CCTV WeChat official account’s "Direct Access to Taiwan Province" No.11 reported that Cai Zhengyuan, the former chief executive of the Kuomintang Policy Committee, had just been transferred and taken into custody for the China Film Trading case, and now an extra-case case broke out. On August 10, 2007, Weng Bingyao, who instigated his younger brother to shoot at the Cai Zhengyuan service office of the then Chairman of China Film and a legislator of the Kuomintang, turned himself in at the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office and reported that Ma Ying-jeou, Guo Taiqiang, Luo Yuzhen and Zhuang Wanjun, the vice chairman of China Film, were behind the shooting.

Weng Bingyao (Source: China Times News)

Weng Bingyao said that the reason why he came out to surrender now is because Ma Ying-jeou was in power for the first ten years, even if he came out to talk about it, it would be useless. He also suggested that the prosecution should track down Li Quanjiao, the former speaker of Tainan City, because Li Quanjiao is a middleman and a matchmaker.

Weng Bingyao said that before the shooting, Cai Zhengyuan seemed to get wind and hide, but "the boss" instructed him to shoot, because "the junior high school film was to be re-elected in August of that year, so if Cai Zhengyuan was shot to death, nothing would happen." Weng Bingyao said that he had to bite the bullet and go to the service office to shoot and send bullets to intimidate.

Weng Bingyao’s appointed lawyer, Zhou Wurong, pointed the finger at Ma Ying-jeou, saying that Ma Ying-jeou had two dinners in March 2007 before the shooting, one with Lien Chan, the honorary chairman of the Kuomintang, and the other with Wang Jinping and Guo Taiqiang, the then "Legislative Yuan", which proved that Guo Taiqiang was connected with Ma Ying-jeou. At that time, Cai Zhengyuan was controversial because she didn’t want to step down as the chairman of China Film. Luo Yuzhen, Guo Taiqiang’s wife, told the KMT Central Committee in April 2007 that she didn’t want to play, but some Kuomintang people insisted that she buy it.

Who is behind the scenes of the old case?

The shooting in Cai Zhengyuan Service took place on July 28th, 2007. According to the information of the police investigation 10 years ago, a mysterious person did find Gan Xiancheng, the eldest brother of the "Dongmen Gang" in Tainan, and drew up a murder plan, asking NT$ 10 million. Gan Xiancheng arranged with Weng Bingyao again, but he didn’t expect the gunman to run away when he got cold feet, and he changed men to shoot at the Cai Zhengyuan service office.

According to Weng Bingyao, a Tainan banquet two weeks after the shooting was the key to convince him that Ma Ying-jeou, Guo Taiqiang and others were involved in the case, and Li Quanjiao was the "matchmaker".

According to the information of the police, this banquet did exist in that year, but the thread led by Li Quanjiao was not to shoot Cai Zhengyuan, but to hope that Cai Zhengyuan would "step aside" after taking some money. Guo Taiqiang, I’m afraid, is only the gold owner who was found to buy China Film.

The shooting was planned and started in March and April, 2007. Because of the twists and turns in the process, it was delayed until July 28th, 2007, which seemed to have nothing to do with Cai Zhengyuan’s defeat in the KMT’s "Central Standing Committee" election that day.

Cai Zhengyuan (Source: Network)

Zhuang Wanjun, then vice chairman of China Film, fought Cai Zhengyuan against Taiwan because of the dispute over the right to operate, so the prosecutors suspected that Zhuang Wanjun was the instigator of the shooting, but Weng Bingyao told the media on the 10th that Zhuang Wanjun himself had no motive and was not qualified, so it was impossible for him to instigate the shooting, as it was rumored at that time.

Weng Bingyao emphasized that when the shooting broke out, he was dismissed after being interrogated by the Shilin District Inspection Office. Later, the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office came to you again, and the prosecutor asked him, "Do you know Guo Taiqiang? Did Guo Taiqiang call you? " At that time, he gave false testimony for Guo Taiqiang.

Ten years ago, Cai Zhengyuan almost lost his life.

On July 28th, 2007, Cai Zhengyuan, then a "legislator" of the Kuomintang, was shot twice at the gate of the service office on Chenggong Road in Neihu, one shot broke through the gate, and the other shot jammed, which was a strong warning.

At that time, the police formed a project team to trace it and found that the cause was the dispute over the management right of China Film. In October 2007, the police first arrested three gunmen, including Weng Bingyao, his accomplice Wang Zongjing and Zhang Chenyong, who retired from Keelung Port Authority. In January 2008, the police arrested Gan Xiancheng and his personal younger brother Chen Qingde again.

According to the data at that time, in March and April of 2007, Gan Xiancheng was entrusted by a "mysterious person" to kill Cai Zhengyuan at a price of 10 million. Gan Xiancheng was already a terminal cancer patient at that time, and he found Weng Bingyao, the corner leader who also hung out in Tainan’s "Park Gang", to deal with it.

Weng Bingyao first found Wang Zongjing, a Taiwanese businessman engaged in aquaculture in Vietnam, and Wang found a younger brother as a gunman. Unexpectedly, after taking the "Qian Jin" of 1 million yuan, the younger brother ran away because he was afraid of being finally destroyed, and also reported to Cai Zhengyuan and the police. Weng Bingyao and Wang Zongjing had to find another three people, including Zhang Chenyong, but the promised reward was greatly reduced. On average, one gunman only got about NT$ 100,000.

On July 23, 2007, Zhang Chenyong and other three people first explored the terrain, including the Cai Zhengyuan service office and the home in Xinyi District, and finally selected the service office to shoot. On July 28th, three people ran to the service office in Cai Zhengyuan, two of them started work and one kept watch, and fired two shots with Beretta pistols at the door of the service office on the second floor, when Cai Zhengyuan was not in the service office.

After the incident, Cai Zhengyuan suddenly resigned as the chairman of China Film, and the KMT’s "Central Standing Committee" election was also unsuccessful. Gan Xiancheng, one of the planners of the shooting, died of cancer not long ago. It is a mystery who asked Gan Xiancheng for help in killing Cai Zhengyuan. 　

Weng Bingyao: NT$ 300 million "shooting balance" has not been given yet.

Weng Bingyao was finally sentenced to five years and five months in prison and released on parole in January 2012. Ten years later, accompanied by a lawyer, he suddenly went to the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office to "surrender and report" on the grounds that he wanted to recover the shooting reward.

He said that before the shooting, he would be paid 10% of the selling price of China Film, that is, NT$ 320 million (about 70 million RMB), but after the shooting, he got nothing. Only Zhuang Qitian, the younger brother of Zhuang Wanjun, the vice chairman of China Film, sent him NT$ 20 million when he was in prison, which made him feel cheated. He was also rumored by the "street" that he had embezzled the final payment and failed to find Guo Taiqiang many times.

The parties responded: the accusation was "ridiculous", the accusation was falsely accused, and "boring did not respond"

Xu Qiaoxin, spokesman of Ma Ying-jeou’s office, strongly refuted this, saying that "there is no evidence and random accusations". Xu Qiaoxin said that the shooting took place on July 28, 2007. Ma Ying-jeou was the party chairman for the first time from August 19, 2005 to February 13, 2007, and the second time was already in 2009. It can be seen that Mr. Weng’s statement is completely unreasonable only from the point of time, and Ma Ying-jeou has no reason to participate in this shooting. Among the others named, Guo Taiqiang said that he would counter the accusation of false accusation, while Li Quanjiao said that he was "bored and didn’t respond".

Xu Qiaoxin (Source: Facebook)

In this regard, the Hong Kong Central Rating Society quickly commented on the 10 th that Ma Ying-jeou instigated murder? Isn’t it even more explosive than Chen Shui-bian’s case? Chen Shui-bian’s charge is nothing but corruption. It is said that "there are mental disorders everywhere these days, and three-year-old children can make lies that they won’t believe, which is really disgusting to the extreme." Some people also reminded Ma Ying-jeou that he really should be careful, because his opponent stubbornly engaged in the "China Film Case" and his goal was him. Ma Ying-jeou never touches the pot, and often promises his innocence. Unfortunately, he has more than 10 lawsuits and often goes to court. Ma Ying-jeou was also the defendant in the "Three China Cases" where the investigation has been restarted. Ma Ying-jeou may be shocked to see Cai Zhengyuan’s "say yes and bet". The judiciary is green, and the courts are no longer run by the Kuomintang. The accusation of "instigating murder" has come out, and it is just the beginning of the play.

　　Chen Wei

　　The Journey to the West is a well-known famous novel, whose content can be said to be a projection of social life at that time, and there are many descriptions of the Silk Road in the book. In the eighty-fourth time, four men and women passed through France and heard that the king was only four places short of his wish to slaughter thousands of monks, so they had to dress up as businessmen. This is the strongest plot of The Journey to the West’s trade on the Silk Road, which allows us to understand many aspects of the Ming Dynasty trade, such as the appellation of merchants, the custody of property in business travel, the price and trading methods of bulk goods, and so on, which also involves the important trade on the Silk Road — — Selling horses.

　　Important areas in silk road trade

　　On the Silk Road, in addition to silk, many goods such as tea and porcelain continued to flow between China and other regions in large quantities, which made the connection between different cultures close and stable, and made ancient China an important puzzle in the world system.

　　Horses are similar to the above-mentioned materials, but in the opposite direction. They are a large number of commodities imported into China from abroad in history. We sometimes see such names as "Silk Horse Trade" and "Tea Horse Road". It can be said that horses are integrated with China’s export materials such as silk, tea and porcelain, and exchanged among the parties in the market along the Silk Road.

　　Horses have been used in China since the Bronze Age, and a special institution for raising and managing horses has been set up in the central government. However, at that time, there was still an urgent need to build elite cavalry horses, so Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty obtained the "West Pole Tianma" from Central Asia at all costs. After the Han Dynasty, there was a gradual physical trade between the Central Plains Dynasty and the surrounding nomadic regimes in exchange for good horses. During the Tang and Song Dynasties, the imperial court bought tens of thousands of horses every year.

　　Horse trade is not unique between China and its neighboring ethnic groups. Riding originated in the vast Eurasian grassland, where the interaction between nomadic people and surrounding areas may lead to the flow of horses. Horse trade is not limited to Eurasian grasslands. For example, after the emergence of cavalry and chariots in ancient Egypt in the 15th century BC, Kush, which is located in the south of them, which is today’s Sudan, was used as a good horse producing area. In the 8th century BC, a large number of horses from ancient Egypt were imported into the Near East, forming the chariot forces of Assyria, a military power.

　　Around this time, Sketai people gradually marched from Eurasian grassland to the Black Sea and even the Danube River basin, and their superb riding skills left a deep impression on the ancient Greeks. Later, the ancient Greeks established colonies around the Black Sea, from which they obtained the horses of the Skettians. It can be seen that horse trade has appeared in different parts of the world since nearly 3000 years ago and has become an important part of transnational trade.

　　Development of Xiangma Technology

　　Because horses are always valuable strategic resources, how to develop the knowledge of knowing, raising and protecting horses to make the best use of them has become an important task in agricultural areas. As the old saying goes, "Bole is rare", but from a global perspective, Bole, which is good at horse-riding, is found in all civilizations.

　　In the pre-Qin period, the horse administration was quite perfect. Zhou Li said that the primary task of horse officials was to distinguish good horses that were suitable for running on different roads and those that could only serve and contribute. Not later than the Han dynasty, people have systematically summarized the experience of distinguishing horses and formed a kind of works such as Xiangma Jing. Xiang Ma Jing, a silk book unearthed from Mawangdui Han Tomb, has a full text of more than 5,200 words. The morphology of the head, eyes, limbs and other parts is used to identify different levels of horses such as national horses, national treasures, world horses and Juechen. A part of Xiang Ma Jing preserved in Qi Min Yao Shu by Jia Sixie in the Northern Wei Dynasty further linked the five senses with the five zang-organs, and developed the method of Xiang Ma Wu-organs.

　　If the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States Period and the Qin and Han Dynasties were the period of vigorous development of horse breeding in China, ancient Greece and Rome, which were located at the other end of Eurasia at the same time, were also rich. Ma Jin was described in detail in the zoological discourses of Aristotle, Ariane and Pliny Sr, in the agricultural works of Varo and Krumera, and in the veterinary works of Peragnius. Its content includes not only the knowledge of breeding and feeding needed for keeping horses, but also the method of determining the age of horses according to teeth — — The latter is especially important to see through the deception of unscrupulous horse dealers when buying and selling.

　　The earliest book on horse breeding in ancient India, The Complete Book of Sally Hotra, was written in the 3rd century BC. The book records the anatomy, physiology, diseases and surgery of horses, as well as the knowledge of identifying the age of horses. Judging from the chapter structure, the book may have internal relations with ancient Greek works.

　　The knowledge of horse husbandry in classical times, especially the knowledge of anatomy and physiology of horses, was inherited by Arab animal husbandry with the translation movement. Influenced by the teachings of the prophet Muhammad, Arab princes and nobles especially like thoroughbred horses, so the main job of Arab Bole is to identify whether horses have noble origins. They can search the characteristics and lineages of various famous horses, and can also judge their lineages according to their external characteristics.

　　The horse riding in different cultures is obviously the product of the continuous stimulation of ancient zoology by the horse trade. In terms of knowledge content, there is no lack of overlap between different cultures, but in terms of theme and preference, they are different with the implication of horses in local culture. For example, China Xiang Equestrian selects "Maxima" who is good at running in order to enrich cavalry; In ancient Greece, horses were mostly used as draught animals, so it was important to identify the age teeth.

　　So how did Tang Priest choose a horse? According to the biography of Xuanzang in the Tang Dynasty, he bought a strong horse at first, but later, when crossing the desert, he listened to the words of an old man and changed to an old horse that had traveled back and forth dozens of times. This is just the opposite of the experience of changing horses in The Journey to the West.

　　(The author is an associate researcher at the Institute of Natural Science History, Chinese Academy of Sciences)