"Du Yuesheng: The Godfather of Shanghai" commented on Du Yuesheng: The high-end atmospheric version of the reality "Wei Xiaobao", the most legendary figure in Modern Chinese History, the mind of a businessman, the vision of a strategist, who broke through fiercely, played with fire, fought fiercely, and spent his whole life in the storm, mixed up and down the rivers and lakes, eating up and down, going in and out of black and white, and navigating the three realms of commerce, military, and government.
The three tycoons of Shanghai, the first gangster
When it comes to the three tycoons of Shanghai during the Republic of China period, if the highest prestige and strength are the strongest, Du Yuesheng should be the first.
Du Yuesheng is the most famous figure in the Shanghai Youth Gang in modern China, he has the title of "the first gangster in three hundred years" and "Shanghai Emperor", and is also one of the most legendary figures on the beach in the 20th century.
Du Yuesheng, formerly known as Yuesheng, was later renamed Yong (镛) and Yuesheng (月笙) at the suggestion of the master of traditional Chinese studies, Zhang Taiyan. The name is an allusion to "Zhou Li Tai Si Le Shu", which means "the music of the West is Yong, and the music of the East is Sheng." ”
When it comes to Du Yuesheng's way of venturing onto the beach, he is resourceful, tenacious, stoic, and silent.
He not only went in and out of black and white, navigated the military and political circles, but also extended his tentacles to finance, industry, news and newspapers, education and other fields, and also made great achievements in the business world.
The chairman also once commented on Du Yuesheng: He has the ability, has no temper, and is for the superior people.
The strength is growing rapidly, and the friends are all over the world
Du Yuesheng was born in 1888 in Gaoqiao, Chuansha Hall, Jiangsu Province. His childhood was very bitter, when he was four or five years old, his parents passed away one after another, it was his stepmother and uncle who raised him, and he went on his own at the age of 14.
At that time, Shanghai was already a bustling international metropolis with more opportunities, so Du Yuesheng chose to settle in Shanghai. At first, he was an apprentice in a fruit shop called Pan Shengyuan, and the treasurer was named Wang Guosheng.
At that time, he was very diligent, haha practiced a set of one-handed pear cutting skills, blink kung fu, you can cut the entire pear peel evenly in a circle, and the thickness is the same, a knife to the head will not break. Therefore, he has nicknames in the jianghu: "Laiyang pear" and "fruit moon birth".
However, at that time, Du Yuesheng had a bad habit, that is, good gambling. He once embezzled money from a fruit shop for gambling, but in the end he lost.
In the end, he had no face, and could only say goodbye without resignation. Du Yuesheng, who has no job, is hungry and cold, and has no one to rely on.
Later, he worshiped Chen Shichang of the Green Gang as an "old man" and joined the Green Gang. However, because Chen Shichang was very low in the Youth Gang, Du Yuesheng did not get any benefits from him.
Du Yuesheng's rapid rise in the Green Gang actually relied on Jin Rong.
In the year when Du Yuesheng surrendered to the Huang Mansion, he was just 19 years old, and Jin Rong, who was more than 20 years older than him, was already a well-known figure in Shanghai Beach at this time.
At that time, Jin Rong was the inspector general of the Chinese detectives in the French Concession, and his influence not only spread throughout Shanghai, but also many places in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Du Yuesheng relied on the insight and flexibility learned in society, and soon gained the appreciation of Jin Rong, and became his cronies, becoming the head of the "Gongxing Club", which operated one of the three major casinos in the French Concession.
In 1925, Du Yuesheng cooperated with Jin Jinrong and others to open the Sanxin Company, and monopolized all opium trading in Shanghai Beach, and together with Jin Jinrong and Zhang Xiaolin, he was known as the "Three Tycoons of Shanghai".
In the Shanghai Beach of the Republic of China, there has always been a saying that "Gold Rong is greedy for money, Zhang Xiaolin is good at fighting, and Du Yuesheng will be a man".
In Du Yuesheng's life, he never did anything icing on the cake, only did the thing of sending charcoal in the snow. It is precisely for this reason that Du Yuesheng has many friends, whether they are political dignitaries, literati and inkers, or the backbone of the gang, all of whom are his acquaintances.
He is not afraid to scatter his family wealth, and never covets a single bit of money
After the Battle of Linglu between China and Japan, Shanghai fell. In the face of losses of up to 1.4 billion yuan in the war, Du Yuesheng can be described as generous. Not only did the "Shanghai Local Maintenance Association" be established to provide relief subsidies to the workers, but it also helped repair the damaged factories and allow them to return to work.
It can be said that it was with his help that the social order at that time could gradually return to stability. Moreover, judging from the human and financial resources of this time, it can be seen that Du Yuesheng's family is full of wealth.
On the eve of liberation in 1949, When Du Yuesheng chose to go to Hong Kong, this rich gangster boss was no longer like this.
Two years after arriving in Hong Kong, Du Yuesheng was terminally ill and had only $110,000 at home when he disposed of his estate.
So he asked each wife and son to get $10,000 each, the unmarried daughter to get $6,000, and the married to $4,000.
When he asked his eldest daughter, Du Meiru, to open the safe at home, he saw that the safe was full of IOUs.
The smallest of these IOUs was $5,000 and the largest was 500 gold bars. If it can be recovered, it will be an amazing wealth. However, Du Yuesheng tore them off one by one, and the children were very puzzled: "Why did you tear it?" ”
Du Yuesheng said, "I don't want you to go around asking for debts after I die." Lent out, on the surface is money, but in fact it is human feelings, grateful, will always remember the good of our Du family. If you are not grateful, you go to ask for an account, which may be exchanged for the disaster of imprisonment. ”
When Du Yuesheng died of illness, his last words were: "I have no hope, but you still have hope, and China still has hope." ”
brief summary
From a lonely child to the first person of the Shanghai gang, Du Yuesheng's life is undoubtedly full of legend, and compared with the ordinary gang boss, he has a little more national temperament. Just as the evaluation of Du Yuesheng in history has always been to be a person, this thing he did in his later years really confirmed this sentence.
References: "Du Yuesheng: The Godfather of Shanghai", "The Biography of Du Yuesheng"
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