Tell the truest history in the simplest words.
Yesterday, it was said that Tsarist Russia, Britain, and India coveted the rich gold in Tibet and launched wars many times to expand themselves. Although the Kangxi Dynasty repelled Peter I of Tsarist Russia on three personal expeditions, with the continuous development of capitalism and the expansion of war preparedness, they still coveted the Tibetan region and found various absurd reasons to send troops to Tibet.
Peter I
In fact, during the Republic of China period, the major warlords also developed gold in Tibetan areas in order to enrich their own pockets, and they used the pretext of developing, squeezing the people, and appropriating gold for themselves, which was outrageous. Let's take a look at the ugly faces hidden under the faces of the warlords.
After the Xinhai Revolution, Kawabe (Xikang) toasts were restored one after another, and the gold factories were dissolved. Only mines such as Zhangla, Wali and Maha continued to operate, but due to the influence of warlords, there was no great development. At the end of the 20s, Liu Wenhui, who was the commander-in-chief of The Border Defense of Chuankang, began to pay attention to the gold resources in the Sichuan border area, and successively hired famous geological and mineral experts Li Zhongkui, Li Chunyu, and Weiping to explore the gold mine in Xikang.
Li Zhongkui took a survey map
Most of these experts are deeply accomplished and not afraid of hardships, so their survey work is more in-depth and extensive than before. Li Zhongkui made a special investigation of the minerals in the seven counties of Ningzhou, focusing on the investigation of the mining of old mines since the Qing Dynasty, and made more detailed reports on the history and gold production of many gold mines.
Li Chunyu and others investigated the mineral deposits of 9 counties in Xikang and published a book called "Outline of Geology and Mineral Resources in Eastern Xikang", which was the first comprehensive geological and mineral survey in the history of Kang District, of which the gold mine was particularly important. This played an important role for the warlord Liu Wenhui in the gold mining of the Kham area.
These experts agreed that the gold mines in Kham were abundant and easy to mine, and recommended that the gold mining industry be fully developed to change the backward economic situation in the region. At this time, Liu Wenhui was defeated in the Sichuan warlord melee, and the funds were seriously insufficient, and the finances were difficult to sustain.
Liu Wenhui
Therefore, Liu Wenhui was determined to solve the financial resources by developing Xikang gold mining, and successively opened a large number of gold factories and set up a gold mining bureau to collect gold taxes. The main gold factories are: Longda Gold Factory, Serba Gold Factory, and Sandaoqiao Gold Factory. According to reliable data, the annual output of gold totals more than 30,000 taels.
Liu Wenhui was operated by a mining company in the name of a government-run gold factory, and the Gold Mining Bureau supervised the gold department, but in fact all the gold mined became Liu Wenhui's private ownership. His gold factory was all stationed in the army, and the highest organ of the whole factory was the superintendent department, with a director, all of whom were his cronies.
The Weichang battalion was commanded by the director, and the general office handling mining affairs also relied on its sniffles, coupled with the direct participation of the army in mining, a large number of leaks were not asked, and the miners' income was squeezed and robbed. In the 15 years from the reopening of the Longda Gold Factory in 1934 to 1919, Xikang produced nearly one million taels of gold, most of which fell into the hands of Liu Wenhui and his subordinates.
Miners are naturally inseparable from the mines, and the treatment of miners in the hands of warlords is extremely low. Although Tibetan and Han miners mined large amounts of gold, they were still in poverty, and the local national economy did not benefit from gold mining and develop. The vast amounts of gold mined were plundered by bureaucrats and capitalists. This kind of exploitation, which is based on national oppression and national exploitation, naturally cannot bring about development in the economy of Tibetan areas.
During the Republic of China, gold mining in qinghai was always in the hands of local warlords. In 1912, after Ma Qi was appointed as the commander-in-chief of Xining Town, he inherited the power of the Qing Dynasty's Xining Affairs Minister to collect gold. All private gold mining must be reported to him and paid a gold tax before mining is allowed.
Ma Qi also directly summoned Jin Fu in the official name to mine gold at the former Qing Gold Factories such as Menyuan, Datong, and Hualong, and took it for himself. However, Ma Qi only stayed here for three years, leaving in 1915 after Ma Qi was promoted.
Ma Qi (right)
In 1928, Qinghai was established as a province, and in order to develop Qinghai's resources, the Kuomintang sent people to Qinghai many times to investigate the situation of gold production. From 1928 to the end of the Kuomintang mining work in 1938, an important reason for the abandonment of the Qinghai mining work was that the warlord Ma Bufang, who was then the chairman of the Qinghai provincial government, controlled the local government in an attempt to monopolize the proceeds of the Qinghai gold mine.
Ma Bufang was originally a division commander under Ma Qi, and after acting as the chairman of Qinghai Province in 1936, he used his military strength to control the mining power of the Qinghai gold mine. He classified all the original gold mining land as "official property", and all private gold mining or merchants setting up factories needed to give him "a large number of gifts" to register and receive gold mining licenses.
Ma Bufang also opened a gold factory in the name of the government and forcibly recruited migrant workers for mining. Ma Bufang, like all warlords, sent troops to mine in turns to mine gold. Ma Bufang has opened nearly ten factories, and the number of workers in each factory has reached 3,000 or 4,000 at any time.
Ma Bufang
Some of the large amounts of gold that Ma Bufang plundered were deposited in American and Indian banks, and some were shipped to Shanghai for speculative trading. When Ma Bufang fled Qinghai in 1949, dozens of boxes of his gold were transported by the air force, and another 30 boxes (700 taels per box) were taken away by his nephew Ma Jiyuan. ——" Ma Bufang's Monopoly of Qinghai Gold Mine"
This shows how much gold it plunders.
According to incomplete statistics, in 1920, the Qilian Mountain area of Qing and Gansu produced 6,000 taels of gold, the Xinghai County of Qinghai produced 500 taels of gold, and the Yushu area produced 300 taels of gold. From 1933 to 1935, the average annual output of Qinghai Province was 10,200 taels. During Ma Bufang's reign, a total of more than 400,000 taels of gold were mined, and the annual gold tax was 2,000 taels. ——"Discussion on Accelerating the Development of Qinghai Gold Industry"
Under Ma Bufang's rule, like most warlords, the "Jinfu" engaged in gold mining did not receive any benefits. Ma Bufang relied on his power to forcibly enlist and forcibly employ poor peasants as gold men, and produced gold for him with extremely low remuneration and extremely heavy labor. Under strict factory regulations, Jinfu lost his personal freedom, and even some people were buried in Jinchang.