The riddle of the lost Chinese Treasury

[Crow]

Hello all aficionados of treasure legends.

The following treasure legend story spans several decades and fate of this vast treasure has never be fully understood perhaps until now.

The Chinese and Indian people are notorious for hoarding gold. In the chaos of the 20th century China went through a massive internal upheavel and invasion while its traditional structure collapsed. The china today is very different of the china of old. Even so the tale will take you on a journey through history on track of perhaps on the largest missing treasures in history.....

Interested?


Crow

 

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[Crow]

The following newspaper story dated 11th December 1894.

The Chinese empire squirreled away 600000 Teals every year for years which is 1.33 ounces per teal every year to their sacred city of Moukden. Rough estimates suggest their might be over 1200000000 teals hidden away in the Palace at Moukden.



Based on that assumption there could possibly be 1596000000 ounces of gold stored there. The fate of such gold has never been fully confirmed. As Don Jose Know even after WW2 rumors about with stories relating to hidden gold. The fate of course is not easy to track. However if we look into history of event surrounding it we can track the various paths where some of the gold ended up.



This equates to an obscene amount of gold almost too impossible to imagine or is it. As well know from history the Chinese was obsessed with gold not only as a form of wealth it was an active part of currency too. thier miners traveled to the California and Australian gold fields. Who really knows how much made their way back to families in China in which the gold ended up in the hands of the imperial court?



Mouken was an imperial city for centuries. A area naturally a depositary of the wealth of the Chinese emperor.




The whole economy of China was centered around the trade of gold. Gold went into China very little if any ever went back out.However there was other other developing Asian country that saw the wealth and coveted it.

To be continued.

Crow

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

?? my coffee iis almost gone ??

 

[Crow]

Hello Don Jose it late and almost morning....Long over due for this old Crow to roost.

I have much more of this yarn to tell...

However until next time cheers Crow

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

go my friemd. Dream of French Maids and Gold.

Then wake up to reality, after running a mile and juggling 100 ' weights, you can have your breakfast, fruit and, toast, and black coffee

 

[doc-d]

Today begins the day of the new Crow……..no more supplement, personal trainer…….hmmm and the deafening silence as to coming mission…….

 

[Rebel - KGC]

go my friemd. Dream of French Maids and Gold.

Then wake up to reality, after running a mile and juggling 100 ' weights, you can have your breakfast, fruit and, toast, and black coffee

"French Maids"...? THEY got the GOLD, then, eh...?

 

[Real de Tayopa Tropical Tramp]

Well one can imagine no? Doesn't cost anything. I can see them with gold bars dangling from their fingers fighting off delectable french Maids

I KNOW that Crow would do this successfuly, how about you reb ? Me, I am notoriously weak willed. never-the-less virtuous.

 

[Crow]

Er...Back to the story....Of course an skeptical eye would say that is massive amount of gold to accumulate..The figure readily admitted was speculative. Questions should be asked was the Chinese Emperor able amass such a wealth over 4 - 200 years?

China of course has a long long history of its own...To day the world estimate is 161000 tons of gold in the world China it is estimated today to have 3100 tons of gold in its reserves.

A rough calculation 1,596,000,000 ounce would be roughly 45245 odd tons almost 3rd of known gold reserves. It is possible for a country to amass such wealth? For me it is a bit of a red flag how it does show the newspapers wild speculation of size of wealth indeed in the hand of the Chinese Emperor. However that said there must be an a large store of wealth in the country.

To be continued....

Crow

 

[Culinary Caveman]

That's an enormous amount of gold. If the true amount is only a quarter of what the paper is reporting it's still a massive haul.

 

[banana skin slippers]

is this one linked to the one that was buried at some insane depth in the ground? perhaps am getting mixed up with legends.

 

[Crow]

is this one linked to the one that was buried at some insane depth in the ground? perhaps am getting mixed up with legends.

Hello Banana Ya mixing up with one of early Philippine stories..

Crow

 

[Crow]

China's story is universal one.

Weakened by wars with British with opium wars and war with other European powers she parceled of concession after concession. Her wealth was slowing being plundered by one sided trade deals one by great concessions by European powers.



Through bad imperial management lost in archaic protocols and a weak military with obsolete weapons and tactics and with over 20% of the male population addicted to opium added to crisis. Ironic as it China had been actively trading with the west in exchange good and silk and other commodities for nearly 400 years amassing great wealth of gold and silver via south America the Spanish and other European powers.

Japan had cut itself off however once opened back up the country especially the military modernized and in first Sino war 1894 won huge chunks of Manchurian china under the newly Japaneses empire of the rising sun.



To be continued

Crow

 

[Crow]

It did not take Japan long to make use of Korean peninsular and Manchuria. Moukden was an ancient walled city fabled for the hidden treasures of the Manchu Dynasty.

As the map below show it was an extensive city.



The Japanese culture had a long history of looting as part of their war doctrine of the day. As they marched through the gates of the defeated city little did the locals know of the horrors of occupation to come.



The fate of this alleged treasure has never be ascertained. Did imperial Chinese remove the imperial Manchu treasure or was it discovered by the Japanese and spirited away as war retributions?

To be continued...

Crow

 

[doc-d]

To be continued…….
There is our Señor Crow tormenting us again, leaving us hanging……..
How is our black feathered one doing with his personal remodeling? Getting in shape for the adventure soon to begin?

 

[Crow]

Hello Doc-d

Treasure legends are a bit like fine wine they take time have to be savoured to the last drop. And its that precious invisible commodity time even for tattered old Crow who has to grow new feathers to fly once again.

Crow

 

[Crow]

It is fair to say that Japans occupation of Manchuria was not an easy one either.... It was not a bed of roses for them as the general Manchurian people considered the Japanese invaders while the rest of china was incapable of pushing Japan out of China. Like the cartoon that told pretty much the truth at all foreign nations wanted to carve up china under their own concessions under the dowager empress. Concubine that held onto power very tentatively with no real heir to the thrones this set in motion the very complex manoeuvrings in Chinese Society under mining the power of china beset by so many internal divisions. Needless to say the common lot of the average Chinese was very bleak. Its fair to suspect most of the treasury was moved from Mouken to Peking?

Russia also coveted Manchuria also and growing threat of large segments of Chinese society resenting the presence of foreign powers on their soil lead to brief Boxer uprising.

Peking was still in control by the Chinese. However the growing influence of Boxer rebellion which first started in the North in Manchuria soon spread to Peking.



Where many foreign embassy's became trapped by the uprising. Hence the famous story of 55 days in Peking when the Boxer rebellion was at his highest. this uprising was lead by nobility beyond the control dowager empress Cixi. Now I shall not go deep into complexities of the throne of China. But there was mechanisms in play.



Cixi ousted a group of regents appointed by the late emperor and assumed regency, which she shared with the Empress Dowager Cian . Cixi then consolidated control over the dynasty when, at the death of the Tongzhi Emperor, contrary to the dynastic rules of succession, she installed her nephew as the Guangxu Emperor in 1875. Although she refused to adopt Western models of government, she supported technological and military reforms.



Cixi rejected the reforms of 1898 as impractical and detrimental to dynastic power and placed her nephew the Guangxu Emperor under house arrest for supporting reformers. However many of his followers felt betrayed by the influence of the foreign powers.

After the failed Boxer revolution Cixi saw it better against her advisers in not prolonging the war to negotiate a peace deal as the she and the Chinese establishments was forced to flee Peking during the uprising. The boxer revolution was ultimately defeated by a coalition of foreign powers. Still more of the national treasury including the Manchu treasury for Molken was siphoned off to foreign powers as compensation.

However the failed leaders of Boxer revolution paid with their lives as seen below. With Public beheadings of the rebels



To be cont....

Crow

 

[Crow]

During the time of the Boxer revolution. The American General Adna Chaffee head of coalition relief Force that relieved the besieged coalition defenders at Peking after a 55 day siege. Stated in the following newspaper story that he knew where the Chinese treasury was was wanted to seize the treasury on behalf of the United States Government as war retributions and to pay for the cost of maintaining troops in the country.



Park of the America relief Force can be seen in the picture below.



President declined the Generals offer perhaps seeing more far reaching consequences of doing do.



The following newspaper Sydney morning herald January 13 1903 gives more details....



In 1900 when the Russians invaded Manchuria they themselves ultimately captured some other parts of the Chinese treasury in Manchuria of which the Japanese had failed to loot in 1894 and continue their ill fated war against Japan and the Chinese.
The British had no reservations took some of treasury and issue payments through various banks as war retributions. But still large chunks of the national treasury still remain in the coffers of the Chinese treasury in Peking. However personal wealth of empress dowager remained untouched.




The main bulk of the national treasury was still in Peking after it had been removed to Peking after the fall of Molken in 1894. General Chaffee obtained information about treasure in the forbidden city that belonged to Dowager empress and not the Chinese treasury and that was I suspect why it was not taken as war retributions.



To be continued.....

Crow

 

[Crow]

The dowager Empress was old and vain but Wiley in ways of Chinese internal politics but totally incapable in understanding the winds of change sweeping the Chinese Empire.



Her successor was a little boy who would be for brief amount of time be the Last emperor of china and puppet for the Japanese to die in relative obscurity in china after WW2.



After the death of the Dowager Xian within 3 years the royal dynasty fell apart and China had become a republic.



The republic stuggled with control and was soon at war with Manchuria a puppet state run by the Japanese. This conflict festered until about 1927 when even the chinces repulic was struggling to survive by internal infighting and having thier own civil war in the power vacuum that after the fall of the imperial dynasty in 1911.

The great treasury and the fortune of the last Chinese royal dynasty in Peking fell into the hands of the Chinese republic struggling to forge a new China.

To be continued...

Crow

 

[Crow]

In the mist of all this chaos.....in China and in Manchuria

Ya gotta admire the ball some people have.........Here is a little known treasure hunter that Rodney Gilbert pushing himself beyond the realms of most treasure hunters in a big F... you all to the establishments and went for it



Who was this Rodney Gilbert? and how did he find out such information? was he actually after one part of royal treasury that had been pilfered?

To be continued....

Crow