During the Republic of China period, the forces of all sides were divided, and the warlords, as the figures who were in charge of a province or even a tree province at that time, also had their own factions. The strength of the Gui, direct, and Feng clans is strong. We have already talked about Li Zongren of the Gui clan before, so today we will talk about the story of Cao Kun, the leader of the warlords of the direct lineage.
Cao Kun was born into a poor family of boatmen. Cao Kun's father, Cao Bunsheng, worked as a boatman on the docks of Tagukou, and he was a craftsman who often helped people make wooden boats. His father was the pillar of the family, relying on his hard work duty to support the whole family with his Weibo body. Despite poor family conditions, Cao Bensheng understood that only knowledge could change poverty. So, even if he ate pickles at every meal, he had to send several children to study. Therefore, several children of the Cao family are more or less culturally based.
Cao Kun
When Cao Kun was sixteen years old, his father wanted him to learn some carpentry skills, but Cao Kun was unwilling to let him farm. In the end, Cao Kun chose to push a small cart to the city to sell canvases. It can also be said that it is precisely because of the story of selling flower cloth that Cao Kun's fate has also changed.
Once when Cao Kun entered the city to sell flower cloth, he was stopped by the doorman, and he was ridiculed and insulted, everyone has their own self-esteem, this matter really stimulated Cao Kun, he did not want to be a person who was slaughtered and bullied. At the same time, he also realized that perhaps only by joining the military could his fate be changed.
In this way, Cao Kun resolutely left his hometown to join the army and began his military career. Cao Kun first came to the Tianjin Wubei Academy to study military theory, and after he graduated, he became a sentinel officer because of his excellent grades. In 1894, he followed the army to the Korean site, where he experienced the cruelty of war. But this did not make Cao Kun feel afraid, but he felt very excited, which also made him more determined in his military career.
Determined to congrong the second year, Cao Kun defected to Yuan Shikai's new army, he was a new recruit from the countryside in this army full of masters, Cao Kun honestly made friends, but honest people have foolish fortune, he did things for people, moody and angry, gradually made a lot of friends, accumulated his own connections in the army, a little famous in the army, a chance to let Yuan Shikai know Cao Kun's name.
Yuan Shikai
Cao Kun is a person who is good at human affection, and he knows that with his current identity, there is no way to enter Yuan Shikai's eyes. But he heard that one of Yuan Shikai's uncles had a brother who worshiped the handle, and this person was also a local bearer. Cao Kun often took gifts to visit him, and the two of them became acquainted with each other. This man checked the family tree and found that Cao Kun was his grandson, so he recognized Cao Kun as his grandson and went to Yuan Shikai to accommodate him, and Cao Kun achieved unity from gang unification.
Judging from Cao Kun's experience, Cao Kun's luck has always been very good, first accumulating a certain amount of fame so that Yuan Shikai has heard about him, and actively building a good relationship with people who are close to Yuan Shikai, thus paving the way for his further development. The important reason is still through his own operation, but also let Yuan Shikai slowly feel that he is a talent that can be further developed, so Yuan Shikai slowly began to cultivate Cao Kun.
As a warlord, in addition to cao kun's extremely strong military ability, his national consciousness is also quite strong. After the outbreak of the September 18 Incident, Tohoku had fallen into the hands of the Japanese. The Japanese wanted to find some famous people to be their puppets, so that they could easily control the chassis. Cao Kun also became the preferred target of Kenji Toihara, but his wishful thinking was frustrated, and Cao Kun did not do anything to apologize to the nation until his death.
In order to be able to win cao kun over, Kenji Toihara visited the door several times, just so that Cao Kun could be repulsed, so that he could greatly reduce the resistance to their invasion. But every time he was greeted by Cao Kun's closed door soup, Toihara Kenji had no way, so he played the attention of Cao Kun's old subordinates, even if he made the love card, Cao Kun was still indifferent and resolutely did not compromise with Toihara Kenji.
Cao Kun has a strong sense of nationality, not only related to his own experience, but also related to his fourth wife Liu Fengwei. This Lady Liu was a well-known old student in Tianjin, her family was poor and had not read any sage books, but she was a kind-hearted, intelligent and strong woman, she had seen a lot of Japanese bestiality, and she deeply resented the behavior of the Japanese invaders. Once a few plainclothes agents came knocking on the door to let Cao Kun out of the mountain, Cao Kun originally wanted to meet them and listen to what they said, but Madame Liu rushed out and scolded the Japanese, scolding the Japanese away, she crossed her waist and said to Cao Kun: "Even if you starve to death, you will not eat a grain of rice from the Japanese." Cao Kun deeply agreed, and demanded the same for his children, and whenever the Japanese came, they would not open the door. Cao Kun was not moved by money and fame, preserved the national integrity, and made people admire.
In May 1938, Cao Kun died at the age of 76 due to ineffective medical treatment. Both the Japanese and the Kuomintang sent people to mourn and prepare to give his wife a large pension, but they were refused. Cao Kun's coffin was also placed in the British Cemetery in Tianjin.
Cao Kun was also posthumously awarded the rank of general of the army because of his noble national integrity. A generation of warlords fell, and his national integrity is also worthy of recognition by future generations.