Ninggu Pagoda actually does not have a tower. According to legend, the Qing Dynasty royal family had six distant ancestral brothers there. "Six" is pronounced "Ninggu" in Manchu, and "ta" means "one". It can be said that Ninggu Pagoda is the birthplace of the Qing royal family.
At that time, the production tools outside the customs were still very backward, and the northeast was bitterly cold. Therefore, under such harsh conditions, most of the people who were sent there were guilty of serious crimes. The people who were sent there worked day and night to clear wasteland and cultivate land, build bridges and roads, and dig mountains and stones. , they thrived in the local area from generation to generation, and even gradually formed villages. Until the end of the Qing Dynasty, many people stayed there.
There is another point in this. At that time, not everyone could be assigned to Ninggu Pagoda. Those people or families who were assigned there were all named. Ordinary people with flat heads would either be killed with a knife, or else they would be killed. He was exiled outside the Great Wall to guard the border.
These things were all discussed with people when we were in the Qinhan Hall. The old accountant also said another thing, that is, why there were such large engineering activities outside the customs. It was said to be ancestor worship, but no matter how many descendants you have, his Jurchen There is only one ancestor. The altar for the grand ceremony does not require much at all. At most, it is maintained every year. How can there be such a large amount of work?
The old accountant later told a story. It was rumored that the Qing Dynasty was worried that the foundation of Manchu rule was unstable, so the royal family secretly transported the Qing's gold and silver treasures out of the customs every year and hoarded them. There was a clear proof during this period.
In the fourth year of Jiaqing, the eighty-nine-year-old Qianlong Emperor Hongli passed away. Heshen, who had always been favored by Hongli, also ushered in his end.
On the eighth day of the lunar month, Emperor Jiaqing issued an edict announcing that Heshen would be dismissed from his post and his family property would be confiscated. On the ninth day of the lunar month, Prince Yi Yongxuan and Prince Cheng Yongxuan were ordered to lead the inspection of Heshen's property.
Led by the two princes, a large group of people came to Heshen's Mansion. The scribes were counting the items in Heshen's Mansion. It wasn't until dark that the two princes got a list of the properties owned by He Shen. The amount was astonishingly huge.
The next day, Jiaqing met with the princes and ministers who were in charge of the property search, and received a list of the properties. There were more than 32,000 taels of gold in the private vault behind the wall, and more than 3 million taels of silver buried in the cellar. Jiaqing gave full trust and affirmation to this list of house searches. Then He Shen committed suicide with "Encien". The emperor kindly said that this was for the sake of the country's face, so Heshen's family would not be implicated, and the matter should have come to an end.
But later, a minister named Sabintu reported that the list he copied was less than one-tenth of the Heshen family's property. When he asked for a deeper investigation, he was severely criticized by the emperor, and a month later the governor of water transportation was arrested. He was dismissed for a very inconspicuous reason, and the list of confiscations has never appeared on a formal occasion since then.
The old accountant said that it was impossible to verify whether the final list of confiscations was correct. However, from the time when the Qing Dynasty took over the Ming Dynasty's treasury, to the peak of the Qing Dynasty, and then to its sudden decline in the later period, there were many unexplainable things. During this period, The conjecture that the Manchus plundered treasures and transported them outside the customs seems particularly tenable.
Once this premise withstands scrutiny, the next, more horrifying conclusion is about to emerge. A large number of Han labors were assigned to the Ninggu Pagoda, large-scale construction projects were carried out, and financial reports were collected. These points can only lead to one conclusion, the mausoleum!
After the death of a member of the royal family, the Qing Dynasty quietly sent the corpses back outside the customs, built imperial mausoleums, and buried them with the wealth they had plundered over the years. This kept the attention of tomb robbers in Beijing and fulfilled the tradition of the Jurchen people returning to their roots after falling leaves.
These thoughts flashed through my mind. I looked at my second aunt. What did she mean by these profound words? Did she want to tell me that the Cao family was related to the Manchu Dynasty? Or... is the Cao family's fortune related to the Qing Dynasty's treasures outside the Pass?
She seemed to have read through my thoughts, and gently pushed the hair from her forehead behind her ears. She softened her tone, not as sullen as before, and said, "She still looks a bit like your dad. If you can't even guess this, Come on, I think we're done talking."
"You guessed it right. The Cao family did follow the Qing Dynasty when the capital was moved to Beijing. The power they have today is due to the foundation accumulated since then. However, the reason why the Cao family moved to outside the Pass is very unexpected. , In that era, no matter the climate, economy, culture, or various conditions, if you chose to migrate, you would always have to move south, but the Cao family chose to go north."
"They are avoiding something." I blurted out. The dynamics of the Cao family group are evident.
"That's half right." The second aunt changed her posture, rubbed her temples with both hands, and looked a little tired. No matter how well-maintained I was, she was still in her fifties or sixties. She said softly: "Xiaoyu , you go on and tell him."
"Yeah." The girl named Xiaoyu responded softly, showed me a clean smile, curled her hair on the temples, and said after thinking for a while: "You guessed it right, the Cao family at that time was indeed While avoiding, they are also looking for something."
"What do you mean?" I asked with a frown.
"According to sporadic records, we found that the Cao family group actually went to many places, including the desert in the extreme west and the sea country in the east. In the end, they ended up outside the pass. We think they must have found what they were looking for. Do you think so? What is it?" Xiaoyu looked at me.
I thought that with my second aunt's sophistication, what she just said was definitely not without purpose. Then a series of words such as Qing Dynasty, Guanwai, Han people, architecture, etc. were like rice paper soaked in ink, quickly spreading in my mind, forming a series of pictures, and gradually one by one A bold guess formed in my mind. I looked at Xiaoyu. She was holding her chin with one hand, waiting for me, not impatient or impatient.
I took a breath, organized my words, and said: "The things that the ancestors of the Cao family were looking for were probably sent out of the Pass by the royal family at that time. The ancestors of the Cao family found out about it from somewhere and then moved their clansmen outside the Pass. If there was really something at that time, The tomb of the Manchu royal family was secretly built outside the customs, so that thing may have become a burial object. If you want to get it..."
"Stealing?" I tried to analyze.
Xiaoyu blinked and said, "If we relied on thieves, it would be impossible for the Cao family to continue to thrive in Fengtian at that time."
I thought for a moment and blurted out: "The tomb keeper?"
"Bgo!" She smiled and said, "Then why do you think the Jurchens at that time let a Han man guard the tomb?"
I thought, yes, the corpses of the Manchu royal family were transported out of the customs just to be stolen and disturbed. How could they find someone to guard the tombs, and they were Han people. Unless there were some necessary conditions, for the Manchus at that time, the country was not long established. , what they lack most is...technology?
I asked her in disbelief: "The Qing Tomb built by the ancestors of the Cao family outside the Pass?"
She leaned back on the bamboo and rattan chair, tapped the armrest with two fingers, and nodded with a smile: "Yes, the Jurchen people at that time did not have the tradition of entering the tomb after death. They only started to have this idea after they entered the Central Plains and the Manchus and Han assimilated. However, there were no technical talents in this field outside the customs at that time, so the Cao clan was used. But unfortunately, we still don't know how our ancestors got into the royal family."
"But even if the Cao family was not liquidated after the Qing Mausoleum was built, it was still almost under surveillance. Moreover, the Cao family's methods were favored by a person in charge outside the customs at that time. They incorporated some of the men of the Cao family into the military, which not only contained the The Cao family who stayed behind to guard the imperial mausoleum used their special abilities to dig graves and hunt for treasures for the powerful people at that time."
As I listened, I started to wonder why this story was so familiar to me. I really wished I had heard it somewhere. After thinking about it carefully, I suddenly thought of the key point and started sweating. I thought, damn, it can't be such a coincidence. Well, is it possible that Cao Hansheng, the commander of the Royal Mountains we found in the Zhenling Tower, is a member of the Cao family?
Qing Dynasty, Yushan, tomb robbery, Cao Hansheng, and the entanglement with the black hands behind history.
I was stunned. I felt like I had figured something out, but I couldn't grasp it. That feeling was fleeting.
Xiaoyu saw what key point I had thought of, so she didn't disturb me and just sat there quietly. After waiting for me for a long time to relax, she stretched out her slender palm and made a "please" gesture, and said with a smile. : "Please, Boss Cao."
I didn't hide anything. After all, if we want to cooperate, we need to show some sincerity, so I didn't go into too much detail. I told them about the discovery of Yu Shan under the Zhenling Tower, and picked out some items for them. Even the tired second aunt was excited. She cheered up and picked up the tea cup to listen to me. I signaled her that the auction was about to start, but she said nonchalantly that she didn't care and asked me to speak quickly.
After I finished speaking, the second aunt and Xiaoyu looked at each other, and Xiaoyu asked me: "Is that family letter still there?"
I shook my head and said regretfully: "I lost it when I came out. Why, is it important? Or can you tell whether that person is really a member of the Cao family based on family letters?"
Xiaoyu was a little disappointed when he heard that the family letter was lost, and smiled reluctantly: "It doesn't matter. That person must be the Cao family. The guy you mentioned guessed it right. The Cao family used to have a tradition of medicinal baths, which can resist toxins. But when it comes to us, Only in the past few generations have they begun to abandon this method." When she said this, she glanced at her second aunt secretly, and whispered in a very cryptic voice: "The old people from the Cao family who were still alive in my aunt's generation also accepted this method when they were young. It's an ancient method, but it seems to have some other side effects."
If it can be confirmed that Cao Tongbing is a member of the Cao family, then this matter will become even more complicated. Is it just a coincidence that Yushan was transferred to dig the Lingtai? I smelled a hint of conspiracy in it. I had a hunch that this incident originated within the Cao family. I am now very sure that my father was right. In the historical evolution of the Cao family, there has always been a force. At each node, the fate of the Cao family is changing.
I looked at the little girl sitting on the bamboo and cane chair. Her eyes were blurred, as if she was lost in some kind of memory. After a while, she looked back at her second aunt, who nodded thoughtfully. My words must have aroused some associations among them. .
Xiaoyu shrugged at me, showed an apologetic smile, tilted his head, thought for a while, and said, "Where did we talk? Oh, the ancestor of the Cao family, he got that thing in the end."