On the first day of the Lunar New Year in 1961, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau did not perceive the taste of the New Year at all, when investigators, after accidentally learning a shocking secret, rushed to the China History Museum (renamed the National Museum of China in 2003) under the leadership of Li Baoting, the director of the Investigation Department.
When walking to the museum on the second circle of the "Slave Society Exhibition Hall" stored one
Next to the big lump
When they stopped, they stopped. Then Li Baoting carefully took off the glass cover on the Ding, and then put on the carefully prepared white gloves, and put his hand into the legs and stomachs of the Dingnei to grope...
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After a while, he pulled out a clump of white cotton from it. What surprised him even more was that the thing wrapped inside was the national treasure that mysteriously disappeared in the museum more than a year ago- the Western Zhou bronze treasure "Shi Konghe". At that time, the bronze evaporated overnight in the highly monitored museum, which not only made the museum staff sweat coldly, but even alarmed Premier Zhou Enlai.
However, although the relevant departments quickly set up a joint task force and conducted a detailed investigation of the case, they could not find this national treasure, resulting in the case once becoming a suspense case
。 No one expected that this cultural relic was still in the museum, and it had left briefly in the middle of the way, and was later "returned" by thieves. Who is the thief? Why did he do that? Today we will take a closer look at the hidden story behind this story.
First, the national treasure is mysteriously missing
The time came to 1959, because this year is the tenth anniversary of the founding of New China, so since August, China's major history museums have begun to prepare for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of New China. But it was at this juncture that the national treasure "Shi Konghe", which was placed in the No. 21 display case of the China History Museum, suddenly disappeared.
Although this collection is not large in size and only 11 centimeters in diameter, it is a legal measuring instrument cast by a nobleman named "Shi Kong" in the Western Zhou Dynasty more than 3,000 years ago.
The bottom of it is also engraved with a large seal inscription, that is, the words "Shi Kong made Baohe, and the children and grandchildren used Yongbao".
At that time, China's cultural relics preservation system was still not perfect, and it had just experienced decades of war, and it was not easy to find bronzes of this level. Hence "Skunho" this national treasure,
Whether it is from the perspective of time value or historical significance, its value is immeasurable.
At that time, the famous archaeologist Guo Moruo and the historian Zhai Bozan also praised it as a rare treasure for the study of China's measurement history and agricultural history, so it is not unusual for it to be characterized as a national first-class cultural relic. And such a national treasure was mysteriously missing, and it was still before and after the celebration of the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, and the Ministry of Public Security naturally attached great importance to it.
Later, the Ministry of Public Security also put the report of this major case on Zhou Enlai's desk, after all, it was less than two months before the National Day celebration, and it was difficult not to guess whether there was a bigger conspiracy behind the theft of "Shi Konghe". Zhou Enlai, on the other hand, made two instructions in a row after careful consideration.
First, it is necessary to strictly seal the news; second, the Ministry of Public Security, the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the China History Museum, and the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau jointly form a special team to investigate the case within the prescribed time limit.
To investigate this case, it is naturally necessary to understand the group of people who are "closest" to the national treasure, so the head of the special case team, Han Bingwen, who was then the director of the administrative department of the China History Museum, together with Li Baoting, director of the investigation department of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, was responsible for conducting a comprehensive interrogation of the museum staff who preserved "Shi Konghe" and roughly understood the duty situation before and after the theft of the national treasure.
On the afternoon of the incident, the custodian Ding Dahua made a handover with another custodian, Zhao Tongzhen, who was responsible for the custody from 6 p.m. to 12 p.m. before leaving work.
However, after 12 o'clock in the evening, he needed to hand over the work to another staff member, that is, Zhang Rong, the leader of the three-person custody department. It happened that on this day, Zhang Rong took a leave of absence because of a family matter, so he and another staff member, Yang Wenhe, temporarily changed shifts.
The museum is tightly defended, there are guards with guns and live ammunition standing guard outside, even the staff of the museum must show their documents to enter, if you want to steal in such a heavily guarded place, there is no doubt that the nearest person is the most suspect, so the three people on duty on the day of the incident, Ding Dahua, Yang Wenhe and Zhao Tongzhen, are the first suspects.
2. All-round investigation
According to the follow-up investigation, the special case team found a special situation: that is, the No. 21 exhibition cabinet, including the cultural relics of "Shi Konghe", was not locked.
At that time, the staff of the museum explained that because it was close to the National Day of the tenth anniversary of the founding of New China, in order to be able to hold the celebration well, the museum submitted an application to local museums across the country, hoping that they could send all the most precious cultural relics of their museum to Beijing for exhibition.
And these types of cultural relics are particularly numerous, and it is difficult for museums to make an effective classification plan in a short period of time, and they cannot always put the cultural relics away and put them around! After all, the Chinese History Museum has a large number of exhibition halls, different exhibition halls, the exhibited items are also different, some are the cultural relics of the Qin and Han Dynasties, and some are the cultural relics of the Tang and Song Dynasties.
Coupled with the age of some cultural relics, it is difficult to make accurate judgments, so experts and scholars will often take out these cultural relics for research. After the end of the study, different results may be obtained, so some artifacts will often change booths. This led the museum's leaders to make a decision as a last resort, and until August 18, all display cases would be temporarily unlocked to facilitate the replacement of the artifacts.
In fact, it is understandable for museums to make such a decision. In such a situation of "internal looseness and external tightness", there was a theft situation, and after discussion and analysis, the investigation team felt that this was most likely a case of self-theft, and they were more convinced that the staff in the museum stole "Shi Konghe", especially the three people on duty that day, because they were the most capable of stealing the national treasure in this environment and leaving without being discovered.
After determining the direction of the investigation, Han Bingwen and Li Baoting, as the leaders of the two teams of the investigation team, made a detailed division of labor. Han Bingwen was in charge of the external investigation, because "Shi Konghe" had been stolen, and the matter was so big, the thief should soon transfer the cultural relics.
If the task force were to monitor the nationwide market for the sale and purchase of cultural relics now, there might still be a possibility of recovering "Shi Konghe". Therefore, the Ministry of Public Security immediately issued an order to the public security departments of the provincial and municipal organs and the customs of the coastal ports, asking them to assist in the investigation of the whereabouts of "Shi Konghe", and the photos of "Shi Konghe" were also transmitted throughout the country, but there was no progress.
Li Baoting, the leader of another investigation team, is responsible for conducting security reviews of the museum's insiders to see who stole the cultural relics. He organized the staff to investigate all the places in the museum where it was possible to hide "Shi Konghe" and divided the suspects into three different levels. In these three grades, even the female workers who painted next to the 21st display case were included, which shows how delicate the inspection is.
Over time, the staff of the other exhibition halls were eliminated one by one, but the suspicion of the three custodians of "Shi Konghe" has not been ruled out. Were they the closest to "Skunhol" or the last to meet the staff of Skunho, and they couldn't produce enough evidence to prove their innocence.
Combined with the previous investigation, Li Baoting guessed that the thieves must be among these three people, but there is no actual evidence, and they must not be arrested hastily, otherwise they will hurt the innocent. Therefore, he decided to adopt the tactics of psychological warfare to see if he could defeat the psychology of the suspect.
At that time, Li Baoting took the initiative to talk to the three custodians, and told them in a serious tone that no matter who it was, for what reason he had stolen "Shi Konghe" for a while, as long as he was willing to take the initiative to take it back now, he could not pursue the follow-up responsibility, and this matter had passed.
However, the three custodians all claimed in unison that they had not touched "Skunho". Seeing that the soft one was not good, Li Baoting was going to come hard, and he suddenly slapped the table and roared: "The eyes of the masses of the people are shining, and the external adjustment of the three of you has been launched, if any of you take something, it is not too late to confess now, but when the evidence is found, I will definitely deal with him heavily." ”
But none of the three people came out to admit it, and this is enough to prove that the psychological quality of the suspect is still very high. The investigation team had no choice but to adopt a "dead-to-death decision" to conduct a deeper social background investigation of these three suspects.
Third, the case has taken a turn for the better
And this did achieve some results in the end, because Yang Wenhe was temporarily excluded from suspicion, on the grounds that Yang Wenhe's identity was very innocent. When New China was just founded, he entered the museum to work, and he would come into contact with a large number of cultural relics every day, and there was never any theft. Moreover, he is still a trustworthy old party member, who is also honest and honest in his daily life, not greedy for money, and has no motive to take away "Shi Konghe".
However, Zhao Tongzhen and Ding Dahua are not exactly the same.
Let's first say the former, Zhao Tongzhen once served as a soldier, only came to the museum after the end of the transfer, he has always behaved particularly unseriously in his work, talking about vanity in his daily life, good face, strong sense of revenge, more importantly, his personality is the kind that loves to take advantage of small things, and has the habit of petty theft.
The reason why the latter Ding Dahua is also suspicious is because of his family and habits. His father was once an antique dealer in the old society, poured out most of his life's antiques, understood the market, knew the value of "Shi Konghe", and he, a poor student who had just graduated, had a new girlfriend when he used the money, and he was likely to exchange money abroad through his girlfriend's Hong Kong relatives.
Of these two,
Han Bingwen believes that Ding Dahua is more suspicious because he not only has a motive, but also has the resources and ways to transfer the national treasure. Therefore, Ding Dahua was listed as a major suspect, and even his father and girlfriend were monitored for a long time.
However, the final result disappointed them, because Ding Dahua and his family really did not have "Shi Konghe" in their hands, which also brought the investigation to a stalemate again. After seeing that the clue was broken again and there was no new progress in the case, Han Bingwen could only sigh and say: "It seems that we have drilled into the tip of the bull's horn." ”
Although the case was not successfully solved, fortunately, the celebration of the tenth anniversary of new China was successfully held, and there was no mistake in the middle, but this can only prove that the theft case has nothing to do with the celebration, and it cannot be said that this matter can be passed like this.
Eight months have passed, and the members of the task force are like needles and felts, because they still haven't found a single piece of evidence.
Finally, after some deliberation, the leaders of the special case group, Han Bingwen and Li Baoting, planned to no longer "drill the tip of the bull's horns", but to change their thinking and find the suspects through the way of wanting to get away with it. At that time, after consulting with the management of the museum, they transferred all the staff members of the China History Museum to niulanshan farm in Shunyi County, Beijing, to participate in labor reform.
Among them, Yang Wenhe served as the deputy captain of this labor reform team, and Ding Dahua and Zhao Tongzhen were undoubtedly among the members of the countryside. In order to pay close attention to their movements, the special case team also arranged investigator Wang Shuli into the investigation team, and let him serve as the leader of the supervision group to monitor the suspects' every move.
Soon in the process of labor reform, a problem appeared: there were thieves in the labor camp. At that time, some of the members who went to the countryside always lost things, and they were all small things in life like soap.
Wang Shuli, an investigator who was assigned to the squad, believed after investigation that although the thieves stole things, he would never put things too far away in such a short period of time. Because the members of the labor camp live particularly close, there are many people with many eyes, and the possibility of being able to transfer to a distant place is not high, these stolen goods are likely to be hidden in a nearby corner.
Fourth, the murderer was eventually arrested
With a general idea, Wang Shuli took the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that everyone was out to work, and began a very detailed search of the suspicious place nearby, and finally found the soap hidden on the paper roof of the house where they lived, and then turned over other lost daily necessities.
Wang Shuli was excited, but he quickly calmed down and put the things back as usual, because if he chose to break them immediately, he would definitely make the suspect perceive the risk, and then he would definitely not know who took these things. If you want to catch someone, you must catch someone's stolen goods and get them, the things are still here, and the suspect will definitely come back.
On February 13, 1961 (the twenty-eighth day of the 28th month), the museum delegated staff to prepare to go home for the New Year, but unlike others rushing home, Zhao Tongzhen, as one of the members, had no intention of leaving immediately, and although Wang Shuli was not sure whether the suspect was him, he could be sure that the suspect would definitely be taken from the roof before leaving.
Wang Shuli pretended to leave first, let the suspect let down his guard, and then killed a horse gun and ambushed near the stolen goods, and sure enough, this really made him catch Zhao Tongzhen. At that time, after hearing Wang Shuli drink heavily, Zhao Tongzhen even lost his soul and could only bow his head and confess his guilt.
After the criticism of the meeting, Zhao Tongzhen was also asked to make a profound review and wait for the organization's investigation and follow-up treatment. After hearing these punishments, Zhao Tongzhen was very scared in his heart, and his spirit was about to collapse. After weighing his interests, on the day of Chinese New Year's Eve, he decided to confess his crimes and tell the organization where "Shi Konghe" was hiding, hoping to atone for his sins.
On the first day of the Chinese New Year, Zhao Tongzhen walked into Han Bingwen's office with some hesitation, and he first made a profound review of the "small mistakes" he had made in the process of labor reform, and then put out the hidden place and disk of "Shi Konghe", hoping to get leniency from the organization.
Finally, the scene at the beginning of our article happened.
It turned out that "Shi Konghe" had been hidden in the history museum for such a long time, and he used the gap in his spare time to hide things in the large bowl in the exhibition hall of the slave society.
Only at this time, seeing the national treasure "Shi Konghe" wrapped in white cotton, the task force was a little surprised. Because the task force had already conducted a comprehensive search of the museum inside and out, why was no one able to find "Shi Konghe" from the Great Lu Ding at that time?
In fact, there are some accidental situations.
At that time, after Zhao Tongzhen successfully stole "Shi Konghe" after work, he first put it in a special cabinet in his office. Later, because things got bigger and the wind was too tight, he was afraid that things would be poked out, so he transferred "Shi Konghe" to his home again.
After spending some days at home, he became more and more uneasy, so he used his position to hide "Shi Konghe" in the Big Bowl. At this time, the comprehensive search of the exhibition hall of the slave society has been completed, and a fairly detailed carpet search has been carried out, and the investigators have not opened the "God perspective", and they have never thought that "Shi Konghe" will be hidden in the exhibition hall again, and they think that there is no need to check it a second time.
Then some people will have questions, since Zhao Tongzhen has already stolen it, why didn't he sell it later? In fact, he did not steal "Shi Konghe" at that time simply for the sake of wealth.
As we said before, he is a person with a strong sense of revenge, and he also did this to take revenge on one person, that is, Zhang Rong, the leader of the custody team.
Because Zhao Tongzhen has been particularly lazy and does not work seriously in his daily work, Zhang Rong, as the leader of the group, naturally does not like his work attitude, so he often criticizes him, which makes the careful-eyed Zhao Tongzhen very unconvinced, so there will always be some friction between the two people, and even sometimes quarrel.
The contradiction between them had been deepening, and after feeling a little intolerable, Zhao Tongzhen had the idea of revenge in his heart. He thought to himself: If "Shi Konghe" is stolen, then Zhang Rong, the leader of the management group, will naturally be blamed.
But what he did not expect was that his plan to plant the stolen goods was finally frustrated, and even he himself was caught, and what awaited him in the future would be a never-ending prison disaster. What he probably couldn't have imagined was that he had been exposed because of a piece of soap.