"The robber cannon destroyed the dream of a thousand autumns, and the building capsized and could not be returned."
On May 28, 1900, the Eight-Power Alliance dealt a heavy blow to the crumbling edifice of the Qing government. As soon as the soldiers entered the palatial Forbidden City, they were immediately engulfed in desire and looted all their valuable treasures. Looking back at history, the ruins of the Yuanmingyuan will always sting our nerves. However, in addition to the Yuanmingyuan, there are two other treasures, the Yongle Canon and the Yongle Sword, which are also missing and lost overseas.
The Yongle Canon consists of 22,877 volumes and 11,095 volumes. However, this classic was not taken seriously by foreign soldiers, and the flames soon engulfed the Yongle Canon. When the atmosphere was most felt, only a hundred volumes of the Yongle Canon, which had been painstakingly compiled by so many scholars, were left. Moreover, these hundred copies were also taken overseas and have since been lost.
Although from 1951 to 1954, the Soviet Union sent the relevant texts back to us in three separate times. In 1955, Germany also returned 3 volumes. However, some texts have been lost. However, compared with the Yongle Canon, the fate of the Yongle Sword is much more bumpy. So what happened to this sword?
The Yongle Sword was forged in 1420. This was a gift from Emperor Zhu Di of the Ming Dynasty to the highly respected Tibetan Living Buddha. The sword is engraved with the ancient beast "Joan", which is what we now call the snow lion. Because the snow lion is a guardian image in the local culture. Therefore, the whole sword looks very solemn and solemn.
After the fall of the Ming Dynasty, this sword was collected by the rulers of the Qing Dynasty. It's just a pity that they don't have the ability to protect this sword well. Therefore, after the Eight-Nation Alliance attacked the capital, this sword also began its exile journey very unfortunately. In fact, at the beginning, the foreign powers and the Qing government maintained a superficial peace, but in the spring of 1900, the Boxer Rebellion directly ignited the contradictions between the Qing government and the foreign powers. The Boxer rebellion annoyed Lieqiang, and they decided to teach this arrogant organization a lesson.
So on January 27, 1900, Britain, France, the United States, Germany, Italy and other countries jointly demanded that the Qing government immediately take action to ban the Boxers, only in this way could they calm their anger. But the Qing government wanted to watch the fire from the other side and kill people with knives. Therefore, around June 6, 1900, the eight countries jointly recruited China and were reported to their respective governments. A joint, large-scale military operation is on the verge of erupting.
On August 14, 1900, a well-armed army that had been preparing for a long time completely breached the city of Beijing, and everywhere the Eight-Power Alliance went, it was reduced to rubble. The war lasted for nearly a year, until September 7, 1901, when the Qing government could no longer hold on and surrendered to the great powers. This was followed by the indemnity for the cession of land, and the invasion of China by the Eight-Power Alliance also ended with the signing of the Treaty of Xinugu.
On December 22, 1900, the envoys of Britain, Russia, Germany, the United States, Austria, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium and other eleven countries jointly submitted a document entitled "Outline of Discussion and Peace" to Yi Xi and Li Hongzhang. There are 12 main articles in the Outline of discussion and peace, which punish the Qing government from all aspects and from various angles. Under these circumstances, the Qing government could only accept these terms, just as they had to accept the fact that the Yongle Sword had gone abroad. To this day, even if some cultural relics experts offer a price of one billion yuan to buy back the sword, the British have never agreed. But we all look forward to the day when health care will return to our homeland.