introduction
The great scholar Su Shi wrote in the "Six Songs of Replying to Cheng Quan's Father's Pushing Officials": "The son copied one of the "Book of Tang" than he borrowed the "Former Han" to copy. If these two books are written, it is a poor child who has become rich. This phrase was originally used by Su Shi to describe the growth of learning, and later used to describe people getting rich overnight. Getting rich overnight is the dream of many people, and this opportunity is not absent, but it is very rare. And by getting treasure and getting rich overnight, it is a classic bridge in various legends. When it comes to the treasures left over from history, we have to mention Li Zicheng, the king of the Chuang Dynasty.
Li Zicheng, the leader of the peasant rebellion at the end of the Ming Dynasty, was enshrined by his subordinates as the "King of Chuang". After this man raised an army from Shaanxi, he led the army to capture Beijing and established the Dashun regime. At this point, Li Zicheng changed from an ordinary peasant in the countryside to the Dashun Emperor who held great power. However, Li Zicheng did not hold the Jiangshan that had already arrived, and after Wu Sangui surrendered to the Manchu Qing, he led the Qing army into the pass, li Zicheng was defeated, withdrew from Xi'an, and then went to Shaanxi, Henan to continue to resist the Qing army.
In the fifth year of Qing Shunzhi (1648), Li Zicheng mysteriously disappeared from Jiugong Mountain in Hubei Province, and his whereabouts are unknown.
01
Regarding the whereabouts of Li Zicheng, there are various rumors in the folk. This is certainly due to the legendary nature of his life, but also because of his treasure.
According to the "Ming Dynasty Northern Sketch", after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he retrieved from the palace "37 million silver ingots, 10 million gold ingots", "the old town treasury gold accumulation year 37 million ingots, ingots are 500 taels, engraved with Yongle characters."
This alone can imagine the wealth obtained by Li Zicheng.
So, is Li Zicheng's mysterious disappearance after his defeat related to these fortunes? Where is such a large number of valuable gold and silver jewelry? Even, did Li Zicheng really leave a huge treasure like the rumors? Regarding these, there are different theories in the history of Masashino, and there is no conclusion to this day.
However, we can follow Li Zicheng's route of defeat to do some investigation.
In the second year of Qing Shunzhi (1645 AD), Li Zicheng retreated west after defeating Shanhaiguan, intending to retreat to Tongguan and defend dangerously.
However, to his surprise, due to the scattered spirit of the army, once the army was defeated, it would be difficult to gather, as Liang Qichao of the Qing Dynasty said in the "Theory of the Opposite of Ten Virtues": "However, in the end, it is inevitable that there will be a dish of scattered sand; then it is also because of the virtue of not being in harmony." Before reaching Tongguan, Li Zicheng's men were already scattered and fleeing, and they could not form an army.
Li Zicheng saw that the general trend was gone, and there was little hope of a comeback, so he hid the huge wealth he had scavenged for many years of conquest in Lingbao, Henan.
02
Liu Zhonglian was originally from Shanxi and was a merchant in Lingbao at that time. He started from a small business, and later opened several facades in Lingbao, although it was not a big business, but he was still very diligent, and got up early every morning to take care of the shop.
At that time, Liu Zhonglian was in a chaotic world, the business was difficult, not only did his income be poor, but he was often frightened and afraid, afraid that he would die for no reason. One morning, two customers came to the shop, and they behaved like people in the line. Liu Zhonglian has not seen the world, but he can cope with it freely.
The two guests just met each other and proposed to rent a warehouse for temporary storage of goods, and Liu Zhonglian happened to have a vacant warehouse, so he agreed to this business. The two guests did not say more, moved the goods into the warehouse and paid Liu Zhonglian a generous rent, after which they quickly left.
At this time, Liu Zhonglian did not expect that a few years later, this batch of goods would completely change his fate.
03
After the two guests left, they never came again. Because he was busy with other affairs, Liu Zhonglian quickly forgot about the matter. It wasn't until several years later, when Liu Zhonglian's warehouse collapsed due to disrepair, and while repairing the warehouse, he found that the goods of the two guests were still in place.
Liu Zhonglian speculated that the guests had probably encountered some accident and should not come again, so he opened the seal and opened the box.
Unexpectedly, these boxes were filled with gold and silver jewelry. Liu Zhonglian immediately thought of the rumors of Li Zicheng's treasure before, when those two people were most likely Li Zicheng's subordinates, probably because it was inconvenient to carry them when they fled, so they were ordered to temporarily store the money in the shop.
After discovering this money, Liu Zhonglian was greedy and immediately took the money away from home. Since then, Liu Zhonglian has relied on this wealth to become a jin merchant on the rich side.
After Li Zicheng invaded Beijing, the warehouse accumulated by the Ming Dynasty for more than 300 years was plundered by him, and it is certain that only this wealth will remain in the world. From Shanxi to Guangdong, almost all parts of the country are legendary about Li Zicheng's treasure.
Some Japanese scholars once said that the first pot of gold of Jin Shang was likely to come from the treasure left by Li Zicheng.
epilogue
However, this story actually has too many loopholes. After Li Zicheng's defeat, it is unlikely that he will leave a large amount of private wealth, and even if he wants to hide some belongings, he will not choose to place them in the merchant's warehouse. So another possibility is that Liu Zhonglian's wealth is indeed of unknown origin, and he is reluctant to explain it to others, so he forged this story to cover up for himself.
Resources:
"Ming Ji BeiLuo"
"Answering cheng quan father pushes the official six songs"
The Ten Virtues Of Opposites