Hidden Treasures of the Ming

In 1644, Li Zicheng entered the capital, tortured Ming officials for their wealth, and ransacked homes everywhere, seizing countless treasures and untold amounts of gold and silver. Ji Liqi once exclaimed that it would take 18.5 million mules and horses to carry it all. Then, one day, the treasure suddenly disappeared. His sworn brother Li Yan took his own life, and Li Zicheng's army was defeated at Jiugong Mountain. His generals scattered in every direction. The Qing, eager to seize the treasure, hunted them down with all their might. The great general Li Laiheng burned himself and his entire family alive. The scholar-general Tian Jianxiu killed himself, while Hong Niangzi was rescued by the Yuan family and fled to a remote island overseas. Only a cryptic clue remained: Shiyan Chong, three bridges, walk a hundred paces slowly, three kilns of gold. The Qing never found the treasure throughout its reign, until I got a nine-bend pot at a ghost market.