On November 11, 1959, a train from Shanghai to Beijing stopped at Tianjin Railway Station, and passengers in the carriage began to accept ticket checks. Wu Liangyu held his brother Wu Qinghui's arm tightly, looked at the train conductor who was getting closer and closer, and his heart was full of nervousness and fear: "Brother, I'm so scared. ”
Wu Qinghui patted his hand lightly and comforted: "Don't be afraid, everything will be fine." However, there was also a hint of nervousness and trembling in his tone. Although he said that he was not afraid, Wu Liangyu's face was pale, and cold sweat was already oozing from his forehead, and Wu Qinghui's lips were also a little pale, trembling from time to time, obviously very nervous.
Wu Qinghui's ticket inspector noticed the abnormality of the two teenagers, one in his 10s and the other in his 20s, dressed as farmers, apparently mixed cars. The conductor was familiar with the situation, and instead of believing the teenagers' "lost tickets", they twisted them to the public security bureau.
The police have become accustomed to this kind of thing, and they only make routine inquiries. However, in less than a day, they unexpectedly found clues to the shocking case from these two seemingly ordinary young people.
The story of a thief who is proficient in light skills began one morning three months ago. It was August 16, 1959, and Tian Yihe, a staff member of the Forbidden City in Beijing, was opening the doors of the palace one by one, preparing to arrange for people to carry out routine cleaning.
When he walked through the Imperial Palace and was about to open the door lock of the Nourishing Palace, he found that the third door of the Nourishing Hall had broken a big hole, and glass slag was spilled all over the ground. The Forbidden City was robbed? Tian Yihe's heart trembled, and he didn't dare to enter immediately, so he quickly found two colleagues and asked them to guard the door of the Cultivation Palace, and he immediately went to the security department, and called the police together with the staff of the security department.
The police and investigators quickly arrived at the scene, and while they were looking for clues at the scene, they entered the Yangxing Temple to verify the cultural relics.
* A bloody piece of flesh was found on the broken glass, most likely left by the suspect when he broke the glass. The investigators were also surprised to find that eight gold scrolls and five jade carved gold sheath daggers were missing from the glass display case in the western part of the Yangxing Temple, and these cultural relics were worth about 1.5 billion yuan.
However, the gold, silver, jade, and jewelry in the other halls of the Yangxing Hall are still intact, and there is no sign of damage to the display cases. It seems that the suspect was only interested in gold books and daggers, since they were small and easy to carry.
*The security team that had been patrolling the night before was immediately called in for questioning, but they said they did not find anything out of the ordinary.
Once, the guardians of the Forbidden City were a team of more than a dozen specialized security teams, although they were only mortal to the naked eye, but with the height of the palace walls and the turbulence of the moat, the power of their protection cannot be ignored.
However, despite this, there are still people who can break through the hurdles, sneak into the Forbidden City, steal the treasure, and leave quietly. At this time, a rumor began to circulate among the internal staff that the thief was not unsightly on the night of the theft, and that one staff member witnessed the thief's "flying over the palace wall".
It is said that the thief's body is elegant, and he climbed over the palace wall almost instantly, as if he was a master of light skills in ancient times. However, due to the advanced age of the staff member and the fact that it was too dark that night, he mistakenly thought that he was dazzled and did not care.
For a time, rumors swirled and people were terrified, fearing that the unknown bandit would invade their homeland at any moment. It is said that he is not only proficient in light martial arts, but may also know some other martial arts, and he does not even pay attention to the strict defenses of the Forbidden City, which is undoubtedly a bold villain.
If we encounter such a person, do we have any other choice but to kneel and beg for mercy? The rumors are getting more and more bizarre, and people are getting more and more frightened, but ** is always skeptical.
They carefully surveyed the scene and found traces of stampede near the south gate of the Nourishing Temple. Going out from the south gate of the Yangxing Hall is the Ningshou Gate, which is being renovated, where a high scaffolding is erected, and you can climb directly to the top of the palace and walk on the roof.
According to **, on the evening of the day of the theft of the treasure, although the latch of Xiqing Gate was bolted by the staff, the next morning it was found that the latch was opened from the inside.
There is only one possibility, someone left the Xiqing Gate that night, and the latch was opened from the inside. Coincidentally, Xiqingmen is very close to Ningshou Gate, and it is very fast to climb along the scaffolding.
This seems to be the escape route of the big thief. However, why such bizarre rumors? ** began to wonder if it was the staff inside the Forbidden City who guarded the theft, and because they were afraid of being discovered, they made up this rumor to divert their attention, so as to clear their suspicions.
However, during the investigation, it was discovered that none of the staff inside the Forbidden City, whether it was the security team or the managers of other departments, had acted alone that night and had never left the Forbidden City.
They conducted a detailed search inside the Forbidden City, but found no missing treasures. This suggests that unless the thief has the magical ability to make an item disappear, it is definitely not the work of an insider.
Moreover, the real thieves may have already planned to leave Beijing, and if he is allowed to escape, the situation will immediately deteriorate. Therefore, the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau immediately set up a special task force and issued a circular to the whole country, calling on the public security bureaus and grassroots mass organizations in nearby provincial capitals to participate in solving the case together.
However, despite the fact that it has been three months, there has been no progress in the case. It wasn't until the appearance of these two fare evasion teenagers that the case took a turn for the better. After receiving the two teenagers, the police of the Hongqiao Branch of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau immediately began questioning.
Wu Qinghui and Wu Liangyu, two teenagers, had no money to buy tickets, so they secretly sneaked into the train to Beijing. Such situations are not uncommon in the public security bureau, especially for young, small and flexible children, who can easily evade fares, but also because they are timid, they are easy to be discovered.
But what makes people feel strange this time is that although Wu Qinghui verbally said that he had no money, the clothes on his body were all new, and his pockets were bulging. Whenever the policeman's gaze swept by, he would cover it nervously, making the policeman feel very suspicious.
In the end, the police asked him to take out the things in his pocket, and although Wu Qinghui pretended to be calm, his cold sweat had already revealed his nervousness. He falsely claimed that it was a souvenir he had brought from his homeland, but this explanation was clearly unconvincing.
Police officer Wu Qinghui keenly sensed that something was wrong, and shouted: "Take it out!" Wu Qinghui reluctantly reached into his pocket and slowly pulled out a pile of tiny gold.
Although the gold is small, the amount is considerable. "This is from the **? You have so much gold, why can't you afford a ticket? Under the scrutiny of the police, Wu Qinghui swallowed his saliva and tried to make his tone as gentle as possible: "This is a relic left by my father, he died in March last year, this is his family heirloom and cannot be sold."
So there wasn't enough money to buy tickets. Before the police could speak, Wu Qinghui hurriedly added: "My brothers and sisters don't know about this, and my father told me secretly."
I am the youngest son, and he loves me the most. ”
* These nonsense were completely untrue, because when they examined the gold, they found that these were not ordinary broken gold nuggets, and even though they had been cut to a very small size by Wu Qinghui, faint traces of inscriptions could still be seen.
Therefore, the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau arrested Wu Qinghui, collected fingerprints and footprints, and sent the gold to Beijing overnight for identification. The Forensic Investigation and Identification Section of the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau compared Wu Qinghui's fingerprints with some fingerprints left on the day of the theft, and the results were completely consistent.
At the same time, antiquities experts have confirmed that the broken gold pieces were cut from the stolen gold books. Although the case is about to come to light, no one can be happy.
Because this gold volume is a certificate specially made by Emperor Kangxi in order to respect his adoptive mother Empress Xiaohuizhang, the whole volume has a total of 14 volumes, each volume is more than 20 taels, all made of pure gold, and it is also engraved with Manchu and Han characters, which is extremely precious historical and literary materials.
Due to the thieves' greed and ignorance, this precious artifact has been cut into countless pieces, the severity of which is beyond recovery. This is a huge loss for our country, and even the experts cannot hide the grief in their hearts.
The Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau immediately sent people to Wu Qinghui's hometown, hoping to find clues to other treasures. They still had a glimmer of hope, because the number of golden fragments carried by Wu Qinghui was not many, and there might be some of the golden books that he hadn't had time to destroy.
Moreover, during the search, they did not find any trace of the five jade carved golden sheath daggers. These daggers are the personal treasures of Yongzheng and Qianlong, the handle is inlaid with precious stones, and the scabbard is made of pure gold, which is a precious cultural relic that must be recovered.
After the police of the Tianjin Municipal Public Security Bureau searched Wu Qinghui's house, they found the remaining treasures under the ear room. However, at that time, only 5 pages remained of the complete gold book, and the gems on the dagger had been completely detained.
Wu Qinghui said that he gave two of the pages to his sister Wu Guisheng in Beijing, and he himself cut out one page and sold it. It's a pity that she didn't know about it until it was too late, and Wu Guisheng's two pages had been cut by her, leaving only some fragments.
China's first case of theft of the Forbidden City has been officially solved, but the mystery left behind has not yet been solved. For example, how did 20-year-old Wu Qinghui break through many defenses and successfully break into the Forbidden City to commit theft?
Is the black shadow that the staff saw flying over the wall of the Forbidden City more than ten meters real or fake? If it is true, then has Wu Qinghui really practiced light skills?
Wu Qinghui, born in Shouguang County, Shandong Province in 1939, has a poor family and has been farming for generations. As the youngest child in the family, he lost both parents at an early age and was loved and cared for by his siblings.
Even if the family conditions are difficult, every time there is something delicious, his older brothers and sisters will let him eat. Although the samurai family has been farming for generations, his older siblings have never let him go to the land, but do their best to educate him.
However, Wu Qinghui did not cherish such an opportunity, often skipped school, and even did some bad things outside with a group of friends. Although his brothers and sisters were anxious, they were not Wu Qinghui's biological parents after all, and they loved him since they were children, and they couldn't bear to teach him a lesson, so they could only reason over and over again, but he didn't seem to care.
When I was a child, my brother and sister shone like stars, my brother stuck to his homeland in his hometown, and my sister went to Beijing to become a military wife. However, as I grew up and could no longer rely on my brother and sister-in-law, I decided to go to Beijing to seek help from my sister.
However, I was used to enjoying an easy life, unwilling to work the ground, and immersed in my imagination all day long, expecting pie to fall from the sky. My sister's husband is a soldier and has a busy job, so he takes good care of me and gives me pocket money.
I used the money to hang out in Beijing, eat, drink and have fun, and my life was easy and happy. One day, I suddenly wanted to go to the Forbidden City, so I bought a ticket and walked in.
It was the first time I had seen so many precious treasures: pearls, agate, gold and silver vessels, precious stones and jade ......All of them shine and are stunning. The person next to him sighed: "If we can have these treasures, we can live a carefree life." ”
My heart fluttered, and a crazy idea flashed through my mind.
Wu Qinghui found a large iron tong in his sister and brother-in-law's room and put it in his backpack. After that, he kept pestering his sister and finally got the ticket money for the Forbidden City.
On the morning of August 15, 1959, he went to the Forbidden City with his bag on his back. He scouts around the Forbidden City, observing where the treasures are placed in the exhibition halls and looking for the ideal targets for theft.
Eventually, he found that instead of bulky gold and silver artifacts, the display cases in the western exhibition hall of the Hall of Cultivation were filled with pure gold booklets and a few golden daggers. These things are priceless at first glance and very easy to carry.
Wu Qinghui was overjoyed, and immediately hid in the toilet in the middle of the corridor not far from the Nourishing Palace, and hid there for a full three hours. When all the tourists in the Forbidden City left and the staff packed up their things and went back to the room, Wu Qinghui finally slipped out.
Wu Qinghui cautiously looked around, and after confirming that no one was there, he quietly slipped to the wall of the Treasure Hall. He found a lot of miscellaneous items that he had prepared long ago, piled them up, and laid a few planks on them.
Then he stepped onto the planks and jumped onto the wall. He held his breath and climbed over the wall in one fell swoop, all in a matter of seconds. Wu Qinghui has been climbing over the wall since he was a child, and these movements are incredibly smooth, and the elderly staff in the distance only saw a black shadow flashing.
Something strange he rubbed his eyes, and walked in the other direction. Wu Qinghui, who was on the other side of the wall, nervously felt the beating of his heart and constantly adjusted his breathing.
He leaned against the wall until he was sure there were no footsteps on the other side. As night fell, Wu Qinghui took advantage of the dappled moonlight to move forward in the direction of the Hall of Cultivation in his memory.
He was very lucky, and soon found the door of the temple of cultivation.
Wu Qinghui held his breath and decisively stretched out his foot and kicked through a piece of glass on the edge of the third door of the Cultivation Palace. was so nervous that he didn't even notice that the glass cut his **, and slipped in directly through the gap.
The interior of the hall was dark, and only the display cases containing the treasures glowed faintly in the faint light emitted by the relics themselves. Wu Qinghui lay in front of the display case and took a greedy breath, with a hint of joy hanging on the corner of his mouth, as if these treasures were already in his pocket.
Then, without hesitation, he took out the tongs from his bag, smashed the glass of the display case with great force, and stuffed the gold book and dagger in the cabinet into his bag with great speed. Due to the large number of golden albums, Wu Qinghui was unable to take them all, he snorted angrily and quickly left the scene.
Wu Qinghui pried open the palace gate on the south side of the Palace of Nourishment in the Treasure Hall and tried to escape, but he repaired the scene at Ningshoumen**. He climbed the fence along the scaffolding of Ningshou Gate and walked all the way, eventually arriving at Xiqing Gate.
When he found out that the Xiqing Gate had just been simply bolted with an old latch, he was ecstatic and immediately slipped off the wall and escaped from the door. After returning home, Wu Qinghui did not hide his theft of cultural relics and told his sister.
When his sister heard this, she was shocked and told him to put his things back immediately, and warned him that it was a crime and would be sentenced. But Wu Qinghui disagreed, believing that China had a large population and no one would know that he had done it.
He told his sister not to be afraid, and tomorrow he would pack up his things and go home, and then break them up and sell them so that no one would find out.