Concerning Zhang Xianzhong’s treasure trove in Jinjiang, there have always been many congratulations.
Zhang Xianzhong's career
Zhang Xianzhong, also known as Bingwu and Jingxuan, was a famous "Eight Kings" in the rebel army. He rose rapidly in the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty. Soon developed into one of the main forces of the rebel army. In the eighth year of Chongzhen, he and the old "King Chuang" jointly attacked the Longxing land of the Ming Dynasty royal family, Fengyang, the hometown of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. The rebel army succeeded in one fell swoop and dug up the Zhu family's ancestral graves, which shocked the government and the public. Emperor Chongzhen Finally realizing that the rebel army had grown and become a deadly enemy of the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Xianzhong later used a delaying strategy and temporarily accepted the Ming Dynasty's appeasement. After a short period of rest for the troops, he raised the banner of rebellion again and captured Sichuan with overwhelming force. This forced the Ming army coach Yang Sichang, who had strongly advocated recruiting Zhang Xianzhong, to commit suicide. In the 16th year of Chongzhen's reign, he captured Wuchang and began to call himself King of the West.
The next year, he proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu and established the Daxi Kingdom. The fighting time in the past few years can be said to be the most glorious moment in Zhang Xianzhong's life, and it reached its peak when he ascended the throne and proclaimed himself emperor. After that, Zhang Xianzhong's army quickly embarked on the road of decline. The generals only indulged in pleasure, and the soldiers were demoralized, unmotivated to fight, and disciplined. Moreover, during the short period of time he was emperor, Zhang Xianzhong's temperament became more irritable and suspicious, creating The extremely cruel "Slaughter of Shu" incident caused unrest in the people under his rule. By the time the Qing army moved south to attack Sichuan, Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi regime was actually on the verge of collapse. In addition, there had been a head-on conflict with Li Zicheng's rebel army before, and Zhang Xianzhong knew clearly that Chengdu could not be defended no matter what. So he decided to abandon Chengdu and lead hundreds of thousands of troops out of Shu to engage in guerrilla warfare. But not long after, Zhang Xianzhong, who was used to enjoying himself, underestimated the enemy and took a few people out of the camp to conduct reconnaissance. He was discovered by the Qing army's scouts, shot down his horse with an arrow, was captured, and was quickly executed.
The Mystery of the Treasure
Legend has it that before Zhang Xianzhong died, he buried a thousand ships worth of gold and silver at the bottom of the Jinjiang River. This Jinjiang River is also called Liujiang or Wenjiang. It is one of the tributaries of the Minjiang River. The water is relatively gentle. If it is not during the peak flood season, it is indeed possible to cut off the river and dig holes in the riverbed to hide treasures. Many historical materials in the early Qing Dynasty recorded Zhang Xianzhong's attempt to cut off the river to hide treasure. Even the official history of the Qing Dynasty, "History of Ming Dynasty: The Biography of Zhang Xianzhong", also recorded Zhang Xianzhong's attempt to cut off the river to hide treasure. This shows that the treasure-hiding incident was not groundless. Some books even mentioned that after Zhang Xianzhong hid the treasure, he massacred the civilians to prevent the secrets from being leaked, which made the story more real and credible. Moreover, Zhang Xianzhong made some strange actions before leaving Chengdu. He included some insignificant palace concubines, The maids, eunuchs and servants were all killed, nominally to prevent them from being humiliated if caught by the Qing army, but it made people even more suspicious that his reason for doing this was to kill people and silence them to prevent the treasure from being leaked.
This huge treasure has attracted countless greedy eyes for hundreds of years. I don’t know how many people spent a lot of money and energy to find it. Even the Qing government that ruled China sent two People go and dig this treasure. The first time was during the Daoguang period when officials were sent to inspect along the river, hoping to find the exact location of the treasure, but in the end they returned without success. During the Taiping Rebellion, in order to make up for the sharp increase in military expenditures, the Qing government once again brought up the past, hoping to find treasures to solve its urgent needs. I don’t know why, but the officials who were assigned to handle the matter didn’t seem to make any move, and the matter later fell into disuse. Later, during the Republic of China, this treasure caused a new farce. At that time, several officials of the Sichuan government in the Republic of China established a "Jinjiang Gold Mining Company" and started digging at the bottom of the Jinjiang River with a sudden appearance of a "treasure map", but in the end they still found nothing.
A glimmer of light
Hundreds of years of continuous searching have yielded no results, which can’t help but cast doubt on the authenticity of Zhang Xianzhong’s treasure. Looking back, we History, and I feel that this matter is indeed full of doubts. Zhang Zizhong's evacuation from Chengdu was forced by the situation. It was not a planned and prepared action. Cutting off the river and burying the treasure required careful preparation for a long time. The project was huge and time-consuming. The decision was not made suddenly. It can be done overnight.
Moreover, with the scale of the "thousand ships" treasure collection, it is impossible to complete it without anyone noticing. If it is indeed true, there must be many people who know about it. Although Zhang Xianzhong has killed a group of people first, it is impossible to silence everyone as he wishes.
After the Qing army captured Chengdu, they also captured a large number of survivors of the Daxi regime, but they knew nothing about it. Isn't this strange?
In recent years, some people have put forward new views on the mystery of Zhang Xianzhong’s treasure collection. Some scholars believe through field research that the reason why people have been digging for hundreds of years but finding nothing is that they dug in the wrong place. People only know that the treasure is buried at the bottom of Jinjiang River, but Jinjiang is so long, where exactly is the treasure buried? Experts believe through analysis that the exact location where Zhang Xianzhong hid the treasure is in Jiangkou Town, Pengshan County, which is still more than 70 kilometers away from the original location where people excavated and explored it. It's no wonder that those people couldn't find the treasure despite all their efforts. It is said that the geological department of Sichuan Province has sent experts to survey the Jinjiang River in recent years, and there are abnormal reactions at the bottom of the water. From this point of view, Zhang Xianzhong's treasure may indeed exist. Now that experts have discovered the exact location of the treasure, it won't be long before these treasures are revealed again. Wu Sangui borrowed Qing soldiers to enter the Pass
Wu Sangui, an outstanding military officer among the Han nationality, has been infamous for helping the Manchus enter the Pass.
The Ming Dynasty fell
In 1644 AD, Li Zicheng formally established a political power in Xi'an, and the country was named Dashun. Then, Li Zicheng led 1 million revolting soldiers, crossed the Yellow River, and attacked Beijing in two groups. The two armies were so powerful that in March of that year, they met under the walls of Beijing. The three most elite battalions of the Ming army stationed outside the city all surrendered. The rebel army stormed the city of Beijing. The next night, Emperor Chongzhen climbed up Meishan (behind the imperial palace, today's Jingshan, Beijing) and looked around. He saw only the light of fire shining in the sky. Knowing that the situation was critical, he ran back to the palace and rang the bell as hard as he could to summon officials. Protect him. After waiting for a long time, there was no sign of anyone.
At this time, he knew that the end was coming, so he returned to Meishan and hanged himself under a locust tree beside the Shouhuang Pavilion. The Ming Dynasty, which had ruled China for 277 years, was declared dead.
The Dashun uprising army broke through Beijing. General Liu Zongmin led the team into the city first. Then, Dashun King Li Zicheng, wearing a hat and green cloth, slowly entered the Forbidden City astride a horse. The people of Beijing decorated the uprising with lanterns and colorful decorations as if it were a festival. On the one hand, the Dashun regime issued orders to calm the people and let them live and work in peace and contentment; on the other hand, they severely punished the relatives and corrupt officials of the Ming Dynasty. Li Zicheng sent Liu Zongmin and Li Guo to order the powerful officials to hand over the stolen money collected from the people to pay for the rebel army. Those who refused to hand over the money would be severely punished. A few angry relatives of the emperor were captured and beheaded by the rebels.
Annoy Sangui
A big bureaucrat, Wu Xiang, also had his property confiscated by Liu Zongmin and was arrested to pursue the stolen goods. Someone told Li Zicheng that Wu Xiang's son Wu Sangui was the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan in the Ming Dynasty, with hundreds of thousands of troops under his command. If Wu Sangui is recruited to surrender, wouldn't it remove a threat to the Dashun regime? Li Zicheng thought this idea was very reasonable, so he asked Wu Xiang to write a letter to his son and persuade him to surrender to the rebel army. Wu Sangui was originally sent by the Ming Dynasty to fight against the Qing Dynasty outside the Pass, and was stationed in the Ningyuan area for defense.
When the rebel army approached Beijing, Emperor Chongzhen issued orders one after another for Wu Sangui to lead troops into the pass to deal with the rebel army. Wu Sangui rushed to Shanhaiguan and found that Beijing had been captured by the rebels. A few days later, Wu Sangui received Wu Xiang's letter persuading him to surrender, but he hesitated. Surrender to the rebels. Of course he is unwilling to do so. Otherwise, surrender. The rebels are brave and good at fighting and have strong military strength. He is no match for them. Besides, he still had his family's property in Beijing and was reluctant to throw it away. Since Li Zicheng came to surrender, it was better to go to Beijing to see the situation.
Wu Sangui led his troops to Luanzhou, getting closer and closer to Beijing, and met some people who had escaped from Beijing. Wu Sangui came to ask. At first, he heard that his father Wu Xiang had been arrested and his family property was confiscated, and he was already gnashing his teeth with hatred. Then, he heard that his favorite singer Chen Yuanyuan was also captured by the rebels, and he was even more furious. Immediately ordered to return to Shanhaiguan, and all the soldiers were asked to put on white helmets and self-armor, saying that they wanted to avenge the death of Emperor Chongzhen.
Death takes its own course
Li Zicheng learned that Wu Sangui refused to surrender and decided to personally lead an army of more than 200,000 to attack Shanhaiguan. Wu Sangui was originally afraid of the peasant army. When he heard the news, he was so frightened that he was out of his body. He couldn't care less about his national integrity, so he wrote a letter, sent people out on flying horses, and asked the Qing Dynasty to help him suppress the rebels. Dorgon, the auxiliary prince of the Qing Dynasty, received Wu Sangui's letter asking for help. He felt that the opportunity had come and immediately wrote back to agree. Then, he personally led hundreds of thousands of Qing troops and marched toward Shanhaiguan day and night.
When the Qing army arrived at Shanhaiguan, Wu Sangui could not wait to bring 500 soldiers out to meet Dorgon. He met Dorgon and begged Dorgon to help him take revenge. Dorgon naturally agreed. Wu Sangui invited Dorgon into the pass, held a banquet, killed white horses and black oxen, worshiped heaven and earth, and formed an alliance. Li Zicheng's army marched from the south to the Shanhaiguan border. More than 200,000 insurgents formed a mighty formation on the mountain and sea, stretching as far as the eye could see. The cunning Dorgon saw the strong formation of the rebel army from the top of the city, and expected that it would not be easy to deal with, so he asked Wu Sangui to take the vanguard and asked the Qing army to ambush, while he and several Qing generals hid on the hilltop far behind to watch the battle.
The battle began, and Li Zicheng rode up to the west mountain to direct the battle. As soon as Wu Sangui led his troops out of the city, the left and right wings of the rebel army surrounded and surrounded Wu Sangui and his team. The Ming soldiers rushed east and west, unable to break out of the tight siege. The rebels fought bloody battles, and the shouts of killing shook the heaven and the earth. While the two sides were fighting fiercely, unexpectedly, a strong wind blew up the dust on the ground. Suddenly, the sky was dark and the ground was dark, and no one could be seen on the other side. Dorgon saw the opportunity and ordered tens of thousands of Qing soldiers who were ambushing behind the formation to dispatch together and suddenly attack the rebels. The rebels were unprepared and couldn't figure out where the enemy came from. They panicked and their formation became chaotic. It wasn't until the wind calmed down and the sky turned clear that it became clear that his opponent was a Qing soldier with pigtails. Li Zicheng discovered that the Qing troops had entered the pass on Xishan Mountain. He wanted to stabilize his position and command resistance, but it was too late, so he had to send an order to retreat. Dorgon and Wu Sangui's troops attacked from inside and outside, and the rebel army suffered a heavy defeat.
The Death of King Chuang
Li Zicheng led his soldiers to retreat while fighting. Wu Sangui relied on the strength of the Qing troops to pursue them closely. When the rebel army returned to Beijing, its strength had been greatly weakened. After Li Zicheng returned to Beijing, he held an enthronement ceremony in the palace hall and accepted the audience from officials. Early the next morning, he led the rebel army to leave Beijing and retreat to Xi'an. On the third day after Li Zicheng left Beijing, Dorgon led the Qing troops and marched into Beijing with great force. In October 1644 AD, Dorgon brought Emperor Shunzhi from Shenyang to Beijing and made Beijing the capital of the Qing Dynasty. From that time on, the Qing Dynasty began to establish its rule in China.
The following year, the Qing Dynasty divided its forces into two groups to attack Xi'an. One group was led by Azige, Wu Sangui, and Shang Kexi, and the other group was led by Duduo and Kong Youde. Li Zicheng led the peasant army to fight against the Qing army in Tongguan. After fierce fighting, he was finally forced to abandon Xi'an and move to Xiangyang. A few months later, the peasant army was attacked by armed local landlords in Jiugong Mountain, Tongshan County, Hubei Province. Li Zicheng was defeated and died. After Li Zicheng withdrew from Beijing, Zhang Xianzhong proclaimed himself emperor in Sichuan and named his country Daxi, and continued to fight against the Qing army. By 1647 AD, Zhang Xianzhong was killed by an arrow in a battle in Xichong, northern Sichuan. In this way, the two main rebel armies in the late Ming Dynasty were destroyed. The debauchery of Emperor Hongguang
After the death of Emperor Chongzhen, the ministers who fled south elected King Fu Zhu Yousong as emperor, and his reign was named Hongguang.
The puppet ascends the throne
According to the royal bloodline, Zhu Yousong is indeed closest to Emperor Chongzhen’s family. His father, Zhu Changxun, was the third son of Emperor Wanli. Because Emperor Wanli loved Concubine Zheng, he insisted on abolishing the eldest son and establishing a younger one, and made Zhu Changxun the prince. For this reason, he had a confrontation with his officials for nearly twenty years. Later, his wish was not realized in the end, so he instead rewarded Zhu Changxun with countless land, gold, silver and silk, and named him the King of Fortune.
So Zhu Yousong is the closest blood cousin to Tianqi and Chongzhen. This was one of the reasons why he was elected emperor by the ministers.
Of course there are other reasons for his ascension to the throne. The most important point is that the court at that time was caught up in partisan disputes. One of the factions was the remnant of the eunuch party after Wei Zhongxian's death. They took a fancy to King Fu's cowardice and incompetence and believed that if King Fu became emperor, it would be more conducive to their control. The power of the court. Therefore, a group of people headed by Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng acted first and established King Fu in Nanjing. Other ministers, such as Shi Kefa and others, originally did not agree with King Fu's succession to the throne and wanted to choose a more promising and capable clan member, but by this time it was too late. They had no choice but to admit the reality and join the Hongguang court instead.
Stubborn in nature
Since King Fu was promoted as emperor by ministers with such ambitions, it is not difficult to guess his nature. In fact, we should not place any hope on him to restore the country. hope. As for King Fu himself, he was not willing to be promoted to the throne.
The emperor's family in the Ming Dynasty was ordered not to participate in politics, and all the descendants of the Zhu family just sat at home and waited for the salary from the court to live their lives. Therefore, most of the clan kings are incompetent and only know how to eat, drink and have fun, and King Fu is no exception. He knew nothing about court politics and had little interest in holding power. And even if he is not the emperor, his wealth is enough for him to squander it arbitrarily. What good will it do to him to be the emperor again? What's left is just a heavy responsibility that he can't bear.
No matter how incompetent King Fu is, he still has some self-awareness, so he is very worried about being pushed to the throne. At the beginning of his accession to the throne, he also made his best efforts for this emperor's responsibility. He appointed many upright and promising ministers and tried his best to form a reasonable and healthy government agency. He also seriously participated in various ceremonies and established his own image as emperor.
But soon after, he found that he was unable to do what he wanted. Coupled with the deliberate temptations of Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng and others, Zhu Yousong began to alienate his courtiers, retreated to his harem, and started to live that kind of indulgence again. The day of pleasure has come. He indulged in the sensuality of dogs and horses all day long, and the power of the country fell into the hands of Ma and Ruan, making it even more dark.
On the New Year's Eve night of the year when he came to the throne, Emperor Hongguang was always depressed. The ministers who came to see him thought that the emperor was worried about the unstable situation outside, and they all advised him not to worry too much. Unexpectedly, his answer stunned the ministers. It turned out that the emperor's frown was not because of national affairs, but because there was no good troupe in the palace! What can you expect from such an emperor? After that, Ma and Ruan, who liked him, found several theater troupes for him, and they took turns to perform in the palace for his entertainment.
The Toad Emperor
In the first month of the first year of Hongguang's reign, while watching a play and drinking, he showed his bestiality in his drunkenness and raped two virgins to death one after another. The two girls were both young prostitutes, and the old madam took away the corpses. From then on, this kind of harm to young prostitutes happened frequently. The eunuchs were afraid of publicizing their bad deeds, so they buried the bodies in the palace. One night, the big bell in the palace suddenly rang. The ministers thought something serious had happened, so they all rushed into the inner palace in panic. As a result, dozens of troupes dressed up as bull heads and horse faces were playing havoc there. Because Zhu Yousong allowed it, everyone couldn't laugh or cry and had to disperse.
Zheng Sanshan, a doctor from Suzhou, presented aphrodisiacs to Zhu Yousong, and was deeply loved by Zhu Yousong. He was elected to the palace to teach the art of sexual intercourse and provide aphrodisiacs, and he became an official because of this. On the Dragon Boat Festival, Zhu Yousong did not go to court, but ordered people to catch toads everywhere to prepare Chinese medicine, which made all the officials laugh and cry. People call Zhu Yousong the "Toad Emperor".
There were not enough concubines and maids in the palace, so Zhu Yousong ordered the eunuchs to "select ladies" to enter the palace. These wolf-like eunuchs, when they see a beautiful girl on the street, they put a yellow paper on their forehead and take her away.
They also conduct door-to-door inspections or are selected by local officials. Those who hide themselves must be punished, and those who choose poor looks must be punished. The number and time must be limited, and must be completed. As a result, the common people were panicked. Families with girls hurriedly selected a son-in-law day and night, and hurriedly found a "matchmaker". Officials and other officials were also busy "stealing the bridegroom", which caused a lot of trouble and resentment among the people. Zhu Yousong was accompanied by those snatched beauties all day long, leaving his former concubines aside.
When his original wife, Concubine Tong, came to Nanjing with her six-year-old son, Zhu Yousong refused to acknowledge her, and even put Concubine Tong in prison and tortured to death. All the ministers in the court watched helplessly, and no one dared to step forward to dissuade him.
Female sex is no big deal, as is male sex, he will accept all comers. At that time, there was an eunuch Zhang Zhizhong beside Zhu Yousong. He was as beautiful as a flower and as slender as a girl. Zhu Yousong loved him very much and always took him with him, eating and sleeping with him. This Zhang Zhizhong relied on the emperor's favor, and all the ministers in the court could not get into his eyes. Only when Ma Shiying came to see him, he opened the door to welcome guests, but he only treated the guests with a glass of water.
Emperor Hongguang was indifferent to the affairs of the court, and Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng were arrogant. They sent all the officials in the court who opposed them to the outside, and the court became their rule. They put all kinds of official positions with clearly marked prices and sold them to the public. As long as they had money, anyone could become an official. There was a folk ballad at that time that said: "There are as many governors as dogs, and their jobs are all over the streets; my husband only loves money, but my emperor only loves wine."
The imperial court was so corrupt and dark that its rapid demise was inevitable. In less than a year, the Hongguang court was crushed by the Qing cavalry. Zhu Yousong was also betrayed and dedicated to the Qing court, and became the Qing court's target.