensure safety, the two decided to elope to Japan.
Zhao Xinbo
In 1915, Zhao Xinbo went to Japan to study, and the tuition fee was funded by Wang Biyan. After graduating from the Faculty of Law at Meiji University, Zhao Xinbo entered the Japanese Army University as a lecturer at the Chinese, and met Kenji Doihara, Itagawa Seishiro, and other Japanese Class-A war criminals who later committed unforgivable crimes in China. Under their influence, Zhao Xinbo embarked on the road of selling the lord and seeking glory. At this time, Wang Biyan would not have imagined that her husband, who had devoted all her support, would later become a notorious traitor.
In 1925, Zhao Received a Doctor of Laws degree from Tokyo Imperial University, becoming the first Chinese to receive a Doctor of Laws degree in Japan.
However, just when his scenery was unlimited, his wife Wang Biyan died on the operating table in childbirth. Zhao Xinbo was devastated, believing that the doctor's improper operation led to the tragic death of his wife, so he filed a complaint in court, but because of insufficient evidence, the matter was not resolved. After Wang Biyan's death, Zhao Xinbo was ashes and returned to China alone to heal his wounds.
Under the introduction of his sister Zhao Huimin, Zhao Xinbo became acquainted with Geng Weifu. At first, Zhao Xinbo did not have any special feelings for Geng Weifu, but Geng Weifu saw that Zhao Xinbo was dignified, talked well, and had experience in studying abroad, so he took the initiative to confess. As the saying goes, "women chase men, compartment yarn", so that two times, Zhao Xinbo was gradually moved by Geng Weifu and accepted this relationship.
When she got married, Zhao Xinbo made a very excessive request, asking Geng Weifu to follow her surname and asking her to change her name to "Bi Yan" to mourn her deceased wife. Geng Weifu was immersed in love and could not extricate himself, but agreed to this absurd request and changed his name to "Zhao Biyan".
Zhang Zuolin and Zhao Xinbo
Climb to Japan and leave a huge amount of money
In 1926, Zhao Xinbo took advantage of the Japanese connections to become a legal adviser to Zhang Zuolin's grand marshal's mansion. Although Zhang Zuolin was born in the grass, he attached great importance to intellectuals, and under his cultivation, Zhao Xinbo rose step by step, established the Northeast Law Research Association, and gained a lot of oil and water from it.
However, this comfortable life did not last long, and in 1928, the Japanese blew up Zhang Zuolin at Huanggutun. Zhao Xinbo lost his patron and had to devote himself to Japan, becoming a complete traitor.
In 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army launched the "918" Incident and annexed northeast China. As a sharp pawn of the Japanese, Zhao Xinbo constantly offered advice, became a red man in front of the Japanese, and embarked on the peak of his life, and his greatest "contribution" to the Japanese was to prepare for the "puppet Manchukuo", which was called "Manchukuo's midwife" by the Japanese.
When Puyi was first expelled from Beijing, he had not yet made up his mind to defect to the Japanese. Zhao Xinbo sent Puyi a "gift" in his own name, in addition to a basket of fruits, there were two bombs. This frightened Puyi enough, so he had to obediently follow the advice of the Japanese and go to the northeast to establish a "puppet Manchukuo". Even the name "Pseudo-Manchukuo" was conceived by Zhao Xinbo with all his brains.
Zhao Xinbo rose from mayor of Fengtian City to president of the Legislative Yuan, and rose step by step, and even often received summons from the Emperor of Japan and rewarded him with a large amount of gold and silver treasures. However, Zhao Xinbo's appetite was very large, he not only blackmailed Puyi at will, but also scavenged the people's fat and people's ointment everywhere, and greed became more unscrupulous. Later, even the Japanese could not bear to look at him, accused him of corruption and bribery, and dismissed him from his post.
As the saying goes, no official is light, and Zhao Xinbo took his wife Zhao Biyan and embezzled money to cross to Japan again. During his stay in Japan, he found that Japanese medicines were in short supply, so he started a pharmaceutical business and made a lot of money. But he did not sit on the mountain and eat the sky, but bought a large number of properties in the bustling area of Japan, adding up to more than 100,000 square meters. In order to hide his eyes, he wrote these real estate in the name of his wife Zhao Biyan, and then put the remaining gold and silver jewelry in a box and sealed it in a secret room with cement.
Zhao Biyan took a group photo with Zhao Xinbo and his son in his early years
In 1943, Zhao Returned to China and, before leaving, handed over all his property to Japanese lawyer Yanosuke Suzuki to manage on his behalf. What he did not expect was that Yayuki Suzuki, who had a beastly heart, later tried to embezzle this huge amount of property.
After the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression in 1945, Zhao Xinbo's good days came to an end, and he was arrested by the Nationalist government for "traitorous crimes" and imprisoned. Zhao Biyan, worried about his relationship with himself, hurriedly burned all the evidence in the family and chose Mingzhe to protect himself.
In 1948, when the People's Liberation Army army approached the city of Beijing and the Kuomintang was approaching, Zhao Xinbo saw the opportunity and bribed the prison director with a few gold bars, and was given the opportunity to be released on medical parole. After the founding of New China, Zhao Xinbo was arrested again and accepted the people's trial. Zhao Xinbo lived in fear in prison, and it was not long before he suddenly fell ill and died in the detention center.
Since then, the notorious traitor has finally got the end he deserves, and another big drama has just begun.
Zhao Xinbo's property in Japan Zhao Xinbo's property in Japan
The lawsuit recovered 3 billion yuan in 20 years, and the wife donated it free of charge
Zhao Xinbo died in prison, Zhao Biyan had to take her only son Zhao Zongyang to live a difficult life, and suffered shocks in various sports, in the harsh material conditions, but also to endure mental torture, no matter what she did, she had to be pointed out by neighbors. In order to hide her identity, she changed her surname to her mother's surname, and since then Zhao Biyan has ceased to exist, replaced by Geng Biyan.
She was more or less aware of the inheritance left by her husband in Japan, but she did not even have the travel expenses to Japan, let alone the matter of tracking down the property, and the huge inheritance was stranded in Japan for a full decade.
It wasn't until the early 1960s that the Japanese lawyer, Yasuke Suzuki, saw that Zhao Xinbo had been delayed in coming to Japan, expecting that he was no longer alive, so he started the idea of a huge amount of wealth. He forged a will in which all of Zhao Xinbo's estate was completely at his disposal and falsely claimed that Geng Biyan had died. In this way, Suzuki sold two pieces of land that originally belonged to Zhao Xinbo, and the harvest was very rich.
Treasure in a chest
Soon the news of Geng Biyan's death spread, and scammers from all over the world forged a variety of evidence disguised as Zhao Xinbo's relatives, hoping to embezzle the 3 billion yuan worth of inheritance.
In 1963, when the "Zhao Inheritance Case" was transmitted back to China, Liao Chengzhi, director of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of China, was indignant, although Zhao Xinbo was a traitor, he was Chinese after all, and how could Chinese property be exiled overseas. So he found Geng Biyan, who was living in seclusion in Dashiqiao Hutong, Xicheng District, Beijing, and Xiaozhi was emotionally reasonable, and promised to bear all the costs of Geng Biyan's visit to Japan.
Geng Biyan was also a little angry after listening to it, she said: "I will not take this money for myself, as long as I can get the money back and atone for my husband's sins." ”
When Geng Biyan first arrived in Japan, because the real estate titles had been burned by her, the court could not determine her identity, and the case reached an impasse, and there was no progress for more than ten years. It was not until the end of the 1970s, after The restoration of the lawyer system in China, with the help of Fu Zhiren, a famous lawyer in China, that 19 witness testimonies were collected, as well as 11 elementary school classmates of Zhao Zongyang, the only son of Zhao Xinbo, in Japan, and combined with Geng Biyan's description of the secret room where the treasure was hidden, the Tokyo Family Court finally agreed to reopen the case.
Zhao Biyan and son Zhao Zongyang
In 1984, at the age of 84, Geng Biyan entrusted his son Zhao Zongyang to go to Japan to appear in court. After five consecutive trials, the court finally fully confirmed Geng Biyan's identity and handed over all the assets worth 3 billion yuan to Geng Biyan.
Suddenly with a fortune of 3 billion yuan, Geng Biyan instantly changed from a poor old woman to the richest man in China. But she was always awake, and one night she gathered her children and grandchildren together and said to them, "There is something wrong with this money, my husband did something bad in the past, and now I want to donate eighty percent of it to atone for his sins." ”
After consultation with her family, Geng Biyan donated 2.4 billion yuan to the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council free of charge, and she did not exclusively enjoy the remaining 600 million yuan, and donated 80% of it to the "Chinese Culture and Education Foundation" in Japan to promote the development of non-governmental Sino-Japanese friendship activities.
Compared with Zhao Xinbo's betrayer seeking glory, Geng Biyan's behavior is undoubtedly noble and great, and many Chinese expressed their appreciation and admiration for her, and she was able to get rid of the identity of "traitor wife" in her later years.
In 1989, Geng Biyan died of illness in Beijing at the age of 89. Before dying, she said to her children and grandchildren: "In this life, I am very content. ”