On the night of March 25, 1971, an employee was carefully counting items in the hotel's warehouse. When he opened a beautiful storage box and glanced at it, the hand that was about to close the box froze.
Suddenly he rummaged around in the warehouse, but it seemed that he had not found anything, so he ran all the way back to the dining room where he had just finished the banquet, and frantically searched everywhere, fruitlessly.
He looked at the hotel steward next to him with a look of trepidation: "It's not good, the Kowloon Cup is gone!" ”
Kowloon Cup
On the day of the incident
On March 25, 1971, the Shanghai Hengshan Club was brightly lit, the service staff inside were in a hurry, there was no time in their hands, and there were many security guards standing in the corner of the hotel, and the air was filled with the aroma of wine and dishes and a little serious atmosphere.
Further inside, to the banquet hall, laughter and laughter, the club is holding a special reception, banquet 27 Romanian foreign guests who have visited China before.
At this time, the guests and hosts were doing their best, the two sides chatted very well, after the wine and dinner were full, everyone happily chatted and walked out of the dining room together, it seems that the foreign guests are also very satisfied with the famous wine and good dishes of the mainland.
Not far away, the person in charge of this banquet looked at this warm and harmonious scene, and his heart was full of breath, and when he was sitting and resting, a waiter in charge of collecting and inspecting the tableware suddenly ran in a panic, and rushed to the person in charge after groping around, and the person in charge looked at it with doubt, and only after asking did he know that something big had happened.
36 Kowloon Cups lost one!
Graph source network
The person in charge stood up with a sigh of relief, this Kowloon Cup has a great history, 36 only for a set of lost one is not complete.
He immediately informed Liu Jincheng, the leader of the Security Department, and Liu Jincheng rushed to Qingming, and also knew the magnitude of the problem, which was related to the national treasure, and he issued an order to seal off all the hotels and search and screen all the staff who might have contact with the Kowloon Cup.
I thought that it would come out of nowhere, but I didn't expect that there was no Kowloon Cup on everyone, and there was no result in a mess.
Liu Jincheng and others found that things were not so simple, and the staff in the hotel also knew what was happening at this time, and everyone was in a hurry.
At this time, someone raised an idea: Was it during the banquet that the dragon cup was broken and swept out as garbage?
Thinking about it carefully, it is not impossible, Liu Jincheng waved his hand, people searched along this clue, and the result was really eyebrows, a kitchen helper pointed to a girl and said that he saw the waitress breaking a porcelain-like thing, and everyone turned their eyes to the girl.
Graph source network
The girl was torn apart, and Liu Jincheng's tone also softened when he saw it, and the girl said: "It's okay, if it breaks, it will be broken, and everyone will help you find a way together." Now I can't find everyone here and I am tired. ”
The girl hesitated for a while, turned to go to her locker, Liu Jincheng was relieved, followed, the girl opened the cabinet door in full view of everyone, but a scene that surprised everyone happened, there was only a cracked spoon head and some fragments that could be vaguely seen to constitute the spoon handle, and there was no figure of the Nine Dragon Cup.
Confused, Liu Jincheng turned to the girl and asked, "Didn't you break the Kowloon Cup?" ”
The girl didn't know: "No, I also accidentally broke this soup spoon, and I didn't see any Kowloon cups." ”
Everyone saw this scene in a mess, and thought that the truth had been found, but they did not expect to be in the fog. Liu Jincheng helplessly called the police, and soon after more than a hundred armed police officers surrounded the Hengshan Club.
Premier Zhou
Together with the police, the Security Service investigated everyone who might have passed the Kowloon Cup, but the Kowloon Cup also appeared at the dinner table for a short period of time, and after the meal was over, it was sent back to the warehouse for storage, and non-VIPs could not contact it at all.
But the staff in charge of the warehouse inspection has been inquired many times, and it does not look like a lie.
Liu Jincheng was in a hurry, eager to dig three feet into the ground. So at this point, I believe everyone has a question, what is the origin of the National Treasure Kowloon Cup that made everyone anxious in the incident?
Kowloon Cup
The Kowloon Cup, as the name suggests, is associated with the dragon in Chinese culture, and the shape is shown in the following figure.
Kowloon Cup
When the cup is filled, the wine will be sprayed through the dragon's head at the bottom of the cup through the four downward dragon mouths. At the end is ingenious, graceful and luxurious.
Although the lost Kowloon Cup is extremely precious, it is not a real antique, this set of Kowloon Cup is actually a product of modern times, it was made by an ancient porcelain expert in Jingdezhen.
This expert is extremely obsessed with the widely rumored Kowloon Cup in history, but the real Kowloon Cup has been lost to the world, so he painstakingly and uses his relevant knowledge, after countless experiments, finally in 1958, he finally fired this set of historical "third set" Kowloon Cup, which is very close to the legendary original, and kept by Shanghai in the Hengshan Hotel, waiting for guests to come to see.
Unfortunately, this expert died in a car accident shortly after making the Kowloon Cup, and no one else in the world knew how to make it, so this set of Kowloon Cup became a unique product and precious.
Kowloon Cup
The legend of the Nine Dragon Cup in history can be traced back to the Ming Dynasty, the porcelain of the Ming Dynasty is very famous, Jingdezhen produced many historical famous instruments in that era, and the Imperial Porcelain Kowloon Gongdao Cup belongs to one of them.
The Kowloon Cup also has many interesting stories in the anecdotes, such as the Ming Dynasty Hongwu Emperor and the ministers drank wine, poured wine to the confidant ministers, poured only a little bit for the ministers who were not very close to and flattered themselves, but unfortunately it backfired, the Nine Dragon Cups full of wine flowed from the bottom of the cup, and the ministers who poured less drank the wine.
Don't be greedy, everything is in justice, so it is called the cup of justice.
In addition, there is a theatrical prototype story of the Qing Dynasty, "Three Thieves nine dragon cups", in which the legend of the nine dragon cups is the Kangxi Emperor's beloved nine dragon jade cup.
Unfortunately, these already small numbers of Kowloon Cups have not been handed down, leading many people to doubt their authenticity now. These magical rumors, combined with the mysterious color of the royal relationship, make the value of the Kowloon Cup to a higher level.
Kowloon Cup
Discover the truth
Then again, people at the Shanghai Hengshan Club are still looking for the missing Kowloon Cup, staying up all night. And then I received a message:
Premier Zhou will entertain foreign guests at the Hengshan Club on the evening of March 26, just tomorrow. The Kowloon Cup has not yet been found, which makes everyone's hearts sink, but there is no way, the things that should be done still have to be done.
The next day Premier Zhou came, Xu came in advance to make arrangements for the dinner, but when he entered the banquet hall, the attentive Premier Zhou found that the staff were listless and had no energy. Lenovo's police car police at the door must have been what happened.
Premier Zhou was also a regular visitor to the club, he stopped a few familiar waiters, inquired, learned about the loss of the national treasure, and Liu Jincheng was still worried in the office, heard that Premier Zhou had arrived, and immediately ran out to greet him.
After the greeting, Premier Zhou asked about this matter, and Liu Jincheng smiled bitterly: "I haven't found it yet, now there is really no way." ”
Premier Zhou
After the two of them finished speaking, they both fell into thought, and suddenly Premier Zhou thought: Since it is a banquet for receiving foreign guests, there must be people from tv stations or media on the spot.
He informed Liu Jincheng of his thoughts, and Liu Jincheng patted his thigh, yes! We've been looking into what happened after the loss, and we didn't expect it before or during the feast.
So Premier Zhou helped contact the media personnel at the banquet at that time, they said that there was indeed a video of the banquet in hand, so Liu Jincheng immediately went to borrow the tape and came back, everyone gathered around the projector, the tape slowly turned, and the truth of the matter was slowly revealed at this time...
In the shot, at the banquet, the guests are tasting Chinese food, the camera flows, the Kowloon Cup is taken out, the exquisite artwork is passed in people's hands, and the eyes of the people outside the camera are also staring at the picture.
Graph source network
At this time, a Romanian entourage secretary got the Kowloon Cup, and he did not hesitate to admire the treasure in his hand, but when he finished watching it, perhaps he was really reluctant to separate from the Kowloon Cup, and he actually put the Kowloon Cup into the handbag he carried with him...
Everyone froze, and they didn't expect that the Kowloon Cup was actually taken away by vips. Liu Jincheng's look hesitated, if the average person took it away, he would directly come back, but this was a foreign VIP, asked on the spot?
What if the other party doesn't admit it.
Search without admitting it?
These are all the country's distinguished guests, not to mention that they cannot be searched, and now the People's Republic of China is at the time of promoting foreign policy, if this matter is not handled well, the mainland's diplomacy may be flawed.
Liu Jincheng asked people to bring a list of guests, and after comparing the personnel, they knew the identity of this vip, this person's name was Pironezcu, 34 years old, a secretary of the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Romanian
The staff is now figuring it out, but things haven't worked out yet. Without a clue, they found Premier Zhou again.
After listening to the report, Premier Zhou's expression also became solemn, and the current relations between China and Romania have just been established, and it is impossible for people not to come to Taiwan.
After thinking about it for a while, Premier Zhou suddenly smiled and said to Liu Jincheng: "In the evening, I invited Vietnamese VIPs to watch acrobatic performances together. ”
Although Liu Jincheng did not know what Premier Zhou was going to do, he still went to invite the Romanian foreign guests, and there was no arrangement that night, the foreign guests were very happy, Liu Jincheng breathed a sigh of relief, things were ready, and then it was up to Premier Zhou to get back the Kowloon Cup.
Outsmart the Kowloon Cup
That night, in the Shanghai Performing Arts Hall, the voices were boiling, everyone was deeply attracted by the wonderful and exciting acrobatic performances, Liu Jincheng and others stood at the door, absent-mindedly watching the performance, and their eyes also drifted to the secretary from time to time, but Premier Zhou was very calm and talked with the personnel of the two countries.
Premier Zhou
As the minutes and seconds passed, the acrobatic performance came to an end. As everyone was about to get up and leave, a magician dressed as a man stepped onto the stage, politely bowed to the audience, and said, "Now let's put on a magic show for everyone, please enjoy it." ”
The already unfinished VIPs immediately sat down again, and the magician first performed several interesting magic tricks, which won the applause of the audience.
In the next show, he suddenly shook his hand, a table was set up, and three Kowloon cups were placed on it, and the audience was a little confused, but Liu Jincheng and others were just colored.
The magician bowed and said, "Next, I will cover the three Kowloon Cups, and wherever the gun in my hand hits, the Nine Dragon Cups will appear." ”
After saying that, he covered it with a red cloth, then stood still, raised his hand and shot in a certain direction of the audience, and the eyes of the crowd followed and looked over there, and there was no abnormality, and turned back.
Only to see the magician gracefully blow the muzzle of the gun and remove the cover cloth, but he did not expect that there were only two left on the table where the three Kowloon cups were originally placed.
Graph source network
Everyone began to talk, only to see the magician slowly walk to the side of Pironezcu on the audience stage, look at him with a smile, and signal him to open the handbag in his arms.
The audience suddenly realized: Yes! Didn't the magician's prop gun fire in this direction before?
Pirokuñez, who was in the focus of his eyes, was stunned, perhaps anxious because he had secretly taken the Kowloon Cup, and he hesitated for a moment before immediately taking the Kowloon Cup from his handbag and handing it to the magician, and clapped along with the audience.
Seeing this scene, Liu Jincheng and the others frowned for two days and finally let go, they all looked at Premier Zhou with gratitude and admiration, many outsiders in this matter did not know the truth and stakes, and Liu Jincheng they sincerely admired Premier Zhou's wisdom and heart.
Premier Zhou
epilogue
Premier Zhou Enlai was a great man with extremely high IQ and emotional intelligence, and his treatment of people and the way he lived in the world showed his unique pattern and vision.
Like the loss of the Kowloon Cup this time, the time for the incident and recovery did not even exceed a day, and the primary issue of state relations was also skillfully resolved by Premier Zhou, who used the means of magic performance to take back the national treasure without hurt, which later became an anecdote spread by word of mouth.
Not only that, since the founding of New China, Premier Zhou's ability to handle diplomatic affairs is also obvious to all, when faced with the questions of diplomats of other countries, Premier Zhou Enlai is not humble, the words of the answer are always full of grace and sincerity, and those who have come into contact with Premier Zhou are impressed by his personable demeanor.
Even decades later, we are still impressed by his charisma. Today, we should also learn more about the thoughts of great people and strive to contribute our own strength to our dear motherland!