During the Republic of China, the warlord Ma Hongkui dug out how many treasures he had stolen from it, and it could still be said that he could roughly estimate it. Ma Hongkui asked the soldiers to try to dig for a few days, but nothing was dug out, but he was not dead hearted, and sent a regiment to continue digging. Sure enough, the treasure appeared, and 3 mysterious antiquities were dug up...
Photo: Taishan, Mount Taishan and small world
⊙ in the name of repairing the Martyrs' Monument
After listening to Ma Zizhou's "no treasure" report, Ma Hongkui was not dead at all, believing that Ma Zizhou "could not do anything" and sent Ma Rulong, the deputy director of the office, to be responsible for stealing the treasure.
Ma Rulong is good at flattery and has some ability in Ma Hongkui's eyes. Ma Hongkui told Ma Rulong at that time: "According to the information from reliable sources, there must be treasures under the mountain, and you must complete it." ”
However, although Mount Artemisia is not high, with an altitude of only 198 meters, it has a large range. Learning the lesson that Ma Zizhou had too few people when digging treasures, Ma Rulong proposed to take a regiment to The Artemisia Mountain to dig for treasures. In the Republic of China, the number of a regimental system was generally 1200 people, so many people did not carry guns and cannons, but dragged shovels and shovels to "work", the impact was not good, nor could they hide from people. Ma Hongkui was worried that such a target was too big and easy to leak out, and if it leaked out like Sun Dianying's theft of the imperial tomb, he would be prosecuted and not said, and his reputation would not be good.
Ma Rulong had many ideas and said to Ma Hongkui: "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 noise, under the pretext of building a monument to the fallen soldiers of the Fifteenth Route Army, and started work in a dignified manner, to see who dares to say half a word!"
Photo: Relics of the Republic of China in Artemisia Mountain
Pictured: Ancient ruins of Mount Artemisia
Therefore, Ma Hongkui reported to the Nanjing government and Chairman Chiang Kai-shek that he planned to build a monument at the site of Artemisia Hill to commemorate the soldiers who died in the Battle of Tai'an, and the project was named the "Monument to the Fallen Soldiers of the Rebellion." After receiving approval from the Nanjing government, Ma Hongkui, in the name of building a monument for the fallen soldiers, once again carried out a frenzied treasure theft activity in the autumn of 1931 (the 20th year of the Republic of China).
There is also a storm here: when the groundbreaking ceremony of the "Memorial Shrine and Monument for the Fallen Soldiers of the Rebellion" was held in front of the main hall of the old ancestral hall of Artemisia Mountain, people from all walks of life in Tai'an attended, and the Nanjing government and the Shandong provincial government also sent congratulatory messages. Because of the need to lay the foundation, the main hall and stele of the ancestral temple were demolished overnight, and the Daoist chief named Shang Shilian was so angry that he wrote to the Nanjing government and Chiang Kai-shek: "Protest against the destruction of the temple and the construction of the monument, and protect the holy Taishan!" But because the Nanjing government had selfishness in mind, it did not do anything to Ma Hongkui, what should Ma do or how to do it."
Ma Hongkui's digging of the treasure was not a whim, it was premeditated, so in addition to finding a public reason to move the soil before digging the treasure, he also made a lot of other preparations.
It is said that Ma Rulong also invited Mr. Feng Shui to conduct a survey of Artemisia Mountain to ensure the reliability of the excavation target. In addition, the soldiers selected by Ma Rulong were not stupid big men who could only shoot guns, but sappers with experience in digging earth. In order to seize the time, the shift system was implemented, and the excavation was carried out in turn, day and night, digging for eight days and eight nights, almost flattening the Artemisia Mountain.
Photo: Announcement of the ban on digging in Artemisia Mountain. Because there are treasures in the mountains, in the past, from time to time people came to dig for treasures in the name of digging stones and digging sand. This announcement is openly said to protect the geological landform, and it is forbidden to dig treasure
On the eighth day, the soldiers noticed the anomaly. A layer of stone strips was dug underneath an earthen altar, and when I opened it, I saw a large stone slab underneath. This is not an ordinary stone slab, some people call it a "Bagua stone", and there are more than a dozen eight-inch long iron handles nailed to it. Experienced soldiers say there must be something underneath this.
When Ma Rulong heard about it, he immediately ordered the whole regiment to stop work, sent his cronies to strictly guard the stone slab, and rushed to report to Ma Hongkui: "The treasure is out." ”
⊙ three mysterious antiquities: wooden boxes, iron boxes, and copper boxes
When Ma Hongkui heard that the treasure had been revealed, he immediately rushed to the scene and quickly ordered the soldiers to uncover the stone slab. When the slab is uncovered, a stone trough is revealed with a line of seal characters carved into the trough. Ma Hongkui did not ask what the meaning of the words was, and first urgently ordered the soldiers to take out the stone trough. It turned out that there was also a treasure under the stone trough, and inside was a small black wooden box buried inside. The cassette is about one foot two inches long and eight or nine inches wide.
Ma Hongkui carefully looked the wooden box up and down, knowing that there might be good things inside, but the surface was silent, and said to Ma Rulong, This is not a treasure, is not a wooden box, you take it. Immediately, Ma Hongkui left the scene.
According to Ma Zizhou's recollection, this was a trick that Ma Hongkui and Ma Rulong had decided: dig out something and don't make a sound. Listening to Ma Hongkui's words, Ma Rulong understood the spirit, wrapped the wooden box with a blanket, and then left the scene and took the wooden box to Ma Hongkui's secret room.
Pictured: The legendary "Bagua Stone", which was believed by people in the past to believe that this stone could hold treasures
It is a box made of precious rosewood with a lid and a scarlet seal engraved on it. The lid was tightly tied with three strands of gold wire, and there were 24 gold nails around it. Ma Hongkui didn't know what this box was for, what treasures would be hidden inside, so he asked Ma Rulong to carefully open the lid. Ma Rulong found tweezers and a knife and carefully opened the lid.
There are really treasures in the box: there are 8 brightly colored green greens that are one foot long and one inch wide, and they are also engraved with vermilion seal characters. Jade, red called "jade", green called "jade", collectively called "jade", especially the value of jade is the most expensive.
Ma Hongkui's culture is not high, and he can't understand the seal characters on the box at all, but according to the material of the box and the things inside, he knows that this is not an ordinary thing. On the spot, he strictly ordered Ma Rulong not to leak the wind, and asked Ma Rulong to quickly return to the scene, dig down around the excavation site of the wooden box, and expand to the surrounding area.
Although Ma Hongkui did not know what the wooden box was, his experience in stealing treasures seemed very old. Under normal circumstances, treasures are nested out of nests, and this phenomenon is particularly obvious when robbing tombs, as is the case when Dang Yukun excavated cockfighting platforms. Sure enough, when Ma Hongkui asked the soldiers to continue digging down another person more than a year deep, something appeared again: a mysterious iron box that was one foot square. Digging deeper into the surroundings, a copper box similar in size to the iron box was excavated.
Pictured: Song Zhenzong Taishan ZenDi Jade Album, with jade inlays, now in the National Palace Museum in Taipei
At the same time, 52 pieces of jade or square or rectangular or trapezoidal were unearthed, and the jade pieces had dragon patterns, phoenix patterns, and cloud patterns. Later, experts speculated that these jade pieces may be decorative pieces on the outside of boxes and boxes. In the past, the box of valuable things was called "Jade". Judging from the fact that there is no jade outside the box and box now, it is speculated that those jade pieces were scattered from above.
In the end, it was estimated that nothing could be dug up anymore, so Ma Hongkui told the soldiers to stop and end the treasure theft.
But the story does not end here, Ma Hongkui and his group do not understand cultural relics after all, what treasures are the things dug up? How much is it worth? No one can recognize it for a while! After looking for the connoisseur's palm eyes, he realized that the things he dug out were national treasures, and they were worth a lot of money, and Ma Hongkui was stupid.