In the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, Zhang fought fiercely with the famous soldiers in Jiangkou Town, Meishan, and was defeated. At this time, the Qing army was about to enter Sichuan, forming a double attack on Zhang. Seeing that he couldn't stay long, Zhang put the gold and silver jewelry he had been looking for for for many years on the ship and prepared to go out of Sichuan along the waterway to get rid of the golden cicada. Unexpectedly, the fleet had just traveled 60 kilometers when it was ambushed by its old rival Yang Zhan. Zhang's fleet caught fire and its belongings sank into the water.
After this failure, Zhang was greatly weakened. According to Shu Bi, after Zhang fled back to Chengdu, he cut off Jinjiang, dug a pit several feet deep at the bottom of the river and buried the rest of his belongings in it. Then the levee was dug again and the river flowed again. Is that what is recorded in the history books? Gold? . Since then, the story of burying silver in Zhanghekou and treasure in Jinjiang has spread like wildfire, becoming a major unsolved case in the history of China.
The world has always wondered how much wealth Zhang has collected. There is no clear record in the history books. Some people compare him to Li Zicheng. After Li Zicheng entered Beijing, he tortured the imperial clan, consorts and officials of the Ming Dynasty and plundered more than 70 million taels of silver. Similarly, the whereabouts of this huge property are unknown.
Although Zhang is not as strong as Li Zicheng in military strength and vast territory, he is rich in looting property. Hubei and Sichuan, in particular, have millions of silver from the royal families of the Ming Dynasty. First Xiangyang was captured, and countless gold and silver were plundered from Wang Xiang. Then Wuchang was broken, and millions of gold and silver were found from Wang Chu. After entering Chengdu, he took away the goods that Shu had accumulated for more than 200 years.
Unlike Li Zicheng, Zhang not only plundered the property of the imperial court, but also spared the people. Every time a city is captured, the wealthy businessmen in the city are arrested and sometimes the ransom may be torn up. In addition, Zhang also banned people from possessing gold seals, and once they were found, they would be executed. Through various means, Ji Zhang has accumulated considerable wealth. According to the documentary in southern Sichuan, it is estimated that Zhang left hundreds of millions of property in Jiangkou.
Since the Qing Dynasty, fishermen have repeatedly found silver ingots, bracelets, earrings and other things from the place where Zhang was defeated. In 59 years of Qianlong, the local government organized a treasure hunt. Besides tens of thousands of taels of silver, there are also jewels and jade articles. During the Republic of China, Fan Shaozeng, a local warlord in Sichuan, set up Jinjiang Gold Rushing Company to conduct a large-scale treasure hunt, but only three baskets of copper coins were dug up, and the expected valuables such as gold, silver and jewelry were not found.
The real large-scale excavation of Shuikou Shen Yin took place in recent years. After three months of hard work, archaeologists have unearthed more than 30 thousand cultural relics. The variety and level of unearthed cultural relics are very rare, and only the collections in the tomb of Hai faint Hou can match it. However, this is only the tip of the iceberg, and more gold seal property is left to archaeologists to continue digging!