From the late Qing Dynasty to the Republic of China, China has always been very chaotic, but it is also the so-called "heroes of the chaotic world", and many people with bad births have taken advantage of the situation in the chaotic world and have made meritorious achievements. Around 1900, there was a serious uprising in Guangxi, and in order to suppress the rebellion, the Qing court successively mobilized the troops of 7 provinces to fight in Guangxi.
Shen Hongying was born in 1870 in a poor family in Guangxi, and with the support of his family, he was fortunate enough to attend private school for two years, but after the death of his parents, he completely cut off his financial resources. After Shen Hongying dropped out of school, he followed his brother to work as a small worker in a rich family, and the daily work was very hard. At the age of 21, out of admiration for the characters of the green forest, he joined the local bandit gang, and since then he has been a villain, robbing his family and robbing the house, and doing no evil. In 1904, Shen Hongying was elected as the leader of the bandit gang because of his accumulated military achievements over the years.
In 1909, the Qing court seized Shen Hongying's brother and forced him to reveal Shen Hongying's whereabouts, and after some severe torture, his brother Shen Honghui died. In order to avenge the hatred, Shen Hongying led his subordinates to personally beat He Zhengwen, who had killed his brother, to death, and then fled to other provinces, Shen Hongying became more resourceful and fierce. In 1911, Shen Hongying accepted the alliance to recruit security, the bandit gang transformed into a militia organization serving the country, Shen Hongying no longer had to live that kind of life of hiding in Tibet.
Two years later, Shen Hongying committed his betrayal and threw himself into Yuan Shikai's command. But Shen Hongying did not really support Yuan Shikai, he was just good at speculation and wanted to save his life in the chaotic world. So in 1916, Shen Hongying betrayed Yuan Shikai again and entered the army of Yuan Yuan. Most of the troops led by Shen Hongying were from banditry, and he knew how to use their greed to achieve his own goals, and every time before the battle, Shen Hongying would encourage officers and soldiers to charge with "foreign wealth", and at the same time exercise the speed of his soldiers' marching, much like the bandits' style of "running when they are finished".
In 1924, Shen Hongying, then commander-in-chief of the Gui Army, was defeated in a decisive battle with Chen Jitang and others, and his men were also killed and wounded. After Shen Hongying luckily escaped with his life, he knew that the situation had gone, so he disguised himself as a businessman and boarded a steamship bound for Hong Kong in Guangdong under the escort of the captain of the guard, Li Junying, planning to spend the rest of his life in Hong Kong. During Shen Hongying's tenure as commander-in-chief, he once connived at the plundering of his subordinates, and after selling valuable objects, they were put into his own pockets, and at the same time, he did not forget to reward the soldiers, after all, the principle of bandits was "to be rich and noble, and not to forget each other."
Shen Hongying, who fled to Hong Kong, used the money he had scavenged in his early years to buy a mansion in Yuen Long and spend his days in the village. He hired people to farm, plant fruit trees, raise chickens on his estate, and constantly exploited their wages, while he smoked a lot of cigarettes all day and occasionally gambled in Macau. Until 1938, Shen Hongying, who had spent more than ten years drinking, was finally hollowed out of his body and died of illness at the age of 68.