He stole more than 200 ancient tombs and was worth 500 million. What secret did he tell before his death?

The history of tomb robbing in China can be said to be a long time ago. As early as the Spring and Autumn Period, after experiencing the social changes of "the collapse of rituals and the collapse of music", the trend of thick burials began to rise, so tomb robbing became even more popular. Some tomb robbers are just to vent their hatred and revenge. For example, in the second year of the Dali of Emperor Daizong of the Tang Dynasty (767), Guo Ziyi defeated Tubo in Lingzhou. In December of the same year, Guo Ziyi’s father’s tomb was destroyed by tomb robbers. According to folklore, fish Chao En (a eunuch in the Tang Dynasty who had a grudge against Guo Ziyi) sent someone to do it. And some people rob tombs just for the rich funerary objects in the tombs.

In modern society, even if there are strict laws on tomb robbing, some people turn a deaf ear to it, and tomb robbing incidents continue to occur. For example, since the founding of the People's Republic of China, a court has convicted Yao Yuzhong, the biggest tomb-robbing mastermind. His ability to rob tombs is such that he can be called the Patriarch in the tomb-robbing world. A total of 2,063 cultural relics stolen by Yao Yuzhong have been recovered, worth 500 million yuan. But he was so capable, but he didn't have a penny in his account after he was arrested. Mainly because he was a gambler, so he used all the money he gained from tomb robbing to gamble and lost everything.

Yao Yuzhong is a native of Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. He was born in 1962. His family has been a bamboo craftsman for generations. The Yao family has 8 children, including 7 boys and 1 girl. , Yao Yuzhong was the third eldest, and a family of more than ten people could only live in a simple earthen house. Therefore, Yao Yuzhong only went to elementary school and did not continue his studies. He inherited the family's bamboo craftsmanship. Although Yao Yuzhong is not highly educated, he is very clever and has strong hands-on skills. His skill in weaving bamboo baskets is the best among the seven boys.

Yao Yuzhong’s hometown is the seat of Hongshan Culture. Tombs here are relatively concentrated, and most of the tombs are buried very shallowly, only one or two meters away from the surface. Whenever it rains heavily, there are holes on the surface of the tombs. The soil was washed away by the rain, revealing the funerary objects inside. Therefore, people often came to the village to exchange money for the utensils picked up by the villagers. At this time, Yao Yuzhong came up with the idea of ​​robbing tombs.

Although his cultural level is not high, Yao Yuzhong still insists on reading books such as "The Book of Changes". He also knows how to combine theory and practice, and specially goes to the Forbidden City and the Eastern Tombs of the Qing Dynasty to observe and analyze the tombs. Gradually, he mastered how to find tombs and found them accurately. In order to facilitate tomb robbing, he also made a self-made tomb robbing tool called "Zha Zi". It was made of several sections of steel bars. It was not only foldable but also easy to carry. Yao Yuzhong only needs to dig the tie into the soil, then pull it out, and judge whether there is a tomb underneath based on the color of the soil on the tie.

The period between June and October every year is when the crops are most dense and can hide people. It is also the period when Yao Yuzhong commits the most intensive crimes. From 2013 to 2014, Yao Yuzhong robbed no less than 200 tombs of various sizes. His 30 years of tomb robbing experience allowed him to accumulate nearly 600 million yuan in assets. And his way of dealing with the aftermath was particularly clever. Every time he robbed a tomb, he would bring a handful of grass seeds and sprinkle them on the excavated soil after he left. Therefore, the traces of his tomb robbing would be covered by the grass that grew up soon after. Cover it up.

Because he has robbed many tombs and has superb skills, he is regarded as the "ancestor" and "the best master outside the customs" in the tomb robbing community. However, although he accumulated a lot of wealth from tomb robbing, the money he saved was not much at all. Because he was addicted to gambling, sometimes the cultural relics he had just stolen would be mortgaged by him in a casino after they changed hands. Only in a casino in Hebei He owed more than 70 million yuan in gambling debts, and some high-priced cultural relics were paid off by him at low prices.

So when Yao Yuzhong was arrested in 2015, there was not a penny in his account. The police also found many cultural relics where he lived. In May 2015, the Ministry of Public Security announced that the largest tomb robbing case since the founding of the People's Republic of China had been solved. The police arrested 225 suspects and destroyed 12 criminal gangs. 2,063 cultural relics involved in the case were returned. Yao Yuzhong is the "big brother" among the captured criminal suspects.

But in court, Yao Yuzhong still resisted, saying: "I can open the Mausoleum of Qin Shihuang, I know his entrance." However, he was eventually sentenced to death with a two-year suspension of execution.

Regardless of whether what Yao Yuzhong said is true or not, as far as the structure and layout of Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum is concerned, according to modern science and technology, no one can safely explore the depths of Qin's Mausoleum. Even if the cultural relics inside are taken out, it will not be easy to preserve. , after all, we have not forgotten that the paint on the terracotta warriors and horses disappeared as soon as they were exposed to light.