Starting from the railway station of Mudanjiang City, Heilongjiang Province, walking along the mountain road along the main city for 30 minutes, you can see a tall "city gate". Its dark blue city walls stretch deep into the mountains, the city towers are carved with carved beams and paintings, two stone lions majestically guard the vermilion gate, and a solid wood gilt gold plaque hangs on the closed city gate, with the word "Cao Yuan" written on it.
Tourists who come here do not know the inside story, and after seeing the "Cao Garden", they often think that it is a historical ancient city or a locally developed tourism project. In fact, this large manor house covering an area of nearly 3,000 acres is not only a private building, but also built in the twenty-first century, which is not close to history.
Three thousand acres, nearly three times larger than the area of the Forbidden City.
Cao Garden
Caoyuan is located in Zhangguangcailing, a branch of Changbai Mountain in the Xing'anling Mountains, and the snowfields and geographical wonders of Heilongjiang are amazing, and the highest mountain in the territory, "Big BaldIngzi Mountain", is in Zhangguangcailing.
Originally a state-owned forest land, in 2004, local businessman Cao Bo took over the right to operate the land for 70 years in the name of contracting forest land, and began to build a large number of construction projects to build his private estate.
The total investment of Caoyuan is over 100 million. After construction began, patches of virgin forest fell and were replaced by magnificent green brick buildings. There is also a private museum dedicated to the display of various dinosaur fossil specimens and specimens of polar bears and tigers. In order to build this luxurious and magnificent private garden, the ecology of this forest farm has been almost destroyed.
The illegal deforestation of "Cao Yuan" has been repeatedly reflected, and its ownership unit officially reported the case to the forest public security in August 2018.
On the night of March 20, 2019, the inspection team was fully stationed in the "Cao Garden", and the mysterious and wealthy owner Behind it, Cao Bo, was taken away for investigation.
Facing the camera, the "owner" of the 3,000-acre manor was in tears, and as the investigation deepened, his true identity gradually surfaced.
Read on, stay tuned to learn more!
Make a fortune
Cao Bo's history can be traced back to 1993.
In 1993, 36-year-old Mudanjiang businessman Cao Bo went to Shanghai and set up an industrial company called Senmao, which specialized in steel wire, rubber and its accessories.
Subsequently, Cao Bo did not know what channels were used to establish a cooperative relationship with the last round group, and by supplying the last round of the group, Cao Bo quickly earned the first bucket of gold in his life.
Many people are very unfamiliar with the last round of the group, but there are many brands that are familiar to everyone - such as the "pull back brand" sneakers that have re-exploded in the young people's circle in the past two years, which are owned by the last round group.
Shanglun Group also has a famous tire brand "Double Money Tire", after the establishment of Cao Bo's trading company, Shanglun Group is its largest customer, and the wire used in "Double Money Tire" is provided by Cao Bo's company.
On such a big ship, Cao Bo's business flourished, and his company lived a "eating and drinking" life, making a lot of money through the wire trade until the end of the 90s.
Approaching the 21st century, the old leaders of the last round of the group are about to retire, and the new leaders and Cao Bo are not familiar with each other.
Cao Bo is keenly aware that the connections he has established over the years may be coming to an end, and after the new leader takes office, it is inevitable that new suppliers will take the opportunity to compete with him, and the probability of him being kicked out of the list of suppliers is not small.
To this end, Cao Bo began to lay out in advance.
On the one hand, he set out to set up a second wire company, run by his two sons, and found a way to make the new company a supplier to the last round of the group.
In this way, once he was squeezed out by other suppliers, the second company became the basis for Cao Bo's reversal.
On the other hand, Cao Bo took the initiative to borrow 10 million yuan (10 million in the 90s) from the bank, and found the old leaders of the previous round of the group to sign the guarantee for Cao Bo in the name of the previous round of the group.
The purpose of this is to bundle up with the previous round.
After two steps, Cao Bo was full of confidence and waited for the moment when the "old owner" would alternate between the old and the new.
means
Entering the millennium, the last round of the group ushered in a new leader Fan Xian, and the confrontation between Cao Bo and Fan Xian officially began.
Before that, it is necessary to tell the inspirational story of Fan Xian.
Born in 1954, Fan Xian's ancestral home is Jiangsu, and he lost his father at the age of three, but he is not only intelligent in mind, but also willing to endure hardships.
At the age of seventeen, Fan Xianhe entered the Shanghai soap factory as a fitter, and was discovered by the factory because of his particularly outstanding work performance, not only got the opportunity to enter the university for further study, but also soared in his later work and became the director of the soap factory. Subsequently, Fan Xian took command in the ink factory and the White Elephant Swan Battery Co., Ltd., and made great achievements in different fields, making great contributions to the development of these industries.
The millennial Fan Xian had just turned forty-six, and whether it was energy or experience, it was at the peak of his life.
The new official took office with three fires, and Fan Xian was naturally no exception after he took command of the last round of the group, and Fan Xian's three fires were indeed burned on his body as Cao Bo expected. Clear-eyed people know the relationship between Cao Bo's two steel wire companies, Fan Xian can not know? As a result, both of Cao Bo's companies have been kicked out of the ranks of suppliers.
At first, Cao Bo hoped to solve the problem through normal negotiations, but when Fan Xian did not want to see him, he could not see Fan Xian's shadow at all. Cao Hua, who has continuously hit the wall, used the "bureau" he had already laid down.
He stopped repaying the company's ten million loans and was ready to file for bankruptcy for the company. As a result, banks can only go to the last round of groups that guaranteed Cao Bo. Soon, the bank took the loan from the previous round of group accounts.
Although Cao Bo's wave of operations was very vicious, it was really effective, fan Xian quickly took the initiative to find Cao Bo, cao Bo was able to continue to supply the last round of group, but the ten million loan was deducted from his payment.
After a confrontation, Cao Bo temporarily saved the "rice bowl", but was his crisis really lifted? I don't think so, not to mention Fan Xian's ability and status, even if he is an ordinary person, who would be willing to be forced to obey in this way by a small supplier?
Cao Bo also knew that his approach was too desperate, although he temporarily reconciled Fan Xian with himself, but he also completely offended Fan Xian, and when Fan Xian had the right opportunity, his "rice bowl" would still be lost.
In winter, the Cao Garden is covered with snow
Therefore, Cao Bo began the second round of "operation", he wanted to pull Fan Xian into the water, so that he and himself became a "one-way person".
On the one hand, Cao Bo took advantage of various opportunities to win over and corrupt, and used the money offensive to constantly smash Fan Xian; On the other hand, Cao Bo sent his son Cao Chao to Germany to find Fan Xian's only daughter who studied in Germany, Fan Yingying.
As the saying goes, "fight brothers, fight father and son soldiers", with the joint efforts of father and son, Fan Xian and his daughter Fan Yingying have obeyed, one has become Cao Bo's good partner, and the other has become Cao Chao's girlfriend.
Return
Cao Bo is a very business-minded person, when his wire business is in full swing, he invested the money he earned into more industries, and the business under his name covers various industries such as culture, machinery, catering, medical treatment, biotechnology, etc., the farthest of which is the real estate project invested in Hainan.
There is an old Chinese saying called "rich and noble do not return to their hometowns, such as jinyi night walking", from ancient times to the present, people who have studied abroad or achieved business achievements have a concept of "returning to their hometowns", and the same is true for people like Cao Bo.
When his son Cao Chao established a relationship with Fan Xian's daughter, Cao Bo was very satisfied with Cao Chao's ability, and he handed over the wire business to Cao Chao, and he returned to his hometown in Mudanjiang to build his own "Cao Garden".
Cao Bo chose the address for the construction of Cao Yuan in Zhang Guangcailing, a branch of the Changbai Mountains of the Xing'anling Mountain System, where the mountains are higher, the terrain is complex, and the cliffs and deep valleys are everywhere, which is a rare ecological treasure. At the same time, Zhang Guangcailing was the birthplace of the Jin and Qing dynasties in history, and among them, the Qing Dynasty had the strictest jurisdiction over this area, and classified this place as a "forbidden land".
When I was flipping through the materials, I became very interested in the name "Zhang Guangcai", thinking that Zhang Guangcailing was named after the name "Zhang Guangcai". In fact, it is not, "Zhang Guangcai" is a manchu transliteration, which originally meant "auspicious and ruyi".
Cao Bo chose the location of his private garden in such a feng shui treasure land, exposing one of his characteristics - superstition.
Cao Bo is very sensitive to "feng shui". For example, the license plate of his main car is "88888"; For example, when he set up a cultural company for Cao Yuan, the time he chose was June 6, 2006; For example, in order to adjust the feng shui of Cao Yuan, he built a storage dam halfway up the mountainside, used a bulldozer to push the mountain pass into a large pit twelve meters deep, and combined with natural conditions to create a dammed lake the size of a square kilometer.
The walls of CaoYuan stretch for several kilometers
With the increase in water storage, because of the fear that the water of the dammed lake will overflow and flood downstream, Cao Bo will hire dozens of people to pump water every year and pump water through manual pumping.
How luxurious is "Cao Yuan"? According to media visits, the small bridges and pavilions inside the "Cao Garden" can be seen everywhere, and the huge building complex is green brick and black tile, and the momentum is extraordinary, and passers-by who do not know will think that it is an ancient building here when they see Cao Yuan.
Green bricks and red tiles rose from the ground, behind which a large number of primary forests were cut down, and some people reported Cao Yuan to the media that Cao Yuan was not only suspected of a large number of illegal constructions, but even the funds for the construction of Cao Yuan were from the sale of state-owned trees secretly cut down.
After the construction of the main part of Cao Garden was completed, Cao Bo lived in it all year round, and there was a special hunting ground for him to hunt in the park, and the wild animals such as roe deer and pheasants in the hunting ground were the targets of his guns.
A friend once dissuaded Cao Bo from this behavior, but he replied:
"I'm hunting in my own home, how can I break the law?"
There is also a special private museum in CaoYuan, which displays specimens of more than 20 rare wild animals and plants, including tigers, Polaris and even dinosaur fossils and mammoth fossils.
report
A forest land contractor named Zhang Xuecheng (pseudonym) told reporters that his contracted forest land was adjacent to "Cao Yuan" and thus knew Cao Bo.
For their local businessmen, Cao Bo, who returned to his hometown, is "very mysterious", and there are many big businesses outside, although he does not know Cao Bo's specific ability, but one thing is recognized by everyone - he is very rich and "very powerful".
Pavilions in Cao Garden
In 2008, Cao Bo asked Zhang Xuecheng to help with a few small things, and the relationship between the two went further, and he began to have the opportunity to contact Cao Bo with more things.
After becoming acquainted with Cao Bo, Zhang Xuecheng was often invited to enter Cao Garden for private banquets and accompany guests with Cao Bo.
From 2007 to 2008, Zhang Xuecheng saw "tiger meat" at Cao Bo's private banquets many times.
"Cao Bo will not directly tell the guests that this is tiger meat, and every time he introduces it, he will meaningfully say that this is 'cat meat', and the people who dine will understand it."
After learning that this was tiger meat, Zhang Xuecheng was inwardly flustered, and after tasting it, he stopped moving chopsticks.
He told reporters: "I don't like it. ”
In addition, Zhang Xuecheng also said with great certainty that Cao Bo buys at least hundreds of bear paws every year to entertain guests.
"These tiger meats and bear paws are smuggled by him illegally. As a citizen, I really can't see Cao Bo's illegal behavior, so I choose to stand up and report him. ”
Not only that, Zhang Xuecheng also expressed his willingness to bear legal responsibility for the content of his report to reporters.
In fact, Zhang Xuecheng was not the first to report Cao Bo.
At the same time as Cao Yuan was constantly expanding, fines from various departments also flew in at the same time, but Cao Bo "thundered", as if he was not affected by the punishment at all, which increased his "mystery" in the circle of businessmen.
The relevant departments have issued administrative punishment decisions on the illegal land construction of "Cao Yuan" three times, and the illegal land area investigated and punished is 7000 square meters, 5736 square meters and 2367 square meters, respectively.
But the fine did not stop the pace of caoyuan expansion, caoyuan is still building in a big way, in caoyuan once official website introduction, caoyuan also planned a racecourse, golf course and other projects.
Ending
During the construction of CaoYuan, a building owner surnamed Zhu was responsible for the construction of some projects. Boss Zhu told reporters that in 2011, he verbally agreed with Cao Bo to build a house in Cao Fu, a three-story wooden house with a total of 1,400 square meters.
A hollowed-out mountain in Cao Garden
The boss surnamed Zhu spent six months to complete the project of this "Cao Mansion" for Cao Bo, including supporting projects such as stone stairs, mountain roads, parking lots, septic tanks, etc., with a total project cost of more than 1.7 million yuan, and Cao Bo did not pay as scheduled. In order to ask for a salary, the boss surnamed Zhu filed a complaint against Cao Bo in court.
When the reporter contacted the boss surnamed Zhu, he said that Cao Bo was very powerful and was a person he "couldn't afford to provoke".
When Cao Bo built a garden in his hometown in full swing, the relationship between the Cao family and the Fan family became closer and closer.
Between 2003 and 2008, the relationship between Cao Chao and Fan Yingying gradually became close, and finally reached the point of talking about marriage. After becoming a "family", Fan Xian transferred four houses under his name to Cao Chao, and Cao Chao paid a bribe of 330,000 yuan to Fan Xian in the name of transfer fees.
In 2007, Fan Yingying returned from Germany to visit relatives, Cao Bo rushed from his hometown to Shanghai, and at the engagement banquet of Cao Chao and Fan Yingying, he gave Fan Xian a 6 million yuan passbook, but fan Xian returned 5 million yuan afterwards.
In the summer of that year, Cao Chao sent millions of yuan in cash to the Fan family with a trolley box.
In the years of exchanges between the Cao and Fan families, Cao Bo's father and son successively paid bribes to Fan Xian, amounting to 3.35 million yuan. On August 3, 2008, another "partner" of Fan Xian was taken away by the Discipline Inspection Commission for investigation, and Fan Xian's family and Cao Bo's father and son urgently discussed an escape plan, but in the end, only Fan Xian's wife fled to Germany and defected to her daughter, and Fan Xian was controlled by the judicial organs.
After Fan Xian "fell off the horse", Cao Chao quickly dissolved his marriage relationship with Fan Yingying. In 2010, Fan Xian's verdict, sentencing him to life, showed that Cao Bo's father and son would be "dealt with in a separate case," but Cao Bo, unaware of what means were used, had been at large. It was not until the day of the "Cao Yuan" east window incident at the beginning of the article that Cao Bo fell into the legal net.
On November 9, 2020, the Hailin Municipal People's Court of Mudanjiang City rendered a first-instance judgment, with the following excerpts:
Heilongjiang Caoyuan Cultural Investment Co., Ltd. committed the crime of indiscriminate logging and was sentenced to a fine of 800,000 yuan; Cao Bo committed the crime of indiscriminate logging, illegal purchase of precious and endangered wildlife products, and false litigation, and decided to carry out a fixed-term imprisonment of nine years and a fine of 1.7 million yuan; Su Linfang was convicted of indiscriminate logging and sentenced to three years and six months in prison and fined 200,000 yuan.
Cao Bo appealed in court against the first-instance judgment, but in the face of the overwhelming evidence of the crime, Cao Bo's disobedience was just a dying struggle, and he would eventually be punished as he deserved.
For the huge and luxurious manor "Cao Yuan", it has also been confirmed that the 16 buildings and structures that must be demolished according to the law have been demolished, and the remaining parts of the buildings that have not been demolished will also be re-evaluated according to their functions and public welfare attributes without ecological impact.
However, for the demolition of "Cao Yuan", many netizens have different views.
Some people believe that the green water and green mountains are the golden mountains and silver mountains, and the ecologically destructive buildings of Cao Yuan should be completely demolished to restore the original appearance of the forest; Some people also think that since they have been built at a great cost, why spend another price to tear it down? It is better to make the most of Caoyuan Garden under the premise of minimizing the environmental impact, such as developing tourism resources.
What do you think about whether Cao Yuan is demolished or left? Want to hear your opinion in the comments section.
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