The upper body is naked, the lower body is wearing trousers, one foot is naked, the other foot is wearing socks, the head is facing north, the feet are facing south, the face is facing down, the body is long with white hair, bruises all over, lying on the coffin cover.
This horrific female corpse is the famous Cixi. Who would have thought that the strong woman who once played the entire Qing Dynasty royal family in the palm of her hand would end up being robbed from the tomb and stripped of her body after her death, but the root of all this evil is the priceless treasures in her tomb.
Emerald watermelon, emerald melon, gnatwood cabbage, jade lotus, and Jiulinglong pagoda, each of these treasures is more precious than the other, not to mention the priceless night pearl in Cixi's mouth! No wonder Sun Dianying couldn't hold back the greed in his heart and led the army to loot the Qing Dongling Tomb.
So the question is - after the night pearl in Cixi's mouth was stolen by Sun Dianying, where did it go?
Regarding the origin of the night pearl in Cixi's mouth, all walks of life have not been conclusive, but in recent years, some experts have pointed out that this night pearl is likely to be the "Mughal Emperor" diamond that was lost in the Mughal Empire.
In 1304 A.D., the unearthing of a large gem-quality diamond in the Golconda region of ancient India shocked the world, and the diamond weighed 793.50 carats, the size of about half an egg, colorless and transparent, and the brilliance was dazzling.
It is the fourth largest gem-quality diamond ever discovered in the world, and the Mughal monarch Shah Jahan named it the "Mughal Great" diamond.
Later, as the empire declined, the diamond gradually lost its whereabouts.
However, the night pearl in the Eastern Tomb of the Qing Dynasty reminds the world of the diamond again. According to records, the night pearl in Cixi's mouth is also a rough diamond, and weighs about 787.28 carats, and aside from those calculation errors, it is indeed very similar to the diamond of the "Mughal Emperor" whose whereabouts are unknown.
As to why the diamond ended up in Cixi's hands, there is a theory that a certain king of Afghanistan launched eight expeditions against the Mughals, and in one of them, they won a great victory and obtained the "Mughal Emperor" diamond.
In 1760, Qianlong ordered the Dzungar rebellion to be suppressed, and Afghanistan was subservient. In order to curry favor with the Manchu Dynasty, Afghanistan twice sent missions to Beijing to pay tribute, and the "Mughal Emperor" diamond was among the tributary items, and it fell into the hands of Cixi after several transfers.
As early as 1908, it was estimated at 10.8 million taels of silver, equivalent to about 800 million yuan!
In addition to the night pearl, Cixi's mausoleum also has countless treasures, all of which are worth a lot of money, Cixi's personal eunuch Li Lianying's nephew Li Chengwu once recorded in "Aiyuexuan Notes" that the total value of Cixi's funeral goods is more than 20 million taels of silver, more than the income of the Manchu Dynasty for a whole year, of which Cixi wears 850,000 taels of silver on her head, 84,000 taels of silver on her body, and 750,000 taels of silver under her feet.
Since there are so many treasures in Cixi's mausoleum, it is impossible not to arouse the covetousness of others, especially when the Manchu Dynasty fell and the number of troops guarding the Qing Dongling Tomb was seriously insufficient, there were even more people eyeing these treasures, and the notorious Sun Dianying was one of them.
Sun Dianying was originally a bandit who caused trouble in all directions, and later took refuge in the Feng warlord Zhang Zongchang, because of his great military exploits, the officialdom rose steadily, and he was even appointed as a military commander.
Later, the Zhilu coalition army was defeated by the Kuomintang and retreated, Sun Dianying saw that the opportunity was not good, and hurriedly surrendered to the enemy, joined the Sixth Army of the National Revolutionary Army, and became the follower of the commander-in-chief Xu Yuanquan.
However, although Sun Dianying hugged his thighs, he did not enjoy the benefits that his followers should have, his army did not have the establishment of the Kuomintang Party, it belonged to a miscellaneous army, and it was not valued by the top level of the Kuomintang at all, and the salary was withheld for a long time, and all the officers and men of the army had not been paid for half a year, and if the higher authorities did not allocate funds, the army might even mutiny.
(Sun Dianying)
In the face of the Kuomintang's "snub", Sun Dianying was also heartbroken, just when he was sad, he saw the Qing Dongling Tomb close at hand, and his mind suddenly became active.
Sun Dianying had long heard that the Qing Dynasty Dongling Tomb contained a large number of rare and exotic treasures, and if he could steal the treasures in the mausoleum, he would not only be able to completely solve the problem of the army's food and salary, but also take the opportunity to make a fortune, which could be described as killing two birds with one stone! As for what others would think afterwards, he had no psychological burden at all, after all, he was born as a robber in the green forest, and he did not do anything less to rob the house, and now it is a critical juncture to use money.
The more Sun Dianying thought about it, the more excited he became, so the next day he found his boss Xu Yuanquan and complained to him about urging food, but Xu Yuanquan had no choice, so he could only draw a pie and talk empty words to delay time.
However, Sun Dianying was unrelenting, which made Xu Yuanquan a little annoyed, and asked rhetorically: "Then what do you say?" At this time, Sun Dianying had a showdown and said that he could solve the problem of food and salary by stealing and excavating Dongling, stabilize the morale of the army, and also take the opportunity to make a big profit.
Hearing this, Xu Yuanquan was also moved, but he didn't say it explicitly for the sake of face, but left with a snort. Sun Dianying understood and immediately gathered his subordinates to plan.
At that time, Ma Futian, Wang Shaoyi and other bandits were also coveting the treasures of the Qing Dongling, so Sun Dianying led a large group of men and horses into the Qing Dongling under the pretext of exterminating the bandits, and then drove Ma Futian and others out almost effortlessly.
Immediately afterward, Sun Dianying lied that he was going to conduct a military exercise, using explosives to blast open the entrance to Cixi's underground palace in Dingdongling, and begin his infamous journey to rob tombs.
The luxury of Cixi's mausoleum does not need to be described with flowery rhetoric at all, we just need to know that before entering the tomb, Sun Dianying's troops had a large flashlight, and as a result, under the light of the rare treasures in the tomb, these flashlights all lost their effect.
Seeing so many treasures, almost all of Sun Dianying's subordinates lost their minds, and one of them, one of them, and one of us quickly looted all the burial treasures in the tomb, and then set their eyes on Cixi's coffin.
They slashed and slashed with axes and violently opened Cixi's coffin, and in front of them was a delicate old woman dressed in gold and silver, full of jewels, she was the strong woman Cixi who had dominated the Qing Dynasty for decades, but at this time it was just a dead corpse to be manipulated.
The most eye-catching thing is the night pearl in Cixi's mouth, big and shining, even if Sun Dianying and others have no culture, they understand that this pearl is very valuable.
It is rumored that a subordinate reached out to pick out the Night Pearl, but the operation was careless and let the Night Pearl slide into Cixi's throat, so several pairs of big hands pressed Cixi's head, and the backhand was a punch, only to hear a few squeaks, Cixi's teeth were all shot down, but the Night Pearl still did not roll out.
Then the soldier stretched out a few fingers, forcibly broke Cixi's mouth, and took out the night pearl inside, and Cixi's cheek was torn because of the rude action.
After getting the Night Pearl, Sun Dianying and others did not let Cixi's body go, because Cixi was covered with treasures, they directly began to loot, almost stripped it naked, leaving only a pair of shabby white silk pants and a sock for Cixi.
Cixi's body was then thrown out of the coffin, with her head facing north, her feet facing south, her face down, and one hand twisted behind her back.
There are many legends about Sun Dianying's tomb robbery, one of which says that a certain tomb robber soldier saw Cixi lying in the coffin, her face was like life, her skin was fair and full, and she suddenly became animalistic, but when he was about to do something reluctant, Cixi's body quickly shrank and aged because of contact with the air, which suddenly made the soldiers feel happy and left the body to loot the treasure.
Many people attribute the reason why Cixi's corpse is not rotten to the night pearl in her mouth, but in fact, in addition to the tomb of Cixi in Dingdongling, in other mausoleums that were excavated later, those concubines were also able to keep the corpse incorruptible, and did not use the night pearl.
Moreover, the time when Cixi's body shrank occurred shortly after the coffin was opened, when the night pearl in her mouth had not yet been removed, and after a long time of exposure to the air, the corpse began to change, and the skin changed from ruddy to pale, and finally turned black.
Obviously, the incorruptibility of Cixi's corpse has nothing to do with the night pearl in her mouth, and it can only be said that the embalming measures for the corpse of the Qing Dynasty are in place.
After the sacking of Dingdongling, Sun Dianying was not satisfied, and he brought people to Qianlong's Yuling to carry out the second wave of looting.
During Qianlong's reign, the treasury was full, and Qianlong himself was also very fond of collecting rare treasures, so the funeral goods in Yuling were also very valuable, such as the 108 pearls around Qianlong's neck, and the Nine Dragons Sword full of mysterious legends.
In addition, there are many precious celebrity calligraphy and paintings in Yuling, but Sun Dianying and others have too low a cultural level, not only do they not know the goods, but they have also been complaining about why there are so many rags in Yuling.
This tomb robbery made Sun Dianying earn a lot of money, and forty or fifty boxes of rare treasures such as jade pearls alone were loaded, and in order to bring all the treasures back, Sun Dianying used more than 30 carts!
It's a pity that there is a good saying: "If you want people not to know, unless you don't do it", such a big thing as robbing the tomb can't be concealed after all, and soon Sun Dianying's theft of the Qing Dynasty imperial tomb was published in the "Central Daily" of the Nanjing government of the Republic of China, and for a time Sun Dianying's abuse was overwhelming, especially the children of the Manchu royal family, who hated Sun Dianying's evil deeds even more, and they put pressure on the people of Nanjing and strongly demanded that Sun Dianying be severely punished.
In the face of so many people's verbal criticism, even Sun Dianying was thick-skinned and began to panic, so he hurriedly took some of the treasures to bribe his boss Xu Yuanquan and asked him for a solution.
And Xu Yuanquan also intended to shield Sun Dianying, after all, his ambiguous attitude at that time gave Sun Dianying the opportunity to rob the tomb, and Sun Dianying got the treasure, and his benefits were indispensable.
So Xu Yuanquan frantically hinted at Sun Dianying's reason for breaking the fortune and eliminating the disaster, and the clever Sun Dianying suddenly realized, and he immediately used all his interpersonal relationships to try to strangle the disaster in money.
Under Sun Dianying's operation, many high-ranking members of the Kuomintang also became the beneficiaries of these treasures, among which Dai Li obtained the two largest pearls in Yuling; Song Ziwen obtained a jade watermelon; He Yingqin obtained a sword; and Yan Xishan received a large amount of gold.
Among them, there are two most valuable treasures: the Nine Dragons Sword and the Night Pearl.
Sun Dianying handed over the Nine Dragons Sword to Dai Li and entrusted him to transfer it to Chiang Kai-shek, and the night pearl in Cixi's mouth was used by him to bribe the president's wife Song Meiling, and their husband and wife, as the most powerful people in the Republic of China at that time, deserved to get the best treasure.
Facts have proved that "the hands are short, and the mouth is soft", after these high-ranking officials of the Kuomintang Party got bribes, they also turned a blind eye to Sun Dianying's tomb robbery, so although many people hated Sun Dianying, the latter was still unharmed.
However, a person's luck is capped after all. During the Liberation War, Sun Dianying was defeated and became a prisoner, and was later imprisoned in a detention center, where he eventually died of illness.
As for the Night Pearl, its whereabouts have been unknown since Sun Dianying gave it to Song Meiling.
Some people say that Song Meiling thinks that the sparkling is very magnificent, so she ordered someone to divide the night pearl into two halves and inlay it on the shoes as an ornament, if this rumor is true, it can only be said that the rich man's world The author can't understand it!
Some people say that the Night Pearl was obtained by the Kong family, and finally passed down as a family heirloom;
Others, the Night Pearl was bought by the American oil tycoon Rockefeller at a high price and collected as a work of art.
In short, there are many legends about Cixi's night pearl, but none of them can come up with tangible evidence to support it. And Song Meiling never mentioned the whereabouts of the Night Pearl, even if she passed away in 2003.
All in all, Cixi ordered someone to put the Night Pearl in her mouth after her death, hoping that she could shine forever like the Night Pearl, but because of the existence of the tomb robber Sun Dianying, not only did she fail to fulfill this wish, but even the body was almost completely stripped away.
And this priceless night pearl fell into the hands of Song Meiling after several turnovers, and there was no news until the latter died, perhaps in her eyes, this night pearl that countless people coveted was just a luxury, not worthy of her too much attention.