In 1864, after the Hunan army exterminated the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, they reported to Cixi that they had not found their treasure trove.
Of course, Cixi didn't believe it, because, according to the report of Zhang Jigeng, a scholar in the sixth year of Daoguang who secretly infiltrated the Taiping Army, the treasure house was located in Shuiximen Lantern Lane in Tianjing City, with more than 18 million taels**.
Cixi had long thought that this money could subsidize the huge financial deficit of the Qing court at that time. However, the Hunan army has more than 300,000 soldiers, and there are many ministers from the Hunan army in the court, Cixi knows that Zeng Guofan can't move, so he can only find another opportunity.
However, when Zhang Jigeng was identified and killed by the Taiping Army in 1854, news about the treasure trove was interrupted.
So, did the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom hide a lot of treasure, and the whereabouts of the treasure?
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom worked hard in Nanjing for 10 years, and they stipulated that all public and private property must be managed in a unified manner, and if the people had more than one tael of gold or more than five taels of silver, they would be asked to behead it, and the necessities of daily life would be distributed uniformly, which made their wealth highly concentrated and had the possibility of cellaring.
After Hong Xiuquan entered the city of Nanjing, he lived in a simple place, and clearly stipulated that no one could enter his palace without his permission, and if he wanted to hide treasures, it might be under the palace.
After the Hunan army broke the city, it was rumored that Zeng Guofan's younger brother Zeng Guoquan found the address of the treasure and put it in his private pocket, and in order to destroy the evidence, he burned down the palace.
Moreover, it is recorded that not long after the Hunan army broke the city, Zeng Guofan's wife returned to Hunan from Jinling, and there were more than 200 people escorting the ship at that time.
With so many people escorting things, it makes people wonder, is it a treasure?
During the Anti-Japanese War, Liu Xiang took more than 1,000 sappers to dig under the burned palace, and when they found 3 sealed caves, Chiang Kai-shek quickly stopped after knowing it, and sent an investigation team to intervene and take over, and then it was gone.
Another theory is that Shi Dakai hid the treasure in the Dadu River, a location called "Taiping Mountain".
After Hong Xiuquan exterminated Wei Changhui's forces, he entrusted the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom affairs to Shi Dakai to deal with, and later Shi Dakai was suspicious and left, and was caught by the Qing army in the Dadu River.
It is also believed that by the time the Taiping army was wiped out, the money had already run out, because after entering the city of Nanjing, all kinds of extravagance and waste in the Taiping army began to appear, such as Hong Xiuquan used tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians to expand the palace.
After that, since 1853, Tianjing City has been under siege by the Qing army, and the war expenses, the purchase of **, food and salary, all consume silver.
Therefore, by the time the Hunan army broke through the city, there was nothing.
There is also a possibility that it was collectively divided and looted by the soldiers of the Hunan army, due to the embarrassment of the Qing court's treasury and the long-term arrears of the Hunan army, the Zeng brothers acquiesced to the way of the Hunan army to slaughter and wash the city to make up for the long-term arrears of soldiers.
But Cixi always remembered the things of this treasure house.
After the Hunan army was dismantled and the right-hand men of Zeng Guofan and Zeng Guoquan brothers were cut off, in 1868, Cixi immediately ordered Zeng Guofan to be transferred from the governor of Liangjiang to the governor of Zhili, and the original governor of ZhejiangMa XinyiHe was promoted to Governor of Liangjiang.
Before taking office, Cixi gave Ma Xinyi several secret orders, one is to suppress the power of the Hunan army in the Liangjiang region, and the other is to secretly investigate the whereabouts of the Tian** treasure house to see if it is really secretly swallowed by Zeng Guofan, Zeng Guoquan's brothers or the Hunan army.
Who knows, Ma Xinyi was stabbed to death in 1870 only two years after taking office, history saysThe "Stabbing Horse" case
After that, no one in the Qing court dared to openly inquire about the whereabouts of the Taiping army's treasury.
In 1872, Zeng Guofan, the founder of the Hunan Army, also died of illness while serving as governor of Liangjiang, and in 1890, Zeng Guoquan also died of illness, but rumors about the treasures of the Taiping Army continued among the people.
After the annihilation of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, two unsolved cases were left, the treasure was in **, and the sword of the Wing King was missing.