Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“In order to keep the secret, they even killed their own people,” Cui Lizhu exclaimed.
Zhao Yu frowned, saying, “I’m curious. Your father had never been abroad. How could he find out these things about Japan? Was he doing this on his own? Or was all of this just hearsay?”
“My father had always worked on his own,” Cui Lizhu explained. “The only person he might call a friend were the people that helped him unload his stolen goods. And I don’t think what he wrote is hearsay. It’s possible to kill in order to keep a secret. After all, it’s about the fate of the country. It’s worthwhile to them kill a few officers and even a few generals. A secret is a secret. The fewer people that know it, the better. And, what they buried was not only those treasures, but also gold.”
Zhao Yu looked at the notes and said, “Speaking of gold, I still don’t understand how Russian gold ended up in the possession of the Japanese. And, it’s 600 tons of gold? How much is it worth now? If it really exists, there must be a million people looking for it.”
“Boss, it does sound unbelievable, but the 600 tons of gold did exist. This is recorded in historical documents,” she said. “See? There are a lot of records on the Internet as well.” Cui Lizhu said as she searched for the story about the 600 tons of gold.
The origin of the 600 tons of gold was traced back to an earlier period when World War I had just broken out. At that time, Russia was not called Russia or the Soviet Union, but Tsarist Russia. At that time, as the German army approached the capital of Russia, the Czar ordered the transfer of the national gold reserves to be sent to the eastern Kazan region.
A few years later, the founding of the Soviet Union caused a large-scale domestic division. During that time, a bandit gang saw the opportunity and stole the gold. What happened next was more like something from a drama. When the Red Army learned that the gold was stolen by the bandits, they attacked the bandits’ base. The bandits couldn’t fight back and instead they retreated into China.
Later, because of internal strife within the gang, gold was divided and taken by two groups that split from the bandits. One bandit group couldn’t resist the Red Army’s attacks and turned to the Japanese stationed in Manchuria for help. The Japanese took the gold and attacked the other bandit group, taking the other half of the gold as well. As a result, the Japanese gained possession of the full 600 tons of gold. It was said that the total value of the gold was twice the national revenue of Japan at that time.
The place where the gold was hidden became a mystery. Some people said that the Japanese army in Manchuria was selfish and did not report it to the Japanese government. Instead, they wrote a false report and took the gold for themselves. Commanding officers divided up a part of the gold, and then they hid the rest of it.
Some people believed that the Japanese troops in Manchuria handed over the gold to the government, all of which was transported back to Japan. Others even thought that gold was divided into several batches by the Japanese. Some of this was deposited in Northeast China, some was transported back to Japan, and the rest was transported to the battlefield in Southeast Asia.
There were many different legends about the gold. Eventually, the hiding place of the gold became a mystery to everyone. The Soviets were looking for it, and so were the Japanese. But, no one ever found out where the gold was. It was said that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they brought Japan to the International Court of Justice for compensation for the lost gold. Because of the lack of vital evidence and witnesses, the Japanese government just denied the accusations.
According to experts’ estimates, the total value of the gold in today’s market was close to 100 billion US dollars, which was a tremendous amount of wealth. It was this treasure that appeared in Liu Dianchen’s notes, which shocked Zhao Yu and Cui Lizhu. No wonder the word gold appeared repeatedly in Liu Dianchen’s interrogation record.
According to Liu Dianchen’s statement, when he was the director of the construction department, he had heard rumors about the gold many times. In fact, among the Japanese, there existed many different opinions. Almost no one knew where the gold really was. They spread even more striking rumors. Some said that the Japanese Prime Minister won the election because of the gold, and some important people were assassinated because of it as well.
Originally, Liu Dianchen didn’t know much about the gold. But at a meeting on the eve of Japan’s defeat, he overheard something unexpectedly. He overheard senior Japanese officers repeatedly mentioned the words ‘Russia’ and ‘gold’, and even mentioned Apollo, which sank in the South China Sea. So, he suspected that the gold might have something to do with the Japanese Army’s final plan for treasure.
Liu Dianchen said that he believed that Russia’s gold remained in Northeast China. At that time, the Japanese probably wanted to smuggle the remaining gold back home, but the war ended too quickly and the sea, land, and air were blocked. They feared that the gold would come to the same end as Apollo. So, they decided to include the gold in their treasure plan and hide it in the secret fortress.
Later, through various inquiries, Liu Dianchen received more reliable information. Some people noticed that the guards of the Japanese Guandong Army Command appeared at a railway station and were secretly transporting 18 boxes. Liu Dianchen suspected that these 18 boxes contained the gold. The gold had been transported many times, and less than a third of it was left. Therefore, he thought that these boxes of gold were possibly hidden in the secret fortress by the Japanese together with other treasures.
Later, when the Japanese army declared its surrender, Liu Dianchen wanted to follow the Japanese back for his protection like the other traitors. However, the Japanese barely had time to escape themselves. Why would they care about him?
When the government of the Republic of China took over the regime, Liu Dianchen was captured by the military command. Knowing that he was bound to be executed, Liu Dianchen told the command about the treasure plan in exchange for his life. When the government of the Republic of China learned about this, it attached great importance to the information. Liu Dianchen was held in solitary confinement, then several experts were sent to search for the gold.
However, even though they spent a great deal of manpower and resources, they failed to find anything after three years of searching. Finally, when war broke out in Liaoling, they couldn’t continue to stay in Shengyang Province, so they had to give up their search and secretly execute Liu Dianchen. As soon as Liu Dianchen died, the gold became a real mystery.
