Dust Archives No. 205: Cracks the first theft in the Northwest

Abnormal Human Encyclopedia: The case of decades ago, everyone should read the story

One

In May 1933, a major theft occurred in the residence of the Ningxia warlord Ma Hongkui. The impact of the case was so great that it caused a sensation in the five northwestern provinces and was called "the first robbery in the northwest" by the news media at that time.

The cause of the "First Theft in Northwest China" was formed as early as 1930 when the "Tai'an Treasure Theft Incident" occurred. In order to enable readers and friends to have a complete understanding of the "First Theft Case in Northwest China", this chapter first makes an account of the "Tai'an Treasure Theft Incident" created by Ma Hongkui -

In the spring of 1930, the contradictions between the Gui warlord Li Zongren and Chiang Kai-shek intensified, and a major war broke out. Feng Yuxiang actively responded to the anti-Chiang Kai-shek in Henan and formally formed an alliance with the Shanxi warlord Yan Xishan to form an anti-Chiang front. In view of the new situation, Chiang Kai-shek immediately made corresponding measures: forming a "rebel army" to counterattack. At that time, Chiang Kai-shek reused three warlords: Han Fuyu, Shi Yousan and Ma Hongkui. Han was the commander-in-chief of the former enemy, Shi was the commander-in-chief of the Pinghan side, and Ma was the commander-in-chief of the Jinpu side. In May of the same year, Yan Xishan's Jin army, commanded by Fu Zuoyi, attacked Shandong. At the beginning, the Situation of the Jin Army was very good, and it won consecutive victories. Later, because Chiang Kai-shek transferred the troops of the two divisions of the Cantonese army Cai Tingkai and Jiang Guangnai to be reinforced from Xuzhou to the north, the Yanzhou and Qufu fronts finally held out after several fierce battles, and the "rebel army" finally held out. During the war, Ma Hongkui commanded meritoriously and was praised by Chiang Kai-shek as "a loyal subject who knows pine and cypress in the cold of the years and knows the loyal subjects of the board".

In July of the same year, the Jiang army of Jinpu and Jiaoji began a counterattack, and the Jin army retreated in its entirety. Ma Hongkui's troops marched towards Tai'an, and the Jin army retreated into Tai'an City to hold firm. Tai'an City was high and deep, very strong, and under the suppression of the fierce fire of the city, the Horse Department could not attack it, and the troops suffered heavy casualties. Later, heavy artillery bombardment was raised, but it still did not take down. At that time, Han Fuyu's troops had recaptured Jinan, and the Jinpu Railway began to resume operation. However, because Tai'an did not attack and posed a great threat to railway traffic, Chiang Kai-shek ordered Ma Hongkui to conquer it within a time limit. Ma Hongkui once wrote a letter to the defenders in Tai'an City to persuade them to surrender, but the brigade commander of the defenders replied: "You can't have two lives!" So Ma Hongkui decided to use tunnel warfare, with Xiguan digging tunnels and blasting open the Ximen Urn City with explosives, but the second gate did not collapse. It was not until the brigade commander Ma Quanliang and the regimental commander Lu Zhongliang led the death squad to attack the city that the city gate was opened. After the officers and men of the Mabu Entered the City, they occupied Tai'an after a fierce street battle for 4 hours.

When Chiang Kai-shek learned of the capture of Tai'an, he immediately ordered Ma Hongkui to be promoted to commander-in-chief of the 15th Route Army. Ma Hongkui's subordinate units were expanded into special service regiments, instruction regiments, artillery regiments, engineer battalions, axle heavy battalions, and gendarmerie battalions; infantry was expanded into two regular divisions (64th and 72nd divisions) and one supplementary brigade (4th Brigade). Ma Hongkui's strength suddenly increased greatly, so he set up the headquarters of the 15th Route Army in the Tai'an City Railway Hotel, and arranged 10 people, including his cronies Zhao Wenfu, to be the county magistrates of the surrounding 10 counties in a vain attempt to establish his own territory.

Ma Hongkui wanted to fight with Han Fuyu in Shandong when the "Emperor of Tu" was put on a stand, and someone immediately came to flatter him. One day in early September, a middle-aged man dressed as a Taoist priest, claiming to be a "god gua iron calculation", came to the door to ask to see Ma Hongkui. Ma Hongkui is a Hui person, originally did not believe in han fortune telling, but as early as the end of the Qing Dynasty, he began to live in Lanzhou, Beijing and other places where Han people lived for a long time, so under the influence of the Han nationality, sometimes he also asked people to tell fortunes to look at the picture, and Bu Gua helped him. Therefore, when he heard the guard report that there was a "god and iron calculation" coming to the door, he immediately issued an order "Please enter.".

The "Divine Gua Tie Suan" saw Ma Hongkui, Chang Yi performed the ritual, claimed to be surnamed Cheng, and lived in the depths of Mount Tai, because a dream in recent days was related to Commander Ma, so he specially came to Tai'an to give advice. Ma Hongkui was suddenly interested and asked, "What dream did you have?" ”

The "Divine Gua Iron Calculation" said: "I did not dream that there was a xianwen who told me that there was a priceless treasure buried on the Songli Mountain in Tai'an, which was in line with the income of General Ma of Ningxia." General Jinma has arrived in Tai'an, and the treasure can be unearthed! ”

After saying the "Divine Iron Calculation", he stood up, and then he gave Ma Hongkui a long wave, said "Farewell", and then drifted away.

Ma Hongkui was convinced of the words of "Divine Iron Calculation" and decided to send someone to dig for treasure. After all, he was a thief with a weak heart and did not want to make a big publicity, so as not to be condemned by the whole country like Sun Dianying stole the grave of Empress Dowager Cixi in 1928. Therefore, Ma Hongkui set two points:

First, the content of his conversation with the "Divine Iron Calculation" is not known to a third person, and he can make a fuss and cover it with a mysterious color to deceive the world; second, in order to prevent leakage and leakage, the number of treasure diggers should be few and not more.

The next day, Ma Hongkui issued an order to his commander Ma Zizhou to dig the treasure. After liberation, Ma Zizhou made the following account of this situation in his article "The Witness of The Theft of Treasures in Tai'an" published in literary and historical journals-

I remember that one summer day that year, Ma stood on the top floor of the hotel building (citation: this refers to the Tai'an Railway Hotel, where the headquarters of the 15th Route Army is located), looking out at the sky, with a happy face, and quite ambitious and unrewarded. He said to me proudly, "Zi Zhou, do you see the qi pulse on the Songli Mountain opposite?" I looked at it and couldn't see anything. The horse then said, "This mountain has a big qi pulse, and there are treasures below!" Now order you to take a group of people to dig, report the excavation to me at any time, do not leak information, block the crossing, and do not allow pedestrians to come and go at the scene. ”

However, Ma Zi Zhou had the heavy trust of Ma Hongkui and did not dig up any treasures-

"I was ordered to lead a group of people to dig for three whole days, digging eight feet into the ground, still several piles of loess, not seeing anything, and everyone was tired and sore, and exhausted. A few brave soldiers said behind their backs: 'Who came up with this idea?' We just had a few days of idleness, and we deliberately looked for trouble! I saw little hope, so I reported to Teacher Ma truthfully. Ma said that I could not do anything, and ordered Ma Rulong to continue digging. ”

Ma Rulong is Ma Hongkui's adjutant chief. This person is well versed in the way of horse ass, flattering and omnipotent, so he is deeply trusted by Ma Hongkui. At the moment, Ma Hongkui summoned Ma Rulong and commanded, "According to the information from reliable sources, there must be treasures under the mountain, and you must be responsible for digging out the treasures!" ”

Ma Rulong Lizheng replied: "Report to the commander-in-chief, Rulong guarantees to complete the task!" However, it is not okay to have fewer people. ”

"How many people do you want?"

"The commander-in-chief gives me a regiment."

Ma Hongkui frowned, "What do you want so many people to do?" There are many people, one is that the target is large, it is easy to show the wind; the second is to leak out, and the reputation is not good. ”

In this regard, Ma Rulong had his own ideas: "Report to the commander-in-chief, the sooner this matter is done, the better, and the sooner it ends, the better!" As for the big goal, it doesn't matter. We simply deliberately let out the wind and pretended to build a monument for the 15th Route Army to rebel against the fallen soldiers, and started work in a dignified manner to see who dared to say a word! ”

Ma Hongkui pondered a little, thinking that this was a good idea, so he nodded, "Just do it!" However, it is better to be careful and not to leak half a wind sound. Otherwise, take you is asking! ”

Ma Rulong even agreed: "Yes! be! be! ”

On the same day, Ma Rulong took a regiment up the Songli Mountain, divided the operation area into classes, and began to dig soil. The whole regiment took turns day and night, digging for eight days and eight nights, and finally found a stone slab the size of a mill plate on a sunny slope about seven or eight feet deep, with more than a dozen 8-inch-long iron handles nailed to it.

When Ma Rulong received the report, he immediately ordered the whole regiment to stop work, and sent his cronies to strictly guard the stone slab and not allow anyone to come near. Then, he personally went down the mountain to report the news to Ma Hongkui.

Ma Hongkui was presiding over the military meeting, and upon hearing the news, he immediately adjourned the meeting, led Ma Rulong into the secret room, discussed a few words in secret, and then surrounded by guards and personally inspected the scene. Ma Rulong ordered the soldiers to uncover the stone slab, revealing a stone trough. Ma Hongkui looked up and saw that there was a line of seal script engraved in the stone trough, and he didn't know any of them. Regardless of the meaning of the words, he ordered, "Take out the stone trough!" ”

Several soldiers lifted the stone trough and found a small black wooden box buried underneath, so they took it out and offered it to Ma Hongkui. Ma Hongkui took it in his hand, swept it up, felt heavy, and carefully examined the appearance, about one foot and two inches long and about eight or nine inches wide; the lid of the box was tied tightly with three gold wires, and there were twenty-four gold nails around it, and the cover was engraved with scarlet seal characters, but he was also an unknown person.

Ma Rulong asked, "Commander-in-Chief, how's it going?" ”

Ma Hongkui said, "What treasure I think is, it turned out to be a wooden box, I don't look at it, Ma Rulong, you take it!" Said, hurried away.

Ma Rulong wrapped the wooden box in a blanket and immediately left the scene. This is a predetermined trick of the "second horse", in order to make the outside world think that no treasure has been dug up. Ma Rulong immediately took the wooden box to the railway hotel, and Ma Hongkui asked him to open it to see what was inside the box. Ma Rulong carefully unwrapped the gold wire with tweezers and a knife, lifted the gold nails, and then opened the lid of the box, which contained 8 brightly colored green greens that were 1 foot long and 1 inch wide, and engraved with vermilion seals.

Usually said jadeite, is a kind of jade, bright color, hard texture, so also known as jadeite. Red is called emerald, green is called jade, collectively called jade, but the value of jade is expensive. Although Ma Hongkui did not know the age of this object and who buried it at that time, he also knew from the texture alone that it was a rare treasure, so he strictly ordered Ma Rulong not to leak the wind.

After half a month, Ma Hongkui saw that the outside world had not reacted to his theft of the treasure, so he instructed Ma Rulong to find out what the eight green greens were. Ma Rulong took the rosewood empty box to a local old scholar and asked him to identify it. The old gentleman told Ma Rulong that the box contained the Tang Dynasty Emperor's Heavenly Jade Sacrifice for Mount Taishan, and that the seal characters on the lid of the box that began with "Tianzi Minister Li Longji sincerely feared the head" were Tang Xuanzong's astronomical proclamations, which were recorded in the Book of Tang.

Two months later, Ma Hongkui sent someone to ask Li Yunfan, the treasurer of the "Yongzeng" military uniform shop in Beiping at that time, to bring two antique merchants to Tai'an, named custom-made military uniforms, which was actually to estimate the treasure. The antique dealer looked at the jade and estimated that each one was worth 20,000 silver yang. Ma Hongkui revealed an insider look and smiled, "Although this thing does not dare to say that it is worth a lot, it is also a priceless jade!" You guys are too little."

The antique dealer was busy explaining: "The commander-in-chief is also right, the valuation of this thing is difficult to say, gold is valuable and jade is priceless." When you meet a family lover, you can be more expensive. However, according to the current situation, only foreign people can afford it, and it is difficult to sell at home. ”

Ma Hongkui said, "I'm just asking you to estimate the price, not to sell it." ”

As the saying goes: there is no impermeable wall in the world, and after the two antique dealers returned to Beiping, they soon leaked out the theft of treasure by Ma Hongkui, which led to the "first theft in the northwest".

Two

At that time, there was a mansion covering an area of more than 30 acres outside the Desheng Gate in Beiping, and the owner's surname was Li Mingzhongyuan, and according to the genealogy he showed to the Ta Kung Pao, he was the 35th generation grandson of Li Longji of Tang Xuanzong, a standard royal descendant.

Li Chongyuan was 68 years old at the time, and in an interview published in the Ta Kung Pao at the time, he was "a thin man with a slightly bald forehead and silver hair, who was nearly seventy years old, but his thinking was clear and his speech was very strong." Li Chongyuan's ancestors have been in business for generations, he also engaged in medicinal materials, furs, and department stores, and at the peak of his career, he opened more than 40 stores in 18 cities in Northeast China, North China, East China and Liangguang. At this time, Li Chongyuan had withdrawn from the business world, enjoyed great wealth in Beiping, and spent his old age in peace.

However, Li Chongyuan's old age was destined to be uneasy. As soon as the news of Ma Hongkui Tai'an's theft of treasure reached his ears, he jumped up: "How dare this Hui Ta Zi have such a reason, how dare he steal and dig up the heavenly treasures of my Li family!" ”

Li Chongyuan immediately announced to the press his determination to return to Ma Hongkui on behalf of the Li family to sacrifice Tianyumu. A few days later, Li Chongyuan personally repaired a letter and sent his nephew Li Mingnian to Tai'an to ask for Ma Hongkui. Ma Hongkui knew that the visitor was not good and did not receive him at all.

Li Mingbao returned home sadly and said to his uncle. Li Chongyuan decided to find another way, and just when Ma Fuxiang came to Beiping, he went to the place where he stayed to ask for a meeting. Ma Fuxiang was ma Hongkui's father, who was born in the army and had passed the martial arts, and in 1900, he fought against the Eight-Nation Alliance at Zhengyang Gate in Beijing, where he made military achievements, and was later named the general of Xining by the Qing court. After the founding of the Republic of China, Ma Fuxiang served as the governor of Suiyuan, the mayor of Qingdao, and the chairman of the Anhui Provincial Government, and was elected as an alternate member of the Kuomintang Central Committee and a member of the National Government. In September 1930, Ma Fuxiang was appointed chairman of the Mongolian and Tibetan Committee by the Nationalist government.

Li Chongyuan is a celebrity in Beiping, and Ma Fuxiang is naturally inconvenient to refuse to see. After the two men met, Li Chongyuan told the situation, and Ma Fuxiang's point of view was very clear: First, the sacrifice of the heavenly jade was li chongyuan's ancestral object, and it should be returned to the Li family; second, Ma Hongkui spent a lot of money to dig up the jade, and Li Chongyuan should compensate it as appropriate.

This is actually to let Li Chongyuan buy the jade back from Ma Hongkui, Li Chongyuan understands this meaning, he asks back his ancestors, and he doesn't care about the money, so he decided to spend 100,000 oceans to Ma Hongkui as compensation. In early February 1931, Li Mingnian was dispatched by Li Chongyuan to carry a cheque of 100,000 yuan and a letter from Li Chongyuan explaining Ma Fuxiang's meaning, and went to Tai'an, Shandong Province. This time, Li Mingnian actually saw Ma Hongkui. However, the commander-in-chief of the 15th Route Army "very regretful" she told him that the matter of Tang Xuanzong's sacrifice of Tianyumu was purely rumored, and he was preparing to meet with the ta kung Pao reporter to refute the rumors.

In this way, the matter of suing back to Yumu naturally could not be discussed, and Li Mingnian had to return in vain. When Li Zhongyuan heard his nephew say this, he couldn't help but be furious and decided to take back Yumu through legal channels. Li Chongyuan hired a senior lawyer from Shanghai with a lot of money and drafted a petition on his behalf and forwarded it to the Beiping District Court.

In Li Chongyuan's capacity, even if he is rich enough to be an enemy of the country, he is just a clothed people. He and Ma Hongkui's lawsuit belongs to the "people's lawsuit against the officials", how dare the Beiping District Court accept it? Taking a step back, even if the "impartial judgment" is accepted and made, Ma Hongkui will ignore it. Therefore, within a few days, the Beiping District Court returned the petition to Li Chongyuan on the grounds that "Li Chongyuan is a descendant of Li Longji and lacks evidence."

Li Zhongyuan reached this step, and he was really angry. There is a very stubborn element in his personality, and the idea is set, and the goal must be achieved. If one road doesn't work, take another. The peach tree does not grow fruit, so go down to the plum tree. In desperation, Li Chongyuan made a decision: hire thieves to steal the Sacrifice Heavenly Jade from Ma Hongkui with heavy money!

Li Chongyuan talked to Li Mingnian about his idea, and asked Li Mingnian to try to find a thief with high stealing skills to complete the matter. Li Mingnian had a middle school classmate named Tang Tie who was an inspector at the Beiping City Police Station, and the two had a very close relationship, and they had the friendship of prostrating their heads and changing their posts. Li Mingnian went to Talk to Tang Tie about this matter and asked Tang Tie to help find a thief.

In the society at that time, the phenomenon of "collusion between police and bandits" abounded, and the metropolitan police such as the Beiping City Police Station had all kinds of behind-the-scenes contacts with six or seven police officers and thieves, robbers, habitual bandits, and habitual deceptions. Tang Tie, an inspector who has been a police officer for eight or nine years, has an extraordinary relationship with underworld figures. After accepting Li Mingnian's commission, he introduced a thief every three days. This thief, surnamed Hu, is in his forties, and it is said that he had been stealing from his teacher at the age of 8 and had been stealing for more than thirty years. Hu Mouyuan was in Nanjing, very famous on the underworld, known as "a mouthful of smoke", which means that you can open the door of the safe when you smoke a cigarette. Of course, this contains exaggerated elements, but Hu Mou's one-handed unlocking skills are well known to the underworld. It is said that in more than thirty years of theft, he has not encountered a lock that cannot be opened. In October 1929, a safe in the Party Department of the Kuomintang Central Committee failed, and it could not be opened with the original key. A copy of the original material stored in the box must be sent to Chiang Kai-shek's desk in Hangzhou before midnight that day. Chiang Kai-shek's attendant room invited three of the best locksmiths in Nanjing, and they tossed around the safe for 2 hours, to no avail. In a hurry, someone proposed to ask the police station for help. A phone call from the attendant room went to the Capital Police Department, where the torture technicians thought that the best locksmith in Nanjing could not solve this problem, so they went to the same place, so they retreated and kicked the ball to the thieves in Nanjing, so they asked "a puff of smoke" to come out. "A mouthful of smoke" is worthy of the name, the skill is superior, with a few wire hooks to smash the safe. When the news reached Chiang Kai-shek's ears, he wanted to play the role of "a puff of smoke" and let him go to the central government Xu Enzeng to correct the results. But "a puff of smoke" disappeared the day after the safe was opened. It turned out that "a mouthful of smoke" did not want to contaminate the official, and had quietly come to Beiping. Since then, "a puff of smoke" has lived in Beiping and developed his "career".

At the moment, "a mouthful of smoke" was brought by Li Mingnian to see Li Chongyuan. Li Chongyuan had already heard Tang Tie introduce the technique of "one breath of smoke", and he was very important and treated with courtesy. After the cold noise between the two sides, Li Chongyuan put the words on the right topic: "Please Mr. Hu, because you have long looked up to the great name, and there is a pile of business that wants to borrow from you." ”

"A puff of smoke" arched his hand: "Don't you dare!" What work please Mr. Li appreciates. ”

Li Mingnian interjected from the side: "This thing is done well, there is a huge reward!" Li Chongyuan said: "I bought this thing for 100,000 oceans, and the other party refused, so I asked Mr. Hu to take it, if you take it, this 100,000 yuan is yours!" ”

"A puff of smoke" was astonished: the bounty of 100,000 oceans, what exactly is stolen? Li Chongyuan explained the situation for a while, and finally said: "If Mr. Hu is willing to take this job, I can pay a deposit of 20,000 yuan first." ”

Unexpectedly, "a puff of smoke" changed his face and said: "Please Sir Mingjian, when Hu Mou first studied art with his teacher, the teacher's training had 'five no stealing': one does not steal officials, two does not steal bandits, three does not steal from the poor (poor), four does not steal from the sick (the sick), and five does not steal from the disabled (the disabled). The other party was an official in this job that Mr. Hu rewarded, and Hu did not dare to violate the bo teacher's training. I hope sir forgive me! ”

Li Zhongyuan "a mouthful of smoke" pushed back, knew that he was timid, not reluctant, smiled slightly, opened a check for 500 yuan, and sent a "mouthful of smoke" to walk.

These 500 oceans are "sealing money" and making "a mouthful of smoke" keep their mouths shut about this matter.

Li Chongyuan asked Li Mingnian to go to Tang Tie again to find a candidate. Tang Tie said: "This job requires finding a character with special skills and rich experience in committing crimes, so let me think about it." Tang Tie thought about this for a whole month, and Fang said to Li Mingnian: "I thought of a role - 'Thousand Faced Man' Shan Zhaosheng, and it is estimated that as long as he is willing to agree, this matter will most likely be successful." However, this boy is a cloud in the sky, a fish in the water, there is no suitable nest, and it will take some time to find him.

"It doesn't matter."

Tang Tie began to inquire about the whereabouts of the "Thousand Faced Man", and made a special trip to Tongzhou, Tianjin, Tangshan, and Baoding for this matter, until November of that year, when he found out that the "Thousand Faced Man" was in Shijiazhuang, so he sent someone to invite him to Beiping.

The "Man with a Thousand Faces" Shan Zhaosheng was 36 years old at the time, this person was originally a singer, and later because of the bad business, the drama team was disbanded, and everyone ran out. When this mountain was poor and destitute, he actually embarked on the underworld of theft. He gave full play to his original professional expertise, often disguised as women, old men, soldiers, police officers, civilian officials, etc. to break into rich households or organs, taking advantage of the inconvenience of people, seeing what was stolen, and "shooting a shot to change a place." Shan Zhao's salary has been a thief for several years, and he has a great reputation in the underworld, known as the "Man with a Thousand Faces". This time, the "Man with a Thousand Faces" heard Tang Tie say that there was a pile of business introductions, and if he could make a huge fortune by talking about the achievements of the business, he could enjoy his wealth in this life even if he never did any work, and he could not help but be thrilled, urging Tang Tie to quickly lead him to see the "upper family."

After Tang Tie introduced the "Man with a Thousand Faces" to Li Mingbao, he did not care, this was said in advance, he was eating police meals, and he could not brazenly participate in this case. After Li Mingnian and the "Thousand Faced Man" agreed on a date, they reported to Li Chongyuan. Li Chongyuan asked him to book a table at the front door of the "Biyunchun Restaurant" and asked his nephew to notify the "Thousand Faces" to go there to negotiate.

The next day, Li Chongyuan, Li Mingnian and the "Thousand Faces" met at the "Biyunchun Restaurant". After three rounds of wine, five dishes on the dish, the main and guest words into the main topic. This time it was Li Mingnian who came forward to negotiate, he started from Ma Hongkui Tai'an stealing treasure, said that the negotiation could not be completed, the lawsuit was rejected, and had no choice but to make this decision, asking whether the "Thousand Faced Man" was willing to take over this "deal".

The "Thousand Faced Man" drank a few glasses of wine, already a little red-faced, and grinned at the moment: "It should be said that there is no unsuccessful business, the key lies in the price." ”

"Price point? It's simple: we still pay 100,000 oceans to buy Jade! ”

The eyes of the "Thousand Faced Man" cleared: "100,000 oceans? ”

"Yes! 100,000 oceans. Pay a deposit of 20,000 in advance, and pay the remaining 80,000 with one hand and deliver the goods with one hand! ”

The Thousand Faces brightened with excitement: "Good! I will fight this time in my life, and when the opportunity is sent to the door, I will not do it now, when will I stay? ”

"Then we'll say for sure!" Tomorrow at 7 o'clock in the evening, please ask Mr. Shan to come to our house to collect the deposit. Li Chongyuan said and wrote the address on a blank piece of paper and handed it to the "Thousand Faced Man": "This is the address, you go to the outside of Desheng Gate, inquire about Li Chongyuan's residence, everyone knows." ”

The Man with a Thousand Faces picked up the address: "Good! I arrived on time! ”

After all, Li Chongyuan came from a business background, and he thought about the issue of money more carefully, thought about it and asked: "20,000 yuan deposit, Mr. Shan is impossible to take the silver ocean, the amount is too heavy, can not be moved." Do you want a check, or do you want gold? ”

The "Man with a Thousand Faces" thought for a moment and said, "You write the check, and I'll go to the bank by myself." ”

"Got it."

The next evening, Li Chongyuan opened a cash check that was "cashed when he saw the ticket", caged it in his sleeve, and sat in the living room with Li Mingnian, talking and waiting for the "thousand-faced man" to come to the door. After 7 o'clock, the "Man with a Thousand Faces" has not yet arrived. After waiting for more than an hour, the "Man with a Thousand Faces" still did not come. Li Chongyuan expected that things would change, so he stopped waiting and went back to the bedroom to rest. Li Mingnian was not at ease, and still sat there waiting, but did not wait until midnight.

The next morning, Li Mingnian went to Tang Tie and asked the other party to inquire after explaining the situation. In the afternoon, Tang Tie called Li Mingnian and said, "After returning to the accommodation last night, Tang Tie thought about it left and right, thinking that the success coefficient of this matter was relatively small, and it was not good to be caught by Ma Hongkui on the spot, and the guy who ate around his neck would move, so he decided not to do it.

Li Mingnian cried and laughed, so he had to report to his uncle. Li Chongyuan said: "Everyone has their own aspirations, and if he doesn't do it, it's just that." The old rule, send 500 yuan to the past, let him keep his mouth shut. ”

The "Thousand Faced Man" won 500 yuan of ocean out of thin air, and he felt that he was too unwilling to go, so he told Tang Tie that he was responsible for introducing Li Chongyuan to a friend who dared to do this and would definitely succeed. Tang Tie could no longer find the right person at this time, and he was very happy to hear it, and repeatedly asked for help.

The Thousand Faced Man disappeared as usual. About half a year later, when Li Chongyuan was no longer hopeful about this matter, the "Thousand Faced Man" suddenly came to the door. He told Li Chongyuan that it took him a lot of effort to get a master from Taiyuan, Shanxi, named Ye Dejun, who had the courage and skill to be able to get the sacrifice of heavenly jade.

Li Chongyuan was very appreciative of the "Thousand Faced Man'" for keeping his promise, so he also believed his words, believing that Ye Dejun was indeed a master of theft. Therefore, he immediately asked the "Thousand Faced Man" to inform Ye Dejun to come to the door.

Three days later, Ye Dejun stepped into the gate of Li Mansion alone, and compared with "a mouthful of smoke" and "a thousand-faced man", he was completely different: after meeting, he did not give gifts, opened a pair of strange eyes to look up and down at Li Chongyuan for a long time, and then sat uninvited, casually picked up the British canned imported cigarettes on the table, opened the lid and smoked. He smoked a cigarette differently, smoking two cigarettes at the same time, which made Uncle Lee stunned.

Ye Dejun smoked two cigarettes, and then took it upon himself to fill the half cup of tea that Li Fu's servants had only made, and took a sip of it, sighing and frowning when he heard It. After drinking a cup of tea, Ye Dejun spoke: "I have already heard the 'Thousand Faced Man' say something." However, according to the rules of the road, I still have to ask Old Uncle Li to say it himself. ”

Li Chongyuan then recounted in detail what he had said about "a puff of smoke" and "The Man with a Thousand Faces", and said at the end: "The price of this transaction has not changed, it is still 100,000 yuan in the ocean, and the deposit is 20,000 yuan in advance." I don't know what Mr. Ye intended? ”

Ye Dejun said, "Old Uncle Li, I can't reply to you at this time, can I allow me to go to Ma Hongkui's place for a visit before making a decision?" ”

Li Chongyuan liked his prudence and pragmatism, saying: "This is the best." However, whether this matter is successful or not, your travel expenses are all paid by me. If Mr. Ye has any difficulties, you must not force it, because this matter concerns your life. ”

Ye Dejun then went to Ma Hongkui to investigate the situation. At that time, Ma Hongkui's career had changed: in August 1931, Chiang Kai-shek appointed Ma Hongkui's cousin Ma Hongbin as chairman of the Gansu Provincial Government and Ma Hongkui as chairman of the Ningxia Provincial Government. Ma Hongkui believed that his merits were greater than his cousin's, and he should be the chairman of the Gansu provincial government, which was bigger in oil and water than Ningxia, so he delayed his appointment. When Chiang Kai-shek saw that Ma Hongkui did not listen to his own command, he was dissatisfied, and soon gave Ma Hongkui a color look: The Military Commission ordered that the 11th Army, which was originally headed by Ma Hongkui, be downsized to the 35th Division, with Ma Hongkui concurrently serving as the commander of the division, and the division headquarters located in Xinyang City, Henan Province, and ordered Ma Hongkui to go to Xinyang to participate in the command of the "encirclement and suppression" of the Red Army. Ma Hongkui had no choice but to go to Xinyang from Tai'an to take up his post. Therefore, Ye Dejun probed the situation this time and went to Xinyang. When Ye Dejun went to Xinyang, Ma Hongkui's headquarters was heavily guarded, and there were sentries inside and outside, and with his skills, he could not blend in. Therefore, Ye Dejun decided to retreat in spite of the difficulties and returned to Beiping to return the "deal" to Li Zhongyuan.

Li Chongyuan experienced this toss, but he also formed a desire for hope, so he let Li Mingnian stare at Tang Tie and look for a master of underworld theft. At this time, the "snitch" and "swallow Li San" who had committed many crimes in the urban and rural areas of Pingjin were arrested in Beiping, and were approved by Bao Yulin, the chief of the Beiping City Police Bureau, and sentenced to capital punishment, and on October 22, 1932, they were beheaded, which became a sensational news. Li Chongyuan asked Li Mingnian to tell Tang Tie that he hoped to find a "snitch" like "Swallow Li San" to complete the heavy task of stealing the celestial jade.

Taking advantage of the convenience of his many years of familiarity with the Beiping City Police Station, Tang Tie managed to consult the case file of the "Swallow Li San" case, and learned that "Swallow Li San" had a fellow disciple named Zeng Yifei, who often used the technique of flying eaves to walk the wall in the border areas of Hebei, Rehe, and Inner Mongolia. To this end, Tang Tie specially went to Shijiazhuang to find the "Thousand Faced Man" Shan Zhaosheng and asked him to go out to find Zeng Yifei, who was "floating on the grass". The "Man with a Thousand Faces" agreed and immediately went to Zhangjiakou.

"Thousand Faced Man" and "Grass Floating" do not know each other, but both sides are famous people and things in the underworld, and there are many friends, so they have been in the northern important town of Zhangjiakou for a week and hooked up with "Grass Floating". When "Cao Shang Piao" heard that there was such a "deal," he was very interested and promised to go to Beiping to discuss the matter with Li Chongyuan face to face after arranging all the relevant affairs in the Zhangjiakou area.

Three

In early February 1933, Zeng Yifei, the "Grass On the Drift", came to Beiping, and after secret negotiations with Li Chongyuan, the two sides reached an agreement: "Cao Shang Piao" stole the Sacrifice Heavenly Jade For Li Chongyuan within half a year, and Li Chongyuan paid the "Grass Floating" honorarium of 100,000 oceans; before that, Li Chongguang first paid the "Grass Floating" Ocean 5,000 yuan as an activity fund.

"Floating on the Grass" was thus officially put into the preparatory stage of the operation of stealing the celestial jade. At this time, Ma Hongkui's situation changed again: in September 1932, Chiang Kai-shek again appointed Ma Hongkui as the chairman of the Ningxia provincial government, and strictly ordered that he must go to Ningbo to take up his post. In this way, Ma Hongkui had to go north from Xinyang to Yinchuan City, the capital of Ningxia Province, in November of the same year. On February 7, 1933, Ma Hongkui was officially appointed chairman of the Ningxia Provincial Government, and at the same time concurrently served as the commissioner of the Ningxia Provincial Party Department of the Kuomintang (later renamed as the chairman of the committee) and the commander-in-chief of the 15th Route Army.

"Cao Shang Piao" was 34 years old at the time, and his martial arts were the same as those of "Swallow Li San", both of which belonged to the Taoist internal gong. According to the case file of the "Swallow Li San Case" left by the Beiping City Police Department of the Kuomintang, the master of "Swallow Li San" and the master of "Floating on the Grass" are brothers in the division, so the two are also called brothers of the master. According to "Swallow Li San" in a casual chat with the criminal police on a non-interrogation occasion, the light skills of "floating on the grass" are not as good as his, but the technical skills are stronger than his. This is one of the characteristics of "floating on the grass", and another feature is introverted and taciturn. It is said that "floating on the grass" can sometimes be ten days and a half months without saying a word.

"Grass on the Drift" because of his introverted personality, so on the other hand is good at thinking, he considers the problem carefully and meticulously, so when committing crimes, they are interlocked, as fast as a whirlwind, but they leave no traces. In 1928, "floating on the grass" single-handedly "flew" into the Soviet consulate in Zhangjiakou to commit theft, creating a small criminal case. Since the Zhangjiakou City Police Department was unable to solve the case, the Soviet side sent several criminal investigation experts from the Moscow Criminal Investigation Bureau to carry out investigations, but even the clues were not touched. This style of "floating on the grass" is an important reason why he has never lost his wind for more than ten years.

This time, the same was true after "Cao Shangpiao" arrived in Yinchuan, he considered that he was a "foreigner" and was easy to attract attention, so he did not inspect Ma Hongkui's mansion at all. At the foot of the West Gate City Wall of Yinchuan, "Grass On The Drift" rented an empty house to a Muslim family running a salt industry at a high price of 3 yuan per month, and bought a number of old homes as a "nest".

The next move of "Floating on the Grass" was a little strange: he asked the landlord to be a shop guarantee, went to the foreign car dealer to rent a foreign car, and became a foreign coachman. In about half a month, "Floating on the Grass" took advantage of the opportunity to pull foreign cars to run all over the city of Yinchuan, and was familiar with every street and alley. At the same time, he also observed the surroundings of the mansion where Ma Hongkui lived. He believes that although the walls of Mafu are more than one foot high and there are sentries outside the door, it is still relatively easy to sneak in with their own light skills. However, it is not enough to solve this point, he must also have a thorough understanding of the following two aspects of the situation:

First, the terrain inside the mansion and the layout and structure of the houses; there is also the alert situation, how many guards there are, how they are distributed, whether there are changes in day and night, and so on.

Second, second, where did Ma Hongkui hide the Celestial Jade Sacrifice? Is it hidden at home or in which bank? If it is hidden in the home, is it hidden in the bedroom or the office, or in the room of which wife? If it is deposited in a bank, what are the procedures for withdrawal? Where are the credentials? Wait a minute.

"Floating on the grass" pondered: In order to investigate the situation in these two aspects clearly, it is necessary to enter the Mafu for detailed observation, but it must not arouse the suspicion of anyone in the Mafu. It was obviously impossible to accomplish this matter with a man, only to find a woman.

"Floating on the Grass" analyzes the feasibility of this section with his clear thinking: Ma Hongkui was born in Gansu, and he has no roots in Ningxia. When he went from Xinyang to Ningxia this time, Chiang Kai-shek stipulated that he was only allowed to bring two regiments, so he did not dare to show off the market along the way, and each female relative was only allowed to bring one yahuan. Now, Ma Hongkui has settled in Yinchuan, and there are definitely too few Yahuan, so if you can find a suitable woman, you can mix into Mafu as a Yahuan. As for the "right woman", you can probably find it in a brothel. "Grass on the Drift" so he quit the foreign car, lied to the landlord that he had changed to the antique business, changed his outfit, and transformed into a "gentleman" wearing a robe and a horse coat. Looking for "eyeliner", "Floating on the Grass" began to visit the kiln. Yinchuan City is not big, there are more than thirty large and small kilns, "grass floating" a week down to turn around more than a dozen homes, and finally in a brothel with a "Supper Huan" sign found a prostitute named Wang Juli.

Wang Juli was 22 years old, born in a poor family on the outskirts of Yinchuan, and her father was grinding tofu for others. When she was 16 years old, her parents promised her to a mason in Yinchuan City, and the next year she married and came to Yinchuan City. More than three years after the marriage, when the mason was building a house for the owner, he unfortunately fell off the roof and died. Since then, Wang Juli has become a widow. This was already an unfortunate event in life, and several brothers of the deceased had a black heart, and conspired to sell her to "Supper Huan" as a "half-prostitute", with a value of 250 yuan.

"Half-prostitutes" is a form of prostitution for women in local brothels, i.e. half of the women who are sold belong to the brothel and half belong to themselves. Every day, he only went to the brothel for prostitution during the day or at night, and half or 6 hours were left to him. This kind of "half-prostitute" can be married, and can also be traded separately in skin and meat.

Wang Juli's "half-prostitute" is completely forced, so her other half of the time is sewing and washing for people, wanting to save 250 yuan for herself.

On that day, "Grass Drifting" went to "Supper Joy" to drink flower wine, and the old bustard saw him look like a broad businessman, and immediately called out the 5 most beautiful girls in the dean (the brothel rule is to call all prostitutes "girls" regardless of age) for him to choose. "Floating on the grass" somehow picked Wang Juli at once.

Wang Juli accompanied "Floating on the Grass" to drink, and the two talked very speculatively. "Grass On the Drift" learned from the conversation that the other party was a "half-prostitute" and a widow living alone, and could not help but be secretly happy, thinking that according to her appearance, posture and cleverness, it was not a problem to be a maid of the Ma family, and it was easy to control. Therefore, "Grass On the Drift" made an agreement with Wang Juli before leaving: to go to her house in the evening to meet and discuss the matter of redeeming herself.

In the evening, "Grass On The Drift" went to Wang Juli's residence and threw out 500 yuan on the spot, part of which allowed Wang to redeem herself, and part of which let her buy some clothes and jewelry. When Wang Juli was surprised, she couldn't help but be greatly moved, and knelt on the ground and prostrated her head repeatedly. That night, "CaoShang Piao" stayed at Wang Juli's place, and the two negotiated the plan proposed by "Cao Shang Piao" in the first joy of the bed: Wang Juli ransomed herself, went to Ma Hongkui Mansion to be a yahuan, and after finding out what "Cao Shang Piao" wanted to know, the two sides went to Beiping to get married, settled in the capital city, and grew old with white heads.

"Grass Floating" concealed his identity and mission, saying only that he was entrusted by people to find out where the celestial jade was hidden and to go on a mission. That Wang Juli was young, and the other had never seen the world, and she couldn't read, and at the moment she actually believed the words of "floating on the grass".

A few days later, Wang Juli went to Ma Hongkui's mansion and asked to be the Ma family's yahuan. The situation was indeed as estimated by "Floating on the Grass", and Ma Fu was preparing to recruit several Yahuan, and now Wang Juli took the initiative to come to the door, and she couldn't ask for it. At the moment, several of Ma Hongkui's wives came out to see Wang Juli and conducted a simple interview, all of which expressed satisfaction. However, Ma Hongkui had a rule that all the servants and servants recruited in the family must be personally seen and asked by him, and he could only accept them if he was satisfied, so he had to let Wang Juli wait and wait until the old man returned from the provincial government office to make a decision.

At noon, Ma Hongkui returned in a car, listened to his wife talk about the situation, and immediately asked Wang Juli to come. After a glance, the impression was good at first, and then asked a few questions, and was quite satisfied with Wang Juli's situation (Wang was concerned about according to the "grass on the floating", not said to be a prostitute, only said widowed), so he made a decision on the spot: Wang Juli went to Mafu the next day to do yahuan, worked for 6 hours a day, the salary was 4 yuan per month, and ate two meals at the owner's house.

Wang Juli went back and said, "Floating on the grass" is overjoyed. "Floating on the Grass" was a careful person, afraid that Ma Hongkui would send someone to understand Wang Juli's details, so he left Wang Juli that night and went back to the "nest" at the foot of the west gate city wall to rest. Before leaving, "Cao Shang Piao" and Wang Juli agreed that the two would meet their heads every three days at Wang Juli's residence.

Wang Juli entered the Ma Mansion as a servant ring, and at first did chores for the second aunt at Ma Hongkui's eldest son, Ma Dunhou. In this way, she simply could not detect the relevant situation in Ma Hongkui. Wang Juli was not happy to see that things were not done, and her heart was very anxious. However, the "grass floating" was calm, telling Wang Juli not to ask for it, and first clarify the terrain and vigilance of the Ma Mansion before talking. Wang Juli spent about half a month to intermittently find out the terrain and security situation of Mafu.

According to what Wang Juli said, "Floating on the Grass" drew a floor plan. Ma Hongkui's mansion was originally the official residence of the former Inspector of Ningxia, a large mansion with mountains and water and front and back gardens. "Floating on the grass" looked at the floor plan, and secretly snickered: the house covers a large area and the terrain is complex, which is just convenient for acting, and it is also convenient to escape after starting. Now, just wait to find out where the Celestial Jade Sacrifice is.

Coincidentally, an opportunity was sent to the door: at that time, Ma Dunhou was a cavalry brigade commander under Ma Hongkui, and when spring came, the cavalry had to go to the steppe areas for training as usual. On a whim, Martin wants to take the three wives out to open their eyes. Hearing Wang Juli say this, she said with great joy: "The opportunity has come—if you pretend to be sick and have diarrhea, they won't want you to follow the attendants." After Ma Dunhou and his wife have left, your body has recovered, and Ma Fu will not let you eat idle meals, so it is very likely that you will be placed in Ma Hongkui to work. ”

Wang Juli did as she said, went to the Chinese medicine shop to buy some croton, ground it into a powder, took some of it, and suddenly diarrhea. After Ma Dunhou's second aunt knew about it, she did not let Wang Juli accompany her, but temporarily drew a yahuan from Ma Hongkui's fourth aunt Liu Muxia's room to follow her to the Mawei Lake grassland dozens of miles away from Yinchuan. As soon as Ma Dunhou and his party left, Wang Juli's diarrhea stopped. The fourth aunt, Liu Muxia, asked Wang Juli to come to her place to wait. This Liu Muxia was the smallest and most favored of the four-room wives ma Hongkui married, so Ma Hongkui spent the most nights with her. Ma Hongkui must pound her legs every night, this Wang Juli is out of the brothel, doing this kind of work is a good play, the first time she punched, she won Ma Hongkui's praise: "This girl is well beaten, and it will be up to you to pound it later." ”

In this way, Wang Juli became Ma Hongkui's leg-pounding handmaiden. In the future, no matter which room Ma Hongkui stayed in, he asked Wang Juli to beat his legs. Wang Juli's name was hung in the room of the fourth aunt Liu Muxia, and everyone in the Ma government called her "the handmaiden in the fourth aunt's room". After Wang Juli became a leg-pounding maid of the moon, she actually found out the secret of the sacrifice of heavenly jade:——

It turned out that in the spring of 1933, Feng Yuxiang organized the Chahar People's Anti-Japanese Allied Army in Zhangjiakou. At that time, the warlord Sun Dianying (commander of the Kuomintang 41st Army) was stationed in Shacheng, and because Sun was originally Feng Yuxiang's old army, Feng sent people to contact Sun and wanted to win the 41st Army to join the anti-Japanese allied army. After Chiang Kai-shek heard the news, he was deeply afraid that Sun Dianying would be pulled over by Feng Yuxiang, so he sent Dai Kasa and Liu Jianqun to woo Sun Dianying many times and allow him to serve as the chairman of Chahar Province. However, Sun Dianying believed that he was in a difficult situation in Chahar, and he was unwilling to join the anti-Japanese allied army or serve as the chairman of the province, and deliberately preserved his strength as another plan. Chiang Kai-shek was very uneasy about Sun Dianying's stay in Chahar, so he came up with an idea: he appointed Sun Dianying as the inspector of tun reclamation in the western district of Qinghai, and allowed him to lead his 41st Army to Qinghai.

When Sun Dianying learned of Chiang Kai-shek's arrangement, he couldn't help but think that if he went from Chahar to Qinghai and crossed the provinces of Ningxia and Gansu, why not take the opportunity to break ma Hongkui, Ma Hongbin, and Ma Bufang (commander of the new Ninth Division of the Kuomintang Army and commander of the security of the southern border region of Qinghai, and his uncle Ma Lin and brother Ma Buqing "ruled Qinghai with three horses," and at that time their forces had developed from Qinghai to the Hexi region) one by one, annexed the northwest, and became the "king of the northwest."

Sun Dianying's idea was supported by Yan Xishan, who on the one hand told Chiang Kai-shek to make the appointment as soon as possible, and on the other hand gave Sun Dianying material support. Sun Dianying began to expand his army and tried to capture the three provinces of Ningxia, Gansu, and Qinghai, and create an independent situation. Of course, the above situation could not escape Ma Hongkui's intelligence network. Ma Hongkui was shocked to confirm that there was indeed a matter of fact. His first reaction was, "Sun Dianying expanded his troops, and I also expanded his troops." The expansion of troops must meet two conditions, one is the source of troops, and the other is the source of wealth. It is not difficult to solve the problem of Ma Hong's reversal, "erect a recruitment flag and have their own grain eaters", which is really not possible, and it is necessary to grasp Zhuang Ding. Ningxia is a poor place, and it is impossible to get so much money for a while. In order to solve this problem, on the evening of May 9, Ma Hongkui summoned Ma Dunhou and Ma Dunjing, the sons of two leading officers under his command, to the study (that is, Ma Hongkui's office at home) for discussion.

In the middle of the discussion, Ma Hongkui suddenly thought of beating his legs, so he asked the guards to summon Wang Juli. In this way, Wang Juli inadvertently obtained the information needed by "floating on the grass": the Ma father and son believed that the territory of Ningxia could not be lost, otherwise they would not be able to live and would eventually be expelled from the political arena. To avoid this, the army must be expanded even if money is taken out of private pockets. Ma Hongkui then mentioned several treasures that could be considered for exchange for money, the first of which was the Sacrifice of Heavenly Jade. Ma Dunhou and Ma Dunjing knew about Yumu, but they had never seen it, and when they saw that their father was very interested, they invariably asked to "open their eyes." Ma Hongkui was beaten comfortably by Wang Juli, and did not want to get up, so he took out the key from his pocket and handed it to Ma Dunhou, asking him to take out the small wooden box containing the heavenly jade from the iron cabinet in the corner of the house. As a result, Wang Juli obtained this confidential information.

At midnight on May 10, Wang Juli told the "grass on the float" and proposed to immediately prepare to go to Beiping to get married. "Grass on the Floating" said that because a business at hand had not yet been delivered, it was necessary to stay in Yinchuan for a few more days, and Wang Juli believed that it was true.

On May 11, "Drifting on the Grass" decided to act immediately sooner rather than later. That night, he hastily ate something and closed the door and went to bed to rest. Wake up and look at your watch: Just after 1 o'clock, it's the best time to get started. "Floating on the grass" climbed up, put on a black tight suit, opened the back window, came out through the window, jumped over the courtyard wall, and walked through the streets and alleys to the outside of Ma Hongkui's mansion.

Ma Hongkui's mansion consists of four large mansions with no less than hundreds of large and large houses. Enter the main gate, two gatehouses on the left and right. There are left and right doors in the courtyard, the right door is the stable, and the left door leads to the garden. There are 8 large trees in the courtyard inside the second gate, and through the courtyard, there is a large living room that can accommodate 50 people, and above the hall, there is a plaque of acid branches, and the name of the book hall is "Baile Hall". On the right side of the hall is a room of about 20 square meters, which is the guard chief room. Inside, from the inside to the outside, across a small courtyard for martial arts training, is a small living place with one hall and two rooms, and Ma Hongkui's study, reception room, and bedroom are located here. Further inside, there is the front garden, the inner house and the back garden.

"Grass Drift" knew that the concierge and the guard long room were guarded, and there were occasional mobile sentries in the laneway leading to the garden on the left, so he chose the stable on the right as a sneak point. The courtyard wall is about a foot high, of course, it is difficult to "float on the grass", he does not have to help run, only "poof" a few times on the wall, and then jumped down, almost without a sound fell to the ground.

"Floating on the grass" looked around and found himself standing in the open space in front of the stables, with a long slip of more than a dozen horses in the stables, chewing hay and occasionally hitting his nose a few times, only one dark horse stopped eating grass and looked at him fixedly. "Floating on the Grass" did not take the horse to heart, he was sure that the horse number was not there, so he wanted to sneak to the study according to the pre-conceived route: he jumped on the roof of the stable, walked from the roof to the inner courtyard wall at the second gate, walked along the wall to the courtyard, jumped into the courtyard, and then climbed over the roof of the house in the study and entered the study through the skylight.

"Floating on the grass" walked toward the stables, he absolutely did not expect that due to his own negligence, he would fall into a dangerous situation. The threat came from the tall horse that rushed to the "grass" and looked at the tiger. This horse was the mount of Ma Dunhou, the eldest son of Ma Hongkui and the commander of the cavalry brigade, named "Black Dragon Foal", 8 feet tall, 1 foot and 2 feet long from head to tail, and the whole body was pitch black, without a single variegated hair. The "Black Dragon Foal" is a famous stallion from the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, which not only runs fast, has endurance, but also is extremely spiritual. When the "grass floating" gently jumped into the horse's horn, it found by its sense of smell that this uninvited guest was neither its own master nor a groom, so it stared at the black shadow warily. At this moment, when the "grass drifts" approaching the stables, it may think that it is a horse thief, and immediately growls and hisses. In the middle of the night, the sound suddenly spread throughout the Ma family's mansion!

The "Black Dragon Foal" hissed, and the horseman who was sleeping in the gatehouse immediately woke up, and a stunned: This animal has never hissed when it reaches the battlefield, how can it be hissed endlessly today? He immediately got up in his clothes, grabbed his pistol and ran into the horse. The two guards in the courtyard also rushed in.

At this time, the "grass floating" had already jumped on the roof of the stable, heard footsteps, and took a few steps up over the roof ridge and fell down on the slope on the other side. The groom and the guard ran into the horse, and the "Black Dragon Foal" saw that the groom was coming, and his sense of security suddenly increased, so he stopped hissing. The three grooms searched around the horse with flashlights and found nothing unusual. The groom thought that he was not at ease, and jumped into the stable and inspected it under the belly of the horse, naturally he did not find anything, and felt strange in his heart, but he had to give up, and the two guards scolded and grinned and left.

"Floating on the grass" crouched on the roof of the stable, heard the three people leave, then went up to the wall of the second gate, performed light efforts all the way quietly, and soon arrived at the roof of the first hall and two rooms where Ma Hongkui lived. Ma Hongkui usually took turns spending the night in the four wives' rooms, and these two days he was worried about Sun Dianying's affairs, and his interest in the joy of the bed was greatly reduced, and he had to plan day and night to "refuse to enter the sun", so he spent the night in his bedroom.

The hissing sound of the "Black Dragon Colt" naturally woke up Ma Hongkui, who was born in the ranks, and he coughed: "Cough -- come!" ”

The guard in the living room outside the bedroom immediately pushed the door in: "What does the commander-in-chief command?" ”

"Listening to the sound is dun hou's 'Black Dragon Foal' calling, what happened?"

The guard replied, "As soon as the horse called, I went outside to inspect it, and I didn't see any unusual movement." ”

Ma Hongkui said: "These days are very special periods, we must be careful and careful, and be on strict guard!" ”

"Yes! Commander. ”

Ma Hongkui fell asleep for a while, but the guard did not dare to be careless, pacing around the living room. The light feats of "floating on the grass" were indeed great, and when he went up to the roof of the first hall and two rooms, he did not even alarm this guard! However, "floating on the grass" could not get out of the skylight because there was a guard in the living room, and he could not even remove the sunroof glass. This situation, "floating on the grass" has also been encountered in previous crimes, and it is all based on patience and waiting for the opportunity. At this moment, "Drifting on the Grass" also decided to wait, waiting for the guards to go out and walk around or sleepy and fall asleep. So he lay on the roof and waited.

Who knows, this guard was admonished by Ma Hongkui earlier, and he did not dare to slack off at all, but walked around in the living room, not leaving a single step. "Floating on the grass" was lying on the roof for more than two hours, and he heard a chicken chirping or two in the distance, probably at about four o'clock in the morning (he was wearing a watch, but he could not see the hands). "Floating on the grass" pondered that it would be impossible to wait like this, the sky was about to light up, and he had two choices in front of him: one was to return in vain and quietly withdraw from the Ma Mansion; the other was to find another way to enter the study to steal. Consider it down and decide to choose the latter one.

"Floating on the grass" quietly went down to the ground behind the house, and when he looked, he was facing the back window of the study, so he did not hesitate to start immediately. He reached out and pressed lightly on the window glass, and several cracks appeared in the glass; the palm of his hand shrank outward, and the broken glass was brought out. He put his hand in, pulled open the latch, opened the window, and climbed into the study.

The study was dark, and the "grass floating" groped to the iron cabinet where the celestial jade was placed in the corner of the room on the right. Who knows, when I accidentally bumped into a round stool, there was a "bang" sound! The guard in the living room immediately pushed the door and looked inside, and when he saw a man standing in the study, he couldn't help but shout, "There is a thief!" At the same time, he reached into his arms and pulled the trigger on the "grass floating"!

"Floating on the grass" saw that the situation was not good, and hurriedly pounced on the window. With a "bang", the bullet was deflected. The guards hurriedly fired a second shot, but "Floating on the Grass" had already jumped out of the window and rushed into the garden through the corner door on the side of the courtyard.

As soon as the gunshots rang out, the whole house was alarmed, and the guards on duty and the guards on duty rushed out of the house to pounce on the gunshots. Ma Dunhou and Ma Dunjing were surprised to hear that some thieves had broken into Ma Hongkui's residence, and they rushed over with knives and guns, only to see Ma Hongkui wearing pajamas, standing at the door of the living room with his hands crossed at the waist, with his face blue and gritting his teeth:

"Whole house search! Catch that daring thief boy! ”

Ma Dunhou and Ma Dunjing, as brigade commanders and regimental commanders, personally led more than a hundred guards to conduct a search in the whole province, and they searched until it was dark and found nothing.

"Floating on the grass" has long since escaped!

Four

Ma Hongkui usually has a violent personality, and when he gets angry, he does not recognize his relatives, and the two sons who lead the soldiers, especially the second son, Ma Dunjing, are often beaten by him. At this time, his mood was being disturbed by Sun Dianying, and he was restless, and he suddenly forked out such a case, and he couldn't help but be furious, and immediately summoned Ma Xiuwu, the head of the Military Justice Department, and ordered the punishment of the 7 guards who were on duty at the gate last night. Then, Ma Hongkui had Meng Lancheng, the chief of the Yinchuan City Police Bureau, summoned him, split his head and scolded him, and ordered him to investigate the case within three days and catch the thief. That Meng Lancheng still didn't know about last night's case (Ma Hongkui hadn't reported it at all), and he had the courage to ask and ask fangs before he knew, and he didn't feel a cold sweat.

Meng Lancheng was originally a deputy regimental commander under Ma Hongkui, and he was famous for not being afraid of death in battle. More than two years ago, when attacking Tai'an, he was the vice captain of the death squad and had a broken leg. Ma Hongkui saw this and rewarded him with the position of police chief after coming to Ningxia. He sat in this position for less than three months before he put on such a case, which is really "a tiger eats the sky, and there is no way to bite it." Back at the police station, he consulted with Deputy Commissioner Xie Yuan. Xie Yuan recommended to Meng Lancheng Zha Weiyuan, the captain of the criminal police brigade, saying that this person had been a criminal police officer for more than ten years and had rich practical experience, and would definitely be able to solve the case.

After Zha Weiyuan accepted the task, he took several criminal police officers to Ma Hongkui's mansion to investigate the scene and understand the situation. Ma Hongkui heard the news, and the order was only allowed to allow Cha Weiyuan alone to enter. Cha Weiyuan couldn't help but cry and laugh, so he had to go in alone.

Ma Hongkui met Zha Weiyuan in the living room at the scene, and said, "You made a strong effort to investigate Lao Tzu and caught the thief, I will give you a county magistrate!" ”

Cha Weiyuan explained the importance of understanding the situation, and then asked the thief what he intended to steal when he sneaked into the study. Ma Hongkui knew that the other party could not solve the case without telling the truth, so he said that there were some valuable antique treasures in the study, and it was estimated that the thieves had come to move the brains of these things. With that, Ma Hongkui led Cha Weiyuan into the study and opened the iron cabinet to let the other party see these "things" of his. When Cha Weiyuan looked at it, there were several boxes in the iron cabinet, which contained emeralds, night pearls, agates, jade tortoiseshells and other jewelry and handicrafts made of gold, which were said to be antiques of the Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties; in addition, it was the wooden box containing the heavenly jade.

Cha Weiyuan thought for a moment and asked, "With all due respect, judging from the commander-in-chief's eyes, which of these treasures is the most valuable?" ”

Ma Hongkui said without hesitation: "Naturally, this jade is this, there was an antique dealer who bid 20,000 yuan for 1 stick to buy, and I bounced it back." This is a unique treasure in the world, a priceless treasure, and whatever price is what price! ”

The two of them returned to the living room outside and sat down, and Cha Weiyuan asked again: "The commander-in-chief put these treasures in the study, who in your house knows?" ”

"No one knows except the dogs!" My study is like Lieutenant Gao's White Tiger Festival Hall, and ordinary people don't want to take a step! ”

Cha Weiyuan arched his hand: "Please Commander-in-Chief forgive me for speaking out..."

"Say, never blame you!"

According to the facts of the case, it is estimated that the thief knew the secret of the treasure in the commander-in-chief's study. Otherwise, there are more than a hundred rooms in your house, and he doesn't go to other rooms, so why should he touch this study alone? Therefore, I highly suspect that this case was committed in collusion between internal and external affairs. ”

Ma Hongkui thought that it was not unreasonable, and summoned the guards with a loud cry, asking him to quickly send his two sons. After a while, Ma Dun Hou and Ma Dun calmly rushed into the door breathlessly. Ma Hongkui spoke of Cha Weiyuan's analysis and asked, "Of the two of you, who told the second person the secret of Lao Tzu's treasure—including muttering to her mother-in-law?" ”

The "two horses" all said no. Ma Hongkui was about to get angry as he patted the table when the eldest son, Ma Dunhou, suddenly said, "Abba stop being angry!" I think of a detail that is estimated to be related to this case! ”

"Speak quickly!"

Ma Dunhou then said that the night before the father and son were discussing the important matter of "rejecting the grandson" in the study and taking out the sacrifice of heavenly jade, there was a section of Yahuan Wang Juli beating her legs. Ma Hongkui woke up like a dream and shouted, "Fuck! It must be this little bitch! Hurry up, hurry up and bring her in! ”

Seeing that it didn't take much effort to discuss the clues, Zha Weiyuan couldn't help but be overjoyed, saying: "With the respect of the commander-in-chief, it seems that there is no need to personally interrogate the suspect Wang Juli." If the commander-in-chief trusts me, he will hand her over to me for interrogation! ”

A word reminded Ma Hongkui: Since the police station is handling cases, which door do you? So he said, "So it's best!" You just have to judge that little bitch, and if she doesn't tell the truth, she will torture Lao Tzu and beat her to death! ”

"Obey orders! Please commander-in-chief wait to hear the good news! ”

At that time, Wang Juli was still at home, and she usually came to MaFu after 10 o'clock in the morning and left before midnight. Cha Weiyuan walked out of the Ma Mansion, briefly explained the situation to the criminal police waiting outside the door, and ordered the two people to go to Wang Juli's residence to monitor and follow wang after he left the door. Two other criminal police officers were sent to wait at the place where Wang Juli had to go to Mafu, hired a rickshaw to wait, and when Wang passed, the four of them would join forces to arrest him and use the rickshaw to pull him to the police station.

The purpose of this arrangement was to prevent Wang's accomplices from escaping when they found out that he had been arrested.

After a while, Wang Juli was arrested and put into the police station. Cha Weiyuan personally interrogated him, and as soon as he came up, he opened the door and said: "Wang Juli, the good thing you have done--the provincial government Chairman Ma's mansion was stolen by thieves last night. ”

Wang Juli was shocked: "I... I was at my own house last night! She did not know the true identity of "Grass Floating" and really thought that the case had nothing to do with her.

But Cha Weiyuan's next words made her change this view: "To tell you the truth, some of the treasures of Chairman Ma's family, such as the sacrifice of heaven and jade, are placed in the study, except for Chairman Ma's father and son, you know." What did you see when you pounded your legs the night before, and you don't have to forget it, do you? ”

Wang Juli's face changed, she lowered her head, and did not say a word.

Zha Weiyuan asked several times, but Wang Juli only did not open her mouth, so she used the torture device. As soon as she was punished, Wang Juli cried and said, "I am willing to tell the truth." In this way, she confessed to the police that she met "Feng Mengnan" ("Kusakami Floating" told her pseudonym) and a series of subsequent episodes.

Zha Weiyuan did not care about lunch and immediately rushed to Ma Hongkui to report the situation. When Ma Hongkui heard that Wang Juli was indeed a thief, he was furious and ordered: "Execute the shooting!" ”

Cha Weiyuan said: "It is naturally easy for the commander-in-chief to shoot this woman, but can it be lenient for a few days before executing it?" ”

"Why?"

"It is like this, Wang Juli confessed that 'Feng Mengnan' met with her every three days, usually at midnight. Usually, the person with the surname 'Feng' lives and does not know what he is doing, and it is very difficult to arrest him. Therefore, I want to use Wang Juli as bait to ambush a few brothers in her house tomorrow night to arrest the boy surnamed 'Feng'. ”

Ma Hongkui nodded, "Good! That's it! Captain Cha, you go and do it. ”

The next day was the meeting date agreed between Wang Juli and "Floating on the Grass". After dinner, Cha Weiyuan let Wang Juli out of his cell and said, "Chairman Ma reads that you are working diligently in his house, and you are young and ignorant, and you have been deceived, so you have the meaning of forgiveness, as long as you help to catch 'Feng Mengnan, keep you safe and sound, and release you immediately!'" ’’

After all, Wang Juli was only in her early twenties, and she really believed it to be true at the moment, but she didn't know how to "assist" the Fa. As soon as she said, Cha Weiyuan said: "Don't want you to do anything, you just need to go home after 10 o'clock and go home as usual, turn on the lights and wait for 'Feng Mengnan' to arrive, you can do it." ”

Wang Juli listened and nodded repeatedly.

Cha Weiyuan summoned 6 more elite criminal police officers and ordered, "At 9:30, you will set up an ambush around Wang Juli's house, and as soon as the surname 'Feng' appears, you will immediately arrest you!" ”

At this time, neither Ma Hongkui nor the Yinchuan Police Department knew and never thought that "Feng Mengnan" was a "snitch" with light skills. After being arrested on charges of "historical counter-revolutionaries" in the early days of liberation, Cha Weiyuan said of the case in the "My Autobiography" material written in prison: "At that time, I only thought that 'Feng Mengnan' was an ordinary thief, and it was more than enough to send 6 people to arrest him. Who knew that this idea was wrong, so that the arrest operation failed and caused a heavy loss of one death and three injuries. ”

The specific process of the arrest operation was like this - at 9:30 that night, 6 criminal police officers went to the ambush site according to the arrangement of Cha Weiyuan. After inspecting the terrain in front of Wang Juli's house, wang Shoulong, the leader of the group, made arrangements: two people climbed over the wall into Wang Juli's house and ambushed them in the courtyard; the four of them stood in the courtyard of the opposite family, only to wait for the target to appear before they attacked.

After 10 o'clock, Wang Juli returned home under the tracking and surveillance of two criminal police officers. The two criminal policemen waited for Wang to enter the house and returned to the bureau. After the arrest of "Feng Mengnan", Wang Shoulong and his group locked Wang Juli together and dismissed the situation. After Wang Juli returned home, she sat with the lights on as usual on the day of the meeting and waited for "Feng Mengnan" to arrive.

At about 11:30, "floating on the grass" appeared in the sight of the ambush police. Although the "grass floating on the grass" was meticulous, he did not expect that after he lost the wind in his crime, Ma Hongkui would actually suspect Wang Juli's head. Therefore, he walked straight to Wang Juli's door without any warning, raised his hand and gently knocked on the door. Inside the house, Wang Juli was waiting anxiously, when she heard the knocking on the door, she quickly agreed to come out and open the door.

As soon as the door opened, the "grass floating" crashed in one step, and was waiting to hug Wang Juli, when he suddenly heard a noise in the courtyard, and almost at the same time, the two ambushing criminal policemen pounced on each other left and right: "Don't move!" ”

"Floating on the grass" knew that it was not good, and pushed Wang Juli away, scolded "bitch", one sideways, a punch on the temple of the criminal policeman who pounced on the left side, knocking it down; almost at the same time, he raised his right leg and kicked at the small abdomen of another criminal policeman, and the person "Oops" squatted down with his hands covering his lower abdomen.

At this time, the four Wang Shoulong people who were guarding the homes of the ordinary people on the opposite side rushed out of the door together and flew straight to this side, "floating on the grass" heard the sound, expecting that the retreat road had been blocked, so they performed light work and flew into the house. Wang Shoulong did not see "Feng Mengnan" when he entered the door, looked up and saw that there was a figure on the roof, and only then did he realize that this thief was extraordinary, so he raised his pistol and hit the roof regardless of three seven twenty-one. "Floating on the Grass" lifted the tiles on the roof and threw them down, smashing the two police officers to the head and bleeding. The other two criminal policemen who were not smashed saw the situation and hid in the house in fright, and the "grass floating" took the opportunity to fly over the ridge.

After being sent to the hospital, the four criminal police officers who were injured this time died due to a burst of cerebral blood vessels; the one who was kicked, appeared hematuria, and it took three weeks to recover his health; the other two who were smashed by tiles and their heads were bandaged with stitches and discharged on the spot.

Five

When Zha Weiyuan, the commander of the criminal police brigade, heard that the arrest operation had failed, he was stunned and stunned, and immediately called Meng Lancheng, director of the Yinchuan City Police Bureau, to report the situation. Meng Lancheng was already lying down, and when he received a phone call, he realized that this matter was not trivial: this "Feng Mengnan" was a "snitch", and if he had sneaked into Ma Hongkui's mansion to carry out an assassination, it would be really unbelievable! Therefore, Meng Lancheng immediately got up and hurried to Ma Hongkui's mansion to report.

Ma Hongkui heard that "Feng Mengnan" was a "snitch", and his shock level was far greater than that of Zha Weiyuan and Meng Lancheng. He was well aware of the potential threat of "snitch": in the summer of 1932, "Swallow Li San" flew to steal Ma Hongkui's father Ma Fuxiang's mansion in Beiping. Although Ma Fuxiang was not in Beiping at that time, he was also shocked to hear the news, and since then he has been depressed and died of a heart attack on August 19. "Swallow Li San" was fully investigated by the police for committing the case, and was arrested and beheaded a few months later. Now, less than a year apart, another "snitch" actually targeted Ma Hongkui, how could this not shock him!

Ma Hongkui immediately issued a series of orders to detect the "snitch" Feng Mengnan throughout Ningxia Province. According to the village material of "My Autobiography" written by Cha Weiyuan in prison after liberation, in order to arrest "snitch", one or all of the personnel of the police and constitutional special units under the following organizations were dispatched at that time -

Police Security Department: Yinchuan Municipal Police Bureau (Criminal Police Brigade, Detective Team, Case Protection Team), County Police Department, directly under the Inspection Section;

Security Department: Plainclothes Team of Each Divisional Security Command, Plainclothes Team directly under the Department, and Spy Team directly under the Division;

Military Justice Division, Headquarters of the 15th Route Army: Plainclothes Unit, Gendarmerie Company, Inspector Chako;

The Intelligence Section of the General Staff Office of the Headquarters of the 15th Route Army: all brigades, regimental espionage agencies, plainclothes teams;

Ningxia Provincial Military and Police Joint Inspection Office: one inspection office in each county, gendarmerie company, cavalry patrol team, detective team, inspection section;

Plainclothes reconnaissance team of the headquarters of the 15th Route Army.

According to Cha Weiyuan's estimates, the total number of people involved in the detection of "snitch" by the above-mentioned institutions is about 8,500. However, so many police and constitutional personnel tossed and turned for three days, and even the shadow of the "snitch" was not even glanced at.

Meng Lancheng, the head of the municipal police station in charge of the investigation operation in Yinchuan, tossed and turned enough on a prosthetic leg, just when Ma Hongkui summoned him to ask how the case was handled, Meng Lancheng said: "Report to the commander-in-chief, I estimate that this boy has left Yinchuan, and even left Ningxia!" ”

Ma Hongkui thought for a moment and said, "A small Yinchuan City, so many people have searched for three days, and they have not found any trace, this boy has probably left Yinchuan." Meng Lancheng took the opportunity to request the collection of troops, saying that the brothers would be tired and tired if they searched any longer. Ma Hongkui agreed.

In fact, "Cao Shang Piao" did not leave Yinchuan City, he hid in the backyard of "Dayuan Trough Fang", which was only a stone's throw away from Wang Juli's residence. The backyard of the "Dayuan Trough" is full of pottery for brewing, and the stacks are higher than the two-story buildings. "Floating on the Grass" hides in the middle of one of the tops, and there are also several empty kuns pressed on it. Those detectives who came to search, one accepted the "hard money" stuffed by the owner of the slot (the boss was afraid that they would smash the wine); the second was that they did not dare to climb on the stack, for fear of accidentally overturning the rolling wine, so the search was not very hard, and naturally did not find "grass floating". "Floating on the Grass" hid there, sleeping during the day and sneaking out at night, stealing some food from the kitchen of the trough to fill his hunger while climbing the fence to see if martial law had been lifted.

In this way, the "grass floating" mixed for four days. By the evening of the fourth day, "Grass Floating" found that the police had collected the troops, and could not help but be secretly happy, and decided to go to steal the Heavenly Jade Sacrifice again.

As a professional thief, "Floating on the Grass" is well versed in the anti-theft psychology of the target. He analyzed Ma Hongkui's psychology: he must have believed that he had fled Yinchuan or even Ningxia Province, and he would never have thought that he would steal again, so Ma Fu's defense was very lax. This laxity refers to the fact that, overall, it is estimated that there is tightness and relaxation in the 24 hours of the day. When is the loosest? Generally speaking, it is dusk. Therefore, "Floating on the Grass" decided to "pinch the lamp flower".

"Pinch the lamp flower" is the jargon of stealing the underworld, which means to commit a crime when the oil lamp is lit at dusk. Because at this time, people are usually eating dinner, the most lax prevention, the most easy to do the crime.

At dusk on the 5th day, "Drifting on the Grass" took advantage of the twilight and the dim darkness to cross the wall from the backyard of the "Dayuan Trough" and sprint all the way to the vicinity of Ma Hongkui's mansion. Take a quick turn, fly up the wall, and dive into the front garden.

On this day, it was also a coincidence that Ma Lin, chairman of the Qinghai Provincial Government, and the warlord Ma Bufang, in order to deal with Sun Dianying's attack on the three northwestern provinces, sent a special envoy to Yinchuan to discuss with Ma Hongkui the matter of "the three provinces of Qinghai, Ningbo, and Gansu jointly rejecting Sun." This proposal was right in Ma Hongkui's heart, so the envoy was warmly welcomed. On this night, Ma Hongkui set up a banquet at the "Changren Halal Hall" to entertain the Qinghai envoys. In this way, most of the guards went to guard, and only a small part of the Ma Mansion remained, and the vigilance was naturally invisibly relaxed.

After sneaking into the front garden, "Floating on the Grass" followed the path of escaping from danger a few days ago, and under the cover of twilight, he came to the back of Ma Hongkui's study in a short while. Since the incident occurred here, Ma Hongkui ordered that he must be on duty at night, regardless of whether he is there or not. However, the sentry did not enter the scene until 9 o'clock, and there was not even a ghost in the courtyard at the moment.

In order to get out of the way smoothly, "Floating on the Grass" would rather take a little more time to fly up to the roof and remove the tiles to the study, rather than take the road to breaking the glass. After entering the study, he immediately pried open the iron cabinet in the corner of the room, took out the small wooden box containing the sacrificial jade, carried it in his arms, and then closed the cabinet door again. There were other valuable treasures in the iron cabinet, but the "Grass Floating" did not take a single one. This was the rule of the professional thieves of the grade at that time, ready to steal what they wanted, until the last resort, never take the sheep and steal more stolen goods, it is said that "stealing is also the way".

"Floating on the grass" went up to the roof, casually re-covered the tiles, and then jumped to the ground and escaped from the same road from the Ma Mansion.

At 9 o'clock, the guard on duty entered the scene on time. The key to the small courtyard door was usually in the hands of Ma Hongkui's chief guard, Ma Xiaoguang, and all the vigilance matters in the mansion were also arranged by him. At the moment, Ma Xiaoguang took two guards on duty into the courtyard, checked the doors and windows of the living room, bedroom, and study, the door lock was intact, the window was tightly closed, only to say that everything was intact, and left after a few words. On this night, Ma Hongkui came to the small courtyard, and the guards on duty changed posts once every four hours, a total of two changes. Every time the changing of the guard carefully checked each other's doors and windows, there was nothing unusual, so they only thought that it was safe and sound.

The next day, it was as above. It was not until 40 hours after the "grass floating" crime, that it was about 10 a.m. on the third day, that the Ma mansion discovered that the theft had occurred. That morning, Ma Hongji instructed Ma Xiaoguang that Ma Hongbin, chairman of the Gansu Provincial Government, would come to the mansion in the afternoon, because he was Ma Hongkui's cousin, and this time he came to Yinchuan to secretly discuss the matter of "four horses rejecting Sun" (referring to Ma Hongkui, Ma Hongbin, Ma Bufang, and Ma Buqing's joint army against Sun Dianying and blocking his entry into the three northwestern provinces), so he was ready to receive him in the study and let the study be cleaned. Ma Xiaoguang then took a few guards to clean up, opened the door and went in, and saw that there was a thick layer of coarse dust in the middle of the study. Ma Xiaoguang looked up at the roof, only to find that there were black cracks in the white ceiling, and he was shocked:

"Not bad! The roof has been uncovered! ”

Several guards were shocked when they saw it, and they didn't know what to do there. Ma Xiaoguang returned to his senses, rushed to the iron cabinet with an arrow step, crouched down to look, almost lost his front hoof, and made a sound from between his teeth: "Oops! ”

Everyone present did not dare to move the iron cabinet that had been opened by the "grass floating", and Ma Xiaoguang personally stood at the door of the study to guard the scene, and at the same time ordered the guards to report the situation to Ma Dunchong, the housekeeper of the Ma Mansion and Ma Hongkui's cousin. When Ma Dun heard the news, he did not go to see the scene first, and immediately called the provincial government to report the case to Ma Hongkui.

Ma Hongkui was shocked to hear the news, and immediately interrupted the ongoing meeting of the provincial government committee and drove back to the mansion. Only at this time, the iron cabinet was opened, Ma Hongkui personally counted, found that there were many other treasures, the only one who lacked the incalculable value of the sacrifice of heavenly jade, could not help but be angry, only full of anger and trembling, looking up at the cracks in the ceiling, muttering in his mouth: "'Snitch', powerful!" terrible! ”

Six

Meng Lancheng, chief of the Yinchuan City Police Bureau, received a call from Ma Hongkui's secretary, and was shocked as if there were many ants crawling around on his back, and said to Zha Weiyuan, who was present: "How is this possible?" The whole city searched for three days and three nights without showing up, and as soon as the search was over, this 'snitch' sneaked into Chairman Ma's mansion to commit a crime and succeeded! ”

Cha Weiyuan said: "At this point, we can only go to Mafu immediately to investigate the scene and then say, first determine whether it is a 'snitch' crime, and then make consultations." ”

Therefore, Meng Lancheng and Zha Weiyuan went straight to Ma Hongkui's mansion. The whole mansion was in a panic, and the housekeeper Ma Dunchong had commanded all the guards and servants of the whole house to inspect all parts of the mansion, worried that the mysterious "snitch" was still in the mansion. Ma Hongkui saw Meng Lancheng, and his first sentence was full of murderous anger:

"You with the surname Meng listen, give you 10 days, if you can't find the heavenly jade butterfly, you will come to see you!" After Ma Hongkui finished speaking, he squinted at Cha Weiyuan and added: "You can't escape Zha Weiyuan!" ”

Meng Lancheng and Zha Weiyuan were both frightened and pale, and did not dare to say a word. Ma Hongkui stared at them with hatred, as if the Sacrifice Heavenly Jade Was stolen by these two people, and with a wave of his hand, he waved his hand and said, "What are you still stunned about?" Check it out! ”

Meng Lancheng and Cha Weiyuan retreated to the courtyard, pondered for a while, and discussed the division of labor: Meng Lancheng immediately returned to the police station and began to arrange martial law to investigate the "snitch"; Zha Weiyuan stayed in Mafu to conduct on-site investigation, and immediately returned to the police station to study the cracking of the case after the investigation. Zha Weiyuan led several criminal police officers to investigate up and down the study, determined that the case was indeed committed by the "snitch", and concluded based on the footprints and traces left by the "snitch" at the scene: the case occurred 24 hours ago.

Cha Weiyuan returned to the police station and reported the on-site investigation to Meng Lancheng. Meng Lancheng's heart was half cold: "This case happened at least 24 hours ago, the 'snitch' must have slipped out of Yinchuan City, made a bad mess, and left Ningxia Province a long time ago!" How is this good? ”

Cha Weiyuan said: "Bureau, Ma Hongkui personally said that if this case cannot be solved, you and I will not be able to escape the interference." Therefore, even if the 'snitch' has fled Ningxia Province, we must try to catch him back and recover the stolen goods. Only in this way can we get President Ma's forgiveness. ”

Meng Lancheng nodded continuously, "Captain Cha is right!" In this way, I, the bureau chief, are laymen in solving cases, and you are an insider, and this matter is up to you to grasp with full authority, and the orders are all in my name. At this point, you and I are two grasshoppers tied to a rope, and if you can't run, you can't jump me, and you can't distinguish between superior and inferior levels. After this difficulty, my position as the director of the bureau will be up to you to sit, and I will not do it! Fuck, fucking this bureau chief is more difficult than being a daredevil captain, not at all cool! ”

Zha Weiyuan then began to investigate the case with all his might, after all, he had eaten more than ten years of criminal investigation food and knew the way to solve the case. After some analysis, Zha Weiyuan identified two points:

(1) Judging from the fact that the "snitch" redeemed Wang Juli and arranged for her to enter the Mansion in order to find out the situation of Ma Hongkui's mansion, this was a premeditated case with careful planning; (2) since it was a premeditated case, the criminal must have considered the problem of retreating after his hands, so the criminal had already fled Ningxia with the stolen goods at this moment. Therefore, the only way to investigate the criminals is to go to other provinces. But where did the perpetrators go? This point should first be clarified. Zha Weiyuan further considered it and believed that since this case occurred for the sake of the sacrifice of the Heavenly Jade, it was necessary to go to Ma Hongkui, the owner of the Heavenly Jade Sacrifice, for the first step of understanding. Therefore, Cha Weiyuan decided to ask to see Ma Hongkui.

Ma Hongkui was not impressed with Cha Weiyuan's request. According to Zha Weiyuan's later recollection in "My Autobiography", Ma Hongkui did not want to receive him at first, and asked the housekeeper Ma Dunchong to meet him on his behalf. However, Cha Weiyuan grasped Ma Hongkui's desire to recover the sacrifice of Tianyumu, and asked Ma Dun to rush to Ma Hongkui to report: Now the clues of the investigation must be provided by Chairman Ma himself, otherwise the case cannot be investigated. Ma Hongkui listened, and only then did he send a message for Cha Weiyuan to meet him.

Zha Weiyuan met with Ma Hongkui and briefly analyzed the situation. Ma Hongkui's thinking was very clear, and he accepted Zha Weiyuan's analysis at once. He asked, "What do you need from me now?" ”

Cha Weiyuan said: "What I need to find out is: how did this rare treasure get into the hands of Chairman Ma?" Who knows when it comes to you? Has anyone ever offered to transfer or showed a special interest in it? ”

Ma Hongkui then introduced the treasure theft in Tai'an and Li Chongyuan's attitude towards the sacrifice of Heavenly Jade. Zha Weiyuan immediately asked, "What kind of character is this surname Li?" ”

Ma Hongkui said: "I heard that it is a businessman in Beiping, but I don't know the details. However, since he was willing to pay 100,000 oceans to buy jade sacrifices from me, he must be a rich man. ”

Cha Weiyuan said: "The information you provided by Chairman Ma is very important, so I will start to investigate." In the name of Chairman Ma, could we send a telegram to the residence of Lord Lingzun of Beiping, asking him to learn about Li Chongyuan's situation on his behalf? At that time, although Ma Hongkui's father Ma Fuxiang had died, The Peiping Ma Mansion was still there, and the Arima family lived there. Therefore, it was the safest move to send a telegram in the name of Ma Hongkui to have them investigate Li Chongyuan. Ma Hongkui pondered a little and agreed to Zha Weiyuan's request.

After Zha Weiyuan left Mafu, he immediately went to the telegraph office and sent an urgent telegram to The Beiping Mafu, asking him to learn about Li Chongyuan's situation and directly call back to the criminal investigation brigade of the Yinchuan City Police Station.

At 9:00 a.m. the next day, a round call was sent from The Peking MaFu, also urgent, to introduce Li Chongyuan's relevant situation, including resume, assets, and address. After reading the telegram, Zha Weiyuan said to Director Meng Lancheng: "It seems that this case is related to Li Chongyuan, who claims to be a descendant of Tang Xuanzong Li Longji, and I suspect that he bribed the 'snitch' with a huge amount of money to steal from Yinchuan." I am now ready to take a few people to Peiping for a secret investigation. ”

Meng Lancheng has six gods and no master, everything listens to Cha Weiyuan, immediately agreed, and approved 800 yuan to Cha Weiyuan as a detective fund, saying that if it is not enough, you can send a telegram back, and then try to raise funds and wire transfers. At that time, 800 yuan was a large amount, and the Yinchuan Police Department's one-month case handling budget was only 1200 yuan.

Cha Weiyuan took four criminal police officers and left Yinchuan for Beiping overnight.

After Zha Weiyuan and his party arrived in Beiping, they did not contact the Beiping City Police Station. Cha Weiyuan has eaten police meals for many years, and he has a good understanding of the inside story of the police circles, knowing that in all the police stations in the metropolis, there are policemen who have collusion with the underworld, and if he goes to contact and assist in the investigation, it is equivalent to reporting to the other party, and the case will never be solved. So, Cha Weiyuan decided to investigate on his own.

Cha Weiyuan first went to the Desheng Gate to inspect Li Chongyuan's mansion and the surrounding situation. The next day, Cha Weiyuan sent a criminal policeman to a resident's house just over ten meters away from Li Chongyuan's mansion, rented the room on the second floor next to the road at a high price, and the five people immediately moved in, and from then on they took turns to monitor the gate of Li Chongyuan's mansion day and night.

The idea of Zha Weiyuan's move was that after the "snitch" stole the sacrifice of Tianyu, because he was a thief and was worried about being hunted, he would not necessarily take the nearest road directly like they went to Beiping, he might take a detour, so it was very likely that he would arrive in Beiping later than them; moreover, if the "snitch" was hired by Li Chongyuan, he would worry about whether Li Chongyuan would change after he won? Will it kill people? Therefore, it is unlikely that as soon as he arrives in Beiping, he will directly deliver the stolen goods to Li Zhongyuan. Therefore, the "snitch" is likely to enter and exit Li Chongyuan's mansion in these days. Surveillance is the best way and means to find "snitch".

As it turned out later, the situation was indeed as Zha Weiyuan had estimated. After Zeng Yifei succeeded in "Floating on the Grass", considering that Ma Hongkui would go all out to arrest him after discovering that tianyu was stolen, he played a little trick when he fled Ningxia: instead of taking the short road from Gansu to the provincial border, he gave up the near and far, first to Qinghai, and then from Qinghai to north China. When I arrived in North China, I was not in a hurry to go to Beiping, but stayed in a hotel in the British Concession of Tianjin.

Even now, "Floating on the Grass" was not in a hurry to contact Li Chongyuan, he knew what kind of valuable case he had made, and he also knew that his opponent was a major official who held the great power of the party, government, and army in Ningxia Province, so he absolutely did not dare to take it lightly. He stayed in the hotel and kept analyzing the situation, and finally came to the conclusion that the only breakthrough to solve this extraordinarily large theft case was Li Chongyuan. Therefore, before contacting Li Chongyuan, it should be clarified whether there has been any change in the situation in Beiping. In order to find out the situation and think of the "Thousand Faced Man" Shan Zhaosheng, the matchmaker between him and Li Chongyuan, he wrote a letter to Shijiazhuang according to the address left by the "Thousand Faced Man", explaining the relevant situation and requirements, and asking the "Thousand Faced Man" to go to Beiping to find out whether there had been any changes in Li Chongyuan, so as not to risk coming to the door and throwing himself into the net.

After receiving the letter from "Floating on the Grass," the "Thousand Faced Man" Shan Zhaosheng immediately went to Beiping to learn about the situation from Tang Tie, the inspector of the municipal police station, and Tang Tie told him that everything was normal. The "Thousand Faced Man" immediately rushed from Beiping to Tianjin and explained the situation of the visit in front of the "grass floating on the grass."

At this point, "Floating on the Grass" confirmed that everything was safe and sound. But he somehow had a premonition that he couldn't go to Beiping. Thinking about it, I decided to send a telegram to Li Zhong in Beiping, asking Li to come to Tianjin with money to pick up the goods.

The above situation was naturally unclear to the five people of Cha Weihuan at that time, they had been monitoring there for four days and four nights in a row, and they had not found that the "snitch" had come to li house, nor had there been any other signs of abnormality. The four criminal policemen were a little discouraged, doubting that this plan would not work, and could not help but complain. But Cha Weiyuan insisted that the plan would be fruitful, and let his subordinates patiently defend the ambush.

At noon on the fifth day, the surveillance post found that a green-clad postman from the Post and Telecommunications Bureau had delivered a telegram to Li Chongyuan's mansion on a robotic bicycle, and reported it to Cha Weiyuan. Zha Weiyuan jumped up at once: "This may be a situation - Old Man Li has not been in business for many years, his children are in Beiping, and he lives together, who will send him a telegram?" Don't the horn of the thief Tianyu mu send him a telegram, and the agreed place is 'one hand to pay, the other hand to deliver'?! ”

The four subordinates of Cha Weiyuan all echoed in unison, agreeing with the captain's analysis. Cha Weiyuan pondered for a long time and decided to send someone to the post and telecommunications office to check the manuscript of the telegram. Considering that this move might be known to the Beiping City police, just in case, he came up with a method: to send a criminal police officer surnamed Xu who had just been transferred from the Wuzhong City Police Station in Ningxia Province to the Yinchuan City Police Station (because his certificate was still from the Wuzhong City Police Station) to the Post and Telecommunications Bureau to check the copy of the telegram, but on the pretext that it was for other reasons, it had absolutely nothing to do with Li Chongyuan.

Xu was ordered to go to the Post and Telecommunications Bureau, found the director, showed his id, and said that he had been sent to Beiping to guard a local murderous bandit, and was now staying in a nearby hotel, waiting for the Ningxia side to telegraph clues, and did not want to wait for a long time, so he came to the Post and Telecommunications Bureau to see if he had mistakenly cast or withheld the telegram. The director of the post and telecommunications bureau listened, did not say a word, and immediately summoned the director of the telecommunications office to let him take the manuscript of the receiving electricity in the past few days and let Mr. Xu personally consult it.

Xu Mou investigated and soon found the telegram sent to Li Chongyuan by "Floating on the Grass", the full text of which is as follows:

The goods have arrived. Please bring the cash check of "cash at the sight of the ticket" to the door of Tianjin Luzutang at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday to meet, you must come in person, and you will not wait.

Xu memorized the full text of the telegram, turned over other telegrams for a while, and pretended to be disappointed and resigned.

When Cha Weiyuan heard the report, he said with great joy: "Sure enough, it did not come as I expected!" Well, I finally survived to the end! ”

At first they wanted to go to Tianjin immediately and arrest the "snitch" after finding out the foothold of the "snitch" from the telegram manuscript of the Tianjin Post and Telecommunications Bureau, but they also considered that the address left by the "snitch" was most likely false, and it was better not to investigate it and bear the danger of leaking secrets. So he changed his original intention and decided to send two people to Tianjin first, and the day after tomorrow (Wednesday) disguised into Lu Zutang to prepare to arrest the "snitch"; the other three followed Li Chongyuan in disguise and followed him to Tianjin, at which time the 5 people would arrest the "snitch" together, regardless of Li Chongyuan.

Cha Weiyuan said: "Last time in Ningxia Wang Shoulong's group of 6 people to take this 'snitch' also failed to win, he himself fell one death and three injuries." Therefore, when you go to the next hand, everyone should be smart and see if you can shoot, but don't hit the key parts, you want to live. ”

Xu Mou and the others said in unison: "Understand! ”

Therefore, Xu Mou and criminal police officer Lao Zhang went to Tianjin first. Here, the three of them watched for more than a day, and by early Wednesday morning, they saw Li Chongyuan, accompanied by his nephew Li Mingnian, out of the door, knowing that he was going to the train station. So they called a foreign car straight to the front door station, and sure enough, they saw Li Chongyuan and Li Mingnian sitting in the waiting room. After a while, Zha Weiyuan and the three of them boarded the train to Tianjin with "Er Li".

However, it was said that the criminal police Xu and Zhang had arrived in Tianjin the previous day and stayed in a hotel just a stone's throw away from Lu Zutang. This morning, the two disguised themselves as begging for food and called Hanako, dressed in tattered clothes, holding a dog stick and a broken basket in their hands, and came to Lu Zutang. Located in Hejia Hutong, Ruyi'an Avenue, Tianjin, this Lü ZuTang is a Taoist temple dedicated to the statue of Lü Dongbin in the Qing Dynasty. It was built in 58 years of the Kangxi Dynasty and rebuilt during the years of Qianlong and Daoguang. The main buildings are the mountain gate, the front hall, the apse, the east and west wing rooms and the Five Immortals Hall. When the Boxer Rebellion arose in Tianjin in 1900, the famous Leader of the Qianzi Regiment, Cao Futian, led the people of the regiment to set up a general altar here, and other leaders such as Zhang Decheng, Liu Chengxiang, and Lin Hei'er, the leader of the "Red Light Illumination", often came to this altar to discuss matters. Therefore, Lü Zutang was a famous place in Tianjin, and at that time, everyone knew about it. At the moment, Xu and Zhang occupied a piece of land under a large tree on the inside of the gate, and from here, everyone outside the gate was in sight.

At 10:30 a.m., a rickshaw came to the gate of Lu Zutang, stopped, and from above came a tall man wearing a black silk satin robe and a coffee-colored top hat. Holding a cane in his right hand and a black cowhide briefcase in his left hand, this person got out of the car and looked around for a while, pulling out his leg and walking towards the inside of Lu ZuTang. Xu Dingqing looked at it, it was the "snitch" and "Feng Mengnan" who had met him (Xu participated in the action of Wang Shoulong's group to arrest "Grass Floating"), and could not help but be overjoyed, and hurriedly handed Zhang a look.

"Floating on the grass" looked at his watch, the appointment time was not yet up, a little contemplation, he stepped into the gate and walked towards the inside of The Lu Zu Hall. When he walked past Xu and Zhang, the two desperately wanted to pounce on them and arrest them. But thinking that this person's kung fu is extraordinary, not something that two people can deal with, he gave up this idea. Xu mou made a secret call to his companions, and Zhang mou followed the "snitch".

After a while, a taxi came li zhongyuan and Li Mingbao, and after they got off the car, they saw that the "grass floating" had not yet appeared, only to think that the person had not yet arrived, so they walked into a reed mat shed on the right side of the gate, sat at the table, beckoned the stall owner to brew two bowls of jujube tea, asked for a plate of watermelon seeds, drank the tea and bumped the melon seeds, and waited for the "grass floating" to appear.

At this time, the three people of Cha Weiyuan also arrived in a rickshaw. They pretended not to know each other, and the two sat at the food stall outside the door to taste snacks, while Cha Weiyuan came to sit down in the lushi shed and drank tea at the table next to "Er Li". Disguised as a businessman, he wears a blue khaki beanie hat on his head, and as long as he reaches out and takes off the hat twice, it is a signal to catch the "snitch".

At 11 o'clock, the "grass floating" came out of the Lu Zu Hall and turned around outside without hurrying to observe whether there was anything unusual. He thought everything was normal, so he walked into the ash mat shed.

Li Mingnian had already stared at the "grass floating", when he saw him come in, he stood up in a hurry, nodded his head, and smiled: "Mr. Zeng is so wow!" ”

"Grass on the Floating" nodded, and walked to Li Chongyuan without hurrying: "Mr. Li, you are always very punctual!" ”

Li Chongyuan laughed and said, "How dare you not be on time for such a big thing!" ”

During the conversation, "Grass Floating" sat down in front of "Er Li", and the black leather bag was placed on the table. Li Mingnian saw That Li Zhongyuan was staring at the black leather bag with a good eye, so he asked, "Mr. Zeng brought the goods?" ”

"Grass on the Drift" nodded slowly, and smiled lightly: "Nature has brought." 'One hand to pay, one hand to deliver' is the rule of the road, how dare Zeng violate it! ”

Li Chongyuan heard the words "floating on the grass" and hurriedly said: "Check, the old man has brought it." ”

"Is it a cash check that 'cashs at sight'?"

"Good value for money"

"Which bank?"

"Commerce & Commerce Bank."

Li Chongyuan said, took out the check and lit it up: "Please Mr. Zeng see accurately, is this the number?"

"It's this number."

"Grass on the drift" rolled his eyes, "However, this is to ask Mr. Li to accompany Zeng to a bank, take the money out, and take the paper money." ”

Li Chongyuan, who has been in business all his life and has exceptionally rich experience, laughed at the moment: "Mr. Zeng is suspicious that there is a problem with this check, right?" It doesn't matter, the old man accompanies you on a trip. However, before going, the old man had a small request..."

"Please speak!"

"The old man wants to see your goods."

"Of course you can."

"Floating on the grass" rolled his eyes and reached for the black leather bag. Just at this moment, something happened that surprised both the "Snitch" and the "Erli" - the corner of the Ashock shed suddenly collapsed with a "whoosh" sound!

How could a well-toed reed shed suddenly collapse? This is the hand and foot of the criminal police who are chasing after the "grass floating on the grass". It turned out that as soon as the "grass floated on the grass" entered the reed shed, Cha Weiyuan, who was sitting in the shed, sent a signal to let four criminal policemen surround the shed. But he did not dare to rush to issue an action order, because the "grass floating" was too powerful, and if he was not careful, he would be greased by the soles of his feet and run away. Cha Weiyuan reached out and touched the handle of the pistol in his arms, but he did not dare to pull it out. He stared at the "grass floating on the grass" with wide eyes, eager to cast a large net to trap this "snitch" with excellent martial skills. At this moment, Cha Weiyuan thought of the reed shed in front of him from the net, and a thought flashed on the ground: Why don't you try to collapse this shed and suppress the "snitch" to see how he still "flies"?!

Cha Weiyuan made up his mind, walked over to the criminal police officer Lao Zhang, pretended to give alms, and whispered: "Collapse the corner of the shed!" ”

The people who ate the criminal investigation meal were all ghost spirits, Zhang Mou listened to it and understood what the boss wanted, and immediately went to the neighborhood to check a piece of rope, about three or four to long, Lala was still quite strong, and then quietly stepped forward to tie the pillar in the corner of the reed shed, and then let go of the rope. Cha Weiyuan saw that Zhang Mou was ready for work, walked over to pull the rope with him, and pulled it violently. The pillar of the reed shed was no more than the thickness of his arm, shallowly buried in the sand, where he could withstand the vicious pull of the two northwestern hans, and immediately fell. It was too late, it was fast, and with the sound of "whooshing", a burst of dust rose up, and a corner of the shed fell down, pressing down on the "grass floating" and "er li" hoods!

Cha Weiyuan reached out and took off his hat and slapped it twice, shouting, "Save people! Before the words could be heard, he pounced like an arrow off the string, grabbed a leg that stretched out from under the reed mat with both hands (he had identified the clothes and pants worn by "Floating on the Grass"), and pulled it out with force.

The "grass floating" was coldly confused by the collapse of the shed, heard the outside call "save people", only to say that it was really to save people, while being pulled out by Cha Weiyuan, while sullenly eating and drinking: "Fucking light, scratch lao tzu's face!" ”

During the conversation, one of the arms of "Floating on the Grass" had been exposed, and Xu and another criminal police officer had already pounced on it and clasped a pair of large white copper handcuffs on his wrist. "Grass On The Drift" realized that it was not good, and was struggling, and his feet were firmly pressed by Cha Weiyuan, who weighed 185 pounds and had practiced martial arts for many years. Zhang Mou and another criminal police officer jumped up and grabbed the other arm of "Grass Floating", and threw it to death, and fastened another handcuff.

"Pull it out!" Cha Weiyuan shouted and drew his pistol.

Four police officers pulled the "grass floating" out from under the collapsed reed mat shed and threw it on the ground on their backs. "Grass Floating" blinked his eyes, his eyes moved across the faces of the five criminal policemen, and asked, "Who friend can't get over with me?" ”

"We are from the Yinchuan Police Station!"

"Floating on the grass" sighed, "Alas—planted!" Planted! Ma Hongkui, the turtle grandchild, really couldn't move, his hand was so long, he suddenly reached tianjin wei! ”

At this time, Li Mingnian struggled out from under the collapsed shed, stunned, and stunned before he thought of pulling Li Zhongyuan. The old man came out to see that the "grass floating" had been handcuffed, and his hands trembled with shock: "This... this...... What's going on? ”

Cha Weiyuan shouted, "Surnamed Li, you go aside!" There is no time to talk to you at this time, but if you can't run, you just wait to enter the game! ”

At that moment, Cha Weiyuan and two criminal police officers opened the reed mat and bamboo pole, found the black leather bag that had just been unzipped on a wolf table, and opened it to see that inside was a heavy black wooden box. Cha Weiyuan lifted the lid of the wooden box and looked at it: Ah!! ——There is only one celestial jade in it!

Seven

After all, Cha Weiyuan was an old criminal policeman, experienced, and immediately closed the lid of the box and put it into the black leather bag without showing his face. Turning his face around, he saw that there was a stage not far away, so he swung his pistol, let the crowd of onlookers flash out of an alley, ordered the "grass floating" to be escorted over, came to the back of the stage, and asked softly:

"Where did you put the other 7 jade sticks?"

"Floating on the grass" smiled: "This, Lao Tzu naturally will not let go!" Otherwise, it is really a good man on the river! ”

"Since you are a good man, you will naturally understand the suffering of our brothers. Friend, think about it, how much effort and energy we have spent to find you! ”

"Everyone has their own ambitions! You have your grievances, I have my grievances, and you know how much effort and energy I have spent on these few things! ”

When Cha Weiyuan saw that he could not continue talking, he ordered his subordinates to copy himself. Naturally, there was no jade butterfly hidden in the "grass floating on the grass", only some banknotes and an accommodation permit for the "Ruyi Hostel" in the British Concession. Cha Weiyuan looked at the accommodation certificate, pondered for a long time, and said: "All are elves, you don't say, I also know - there are 7 jade sticks, you put them in the hotel, right?" ”

"Hey hey, you're not afraid of trouble, you can go to the hotel and search!"

"Well, why not the good man?" Cha Weiyuan waved his hand, "Call a car and take him to the 'Ruyi Hostel,'!" ”

The police and thieves huddled in a dilapidated taxi and arrived at the "Ruyi Hostel" in the British Concession. When he inquired about the accounting room, he learned that "Grass Floating" lived alone in a single room, so he ordered the tea servant to open the door. After searching for a short time, I found the 7 Heavenly Jade Sticks from the pillow. Zha Weiyuan took the jade and smiled triumphantly: "You are not smart at all when you call the word 'good man'." This can't be hidden, so why hide it with your own cleverness? You must know how much suffering you will have to suffer after you are sent back to Ningxia for this little cleverness! ”

"Floating on the grass" seemed very calm: "Resign yourself to fate!" ”

The five people of Cha Weiyuan were just about to leave the "Ruyi Hostel" with the "grass floating" when they suddenly heard a terrible siren outside. Cha Weiyuan was stunned: "How is this?" ”

As soon as the words fell, only the piercing sound of car brakes outside the hotel door could be heard, followed by a chaotic and rapid footstep, and a dozen or so Chinese and foreign patrols of the British Concession patrol house armed with short guns appeared at the door: "Don't move!" ”

Cha Weiyuan was relieved to see that it was a patrol: "It is really a big water that washed away the Dragon King Temple, and the family does not know a family!" We are the policemen of Ningxia Province, and we have come to guishi to arrest the jiangyang thief who has committed major murder and theft in Ningxia, and he is the one who said and pointed to "floating on the grass."

The leader was a british patrol with a high nose and blue eyes, and he could even speak a Chinese with a Beijing accent: "You are a policeman from Ningxia Province?" ”

"Nice! See 'Paji'! ”

Na Ying looked at "PaiJi" and then at the "grass floating" on the side, and said: "You violated the regulations of the British Concession and arrested people in the Concession without authorization, which is an act against the laws and regulations." According to a provision, all detention! He waved his hand and ordered, "Take them all away!" ”

Later, when Zha Weiyuan recalled this incident, he said that although he was an old criminal policeman, he had never been to cities with concessions such as Shanghai, Tianjin, Qingdao, and other places to handle cases, and he did not know at all that "the concessions are like foreign countries." The arresters must first contact the concession patrol house, and the patrol house will come forward to arrest him, and then the Huajie police will "extradite." For example, when they came to Tianjin to handle the case this time, they could arrest people in Lü Zutang (Lü Zutang belonged to the Chinese territory), but they could not escort the arrested people into the British Concession, otherwise they would violate the laws of the British Concession. When they had escorted the "grass floating" into the hotel earlier, the accounting room was already suspicious, and seeing that they did not look like the British capture room, they quietly called the Criminal Department of the British Concession to inform, so there was this scene in front of them.

On the same day, Several of Cha Weiyuan still wanted to distinguish, and had already been caught by the patrol and two of them, and the pistol was searched, probably looking at the "peer" face, it was still polite, and it was not handcuffed, and it was escorted along with the "grass floating" and left.

After taking Zha Weiyuan and a few people there, the Ying Arrest House locked them up in a lien room, saying that it would notify the Tianjin Municipal Police Department to deal with them. The five people waited for half a day and did not see any movement all night, and I was afraid that there would be no end to waiting like this. So he wrote a letter and bought an Indian guard for 10 yuan and asked him to rush to the Tianjin Municipal Police Station.

Half a day after the letter was sent, the five people of Cha Weiyuan were released by the British arrest house, and a section chief of the Tianjin Municipal Police Station came to pick them up. Cha Weiyuan naturally thought of the "snitch" and the sacrifice of heavenly jade, and asked the section chief to negotiate with the British Concession, asking for the "extradition" of the prisoners and the transfer of stolen goods. The section chief talked to the British, and the detective chief of the Criminal Department of the British Arrest House who received him shook his head and sighed bitterly:

"Come on, don't mention the prisoner, he will 'fly' and 'fly' the night he comes in!" And that's not all, he even had the ability to sneak into the office of the Inspector General of the Criminal Department and steal all the stolen goods from the safe--that is what you call the Celestial Jade Butterfly! ”

As an old criminal policeman, he is extremely good at thinking, and he often considers things from several aspects, although he has considered several results in this matter, he never thought that there would be such a result. He was skeptical, believing that it was a trap designed by the British to possess the rare treasure. Coincidentally, the section chief of the Tianjin Municipal Police Department thought the same thing. The section chief was quite patriotic, believing that the sacrifice of the heavenly jade was a national treasure and must not be lost to foreigners in such an unknown way, so he asked the other party to give a detailed introduction and provide relevant evidence.

Because there are many places where they usually rely on the Tianjin Municipal Police Station for handling cases, the chief detective of the Ying Arrest House is more polite to this section chief, and according to his request, he gave a more detailed introduction to the escape situation of "floating on the grass" --

After "Grass On The Drift" was taken to the British arrest room, the Criminal Department arranged for a British patrol and a Chinese patrol to interrogate him. At first, the two interrogators did not know the value of the sacrifice of the Heavenly Jade, and slapped the table with the shocked wood and asked "Grass Floating" what case had been committed. "Floating on the Grass" may have known that the Western-style punishment of the Ying arrest room was extremely severe, and at this moment, he did not dare to be a good man, and made a truthful confession of his criminal situation, but did not mention the matter of killing and injuring the Ningxia police when he resisted arrest, because he did not know what impact his refusal to arrest had on the police.

When the two patrols heard about it, they realized that this was indeed a big case, so they immediately took the interrogation record and sacrificed Tianyumu to report to the chief inspector of the Criminal Department. The inspector general read the interrogation record, took the 8 sacrificial jade sticks in his hand in turn, turned them over and looked at them again and again, shook his head, and said to himself:

"It's incredible that such 8 jade stones are worth 100,000 oceans!" The inspector general realized that this case was not trivial, so he immediately locked the matsuri in the safe in his office, and ordered that "Grass Floating" be taken into custody in the big prison as a major offender in a very serious case. In this way, the "grass floating" was smashed with a pair of 24 pounds of iron shackles, and his hands were handcuffed and imprisoned in a single cell.

The single cell of the YingYu House, located behind the row of houses in the Inspector General's Office, is a bungalow separated from the Inspector General's Office by only a high wall. The single cell is dedicated to three kinds of criminals: one is a thief and murderer in Jiangyang; the other is a major political prisoner; and the third is a female prisoner. At that time, the jiangyang thieves all knew that the concession patrol houses had a high rate of cracking cases, and it was relatively difficult to do tricks and feet through the joints, so they generally did not commit crimes in the concession, so there were fewer arrests; political prisoners, that is, those arrested by the underground party of the CCP, because Tianjin was the center of the CCP's activities in the northern region at that time, so people were often arrested, but such personnel were "extradited" by the Kuomintang side as soon as they were arrested, and they were generally only locked up for one or two days; women have always committed fewer crimes than men, and there are fewer women in the concession who have committed crimes and have been arrested. In view of the above three articles, the single cell of the British capture room is generally always "ten rooms and nine empty".

When "Grass Drifting" was put in a single cell, only 6 prisoners were held in 28 cells. Since "Grass Drifting" was a prisoner who had been strictly guarded by the Inspector General himself, the guards locked him up in the row of cells on the west side, where the walls were thick, the roof was strong, and the iron fence gates (the east side of the cell were wooden fences), and no prisoner had ever escaped. This is not to mention, the warden also designated a guard surnamed Sheep to be responsible for watching the "grass floating".

After entering the cell, he lay on the bunk and slept for a while, waking up at twilight. At that time, the rules of the patrol room were generally not to search for the cash on the prisoner's body, and it was kept by himself. "Floating on the grass" had money on his body, so he took out some and asked the guards to buy some wine and vegetables. This is a money-making business for the guards, and the prisoner is easy to get drunk and will not escape from prison, so it is a matter of pleasure.

After the guards bought wine and vegetables for "Grass On The Drift", "Grass On the Drift" gave him a copy, and the guard suspected that the key criminal wanted to lure him drunk and plot against him, so he insisted on not accepting it. "Floating on the grass" is not reluctant, a person eats and drinks for a while, and then falls back to sleep. Fearing that something would go wrong, the guard took a chair and sat down in the hallway in front of the cell "floating on the grass", making a pot of tea and drinking it.

"Floating on the grass" slept until after midnight, woke up, the guards only heard the "clanging" in the nest, and did not care, where to know that "floating on the grass" is to apply the "bone reduction method" to remove the shackles. After a while, "Floating on the Grass" said that he was thirsty, and when he saw that the guard had tea, he asked for it, and the guard poured a bowl and handed it to him. When the guard was approaching the iron fence gate, the "grass floating" suddenly stretched out a chopstick from between the iron fences, and lightning poked at an acupuncture point in the guard's head.

According to the sheep guard, at that time he only felt that there was a darkness in front of him, and in the darkness there seemed to be Venus turning clockwise, and then the man was paralyzed, he wanted to shout, but he couldn't scream, confused that there was a hand pulling the key tied around his waist, and then he didn't know anything.

"Grass Drift" opened the cell door with the guard's key, then carried the guard into the cell, placed it on the floor, covered it with a quilt, and finally locked the door.

The iron door that connects the single cell to the outside is completely closed, and the door is equipped with three trap locks, which can only be opened from the outside. The guards are on duty inside, and once they go in, they can't come out until they change shifts, which is equivalent to eating a lawsuit. Therefore, the escape from the cell by "floating on the grass" does not mean that he has been freed, and he still has to leave the prison area and leave the patrol room to be considered a successful escape from prison. However, this does not seem to be a difficult task for a light master like "Grass Floating". Afterwards, the on-site investigation learned that he performed the stunt of flying cornices to "walk" to the wall of the prison area, jumped from the wall to the roof of the inspector general's office, uncovered the tiles, sneaked into the inspector general's office, stole the sacrificial jade that he thought should belong to him, and then left the Yingyu room.

After the chief detective of the Ying Arrest House introduced the above situation, at the request of the section chief of the Tianjin Municipal Police Bureau, he presented the confession record of "floating on the grass" (later handed over to the Tianjin police for transfer to the Ningxia police), the escape from prison and the investigation data of the crime scene (photos, testimony, floor plans, technical appraisals, etc.), so the section chief and Zha Weiyuan accepted this statement.

Zha Weiyuan could not stop thinking about it, and had to continue to investigate, this matter had been known to the Tianjin Municipal Police Bureau, so he simply asked them for help. Therefore, he went with the section chief to visit Shen Baizhong, the head of the criminal investigation brigade of the Tianjin Municipal Police Bureau, and when he talked about the situation, Captain Shen promised to help, but said not to put his hopes on it, and the "snitch" must have disappeared and would not appear on the ground in Tianjin. Sure enough, the Tianjin police investigated for half a month without any clues. The British Concession Patrol House is also investigating the "grass floating", and also did not find anything.

In this way, Cha Weiyuan had to consider returning home, the deadline set by Ma Hongkui had long passed, and since Meng Lancheng's eating guy, who was the chief of the police station, had not moved, his head could generally be saved. However, there must always be an explanation, and Zha Weiyuan set the excuse on the patrol house of the British Concession in Tianjin. He asked the section chief of the Tianjin Municipal Police Station to invite the chief detective of the Criminal Department of the British Concession Patrol House to have a meal, copy a copy of the relevant confessions and photos he had shown last time, and take them back to Yinchuan to send an errand to Meng Lancheng.

Meng Lancheng was not less urged by Ma Hongkui during these days, and when he saw Zha Weiyuan return, he was first happy, and then when he heard the results, he was frightened and shivered, and even said: "What can I do?" How can this be done? Cha Weiyuan told him not to be in a hurry, and to push things on the British.

Meng Lancheng thought that there was no other choice, so he pulled Cha Weiyuan along to see Ma Hongkui. Ma Hongkui listened to Zha Weiyuan's report like this, and then looked at the confessions and photos he had brought, and sure enough, he did not blame Meng or Cha, but only scolded the British, and at the end of the day, he asked the Yinchuan City Police Department to write a letter to the Tianjin and Beiping police to ask for assistance in investigating the "snitch." This, of course, is empty and does not play any role. "Snitch" Zeng Yifei disappeared in this way and has never appeared again. It was not until the second year of the outbreak of the War of Resistance Against Japan that the Japanese gendarmerie in Shijiazhuang captured a Chinese "snitch". When the news reached Peiping, Toyoda Fengwen, director of the Japanese secret service in Beiping, suspected that this person might be the missing "Grass Floating" Zeng Yifei, and immediately remembered the "First Theft case in the Northwest" that caused a sensation in the north a few years ago, and he wanted to get the matsuri Toyo yumu to Japan, so he immediately sent infield section chief Inuyasha Hirohito to escort two Japanese agents to Shijiazhuang overnight with a Chinese thief who knew "Grass Floating", hoping to dig out relevant clues from the mouth of "Grass Floating". However, they were one step too late, and the arrested "snitch" had been executed by the Shijiazhuang gendarmerie a few hours earlier. Inuyasha still took the thief to the execution site to identify, and the thief said that it was "floating on the grass". So he took a photo and returned to Beiping to pay homage to Toyota.

According to Zha Weiyuan's recollection, after the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, he made a special trip to Shijiazhuang to check the files left by the Japanese gendarmerie on the "Snitch Case" in 1938. And "floating on the grass" in the confession of the gendarmerie, did not involve the sacrifice of the heavenly jade. Therefore, the whereabouts of the stolen goods of the "First Theft case in the Northwest" have become a mystery that has been difficult to solve for eternity.