Zhang Xueliang was the most famous "rich second generation" during the Republic of China period, and his father Zhang Zuolin was nicknamed "King of Northeast China".
In addition to being good at fighting, Zhang Zuolin also has a lot of business talent. As early as the early 1920s, it started by operating the "Eight Trench Coal Mine". It has been involved in grain, animal husbandry, textiles, shipping, real estate and other industries, and is rich enough to rival the country.
After Zhang Zuolin's death in 1928, Zhang Xueliang inherited all the properties. After the "Xi'an Incident", Zhang Xueliang was imprisoned for more than half a century. In the meantime, Chiang Kai-shek never ordered the confiscation of his property.
In 1990, Zhang Xueliang regained his freedom, and four years later settled in the United States with Zhao Yidi. In 1995, Zhang Xueliang suddenly decided to donate all his assets to the University of Chicago.
However, what he donated was actually only a batch of orphan books such as the "History of Ming", calligraphy and painting seals, and letters he exchanged with important members of the Kuomintang. As for the huge assets imagined, they have long ceased to exist.
First, where did the young marshal's money go?
One day in 1946, Zhang Xueliang, who was under house arrest, suddenly met an old acquaintance from the northeast, Mo Dehui.
Mo Dehui was Zhang Zuolin's old subordinate, and he was also on the same train when Zhang Zuolin had an accident. After the injury was healed, Mo Dehui has been following Zhang Xueliang's side. The two have been working together for a long time and have a very close relationship.
Mo Dehui came at this time, bringing zhang Xueliang a good news. He told Zhang Xueliang that the War of Resistance had been won, and the Nationalist government had decided to return all the Private Property of the Zhang Family in the northeast to him.
However, at that time, Zhang Xueliang was in prison, how much of this property was there, and how should it be recovered? What will be done after the takeover?
Zhang Xueliang told the other party that in fact, since his father's death, he had not taken much care of his own property. He grew up with a golden spoon and was never short of money around him.
In 1920, the Zhang family had a 400-hectare Sino-Japanese joint venture in the northeast, mainly engaged in grain, local specialties and animal husbandry, which was the main source of income for the Zhang family. After his father's death, Because he hated Japan, Zhang Xueliang recouped his investment.
In addition, Zhang Zuolin once lent 300,000 oceans to a steamship company in Liaoning in 1919, and then 200,000 of them were not repaid, even if they were shares, there was a little dividend every year. After Zhang Zuolin's death, the company still gave Zhang Xueliang dividends.
But in 1929 he was anxious to withdraw his investment to open a school, and he recovered two hundred thousand yuan of investment, and then ran out of money. The other part, according to the historian Tang Degang, may be taken to Shanghai, to find Song Ziwen, Song Meiling brothers and sisters to do investment.
But Zhang Xueliang himself has no talent for business at all, and he doesn't bother to take care of any business, even if he loses money, he doesn't care. Unless you make a small gesture in front of him and he sees it.
After the "September 18 Incident", the Japanese invaded the Zhang family and looted all their antiques, calligraphy and paintings, and valuable things, and Zhang Xueliang and Zhao Yidi were in the Tianjin concession at that time.
One day, the commander-in-chief of the Japanese Kwantung Army, Honjo Fantuo, transported Zhang Xueliang's private property to Tianjin by two trains and informed him to receive it. This is because Zhang Zuolin used to have a good relationship with Honjo Fan. But Zhang Xueliang was very angry and refused to accept it.
Second, Zhang Xueliang, who is "weak in fame and fortune"
If I say that Zhang Xueliang does not love money, many people will certainly not believe it now. But in fact, Zhang Xueliang just doesn't love money. Because he never lacked money before he was imprisoned.
The "September 18 Incident" was a major turning point in his life's destiny, second only to the "Xi'an Incident." The pain caused to him by the fact that he did not let go of a shot and let the northeast fall was no less painful than the Japanese bombing zhang Zuolin.
Therefore, when he saw the people sent by Honjo, he immediately said angrily: Hurry up and pull things back to the northeast, how to grab them, how to put them back for me, otherwise I will burn them with a torch!
At that time, people all over China were cursing him, so how could he still have the face to take the private property sent back by the Japanese Kou? If he takes it, doesn't that mean that he is colluding with Japan? Honjo couldn't do anything, and he did as he said. Later, this property was divided up by the Kwantung Army.
So, does Zhang Xueliang have any other property? The answer is: there is still a part. He told Mo Dehui that he had a piece of land outside Xi'an and some real estate in Xianyang and Pingliang in Shaanxi. These were all bought after the "September 18 Incident" and prepared to resettle the exiled northeasterners and their families.
As for the value of these fixed assets, Zhang Xueliang said that he did not know. Even if it is taken by others, I hope that Mo Dehui will not pursue it in accordance with the principle of "Chu Bow Chu De".
"Chu Bow Chu De" comes from Liu Xiang's "Saying Garden" of the Western Han Dynasty, and the story is that the king of Chu Gong went out hunting and lost his bow. The people left and right wanted to look for it, but the King of Chu said: I am a Chu person, and the Chu people have lost their bows in the Chu country, and they must have found it as a Chu person.
Everyone is Chinese, and if they occupy it, they will occupy it, and they have not asked other countries to take advantage of it, so why pursue it. Seeing that Mo Dehui was a little unwilling, Zhang Xueliang advised him again: We will not starve to death.
In the past, "mob mobs" created many sins, and even now "pulling out the crown of hair" is righteous, I would like to do it. This means that he has done a lot of wrong things in the past, and now even if someone wants to pull off his hair and make a hat strap, he will be willing.
At that time, Zhang Xueliang and the Song family did business, and the Song Ziwen brothers and sisters once attached great importance to him. After the "Xi'an Incident", Song Ziwen's brothers and sisters also quarreled with Chiang Kai-shek for him. Although the business is gone, Zhang Xueliang still feels that Song Ziwen is angry and will definitely not care about his life and death.
Zhang Xueliang was later escorted to Taiwan and imprisoned for most of his life before being released. His original wife, Yu Fengzhi, left him for treatment in the United States as early as 1940 due to breast cancer, and then stayed in the United States and made a fortune in the stock business, but he could not go out.
Later, at the instigation of Song Meiling, he divorced Yu Fengzhi again. After Zhang Xueliang was free, around 1994, he decided to go to the United States with Zhao Yidi to live. However, he had no money on his body, so he had to sell antique calligraphy and paintings.
So he first donated 2,000 books to Tunghai University in Taiwan, and then went to the United States with the rest of the calligraphy, paintings and books. In 1995, when the University of Chicago sent someone to visit him, he proposed to build an exhibition hall for him. He thought about it and donated the last thing he could come up with.
At that time, Zhang Xueliang had a total of five children, four of whom followed Yu Fengzhi and had always followed Yu Fengzhi. Yu Fengzhi was a very capable businesswoman, and her economic situation at that time was better than Zhang Xueliang's.
The batch of things donated by Zhang Xueliang is actually not a legacy, because he donated it before he died. Among those things, except for some orphan books such as the History of Ming, the rest are only historical materials related to him personally.
epilogue
On December 6, 2006, Xi'an held a party to commemorate the fifth anniversary of Zhang Xueliang's death. At that time, only about 30 pieces of his life were on display, as well as a Christmas tree, a black wheelchair, a blood pressure monitor, a fan, and the clothes he wore in Hawaii.
The so-called donation of inheritance to the United States was actually carried out while he was alive, and he donated a batch of ancient books and personal letters to the University of Chicago Museum.
The reason why he did not donate them to the museum in the northeast may be because he confessed to being guilty, and he was not sure how the Chinese people would view his correspondence with the top kuomintang. On the other hand, the American Museum has offered to help him build a collection.