Original: Caiyu
It's not easy to be original, don't be stingy to give an encouragement ~~
In March 1644, Li Zicheng led the Dashun army to attack the city of Beijing, and the Chongzhen Emperor was forced to commit suicide, and three days later, the pursuit of stolen goods and help began, and under the persecution of 5,000 sets of clamping sticks, he obtained 75 million taels of silver, plus 37 million taels of silver and 1.5 million taels of gold found in the Ming Imperial Palace, a total of more than 100 million taels of gold and silver and court supplies
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the state collected about 4 million taels of silver annually, you can imagine how huge this wealth was, at least 30 years of national finance and taxation, in early May 1645, Li Zicheng died in Jiugong Mountain, Hubei, a generation of heroes annihilated, along with the huge treasure.
Where is Li Zicheng's treasure, where was it lost, or who got it? Why has countless people searched for 378 years from the end of the Ming Dynasty to the present, but still can't see a trace? Unravel this century-old mystery today
Chasing stolen money
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the people did not have a good life, the annual output value of an acre of land was only seven or eight taels of silver, but the taxes paid exceeded 10 taels, and after years of famine, the imperial court still did not reduce anything, the people were displaced, the soldiers were also starved and frozen, the heroes rose one after another, Li Zicheng fought bravely and well, and quickly stood out from it, and in January 1644, the Dashun regime was established in Xi'an, with the year name Yongchang.
Then the Dashun army went all the way north, straight to the city of Beijing, Li Zicheng wanted to let the Chongzhen Emperor make him the king of the northwest and reward millions of military salaries, but how could the emperor bow to the thief head, the Chongzhen Emperor refused, hanged himself on the coal mountain, the Dashun army attacked the city of Beijing, 3 days later, he personally issued an edict, ordering the general Liu Zongmin and nephew Li Guo to try to solve the problem of military salaries.
Liu Zongmin made 5,000 sets of clamp sticks, set up a large execution hall in the Tieshi Alley in the capital, arrested all officials above the sixth rank, including the princes of foreign qi, and tortured them overnight, demanding that the officials of the Ming Dynasty's Zhongtang (Yipin) must hand over 100,000 taels of silver, and the officials of ministries, Jingtang, and Jinyi must hand over 70,000 to 50,000 taels of silver.
At that time, there were more than 2,500 officials in Beijing in the Ming Dynasty, and after killing more than 800 people, Li Zicheng collected a total of 75 million taels of silver, while the state collected about 4 million taels of silver every year, plus 37 million taels of silver and 1.5 million taels of gold found in the Ming Palace's inner treasury, and Li Zicheng had more than 100 million taels of gold and silver and court supplies
Soon, Wu Sangui was tortured because his father Wu Xiang, his concubine Chen Yuanyuan was occupied, colluded with the Qing army, and rushed to attack the city of Beijing, Li Zicheng asked the craftsmen to cast gold and silver into gold bricks and silver bricks overnight, and ordered his close followers to transport them to Xi'an on April 21 (it is also said April 16), Li Zicheng withdrew from Beijing on April 30, at this time the Yunbao army should be in Shanxi.
Shanxi Jin merchants were extremely wealthy in China in the Qing Dynasty, and more than a dozen ticket numbers suddenly appeared in the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, and they also set up semicolons in Japan, Russia, Singapore and other places, once manipulating the economic lifeline of the entire Qing Dynasty in the 19th century. The ticket number must have huge funds, Shanxi is poor and closed, where does the money come from? It has always been said that Shanxi merchants got Li Zicheng and became rich by bequeathing money
It is said that Li Zicheng's army was defeated and it was inconvenient to carry gold, so he put gold and silver in Kang's yard and left, 8 million taels cheapened Kang's, since then began to do ticket number business, looking through the historical materials found that this is an exaggeration, before the end of the Ming Dynasty, Shanxi merchants had a record of doing salt business in the Jiangnan area, quickly making a fortune, Shanxi people are very business-minded.
However, the Shanxi ticket number is indeed somewhat related to Li Zicheng's treasure, Kong Xiangxi once ordered historians to check in detail, the ancestors of the shareholders of Yuanfeng Jiu ticket number did find some cash, and during the battle, some military materials including treasures would indeed be discarded, and some Shanxi people would occasionally pick them up, and many people were curious and puzzled about the rise of Jin merchants in the financial field, so they thought that they had Li Zicheng's treasure.
In fact, before Li Zicheng captured Beijing, he had set a good strategy for Yunbao, and the treasure was escorted very carefully, and more importantly, on May 10, the Dashun army defeated the main force of the Qing army at Guguan at the junction of Shanxi and Hebei, and no matter how slow the Yunbao army moved, it should have reached the territory of Shaanxi, rather than being pursued by the Qing army in Shanxi
In early May 1644, the Qing army that had been entrenched in Shanhaiguan finally entered the city of Beijing, but the commander Dolgon was not happy, the siege of the city was for wealth, and the city of Beijing and even Baoding were empty, Li Zicheng collected the treasures of more than 270 years of Daming, so, the day after stepping into the front door, Dolgon ordered the Qing army to continue to pursue Li Zicheng, and also ordered many times to always pay attention to the whereabouts of the treasure.
On the 13th day of the first month of 1645, relying on red-clothed cannons, the Qing army blew up the main road to Xi'an, Tongguan, and Yulin in northern Shaanxi was also in danger, Li Zicheng abandoned Xi'an and prepared to retreat into Xiangyang, wanting to capture the southeastern half of Jiangshan, the Qing army was overjoyed, they quickly rushed to Xi'an, but did not capture the Dashun treasure.
There has always been a legend in the area of Mizhi that Li Zicheng transported the treasures of the capital back to his hometown, countless craftsmen and bricklayers built walls and houses everywhere, and courtyards rose up one after another, and the Qing army quickly arrived, but they were dumbfounded, there were only earthen caves where they lived, there were no traces of large buildings, not to mention that they could not see the treasures, even the families of the thieves, and fled to the deep mountains and old forests
The Qing army dug three feet into the ground, did not find the treasure, brutally suppressed the Li clan, and there was no clue, in order to vent their anger, the Qing army bloodily slaughtered local villagers, still found nothing, and later the Qing army also felt that although northern Shaanxi Mizhi is a hometown, but the road is far away, the treasure is unlikely to be here, so they continue to keep a close eye on Li Zicheng
The death of the king
Li Zicheng's army continued to advance eastward, and at the end of April 1645, 40 miles from Jiujiang, Jiangxi, the Dashun army was attacked by the main force of the Qing army, Azige troops, almost completely destroyed, the general Liu Zongmin, the military master Song Xiance, and Li Zicheng's two uncles were captured, and a gold seal of the Dashun state was lost, and Li Zicheng quickly withdrew to Tongcheng County, Hubei.
According to Ming history, Li Zicheng was bound to lose every battle on the road to retreat south, and fled to Jiugong Mountain in Tongshan in May, on that day he led 20 people to break through the siege, but unfortunately the heavy rain continued, he was not familiar with the terrain, and was regarded as a bandit by the villagers, his sword with blood could not be drawn, and Cheng Jiubo was hacked to death with a hoe.
This is a record of the Ming history, when no one in the Qing army saw it with their own eyes, and the commander Azige was very happy when he heard about it, so he reported it to the imperial court:
Li Junbing tried his best to be poor, sneaked into the Jiugong Mountain, was trapped by the villagers, could not escape, and hanged himself.
The Qing government was also very happy and issued an edict to reward and worship the ancestors, but soon learned that Li Zicheng was wandering in Jiangxi, and there were still 400,000 people in the Dashun army, what was going on, wasn't it dead? Why are you still messing around?
Azige sent a person who knew Li Zicheng to identify the body, so that there was physical evidence, but he did not expect the result to be: the corpse was indistinguishable and could not identify the identity of the deceased, Azige had to go to the second letter, saying that Li Zicheng may be dead, or it may be in Jiangxi, the regent Dolgon was angry, this is lying about military merits, deceiving the imperial court, ordering the prince to be demoted to the county king, and fined another 5,000 taels of silver
Since then, Li Zicheng's treasure and himself have not been heard, some people suspect that Azige secretly embezzled that batch of treasures, this is impossible, Azig is so happy, if the treasure is captured, in order to ask for merit will definitely report to the imperial court, but the Qing Dynasty documents have never had such writing, this matter is not trivial, he was severely punished because of the unfavorable pursuit and killing of the bandits, how dare to fight the crooked idea of the treasure.
Six years later, Azige was given death by the Shunzhi Emperor for usurping the position of regent, and when he had no family property, he did not find the treasure of the Dashun Kingdom, which shows that the Qing Dynasty did not get the treasure, nor did it block the treasure news, and even during the Kangxi Dynasty, Li Zicheng was alive or dead, there was no final conclusion, only that it did not appear after the Battle of Jiugong Mountain.
Therefore, the theory of seclusion began to prevail, the Dashun army fled all the way, Li Zicheng wanted to unite with the Southern Ming government to resist the Qing army, but he forced Chongzhen to death, engaged in the destruction of the Daming state, now seek peace, of course Nanming can not agree, some people suggested that he take advantage of the defeat of Jiugong Mountain to return to hiding, let his subordinates join forces with the Ming to resist the Qing, himself under the pseudonym Fengtian Yu monk, seclusion in the Shimen Jiashan Temple in Hunan Province, secretly commanding.
Mukden is the term of the emperor, Li Zicheng was called "the generalissimo of Fengtian Advocate" when he rebelled, the bronze plate of Fengtian Jade Zhao was found near Jiashan Temple, and some Yongchang Tongbao copper coins were also found, copper bells with the words "King of Xi'an" cast, and fan bones engraved with the word "Yongchang", but can these prove that Li Zicheng lived in seclusion in Jiashan Temple?
Of course not, this is a hundred years later, a person named He Xuan in Lizhou, Hunan Province, saw the portrait of the monk Fengtian Yu, and judged that it was very similar to Li Zicheng in the history of Ming, thinking that the rumor was true. I haven't even seen it myself, but I know that the monks are extraordinary, they understand politics when talking about military affairs, their accent is like Shanxi people, and their appearance is good, so it is too hasty to draw conclusions.
The monk Fengtian Yu does have a person, but not Li Zicheng, he has a tomb and an inscription, and went to Jiashan Temple in Hunan in 1652, and Li Zicheng disappeared from history in 1645, and the monk Fengtian Jade often goes in and out of the homes of officials and rich merchants, and Li Zicheng, as a wanted criminal in the imperial court, officials at all levels must be familiar with it, how can he not be arrested?
The most important thing is that if Li Zicheng secretly commanded, then the Dashun army would inevitably act in unison, but the remnants of the troops were particularly chaotic, and there were various iterations of the Qing and Ming dynasties, and in the first year of the Kangxi Dynasty, the Qing army vigorously surrounded and suppressed the remnants of the king, and Li Zicheng's relatives and friends were wiped out, how could they not act if they lived, and the monk Fengtian Yu lived for more than ten years before dying
Li Zicheng's death has always been debated, but no matter how many folk legends there are, all kinds of historical materials have confirmed from the side that Li Zicheng did die in Jiugong Mountain, as for whether to pray for God or explore the way, in the temple or on the road, with a hammer or a hoe, anyway, they are all dead, but the treasure is still there, such a large amount of wealth will not disappear out of thin air, it will definitely leave clues
Treasure hunt deep in the mountains
In 2001, the Lechang mountain area of Guangdong Province was hit by torrential rain, and the flood rushed out dozens of pounds of silver ingots from a temple, some engraved with the word Dashun, very similar to the silver ingots of the Dashun army found in Tongcheng, Hubei Province.
The mountain road is rugged, there is only one path to the top, a section of cannabis stone wall blocks the mountain road, the top arch allows only one person to pass through, and the small mountain formed by huge stones surrounds a 2-kilometer-long flat land, where more than 10,000 people were stationed that year.
Legend has it that when the defeated army left, the treasure was discarded, but nothing was found at the scene except for some broken tiles of the Ming Dynasty, the back garden is the location of the warehouse, and the footprints of the treasure hunter were found, it is said that someone looked here for more than 1 month, and a hidden poem circulated in the local area to bury Li Zicheng's treasure:
The first three mountains, the back three mountains, comparable to the nine turns of the proud eel, on the left there is the green dragon leaning on the emperor's list, and on the right there is the white tiger towards the horse mountain
To this day, no one has cracked this hidden poem, this is the place where the Southern Ming general Cao Guogong is stationed, more than ten kilometers away from Wangu Jincheng is the Mangshan forest area of Hunan Province, that was once the base camp of the Dashun army in the south, is the treasure there?
Mangshan forest area Qiziping is the legendary base camp, more than 1400 meters above sea level, surrounded by mountains, similar to Wangu Jincheng, there is a basin of several square kilometers in the valley, where the Dashun army is stationed to make iron and paper, buy and sell mountain goods, build a 2-kilometer-long street, and the barren mountains have become prosperous
It is said that Li Zicheng fled in civilian clothes and became a monk at Guanyin Temple more than ten miles away, and changed to Huilong Temple, and also brought some treasures over, and 18 monks carried prayer boxes to cover 18 loads of gold and silver jewelry, which was also called "Nine Donkeys and Eighteen Burdens" in later generations.
Li Zicheng is dead, as the Dashun Emperor, he will never escape, the rumors are of course false, but the treasure is fascinating, strangely, at the end of 1651, after the Qing army surrounded Huiziping and killed the soldiers and civilians on the mountain, he dug three feet of ground here, and finally found nothing.
In 1661, after Wu Sangui pacified the southwestern provinces, he also sent people to look for it in the area of Mangshan, and 12 years later, Wu Sangui held high the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty, proclaimed himself emperor in Hengyang, Hunan Province, and sent people to Mangshan for the second time to look around for the whereabouts of Li Zicheng's treasure, but there was still no result.
During the Anti-Japanese War, Li Zongren, a senior general of the Kuomintang, was blocked by the Japanese army for 3 years in the rest of Guangxi, and the military expenses of the Chongqing Nationalist Government could not be delivered, so he searched for treasures in Qiziping, but had no goal, and finally returned disappointed.
In modern times, there are also many people who explore treasures, the ancient tombs behind Mangshan Mountain were suddenly dug up, pottery and porcelain fragments were scattered all over the place, and there was still no harvest, Tiantang Village at the foot of Mangshan Mountain, there has been a secret for hundreds of years, it is said that whoever can crack the mystery can get huge wealth:
Shiyan chong, three bridges, slow walking 100 steps, three kilns gold
A group of retired workers of the Mangshan Forest Farm were also organized by Tan Xiangji, according to the understanding, starting from Huiziping, crossing three bridges, and came to a site where the Dashun army made paper, but only dug out some ancient clay pots and other daily necessities.
The entrance of the cave is very hidden, the cave is wide, in line with people's imagination of the treasure cave, a platform at the entrance of the cave, leaving a moisture-proof three-fold soil sand layer, proving that there have been activities here, plus the name of the cave with the word "Emperor", everyone is sure that the treasure is here, but after careful excavation, the results were unexpected, only some Yongchang copper coins were found.
The treasure hunt fell into a desperate situation, one day Tan Xiangji suddenly wondered, will the treasure hiding place not be in the living area, but in the opposite direction, in the opposite direction, found a man-made stone wall, deep mountains and old forests to build such a huge project, the use must be extraordinary, sure enough, less than 1 km from the stone wall, is a huge cave.
Unfortunately, the mountain was struck by lightning, and the mouth of the cave has been completely buried and cannot be dug. For 300 years, the treasures of Mangshan have been indistinguishable, and all that has been found so far is some ancient clay pots and Dashun coins. At this time, it was proposed that the treasure was in Luogong Mountain, and Li Ziwei and his people had been stationed in Luogong Mountain
Wild Whisk Treasure
Hunan Qianyang Luogong Mountain, Ming and Qing Dynasty is the main gateway to the mainland of Yunnan Guizhou, east to Changsha, south can go straight to Hengyang, is a place where soldiers must fight, in 1645 Li Zicheng led the army south, stationed in Chenzhou, Qianyang area, Luogong Mountain has a place called Wujinkeng, there are villagers nearby to pick up some silver and jade.
More than ten years ago, a group of tomb robbers had been active in Luogong Mountain for a long time, and ancient tombs and temples that were dug up on the mountain abounded, and there was a temple called Baijing Temple, with a couplet engraved in front of the door:
Eighteen pieces of gold and silver, fast eighteen pounds, no steel brazing heavy crush, only with an umbrella handle.
This sentence is like a treasure secret, but in the past, there were many like the White Spirit Temple, and the legend was that the military station of the Dashun army, all of which were demolished in the construction of water conservancy, and some very beautiful golden hairpins were found, but the number was so small, it could only be a small part of the treasure, and the huge treasure was still missing.
Lechang, Mangshan, and Luogong Mountain are all said to be treasure hiding places, but the treasure has not been seen, but why does the treasure say endure? Just because that's where the Dashun army was stationed, just because they picked up scattered gold and silver? In an area where tens of thousands of people move, it is normal for gold and silver to be scattered.
This view is confirmed in the treasure collection of Tianmen Mountain, in the autumn of 1645 all the Dashun army was transferred to the mountains of northern Hunan, where the mountains were high and densely forested, and the Qing rulers could not reach it, and the Dashun army lived in the area for about six or seven years, which was the place where the tun soldiers cultivated and lived for the longest time, and the legend of Li Zicheng's treasure was also circulating there.
There is a Guanyin Mountain in the Tianmen Mountain Scenic Area, and the village cadres wanted to develop tourism resources, but found a blocked dark cave next to the cliff, and found 14 pieces of gold plutonium, golden hairpin, golden hoop and other items in the cave, which is a batch of court ornaments from the Yuan and Ming Dynasties, seventeen flowers and bird's head golden hairpin, which are national second-class protected cultural relics.
In addition, it is difficult to find treasures, but there is a temple on the top of Tianluo Mountain nearby is very peculiar, the Buddhist temple preaches the spirit of compassion, but that temple is built as a defensive bunker, there are trenches below, and the top is like a city wall, which is very suitable for lookouts, which is more like a mysterious place under the cover of a temple, is the treasure hidden in the temple?
It is said that Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo cut his hair as a monk, and he used 9 large ships to load treasures, fancy the dangerous terrain of Tianmen Mountain, practicing here, the treasures of nine ships were lost in the new repair hall, and every day he waited for the day, taking in a large number of wounded soldiers of the Dashun army, but the Qing army was getting closer and closer, and there was no hope of restoring the Dashun rivers and mountains.
In the end, the monk decided to scatter the treasure and bury it in several caves near Tianmen Mountain, and killed all the more than 100 migrant workers involved in the treasure collection with poisoned wine, and then went into seclusion, dying in 1661
But this is just a legend, the tombstone of the wild whisk simply describes the life of a military general, but there is no record of treasure, when he was alive, he was generous and had many disciples, most of which attracted covetousness.
It seems that the treasure should be found from Li Zicheng's descendants, Li Guo is the heir, after Li Zicheng's death, his wife Gao Guiying presided over the military and government, realizing the joint resistance of the Dashun army and the Southern Ming against the Qing Dynasty, and the Southern Ming government rewarded Gao Guiying's filial piety and righteous wife, gave Li Guo the name "Chixin", and later made him a Xingguo hou, and Li Guo led his troops to fight in Lianghu, Guangxi and other places.
In 1647, more than 100,000 Dashun troops encountered Yuanshui, built temples, built castles, and reorganized the Dashun army into 48 battalion headquarters according to the surviving 48 generals, one general at the time, and changed the overall operation to mobile operations, 48 generals were stationed in separate villages, and the Chengmen Mountain Village was the command center, and was stationed in Cili County, Hunan Province
The final battle
This remote valley is very abnormal, all are uniform terraces, the fields are made of hemp stone barriers, stretching for more than ten miles, the Dashun army not only large-scale reclamation of wasteland, but also refining weapons, they buy land from nearby landowners, rely on agriculture to make a living.
This is very abnormal in a closed mountainous area, and a survey of cultural relics in June 2007 found that the sparsely populated valley is full of uniform terraces, and the fields are all made of cannabis stone and stretch for more than ten miles.
In the early Qing Dynasty, Hunan and Hubei became the areas with the largest number of troops invested by the Qing army, and in the early years of the Shunzhi Dynasty, more than half of the Qing Dynasty's taxes were consumed in a tug-of-war with the Dashun army, so that the Qing Dynasty's treasury was often in a hurry.
Dolgon had to reactivate Wu Sangui, and in order to show loyalty to the Qing dynasty, he sent many elite soldiers to surround and suppress him, and also secretly ordered his generals to visit the hiding place of Li Zicheng's treasure, being careful not to let the Qing dynasty know that 200,000 elite soldiers rushed over, and the Dashun army had to retreat to the Maolu Mountain of Xingshan in Hubei Province and insist on resisting the Qing.
In 1649, the epidemic in the army, Li Guo died of illness due to water and soil, the next leader of the Dashun army was Li Laiheng, when he transferred south from Xi'an, the general who performed the secret mission was also called Li Laiheng, this is the same person, fighting with the Qing army is not a secret, the biggest secret of the Dashun army is to escort the treasure, Li Laiheng is Li Guo's adopted son, is Li Zicheng's grandnephew, it can be speculated that the treasure is in the hands of Li Laiheng.
In 1661, the Yongli Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty was killed by Wu Sangui in Kunming, and the remnants of the Dashun army led by Li Laiheng became the last anti-Qing base in the country, and the Qing government adopted the policy of suppressing and pacifying the Qing army, recruiting the leader of the Dashun army, and the surrendering officer was promoted to one level, but it was rejected by the anti-Qing righteous, and as many as 2,500 soldiers were killed and jumped off the cliff
In 1662, the Qing government concentrated a total of 100,000 troops from Sichuan, Hubei and Shaanxi provinces, under the command of the Jingxi general Mulima, besieged Maolu Mountain, Li Laiheng attacked with artillery, wood, and rolling stones, and the Qing soldiers suffered heavy casualties, even Mulima's son was killed
The Qing government was shocked and sent 200,000 additional troops, the Qing army built a soil city around Maolu Mountain, blocked the main road, did not allow entry and exit, and when the food of the Dashun army ran out, the Qing army sent people to sneak attack, the two sides held each other for several months, the materials of the Dashun army were exhausted, and Li Laiheng twice organized a breakthrough, although he fought to the death, but could not highlight the encirclement
Many generals of the Dashun army defected to the Qing army, including Li Laiheng's cronies, Gao Guiying's nephew, these people went up the mountain to persuade them to surrender, Gao Guiying said that he would not surrender to the Qing Dynasty, Li Laiheng would never surrender, they decided to martyr the country with their bodies, on August 4, 1664, Gao Guiying and Li Laiheng's family set themselves on fire, and the last anti-Qing banner on the mainland fell
After the Qing army occupied Maolu Mountain, they were overjoyed, and under the guidance of insiders, they dug three feet into the ground to look for treasures, but unfortunately found nothing, and the local villagers only knew some copper coins and utensils, and everyone wanted to ask: Where is Li Zicheng's treasure?
The answer is actually very simple, everyone only remembers that the Dashun army has hundreds of millions of taels of gold and silver, but they never thought that the day Li Laiheng set himself on fire, it has been exactly 21 years since Li Zicheng's death, only a few years of encirclement and suppression, the Qing government's finances will dry up, then the 400,000 troops of the Dashun army, even if only 100,000 later, how huge are their daily expenses?
What's more, it is necessary to buy land, build roads, build cities, build forts, and refine weapons in deep mountains and old forests... Everything is money, the Qing government of that year had the most accurate news, the most sufficient troops, searched all the suspected treasure places, but did not find it, modern people still forget it
#Treasure# #Lee Zicheng##藏宝 #
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