Hu Xueyan went from working pennilessly to being rich and invincible, but in the end he ended up with nothing, which inevitably made people sigh, "For the officials to see Zeng Guofan, for the merchants to read Hu Xueyan", he can be described as the "first freak" of the late Qing Dynasty shopping mall.
Hu Xueyan's formation was formed by the collusion of officials and businessmen.
Hu Xueyan's defeat was also defeated by the collusion of officials and businessmen.
From the very beginning, he realized the importance of the word "official" to the word "businessman", that business cannot be separated from officials, that officials cannot do without business, that officials can play unimaginable roles in business, and that business can also feed back to officials.
Therefore, he was willing to risk bankruptcy to fund Wang Youling, so as to rely on Wang Youling and create a "government and business" pattern for himself.
Hu Xueyan's early development is inseparable from Wang Youling's contribution.
Later, he climbed Zuo Zongtang again, and it was precisely because of Zuo Zongtang as his backer that Hu Xueyan was able to navigate the two circles of officials and businessmen with ease, climbed to the peak of his life, became a "red-top businessman" of Yishang and Officials, and became a generation of legends in the business circles since the late Qing Dynasty.
However, Hu Xueyan finally ruined himself because of the word "official businessman".
Politically, he sided with Zuo Zongtang, and Zuo Zongtang was an enemy of Li Hongzhang for a while, which is equivalent to him standing against Li Hongzhang.
He may not be enough to become An enemy of Li Hongzhang, but if he can cut off Zuo Zongtang's arm, Li Hongzhang is also willing to do it.
What's more, at this time, Hu Xueyan reached the peak of the business world, and it was not the result that Li Hongzhang wanted to see, and no one could leave anyone, so Li Hongzhang naturally also had a businessman he supported- Sheng Xuanhuai.
For Li Hongzhang, Hu Xueyan was Zuo Zongtang's "money bag", why did he fail to prevent Zuo Zongtang from recovering Xinjiang? The reason is that Hu Xueyan borrowed money for the left foreign merchants behind his back to raise military salaries, if there was no Hu Xueyan, Zuo Zongtang would not have had the money to recover Xinjiang, so in the case of not being able to directly attack Zuo Zongtang, Hu Xueyan, as an arm of the left, naturally bore the brunt of it.
In the 1880s, when the Sino-French War coincided, Zuo Zongtang was in charge of the war, but Li Hongzhang was in charge, and in the case that Zuo Zongtang had already asked the Qing court to supervise the south to resist the Law, in order to achieve the purpose of the main peace, Li Hongzhang could only continue to obstruct him from resisting the Law as he had previously obstructed him from recovering Xinjiang.
Zuo Zongtang needs money if he wants to resist the law, right? Then destroy his money bag, and see how he fights!
Therefore, Hu Xueyan has also become a victim of the dispute between Zuo and Li.
Coincidentally, when the Sino-French war was in full swing, the "greedy" Hu Xueyan actually spent 20 million taels of silver to open a silk factory in order to further expand his commercial territory, in an attempt to monopolize the raw silk market, which gave Li Hongzhang and Sheng Xuanhuai the opportunity to suppress him.
Hu Xueyan wants to monopolize the market, where is it so easy? A commercial war with raw silk as the fuse can be described as a hair-trigger, and Sheng Xuanhuai, with the support of Li Hongzhang, took advantage of the resistance of Chinese and foreign businessmen to Hu Xueyan's monopoly of the market to trigger this business war that changed the pattern of the business community in the late Qing Dynasty.
Hu Xueyan wins and goes to another peak, and if he loses, he falls into the abyss.
Sheng Xuanhuai guided Chinese and foreign merchants to launch a siege against Hu Xueyan, and Li Hongzhang adopted policies in the official government, and for a while, Hu Xueyan fell into an embattled situation.
The ensuing run tide pushed Hu Xueyan into a desperate situation, and he put money into the battle of raw silk, which meant that the liquidity he could use in his hands was very small, not only could not take care of the battle of life and death, but even the hole in the money house could not be repaired, and he was thus crushed by the squeeze tide.
Hu Xueyan went from rich to nothing, almost overnight.
Hu Xueyan fell and never got up again, zuo Zongtang also lost the initiative in the Sino-French war, fell into a passive situation, when the Qing government was undefeated and defeated in the compromise concessions, Zuo could only beat his chest and scold Li Hongzhang: "Ten French generals are not as bad as one Li Hongzhang." ”
Hu Xueyan's defeat was that he was too deeply involved in the word "official and businessman" and was too deeply involved to withdraw, and eventually he was affected and repulsed.
Although businessmen do not leave the official, and officials do not leave the business, they must also have a degree after all.
However, if Hu Xueyan's appetite had been a little smaller at that time, perhaps it would not have allowed Sheng Xuanhuai to find the opportunity to besiege him, and it would not have ended up like this.
His business empire has collapsed, he has a bunch of debts, what to do? Also, but whether it can be paid off is another story.
In fact, it was not only Hu Xueyan's business empire that collapsed, but also his own spirit of spirit, and when the spirit of qi collapsed, his body collapsed.
He had originally thought of making a comeback one day, but when he heard the news that Zuo Zongtang died of illness in Fuzhou on September 5, 1885, he knew that he had no more days to rise, and he knew that his time had passed, so he died of depression within a few months.
Before his death, Hu Xueyan asked his family to cut off a corner of his birthday clothes, and if he saw a person wearing an iron hat when he was doing a funeral for himself, he would give the corner of the clothes to the other party.
Because the person wearing the iron hat is actually a lieutenant who touches the gold, Hu Xueyan wants to use this to tell the other party that I Hu Xueyan has collapsed and has no money, and you don't have to worry about me anymore.
This is Hu Xueyan praying for the last kind treatment, but also making a plan - although I Hu Xueyan is dead, but since I already know your origins, there is a way to deal with you, if you dare to beat my idea, I will not let you feel better.
Zuo Zongtang said that Hu Xueyan "although he was born into a merchant, he had a heroic spirit", which is not unreasonable, he is dying and he will also step into the jianghu affairs.
The things before death are over, and the things behind the death cannot be sloppy.