Some time ago, the online drama "Kunlun Divine Palace" was released, which made book fans addicted again.
In the original work, one of the protagonists, Wang Fatzi, was once a "fallen master" in Beijing, living by selling imported tapes and imported underwear. Although this job was unstable, the income was acceptable, and it was a means of survival for many unemployed young people in North China at that time.
In fact, few people know that the "fallen master" not only did business in China, but also went to Russia and Eastern Europe after the end of the Cold War.
It is a pity that in the 90s, the security of China and Russia was not good, and along with this cross-border trade, many criminals also got on the train between China and Russia.
Many of these criminals were originally "bad masters", but later found that the benefits of robbing their peers were far greater than doing business, so they changed their careers.
At that time, in Mongolia and Russia, there was basically no place on the train, and this kind of robbery basically did not have to pay a cost, so more and more people engaged in robbing trains.
For a period of time after that, four gangs of 200 people took turns to board the train and loot, and tens of thousands of passengers on the multi-day train lost their belongings, and many female passengers were inhumanly tortured on the train.
After the news came out, the Chinese and Russian governments attached great importance to it, and the police pursued the fugitives around the world and wiped out this group of criminals.
So what was the situation with trade between China and Russia in the early 90s? Who committed the 1993 Sino-Russian train robbery? How miserable were the passengers on the train at that time? How did China and Russia arrest the criminals later?
[a]
The "inverted master" of the 90s: a group of wool pickers
At the end of 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed and the Russian Federation was born.
At first, the Russians rejoiced, feeling that the Russian nation had finally become independent from the Union, that Russia was rich in land and resources, that it could be completely self-sufficient, and that it would become a world power, and that it would no longer have to be divided by "poor buddies".
But reality gave the Russians a slap in the face.
The economic reforms carried out by the nascent Russian government have been extremely unsuccessful, the outdated "shock therapy" has paralyzed the Russian economy, the public economy has been carved up by overseas capital in collusion with domestic oligarchs, the foreign exchange market has been speculated by commercial banks, and the ruble has been devalued as waste paper.
Before the collapse of the USSR, the shops were empty, but when it came to the Russian Federation, not only were there nothing in the stores, but even jobs were lost.
The Russian government wants to revive the market, but it lacks supplies, its heavy industry is too heavy, there is almost no decent light industry, clothing, shoes, plastic products, household appliances, and non-staple food are all things that Russia is in short supply.
At that time, China purchased Su27 fighter jets from Russia, partly in US dollars, and partly in kind, a whole car of dogskin coats, cotton hats, canned meat, and thermos in exchange for the world's most advanced fighter jets.
After learning that Russia was out of stock, not only did the government actively engage in trade, but the Chinese non-governmental businessmen were boiling, and as long as they sold goods to Russia, they could earn more than ten times more than the money in China.
The Russians are not unaware that they are suffering a loss in this kind of business, and they are also not accustomed to China's "wool picking", and businessmen from the two countries often have conflicts. After all, the two countries have a 30-year history of hostility, and the people's atmosphere has not changed.
The Soviet Union and China were rivals in the Cold War, but in fact, at the end of the Soviet Union, the Soviets also "pulled back from the precipice", and Gorbachev once said: "Dealing with our great neighbor China is a huge mistake in the policy of the motherland." ”
In fact, because the vast part of Asia in the Soviet Union was so vast and sparsely populated, logistics were prohibitively expensive, and it was a loss to ship anything from Europe and sell it locally.
However, if the goods are purchased from neighboring China, the logistics cost is much lower, and it can also drive economic development.
At that time, the Soviet Union laid out the industrial system in northern China, hoping to develop Siberia with China in the future, and even signed a contract to send 1 million Chinese migrant workers north to the Soviet Union, but unfortunately due to the hostility between the two countries, this layout was stopped.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, Russians had average relations with European countries, and even within the CIS, they were on guard at every turn, so China became a close friend, which was the best choice for Russia.
With the resumption of diplomatic relations between China and the Soviet Union, the two countries soon resumed the intercontinental railway, which was opened in 1954 from Beijing to Moscow, and was later interrupted for a long time due to the hostility between the two countries.
At that time, Chinese businessmen saw business opportunities in Russia, smuggling was rampant on the northeastern border, and people continued to get rich. And some small businessmen, that is, "fallen masters", also want to make money, but they are not qualified for import and export trade, and can only go to Russia in private ways.
The method of the "fallen masters" is very primitive, to enter Russia with a tourist visa, or to have Russian smugglers send them an "admission letter" to go to Russia in the name of study, as long as they know a little Russian.
"Dump Ye" purchased goods from Beijing, Tianjin and other places, and these goods were either Guangzhou goods along the Beijing-Guangzhou Railway to the north, or imported goods shipped directly from overseas and landed from Tianjin Port.
As long as the things are shipped out of the country, they will either sell them in Mongolia or Russia, and the selling price will be more than ten times that of China.
A plastic pen for a few cents and a lighter for a dollar can be sold for more than 4 or 8 yuan in Moscow.
[two]
The robbers committed crimes abroad and were lawless
Since the K3 and K4 trains depart from Beijing, some unemployed vagrants or ruffians in the north are entrenched in the railway station, looking for business opportunities.
Some people who had boarded the train found that the international train had three sections, from the Erenhot part of Inner Mongolia in Beijing, which was under the jurisdiction of the Chinese Ministry of Railways, and was protected by gun-wielding police officers.
But when they arrived in Erenhot, the Chinese police had to get out of the car, and the Mongols got into the car. After leaving Mongolia, the Mongolian police got out of the car, and the Russian police got on.
There are basically no loopholes in the Chinese paragraph, the Chinese police are very competent, and the order in the car is very good.
However, after arriving in Mongolia and Russia, due to the incompetence of the local government, there was no police on the train, and there was basically no place on the train, and even the most basic crew members were not allocated.
As a result, some unemployed and blind people began to get on international trains, stealing cash, jewelry, and supplies on the train, and then getting off the train and smuggling back to China.
Gradually, this business spread in the north, and many unemployed people yearned to get rich overnight, and in that era when workers were paid two or three hundred yuan, they could earn thousands of dollars by stealing abroad, which was too tempting for people.
Among them, Zhao Jinhua is a woman, nicknamed "Second Sister", who was originally a famous "fallen master" in Beijing, but later gambled and went bankrupt, and in order to make money quickly, he embarked on the road of crime.
The stories of several other people are similar, they were originally "fallen masters", but they either gambled, took drugs, or went bankrupt in business, so they had to make quick money.
The core personnel of these criminal gangs are about 80 people, plus the younger brother of the rogue crime, the total number of people is about 200, and they all make a living by robbing railroads, and their scale is rare in the world.
In March 1993, when the Sino-Russian train started again, 10 criminals from Miao Binglin's gang hid on the train, pretending to be businessmen selling leather jackets.
When the train passed through Erenhot, they revealed their true colors, and the gangster Jia Xiaoming, who assumed the alias "Gao Jun", claimed to be an import and export merchant, and seduced Gao Yan, a female trade union cadre from Nanjing who was traveling to Moscow.
After Gao Yan was raped by Jia Xiaoming, she was forcibly tied to the No. 6 carriage where the other criminals were located, and the remaining 9 hooligans gang-raped her.
During the 6 days that the train was running in Russia, Gao Yan was collectively coerced by Miao Binglin's gang and was gang-raped 3 times, and finally her body couldn't stand it anymore and was let go by the criminals.
But gang rape was only one of the crimes of Miao Binglin's gang; when the train was driving in Siberia, 10 criminals took out daggers and steel ball guns to rob the passengers on the train, and more than 1,000 Chinese in more than a dozen carriages of the whole train were spared.
After the train arrived in Moscow, Gao Yan found the Chinese embassy and called the police.
The following month, a similar rape case occurred again, and a female journalist who was going on a trip to Russia was also pestered by criminals.
The female reporter defended herself with a dagger, and the criminals were afraid of causing death, so they did not force it. But after arriving in Moscow, the female journalist was kidnapped and gang-raped by criminals, and the incident was quickly learned by the embassy.
On May 26, a group of gangsters who were initially sitting on the train robbed and raped the train in Mongolia, robbing more than 10,000 yuan in cash, gold watches, rings, and necklaces.
In Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, the first group of robbers got off the bus, and as a result, two groups, Zhu Xingjin and Zhao Jinhua, boarded the train from Ulaanbaatar at the same time.
Armed with machetes, they beat and humiliated those who did not comply, and raped women.
When they arrived in Russia, Zhu Xingjin and Zhao Jinhua's group got off the bus, and on May 31, the last robbery leader, Newton, got into the car with his younger brother.
But after two rounds of robbery, the passengers in the car did not have a penny, and even the money for a taxi to eat after getting off the bus was gone. In desperation, Newton began to search his luggage, undress, and finally snatched some of the passengers' personal belongings.
[three]
The train robbery case alarmed the central government, and the Ministry of Public Security supervised the case
In this Sino-Russian train robbery, a group of Fujian businessmen resisted the robbery, clashed with the robbers, and finally had no choice but to jump out of the car to escape.
The robbers actually jumped out of the car and slashed and killed the Fujian businessman, which caused a sensation in Russia.
The Russian media reported the incident to the international community, and the governments of Russia, China, and Mongolia all attached great importance to it.
And these criminal gangs are actually fixed 4 groups, which are known to everyone in the Chinese circle in Moscow. The local Chinese know that if you want to do business between China and Russia safely, you must honor them.
As one of the victims, the Russians are also outraged, as a "powerful sovereign state", the Sino-Russian train robbery is an insult to the Russian government, this kind of barbarian crime may be rampant in ancient times, but it is definitely rare in modern society.
The Yeltsin government sent a note to the Chinese government that it would jointly enforce the law and arrest these criminals.
The Chinese government was also very angry, and the central government ordered the Ministry of Public Security to supervise the handling of the case and set up a special task force for the "Sino-Russian International Train Robbery Case." The central government instructed: "The cruelty of this case is outrageous, and if it is not severely punished, it is not enough to make the people angry." ”
Soon, the Chinese police went to Moscow to cooperate with the investigation of the case, and the police pretended to be "fallen masters" to collect information on the train, interviewed many victims, and learned from a group of businessmen that these criminals were all mingling in the Chinese underground market in Moscow.
Half a year later, Miao Binglin returned to Moscow because of lack of money, continued to extort, and was caught by the Moscow police.
In 1993 alone, the Chinese and Russian police arrested more than 60 criminals who committed the "1993 Sino-Russian train robbery".
After a strict trial, 29 people, including Newton, Zhao Jinhua, Zhu Xingjin, and Miao Binglin, were sentenced to death and finally executed, leaving more than 30 people to life imprisonment and five years in prison.
However, because of the limited means of investigation at that time, in fact, many criminals still escaped legal punishment.
Later, the Chinese police pursued the fugitives around the world, leaving these criminals with nowhere to hide, and some of the robbers who had been hiding for more than a decade were finally brought to justice.
[four]
Fugitives who do charity still cannot escape justice
Although the Chinese and Russian police swept away the criminals of the Chinese and Russian trains with a thunderous force, in March 1993, Jia Xiaoming, who committed rape and robbery on the Chinese and Russian trains, disappeared from the world and never returned to Beijing.
Jia Xiaoming is one of the leaders of the case, and he was the first to rape Gao Yan, who committed a heinous crime, and there were several rapes and robberies on his body.
Jia Xiaoming was a blind stream in society in his early years, and he was forced to live in labor camp for 2 years for theft, and after he was released from prison, he did not change his life, and finally became a bandit in the train robbery.
Later, after being wanted, Jia Xiaoming changed his name and surname and lived in seclusion in Guilin City, Guangxi Province. In his early years, he saved his first pot of gold by selling leather jackets and robbery, and then he made a small fortune in Guilin, learned the local dialect, and became a rich man with peace of mind.
The police came to investigate, and Jia Xiaoming actually took out a generation of paper ID cards that had been out of use for a long time, and the police knew that this person had a ghost.
Jia Xiaoming was later taken away, and after interrogation, he confessed his true identity, which was Jia Xiaoming, a robber wanted in 1993.
Looking back on the more than ten years since he fled, Jia Xiaoming had mixed feelings and confessed his guilt and repented. He was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment by the Beijing Intermediate People's Court, when he was 52 years old and had to spend his later years in prison.
There is also a robber Shao Xun, who fled to the mountains to become a monk after being wanted in 1993, and once became a monk in Jiuhua Mountain. But he was always scared, for fear that the police would come to investigate, and finally because he was restless, he was persuaded by the temple to return to the world.
In the late 90s, the rumors of the Sino-Russian train robbery passed, Shao Xun went to Shenzhen to open a song and dance hall, made a lot of money, and later invested in bars and meals, and became the boss of tens of millions.
At that time, Shenzhen locals thought that Shao Xun was from Hong Kong, but in fact he was from Shanghai, but he spoke Cantonese well.
After entering the 21st century, Shao Xun took his parents from Shanghai to live in a mansion in Shenzhen under the pseudonym "Lin Yonghai". However, because he felt the depth of his sin, he later devoted himself to charity, often donating money to schools and disaster areas in the mainland.
But in 2011, the police still targeted him.
That year, Shao Xun's father died, and his mother went back to Shanghai's household registration to cancel her household registration. But when filling in the contact address, Shao Xun's mother actually filled in an address in Shenzhen.
This anomaly attracted the attention of the police, and after careful investigation, it was found that this address was a villa area in Shenzhen, and with the financial resources of Shao Xun's parents, they would definitely not be able to afford to live in it.
So, the Shanghai police contacted the Beijing police, and then the Beijing police began to investigate the background of the Hong Kong businessman "Lin Yonghai", and finally determined that Lin Yonghai was Shao Xun, who had been absconding for 18 years.
On August 28, 2011, Lin Yonghai was arrested in Nanning, Guangxi Province, while he was giving a speech to poor students. At that time, Lin Yonghai's company donated money to local schools, and in the eyes of most people, he was actually a philanthropic businessman.
Shao Xun was brought back to Beijing for trial and finally sentenced to 15 years in prison, but he pleaded guilty and repented without appeal. So far, the main culprits of the train robbery have basically been brought to justice.
To date, however, a very small number of fugitives from the 1993 robbery have not been apprehended. However, it is believed that with the advancement of detection technology, sooner or later they will accept the punishment of justice.
Literature / Shogakuno
Resources:
1. "The Sino-Russian Train Robbery: 6 Days and 6 Nights in a "Vacuum Zone"", Zhu Shirui
2. "18 Years of Escape of the Sino-Russian Train Robbery Robbers", Wang Qiushi