The Northwest's Biggest Heist

The First Great Heist in Northwest China focuses on the spectacular 1933 robbery at the residence of Ma Hongkui, a warlord in Ningxia. The story began in 1930, when Ma Hongkui stole a Tang Dynasty imperial jade register used by Emperor Xuanzong in a sacrifice to Heaven in Tai’an, prompting its descendant, Li Chongyuan, to pursue its return.

After repeated failed attempts to get it back, Li Chongyuan offered a huge sum to the “Flying Thief,” Zeng Yifei, also known as “the Man Who Skims the Grass,” to steal the treasure. Zeng carefully planned the heist, using the courtesan Wang Juli to infiltrate the Ma residence and gather information. He broke in twice, finally succeeding when security slackened.

Yinchuan detective Cha Weiyuan took up the investigation, tracking Zeng all the way to Tianjin, where he arrested him during the exchange and recovered the jade register. But Zeng made a baffling escape from a British concession, and the register vanished. Years later, Zeng was executed by the Japanese army, and all trace of the jade register was lost, leaving behind a legendary unsolved case that spanned several regions and involved multiple factions, a curious episode in the modern history of northwest China.