After the 918 Incident, the northeast fell, and The city of Peiping was exposed to the muzzle of Japanese guns. Greedy Japanese shouted in the newspapers that China should hand over the relics of the Forbidden City to Japan for safekeeping.
As early as the Sino-Japanese War, Japan formulated a plan to rob China of treasures, and this time, the Japanese army was even more prepared, seeing that Peiping had no danger to defend, if the invading Japanese army entered the customs, the cultural relics in the war could not escape the fate of being robbed.
Faced with the tiger's eye of the Japanese invaders, the people of Beiping City were panicked.
Remember that in 1860, the Yuanmingyuan was burned to the ground by the fire of the Eight-Power Alliance, and countless cultural relics were either burned or robbed, becoming an eternal pain in the hearts of the Chinese people.
Now, history is about to repeat itself, and there is a question in everyone's mind.
The cultural relics in the Forbidden City, are they moved, are they left?
The relocation of cultural relics is related to the future of the country, this matter is too big, the directors of the palace museums have been silent, no one dares to take the idea.
At the critical moment, Ma Heng, deputy director of the Antiquities Museum, broke the silence and proposed to move the cultural relics in the Forbidden City to the south.
In Ma Heng's heart, the national treasure remains in Beiping, although it can stabilize the people's hearts, but the cultural relics are not guns, can not kill the Japanese, but will increase the risk of being robbed by the Japanese.
Moving them out of Beiping, even if they are easy to disperse and difficult to gather, at least the cultural relics remain in China.
As soon as these words came out, they immediately stirred up thousands of waves.
The common people were indignant, and all walks of life in Peiping also came forward to rebuke the Kuomintang for its nonsense, the great enemy at present, only thinking about whether the antiques would be robbed, but did not want to how to resist Japan:
The country is dead, what is the use of keeping those antiques!
Li Zuoxiang, a general of the Northern Expedition, asked the Forbidden City to auction cultural relics and buy 500 planes to resist Japan, and Ma Heng's son Ma Yanxiang publicly called Out to Ma Heng through newspapers: "To resist, we must have the determination to sacrifice antiquities!" ”
What's more, harassing phone calls were made to Ma Heng and those who supported the southward migration, threatening letters, threats, and finally directly blocked the gates of the Forbidden City.
On the other hand, Japan began a cultural invasion, trumpeting "greater East Asian co-prosperity" in "Manchukuo" and forcing Chinese children to learn Japanese history and speak Japanese, with the intention of fundamentally destroying the Chinese spirit.
This is a "cultural battle", relying on guns and cannons can not win the Japanese, only to win their war, only the cultural relics in the Forbidden City.
These cultural relics are China's treasures, carrying the national spirit, witnessing the orderly inheritance of Chinese culture, they are intact, and the Chinese cultural context will continue forever.
They must be protected.
One day, Ma Heng found the dean Yi Peiji and asked him to send a telegram to Nanjing, explaining that the cultural relics in the Forbidden City could not be used as a bet for war, and China could not afford to gamble. Once these cultural relics are looted, China is really finished.
During the period of waiting for Nanjing's reply, Ma Heng and Yi Peiji decided to make preparations early, and the two gathered the staff of the Forbidden City and secretly counted the collections of the Forbidden City, hoping to pack and seal all the cultural relics before the Japanese army entered Beiping.
In this way, even if the Japanese hit Peiping one day, the Forbidden City people can immediately transfer the cultural relics.
One of the largest and most thrilling cultural relics in China's modern history is about to begin.
Before counting the collections, the staff of the Forbidden City went to the Liuli Factory, where they learned the method of boxing cultural relics in the antique shop, and combined their own methods to create a set of sealing methods suitable for cultural relics.
They tied the cotton-wrapped relics with ropes, wrapped the relics in oil paper and put them into thick wooden boxes, so that cotton and straw filled in the gaps in the boxes, and finally sealed the boxes with steel bars.
To test the effect, they tried to throw the chest on the city wall, and the artifacts inside were indeed unharmed.
The staff of the Forbidden City moved all the cultural relics to the square in front of the Taihe Hall, and a group of Forbidden City people cherished each cultural relics into wooden boxes.
From November 1932 to the spring of 1933, the staff of the Forbidden City packed 63,735 cultural relics and used 2,631 wooden boxes, which contained China's future.
On the first day of the New Year in 1933, the Defense Line of the Great Wall laid out by the Chinese army collapsed, and the cultural relics of the Forbidden City could not be delayed to move south, and Ma Heng proposed that it could not be delayed any longer and that the relocation should be carried out immediately.
On the evening of February 5, 1933, taking advantage of the cover of night, the Great Migration of Cultural Relics of the Forbidden City began, and at 9 o'clock in the evening, the gate of the Forbidden City was opened, and more than a dozen cars and hundreds of rickshaws came out at noon.
In 19557, the cultural relics were divided into five batches, and under the protection of the army's guns and live ammunition, they boarded the train to Shanghai.
The sleeping citizens of Beiping did not know that after a group of people made a vow of "living and dying with cultural relics", they hurriedly bid farewell to their families and resolutely stepped on the train to the south, and a major event related to the survival of Chinese culture quietly occurred.
Ma Heng personally escorted the largest batch.
On the way, Japanese planes roared back and forth, and on several occasions, Japanese shells exploded not far away, and the aftermath of the explosion even shattered the glass, fortunately, the cultural relics were not damaged.
Soon after arriving in Shanghai, Ma Heng and other employees embarked on a train to Nanjing, rushed to build a warehouse in Chaotian Palace, and prepared for the Nanjing Museum.
As the cultural relics were moved into the warehouse one after another, Ma Heng's hanging heart finally fell back into his stomach.
After leaving Beiping, Ma Heng did not sleep for a day, he would wake up from time to time, and then get up to check all the cultural relics from beginning to end.
The Forbidden City people who accompanied the cultural relics to the south breathed a sigh of relief.
In 1937, the "July 7 Incident" broke out, and overnight, the entire North China Plain fell into a sea of fire, ma Heng's heart was once again tugged, and on August 13, 1937, the Japanese army bombed Shanghai.
Nanjing is in a hurry, cultural relics are in a hurry!
The cultural relics in the Nanjing Museum were boxed again and divided into three batches to move westward: 80 boxes of cultural relics went to Anshun in the southwest, 7286 boxes of cultural relics went to Emei in the northwest, and finally 9369 boxes of cultural relics went to Leshan in the middle of the road.
On December 9, 1937, Ma Heng and his colleagues traveled by boat to Chongqing, and four days later, Nanjing fell.
The 80 boxes of cultural relics in Anshun in the south are precious and unusual, including priceless oracle bones, zhong dings, steles, and a large number of valuable famous calligraphy and paintings.
These cultural relics were originally stored in the famous Yuelu Academy in Hunan Province, and after Ma Heng rushed to Changsha, he immediately led people to dig holes in the Yuelu Mountains.
He knew that if Japan wanted to cut off the Chinese cultural context, it would certainly not let go of Yuelu Academy, and it would be safer to hide cultural relics in the mountains.
Sure enough, on the day the cave was dug, Ma Heng received a secret telegram: the Japanese army will bomb Changsha in the near future and quickly withdraw to stay.
Without the slightest hesitation, Ma Heng immediately organized the loading of cultural relics to be transferred to Guizhou.
Soon after the convoy left, the Japanese planes swooped down, and Yuelu Academy fell into flames with a loud noise.
If it is a little later, the fate of the 80 boxes of cultural relics will be rewritten.
The Japanese Kou chased all the way and bombarded indiscriminately, and the escort team could only rush day and night, in order to avoid the Japanese Kou, the route of the escort team changed again and again, and finally plunged into the Qinling Mountains.
Heavy snow closed the mountain, and the escort team dug the snow to open the way, while pushing the car hard and walking on the steep mountain road.
The mountain road collapsed, the escort team members moved stones with their bare hands, relying on boiling snow for water and wild vegetables and wild fruits, the escort team walked out of the Qinling Mountains with difficulty, while some colleagues stayed in the mountains forever.
But they didn't have time to grieve, because the Japanese were still pursuing.
Since the July 7 Incident, Tianjin, Shanghai, and Nanjing have been lost one after another. Japanese aircraft and tanks continued to approach the Yangtze River, and the transfer of cultural relics became more and more difficult.
Ma Heng's escort team was able to take fewer and fewer routes, and in the summer of 1939, Ma Heng decided to send cultural relics to Leshan.
This decision is very risky.
The south is very humid and hot, which is not conducive to the preservation of cultural relics, and the cultural relics will accelerate oxidation and mildew in a humid environment for a long time, but there are high mountains and dense forests, which is a good place for national treasures.
In early summer, the flood period was short, and in order to seize the time to shake off the Japanese army, the escort team was busy day and night.
Zhu Xuekan, an employee of the Forbidden City, went to the ship to arrange cultural relics, because the sky was dark, he stepped on the air with one foot, fell to the bottom of the bilge and was seriously injured and died.
After arriving in Leshan, the local villagers, monks and monks, learned of Ma Heng's difficulties and immediately gave up the ancestral hall and temple free of charge to store treasures for the Forbidden City.
Whenever the weather is sunny and there are no Japanese aircraft, the Forbidden City people will take out the cultural relics to bask in the sun, which is the happiest time for the Forbidden City people.
There are countless "Zhu Xuekan" in the southward migration of cultural relics, or died in natural disasters or died under the artillery fire of the Japanese army, but the people of the Forbidden City did not give up and still looked for vitality for cultural relics in the turbulent displacement.
Because they had solemnly sworn an oath to the state, vowing to coexist and die with cultural relics.
In the long dark night, the forbidden city people firmly guarded the cultural relics and waited bitterly for the dawn.
On August 6, 1945, a huge mushroom cloud rose over Hiroshima, Japan, and nine days later, the Japanese government announced its unconditional surrender.
After leaving Beiping, he and the Forbidden City accompanied the cultural relics to more than a dozen provinces, more than 20,000 miles, survived 14 years, and finally waited for Japan to surrender.
The surrender ceremony of the Japanese army invading China in North China was held in front of the Taihe Hall of the Forbidden City, and the Forbidden City people scattered throughout China received the news and set off with cultural relics and embarked on the road home.
The cultural relics that were taken out by the Forbidden City people have returned to Beiping one after another, without damage or loss, and this "cultural long march" finally ended in China's victory.
While Ma Heng and a group of Forbidden City people defended the Chinese cultural context, they also created a miracle in the history of human cultural relics protection.
Behind this miracle, there is the persistence of the forbidden city people, and there are also the shadows of the government, the army and the people, which is a treasure protection feat with the participation of the whole people and a great victory of the Chinese nation against cultural aggression.
At the celebration banquet, people lamented this hard-won victory, and whenever someone mentioned the thrilling encounter when they moved south, Ma Heng, as a witness, and a group of Forbidden City people had a calm expression, but said:
"Artifacts have a spirit."
On February 15, 1946, the Palace Museum held a handover meeting in the Zhonghe Hall, and the heroes who returned from the north and the workers who stayed in Beiping to protect the Forbidden City sang the magnificent "Song of the Forbidden City Guardian Team".
Yin Pan Zhou Yi, Tang painting Song porcelain; billions of Si pins, listed in the relics; who keeps it? But my soldiers, who protects them? Only my team members.
. END .
【Text| No mind]
Edit | Leftovers】
【Typography | Dark Night】