In the autumn of 1949, during the peaceful liberation of Xinjiang, General Jiang, commander of the Kuomintang garrison in Xinjiang, saw that the situation was lost. He secretly ordered his deputy, Feng Ziqiao, to escort his wife Gina and a shipment of treasures abroad. Gina sought out a White Russian officer named Vasily and conspired with him to seize the treasures for themselves. Feng Ziqiao hired a local named Rexiti as a guide, planning to disguise the group as a trading caravan heading abroad.