What Yang Kun said was very mysterious and a bit lengthy, but it was very true. Li Ling did not expect that the answers to many things that were just smoke and mirrors could be found in him.

In 160 AD, Zhang Xianzhong launched an uprising in Mizhi, Shaanxi Province and became one of the most important peasant revolutionary armed forces in the late Ming Dynasty.

After Zhang Xianzhong's uprising, he repeatedly defeated the Ming army, occupied Wuchang in 164 AD, and was called the King of the Great West. In 1644 AD, Zhang Xianzhong entered Shu, conquered Chengdu, and established the Great Western Kingdom, calling Chengdu Xijing.

However, after Zhang Xianzhong entered Shu, he did not live a peaceful life. In addition to mediating with the Ming Dynasty's troops stationed in Sichuan and Shaanxi and the remaining forces, he also had to face attacks from the armed bureaucrats and landlords of Shu at any time.

The key is that a more powerful enemy is coming: the Qing Dynasty has risen, and the Qing army has entered the pass and moved south, aiming at Sichuan and Shaanxi.

At the beginning of the third year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government, which had been appointed by the state of Zuo, sent Prince Su Hauge as General Jingyuan, and Wu Sangui and others led the Manchu and Han armies to attack Zhang Xianzhong's Western Peasant Army with all their strength.

But Zhang Xianzhong also had a more urgent enemy - at that time, Yang Zhan, a representative of the remnants of the Ming Dynasty and the bureaucratic landlord militants in central Sichuan, led his troops to recapture Sichuan Nanzhou County and led his troops to the north.

Then there was a fierce battle with Zhang Xianzhong's troops at the mouth of the river in Pengshan. Zhang Xianzhong was defeated and retreated to Chengdu, while Yang Zhan pushed towards Chengdu from the south.

These remnant military and political forces of the Ming Dynasty and the armed landlords in central Sichuan dealt a fatal blow to Zhang Xianzhong's regime in Daxi and exhausted the last vestige of the Daxi peasant army.

In July of this year, in order to preserve his strength and go north to Shaanxi to fight against the Qing army, Zhang Xianzhong decided to abandon Chengdu. He also "killed all his wives and concubines, and also culled his one son who was still young."

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong was determined to unite with the Ming Dynasty to resist the Qing Dynasty. In September, Zhang Xianzhong led his troops to leave Chengdu and prepare to go north to meet the Qing army. In November, Zhang Xianzhong's army camped at Fenghuang Mountain in Xichong.

On November 26, the third year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1646), the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, Hauge, sent an army guard led by Ao Bai and other generals to lead the Eight Banners Guard Army into northwest Sichuan and launched a surprise attack on Zhang Xianzhong's remaining troops.

In the area of ​​Fenghuang Mountain in Xichong, Zhang Xianzhong led the peasant army to engage in a fierce battle with the Qing army, and was eventually killed by an arrow. He was only forty years old.

"Manuscripts of the History of the Qing Dynasty" records: Zhang Xianzhong died, and his tribe "wrapped his body in brocade mattresses, buried it in a remote place, and escaped." The Qing army dug up graves and "beheaded him in order to find a way out, and his head was captured in Chengdu." .

After Zhang Xianzhong's death, his generals Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi, Feng Shuangli and others led the peasant army to continue fighting south.

Later, they united with the Nanming Dynasty and moved to fight in the vast areas of the southwestern provinces to jointly fight against the Qing army. They persisted for nearly twenty years until the early years of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty.

Zhang Xianzhong started the Shaanxi uprising, which lasted for sixteen years, and then moved to Huguang and Shu, and proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu. Wherever he went, he was like locusts crossing the border, burning, looting, and using all possible means.

Every time a city is captured, the property of all local officials, bureaucrats, landlords, and gentry must be plundered, and tens of thousands of gold and silver treasures must be taken into their own account.

After settling in Chengdu, how much gold and silver did Zhang Xianzhong plunder?

According to the conclusions of the research conducted by the original Qing History Compilation Leading Group Office:

"Zhang Xianzhong once held a treasure fighting conference in Chengdu, proudly showing off his wealth: 4 rooms were filled with rare treasures, gold and silver ingots, which made people dizzy and jaw-dropping.

Some historians have roughly estimated that Zhang Xianzhong owned at least tens of millions of taels of silver. Calculating that the purchasing power of one tael of silver in the late Ming Dynasty is equivalent to 00 yuan today,

At that time, he had a wealth equivalent to 1 billion yuan now. If other non-gold and silver jewelry are included, the wealth data will definitely be much larger."

Some historians believe that Zhang Xianzhong's silver may reach tens of millions of taels. This is because Zhang Xianzhong was very conceited after he captured Wuchang and rewarded his subordinates and the local people who opened the city to welcome the army.

It is said that the silver reward reached as much as six million taels! If just one reward was so generous, the silver he actually owned was far more than six million taels.

In just a few years after Zhang Xianzhong's uprising, several royal palaces with the surname Zhu in Ming Dynasty in Shaanxi, Chongqing, Hubei, and Shu were all looted by Zhang Xianzhong. It is not surprising that he possessed huge amounts of gold and silver.

The authoritative magazine "World Almanac" published a list of world treasures in 2000, including Napoleon's Moscow treasures, the Inca Empire's gold treasures and more than a dozen unsolved mysteries of treasures.

Among them, Chinese treasures occupy five places, namely the treasures of the Xixia royal mausoleums, the treasures of the Loulan kings, the treasures of the Dashun Emperor Li Zicheng, the treasures of the Daxi Emperor Zhang Xianzhong and the treasures of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Wing King Shi Dakai.

The richest treasures here, the largest number of people searching for them, and the largest expenditure of human financial resources are the treasures of Emperor Daxi Emperor Zhang Xianzhong.

According to estimates from the World Almanac, the value of this wealth ranks third in the world and first in Asia.

So, after the fall of Zhang Xianzhong’s Daxi regime, where did these mountains of gold and silver go?

In September of the third year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty (1646), facing threats and encirclement by many hostile forces, Zhang Xianzhong led his troops to withdraw from Chengdu.

According to the "History of the Ming Dynasty", Zhang Xianzhong "moved the Jinjiang River, solidified it, made it several feet deep, buried billions of gold and treasures, and then broke the embankment and released it, which was named Shuizang. He said: "Nothing is done for future generations."

According to Ming history, when Zhang Xianzhong evacuated Chengdu, he could not take away a large amount of gold and silver treasures.

It can only be buried at the waterway dock in Chengdu (it is also said that billions of treasures were thrown into the Jinjiang River and released with the river), and I planned to take it away when I return to Chengdu in the future.

It is said that Zhang Xianzhong left a secret code in order to find the buried treasures in the future - which is also the famous treasure song:

A stone ox versus a stone drum is worth tens of thousands of gold and silver. Someone knows the difference and buys up all the money in Chengdu.

However, according to "Pengshan County Chronicles": In the third year of Shunzhi, a decisive battle between the Ming general Yang Zhan and Zhang Xianzhong's troops took place in Jiangkou Town. Zhang's warships were burned and more than half of them sank, causing heavy casualties.

When Zhang Xianzhong evacuated Chengdu, because the dry road had been blocked by the Qing army, he had to change his route out of Shu by water. According to "Shu Bi":

(Zhang) Xianzhong heard that (Yang) Zhan's army was very powerful, and he was greatly frightened. He led tens of thousands of troops and thousands of ships loaded with gold and treasure, and went eastward along the river to fight Zhan decisively.

Zhang Xianzhong's fleet filled with gold and silver treasures actually numbered thousands. They set out from Chengdu and traveled along the Jinjiang River to the Jiangkou of Pengshan County. They were ambushed by Yang Zhan's troops and almost the entire army was destroyed.

And more than a thousand wooden ships loaded with gold and silver treasures sank in the waters of Jiangkou, Pengshan County.

Therefore, according to historical records, there are two destinations for Zhang Xianzhong’s treasure:

One is that before Zhang Xianzhong withdrew from Chengdu, he buried all his gold and silver treasures at the bottom of Jinjiang River or threw them into the river, unwilling to let others take possession of them.

Second: Zhang Xianzhong loaded all the gold and silver treasures into more than a thousand wooden boats, and set out from the waterway, but was ambushed by Yang Zhan, and all the treasures and wooden boats sank into the waters of the Pengshan River Estuary.

From the late Ming Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, from the Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, from the Republic of China to today, over three hundred and sixty years,

In order to find out the mystery of the whereabouts of Zhang Xianzhong's treasure, people from all walks of life followed the opportunity and mobilized in groups.

According to legend, Zhang Xianzhong hid the collected gold and silver treasures somewhere near Chengdu, using stone oxen and stone drums as secret signs.

In order to obtain this treasure, the remaining forces of the Ming Dynasty, armed bureaucrats and landlords, local warlords, peasant rebels, the Qing Dynasty, foreign missionaries, Yuan Shikai, and the American General Mellors during World War II,

Chiang Kai-shek/Shi, the Japanese invaders, including the three religions and nine sects from all walks of life, mobilized troops and mobilized a large number of people, spending a lot of manpower and financial resources to hunt for treasures, but they found nothing and returned disappointed.

"But there are also later generations who infer based on historical data that Zhang Xianzhong's treasures are not unobtainable by anyone." After talking about this, Yang Kun paused.
Chapter completed!