introduction
Modern Shanghai is known as the "Ten Mile Ocean Field", in which the heroes of the storm are full of ups and downs. There are politicians, businessmen, scholars, etc., people from all over the world, from all over the world, fighting each other in the city of Shanghai. At that time, Shanghai talents were full of talents, and the one who stood out was Du Yuesheng, a legendary gangster of the Green Gang who was known as the "first person in the gang in 300 years". Du Yuesheng was evaluated in the "Biography of Du Yuesheng" that "money is used up, and friendship cannot be used up".
01
Du Yuesheng, 1888 - August 16, 1951, Du Yuesheng was 14 years old to Shanghai 16 shop as an apprentice of fruit shop, and later entered the Shanghai Qingbang Dragon Head Golden Rong Mansion. In July 1925, Du Yuesheng established the Sanxin Company, monopolizing the transportation of opium in the French Concession. In The Song Dynasty, West Greif describes Du Yuesheng's "global network" of opium sales. April 1927. Du Yuesheng and Zhang Xiaolin, Jin Jinrong organized the Chinese Communist Progressive Association. In 1929, Du Yuesheng was appointed as the Huadong of the Public Tung Bureau, which was the highest position of the Chinese in the French Concession. In the same year, Du Yuesheng founded Zhonghui Bank and became involved in Shanghai's financial industry. In April 1949, Du Yuesheng went to Hong Kong. He died in Hong Kong on 16 August 1951 at the age of 63.
It is precisely because of this series of social status that the secretary general of the Great President Li Yuanhong once wrote a couplet to send to Du Yuesheng: "Three thousand guests under the Chunshen Gate, five feet south of Du Cheng." Therefore, he has also been touted by others as the "contemporary Chunshen Jun". Scholar Zhang Taiyan, celebrity Yang Du, and famous lawyer Qin Liankui were all his guests.
In Shanghai during the Republic of China period, most of the members who joined the Youth Gang were children from poor families who grew up without parents. Du Yuesheng became an orphan at the age of four and apprenticed in a fruit shop at the age of 14. In order to survive, he had to join the Qing Gang, at first he was a small pony boy in the Qing Gang, mainly in contact with the opium trade, but even Du Yuesheng himself did not expect that the opium trade market in China could be so big. Subsequently, Bo Le appreciated and got acquainted with the high-level Jin Rong, Chen Shichang and other people in the Qing Gang.
02
The Sanxin Company founded by Du Yuesheng monopolized all the tobacco and soil trade in Shanghai, and according to records, the turnover of the Sanxin Company reached 60 million in the first year of its opening, and the annual income of the Nationalist government at that time was only about 300 million. And the turnover of a private company can reach 1/5 of the country, you can imagine how strong Du Yuesheng's economic strength is!
Du Yuesheng's economic strength can be rapidly improved, which is inseparable from the strength of the Green Gang forces. Anyone who wants to open a tobacco shop in Shanghai must register with Du Yuesheng's Sanxin company. And it is necessary to report the turnover according to the actual income, and also to pay about 30% of the profit of the turnover to Du Yuesheng's Sanxin Company. These invisible regulations oppress the people, and if someone wants to warn the government at that time, or if they do not follow the rules, then the next day there will be people in the Green Gang to retaliate, or even secretly "deal" with the informants.
03
After Du Yuesheng became famous, he could do good deeds to wash himself. Du Yuesheng began to invest a lot of money in education and charity. And to interact with high-level government personnel to gain their social status. But it is worth mentioning that because Du Yuesheng was born into poverty, he had a natural pity for the lower classes. After he sacrificed his life to seek wealth and wealth, he did not skimp on money, whether it was Zhang Shizhao or later Zhang Xueliang, Lu Yongxiang, He Fenglin and others, as long as they came to the door. Du Yuesheng took out his belongings to entertain well, and we can guess that this is also an effort he made to fight for interpersonal relations, but this is also a manifestation of his generosity at the expense of money.
In 1949, Du Yuesheng fell ill and went to Settle in Hong Kong, and when he was lying in bed, he did an earth-shattering thing, he called his housekeeper. Burn all debtors' IOUs in front of the butler. Wang Xingheng alone dispensed with more than 500 gold bars. It's just that one of them owes so much, there are so many IOUs, and the huge amount of money owed can be imagined. Du Yuesheng may also have realized that money is something that "life does not bring death and does not bring", so when he was about to die in his old age, he may have suddenly seen through the meaning of "money". Being able to put so much huge wealth into a torch Du Yuesheng's free and heroic personality is admirable. What is even more surprising is that Du Yuesheng also said in front of the housekeeper and donated all his savings to charity.
epilogue
For these two practices before Du Yuesheng's death, people can't help but speculate whether Du Yuesheng saw through the truth of the world or hurt too many people in the first half of his life and wanted to make up for it, and some people said that it was to accumulate virtue for his descendants and ensure peace, and the truth of history is not to be speculated. Du Yuesheng is an extremely controversial person in history, he is mixed, but also a generation of tyrants, when we evaluate this type of historical figure, we can not be extreme or extreme, but to fairly and objectively approach the truth and discover the facts.
References: "The Biography of Du Yuesheng", "The Imperial Dynasty of the Song Family"