Thank you for your support by clicking "Follow", which is not only convenient for you to discuss and share, but also can bring you a different sense of participation, thank you for your support!
On a scorching afternoon afternoon in May, in the bustling Tianhe district of Guangzhou, a blank visitor in heavy iron shackles was lovingly escorted by armed prison guards to the high platform where his death would be executed.
And this high-profile visitor is the famous "King of Thieves of the Century" Mr. Zhang Ziqiang.
At the last moment of his life, he showed unusual calmness and composure, and his lowered eyes seemed to be silently reminiscing about the magnificent legendary life.
Mr. Zhang Ziqiang, a child from a poor family in Yulin, Guangxi, moved to Hong Kong with his family at the age of four, where he spent his childhood in the overcrowded shantytown of Yau Ma Tei.
Since he was a child, he has witnessed the scenes of street gangsters running rampant and bullying the weak, which is deeply imprinted in his immature heart.
Due to the lack of correct guidance from mentors and friends, coupled with the fact that his family was poor and unable to receive a good education, Zhang Ziqiang gradually became attracted to the underworld culture, and developed a deep admiration for those gangsters who acted rough but full of chivalrous pride.
However, his father had high hopes for him to escape poverty and lead a normal life. However, the young and vigorous Zhang Ziqiang chose to deviate from his father's expectations, resolutely joined the ranks of street gangsters, and embarked on a road of no return.
After marriage, his smart and capable wife Luo Yanfang painstakingly persuaded him that he could not be satisfied with the status quo and should pursue higher achievements. Zhang Ziqiang was deeply moved and decided to give it a go, determined to become a man of the year in Hong Kong.
Under the careful planning of his wife, Zhang Ziqiang began a series of large-scale kidnapping and ransom operations. He first kidnapped a wealthy businessman and successfully extorted a ransom of up to HK$1 million.
Since then, he has committed several more criminal acts, each time with unprecedented success.
Over time, the criminal gang led by Zhang Ziqiang and his wife amassed huge wealth and became famous, which attracted the attention and severe crackdown of the Hong Kong police.
In order to escape the police, Zhang Ziqiang had to flee Hong Kong with his family and stolen money, and went to a remote town in Guangdong Province, Chinese mainland, to avoid the limelight. However, the local police in Guangdong did not relax their vigilance because of this, and they kept an eye on the clues and pursued them relentlessly.
After a fierce siege and gun battle, he finally captured this "thief of the century" who had been on the run for many years, and drew an end to his criminal career.
Despite his wife, Luo Yanfang, trying to manage various relationships and trying to obtain leniency, the Guangdong court eventually sentenced Zhang Ziqiang to death.
When Zhang Ziqiang faced the last moment of life and death decision, those deeply imprinted in his mind flashed in front of his eyes like a movie, as if the next day. This former shantytown boy, with his own hard work and talent, gradually grew into the infamous "Thief of the Century".
However, his legendary journey was not without its challenges, but was full of twists and turns, and in the end, he paid a heavy price for his actions due to greed and impulsiveness.
The last scene of the film is frozen at the moment when Zhang Ziqiang was escorted to the execution ground, which makes people can't help but recall how he walked step by step into the abyss of crime and was finally swallowed by fate.
It turned out that after Zhang Ziqiang successfully kidnapped Hong Kong tycoons Li Ka-shing and Kwok Bingxiang and extorted a sky-high ransom of up to 1.6 billion Hong Kong dollars, the Hong Kong police could no longer tolerate this thief continuing to act recklessly in Hong Kong.
In order to avoid pursuit, Zhang Ziqiang fled to the mainland with all his family property and stolen money, and finally chose to settle in a remote town in Guangdong Province, in an attempt to live incognito and live a stable and comfortable life.
However, as cunning as Zhang Ziqiang, he never expected that the local public security organs in Guangdong would be more vigilant than him. After receiving the tip, they quickly locked down Zhang Ziqiang's hiding place, and after a well-planned encirclement and suppression operation and a fierce gun battle, they finally captured this "thief of the century" who had been absconding for many years in one fell swoop, and all his property was spared.
In the face of such a serious crime of kidnapping and extortion, the Guangdong court showed no mercy and directly sentenced Zhang Ziqiang to death. Despite the efforts of Zhang Ziqiang and his wife, Luo Yanfang, to manage their relationship, to seek forgiveness, and even to transfer the case to Hong Kong, the law's verdict remained ruthless and unwavering, deeply imprinted on the trajectory of Zhang's fate.
Speaking of Luo Yanfang, this experienced, shrewd and capable woman can be called Zhang Ziqiang's indispensable right-hand man in his criminal career. On the one hand, she often advises her husband and guides Zhang Ziqiang to carry out many kidnapping and robbery operations, and on the other hand, whenever Zhang Ziqiang encounters difficulties or is in prison, she will run around and use various means to resolve the crisis for her husband.
Luo Yanfang is undoubtedly Zhang Ziqiang's strong backing, if it were not for her help, Zhang Ziqiang's criminal career may be bleak.
In order to satisfy Yuzhong's wife, Zhang Ziqiang found a new love in prison - he met Ye Jihuan, and since then, the two have depended on each other for life and death. Ye Jihuan, from a poor background, his parents had a pitiful background, Zhang Ziqiang and him were even more sympathetic, and then, he also fell into the abyss of Hong Kong gangsters, and with his heroic and decisive style, he was honored with the honorific title of "Hong Kong's Three Great Thieves".
After being released from prison, Ye Jihuan resolutely chose to fight side by side with Zhang Ziqiang and embarked on a road of crime that could not be turned back. It was precisely because of the addition of Ye Jihuan, a ruthless right-hand man, that Zhang Ziqiang was able to lift his spirits in prison and continue to plan his evil plan.
There is no doubt that if it weren't for the help of Luo Yanfang, a resourceful military advisor, and Ye Jihuan, a predator, Zhang Ziqiang's personal strength alone would have been difficult to climb today's peak and achieve the legend of the eye-catching "Century Thief".
His criminal journey is undoubtedly the result of the full support and assistance of these two best friends.
So, why did Zhang Ziqiang degenerate into the "thief of the century" that everyone spurned? This requires us to go back to his childhood.
Zhang Ziqiang was originally a child of a poor family in Yulin, Guangxi. In order to escape the poverty of his hometown, at the age of four, his family left his hometown and came to Hong Kong, just to chase the wealth and development opportunities of this "Pearl of the Orient".
However, the reality is far crueler than the dream. As immigrants, they struggle to survive in Hong Kong's poorest and worst-ranked shantytowns in Yau Ma Tei.
The family's financial situation was dire, and my father had to make a living by selling herbal tea at street stalls.
In such a filthy, dangerous and crowded shanty environment, Zhang Ziqiang grew up lonely and ignorant. The underworld is rampant there, hooligans do all kinds of evil, and bullying the weak is commonplace in his eyes.
What fascinates Zhang Ziqiang the most is the perseverance and chivalrous ambition exuded by those people.
Due to the lack of family education and the misleading sense of morality, Zhang Ziqiang's values have been seriously distorted from the beginning. His fanatical pursuit of money and power, and his insatiable thirst for violence, all sprouted at that time.
So, when he entered the golden years of his youth, he was naturally attracted to the street gangsters who lived among his peers, and gradually integrated into it, and finally decided to officially join the feared gang organization without hesitation.
However, Zhang's father and all his relatives were deeply worried and angry about this. They can't accept that their children would go down such a wrong path. In order to prevent Zhang Ziqiang from sliding further into the abyss, Zhang's father once adopted extremely strict education methods, and inflicted punches and kicks on his son like a killer, hoping to make him deeply experience the pain of the lesson through this cruel way.
However, contrary to expectations, this extreme approach did not have the desired effect, but aroused a strong rebellion in Zhang Ziqiang's heart, which made the relationship between father and son instantly become tense, even to the point of saber rattling.
As a result, the relationship between Zhang Ziqiang and his family was completely broken and gradually drifted apart.
Since then, the trajectory of Zhang Ziqiang's life has begun to change dramatically. One wrong step, every wrong step. The young and vigorous Zhang Ziqiang was bewitched by the temptation of money and power in front of him, and quickly rose to prominence in the gang, climbing all the way to the status of a big brother.
His ambitions and desires spread like wildfire, and in the future, he used countless billionaires as blackmail targets, earning a jaw-dropping huge ransom fortune, thus achieving the immortal legend of the "Thief of the Century".